• Welcome to Thousand Roads! You're welcome to view discussions or read our stories without registering, but you'll need an account to join in our events, interact with other members, or post one of your own fics. Why not become a member of our community? We'd love to have you!

    Join now!

Flyg0n

Flygon connoisseur
Pronouns
She/her
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. swampert
  3. ho-oh
  4. crobat
  5. orbeetle
  6. joltik
  7. salandit
  8. tyrantrum
  9. porygon
Blitz time! I will preface by saying that I didn't see until Ch 3 that you mentioned already being aware of tense flipping. So uh... I'll mention a few I noticed but they're not a big deal hah. ignore the ones you're already aware of. I am also so guilty of this esp in my oneshot so I feel your pain so much.
Anyways I'll give some line by lines for each chapter and some general commentary. There will be a few grammar/spelling typos but you shouldn't think of them as a big deal but a 'just in case no one mentioned this'; as I really dig the story as a whole. Hopefully they don't sound too nitpicky!

The first thing that young Turo, Ph. D in Applications of Time Traveling at the University of Mesagoza thought after opening his eyes was

"Well, this sure isn't Lumiose City".
I love this opening line.
I think a colon would be appropiate right after the 'was' btw

because you would be stuck running a couple miles either in the rain, at night, or in the rain at night just to get back home, and who wants that, really? (And that's the reason why rainy places were not a good spot for time traveling to, he discovered: nothing more than human laziness)
ehehe thats funny. It really does feel so human

The times were people could simply walk into a forest, maybe even with a Pokémon or two with them, were a pretty popular subject in media. Entire VR simulators were built around them (with realistic nature sounds!), milking the desire for times long gone that no one alive had the chance to live in.
ooof... What a tragic future. I wonder what happened for things to get like this. Or perhaps just one too many fights between angry legendaries?

listen to some 15 years old music
15 year old, I think?
He had wanted to land in the Lumiose City of almost 15 years ago - nothing big for his first time jump, just a little test run, walk around a bit, grab a PokePuffin, listen to some 15 years old music -
Ahahahah I like this. Only planned for a short time travel jaunt. I also like that time travel has become a more chill kind of thing, not just a basement secret.
in what he hoped was already an universal sign for
auniversal sign, I think. This is a weird one bc universal starts with a vowel but the sound it makes is a 'yh-oo'

1704096841446.png

The lab coat was.... Ok, the lab coat wasn't exactly required to time travel, or at all, but it was just rule of cool. He liked his lab coat.
I love that Turo's motivation is simply that he finds his lab coat cool. All these little moments of very down to earth human things that persist through centuries are delightful

"Please don't stab me thinking that I'm some evil spirit or Pokémon" he silently pleaded, shaking slightly. He almost literally jumped back and closed his eyes when the woman suddenly moved, thrusting the spear forward.
I kiiinddd of think the the 'literally' can be cut here? It would flow a little smoother to say 'he almost jumped back'.
and Turo found himself staring at her with the same fascination that she seems to have for his clothes.
tense oopsie, heh

Her eyes are brimming with the same curiosity he has when challenged with some inexplicable puzzle. Her head suddenly snapped back up, and he jumped a little when she stared at him with a mix of curiosity and frustration, before asked the same thing again, this time slowly, like she was talking to a child.
I love this little detail, the shared curiosity and recognition of it

"She knows we don't speak the same language." he realized.
I'll bring this up bc it happens periodically. I think it seems like you're using " " for internal dialogue? Which is fine I think but generally either way when using dialogue tags a comma goes inside the quotations when using a speaker tag.
Thus its: "language," he realized.

She huffed and shook her head, such a normal gesture that it just makes the whole situation
made
(assuming third person past tense?)
She huffed and shook her head, such a normal gesture that it just makes the whole situation only more surreal, then moved the hand that was not holding the spear and pointed to herself.
I love how little bits of her personality get to shine through even before they start to overcome the language barrier!
All in all, it's somewhat fun, even if simultaneously incredibly frustrating by how little they both can communicate. Sometimes Sada would just start muttering to herself, frustrated by something that she doesn't know how to explain or to ask him. He is sure of it, because in all that time the eyes of the girl have never stopped being so... Excited, shining with curiosity and a burning desire to understand the weird guy she suddenly met. She probably is trying to teach him words figuring that he was going to stay around, and that kind of broke his heart.
Aaaaaa I really like her! I love that she's got that same spirit of curiosity and he regonizes that. It really highlights that they have similarities despite everything that seperates them.
When the head researcher reads his report on the trip the following days, he gets both complimented in somehow managing that trip and banned from using the time machine for a month.
Its still funny to me that time travel is a whole department and not a one off anomaly. He'd banned about as casually as you might suspend a student at school for a few weeks, heh.
He bolted for the trees as soon as her eyes are off him and activated the time-anchor the instant he is out of view, disappearing in a sudden flash of light.
:sadbees:

I have to say, while reading the premise I thought it was fun and certainly an excellent concept but wasn't sure I'd really like it! Purely personally I never had a particular interest in Turo or Sada, nor do I consider myself an enjoyer of romance very often. (Not because theres anything wrong with the genre, I am just stubborn and picky)

I was wrong.

The way you write Turo right from the get go got me interested in him. He comes off as both awkward and burning with curiosity and maybe just a touch reckless or unhinged, yet undoubtedly knowledgeable about certain niches. Very accurate to the scientist vibe. Also he feels so very human in his portrayal. I found myself really drawn in to him. No world ending conflicts or huge plot, just a guy who really want to try out a time machine and oopsie! went too far back.

Also I appreciate that you wasted absolutely no time jumping into the best bits, because really we're here to see disaster professor time travel and meet Sada. Speaking of, Sada is also surprisingly delightful, even in their first encounter. Without ever directly acknowledging it, there's the seeds of a budding relationship and mutual interest beginning to form between them. I found myself actually really into seeing more of them and their interactions, which is great for a first chapter.



Oooooo Pov swapping, love to see it!!

« Wait!» she calls after him, but loses some precious seconds in grabbing her belongings: writing tool in one hand, the sheets of ... stuff in the other, she has to fumble around a moment before managing to grab her spear and start running. He is already far off into the trees, hidden from view, but the rustling of his clothes and the crunch of leaves under his shoes is still clearly audible... And then it stops, suddenly.

She catches up to where he was, and finds him just.... gone. Vanished without a trace. She checks the trail of footprints he left behind: the shoes he was wearing were also weird. Heavy and smooth, they almost looked like they were a single piece with his purple clothes. They honestly didn't look very comfortable: how does he take them off? Do they come off.... All in one go, all or nothing? But they do leave some nice, clear imprints in the ground... Which again, doesn't really sound that safe if you want to avoid predators, but makes it more convenient for her, so she is not going to complain. But the footprints don't tell her much: they also just vanish suddenly.
The sheer intelligence and awareness on display in this section delighted me. You very deftly sidestepped anykind of 'character from the past is kind of stupid because modern stuff' and rather played into the mystery. She's not dumb. She makes some excellent observations here about tracking him via sound and him suddenly vanishing, and also observes his strange cothing. She speculates and hypothesizes that he could have tried to double back, and employs skills she does have, like tracking.

Really great scene that helps to show that she's not a dumb cavewoman, but quite smart and curious in her own right.

There was always something to do, and no hands to spare. She personally enjoys exploring much more than being stuck paying attention to a bunch of kids, even if it was more dangerous.
Lol foreshadowing for Arven much?

... She was not going to start tasting every single leaf to find which one this sheets were made of, even if a part of her kinda wanted to. Too risky. Better to just ask Turo when she saw him again.
:mewlulz:

She keeps doodling on the leaves for quite some time into the night, unable to sleep, mind racing from one thought to another.
:( its kind of sad knowing that she could (in theory) end up spending her whole life wondering about this guy and if he didn't time travel back she'd never get to see him again.
« But he would die from the cold even with the sun out in those clothes, so he can't be from up there.» Sada objects.
« So... Tidy. No scars, no cuts, not a single injury that I could see. Not even a bruise! And he had no weapons with him... nothing.»

Traveling (apparently) alone, with no weapons, no signs of tear or use in his garments or on his body, with clothes that were just begging to get him eaten by some creature... It was more than strange. It was impossible.
I appreciate these observations she makes about him. These little details really help sell the situation. Also its fun to read other characters perceptions of another character

He is starting to sound more like a spirit than a man to me.» his mother smiles shaking her head.
her mother?
The Brutal Fang, it's vivid red scales glistening from the water it just jumped out from, opens its mouth full of teeth and barrels towards the man, who manages to avoid it at the last second by rolling to the side, causing the creature to crash head first into the gravel on the riverbank, avoiding him by an inch. Not missing a beat and evidently not caring about being on dry land, the red and gold fish thrashes violently against the ground until it rights itself, it's eyes never losing sight of its target.
!!!!!!!! ohhhHHHHHH Oh my gosh is this a new paradox concept/past pokemon? A burtal Magikarp??? I love it
« Thank you » The words are unfamiliar, but the gratitude and relief in them are palpable.
Awwwww poor Turo lol, this was a sweet moment.

Chapter 2 was equally delightful as a followup to one! We get to see Sada's perspective and insight into what happened, and get a glimpse into her head. I have to say, I just wasn't expecting to start to really like these characters so much but I do!



This version in particular was made to look bright yellow with spiky, needle like feathers where his "wings" were supposed to be, and ended up looking more like a cross between a Psyduck and the legendary Zapdos... A little, puffy, dopey and kinda adorable Zapdos.
I need this so BADLY this sounds amazing.
Welcome back, Dr. Romero Turo.
I immediately accept this as his canon name
At the end of the corridor, he thumbed the button to call the elevator. He always found it somewhat amusing how, in a society that was completely converted to holographic controls, haptic feedback or single gestures for... Pretty much anything, some fringe areas of technology had stubbornly remained unchanged for centuries.
This feels so real for real. I love it
At the end of the day, it turned out, people just really liked to mash the shit out of buttons.
We dooooo

I find all these little anecdotes so amusing. At the end of the day, humans are still humans, even a hudnred thousand years into the future.
Turo absent mindedly side stepped the little Steelccino that were busy cleaning the floor, ignoring the indignant screeching of the chinchilla Pokémon
Oooo I love all these additions to future paradox mons
Imagine having to spend multiple hours a day just getting to work! And then getting back home! That sounded exhausting, how did people put up with that in the past?
:unquag: imagine
The front door of his apartment unlocked as soon as he got near enough,
Ooooo thats fun technology
Turo smiled, hugging the Miraidon that welcomed him back and stroking it's neck.

« Hey buddy, how are you doing? » he caressed the smooth light grey scales, examining them carefully.

« Is your Hadron Engine still acting up?»
MIRAIDON MIRAIDON!!! Also... light grey? Hm! Is his shiny?? Also poor bby, I see its having issues just like the game one.
« Remember that girl that was researching pirates and forced the room to simulate a creaking ship at sea for "immersion" for three months?» he answered, sitting down in front of him and ordering a coffee of his own. The other man grinned.

« Oh man, Sea Shanty Girl! Wonder what she is doing now... If I never have to listen to "Randy Dandy-Oh" again, it will still be too soon.»
Oh my gosh i would have lost my mind

But also good to know centuries and millenia from now, annoying coworkers will still be a thing :mewlulz:

This was a very funny and relatable exchange though.

« Are you serious? The new guy does his first time jump and ends up where no one managed to ever go before? You are either going to become the best time traveler I've ever seen, or the worst
8b0ke7.jpg

im sorry this is all i could think of :mewlulz:

(except for spoilers about when the new season or movie of a series would come out and how much it sucked, because of course people wanted to know about that way more than possibly horrible news).
okay but the ramifications and possibilities here !!! if you know its gonna be bad can you stop it??? Can tv companies use this to see how well an idea for a future season will do?? Im enthralled and terrified, amazing.

All these snarky little nods are amazing. Humans are still humans no matter what.

She hasn't just been using it, she's been experimenting with it, trying out different things with this new unfamiliar material.

His heart starts pounding with excitement: this is incredible... she is incredible-

« TURO!»
yess YESS

He just made fire!! With his own two hands!! That's AWESOME!
Turo's almost child-like excitement here is so charming

Many, many years later, Turo would look back at this scene and recognize it as the exact moment he first fell in love with her.
😭

I love them and would die for them
I can't believe I have been sold on a romance between Sada and Turo in three chapters. I gotta say this was an amazing start to everything. My only real piece of crit as a reader is the tense changes and occasional punctuation hiccups with how periods and commas are used with speech tags. But thats genuinely really minor.

The beats of the story as an opposites attract romance have already absolutely hooked me completely and I fully intend to play catchup if I can. I love Sada and Turo both as individuals and as a pair. They compliment each other so sweetly and I just love love love the way you actually show their relationship and how its based on this mutual respect and admiration and curiosity. I also really like the bits of worldbuilding sprinkled throughout. Even the future bits had surprisingly charming moments (I say this bc I fully acknowledge my mild bias against the chrome future). It was nice to see how regardless, humanity and humans are still so similar to each other no matter what timeframe they are in. Sada and Turo may be seperated by language and time and so many other things but they're also so alike... This is an excellent fic and I am so ready to read more!!
 

Spiteful Murkrow

Busy Writing Stories I Want to Read
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Partners
  1. nidoran-f
  2. druddigon
  3. swellow
  4. lugia
  5. quilava-fobbie
  6. sneasel-kate
  7. heliolisk-fobbie
Oh hey, a S/V professor AU story. Wouldn’t be the first one that I’ve read this Review Blitz, but I’d anecdotally heard good things about this one, so I figured it’d be as good a story as any to pay things forward a bit for that review you shot me a couple days ago.

Though an AU where ‘one thing’ changes, huh? Well, I suppose there’s only one way to see what you’re getting at there, so let’s go ahead and have a look-see:

Chapter 1

14'000 years in the past, in the area that will be known as Kalos, Paleolithic Era

The first thing that young Turo, Ph. D. in Applications of Time Traveling at the University of Mesagoza thought after opening his eyes was

"Well, this sure isn't Lumiose City".

>Ph. D. in Applications of Time Traveling

Damn, Turo must hail from way out in the future to just casually have a Ph. D. in something that’s firmly in the realm of speculative fiction in our time.

He was, all things considered, pretty calm for a man who had just stepped into a time machine for the first time in his life and just got catapulted into an unknown time that was nothing like he was expecting. It was a lot more cold, for starters.

That’s the Ice Age for you, buddy. Though I suppose Turo wouldn’t necessarily need to be that far ahead in the future now that I think of it, since there was a time machine in Gen 2 that has been conveniently forgotten by the franchise for the last 20-ish years. It just didn’t work on humans… that we know of.

Or maybe he was a bit too used to the perfectly controlled temperature of the labs. But sure, those things could happen. Time traveling was not a really exact field... Mostly because there was a lot of time you could end up in in the "past" direction and even more in the "future" direction, so one of the first hurdles to overcome to avoid unfortunate accidents had been to develop a way to make sure that you could always come back. It was all in the manuals and papers that he spent weeks reading, studying, dreaming and in the end almost hallucinating to the point of being able to recite by memory when he had started his studies.

That actually makes me wonder just how precise those return journeys are, or else if there’s inherently a confidence interval going back and forth in time in this setting such that aiming for a specific target time could be off by a full month or a year or something like that.

He checked the little device similar to a wristwatch on his arm. Battery was low, but everything looked functional. The little device responsible for anchoring him to his time would recharge in a couple hours time, as long as the sun was out. If the sun wasn't out, it could recharge simply by walking, but that would take definitely more time, not to mention effort, because you he would be stuck running a couple miles either in the rain, at night, or in the rain at night just to get back home, and who wanted that, really?

(And That was the reason why he discovered that rainy places were not a good spot for time traveling to, he discovered: nothing more than human laziness. They were more inconvenient than they needed to be.

Made some rephrasing suggestions for your paragraph here. I’ll leave it to you to decide what, if any of it, you feel is worth incorporating.

He had ended up in a forest. And that was.... Already not something he was used to. His time, barring some extremely remote (and extremely costly) places, was not.... Really big on the whole "living with nature" stuff. Not because they didn't want to, of course. The times where people could simply walk into a forest, maybe even with a Pokémon or two with them, were a pretty popular subject in media. Entire VR simulators were built around them (with realistic nature sounds!), milking the desire for times long gone that no one alive had the chance to live in.

Well, except if you time traveled there... But time traveling was still pretty new as a field of research, and of course, for the general public, it would have been so expensive that only one 50-minutes trip anywhere and anywhen would cost you so much that you were one would be better off investing your one’s life savings in planning that moving to the Natural Reserve of Hoenn.

Some more suggestions for phrasing and formatting tweaks. I wasn’t really feeling Turo’s parenthetical narration, but I decided to leave it alone since you seem to be doing that as a deliberate stylistic choice.

Also, Turo’s time gives me Ultra Megalopolis vibes in how it’s an artificial and built-up wasteland. Except with a bit more natural light and some parts of the world that still have nature intact.

Nice place, if you didn't mind active volcanoes that rained ash. Or Groudon and Kyogre having a staring contest every couple of decades requiring mass evacuations. Or too much water. But he was getting distracted rambling now. Point was, he was in a forest. A real forest, with real leaves. And the sun! A real sun, not an hologram with artificial light projected onto the walls of the laboratory so people didn't lose their minds not stepping outside for days!

He spent a good minute just staring at the light that shined across the leaves, mesmerized, hands in his lab coat's pockets, before moving some hesitant steps. There were no traces of a trail or any other sign that people had ever visited this place. He had wanted to land in the Lumiose City of almost 15 years ago - nothing big for his first time jump, just a little test run, walk around a bit, grab a PokePuffin, listen to some 15 years old music - so the place should have been the same, but the time....

There wasn't even traces of a city. Maybe he messed up the calibration of the machine and accidentally went back 140 years? No, the city was much older than that. 1400 years...? That would put him... Still quite a bit past the League Golden Age. The times were everything seemed perfect, were people were living in harmony with Pokémon and enjoying the longest time of peace that the world had ever known...

If you excluded some crazy guys that wanted to destroy the world or remake it or whatever it was in a couple of very, very intense decades.

Oh, so Turo is from at least 1400-ish years into the future relative to the series’ present day. Though IMO, your paragraph here is sufficiently long and dense in ideas being expressed that it should be at least 3 paragraphs (with 4 in the specific suggestion that I offered up).

Turo could hear a stream gurgling on his left; he followed it, figuring that streams and rivers had always been a place to meet people in any era. His pace hastened when he finally heard a human voice, humming to itself. He went around a little curve in the riverbed and stepped out from the cover of the trees....

And then He immediately stopped, frozen in place. There was a person there, a woman with light brown hair wearing what he could only describe as "stereotypical caveman clothes". She was fishing in the river for something, humming, and a mean looking spear with a sharp stone point was laying on a flat rock at arms reach.

Shit. Shit. Now he had done it.

I take it that time travel runs off of rules of “make minimal interference or else you can potentially cause butterfly effects” from how much Turo is freaking out from being spotted right now.

Years of studies, of planning, his first opportunity to actually concretely apply what he had spent so much time studying and he ended up in the Paleolithic age. As far as he knew, that's the farthest someone had ever time traveled... No wonder his time-anchor's batteries were so low. People were not even sure if it was possible to go that far back. Guess he had an answer now, if he made it back, that is…

Or he could be freaking out about that, that works too.

He started to quietly back away, but his boots creaked on some branches. The woman whirled around in a flash, grabbing the spear with astounding reflexes, her eyes widening when they landed on him. Turo did the first thing that came to mind: slowly raised his hands, in what he hoped was already an universal sign for "I'm unarmed, don't shoot". Or.... Or stab, in this case.

« I-I come in peace...» he mumbled, feeling stupid while doing so.

Time to find out whether or not language holds up across 14,000 years of time in this story, or if we’re going to have Reality Ensue with both Turo and Sada being unable to understand each other.

It's not like she could understand him. Did ... Did people even have language already at this point...? Turo knew a good bit about history. In his field of work where punching the wrong numbers in on a time machine could land you one in some nasty situations, who didn't?), it was one of the first things that anyone in his field learned. But the problem with going so far back was that inventions and development were measured in the span of thousands of years. A lot of room for error, there.

Some more suggested tweaks here.

He didn't move an inch while the woman stared him down, still wide-eyed. Well, he didn't blame her.... His clothes must have stood out a lot. If he had landed as planned 14 years ago, nobody would have batted an eye at his skin tight body suit and lab coat. The dark violet suit was pretty common in his time, being made of a material that was quite suitable to a lot of different environments and capable of checking vitals, automatically regulating body temperature, and a lot of other functions that were honestly utterly useless at the moment. The lab coat was.... Ok, the lab coat wasn't exactly required to time travel, or at all, but it was just rule of cool. He liked his lab coat.

Here, on the other hand…

Turo: “This isn’t going to lead to some sort of cargo cult being founded in my honor, is it?” ^^;

"Please don't stab me thinking that I'm some evil spirit or Pokémon" he silently pleaded, shaking slightly. He almost literally jumped back and closed his eyes when the woman suddenly moved, thrusting the spear forward. A moment later, and he heard a light tap on his chest.

He slowly opened his eyes again; the woman was... tapping the side of the spear along his arms and legs. It's almost like she was checking for some hidden weapons, quickly circling him. When she came back around she seemed satisfied that he really didn't seem to be an immediate danger, because she lowered the spear, smiled and then unmistakably opened her mouth and asked him something.

Ah yes, time for the earful of Wingdings Language for Turo.

And he just stared at her in confusion. She's got little fangs. Is... Is that normal? A mutation? Something that humans had that disappeared along the way and they never found traces of it? At least she seems to have be capable of speaking a language, not that it helped him particularly... She tilted her head to the side, staring at him with clear, light grey eyes, then repeated the question, which sadly did not make it any more comprehensible.

Okay, so it’s happened a couple of times in this chapter so far, so I figured that I’d get the criticism out of the way as a one and done. But in general, you don’t want to mix temporal tenses for verbs in narration. For example, in a bit of narration describing ongoing events, you ideally either want to always describe things with present tense verbs, which would make the last sentence as an example look like this:

She tilts her head to the side, staring at him with clear, light grey eyes, then repeats the question, which sadly does not make it any more comprehensible.

Or else, all the verbs should be in past tense, which is what my suggestion earlier on was based around. The one major exception to this would be if you’re doing present tense verbs to describe ongoing events, in which case, past tense verbs would very specifically be used to refer to events that happened in the past that are being recalled by the narrator.

He just shook his head, another gesture that he hoped was already universal, and she frowned for a second, before moving a step forward. Turo automatically moved one back by instinct, still with his arms raised, and that's when she grabbed one of his arms and pulled it towards her to examine it.

She seemed... Fascinated by his lab coat, and it took him a moment to realize that it was probably because of the color and texture. Such a stark, shiny white is probably even more unnatural than purple to her. There's like were... berries and fruits for purple, right? And Pokémon furs, even just the common Rattata is purple.

Ah yes, Spandex, the fabric of the gods™. Though I suppose that would definitely throw people from pre-modern times into a loop even well before the paleolithic era.

She rubbed the hem of the lab coat between her fingers, and Turo found himself staring at her with the same fascination that she seems to have for his clothes. He thought back to the stereotypical way the first humans were represented in movies and books, as brutish, grunting savages, and realized how stupid that was. Her eyes were brimming with the same curiosity he has when challenged with some inexplicable puzzle. Her head suddenly snapped back up, and he jumped a little when she stared at him with a mix of curiosity and frustration, before she asked the same thing again, this time slowly, like she was talking to a child.

Ah yes, so Turo’s already falling for Sada in live-time, huh? :V

"She knows we don't speak the same language." he realized. Probably thought that he was from some far away tribe or something... People lived in nomadic tribes around this time, right...? She huffed and shook her head, such a normal gesture that it just mades the whole situation only more surreal, then moved the hand that was not holding the spear and pointed to herself.

« Sada. Sa-da»

Ah yes, time for the “Me llamo ‘Turo’” that will swiftly go over Sada’s head right now.

The hand pointed to him next, and his eyes widened in realization. ... Honestly, it must’ve said something about his state of mind that he didn't think about doing something like this sooner. Must’ve been the shock.

... Sure, let's go with that.

Narrator: “It was absolutely not due to the shock.”

Not him being an idiot that managed to fling himself at the beginning of human civilization. Nope.

Yeah, I figured. o<o

« Turo. Tu-ro»

She gave him an enormous smile at his answer and moved back to the riverside, motioning for him to follow. And... Really?

I mean, this seems like such a bad idea right now considering how violent most human hunter-gatherer societies are even to this day, but hey. Turo needs his prehistoric girlfriend, so I think we all know what’s going to happen here.

He shouldn't. He really shouldn't. He should be running away and avoiding all signs of civilization to keep the risk of catastrophically influencing all of human history to a minimum. The Beautifly effect and all that. But then again.... It was not like he has encountered an entire village or something. It was just one girl. And he is still stuck here for the next couple hours until his time-anchor recharges. And staying with her surely was more safe than wandering the forest completely defenseless and getting mauled by a prehistoric Ursaring or something. She is the one with the spear and advantage of knowing the land, after all.

Turo, you do realize that she’d most likely be leading you back to her home village, right?
994427253242990704.webp


Turo took a couple of long breaths. He could do this. He could manage a couple hours. He was a scientist, he was going to use this as a learning opportunity. Being able to directly experience life in this era! He could.... Write a paper on it, or something.

Turo followed her to the river, where the girl - Sada - proceeded to excitedly show him what she was working on. A string of leather and what looks like a bunch of tiny scales, tooth and feathers, probably gathered from wild Pokémon. She pointed to a similar necklace that was already hanging from her neck. Oh... So she was gathering materials for another one? She sat down by his side and started to work on the new necklace, pausing every couple of seconds to point at something in view and enunciate its name. Grass. Rock. Water... At least, that was what she was pointing at, so he is going to assume that's what she was doing. He tried to copy her words and started doing the same almost unconsciously before stopping.

I sure hope you’re writing this all down somewhere, Turo. ^^;

What was he doing? Trying to teach her his language or to learn hers, trying to communicate?

Obviously the latter, since we haven’t really seen Turo attempt to teach much of his own language right now beyond his name.

In a couple of hours he would be back in his time and never see her again, and she would have been dead for literally more than ten thousand years, all traces of their weird encounter erased from history.

592055067104772107.webp


I mean, I can see the story summary there, Turo.

That thought unsettled him more than it should: maybe he isn't cut out for being a time traveler if something that obvious still upset him that much.

« ... Turo?» Sada looked at him hesitantly; she kept stealing glances at him while talking - or at his weird clothes, more probably - and must have noticed his sudden sullen expression.

He managed a smile to reassure her and pointed at something new, mostly to distract her.

« "Sun"»

So… is it going to be Turo or Sada that has the brilliant idea to hitch a ride off into the future? :V

They both stumbled their way through some incredibly basic vocabulary, and even started a crude game of quiz by pointing at something and waiting for the other to recite the respective word in the other's language. She gave him one of the necklaces she had completed in the meantime, pretty much pushing it into his hands even when he tried to refuse. (Was it going to be ok bringing it back with him? Necklaces with real teeth and Pokémon scales weren't exactly... in style, in his time).

I’m surprised that given that Turo’s society has time travel that they can’t just culture teeth and scales and whatnot in a vat.

All in all, it was somewhat fun, even if simultaneously incredibly frustrating by how little they both could communicate. Sometimes Sada would just start muttering to herself, frustrated by something that she didn't know how to explain or to ask him. He was sure of it, because in all that time the eyes of the girl have never stopped being so... Excited, shining with curiosity and a burning desire to understand the weird guy she suddenly met. She probably was trying to teach him words figuring that he was going to stay around, and that kind of broke his heart.

Ah yes, I can see the hearts swirling around Turo’s head in live time. I presume Sada must be undergoing much the same right about now.

Turo tried to stealthily check the time-anchor on his wrist, not wanting to gather attention on it. The battery had reached full capacity and should be able to transport him back at any moment. Problem is, he couldn't exactly.... Poof out of existence in front of her eyes, or he was probably going to go come back to his time and find out that a weird robed figure in white and purple had suddenly been depicted in some ancient cave paintings in Kalos puzzling historians, if not something worse. His superiors were never going to let him hear the end of it.

I mean… you could just… do it anyways, Turo.

No, he had to... Distract her and get away. Somehow. He rose to his feet and awkwardly tried to find an excuse with the like.... twenty words he knew.

.... Yeah, not much he could do here. He pointed to himself and then from where he came from, miming some walking with his hands. Sada nodded solemnly and stood up, gathering her spear and the couple of necklaces she had completed in the meantime, evidently wanting to accompany him. What? No. This was even worse. Didn't she have a family to go back to?

That’s actually going to be an interesting angle to consider considering how these two ultimately wind up in the present day. Since I can’t imagine Turo himself would be thrilled about being cut off from his family.

Wait.... She's wasn't thinking that he wants to be brought to her group, right? Absolutely not. Way too dangerous.

He fumbled in his pockets for something to give her as a little farewell gift; the only things in them are... A little paper notebook and a pen. The pen was not made of plastic, thank Arceus, they stopped using that stuff that took forever to decompose a good dozen of centuries ago in favor of new, more eco-friendly materials.

These things should be okay, right...? They would leave no trace and become useless the moment she used them all up. He clicked the pen and showed her how to write with it on the notebook, and was rewarded by her eyes immediately lighting up with excitement. She grabbed the pen and started doodling on the first page, completely absorbed by it.

You’ve got a paragraph here that IMO works a bit better if it’s done as two smaller ones.

He bolted for the trees as soon as her eyes are off him and activated the time-anchor the instant he was out of view, disappearing in a sudden flash of light.

When the head researcher read his report on the trip the following days, he gets was both complimented in somehow managing that trip and banned from using the time machine for a month.

Alas, no Turo and Sada hookup just yet this chapter.

Well, that was definitely a fun ride. We definitely got more of a look of what Sada’s end of time looked like over Turo’s but there was enough teased about what his own time looked like to sell the sense that they hail from a wildly different world. The character dynamic between them was fun to watch, and it’ll be interesting to see how Turo winds up getting pulled back to Sada and what ultimately strands them in modern Paldea given that Turo and Sada apparently both start out in Kalos. But I suppose that will be a story for another day, and you’ve done a pretty good job at keeping people interested in seeing where things will go even while already knowing ahead in advance what the rough destination is going to be.

I have a few criticisms to level with the prose, namely that there seems to be quite a bit of inconsistent verb tense usage going on, which I already elaborated a bit on earlier. If you’re not already doing so, I’d strongly recommend reading the text of your chapters aloud at least once to yourself prior to publishing, since in general, wording that is awkward to read becomes more obvious when you hear it actually spoken out. I also thought that you had a couple of paragraphs where you had a bit too much going on. In general, paragraphs should generally be focused around a singular idea, which in the span of more than about six sentences at a time, usually winds up encompassing at least two which can be decomposed into smaller paragraphs that still work standing alone.

Though all-in-all, I thought that your opening chapter was pretty good @Nekodatta . I obviously had a few quibbles about some polish-related bits, but it didn’t really get in the way of enjoying the actual events. It’ll be fun to see where things go from here, and just how fast things escalate between these two professors. If all goes well, I’m sure that I’ll be able to see and comment a bit more about that before Review Blitz ends this month. ^^
 

Flyg0n

Flygon connoisseur
Pronouns
She/her
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. swampert
  3. ho-oh
  4. crobat
  5. orbeetle
  6. joltik
  7. salandit
  8. tyrantrum
  9. porygon
This version in particular was made to look bright yellow with spiky, needle like feathers where his "wings" were supposed to be, and ended up looking more like a cross between a Psyduck and the legendary Zapdos... A little, puffy, dopey and kinda adorable Zapdos.

The Porygon clicked its beak, quickly scanning him up and down.
5330682-Gz6TqU3Xq-CLNSoj.png

For posterity. I love this guy. Idk if this is what he looks like but I love him
 
Bonus Chapter: 1

Nekodatta

Pokémon Trainer
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. koraidon-apex
  2. miraidon-ultimate
  3. skitty
I've written quite a few little bonus chapters here and there for Timeslip, usually missing scenes, drabbles, little things from other characters's perspectives, or, like in this case, in-universe documents. I will post them here and there at the point they better fit in the story.
This is Turo's report from the end of chapter 14 in all its drunken glory.
-----

getting hammered FOR SCIENCE!

Coordinates of successful jump: Copy paste them from last report, do not forget!!

Weather conditions: Cold. Bit windy. Was inside, don't really know.

Number of hours spent time-displaced: Am drunk, check suit later

Spent time with the locals, the kidz taught me a cool game that's played with stones. You throw them. And catch them. And there's levels and challenges and stuff. I sucked at it because last time I actually threw a ball or something was in elementary school in PE, and I sucked at it even then. When's the last time YOU ever threw a ball or stuff? Like for real, no VR games. My hand-eye coordination sucks.
Then they showed me BOOZE! And it was good!! Probably some fermented berry juice, was really sweet.
We hang out. They're cool. They will show me how they hunt Pokémon. That's not so cool.
What else am I supposed to write here??
Ah yeah, I gave the Pokémon back. They were happy!!
Well Sada was. She almost cried. Felt that.
I also almost cried these days thinking about my wallet while keeping the thing at my home. Dumb lizard. (Miraidon's SO MUCH COOLER!!)
Since the nerds at the Academy will be all sad that they don't have seen Winged Ping flying, in this report I will also give a thorough explanation of the physics behind it. Because I have seen it flying and actually ridden it, and I'm cool light that.
So.
Uinged Ling's got wings. It's in the name. But there's a problem. They are too small, and are on its head. I made a top-down view diagram of it.



Winged King


See? The wings cover only one side. Which means the rest of the body gets no windy force that pushes it up. The back legs and tail are heavy, they should make it fall back.
BUT DR TURO, THEN WHY CAN MIRAIDON FLY? HIS WINGS ARE ALSO ON HIS HEAD!!
Because, and this is important.
He. got. cool. JET ENJINES ON THE LEGS!! And magnetic force. MAGNETS!!
Cyclizar got no wings and nothing, and therefore does the sensible logical thing and is stuck on the ground like the poor sad Normal Type lizard it is.
Then how does Ringed Ping fly?
It's no flying type. No wind currents. Not psychic. No magnetic force.
According to all laws of aviation, it shouldn't be able to fly. But it does.
My only and totally scientific conclusion is that Winged Jing flies, because it gives no shits that it shouldn't be able to. It wants to fly, and so it does. Because it's a cool dinosaur lizard.
... or maybe it fills the throat sac and body with some lighter than air gas or something, no idea, I'm no Pokémon Professor.

---
After trudging back from Johto after the latest unsuccessfull attempt to catch another glimpse of one of the legendary beasts, Dr Melany Vega pushed open the door to her office and unceremoniously dumped her soaked raincoat to the floor. Why did Raikou have to be rumoured to "carry rain clouds on it's back"? Why did its stupid bark have to sound exactly like crashing thunder? Why did she have to check the local weather report for rain and storms and strange thunder cracks with clear skies and then go to the spot where it absolutely poured just to try and get to see it and snap a picture?
Maybe she should just change completely objective. Choose some nice, easy legendaries. Like... the Regis.
Sure she would have to actually find them first, but... they weren't responsible for natural disasters. No one had tried to use them to conquer the planet. They were perfectly happy to sleep away the ages in their nice little caves, and not run around two or three whole regions.
She sat down at her desk and opened a monitor, checking her mail. Blablabla students eager for an internship. Bla bla some rich dude wanted to pay for a three-hour trip through time. Blablabla... oh. Turo's latest report.
They were always so easy to read. As logical and precise as the man himself.
Vega opened it up on a separate monitor... and then had to double check the sender when she read the title.
And the first line. And everything after that.
She covered her mouth with one hand to stifle the laughter, but when she got to the drawing she just had to get up and run to Ortega's office.
He wasn't there, because of course he wasn't. When was that guy even actually working?
So she went to the sanity room, sure to find him there lazing around.
« Have you READ-»
As soon as she stepped inside she was sure that yes, Ortega had already read the report, because the whole room had been made to look like an art museum, with the little drawing being proudly displayed mounted on different frames, with various filters applied like some modern art piece. Ortega turned towards her, out of breath from laughing too much and tears in his eyes.
«... I can't wait to see him tomorrow... you think we can get him to write every report from now on drunk? » he asked.
« Never mind that. » she sat down next to him, and pulled up the report again to read the rest.
« I want to try the same stuff he had.»
 

HelloYellow17

Gym Leader
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. suicune
  2. umbreon
  3. mew
  4. lycanroc-wes
  5. leafeon-rui
Aight, here we go! I’ve been wanting to dive into this fic for a while, and Blitz gave me the perfect opportunity!

Chapter 1:

I usually like to review three chapters in one post, but it makes for a little bit of a nightmare with regards to tracking wordcount per chapter and whatnot, so bear with me! I’ll try to keep my notes as organized as possible. As an experiment, I’m going to post one review at a time per chapter to see if that makes things easier on my end. But if getting a post per chapter is obnoxious for you, let me know! I’ll be happy to condense.

Anyway…wow, just reading the summary already has me hooked. Like you, I’m so fascinated with the Professors in SV, and it’s upsetting that we don’t learn more about them! (It’s also upsetting that they turn out to be freaking dead the whole time. Agh whyyy, nooo give me more!) So knowing that this fic not only fleshes them out more, but throws them into a unique setting AND is a slowburn romance?! Yes hello sign me the heck up right now, please and thank you.

And man, I’m loving the characterization so far. Turo is thinking of everything in a strictly academic sense, but then feels a little upset when his mind strays to getting emotionally attached, even just a little. He also seems to have some tiny hints of vanity—the rule of cool with his lab coat, thinking Sada’s necklace for him is “out of style”—which is not only fitting, but hilarious to me. I actually wasn’t expecting him to be able to go back to his own time, which makes me extra curious how they will manage to cross paths again!

Sada’s characterization is also perfect. Living in the era she does, it would make sense for any other person to react with self defense or violence when confronted with something (or someone) new and foreign. But she lets down her guard fairly quickly, because her curiosity ultimately wins out against her wariness. She’s just as inquisitive and curious and fascinated by the unknown as Turo is, and it pairs perfectly with these two getting to know one another despite the language and cultural (and time) barrier. Gah! It’s so good! I love their dynamic already and I can’t wait to read more!!

Now for some line quotes! I like to quote lines that stand out to me and comment on them, and since you mentioned you’re okay with pointing out typos, I’ve done that too. Overall, the most glaring thing critique-wise I have is that the tense constantly changes from past to present tense, sometimes even in the same sentence. I’ve only pointed out a few lines of this, but if you’d like, I would be more than happy to go through your early chapters with a fine-tooth comb and help with that, if that’s something you’d be interested in! I’m a weirdo who actually loves doing that kind of stuff, so the offer is open if you want it!

The first thing that young Turo, Ph. D in Applications of Time Traveling at the University of Mesagoza thought after opening his eyes was
Tiny nitpick, but there should be some form of punctuation at the end of this sentence, even if it’s leading into the next one. For this, a colon (:) would be perfect.
(And that's the reason why rainy places were not a good spot for time traveling to, he discovered: nothing more than human laziness)
Missing some punctuation at the end of this sentence, as well. Also, big lol at Turo’s observation here. He’s totally right.
Nice place, if you didn't mind active volcanoes that rained ash. Or Groudon and Kyogre having a staring contest every couple of decades requiring mass evacuations. Or too much water.
Lol??? 7.8/10 too much water reference, also the “staring contest” remark is hilarious. Don’t live in Hoenn if you like safety and stability, I guess. 😂
There was no traces of a trail or any other sign that people had ever visited this place.
“Was” should be “were”, since “traces” is plural!
That would put him... Still quite a bit past the League Golden Age. The times were everything seemed perfect, were people were living in harmony with Pokémon and enjoying the longest time of peace that the world had ever known... If you excluded some crazy guys that wanted to destroy the world or remake it or whatever it was in a couple of very, very intense decades.
Lol! Very intense decades, indeed! 😂 Is this implying that all of the mainline games’ stories take place within a handful of decades, and that there haven’t been any major issues since then? I’m curious what lead to such a long period of peace. Was it technological advancements? Something more?
The lab coat was.... Ok, the lab coat wasn't exactly required to time travel, or at all, but it was just rule of cool. He liked his lab coat.
Lololol I love the self-awareness. And hey, we’re all guilty of using the rule of cool in one way or another.
When she comes back around she seemed satisfied that he really doesn't seem to be an immediate danger,
And example of inconsistent tenses here: Since the story up to this point has been past tense, “comes” should be “came”.
And he just stared at her in confusion. She's got little fangs. Is... Is that normal? A mutation? Something that humans had that disappeared along the way and they never found traces of it? At least she seems to have language, not that it helps him particularly...
More tense inconsistencies: should be “she had little fangs,” “Was that normal?” And “At least she seemed to have language, not that it helped him particularly.”
She huffed and shook her head, such a normal gesture that it just makes the whole situation only more surreal, then moved the hand that was not holding the spear and pointed to herself.

« Sada. Sa-da»
Eyyyy Tarzan moment
 

HelloYellow17

Gym Leader
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. suicune
  2. umbreon
  3. mew
  4. lycanroc-wes
  5. leafeon-rui
Aight okay I was too impatient to stop reading so it looks like I’m reviewing two chapters together anyway. 😂 I’m freaking HOOKED.

Chapter 2:

Oops, I just saw your author’s note commenting on the tenses. Didn’t see that before my last review, sorry! Actually, I had a fun thought—take it with a grain of salt of course because it’s your story, but what if Turo’s POV sections were written in present tense while Sada’s are written in past tense??? Wouldn’t that be such a fun detail?! Idk the thought occurred to me while reading so I HAD to share it.

Anyway, this chapter was amazing and gives us even more insight into Sada as a character! She’s so inquisitive, smart, quick to piece things together, and fearless. I love her, she’s amazing. I have more thoughts, but I’ll share them with the quotes I selected below!

How? Is he a really good climber? She raises her eyes and starts checking the tree branches over her head. Did he... Climb them and start jumping from tree to tree? Did he step in his own footprints backwards to throw her off and then went another way? She keeps looking around for a bit, but can't find any other clue about what happened. Someone else would have been suspicious, troubled.... Maybe even scared.
Ooh I love this! It shows us a glimpse of how much she knows, how she’s not one to be easily fooled by old-fashioned stunts like retracing footsteps, and it shows a level of experience with living this sort of life.
She is quite a bit away from her settlement; they've set up tents and plan to stay there for a couple more full moons, until the snow starts to fall more often and the herds of Steady Glaciers - the great wooly beasts with icy breath - will move further north.
Omg STEADY GLACIERS, what a wonderful name. It somehow didn’t occur to me until just now that there will probably be far more Paradox mon in this story than we get in canon, which is so exciting!! I’d love to see visuals of these mon!
She was not going to start tasting every single leaf to find which one this sheets were made of, even if a part of her kinda wanted to.
Lololol I love this. Also, okay, some books really do smell amazing. Maybe I’m a total freak for saying this out loud, but like…sometimes the temptation to lick a nice-smelling piece of paper really do be like that. 😂
Some of those creatures could even hang from trees, but if there is one thing they seemed to hate more than the cold, it was fire. She should be safe here.
Hmm so clearly humans and Pokemon do not live in harmony yet, not in this era. Makes it all the more dangerous and wild, and I love that.
Honestly, she feels the same. That mantle seems useless to her no matter how you looked at it, if not straight up dangerous. Way too bright to help in hiding yourself in the underbrush, and it flapped around making a lot of noise while moving.
Come on, Sada, it’s the rule of cool! That’s all you need to know!
Sada looks at her for a second, almost disappointed. A spirit...? Some long lost ancestor of them that supposedly appears to give you advice, like in the stories told around the fire?

That would be.... so boring if that was the case. Also he didn't exactly give her advice, in fact it had been the opposite: some lousy ancestor that he was if he didn't even have some great wisdom to impart.
Laughing at this. “Just a ghost? How boring.” Are spirits fairly common to encounter, then? Or maybe that’s just Sada being Sada, wanting Turo to be a real being rather than an incorporeal one.
.. He didn't... no one can be that oblivious to their surroundings, can they?
Think again, Sada 😂 you’d think that Turo would be a tad more cautious, being a time traveler and all! Surely he’s had training and has been taught to be wary of everything when he time travels, especially being in so distant an era! But maybe not—I have no idea what sort of training is required to get to his level. And he is inexperienced as a time traveler.
Who, by the way, seems too busy being paralyzed by fear to actually do something useful like, oh I don't know, run for his life. Sada's incredulity turns first to worry and then rage.

She didn't spend the last three days camping here just to watch him get eaten by a stupid fish!
Her sarcasm here is incredible. I’m low-key loving the dynamic here between them. He may come from the future and be incredibly educated and acquainted with sophisticated technology, but she’s the one with more common sense and survival instincts. It’s great.

Chapter 3:

Turo’s POV is fun to compare with Sada’s. While she’s quite analytical and driven by curiosity like he is, she seems a little more pragmatic while he’s more driven by…emotion, perhaps? He’s a little more childish than she is, in a lot of ways, despite being the one with the advanced and formal education.

I do wish we got a little more information about him in this chapter: why did he enter his field of study? Who is his family? Why does he care enough about this field, enough to dedicate his entire life to it and spend days at a time in the lab? I hope we get these answers down the road!

"Time sickness" was apparently a thing: the human body -or living things in general - didn't react well to passing through time. It had taken quite a bit of studies and experiments to make the trip safe; some lives had tragically been lost in the first test trials: people not landing when and where expected, or coming back with amnesia.
Ooohohoho that’s juicy. I wonder what time sickness looks like? Will this be relevant in the future? I sure hope so. >:)

They had tried to use touch screens, or holographs, or even voice commands, of course, but people didn't like it.

They would press the screen and then do it again, just to make sure that the command had been acknowledged.

Voice commands had been a disaster with people getting in and out giving conflicting commands.

In this case, a physical button to press was still the best.
You mentioned in your author’s note wanting feedback on your paragraphs—for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re writing big “walls” at all! Your paragraph spacing is really nice. Here, however, I do think you could condense all of these sentences into one paragraph, and I think it will read a bit more smoothly. As it is now, having it broken up like this makes it a little choppy to read.

At the end of the day, it turned out, people just really liked to mash the shit out of buttons.
LOL ain’t that the truth 😂

Something small and quick scurried away at his feet, and Turo absent mindedly side stepped the little Steelccino that were busy cleaning the floor, ignoring the indignant screeching of the chinchilla Pokémon at seeing him leave even just a speck of dust from his boots.
Omggg so cute!! I love these little robot mice with an attitude! Steelccino is such a cute name!
Imagine having to spend multiple hours a day just getting to work! And then getting back home! That sounded exhausting, how did people put up with that in the past?
Bro, I don’t even know. It sucks. I want teleportation so bad.
Turo smiled, hugging the Miraidon that welcomed him back and stroking its neck.
!!! Miraidon! Wasn’t expecting that. I wonder what role he will play in the story 👀
The was a slight pause, then the Miraidon's throat lit up, briefly pulsating with blue energy, an electric buzz filling the room. It had almost managed to form a complete wheel shape before it sneezed, snapping back to its low power form.

It growled sadly and pawed at the floor, looking almost ashamed.
Awww nooo poor baby :(

Turo raised his eyes from the screen that floated in front of him, stopped mid sentence in his report, and made a quick "stop" gesture by lifting the index and middle finger of his right hand. The writing program that was tracking his lip movements to write down his report recognized the gesture and dutifully stopped, then started to automatically check spelling and punctuation while waiting for the prompt to start again.
Yo this is SICK. Can you imagine if we had this tech today? How easy writing would be?!
Waiting for an answer in front of him with a mug of coffee in one hand and a bemused smile was Gervaso Ortega, his senior by a year and accomplished time traveler.
Wait. Ortega? Is he perhaps related to the Team Star Ortega, the snooty rich kid who likes to wear pink?
There was a slight incredulous pause, then the other man exploded into laughter, hurriedly putting the mug of coffee down on the table.

« Are you serious? The new guy does his first time jump and ends up where no one managed to ever go before? You are either going to become the best time traveler I've ever seen, or the worst

Yeah, that's what he had figured would happen.

He took a sip of coffee, only for Gervaso to almost slap it out of him by patting his shoulder.

« ... I'm going to get grounded, aren't I?»

« Oh, you are so grounded while they figure out how you did it. »
Ahaha I really love this banter. Ortega is a homie. I like him.
Most time travelers who chose the future wouldn't jump more than a couple of years; tiny incremental steps, and reports on what they knew were kept secret with the highest level of security (except for spoilers about when the new season or movie of a series would come out and how much it sucked, because of course people wanted to know about that way more than possibly horrible news).
LOL extremely valid use of time travel tbh, I approve

Maybe a bit too ambitious for his first project; maybe he could... Travel to the distant past for a bit after all? It was... Really, it was so far away that it was almost as unknown as the future.

The happy smile that Sada had made while they had tried to talk only encouraged his decision.
Oh? 😏 Is that all, Turo? You really just want to go back for science only? Sure, bud.
The woman quickly approaches him and slips the needle of the syringe into his left shoulder, the clear liquid inside entering his body. Turo grimaces for a second; something else he will have to get used to... Those "shots" as they were called were the only thing protecting his body from getting teared apart in the time machine. It was... A bit unsettling to think about actually. How did they work? No idea, he was no doctor. (… Well he technically was, but not that kind of doctor)
Oh boy. I wonder if this will be relevant later…
A shape in the water catches his attention: red with a big yellow dorsal fin and whiskers, it takes him a moment to recognize the silhouette of a Magikarp... It's a pretty big one, but that is nothing unusual. Lots of Pokémon were just bigger in ancient times, or one particular individual simply grew a lot more. He notices the Magikarp stop dead in the water and slightly turn in his direction. Turo pays the Pokémon no mind: they are so common even in his time that seeing one is nothing unusual, so he just keeps walking in the shallow water.

That is, until it suddenly charges at him.
Oh my gosh it’s a MAGIKARP LOL. I thought it was a Carvanha at first. This is hilarious.
It's... It's using Splash.

Is that how the move developed? Is that what it originally was for? To chase prey even on dry land?
I love this so much holy crap??? It’s so clever???
« TURO!»

He jumps like a kid caught stealing cookies from the jar right before dinner.

Sada is back, her leather pouch overflowing with what looks like random roots, plants and berries, and is staring at him with a mix of exasperation and disappointment.
KEK, their dynamic is just so great. He really is like a little kid whenever he’s in this era.
She stares at him for a moment, then nods, grabs her pen, and jots down another little mark on the page, a lil drawing of a tree.

... She's taking notes.

Many, many years later, Turo would look back at this scene and recognize it as the exact moment he first fell in love with her.
SCREAMING, this is so cute!! I CAN’T WAIT. Or…maybe I can, if this is gonna end up like canon. Oh noooo I’ll be so sad if that’s the case. 😭
 

HelloYellow17

Gym Leader
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. suicune
  2. umbreon
  3. mew
  4. lycanroc-wes
  5. leafeon-rui
Aight, I gotta stop and review before I get too carried away, or I’ll lose the specific thoughts I have for these next three chapters. It’s a shame, though, because I am dying to just binge this whole thing in one go! What have you done to me? 😂

Chapter 4:

More of this incredibly fun dynamic, as he learns about her world and she continues to be positively baffled by everything about him. 😂 This is TOO fun. But oh, I caught those traces of hesitation from him—and the guilt that gets expanded on in chapter 5 — and oh boy we’ve got a foundation for some misunderstandings to happen down the road. What will happen when the truth inevitably comes out and she learns she has been a subject of scientific study? How could he even begin to explain any of it to her in the first place? It’s going to be really interesting to witness it unfold.

Speaking of language, you’re doing a great job of showing them gradually progressing in their communication and understanding of one another. It’s perfectly paced; doesn’t feel too slow to the point where it might be frustrating to the reader, but it doesn’t feel unnaturally fast, either. I appreciate that, because it makes the whole thing that much more immersive.

Now, on to line quotes!

It was almost like... He had been born in the body of an adult and had none of the skill and experience that came with it. Which was impossible, unless... he had lived a very secluded life until now, someone else doing everything for him...
THERE IT IS.
Turo: she is wild and beautiful and fearless and I’m falling for her.
Sada: this guy is a helpless manchild and I must protect him like a mother hen.

Truly beautiful. 😂

He slowly takes the writing stick from her hand and presses it, staring at the page. She notices that he holds it differently than her, daintily propped between two fingers, and then he hesitantly, slowly, draws a little "X" shape at the bottom right of the page.
Oh dear. I know there’s not really a way for him to tell her the truth, not in a way she can understand, but I worry that this little lie might spiral into something much bigger.

Sada finds herself almost transfixed by the smooth movements of his hand while it flits along the page, expertly filling in the drawing. The way he moves, even how he was holding the writing stick, not a single blemish on his fingers ... It's obvious he is much more used to doing this than... Lighting a fire, or holding a weapon, or ... really any kind of manual activity.
Details like this are what have me so in love with this fic. Their differences are shown in such a natural way, right down to the tiny details like what is shown here. His smooth and not calloused hands, his ability to draw well which must mean he didn’t spend his time doing other essential activities like hunting, him seeing the stars for the first time and marveling at them (and also having to actually experience life in the outdoors, lol). It’s just so well done, and it’s where this story really shines brightest.

« Fire Wings umm... "Move"... No...» he lifts his arms and moves them a couple of times up and down, and she has to stop herself from giggling: the white cape loudly flapping along makes him look ridiculous.

« Fly...?» she offers, only half successful in stopping a laugh from escaping her.

He blushes a bit -which is weirdly adorable - and keeps talking.
LOL this was so cute. Also, Sada finding him adorable eeeee 🥰 my little shipper heart is so happy.

« Turo, what is "dumbass"?»

His laugh only gets louder, and he can't do much except keep shaking his head, tears in his eyes.

It takes him a good couple of minutes to calm down.

... Now she really wants to know what that word means.
Ahahaha this was GOLD. I really hope she learns this eventually. Poor Sada is so confused but I can’t blame Turo for losing it. Of ALL the words for her to latch on to! Just like little kids, they always latch onto the one word you don’t want them to. Whoops!

« You do? Let's hear it. I still think that your mother is right and he is a spirit... But not an ancestor. A creature spirit, the ones that come out at night and can disappear in smoke.»
Is she calling him a ghost Pokémon here? Haha I love it. Tbh, not a bad theory, considering what they know. Also, I love that they call Pokémon “creatures,” since of course the actual term “Pokémon” does not exist yet.

« If he's so important for his tribe... What's he doing here? Alone?» she asks in a triumphant tone, but Sada just crosses her arms over her chest. What, did she think she hadn't thought of that?
I love this debate and the fact that Sada is fully prepared for it. A scientist, indeed!

Watching how the creatures changed while growing up had always fascinated Sada terribly. Why didn't humans change like that? It wasn't fair.
Lol sometimes that do be a mood. However in many ways I don’t envy that. Can you imagine going from a Trapinch to a Vibrava? And how big of an adjustment that would be? It’s a completely different body! Granted, not all Pokémon go through such drastic changes, but still. That would be wild to experience. Puberty is hard enough on us humans, let’s be real. 😂

The only one left is the smaller creature that is still eating his berry, and is only now placidly turning around to check out what the noise was.

It seems to realize it's been left on its own, and lets out a "meeeh".

Chalo practically shoves another berry under it's mouth to distract it.
Isidhsjdjfkkdkf A MAREEP I LOVE MAREEP :D and omg I love how totally oblivious and unconcerned it is.

In the end, they name the creatures Spark Tail, after noticing its tail lighting up. Well, Chalo actually wanted to call them "Fluffyhead", but Sada had refused.
Come on Sada, Fluffyhead is a totally appropriate and proper name! What are you talking about? 😂

They find some feathers, but they are obviously not the ones they are looking for: much bigger, mostly white with a blue purple base. It's not the first feathers of that kind that she sees around here, but she still hasn't been able to spot the creature they belong to.
Oooh my first thought was Swablu or Altaria, but they don’t have purple. I’m honestly not sure which mon these would belong to…Koraidon, maybe?

She raises her eyes to the sky as well. The moon has almost completely disappeared that night, leaving only the myriad tiny lights in the sky to shine. She's always wondered what they are; some are bigger, some smaller, some look like they are twinkling, like really small distant fires, high up in the sky.

Who's lighting those fires? Some creature, flying up in the sky at night? Maybe other people, living really, really far away?
Aw I love this, too. I hope he teaches her about the stars. :3 Actually, I’m mildly surprised that her tribe doesn’t have some kind of lore or folktales about them. I’m very curious what her tribe’s lore is.

It's both adorable and heartbreaking at the same time; where they... really keeping him secluded somewhere his whole life?

Maybe he wasn't banished from his tribe. Maybe he escaped.
Oof, the misunderstandings keep piling up. I love how non-judgemental she is, though; this is a completely foreign and strange person, in a world where everything new and unknown must be approached with caution. But instead of distrusting him, she just worried about him and wants to make sure he’s doing okay. It’s so sweet.

He's gone come morning, but there is a piece of paper torn from his notebook left near her when she wakes up, with two day and night symbols drawn on it.
Ehehehe I love that he always tells her when he’ll be back. Aaa it’s romantic and cute. He’s already way more attached than he cares to admit.

Chapter 5:

Yep, here we go, I can see some seeds for potential conflict in the future being planted here. Turo is already way more emotionally invested in this than he even realizes, and oh boy it’s gonna be a heck of a time by the time he does realize it. He was emotionally attached from day one, even if only slightly, and it’s only snowballed into a bigger problem each time he’s come back. It’s heckin JUICY and I am so here for it. >:)

We also get to meet a new character, Vega! She sounds interesting. I’m very curious to see what her role in the story will be. Same for Ortega.

Last but not least, the riding and flying paragraphs with Miraidon are DIVINE. I love them! They’re so vividly written, we get some more perspective on what Turo loves when he’s not filling the role of scientist (or Sada simp, eyyy), and we see more clearly the bond and relationship he has with Miraidon. It gives me How to Train Your Dragon vibes, and boy I am ALWAYS here for that.

He felt conflicted about reporting his meetings with Sada. On one hand, he kind of had to do it; on the other, having to write about it in such cold and technical terms, like it was nothing more than an experiment to report on, felt.... Wrong.
Yeahhh this is a tough spot to be in. He’s gotten way too close and involved already, so of course it’ll be hard to write objective, impersonal notes on her as if she’s not a real person.

Ex tempore, scientia.

Ex scientia, sapientia.


"From time, knowledge. From knowledge, wisdom"
Oooh, I really like this slogan! (Also missing a period at the end of the last sentence there.)

A comet that would pass near Earth was closely being monitored, with some people swearing that it was going to be Jirachi's Millennium Comet (spoiler alert: it wasn't, it's orbit was completely mapped and it came near Earth every 300 years or so. That didn't stop people from romanticism about it).
Oh, that’s fun! I wonder if it will be relevant to the story later, or if it’s just a fun little Easter egg?

He turned to Miraidon while finishing to put on a pair of gloves; his riding clothes were slightly different from his usual body suit, more similar to mountain biking gear. Still sleek and pretty form fitting with a dark purple color(he just... Liked the color), it sported elbow and knee pads in woven borophene to absorb impacts, with the same sturdy but flexible material covering his chest and shoulders, and shoes with magnetic soles to better cling to Miraidon's back while riding. The last piece of equipment was a full face helmet in a solid black color.
Love that be adheres to the purple color scheme. And this riding outfit sounds pretty freaking cool. Man, I want visuals of all these outfits.

Turo loved that feeling; the perfectly aerodynamic shape making him feel every air current, the electricity crackling on his skin and passing over him harmlessly, the fact that he could feel the dragon's power pushing him faster and faster... there was no other Pokémon that made riding it feel as viscerally satisfying as his Miraidon did.

A Rotom bike would never feel this good.
YESSSS I love it!! Such HTTYD vibes!

The crackling of electricity kept rising all around him, Miraidon concentrating on revving up his Hadron Engine to the fullest before rearing up on his hind legs with a screeching, metallic roar. Yellow and purple-blue energy surged through the dragon's throat, tail and antennae while it started to push itself off the ground on pure electromagnetic power alone, first just levitating and then propelling itself higher and higher.
Love the descriptions of how Miraidon conducts its electricity into energy for flying or riding. It makes the mon feel like a real, organic being, even despite being quite mech-looking. Honestly, Miraidon is so underrated. I love the purple derg and I’m glad to see it get some love.

It looked like an old lighthouse, the very top having broken off and fallen to the ground long ago, crashing through the roof of what looked like a small house built right next to it. And by old, he meant old, the place still looking like it had been built with classic bricks and mortar.
Ohhhhh 👀 now we’re getting to places that are relevant to the canon story. I wonder how this will all connect? Will this story eventually unfold into a version of the mainline canon, or will it simply be something entirely different?

« Yeah, yeah... All right mom, we'll do it the boring and careful way...»

There was another hiss by the lizard dragon and the gliding membrane opened up again before he was finished putting on his helmet, hitting him square on the nose.
This made me grin so wide. I freaking love human-Pokémon relationships like this. Again, huge HTTYD vibes. The sheer sass is amazing, I love it. 😂 also, Turo was asking for that nose bonk.

The sanity room today was a beautiful recreation of the first floor of the Sprout Tower of Violet city. An hologram in the center of the room simulated the famous central pillar of the building, swaying in place, while the sound of creaking floorboards, soft chants and prayers from the monks (personally recorded by current director and head researcher of the TTDL) filled the room. Someone had gone the extra mile and even lighted some incense.
Ohhhh Johto love!! I adore little details and shoutouts to locations in the games like this.
« Yeah, best you could do for historical accuracy was showing up naked... And I don't recommend that.»

« ... You sound like you speak from experience.» Turo muttered after a moment.

Ortega just smiled, refusing to elaborate.

LOL Ortega is a heck of a character.
« "Gathering photographic evidence of legendary Pokemon's sightings in different eras"»

Turo's mouth hanged open for a moment.

« You chase legendaries? »
Ooooh 👀 that’s fascinating. Sounds like a cool job.

Turo stepped into the time machine, and immediately scowled when the first thing to greet him in the past is rain hitting him in the face. Great, he would have to charge his time-anchor manually this time if it didn't let up soon.
Lol rip, guess who has to not be lazy today 😂

They could have made it so it had to be rolled. Or punched. Or simply pointed against the objective, but nah, they had decided "let's throw that, watch me nail that Bidoof on the head from 30 meters" (or at least, that's how he had always imagined the first practical demostration of the Pokéball to have gone down).
This is hilarious, and so true. Humanity can be boiled down to “we yeet things real good.”

« Turo's clothes, um... cold. So I... make clothes... my people clothes... » she showed him what she had taken out of the bag: a big bundle of cloth of various sizes and color, the furs obviously coming from different Pokémon. And in her other hand, what's obviously a needle made out of bone.

She wants to... oh man.

Looks like he's getting those "historically accurate clothes" after all.
She’s SO SWEET AND THOUGHTFUL AW.

How can you say no to that, Turo? You can’t.

Chapter 6:

Aaaaaaa this might be my favorite chapter so far, for several reasons! One, Sada is just too cute when she’s all excited about a new discovery. The way she immediately grabs Turo and drags him up the mountain to show him her discoveries is just too darn adorable. Honestly, no wonder he’s falling for her; she’s got a contagious enthusiasm for the world around her, an insatiable curiosity that only someone like Turo would really relate to, and she has absolutely no ulterior motive or selfish intentions. She just likes to learn.

The scene of her getting his measurements for clothing is gold. We know why he was uncomfortable, but she is hilariously clueless as to why. 😂 AND!! The little moments where she analyzes his expressions and smiles, how she can tell his sincere smiles from the fake ones—tiny details like that make me go FERAL. You must understand how much I love stuff like this, those subtle and natural cues telling the reader that they’re getting closer—not just learning about the other’s languages and worlds, but about each other and their mannerisms and personalities and emotional needs. AGH I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I am feasting so well on this fic. BLESS.

Next she measures his shoulders and chest, and in the meantime, can't help but keep studying the purple clo... no, it's definitely not cloth. It's also not tiny scales like she had originally thought. It really looks like some kind of...shed skin that he somehow wrapped around himself without tearing it, all in one piece. Which is kinda impressive, but also a bit gross. Also what kind of creature would give you a single piece that big?
Dying that her conclusion after observing his clothes up close is “gross.” 😂 Though at this point even I’m curious as to what exactly his suit thing is made out of.

Only then does Sada finally lift her gaze from the little leather strip still wrapped around his chest to find herself eye to eye with him, and realizes that they have never been this close to each other. They have walked together, they've sat side by side passing the notebook between them, but she's never actually gotten this close to him.
Ohoho? 😏

Sada gets pulled back all of a sudden; she turns around, surprised, to find that Turo has

grabbed her by the wrist with one hand, and picked up the measurement tape with the other.
Not sure if you meant to, but this paragraph break in the middle of the sentence shouldn’t be there.

But it always looks like he does something with it, because she has caught him slipping his other hand into the sleeve to touch it a couple of times.

Was it some kind of... ritual? Like how some hunters would paint their faces and cover themselves with furs of the creatures they wanted to hunt, to summon their spirit for good luck?
I love how with everything he does, Sada comes up with some kind equivalent to it that she can understand.

« And that is... beautiful.» Turo whispers something to himself, something she can't understand yet. She will not be able to for quite some time.
Aaaaa I SHIP IT :veelove:

A shadow passes over the ground for a moment, and the creature seems to pass right over them; she manages to catch just to quickest glimpse of something red, and big, before it's gone, wings flapping heavily to keep it afloat. Is it going to land near here...?
Oooh totally Koraidon!

She crouched low behind a bush, spear slung over her shoulder, staring at the purple and yellow creature that was making it's way up the tree, gripping the branches with two short claws near the upper part of it's body, when a low thud fills the air.
Huh, this confused me. Everything about this seems to indicate it’s an Ekans…except for the “two short claws” descriptor. What Pokémon is this?

« This was supposed to be mine...» she mutters while it happily devours the last egg, before looking back at her. It growls softly and suddenly spreads its wings, flapping them with enough force to send her sprawling to the ground and taking off into the skies. Sada is left staring at the spot where the creature had disappeared, where a couple of white and blue feathers were fluttering to the ground.

It hadn't attacked her. It easily could have, but it didn't.

Against all better judgement, she decides to leave some food for it out every day in the same spot.
More HTTYD vibes yessss
When Turo finished putting on the rest of the clothes, though, she finds herself simply staring at him, surprised. Now that he's dressed exactly like any other man of her tribe, he suddenly looks completely different, much more... normal. He's still as pale as death, but the hair and beard look a lot less unnerving without the weird clothes making them stand out even more. He looks... good, she realizes with a little surprise.

... and then he slips the shiny mantle back on, and she finds herself laughing at how strange it looks. She kind of likes that about him, though.
Want a visual of this haha. Also love that he slips his coat on over everything 😂 Turo, you nerd.
 

HelloYellow17

Gym Leader
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. suicune
  2. umbreon
  3. mew
  4. lycanroc-wes
  5. leafeon-rui
Eheheh. I’m back for more. I can’t get enough of this. 😂 I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Timeslip!

Chapter 7:

Aaaaah, the angst is really starting to ramp up this chapter. Turo’s POV is so starkly different from Sada’s: to him, this must all be temporary, it’s simply for his job, and he will be moving on to other things eventually, a thought that brings him dread. For Sada, the world is bright and full of mystery, always more things to learn, and Turo’s visits are an endless source of wonder and curiosity. It’s heartbreaking in the best way and I love it.

The little moments where Turo’s feelings and affection shine through are so well done—so small and natural, but sweet. Bittersweet, even, because he knows this can’t last and he’s letting himself enjoy it more than he should. His world truly feels so gray in comparison to Sada, despite all the incredible technological advancements.

« Analysis of body language, pupil dilation and breathing pattern indicate heightened emotional state. Is medical assistance required?» it asked, causing Turo to blink and actually look at the Pokémon, caught by surprise. First time it had said anything else outside of the ordinary procedure.
Heh, “heightened emotional state.” Can’t hide your feelings from a computer, my guy.

« Were you worried about me? Do you also ask the others how they are doing? »

Porygon 568 paused for a moment, then puffed up its feathers again with a little spark of electricity surrounding it, eyes flashing yellow.

« ... it is in my interest to ensure that users of the time-machine remain in peak physical and psychological condition. That is all.» it answered, then turned around and decompiled itself into code, disappearing inside the console of the time machine with a last beep that somehow managed to sound annoyed.
Aw omg it’s a freaking tsundere Porygon 😂 that’s adorable. I want to see Turo and Porygon becoming friends.

She was just so bright. And that had... frustrated him terribly. Almost angered him.

It wasn't fair. There she was, one of who knows how many people with brilliant minds and the potential to change history... born in the completely wrong era.

Too early. Way too early.
Aw. On one hand, this is a sad thought, but on the other, every era is in need of brilliant minds. How else would things have progressed to where they are in Turo’s day otherwise? Her talent and genius isn’t wasted here—she can (and does) come up with many brilliant ideas that benefit her people. Though, admittedly, her sphere of influence is severely limited in this age, especially compared to what it could be in his time.

So that meant that his visits to Sada had a hard time limit. A finite number.

And he had absolutely no idea what to do once that number would reach zero.
Boy is fallin HARD.

He could feel the low hum of electricity that coursed through the dragon change in intensity while it slowly drifted asleep. That sound had been a constant companion to him since his childhood; by now it was synonymous with... Warmth, safety and affection. Lulled by that barely audible droning sound, Turo slowly let himself fall asleep.
Love the bond these two share. I’m definitely getting the distinct feeling that Miraidon is Turo’s only real friend…which sounds quite lonely.

After a couple of failed gestures he managed to flick a screen open in front of his face without standing up from his bed, picking up the call in voice only mode.
Lol what a mood. Even without a physical phone to answer, humans still find a way to fumble around when woken up unexpectedly. 😂

Eighteen minutes after the call, the time necessary for a quick shower to wake him up completely, get dressed, run to the nearest teleporter and notably not eat anything, he entered the time machine room.
Barely sleeping and not eating. Turo already has a perfectly healthy work/life balance, I see. :unquag:

One of the nurses from the nearby Uvanja academy
Uvanja! Now that’s interesting. In this AU, I guess the two versions of the academy are fused together?

He slipped in, perfectly camouflaged in his "historically accurate clothes", witnessed history, and came back. He couldn't imagine doing the same thing.

Treating it like just... just a normal job.
That’s probably the most realistic thing about this whole story, isn’t it. Even the most fantastical things…can easily become quite mundane, and it’s very easy to see how something even as incredible as time travel can become just another job.

He can't help a little smile in seeing her; he had missed her in that entire month spent mostly staring at computer code and error messages, sometimes finding himself distracted by wondering about what she was doing in that moment... before brutally reminding himself of the fact that the answer was nothing, because she's dead in the present, she has been dead for centuries you idiot-

But she is alive here, and he just wants to forget about everything for a couple of hours and enjoy the time he can spend with her.
Boy you are down SO BAD, and you don’t even seem to know it! Meanwhile, Sada continues to be mostly clueless. 😂

... just what exactly had she been doing in these five days?

Something dangerous, most probably.
And what you’re doing isn’t dangerous, Turo? Though admittedly, Sada’s type of danger is a bit more direct. Staring down dragons and all. 😂

It should look ridiculous - and it does, a bit, they've pretty much swapped clothes right now -, but then Sada laughed again and spinned around, apparently just to watch the lab coat flap around her, which she seemed to find pretty amusing. The pure, unbrindled joy in her voice just made his chest hurt.

... he could listen to that laugh for hours and never get tired of it.

He wanted to listen to it for hours, he realized after a second with a pained smile.
UGH STOP MY HEART 😭 if this fic doesn’t give them a happy ending somehow, imma riot in the streets. You’ve been warned.

He knew that she seemed to hate his vague answers - yep, there it was, that little half sad, half annoyed pout -, but he couldn't exactly tell her that it was made from nano-carbon when she didn't even knew about metals yet.
Hahaha and now we get to see him noticing her little mannerisms and quirks, growing so familiar with them that he can predict specifically how she’ll react to things. IT’S PRECIOUS.

That spark of wonder in her eyes is the purest thing he has ever seen. It just pains him so much, to think of her in this era. How many great things she is going to miss, simply because she had been born at the wrong moment. He just... he just wants to show her everything, to laugh with her, to discover stuff and get excited about them together, to tell her about his dream of seeing the distant future, so far off for the both of them, and --

But he can't. So this will have to do.
STOP MY HEART CAN ONLY TAKE SO MUCH OF THIS. I am squealing with glee and crying in sadness at the same time. 😭

... eh, good luck. » he said, before finally stepping outside and leaving him free to leave.

"Good luck for what?"

He doesn't quite understand what his senior meant with those words, until he had to cross the University Hall at night a couple of days after that exchange with his new "historically accurate clothes" on, and the damn Steelcino literally all jump at him en masse, screeching while trying to "clean him up".
Ahahaha this is amazing. I wonder if he can’t just leave those clothes at the lab somewhere? A locker, maybe? He practically lives there anyway!

« My "name"! It's me» she breaths out, still exhilarated by her realization.
She’s so CUTE I LOVE HER, she needs to be protected at all costs!

Chapter 8:

This should just be “How to Train Your Dragon: The Chapter” because BOYYYY THE VIBES ARE OFF THE CHARTS. You simply cannot convince me any longer that you DIDN’T get at least some inspiration from HTTYD for this! And honestly, I love it. It scratches a very specific itch that no other fic has. I’m obsessed. Please continue to spoil me with good dragon content!

If this chapter's title sounds weird, it's because it was inspired by the song from the soundtrack of the movie "Your Name". It also means "Past-past-past life" so... it kinda fit I guess.
Eyyy I actually recognized it right away! (Speaking of, I forgot to mention I absolutely love the title of Chapter 5, ahaha.) Your Name is so so good, and I love the song this comes from, too.

She stares at him. She had understood him, probably, there weren't many other things she could think of when talking about "making" a person, but he must have thought that she didn't, because he starts to think of another way to explain it.

And fails spectacularly at it, getting more and more embarassed. He points at himself, then at her.
This whole scene is so adorable and hilarious. 😂 The way he awkwardly carries on, the way she freaking LETS him for her own entertainment, the way he gets flustered when she draws it out for him. So good. Poor Turo is such an awkward disaster of a man, I love him.

It had been fun to wear, so light that she hadn't even noticed it, and the half bags sewn on the front on both sides were pretty useful. She could easily do the same with some of her clothes...
HECK YEAH GIRL, POCKETS! MAKE THEM POCKETS, FIGHT THE PATRIARCHY

Had there been... a flash of light right there at that moment?
ahahaha I KNEW she was gonna notice that eventually. Probably only a matter of time until she sees him disappear entirely, especially if he continues to dodge all of her questions. Her curiosity cannot be contained!

Sada had gone back to the settlement right after Turo had left, and had immediately taken it upon herself to teach the writing symbols to everyone. Her mother had listened politely at first, but hadn't looked that interested in actually learning them.
Oh boy. On one hand, this is awesome. On another…I sure do worry about that butterfly—sorry, Beautifly effect. Teaching one person how to read and write is one thing, but the she goes on to teach her whole tribe? I’m getting worried. The more this continues, the bigger the ripple effect will be, and Turo doesn’t even seem to realize this. (Or maybe he does and he just keeps convincing himself it will be fine?)

I thought you were spending night and day with this guy by no- Fluffyhead nooo » she wailed when the fluffy creature decided to approach her after all and flop down right over the rock she was writing on, ash sticking all over it's puffy wool.
Fluffyhead is the best. Fluffyhead for president. Or in this case, shaman.

There were moments where she had caught him deep in thought, eyebrows deeply furrowed and one hand half stroking his chin, and then suddenly when she said something or called out to him that carefully constructed expression would slip away for a moment, revealing a sad half-smile that he would immediately try to hide again.
More instances of them noticing the more private and intimate details about the other. Turo does seem sad, though at this point it’s hard to tell if it’s because of something in his past, simply because he’s lonely, or if it’s just because his whole world seems kind of depressing and cold and impersonal. I also find it interesting that the first time we see it directly referenced that he is sad is through Sada’s POV, and not his own. Perhaps he doesn’t even realize? Or maybe he does, but pretends everything is fine?

She was petting Fluffyhead again, apparently not minding the possibility of getting hit by another spark. (Then again, he was so fluffy and soft that she could understand her perfectly)
Big mood. One does not simply see a fluffy creature and not pet it. Electric shocks are simply the price to pay.

And Fluffyhead had showed that, while not exactly bright, it was capable of paying attention to what humans were saying. It had learned really quick which words meant "food" directed at him, at least.
Lol Fluffyhead is my cat, Gizmo. Nothing else matters except food.

« Right.» Chalo pointed dramatically towards a tree. « Fluffyhead, KILL THAT!»

... Sada was thinking about something a bit more subtle, but... as long as it worked.
Chalo is a treasure. 😂 I really wanna see an interaction between her and Ortega.

She wanted to see if Winged King was smart enough to associate the sound of the flute with her and the one who had left it food.

The fourth day, it was already waiting for her by the tree, calmy sitting on it's hind legs.
Honestly, this is so clever!! Sada truly is brilliant and quick to come up with very creative ideas.

Winged King seemed to decide for her, closing its eyes and quietly pushing against her hand with its head for a brief moment, before backing up and getting back to eating.

She is left staring at it in quiet awe.
YES HTTYD YOU DID IT, SHE DID IT, THEY DID THE THING

Another couple of days later, and Sada realized that her plan with the flute had worked maybe a little too well, because now Winged King comes crashing through the forest every time she plays the flute, as long as it's close enough to hear it.
Lololol I’m reminded of the videos of cats when their automatic feeders go off. Just NYOOM TO THE FOOD. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in this guy’s way when he hears the dinner bell. Or dinner flute, in this case.

Chapter 9:

Oh boy, tensions are rising between these two, and not the good romantic kind. (Though that’s slowly dialing up too, especially on Turo’s end, heh.) This delicate little dance of avoidance and white lies is definitely not sustainable, and something is gonna give eventually. I’m very nervous about what that’s gonna look like when it happens!
We finally get to see more of what Turo’s life is like outside of the lab and his apartment! And boy, is it wild. Casual trips to the moon for lunch! And yet, somehow, it all seems kind of…depressing. It’s nice that so many things are streamlined and automated, that lots of things like meat and fish can be perfectly replicated without needing to deplete natural resources, and yet…it’s all so robotic and synthetic. Everywhere. Turo himself hardly ever sees the actual sun, though I know that’s specific to his occupation. Still, it makes me wonder how much nature and natural substsnces (and how many organic Pokémon) are actually left.

His latest report about Sada's discovery (because it was hers, like he had made sure to point out in the report) of what was probably a Paleolithic era ancestor to both had sparked quite a bit of interest, and so he had spent the last couple of days reading up about Cyclizar and Miraidon.
This is so sweet! He’s giving her the credit she deserves, even if she won’t ever know, even if it doesn’t really “matter” in the big scheme of things. Somehow this feels like the ultimate scientist declaration of love, lol.

She stopped to contemplate one in particular, which would have captured a perfect and gorgeous image of Suicune running over the waves... only for some guy in a frilly cape to have accidentally photobombed the shot, causing the Pokémon to go out of focus and be nothing more than a blurry splotch of blue in the background. She deleted the picture, irritated.

« ... this dude was everywhere while I chased Suicune, I swear-»
LOL FREAKING EUSINE

Listen, girl, that’s kind of on you for targeting Eusine’s lifetime for your research. Go like 50 years earlier or later and you might have better luck. 😂

« They are not for me. Miraidon loved them when we were little, and he got all sad when they stopped producing that flavor. » and when Miraidon got sad, he had his own special way of looking at him with those cute pixellated puppy eyes, and damn if it didn't make him feel terrible about whatever it was that had caused them, even if it was something outside of his control. You would think it wouldn't be possible for a Pokémon whose eyes were literal pixels to look so heartbroken, and you would be wrong.
Awww that’s so sweet. Also lol at Miraidon’s puppy eyes. For a robotic looking creature, they sure can be darn expressive! The games taught us that much.

« ... No, that doesn't mean I've got nothing to do until then, I do other things in the meantime, I've already told you... And no, I don't want to go to the Moon for some overpriced lunch on Sunday-»

It was crowded and way too turisty - mostly all people born on Mars that got all stupidly sentimental about being on "the" Moon - and it was too far for teleporters to reach, which meant that you actually had to sit down on a shuttle and suffer through three hours of horrible movies and screaming toddlers.
Lol WAIT at first I thought it was a restaurant called The Moon, but no, IT’S THE ACTUAL MOON

See? This is why he hated the Moon. It was so weird, the micro-gravity always left him disoriented and nauseous, and he usually had to leave just as he got the hang of it, because screw spending the "night" there. Complete zero gravity was better than this.
lololol Turo being disgruntled at things will always be funny to me. He’s like a cat. Very Displeased About Specific Things.

Miraidon skidded to a stop next to him in a much more dignified way, having simply tucked his legs in, adopted his Drive form and easily floated after him on his energy rings. Turo glared at the Pokémon.

« That's cheating.»

« Gyaa~» the lizard dragon managed to look pretty smug at that.

« ... just let me ride.» he grumbled, mounting the dragon Pokémon and directing him to their destination.
Their dynamic is just PERFECT. I love it so much.

Turo answered after a moment while he sneaked a piece of meat to the dragon under the table.
If this isn’t the biggest “kid and his dog and their bond” gesture I’ve ever seen.

He would be a bit offended about her lack of faith in him, but.... honestly, after somehow shooting himself to the Stone Age?

She had a point.
LOL. The self-awareness. 😂 Turo isn’t cocky, and I like that about him. I feel like it’s quite common for brilliant scientist characters to be way too sure of themselves.

Turo grinned while he watched what was left of his father's steak get snatched up by Miraidon and the Pokémon scamper out of the restaurant with his prize.
[points at Miraidon] DOG. Also, Miraidon would get along so very well with Neo, an Espeon in my fic. They are truly two peas in a pod.

That's it. They must be cutting him off. Now he will tell him to find something more productive.

His first immediate thought isn't for his job and his research; it's for Sada that would probably wait for him while sending smoke signals into the sky, day after day, wondering when he would come... he had promised to see her again, after all-
😭 HE CARES ABOUT HER SO MUCH

He nervously glanced all around to make sure he was alone, then took his hand out of his pocket and stared at the Master Ball. Those had also received some design changes during the centuries: it was completely white with a red line all around the perimeter, but how they worked was pretty much the same. You couldn't improve perfection, after all. Just one little functionality had been added in the last couple of decades, specifically for time-traveling.
Oh?? So do Master balls look like Premier balls now?

« ... do you think you could catch some specimens to bring back? » he asked, clasping both hands behind his back and regarding him carefully.

It took Turo a couple of seconds to register what he had said.

« ... c-catch...? »
Hmmmm idk this sounds so shady. SURELY this would have some kind of butterfly effect? Or at least be very very close to risking it? Also whyyy would he need to catch the whole mon and bring it back? Why not another DNA sample, like a scale? Hmmm I dunno. Director is sus.

They say that when faced with mortal danger, people evolved to respond to it with either one of two fundamental actions: fight or flight.

In retrospect, Turo kind of wants to say that he fearlessly threw himself towards her to protect her, clutching the Master Ball as the only weapon he had and staring down the enormous scaled creature.

Sadly, Turo was firmly in the group of people that developed a third alternative to the fight or flight response. The one called "freeze in panic and do nothing".
Bahahaha. This checks out, though—Turo hasn’t ever had to face dangers like this in his life! Poor guy. Loving the way he’s panicking while Sada is just having the time of her life. That just…works so well. It’s perfect.

Meanwhile, Sada has been talking softly to the Pokémon, getting it to lay back down on all fours. And then, right as he was thinking that there was no way that she could top "convinced a Dragon Pokémon that's barely had contacts with humans to not kill me" in a single day, she mounted it.
She’s so freaking cool. What a baddie. I love her.

It wasn't that different from Miraidon, really... just a bit more rigid scales and feathers instead of smooth, metallic plates.

And then it started to sprint, and he had to immediately eat his words.
KEK, this was so good. And then he had to grab onto her, heheh 😏 I love the distinction you make here between Miraidon and Koraidon’s movements, too! As someone who has played both games, that’s a fun detail and you outlined it so vividly.

Sada regarded him in silence for some excruciatingly long seconds, those bright, brilliant eyes narrowing and quickly scanning him up and down. Looking for some other detail she must have missed, some explanation, they stopped on his hands, his face, his legs. Turo pointedly held her gaze, feigning innocence.
Hoo boy, things are getting tense. 😬 She’s on to him, and she is definitely going to force him to spill his secrets sooner or later.

« We can... go to your people ? » she added after a moment, looking up at him. Hopefull. Excited. Beautiful.

His breath caught in his chest.
Hngghhh my heart 😭 you just know she was HOPING for this, that this was the whole reason she was so elated. And he can’t give it to her!

He nodded, and was rewarded by the biggest smile he had ever seen on her, her whole face practically glowing - and then she jumped up and hugged him, throwing her arms around his neck, and he is left petrified with a mix of fear and excitement and oh her hair is so soft and tickling his neck and he has no idea what to do should he hug her back and not stand there like an idiot should he kiss her fuckhereallywantsto-
Ahahahahahhaa oh my gosh this is so good. He. Is. SO GONE. 😂 Helplessly gone. Can’t blame him, though—she’s a genius who reads him like an open book and casually tames dragons in her spare time. I mean, what a standard to set for all future competition. 😂

« Let's go!»

... wait. Wait a moment.

She gently tugged him along, already starting to explain something, and he is left stumbling behind her.

... he didn't mean right now.
HECK YEAH BOI WE GOIN RIGHT NOW, FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT!

Boy those Master balls make me so uneasy, though. I fear they can only bring trouble. 😬
 
Chapter 15: Closing Time

Nekodatta

Pokémon Trainer
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. koraidon-apex
  2. miraidon-ultimate
  3. skitty
Chapter 15: Closing Time
When Turo walked into the TTDL the day after his latest report, well into the afternoon since his last jump had been late at night again, he initially didn't notice anything wrong in the couple of looks he got from people he crossed in the corridors. Then he walked into the sanity room to grab a coffee, and had to question what he was looking at.

He had no idea what the theme was supposed to be this day. It was usually either a generic ambience or some really specific, famous landmark, and this looked like neither. It mostly looked like a... Contemporary art museum? Each wall held a couple of little holographic frames, with lights pointing to it. Puzzled but without questioning it too much, he grabbed a cup of coffee. Maybe it was supposed to be some famous museum, he thought as he took the first sip. A reproduction of some art gallery from the past?

The first exhibition of some famous artist...?

He shot a distracted glance to the nearest frame as he took another sip, and raised one eyebrow.

The paintings were all of the same thing, each the same shitty-looking scribble with different colored filters applied to it. One was in color. That one was sepia. That other one had been converted in a three dimensional model, made to look like a marble statue.

He admittedly didn't really know much about art, except for the biggest and most recognisable of pieces, and this one definitely left him baffled. Maybe today the sanity room was actually showing something from the future? Wasn't it explicitly forbidden by Moreau?

There was even the sound of steps and some whispering in the background, to simulate a little crowd walking around: whoever had sent this up had been meticulous. Then he finally noticed the little text hovering next to each art piece.

"Ancient form of Cyclizar, top down view. Digital painting by Dr Romero Turo, circa 4685, TTDL, Earth"

... What.

Was this supposed to be a joke? He sighed in annoyance and stormed out of the room, knowing exactly who was responsible.

« Ortega-» he growled as he entered his office, only to, of course, find it empty.

He stopped on the doorstep, exasperated, looking around.

If he wasn't in his office or in the break room, then...

« Porygon. » he spoke to the empty air, knowing full well that the Pokémon was listening. A screen opened up to his right.

« How may I help, Dr Romero Turo? » it answered after a moment.

« Is Ortega currently on a jump?» he exited the office and made his way towards the time machine room.

« No. He is, however, getting ready to depart soon. I'm calculating his landing coordinates as we speak.»

« Well, stop him for a moment!»

Turo started running at a light jog. There was a moment's pause from the AI, an unusual amount of hesitation coming from the Pokémon considering the speed at which it usually thought and reacted.

« I am... Unable to do that. Doing anything that could impede the normal use of the time machine goes against my duty-»

Turo's eyes widened as he sped up, almost tripping in his haste to reach the room, now for a completely different reason.

« Wait, no... Metaphorically! I meant metaphorically! Just ask him whatever, not "stop him" physically»

AIs and their literal mindedness- Porygon 568 was usually so good at interacting with people, it was easy to forget that it wasn't, in the end, developed with the idea to actually act and think like one. Porygons had been developed as Pokémon first, and AIs only later, almost as an indirect result of making them more and more intelligent and able to deal with increasingly complex scenarios. There was another little pause at the other end of the line.

« ... Oh. That is more understandable.» and with that, it closed the call, leaving Turo flustered as he sprinted across the last section of the corridor. He was completely out of breath as he burst into the room, only to find a bewildered Ortega with his sleeve pulled up, the nurse (her name was Denise, or something?) about to inject him with the protection serum, and a very uncomfortable looking Porygon 568 that was trying and failing to make small talk.

« According to my calculations, the weather in Alfornada, 8th of August year 4378 should be lovely-»

« ... All right?»

All three turned around to look at him, and then stared again as he staggered inside.

And then stared some more as he had to bend in half to catch his breath.

« You okay there...?» Ortega asked after another couple of seconds of panting.

« Yes! I'm here because of you!» Turo finally managed to get out, getting back upright and glaring at his senior.

« What's with... That thing in the break room.»

The other man's eyes lit up, and with a smile, he turned his back to the time machine, leaving poor Denise -if that was her name - to sigh and follow him with the still ready to be used needle.

« Oooh, you've seen that? What do you think of your first art exhibition?»

Turo sighed, not in the mood for Ortega's jokes.

« "My" art exhibition? I draw much better than that... And you know that. You've read my reports, you've seen some of my sketches -»

The man's smile got only wider. Now he was pretty much beaming.

« Oh, this is even better than I thought... So you haven't checked your department mail this morning?»

Turo stared, now with a little, unexplainable feeling of sudden dread springing up from a little corner of his mind. The little corner of his mind that subconsciously knew, and kept silent. Like a coward.

« I... No? I was going to as soon as I got to my office... What is going on?»

He looked to Denise or whatever and Porygon 568. The Pokémon had his eyes closed, exaggeratedly muttering coordinates numbers to himself as it pretended to be busy recalculating something, and the nurse... Well even the nurse was trying to hide a smile now. W-what had he done last night? He remembered coming back home, and... Getting straight to sleep? That was it, right? Urged by Ortega's smile, he opened up a screen and logged into his mail. His blood immediately ran cold as he saw an unread email by Moreau, titled "Re: Report".

R-Report....? He had written nothing of the sort! He was going to start writing his latest one right now! Now sweating, he opened up the email and read with wide eyes, then looked at the attached file.

And went completely red in the face at the thought of all the people who must have read... that.

«I... I have no memory of this!» In his haste to reply, he activated the voice to text function and apologized profusely, promising to rewrite the report immediately. He... He had really sent that to the director? At least Moreau seemed to have taken it with a certain humour, or he would have destroyed his career in a single night.

He... He was never going to live this down.

« Yep, we figured. That must have been some strong stuff.» there was a pause as Ortega snickered.

« ... Well?» He asked, and now even Denise the nurse looked curious.

Turo looked from one to the other.

« Well what

« Was the booze at least good?»

« Yes- that's not the point!» he snapped, sighing with exasperation when Ortega exploded with laughter as he turned his back to him and pulled up his sleeve again to finally receive the injection.

« If I was you, I would consider starting a little mini-project. Me and Vega already have the paper title ready. "Taste-testing first traces of man-made alcoholic beverages in late Paleolithic era", by Doctor Romero Turo. We both offer ourselves up as co-authors and testers. » the dark haired man clicked his tongue as he pulled down his sleeve and stepped towards the time machine.

« ... Strictly for science, of course.»

Turo let out a sound that would have resembled the noise Miraidon did when he happened to slide on some gravel, except that it was currently being made by his teeth grinding together. Which probably wasn't exactly healthy.

« No-»

Ortega pouted exaggeratedly, then shrugged.

« Aw. You shouldn't take yourself so seriously. You're funnier when you're drunk!» he laughed again as he waved him off, before disappearing into the time machine as it spun to life.

In the silence that followed, Porygon 568 looked awkwardly between the two humans, before floating next to him with a flap of his short wings.

« I do not have the capacity to understand "drunkenness" as a human state. But if it helps, I have seen the drawing. Taking into account the state of decreased motor skills it was done in, I find the result quite well done. The lines are...» the Pokémon seemed to struggle for a moment.

«... surprisingly straight. » it muttered in the end. Turo couldn't help but let out a little laugh as he patted the Pokémon on the head.

Aw, bless his little, artificially coded heart.

---

That first trip they had taken in that cave had left him pretty shaken. He hadn't really expected to be brought in front of what in his time would become a priceless historical site. He knew those cave paintings, everyone did. They were studied in history books. People speculated about their meanings. To suddenly realize as Sada explained it that they were... Pretty much ancient family trees, their own way of keeping a record of their myths, their history and past before writing even officially existed had left him speechless. And the fact that she had wanted to draw him up there... he had gone back to his time, to his apartment, and looked up the cave painting online. Access to the cave was obviously restricted by now, but the pictures you found of it online were such high quality that they may as well be a perfect reproduction of the original. Haptic feedback even allowed you to somewhat touch them, simulating the feeling of the rock under his fingertips as close as possible... though it still didn't feel exactly the same as when he had actually touched it himself, in the past, to trace Sada's handprint. He enlarged the pictures as much as he could, covering almost the entire wall of his living room, and...stared. Miraidon got down from the couch and came near him to investigate, curious, letting out an inquisitive beeping chirp. He scratched the dragon under his chin as he looked at the picture, searching for a specific spot... There. Sada's handprint, in faded scarlet... And his own violet line all around, the brilliant color he had seen just not even a couple of hours ago similarly faded from the passage of time. But there it was. This picture was from years ago. It had always been there... He had just never paid attention to that small part of it, because he had no idea of what it meant... That he would be the one to leave it there.

With a deep breath, he sat down on the couch and pulled up a description of the painting, skimming it.

"Dated around the year 14'000 BCE and found at the end of a narrow cave system in modern Kalos, this stunning parietal art shows clear handprints belonging to homo sapiens that lived in the area... Numerous representation of Pokémon that must have inhabited the region at the time..."

His eyes finally narrowed on a paragraph in particular, and he tensed.

"... One handprint in particular has long puzzled paleontologists as it is the only one that shows a line traced all around it in a different colour. Since the scarlet handprint evidently belongs to a child, one hypothesis is that the violet line was done by an adult relative, probably one of the parents, to indicate something particular about the kid. One common theory is that it was done to commerate a child that died in their infancy, but that's unusual since considering the number of child sized handprints present on the cave wall, one would expect the number of similarly traced handprints to be higher..."

Turo let out a deep sigh of relief and dismissed the explanation. Well... He had left some paleontologists scratching their heads, but nothing too serious it seemed. He stared distractedly at the cave painting for a moment, feeling himself relax; this way... Sada still had a way to hold up her traditions without potentially revealing that he had been there...

Turo's eyes widened as he took in the painting as a whole and he jumped up from the couch, feeling himself tense up again.

There was... Something wrong with the painting... Or to put it in better terms... Now that he knew what it meant, something was missing...

« ... Why are there no other handprints...?» he whispered, and Miraidon purred at his side without understanding.

He looked back to Sada's handprint. There... There should be a line there. To connect her child handprint to her adult one, and that one to her children, and so on and so forth, for generations to come... But there was nothing. He stared, feeling a rising panic mount in his chest. Miraidon pushed his snout under his hand, sending the tiniest jolt of electricity through it.

... Did... Did something happen to her? Did she simply not have any children...?

"My father was from another tribe"

Maybe... Maybe she had simply married into another group. Found someone else... After he left. An entire new tribe, culture and traditions to discover. Knowledge to share.

That... Sounded like something she would do, he thought with a little smile, chest still aching painfully.

But then... He gave one last look at the painting before dismissing it with a wave.

Even if Sada in particular didn't continue the mural... There should still be generations and generations of other handprints present in this picture compared to what he had just seen. Instead... He couldn't be completely sure, because he had been focusing mostly on the part of the mural with Sada's handprint but there didn't seem to be many more.

Did something happen to the tribe as a whole...? Did they get wiped out...?

... Why was he even worrying about it so much?

It had already happened anyway. They were long gone.

---

As Turo got more and more familiar with life at her settlement, his visits to Sada's time had started to become almost strangely... routine. Every three or four days, he would appear in the usual spot they had designated. They would spend time at the village, or fly around. And they would talk, slowly growing more confident in their respective language skills. He tried not to think too much about the cave painting, and never brought it up, neither with Sada, nor with his colleagues. Ortega would just tell him that he was making things even more difficult for himself for when he had to inevitably leave for good.

"Don't get attached"

And Vega... He wasn't actually sure. She probably spent most of her time chasing legendaries in remote places, and she didn't actually interact with people that much.

He came back from his latest jump, and nodded towards Porygon's usual greeting as he dusted off his clothes.

As he walked through the corridor, he noticed more noise than usual coming from the sanity room. Curious, he stepped inside, and noticed that most of the department seemed to have gathered there. The room was styled after a forest this day, and the noticed that most people present seemed clustered around one table in particular. When he got near, he noticed Vega, a weary look of exhaustion on her face, staring at something projected on the wall.

« .... Hi.» she simply said, noticing his entrance.

« Hi...? What is going on?» he sat down by her side and threw one look to the wall, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

They just looked like a whole bunch of pictures of trees.

« I did it.» Vega sighed, entirely unhappy.

« You... Wait. You did it?! You got pictures of the legendary beasts?» he gasped, looking back to the photographs.

« Congratulations!» why did she look so gloomy then? It was an amazing result, to get clear, high quality images of some of the most elusive Pokémons that ever existed...

Vega groaned.

« No... Not them. I gave up, it's impossible. So I went after Celebi because... I was already in Johto, the Ilex Forest was right there... And I'm pretty sure it could read the energy coming from my time-anchor or something because it started... Challenging me to chase it around various points in time. We pretty much played time travel tag.»

She sighed again.

« And then it finally allowed me to come near this little shrine they have in the forest and snap some pictures, and...» she wordlessly summoned one of the pictures and enlarged it, and Turo leaned forward to get a better look.

... Yeah that was Celebi all right. Or at least, it fit the various descriptions found in folklore and legends. Small and fairy like, with a couple of tiny wings, it was floating right in front of the little wooden shrine dedicated to it that used to be found in the forest ages ago.

« That... Is a perfect shot.» he still wasn't quite sure why she looked more irritated than overjoyed at her accomplishment.

Vega moved another picture in front of him, and now Turo had to arch one eyebrow. In the new picture, right behind the Celebi on the shrine and waving to the camera, was a second Celebi identical to the first.

« ... Two of them? Isn't he supposed to be unique?»

Legends and old stories were very contradictory about it. Some of them referred to certain legendaries as if there were more than one, others treated them as completely unique; some cases like Heatran or Phione seemed almost confirmed, or some lore about Entei mentioned that one existed for every volcano in the world, and then there was that old story about the "baby Lugia" that had pretty much become a legend on its own. So to see two Celebi in the same spot...

« It could simply be the same individual that came at the shrine from two different points in time. » Moreau commented, squinting his icy blue eyes at the picture, comparing the two Pokémon.

« That's what I also thought... He is the time travel Pokémon after all.» Vega lamented, before pulling up a third picture.

« But then... look at this.»

This one got more than one person to start muttering, and Turo's eyes widened when he saw what the redhead meant. Similar to the second picture, it showed two Celebi. Except that one of the two, this time busy winking to the camera, was red.

« .... A shiny...?» he gaped.

« I don't know!» Vega finally threw her hands in the air, causing all the pictures to accidentally spin in midair.

« What are we supposed to make of this? It has to be a separate individual, right? Why hasn't there been a single shred of reference, myth, painting or drunken report about this Celebi in all of recorded history? I didn't even know shiny legendaries could exist! How can they get the shiny mutation if they don't reproduce?! » and with that, she let out an exhausted sigh and put her head back down on the table.

« I don't know...»

« Sounds to me like you have your next research project already decided. Congratulations.» Moreau commented with a chuckle, clapping the woman on one shoulder before walking out.

People went back to their seats and conversation slowly resumed, except for Ortega, who had stood up from his chair and was busy studying the picture of the shiny Celebi -if that's what it was- with a serious expression, scratching his beard.

« What do you think about all this?» Turo asked after a moment. Even if legendary Pokémon weren't strictly his field of research, he was still one of the most distinguished time travelers in the department. Maybe he could give some insight about the situation.

Ortega's eyes moved to look at him, and he huffed.

« I think that shiny Pokémon were so much cooler looking back in the day! Why do ours all look like they missed a paint job?» he grumbled.

« No wonder shiny hunting stopped being a thing... What a shame.» and with that, he waltzed out of the room, whistling, leaving a half stunned, half resigned silence in his wake. Turo simply sighed.

« ... Yeah, that one's on me. Shouldn't have expected a serious answer from the man.»

---

That whole hunting trip had been both terrifying and eye opening. Documentaries about that era had given him a bit of a distorted view about how they would probably hunt Pokémon. "Oh yes, humans were endurance hunters, we just kept chasing something until it collapsed from exhaustion" didn't really take into account what happened when something actively fought back. Or worse, attacked first.

He had spent pretty much the entire fight against that prehistoric Dodrio either getting thrown aside by Sada or trying not to panic. And of course, being absolutely useless, if not for giving her the Master Ball. Watching them stab at the Pokemon directly really made it clear how careful they had to be... And how easy it would have been for either one of them to end up gravely injured, which was pretty much a death sentence in that time. The story of Sada's father... He must have died of a common infection. Something that was just absurd to think about in his time.

Yet they all treated it like it was normal... Because that was just how their life was. When he had come back, after spending a couple hours under the stars with Sada, it had been late evening.

He had delivered the Master Ball to the science department of the Academy, and had firmly refused when they had asked him if he couldn't get a couple more.

« Go get it yourselves if you want. I'm not risking anyone else's life.» he had growled, and ignored the weird stares he had gotten from everyone as he exited the room.

It was starting to become painfully clear that his time with Sada was running out. Moreau hadn't said anything yet... But the expectation to bring his first real project to conclusion was definitely building up. Turo could feel it. He found himself thinking more and more of... Excuses. Justifications he could use to extend his project just a little bit more. "I still need to learn about their vocabulary a bit better". "I could investigate this other part of their culture a bit more ". And sooner or later it just wouldn't be enough. Wouldn't be worth it. Each use of the time machine cost precious resources and money, and he would have to choose another project to get more valuable data... To make better use of his time. Her answer to his question still weighted on his mind. She was happy, even after the risk she had just taken just earlier that same day. But that was... A good sign. Sada was strong. She would be fine no matter what happened to her... Even after he would have to stop visiting her.

"I have no idea what to do"

He knew it would come to this from the very beginning. He had been agonizing about it since then. He had just... Pushed the problem further and further away. It was a problem for Future Him; he just wanted to enjoy the time he had with Sada to the fullest. Just one more day. One more visit ... Just one more...

Maybe he really should have listened to Ortega's advice, and cut all contacts before it got to this, he thought as he was tossing around in his bed that night.

He had finally managed to fall asleep, Miraidon curled all around him with his snout resting on his chest, when a sudden whooshing sound startled him awake.

He blinked still half asleep, to find that the dragon had gotten up with a burst of his jet engines and was pacing around the room, restless.

He sighed, raising one arm to prop himself up on the bed.

« Mirai... What is it?»

The dragon kept pacing up and down, and after a moment, he got up to caress it gently. The Pokémon nuzzled him rubbing his snout on his cheek, then turned towards the window.

« Gyaa?»

Turo sighed.

« Buddy... It's 3 AM. I need to sleep.»

The blue digital eyes blinked as the Pokémon nodded, excited.

He got up after a long moment.

« All right. Just a short walk.»

---

Mezagosa at night was beautiful. The historical part of the city, the only one which still had brick buildings, almost seemed to shine under the colored lights from the enormous skyscrapers all around. Just one side of the city was completely dark, the one built near the rock face of the Great Crater. Turo had been walking with Miraidon by his side for a while, looking at the thousands of people that walked around the street, the shops that were open at all hours. He didn't have many occasions to simply... Walk around, lately. He mostly went to the office through a teleporter, spent most of the day there either on a jump or busy with writing his paper or doing research, and went back home. He felt guilty looking at just how happy Miraidon looked, and realizing how much he had left him alone in his apartment, pretty much only coming back a couple of short hours every day to sleep. It had been a while since they had simply... Gone on a walk together.

Maybe... After his project was done he could take a little break before starting the next one. They could take a nice little vacation. Overseas, maybe.

The dragon stopped in front of a bakery, eyeing the pastries in the shop window.

« You already had dinner and a midnight snack, you are not getting anything else tonight.» he grumbled, before startling and stopping to look at the exposition of the shop right next to it. A jewellery.

He stared for a long moment at one of the objects inside, a pained look on his face, then took a deep breath and opened the door.

---

« Update destination coordinates?» Porygon 568 asked by now as a pure formality. Turo, as always, shook his head as Denise quickly injected him with the serum.

« The usual ones. Just add four days to the time coordinate.» he answered as he pulled down the sleeve of his clothes and stepped into the time machine. He closed his eyes, like always, and took a deep breath, opening them up again with a small smile, expecting to see Sada waiting for him by their usual meeting spot in the clearing by now. Maybe with a fire already set up, it had gotten a lot colder with the arrival of winter.

He frows when he finds himself completely alone; he moves a couple of steps around, perplexed -the place was definitely the right one-, as he pulls the hood of Sada's clothes up to cover his face from the snow that was still falling. It was... Snowing pretty hard, actually. Maybe she had decided to just wait for him somewhere warmer?

In that case, she would have left a message of some kind, to decide their new meeting spot. Turo started to look all around, searching maybe for a slip of paper pinned under a rock, or on a tree, but he couldn't find anything. Now he's perplexed; he ... Hadn't gotten the day wrong, had he? Had he ended up in another time completely? But no ... There were still signs from the last fire...

Worst case, he could wait for his time-anchor battery to recharge, jump back, and try again... And then he saw the claw marks. Deep, violent gouges had cracked some tree trunks. White and blue feathers were scattered everywhere, with clear signs of a struggle having taken place. His breath catches in his throat. Did Winged King fight something here? Did he get injured again?

If Sada had been with him-

His heart seems to start up again, beating faster, frantic. There's a set of footprints he recognizes as from the dragon, left deep in the snow and clear enough that even he is able to follow them. Snow hasn't hidden them again yet, so from what little he knew about tracking, it had to have happened... Recently. He hurried after the tracks, following them further deep into the trees, his heart hammering faster after catching sight of some tiny droplets of blood bright red on the snow. But that was... fine, if they were from Winged King, they had to be from the Pokémon, please be from the Pokémon, he thought-

She was laying just after the entrance of a little cave, Winged King curled up all around her, a mirror image of how his own Miraidon would lay protectively over him at night.

Turo stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide, frozen on the spot. The cave mural flashed in his mind. The fact that there was nothing else on it-

Turo stumbled in his haste to get near her. Winged King raised his head from her side and whined, eyes downcast.

There... There was just so much blood all around-

No... Nonono, this couldn't be happening. He... Knew she was long gone in his time, that he had to let her go, but...

« No... No, please-» he whispered.

Not... Not right in front of his eyes, she couldn't-

He knelt near her, the dragon stepping back, and she moved. Sada's eyes fluttered open, tired, unfocused, and he felt horror grip him at how weak she looked, how frail.

« T-» her breathing is slow, laboured, but she still struggled to talk, recognizing him.

« Ssssh» he cupped her face with his hands.

« Don't talk ... It's fine... You will be fine-» his own voice sounded distant to him, like he was trying to convince himself first more than anyone else. He choked back a sob as he looked at her. The deep gash in her side. The hair matted with red. The way she trembled as she still tried to talk.

« Other... Winged King... Fought...» she weakly got out, lips trembling with the effort, her face deathly white.

Her eyes were what terrified him the most, terrified of seeing them lose that spark of life right in front of him, that brightness, that wonderful light full of curiosity and strength that he just loved so much.

« I... I can-» he tried to control his panicked thoughts. What? What could he do?

There is a sudden, bright flash of white light right by his side, and he pulled Sada close as he somehow tried to shield her, squeezing his eyes shut. When he opened them up again a moment later, blinking white spots out of his eyes, he looked to his left... And stood still, slack jawed, gaping in shock.

Because there, right by his side, is himself. Turo -the other Turo- looks down at him, and he feels a deep sense of wrongness at seeing his own face look into him. There is a quiet determination on his doppelganger's face as he kneels down, and Turo noticed the two objects he was holding in his hands.

He's got another time-anchor in his right hand... And a syringe full of protection-serum in his left. His eyes grew wide when he realized what the other him's -Future Him, he realized - intentions were.

What he wanted to do... What he will do ...

But that was... Crazy...

« Save these coordinates, and shift 0.05 to the left, and minus eight seconds. Now.»

If his face looking at him is strange, his own voice talking back to him makes him flinch.

« W-what...»

« MOVE!» future him had finished attaching the time-anchor to Sada's wrist and had forcibly pushed him away, and he stumbled as he almost fell backwards. He scrambled back up, breath heavy. He looked between Sada, and his future self. He clicked the device on his wrist to take note of his current coordinates.

He... He knew exactly what he had to do.

He turned around, and ran out of the cave, sprinting like he's never done before, tripping and stumbling multiple times, his legs screaming in pain at the effort of pushing through the snow. The instant his time-anchor's batteries are full again, he pressed the button, and found himself back in his time, almost falling forward as he's still mid running motion, completely out of breath.

« Welcome back, Dr Romero Turo. That was an extremely short trip-»

« Keep the time machine active. I need to go right back.» he interrupted the Pokémon, rushing through the door while panting heavily.

He needed to get two things.

Rationally, he knew that he had all the time in the world. He could literally go take a nap, go on with his life, and come back to that exact moment an hour, or a month, or years later, and literally not a second would have passed. But he wasn't thinking rationally. He could only think of-

"I have to hurry, I have to save her, I can do it-"

He ran through the corridor and towards the little room where they kept unused time-anchors and other equipment; in his haste, he didn't notice the figure that was just about to step into one of the elevators stop in his tracks to turn around and look at him.

Turo skidded to a stop in front of the door, waving it open with one hand. Nothing happened.

« The door is locked. Access to equipment is allowed only to personnel with the adequate level of permission.»

He gaped as the figure of the Artificial Pokemon materialized in front of him, floating at eye level. What?

Was it going to stop him?

« I have analyzed the landing point of your current coordinates. There is a biometric signature of a human native of that time period not far from there. Her signature matches that of the person that was in proximity of your landing points many times these past months. Your intentions are obvious.»

Turo stared at the little AI, shocked.

Had it been... Looking at where he landed through the coordinates saved in his time-anchor? Had it been aware of Sada all this time?

« Porygon... Move aside.»

The Pokémon simply looked at him.

He pulled up a command terminal, frustrated, trying to make his way through the door. He... He didn't have time for this!

« Bringing humans native to a time period different from their own to this one is forbidden, as per rule #3 of the correct use of the time machine. » Porygon continued, and Turo grit his teeth in frustration. There was no need to quote the entire damn manual at him, he knew that! He-

He stopped and looked at the AI, still floating in front of him. Still in his way.

He... He still had the administrator keys.

He could... Simply order Porygon to do what he wanted, shut him down completely, and there was nothing the little AI could have done to stop him-.

He took a deep breath.

« Porygon 568, execute ord-»

« However-»

He jerked in surprise, when this time it was the AI's turn to cut him off. When... Had he learned to do that...?

« My most important directive that takes precedence over any other rule is making sure that any human who makes use of the time machine does so safely. That is usually humans that step into the time machine...» there was a pause as the Pokémon tilted its head sideways, in what Turo could only see as its own personal version of a smirk.

« ... Or, I suppose, humans that happen, for whatever reason, to only step out of the time machine.»

Porygon 568 beat its wings, eyes flashing yellow, and the door flew open.

Turo just stared at the Pokémon for a long moment.

« ... That is abusing a loophole in your rules and you know it.» he half sighed, half grinned in relief, rushing inside.

The Pokémon beeped happily.

« I had a good teacher.»

---

He stepped back into the time machine after giving Porygon the coordinates he had just saved in the cave, appropriately corrected. The cryptic numbers spewed by... Well, himself, had been, he realized, the exact numbers he needed to appear right by his side, instead of where he had been. After all, appearing in a spot that was already occupied by... Himself would have been.... Bad...

He was holding one time-anchor that was currently unused into his right hand, and one syringe full of one dose of the serum in the left. He would need both to bring Sada safely back with him. He closed his eyes as he felt the machine power back up, replaying the scene in his mind. What he had seen his future self do... he now had to do himself. He had to get it exactly right.

Turo opened his eyes, and looked to his right, into his own eyes and at his past self's shocked and tears stricken face, Sada clutched against his chest. Had he been crying...? He hadn't noticed.

He knelt down, and grabbed Sada's wrist slipping the time-anchor around it, making sure it's safely secured.

« Save these coordinates, and shift 0.05 to the left, and minus eight seconds. Now.»

Past him is completely frozen in place, because of course he is, he's literally just lived this very scene-

«W-what...»

« MOVE!»

He pushed him away, and heard the sound of steps fading as he ran out of the cave.

That should do it... That should have closed the loop.

Now alone, he turned his attention back towards Sada. Her eyes are barely open, breath laboured, and as he pulls her closer he wondered for a moment if she was lucid enough to have followed the scene. She moved her head, barely, to look at him, as he pulled at her clothes to reveal one shoulder to do the injection. His left hand trembled a bit as he raised the syringe. He could do it. It was going to be okay. Her eyes seemed to widen a bit at the sharp point.

« ... What... Is-»

« It will be fine.» he reassured her, quickly slipping the needle inside.

He stuffed it back into his lab coat immediately after, grabbing her time anchor to start it up. He configured the little device, synchronizing it to his own.

Now... Now the hard part. His own battery was depleted since he had just arrived. Hers wasn't, since it hadn't technically brought anyone to the past.

He didn't want to risk leaving her here to wait while his own recharged, even by running, unless it was absolutely necessary. Every second she spent here, was a second more where she could...

She had to make the jump now, by herself... He would reach her immediately after.

He took her hand and put it on the time-anchor strapped to her wrist.

« You press this button when I say so, alright?» his heart was hammering in his chest, painfully aware that if his hands slipped right now, if he or her accidentally activated it while they were so close, with only one battery worth of power between them...

He had no idea what would happen.

Maybe he would end up somewhere, lost in time and space. Maybe only one part of his body would travel back, killing him instantly.

Turo stepped back, relief flooding him when nothing happened. Sada didn't move, and for a terrible moment, he thought that she hadn't heard him, or didn't have the strength to do it, and he would have to risk leaving her in this damp, dirty cave again... And then there is a flash of light, and for the second time he had to squeeze his eyes shut again, and she's gone. He's... Never actually found himself in the position of watching someone appear or disappear. When he did it, of course the light came from him-

Winged King roared at him, looking around. He caressed the injured dragon.

« I'll help her, I promise. We'll be back.» he said, and then ran out of the cave for the second time.

---

When Turo came back to his time, it's barely a second after Sada. She had collapsed and seemed completely unconscious, Porygon 568 having forgone his usual greeting to hover anxiously over her. She was still losing blood, which looked even more red on the pristine and immaculate pavement of the TTDL. There is a weird buzzing in his ears as he knelt down to gather her into his arms, managing to lift her with quite some effort. It was like he was watching everything happen from another point of view. It didn't feel real.

She was ... Here. In the present.

He could have an epic freak out about it later, now he needed to get her to-

« What in the name of Arceus are. You. Doing

Turo froze, turning towards the shadow of Ortega that was standing at the door, eyes wide and paler than he had ever seen him.

« I... She's been injured... I had to-»

« You had to do what?» the other time traveller stormed inside, and Turo realised that he was livid. He hadn't actually ever seen Ortega angry.

« I thought I had made myself clear. We just observe. We don't interfere. Don't get attached! Not bring some... Some primitive cave woman here!» the man hissed, and Turo felt anger flare up in his chest. He gritted his teeth, squaring up towards his colleague.

Sada... She was neither primitive nor simply a cave woman like some dumb stereotypical brute-

« Don't speak of her like that and step aside.» he muttered, voice low.

« NO!» Ortega shouted. « This is insane! You're insane! Turo...» he put both hands through his hair in furious exasperation.

« I don't know how to get you to understand, but... You have to let her GO. She's already dead

« DON'T SAY SHE'S DEAD!» Turo exploded, marching up until he towered over the man. Ortega flinched for a moment , caught by surprise.

« I... I know I have to... Leave her soon. But I couldn't just... She was bleeding out, Ortega. Right in front of me. That... That couldn't be how her life ends. I'll... bring her back there. I want her to at least have the best life she can hope for... Without me.» he whispered, voice cracking. Ortega said nothing as he looked away, face contorted in a mix of anguish and anger. Turo was sure he knew what the other was thinking about. His lover, left in the past. Years and years gone, an entire life he could never be a part of. But at least, lived to the fullest.

« Ortega, please...»

The man looked at Sada's unconscious face for a split second, closed his eyes, then let out a hiss of frustration and stepped aside.

« Damn you, Turo... If Moreau finds out, he will have both our heads!» he hissed. « ... I'll go call the elevator... And the hospital. Let's go.»

---

Turo sat in the corridor of Mezagosa's Mimosa Hospital.

Having an epic freak out.

He still could barely believe what he had done. He had broken.... Pretty much every rule of time travelling by now. His career would be finished if word of this got out. He would be lucky to be able to get some jobs setting up dumb websites for advertising little family shops up on Mars. That's the most he would be able to aspire to for the rest of his life, pretty much.

But Sada... Was here. Being treated this exact moment.

Nobody had batted an eye at seeing two people in ice age clothes rush in, one unconscious and covered in blood. They were used to treating injuries received by time travelers during one jump or the other, Ortega had reassured him.

How Ortega knew that ... Better not to know. Speaking from experience, for sure.

« I brought some old clothes of mine » Vega left a bag in the seat next to him, and offered him a drink. Turo took it, opening the can on autopilot.

« Coffee?» he asked, taking a sip.

« Nope. Gin and tonic, you look like you need it.» she answered, prompting him to almost spit the cocktail out.

« Don't get me drunk in a hospital

« It will be a while until they're done. Relax.» the redhead sat by his other side, and took the canned drink from him.

« ... Ortega told me everything. How is she?»

Turo took a deep breath.

« ... Should be fine. They've stabilized her. Cloned some of her blood and gave her a self-transfusion. » he looked at her colleague, conflicted.

« You... Didn't have to get involved, you know. Now it's also your head on the chopping block.» he felt guilty for having dragged both of them into... This.

« Don't worry, it was my choice. I made Ortega tell me everything. We'll come up with some excuse about your last jump together. »

Vega smiled a bit.

« Even from the vague mentions in your past reports... She sounds like an amazing girl.»

He smiled a tiny bit in return.

« ... She is.»

There was a brief silence between the two.

« I'm sorry, Turo. As soon as she wakes up...»

« ... I know.»

She offered him the drink again.

This time, after a moment, he took it.
 

HelloYellow17

Gym Leader
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. suicune
  2. umbreon
  3. mew
  4. lycanroc-wes
  5. leafeon-rui
Aight, swooping back in for a massive bulk review of the rest of this fic so far! I am FEASTING. It’s so good. So many questions. Definitely something bigger at play here, though I have no idea what.

Edit: bear with me, this is a big one so I’m going to post it with just the empty formatting, then edit in my notes. (I’m paranoid about the forum eating my review.)

Chapter 10:

More Sada POV! I love that we get to see her in action as she trains Winged King, and the HTTYD vibes continue. Her frustration with Turo is so palpable here—she’s been giving and giving and giving, showing him new things, teaching him new things—and he’s reciprocated very little. I really felt his stress as he went into the camp, too. Somehow, seeing his visible distress through Sada’s POV hits even harder than it would through his own, I think. And oof, the way he completely clams up is painful. I don’t blame him at all, but through Sada’s perspective, it’s extra uncomfortable because she has no idea why he’s acting this way. Yikes! It’s a perfect storm and it hits hard. My heart went out to both of them this chapter.

« If you let me stay up here, I'll give you some tasty food...» she whispered, caressing its neck. That seemed to get the creature's attention: it had learned really fast what the word "food" meant, mostly by her grumbling about it while it showed up at her camp to devour all her supplies the past few days. It went completely still, dropping back to the ground with a heavy thump and trying to turn around to look at her.

« Gya?»

« Yes, "gyaaa"»
I love the way she talks back to him in his own language. “Yes, gyaaa,” is adorable. 😂

"And then my great great grandfather totally jumped on that Roaring Moon and it helped him kill that Great Tusk! It was the biggest there ever was, you could carve a hundred spears out of its tusks and its skin was so big they made entire tents out of it for everyone!"
Okay but this sounds freaking EPIC. Riding to battle on a Roaring Moon?? Sign me up. I’d read the crap out of that.

It was much more smart than what she first thought if that was the case. That just made her even more excited about it: was it a special case? Or was it possible that all creatures were actually that intelligent?
Oh boy, she’s connecting the dots! Sada is speedrunning for the title of “First Ever Pokémon Trainer in History.” Unless Chalo has technically beaten her to that.

These ten days had seemed longer than usual with how much had happened in them, and she realized that she had kind of missed him.
D’awww. :3

That he had messed up. His face became completely neutral, like it often did when she tried to approach some subject he wasn't comfortable with. It was almost like watching some of the wooden masks Narjik wore during some of their rituals slide right over his face, every single feature carefully crafted and controlled to not betray even the slightest hint of emotion. Their eyes met, and for a couple of long moments none of them both dared to move or even breath.

Then Turo spoke, trying to act like nothing was wrong.

He knew. He knew that she knew that he was hiding something.
The TENSION. It was so good from Turo’s POV, and it hits even harder from Sada’s view. They know each other well enough by now that neither of them can hide something from the other. She knows and he knows she knows!


Turo jumped down with way less grace than when he had gotten up, looking a bit distracted.

Of course he would be! They had just been flying! She grabbed both his hands, elated. Did he have any idea what this meant?! They could explore places that were difficult for people to reach, they could see the world like no else had ever done before! They could even... She hesitated a moment when the thought struck her.

«We can... go to your people ? » she asked, barely daring to hope for a positive answer. If he said yes... Just a little visit! A really short one... She just wanted to see where he actually came from. What kind of places had creatures that could make paper and his weird stretchy clothes and that had writing and who knew what else...
She is so down for anything, anywhere, all the time. Her adventurous spirit is so fun. She cannot be contained!


If he was scared of going back to his tribe or whatever fine, he could just show her the way once they arrived near there and she could go herself!
…to a fault, however. Sada, love, you yourself have speculated that maybe his people are dangerous. And you’re planning to just barge in anyway? 😂 Please have a little caution sometimes.

« It will be fine!» she tugged encouragingly on his arm again, and he slowly, slowly brought his left hand out from where he had shoved them away just earlier. Sada grasped it with her right hand, and before she could consciously think about it, found herself interlocking her fingers with his. She squeezed them slightly, rubbing her thumb on the back of his hand. Turo flinched slightly, wide eyes never leaving her face. His lips parted and he seemed on the point of saying something.
This is TOO CUTE, I’M CRYING 😭 they’re so precious, your honor


Turo nodded along, but if she had turned around to look at him a bit more often, she would have noticed that he seemed much more interested in glancing at her instead of whatever she had been pointing at.
YEAH BECAUSE HE DOWN BAD FOR YOU, GIRL

They answered her in a similar manner, cheering, before catching sight of Turo and stopping in their tracks, staring. Sada turned towards him, only to notice that he had very slightly shuffled to the side, almost trying to hide behind her. Since he was almost one head taller than her and draped in blinding white, he wasn't having much success.
This is also adorable. 😂 Turo is so painfully socially awkward no matter the time period.

« This is the shaman from the south I've told you about. He'll be staying with us from now on.»
Oh boy. “Staying with us?” He did not agree to that. This is not going to go well, is it.

It took him a second, and then he suddenly looked even more terrified than when Winged King first showed up. Face completely white, Turo looked back at Mother, trying and failing to stutter something out as a greeting.
Somebody SAVE this poor man! 😂😭 He is SO STRESSED. I’m getting second-hand stress from this chapter, man. I can freaking feel his anxiety from over here.

She stared at him for a moment, honestly confused. He had been more than happy to let her examine it last time, and had offered it himself.

Why was he suddenly so defensive?

What was going on with him today...?
Aaaahhhhh this is so stressful! And boy, Turo really sucks at hiding how he’s feeling, at least around Sada. He can so smoothly lie or BS his way out of things with other people, but not with her.

Sada bit her lip. Yes, of course she trusted him, he's never shown the slightest hint of ill will towards her, there must be a reason for why he had been acting like that, but... did he even trust her?
Ouch. That’s really what it boils down to, eh? She’s shown complete trust, and he hasn’t.

« W... what creature is this? » he asked, quietly. Sada stared at him, not really getting the point of the question. Why would it be important...?
Aw. Eating Pokemon in the mainline games, the time period we’re familiar with, is already a charged topic. I can’t imagine how much more taboo it is in his time, where there’s no longer any reason to do so with all the synthetic meat they have. This is just another weight to the stress pile for him.

« Um... you show... all people here... writing.» she clarified, but his reaction wasn't quite what she had expected.

« You... showed them writing?» he asked, slowly, eyes staring straight into hers.

« Yes!! » she nodded, and Turo looked... conflicted. He muttered something incomprehensible to himself - "aw, shit-", then sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, left hand covering one half of his face.
😂 My guy, what were you expecting?! You should have seen this coming!

Even if he was trying to hide it, she could swear there was the tiniest trace of a smirk on his face. A proud smile.

« ... no. It's... incredible...»
Ajjsnsksjdkdkf this reaction had me smiling so wide. He’s so proud of her! And that pride wins out over his anxiety about the time travel protocol.

He seemed much more at ease with the children than with adults; teaching seemed to come natural to him.
Oh? I wonder why that is?

« These are the only children here.»

« But... only four... »

He went really quiet after that, his warm smile at watching the child sleep in his lap becoming pained.
Oof, yeah, that’s a painful realization. A cold reminder of the type of life her people live.

Turo just looked at her, silent, and she knew that whatever she could say would have no use in convincing him. Well, now she suddenly felt really stupid, getting so excited about his coming to live with them... she stared at the ground, biting her lip, almost tearing into it, a mix of anger and embarassment and disappointment swirling in her chest.

Something gently touched her chin and lifted her head, and she finds herself staring into Turo's warm brown eyes.

« ... I'll come back. »

Sada glared back at him.

« Tomorrow. At dawn. » and he better not be late. If he really had to run off who knows where at night, the least he could do was run right back.

He nodded after a moment.

« ... tomorrow. At dawn. »
It’s a good thing he can precisely control when he returns, because if he were late, I think she’d have murdered him 😂

She watched him leave, like always. What was different from all the other times, was that he was leaving from her village. She knew the area so well she could navigate it with her eyes closed, and so she knew perfectly well about all the possible spots Turo could choose to spend the night. The little thicket of trees to the south. The stream they get water from to the north. The great fields of tall grass.

She gave him an advantage of a couple hundred meters before sneaking after him.
Aaaaand there it is. This was inevitable, really!

But to actually see him do it, to disappear into thin air like he commanded the power of some strange creature she had seen... now she wasn't so sure anymore.

... what was he, really?
Yeah I don’t blame her for being wigged out. How do you explain that?? Turo’s gonna have quite a lot of explaining to do.

Chapter 11:

After the sheer STRESS of last chapter, this one was such a breath of fresh air! What a weight off everyone’s shoulders! The reveal went so much better than I ever could have expected, and as usual, Sada is amazingly quick to understand and catch on to even extremely complicated concepts that she has no frame of reference for. This chapter ended up being so sweet, and me and my stupid little shipper heart were squealing by the end of it. 🥰


She never ceased to amaze him with what she managed to accomplish even with the incredibly limited resources she had available. But that had now left him in a bit of a conundrum; should he mention Winged King in his report? Turo was honestly afraid that doing so would only get him tasked with capturing it and bringing it back for research purposes; he threw a little glance at the Master Balls currently sitting on his desk, all still perfectly empty. He... didn't like having them with him.
Yeah oof I am really nervous about this. How is he going to do it?? How is he gonna manage this without it feeling like a huge betrayal of her trust? The whole deal with the Master balls feels shady af to begin with!

« Dr. Romero Turo, after your trip you have been in your office for the next 4 hours, 29 minutes and 19 seconds... adding them to the hours you have spent time-displaced, and records of your activity in this facility before the trip...I estimate you have been awake for a consecutive 36 hours, 15 minutes and 7 seconds...rounding down.» it beeped.

« Immediate execution of "sleep" is advised to maintain your body in optimal operating conditions.»
He’s handling this so well, clearly. :unquag: I’m glad little Porygon is looking out for him! Or trying to, anyway.

« ... temperature scans indicate that thermos has been empty for two hours.» it simply said.

Uh, was it? He hadn't noticed. Turo ignored the Pokémon and resumed writing - or trying to-.

« ... your report is not so urgent as to warrant such a degree of restless activity. Your erratic behavior since you've returned from your trip suggests an altered emotional state. In layman's terms... something is troubling you.»
Aw bless the Poryfriend. You can’t lie to a computer who can literally scan you! I think Turo needs someone he literally can’t get away with lying to. 😂

« "Spying" implies a desire to extract information out of someone without being discovered, often to obtain an advantage over that same individual or group. That was not my intent.» it fluffed up it's wing feathers, offended, as much as something made of lines of code could, before turning it's head to look at him with the jittering,rapid head movements that was so typical of the many real life avian Pokémon it was partially modeled after -many by now extinct or replaced by other species they had evolved into. Turo idly wondered for a moment which programmer during the centuries had decided to devote precious time and effort programming that little feature in, because it was as impressively realistic as completely useless, since it had no real purpose... except, maybe, making the Porygon appear a little bit more life-like. Giving it a little more character... a little bit more of an identity. Someone more poetic than him would have said that it gave the AI a bit more soul.
Love this detail! Turo is so analytical in how he observes this—it’s not practical, he thinks, so why bother? It’s kind of a sad insight into how he seems to view everything about his life in his time—perhaps how most of society views things—and it explains at least in part why he’s so…well, unfulfilled all the time. Thinking like that is a depressing way to live.

« ... I believe I am not equipped to deal with your altered state in an efficient manner. I have taken the liberty of contacting Dr. Gervaso Ortega.»

« Wait... what?» the Pokémon didn't look any different, but of course, one on the thousand little processes it had running in the background at all times was probably busy calling Ortega this instant.

« You don't need to-»

« ... he said he will come here immediately and is already on his way.»
Bless you, Poryfriend! Summon the support network!


« I could say the same of you. And I like wearing stuff that's centuries out of fashion. It looked much better. Did you know that my ancestors used to own the biggest apparel company in Paldea?
Aha, there it is! So he is related to that Ortega.
« On one hand, it was amazing... I've got so much data, made some sketches... they use moss to insulate the tents, Pokémon bones and materials, but... there's this four kids.» he decided to omit everything that had to do with the writing lessons and Winged King for now. At the moment, it wasn't important.
Not important? Are you sure about that, sir?

« You are getting attached to the people you meet in the past. You can't do that. You have to stop thinking of them as... I don't know, people you just met somewhere and who you can be friends with. They're not. They can't be. »

Every word of Ortega hit him like a punch in the stomach, because they were true. Completely, absolutely true.
And there it is. Surely this isn’t his first time hearing this, though? Surely he’s been taught this in his classes? It seems like basic time travel 101.

« Every time you meet someone, you have to think of them as complete strangers that you're never going to see again... Otherwise, it's going to destroy you. What are you going to do once your project is done and you have to completely change era? Change places?»
Yep. Again, this feels like something Turo should have already known this, or at least been aware of it.

« You are going to keep thinking about them. The temptation to sneak a little jump here and there between other projects to go see them will keep you up at night. It will drive you crazy, it will hurt even when you do see them because you can't build a relationship with a couple of hours here and there. You'll be living on borrowed time... eh-» he chuckled darkly.

« ... Literally. Simply delaying the moment where you will have to actually say goodbye... And leave them in the past for good.»
Yeah, this is exactly what he needed to hear—too bad this speech is coming way, way too late. He’s already in too deep!

« He was... » he stopped after a moment, brows furrowed. « ... Never mind. Point is: I had to disappear from his life before it completely tore me apart. You want to know the first thing I did after seeing him for the last time and coming back to the present?»

Turo had half an idea, but he simply waited for the other man to continue.

« Looked him up online. Anything I could find. Articles, biographies... There's even some old pictures, from the first couple of centuries of the Internet... He had a good life. Successful. A family. Three kids. He could have never done that with me, seeing me for a couple of hours at a time. That gave me ... Closure, I guess. I know that's not really an option for you due to how far back you go, but... » Ortega took a final deep breath before looking back at Turo.
Oh, my heart. :( Ortega knows what’s up and that’s gotta hurt.

He barely dared to breathe, for fear of ruining the moment.
“Breath” should be “breathe”

« ... sure. Let's see how it goes. But-» he added.

« As the one with most experience traveling to the future, I'm tagging along.»
Hmmmm I guess. Idk, Moreau is sus.

He felt a little pang of guilt in thinking back about the promise he had made to Sada, to come back "tomorrow, at dawn"… for him, that "tomorrow" could be days or even months from now, and still only one night would have passed for her. It made no sense.
It really is wild! and I see what he means when he says it feels like deception. It is, in its own way.

« All right, we don't know if it does if you do stupid stuff like kill yourself, but if both parts are careful about it, there's no risk... right, sir?»

Turo stared at the two other time travelers. Wait, were they... talking from experience...? Moreau heaved a deep sigh, closing his eyes with the solemn expression of someone that had just been forced to remember some deeply unpleasant memory.

«... yes. You proved it in quite a unique way, Ortega. That was a paper that I never thought I would have to peer-review.»
Well, now I want to hear about it! 👀

He gestured for a screen to have the little news snippet replay privately, hoping to catch some more details: that's what trips to the future were for, right...? Gathering information...

Nothing happened.

With a scowl, Turo tried again. Nothing.

His heart literally skipped a beat.

« G-guys... » he said in a shaky voice. Both men turned to look at him with a questioning look.

« ... my ID is not working.»
Oh boy. Ohhhhh boy. Yeah he’s definitely dead in the future. Or, perhaps…missing? Zapped to another time? 👀

« ... maybe this very incident is what inspires you to do it. You hadn't thought about it before, didn't you?» Moreau added, causing Turo to sputter in disbelief.

« But that would... that would mean... »

« ... yes. Your very first time loop.» a slight grin appeared on the older man's face.

« Congratulations.»
Yeahhh, it’s a nice save, but I’m not buying it.

« Pardon my intrusion, but... what is that Pokémon called?» he managed.

The girl looked at him like he had just asked what a Miraidon was.

« ... Iron Leaves. » she answered after a moment, staring at him wide eyed.

« Iron... Leaves...? » he repeated.
Oh hi, Iron Leaves! Wild to me that an Iron Leaves is just casually chilling here.

« Omygee, you are time travelers?! It's my first time meeting one! » she said, before the grin that had spread on her face slowly disappeared. And then, and this time there was no doubt about it, she stared straight at him.

« But, umm... aren't you
Dead?? Yeah he’s TOTALLY dead. Maybe he’s famous because of how he died. Or how he disappeared.

When he managed to schedule his own jump, more than two weeks had passed in the end. He had pretended not to notice both Ortega and Porygon 568 keeping watch over him; dragging him into the break room one more time a day, keeping him occupied with discussing other projects, other times, even tagging along with other jumps... Porygon, he was pretty sure, had even completely made up some error codes just to have him take a look at them... which had honestly impressed him. Didn't think the little AI would be capable of it.
Aw, bless. Love that he’s got a support network of people watching out for him.

« Umm... thanks-»

« Let's go. We gather food today.»

She turns around and starts walking, and he is left staring at her for a moment, stunned.

He didn't expect such a cold treatment... was she really that angry?
Ahaha…yikes. This is so tense.
« Lies! It's a lie... I've trusted you, and you... » he doesn't understand her words, but her tone is more than enough.

It ...hurts to hear her so angry at him.

But... maybe it's for the best. If he manages to get away, to run... he can... just leave, and never come back. It would hurt, but at least it wouldn't hurt her.

It would be the best outcome for both of them.

Don't get attached. Just like Ortega said.
Ugh NO 😭 even now, with a spear pointed at his throat, he’s still thinking of how he can protect her. My heart :(

And really... it was just her. Just one girl, one bright, wonderful, amazing girl... what difference could it make? So far away in time?
This is the tiniest nitpick of all time, but it bothers me a little that he keeps referring to her as a “girl.” No! She’s a grown woman! And he obviously sees her as a woman, so why not use that word instead?

There was a reason why they had to do the injection almost every time they stepped into the time machine, after all. Each shot only lasted a couple days times, at maximum. And since you usually went way more than a couple of days between one trip and the other...
Ohhh so that’s what they’re for! Makes sense.

« ... tomorrow...?» she stared, not comprehending at first. Then her eyes slowly, slowly became wider and wider, and she suddenly raised her free hand to his face and cupped his cheek with her palm. She stroked his beard with her thumb, slowly, almost methodically, and for a moment he is too busy just melting into her touch, leaning into it, to pay much attention to anything else.

But he noticed the little spark of recognition in her eyes, of understanding, and something in her mind must have just clicked, because the anger and suspicion and frustration finally dissipate, leaving space to that bright, excited, wonderful smile.
Oh this is a brilliant way to describe it. And she catches on so fast! And aaaaa her reaction is so SWEET. What a tender moment?? I’m obsessed.

It's way too late to not "get attached"... but at the very least, in the precious time he has with her, he can finally be completely honest with her, and really make the most out of it.
YES GOOD, SCREW THE RULES!

Chapter 12:

AAAAA what a good chapter! So many good and tender moments. And CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, WE LOVE TO SEE IT! I’m so here for all of it. Though things are getting intense. Something hurt Winged King…perhaps…another Koraidon? The same territorial one we see in the games? Hmmm.

It was different from the little things she had discovered you could do with bits and pieces that you gathered from creatures. Like attaching a little bit of wool from Fluffyhead to the tip of a spear or an arrow to shock the target, like Chalo had started to do.
Oh, this is so creative! I love it!! Always here for seeing how humans work with Pokémon to accomplish their usual tasks and go about their daily life. The fact that this is the Stone Age makes it even more fascinating! I hope we get more clever tidbits like this.

Maybe it had been the change in tone, but when he tried to move her spear away, she just let him do it, transfixed by his expression. He looked so serious in that moment. So calm, his brown eyes just silently regarding her, in a way that he had never done before. Especially not when answering some of her questions: there had always been a trace of hesitation, like he was carefully choosing every single word to utter in front of her, but not this time. In a way, he looked like was finally confessing to something that had been weighing on him since the very beginning.

Even if his words were... Difficult to understand, she didn't doubt them.

She wanted to believe them.
Even now, she trusts him so much. 💛 Get yourself someone as loyal and faithful as Sada. She is a true ride or die.

« Oh...» was pretty much the only thing she could say, both from her head spinning still spinning slightly from the realization, and from the thousands of other questions that she wanted to ask now.
Typo here—“spinning still spinning.” Only need “spinning” once.

Uh. Was that why he always so easily exhausted while they walked? It took him a lot of energy just to come "here"?

Or was he simply weak like that? His lean build seemed to point more to the latter, but maybe it was a bit of both?
Lol she’s just roasting him in her head 😂 “is that why he’s so weak and pitiful? Or wait, maybe that’s just how he is.”

« ... for you.» he repeated, still barely a whisper, but this time they were so close that she could feel his breath tickle her face as he spoke.

His words suddenly made her chest tighten and fill with a sudden rush of warmth. Sada felt herself blushing, an almost embarrassed smile making its way on her lips as his words sunk in.
This is so SWEET. 😭 I actually thought he was looking away out of shame at first, and that his answer was going to be a confession that he was here to study her and her people—but we get a completely different—and way better—type of confession instead. 🥺

So Sada decided to not say anything, and simply act. He was still looking at her with a silent, almost desperate longing, and before he could break eye contact, or pull his head away, she closed the distance between them and pressed her lips to his. She felt Turo tense up, and for a terrible moment she thought that he was going to pull away, that she had misunderstood, that he had meant it in a completely different way... But then his lips parted slightly and he reciprocated the kiss, almost hungrily.

When they parted a couple of seconds later, he looked a bit dazed, mouth still hanging slightly open.

« I -» he started to say, just to trail off when Sada slowly cradled his hands in hers, tugging him a bit closer and resting her forehead on his, eyes closed. She felt Turo's breath stop for a moment, then resume and slow down as he relaxed and matched hers. They stood like that for a while, simply reveling in the contact with the other, fingers intertwined.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
A kiss AND a forehead touch AND holding hands?! I am deceased. This is beautiful and sweet and so romantic and I AM DEVOURING IT. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH 😭 You’re killing me with how heartfelt this moment is. Agh!! So good!!

The dragon didn't take long to arrive, but when it landed, she noticed with a jolt of surprise that it looked in pain. It huffed, breath labored, and seemed to avoid putting his weight onto one of it's front paws.

« W-what happened?» she felt herself cry out while rushing to the dragon's side, observing it more in detail. There was a gash on it's left front leg, but the wound didn't look fresh; it wasn't bleeding right at the moment, at the least. It did, hovever, look pretty deep. And painful. Whatever had happened, it must have been in the hours the day before after they had left the creature to go to the settlement.
Nooooo! :( This feels like some very nasty foreshadowing. This isn’t gonna be the last we see of the creature that did this, I’m sure of it.

It... looked almost like a shiny rock, if rocks could be chipped and cut to such an impossibly smooth, perfect sphere. It was honestly starting to get a bit annoying, how everything that Turo had seemed to be just so... perfect. Like his clothes, she couldn't see a single imperfection or nick in the blindingly white sphere.
Lol her annoyance here is entertaining. Everything is too perfect! But honestly, that’s not exactly a good thing. Everything is perfect in Turo’s world—perhaps a little too perfect. Too optimized.

« ... another... "power"? » she asked. Turo was silent for a moment.

« No. A weapon.» he gestured to her spear.

Something in his tone chilled Sada to the core. A weapon? That?
Oh boy. I’d never actually thought of Pokéballs as weapons before, but…that’s not wrong. And it’s quite chilling, when put that way. Especially in this context, where I can’t help but shake the feeling that Moreau wants these Pokémon for sinister reasons or something.

He was... he was going to bring it with him? She hadn't even thought about it being possible... he was so protective of that bracelet that it had seemed obvious to her that only he could use it... and nothing else. So by being inside the rock, he could... bring other... things with him?

« ... can... can people...?» she hadn't even finished the thought, taking another step towards him, when he suddenly went pale, hand raised near his wrist like he had done the night before.
Aw :( she wants to go with him! But also, big yikes at his reaction. Clearly, that’s a Very Bad Idea.

.. it was still so strange to see... even stranger this time, maybe, because he had done it right in front of her.

Which both made her happy, because it really looked like he wasn't trying to hide things from her anymore, he was actually making an effort to explain things now, and infuriated her a tiny bit. It... it would be a lie to say that she wasn't a bit jealous. And he made it look so easy to do, just touch that bracelet and poof he was gone. And not to mention that shiny rock!

Sada grumbled a bit, shifting her weight.
Sada nooo, please don’t ever try to sneakily time travel! It seems like the thing she would do, if tempted enough.

« He... he ate so much food. » he groaned, then pushed the lizard away with the same hand when it perked up and came near him to sniff him at the word "food".
Omg. 😂 Was not expecting this response. Poor Turo can’t catch a break, apparently.

Chapter 13:

AKA, the chapter in which Turo can’t catch a break. 😂 This poor guy. To be fair, he brings a lot of his stress on himself, but still. This chapter was a nice little break from the angst of the last several chapters, full of humor and lighthearted shenanigans. I especially love the animalistic behavior we see between Miraidon and Koraidon—it just feels so real, and it’s very well done! (And once again, I get HTTYD vibes from their first interaction.) Good stuff. I hope Sada gets to somehow meet Miraidon eventually! Surely it has to happen somehow. I’d honestly love for her to meet all of the characters on Turo’s side, though how that will happen, I have no clue.

The TTDL often collaborated with the Academy, so people were relatively used to seeing time-travellers walzing in immediately after a time-jump wearing the weirdest things, but "late Ice Age clothes in authenthic Mamoswine fur" was probably still strange enough to make a few heads turn. Not exactly something you saw everyday. One nurse ran up to him as soon as he had stepped inside the infirmary, and Turo recognized him as the same nurse that had checked on Porygon after his "glitch" with the time machine some time ago.
Lol he is still paying the price for those clothes, I see. 😂

He cautiously stepped towards the door, then released the injured dragon from the Master Ball. It was immediately clear as soon as the ancient Miraidon appeared that the bed absolutely wasn't big enough. Modern Pokemon tended to be... Small and somewhat compact, either because it required less energy and was simply more efficient, or because they had started as Artificial Pokemon and had been literally designed that way, especially in the context of having to eventually fit and being able to move in urban environments or even more cramped spaces like the Moon base and future extraterrestrial colonies.
Big beefy mon in a time where all Pokémon have adapted to be compact and “conveniently sized.” It’s very fun to see the contrast between this wild, raw, organic creature and everything surrounding it. Even the other Pokémon are just…not the same. Completely different.

A small, round Pokemon that Turo recognized after a moment as a Snowhoot - an Artificial Pokemon version of Hoothoot, one of the first to successfully integrate completely into becoming their own species - appeared on his shoulder, standing on one leg, the other tucked in inside its body-literally, by folding it in with a slight hiss of pneumatics, the switch like its ancestor too fast to see with the naked eye. The owl Pokemon blinked its rectangular, digital clock display eyes, numbers flashing briefly in place of its pupils as it calculated the current time down to the microsecond. Compared to its ancient counterpart, it was completely white with streaks of ice blue in his eyes, around the belly and on his claws.
SNOWHOOT. What an adorable name! It sounds very cute too, though there’s always a small part of me that’s a little sad at the implication that there just aren’t any organic mon in existence anymore. :(

The content of the cabinet that had been smashed aside had spilled on the floor - stuff like gauze that would always be useful to bandage open wounds, portable Hadron energy batteries for giving a Pokémon a quick burst of energy back, the latter in this case completely useless. White and blue feathers had flown everywhere; there was even a bit of blood on the floor, which he couldn't help but stare at. Now this did make him umcomfortable.

He... wasn't used to seeing Pokémon bleed. Those that could, at least.
Oof yep. Hits different when they bleed red blood like humans do. Yet another thing that really drives home the fact that there’s hardly anything that isn’t some kind of automated machine in this time.

Powerful... metabolism... Turo suddenly remembered Sada excitedly telling him about how much food the Pokémon ate.

He found himself repressing a shiver.

... why did he just have an ominous feeling about this?
Ahahaha oh dear. I need that GIF of the lady saying, “Honey, you’ve got a storm comin.”

Today it looked like one of those old-timey saloons you would have found in Unima or Orre back in the day, complete with spunky piano music and the sound of slamming rotating doors everytime someone walked in or out. The one responsible for those settings had become pretty obvious when he had walked in that morning for a coffe and found Ortega in full gunslinger attire, complete with cowboy hat and boots.

"Just felt like it, it's not like there's any occasion to wear them otherwise"
Eyyy, Orre shoutout! :D Love to see it! Also lol Ortega really brings joy everywhere he goes. He’s great, I love him.

and Vega, who had been growing increasingly desperate in her quest for the legendary beast trio ("They just run around so much, you would think that being able to literally teleport in the exact spot and moment they supposedly should appear should make it easy but nooo")
My heart goes out to poor Vega. Girl, I FEEL your pain. Trying to catch Entei and Raikou in Crystal was THE bane of my childhood. I never actually accomplished it.

« I jumped back by launching myself off a cliff and pretending to fall dramatically to my death. Activated it right in midair.»

Two identical sighs escape Vega and Turo at the same time, the first because she doesn't believe him, and the second because he knows that is exactly the kind of crazy stunt that Ortega would pull just to see what happened. And look cool.
That is the most Ortega thing I’ve ever heard. Also? What the heck, he’s not gonna elaborate? I need the full story now!

« You're not going to angst about bacon. You're one of the smartest guys I've ever met, but you need to shut that brain of yours off sometimes and not overthink every little thing.»
“You’re not going to angst about bacon.” Is probably my favorite line of this whole fic so far. 😂 But yes, Ortega is a real one for pulling Turo out of his thoughts here.

Those fears all proved moot when it started to happily inhale whatever they had tried to feed him.

Apparently, the answer to what it ate was "anything and everything". Without much problem.
Welcome to your new and improved garbage disposal, Turo! Isn’t it incredible? It can handle anything! ANYTHING!

« You know there's no other Pokémon in the world I would trade you with.» he kept reassuring the Pokémon in a low voice, now petting his head and neck. Miraidon finally turned toward him, one single cyan eye regarding him carefully before gently bumping him in the chest with his snout, letting out something that sounded almost like an electronic chirp. He hugged the Pokémon with both arms, resting his forehead on the dragon's neck and listening to the electric, buzzing pulse of his heartbeat. Maybe he could try to make them meet another day, after they had calmed down.
Aw, this was a sweet moment. Love that the thing that gets Miraidon riled up isn’t a primitive instinct or territorial dispute, but fear of losing his friend. I suppose that could be considered a territorial dispute in a way, but it’s a sweet one.

Turo held the icy gaze of the current director of the TTDL, suppressing a shiver. He couldn't help it; even if he was perfectly confident in what he had to say - Moreau had to agree with him, because it just made sense -, something in the man's eyes always put him on edge. It's like the other was studying him through the lense of a microscope, always looking for something. What exactly he was looking for, he hadn't the slightest idea.
MOREAU SUS, I will keep saying this until the end of time. I don’t trust this guy!

Turo stared at the Masterball that had been sitting on the kitchen table as he finished his microwaved lunch and put the used dish in the sink, which cleaned it immediately and automatically slided it to it's place in a pile of other neatly impiled dishes, ready to be used again.
Bro what! I need me a dishwasher like that. That’s freaking incredible.

Good. He had faith in his Pokémon. He could keep watch over Winged King and make sure it didn't wreck his apartment for the ten or so minutes it would take him to take a shower.

As he turned toward his bedroom, it didn't cross his mind that there would be no one to keep an eye on Miraidon.
Oh no. 😂 I have a bad feeling about this ahahahaha

It had just been... admittedly more than ten minutes, but it couldn't have been more than twenty. Thirty, at the very most.

They had raided the fridge. They had raided the pantry. They had, somehow, ordered delivery, possibly from a monitor he had left open right in the kitchen to play some music while he showered.

How had Miraidon even figured out how to do it? Had he memorized all the steps he did when he ordered something? Had he used electrical signals to mimic the steps?? But how, for the love of Arceus, had he managed to place the order? Had they been lucky enough to get a Rotom or Porygon on the phone???
Hahshsjkddkdkd it’s even WORSE than I could have anticipated! 😂 Incredible! The fact that they ordered delivery has me dead. How???

Winged King, obviously, had to get all his nutrients from actual food. As the Pokémon's ravenous appetite kept drilling a metaphorical hole in his wallet, Turo found himself questioning in complete disbelief how much of society during the Pokémon League era they actually knew about.

There was no way that people actually could keep six Pokémon with them at all times, right? How would they even afford all that food?
Lol asking the real questions. How DO trainers do it?? I love reading fics that touch on this. It ain’t easy keeping a team of six monsters fed!

It smelled strongly and unmistakably like alcohol, and tasted like a fruity, extremely strong wine. He took just a sip of it and could already feel it burn his throat and get straight to his head.

... Of course getting smashed together was another thing that people had always done just because they could.
Hahaha so true. Some things never change.

« The rules say... you can't get into the time machine drunk. I'm getting out of the time machine.»

He smirked triumphantly at Porygon 568 as the little dopey Zapdos-looking duck just stared at him. Thinking. Working out the logic.

« That is... correct.» it had to admit, reluctantly.

He patted the Pokémon's head as he made his way out of the room, humming.
Oh boy, he sure had a night! 😂 Drunk Turo is so happy though! 💛

Bonus Chapter:

Idk if this chapter “counts,” but I’m reviewing it anyway, because it is TOO GOOD. 😂 Seriously, it’s been a long time since a fic has managed to make me cackle this much. You freaking nailed what drunken rambling sounds like. And the running gag of Turo saying “Winged King” wrong every single time just got funnier and funnier.
But truly, the best part of this whole thing is the freaking drawing. I was so utterly unprepared, man. It’s made even better by the fact that we’ve established that Turo is actually a skilled artist, and he comes up with…that. 😂 and somehow the decision to keep it under a spoiler made the reveal just that much better. I freaking LOST it.

As amusing as reading your latest report was, I'm afraid that I can't accept it as it is. You will find my comments about it in the attached file. Please write it again... when you are sober.

In particular, I don't think that "getting hammered FOR SCIENCE" is an acceptable title. Please follow the usual department guidelines.
Ok technically not part of the bonus chapter, BUT this is just too good. A great example of using humor by only leaving context clues as to what happened.

Uhhhh shoot I forgot to quote other lines in here and it won’t let me edit the quotes in. But basically, “I sucked at it then and I sucked at it now, when was the last time YOU threw a ball?” And “Sada almost cried. Felt that.” were big highlights for me. Also, “because I’m cool light that.” The typos are so perfectly implemented. Pure gold. 😂

Last but not least, Ortega making an ART MUSEUM DISPLAY of the drawing was the last straw. What a genius use of that knowledge. And he wasted NO TIME. What a legend.

Chapter 14:

The angst is back this chapter, and it’s breaking my heart. :( Because yes, now we’ve had such a fantastic breakthrough with these two, but…now what? It’s still a dead end, at least as things are now. Aghhh I hope they figure something out. I want them to so badly. I NEED them to have a happy ending, please I beg you 😭

The very end of the chapter feels kind of insightful to me too, for Turo specifically. Perhaps I’m speculating too deeply or over analyzing, but I’ll share my more specific thoughts in the quotes below.

She nodded, then cautiously moved to hug him, waiting for a sign for him that it was fine to do so. It seemed that there was no problem unless he was touching his bracelet to activate the power, but after his terrified outburst just earlier that day, she didn't want to take any risks.

He answered by getting closer and reciprocating the hug with both arms. She could feel him relax slightly at the contact, and rest his chin on her head for a short moment.
A hug!! We love a good, tender hug. 💛 And boy does Turo need one.

« "We"?» Sada asked as she hugged him as a greeting, taking a short moment to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

He seemed slightly reluctant to let her go, but nodded.
The little gestures of affection are killing me aaaaaah 😭

Winged King seemed to get convinced that he really wasn't hiding anything, because it stopped to sniff at the man and greeted him with a gentle headbutt instead. "Gentle" being quite relative considering how big the lizard was, and being still strong enough to send the man stumbling back a couple of steps. Turo just sighed, before finally relenting and patting the creature on the nose a couple of times, his scowl disappearing just for a quick moment.
Hahaha stop pretending you don’t like him, Turo! We all know the truth. What a tsundere.

she kept listening to him, feeling a little bit of excitement well up inside her at his words. So, he... he did the same thing as her? Did that mean that her and Chalo's idea of taming Winged King and other creatures had been right? That people would keep doing it until everyone did, and it was normal? She felt an enormous smile stretch on her face at that thought. Now she just wanted to try taming other creatures!
Yessss go become a trainer!!

Lines done with ash, charcoal and other colored dust mixed with water started at eye level of the two. Some of them were lines, spiraling all around, and then connected through them were dozens and dozens of various handprints in all colors. Some were average sized, others had obviously been left by children. Around each handprint were symbolic drawings of people, hunting creatures, or crafting tools, or depictions of creatures themselves. Each couple of drawings told a story; the role of that person in the tribe, or accomplishments, legends, passed down from parents to children as they painted the next section to create a giant interconnected wall of stories.
Oh wow, what a cool thing to show him! And what a beautiful way to depict one’s family tree. This made for a great segue into learning more about Sada’s past and her family, too.

« ... Oh.» her shoulders slumped a bit, and for a while, the only sound between them was the crackling of the fire. She wasn't even sure why she found the thought so disapponting. She knew that he had to keep his true identity a secret from the rest of the tribe... But she didn't realize that he also had to keep so many secrets from his own people. Didn't... Didn't that mean that in the end, they both had to act like they had never even met?

... She didn't want to think about it.
:( I hate the dead-end feeling here. There’s gotta be another way!

Sada's role was mostly protecting Turo, and she looked back at him as he followed, immediately understanding what the other girl meant. Yes, it was... Obvious that he didn't know even the basics on how to move around in order to not attract too much attention.

« He is... Doing his best.» she answered, just as he tripped and almost fell flat on his face.
Doing his best. Yes. 😂 Poor guy really is hopeless in this era.

As the dust settled, she could gradually make out the silhuette of a great bird. It was as tall as two people standing on top of each other would be, and had three heads with a crest of black feathers on top. The wings were so small that she doubted them being of much use, but they had what looked like a couple of wicked curved talons near their middle. Even if the wings were useless for flying, it more than made up for it with its powerful legs, just those almost as tall as a person. She realized, after a moment, that the dust and wind it had kicked up had simply been the result of the creature running in at ludicrous speed.
Oh SNAP, what an entrance. You made this mon out to be properly terrifying, all right.

Both the arrow and the thunder struck the bird head on, but instead of collapsing to the ground with its muscles twitching, the bird simply squawked as one head picked the arrow that had struck its flank with its beak, pulling it out and throwing it aside. It screeched with all three heads and tore at the ground, the great talons leaving deep gouges in the earth as it readied itself.

And then a dazzling white light formed in the Triple Runner's throats, and her eyes flew wide as it shot three beams out of its mouth, in three different directions; the left head shot a stream of fire straight towards her, the right head pieces of ice at Narjik, and the center head shot thunder at Chalo. As both she and Turo had to throw themselves aside again, she could have sworn that the three heads were smirking. It held all three streams for a couple of moments, then the center head stopped for breath while the other two continued, forcing them to keep moving to avoid getting burned or frozen respectively. Sada, for once, was in complete disbelief; what kind of creature could use fire, ice, and thunder at the same time?! And was it seriously using one of its head to breathe so the other two could keep attacking?!

Gosh this thing is horrifying!! Literally has three brains, so it’s strong AND dangerously smart. They really do need to take more mon so they have a fighting chance against something like this.

« Fluffyhead... you killed it so hard it vanished! I'm so proud!» the dark haired girl hugged the creature, who looked a bit confused. Then it started glowing, and all three of them jumped, Turo excluded.

Sada stared, in awe, as she watched the creature's body change and grow bigger, grow back its wool instantly, and get up on its back legs. She knew that creatures could transform as they grew, but she had never seen it from so close up!
Haha! Yay, Fluffyhead gets the credit! And oh, surprise evolution! That’s so fun :D although, once he evolves into Ampharos, the name “Fluffyhead” won’t fit so well anymore. 😂

« Other scientists "study" stars. Then they teach others... or write it, so other people that do other things can still learn.»

That sounded like a dream to her;everyone studying different things and sharing information so everyone could benefit from it.
Honestly, Sada may not like Turo’s time, but she would love the endless opportunities for learning and sharing. Picturing her in his time with him makes me both happy and sad at the same time.

« ... Sada.»

She backed up and looked at him questioningly.

« Are you... happy here?» his voice was barely a whisper.

She simply stared, confused.

« Yes... of course.»
This question hurts for multiple reasons. Because he knows her potential and what she could accomplish in his time, but would she be happy there? And because he longs for her to be with him, because without her, he isn’t happy. He does not get the same fulfillment in his life that she does from hers. Maybe he’s envious of that, maybe he wants the happiness she has, or maybe he just desperately wants her to be with him, but knows that such a thing would come at the cost of her own happiness. It’s complicated and painful and so raw, and my heart hurts for him.

Why the sudden question? Of course she was happy. Everyone in the village was fine, there had been no injuries or sickness even as the cold season got harsher and harsher. She had him, and Winged King, and there were so many things she wanted to do and places she wanted to explore; every day was an adventure. Why wouldn't she be happy?
This just makes it hurt even more, because she’s blissfully ignorant of the conflict he’s feeling. To her, things can just continue as they are, and everything is perfect. It’s so sad that this isn’t actually the case, but she has no idea. :(

Chapter 15:

Holy smokes this chapter took a direction that I was NOT expecting. But I’m so here for it! The angst! The whump! The plot development! 👀 Sada is finally in his time and I can’t WAIT to see how that unfolds. But also…what about her tribe, and the injured Winged King? Are they safe? With that aggressive Koraidon around, it has me very nervous about their well-being. And now I’m CLINGING to that ILLEGAL cliffhanger, aaaa!! I need the next chapter immediately, dang it.

He had no idea what the theme was supposed to be this day. It was usually either a generic ambience or some really specific, famous landmark, and this looked like neither. It mostly looked like a... Contemporary art museum? Each wall held a couple of little holographic frames, with lights pointing to it. Puzzled but without questioning it too much, he grabbed a cup of coffee. Maybe it was supposed to be some famous museum, he thought as he took the first sip. A reproduction of some art gallery from the past?
So good. So, so good. 😂 Ortega is a genius.

That other one had been converted in a three dimensional model, made to look like a marble statue.
Stop, a 3D model?! This guy went ALL OUT and I respect the heck out of him for it. 😂

He was completely out of breath as he burst into the room, only to find a bewildered Ortega with his sleeve pulled up, the nurse (her name was Denise, or something?) about to inject him with the protection serum, and a very uncomfortable looking Porygon 568 that was trying and failing to make small talk.

« According to my calculations, the weather in Alfornada, 8th of August year 4378 should be lovely-»

« ... All right?»
Hahaha oh, bless you, Porygon. He’s doing his best.

He looked to Denise or whatever and Porygon 568. The Pokémon had his eyes closed, exaggeratedly muttering coordinates numbers to himself as it pretended to be busy recalculating something, and the nurse... Well even the nurse was trying to hide a smile now.
Pretending to be busy lololol. Porygon is rapidly becoming my favorite character. He’s just such a funny little guy.

« I do not have the capacity to understand "drunkenness" as a human state. But if it helps, I have seen the drawing. Taking into account the state of decreased motor skills it was done in, I find the result quite well done. The lines are...» the Pokémon seemed to struggle for a moment.

«... surprisingly straight. » it muttered in the end. Turo couldn't help but let out a little laugh as he patted the Pokémon on the head.

Aw, bless his little, artificially coded heart.
That’s it, he’s my favorite. 💛 I LOVE HIM HAHA

« ... Why are there no other handprints...?» he whispered, and Miraidon purred at his side without understanding.

He looked back to Sada's handprint. There... There should be a line there. To connect her child handprint to her adult one, and that one to her children, and so on and so forth, for generations to come... But there was nothing. He stared, feeling a rising panic mount in his chest. Miraidon pushed his snout under his hand, sending the tiniest jolt of electricity through it.
HMMMM, Sada is missing from her time and Turo is missing from his? Yeah they totally zapped to another time or something. Possibly because they have no choice? Perhaps something is threatening them and they are believed to be dead in their times because of it?

So I went after Celebi because... I was already in Johto, the Ilex Forest was right there... And I'm pretty sure it could read the energy coming from my time-anchor or something because it started... Challenging me to chase it around various points in time. We pretty much played time travel tag.»
Haha, this is quite cute actually. What a cool job!! Seriously!

This one got more than one person to start muttering, and Turo's eyes widened when he saw what the redhead meant. Similar to the second picture, it showed two Celebi. Except that one of the two, this time busy winking to the camera, was red.

« .... A shiny...?» he gaped.
Wait…red? Shiny Celebi is pink. Is this an error, or is this red Celebi something different, something unusual? 👀

Ortega's eyes moved to look at him, and he huffed.

« I think that shiny Pokémon were so much cooler looking back in the day! Why do ours all look like they missed a paint job?» he grumbled.
Hahaha I mean…he’s got a point. Future Paradox shinies are…disappointing, to say the least.

Turo sighed.

« Buddy... It's 3 AM. I need to sleep.»

The blue digital eyes blinked as the Pokémon nodded, excited.

He got up after a long moment.

« All right. Just a short walk.»
Ah, the woes of being a pet owner. I felt this in my soul.

« You already had dinner and a midnight snack, you are not getting anything else tonight.» he grumbled, before startling and stopping to look at the exposition of the shop right next to it. A jewellery.

He stared for a long moment at one of the objects inside, a pained look on his face, then took a deep breath and opened the door.
Jewelry!! He’s totally gonna buy her something! A terrible idea, but also, we’ve already established that he’s too far gone anyway. 😂

Worst case, he could wait for his time-anchor battery to recharge, jump back, and try again... And then he saw the claw marks. Deep, violent gouges had cracked some tree trunks. White and blue feathers were scattered everywhere, with clear signs of a struggle having taken place. His breath catches in his throat. Did Winged King fight something here? Did he get injured again?

If Sada had been with him-
Oh gosh, the way my stomach dropped while reading this. So foreboding and you just know that he’s going to uncover something terrible.

Turo stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide, frozen on the spot. The cave mural flashed in his mind. The fact that there was nothing else on it-

Turo stumbled in his haste to get near her. Winged King raised his head from her side and whined, eyes downcast.

There... There was just so much blood all around-
Noooooo aaah I’m so stressed! Is her tribe okay?

Because there, right by his side, is himself. Turo -the other Turo- looks down at him, and he feels a deep sense of wrongness at seeing his own face look into him. There is a quiet determination on his doppelganger's face as he kneels down, and Turo noticed the two objects he was holding in his hands.

He's got another time-anchor in his right hand... And a syringe full of protection-serum in his left. His eyes grew wide when he realized what the other him's -Future Him, he realized - intentions were.
Oh boy, things are getting real messy real fast. DO IT, SAVE YOUR WOMAN

in his haste, he didn't notice the figure that was just about to step into one of the elevators stop in his tracks to turn around and look at him.
ohhh dear. Who is this? I’m so stressed.

« My most important directive that takes precedence over any other rule is making sure that any human who makes use of the time machine does so safely. That is usually humans that step into the time machine...» there was a pause as the Pokémon tilted its head sideways, in what Turo could only see as its own personal version of a smirk.

« ... Or, I suppose, humans that happen, for whatever reason, to only step out of the time machine.»

Porygon 568 beat its wings, eyes flashing yellow, and the door flew open.
PORYGON 568 IS BEST CHARACTER AND GREATEST HOMIE, THE REAL MVP, DON’T @ ME

« ... That is abusing a loophole in your rules and you know it.» he half sighed, half grinned in relief, rushing inside.

The Pokémon beeped happily.

« I had a good teacher.»
HECK YEAH YOU DID

« What in the name of Arceus are. You. Doing

Turo froze, turning towards the shadow of Ortega that was standing at the door, eyes wide and paler than he had ever seen him.

« I... She's been injured... I had to-»

« You had to do what?» the other time traveller stormed inside, and Turo realised that he was livid. He hadn't actually ever seen Ortega angry.
Ffffrigg this is stressful. Especially seeing Ortega pissed, which is so jarring considering how jovial he always is.

Nobody had batted an eye at seeing two people in ice age clothes rush in, one unconscious and covered in blood. They were used to treating injuries received by time travelers during one jump or the other, Ortega had reassured him.

How Ortega knew that ... Better not to know. Speaking from experience, for sure.
Ortega sure is a mystery, huh? He’s definitely…seen some crazy stuff, clearly. I really want to know more about his story.

« ... Should be fine. They've stabilized her. Cloned some of her blood and gave her a self-transfusion. » he looked at her colleague, conflicted.
Oh dang, that’s cool. Medical procedures are probably insanely effective in this time.
 
Last edited:

Flyg0n

Flygon connoisseur
Pronouns
She/her
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. swampert
  3. ho-oh
  4. crobat
  5. orbeetle
  6. joltik
  7. salandit
  8. tyrantrum
  9. porygon
A couple of strokes to draw the head, the curved beak with a sharp point and even sharper eyes... he is good at it, the picture so similar to the real thing it's like one of the creatures had been quietly sitting between them all this time, posing for reference.

But of course, there isn't one; he must be going from memory, not unlike her when she takes notes after some sightings.

But to be able to draw it so perfectly... He must have seen so many of them! And from really close, no less...

Sada finds herself almost transfixed by the smooth movements of his hand while it flits along the page, expertly filling in the drawing. The way he moves, even how he was holding the writing stick, not a single blemish on his fingers ... It's obvious he is much more used to doing this than... Lighting a fire, or holding a weapon, or ... really any kind of manual activity.
Oohh I like that he likes drawing. Also its cute how much Sada notices how good he is at drawing

« "Dumbass"...?» she repeats, picking out one of the words from his muttering at random, and only because it sounded funny.

Turo freezes, a flash of horror on his face that quickly gets replaced by a stuttering, incredulous laugh that he tries and fails to contain.
Im dying at this oh my gosh

So is this going to make "dumbass" an ancient prehistoric insult now?? :mewlulz:

She doesn't want to break that trust right away.

« Three days.» she nods, and to give him proof of her good intentions, sits back down on the log.
Awwwww this is sweet. Its quite a show of trust and a testament to her character for her to go against her own curiosity to extend this trust!

« He's the shaman of his tribe. The lore-keeper... He knows so much stuff about creatures, and can draw one perfectly!
I just love these deductions. Its hard to properly explain why but it really is great. She might have a limited scope of knowledge but she's still very intelligent. Or wise, i guess. She knows how to make observations, and then infer knowledge and apply that to her understanding to make an assertation. Yes she might be off, broadly. He's not a shaman of a tribe, but in a way he's a form of lore-keeper! Someone responsible for knowledge and learning.

Why didn't humans change like that? It wasn't fair.
Smh humans got the short end of the stick freal. I'd love to evolve and get extra strong or a new pair of arms.

And actually starts to follow her, trotting along.
:veelove: AAAHHHHHH ancient pokemon tamer

It's only been three days. His facial hair should not be that long.
yessssss she's so observant I love this running theme
Also... Its really sad in a way. Time travel can be such a sad kind of setting for romance because if he doesn't keep coming back, or even if he does, it could be months between visits for him and only days for her. :(

He's gone come morning, but there is a piece of paper torn from his notebook left near her when she wakes up, with two day and night symbols drawn on it.
Awwwww I just want them to be happy GUUUHHH

Another solid chapter from Sada POV. I was positively delighted at the entire bit of trying to tame a mareep! Also once again all the Sada/Turo bits were quite delightful.

I wonder if the feather they found is a Koraidon feather :eyes:

Also aaauugghhhh walks in the starlight? So precious.

Pokémon Academy built on the top of a hill towering over every other building, looking down on the city. Nowadays, the Pokemon Academy (and the University for more modern studies that had been built near it a couple centuries ago) was neither at the highest point nor the tallest building in the city anymore.
Sheesh that must be a real mega city then if its no longer the tallest spot...

like it was nothing more than an experiment to report on, felt.... Wrong.
I feel your Turo. Thats gotta be real weird...

The possibility was there though, and the idea of an entourage of scientists arriving near Sada's people to study them like in some safari, even if carefully from afar while staying hidden instead of making active contact, was... It made him feel guilty.

He shouldn't have felt that way:

Studying and observing history was what they did, after all. That was the whole point of their job.
I like how he's now feeling kind of protective of Sada.

« I know, I know, just let me... Lock the door...» Turo had barely finished scanning his ID through the door when the Pokémon, growing impatient, started to gently headbutt his shoulder, nipping at his arm.
PET HIM. Also what a mood lol this how my cats can be when i come home. PAY ATTENTION to ME

excitedly talking about the latest e-sport tournament in some vr game or other.
thats it the future is lost, give up (/hj)
I wonder what happened to pokemon battling as a sport? Do the uh, mech pokemon not like battle perhaps?
Celebrity gossip. The colony on Mars was still stuck in the middle of a global dust storm. Stark mountain in Sinnoh had been erupting for five days straight. The Hassel Art Gallery was holding an art exhibition with pieces from the 24rd century (recovered by the TTLD, by the way).
Oh man oh man oh boy. Mars colonies? Hassel Art gallery!! Love this

Still sleek and pretty form fitting with a dark purple color(he just... Liked the color)
Turo is just a purple kinda guy

« Gyaaaa-»

Turo could almost feel the dragon next to him raring to go, a static charge building up on his scales while it crouched low on all fours to let him mount on his back.
HTTYD HTTYD HTTYD

YESSSSSSSS

« If I may ask, what are you working on...?»

« "Gathering photographic evidence of legendary Pokemon's sightings in different eras"»

Turo's mouth hanged open for a moment.

« You chase legendaries? »
Koa wants to know your location
(this is just a cheeky reference to my OC, a new trainer who is obsessed with legendaries)

Seriously though is so cool, chasing legendaries through time??? swag
« You did get that really cool picture of the battle between Groudon and Kyogre in Sootopolis City though. The one from uuuuh... 2005 was it?» Ortega points out.

« Those two are always going at it, it's nothing special! My grandma's got a picture from their last battle some 50 years ago that looks basically the same! » Vega rants, looking annoyed.
LOL "groudon and Kyogre fought" is old news, nbd

Uvanja Academy
Oh this mash together is a fun take for reconciling the version differences!
He's never seen this many stars in real life.

Too much light pollution in the city, making the night sky look like a foggy black sheet with only the moon and the brighest stars managing to shine through.

Of course he's seen pictures, and documentaries, and those stupidly big photographs done with the latest telescopes with a resolution of a bajillion pixels where you could zoom in for a good while before getting tired and closing the tab. He's even gone to a planetarium a couple of times, but even that time, as cool as it had been, it still had only been a really good 3D picture projected on a (really big) screen.

There was no sense of depth on a picture or a screen. No way to reproduce the slight vertigo he was feeling in this moment, with the sky so impossibly open and vast over his head and everywhere he looked, just more and more stars.
Ohhhhhh man this bit gives me so many emotions. I still remember the times when I went on vacation away from the mdoerately sized suburb/city esque area and went out to like... Nevada and Arizona areas with less light pollution and... wow. Its true, no picture or projection or telescope or anything really captures seeing something like that in person. The majesty. The sensation of being so small, yet not unimportant. The sheer vastness of everything.... whew lad.
Still, he's pretty sure that he's got another stupid smile on his face that's impossible to stop.
omg omg omg
then finally coming back at the crack of dawn and it still being like 3 AM felt amazing and had basically made his tired brain go "yesss, free sleepy time!" when he had come home and crashed asleep on the bed.
MOOD TURO

SO RELATABLE

Also infinite sleep glitch??? 🤔 Sheesh im jealous

Man i gotta say the entire flying sequence and build up to it was *chefs kiss*. Very HTTYD vibes and it had me absoutely ecstatic. My brain was mentally playing Test Drive on loop... Also the relationship between him and Miraidon is precious, I love highlighting th symbiotic relationship

Also I just love this slowly burgeoning realization of affection and that Turo cares about her. I can't wait honestly to get further in and see how it goes when she ends up in modern times???

OH AND THAT TITLE IS AMAZING

It was mostly yellow, with just two brown stripes almost at the center, and belonged to one of the furry rodents that would sometimes sneak into their camp to steal food. Nobody liked them, so they didn't even bother giving them a name other than "the pests" and they were pretty much attacked on sight.
rip Pikachu lol

Steady Glacier pelt s
Man idr if I said this already but I love all the names you've been giving to these non canon legends

« I am... a scientist

« "Scient....ist."»

That... was that his word for sciaman? What other roles could there be in the tribe?

His next words completely shatter her bubbling excitement, throwing her into complete confusion.

« You are... a scientist

... what? She is no shaman. She literally just told him that her position is that of huntress. Has he completely misunderstood her after all?
« This. All this... make you a scientist.» there is an... intensity in his voice that she's never heard before. He is utterly convinced.
« And that is... beautiful.» Turo whispers something to himself, something she can't understand yet. She will not be able to for quite some time.
OoHHHHH oohhhhhh ohhh my gosh
This entire exchange. This interaction. Exquisite really. Its so telling of their relationship and why they click together.

The sincerity and intensity of Turo calling her a scientist, the way he points to her curiosity and research as a scientist. And how this is what makes her beautiful to him. Its not often that romance captures me so much but this really is. I love them so much.

It's beautiful. Much bigger than the Slither Grip that it is currently staring down, it is standing upright on two strong legs covered in red scales like most of it's body, except for part of it's tail and throat that are completely black, and a white underbelly. A magnificent crest of big colorful feathers runs all along it's back and head, and she immediately recognizes them as the same ones she had used for Turo's necklace
KORAIDON KORAIDON

It hadn't attacked her. It easily could have, but it didn't.

Against all better judgement, she decides to leave some food for it out every day in the same spot.
DRAGONS DRAGONS DRAGONS

Guy probably couldn't run to save his life.
Me neither, mood. super relatable.

He looks... good, she realizes with a little surprise.

... and then he slips the shiny mantle back on, and she finds herself laughing at how strange it looks. She kind of likes that about him, though.
EEEEEEE yes

*httyd forbidden friendship music plays*

Seriously though, this just gets better every chapter. Sada slowly befriending Koraidon was fantastic. I absolutely need more more more. The way she was so excited to show Turo, and then how happy her giving him the clothes made her. Reminds me of that costume swap meme of the professors

Which much to my chagrin I can't seem to find anywhere.

Anyways I am in absolute adoration of everything here. I love how Koraidon is characterized here, its really not interested in waton violence but it sure likes bags. (maybe it hopes to find some sandwiches heh).

I have so many continuing feelings about everything happening. All the little ways they compliment each other and how their relationship and trust is growing, how they're spending time together sharing their love of the world, and the way they're trying to do things for each other too. Its so sweet the way she worries about him and sees him as so fragile lol (and really, she's not wrong).

I will ABSOLUTELY be catching up more soon
 
Chapter 16: After Hours, part I

Nekodatta

Pokémon Trainer
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. koraidon-apex
  2. miraidon-ultimate
  3. skitty
Chapter 16: After Hours, part I
Sada immediately noticed that something was up as soon as she landed in the usual meeting spot with Winged King to wait for Turo's arrival together. The snow was high and had been falling without pause for a couple of days now. Every time they landed, the dragon would usually clear some space to set the campfire up by sweeping his long tail, the warm scales easily melting the snow away. Staying close to him was pretty cozy, at the least. This time, however, she noticed the dragon was looking around with a nervousness she hadn't usually seen on his features. His head twitched left and right, and it rose to his hind legs to smell the air with both his nose and his tongue briefly darting out.

« What is it?» she asked, moving to his side, one hand grasping her spear tight.

The creature growled, the throat sac vibrating with a low rumble, his pupils thin slits as it still looked around. Sada felt a twinge of anxiousness overcome her as she turned to look at Winged King's opposite side, covering his back. Was there a creature nearby? He had never acted this nervous before, until... Until the time he had been attacked. That was the only time she had seen the dragon look distraught. She scanned the edge of the clearing, passing a couple of white blue feathers that had fallen to the ground...

She froze, realizing what she had seen a second too late.

They were too far away to be Winged King's.

A familiar sounding roar echoed through the air and Winged King's head shot up in alarm. Sada copied him, only to find herself suddenly thrown to the ground by what felt like a heavy punch. She rolled to her feet as she half sunk through the deep snow, watching something drop heavily over the dragon from directly overhead. She realized that Winged King must have pushed her away with his tail just in time, to avoid her getting caught in the attack.

And there, over the figure of the dragon she had been living with for quite a while now and could only see as a true companion, was... Another Winged King. Even bigger, the feathered crest on his head sporting a longer fringe, a big scar running from his left brow to the side of the snout.

Was this... What had attacked her companion? She had never seen other creatures of the same species, so she just assumed that they usually lived far away. This one must have either followed hers, or had simply happened to wander in the same area. Now she understood perfectly why the dragon had been hurt; it had been a battle for territory... And now the other Winged King seemed to have come back to definitely claim this area as his.

The two creatures were roaring at each other as they struggled in a tangle of limbs. Winged King was pinned underneath, trying to get the other dragon off him; it finally managed to rear one leg up and violently kick his opponent in the stomach, sending the other dragon flying. It quickly got back up, as did her partner, and the two dragons sized each other up for a moment, before the rival got down on all fours and rushed close again, swiping at Winged King with his claws. This time however the dragon looked ready: it roared and stood his ground, grabbing the opponent with both front legs to stop its charge, and both creatures were sent crashed against a tree. After that, it became a furious exchange of blows; snow flew all around mixed with feathers as the dragons thrashed around, swiping and kicking at each other. They both seemed intent to try and block the other from taking off into the sky, and Sada understood why after she thought back to all the times she had seen Winged King land by dropping heavily onto the ground from high up. The rival had used the same approach when it had arrived: whoever managed to land such a heavy hit would have a good chance of winning the fight.

But Winged King had already been hit once... To save her, of all things. He had already been injured once by this dragon, and had only been cured thanks to Turo.

She... She couldn't watch him get hurt again in front of her! She had to help!

« Leave him alone! This is his territory!» she took out a couple of hard berries wrapped in leaves from her pouch, and took careful aim. They were pretty small for berries, but had an hard and spiky outer shell. She threw one towards their opponent, waiting for the split second when the two dragons would pause briefly to catch their breaths.

It hit him on the side of the head with a loud noise, and a moment later, a horrible, harsh scream filled the air, forcing her to cover her ears. Giving a quick glance to the dragon as she stumbled back, she saw it furiously trash around, clawing at his face, one eye shut and bloddy. It turned his head to look at her with his remaining eye, and she felt herself freeze in fear for a moment for the very first time. She was used to fighting creatures, to carefully observe their actions. She knew that when a creature attacked, it was either for self defense or because it was hungry.

She had never seen a creature look at her with hate like the dragon was doing now. It snarled, then launched himself at her with all his strength, raising one clawed arm high.

She flinched, but managed to grasp the spear with both hands and held it high to intercept the blow. It got brushed aside, the stone tip broken off by a furious claw swipe, and barely did anything to stop the creature as its claws descended toward her side.

She suddenly felt hot. So hot... Everything burned... The last thing she was aware of was Winged King's furious roar as she collapsed to the ground, holding her side.

---

After that, she had been barely aware of what was happening. Winged King had taken her in his claws and dragged her to a cave, curling himself up around her, a low keening noise coming from his throat. Then Turo had arrived... She had tried to speak... She had to warn him about the other Winged King... It could attack him too... she wasn't sure of what had happened next.

She thought she saw two Turo, but that was... impossible... Then a sharp pain in her shoulder, followed by warmth spreading all over her body.

Turo's whispered words, that took her a moment to understand. The button... What is a "button"...?

There's something under her fingers, that Turo had guided her hand over. Smooth and hard, with lots of little ridges... It was a bracelet. Like his.

But he had said.... She couldn't use it or... Or she would die... Sada felt herself slipping away, and in one last moment of clarity, decided to blindly trust him and pressed the button.

---

She regained consciousness very slowly, fragments of sounds and sensations coming to her like through fog. She was somewhere warm, and soft. Voices were whispering something near her.

She strained her ears to understand; some words sounded familiar, but they were speaking... too fast, in a foreign tongue she didn't understand.

« You've been by her side for hours, you need to go to sleep.»

« I can sleep here.»


She felt a warmth spread in her chest at the second voice, because that was Turo's voice, and he sounded right next to her.

« Really Turo, you can leave for an hour or two. Go eat something. Take a nap. We'll stay with her. It's not like she's going anywhere.»

A pause, then a tired sigh.

« All... All right.»

She wanted to... To move, open her eyes, talk to him, but she found herself drifting off again as she heard him move slowly away from her.

When she regained consciousness again, she was definitely more lucid, able to think. Her limbs felt less heavy, and she was more aware of her surroundings. There was... A curious lack of sounds, except for the same whispering voices from before, coming from somewhere near her. She couldn't hear the wind, the rustling of leaves, and it didn't seem to be snowing. Winged King had dragged her away... Where was she now? The cave...?

No, she was... Something else had happened before she lost consciousness... And she was laying on something that was way too soft to be the floor of the cave.

She cautiously opened her eyes... And had to immediately squeeze them shut again. Everything was so... So bright. Pure white everywhere, even whiter than snow. She slowly opened one eye again, then the other, getting them gradually used to the light. There was... What looked like a blanket over her, but it didn't look like it was made from any pelt she knew... Or made from pelt at all. It was extremely thin and light, and of course white in colour, like almost everything else around her. She looked up, and her eyes widened when she saw a bright blue sky, with clouds moving slowly across it, a complete difference from the heavy clouds she had gotten used to seeing almost every day for the past few moons. But... There were also what looked like smooth walls around her. What was the point of building something if you didn't put a roof over it?

Sada suddenly noticed that something sharp was stabbing her in one arm. She looked down, to see with some alarm that she had what looked like a thin, long cord coming out of it, something slowly dripping through it right into her arm from a see-through pouch. She grew agitated.

She had seen bug creatures do something similar to their prey, stabbing them with long tendrils to inject the poison that made you unable to move...

« Um... Paleo Girl is up, what do we do?»

Sada quickly turned her head towards the voice, eyes wide and body on edge. The words had come from a man that looked a bit older than her, who had been sitting next to where she was laying, with curly black hair that fell partially in front of his face. Next to him was a woman with hair as red as fire.

Who were this people...? What were they doing to her?

She put her other hand over the cord, ready to rip it out, only for the red haired woman to jump up and grab her hand with both of hers. Sada glared at the woman.

« Argh, no! Can...can...you....speak...?»

Sada stopped, surprised. She... She recognized those words. Spoken clearly, more slowly... That was Turo's language. And these people... They had the same unnatural, weird looking cleanliness to their faces, their hair, as him, that had almost struck her as wrong, creepy, the first time she had seen him. She had grown accustomed to it now, found it endearing in a way. It had given him almost an air of... Childlike innocence, together with his cluelessness about so many things. She looked down to her arm, where the woman had still clasped her hand in hers. Her hands were both tidy. Perfect. Impossibly so. And... She was wearing the same kind of smooth skin clothes as Turo, except in a different, light blue color. So... If this were Turo's people... Quick impressions came back to her one after the other.

The two Turo in the cave, his words, his hand pressed on hers, the bracelet... the bracelet.

He had made her use it. Which meant...

« Yes... Not many... Words.» she answered like in a daze. She was used to speaking mostly in her language with Turo, usually at the village , or a weird mix of the two when they were alone. Having to use only his words felt weird and unnatural.

But it looked like they had been understood, because the woman smiled brightly.

Her teeth shone as white as everything else around her.

« Good. Don't touch this-» the woman nodded towards the thing in her arm.

« It's... helping you. »

She didn't quite understand what she meant, but she was still too stunned to care. If... if she had really used the bracelet, and not died... Wait. She squirmed her hand away from the woman's hold, and grabbed the blanket that covered her to throw it off. She was wearing a thin light blue robe. Where were her clothes? Where was... The blood? ... The wound? She touched her side, and her eyes widened when she couldn't feel anything different. Not a scar, or a single scratch, ot even a single drop of blood; the skin was completely dry.

She looked back up towards the two, her eyes wide.

« H... How...?»

It was exactly like with Winged King's injury.

The man sitting beside her sighed.

« Turo, of course. He's completely fallen for her, the fool.» he muttered in a lower voice, too fast for her to understand. Her heart still skipped a beat at hearing his name. Right, she... She had heard his voice.

« You... Know Turo?»

The man didn't answer, but simply looked away, and Sada had the distinct impression that he was trying to avoid talking with her as much as possible. He was actively trying to not look at her right now, and she had no idea why.

She had never seen this man before,and had simply asked him a question.

The woman with red hair answered in his place after a couple of moments of silence.

« Yes. He is... A friend.» she cautiously sat back right next to the man, and Sada found herself staring at them.

Turo's friends. From... The future. She looked at their arms, searching for bracelets similar to his, but they didn't seem to be wearing them. One question was suddenly more urgent than anything else.

« Where is he?»

The woman smiled gently again before answering. She seemed to be making more of an effort to actually make herself understandable, talking slowly.

« He is resting. Oh, umm... Sleeping.» she added when Sada furrowed her brow, not recognizing the first word.

« I'll call him.» the man commented, seemingly only to the woman, and he got up from where he was sitting. She watched him walk towards one of the walls, and then the part of the wall directly in front of him suddenly moved, leaving her stunned. It had moved on it's own, sideways, somehow disappearing inside the piece of wall right next to it. It seemed to work quite similar to how they woud roll up a piece of pelt from a hut to make an opening, but... That had to mean they were inside. But then how could she see the sky?

She looked back up again, and the woman seemed to notice her perplexity.

« Oh, that is just ... A drawing.» she made a strange gesture with her hand, and the blue sky immediately disappeared, revealing what actually seemed to be a roof after all, same pure white colour as the walls. So what she had been looking at wasn't actually the sky? Was it seriously a drawing? It looked so real... And it had been moving!

The future was incredible.

The woman looked towards where the wall had opened just before, then back to her, her eyes suddenly slightly alarmed.

« You... Don't move, all right? Stay here. I have to, um... » she didn't finish the phrase, also disappearing through the opening.

« Where's Ortega-»

Left alone, Sada immediately got off the strange, raised platform she had been laying on. Part of it looked like some smooth blankets sewn together and stuffed with something to make it soft, but all around there were lots of little pieces she couldn't understand the meaning of. There were the letters that Turo had taught her, but they didn't spell any word she could understand. She cautiously tugged at the tube in her arm, and to her surprise the little bag tied to it followed her, floating in midair. She tried to move her arm around, and the bag always followed as soon as the cord got stretched too much. It looked like it was always trying to stay right by her, the liquid in in dripping through the cord little by little. She poked it, fascinated. It didn't really hurt.

So was this medicine? Would it leave when it got completely empty? Was it some strange creature? It... Didn't really look alive, but it was moving, so...

She cautiously moved some steps, eyes wandering all around the room in curiosity. Where actually was she? Was this their version of a hut? Narjik would sometimes keep people in his tent to look over them if they got hurt, maybe this was a similar place?

She had asked Turo to describe his home to her a couple of times, and he had spoken of... Villages that were many, many times bigger than hers, with people and creatures living in it together to the point that there was no need to build fences or be on guard against attacks. She had tried to picture it, and this... Wasn't exactly what she had had in mind, admittedly. Her eyes fell on an object that had been left near her side, and her eyes widened when she recognized it. That was Turo's notebook! So he was here! A part of her wanted to look over it, but her curiosity to explore this new, strange, place was much stronger. She cautiously approached the opening of the room, and flinched a bit when it suddenly slid open. Across it, contrary to what she expected - to step outside, and see other huts, or other similar constructions -, were... More white walls. Perfectly smooth and straight.

She frowned. It was almost starting to get a bit tiring on the eyes.

People here really loved pure, immaculate white, didn't they?

She looked around, to see the two who had been with her hurriedly discussing something. In the stream of strange, fast spoken words, she only caught a couple, and they both whirled around as soon as she stepped out.

And there, right behind them, speaking with the red haired woman and just now turning around to look at her, was...

«... Sada

She had never seen Turo's face just light up like it did in that exact moment. He stumbled towards her, raising both hands to gently touch her face, almost as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

A moment later, right as she was about to speak, he suddenly held her close against his chest; she could feel him take a deep, shivering breath, and so she simply closed her eyes and embraced him. The cave, the wound, Turo holding her as she felt herself getting weaker and weaker... It had all been real. She would have died if he hadn't brought her here. If he had arrived just a little later... And judging by the way his arms were refusing to let her go, he was probably thinking the same thing.

After a couple moments, she noticed that the dark-haired man had been anxiously watching them.

« Turo... She needs to-»

Whatever he meant with that, Turo's response seemed to be to just hold her closer. She looked between the both of them. She had the distinct impression she was missing something important. A crucial detail about what was going on.

« Just... One day, Ortega.» Turo whispered, looking up at the man.

« Please.»

"Ortega", as he had been called, took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. The red haired woman just shrugged her shoulders.

« What difference will one day make? »

Ortega lowered his hand again, and after a moment narrowed his eyes at Turo.

« ... One day. Not one hour more. »

He threw her one last look - no, it was a look directed to both of them, an equal mix of exasperation and longing, then he walked away, disappearing after turning around more white walls.

Sada stood still, not quite sure of what had just happened, but Turo was now smiling as he took her hand.

« Let's go back to your room... There are clothes for you there, and then we can go. »

She followed him back into the room where she had woken up. Go... Did he really mean what she thought he did...?

« Go...? » she repeated, just to be sure.

His smile got a bit wider.

«... To see my "world".»

---

They had to wait a bit before she could actually go. Someone wearing an all white cape similar to Turo's came in to look at her, before nodding and removing the tube from her arm. She looked at the floating bag curiously to see what it would do, biting down questions upon questions.

"They can't know where you come from. If anyone asks, you are Vega's cousin from Kalos." Turo had whispered to her before the "shaman" had walked in, stopping her from asking what a "cousin" and "Kalos" were.

So she had kept mostly quiet, letting the two natives of this place speak; now she kind of understood how Turo must have felt at her village, not understanding what people were saying, but definitely knowing that they were talking about him. She felt herself blush slightly like he had done at the time. But it was all so... Fascinating! She wanted to know how they had closed her wound so fast. How did that bag work? What was inside? Some miraculous water? If it worked on any kind of wound, she could... Bring it back to her time. But it probably only worked here...

She perked up when the shaman had left and "Vega", as the red haired woman had been introduced, pretty much pushed Turo out of the door.

W-wait, why...? What was going on now?

« All right!» she said, turning back around and clapping her hands once. She grabbed what looked like a bag and opened it up, before pushing it towards her.

« Take these off...» she motioned removing the robe she had been currently wearing, then pointed to the bag.

« ... And wear these.»

Oh! Now she understood why she had pushed Turo away. Curious, she glanced into the bag, and her eyes widened when they saw another pair of their smooth, scaley clothes like those that they were both wearing. She grinned as she took it out of the bag: she always wondered how they felt to wear! It was a warm orange color, and following Vega's instructions, she slipped into it with some difficulty. At first, she thought that it was too small for her, but to her amazement, as soon as she finished putting on one part it would stretch around her bare skin with a slight hissing sound, fitting perfectly. It could change size to who wore it! With a little smile, she suddenly realized why Turo had looked so uncomfortable when she had wanted to take his measurements. They didn't need to do it! No wonder he had acted so perplexed at first!

As soon as she was finished putting it on, the same glowing lines that Turo also had suddenly lit up, but in a similar orange hue to the rest of the robes.

She had thought that it would feel sticky and suffocating, clinging so close to her skin, but it was the exact opposite. It felt incredibly light, and perfectly comfortable, neither too hot or too warm. Compared to the layers and layers of furs and coats she was used to wearing, it was almost like she wasn't wearing anything at all. And that made her stop for a moment and turn towards the redhead.

« My... My clothes...?»

Vega simply smiled.

« Turo has them, don't worry.»

After she had finished getting dressed, Vega called Turo back inside. He stopped as soon as he had entered the room, staring at her with a weird expression. He looked... Conflicted. The little smile that came to his lips was happy, but it took a long, heavy moment to reach his eyes.

There was still... some crucial detail she was sure she was missing about what was going on.

But then he moved closer, looking at her with so much warmth and pure relief that she decided that it could wait until later.

« These clothes feel so good! And the lights, how do they work? And the way it stretches... I need to see what they are made of!»

Turo simply laughed softly, taking her hand in his as he lead her again toward the exit of the room.

« I'll explain. I want to show you... so many things.» he answered after a moment. The fact that, for once, it was his turn to take her hand and lead the way as they left wasn't lost on her. It had been her role for so long, she had done it so many times; she was used to hearing his steps (and more than occasional tripping) stumble right behind her, to have to steal glances at him over her shoulder, watching over him, that finding herself in the opposite role felt completely novel, almost surreal. She wasn't used to seeing him look so... confident, in a way, she thought as she stared at his broad back, quietly illuminated by the glowing lines on his clothes.

She... liked it, she realized. Sada had initially fallen in love with his more awkward side, his strangeness that had made him so endearing... but she also really liked this side of him, the one he had started to show as soon as he had told her the truth about where he came from.

She walked quietly behind him as they walked past more and more doors and walls that looked just like the one she had woken up in, often crossing more people dressed in similar white capes.

« Are these all shamans...?» she whispered to him, eyes wide. If so many people's role was to watch over who got injured, then it was no wonder that they were able to cure so many types of wounds like hers.

« They are called "doctors" here. And yes, they all work here.» he answered, and she couldn't help but marvel at the idea. This place was so big, how many people were part of his tribe if they had so many "doctors"?

The answer came to her shortly after, as they walked out of the "hospital" and she found herself, for the first time, outside in Turo's time. The fact that they had been inside all this time had also amazed her, thinking about how much time and resources it must have taken to built that entire place, but all of that got washed away like branches floating down a river during a flood by what was suddenly thrust in front of her eyes. Her first impression was "bright". Too bright. Everything seemed to shine and sparkle and move, in a dozen of different colors that she simply wasn't used to seeing. And everything was... too much, in a way. Too spacious. Too loud. Too big. She felt unable to breath as she stared at the dozens and dozens of people all around her, the towering buildings made of shining stone that completely dwarfed the hospital they had just come out of that rose in front and all around her. Her chest hurt, her eyes hurt, and she felt herself start to tremble in simple shock, overwhelmed by everything going on around her all at once.

She didn't know... she had no idea that... there could be so much...

« Hey-» and then Turo was suddenly in front of her, cupping her face in his hands.

« ... look at me. Just me. All right? Breathe... » he instructed her, and she slowly resumed breathing, focusing on his face. His eyes, now filled with worry as he caressed her face, then annoyance as some people gathered around and he shot them a glare.

« She's fine, just a little overwhelmed, kindly give us some space-»

He positioned himself so that she wouldn't have to look at anything else but him, and she slowly regained some semblance of control over herself. She felt foolish, having gotten so... overwhelmed by simply stepping outside.

« Let's take this... slowly. Remember when you saved me from that Brutal Fang?» Turo was talking and she focused on his voice as they resumed walking, grateful, as she followed him with quiet little steps. Was he trying to distract her? Or did he simply want to make her think back to that moment?

« I... also felt so lost in that moment. Every noise in the forest was new, and scary.» he added, and she realized that yes, he was trying to both make her calm down and to comfort her by retelling his own experience. Right, of course... for him, coming to her would have been as difficult and maybe overwhelming as it was for her now.

« I didn't think... there could be... so many people... all in one place.» she answered after a moment, hazarding a little, almost fearful glance all around. It just... made her head spin, to think of all these people that were walking by. How did they even manage to organize their life? How did they decide who did what? Where did they get enough food to feed everyone? There was no way you could speak personally with everyone.

« Are these all... your tribe?»

Turo turned around, a trace of his little sad smile on his lips again.

« Yes... and no. Tribes are bigger here... but you only know a small part of the whole tribe.» he explained, and she quietly thought about it for a moment. She had to admit that she didn't really understand the purpose of calling it a tribe, then... but she appreciated that he had still explained it. That was another thing she had always liked about him. From the very first times they had met, when they both knew only a handful of words each and could barely communicate with each other, having to resort to drawings and plenty of miming, he had never thought her... incapable of understanding something. Sometimes he would avoid the question completely, but it had never been because he thought her too stupid to understand. And she appreciated it, and had done the same in return, teaching him how to light a fire or recognize tracks from various creatures... all the many, little things she had thought had to be obvious but obviously weren't.

She suddenly jumped a bit, startled, when she suddenly saw some strange creature following a group of kids. She had a quick moment of panic as she tried and failed to instinctually grab her spear only to find none, before she realized that the creature wasn't a threat. Small and birdlike, it had a smooth, shiny skin with glowing blue lines. Half of it's body was red and the other half was white, and it had a big, round tail that glowed blue and looked almost filled with water. It waddled peacefully after the three kids, with glowing eyes that looked like they were made from many little dots of blue light, almost like an insect's. Sada stared at it as they walked past; it really paid them no mind, not even turning around to look at them. The creature made her remember something else, and her eyes widened as she walked a bit faster to get to Turo's side, suddenly frantic.

« Winged King! He was attacked... is he all right?»

He hadn't gotten injured again, had he? Turo reassured her with a small smile.

« He is fine. He is waiting back... in your time. You'll see him tomorrow.» he added, looking away towards the nearest shining construction they were walking past. Sada looked at him for a moment - something in his words had struck her as strange- but right as she opened her mouth to ask him for more details, the next wondrous sight distracted her from what she wanted to say and she couldn't help but simply stare in amazement. As they were walking, the wall had lit up and a great number of pictures and writing had appeared on it. It flashed too fast for her to read, but she was more enraptured by the pictures. They were so lifelike... and they were moving, and talking! Was this why Turo was so good at drawing things? If people here were able to draw pictures that looked like this... that had to be the reason!

« It's... it's moving!» she stopped herself just short of pointing, but she couldn't help the amazed whisper that escaped her lips. She looked up at Turo, eyes shining.

« Can you make drawings move? How does it work?»

He looked at her for a moment, then to the wall, and smiled softly.

« ... It's simple, actually. I will show you. But first... I want to show you another thing.» he answered, leading her toward one of the many, incredibly tall buildings.

By now, she was used to the opening sliding open, but she still wasn't really ready for what was inside. It looked like some sort of communal place, because there was quite the number of people inside, sitting on colored seats in little groups. A delicious smell was in the air, even if she could see no signs of fire or anywhere else that suggested that something was cooking.

« Is this where you eat?» she asked in another whisper, and he laughed as they sat down in an empty corner.

« Yes! Here...» he moved his hand, and she jumped a little when a glowing... sheet? It looked a bit like a notebook page, materialized in front of him. It was full of writing and other incredibly realistic drawings. She watched, fascinated, as he moved his hand in the air, and the drawings moved reacting to his command. She timidly raised one hand and tried to do the same by touching the glowing page, but her finger passed right through it. What... could only Turo touch it? Why? She tried to poke it another couple of times, a bit disappointed, before Turo took her hand in his and guided her into making the same movement. This time, with his hand wrapped around hers, it worked, and the drawings started to move, sliding in front of her one after the other. They were all kinds of food she had never seen before.

« "W-a-f-f-l-e-s"?» she read outloud after a moment, pausing over a drawing in particular that caught her eye. They looked so strange... perfectly square but soft, with what looked like some kind of colored berry juice over it.

« ... you eat this? Really?» she asked, a bit skeptical as she stared at the little squares. But... she figured that he had eaten with them often all the times he had visited, and never complained, so she could do the same and trust him. She watched as Turo touched the drawing, and it disappeared.

So they could just... pick a type of food and it would be ready? She figured that someone's role was obviously to prepare it for everyone, but... That was still incredible. How did they get so much food?

« How do the drawings move?»

Turo made another glowing page appear, this time empty. He drew a tiny, heavily stilized human figure, with both arms and legs spread out.

« They... don't really move. They are called a "video". A video is made of many, many, um... drawings.» he explained in a low voice, drawing another human figure, this time with one arm half raised over it's head. And then another, this time with the arm completely raised.

« If you look at the three drawings really fast...» he moved his hand again, and the three drawings started to move in a circle in front of her, one after the other. After keeping her eyes on one for a moment, she understood what he meant.

« They look like one drawing that moves!» she grinned as she watched the little figure wave. With just three drawings, the illusion was pretty crude, but if you supposedly showed... dozens, or hundreds of pictures in a single moment... it was brilliant. Such a simple idea, but... brilliant.

« But then... how can it talk?» she immediately asked, and Turo's smile dimmed a bit. With a little amusement she recognized the telltale signs of him getting embarassed as he looked away.

« That is... more difficult to explain-» he confessed with a grimace, and she laughed. Meanwhile, their food had arrived... or it was better to say her food, since it looked like Turo hadn't gotten anything.

« You aren't eating?» she asked, and he just shook his head. She cautiously looked at the "waffles". The smell was... really good actually, and they were still warm. She hesitantly picked one up with her hands breaking off a piece -missing Turo's suddenly alarmed face- and stuck it in her mouth.

Her eyes grew wide with shock. It was... sweet. Just so sweet! She looked at the weirdly gooey substance that had been dripped all over it with new eyes as she hungrily devoured the rest of it, her body instinctually craving the sweetness and rush of energy that came with it.

« You... always eat this...?» she asked almost in a daze when she was finished. She felt ashamed by the fact that she had pretty much... ignored him in the (admittedly very short) time it had taken her to finish eating every last crumb, but... she had never eaten anything like it. Something that tasted so good and made her focus on nothing else but just wanting more of it...

« No... too much is bad for you.» Turo answered after a moment with a little smile.

« But... just one time... it's fine.» he added as he looked away, so low that she almost missed it. What... did he mean by that?

« Turo... what is going on...?»

There was a little pause, and he smiled as he stood up, taking both of her hands in his.

« ... nothing. You're fine. Everything's fine. Come... I want to show you... a very special place.» there was still something she couldn't place in his smile. It felt forced, like he was putting up a front. Like he had put on his old mask, but instead of the carefully neutral and controlled expression, this time it was a pained smile.

« What... what place?» she asked.

What could be more incredible than everything he was already showing her?

Turo turned around as soon as they had stepped outside, and now she could see that his smile had become genuine, his eyes crinkling the slightest bit. For him, it may as well have been the equivalent of erupting into laughter. He pointed towards the sky, and she followed his finger up... and up... and up, her eyes widening when she they landed on something specific. But... there was no way... he couldn't really mean...

« The Moon.»
 
Last edited:

HelloYellow17

Gym Leader
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. suicune
  2. umbreon
  3. mew
  4. lycanroc-wes
  5. leafeon-rui
Eheheheh, I’ve already read chapter 16 and 17 on AO3, but I am very happy you ported 16 over here, because it would be harder to review on Ao3 without the quote feature!

AAAAA what a chapter!! And what a freaking emotional rollercoaster. So many sweet and tender moments, but they’re all tinged with such a palpable sadness from Turo, which is only compounded by the fact that poor Sada has no idea what’s going on…even though the readers have an inkling. 🥲 THANKS, I HATE IT. (It’s so good, give me more.)

The two creatures were roaring at each other as they struggled in a tangle of limbs. Winged King was pinned underneath, trying to get the other dragon off him; it finally managed to rear one leg up and violently kick his opponent in the stomach, sending the other dragon flying. It quickly got back up, as did her partner, and the two dragons sized each other up for a moment, before the rival got down on all fours and rushed close again, swiping at Winged King with his claws. This time however the dragon looked ready: it roared and stood his ground, grabbing the opponent with both front legs to stop its charge, and both creatures were sent crashed against a tree. After that, it became a furious exchange of blows; snow flew all around mixed with feathers as the dragons thrashed around, swiping and kicking at each other.
Man this is so RAW. You really captured the sheer power both of these beasts have, how terrifying it must be to be so close, how wild and feral and ferocious they both are as they tear at each other. It would have been cool to see more elemental attacks in this fight, just to drive home that powerful Pokémon aspect, but it’s still excellent.

She had never seen a creature look at her with hate like the dragon was doing now. It snarled, then launched himself at her with all his strength, raising one clawed arm high.
Oof, this Koraidon really has a bone to pick with everybody. Truly lives up to the scary aggressive depiction we see if the other Koraidon in the games.

« You've been by her side for hours, you need to go to sleep.»

« I can sleep here.»


She felt a warmth spread in her chest at the second voice, because that was Turo's voice, and he sounded right next to her.
😭 so sweet. Of course he stayed by her side, but I also love her response to recognizing his voice.

Who were this people...?
“This” should be “these”!

Where were her clothes? Where was... The blood? ... The wound? She touched her side, and her eyes widened when she couldn't feel anything different. Not a scar, or a single scratch, ot even a single drop of blood; the skin was completely dry.
Wow, that’s pretty dang impressive. Pokémon healing quickly and completely is one thing, because they’ve always had remarkable healing capabilities. But being able to go the same thing to a human? That’s even more incredible. I was so sure she’d at least have scars.

The man didn't answer, but simply looked away, and Sada had the distinct impression that he was trying to avoid talking with her as much as possible. He was actively trying to not look at her right now, and she had no idea why.
Oof, this is rough too. Of course he’d be trying to minimize his interactions with her. Ortega and Vega really put themselves in a rough spot to help Turo, and they are absolute MVPs for it.

«... Sada

She had never seen Turo's face just light up like it did in that exact moment. He stumbled towards her, raising both hands to gently touch her face, almost as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

A moment later, right as she was about to speak, he suddenly held her close against his chest; she could feel him take a deep, shivering breath, and so she simply closed her eyes and embraced him. The cave, the wound, Turo holding her as she felt herself getting weaker and weaker... It had all been real. She would have died if he hadn't brought her here. If he had arrived just a little later... And judging by the way his arms were refusing to let her go, he was probably thinking the same thing.
The HUG, the FACE TOUCHING 😭 it’s so good, I love every bit of it. They’re precious.

« What difference will one day make? »

Ortega lowered his hand again, and after a moment narrowed his eyes at Turo.

« ... One day. Not one hour more. »
I am honestly shocked that Ortega agreed to this. He really is a softie, despite his urgency and concerns.

He threw her one last look - no, it was a look directed to both of them, an equal mix of exasperation and longing, then he walked away, disappearing after turning around more white walls.
Ah, that explains it. He probably wishes he could have had such an opportunity with his love. Man, I’m so sad for him. :(

« I'll explain. I want to show you... so many things.» he answered after a moment. The fact that, for once, it was his turn to take her hand and lead the way as they left wasn't lost on her. It had been her role for so long, she had done it so many times; she was used to hearing his steps (and more than occasional tripping) stumble right behind her, to have to steal glances at him over her shoulder, watching over him, that finding herself in the opposite role felt completely novel, almost surreal. She wasn't used to seeing him look so... confident, in a way, she thought as she stared at his broad back, quietly illuminated by the glowing lines on his clothes.
Yaaaas the long-awaited role reversal! That’s seriously one of the best things about this story’s particular premise. We get to see both leads severely out of their element, like a fish out of water, learning everything from scratch like a child while the other leads the way and guides them through it. And it’s so sweet to see the comparisons, how they both respond differently to being the stranger in a strange world, and how the other gently and lovingly shows them the way. FREAKING GOOD STUFF.

She didn't know... she had no idea that... there could be so much...

« Hey-» and then Turo was suddenly in front of her, cupping her face in his hands.

« ... look at me. Just me. All right? Breathe... » he instructed her, and she slowly resumed breathing, focusing on his face. His eyes, now filled with worry as he caressed her face, then annoyance as some people gathered around and he shot them a glare.

« She's fine, just a little overwhelmed, kindly give us some space-»
Yeah, not at all surprising that she has this reaction initially. And still, she takes it all in stride and rolls with it so well! Love the little glimpse we see of Protective Turo as he glares people away, heh.

« You aren't eating?» she asked, and he just shook his head.
Sir, you really need to eat more.

« But... just one time... it's fine.» he added as he looked away, so low that she almost missed it. What... did he mean by that?
Agh, my heart :( I’m so sad!! I know where this is ultimately leading and I don’t like it.

He pointed towards the sky, and she followed his finger up... and up... and up, her eyes widening when she they landed on something specific. But... there was no way... he couldn't really mean...

« The Moon.»
Ahahahaha I was NOT expecting that. Showing someone from the Stone Age a supremely technologically advanced society for all of one hour and then heading straight to the moon?! 😂 if it were anyone other than Sada, it would have been way too much to handle. But this is Sada, and she can roll with anything, so of course she’ll be down for it!
 
Chapter 17: After Hours, part II

Nekodatta

Pokémon Trainer
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. koraidon-apex
  2. miraidon-ultimate
  3. skitty
Chapter 17: After Hours, part II
"One day, not one hour more"

Ortega's words had come to put a definitive end to his time with Sada. In the hours while he waited for her to wake up and her wound to heal completely, he had nervously expected Moreau to come marching in at every moment, asking about their missed jumps. While it hadn't happened -yet-, everyone present knew that Sada had to leave as soon as possible. Getting her admitted to the hospital without an ID or any other form of identification had been complicated enough; he was pretty sure that it had only been possible because Ortega had pulled some strings in the background, convincing the doctors to not ask too many questions and pretend to not have seen anything, from having no previous medical records of past treatments or any kind of medical history at all. Treating her had fortunately been their priority.

After a bit, they had allowed the three of them inside. He had kept vigil by the side of her bed -was this the first real bed she had ever slept in? The first and last?-, anxiously watching for any sign of trouble. His paranoia had been in full overdrive: maybe something they used was actually harmful to people of the past. Maybe they were missing some crucial antibody that everyone in his time had instead.

When he had suddenly seen her after she had woken up, he could barely believe his eyes: it was still so surreal for him to see Sada in his time, wearing a hospital gown of all things. He took her in his arms and held her tight, hoping against all reason to never have to let go. But of course, reality was not so kind. Twenty four hours. Twenty four short, precious hours to spend here together with Sada.

He had walked her back to her room almost in a daze, at least until Vega had pretty much pushed him to wait outside as she got changed. And when he had seen her after coming back in... wearing one of Vega's bodysuits and looking almost like she could have been any passerby he could cross while walking down the street... it hurt so much. A part of him had been happy, the other... had just been angry. Why couldn't she...? Why couldn't she simply have been born in the same time period as him?

Twenty four hours.

No time to think about it. It's not like he wouldn't have more than enough time to lament the fact after those twenty four hours...

After finishing all final medical check ups, Turo led her outside: he was so used to being the one following her, walking after her and trying not to embarrass himself by stumbling too much and falling flat on his face that suddenly doing the opposite was particularly strange. It just made him all the more conscious of the situation they were in; she had showed him so much in the months they had spent together and known each other, while he... he only had-

Twenty three hours.

Turo stopped and turned around when he suddenly felt Sada not following him anymore, to find her standing almost paralyzed just outside the hospital entrance. Her eyes were unfocused, staring at the skyscrapers and multitude of people all around her, and her chest was rising and falling quickly. With a little surge of panic, he stopped in front of her.

« Hey » he raised both hands to gently hold her. Was she feeling ill? Maybe the wound hadn't closed up completely? But the doctor had reassured him that she was perfectly okay... then he saw her eyes dart frantically left and right, and suddenly understood. All these people, all this strange sights... she was completely overwhelmed. When the most number of people you had ever seen together in your life barely reached the triple digits, no wonder she had gone in complete shock. The culture shock had to be incredible. Even if traveling so far back had been a surprise to him, he had at least a general idea of how things were at the time. Preconceptions. Stereotypes, even, from the typical representation of the era done in media and pop culture. As wrong as some of them were, he at least had something to refer to. Sada had nothing of the sort, and nothing could have prepared her to suddenly finding herself at the opposite end of human civilization.

He stood in front of her, holding her close so she could focus on him completely, one thing at a time.

He glared at the well-meaning people that had gotten close, knowing that they would just involuntarily make it worse.

« She's fine, just a little overwhelmed, kindly give us some space-» he muttered before going back to focus on her. She slowly resumed breathing, and after a moment, they started walking again. He threw a sideways look at Sada that was following along, almost curled up against him, looking around with little glances. He smiled a bit sadly. She was so brave. Even in a place that may as well be completely alien to her, she was already examining her surroundings one thing at a time.

He headed for a little café; maybe a more enclosed space would be better to get used to things little by little. And... He wanted to have her try some good food for once. Something that she wouldn't really be able to get in her time, and he figured that sweet things were the best choice; people had treasured sugar and honey for most of human history for a good reason, after all. It was a precious source of energy, tasted amazing and made you crave more exactly because it had been so scarce to find for most of civilization.

Turo led her inside, watching as her eyes lit up at the unfamiliar space and kept darting around, trying to take in everything at once.

He was content to simply... Watch her as she tried waffles and even then kept asking questions. He would miss these moments. As Sada was busy finishing the waffles he briefly put his left hand into his lab coat pocket; maybe Ortega had a point in saying he liked to wear it where it had no business being, but it was occasionally... Convenient. The one thing his bodysuit lacked were pockets; because of course, he barely had any necessity for the classic things you would have used them for. Wallet, cards, house keys? All digital now and linked to his ID anyway, all accessible at a swipe of his fingers. Miraidon was almost always out of his Ball, so even that was out. Really the most use he had got out of them had been in the past. But now he touched a little square box in it, debating taking it out as he threw a glance at Sada by his side. No... Better wait.

She was too perceptive. He didn't want to ruin the rest of the day by having her notice what was going on.

Twenty two and a half hours.

---

As soon as they got out of the cafe, he took Sada's hand again and headed for the nearest teleporter. Since last time she had been unconscious, this would be her first time actually seeing one in use, and he tried to think of a way on how to explain what was going to happen to her... but since she had technically already used a time-anchor, it wouldn't be that different if he put it in those terms.

Looking to his side, he saw that she was still walking with her nose in the air, staring incredulously at the moon.

« Are we... really going there? It's not a... joke? One night you said... it's so far away you can't fly there.»

... on second thought, maybe using a teleporter would barely be worth mentioning.

« Only if you fly on a creature. We are using... something more powerful.» he answered with a smile, and could pretty much see the gears in her head start turning as she tried to picture it.

Turo made sure that she was holding on tight as they stepped into the teleporter - since she didn't have an ID, she pretty much couldn't directly interact with most of the technology anyway- and headed for the nearest spaceport where the shuttle would depart from. The fact that he had to waste six precious hours total for the trip pained him, but... there wasn't much he could do about it. He would try to make the most out of them in some way.

He got ready for departure and did the same for Sada, who was too busy examining every inch of their seat to notice some curious stares at her reaction. Her gaze focused on the monitors that appeared over their seat, and once again she tried to touch it to interact with it, her eyes going wide at seeing the little snippets of ads about various facilities on the moon.

« There are... people there?» she whispered, amazed. Turo couldn't help a little chuckle.

« Yes, people live there.» there was a little pause, as he offered his hand for her to hold and use it to interact with the screens.

« ... I lived there.» he confessed after a moment with a little grin, waiting for her reaction. She looked at him with wide eyes, not saying anything.

« When I was a child, for... four warm and four cold seasons. Then I left.» and he didn't exactly like the Moon much after leaving it, for... various reasons.

« How... is it there? Are there different creatures?» she whispered, and he smiled.

« You'll see.» he simply answered. She snuggled up against his chest as the engines quietly started up, idly swiping through promotional images, eyes shining, and he slowly put his chin on her head, wrapping one arm around her to hold her close.


---

They docked exactly three hours later -nineteen hours left-, and he helped her get up and approach the exit.

« This will be... A bit strange. Follow me.» he tried to warn her with a little smile as he jumped out and Sada stared at him in confusion, not really understanding what he meant as she copied him. The girl yelped when the jump made her fly farther than she expected, thrown off by the lower gravity . Even as he wasn't faring that much better, he caught her in midair by the arm and laughed as they landed back on the ground together. She was staring at the ground in total amazement, mouth hanging half open.

« W-what...? H-how...» she tried to jump again, and laughed in delight when she slowly floated back to the ground instead of dropping like normal.

« You... you can fly here?!» she exclaimed, totally fascinated as she tried to copy a couple of passerby and hop forward, dragging him with her. Turo simply followed, smiling.

« Is the Moon... all like this?» she asked, turning back to look at him, eyes shining.

« Yes. Umm... it's called "gravity".» he wondered how to explain it to someone lacking the basics of physics. Not that he was exactly an expert himself, not really his field and all...

« It...changes how heavy something is. Every... "world" has different "gravity"... so on the Moon, things are not so heavy.»

He saw it in her eyes, how they widened as she took in his words and, as usual, her wonderful, bright mind already started racing ahead with all its implications.

« So... "Earth" is one world... where me and you live... and the "Moon" is another... and... you said every star in the sky is like a sun, and every sun has their own worlds... where "gravity" and everything is different...» she took a long, heavy breath.

« There is... so much out there... and you can go to all these worlds?» she whispered, and he had to smile a bit.

« ... no. My people have found three different worlds. The others are far, far away...» she looked astonished at hearing that not even they could go to these far away planets, and looked away for a bit, mulling it over as they walked - more like half hopped, half flotated- their way towards the city center. He wanted to bring her towards a little plaza, where an observation deck was set up, looking out directly on the Moon's surface, with Earth visible right behind it.

Meanwhile, Sada was looking all around, taking in the sights of people who lived here.

The shops, the restaurants, the cramped little apartments, even the Pokémon walking around.

He quietly wondered what she was thinking about: how was that sentence from that ancient sci-fi author? "Any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic."

When everything around you was so removed from your understanding of the world that it may as well be a different reality... what did that feel like?

Was it exciting? Was it scary? Overwhelming?

As soon as they reached the observation deck, Sada gasped and ran up (more like shot forward) to the thick transparent panel that divided the moon base from the cold space outside, almost pressing her face to it.

« The sky is so dark! But it's still day... we didn't fly for long.» she noted, and he had to be impressed with her internal clock not getting messed up.

« The sky is always dark out here. It's... err, difficult to explain.» he noted as he walked up behind her. He pointed at something a bit far away.

« That is Earth. We flew all the way from there.» he said, prompting her to look at it and suddenly become very still. After a couple of long seconds, she simply quietly wrapped her arms around him and put her head on his shoulder.

« It's... it's so small. Is that really... Earth? The whole world?» she whispered, and now she sounded almost... scared. He could understand why. It looked so... lonely in a sense. This blue sphere suspended in a sea of cold black. He had only vague memories of being a toddler and having that single image as his only idea of Earth for the first four years of his life. It was so far away you couldn't even see the various landmasses... just blue and the clouds. Yet down there were entire continents, and civilizations, and hundreds of Pokémons that had risen and fallen out of memory... all in that little blue sphere hanging on the horizon, small enough he could cover it with one hand.

« ... are you afraid? » he asked after a moment with a small frown. Maybe... it had been too much to show her? It was sometimes difficult for him to wrap his mind around it, he couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like for her. Sada shook her head, tingling his neck with her hair.

« No, it's... I don't know the word.» she confessed.

« It's... so small and so big. Together. So many... places, and people, and creatures.... all over there. I... I want to see them. Even more.» she said after a moment. Now her eyes were shining again, and she looked at Earth with so much eagerness and wonder that it just broke his heart.

« You... you will.» Turo whispered and she smiled when he planted a soft kiss on her hair. They stood there for a long while, side by side, looking at Earth, a single moment in time where they would be looking at the same exact planet, the same scenery... and then it was gone.

« ... come. Let's go eat something.» he said eventually, taking her hand and leading her further into the Moon base. There was still so much to show her.

---

By the time the shuttle descended back to Earth, it was evening. After the first hour of flight, Sada had fallen asleep propped up against him, her head on his shoulder, and he tried to move as little as possible to not wake her.

Something so mundane for him, that he even found kind of annoying (he still hated the Moon) would be the experience of a lifetime for her, something she would probably look back on for the rest of her life... he tucked back a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her face, then quietly took a picture of her sleeping, saving it with one gesture to his account. He then stopped, suddenly struck by a thought. Was this why... He would block his account to be accessed in the future? Those couple of months ago during his trip to the future thirty years from now, if he had accidentally opened it and saw a picture of Sada unmistakably in his time... Or even simply noticed that a picture of her existed at all, not a pen sketch he had done in his notebook... He would have freaked out big time.

He let out an exhausted sigh, pinching his nose with his free hand. The wonders of time travel... He looked back down to Sada and smiled softly.

... Just twelve hours left.

As they got down from the shuttle, Sada immediately looked up, and he knew that she was looking for the moon they had just left. And there, for the first time in hours, he saw her smile disappear. Her eyes widened and flicked around.

« Where... Where are the stars...?» she whispered with a trace of fear, huddling close as she followed him. He followed her gaze, taking a moment to notice what she meant.

« There is too much light, so you can't see them.» he explained after a moment. Light pollution was way too high to see the stars in the vicinity of pretty much any major city. Sada frowned, lowering her eyes and seeming to think for a moment, before shaking her head.

« I don't... like it. It feels wrong.» she sounded almost guilty in saying it.

« Why do you need so much light? It's night.»

Turo could see why she would think that, it was probably unnatural to her. He looked back to the towering skyscrapers with their bright lights all around them, trying to think of an appropriate answer as they slowly walked towards a teleporter to get to his apartment.

« Because... We can do more things at night this way.» he tried after a moment. Sada didn't look convinced even as she followed. He noticed that it looked like she was trying to avoid glancing upwards too much, like not seeing the stars made her uncomfortable.

« Why? Don't you sleep at night?»

Turo gave her a somewhat embarrassed smile.

« Not... Not every night. I sleep when I... can.» his sleep schedule had been an absolute mess even before he started time traveling, but by now after having to get used to landing in different times of the day as when he departed, it couldn't even be called a "schedule" anymore. It was pretty much "sleep when you collapse from exhaustion and that's it".

Sada frowned again, looking equal parts confused and somewhat disappointed.

« So... There is no difference from day to night? It's all the same?» she asked after a moment, and he had to nod after a second.

« That's... Strange.»

When day and night were pretty much the only form of establishing a routine you had, it probably was.

« It's... A different life.» he commented.

As they stepped into a teleporter, holding her close to allow her to use his ID, Turo marveled at how quickly Sada had seemed to adapt to... Everything. She obviously wouldn't know what it was, or how it worked, or how exactly it did something... But those were all questions she could file away for later in her mind, and she knew how to use something in the meantime. She was probably used to thinking in those terms for pretty much everything in her life. And there were so many questions she would never get the occasion to see answered. Could he try to answer all her questions about how the teleporter, and the shuttle, and gravity worked? Yes, he had tried to... But a part of him now wondered if maybe it wasn't a bit... Cruel. To give her just one taste, one brief glimpse of there being so so many things in the world... And then... Taking it all away.

But Sada was... Strong. He believed in her. He knew that she wouldn't think it frustrating. It would just give her an even bigger incentive to... Explore, and experiment, and discover, in her own time.

Maybe she would straight up go and invent the wheel or something equally ludicrous millennia before first traces were found of it, he thought with a little amused huff as they stepped outside the teleporter. Sada raised one eyebrow.

« Why are you laughing?»

« Ah... Nothing.»

She pouted, obviously not believing him.

« You are thinking of something stupid when you do that.» her reply just made him snort again. He would miss this so much. And now that he thought about it... If she got inspired by looking at Winged King, he wouldn't put it past her to figure out the wheel much earlier than when it started becoming common. Turo could already picture her building a little wagon out of wood and attaching a saddle and harness to the dragon to transport supplies.

He was shaken out of his half daydream by the sound of his apartment door opening... And Miraidon barreling towards him to greet him. The Pokémon drew a surprised shout from Sada, who went to push him aside without hesitation... Probably by pure habit by now.

« No, it's fine! He's Miraidon! » Turo hurried to explain, causing both to stop. Sada still with one hand with a death grip on his shoulder, and Miraidon by having skidded to a stop in front of them to study the unknown person.

« Gyaa?»

« Mirai... don...?» Sada was staring at the purple dragon, shocked, and Turo could perfectly imagine what she was thinking about. The weird familiarity of the two Pokémon looking so similar in many ways, yet completely different at the same time was quite jarring.

« This is Miraidon?» she repeated, cautiously moving a step towards it as the purple dragon tasted the air with his tongue before approaching. She wasn't wearing her usual clothes, but maybe there were still traces of Winged King's smell on her?

Turo stroked the Pokémon's neck as the two seemed to examine each other, and the dragon let out one of his low chirps, nuzzling him. Sada slowly moved one hand to copy him, smiling a bit as soon as she touched the dragon's plating.

« The scales are so... Smooth. Just like your clothes. You two look good together!» she laughed and Miraidon growled happily, opening his mouth to lick her.

« Mirai come on, don't do that-» he tried to stop the lizard, but Sada didn't seem to mind, now stroking the Pokémon's rigid antennae and examining them with wide eyes, probably already comparing them to Winged King's feathers.

« He feels... colder than Winged King. And this sound...» she stopped for a moment to lean her ear against the dragon's throat, to better hear the low buzzing sound emanating from his body.

« ... it's like Fluffyhead when he throws thunder. Does he have the same power?» she asked, completely intrigued.

« He does!» he looked between the Pokémon and the girl, smiling a bit. Never would he have imagined to see them stand side by side in front of his apartment. On the spur of the moment, he turned towards the dragon.

« Buddy... how do you feel about giving Sada here a tour of the city?» he proposed. The dragon's happy roar at the prospect of going riding couldn't help but make him grin in excitement. Sada looked at them both, not quite sure of what he had said.

« What...?» she asked.

« Wait here with him. I'm going to get something.» he said, enjoying her little puzzled expression as he disappeared into the apartment.

He should have a spare helmet and riding gear somewhere...

---

Sada had looked puzzled when he had told her to wear the helmet to protect herself.

« But... we ride Winged King without wearing anything.»

Yes, and he had found it a bit terrifying. He had gotten used to it by now, and honestly had gone on his fair share of dumb helmet-less rides in his teenager years, or when they just needed to glide a short distance. But the helmet was also useful for not getting easily identified if he... uh... kind of, sort of broke the law a tad bit by riding Miraidon in his battle form. Which is what they were doing now.

Sada had laughed as the Pokémon had jumped into the air directly from his apartment's balcony, first gliding until they reached the street and then riding briefly until they were out of town. There, it had shifted forms, and now they were blitzing over Mesagoza again as the Pokémon flew at full speed, watching the lights of the city pass under them like a sea of fallen stars. Turo felt Sada's arms wrapped around his waist relax a bit as she leaned against his back, and he wished against all reason for this moment to last forever.

With a sigh trapped by the helmet's visor, he tapped Miraidon's neck with one hand and pointed out a place where he could land. The great, imposing wall of complete black that towered over the northern part of the city and that run around the entire central part of the region of Paldea. The Great Crater of Paldea was visible from almost any point in the region, a reminder of it's long and bloddy history. They landed on the edge of the crater, facing the city and looking at the spectactle of Mesagoza at night. The warm glow of all the city lights, the Academy right underneat them, the University that had been built near that... but as soon as she removed her helmet Sada still looked up, and frowned at the black sky. Compared to what she was used to seeing, it looked almost empty.

Turo smiled a bit sadly.

« ... You don't like it here.» it wasn't a question. He sat down on the cold ground, and Sada followed. Miraidon sat on his haunches a couple of meters behind them, on guard against wild Pokémon from around the crater.

Sada took a moment to answer.

« I... I like all the things your people have built. You... don't have to worry about food. Hunting. The cold. You live with creatures, explore... new worlds. It's... amazing. But... I think you also have... lost something. You... live alone? Only with Miraidon?» she asked, picking up a couple of pebbles and turning them around in her hands, head low.

« You showed me so many things... but I still don't know anything about your people. Vega and... that other man, Ortega... are they part of your family? Your... "tribe"? I don't know.» she asked looking back up at him, and he felt like a small knife had just been twisted in his gut. He... well, of course he couldn't exactly show her around like she had done with him. He would have loved to, to spend more days with her, weeks, months, but... it just couldn't happen. She wasn't even supposed to be here. Vega and Ortega were probably busy covering for him so he didn't completely lose his job. And... he couldn't exactly show up to his old parents's house in Medali and go "This is the woman I love. She's from the Late Paleolithic. Yeah, she's a hunter-gatherer in the Last Ice Age. Cool, huh?"

They... they didn't have enough time.

« Things are... different, here.» he tried to say, and Sada simply nodded. He put his hand into his pocket, touching the little package that had sat in it since he had bought it. Should he... give it to her now? Or... tomorrow morning... not even twelve hours left.

Maybe he should...

« What is that? It's so big...» he jerked in surprise as Sada turned around, pointing at something at his back. He turned... only to find himself staring at the black, featureless abyss that was the inside of the Crater at night.

« That's Area Zero.» he said, voice neutral. « There's nothing there. Only wild Pokémon... um, creatures.» he watched as Sada threw one of the pebbles down the edge, and it was immediately swallowed by the darkness as it rolled down. The sound of it falling down took a bit more to disappear, until it also was gone.

« Can we go there...? » she was already getting up, and he stopped her by putting one hand on her shoulder.

« No... no one can go. In the past... many people went inside. They were convinced there was treasure-»

« What is a treasure?»

Turo hesitated, caught by surprise by the way the conversation was going.

« It's... something... you want. Something... important to you. More than anything in the world. I guess...» he added, confused. Well, for the people of the past he was thinking of, it was probably treasure in a more literal sense, but how could he start to explain gold and riches or whatever to Sada when they didn't even have the concept of money?

« Anyway... many people went inside, many times. They all died. Then, my people finally also went inside the crater, after a lot of time.»

Sada was listening with fascination.

« And what was there...?»

Turo just shrugged.

« Nothing. Nothing special. If there was something special there in the past... some "treasure"... it's not there anymore.»

Sada pouted, disappointed, and he couldn't help but smile a little at her face. She sat back down and put her head on his shoulder.

« If there is nothing there... here. In this time... we can go see in my time.» she proposed after a moment with a smile. He looked down at her, stunned, the smile disappearing from his face.

« Maybe the treasure is there.»

« Area Zero is... very far away from your village.» he murmured trying to dissuade her. Or Kalos in general, actually. The last thing he wanted was to leave her knowing she would depart on some grand journey in her time just to die looking for Area Zero. Maybe the first of the many explorers that had met their end in their quest for the Crater during the ages.

Was that why her spot in the cave painting was empty...? Because she left...? What about the rest of her tribe?

Did Area Zero even exist in her time...? He had no idea.

« ... please don't go there. It's dangerous.» he added, suddenly desperate. Sada looked at him, confused. Of course she was. Everywhere was dangerous in her time, you idiot. But he... needed this. He needed at least this small reassurance.

« ... what...?»

« Please never go there. Promise me. Please

She must have felt the sudden desperation in his voice, because she slowly nodded, then turned around to wrap both arms around him, her head now on his rapidly rising and falling chest.

« ... all right. I promise.»

He sighed in relief, copying her in wrapping his arms around her and holding her close, as the hours of the night trickled past.

---

« Mirai, we're leaving. » he said to the dragon, who looked up from his breakfast and bumped his hand with his snout, hissing softly.

It was morning. They had spent the night, or what little was left of it after coming back from their late night trip, at his apartment.

Now his twenty four hours were up. Ortega had already called him at dawn to urge him to get there as fast as possible for a last minute, non-scheduled jump to bring Sada back.

He smiled and stroked the dragon on the nose.

« ... I'll be back in a moment.» he whispered, and let Sada also caress and coddle the dragon for a moment before closing the door of his apartment behind him.

Walking back into the TTDL together with Sada felt like a surreal dream. The first time, he had been way too terrified of her dying to pay much attention to what was happening. He had given her back her usual clothes, which he had washed and kept at his apartment while she was in the hospital. She had looked at him oddly when he had put on only his usual suit and lab coat, and not the clothes she had made for him.

Well, even if she found it strange... it didn't matter now.

The plan was for them to sneak in, pretend that Sada was another researcher here for a short joint collaboration if anybody saw her, and leave as fast as possible.

Ortega would keep Moreau busy in his office with some long winded proposal for his next research project.

Trying to stay calm, he led her from the elevator to the room where the protection serum was kept.

« This is so... you don't die when you jump...?» Sada asked as he shakily nodded, injecting her with the serum before doing it on himself.

They both exited the room... and he stopped, face going white at seeing Moreau turn around the corner, Ortega hot on his heels.

« I- I actually have another idea that could-» his colleague stopped at seeing them both, eyes widening.

« Dr. Turo » Moreau's voice was ice cold as his eyes landed on Sada, who simply held his gaze.

« ... I heard nothing about your new charming colleague here. With who do I have the pleasure to speak, Miss...?» the man turned towards Sada, waiting for an answer. Sada looked... lost, probably confused by his way of speaking.

« Um...» she looked at him, unsure on what to say.

« Your name.» he prompted her again, his eyes examining every inch of her clothes, and Turo realized with a jolt of panic that Moreau was only putting up a polite front.

He knew her name, he had been the only one to actually remember it from his reports.. and of course he would recognize Sada's clothes as authentic. He had probably realized what was going on the instant he had laid eyes on her.

« ...Sada.» she innocently answered - and what else could she do?-

Ortega winced as an icy silence fell between them all for a long moment.

« ... Come to my office, Dr. Turo. As soon as you're finished escorting Miss Sada, of course. » Moreau slowly said with one last polite smile, before walking away.

« ... I'm sorry Turo. He just shot down my proposal before I could even finish, I tried to buy more time but-»

« Don't worry. It's not your fault.» he replied, voice carefully neutral.

He was... he was probably done working here.

« See you later.» he said, taking Sada's - poor confused Sada, who just looked between them with no idea of what had just happened, except that it wasn't good- hand and leading her towards the time machine room.

« Y-yeah. Later.»

The usual routine of confirming Porygon's coordinates was done passively, like he was just an external observer, at least until they stepped inside the time machine. Sada looked completely fascinated, but frowned as she looked at his wrist.

« Umm... the bracelet. I.. don't have one.» she pointed out, and it took him a long moment to answer.

« The bracelet... is only to jump back here.» he said after a moment... and saw in the way her eyes lit up that she understood. Hers was a one way trip after all.

He held her close as the machine spun to life and closed his eyes, opening them back up to the familiar sight of the clearing they had used as a meeting spot all those months.

He would... miss this place, all things considered. He looked at Sada, and didn't miss the way her eyes had started to shine as soon as she had realized that she really was back home, in her time. Turo looked to the sky, and frowned when he saw that it was cloudy. Of course... they had landed the day after Sada had gotten injured, so that pretty much the same amount of time would have passed both for her and the people of her tribe not having seen her. He had decided to not subject her to the strange time travelling problems of coming back the instant you had left.

« Let's... walk a bit.» he proposed. She had become suspiciously silent since Moreau had showed up. Of course she was. She wasn't stupid, she knew something had happened.

They walked in silence, Turo finding himself checking his time-anchor's batteries every couple of steps, watching the percentage climb up until he could go back to his time for the last time. 98%... 99%... 100%.

He stopped, and so did Sada.

« I have to go.» he murmured, and she nodded. He took the little box out from his pocket and opened it up, offering it to Sada.

« I-I... you gave me the necklace. So I... wanted you to have something from me.» he forced the words out one after the other. She opened it up, curious, and her eyes widened when she took out a bright red bracelet made of what looked like polished stone. She slipped it on her left hand, smiling. As he had hoped, it looked good on her. Most importantly, not too out of place.

« This rock... in my time it's called "Scarletite".» from the mythical metal of the past. They had simply been called "star pieces" in other times, and were particularly rare for... obvious reasons.

« It's... it comes from a star, far away.» he forced a little smile when she looked back up at him, stunned into silence.

« Thank you. It's... it's beautiful.» she said eventually. Turo drew a long breath and cupped her face with both hands and slowly, quietly drew her face near, for once not to kiss her but simply to touch her forehead with his.

« ... promise me one last thing.» he whispered closing his eyes, and felt her freeze suddenly under his touch.

« ... don't change. Keep... exploring. And discovering. Stay exactly like you are.» he pleaded as he let her go, and opened his eyes to find Sada trembling slightly, eyes wide.

« ... when are you coming back?» she asked.

There was a long moment of silence. He looked away.

« Romero-» she tried again, with his first name now, the one he had revealed to her one night months ago, and she had never used until now because "why have two names, it's stupid, you are Turo for me".

« ... you are coming back... right?»

He couldn't speak, so he simply shook his head.

Her eyes widened even more, and now she looked like she was also struggling to speak.

« ...w-why...?»

« They are taking my... bracelet. I can never come back here.» he took a couple of steps back, one finger on his time anchor. He had to... he had to just go. There was no easy way to do this. He had to... leave. Leave this place, leave her, once and for all... every second he looked at her tear stricken face was pure torture.

He didn't want this to be his last memory of her.

He turned his back to her to start running away, like their very first meeting.

And then, right as he pressed the button that would bring him back to his time-

-something tugged at his lab coat and jerked him back.

Sada, holding on to his arm, her own eyes widening in horror and understanding when she saw his finger already on the time-anchor.

That split second before he felt the familiar pull of being dragged back through time seemed to last an eternity.

---

Time anchor ID 9537 had departed successfully 3879 seconds ago. As usual, Porygon 568 checked the time machine's operational parameters as they waited for Doctor Romero Turo to jump back. Everything was operating correctly. Connected as they were to the time machine, they felt the familiar tug of a time-anchor returning and prepared to assist in the landing. Familiar. A strange word humans used, they mused. What constituted something as familiar? Definition specified it as a feeling of recognizing something that had happened an X number of times, where X > 1. X seemed to be arbitrary and prone to change from individual to individual. Applying that definition, their working of the time machine day by day was "familiar".

Checking time-anchor's space-time departure coordinates... complete.

Calibrating energy required to the time machine to bring back one human... compl- ERROR.

« Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537.» they said to the empty room, and simultaneously logged it in their system.

Porygon 568 didn't panic. They couldn't.

They simply did what any computer would do, and followed their programming.

« Retracing time-space coordinates of time anchor ID 9537. Executing emergency assisted return jump.» they said, before compiling themself into their purest form and diving inside the time machine. Now completely fused to it, inextricably connected, time presented to them as a flaming multicolored river, they dived inside, searching for the familiar ping of the time anchor.. and there it was, swirling in the depths of the stream. Porygon 568 reached for the device; they tugged and pulled, gently guiding it into the correct direction, up, up, up, slowly and patiently.

Then they felt it again.

That "familiar" something from months ago. A great, brutal pull, a swirling vortex opening up in the time stream, a maelstrom of multiple colors, each color a different time - and then time anchor with ID 9537, belonging to Doctor Romero Turo, was brutally ripped away.

Porygon 568 didn't panic. They couldn't.

They simply did what any computer would do, and tried again.

« Error. Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537. Retrying...»

...

« Error. Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537. Retrying...»

...

« Error. Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537. Retrying...»

...

...

« Error. Connection lost to time anchor ID 9537. Retrying...»

...

...

...

...

---

« ... don't leave...»

Leave...? But he had... he didn't want to, but he had to leave...

« ...ke up. Turo, wake up, please... »

Turo slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the blinding, piercing light that hit them. He was laying on the ground. It was cold, and hard. Someone was holding his left hand, squeezing it. His head felt light. Damp. Something was dribbling from it. He raised his right arm to shield his eyes from the light, and felt that it was strangely light. He blinked again, his eyes slowly focusing on it. The time anchor... was hanging on by a thread.

Shattered.

Panic.

He suddenly remembered. The jump, the feeling of being slowed down, dragged down as he traveled back... then someone else helping. Pulling him along, pulling them both along, and then... what then?

He couldn't remember.

Sada. Where was Sada?

He looked around, and felt a wave of relief hit him as she was right next to him, doing her best to probably break every bone in his left hand by how hard she was squeezing.

« ... m fine.» he managed to mumble and the pressure released a tiny bit.

« Your "bodysuit"... the lights were off... I was so scared you were...» Sada whispered as he hugged her.

« Where...?» he asked, and Sada simply bit her lip and looked away.

Turo slowly took in his surroundings. He looked to the sky and was left puzzled for a couple of long moments, not sure of what he was looking at.

Best way he could describe it was that the light was... dusty. Milky white, it took him a long moment to realize that he was actually looking at clouds. The very air felt heavy, and as he slowly sat up with Sada's help, something like a crystallized snowflake drifted past his eyes even with total absence of wind, reflecting the strange light.

Strangest of all was the towering rock face that covered the horizon, stretching for his entire field of vision. He tried to follow it with his eyes, to see where the cliff ended, and it slowly, slowly dawned on him where they were only when he kept going round and round, and was forced to stumble to his feet to spin completely around, trembling.

The cliff was everywhere. It surrounded them completely, on all sides. He felt his legs give out under him and Sada hold him up as it hit him where they were. There was only place he could think of that would look like that.

« A... Area Zero...»

So... here we are. It finally happened, and so ends this first part of Timeslip. The first major story arc, so to speak.
Part 1 was all about Turo and Sada getting to know each other. Part 2 will obviously be about getting used to their new situation and how other people will see them, while Part 3... that's a surprise, but I've already been building up to it here and there.
Thanks to everyone who has read this fic and has followed until now (or even just one chapter)! Hope you liked it and that it entertained people as much as I loved writing it. I personally loved following people's theories and conjectures about how various things would go, some people got it right pretty early, which I loved because it means that I foreshadowed things right!
On Ao3 I've dubbed Part 2 "Timeslip: Knowledge Trail", because I wanted to call back to the various story arcs in Scarlet and Violet being named after something plus some variation of "Road". I quite like it as a name: before Starfall Street, before Arven's Path of Legends and so on, the profs were on their own road.

Also yes, Sada's bracelet is supposed to be the exact one she wears in her official art (it's more orange than scarlet there but details), to mirror Turo's (hidden) necklace. I liked the idea of each of them having something that comes directly from the other's time period, because I love PARALLELS.
 

BossCar

Pokémon Trainer
Pronouns
He/His
Here for Blitz! Reviewing Chapters 4 and 5, but going to separate them into two posts. You already know my overall thoughts of this fic, but it does deserve to be gushed over. Very memorable interactions and characters.

I also like the inclusion of fanmade Paradox Pokémon. I hope we get more official ones after SV, but I doubt it. It would be perfect for Unova’s Original Dragon.

Chapter 4:

The more she looked at Turo, the more the man just completely baffled her.

At first she thought that he just hadn't understood her, but... He couldn't even light a fire!
Get good at living the prehistoric life Turo u scrub

Turo: I’m such a noob.
Sada: …Noob?
Turo: tfw

« Where... Did you come from...?» she asks, pointing at various spots on the map.

He stares at the page for a couple seconds, leaving her to wonder if he got what she was trying to say. But more than perplexed, he looks... Conflicted.

Does he not want to tell her?

Maybe he doesn't even know?

The answer is always aliens, even where there is already a valid answer. I thought future people would know this too.

« It's a Fire Wing...» they were dangerous while they were hunting or if you happened to get near their nests, but she liked to look out for their fallen feathers; they were soft and incredibly warm, great to wear during the colder season by sewing them inside clothes, or as accessories. Turo nods, just the hint of a smile on his lips.

« "Talonflame"»

Is that what it was called in his language...?

Then, to her surprise, he starts sketching a Fire Wing of his own alongside hers, with a great amount of details.

A couple of strokes to draw the head, the curved beak with a sharp point and even sharper eyes... he is good at it, the picture so similar to the real thing it's like one of the creatures had been quietly sitting between them all this time, posing for reference.

Yooooo, Paradox Talonflame. You got fanart of this and the Magikarp? I would love to see it. Be sure to include a Paradox Turtonator called Doom Dung if/when you revisit Paradox Pokemon.

« "Dumbass"...?» she repeats, picking out one of the words from his muttering at random, and only because it sounded funny.

Turo freezes, a flash of horror on his face that quickly gets replaced by a stuttering, incredulous laugh that he tries and fails to contain.

« Wha...? No! Nononono, don'tusethatword, of all the things to pick up» he manages to get out, shaking his head but still being mostly incomprehensible.

Sada just stares at him, perplexed - and just a touch amused at his reaction -

« Turo, what is "dumbass"?»

His laugh only gets louder, and he can't do much except keep shaking his head, tears in his eyes.

It takes him a good couple of minutes to calm down.

... Now she really wants to know what that word means.

This part made me laugh. Even the smartest people have their silly moments. Either he said it a little too loud or she has very good hearing. Or both.

But I do like Turo doesn’t have the arrogance that modern/future people are superior/smarter than past people. Seems common irl in our time, doesn’t it?

"W-a-f-f-l-e-s"?» she read outloud after a moment, pausing over a drawing in particular that caught her eye. They looked so strange... perfectly square but soft, with what looked like some kind of colored berry juice over it.

« ... you eat this? Really?» she asked, a bit skeptical as she stared at the little squares. But... she figured that he had eaten with them often all the times he had visited, and never complained, so she could do the same and trust him. She watched as Turo touched the drawing, and it disappeared.

I think the best moments of the story are the interaction with past and future, namely Sada's curiousity at all the strange things by this strange man. Looking forward to Turo traveling to Ancient Greece to debate with Plato in a future story. :LOL:

But really, you could do quite a bit with this Turo HC, such as him seeing the tower collapse in Johto or Rayquaza Mega Evolve for the first time. Or even The Darkest Day and AZ’s storyline.

Keep up the good work!
 

Flyg0n

Flygon connoisseur
Pronouns
She/her
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. swampert
  3. ho-oh
  4. crobat
  5. orbeetle
  6. joltik
  7. salandit
  8. tyrantrum
  9. porygon
« Were you worried about me? Do you also ask the others how they are doing? »

Porygon 568 paused for a moment, then puffed up its feathers again with a little spark of electricity surrounding it, eyes flashing yellow.
Aawwwwww more porygon

Very glad to see more of Porygon and also I am intrigued by this Ai and if it's apparently worried about Turo.
Her approach had been very... hands-on, so to speak. He wasn't used to it; it wasn't exactly necessary to measure for clothes anymore, or even try them on before buying for that matter. They were either one-size-fits-all, automatically adapting to your body shape or, in the very rare occasion where you actually wanted something custom made, you just got a couple of pictures taken from different perspectives and the tailoring software would just automatically calculate everything.
Yooo that sounds very convenient

It wasn't fair. There she was, one of who knows how many people with brilliant minds and the potential to change history... born in the completely wrong era.

Too early. Way too early.
Oh man I really feel this...

So that meant that his visits to Sada had a hard time limit. A finite number.
Nooooo stop you're making me sad!

People had been lost to space. Literal space, because the time machine had shot them at a point in time where the planet had been in a different position around the sun. Or inside the ground. Or right in the middle of a natural disaster.
Okay but I always lowkey thought about this and I'm glad it was addressed. Even if you tried to travel through time if you don't account for space you just. Yeet.

Turo let out a sigh of relief; at least nobody had ended up hurt or worse. Still, those were bad news. Porygon 568 pretty much was the time machine; without him, executing a time jump would be too risky.
I actually didn't even realize this until just now but I love that for him

And you have to admit that "Got shot at the end of time and witnessed the heat death of the universe" would sound awesome as an epitaph.» Ortega laughed.

... ok, yeah, he had to admit that it sounded kind of cool.
Ngl that is kinda cool...

My brain has been abuzz with this story. It really is rare for me to feel actively invested in a couple. I may enjoy reading about some but there's a rare few where it gets my brain gears going picturing them and their relationship dynamic. But this fic really does it for me.

I love the way this chapter shows us Turo's building sense of frustration and growing affection. He's clearly developed some feelings for her he's not consciously admitting, and all the previous interactions really add to his frustration here. She was born in the wrong time for him, a brilliant mind and a curious spirit yet as it stands for now, it seems they can't ever really be together (pls).

And then the scare with Porygon!!! Don't do that to me I was worried >:{ (its good though). I wonder what happened exactly that caused it. Is his frequent jumps or far jumps too taxing? Is Porygon getting more aware and more worried? Did he have a false alarm?

AND THEN THE CLOTHES. The way he's so emotional and appreciates them, and then he gave her HIS jacket and aaaaaaa
AND THEN HE GIVES HER LANGUAGE (also Turrrooo thats dangerous isn't it? Surely they won't have developed the Unown/english/proxy alphabet yet?)

But also its just so SWEET and personal and meaningful that when he wanted to repay her kindness he decided to gift her with knowledge. HNNGGGG

« It's... ah... you know... when a "man" and a "woman"...» now he's raising both hands, and starts... gesticulating wildly, vaguely miming two persons... well, it's either that or they are violently murdering each other and she had actually misunderstood what "parents" is supposed to mean. She has her doubts about that though.
This part had me hysterical oh my gosh
Had there been... a flash of light right there at that moment?
She's starting to sollvveeee it. At this point I feel reasonably sure that given enough time she could probably hypothesize and come to accurate conclusion.

« That's not something that you can teach just with words and symbols. Same with hunting. You can tell someone the best spot to strike a Steady Glacier with a spear, but it won't stop someone from dying if he has never practiced doing it. »

That... was true, there were things that you simply couldn't teach, but she had still been a little disappointed in her reaction.
You know its kind of funny but her logic does make sense, at least internally. As far as she's concerned for now why would she want language. She doesn't think her knowledge is easy to pass on through words even though maybe it is. It makes one think about what stories are bits of history and other things were lost to time because there was no written take on it...

« You've never actually described him, apart from "pale and weird looking". What is he like? ... phisically, I mean. » she asked while Narjik went back to focusing on his symbols, not interested.

Sada blushed slightly; no, that's not what it was about at all, she was just curious about him... or was she?

« He is... quite tall. Dark brown hair and eyes...» she started to answer. Her mind though was elsewhere.
ehehehhe I like how she's getting a little flustered here.

« Maybe... you could use a word?» Sada offered after a moment. A simple command.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!! POKEMON TRAINER ORIGINS LETS GO

Winged King seemed to decide for her, closing its eyes and quietly pushing against her hand with its head for a brief moment, before backing up and getting back to eating.
*LONG SCREAM*

EAAAAAAAAAA

This bit genuinely nearly just made me tear up from delight like, its so HTTYD. AUUGGHHHHH

This chapter is just more pure delight, Sada lowkey fangirling about learning written language, slowly trying to pass on her knowledge to her clan. A shame not everyone wants to learn it, but I'm glad a few of her clan does. I also appreciate the way that befriending 'Fluffyhead' began to serve as the inspiration for befriending Koraidon. The entire befriending section and using the flute and everything was just pure joy. HTTYD soundtrack is playing on loop in my head with this.

I can't wait to see what Turo thinks of this!!

but even only with that there were some details about the Proto-Miraidon that were... puzzling. Like the antennae on the top of their head they both seemed to share: Sada's drawing had given a lot of emphasis on them, while Cyclizar seemed to lack them completely. It was weird, from an evolutionary perspective, for something to lose a certain trait and then acquire it again.
Okay but I wondered the same thing too. Koraidon and Miraidon look more like each other than Cylizar. Very interesting...

She stopped to contemplate one in particular, which would have captured a perfect and gorgeous image of Suicune running over the waves... only for some guy in a frilly cape to have accidentally photobombed the shot, causing the Pokémon to go out of focus and be nothing more than a blurry splotch of blue in the background. She deleted the picture, irritated.
Lol this killed me. darn you Eusine!!!

« The ones from before they changed the recipe and made them smaller, obviously. I need to jump to Lumiose City in year 4679 anyway this afternoon, may as well grab some while I'm there.»
Okay but this is the most human thing ever, if we had time travel we'd absolutely start using it to get discontinued snacks. Imagine the possibilities!!! Mc ribs?? Old school coca cola lol? Chips before they mage the amount of chip per bag even lower?

« I want a box of frosted mocha flavored-» that was Satoshi, the researcher from Kanto that had joined the TTLD just last month.
excuse me, WHO????

« ... I would like a box of frosted orange flavored. » Turo finally raised his hand over the wall of screens, making Ortega jump a little.

« Didn't even see you there... and I thought you hated orange flavored stuff?» he asked, trying to peek over the monitors. Turo flicked them away and accidentally into each other, causing a short buzz of static when the holographic projections collided to fill the room.

« They are not for me. Miraidon loved them when we were little, and he got all sad when they stopped producing that flavor. »
AWWWWWWWWWWW He got Miraidon his fav pokepufffsss

« ... mom? I just got back from work. No, I didn't time travel today, next jump is in two weeks time...»

Turo stopped at the voice of his mother on the other side of the line, then groaned.

« ... No, that doesn't mean I've got nothing to do until then, I do other things in the meantime, I've already told you... And no, I don't want to go to the Moon for some overpriced lunch on Sunday-»
What a parent mood lol
I've got stuff to do mom

It was crowded and way too turisty - mostly all people born on Mars that got all stupidly sentimental about being on "the" Moon - and it was too far for teleporters to reach, which meant that you actually had to sit down on a shuttle and suffer through three hours of horrible movies and screaming toddlers.
I get such a kick out of the idea that trips to the moon are like expensive annoying regular flights now

« You're still coming with me though. If we have to suffer, we suffer together.»

«... gwaoh.»
Lol poor Miraidon

The Moon base was a series of interconnected structures, each built at different points in history for different purposes. Completely isolated and self sufficient with an artificial atmosphere, they were pretty much little cities of their own, and the Moon as a whole was considered it's own region not unlike any other.
'Pokemon Legends uh... Miraidon' when
a game that takes place on the moon

« It's... ah, better to start with the past. The future is more... complicated.» he managed to come up with an excuse, which was also technically the truth. Just... not what his primary reason had been in choosing his destination.
I actually wondered here for the first time... has anyone from the future ever come back to visit present day Turo's time?

« That morning, on his way to perform the first ever time jump with a functioning time-anchor, Wells went to his usual favourite bar to have breakfast. There he discovered that the croissants he always used to order were all sold out. So, for his first test jump, he decided on something completely innocuous: go back in time just enough to get that croissant.» there was a slight pause while he watched his parents reactions.

« ... I'm sure you can figure out where this is going.»

« ... oh. » they both said after a moment.

« It was him, wasn't it?» his father asked, still blissfully unaware of the lizard right behind him that had his eyes fixed on the half steak still on his plate.

« Exactly. He himself had been the one to get the last croissant, and he never would have had the idea to jump back if it hadn't already happened. The cashier confirmed that he had seen him enter two times that morning and found it strange how he had asked for another croissant after the first, but didn't say anything about it. It's a stable time loop. There's probably a lot more of them just dotted around history... but you have no way of knowing if what you do in the past will result in one until... it does. Or even worse, if it is possible to accidentally break a loop... nobody knows for now, and really nobody wants to be the one to accidentally find out. »
I knew it lol. Man stable time loops are such a trip, so fascinating.

« That sounds... stressful, I wouldn't be able to... MIRAI, NO-»

Turo grinned while he watched what was left of his father's steak get snatched up by Miraidon and the Pokémon scamper out of the restaurant with his prize.
Mirai yes!!! get that steak

« ... c-catch...? »

Like... like with a Pokémon battle, like in the VR games...?

« We will give you Master Balls to use, of course. Should be the most discrete way of doing it. »

Oh... of course. Master Balls. Those were a thing. Made sense.
!!!!!!!!! oooOoooo
Also I guess pokemon trainers aren't a common thing anymore?

« History isn't going to change because a single prehistoric Magikarp went missing 14'000 years ago. Wouldn't be the first time we extract exctint wild Pokémon from the past and try to reintroduce them in the present. Or at least study why they disappeared.»
*glances nervously at the SV plot* right, should be fine

He nervously glanced all around to make sure he was alone, then took his hand out of his pocket and stared at the Master Ball. Those had also received some design changes during the centuries: it was completely white with a red line all around the perimeter, but how they worked was pretty much the same.
oooo so master balls look like premier balls now?

she was euforic.
euphoric
In retrospect, Turo kind of wants to say that he fearlessly threw himself towards her to protect her, clutching the Master Ball as the only weapon he had and staring down the enormous scaled creature.

Sadly, Turo was firmly in the group of people that developed a third alternative to the fight or flight response. The one called "freeze in panic and do nothing".
Accurate lol
Also flashbacks to turo dying in game. should picked flight not freeze :unquag:

Meanwhile, Sada has been talking softly to the Pokémon, getting it to lay back down on all fours. And then, right as he was thinking that there was no way that she could top "convinced a Dragon Pokémon that's barely had contacts with humans to not kill me" in a single day, she mounted it.

Well... okay, she actually took a little running start and then jumped on its back, hanging on the feathered crest -ouch- before managing to seat herself on the Pokémon's broad back- Winged King growling a bit and shaking his head, scattering a couple of white and blue feathers all around.

Her technique definitely needed some work, he thought suppressing a smirk; but considering that she was, maybe, one of the first humans ever to do it? Nailed it.
SCREAMIN

« We can... go to your people ? » she added after a moment, looking up at him. Hopefull. Excited. Beautiful.

His breath caught in his chest.
Awww I can't even with these two

« Let's go!»

... wait. Wait a moment.

She gently tugged him along, already starting to explain something, and he is left stumbling behind her.

... he didn't mean right now.
Oh boy oh boy

Man this chapter was chock full of things. Many things. We got some fun little slice of life interactions between Turo and his coworkers (honestly I get such a kick out of all the details you fit in and funny references you make). Turo also gets to hang with his parents a bit, which he has a pleasantly normal relationship with. I was half expecting something traumatic (just because im bad at cramming in oodles of trauma lol) but I'm surprised and pleased that they're normal.

but OH MAN once again the highlight is really everything with Koraidon. The way she noticed how easily he mounted it, his momentary terror at thinking he's about to be attacked, and then riding and FLYING. Truly this story was made for me. Also time to meet the parents??? yes please. This will certainly go interestingly.
 
Chapter 18: Stranded, part 1

Nekodatta

Pokémon Trainer
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. koraidon-apex
  2. miraidon-ultimate
  3. skitty
Hey, so, this chapter marks the start of "Part 2" of the story. Some things are going to change, mostly that I decided to switch it up by changing POV in the middle of the chapter instead of alternating chapters. This was done to make the story more dynamic, since the story was going to grow in scope greatly from now on. There's also going to be more POVs, like a certain character already teased at the end of last chapter!


Chapter 18: Stranded, part 1
Sada knew that something was wrong as soon as Turo had led her out of his place wearing only his normal clothes and not the ones he usually showed up with. But she had tried to rationalize it away. Maybe he simply didn't want to go to the village today. Maybe he simply wanted to bring her back and they would stay alone for today, just the two of them. After that single day in his time, she... Kind of needed it. It had been a lot. Her head still felt like it was being hit by all the strange and wondrous things she had seen, but it was... A lot. She needed some quite time to think about it all.

But she didn't think he would just... leave.

When he had suddenly started talking about... Promising him to never change... She had felt her stomach drop and her breath hitch in her chest.

« You are coming back, right?»

She has asked, desperate to see him give that little, barely visible smile and reassure that of course he was coming back, that she had misunderstood everything... But he hadn't. Turo... Romero... had shook his head, and turned away.

He had started to walk away from her, like he had done so many times. She was used to it by now... To watch him disappear in front of her eyes. But this time, she realized as she started trembling... It would be the last. He would touch that bracelet of his and disappear into thin air... And then he would be so impossibly far away and she would never see him again. Ever.

She... She couldn't accept that. There were still... So many things she wanted to see with him...

It had been a hasty decision. She had jumped towards him, focused only on grabbing him, so terrified at the idea of her fingers grasping at nothing but air right as she went to touch his arm... That she hadn't noticed that Turo had already pressed the button to jump back. They had both stared at it in unison for one long, infinite moment... And then she had felt her body get pulled away.

---

Sada woke up in a confused daze; the ground was hard. Rocky. The first thing she took note of was that there was no snow. Slowly, she rolled on her stomach, pointy rocks digging on her skin as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. She blinked, her eyes slowly taking in her surroundings. This was not... Turo's time. Or at least... not what little she had seen. There were no dazzling lights that covered the sky. But it was also not hers, or at least, not a place she recognized. She was not far from the edge of a rocky cliff, lush grass extending all around... She looked up, to see the sky covered by clouds... And when she looked back down, her eyes met straight with those of a creature. Her eyes widened and she jumped up, her right hand instinctively going to her shoulder... Only to find nothing but air, her spear lost somewhere near the cave where Winged King fought against his rival. She felt a pang of sadness at realizing it was probably lost forever: that spear had been the first weapon she had made for herself, together with Father... but she couldn't afford to get distracted by old memories now.

The creature looked similar to one of the grown up forms of the pests that her tribe would chase away from their village to avoid them stealing their supplies... Bright orange fur, it walked on two legs and even seemed to have the same sparks of thunder crackling along its fur.

Sada gritted her teeth as the creature walked up to her; she took a step back, eyes flitting around for something, anything, to use as a weapon... They landed on something as it caught the light, shining.

A tree grew right near the edge of the cliff, almost hanging off it. The roots that secured it firmly in place reflected the light, shining like gemstones. She had never seen a tree made of crystal. Or... Covered in crystals, it looked like. She could question it and examine it later. Sada grabbed one of the roots and heaved, eyes firmly locked on the creature. One piece of the root splintered off, and she pointed the jagged, multicolored shard towards the creature with a snarl.

« Leave us alone!»

Us...? She hazarded another look around after a moment, her heart skipping a beat as she realized something crucial:

... Where was Turo?

They had been together, so...

He hadn't fallen off the cliff, had he?

Her heartbeat quickened and she looked back at the furry creature with newfound determination; not waiting for it to strike first, she slashed forward with the jagged piece of crystal in her hand. The creature ducked low, the crystal passing high over its head, before dashing forward on all four legs. Sada hastily backed up again, an alarmed hiss escaping her lips when she ended up pressed against the tree trunk, the crystal bark pushing against her back. Instead of attacking her, however, the creature ran right past her, disappearing in a hole dug right underneath some of the roots. Two similarly fuzzy but smaller heads as that of the rodent peeked out, their little black eyes shining as they greeted the bigger member of the group with some chittering hisses. A...family? Were those its young?

So... It... Never actually wanted to attack her... Good.

She normally would have taken the opportunity to study the creature, but she had other things to focus on at the moment. Sada pocketed the shard in the bag at her waist -the one thing she had kept with her by virtue of being tied to her clothes -, then cautiously crept towards the edge of the cliff to peer down. She swallowed, scared to catch a glimpse of the telltale glow of Turo's clothes thrown over the rocks at the bottom, body bent and broken by the fall... Thankfully, there was nothing.

She breathed a sigh of relief, turning back around. Where was he then...?

She started walking, soft grass curiously crunching under her boots. It felt a bit like the grass itself was covered in a thin layer of the same crystal that had grown over the tree. He... Hadn't left her, had he? The thought made her start biting her lip, suddenly worried. If he had managed to go back to his time... Leaving her here, in this unknown place... She shook her head.

He wouldn't do it.

Not... Voluntarily, at least. But... If he had simply lost her along the way, like being swept away in a raging river, then...

Her heart suddenly leapt in her chest when she caught a glimpse of dark purple between the grass. There he was!

He must have landed away from her and slid down the cliff... Thankfully the other way from the sharp drop.

Sada started sprinting, only for her breath to quicken when she got close enough to see him better.

His "bodysuit" was not glowing. Or rather it was, but it was so faint it may as well be not there.

That small detail filled her with dread.

She didn't know what it meant exactly, just that it was bad. The glowing lines had never disappeared before as long as he was wearing it. Not... That time he had slept under the stars with her, not at night... The only time she had ever seen them disappear was just last night, after they had gone back to Turo's home, and only because he hadn't been wearing it. He had slowly taken it off then, and she had actually seen him completely for the very first time, and trailed her hands along his shoulders and his back and...

And now the lines had stopped glowing. And there was blood on his face. Sada threw herself at his side, barely able to breath as she carefully examined him. The wound wasn't deep, she could stop it from bleeding, she... It wasn't like the Blood-Fire, not this time...

But then why were the lines not glowing.

« Wake up, please... » she whispered as she tore a strip of cloth from her hood and pressed it to the side of his head. Stop the blood. She... Didn't know what else to do. This crunchy grass and other plants were different from the ones Narjik had taught her to use. For all she knew they could be poisonous. But he was breathing, even as a little rivulet of blood from the wound slid down his face.

He couldn't die here and leave her, he couldn't...

« ... Turo, wake up...» she pleaded, holding his hand tight.

And thankfully, he did. The lines on his bodysuit glowed with more strength as his eyes slowly opened, and Sada threw her arms around him in relief. He was fine. He hadn't left her all alone.

They were lost, and scared, and hurt.

But at least they were together.

---

Area Zero. All in all, Turo felt that he should be grateful to still be alive and for not having died by getting ripped apart during the jump, or thrown who knows where. The sheer statistical improbability of what had happened was... staggering. They could have landed anywhere and anywhen. The middle of the ocean. A natural catastrophe. In midair, which had almost happened since they must have both struck the ground with some force to get separated and lose consciousness briefly. Or they could have missed the planet completely, left floating in the void of space. And of all possible places... They had landed in the Great Crater of Paldea.

But his mind kept wandering to the device now hanging uselessly from his wrist.

The time-anchor was broken. Even if he miraculously had the tools and pieces necessary to repair it, and somehow managed to do it... The effect of the injection would run out in a couple days time anyway.

And they were stuck in Area Zero, in an unspecified time period.

Sada was helping him stay on his feet, since his legs felt ready to give out from under him at any moment. They had been walking down the cliff, Turo squinting while trying to get his eyes used to the light.

There was... Something strange about it. It was too uniform, too bright, like it was coming from everywhere at the same time. It gave an eerie, unnatural air to the place. He looked back up to the "clouds" that covered the sky. Sunlight had to be coming from there, right...? Looking at the nearest cliff side and following it all the way up until it met the clouds, he felt his legs tremble again. The Crater was much deeper than what he had thought, the rock face impossible to climb.

A sheer vertical surface hundreds and hundreds of meters high.

How would they even get out?

« Umm...» Sada let out a thoughtful hum at his side, shielding her eyes with the hand that wasn't busy holding him up and copying him by looking upwards.

« Even if we make a smoke signal, those clouds would block it.» she commented, looking back down with a sigh, before giving him an encouraging smile.

« ... Let's find a safe place, first.»

Their respective standards of what made a place "safe" were probably wildly different, but he simply nodded, carefully pressing the strip of cloth ripped from Sada's hood to the cut on his head.

« ... Yeah. Let's go.» he didn't comment about the big unsaid question that was hanging between them. He was too scared to voice it out loud.

The first thing he had tried to do was open a screen in midair, but it hadn't worked. He was sure it wasn't his bodysuit's fault. All the independent offline functionalities like the lights and keeping his body temperature constant were still working; those only needed the body heat produced by his normal metabolism to power themselves. It would, quite literally, keep working as long as he lived. It just didn't have anything to connect to.

So that meant they were in Area Zero... But when exactly was impossible to say, except that it was surely before his time.

It made... Sense, in a way. If they were caught mid-jump, it was only logical that they would have been dropped somewhere in the middle, metaphorically speaking... But knowing his past experience in slightly overshooting the landing zone, he couldn't have been sure.

He looked around as they walked, searching for the slightest sign of civilization, feeling a sudden sense of déjà vu to his very first time jump.

Well, the Crater had never been exactly "populated" as far as he knew, but in the course of history people that had ventured down there must have built some infrastructure. There had to be something there to help them get out...

"And then what?"

He gritted his teeth, willing the intrusive question away for the moment.

"Even if you manage to get out, what then?"

He couldn't think about it now. He didn't want to, because if his thoughts lingered too much on where he was, then he would have to think about his family, his friends, his whole life, and Mirai-

He felt Sada squeeze his shoulder and looked down at her, swallowing the sudden lump in his throat.

... She was caught up in this as much as he was, but while the smile had disappeared from her face for a pensive frown, her eyes were still shining as they looked around.

Turo doubted she didn't realize what had happened; she was too smart for that. Too perceptive. She must have been having similar thoughts as him. Thoughts about her time, about the life she had just lost. Then... how could she do it? Was she faking that enthusiastic shine in her eyes? Or was it just... Her nature, to simply make the most of even the direst of situations?

To simply focus on the problem at hand and nothing more?

Maybe that was it.

That was how she had lived until now, after all. Maybe he should start to do the same. No use despairing over what had happened if he didn't even live to see the next day.

« Thank you.» he simply whispered.

As... Selfish as it was to think, he was glad to have her here with him. He looked back up, towards the path that circled around the crater, and his eyes happened to catch a glimpse of something that made his breath quicken. Something that caught the light and glistened. Metallic, and definitely man made.

« There!» he almost shouted, pointing.

It looked like an old prefab, almost completely hidden by the vegetation that had grown all around it. If it hadn't been for what looked like a metallic antenna jutting out from the top, he wouldn't have noticed it. It had been built against the rock of the cliff, and was cast completely in its shadow. The door looked old, it even still had a handle... But it was a building! And relatively modern, too, from the architecture.

That antenna was a good sign; at least it meant they had landed somewhere with at least a radio... And electricity.

He sped up, trying to not stumble as they approached the entrance; by his side, Sada was cautiously looking around, wary of wild Pokémon. To Turo's surprise, the door wasn't locked; it slid open to the side with a rusty creaking noise and some effort by him and Sada's part, and he was the first to step inside.

He caught himself subconsciously gesturing for the lights to turn on, and scowled when obviously nothing happened. R-right...

Sada closed the door after following him inside, plunging them both into an almost complete darkness if not for a rectangle of light coming in from some narrow windows near the ceiling.

What he could see... Didn't inspire a lot of confidence honestly.

The door seemed to have at least kept Pokémon out, because the interior looked untouched, even if abandoned since a long time. It looked like a place supposed to house a small group of people... Probably researchers or explorers from a past expedition. Tables were pushed against the wall, where a couple of what he recognized after a long moment as typewriters were laying, yellowed paper still rolled in, the ink surely long dried solid. Shelves full of books and binders lined the right wall. To the left was a door that led to a small bathroom, an even smaller kitchen, and a room with two bunk beds.

Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, which he promptly ignored as he slowly let himself fall down on one of the beds. He needed to rest for a moment before examining the building more carefully, looking for anything that could help them get out. Sada copied him after shuffling into the room, sitting on the cot opposite from him, her boots made of pelts completely silent on the tiled floor. For a moment, she didn't say anything, absentmindedly picking at a tear in the mattress with one hand.

« ... I'm sorry» her voice was quiet, and it made his stomach twist painfully.

« It's... My fault, right? I jumped with you... And broke the bracelet.» she added, head held low, her long hair covering her face.

« What? No, it's... It's... It's not your fault. I... Should have gone farther away.»

Much better, he shouldn't have said anything at all. He could have just promised that sure, he would see her "tomorrow", that he would be right back, like he had done so many times. He should have lied. For her good, and his own.

But no... He just had to get all sentimental, and get them both stuck at the bottom of the Great Crater of Paldea, in who knows what age.

Sada didn't say anything; he couldn't tell what she was thinking, with barely any light and her face in almost complete shadow. After a moment , she sighed and stood up, kicking up a cloud of dust.

« ... I'll look for food.» she announced, and he just nodded as she walked out. Yeah.

Maybe he could examine the building in the meantime. Try to make himself useful. Most importantly, keep his mind occupied.

---

Sada walked out of the dusty building, determined on doing nothing but what she had announced. She wasn't quite convinced about what Turo had said. Did he blame her, and was just saying it to make her feel better? Whatever it was... It's not like thinking about it would change things now. She had to focus. They had to find a way out... And find a way to survive in the meantime.

They had water, at least. She had seen a pretty deep lake at the bottom of the cliff where they had woken up. And... There had to be berries or something else that was edible. Creatures lived here after all, and you couldn't have only carnivores in one place. There had to also be creatures that ate mostly grass and berries. If she could follow one, or even just traces of them, it would lead her to a source of food. She tried to walk near the rock face, to avoid standing out in the open as much as possible, and squinted her eyes against the strange light to observe the grass. There had to be footprints, tufts of hair or scales, droppings... anything.

Sada heard chittering, and caught a glimpse of one of the rodents from before scurrying away from her. One of the smaller ones. On the spur of the moment, she decided to follow it; it ducked under a small rock passage, and she had to lay on her stomach and crawl on her hands and knees to follow; she didn't like it. It made her feel vulnerable... But they didn't seem intent on attacking her for the moment, so she tried to crawl her way forward as fast as possible. The passage opened up, and she realized that it was a small cave connected to the outside by a hole in the ceiling, just big enough to let some lights in. And some bushes full of berries grow. Her face lit up as she approached the plant; she wasn't familiar with the fruits that grew on it, but the little rodents seemed to be eagerly eating them. She filled her satchel with them, keeping an eye on the two little creatures. They were simply looking at her after having finished eating.

... Maybe they weren't that bad. As long as they didn't try to steal her food. Sada made her way out again and started to head back; they needed to find or make something they could use to store water in, if they didn't want to walk all the way to the lake every time...

A great shadow passed over her snapping her out of those thoughts, and again she instinctively went for her missing spear. Taking cover behind a boulder, she looked up; a great black bird with shining feathers passed overhead, letting out a piercing screech before diving in the middle of the crater. She observed the long drop for a while, watching the bird -she needed to find a name for it... Dark Talons? No...- swoop towards the lake at the bottom and fly up again clutching a smaller bird with fluffy white wings in their grip.

... A spear wouldn't do, even if she made one from one of the bigger trees. If she found herself having to throw it to defend herself or Turo, more often than not it would just end up flying right over the edge and leave her defenseless.

No, she needed something else; something still as swift and deadly, but with more versatility.

She needed to make a bow.

---

"Question: What is an effective way to warm up Eggs?

Answer: Stick it into a Magcargo's shell"


Clavell had to repress a chuckle as he, with some regret, marked the question as incorrect.

"While keeping eggs near many Fire-type Pokémon is an effective method of making sure they stay warm and at the right temperature to develop and hatch, one must pay attention to not exaggerate. Exposing one egg to the heat emitted from a Pokémon as Magcargo at such close proximity would, I'm afraid, at least hard-boil the unfortunate egg." he wrote as a correction, sincerely hoping that the student hadn't already tried their unconventional hatching method.

Kids had the wildest ideas sometimes, but that was why he found his job as a researcher and professor at Uvanja Academy so rewarding. He could observe the future generations of Paldea grow and improve, even if it sometimes led to having to work long hours grading tests. He didn't really mind.

The teacher's office was always a lively place, with students coming in and out to ask questions, so he had taken the habit of grading tests in one of the science laboratories on the second floor of the academy when he needed some quiet time. He had always found the lights and sounds of laboratory equipment relaxing, somehow. It was reassuring, in a way, the sound of something working as intended. Which is why, when one unexpected sound echoes across the otherwise silent room, he drew his eyebrows together in confusion as he looked around. He didn't remember leaving any of the equipment active, and he didn't recognize the sound. Had he imagined it...?

No, there it was again: his eyes finally landed on the source, and he got up from his chair to walk towards one corner of the room. There, sitting unused since a very long time on a table, half covered with what had probably been a picnic tablecloth once, was an old radio. It was supposedly still active, left turned on just in case... but he had never actually heard it work. Nobody had actually heard it work since quite some time.

Clavell removed the tablecloth and fiddled with the dials, turning up the volume. Was it picking up some stray signal? Some interference from a Electric type Pokémon nearby?

He waited a bit in front of the device, but the sound didn't repeat.

Clavell shook his head, and went back to grading his tests.

It had probably been a stray Magnezone from nearby the crater sending some signal that had been coincidentally picked up. The alternative was simply impossible.

After all, nobody had been in Area Zero since decades.
 

HelloYellow17

Gym Leader
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. suicune
  2. umbreon
  3. mew
  4. lycanroc-wes
  5. leafeon-rui
Two more chapters, let’s go!

Chapter 17:

Man, chapter 17 is such a punch in the gut. I genuinely got a little teary-eyed when Turo tried to say goodbye. You can just feel how anguished he is, even as he tries to help her enjoy the last of the time she has left and she is none the wiser. 😭 Selfishly, I’m so glad she grabbed him and now they’re trapped together lololol

In the hours while he waited for her to wake up and her wound to heal completely, he had nervously expected Moreau to come marching in at every moment, asking about their missed jumps.
Oh snap, she was healed in a matter of hours?? Dang that’s incredible.

And when he had seen her after coming back in... wearing one of Vega's bodysuits and looking almost like she could have been any passerby he could cross while walking down the street... it hurt so much. A part of him had been happy, the other... had just been angry. Why couldn't she...? Why couldn't she simply have been born in the same time period as him?

Twenty four hours.
Ugh, my heart. 😭 This chapter really wrecked me. His despair and pain just leaps right off the text and I can feel it so acutely. No wonder he’s feeling a little angry; it’s so unfair how well-matched they are, and yet they’re separated by thousands and thousands of years.

« It's... so small and so big. Together. So many... places, and people, and creatures.... all over there. I... I want to see them. Even more.» she said after a moment. Now her eyes were shining again, and she looked at Earth with so much eagerness and wonder that it just broke his heart.
Only someone like Sada could take this all in stride so well. It’s no wonder he’s constantly amazed by her. She’s incredibly smart and adaptive in so many ways.

« Why? Don't you sleep at night?»

Turo gave her a somewhat embarrassed smile.

« Not... Not every night. I sleep when I... can.» his sleep schedule had been an absolute mess even before he started time traveling, but by now after having to get used to landing in different times of the day as when he departed, it couldn't even be called a "schedule" anymore. It was pretty much "sleep when you collapse from exhaustion and that's it".
My guy that is SO UNHEALTHY please take better care of yourself 🥲

Sada frowned again, looking equal parts confused and somewhat disappointed.

« So... There is no difference from day to night? It's all the same?» she asked after a moment, and he had to nod after a second.
This sounds like a fast track to major sleep problems and depression galore tbh

The Great Crater of Paldea was visible from almost any point in the region, a reminder of its long and bloddy history.
Oh? And what is the Crater’s bloody history, exactly? Come to think of it, Terrastalization hasn’t even been mentioned…

Sada took a moment to answer.

« I... I like all the things your people have built. You... don't have to worry about food. Hunting. The cold. You live with creatures, explore... new worlds. It's... amazing. But... I think you also have... lost something. You... live alone? Only with Miraidon?» she asked, picking up a couple of pebbles and turning them around in her hands, head low.
Pretty much sums up how I feel, too. So many incredible things in the future, and yet…so much lost. It sounds so sad and artificial and empty.

« And what was there...?»

Turo just shrugged.

« Nothing. Nothing special. If there was something special there in the past... some "treasure"... it's not there anymore.»
Well, surely there had to be something if everyone who went in never came out!

They both exited the room... and he stopped, face going white at seeing Moreau turn around the corner, Ortega hot on his heels.

« I- I actually have another idea that could-» his colleague stopped at seeing them both, eyes widening.

« Dr. Turo » Moreau's voice was ice cold as his eyes landed on Sada, who simply held his gaze.
HANDNSKSKDNKDJN the STRESS I FELT when reading this. Like welp, your career is over, sorry Turo.

Also HOW DID MOREAU KNOW. It’s like he knew exactly what was up before he even entered the room. How?? What tipped him off?? What does he know?? WHY IS HE SO SUS

« This rock... in my time it's called "Scarletite".» from the mythical metal of the past. They had simply been called "star pieces" in other times, and were particularly rare for... obvious reasons.
Star piece bracelet! That’s so sweet and special 💛

« ... promise me one last thing.» he whispered closing his eyes, and felt her freeze suddenly under his touch.

« ... don't change. Keep... exploring. And discovering. Stay exactly like you are.» he pleaded as he let her go, and opened his eyes to find Sada trembling slightly, eyes wide.
Ugh this freaking KILLED ME. Breaks my heart to see how much he cares for her and how desperately he wants her to live a fulfilling life.

« Romero-» she tried again, with his first name now, the one he had revealed to her one night months ago, and she had never used until now because "why have two names, it's stupid, you are Turo for me".
Stop, the first name! 😭

And then, right as he pressed the button that would bring him back to his time-

-something tugged at his lab coat and jerked him back.

Sada, holding on to his arm, her own eyes widening in horror and understanding when she saw his finger already on the time-anchor.

That split second before he felt the familiar pull of being dragged back through time seemed to last an eternity.
Ahahaha, uh WHOOPS

Then they felt it again.

That "familiar" something from months ago. A great, brutal pull, a swirling vortex opening up in the time stream, a maelstrom of multiple colors, each color a different time - and then time anchor with ID 9537, belonging to Doctor Romero Turo, was brutally ripped away.
this has me so, SO curious. What WAS that first little blip they felt? Or rather, who was it, since it seems like it must be a life form altering the time stream somehow? Also…Porygon’s panic trying to bring Turo back breaks my heart. 😭 poor little guy!! Somebody help this precious AI bean!

The time anchor... was hanging on by a thread.

Shattered.

Panic.
Panic indeed. 😬

The cliff was everywhere. It surrounded them completely, on all sides. He felt his legs give out under him and Sada hold him up as it hit him where they were. There was only place he could think of that would look like that.

« A... Area Zero...»
Ahahaa I was not expecting them to wind up IN Area Zero but it’s somehow so perfectly fitting.

Turo: Please Sada, promise me you’ll never go into Area Zero.
Turo ten hours later: [surprised Pikachu]

I liked the idea of each of them having something that comes directly from the other's time period, because I love PARALLELS.
YES I LOVE THEM TOO, YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Chapter 18:

Oh boy, part 2! Here we go!

I absolutely love this twist of a backstory for both of them, because now we can (sort of? Maybe?) start to put some of the pieces together, like why they are each so obsessed with inventing time travel back to their respective times—back home! Of course this is still a good ~20 years prior to what we the players know as present day Paldea, so there’s a lot to happen before it reaches that point. I’m so curious to see what your plans are for this arc!

Only to find nothing but air, her spear lost somewhere near the cave where Winged King fought against his rival. She felt a pang of sadness at realizing it was probably lost forever: that spear had been the first weapon she had made for herself, together with Father... but she couldn't afford to get distracted by old memories now.
To be fair, wasn’t her spear broken by the other Koraidon anyway? I suppose she could have repaired it. It is sad that she lost something so personal and special.

So... It... Never actually wanted to attack her... Good.
Pokémon in her time must be much more aggressive than the modern-day equivalent. They sure were a lot bigger, for the most part. Some species apparently remained unchanged, like the Mareep line.

Then... how could she do it? Was she faking that enthusiastic shine in her eyes? Or was it just... Her nature, to simply make the most of even the direst of situations?

To simply focus on the problem at hand and nothing more?

Maybe that was it.
Love moments like this where they recognize how different, even opposite, they are, and respect the other for it. They balance each other out so well and they make an incredible team!

« It's... My fault, right? I jumped with you... And broke the bracelet.» she added, head held low, her long hair covering her face.

« What? No, it's... It's... It's not your fault. I... Should have gone farther away.»
Aw Sada :( this is gonna eat her up for a while, I bet. I’m so glad Turo doesn’t blame her in the slightest.

Clavell had to repress a chuckle as he, with some regret, marked the question as incorrect.

"While keeping eggs near many Fire-type Pokémon is an effective method of making sure they stay warm and at the right temperature to develop and hatch, one must pay attention to not exaggerate. Exposing one egg to the heat emitted from a Pokémon as Magcargo at such close proximity would, I'm afraid, at least hard-boil the unfortunate egg." he wrote as a correction, sincerely hoping that the student hadn't already tried their unconventional hatching method.
CLAVELLLLL I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU.
And omg what an endearing introduction this is! That little grading passage replicates his canon voice and personality PERFECTLY. Bless him, he is such a gem. I’m so excited that he’s a key character in this arc!! (Also, lol at the kid who thinks sticking an egg in a Magcargo shell is a good idea.)
 
Chapter 19: Stranded, part II

Nekodatta

Pokémon Trainer
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. koraidon-apex
  2. miraidon-ultimate
  3. skitty
Chapter 19: Stranded, part II

While Sada was out looking for food and generally making herself much more useful for their immediate survival, Turo had slowly started to examine the building they had sought refuge in. The lights didn't work; he had tried the switch -after figuring out where it was, because it's not like he had ever needed to use manual light switches in his life - a couple of times, but there wasn't even a flicker. He had no idea if it was because the building itself had no power or the light bulb itself was burned. The fact that they all didn't work made him lean towards the former... And that already was a foreign concept to him. You never really found yourself... With no power in his time. And that was already a problem. No power meant no way to call for help, if he ever found something capable of it.

He had managed to find a matchbook and some candles inside a drawer in the small kitchen, and stared at the little packet for a good five seconds, feeling like he was about to embarrass himself. He had never lit a match in his life, obviously, but... Come on. He had made actual fire with his bare hands. Old movies made it look so easy!
How difficult could it be?
He opened a packet and took a look inside, grimacing when he found only five matches inside.
Turo took one out and did his best to copy what he had only ever seen in movies. He put the round end against the colored stripe on one side of the box, and dragged it quickly along the rough surface.
... It snapped in half.

He cursed in a low voice, throwing it away for another one, repeating the motion. Was he doing something wrong? Were the matches too old? Could they expire or something?
The second one he almost dropped when it actually lit up, and he smiled-

Then immediately went back to a scowl, feeling silly for having gotten excited for something so minor.
He preferred to light only one of the candles for the moment, caution telling him that they had no idea for how long they would need them, and carried it with him back to the main room. He wanted to examine the shelves for any document that could point him to what age they had landed... even just the century would do. They had electricity and radio, so... Anywhere from start of the 20th century or so?

Carefully setting the candle down on the desk, Turo grabbed one binder at random from the shelves and opened it up, squinting to read anything in the small light. What looked like observations about the flora and fauna of the crater with old, printed black and white pictures poured out, one of them depicting... he had no idea what it was honestly. It was big and lumbering by the looks of it, and mostly hidden by vegetation. One of those old, grainy and blurry pictures that made him honestly wonder how people could even pretend to make out something out of it.
He turned the picture over, looking for anything that had been written on it.
... Man, reading handwritten cursive that wasn't his own was hard, but he managed to at least make out a date. Somewhat. 195... Something?
Problem was, he had no idea how old these pictures were supposed to be, and they could have been sitting here for decades.

He went to examine the typewriters next, not without some fascination: after all, they had been the very first keyboards in a sense. The whole reason keys were still arranged in that order was because the layout of most letters had been designed for typewriters first.
The fact that there was still paper inserted into every machine struck him as strange. It was like they had expected to come back soon to finish typing something up, but then never did. Had whatever exploration team that had been living here have to leave in a hurry? What had happened?

Turo moved back to the binder he had opened and started reading the actual typed report, eyes now skimming over it much more easily that with handwriting.
... It just looked like day-by-day observations of the weather inside the crater, if you could even call it that, notes about temperature and humidity, soil composition, and sightings of wild Pokémon.
Nothing that looked particularly important or useful right now. He left it on one of the desks, scrunching up his nose when it kicked up a cloud of dust; not something he was used to. So much dust, that is.

That was when something caught his attention, half hidden on another desk in the very corner of the room. His eyes went wide when he recognized it as an old radio and he approached the bulky device. It looked... very dusty, and he frowned. Would it even work anymore? That was the problem with old analog technology like this; one little thing broke or even just got a bit too much dust on it, and suddenly nothing worked. Or at least, that's how it seemed to always be in media. And you didn't even get some error message about what was wrong.

He sat down at the desk, cautiously examining every little dial and notch on it. It had no power right now, obviously, and he had just the vaguest idea of how it worked, so he wanted to just get a bit more familiar with it before attempting to use it. He knew the theory, of course, radio waves and all that, but seeing one in person was... different. He was literally staring at a museum piece.

More than one time, he found himself gesturing in midair for a screen to appear out of pure habit to look something up, only to be left confused when nothing happened. This would take... a while to get used to. At the third time of waving his hand in the air, he let out a frustrated sigh and stood up, going back to the shelves. This stupid thing had to have some... manual on how to use it, was it? They used to be printed, in the past.

He was still looking for one, piling up documents and books on different desks to categorize them, when Sada returned. He turned toward her and had to blink when he saw that she was dragging what looked like a bunch of branches.

« I found food » she declared, raising her bag full of... he supposed those were berries inside.

« What are those for? » Turo asked, helping her drag the branches inside and shutting the door, leaving nothing but the small rectangle of lights from the ceiling windows and the candle light to illuminate the room.

« I want to make a "bow". A spear is difficult to use, here.» she explained as she offered him a couple of the berries. He took them, and they sat at one of the desks to eat. They were pretty crunchy, and hard, and resembled chesto berries a bit with a dry, dusty flavor. Honestly, they tasted a bit like what he imagined biting on a piece of bark would be like, but flavor was the last thing on his mind at the moment. For a couple of minutes, they simply ate in silence. A weary heaviness hung in the air, and Turo could feel that there was still something that Sada wanted to ask him. He simply waited for her to bring it up when she felt comfortable as he held the berry over the little candle flame in an attempt to roast it and make it taste a bit better. It took three berries before she did.

« Your people... can they not... jump here? Find you? » the question made his stomach twist painfully in a knot.
He had been wondering the same thing, but... he shook his head after a moment. He wanted to believe it was possible, than one moment or the next a blinding flash of light would fill the room and he would see Ortega or Vega show up and clap him on the shoulder, laughing about how he had managed to land himself in Area Zero of all places and then get them both out of here. But there was one simple, glaring problem stopping that perfect little scenario from becoming true.

« The time-anchor... the bracelet, is broken. They don't know where I am.» Turo took a long, shuddering breath.

« And if they did find me... they would already be here.» he added.

If they had somehow found a way to pinpoint the coordinates where the bracelet had broken down and he had landed... it would make the most sense for them to appear right where he and Sada had first woken up. He kept thinking about it, but his mind kept circling back to a single conclusion: if they could find him, they would have already done so. They fact that they didn't could only mean that they couldn't.

« They don't know where to jump. We're... we're lost.» he hated how his voice almost cracked on that last word. Sada simply nodded at that, head held low.
---
After their meager meal, Turo went back to searching for something between all the paper notebooks that lined the walls.

Sada had tried to do the same at first, but every time she tried to read anything written in those notebooks she found she couldn't make any sense of it. She could read them, meaning that she recognized almost all of the same symbols Turo had taught her... but she couldn't understand the words they spelled. Too many words she didn't know... and she didn't want to interrupt Turo by asking about them. It frustrated her. It made her feel stupid, and useless, the fact that she was of more help sitting aside not saying anything instead of actually doing something. So she had sat down at one of the desks, and started examining the branches she had brought in, testing their flexibility to better search for one she could make a bow out of. She could at least do that, she thought with a scowl.

After a while, Turo called her to show her the strange device in one corner of the room.

« This is called a radio. We can use it to call for help... but it needs power. And I need to know how to use it, first... so I'm looking for the manual. »
Sada looked at the strange, bulky device.

« What kind of power...? » she asked, not quite sure how to help. She would have started prodding it and examining it, but they had to be cautious. She didn't want to accidentally break something.

« "Electricity"... thunder.» he added after a moment, by now used to adding explanations whenever it looked like she didn't know what something meant. Sada's eyes went wide at that. She... maybe she could actually do something about that.

« I've seen creatures that use thunder here! » she felt a little bit of excitement come back to her as Turo whirled around.

« You saw... can you catch one? » he asked, walking up to her, eyes shining in the candle light.
Sada simply nodded, confident, and he let out a little laugh and hugged her.

« Yes... yes! If I find a battery, or whatever it uses, maybe we can... give it power...» he trailed off, falling deep into thought. Sada had no idea what a battery was, but it didn't matter. She could still help, in a way. Together, they could do anything. They would get out of this place, even if it meant that she had to personally fight everything in the crater to do it.

It was difficult to keep track of the time of day in the crater; it seemed to never become night; after a while, the sky had darkened slightly, but it was impossible to say if it was because the sun had set or clouds had simply blocked it. It was like the air itself was somehow lighting up their surroundings; more than one time, Sada saw what looked like snowy fragments of crystals catch the light, just for nothing to be there when she actually turned to look. It was... disorienting. It made her skin tingle, like the air did when Fluffyhead or other Spark Tail had charged their thunder.
With the strange clouds covering the sky, she couldn't even use shadows to get a sense of the passage of time, so in the end, they both ended up settling down for the "night" when they were simply too exhausted to continue. Sada laid herself down on the "mattress', as Turo had called it, pulling a flimsy blanket they had found over both her and Turo. Even as exhausted as she was, she doubted she would fall asleep. For once, she didn't have to worry about wild creatures creeping up on her as she slept.

She somewhat wished she had to, because it would at least keep her mind occupied from thinking too much about... what had happened. They were lost. Alone. She would never see her village and her tribe again... even if they somehow found a way to live in this crater, or made it out... she would never see them again. It didn't feel real. Would they simply think that she had.. fallen prey to some creature? Would someone go look for her, wondering what had happened? What about Winged King?
It was all her fault that they were both trapped here now.
She realized she had been shivering only when she heard Turo turn around and put one hand on her shoulder. It was warm, like him, and he slowly started caressing her shoulder, then her hair, and finally let his hand rest on her cheek.

« Sada... it's not your fault.» he repeated in a whisper, shuffling closer to softly kiss her forehead.

« We're still alive. We are still together.» he added after a moment, and that made her shivering slowly slow down until it finally stopped. She looked at the glowing lines on his suit, how they seemed to pulse slightly with each controlled breath he took, and traced one with a finger, slowly, until she came upon the barely visible outline of the necklace she had given him so much time ago. She gradually matched her breath to his, burying her face on his chest.

« ... yes. We're still together.» that was what she had to focus on. The only thing that mattered.
---
He wasn't quite sure how much time had passed when they woke up. The weird lighting in the crater made it impossible to tell, and Sada seemed particularly frustrated by it. Had one day passed? Did it even matter?

Sada had gone out to look for more food and for the electric Pokémon she had mentioned, while Turo kept reading. He had found the radio manual, finally, a thick and dusty tome that thankfully seemed to be pretty detailed. Then again, in a time when people couldn't readily look up information online, he figured it was probably required to write down every pointless detail than risk leaving something out. You just had to write down everything, and for that, Turo was now deeply grateful, as he started to read the instructions on how to use it and how to disassemble it if anything needed fixing.

The language it was written in... made his head hurt a bit honestly. It was Paldean, in theory, but... ancient. Some words he had no idea what they meant, others must have surely changed meaning in the meantime because they absolutely made no sense in context for him. Some sentences left him with the infuriating experience of being able to read every word and still have no idea of what they actually meant.

One thing that thankfully was unchanged was the scientific notation. Even like that, it was slow work, and he had to finally stop to take a break. Normally, this would have been the moment where he shuffled out of his office and dragged himself to the sanity room for a coffee and a chat. There was no trace of coffee here, just a sad empty moka pot he had found in the kitchen with rust in it. He would probably die if he ever attempted to brew something in it.
With nothing else to do, he stopped in the doorway and watched Sada carefully carve her bow out of a branch. She had one of the research reports open in front of her on the grass, and would glance at it every couple of minutes, her mouth slowly reading out words she didn't know. Her determination to somehow grasp the meaning of them made him smile, and he carefully moved to sit down next to her.

« What are you reading?» he asked, and for a while they simply stood side by side, like they had done months ago, teaching each other unknown words.
---
On the third night, or at least that's what it felt like, she suddenly heard Turo get up in the middle of the night. Sada kept still, her eyes wide open as the mattress creaked under her and he stumbled outside the bedroom. She silently got up and followed him when she heard him curse under his breath.
She found him in the kitchen, furiously working the little buttons on his bracelet at the feeble light of one of the candles, face ashen wide and eyes desperate.
« Please turn on, come on... you piece of shit, I need you to work just once... we don't have much time left... FUCK! » he suddenly screamed, enraged. Sada walked slowly into the room, gently cupped his face with both hands, and simply held him close as he trembled.
« They are not coming... they are not coming... Nobody knows we are here...» he repeated in a whisper, over and over.
« Sada... if we can't get out... what do we do...?» he asked after a while.
She made him lift his head and looked into his eyes.
« We will get out. And we survive until then. Together.» Turo nodded slowly.
« Together. Right. Right. » he repeated after a moment, with a bit more energy.

They fell into a strange routine of sort. Sada started to track the wild creature's movements, and they agreed on keeping track of time by observing when certain creatures would come out from their burrows or go to the lake to drink. Turo would stay cooped up inside most of the time, at most sitting down on the grass right outside the doorway to read to at least not burn through their candles so quickly. The only moment when he strayed somewhat far was to accompany her to get water from the lake. She needed both hands free to use her new bow, so he had to help carrying supplies.
On the fourth day, they stop along the way to peer over the cliff, deep into the crater. While you could barely make out the bottom, hidden by fog, they had seen creatures come in and out from cracks in the side of the crater, similar to the little cave where she had found the berry bush.

« Do you think there are more caves under there? » Sada wondered out loud.

« Maybe the treasure is there... or a passage that leads outside.» she added, but Turo simply shrugged.

« People would have found a passage. The only way out is up. » he seemed pretty convinced, so she just sighed, looking back up towards the circular edge of the crater.

Her eyes caught the silhouette of one of the massive black birds that seemed to live here, and she frowned. She had noticed something strange about them.

« ... I don't get it. Why don't they fly out? » she commented, pointing it out to Turo. She had even thought about trying to tame one like she had done with Winged King and attempt to fly out of the crater... but they seemed to just turn around and fly back inside as soon as they got too high up.
She had noticed that birds didn't fly really high here.

« I'm not sure... maybe they don't want to. If they have food and everything they need here... » Turo commented.

So bribing them with the little food they had was out.
Maybe they could keep it as their last resort... if calling for help with the "radio" didn't work.
They stood side by side, transfixed by the light that seemed to come off the deepest part of the crater. One part of her just wanted to go see what was at the bottom. To explore, to discover if that "treasure" was really there. The other, more cautious part, the one that had kept her alive until today, told her that it wasn't the right moment.

« Let's go. » she put one hand on Turo's shoulder and forced herself to turn away.

On the fourth day, she managed to get one of the little "electric" creatures to follow her to their shelter, coaxing it with plenty of roasted berries. It squeaked as it ran circles around them both, it's bright orange fur crackling.

« Will he be powerful enough?» she asked Turo, who looked up from his manual with a tired smile.

« He will. »
---
The sixth day it rained; they dragged every reasonably clean container they could find outside, and watched the water pool in as it fell from the sky. The rain formed little rivers that cascaded down into the crater from all sides, disappearing into the depths.

« With how often it rains in Paldea, there must be a massive underwater lake down there. Or maybe it connects back to the sea. The water has to go somewhere, or the crater would have long filled up. » Turo pointed out, rubbing at his chin with one hand.

Sada simply nodded, her eyes still on one of the research reports. She had gotten a bit faster in reading them, and was using a yellowed piece of paper from the typewriters and a pencil to take notes on the meaning of words she didn't know.

« That makes sense. It also can't all flow out, or the... » she scrunched her nose, then briefly consulted her makeshift dictionary.

« "Ecosystem" would die.»

He had carefully opened up the radio in order to remove the dry cell batteries that powered it and examine them. If they were lucky, they were just empty. If they were unlucky, they couldn't hold a charge anymore. He was more interested in the cables that hooked all the pieces together anyway. He hoped to be able to use the Electric Type to give the radio enough power to call for help. He had no idea what the Pokémon was called: it looked similar enough to a Pikachu, but there had been so many of those electric rodents in the past they all kind of blended together to him. How were you supposed to remember them all? There was a different one in every darn region it seemed.

Native to Paldea... Paw-something? Or was it Dedenne? He was only sure it wasn't a Mincinno, because he knew what the ancestor of Steelcino looked like, and it wasn't that.
Whatever, it's not like it mattered.

« You, umm... Pipsqueak. Come here.» he gestured for the Pokémon to approach, and after a moment they carefully crawled near.

Now, how was he supposed to explain what he wanted from them? He wasn't even sure that it would understand his words: if people hadn't come here in decades, they were probably the first humans this Pokémon had ever seen.
Maybe that was why it had no fear of them.
Which was good.
But that also meant it had absolutely no exposure to human language.
Which was bad.

« I need you to... hold this and use your electric powers.» he said, holding up the cable that was supposed to connect the battery cell to the radio. The Pokémon just stared at him blankly, because of course it did.

« Erm... use Thunder Shock?» more blank stares, because of course it would have no idea of what a move name was.
Sigh.
... how did people do this?
Most Pokémon in his time had started as Artificial Pokémon, and those literally came with natural language processing models installed for most languages. The ones that had evolved naturally like Miraidon usually lived so close to humans anyway they just learned fast.
He didn't have time to reinvent domestication-

« You have to teach them what you want with each command. Here-» Sada got the creature's attention by waving one berry around, and then waited patiently.

The Pokémon looked at her and tried to get at the berry, only for her to move it out of the way, raising her hand high. It let out an irritated squeak, rubbing their front paws which made sparks crackle between the short claws. The instant she saw the little sparks, Sada was quick to give it the berry. The Pokémon's eyes widened. It looked at the food it had been given, and Turo could swear he could almost see it make the connection between what it did and the reward it got.
This was going to take a while. As long as it didn't eat all their food.
---
It took ten days for the mysterious noise to reoccur. This time, it had been in the early morning, and Clavell only happened to hear it because he had briefly stopped in the lab before a lesson, preparing it for the next lessons of Pokémon Biochemistry that was going to take place in it half an hour from now.
This time he froze, staring at the radio. He opened the wide windows, and stuck his head outside. Not a single Magnezone in sight. They mostly circled the crater, but sometimes happened to drift close to the city, attracted by all the electromagnetic fields of thousands of devices. Clavell closed the window, and went back to the radio. He turned the volume up to the maximum. All right, so it was picking up something. Maybe the radio frequency it was listening on had been accidentally changed and was just picking up some random broadcasting station-

« ... llo...? Anyone... ple... espond.»

He stared at the radio in shock.
That was definitely a radio transmission. Directed at the secret frequency used only and exclusively to communicate in the past without interference with a specific place. But that was... impossible.
He picked up the transceiver with a trembling hand, pushing the button to switch from "receive" to "send".

« H-hello...? Who is this...? » he asked, eyes wide.

There was a long silence, before another answer arrived.

« ... trapped... Area -- ero.» and after that, just a single word, in another voice.

« Help.»
---
It couldn't be. It couldn't be, Clavell thought as he ran out of the Academy. Nobody had entered Area Zero in decades. Nobody had even received permission to do it in decades. What were two people doing in Area Zero? But the signal could have only come from there. And if there really were two people... trapped in the crater... Arceus knew how they had gotten there or how long they had been under there.
Even if it was some kind of error, a prank, an illusion by some ghost Pokémon or anything else... he had to make sure.
Professor Harrington would have to cover the lesson for him. He threw one of the Premier Balls on his jacket, letting out his Gyarados, and quickly climbed on the Pokémon's back, directing him towards the Great Crater. The water serpent flew fast and high, soaring high to avoid the Garchomp and especially Magnezone that loved to establish their territory there, before diving straight down. The communication should have come from... Research Station number 2.
They broke through the cloud cover, and he peered down towards the clouds, looking for the building that had to be somewhere down there...
Gyarados roared and started thrashing violently side by side, shaking his head and forcing him to hold tight to his crest.

« What's gotten into you?» Clavell looked around, trying to calm his Pokémon down, until he saw it. An arrow, sticking out from the yellow scales on his lower half He stared at it for a long moment, too surprised to react as the serpent barreled toward the ground, absolutely furious. With another roar, it opened his mouth and pointed his head towards the ground, towards... towards the figure of a woman with long wild hair, covered in what looked like pelts, holding a bow and aiming straight at his Pokémon, a second arrow already notched. He saw her pull the bowstring back to fire, before her eyes landed straight on him and went wide in surprise. She lowered her weapon, then ran straight back into the research station, yelling something he didn't quite understand.

His mind was still a bit stuck on the "there really was someone in Area Zero, and they just fired an arrow at me"; he made Gyarados carefully land and returned him to his Poke Ball, before carefully approaching the entrance of the building. The inside was dark, the only light provided by a couple of small windows near the ceiling, and a strange, light purple glow coming from one corner of the room. The woman was inside, her eyes wide as she approached... Clavell had to blink, recognizing the glowing lines as part of a strange rubbery suit worn by a man with dark hair, almost camouflaged in the dark. His eyes were similarly wide, and he grabbed the woman's arm, whispering something in her ear in a unknown language, before clearing his throat and speaking up.

« Did you... gEt the radio messAge...? »

He had a strange way of speaking; it was Paldean, without a doubt, but he spoke with an inflection that Clavell had never heard before. Were they foreigners?

« Yes, I... I got your message. W-who are you? How did you arrive here? » he asked, incredulous.

The more he looked around, the more details that just made the whole situation more surreal he noticed. Branches that looked carved up to make arrows were piled up in one corner. Plastic beakers filled with rainwater were amassed near the doorway. A little Pawmi hissed at him, fur standing up, before running under his legs and disappearing outside.
Dear Arceus, how long had they been stuck under here? How long had they been trying to use that radio?

Neither of them answered, the couple exchanging one long glance and another couple of whispered words with each other.

« We... We fEll. InSide. » the woman eventually answered for both.

They... They fell inside the crater...? Couldn't they have simply flown out, or called a Flying Taxi? How did they even survive?

« We nEed help...» the man added after a moment.

Clavell just kept staring incredulously at both.
The woman - who, his mind helpfully reminded him, had just shot his Pokémon with an arrow -, who looked straight out one of those extreme survivalist shows where they got dropped into the wilderness with nothing -, and then the man, with his weird glowing scuba diving suit or whatever it was, and felt a migraine set in, along with the weird feeling that he had gotten himself into something much bigger than what he had first thought. Much, much bigger.

... Well, what exactly was he supposed to do now?

Clavell didn't have to think long about it. Common courtesy and decency made his next step pretty obvious. Everything else could wait.

He straightened his glasses, looking at the pair with quiet determination.

« ... Let's get you out of here first. And something to eat. You both look like you need it.»

They both almost collapsed in relief at his words, holding each other for support.

« May I have your names? » he asked, and again it seemed to take a moment for his words to register.

« Sada, and...»

« ... Turo.»

They mumbled as a response after a couple of seconds.
Yes, they definitely didn't seem to have a complete grasp of Paldean. Which made their appearance here, literally in the middle of the region, in the one place that not even people that had lived in Paldea their whole life knew... Completely impossible.

Paradoxical.
 
Chapter 20: Stranded, part III

Nekodatta

Pokémon Trainer
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. koraidon-apex
  2. miraidon-ultimate
  3. skitty
Chapter 20: Stranded, part III
Paleolithic Era, in the area that will be known as Kalos.

Sada had been missing for a couple of days now.

Personally, Chalo wasn't particularly worried. Sada had always been a bit more of a free spirit, and now that she could just fly away with Winged King, she was no longer bound to stay in one place. People being away from the settlement for days was nothing unusual, as traveling took time, but…

Her timing to decide to go away was a bit unusual. Deep into the cold season, it wasn't the best time for long hunting trips. People hunkered down to survive. The wool they had gathered from their little herd of Spark Tail had proven incredibly valuable, so there was no need to set out to hunt so many Steady Glacier anymore.

And Fluffyhead had grown so strong! Now, it had even learned to make his wool grow incredibly fast and harden it to protect himself or herself from attacks. Its wool didn't make for particularly comfortable clothes, but it offered some amazing protection by wearing it underneath. Not to mention, one of Sada's latest ideas from moons ago had offered them another way to get clothes anyway:

Stealing creatures’ eggs straight from the nest and getting them to hatch! To raise them instead of eating them immediately!

Apparently, Turo's tribe had been doing it for a long time.

…Uh.

As strange as she found the guy - and still not really seeing what Sada saw in him! Way too scrawny and spindly looking! -, she had to admit that he came up with some interesting ideas every now and then. Plus, watching him trip every two steps and getting all exasperated when she called him "Terg" would never not be funny.

Chalo finished feeding the Spark Tails, carefully set aside the berries that managed to survive the cold of this season, and ducked back into the communal tent.

In one corner of the tent, carefully nestled in a bundle of pine leaves and away from the fire sitting in the center of the tent, was a little yellow and green creature. Sada had stolen the egg from a nest of strange creatures, who… Well, Chalo wasn't really sure if they were supposed to be bugs or plants, not that she really cared as long as she didn't have to kill one. They had named them "Cutting Leaf", from the sharp semi-circle shaped upper limbs that their adults forms seemed to have.

Sada had observed them wrap their eggs in fallen leaves, so they had done the same with their stolen egg, and to everyone's delight, managed to make it hatch!

The creature had grown close to Sada’s mother, Akai, who had quickly discovered how to use the sticky thread it spewed out in her sewing. After that, the two had become inseparable, and the creature was more than happy spending her days chewing whatever bits of leaves she could find and spit out more thread to use, almost always sitting by the old woman's side.

There, a group of five or six tribe people were busy making new clothes.

« Is Sada back? » Akai asked, without raising her head from her work.

« Not yet. » Chalo shook her head, sitting down by her side.

Neither of them said a word, both probably thinking the same thing. She must have left with Turo like always... but she would always come back in the evening. They would never go far. The old woman kept working, her hands skillfully gathering the thread spit out by the little bug as soon as it solidified.

« ... I've heard they found her spear. Narjik's son did. » Akai added after a moment, and Chalo's eyes widened.

« Her spear...? But...»

But Sada never went anywhere without her spear. Even with that enormous dragon with her, going somewhere without a weapon was just idiotic. This changed everything. She looked back to the old woman, her face carefully neutral as she kept working, head held low.

« If they found her spear... and no trace of her...» She didn’t want to say it out loud. The spirits liked to play cruel jokes on humans and tended to make those things true when you did, but…

« ... Sada isn't dead. » Sada's mother raised her voice, her eyes - so similar to her daughter's - finally left her work to look at Chalo, sending a shiver down her spine.

« She can't be, » Akai continued, « she will come back. She always does. »

Chalo looked away, the determination - the desperation - in the woman's eyes difficult to look at.

« ... I'll go ask Narjik's son to tell me where he found the spear. » Chalo answered after a moment.

Sada wouldn't just forget her spear, even if she had suddenly lost her mind and decided to ran away in the night with that Turo guy.

Something must have happened.

She exited the tent again and called for Fluffyhead to follow her with a little whistle, heading for her own tent to grab her bow.

---

The "radio" that Turo had managed to fix seemed to finally be working. Or at least, it was doing something.

Apparently, as Turo had explained, it used something called "radio waves" to send their voices far away. People with other "radios" could capture these "radio waves" and hear them speak. It all sounded like magic to Sada; you couldn't see these "waves", so how could you catch them? What if nobody heard them?

She thought of smoke signals: visible from very far away, but only if someone was looking in the right direction at the right time. This seemed to be the same.

Therefore, when someone had actually answered and she heard someone's voice come out of the radio, she couldn't help but jump together with Turo and ask for help.

Had they really heard them? Would someone really come?

How many days would it take?

They should have enough food to last another couple of half-moons, easily...!

Too troubled with her unanswered questions and divvying up rations, Sada hadn't even considered the idea that help would arrive straight away.

So, when she saw an enormous, blue, snake-like creature suddenly descend from the sky, Sada's first instinct had been to shoot it.

It had taken her a moment to see the human figure that had been riding it. Humans could tame even such large creatures in this time…? That was incredible! How did they do it?

« Turo! Someone's here! » She ran back into what had become their shelter, eyes wide. Turo had been busy in one corner of the room, still working on the radio, and he whirled around with a surprised look on his face, his gaze focusing first on her and then on something behind her back.

« W-what? » He looked completely exhausted, like he didn't even dare to hope that his radio had worked after days of trying.

Sada looked back to the entrance, where the dragon tamer had just crossed the door, eyes similarly wide as he looked around. He had short light brown hair, a short little beard of a similar color, and light gray eyes. He was wearing a strange clear mask over his eyes, something Sada couldn't quite understand the function of. It seemed to provide no protection to his face or his eyes, like the hard one that Turo had her wear when they had ridden Miraidon. Maybe, it was something to just stop the wind from entering his eyes while flying?

« Let me speak. » Turo whispered to her, before addressing the man.

He did seem to speak a strange, slightly different version of Turo's language... but he thankfully spoke slowly enough that she could understand, and if not everything, still quite a few words.

The man seemed incredulous to how they were here, not that Sada could blame him. According to what Turo had said, people really weren't supposed to be in Area Zero. She looked at him, and Turo seemed to be conflicted.

« What do we say...? » She asked.

« The truth... part of it. Not like he would believe us, » he answered after a moment.

Sada nodded before turning back to the man.

« We fell. Inside. »

In a way, that was what had happened after all.

« ... And we need help. » Turo added.

There were a couple of tense seconds as Sada looked to the man that had come to their rescue. He still seemed mostly in disbelief. If that was his reaction to them just appearing here, then what would he even say to the complete truth...? That they literally fell from the sky after using a magic bracelet that made you jump through time?

« ... Let's get you out of here first, » the man suggested. « And something to eat. You both look like you need it. »

Thankfully, the man seemed more preoccupied with helping than looking for an explanation. Sada almost couldn't believe it as she turned towards Turo with a relieved smile.

They were alive.

They were going to get out of here... into a completely new world.

Everything else... everything else could wait for now.

---

Turo couldn't quite believe that someone had actually received their message and had come straight into the crater. When the man entered the research station, he had to do a double take, eyes widening in disbelief.

The man had... what looked like six whole Master Balls in pure white and red attached to his jacket. That was absurd! Was he... the Paldean League Champion, or something of that sort? Or were Master Balls actually common in the past?

« W-who are you...? » He asked as they followed the man outside.

Little Pipsqueak had run off who knows where, scared by the intruder, and Turo found himself actually a bit sad at seeing it bolt away. If it hadn't been for the little electric critter managing to give power back to the building, they wouldn't have been able to ask for help.

Then again, it's not like he had wanted to take it with him. He was no Pokémon trainer. His only companion had been...

He forced himself to think of something else. Thinking of Miraidon... hurt too much right now.

Focus. He had to focus on the immediate present and nothing else.

« Ah, of course, I haven't introduced myself. Sebastian Clavell, I'm a teacher and researcher and Uvanja Academy in Mesagoza.» The man said, and Turo gratefully focused on nothing but his voice, concentrating to understand it.

It was Paldean, but... like the written one in the report, it sounded strange to him. Ancient. Almost as though he was hearing it in some old timey movie of the past. It was… Interesting, and even hilarious, when some words that had completely changed their meaning would pop up.

But hearing it in this context, in real life? Terrifying. And exhausting.

Clavell released a Gyarados from one of the Master Balls on his belt, and it took Turo one moment to realize what he’d meant by it.

« Are we... riding that? » He asked as the man motioned for the enormous serpent to lower his head.

Clavell just looked perplexed.

« Yes, of course... what happened to your Pokémon, actually? Couldn't you have flown out? » He asked as Sada climbed aboard without the slightest hesitation, even as the Pokémon growled at her bow still slung over her shoulder.

Should he say something about the bow? Tell Sada to leave it here?

...

Whatever. It's not like they could get any weirder. The bow was probably the most normal thing about them right now.

Turo grit his teeth.

« We don't... have Pokémon with us.» he answered after a moment.

Was it going to sound weird? There had to be people that just weren't interested in having Pokémon or couldn't afford them, right?

If Clavell found it weird, he didn't show it.

Turo copied Sada and climbed on the Gyarados's back, desperately holding onto one of the big ridges on the Pokémon's back. Something told him he was not going to like this at all.

---

Parking his Gyarados in front of one of Mesagoza's Go-for-Broke Grills had caused a bit of a scene, but it had been the quickest way to arrive right at their destination. Clavell had tried to usher the two in as fast as he could, but that still didn't stop a little crowd of onlookers to gather around them.

« Order whatever you want, » he said as he looked for the table farthest from the door. He still felt stares follow them as they took their seats, not that he could blame them: the two both would have looked like they had just dressed up for a costume party, if not for their completely exhausted faces and dirty hair and clothes.

Oh, and the giant bow carved out of wood slung over the woman's shoulder didn't help.

Sada sat down first, looking around and immediately grasping the little plastic menus to examine them, while Turo hesitated for a second more, cautiously looking around.

« We... We don't have money... » He murmured with a pained look, and Clavell took a moment to take a better look at the both of them.

Umm. Well, he obviously hadn't planned to have them pay for the food right now, not when they had both just survived who knows how many days on berries and rainwater. Sada seemed busy reading the menu by silently mouthing each dish.

« Money...? » She asked suddenly, raising her eyes to stare at the man at her side.

Turo leaned sideways to whisper something incomprehensible to her, and she nodded, biting her lip.

« You know, I’ve never heard that language before, » Clavell pointed out, turning towards the woman, and finding himself suddenly curious. « Where are you both from? »

Sada stared at him with the wide eyes of a Deerling caught in headlights.

« K-Kalos... » She answered after a moment.

« Northern Paldea... » Turo added distractedly, also busy staring at the menu. He tapped his finger on one item, then seemed to blink and flinched a little inward, pulling his hand back. « ... but I've been away from Paldea for... a while. With her. »

Clavell hummed thoughtfully. That language didn't sound even close to Kalosian, unless it was some incredibly thick dialect spoken who knows where.

The waiter approached, a young man whose eyes bugged out for a moment in noticing the two strange clients.

« Oh, umm... can I have your order? » He asked, politely pretending not to have noticed the enormous bow that Sada had left leaning beside her chair, propped up against the table on the little pillow usually reserved for Pokémon.

Neither of them looked particularly ready to order, Sada narrowing her eyes at the waiter. Or maybe they were just embarrassed about ordering for themselves if they had no money on them.

« Can I suggest something? » Clavell asked.

Turo nodded after a moment, putting the menu down with a defeated sigh.

« One large Paella de Paldea for three, two Escalivada and one Klawf al Ajillo. With water. » He ordered, and the waiter gleefully wrote it down and pretty much sprinted into the back.

Poor guy.

---

Sada couldn't help but feel completely out of place. Before the blue floating dragon of "Clavell" had brought them out of the crater, in the back of her mind, a little part of her had still expected to find a world similar to her own. Instead, the place they had landed in looked more like the one in Turo's time, albeit a lot smaller. Same for the language they spoke; not quite like Turo's, but still sounding more similar compared to her own.

The way people looked, the buildings, creatures being everywhere... It was obvious that this place was much closer to Turo's time than her own.

Sada wasn't sure how to act. She had grabbed the little paper sheet with pictures of food on it to try and read it, grateful that she could at least touch it compared to the glowing, floating images in Turo's time, but, ultimately…

She had no idea what anything on the piece of paper was. She didn't recognize anything. Not even the "waffles" she had eaten in Turo's time.

What was she supposed to say...?

« Money...? » She didn't even know what this ‘money’ thing they were discussing was, and why she and Turo were supposed to have it.

« I will explain later, » Turo whispered quickly, and she nodded, feeling even more left out.

« Where are you both from? »

Sada stared at Clavell with wide eyes, not knowing what to say. She didn't want to look at Turo for help, in fear of making it clear to Clavell that she had no idea what to say. She didn't even know what this place was... just that this was on "Earth".

In her panic, she suddenly remembered the only other name of a place on Earth except Area Zero that she knew.

« K-Kalos... » She answered and hazarded a look at Turo, who nodded approvingly.

Somehow, it looked like she had managed to say the right thing.

A young man approached them, and Sada glared at him suddenly intruding in their conversation. What did he want? What was an "order"? When Clavell proceeded to list some of the things she had read on the paper, she realized he had probably asked what they wanted to eat.

Oh... so you don’t just touch the pictures like in Turo's time?

...Strange.


« I'm afraid I still have to ask you a couple of questions while we wait for the food, » Clavell said, and she forced her attention back to him; all of her focus was required just to make little sense of what he was saying. She glanced at Turo, feeling uncomfortable in having to entrust most of the conversation to him. He looked similarly troubled, eyebrows furrowed and a look of deep concentration on his face.

« W-what... questions...? » she asked, pretty much the only part other than "food" that she had understood.

« Well, we could start again with your names and what you were doing in Area Zero, » Clavell sighed, adjusting the little, rigid mask around his eyes.

Sada hesitated, not sure what to say.

She had noticed that the man had called himself "Sebastian Clavell", like Turo had said that he actually had two names.

« Romero Turo... and... » Turo answered after a moment, throwing her a glance. Clavell was staring straight at her now, obviously expecting her to answer.

Sada grit her teeth, crossing her arms to her chest with a huff. She still found the whole thing incredibly stupid.

She didn't need another name! Why was one not enough? Was it really that strange?

« Sada. Only Sada, » she huffed stubbornly, noticing Turo cringing in disapproval at her side. She ignored him, just as she ignored Clavell - or Sebastian or whatever -, who narrowed his piercing grey eyes at her.

People would call her Sada and nothing else. She didn't care how weird it would make her look here. Other than the literal clothes on her back, it was the only thing she had that was still hers. Begrudgingly, she had realized that she couldn't keep walking around with her clothes here as soon as she had jumped off that blue serpent.

They just looked too strange, like Turo had when visiting her.

« All right... Let's put that aside for now. I assume you know that entering Area Zero is forbidden? How could you... fall inside? » Clavell tried again.

Sada pointedly looked at Turo, hoping he could pick up the conversation from here as she examined her surroundings. Like the little soft paper things that were put in front of each of their seats. There were no pens, so what were you even supposed to do with those?

---

This whole conversation was nerve-wracking; Clavell was just doing the sensible thing, because obviously someone that discovered two idiots that had fallen into Area Zero and survived there for what? Short of a month? - would want to know how for the love of Arceus that had even happened.

It didn't make the situation easier for Turo. He had no idea what kind of bullshit he could even try to feed to the guy.

Ortega was right. Keeping a cover story straight was difficult, especially if he was lacking information like right now.

He had been trying to stealthily find out exactly in which century they were for the last five minutes, glancing around in search of anything that could give him a hint. The presence of electricity at least pointed him in the right direction... Now, he just needed a stupid date printed somewhere. A newspaper, a holographic display, a sign, or whatever.

He was a time traveler. They had rules for not attracting attention. And grabbing the man in front of him by the shoulders and going "The year, man!! What YEAR is it?!" like the protagonist of a crappy sci-fi movie was definitely not the way to do it.

…And as much as he wanted to right now, he had to be better than that.

When Clavell had asked where they were from, Sada had thankfully given the perfect answer; saying that she was from outside Paldea would at least not make her look out of place for not knowing the language.

As for him... pretending to be from barely-Paldea, right near the border could (maybe) pass. He was going to sound weird in any case, and there was nothing he could do about it. He made a mental note to... discuss the name thing with Sada later.

« We know. We weren’t planning on getting to Area Zero... but I can't reveal how. » He lowered his voice when some people at the tables nearby turned towards them, eyebrows raised.

He couldn't tell this man the truth. Definitely not here, anyway.

And Clavell probably would think him insane anyway. What... what was he even supposed to say?

He was just tired. His mind was stubbornly refusing to make plans, or even just contemplate the existence of something ahead of the next fifteen minutes - where he would hopefully get some food.

« It was... an accident. W-we need... Help. »

Clavell was looking at him in silence, and he felt uncomfortably scrutinized by the man.

« ...So you were not trying to infiltrate Area Zero unauthorized? » He asked after a moment.

Turo sighed.

« ...And end up trapped with no way out? » The younger man huffed. « No. »

Clavell's eyes narrowed down even further.

« But you can't tell me what you were doing or how you arrived here in Paldea. With no Pokemon. No money. Barely able to speak the language. »

Silence.

« ...You wouldn't believe me even if I did, » Turo mumbled after a moment.

The man sighed, removing his glasses to clean them with a little handkerchief that he pulled from his jacket.

« Alright, » he conceded. « If you have your reasons to keep it a secret, I won't pry further. »

The conversation was thankfully cut short by the arrival of their food.

« …At least tell me one thing, » Clavell said as an enormous plate of paella and the two side dishes were put down at the center of the table

Just the smell enough to make Turo’s mouth water.

Real food. Actually cooked. With... seasonings and stuff.

He couldn't believe it.

Turo forced himself to look away from the still-sizzling pot, noticing Sada staring at it with an equal mix of curiosity and uncertainty.

« What...? » He asked, suddenly uncomfortable.

Clavell donned his glasses again, carefully folding the handkerchief back in his breast pocket.

« What, for the love of Arceus, are you two wearing? »

…Ah. Yes.

He should have expected that.

What was he even supposed to say now?

---

An uncomfortable silence stretched on as Clavell watched the two stare at the food that had just arrived with wide eyes, and he felt a little twinge of pity for the couple. They must be famished, to look at the couple of plates in front of them with those wide, incredulous eyes.

« Is this... real? Real meat...? » Turo asked in a low voice, staring at the boiled Klawf claws in one pot.

Clavell raised one eyebrow, surprised.

« Of course. It's not processed surimi if that's what you're asking, » he answered.

Sada mumbled something incomprehensible to the man by her side, who threw her a sideway glance before shrugging. One moment later, they threw themselves over the food, starting to eat ravenously.

Clavell looked away respectfully, sipping his water, and then doing a double-take when he saw Sada grab one of the claws with her bare hands and sink her teeth straight into it.

« Um... » He wasn't quite sure what to say.

He noticed Turo flinch and quickly grab fork and knife, trying and failing to stealthily attract the woman's attention. Sada looked at him, then at the cutlery and finally down at herself, oil and sauce dripping down her chin.

« ... Oh.»

After a moment she grabbed her own fork and knife and clumsily started to try to cut the claw open, throwing little glances towards Turo.

Clavell decided that it was better not to comment on it.

« Our... clothes... um... » Turo answered after a moment, head low as he kept shoveling paella into his mouth.

« Yes. What even is that? A scuba diving suit? Is that what the lights are for? » Clavell chuckled, but found that trying to alleviate the mood didn't work. The man just kept silent, face twisted in an uncomfortable expression.

« We... We like to... They're costumes. » He finally answered, stopping to eat for a moment.

The silence had never been louder.

« ...Costumes. » Clavell simply repeated, before heaving a deep sigh.

Alright. They were obviously hiding something, and obviously didn't want to talk about it, so he decided to simply drop the subject for now and let them eat in peace.

He was willing to believe them on entering Area Zero not being their true objective, because doing it only to end up trapped there with no way out… It didn't make any sense. So, he could imagine that it had been a genuine accident. They obviously knew each other and looked pretty close.

For now, he had a couple of hypotheses about who they could be:

1) Secret undercover agents, here in Paldea for some super-secret mission! Didn't really explain the complete lack of any equipment or general preparation. Or the strange clothes, which had the opposite effect of attracting even more attention judging by the fact that everyone in the restaurant had been staring at them since they had stepped in.

2) A secret romance! A forbidden love between the members of two families that hated each other, prompting the young couple to run away into the night, looking for a place where they could build a life together!

...Again, didn't really explain the "costumes".

3) A weird combination of both.

As for how they arrived here, the only way he could explain it was by using a Corviknight to try to illegally enter the region by flying, only to get shot down by Tinkaton... but the man had mentioned being from Northern Paldea. How could he not know that flying on Corviknight was dangerous in Paldea for that very reason?

His curiosity was well piqued by now. He wanted to ask more questions, but... looking at the slight desperation with which they were devouring their food, he simply pushed his own untouched plate towards them.

« ...How long were you stuck under there? » he slowly asked.

Sada looked up from her half-eaten plate, scrunching up her face in concentration as she whispered something to Turo. He answered with something that sounded like "month", and she swallowed her bite and nodded.

« A moon... um... a "month". I think. It's always day under there, » she whispered, carefully enunciating every word. Clavell's eyes bugged, and he hastily did the math backwards to the first time he had heard the radio catch one of those stray signals.

« An entire month... How... »

« Probably a bit less. We couldn't keep track. » Turo added, in his unknown, exotic accent. « We ate mostly berries and other fruits, and... » his eyes drifted briefly to Sada's enormous bow without saying anything.

Clavell simply nodded, leaving that little detail unsaid.

« If you want anything else, just order it. I will pay for everything, » he said.

It didn't take long for the two to completely polish everything they had on their plate. It was only noon, and he had definitely missed his classes for today… Oh, he would just have to explain what had happened later.

« So, what are you going to do now? » Clavell asked the both of them as he had finished paying - Sada curiously following his every move - as they exited the Go-for-Broke Grills.

He half expected them to immediately start on a suspiciously specific plan or destination - "oh yes, we have to go to Alfornada to do this one thing"-, but instead, he was met with absolute silence. He looked back to make sure they had actually followed him outside and found them both standing just right past the door, looking at the streets of Mesagoza with wide eyes, holding hands.

« ... I don't know, » Turo answered after a moment, and he sounded completely, utterly... defeated.

Clavell was left completely baffled; his new theory already shattered. The man wasn't lying. His eyes were just completely devoid of any light as he looked at the horizon.

Lost.

Hopeless.

« You don't have... anywhere to go? » He asked, just to make sure.

Sada sighed and held Turo's arms closer, giving the man what should have been a reassuring smile but only managed to look a bit sad to Clavell. She was doing her best to act strong for the both of them, he guessed.

« No, but... thank you for the food. And helping us... »

« Thank you for everything, Mr. Clavell, » Turo added after another moment of silence, and the couple started to move towards the city's western exit, not without attracting more stares.

Clavell was left looking at them with a strange mix of pity and confusion. These two... they genuinely had nowhere to go, he realized. Nothing to do. No secret plan or mission... but how was that possible?

It didn't matter right now.

« Wait! » He yelled, running after them. « You... You said you have no money... Where are you even thinking of spending the night? »

They both looked at him in confusion; two completely, different kinds. Sada looked like she hadn't understood a particular word again, while Turo was simply… perplexed.

« Aren't... Aren't Pokémon Centers free...? » He asked, and now it was Clavell's turn to stare at the man in absolute confusion.

« Pokémon Centers haven't been built in Paldea since we created the Flying Taxis and Cyclizar roads, » he said. How could he be from Paldea and not even know that?

Then again, Pokémon Centers were still a thing in Kalos, and they did offer free housing for Trainers... which brought him to the second problem.

« ...And even if they were, you said you have no Pokémon. »

They both looked saddened at that.

« ...I guess you could spend the night at my place, » he offered after a moment.

He couldn't simply leave them there in good conscience. They needed help.

---

Clavell had insisted on bringing them to his place.

He had specified that they could "make themselves comfortable" before he had to leave, but Sada had barely any idea what that meant. By her night in Turo's home in his time and their time spent in the crater, she knew by now that homes of the future seemed to be divided into a lot of different spaces. Clavell had offered them a bed in the "living room", a name that made absolutely no sense to Sada even when she asked Turo for the translation to be sure.

Weren't you also living in all the other rooms?

« So, what is this "money" thing? You kept talking about it. » Sada asked once they were alone. She had watched Clavell the entire time, and he had handed a bunch of shiny round stones to the guy that had brought them the food.

Turo stopped his slow pacing around the room and actually smiled a little, sitting down on the "couch" that Clavell had opened to make another bed for them, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

« ...Something that we will need here. Desperately, » he answered, sounding exhausted. « You use money to "buy" things... Um, you give it to someone and they give you another thing you need. »

So… It wasn't any different than trading?

That didn't sound so difficult.

« And what do you do with it after you get it? » She asked as she sat down near him, leaning on his shoulder. Turo sighed - she could feel the slight movement - and absentmindedly started stroking her hair.

« ...Nothing. You get it and then give it to someone else to get something else you need. »

Sada looked up to glare at him, certain that he was playing some dumb prank on her.

« ...That's stupid. So it doesn't do anything? You just pass it around? »

Turo winced as he stroked his chin.

« Not... Not really... It's... Okay, let's give an example. Let's assume, um... That you are trading with me. You give me a set of clothes, and I give you three paper notebooks. We both get something the other wants and help each other. Right? »

Sada nodded, waiting for him to continue.

« All right... Now, imagine that someone else comes with something you want, and he also wants to trade with you. But he's not interested in you making clothes for him. »

« ...So? I can just find something else to give him, » she interrupted him, but Turo just shook his head.

« You have nothing he needs. So, he just leaves to find someone else to trade with. »

« And what makes money different? It doesn't do anything... Why would he want that? » She insisted.

« I'm getting to it... imagine that I gave you this "money" instead of the paper. This money... It's a symbol. You can use it to get something because the other person can then use it on anything else they need... »

At that moment it slowly dawned on her.

« Oh... So it's like... A message? "I have money because I did something for someone else"... Even if it's not what you need. So... It's a way to make everyone trade with everyone else? » Sada asked, starting to consider all the implications.

« I'm sure I just gave the most horrible over-simplification but... yes. In a way, » Turo muttered, even as he smiled weakly.

She still wasn't really sure that she understood it, but... alright.

« And we get money by doing... What? » She asked, settling closer to him. Turo's answer, however, didn’t come as quickly as she had hoped. She looked up at him after a while when his hand stopped caressing her hair, to find him with his eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling.

« ... No idea, » he confessed in a low voice, eyes empty.

---

They had spent most of the day inside, getting accustomed to their temporary home and generally exhausted by everything that had happened. Clavell would come back only late at night, and he had left them some money to get something for dinner. Just the whole concept of having to use physical money was absurd to Turo. He kept turning the little coins in his left hand, examining them in complete disbelief.

So if you dropped it somewhere, your hard earned money could just ... Go puff, and disappear?

That was so inefficient. Of course, he knew that people had lived like that for most of human civilization; It just… It didn't make it any less weird.

Even just wandering around the house felt almost surreal. Things looked familiar enough that he still found himself trying to summon a display in midair or simply touch them to interact with them, only to be hit again and again with the realization that there wasn't even a touch screen.

Literally everything seemed to have half a dozen buttons to operate it. He had spent a good five minutes just looking at the remote control for the ridiculously blocky television in the living room.

It gave him a headache.

During the days spent in the crater, his mind had almost operated on emergency mode: focused on nothing but fixing the radio and surviving. He had somehow pushed the thought of what the world actually was like behind Area Zero out of his mind.

Surely, it wouldn't be as primitive as being stuck with typewriters and physical batteries.

Surely, it was just because it was old, abandoned equipment.

Surely, he wasn't stuck in a world that had only barely invented the telephone for the rest of his life.

Now it was all slowly sinking in.

Yes, they were stuck in a world exactly like that.

He had just confessed to Sada that he had no idea what they were supposed to do. All his studies and fancy PhD were about stuff that didn't even exist yet, or in Sada's case, long obsolete.

They had no credentials.

No skills.

No identity.

He felt panic creeping in as he stared at the ceiling, his chest rising and falling in panicked breaths.

What could they even do...?

Sada's hand gently caressed his cheek, and he blinked and looked down at her. She didn't say anything, just kept slowly stroking his jawline.

His breath slowly calmed down. Right.

At least they were together.

He pulled her closer and closed his eyes.

« ...I need two names, right? » Turo heard her say after what could have been ten seconds or ten minutes, lost as he was simply focusing on having her close.

« ...Yes. Everyone here has a first and last name. It will look strange to have only one. »

Sada's hand stopped, and she was silent for a long moment.

« ...But it's my name. Mother gave it to me. I don't want to get called anything else, » she whispered, and Turo had to look down at her in shock when she sounded so lost and for once...

Incredibly vulnerable.

« ...It's the only thing from home I have left, » she added after a moment, and he found that his chest ached painfully.

She was... scared. Sada had never been scared. In her brutal world where a moment of weakness could spell death, she had been a pillar of strength to him. Always knowing what to do, always looking forward to the next challenge, the next new thing to discover with her endless enthusiasm and excitement.

Everything was an adventure to her.

Now he could see her eyes shine, not with her usual curiosity, but with sadness. Tears, gathering at the corner of her eyes. He kissed her forehead, holding her against his chest as he tried to comfort her as she had just done to him, whispering a single "I'm sorry" over and over again. Her tears soon became little sobs that she tried to choke back by biting at her lip, her hands balling into fists against his bodysuit, slipping over the smooth fabric.

« ...What name will people see more? » She asked after a while in a little voice, and he thought for a long moment.

« ...Both, but your last name is what's used most. What people will usually call you until they know you better. »

There was nothing but silence for a good ten seconds. Outside the window, the sun was beginning to set, painting the room in an array of blazing orange and scarlet. She looked up at him with fierce eyes, nodding once at his answer as the light streaming in painted her face in fiery light.

« Then... Sada will be my last name. I will think of another name to use... but the name I got from my people will be the first thing everyone will see. And they better remember it. » Sada announced, finding strength within her voice.

---

47th century, Time Travel Laboratory Departments, University of Mesagoza

Turo had insisted on accompanying the native girl back to her time. It was understandable.

He probably wanted to... say his goodbyes.

Vega hadn't realized how much the guy had genuinely fallen for the girl until she had seen him never abandon her side – not even for one second - at the hospital… At least, until they had forced him to take a break. Now, she felt kind of bad for him.

Falling in love with someone in another time? That sucked.

As she exited her office, she noticed the time machine room was still lit up. That was strange. The last one to use it had been Turo more than two hours ago, and when it wasn't used…

Well, it's not like Porygon 568 had much to do except his usual check-ups... and probably playing solitaire on 40 different screens simultaneously or whatever an AI did to pass the time.

« -st! Connection lost! Connection lo-»

Connection lost?

She ran into the room as she heard Porygon's voice repeat something over and over. Something that made her blood run cold. The Pokémon was in a frenzy, zipping around the room flapping his wings, looking less like a little adorable chibi Zapdos and more like a panicked Torchic.

Vega didn't know much about computers or AI. Turo had been their local computer wizard, but even she knew that Porygon wasn't supposed to do that.

« Porygon, calm down... PORYGON! »

« Connection lost! » The Pokémon kept crying out, agitated.

She had to get him out of that state, in the only way she knew would work for sure: she ran for the time machine terminal to shut it down.

That was a mistake.

« Threat to ongoing process detected. Executing Protection Protocol and directing all power to the time machine to assist in safely completing current task. »

She froze at the sudden change in voice from the little Pokémon.

Outside the room, the lights fizzled off, and Porygon grew. His wings crackled with electricity as they spanned so wide they could barely fit into the room when spread. His little head turned sharper, features growing more ferocious. Two feet with sharp talons made of pure Hadron energy landed heavily on the floor, and the Pokémon, now probably as big as the legendary it had been inspired from, lowered his great head to stare at her with completely white eyes.

Vega desperately scrambled backwards until her back hit the wall, staring at the now enormous Pokémon in complete shock.

What... was happening?

Was this the "error handling procedure" Turo had coded into Porygon months ago?

« What's going on...? The power in the whole department just went out- » Ortega's voice came from the door, and Porygon 568's head snapped to the side.

« Threat detected. »

More power crackled over his wings as they beat them once, launching arcs of electricity all over the room. Ortega froze on the threshold, eyes wide with sudden panic.

« What the f- »

Vega let out a shriek as a bolt of lightning passed right over her and threw herself to the floor, desperately crawling to the exit.

« Out! JUST GET OUT! » She screamed, pushing the still petrified Ortega back out into the corridor. Porygon 568 was too big to follow them there in that state... and if her idea was right...

The Pokémon stopped suddenly, glaring at the two from the middle of the room but making no move to attack.

Yet.

They then started pacing around the room, an eerie, unnatural droning sound filling the area as electricity buzzed and crackled all over them.

« Connection lost. Retrying... connection lost... » the Pokémon kept muttering.

« What was that?! » Ortega asked as the woman desperately tried to calm down.

« Porygon called it the "Protection Protocol"... I guess... I guess it's Turo's doing. »

She only now noticed that the corridor was completely dark, not a single light turning on as the power of the entire department (if not the entire building. At this point, she wasn't sure that Turo wouldn't be capable of it) was being redirected to the room that housed the time machine. The only light came from her and Ortega's bodysuits, and the man's face became ashen white.

« Turo's...? Wait, why did this thing activate? » Ortega turned back towards the time machine room and the message that the Pokémon kept repeating on loop.

« Connection lost... Whose turn was it to use the time machine...? » he asked in a low voice, and Vega stared at him in mounting horror.

« It was... Turo... Two hours ago...» She answered slowly.

He furrowed his brows.

« You... You don't think... Oh no...» She whispered, covering her mouth with one hand. It couldn't be... But if Porygon kept repeating "connection lost"... That could only mean...

« ...We have to call everyone in the department. All jumps will be canceled. » Ortega took a deep breath, suddenly struggling to speak.

« We've had a mismatch. »
 
Top Bottom