Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The end of the spring semester had been steadily approaching, and the slow roll of the upcoming summer heat did little to bolster Reno’s determination to finish the semester to begin with. 

Having to worry about an ever growing pile of final review packets and meetings with his academic advisor were already bad enough. 

But the sun beating down on him felt like an evident kick below the belt.

His walk back to the dorm –if you could even call it a walk – only further magnified this distaste for not only the heat, but the entirety of his college experience thus far. If he’d known that, as he slowly advanced from first year to third year, the distance between the student dorms and main campus would grow exponentially he would have just doubled down and been a commuter.

Unfortunately he gave into his parents demands of getting the full college experience .

Well, the full college experience now was vastly different from what they remembered and what the movies showed. He made too little money at his on campus job to join a fraternity, his fellow peers also only wanted to do the bare minimum work to pass the class; And, to top it all off, he was just… awkward.

No one had warned him that making friends in college was so difficult...

As he continued his expedition back to his dorm, sweat trickled down from his forehead and the back of his neck, leaving a salty taste on his tongue, a stinging sensation in his eyes, and an uncomfortable feeling of dampness all along his back and under arms. 

Whatever small patches of shade he could find beneath tree branches , whose leaves had all withered off, granted him little to no respite from the sun. Part of him didn’t even know why he bothered trying to seek refuge to begin with, but another part of him told himself it was better to find some shade than seek none at all.

“God… this sucks…”

~~~

Reno took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then released it all in a mini, short lived scream, letting the weight of his dorm room door close itself for him. He twisted the lock until the audible *click!* signaled that it had been locked behind him.

He threw his backpack on his bed, walking over to his nightstand and turning on the portable fan he normally kept blowing in his face as he slept toward him. 

The cool air felt euphoric on his skin. Reno closed his eyes and just basked in the moment of it all. His appreciation for modern day AC re-solidifying itself by the second. 

He would have enjoyed the moment a bit more had the sudden sound of a flushing toilet and opening door not remind him of one crucial detail of his living situation: He had a roommate. Sure, big surprise, right? You’re living on a college campus of course you’re going to have roommates

“What up big dog.” Josh said nonchalantly, drying his hands on his shirt. He looked exactly the same as he did when Reno left for his classes in the morning: Parts of hid blonde hair sticking upwards in numerous cowlicks, bandaids wrapped around his slender fingers, and an old, tattered shirt depicting what looked to be cybernetic sharks with lasers attached to their heads; Or what looked to be that particular visual. It was so worn down and faded it was almost impossible to tell what was even supposed to be on it in the first place.

It was a miracle it hadn’t fallen apart at the seams yet. 

It was an even bigger miracle it hadn’t been reduced to a pile of thread and string after being brought out of the dryer.

“You been to the cafe yet?” 

“Nah, I just got out of my micro economics class. Wanted to make some progress on the final review we got, fate said otherwise. Cafe was too packed. Library was too packed. Student Center was too packed. Figured I’d just get as much done here as I can and then head out at 7pm. It should be cooler by then. I hope.”

“Bummer. Me and some boys are gonna head out here in 15 minutes, if you want to join us.”

“Thanks for the offer. I’ll pass. I wanna get as much of this done as I can.”

“Can’t stay cooped up in here forever, man. But you do you.” Josh shrugged, plopping himself down on his own bed, stretching his socks over his feet and up toward his ankles, just squeezing his shoes on without even undoing the laces.

Ugh… There it was… those small digs that Josh always gave him whenever he wanted to guilt trip Reno into doing something other than school work. He saw where he was coming from, and he appreciated the thought of it too, it was just that whenever Josh wanted to hang out, Reno didn’t want to hang out.

Their social schedules were never aligned; if they could be at all. Even with some of the chatter he’d hear from Josh’s friends about how he was always “such a shut in” and how he was “kinda silent in a creepy way.” 

He’d heard worse growing up so those didn’t bother him as much. There was still that evident discomfort, and in the wee hours of the night he occasionally found himself thinking about those words over and over again, each phrase replaying in his mind like a broken jukebox or one of those “classic rock” radios that only ever played Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive.

Thankfully Josh never said those things; If the did he was really good at hiding it or said it when he wasn’t in the same room as his roommate. Reno didn’t mind him. Despite their differences they managed to, at the bare minimum, coexist in their shared space for the semester. Maybe once in a blue moon Reno would muster up enough social battery to watch a movie with him.

Overall their relationship was fair. They didn’t hate each other, but they didn’t exactly like each other either. Reno was certain that, if he wasn’t living with him in the first place, Josh wouldn’t have even spared him a passing glance; He was way more sociable than him.

Honestly Josh was the only person –outside of his family– he’d talk to on a regular basis. If Reno had a dorm room to himself he’d never leave unless it was for classes or food.

“I know, I know, it’s just… it’s just economics man. My brain is NOT built for this shit. Pretty sure I have that DNA strand that makes you bad at math.”

“No way that’s a thing.”

“That’s what I’ve heard so I’m choosing to lean into it.” Reno blew air through his nostrils, digging through his backpack and taking out his homework folder and pencil pouch, getting himself situated on the desk on his side of the room. He grimaced when his fingers wrapped around the 25 page review packet. Somehow, it felt heavier in his backpack than in his hands. 

His Econ Professor had to be a fucking sadist to create and assign a review of such… girth to students who were already dead on the inside. This damn review wouldn’t even yield any extra credit either. “Wanna know why I chose a humanities major? To avoid having to do stuff like this in the first place.”

~~~

Reno had hoped that with Josh’s absence, tackling the more difficult parts of the review would be easier. Working when he knew someone else was in the room with him always put him in a weird type of headspace. It made him feel nervous. It made him feel like he was being watched. It made him feel subconscious. Even if he knew those were silly thoughts to think, he couldn’t keep his brain from thinking them.

All those generations of human evolution and for what? To get freaked out when people were in the same room as you? 

The brain was a damn joke.

This review packet was a damn joke.

So many numbers, words, and graphs blanketed each page that they all blended together into one big, homogenous economic soup. If he tried to skip a certain question or page in favor of another one all he’d find would be an even harder question in its place. 

One hand tapped his fingers against his desk. The other tapped the eraser end of his pencil against his cheek. His toes tapped against the tips of his slides.

The wall-mounted clock above the dormroom door appeared to tick even louder in his ears with each passing second. Why did the college even furnish the room with one in this digital age? 

What a nuisance. 

His fan buzzed like a giant bug flying through his room. Was it always this loud? His eyes went to the flaws in the paint, the off balance chair he kept rocking in, the scent of the hot pocket he made that morning still permeating the walls, Reno's thoughts simply couldn't settle.

He hated this. He hated every second of this. He hated the thought of stepping away from it even more. Not just from a grade standpoint –the review was worth a quarter of his final grade– but from a social standpoint too. How awful would it be if, after turning down Josh’s offer to hang out and grab food with his friends, he came back and saw that Reno hadn’t even made a dent in the thing to begin with.

Not only would he look like a hypocrite, but he’d look like an asshole too.

Right now he was considering looking like both of those things.

“I’m so going to fail this fucking class holy shit.” Reno dropped his pencil onto his desk, running both hands through his hair as a sickening, warm feeling began to work its way up from the pit of his stomach to his chest. He actually wanted to scream right now. He actually wanted to flip his desk over right now. 

He wanted to do a lot of things to try and disperse all of his frustrations, and none of those things were particularly constructive. 

Destruction of campus property cost money, however. 

And money was one of the many things he didn’t have.

Deciding to concede to defeat, Reno leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up on the desk, not even caring if he got the review dirty or ripped or whatever a pair of slides could do to pieces of paper.

He threw his head back and groaned, “Ugh. I’d rather be doing anything else than study for this stupid econ final right now…”

“Thou’s wishes have been answered. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall be rewarded. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall see me again.”

Then, without warning, he fell.

The floor had given out from under him.

Chapter Text

Art By: @jalenciagasart on Twitter/Instagram!

The number three.

That was Arceus’ favorite number if he was being honest.

In fact, the two greatest sets of creations he ever made came in groups of three. 

The Creation Trio –or Pokémon of Myth as the humans called them– Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina were among the first of his most beloved children. Giratina may have been a bit of a wild card –actually, using that term to describe it was a gross understatement– but even Arceus couldn’t deny the powerful balance that particular child brought to the world.

The Lake Guardians –or the Guardians of Spirit as he liked to personally refer to them as– Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf were among the second of his most beloved children. The three of them embodied all of the aspects he wanted to give the humans of the world: Knowledge, as to learn, grow, and develop. Emotion, as to express love, joy, and sorrow. Willpower, as to embolden the very soul that made mankind unique.

So, naturally, when it came time to work on his next great project, he began seeking out three individuals to use for this greater purpose of his.

Perhaps out of boredom or perhaps out of a desire to see what influences someone from an entirely different timeline could have on the past, the Great Creator had been sending modern-day humans across time and space to places where the strong bonds between people and pokémon had yet to be formed. 

At this point, opening up portals across space-time had become like second nature to him. And lately he had become no stranger to plucking humans from their homes, putting them on the adventure of a lifetime, and granting them a great reward in return. Usually, this great reward came in the form of character development, with their chosen individuals coming out better and greater than ever before.

For those unamused with such sweet sentiments, the sheer act of being returned home was reward enough. Not everyone felt suited for grand adventure, and not everyone wanted the prospect of a vague reward at the end of the finish line. Sometimes, the simple act of collapsing on one's own bed was reward enough. Humans seemed to like to do that a lot, Arceus had observed. Mayhaps it was because he had no true, corporeal form but was laying face first on a bed really that euphoric of a feeling?

Regardless of what humans liked and disliked, Arceus had grown… bored, in a sense. Time was inconsequential to him, as his realm existed in such a space that the natural flow of time was practically nonexistent. That, however, didn’t mean that the Great Creator wouldn’t find himself twiddling the thumbs of his one thousand arms, waiting for the next hit idea to entertain himself in this timeless, empty void he chose to hole themselves up in. 

The humans he had sent to other regions had —rather suspiciously— begun to grow cold and silent in their communication with him, and the silence that had begun to set in his realm was becoming unbearable and deafening. 

Like a toddler needing a constant stream of entertainment and enrichment, Arceus had grown restless. There was this need to watch something, to observe something, but the only issue with having an infinite sea of timelines at your disposal was that chances were you’d seen everything that could be seen. No true entertainment could be found, at least not to a being as restless as Arceus.

That led him to where he is now, scouring the infinite universes like a TV user surfing through channels, searching for the perfect individuals to entrust with his grand mission. 

Two had already been chosen without a second thought. And, truth be told, he considered them for early drafts of his grand experiment but felt that it may have been too early to play two of his best cards right then and there. So, for a brief amount of time, he avoided summoning them in particular. 

With where he stood now? Now he felt it was the perfect time to unleash his two aces in the hole. 

Their courage in facing six of his finest children unknowingly marked them with a proverbial red target on their backs. 

Not in a hit list kind of way. He had no intention of punishing them for fighting for their right to exist.

No, it marked them in the “you did such a great job, I’m going to remember this the next time I need you for something” kind of way. 

To put it bluntly, it was like the two of them had solved a wifi issue in an office filled to the brim with older peers. Whether they liked it or not, they were going to be his metaphorical tech support right now.

There was just one issue: He was still missing a third person. True to his more theatrical and eccentric nature, Arceus wanted to keep a theme going with the humans he was selecting. The rule of three was very important to him, but so was consistency with his work.   

The Champion he had chosen embodied the aspect of Uxie: Knowledge.

The Hero he had chosen embodied the aspect of Mesprit: Emotion.

But he had no one to embody the aspect of Azelf: Willpower. 

Continuing to flip through the endless array of universes before him, his eyes and one thousand arms carefully perusing through any and all individuals that posed some form of interest to him, a growing feeling of disappointment began to fester in the pit of the Creator's heart.

Throughout the infinite versions of the domains he lorded over, was there truly no one that piqued his interest anymore? That couldn’t be right. His world, his realm, practically bred heroes of all shapes and sizes, whether they were people or whether they were pokémon. And yet, here he was, finding himself at a metaphorical roadblock.

Then, in a stroke of complete luck, irony, and maybe even –outside– divine intervention, his prayers were answered. Or, rather, the prayers of someone else were about to be answered. 

The message started off garbled at first, like a hushed whisper trying to wriggle its way through a broken radio. Intrigued with the words that were trying to be spoken, Arceus sifted through countless universes at a time, turning over every metaphorical rock and flipping through every nonexistent page before he found it.

A curious universe, one where the physical presence of pokémon was absent entirely, a world where the only inhabitants were humans. This… This could be just the thing he was looking for. A world where pokémon did not exist meant that the humans that called that place home had experienced hardships all on their own. That, undoubtedly, meant that the candidate who would embody the aspect of willpower could and would be found here.

There was only one hitch: A new body for this new individual would have to be made mostly from the ground up as ripping a denizen from a foreign universe would come with complications even beyond Arceus’ own power. Those complications, of course, were miniscule in the grand scheme of things. 

Worst case scenario if the original individuals body was destroyed upon transport he could just cobble together a new one out of popsicle sticks and glue. 

Not literally of course.

Though that would be interesting to see… “Fascinating… thou’s presence would provide a unique and unprecedented perspective to all of this…” Arceus spoke to himself aloud, stroking his chin with one of his one thousand hands.

“Thou’s wishes have been answered. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall be rewarded. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall see me again.”

~~~

“Ugh. I’d rather be doing anything else than study for this stupid econ final right now…”

“Thou’s wishes have been answered. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall be rewarded. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall see me again.”

One second, you’re holding pen to paper, staring down the world's worst final review packet, and the next, your entire vision goes white, you hear a voice in your head claiming your prayers have been answered, and then you no longer find yourself in the safety of your dorm room.

So, with that being said, when Reno prayed to whatever God was listening and said he’d rather be doing literally anything else than study for this final, he wasn’t expecting an actual answer at all. 

Whenever he prayed, he did it for the comfort of it—to lay all of his grievances, thoughts, and wishes out in front of him. Sometimes, speaking about them carried more relief than just thinking about them or writing them down somewhere.

If he had known there was going to be someone on the other end, he maybe would have been more specific about the details of his wish. He would have said something, like, I dunno: “I’d rather be laying on a beach drinking a Long Island iced tea while listening to some early 2000s JPop music that hit a very specific nostalgic niche I want itched.”

Ok, well, one-third of that wish had been fulfilled. He definitely was lying on a beach. It may have been face down but, hey, who was stressing the details right now, right? That much he was certain of. Not because of the sound of waves lapping against the shore, or the briny smell of the sea, or the saltwater that had begun to soak his clothes from top to bottom, no, it was the piles upon piles of sand that had found itself in every inch, crack, and crevice of his body. 

For a few seconds he let himself lay there, not moving, not reacting, not even breathing . 

Well, until he accidentally took a sharp inhale and got sand up his nose, causing him to quickly shoot up to a sitting position, the sudden burst of momentum almost sending him crashing back to the ground. Thankfully, he caught himself with the palms of his hands, planting them into the ground behind him and providing just enough support to save him the extra set of head trauma.

Oh goodie. Now he had only one metaphorical hole in his head to worry about as compared to two. 

Scratch that. He was actually fairly certain he did have a hole in his head.

The interior of his skull felt numb, save for the pounding sensation that reverberated against what he could only imagine was his frontal lobe.

It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the light, but when he could finally make out his surroundings, he was… confused.

Sand, ocean, some rocks. A small shack off in the distance and a dock just a few meters away from where he was standing. The gentle breezes that sparingly swept through the area carried the salty smell of the sea.

Well. This confirmed his initial suspicions. He was on a beach. That much was for sure. 

That wasn’t good.

He remembered being the farthest from a beach. His dorm room, while quaint and relaxing after a long day of classes and work, wasn’t exactly the tropical paradise he wished he could return to. 

Actually, the beach he was on now didn’t fit that bill either.

If he was being honest, this beach sucked.

As the pain in his head slowly began to subside and the gears that ran his brain began to shake off the dust and cobwebs they had accumulated, he came to the only logical explanation for his sudden shift of environment: He was probably dead.

He probably had a hole in his brain, and as his blood and brain matter were oozing out of his punctured skull, his body was creating the most appealing visual it could for him right now. 

He had two complaints for that.

First complaint: His slow crawl to death could have spared the other senses if he was being completely honest. The last thing he wanted to feel before his slow death was a combination of cold ocean water and the grainy sensation of sand caked up in places where the sun didn’t shine.

Second complaint: If he was going to envision himself in a beachside locale before his untimely demise, his brain could have come up with a more impressive-looking beach. Where were the palm trees? The bright sun? The fancy fruity drink served in a coconut with a tiny umbrella sticking out of it?

Instead, here he was, on a cold beach in the middle of God knows where. Instead of having a bright cheery sun, he had a chilling overcast. Instead of having a fancy fruity drink, he had a fistful of sand and assorted seashells. Instead of palm trees, all he had was a giant mountain in the distance, a veritable wound in the sky bleeding just above the peak.

“What the…?”

“Oh! Oh! Cynthia! He’s awake!”

“Huh?” Reno turned away from the mountain when a voice hit his ears. Perched on a rock just a few meters away from him looked to be a young girl, maybe no more than 15 years old? Her hair was a strange, dark –almost navy– blue color. Did she just dye her hair or something? 

Good for her. 

She studied him with a sense of familiarity that unnerved him. The way she looked at him conveyed the notion that she knew who he was, but he could scarcely find himself saying the same. Her features looked familiar as if he’d seen her somewhere before in passing or in some type of infomercial on television. Other than that, he was drawing blanks.

“Oh, good!” Another voice caught his attention this time. When he swiveled around to see the source, he felt his heart jump to his throat. An impossibly imposing blonde woman in all black stood a few inches taller than him, her eyes, while radiating no malice, felt like they were piercing into the very depths of his soul. He froze up, causing the woman to react in kind.

“We were worried about you. We tried to wake you up at first, but when our efforts started bearing no fruits we figured that maybe you needed some more rest before waking.” She gave him a warm smile, an effort to ease the tension clutching his chest. 

“We didn’t plan on leaving you here, so don’t worry about that!” She clapped her hands together, her smile growing wider.

“Nuh uh. Cynthia totally thought you were dead,” The younger girl spoke up again, flashing Cynthia a mischievous grin, causing the womans cheeks to grow cherry red, her eyes now averting themselves from her and Reno.

“I-I did not!”

That told him everything he needed to know. He only knew this woman by name, yet he still found himself shocked –and honestly insulted– she thought he was dead. That gave him the impression that, if he didn’t wake up by a certain timeframe, they were just going to ditch him here in the sand.

Not cool.

Reno stared at the two of them, the gears in his head beginning to turn once more with forcibly renewed vigor. It took him a while for his brain to catch up, but once it did he ended up only blurting out one sentence.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

Chapter Text

“Your pleas have been answered. Thou has been chosen for a mission that will change the course of history. I know thou will not disappoint.”

Two years after saving the world, Dawn Hikari had peaked at age 15.

No one had warned her that, once you reached the top, there was no other place to go but back down. 

It was hard to top something as exciting as being able to clash with the strongest forces the universe had to offer. To go toe-to-toe with one of the three strongest trainers in all the world. To, quite literally, look the end of existence itself in the eye yet still manage to walk away unscathed.

That isn’t to say she didn’t try to recapture that magic.

None of her attempts bore any fruit, no matter how intense and frequent they had become. 

Her rematches with the Sinnoh Gym leaders yielded no excitement or rush for her. 

Trying her hand at the Elite Four once more, rematching them with their teams at peak performance, failed to capture the same rush of adrenaline she felt when she first challenged them following the defeat of Team Galactic and her last gym battle with Volkner.

It had gotten so bad that, for a time, she actually considered seeking out Giratina. The legendary dragon had thrown her and Cynthia out of its distorted domain following its defeat. And she hadn’t seen it since then.

Was wanting to seek out one of the most dangerous pokémon in the entire world just because you wanted to relieve the glory days a bad idea?

Debatable. 

All that mattered to her at this moment was the here and now. 

Waking up on a beach without a single one of your pokémon would, normally, be cause for alarm for most people.

Dawn, however, was not most people.  

The second the words “your pleas have been answered. Thou has been chosen for a mission that will change the course of history. I know thou will not disappoint,” rolled off her brain she didn’t question the logistics behind it. 

She didn’t even question why Cynthia was here with her either.

No, she questioned how the heck she could get a move on and start getting this ball rolling!

Even as she awoke on the beach, hair matted with sand, her back soaked with seawater, she was undeterred. 

Being able to see her fellow Sinnoh Champion in the same boat as her only further bolstered this excitement.  

Most of her hype came crashing down when she laid eyes on a third person on the beach with her. 

Though she hadn’t said this to him aloud, she was thinking the same thing he said once he’d finally recollected himself.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

~~~

The next ten minutes that followed were the most awkward ten minutes of his entire life. Which is pretty impressive considering he survived, *"first day icebreaker, meet-and-greet your peers!"* at his college. 

Nothing quite said, “Welcome to the next four to eight education-filled years of your life!” quite like sticking a bunch of awkward, fresh out of high schoolers in a gym together and making them talk about themselves through the form of half-assed icebreakers.

He swore that if he heard the phrase, “Let’s go around the room and have each person share one cool fact about themselves!” he was absolutely going to go berserk. Just thinking about it made his teeth clench and his hands ball into fists, like the thought of having to do another icebreaker sent him into an adrenaline-filled fight-or-flight protocol.

Maybe saying that these ten minutes were the most awkward ten minutes of his life was a gross exaggeration. 

He hadn’t been mentally present through the bulk of his time. His mind had retreated into its shell, forcibly disassociating to his surroundings, focused only on one single thing: That damned mountain with the bleeding sky wound overheard.

It was bothering him more than it should have. He knew that too. Yet, he just couldn’t bring himself to pry his eyes away from it. He was glued to it, every fiber of his being hyperfixated just on that. 

He knew that a bunch if clouds near the peak of a mountain was the least of his worries right now, but he just couldn’t shake it from his head. It felt important. It looked important. But why was it important?

Ugh. Nothing was making sense. This had to be a dream. What did people do when they wanted to wake up? Pinch themselves right? Or splash water on their face? The latter option seemed like it would yield better results.

A few quick sidesteps back to the chilling water of the sea, Reno scooped up a handful of seawater and splashed it into his face a few times. His body shuddered at the icy sensation that stung throughout his face. 

Nope. Nothing. He was still on the beach.

He repeated the process again, this time with more water than before. 

Still nothing.

Reno gazed into the waters surface once it finally began to still, fingers running down his face as he inspected his features.

He… He didn’t look the same. More accurately he didn’t look like how he remembered himself in his head and how he saw himself in the mirror. 

His face, which was usually accompanied by a thick beard he had been growing out since senior year of highschool, was wiped clean from his face. 

His hair, which he fought to keep as short and groomed as possible to avoid bedhead, was a messy mop of black. 

Even his body wasn’t safe from these changes. 

He looked slimmer. He felt slimmer. Not in a good way. In the “I’m going to blow away in the wind” kind of way.

“What the fuck?”

So, he had a few items –more or less– understood right now: He wasn’t in his dorm room. He got an entirely new biological makeover. And… that was it. Actually. He only had two things he “understood.”

Perfect. Now things were starting to make sense!

That was a lie. 

Nothing was making sense right now. 

He felt like throwing up.

All the information he was able to digest just ended up raising more questions than answers. 

Notable questions included: Why wasn’t he in his dorm room? Why wasn’t he on campus? Did he doze off while working on that final review packet? Was he just not getting enough iron and other nutrients in his diet? 

Should he have supplemented his steady liquid diet of coffee with actual food and water?

Reno could feel a sizable lump forming in his throat, and butterflies began to flutter around his stomach so rapidly he felt like they were going to burst right out of his mouth. Though that might have been the nausea talking. He still felt like throwing up. God. He wished he had some tums on him or something. Or a Ginger Ale. That always made him feel better.

God, he was spiralling. He was spiraling so fucking hard right now.

He tried mentally retracing his steps, but the farthest back he could go was just that damned final review packet. Initially, he wanted that thing out of his head; now, ironically, he was desperately clinging to it with every molecule of his mental being. 

His memory really couldn’t go back any farther than that. He knew he had memories of a time that he would have considered normal –why else would he be freaking out so much right now?– but most of them were coming in blank, scattered, and virtually distorted. 

It was like someone had spilled bleach or something in his brain. Everything felt sanitized, and not in a good way.

Reno felt his hands clutch the top of his head, his fingers wrapping themselves around his hair, tugging and pulling at them with such force that part of him was worried he might create unsightly bald spots. 

He smushed his cheeks between his hands, moving them around in a vain attempt to weather the storm that was swirling around in his head.It wasn’t helping.

It made him feel worse, actually.

Then, it hit him, like really hit him, like someone had taken a baseball bat and slammed it against his face as hard as humanly possible. 

“Thou’s wishes have been answered. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall be rewarded. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall see me again.”

Those words echoed through his mind after he complained aloud about his final review packet, creating more questions than answers.

What even WAS a pokémon? WHY was he tasked with seeking all of them out? WHAT was this reward even supposed to be?

Oh god, he was spiraling again.

“Uhm, dude? Are you alright?” The voice of the young girl hit his ears again, momentarily shaking him out of his disassociation and ripping him back into the here and now. He didn’t know whether or not to thank her or curse her for that.

“You look pale. Like. Really pale.” The girls lips curled down into a frown.

“You’re also pretty sweaty… Did you forget to put on deodorant?”

“He might be suffering some shock right now, Dawn.” Cynthia spoke up again, her voice further pulling him out of his own mind. 

Reno had been absent for what felt like forever that he honestly forgot he was with two other people in the first place. The two of them had pulled up some sizable rocks to use as chairs. Cynthia had her arms folded across her chest, a look of concern painted over her face. The other girl, who had been namedropped as Dawn , was squatting on top of the rock, a much different look of concern painting her face.

She looked like she thought he had lost his marbles. 

And, in a sense, maybe he totally had.

Or, rather, maybe from their point of view he was the one who had lost his mind while he was completely justified in his freakout right now. 

“I’m sorry. I’m just. I’m not sorry, actually. I’m totally freaking out.” Reno moved his hands from his cheeks to his temples, his fingers starting to gingerly massage the sides of his head. 

This was all becoming so unbelievable to him that he didn’t even know where to start. Now, at least, he knew the name of the other girl: Dawn. Did that really help him at all? Nope! He was going to pretend that it did. Fake it ‘till you make it.

“I’m sure we can figure everything out if you just take some deep breaths and recenter yourself for us, sir.” There it was again. A different honorific. Sir. He hated being called Sir. To him, it implied that he was well put together enough to warrant some form of respect.

That was the complete opposite of how he saw himself. He had no idea what was going on.

Though Sir held higher respect than Dude, it didn’t make being referred to as that any less confusing, weird, and admittedly, pretty annoying.

“Not my name. Don’t call me sir and definitely don’t call me dude. My name is Moreno. Reno if you’re my friend.” Reno didn’t know why he added that last part. It just felt important in the moment. He was growing frustrated. 

His ever-mounting frustration would have to be put on pause for now.

“Oh, blast and bother!” Tailing after a trio of pokémon that were headed their way, a portly older gentleman wearing a purple knit hat and a labcoat called out. His pace just barely keeping up with the speed of the critters that were making their mad dash away from him.

“Why do you run from me, my darling pokémon?!”

Before Reno could even register the appearance of yet another stranger, he felt a sizable force slam itself into the center of his gut, knocking the wind out of him and knocking him right down on his ass.

Tumbling backward until his back hit the sand, he felt the steady pressure of three pairs of small feet on his stomach. When he raised his head his eyes met the faces of a particular gallery of creatures he could barely even recognize.

They looked similar to an otter, owl, and mouse, but they were so… disproportioned and off colored that just the sight of them sent him into a state of panic.

He flailed and flurried, kicking his arms and legs around. A horrible way to try and scare off a bunch of random animals.

Given Reno’s current mental state it wasn’t like he was really focused on using his critical thinking skills.

“Oh! Hello! Thank you for being there to catch these three!” The purple hat wearing gentleman skidded to a halt as he approached the three of them, the pokémon he had been chasing after all turning around to face him, then turning back around again to look at Reno. 

The otter pressed its nose up against his, blotting out everything but itself, the mouse sniffed him, and the owl began kneading his stomach with its claws.

“I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been here!”

~~~

“I cannot overstate my thanks enough! I hope these three haven’t given you any trouble!” The man knelt forward, hands resting on his knees. He smiled at his pokémon, who, in turn, promptly ignored him in favor of investigating Reno some more. 

“Normally, they’re a lot more well-mannered than this! But the recent storms have gotten them all worked up into a tizzy!” The man smiled as he knelt back up, his features slowly becoming more noticeable. 

He was a portly fellow, and bits and pieces of food were still in his stubbly mustache. 

His appearance was more than enough to spark a handful of memories in his brain. In a weird way his appearance reminded him of his Academic Advisor back at school.

Good ol’ Dr. Richardson. What a guy.

Reno could at least remain at ease knowing that not everything in his head had completely disappeared… Yet.

“Where are my manners? Are the three of you ok? I was just tending to my pokémon when, all of a sudden, they bolted toward the beach! I made chase and almost lost sight of them when I saw the three of you fall out of the sky! Quite a way to make an entrance! By the looks of it, there aren’t any external injuries, but anything internal?”

The sound of dial-up internet began to play in Reno’s head, his gears –once again– slowly turning and churning to catch up with all the dialogue that was being thrown at him. Whoever this man was, he talked fast, barely taking pauses between each sentence as he spoke. 

Just like Dr. Richardson.

Reno briefly looked towards Cynthia and Dawn, half expecting them to pick up the slack in this conversation. He clearly wasn’t in the right mindset to be holding conversations with strangers right now. His limbs may have stopped flailing, but the panic remained in his body.

It looked like the two of them were feeling the same. Their eyes had met his, both of them sharing the same, wordless message: “Can you talk to this guy?”

Welp. It looked like he was going to be picking up the slack this time. Wonderful idea! Put full trust in the guy who had been disassociating about 60% of the time he had been awake. What could possibly go wrong?

“Physically? Been better. Emotionally and mentally? Definitely need some help.” He spat out matter-of-factly, the pokémon that had knocked him to the ground continuing to remain on top of him, readjusting their positions on his stomach as he spoke. The dial up tone was still rampantly blaring inside his head, so Reno was just blurting out whatever words and phrases immediately came to mind. 

Cynthia blinked a few times as her brain registered what Reno had just said. His lack of social skills successfully shaking her out of her self-induced trance. 

Not wanting to freak out this kind gentleman anymore than Reno already had, she swooped in to save the conversation before things went south, “I apologize for my colleague here. We haven’t sustained any injuries, but could you tell us where we are?”

The man and his pokémon mirrored each other's expressions perfectly, all four of them raising an eyebrow and tilting their heads in such a synchronized fashion that it absolutely had to have been practiced beforehand.

“You… You’re at Prelude Beach in the Hisui Region.”

Cynthia’s eyes widened slightly, and she turned to look at Dawn, the two of them beginning to share the same expression. 

She heard Reno mumble under his breath, “The Hisui Region? Where’s that?” to himself quietly.

For the first time in a while, she didn’t know what to do. 

If she was younger, the rush of not having a plan would have excited her. 

The possibility of being in one of Sinnoh’s most mysterious eras would have only amplified that excitement. This was the only era in the regions history where everything –and she meant everything – felt like a historical and archaelogical dead zone. 

Very few –if any– relics from this time could be found in the modern day.

After everything she’d seen, though, everything she’d experienced only two years ago, not being in control scared her beyond comprehension.

Not being in a time that wasn’t her own scared her beyond comprehension.

She needed to keep her composure. 

Everything could be fine. Everything would be fine. 

All she had to do was just recollect her thoughts, put all her Ducklett in a row, and keep everything on the up and up. 

So… what did she know now?

Well, prior to learning the name of the region they were in, she had already been talking with Dawn about any possible clues and/or leads on their whereabouts. 

The two had agreed and settled on the conclusion that they were indeed still in Sinnoh. It was impossible to mistake their locale for anywhere else in the world; especially with a landmark as grand as Mt. Coronet.

As the three of them began getting lost in their own thoughts, a frown formed on the man's face as he studied each of their features.

Reno just looked like there was one brain cell rattling around his brain. Despite that, the three pokémon he had been studying were strangely fixated on him. He chose to see that as a good thing right now. The more they stood still and the less they ran off the better.

Cynthia looked as white as a sheet, like she had just seen a ghost. Was it something he’d said? He really didn’t mean to offend, and he hoped there’d be a chance to remedy any offenses over a cup of tea and a plate of potato mochi.

Dawn was staring up at the peak of Mt. Coronet, her eyes fixated on the storm that was swirling at the mountains peak. That small, simple act told the man everything he needed to know: None of these three were from Hisui. 

That cluster of clouds at the mountains peak had been there a few years after the village was founded, and the Professor assumed it would continue to linger through the villages lifespan; maybe even remaining once it was far gone.

There was one major conclusion he could come to: None of them looked like they were particularly having a good time right now.

“You three wouldn't happen to have any acquaintances in these parts, would you?”

All three of them shook their heads. With the exception of each other they had nobody right now.

“I see... You seem to be in a bit of a pickle. Might I offer some directions? Do you have somewhere around here you could stay?" A silly question to ask considering he’d just deduced none of them were familiar with the area. He just wanted to be courteous.

Another shake of their heads. Unless they planned on bumming it out on the beach or in that shack in the distance, they had no roof over their heads either.

"So you don't know anyone here, and you don't even know where to spend the night... Well...this is a proper pickle indeed. Are you three quite sure you'll be able to survive?"

That was the most grand question of all, wasn’t it?

Reno shook his head, but Cynthia and Dawn paused to think about it. Even with the collective experience between the two of them, not having their partner pokémon on them to defend themselves if things went south was a major setback. 

They doubted this man here would let them borrow his pokémon for further notice. Until they could finalize a game plan, the three of them would have to stick together.

"I see... Well, no gentleman would abandon people in need!" The man's tune quickly changed, and a smile formed on his face. His hands were placed on his hips, and his chest puffed out with confidence. He kept this pose until the realization hit him: he had been asking all these questions and holding this conversation for some time now, and he hadn’t even formally introduced himself to these strangers! 

"Oh, but I do apologize! I haven't even introduced myself! My name is Laventon. I am something of a Pokémon Professor.” The man, now known as Laventon, stuck his hand out for a handshake. He wasted no time grasping both of their hands. For a man of his stature, he had a surprisingly strong grip.

Cynthia could appreciate such a fine handshake.

Dawn could too.

Reno did not. That grip hurt. Probably didn’t help that he was still on the floor right now. Also didn’t help he could swear he was starting to bleed now at this point. The sharp sensation of the talons on his stomach went from a searing pain to more of an ice cold one. The sensation had grown so strong it felt like there was liquid beginning to ooze out of his gut.

He wanted some bandages when this was all over. 

Ideally he just wanted them now.

“It’s a pleasure, Professor, my name is Cynthia.” Cynthia returned the Professors kindness with a smile of her own.

“Dawn!” Dawn placed her hands on her hips, a wide grin across her face.

“Uhh… Moreno. But my friends call me Reno. You can call me that too, if it makes it easier to remember.” Reno awkwardly stood there. Things were moving way too fast for him. 

Laventon’s smile widened, “Cynthia, Dawn, and Moreno! Wonderful names for wonderful individuals! Well then, since we’re all properly acquainted now, let’s get you three sorted out, shall we? This is hardly a place to talk! I prefer not to linger here for very long! Sometimes the Wingull that frequent this beach can get quite territori–.”

Right when the name Wingull left the Professors lips, the three pokémon sprung into action, leaping off of Reno and dashing in the direction they had come from. A chunk of Reno’s shirt had even been ripped off by the owl, visible claw marks etched into his body. A single tear rolled down his cheek.

"Oh, blast and bother! My darling Pokémon! Why must you run from me yet again?! I feed you and everything!!" Laventon began fidgeting in place, getting ready to dash off himself before a metaphorical lightbulb went off in his head. 

He may have been a bit too old to be chasing around pokémon as spry and energetic as these, but the three strangers he just made acquaintances with? They looked like they had some evident spring in their step!

"I'm terribly sorry, but do you think you could help me round them up? I beg you!" Laventon pressed his hands together, almost getting ready to get on his hands and knees to plead for their assistance. Almost. His precious pokémon inching closer to leaving his line of sight had been the only thing that had stopped him. He figured he’d find some way to reward them for his “requesting” of their assistance.

"Wait, you three! Waiiit!"

Well.

Looked like they had some pokémon to catch.

Chapter Text

“Thou who had encountered my children at their lowest. Thou who had stared the forces of the universe in the eyes with fiery resolve. You have been chosen for a task most important. Your wisdom and guidance will be necessary.”

Ever since Team Galactic's siege on Spear Pillar, nothing had felt the same.

Sure, her daily routine had returned back to normal. Her typical 9-5 of being the Champion stopped for nothing and no one. The fabric of the universe itself could be keeling over and she’d still have to clock in on time and ensure the Sinnoh League ran as intended.

And, after everything she’d seen, how could she feel like returning back to the typical day-to-day would feel natural?

Cynthia, though emboldened by the mythology of her home region, found the notion of meeting Sinnohs’ fabled trio of legendary pokémon to be as awe-inspiring as it was terrifying. Such powers were never meant to be encountered by humans. They certainly weren’t meant to be controlled by humans either.

Her brief time in the Distortion World also did little to ease her nerves about the whole ordeal. She’d only heard about that dimension and its ruler in fairy tales; nightly stories her Grandma would tell her growing up to ensure she wouldn’t misbehave or cause trouble around Celestic Town.

Telling a little girl that if she didn’t behave, she would not only be sent to a dimension where time and space had no meeting, but that the ruler of said dimension would also gobble her up like a handful of peanuts, was definitely questionable child disciplining skills.

The nightmares she got from those stories still had an iron grip on her brain.

Even as she suddenly awoke on a beach, cold water lapping against her face, the first place her mind went was back to those nightmares. 

If it hadn’t been for Dawn propping her up against a rock and shaking her awake, she was certain she would have been lost in that nightmare for sure.

“Thou who had encountered my children at their lowest. Thou who had stared the forces of the universe in the eyes with fiery resolve. You have been chosen for a task most important. Your wisdom and guidance will be necessary.”

That message rolled off the tip of her tongue in a hushed whisper as she finally came to her senses. 

Her wisdom and guidance would be necessary? Necessary for what?

~~~

As had been the running theme for the last, what, 10 or so minutes, Reno kind of just… existed. Simply taking up space in the most neutral way possible. So much had been happening in such a short amount of time that he couldn’t really find any time to just breathe and catch up. It was like one, fluid, never ending series of motion.

It reminded him of orientation day during his first week of university.

He hated that.

“Well, what do you think, should we follow him?” Cynthia finally spoke up to break the silence, her mind recollected enough to the point she felt more comfortable and confident engaging in the discussion for the current events at hand. 

She was without pokémon –as was Dawn–, and while Wingull weren’t particularly dangerous pokémon to go up against, if they managed to swarm you they could end up spelling trouble.

Flashing memories of crowds of the bird pokémon stealing her ice cream or fries when spending summers in Sunnyshore City cascaded through Cynthia’s mind.

Best not to see what hungry Wingull would do to you if you didn’t have food.

Though, like Reno, she would have appreciated some time to just sit and stew on what they knew so far, but doing that while exposed to the outside elements wouldn’t get them very far.

“I say we go for it! It’s not like we have anything else we could do right now!” Dawn shook her fists excitedly. She didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. Either the gravity of the situation hadn’t set in for her yet, or she didn’t care.

“Can I PLEASE get, like, five minutes to just recollect myself some more? Everything is moving so damn fast I feel like I’m going to throw up.” Reno began massaging his temples yet again, his eyes squeezed shut, practically every part of his face scrunching up in exhaustion and discomfort. 

He didn’t know why he was still trying to make sense of all of this, and his brain was forcing him to keep the topic on the forefront of his mind, whether he liked it or not. 

If he was here what was going on back home? 

If he was “gone gone” what would happen to all of the people he knew back home too? 

Would his roommate notice his extended disappearance? 

Would his professors and academic advisor notice? 

What would his family do? He’d worked his ass off to finally get accepted into a good university after a three year gap year, and now he was just…

He was just somewhere else entirely.

The more those thoughts snaked their way around his brain, constricting every inch and crevice, practically squeezing out his brain matter from his ears, the more he felt himself going absolutely deranged. He was close to just laughing like a maniac. He was so close to having a complete mental shut down.

The world had gotten so big and Reno just wanted to get so small. Had it not been for the feeling of a small hand wrapping itself around his and pulling him along, he would have curled up on the floor and just accepted defeat, letting whatever small pokémon in the area feast on him and his defeated body.

“I promise we’ll find time to get answers. For now, I just need you to cooperate…” Cynthia clasped Reno’s hands in hers, folding her fingers over his.

Truthfully she was just as scared as he was. The only difference was she was better at hiding it.

“Can you do that for me? Please?”

~~~

Peeking out just over the other end of the pathway was the familiar sight of a portly gentleman in a purple hat, lobbing ball looking objects at the three pokémon that had dashed away from him, each throw missing its mark with such inaccuracy that, honestly, it was pretty impressive. 

In the back of Reno’s mind he wondered if the Professor was missing on purpose, as to better convince the three of them into catching the pokémon for him. He felt bad for thinking that, but he’d also be lying if he said a situation like that hadn’t happened to him before.

Not the whole pokémon catching thing. The whole being tricked into doing someone else's dirty work because of how inept they were presenting themselves as.

He had no idea what a pokémon was; and with the day he was having right now he didn’t even care at this point. The only items that particular name had been thrown around was when Laventon had referred to his pets as that, and when he remembered that “seek out all pokémon” thing echoing in his head.

Seek out each and every last one of those critters. Sure. Why the hell not? There had to be, what, 100 of them? 150 max? He doubted there’d be any more than that. 150 just felt like a solid number. 151 if he was pushing it.

“Aha! I’m glad to see you’ve come to my rescue, my new friends from the sky!” Laventon quickly whipped around when he heard the three of them approaching him from behind. Despite the copious amount of failures he had regarding rounding up his dear pokémon, he still seemed to be in bright and chipper spirits. 

“I tried to see if I could catch these runaways myself, as to not inconvenience you by dumping a request on you when we’ve hardly had a chance to speak in depth, but as you can see I’m not exactly the best at this sort of thing.” He motioned to the evident pile of scattered pokéballs that had begun to form throughout the area.

“Maybe there’s a chance the three of you would be willing to give it a go at it? You are more spry than I! These old bones are built more for controlled research rather than spontaneous catching!” Laventon laughed, kneeling down to pick his bag off the ground, rummaging through it, looking for whatever pokéballs he had left. Admittedly the bulk of them had already been thrown by him, and the success rate of each of them could be plainly seen in front of them.

“While I see if I have any spare pokéballs you could use, I suppose it would be nice to give each of you some background on these three rascals! So, do tell, do any of you know what a pokémon is?”

Cynthia and Dawn both nodded in response, earning a wide smile from the Professor, “Wonderful! What about you my young lad? Are you familiar with pokémon?”

“Uhh… No…?” Reno didn’t know why his answer came out more as a question than a definitive answer. He had absolutely no idea what he was working with here. The frown he ended up earning from the Professor along with the weird looks he was starting to get from Dawn and Cynthia only made him feel even more embarrassed about his answer. 

He could feel sweat beginning to beat down from the back of his neck. He checked his under arms to make sure he didn’t have any pit stains, holding his arms closer to his body when he saw small stains had begun to form. 

“Am, I, uh, supposed to know what one is…?”

"You… you don't? You truly have traveled a long way, haven't you? Well! No matter! I will gladly educate you on the subject! These three here are what we call Pokémon. Very mysterious creatures, you see. Marvelous, even!" 

Reno had opened up the flood gates now. He’d hardly known Laventon for more than 30 minutes and here he was info dumping about his passion to him specifically. He hated to say that, even with all of this info dumping, Reno was only getting more confused. 

Between the new terminology being thrown around and in-depth details on the history of the naming schemes of some species and how they just recently came to the name classification of pokémon to begin with, he couldn’t say he was keeping up.

This man was definitely solidifying his similarities to Dr. Richardson now. The old professor he knew may have been a kind and caring old man, but he sure knew to talk fast whenever the topic of his passions came up.

But, then again, weren’t we all? Everyone liked to talk about whatever made them excited. It was just human nature.

Reno just wished, you know, it was a topic he could easily digest; or he was in a situation where 50-60% of his brainpower wasn’t being used to process other things.

“If you’d like I can go more in-depth on the knowledge that we have available for these creatures! Truth be told, that wealth of knowledge is still very shallow and empty. We’re still trying to discover what our place is in the world alongside them. I’m actually working to complete a full guide for the species of the region, a pokédex if you will! The first of it's kind! It’s to better help us understand these fine creatures and to help advance the sciences behind them! Progress has been slow, but, would you be interested in reading it?”

“Professor?” Cynthia cleared her throat, drawing his attention to her. She promised Reno she’d block out time for them to find answers. She couldn’t stick to that promise if they got sidetracked by a lecture; regardless of how interesting the topic was.

“Yes?”

“Your pokémon?”

“Ah! That’s right! My apologies I got swept up in the moment! There’s not many folks back at the village who are willing to listen to me ramble on about the mysteries of pokémon! They’re very wary of the creatures you see. I have hardly time to introduce the basic foundations of them before they make a mad dash elsewhere.” With cheeks flushing red with color, Laventon returned back to the matter at hand, pulling out a collection of spherical objects and piling as many as he could into everyone's arms.

To Cynthia and Dawn, they looked familiar, visually sharing the same appearance as the pokéballs from their own time, but the materials that they were made of differed greatly. 

They felt almost wooden, much more lightweight than the more metallic and heavier ones back home. The modern day pokéball wouldn’t completely weight down your bag or pockets, but it definitely had some evident “oomph” to it. 

To Reno these objects looked absolutely foreign to him. Just… wooden spheres with some type of locking mechanism built into them. The little spout on the top intrigued him the most of all. Was it supposed to be an airhole? He knew Laventon mentioned trying to catch his pokémon, but these balls were way smaller than the creatures themselves so, like how were they supposed to fit in there?

He spent more time inspecting all of the details of the contraption than he’d like to admit. It was rustic, old fashioned, if you will; everything about it’s design was so simple yet Reno just couldn’t wrap his head around it. 

He felt like one of those millennials in those boomer comic memes.

“It’s a painting, son, you don’t scroll through it.” Was the first of those comics that came to mind.

“Now a follow up question! Have any of you seen a pokéball before? They were a recent invention, created around fifty years ago if you can believe it or not! They’re used more by the likes of researchers such as myself, but I know they’re a rather niche market too!”

“Fifty years ago? A recent invention?” Cynthia thought to herself. That confirmed the initial hunch that they were all in a different time.

The question was: If that was the case, do they tell the Professor here that two of them are from the future?

The more important question was: Why get sent to the past in the first place? The voice she remembered hearing in her head prior to her awakening mentioned that her guidance would be needed. So, was she to help the Professor complete his pokédex? 

If so, why was Dawn here too? Reno as well?

She cupped her chin in between her fingers, mulling over as much as she could. Little results, if any, were yielded.

Shelving those thoughts for now, Cynthia gave Laventon a nod, as did Dawn. As much as she wanted just to sit and stew on everything, this wasn’t the proper place to do so.

Reno didn’t know if he even wanted to stew on anything. If Cynthia and Dawn were going with the flow, then he was totally lagging behind. 

He didn’t know what they were talking about. All he could do was shake his head or stare at them blankly.

If he wasn’t feeling socially awkward before he was definitely feeling it now. He wanted to retreat into the smallest, tiniest hole he could find and just hide away there.

“My, you really have traveled a long way! No matter, no matter! There’s no shame in not knowing this! I would hardly call the use of these inventions normalized in todays society. If you’ll permit it, I would be glad to educate you on this matter too!”

“Professor?” Cynthia cleared her throat again.

“Right! Right! The pokémon! My apologies. Again it’s not often I’m able to educate the general public on this subject! But I’ll try to keep this digestible: Simply throw a pokéball at a pokémon to catch it!” Laventon smiled at first, only to frown when he saw Reno’s still evident confusion.

“Ah, but that won't do for a proper explanation, will it? I do apologize. Let me be more thorough. Now, I've mentioned already that Pokémon are strange, marvelous creatures. What's so strange about them, you ask? Well, each and every Pokémon is able to shrink itself down to minuscule size! How you might ask? I’m still trying to figure that out myself… but I won’t look a gift ponyta in the mouth! That biological mechanism makes catching them all the easier!"

Laventon held a pokéball firmly in the palm of his hand, using his free hand to show off the invention once more, like a tv telemarketer trying to make some bank on their hyper specific –but still totally useless– product, “And that's where Pokéballs come in! Throw one of them at a Pokémon, and… why, the Pokémon will shrink down and fit inside the ball, comfy as can be. And with that, you've caught a Pokémon! Seems simple enough, no?"

“... They can just shrink?” Reno blurted out. That one fact being the only thing he had managed to pick up and focus on.

“Yes!”

“Can they grow too?”

“I heard they can in Galar!” Dawn chimed in, happy to be apart of the conversation this time, as evident by the triumphant look of proudness on her face. Reno figured maybe she was trying to impress him? Or make herself come across like a scholar as well? Hard to tell. He didn’t understand what went through teenagers heads.

“A discussion for another time, please.” Cynthia wasn’t sure why she was continuing to try and reign in the conversation for everyone. She expected this type of behavior from Dawn, so she always knew to just let the girl do whatever she wanted –unless it was life or death– to make life easier for her. 

Now, Reno and Laventon here? Different story. 

Laventon was the one who initially requested their help to begin with so, while she appreciated and respected the passion he had for his field of study (she often got the same for archaeology and mythology), there was a task at hand. 

A task that, might she add, needed to get done so they could talk somewhere where they didn’t have to worry about the natural elements.

Reno was weird in a fascinating kind of way to her. The things that were common knowledge in the world –pokémon and pokéballs– were completely unknown to him. 

That piqued her interest the most. 

Not knowing crucial information like that was common and more acceptable for children; especially ones that grew up in households where pokémon weren’t permitted, but for a full grown adult to not know what pokémon and pokéballs were? 

It was a head scratcher, that was for sure.

The next opportunity they got she wanted to pick his brain some more. If their time here was going to be an extended one, it might be best for her to take Reno under her wing. Working with pokémon was no easy task, and the last thing she wanted was him accidentally hurting himself. 

“Yes! Of course, of course! I do apologize for my relative scatterbrained-ness. Again, it’s not every day I find someone willing to listen to my life's work!”

“No kidding.” Reno mumbled under his breath, arms still clung close to his body.

“Let’s get right into the catching! I have some notes about the pokémon as well, if you’re interested in listening!”

~~~

Oshawott, the sea otter pokémon. Known for enjoying naps in the water and using that shell on its stomach for multiple purposes; many of which revolved around the act of chopping, hence the coined term for the object, “scalchop.”

Rowlet, the grass quill pokémon. Known for its curious ability to be able to photosynthesize for energy alongside consuming calories for energy as well. Apparently it’s also quite proficient at battling too, able to detach and launch the sharp feathers from its body at opponents.

Cyndaquil, the fire mouse pokémon. Known for the distinct, flaming quills on its back that burst to life when threatened, startled, or irate. According to Laventon, specialized organs within this pokémons body allowed it to produce flames for self defense.

As per Cynthia’s suggestion, the three of them were to divide and conquer . One of them would focus on Oshawott, Rowlett, and Cyndaquil respectively.

Seemed simple enough on paper. Except for one teeny tiny little detail…

“The thing can breathe fire ? Yeah. I’m going to pass on going near that one.” Reno grimaced as he thought to himself. The idea of being barbequed by an animal the size of his foot was not a fun one. He offered up no complaints when Dawn decided to jump on the opportunity to catch it.

“You tore my stomach to shreds the last time you were near me… No thanks. Don’t want that torture ever again.” Reno took a few steps back when his eyes met Rowlets’. The owl tilted it's’ head a bit as it stared at him, taking a few steps forward to try and close the distance between them.

“Would you like me to catch this one?” 

Reno jolted as his back bumped into Cynthia. The sudden sound of her voice behind him making his heart skip a beat.

“Ah! Uh. Yeah. I mean yes! Please. Creeps me out.” Have Cynthia catch the little feathery demon for him? He wouldn’t argue with that!

There was, however, one thing he wanted to argue: The process of catching. Rather, with the way it was explained . Laventon made catching pokémon seem easy. Too easy.  Describing it as straight forward process: just chuck the ball at your desired creature of interest, and, BOOM. 

You had yourself a bonafide pokémon.

What the Professor did not mention in his explanation was that, well, it wasn’t a completely foolproof method of snagging one of the little buggers. There was a small chance that the pokémon would be able to escape if it wasn’t caught unawares.

He also failed to mention that pokémon could, unfortunately, smack a pokéball right back at you if they were aware of what you were trying to do. 

He learned that lesson the hard way, as Cynthia and Dawn decided to divide the work by focusing on Rowlet and Cyndaquil, respectively. 

At first he thought Oshawott was the only harmless one of the bunch. It couldn’t breathe fire and it hadn’t torn up some of his flesh. All it had on him was a small seashell. And Reno was beginning to learn the hard way on why the shell on Oshawotts stomach was dubbed the scalchop.

His hand-eye coordination was already horrible, to begin with, with a good 70% of the pokéballs he was lobbing at Oshawott missing the mark entirely. 20% of the pokéballs he threw were cut clean in half by that small seashell, and the remaining 10% were deflected right back at him with incredible accuracy.

How the fuck was that thing so durable?! Back home he’d seen sand dollars with more durability than whatever shells got washed up on the beach!

“Try again, my young lad! To persist is to pass!” Laventon cheered to him from the sidelines.

“Easy for you to say… You’re not the one doing all the work right now…” Reno muttered under his breath. If it wasn’t for the fact he had nothing better to do, currently had nowhere else to go, and was beginning to feel an empty void forming in the pit of his stomach, he would have given up after the first couple of tries. 

This situation had to be a “I scratch your back you scratch mine” scenario, yeah? Better to keep persisting and eventually get a reward (either out of pity or out of genuine accomplishment) than to give up and get nothing.

Of course, a small part of his ego would never outright admit that he was the problem. Rather, it chose to blame the material that consisted the device instead of taking into account his physical limitations and his overall skills. 

It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t hit a stationary creature only a few feet away from him. No. It was the wind! It was the pokéball itself!

It was too light!

It was too heavy!

The wind blew it off course!

Some dust got in his eyes!

Anything but acknowledging the his own faults.

“Why are you throwing your pokéballs so weird?” Dawn tugged on the side of Reno’s shirt, not only causing his heart to practically jump out of his chest, but also making him considering putting a bell on the girl the first chance he got. How the hell she was able to move around so silently and then just manifest out of nowhere to give him a heart attack.

She had already caught Cyndaquil, and Cynthia was inching closer to finally catching Rowlet. That just left Reno, who was still nowhere close to securing Oshawott. Dawn danced around the idea of catching the water type pokémon for him. But, considering Laventon had already gone through pokéballs like they were going out of style, they didn’t have any extras leftover that she could have used to catch Oshawott in Reno’s place. 

At the rate Reno was going he didn’t look like he’d have some extras leftover either. 

“You’re putting zero power into each of your throws and your form is completely off.” Dawn placed her knuckles on her hips, tilting her head to the left, trying to wrap her head around what Reno was trying to accomplish right now. He’d obviously been telling the truth when he said he’d never seen a pokémon and a pokéball before.

Even children could throw a pokéball with enough precision to catch whatever pokémon they were looking for.

Reno, evidently, could not.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I have a sign on my back that said I was accepting criticism from teenagers?” Reno blew some air through his teeth. Frustration and confusion had already been gnawing at his insides in phases, and now he was just ready to burst. 

It wounded his ego to agree with her, but, she did have a point. He had horrible hand-eye coordination.

“Just trying to help. I know a little more about working with pokémon than you do. You don’t need to be so fussy...” Dawn mimicked Reno, also blowing air through her teeth. She puffed her cheeks out for good measure. Clearly looking intimidating wasn’t one of her strong suits.

Reno took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. His fingers gripped around the pokéball with such force it was a miracle he hadn’t splintered the thing into tiny little pieces, “You know what? I got one of these balls left so I’m just gonna… Just gonna freeball it I don’t care right now.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I’m not even sure that’s going to-”

Not even letting Dawn finish her sentence, Reno chucked the last of his pokéballs in a last ditch, hail mary effort to just get this all over with. No matter how many times his brain tried to trick itself into thinking everything was fine, he always ended up rubberbanding back to the same mindset he was in when he woke up: Scared, tired, confused, irate, maybe a little bit hungry too.

Nothing had been making sense, and he was getting sick and tired of nothing making sense; the fact that Dawn didn’t seem too terribly bothered by all of this either just made him even more irritated. She was in the same situation as him yet she was acting like this was all normal to her, or that she’d experienced weirder days before. 

Well, newsflash to her…

THIS WASN’T NORMAL.

Thankfully at least one good thing was going ot happen to him today. It may have taken a bit of time, but, hey, better than nothing right?

Soaring through the air with a surprising amount of speed and grace, the pokéball hit its mark with pinpoint accuracy, nailing the Oshawott square in the head –a fit of ironic revenge– and clicking open, enveloping the pokémon inside.

It shook once. Then twice. Before, finally…

*Click!*

*Fireworks!*

Congratulations! Oshawott was caught!

Chapter Text

Reno paused once the pokéball stopped shaking. He flinched slightly when small array of fireworks shot out of the top. Pausing, and then taking a step forward, he nudged the ball with his foot. Then, a second time for good measure. And a final third time just to ensure it was actually locked and closed.

“Is this a good thing? Did I do it?” Reno knelt down, tossing the pokéball up and down, catching it in his hand each time. “I did it, didn’t I?”

“Oh! You caught Oshawott already! Good job, Reno!” Cynthia clapped her hands as she approached Reno and Dawn. Rowlet took a smidge bit longer to catch than she originally anticipated. 

It was always easier to catch a pokémon when you had one of your own already on you. 

Cynthia’s compliment and the singing of his praise sparked something in the inner workings of his mind. He wasn’t sure what that something was, but, it felt good to be appreciated. It felt even better to be complimented. 

This was a new type of high for him; and he had no plans on coming down from it anytime soon.

“HAH! Who’s being fussy NOW? Who’s not having good ideas NOW?” In a strange display of childishness, Reno began rubbing the pokéball in Dawn’s face. 

Even if he didn’t understand… well, anything, if he was being honest. 

But he was so willing to stoop down to a lower level if it meant rubbing his victory in the face of some random 15 year old girl he just met all of, like, 30ish minutes ago? He hadn’t been keeping track of time. Time meant nothing to him anymore at this point. He was just completely desensitized to the whole concept of it.

There was no true grasp of morning, day, and night to him. It was just: Breakfast. Work. Lunch. Work. Dinner. Work. Shower. Sleep. Repeat on infinitum. 

“I’d like to see YOU do that! HAH!”

“I did do that. I did that faster than you did. Both Cynthia and I did it faster than you did. You were the last person to catch your pokémon and I’m pretty sure you wasted the most amount of pokéballs too.” Dawn crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue at Reno. 

“Ok, you don’t have to take the wind out of my sails, y’know.”

“I’m just sayin’... I’m just sayin’...” Dawn raised both her hands in the air now, in a type of “just making a point” style way. 

“Excellent job! Thank you! All three of you! Your skills in catching pokémon and your… er, overall determination is something to praise!” The sound of Laventon clapping his hands drew Reno and Dawn away from the spat they were just about to have with one another.

Dawn felt pretty good about the compliment. 

Reno knew that the Professor's praise in regards to their catching skills was directed more to Dawn and Cynthia, while the words regarding their determination was directed more towards him. 

Just what he needed right now to really round out the day: A healthy dose of self esteem damaging to really get him in the mood for the rest of the day.

Man… 

He needed to get his priorities straight right now because with how often his brain was zipping around to different topics and moods regarding his situation, he was starting to get sick. He made a mental note to try and find better stress coping mechanisms than just… pinballing his mind and demeanor around in a weird attempt to make himself comfortable with the cards he was dealt.

Because, newsflash, he wasn’t comfortable nor did he want the cards he got.

“All of you did a much better job than I could have done, so, for that, I thank you again! I could sing your praises until the end of time, if you’d let me! But, I imagine all of you want somewhere to sit down and eat! If you’d be so kind as to hand my pokémon back to me, we can get a move on!”

~~~

He let himself disassociate a bit as he walked. His mind continuing to swirl with too many questions and too little answers. He didn’t know why he bothered trying to keep up with everything at this point, but a part of him refused to rein control over to the part of his brain that just wanted to go with the flow until more information was presented to him.

He’d never felt so helpless yet so in control at the same time right now. 

A sudden feeling of weight in one of his pockets was the only thing that took him out of his little mental fortress of solitude right now. 

Reno didn’t remember having anything in his pockets prior to all of this. Granted there was a lot on his mind at this very moment so maybe he did leave something in there. Wouldn't be the first time he just shoved something into his pockets with the intent of emptying them back at the dorm, only to swiftly forget the second he walked through the door.

Pulling out whatever was in there, to say he was expecting to see his phone would be a lie. He could have sworn he left it on his bed charging while he continued to work through the review packet. Best to let the device get fully charged and out of the way so as to not distract him.

He also could have sworn that he had a less gaudy case for it too.

Reno was always the simple type of man. All he needed to protect his phone was a bulky, black case should he ever accidentally drop it on the floor throughout the day –an act that, admittedly, happened way more than he would have liked–. 

Now this phone case was on the complete opposite side of that spectrum. It wasn’t bulky, nor did it look like it could protect itself from damage should it ever drop from a height above five feet. No, now it was a lot sleeker, adorned in white and decorated with green jewels and rings of gold. Three protrusions on the top and bottom of the case gave the impression of horns and a tail.

Not his first choice for something like this, if he was being honest, but a tap of the home button and the input of his password later revealed that, indeed, what he was holding in his hands was his phone.

His screensaver was vaguely still the same as it was before: A picture of him and his family all smiling and wearing shades, a beach in the background. The only changes that came to it now was the updated appearance he had currently, and the fact his family's faces were so out of focus and blurry it was hard to tell who they even were.

“Hrm…” He murmured to himself, his eyes still glued to the screen. He narrowed his eyes, thinking maybe he just had to focus on the image more for the whole thing to make sense.

“Are you trying to blow up your phone with your mind?” Dawn cut through the silence, grabbing Reno’s arm and pulling it down so she could see the screen too.   

“Wha-? Why would I- What kind of question even is that?” Reno tore his arm away from Dawn, slipping his phone back into his pocket. The mounting pile of questions that had already been growing in his mind only got larger, and that absolutely stupid question Dawn just now asked him wasn’t helping either.

The fact the high he was riding after catching Oshawott had now long disappeared wasn’t helping him much either.

Now that he had a little bit of time to think about it, why was he so excited to have caught that thing to begin with? 

His first priority should have been finding a way home, not catching pokémon.

Ugh. Nothing was making sense to him; and that was frustrating him.

Reno trailed far behind Cynthia, and Laventon , his pace considerably slower than everyone else. He wanted to call out to them and let them know they needed to slow down, but as Cynthia and Laventon were wrapped up in what he could only assume was deep conversation, he held his tongue and trudged along for now.

Dawn continued to match his pace all the while. If he slowed down, she slowed down. If he sped up, she sped up. If he paused for whatever reason to remove a rock from underneath his foot or smooth out some wrinkles on his shirt? She just stopped and stood there with him. 

“Don’t you have anything better to do right now?” Reno finally found himself asking the girl. Despite the words that had been spoken, he didn’t mean for his tone to come out rude in any shape or form. But constantly being watched and followed was beginning to stress him out. And he didn’t know any other way to impress upon her that he was uncomfortable other than building walls between her and him. 

At this point he decided to just double down and own the stress.

“You’re weird.”

“Thanks. That’s exactly what I want to hear right now. Awesome.”

“You walk weird. You talk weird. You act weird. Do we know each other? You seem really familiar. Did you and my brother go to the same school?” Dawn pressed her fingers against the side of Reno’s stomach out of scientific curiosity. She needed to double check and validate that he was real. The quick slap on the wrist she earned from him as a result confirmed that.

“Hands! To! Yourself! No touchy touchy!” Reno made chopping motions with his hands, trying to defer Dawn from getting into his personal space again. 

The feeling of an icy cold hand on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts and back into reality, “I need the two of you to behave right now… Until we have a place to unwind behind closed doors I don’t want any more instances out of the two of you… ok?”

Reno saw a frighteningly ghastly look on Cynthia’s face from the corner of his eyes, and he could only assume that Dawn was making the same horrified expression as he was.

“Yes ma’am.” Reno and Dawn said in unison.

~~~

The rest of the walk from the beach to the village was without incident. Reno and Dawn had been promptly behaving themselves just like Cynthia had wished, and Laventon continued to serenade the three of them –though most of the attention was put on Reno– about the history of pokémon and the impact they’ve had on human settlements over the past handful of generations.

Reno couldn’t say he’d been paying attention in full. Though he considered himself too mentally drained to think about his current situation. 

The only interesting thing of note he picked up on was that, until the creation of pokéballs, pokémon as a whole hadn’t gotten a proper classification yet. In fact the term pokémon was an abbreviated way of saying “pocket monsters” , because some pokéballs were designed to be slipped into one's pockets.

Given the size and shape of the pokéballs they had been using, it was clear this convenience wasn’t taken into account with their design.

“Thank you for your tireless work keeping us safe, my good guardsmen!" Laventon addressed the two guards at the village entrance with a warm smile, which contrasted greatly with the scowls, sneers, and glares the guards gave in return.

So much for service with a smile, huh?

"This young man and two young ladies have nowhere to go, so I hope you'll forgive me for bringing them into the village for a bit!"

One of the guards mumbled something under his breath, while the other just shook his head and stood off to the side, signaling that all four of them were allowed passage into the village. When they crossed through the gate the two guards resumed their defensive positions. 

As Reno walked past them, he couldn’t help but stare back. Their manner of dress was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. Or, rather, anything he’d ever seen in person before. The red kimono-style clothing and the woven hats. 

He vaguely remembered seeing people dressed in similar forms of outfits in stuff like history books, video games, anime, you name it. 

He also could have sworn he saw this weasel (or maybe a ferret?) looking thing poke out from behind one of the guards legs as well, watching them enter the village with much intrigue.

“This way, if you please! I’m sure the three of you are weary and looking for some rest!” 

Cynthia gently nudged Reno with her elbow, trying to avert his stares away from the guards and back to the path forward. “It’s rude to stare,” she mouthed to him, adjusting her pace so that the two of them were walking—more or less—side by side.

“Sorry.” Reno mouthed back. 

"Jubilife Village! It's come a long way, thanks to the fine people of the Galaxy Expedition Team! Fun fact! This road we're on now is known to the locals as Canala Avenue." Once the four of them got past the guards and into the village walls, Laventon began to, once again, serenade his new guests with any interesting tidbits of information he could scrounge up regarding their current whereabouts.

This was obviously another item he was passionate about, as he barely paused to breathe between his words. 

But if the village had truly come a long way, as Laventon had described, Reno shuddered to think about how it looked before. It wasn’t modernized like back home. Houses were primarily made of wood and stone. The roads and streets they traveled down weren’t lined with asphalt or concrete, just worn down, dusty earth. 

The main road –Canala Avenue– was the most worn down. The houses that lined the outer sides of the path were the most well constructed –having fully finished roofs and installed windows– but the dirt beneath their feet had been well traveled. 

Footprints of various shapes and sizes could still be seen imprinted in the ground, and a group of children sprinted down the road as fast as they could, only skidding to a halt to stop and stare at Cynthia. 

Cynthia gave them a small wave with her hand. The type you’d see teachers do with their younger students.

The kids took off after that, seemingly flustered.

Reno had to admit that, after taking in as much visuals as he could, he didn’t get much of the hype. This was mostly because his brain had been jumping from completely processing everything that was going on like a normal human being, to having absolutely no idea what was going on and internalizing all of his panic by screaming as loud as he could within the confines of his brain.

It was a miracle he hadn’t fully broken down and snapped at this point. 

He’d gotten close to it. 

Numerous times, in fact, but social norms had been so beaten into his brain the only thing he could continue to do was tough it out until he had a safe space to spill his feelings. 

The second he had access to a private space –preferably one that was soundproof– he was going to scream as loud as he could. 

The more stress he could get out of his system, the better.

Outside of absorbing as much information as she could during her chat with the Professor, Cynthia was, quite noticeably, having a blast. She looked like a kid in the candy store, with a sparkle in her eyes and a noticeable shift in her body language. Overall, she just seemed more excited. The sight of such rustic and homey buildings was definitely more impressive to her than to Reno.

Not that Reno couldn’t appreciate fine architecture when he saw it, mind you! He just didn’t see a lot of the hype in it. Mostly due to the constant back and forth with how he was handling everything right now. 

"The village was built scarcely two years ago... There's much to do yet and not many to do it. And since we know so little of the local pokémon, people hesitate to set foot outside the village. That, as you can imagine, makes my team and I’s work all the more difficult. Finding people willing to not only learn about pokémon but interact with them too is rare.” Laventon’s previous good mood slowly began to deflate. 

He quickly rebounded back to his old demeanor when he noticed the others had picked up on his mood drop, “Now, that impressive building up ahead of us is the Galaxy Hall—headquarters for this entire outfit!" The Professor stood slightly off-center from the main street, giving Reno, Cynthia, and Dawn a perfect view of the building he was talking about.

There was no doubt about it. The Galaxy Hall was the crown jewel of the village. It was the largest building in the entire settlement, hands down, evident by it being the only one with multiple floors. It boasted impressive decorations, too, which Cynthia and Dawn recognized as two Magikarp statues on both ends of the building and a pipe system resembling a Galarian Weezing embedded into the wall. Every few seconds, smoke would sputter out of the top of it, just like the real deal.

The one thing that was confusing, at least to Reno, was the symbol embedded in the center of the building, right above the door. The calligraphy was completely foreign to him, making the symbol look like a jumbled, yellow mess of different lines and shapes. 

He turned towards Cynthia, hoping to get some clarification, but as she looked to be in deep thought as she stared at the symbol, he decided to leave her be. 

Best not to interrupt her when she was thinking.

Dawn… he wasn’t sure how to talk to Dawn anymore, especially with Cynthia threatening them with some unknown punishment if they were to get into another argument together while they were out in public. 

If the conversations they had up until this point were anything to go off of, he wasn’t sure he wanted to talk to her in the first place.

“Some fun facts about this building, too! It was originally founded in…” Laventons words began to steadily drift off into faint echoes as Reno disassociated entirely. Some quiet time was becoming deathly needed right about now.

The copious amount of judgemental and confused stares that Reno noticed he, Dawn, and Cynthia were beginning to get from villagers while Laventon played tour guide, only added to his snowballing stress. 

He hated being perceived. 

Sinking away into the deepest, darkest hole he could find sounded pretty good right about now.

“Why is he dressed like that?” He heard one of them say.

“Did Volo always have a sister?” A second person said, referring to Cynthia.

“Such odd clothes…” Said another, the focus back on him.

“Who is that little girl?” One more spoke out, their words fixated on Dawn.

“Were those the three that fell from the sky?”

“They look so odd…”

Reno frowned, grabbing the collar of his shirt and stretching it forward so he could look at it. He had been so focused on the changes to his face and body that thinking about the clothes he wore was put right on the back burner. 

At least one thing about him had remained the same: the outfit he had been wearing prior to his sudden warping to another world. A gray shirt with the letters “StMU” written in blue and yellow was engraved on the center. Following that was a simple pair of blue basketball shorts and the slides he wore around the dorm so as not to get the bottoms of his feet dirty.

Normal attire for a college student –normal if you ignored the sizable hole that Rowlet made in his shirt–, but probably strangely foreign for people not in that age demographic. 

Well, maybe the term to use would be the time demographic. Era demographic? The nuances of being in a new environment still had yet to sit in, but he could tell a rustic, old-timey place when he saw it; and the streets of the village were definitely that.

However, he did find it frustrating –and equally embarrassing– that the villagers seemed to be chewing him out in particular. Here you had Cynthia wearing all black and Dawn wearing practically the same outfit as him –just in different colors–, yet he was the only one getting flack for it.

Working to occupy his mind with something else, Reno decided to join the conversation himself.

“Hey, uh, Professor?” Reno cleared his throat, trying to make his presence known to Laventon. 

“This tour has been great. Seriously. 10 out of 10. I would leave you five stars if I could. But, and not that I’m complaining or anything, is there any chance you could take us somewhere a little… uh… I dunno… nuanced? ” He put some extra emphasis on the word nuanced, hoping that his intent behind the emphasis would reach the Professor's ears. 

All Reno wanted right now was to find somewhere comfortable, enclosed, quiet, and away from prying eyes so he could start working on calming himself down for real this time. Being able to do that wouldn’t be possible when he had an entire community judging him for his choice of weekend wear.

“Oh! Of course! My apologies! Let’s make a stop at the Wallflower, our village's resident restaurant! It’s the perfect place to rest your legs! I imagine all of this walking got the three of you all worn out! Not to mention catching my pokémon for me, too!” Laventon clapped his hands together excitedly. His brisk, relaxed walking speed turned into a power walk before finally hitting what looked like a full-on sprint as he made his way down the village's main road, taking a hard left-right before reaching the Galaxy Hall. He waved to the three of them, prompting Cynthia and Dawn to sprint after him in kind.

Reno, a true contrarian, did not. Simply, he decided to stand in place for a few seconds, baffled by the burst of energy all three of them had presented. Then, he was even more baffled by the fact the three of them started waving at him once they all convened at the end of the road there. Were they expecting him to run all the way over there? 

Yeah. No. That wasn’t happening. 

Maybe those three had enough confidence in their systems to where feeling public shame just wasn’t a thing, but Reno had shame to spare. He practically oozed shame. If you looked up shame in the dictionary, a picture of him would be there; more specifically, a picture of him from his third-grade picture day.

Not to mention, of course, the glaring fact that Reno never considered himself the athletic type. Sure, he considered himself a fit and healthy individual –or as healthy and fit as a young man his age could be on a steady diet of coffee and melatonin gummies–, but he never had the energy to just spontaneously break out into a sprint. 

A crazed lunatic could be rushing at him with a knife, and he still wouldn’t muster up the gas to full sprint away. At that point, being slashed to death would be a favor.

Still, the other three were expecting his presence. So, bottling up as much of his shame as he could, he briskly power walked down the main street, his pace turning into a slight jog just so he could get there faster.

“Jolly good pace my dear boy! If the three of you want to grab a seat and wait for me here, I’ll need to report to the Captain that my three runaway pokémon were collected!”

“There’s no way you just made me run all the way over here just to tell me you have to leave.”

Chapter Text

“Unbelievable. Unbelievable.” 

Words that Cynthia and Dawn had been hearing on loop for the past 15 minutes. 

It wasn't really like Laventon had any other choice; those three pokemon were under his watch. When word got out that rogue pokemon had escaped, it was only natural that he alert whatever higher-up he reported to that the situation was handled.

The use of the word “Captain” to describe someone on the higher end of the chain of command only further cemented Cynthia’s theory that they were in the past. Barring the fact the Professor had informed them that the region they were in was called Hisui which, of course, had been documented in many historical literature in Sinnoh. And numerous other factors she didn’t even want to get into the nuance of right now. No one in the modern day ever used that term when describing their superiors.

No one normal in the modern day, that was. She was certain she’d heard the title of Captain be tossed around the ranks of Team Galactic back when she, too, had gotten involved in their plot to completely reshape the world as they knew it. 

A plan well-adjusted individuals wouldn’t execute.

Well, regardless of the normality –or lack thereof– the only thing they could do now was wait and discuss what they could about their situation. 

Or, in Reno’s case: Wait, probably not join the discussion on what they knew about their situation, and then continue to complain. Which he was entitled to! This was a scary situation, even for her, and she’d been through a LOT in the past few years.

She just wished that, you know, he chose to be a little bit more… optimistic about the cards they were dealt. Cooperative? That probably wasn’t the word she was looking for.

She just would have appreciated having less complaints and more focus on… well, ok, you got her there, she just wanted Reno to stop complaining. 

Cynthia wasn’t planning to focus on the negatives. She wanted to focus on the positives. The less cracks she showed in her demeanor the better. She was the Sinnoh Champion for Gods sake! What kind of champion would she be if she keeled over and cracked down under pressure?

At the very least the three of them had a place to sit while Reno continued to ramble on about how embarrassed he felt having to run down the main street. Cynthia really had to fight not to pull the technicalities and semantics on him because, while he was moving with more speed than before, he wasn’t really running. It was more of a jog, the type of jog you see old people do when at the mall or trying to cross the street before the walk sign on the crosswalk went out.

“Makes me run ALL the way down the main street, looking like an idiot as I do so, and then he just leaves us here to twiddle our thumbs and wait?” Reno threw his arms up into the air, before sprawling his top half out on the table they were sitting at, his arms just a few inches away from Cynthia and Dawn.

Cynthia gingerly picked up one of his hands and moved them to the side.

“Now now, I don’t think there’s need to complain! He’s being nice enough to help us out with our current predicament, is he not? I think that deserves some patience. Don’t you think?”

“I try not to, honestly.”

Cynthia and Dawn both gave Reno a look that practically said “Really?”

“Oh, what? I’m not allowed to cope by saying stuff like that? I’m sure she’s said stupid things before whilst in a crisis. She’s what, twelve?” Reno motioned his hand to Dawn, bringing her into the conversation, whether she liked it or not.

“I’m fifteen.” Dawn stuck her tongue out at Reno again, leaning over the table to flick his forehead.

“Same difference.” Reno grumbled, rubbing his forehead.

“Huge difference.”

“It’s three years.”

“That’s a lot!”

“Nuh uh.”

“Yuh huh!”

Cynthia took a deep breath and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, desperately fighting to keep her composure. 

Children. She was going to be stuck with literal children. She may not have been a fan of this behavior, but she expected it more from Dawn than from Reno, who was the only other adult other than her out of the three of them. 

If these interactions he was having with Dawn were going to be any indicator on how he was as a person, she was going to have her work cut out for her, that much was for sure. 

It took a bit of sweet talking and “social elbow grease” , but Cynthia had managed to talk the two of them down for long enough to formerly discuss more about their current circumstances. 

She wasn’t sure what the other two had been thinking, and how much of this information they were all able to process, but in between fawning over the historical architecture she was able to see in the flesh, the Sinnoh Champion had been working on putting together all of the puzzle pieces presented before them.

As she had already confirmed to herself multiple times, Cynthia had solidified the following conclusions: They were sent back in time to a much older version of their home region of Sinnoh, and –to no ones surprise– there looked to be some type of storm –maybe a distortion?– swirling at the peak of Mt. Coronet.

Putting two and two together from what the Professor had told them when they had arrived, Cynthia could only surmise that the three of them had fallen out of that distortion, leading to their arrival on the beach and their current situation. 

But that just led to a very glaring question swirling around the forefront of her mind: Why was there a distortion to begin with? Mt. Coronet had been ground zero for a lot of strange happenings throughout the region's history –one such event she and Dawn had been directly involved in courtesy of Team Galactic– but, ideally, that last distortion event should have been the last.

The only culprits who held the power capable of warping space-time –Dialga, Palkia, and to some extent Giratina– had all been successfully quelled and returned to their domains following the defeat of Team Galactic at Spear Pillar.

So then what was going on here?

She would have wanted to wrack her brain for more possible answers, and even ask Dawn for her input on the matter, but the incessant sound of fingers tapping against a screen made it progressively hard to stay focused. 

At first it didn’t start out that loud. Barely an inconvenience. But as the seconds ticked on the tipping and tapping became louder and louder until, eventually, she just couldn’t take it anymore.

Her eyes, which had been closed throughout the duration of her brainstorming session, shot open. The sight of Reno and Dawn both inspecting a device in his hands immediately washing away all of those previous thoughts.

“Is that…. Is that a phone?”

Reno paused, staring at Cynthia for a few seconds, “Uhh… yes…?” He wasn’t sure why this statement came out more as a question than an answer. It was pretty obvious the device in his hands was a phone. Unless you chose to fixate on the weird, funky-looking case. 

Unlike Cynthia, who spent the past couple of minutes focusing on getting to the bottom of what had sent them here and why, Reno had spent most of his time messing around on his phone, checking to make sure everything had been in order and was still functioning as before.

The battery icon in the top right corner was filled to the brim. Replacing the percentage of juice still in the battery was an infinity sign. So, on the bright side, it didn’t look like charging was going to be a necessary item to worry about. That was at least one thing off Reno’s chest. Judging by how… rustic , Jubilife Village seemed to be, he doubted there was working electricity available for them.

As was to be expected, a lot of the apps that Reno used to frequent had either been completely locked away from him or deleted off the device altogether. There would be no more surfing the internet or binge watching tv shows on Netflix. 

Strangely enough, however, he could still access his Angry Birds app. 

At least he had that going for him.

Contacting any of his friends and family were also completely off the table too, as his contacts had been completely wiped clean, leaving only a single individual simply labeled “A” . If he tried to check the number of A , he was just met with a constant flux of changing symbols.

“It’s been buzzing for the last few minutes so we’re trying to figure out who this A person is and why they keep texting us.” Dawn snatched the phone from Reno’s hand, showing off the messages that had been sent to them.

“Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall be rewarded. Seek out all pokémon, and thou shall see me again… But… What exactly does that mean?” Cynthia continued scrolling through Reno’s phone, drawing a lot of his stress and panic as she just casually looked through whatever she could find. Privacy very clearly was not a luxury she extended to others. 

Granted, it wasn’t like there was much for her to flip through anyway. A lot of Reno’s apps were completely inaccessible right now. Unless, of course, she just wanted to check out the weather or play… Angry Birds?

“Are we here specifically to ‘seek out all pokémon,’ or are we here for something else? I doubt that distortion at Mt. Coronet is there just for show.” Cynthia handed Reno’s phone back to him, ignoring how fast he snatched it, like some type of feral animal given food for the first time.

“Well, I remember wishing I could find some way out of having to do my review packet for my econ final, and then hearing a voice telling me the exact same thing that was texted to me.”

“An econ final? Gross.” Cynthia stuck her tongue out a bit when the words econ final hit her ears. She sympathized with Reno’s plight. Thank god she had a nice, comfy position as Sinnoh's Champion, she couldn't-and wouldn't- want to imagine her job being anything else. Truth be told, Cynthia was an econ major herself and held it as a back up plan in case being a champion didn't keep her...well...financially stable anymore.

Originally she danced around the idea of getting her masters in archaeology, to round out the bachelors degree she got in the same field, but then she dreaded the possibility of her passion turning into her career. Her parents always used to tell her to “work in her field of passion” so that way work never felt like work.

Unfortunately, as appealing as that idea sounded, Cynthia had no intention of monetizing her hobbies and passions. 

So, at the time, an economics degree seemed like a smart idea! 

Then she got the syllabus for her first class.

It was all downhill from there.

“I was prepping for the upcoming Pokémon League before all of this. The only message I got was that my wisdom and guidance would be needed for some sort of task.” Cynthia tapped her fingers against the hardwood table. “Dawn? Did you recall getting a message?

“Mmm, just something about being tasked with a mission that would change history or something. That’s not the word-for-word, just the general gist.”

“My wisdom and guidance being needed. Dawn being chosen for a mission that would change history. And Reno being told to seek out all pokémon… Do you think they’re all related? If so, what does it mean? The Professor mentioned he was working on the first pokédex of the region. Are we to help him complete that?” Cynthia frowned, continuing to wrack her brain for some direction in their situation.

“Hell if I know.” Reno grumbled. He hated to admit it, but the thought of being back with that econ review packet seemed pretty appealing right about now. 

“All I know is I’m hungry. Can we get a menu or something?”

Cynthia let out a sigh in response. After all of the excitement they had been experiencing thus far today, filling the pit of her gut with some food hadn’t even crossed her mind. Now that it had, the thought of satiating her hunger was beginning to take up all the mental space she had. 

Forget trying to figure out how to get home and why they were tasked with seeking out all pokémon. Figuring out what she was going to have for dinner was more important right now.

If only she could wave down the waiter… Or was he the owner? There weren’t any other servers here besides the one, green haired old man. Whenever Cynthia managed to grab his attention, all he did was scowl and continue to serve the other patrons of the restaurant. Many of who had been staring at the three of them since they sat down.

The trio had been so preoccupied with other matters that realizing they had been providing the customers with dinner and a show hadn’t set in with them yet.

“Yeesh. What’s eating him?” Reno grumbled, laying his forehead back down on the table. His stomach growled hungrily. He clutched it, hoping to ease the gnawing sensation that had begun to fester. It did nothing.

“It’s not like we’ve done anything wrong…” Cynthia huffed. She couldn’t recall upsetting or insulting the man in some way. Dawn and Reno hadn’t said or done anything either; at least not that she was aware of.

“The Wallflower does not seat outsiders; especially not ones that fell from the sky.” 

Even against the dirt road, the reverberating sound of imposing footsteps could be heard. Dawn’s expression, which had been mostly relaxed, began to unravel. She looked nervous; Scared, even. Cynthia’s expression hardened as well, having pivoted herself in her chair to look at what –or in this case who– had made Dawn of all people so nervous.

Cynthia’s nails dug into the table, her lips curling into a sheer.

Reno, not understanding what all the fuss was about, glanced over past Cynthia. 

Standing only a few feet away from their table was a woman in a blue uniform similar to the ones the Village Guards wore. Her light blue hair was cut short and combed neatly. Her hands were folded neatly behind her back, giving off an air that commanded –no, demanded– respect. 

The womans gaze struck a similar amount of fear in him but for a different reason. The way she looked at them reminded him too much of his mothers icy stare: Cold, stern, serious, piercing into the very depths of ones soul. By the time he realized that Laventon had been peeking out from behind the woman as well, Reno had already taken refuge behind Dawn; the grown man using the teenage girl as a human shield.

How courageous.

“The Professor, however, informs me that the three of you were the ones who retrieved his escaped pokémon, is that correct?”

Cynthia’s body tensed up, and she returned the same cold gaze the woman had been giving them, “... Yes. That’s correct. Who, may I ask, are you?”

“I am the Captain of the Galaxy Teams Survey Corps. You may call me Cyllene. As stated before, the Professor told me that you were able to secure his pokémon when they slipped his control. From what he told me as well, he would like to request housing for you in exchange for ongoing labor.”

If only getting a job AND housing was this easy back home. If it worked like that, Reno would have been helping any and every random old man off the street with their troubles in hopes of getting a roof over his head and a job to line his pockets with cash.

"Hmm. All of you look old enough to work for your keep. However, it is important to understand that we cannot accept just anyone who appears at our doorstep without knowledge of their abilities or background. Tomorrow, you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your worthiness with a trial. Be warned, though, if you do not succeed in impressing us, you will be exiled from our village and meet your fate at the hands of the wilderness. Perhaps that fate is even your death."

“Don’t we get a say in this…?” Reno finally mustered up the courage to peek out from behind Dawn, only to subsequently return behind her when he saw the same, stern expression on the Captains face. He could have sworn that, now that he questioned her, she looked even more pissed off than before. 

“Nevermind… Nevermind…”

Perfect. Perfect.

If they failed whatever test they were given tomorrow they were just going to be left out to dry.

As swiftly as the Captain had arrived, she departed with the same amount of speed, disappearing into the interior of the restaurant, deciding that what needed to be said had been communicated and that further conversation with the three of them would be nothing more than unnecessary. 

All that left was Laventon, sheepishly standing there, a nervous smile on his face as the trios gaze shifted from Cyllene to him.

“So, I guess we skipped the interview process, huh?” Reno, finally, full emerged out from behind Dawn, feeling much more comfortable now that the Captain was gone. A bit –well a lot– of fear wouldn’t do him any good for what he wanted to say next.

And boy oh boy there were a lot of things he wanted to say. For example, just some more rock solid confirmation on what had been presented to them just now: Either they accept the trial so they can officially work for Laventon as his lackeys and get a warm place to spend each night, or they get tossed out to the wolves for refusing to provide labor.

Who doesn’t love a good ultimatum, right?

“I apologize for springing that on you. Truthfully I did want to arrange free housing for the three of you! Until we could all get our bearings together, but, with resources being so scarce in the village as of now, that wasn’t something I could get arranged…” Laventon took a seat next to Cynthia, his sheepish smile still painted on his face.

“I gave the three of you my word about helping you, and a true gentleman always keeps a promise! I may have had to… embellish a few things about our initial meeting, but, your skills in catching pokémon is truly admirable indeed! Not to mention all of you handled them without the slightest bit of fear! Individuals like you come once, maybe twice in a lifetime! Plus, our friend here is unfamiliar with pokémon, so this would be an amazing opportunity to learn about these fascinating creatures!”

Well, Laventon did have a point. 

They just wished that, you know, he had talked to them about all of this beforehand. 

Granted it wasn’t like they could really turn down the offer of getting housing while they figured out their game plan. Plus, from what they could recall, Laventon’s work revolved around the catching of pokémon and the completion of the regions first pokédex. 

That would kill two birds with one stone, right? Seeking out all pokémon probably –definitely– fell within the realm of completing a pokédex. So, maybe, that’s why the three of them were brought here in the first place?

For sure Cynthia and Dawn, due to their prior experience with pokémon. Reno on the other hand? All of this pokémon stuff was still new to him. So he’d need some handholding for the time being, at least until he started getting more comfortable handling pokémon.

“The choice, of course, is all up to the three of you. Please do not feel pressured to assist me with my work!”

Easy for him to say. He wasn’t the one having to worry about a roof over his head.

“Do you mind if we huddle up on this first?” 

“Yes! Yes of course! Take as much time as you need. I would hate to pressure you into accepting a position you aren’t interested in!”

Reno feigned a smile, getting up out of his seat, dragging Dawn and Cynthia along with him. Once they made considerable distance from the Professor he pulled all three of them together, like they were football players discussing their strategy for the upcoming play. 

Or something like that. Truth be told Reno knew nothing about sports.

“What are we huddling for?” Cynthia looked up, her eyes flashing with determination. Reno took the initiative to have them all meet up and discuss a topic she could only assume was important; and needless to say she was impressed.

“Oh no idea. I just wanted it to look like we were more serious about our decision here.”

And just like that Cynthia was back to square one in regards to her initial impressions on Reno.

She, for the life of her, could not tell if he was taking this seriously or not.

Dawn evidently felt the same, sharing the same disappointed look as Cynthia. Once again, the two of them gave Reno that same look they did just moments prior.

“What?! We don’t want to look desperate!”

“Well, if you won’t contribute to this huddle then I will: I know the Professor is being courteous by giving us the choice to decide on whether or not we want to work for him, but it isn’t like we have any other options. All three of us have no roof over our heads and without pokémon at our side we won’t last very long in the wilds.”

A very excellent point from Cynthia. It would be difficult to try and find your way home if you didn’t have some form of temporary home base to return to. Plus, if there were more creatures –pokémon– out there like Reno had just encountered, he’d rather stay indoors.

“If able, I’d like to investigate the storm on top of Mt. Coronet too. If we fell from the sky I imagine that was our exit point. Maybe we could cut out the middle man altogether and find a way to return home through there?”

She didn’t give the other two any time to react.

“Professor, we would love the chance to work with you. You have our full cooperation moving forward.”

“Excellent! Wonderful! Splendid!” Laventon clapped his hands together and cheered.

“As the Chief Researcher of the Survey Corps and Jubilife Village, allow me to say: Welcome to the team!”

Chapter Text

Reno wasn’t sure if it was because this new fangled body of his came with a fancy new set of taste buds, or if he was really just that hungry, but never before had something as simple as potato mochi tasted so damn good.

Before they had gotten themselves settled into the small house that was lent to them for the night, he spent a majority of their time at the Wallflower just scarfing down whatever bits and pieces of potato-y goodness he could get his grubby hands on. 

He didn’t even care that he had been hogging a majority of the food, either.

Eating was one of his favorite things in the world. It was a hobby of his, you could say. But eating when you were stressed? That was a whole different feeling; one that, even if he knew wasn’t a good one to have, was one he still found some sense of comfort in. 

The poor guy was a stress eater. Always had been and always will be. It was easier to just eat his feelings away rather than try and confront them head on to try and solve the problem.

Was that a healthy thing to do? Debatable. Probably not.

Did he really care?

No. 

His parents never cared about how he handled his feelings, so, why should he?

Poor handling of his own physical, mental, and emotional health aside, their current place of residence was quaint, to say the least. Its small and humble size reminded him of his freshman year dorm room; If you stripped it of all AC, placed a small pot in the center of the room, and replaced all the beds with futons.

So, really, only reminiscent of his dorm room in size and scale, nothing more.

Had the three of them been here under different circumstances, he maybe (maybe) would have appreciated the interior design choices more. 

"It's not luxurious, but it'll do for now. We shouldn’t plan on staying here long term, considering we should still investigate Mt. Coronet as soon as possible." Cynthia said, taking in her surroundings.

Still, laser-focused on the thought of getting home ASAP –even in spite of the mission bestowed upon them by whoever had been texting Reno earlier today– Cynthia began to unwind on her futon, sitting crisscross and getting as comfortable as possible. 

She untied her hair, letting her golden locks flow down her back. If she didn’t cut her hair soon, it would probably start dragging all over the ground. 

Reno walked up to his futon and collapsed face-first into his pillow, deciding he was done with conversation for the time being. Considering how real and, well, physical , everything had been so far he doubted that all of this was just some weird dream. There existed, however, a small part of him that still believed this was just some long, drawn out, stress induced nightmare.

Then there existed a second part of him that wished this wasn’t some long, drawn out, stress induced nightmare because the only thing waiting for him when he woke up was that final review.

There was no way in hell he wanted to do that.

Unfortunately he had no choice in the matter.

His econ professor decided to make it worth 20% of the total grade.

What an asshole.

When this was all over he was definitely giving him the lowest rating humanly possible on that rate my professor website his school hosted.

“I dunno, I think helping the Professor with his pokédex could be fun! It’s been a few years since I actually did something exciting.” Dawn sprawled out on her futon, the back of her hand hitting the back of Reno’s head. 

Neither one of them seemed particularly bothered by that though.

“Don’t you think your parents would be worried about you?”

“Eh…” Dawn made a so-so motion with her hand. She didn’t think her parents ever really paid attention to what she did outside of school. A lot of their attention had always been focused on her older brother Lucas, the golden child as they liked to describe him.

A description that was, for all extensive purposes, pretty hilarious considering it wasn’t like he spent a majority of his first pokémon adventure fighting a criminal organization whose leader was hellbent on reshaping the very world they all called home.

But she digressed.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine without me! They didn’t complain much when I went on my first adventure. So I’m sure a second adventure won’t be an issue! I leave home all the time without letting them know. It’s no big deal.”

Was she trying to reassure Cynthia or herself with that statement?

Reno didn’t know and, as awful as it was to admit, he didn’t care either. He just wanted to sleep.

So…

He did.

Or he tried to, at least.

~~~

Reno was no stranger to having rough nights, all thanks to his experience crashing out on whatever soft, plush, or comfortable objects around his dorm room he could find. With how packed his semesters had steadily began to become, getting any amount of sleep on any object imaginable was a godsend.

So, naturally, he thought to himself “sleeping on a futon can’t be any different than sleeping on the floor or on the Student Center couch! This should be easy!”

And it was!

For Cynthia and Dawn that is.

The two of them passed out before Reno could even officially tell them goodnight. Just an hour or so in, snores began to emanate from Cynthia’s mouth, her arms and legs sprawling out over her futon, giving her a pose strikingly similar to some of the crime scene chalk outlines you’d see on TV and in movies. 

Dawn was in a similar pose, albeit laying on her stomach rather than her back, her face buried deep into her pillow.

Reno couldn’t say he was enjoying the same level of sleep as his new partners were. His quality of sleep was, first and foremost, restless. It was the kind of sleep where you would close your eyes, try your damn hardest to doze off, only to open your eyes and realize that so much time had passed when it felt like nothing. It wasn’t satisfying. It wasn’t restful. It was just awful.

He tossed and turned throughout his futon, thinking to himself that it wasn’t his bed that was the problem, but him! A series of rolls, flips, and even planking ended up making things even more unbearable than initially started. Maybe it was his pillow that was the issue? It had gotten pretty warm throughout the night, so flipping it to the cooler side should fix this, yeah? Turning it to the colder side was a noticeable improvement, but the stress sweat that had already accumulated over most of his body erased any comfort that cropped up for him.

Before even considering the ins and outs of his new bed, Reno thought that, because of how he had been roughing it out in college, sleeping on a futon would be more or less the same for him. His assumption was, unsurprisingly, very wrong. A dorm room bed and a futon were two totally different beasts, and despite any possible similarities they may have on paper, the comfort the two of them brought weren’t alike at all.

To try and distract himself he turned his phone on again, staring at his home screen. A frown slowly formed on his face when he looked at the “faces” of the other people in the photo. He hated that, even though he knew who these people were supposed to be, the finer details of their faces were slowly beginning to trickle away from him.

Was he just tired? Would everything come back to him in the morning? 

God he hoped so.

After everything had been said and done for the day, another major issue Reno had was that, to him, at least, whoever sent them here didn’t do a good job explaining anything, really. Why were the three of them chosen specifically? Why was he chosen specifically? What was the reward for seeking out all pokémon, and why were they even tasked with doing that in the first place? Was this some kind of experiment? A social one? A scientific one? If things weren’t progressing the way that they should, would they be punished? Would there be any hands-on assistance from their mysterious benefactor at all?

The most glaring question on his mind: If they were given a reward could he choose to have whoever sent them here take his econ final for him? THAT would be a reward worth fighting for, honestly. 

More and more sweat started to trickle off of him, a byproduct of wanting to know absolutely everything about his situation and rejecting the idea (both physically and mentally) that there were situations and scenarios out of his control. 

He would have spiraled deeper into this personal rabbit hole of his had the feeling of the back of Cynthia’s hand crashing against his nose not shaken him out of that trance. A dull, almost ringing sensation shot and rippled throughout his face. Reno clutched his nose with one hand and covered that hand with another, toes curling and legs kicking as he tried to swallow all of the pain so as to not wake one of his roommates.

Sucking air through his teeth, Reno rolled over on his side, retreating into his metaphorical shell, his back facing Cynthia.

It was a feeble escape, considering Dawn started kicking him in the back, too, her legs stretching out and pushing up against him with such force that he was almost sent right off his futon. Trying to push back didn’t net him any progress in returning back to his original position.

Great. So much for trying to go back to sleep.

Amidst his half-awake state, he concluded that it made no sense to try to make sense of anything right now. 

He’d constantly been telling himself that, whether consciously or subconsciously, that there was too little information to work off of now. Until more was laid out in front of them, and they had the proper time and materials to talk things out, the best he could do was just roll with the punches.

Closing his eyes (and trying to tune out the sounds of Cynthia’s snoring and the feeling of Dawn’s feet kicking and pushing up against him), Reno forced himself to fall asleep.

“Everything will be better in the morning…”

~~~

The gentle hum of an ac unit slowly roused Reno from his sleep, and the sudden feeling of being higher in the air instead of being low to the ground filled him with a powerful enough sense of vertigo that he found himself fully awakening then and there.

He felt his body slump forward, his head slamming down against a hard surface in front of him, the stinging pain causing him to shoot back, hands rubbing the throbbing, red bump that formed on his forehead.

“GAH!” Reno grunted, elbows resting on the table in front of him. 

“I know you don’t want to take this final, but you said yourself if you don’t get at least a D you’re not going to pass the class.”

He ignored the voice that was addressing him at first, his brain slowly dialing up –a common occurrence for him at this point– as he took in his surroundings. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting to see when he woke up. Part of him still clung to the belief that this was all some elaborate, drawn-out, stress induced dream and that, upon waking up, he’d be back in his dorm room.

So when he saw he was in the Student Center rather than his dorm room, his brain took even longer to dial up and comprehend what was going on. The other students in the building with him, were the busy bees he had known them to be. They were chatting, stuffing their faces whatever late night food they could find, crying over grades, and cramming homework that should’ve been snow hours prior. It was if he was right there with them, like he hadn’t even left.

The only offputting thing, however, was the fact that Reno couldn’t make heads or tails on what they were saying or what they even looked like. Their voices all blended and meshed together, like a loud cafeteria back in grade school, and their appearances all blended together into one, blurry, indecipherable, homogenous soup.

“Hello? Earth to Moreno?? Are you even listening to me right now???” The sound of snapping fingers drew his attention back to who was talking to him. 

“... Cynthia…?” There was no mistaking it. The woman sitting right across from him was the same woman he had been spending the majority of the day with, right down to the long blonde hair and all black outfit. 

The way she conducted herself, the way she spoke, everything, really, was so off from what little he had picked up from her. She seemed a lot more annoyed, like just being in his presence was a chore for her.

“ Samantha . I know we haven’t talked much outside of the classes we share together, but have you seriously forgotten my name? Need I remind you it was your idea to be a study pair?” Samantha sighed, pressing her fingers up against her forehead, her hair practically spilling out onto the floor.

“You might not care about your GPA, but I do. If I don’t keep it up I’m going to lose my scholarship.”

Reno paused, confused. He looked her up and down. 

This was Cynthia. 

She was Cynthia.

Why was she calling herself by a different name?

“So are you going to say something or are you just going to stare at me like I have a third eye?”

He just continued to stare at her, mouth agape, eyes wide, his mind unable to form any coherent thoughts, much less a coherent sentence. He could recognize where he was, but he couldn’t for the life of him recognize the name Samantha .

Samantha just scowled, getting up from her chair, “Look, I’m sorry, I don’t have time for this; and you’re clearly not in the right mind for studying. Text me when you feel better.”

Reno wanted to get up, to call back out for her, but no words left his lips, and his muscles refused to budge. The only thing he could do was just sit and watch her disappear into the blurry mess of students, his vision growing white and a loud ringing beginning to flood his eardrums.

“Thou’s test is today… It is time to awaken!”

~~~

What little sleep Reno had managed to secure throughout the night had been swiftly interrupted by the blaring sound of his phone alarm. The loud series of rings caused all three of them to jolt awake, with Cynthia and Dawn both kicking Reno in unison out of instinct. Reno clutched his gut with one hand and his back with the other.

His mind rubber banded between grasping with the pain Cynthia and Dawn just inflicted on him, and the strange dream he just had. Try as he might to retain it all, the details of what happened over the night began to fade from his memory, leaving him with a hollow, empty feeling in the back of his mind.

Then his phone buzzed.

“I wish thou luck on thou’s trial today. Thou will succeed with flying colors.”

- A

Guess it was good that their mysterious benefactor wanted to wish them luck on their test today. How on Earth they knew about this test to begin with was beyond him but, hey, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth yeah? 

Unfortunately no amount of moral support could or would change how absolutely exhausted Reno was right now.

He felt like death. He looked like death. Hell, he probably even smelt like death. His college shirt, the only primary article of clothing he had on him, was coated in wrinkles. Sweat stains populated the underarms of his shirt. The only sense of coolness he got was from whatever breeze swept through the area found its way traveling out of the gaping hole in his shirt thanks to Rowlet.

Dark circles permeated under his eyes, and his hair had so many miltank-licks that it gave him an appearance reminiscent of a pincurchin.

Sleep had most definitely been had. Was it a good sleep? No. Not at all. But was it still sleep? Yes…? Yes. He had to give one to technicalities there. Thankfully no weird dreams were had, but the constant kicks, hits, and slaps Cynthia and Dawn were giving him in their sleep did little to let his mind peacefully drift off into slumber. 

Had his alarm not sprang to life and came close to giving all three of them a heart attack, they probably would have missed their trial to begin with. 

Now that he thought about it, they hadn’t been given a time and place for their test. Heck, they hadn’t even been told what the test was supposed to be. Just that in order to ensure that they could keep a roof over their head they had to pass.

Successful completion of their test would also lead to employment. 

Ideally not what he wanted to be doing right now, but being homeless in a place he didn’t recognize wasn’t a good alternative either.

Choices, choices…

Ah, whatever… He was too tired to stop and think about all of this anymore. He was too tired to stop and think about anything anymore; with the exception of breakfast, which Laventon so graciously bought for them after swinging by their house a few hours after they woke up.

Their breakfast of champions?

More potato mochi from the Wallflower.

Hopefully this didn’t get old fast. 

With an audible thud, Reno slumped forward, his forehead slamming into the wooden table. The splintering pain of making contact with such a sturdy piece of furniture, surprisingly, had no effect on his current state of being. His brain was even too exhausted to register the throbbing sensation beginning to build up in his head.

“Oh my. Are you ok, my boy? That’s some solid imported mahogany right there. It would hardly do you any good to be rattled up there when there’s work to be done!” Laventon laughed nervously, tugging at his shirt collar, his worry continuing to fester as Reno remained silent in response. His next actions may be a bit rude –perhaps even childish too– but he prodded the top of Reno’s head with one of his chopsticks, checking to make sure he was still breathing.

Reno rolled his head over to the side so that his cheek was resting up against the smooth hardwood table. There were barely any visible signs of life in his eyes, but the fact he mustered up enough energy to move and acknowledge Laventon, at the very least, confirmed there were still some gears turning inside his head. Albeit not many, but the motor functions of his body were still functional and that was good enough for the Professor.

“I’m… I’m being, right now. I’m neither good nor bad, I’m simply existing in neutral space.”

“He stayed up late. He should have gone to bed early like Dawn and I had.” Cynthia twirled a few strands of her around her index finger. Clearly her part of the torment she’d subjected Reno to throughout the night had gone completely unnoticed by her. 

She picked at the potato mochi Laventon had so graciously purchased for them so that they’d have a proper meal to start the day. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she finally had some food in her system again. The feeling of fulfillment in the bottom of her gut was, for lack of a better word, completely euphoric. 

Picking up a piece of mochi, Dawn brought it close to Reno’s mouth, pressing it up against his lips over and over like a little girl playing tea time with her dolls. Eating was important! Without proper fuel for the brain, they could kiss their chances of succeeding at their test goodbye. 

Granted Dawn wasn’t doing that to be nice. She just wanted to mess with Reno a bit. Now that she was more rested and re-energized, she decided the best thing to do right now would be to try and squeeze out as much entertainment out of Reno as humanly possible. 

Considering he hadn’t let her play games on his phone right when they got up, she felt this type of behavior was warranted.

She may have been one of Sinnoh's Champions and the one who stopped Team Galactic, but she was still a kid through and through.

Plus it was just genuinely funny messing with him.

“I did go to bed early.” Reno grunted, trying to bite at Dawn’s hand when she brought it close to him, which earned him a light smack on the side of the head.

“If you went to bed early then why are you so tired? I had no problems sleeping at all last night~! Even with our current circumstances I would say that’s the best I’ve slept in a long time.” Cynthia sighed contently, sliding the plate of potato mochi in the center of the table toward Reno, urging him to start eating.

“I’m not used to sleeping on a futon. Felt too low to the ground. Got real hot too. I always have a fan blasting in my face when I’m ready to sleep.” Reno said in a monotonous tone of voice, carefully picking apart the mochi with his fingers, nibbling on whatever small pieces he could create. Not the type of food he was used to having, but considering he hadn’t eaten anything all day yesterday any food was good food as far as he was concerned right now.

“Hah hah… Well, in any case, the three of you are going to have a big day ahead of you! I wish I could offer more support and comfort outside of just words of encouragement. Unfortunately even I don’t know what the Captain has in store for you! Bestowing trials onto strangers looking to stay in the village is not an act we normally do.” Laventon clapped his hands together excitedly.

“And I assume falling from the sky isn’t normal around here either?” Reno let out another groan, pressing his forehead up against the table once more. 

“Hah hah… Yes… I suppose I should be expecting the unusual now that you’re here!”

~~~

If any one of them thought the outside of the Galaxy Hall was impressive, the inside was equally as, if not more, impressive. 

The interior design reminded Reno more of the fine arts building his campus had, right down the nice, sleek, velvet carpet and winding staircases that extended into the upper floors. Thankfully it didn’t look like the stairs were as steep as the ones back on campus, so if he ever needed to go up a floor he wouldn’t be fighting against gravity there.

Admiring the interior architecture and the comforting similarities to other institutions back home would have to be put on the back burner as, once they stepped through the door, Reno was reminded on why they were here in the first place:To meet with the Captain and discuss what trial they needed to complete in order to earn their right to live in the village.

Reno couldn’t tell if this was an intentional choice on the architect's part or if office placements just ended up this way, but staring right at them from across the lobby was the Captain in her office. 

Her piercing gaze could be felt even from all the way over at the other end of the building. Cynthia returned her gaze with equal amounts of piercing. Dawn and Reno ended up looking more confused than anything.

“Don’t be nervous! I’ll be with you every step of the way! I assure you that, while our Captain looks scary, she’s as sweet as a Teddiursa on the inside!” Laventon patted Reno and Dawn on the shoulder, bestowing on them the most comforting amount of words he could.

“Let’s not keep her waiting!”

~~~

Captain Cyllene’s office was –if you chose to ignore the piles upon piles of reading material and paperwork stacked on her rather cramped desk– well kept. The floor was clear of any form of clutter, and various different papers depicting –what Reno could only assume was– pokémon, maps of surveyed areas, and other pieces of data lined specialized boards built directly into the walls.

A much more organized working space than his own dorm room. 

A much more organized working space than his academic advisor's own office.

As those thoughts carried through his mind like a leaf haphazardly blowing through the wind –or like the time his freshly printed one page essay almost blew halfway across campus– Reno, like in many situations in his day to day life, just completely zoned out. 

His attention focused more on the papers attached to the wall, trying to decipher what was written on them. 

The pictures were, somewhat, easy to make out. His brief experience with the three pokémon Professor Laventon had let slip away from him clued him in on the notion of pokémon being akin to animals back home (the fact some of their classifications even had the name of animal species where he came from only further confirmed this line of thinking). 

The writing, on the contrary, was much more difficult to discern. 

Mostly because, well, it just looked like gibberish to him. 

Whatever alphabet, calligraphy, or whatever you wanted to call it, they used, definitely wasn’t the “queen's english” . 

He had been so enraptured in trying to wrap his head around how they wrote and spelt things, that he didn’t even notice that everyone in the room had been staring at him, with a few of them even calling his name.

“Are you listening?” A voice, muffled by his dissociation, called out to him. 

“Huh?” Reno blinked a few times, the audio quality of the room around him beginning to clear.

“I said: Are you listening? I don’t normally like to repeat myself.” Cyllene tapped a stack of papers against her desk, simultaneously straightening them out and making her point at the same time.

“Ah. Uh. Yeah. Sorry. Continue. Please.”

Cyllene took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. 

“For the sake of conciseness and repetition, I will repeat the qualifications for passing your test one more time. You are to travel to the Obsidian Fieldlands with Professor Laventon and catch the following three pokémon: Bidoof, Starly, and Shinx. All of you will be catching each of these three, resulting in nine total. Three Bidoof. Three Starly. Three Shinx. Do I make myself clear?” She rattled off to Reno, Cynthia, and Dawn, once more, her eyes transitioning down to the mountain of paperwork on her desk. 

“You will be provided with the materials necessary for catching those pokémon. However, know that this is a temporary arrangement. Should you fail, you will be stripped of the resources we have so graciously loaned to you. But should you pass you will be allowed to keep them. Since the Professor already boasted about the quality of your skills, I imagine this won’t be an issue at all, correct?” Finally looking up from her desk, Cyllene eyed them with a certain smugness in her eyes. Though her facial expression betrayed the intent behind her words, the underhanded mockery could be felt.

Not in a childish kind of way, but in that weird corporate kind of way. Like when your coworker tries to hint that they’re going to be watching your work ethic because they doubt your ability to do anything right in the office without actually saying that word for word.

Reno, thankfully, hadn’t experienced much of that corporate culture back at the school.

Dawn was too young to really get what was going on. Now that she was rested up and back at 100%, she was just bursting with excitable energy. Another adventure where she started from step one? Sign her up!. 

Cynthia, however, could not say the same. The acting Champions of their time may have been close knit enough to respect each other's titles and power –at least to their faces– but she found that the older champions that willingly stepped down and retired from their position before a loss were a lot more openly judgemental. They never once believed that the acting Champions deserved their ranks.

“There’s too many gimmicks for you kids these days! Back when I was Champion, mega evolution, z-moves, dynamaxing, and terastilization weren’t legal in official formats! Now that’s all the young people care about these days! Nothing but flashy showmanship instead of real skill and merit!”

Those constant remarks were why she caved and banned mega evolution in her League specifically. A controversial move, for sure, but she just couldn’t take those constant remarks. There was also just a small part of her ego that so desperately wanted to prove itself to people she didn’t even want validation from.

Which was rather funny as, first and foremost, she considered herself a pokémon trainer instead of a pokémon champion .

“Yes. That will be no issue at all. Thank you for providing us with the means necessary to pass.” Cynthia thanked through gritted teeth, half of her annoyed at the constant doubt of their (moreso just hers and Dawns) skills and the other half still on edge with Cyllene’s strikingly uncanny resemblance to Team Galactics own Cyrus. 

Though the physical wounds may have healed, with any scars slowly beginning to fade, the mental and emotional wounds inflicted on her by Team Galactic still remained.

Champion or not, almost getting a front row seat to the complete erasure of the universe was not something a person just walked away from unscathed. 

She wasn’t sure if Dawn felt the same.

“Excellent. I figured that would be no issue at all. I was just giving you the common courtesy.”

“Oh goodie. You have no problem leaving us to die if we fail, but not giving us the common courtesy is a no no. Thanks.” Reno grunted, his sour mood turning to pain when Cynthia elbowed him in the ribs. “Ow! Hey! I didn’t even do anything! What gives?!”

“Don’t be rude.”

“This is an abusive relationship and I want out of it.”

“If the two of you are done, Professor Laventon will hand you the following: One of our Survey Corps satchels and some pokéballs. Collect these items and head to the Fieldlands. I have much paperwork to complete, as you can see, and I would like an empty office to complete it without distraction.”

Chapter Text

Once they had been dismissed from the Captains office, so Laventon could receive some quick briefings in private, Dawn made her more chipper attitude for the morning more well known. There was some spring in her step and her hands were placed firmly on her hips, chest puffed out and a wide smile on her face.

“Hah! This is gonna be easy! Who does she think we are? A bunch of five year olds?”

“I will have to agree that the passing requirements were a bit… underwhelming.” Cynthia blew air through her teeth, her arms crossing as she leaned back on the wall. Reassuring to know the only thing they had to do to keep a roof over their heads and open up the opportunity to put food on the table was catch the most common pokémon you’d see during the early routes of your journey.

The fact they were all easy to catch too only added to this convenience.

There was just one issue: Reno.

Not the young man himself (ok maybe a little bit of him), but more of his… lack of skill in catching pokémon. 

His catching of Oshawott was, in the simplest of terms, a complete fluke. Sure, he wound up accomplishing his goal in the end, but the amount of pokéballs he wasted just trying to catch one pokémon was… concerning, to say the least.

Even children had better aim than he did.

Cynthia and Dawn both considered their own forms of remedies to this situation, which came in the form of just… taking the test for him. Assuming they weren’t going to be monitored, of course. 

“We should still be cautious though. We don’t have our pokémon, remember?”

“Ah. Yeah I guess that’s true.” The sudden reality check deflated a lot of Dawn’s optimism from her body. 

Not having their partners on them would put a damper on things; especially with how rowdy certain wild pokémon could get. Defending themselves in a pickle would be ideal.

Or they could just throw hands with their attackers. That was always on the table.

“Not to worry! A true gentleman, such as myself, wouldn’t dream of letting you go out into the field without a proper way to fend for yourselves!” As if on cue, Laventon paraded himself up to the three of them, a small, wooden box folded neatly in between his hands, a wide grin on his face. 

“The world beyond the village gates can be dangerous, even for the most experienced and rugged of travelers,” Laventon began, rubbing the top of the box gingerly, a finger unlatching the golden lock that kept it shut. “I managed to get this cleared with our Captain, so after some quick dressing I present to you… your partners for today's test!”

Fully opening the box, the Professor's planned grand spectacle for his new friends completely fell on its face as, the one time he needed his pokémon to escape from their pokéballs, they refused to do so.

An awkward pause hung in the air for a few seconds, Laventons grin slowly curling down into a frown, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion, “Oh bother… Come out my darling pokémon! You’ve never had an issue with that before…”

After some more encouragement –and a few slight shakes of the box– the pokéballs sprung open, releasing the creatures trapped inside in a burst of light.

Out of the three of them, only Rowlet managed to stick the landing and make a proper entrance. The owl landed on its two feet, fixing the little “ bowtie” on its chest, striking a menacing looking pose, shining glint radiating from its eyes and a powerful aura radiating off it.

 Oshawott and Cyndaquil had less than stellar entrances, with the otter just barely sticking the landing before losing its balance and falling face forward onto the floor –an embarrassing act it tried to recover from by copying Rowlet and attempting to strike its own pose–, and the flaming mouse just being curled up into a ball, asleep, without a care in the world.

“Ah! There we are! Much better, don’t you think?” Laventon would have much preferred their little entrance had been more well coordinated and choreographed, but, hey, he was in the business of research, not performance arts!

His only hope was that Reno, Cynthia, and Dawn found the presentation to be praise worthy. At the bare minimum something to be impressed by! It wasn’t everyday (well actually any day) that he handed out pokémon to people, especially not complete strangers!

“I know there might be some hesitancy to accept one of my pokémon as your own, but please feel free to rely on their abilities whilst out on the field!”

“Thank you Professor, that’s very generous of you, but are you quite certain that taking them is fine by-”

“I CALL CYNDAQUIL!” Dawn pushed past Cynthia, scooping up the pokémon in her arms and twirling around, making sure to keep the weight balanced so as to not accidentally drop it or tumble over onto the floor herself. 

Selecting the little fireball here was a no-brainer for her. When she traveled through Sinnoh on her first adventure, the first pokémon she chose as her partner was Chimchar. Despite their stark contrast in demeanors –with Chimchar being much more active and Cyndaquil being evidently inactive– their familiarity was more than enough to solidify Cyndaquil as the partner she wanted for this adventure.

Truth be told she had always been more partial to fire types (a byproduct of the fact Sinnoh had all of, like, two), so the second she saw Cyndaquil when they were on Prelude Beach she’d made a mental note to grab this potato the first chance she got.

Reno and Cynthia could fight over Rowlet and Oshawott for all she cared. She got what she wanted.

“... you.” Cynthia let out an exasperated sigh, like a mom who was dealing with their overly excitable child in the mall while passing a game store; and the comparison wasn’t too far off… if you removed the mom part. Cynthia wasn’t old enough to be Dawn’s mother. Maybe a really older sister or cool –but still young and hip– aunt. 

With that being said, if Dawn was the overly excitable child, then Reno was the easily distractible one. Though, that probably wasn’t a fair thing to say considering she had gotten so distracted that she completely lost track of him. One second he’s right behind her and Dawn as they leave the office, and the next he’s staring at whatever papers and messages lined the bulletin board in the hall, staring at them with such a ghastly intensity that it looked like he’d just seen death itself.

“Oh my. What’s gotten into him? He doesn’t do that often, correct?” 

Leave it to Reno to ruin the mood with his inability to properly cope and process information that people (of this world) considered to be normal. 

He never cared much for ruining the mood or dampening the conversation. He had done it so many times growing up –all unintentionally of course– that he never really stopped to think about it too much. 

All he was good for was making other people uncomfortable, right? That was a sudden revelation he was having now.

~~~

For the remainder of the time they had been talking to Laventon, Reno chose to disassociate himself. He let his mind and body go on autopilot as he listened to the others speak. Though odd, he found it calming to get lost in his thoughts this way. Sometimes it even helped him think more rationally (even if it was primarily used as an especially helpful skill in boring college lectures). 

His mind wandered back to the alphabet of his new setting. The more he looked at them, the more they began to blend together into one big calligraphy soup. Maybe if he squinted his eyes, tilted his head, and looked at the letters from a different angle they’d start to make sense?

Was he thinking about this too much? He was probably thinking about this too much.

What was the Professor saying again? Reno was sure it was important.

From what that part of his brain had managed to pick up from that conversation –and keep in mind what he did pick up was staggeringly shallow– Cynthia ended up with the owl and he ended up with the otter. 

That was fine. 

More than fine, actually. He much preferred Oshawott out of sheer virtue that it hadn’t ruined his shirt nor had the capability to breathe fire. That shell didn’t look like it had a long reach either. So if it was to turn on him all he had to do was bolt in the other direction.

Even if he didn’t get Oshawott it wasn’t like he could complain. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, right?

Oh who was he trying to fool. Beggars (him) could be choosers and he was going to beg like his life depended on it, should need be.

Or that was the plan, had his brain immediately not jumped back to his current literacy and linguistic dilemma here.

He could understand what everyone was saying –and them with him vice versa– which was good, but the gripping realization that he was now functionally illiterate at age 23 was giving him a crisis. 

Did Dawn and Cynthia have the same crisis as he did? They didn’t seem too particularly bothered with what was going on; Honestly it looked like Dawn was enjoying herself a little too much. 

He guessed that was just how she coped with things.

He wasn’t sure if Cynthia had any coping mechanisms at all. She was the only one out of the three of them that had a more concrete plan set in stone to figure out how they’d be getting home outside of just catching every pokémon they could.

~~~

Once they had been cleared through the gates, the realization that none of them had been wearing proper walking shoes became glaringly obvious. 

Reno was in slides. Dawn was in sandals. Cynthia was in high heels.

Not exactly the type of footwear you wanted to be wearing for long distance travel by foot.

And Reno made sure to let everyone know that during any opportune moment he could throughout the journey. 

His complaints started off small and non-verbal at first. Shifts in his body language and how he was lagging behind everyone else was just phase one. 

Phase two was when groans, sighs, and other general grunts of annoyance became more common. 

The final phase, however, was when he really started to get annoying: Comments about how his feet hurt, complaints about how sweaty he was, generally making the walk more unbearable than it already was in the first place.

The Guards that had been accompanying the four of them rolled their eyes in response, gripping the spears in their hands ever tightly with each new complaint. 

“This guy isn’t a part of the Village yet…” They thought to themselves. “Is it perfectly acceptable to just leave him here? Like socially acceptable? We could just say a pokemon ate him or something…”

“Oh my… He’s very… expressive, isn’t he? A lot more than when I first met him.” Laventon scratched the back of his head, his pace matching Cynthia’s. This sudden shift in demeanor for Reno was a far cry difference from the young man he met only yesterday. It was jarring, to say the least, but he just chalked it up to Reno having a rough night prior. Hopefully that wouldn’t affect his performance.

“Trust me, that’s not even half of it…” Cynthia pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance, sighing loudly, hoping that would be a good enough hint to Reno. If his poor performance in front of Cyllene were any indicator of his social graces, he definitely needed all of the help and hints he could get.

Granted it wasn’t like she was particularly sociable during their meeting with the Captain. She had been glaring daggers at the woman throughout the entire conversation. In her mind she had a valid excuse! Cyllene looked similar to Cyrus! 

She’d have to bring up that fact with Dawn later…

While Cynthia and Laventon occupied themselves with conversation, Dawn occupied herself in a different way: Annoying Reno had gotten a bit stale right now, and with him bellyaching about having to perform the most basic of exercise she decided to just leave him alone for now.

Very mature of her, yes. 

She fiddled with the satchel that had been provided to them, wearing it like a fanny pack at first before being corrected and told the pouch should actually be worn on her back rather than her front. So kind of like a backpack! If a backpack was half its original size and wasn’t designed to be taken on and off whenever you needed to grab something from it.

By the time they arrived at the designated location –a nice, humble campsite just at the peak of a hill overlooking a vast majority of the Obsidian Fieldlands– Reno was being dragged through the dirt by his wrists, the Guards muttering to themselves as they did so, finally tossing him in front of the camps tent. 

As he landed face first in the dirt, his Oshawott even escaped from his pokéball to stand on Reno’s back and poke at him with his scalchop to see if he was alright. 

Cynthia tried to look away, not out of concern for Reno’s physical well being –ok, well, part of it was that– but out of shame and embarrassment, primarily. He was acting like a spoiled child in the grocery store, and she was, unfortunately, his disgruntled Mother in this metaphorical situation.

Somehow Dawn was acting more mature than Reno was right now. And she was fifteen. Literally a teenager.

“As always, we appreciate your fine work, my good guardsman! I will handle everything from here!”

The Professor wasted no time hustling over to the small tent that was situated at the top of the hill they were on, digging through the large supply crate that was adjacent to the tent, occasionally wading through and tossing out whatever didn’t belong.

“Give me just a few moments! I’m sure I left it around here somewhere…”

Whilst Laventon was busy trying to dig up his mystery item, Dawn decided to go ahead and give herself a peek of the area they’d be working in. 

She had gotten so used to the rapid urbanization of modern-day Sinnoh that the sight of land virtually untouched by all of that was just… breathtaking, for lack of a better word. 

Sprawling out just beyond the hill they were situated on was an expansive field dotted with trees that seemed to go on forever. A river cut through what looked like the halfway point of the area, a bridge connected the separated land, and a path led up what looked like a small mountain.

Mt. Coronet loomed in the distance, the swirling storm clouds still occupying the tip of the mountain, like flies circling shit.

A crude comparison, but it was the first one that came to mind.

“Much different from the Sinnoh we know, huh?”

Dawn jumped a bit when she felt a hand clasp her shoulder, but she managed to ease herself back down after seeing it was just Cynthia. 

“I don’t think I can remember a time when most of Sinnoh wasn’t modernized.”

“Ah hah! Here they are!” Stepping over Reno, Laventon presented a handful of pokéballs to Dawn and Cynthia. He embarrassedly wiped some of the dust and grime that had accumulated on them, revealing more of the capsule's features.

Compared to the ones they had used on the beach, the ones handed to them were a little worn down, the edges of the cover being a bit withered and some of the pages evidently losing their luster. Honestly, it was a god given miracle it hadn’t splintered into tiny little pieces at this point.

“These are some of the spare pokéballs we have on hand at our first camp here! I know they may not look like much compared to the newer ones we have back in the village, but they still serve their purpose! I sincerely hope you don’t mind the hand-me-downs. Resources have, admittedly, been scarce…”

“Think nothing of it, Professor, we will gladly accept any resources you can provide.”

“Yeah! Let’s get a move on! I wanna catch some pokémon!”

~~~

Pulling Reno up off the ground ended up being a lot easier said than done. Despite his lack of proper weight and more pencil-like frame, he had enough determination in his body to keep himself anchored to the ground with a lot more gusto than anyone had expected. 

It was like trying to pry a tree root out of the ground, and it had gotten so bad even the Guards how to get involved, their combined strength finally being enough to hoist him up to his feet.

It was too early to deal with all of this.

Even with their comfort and survival on the line.

“Now now! No need to look so sour my boy! We’ll have the three of you finished with this test in no time flat!” Laventon patted Reno on the back, trying to motivate him to get a move on down the hill and start his test like Cynthia and Dawn had. 

“Like your friend said: Let’s get a move on!”

The two of them had already started their tests, while Reno, on the other hand, was just standing there out in the open like a bump on a log, or a lizard laying out on a smooth rock to soak in as much sun as possible. However, his desire to just disassociate and sunbathe had nothing to do with his proper lack of vitamin D.

“Alright, alright… I’m going, I’m going…”

Reno awkwardly waddled his way down the hill. The sudden pick up in his walking speed, coupled with the added weight of an Oshawott held tightly against his chest, almost sent him toppling back to the dirt. 

Cynthia and Dawn had already created so much distance between the two of them and the one of him that they just looked like a blue and yellow smudge at this point. 

Maybe Laventon had a point. It would be best to get a move on here…

He shuffled between his steps, desperately searching for a rhythm he could get his feet into: Left, right, left, right, left, right, and so on and so forth. Everything had been going fine until the tip of one of his slides, somehow, got caught against the ground, folding backward, completely ruining Reno’s balance and sending him rolling down the hill like an empty barrel.

Could things get any worse?

~~~

As Dawn began picking out whatever leaves and twigs she could out of Reno’s hair, Reno resumed his dissociative state, masking as much of his embarrassment as he could with just cold, hard indifference. Between having a hole ripped into his shirt, having to endure an entire night's worth of punishment, having to walk what felt like forever in slides, and now his whole hill situation, it was safe to say he wasn’t having a very good day.

Was it productive?

Debatable.

A lot of moving parts had been happening, yes, but whether or not any productivity came from it was still up in the air at this point. 

Even Oshawott mirrored the same pose and demeanor as Reno, sharing a similar, blank facial expression as Cynthia’s Rowlet began picking out the twigs lodged in its fur and the dirt coating some of its face. Oshawott waved his scalchop at the bird a few times in an attempt to get it to back off, but a sickening gaze from the grass pokémon made it swiftly yield.

“Hah hah! You’re really clumsy, you know! I’ve never seen someone eat that much dirt before!” Dawn laughed, despite her words being said very matter of factly, flicking a twig out from between her fingers in Reno’s direction, just narrowly missing his head. 

“Kinda uncoordinated too! Are you gonna want us to take the test for you? I dunno about Cynthia but I can totally do this for you!”

“Did your parents just not teach you manners? Or are you just content to spit out whatever words come to mind?” Reno fished out a leaf from his hair and flicked it in Dawn’s direction in return, managing to hit her in the nose.

“I’m just sayin’! I’m just sayin’...” She raised her hands defensively, taking a step back once the leaf hit her face. Reno was weird. Interacting with him was weird. He didn’t give her the type of responses she wanted out of him. Which was funny banter in response to her playful younger sisterly bullying. It didn’t feel very fulfilling.

“Ahem,” The sound of Cynthia’s voice sent chills down Reno and Dawn’s spine. Her ice-cold glare pierced the backs of their skulls with such force they thought their bones would fracture. They both forced a smile to each other, shaking their hands in hopes Cynthia would see this as a sign of friendship, peace, and comradery.

It didn’t.

~~~

It was moments like these that made Reno wish one of his primary coping mechanisms wasn’t to just completely disassociate to avoid oncoming stress –and honestly sometimes boredom as well– because learning that he was the only one who hadn’t completed his test dealt a major blow to his self-esteem; and keep in mind that was already in the shitters to begin with.

Had he been out of it that long? There was no way. If that was the case the Professor would have told him to get his rear in gear much quicker.

Right?

“So, fun fact about Bidoof!” Cynthia smiled, wagging a finger as she spoke. “They’re actually very docile! Maybe even too docile. You can walk up to them and they won’t even attack you. The worst they’ll do is attempt to bite you or run away.”

“This’ll be an easy catch! Even for you!” Dawn chimed in with a backhanded compliment, producing a pokéball from her satchel and slapping it into the palm of Reno’s hand. 

Reno blinked a few times, planting himself back in the here and now, his attention focused on the pokémon they were pointing at. Its pudgy form, chestnut colored body, beady eyes, and big buck teeth vaguely reminded him of his dog back home. 

Man.

Now he missed his dog…

Reno folded his arms across his chest and frowned a bit. There was no way Cynthia’s words could be correct… right? He may have been a stranger to this world, but he would be damned if there was any pokémon out there that didn’t have the slightest shred of preservation instincts. 

“Are you sure it's that easy? That just feels kind of…” Reno looked down at a Bidoof who had waddled its way over to him, sniffing at the tips of his slides. “Kind of… sanitized, I guess? Like there’s no way that can be right.”

Oshawott, who had been standing behind Reno’s legs the entire time, finally came out from behind its hiding spot, swiping its scalchop off its chest and pointing it at the Bidoof, a fierce look in its eyes. The Bidoof, of course, didn’t seem very phased at all. All it did was sniff the shell for a few seconds before biting down on it, teething on it like a child.

The Sea Otter Pokémon clamored to remove its beloved weapon from the mouth of a pokémon so low on the food chain. The fact it couldn’t even do that made this whole display more pitifully pathetic than humorous.

To Reno, that was. Cynthia and Dawn giggled a little bit, like they were watching two children fight over the same toy.

Reno didn’t even bother throwing the pokéball for this one. He just held it in his hand, hovering said hand over the Bidoofs head and released his grip, the ball nailing the pokémon right on the money, opening up and catching it in the same fashion it had with Oshawott the previous day. 

The pokéball shook once, and then twice, *poof!* fireworks!

Oshawott wasted no time swooping in to grab his scalchop, wiping off the small specs of dirt and saliva that had accumulated 

The sounds of Cynthia and Dawn clapping their hands at his success caused Reno to jump a bit. His cheeks flushed red in embarrassment at the realization he got startled over something as simple as that. Ugh. He just wanted this day to be over.

“Yay! See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? I knew even you had it in ya!” Dawn dashed over to Reno, hopping up and down excitedly, trying to grab his hands in hers so she could make him jump alongside her. 

Reno shut that down real quick.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it. Can we move on now? My feet are killing me.” 

With the first of his three tasks completed, Dawn took charge this time, grabbing Reno’s wrist and leading him farther down the hill, the river and the bridge connecting the two pieces of land separated by it becoming closer in sight. 

Before he could even make another snarky comment, Reno was yanked to the ground, blades of tall grass brushing up against his nose. He was about to sneeze but was swiftly silenced by a hand slamming itself against his face, covering both his mouth and nose.

Cynthia pressed a finger against her lips, making a “Ssh!” sound. As she did so, her other hand pointed to a small group of gray and white birds that were congregating together. They hopped around, their heads turning and twisting to face any and all directions they could, occasionally ruffling their feathers at the slightest breeze or faintest sound.

“This is where things get tricky.” Cynthia began, keeping her stance low to the ground, her hand removing itself from Reno’s face, resting on his leg as to signal that he was to remain in the same stance as her for the time being, “Despite being very popular amongst new and seasoned trainers alike, Starly are very… How do I put this…”

“Cowardly?” Dawn interjected, completing Cynthia’s thought for her, which the Champion nodded in response.

“Yes. Cowardly. They’re always very alert to their surroundings, so even the slightest bit of movement can fling them into a fleeing panic. If you’re going to catch one, stealth is going to be key. Tall grass like this can help muffle and conceal your general existence, but you shouldn’t use it as a crutch too often. Some species of pokémon employ these tactics too! You don’t want to get jumped while you’re trying to do the jumping.”

“Is it even safe to be here now then?” Reno whispered back, his expression falling flatly on his face. He glanced over his shoulder every now and then, checking to make sure no beastie was hiding off in the shadows, ready to bite his head off.

“Oh yeah, totally fine! We didn’t see anything while we were doing that, and I don’t think there’s any dangerous pokémon here you need to worry about.” Dawn responded with dual finger guns, making a “firing” motion with her thumbs. Then, of course, she slapped another pokéball in Reno’s hand. 

Such was the responsibility of being the only one with a bag.

“You don’t think? So something could totally be here just waiting for us.” Reno let an exasperated sigh escape his lips. He was really trying not to be too loud, but at the same time, he was just left totally speechless by how nonchalant Dawn was handling everything. 

Did this teenager just fear nothing? 

“Don’t worry about it! You got this. I have the full, utmost confidence in you!” 

Reno grumbled to himself, making a hand motion to Oshawott and telling it to stay put while he slowly crept forward, wanting to close as much distance between him and the Starly as possible. 

Once he was out of earshot, Dawn leaned toward Cynthia, “I don’t think he’s got this.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Cynthia scratched the side of her cheek with her index finger, smiling sheepishly. 

She wasn’t sure if Reno had this either.

He may not have been very skilled, or very sociable, or anything positive, but he was sure as heck proving he could learn and adapt. 

Reno’s first bout in trying to catch Oshawott proved to him that being too far only made aiming all the more difficult, and while being super close to the pokémon –like he had been with the Bidoof– definitely made catching them easier, he imagined there was a sweet spot for these types of things.

Risking the possibility of whiffing his throw from being too far and scaring off all the Starly for being too close was a risk he wanted to avoid as much as possible. So a middle grounded sweet spot was going to be the name of the game.

Once a few of the Starly were in sight, he gripped the pokéball Dawn had given him in his hand. He reeled back his throw, and then released, nailing the Starly on the back of the head. The pokéball shook once, then twice, but instead of releasing fireworks the ball released the pokémon all together.

It let out a panicked cry, frantically hopping away, wings spread and flapping all over the place.

“Fuck-! Gimme another one!” He shouted from beyond the grass, deciding to ditch the idea of stealth entirely. 

“Whuh?! Oh! On it! On it!” 

A constant stream of pokéballs were lobbed his way, some being successfully caught in his hand and then subsequently tossed at whatever Starly he could hit, and the majority just bouncing off his head. 

Even if he was throwing the pokéballs faster than the Starly could escape, his success rate was in the absolute shitter. None of those birds stayed caught for more than 1-2 seconds at a time, and as the distance between them began to grow, their numbers dwindled as they took to the sky.

He was just about to give up hope had the frantic cries of one of the bird pokémon not caught his attention. Just a few feet away from him was a Starly making a mad attempt to fly free. 

Oshawott held onto one of its legs with dear life, continuing to steel itself even as its captives wings were slamming themselves on its face. Reno flung a pokéball like his life depended on it. A sigh of relief left his lips when the familiar sight of those fireworks shot upward.

“See! I told you that you had this!” Dawn laughed, hopping out from the tall grass, striking a small pose as she did so and pointing some more finger guns at Reno, “A little unorthodox and kinda funny to watch, but a win is a win! We take those! Yessir we do!”

“I’m feeling very demeaned right now.” Normally having his praises sung was a good feeling, a high he always forgot he loved to chase until it happened. 

The way Dawn was praising him made him feel like she had absolutely zero faith in him whatsoever, and that her words were empty ones designed to artificially inflate his self esteem as much as possible.

“Don’t. For your first time officially catching pokémon you’re doing very well! Do make sure to congratulate your partner Oshawott as well! I believe he’s earned some praise too!” Cynthia smiled, her hands cupping the backs of Oshawotts ears, rubbing them gently.

Oshawott patted his chest triumphantly as she did so, occasionally leaning into the affection but quickly pulling back and striking a pose to try and seem tough. No one was buying it.  

“Right…” Reno let some of the exhaustion deflate out of him, his pace staggering behind the others as they made their way farther down the path for the final part of the trial. How they managed to get all of this work done in such a small amount of time –without him noticing to boot– he couldn’t even begin to comprehend. 

Their walk led them closer to the river, the wooden bridge that connected the land that was spliced right down the middle becoming more clear. Unlike the encounter with the Starly but like the encounter with the Bidoof, the last pokémon on their list –the Shinx– was waiting out in the open, practically begging to be caught.

He had to hand it to this particular pokémon: It was pretty cute. It reminded him of the cats that roamed around his college campus every now and then. If said cats were blue, had little star marks in their ears and on the tips of their tails. He did particularly love the fact the back half of their bodies was covered in black fur, giving off the visual impression that it was wearing pants.

“I know I said the Starly is where things got tricky, but here is where things really get tricky.” Cynthia grabbed Reno’s wrist, stopping him in his tracks and almost pulling his arm right out of its socket.

“Shinx, like some pokémon, are aggressive and attack on sight. If you’re spotted you’ll need to engage in battle with them before they can be caught. Seeing as how you have Oshawott, you’ll be at the type disadvantage, and that will make the fight much more difficult.”

“The type what now?”

“Type disadvantage! You know… like how Water beats Fire, and Fire beats Grass, and Grass also beats Rock and Ground?” Dawn tapped her chin.

“No. I don’t know.”

“You don’t? How?!”

“Dawn I don’t know what a pokémon is.”

“Ah! Yeah that’s right you don’t.” 

“Regardless of his knowledge on the subject, he is still at a disadvantage. It might be best for one of us to tag in with our own pokémon to assist him. Both Rowlet and Cyndaquil receive neutral damage from electric type attacks, unlike Oshawott who will be receiving super effective damage.” Cynthia tapped her chin as well.

“True… True… Do we wanna do nose goes or-”

The Shinx twitched its ears, the sounds of the three's conversation finally reaching it. It whipped around to face them, letting out a low hiss, the hairs on its back standing on end, tail twitching, small sparks shooting off of its fur as its claws extended.

Instinctively, Cynthia both extended an arm out in front of Reno to guard him. The sight of such a tall woman this shorter young man would have been humorous, had the Shinx been capable of having a sense of humor. 

One of Cynthia’s hands wrapped itself tightly around her pokéball. Just like she had said before, Rowlet could tank this hit by taking neutral electric damage. However, that didn’t exactly mean that she’d have the advantage in this fight either.

When she brought up the idea of having her or Dawn tag in with their pokémon should Reno need the extra support, she was really bringing it up hypothetically. All three of their pokémon were still young. And she was willing to bet that proper battle experience hadn’t been drilled into them yet.

She’d gotten lucky that the Shinx she caught was fast asleep when it was encountered. Dawn even more so when she just dashed in and flung pokéball after pokéball at hers before it could even register what was going on. 

Cynthia may have been a champion, but she was only as strong as the pokémon she had on her; in which she had only one.

The most logical thing to do in a situation like this would be to back away slowly. If they could make enough distance between the three of them and the feline, they’d be able to walk away with nothing more than frazzled feelings and accelerated heart rates. Prior to attacking, a Shinx would try to intimidate its opponents first. If that failed to work? Well, that’s where the electricity came in.

Even with logic and critical thinking skills not exactly being Reno’s forte, even he knew to back away from a wild animal when he saw one. Especially if said wild animal was capable of throwing electricity around like it was nothing.

Here he thought Cyndaquil with its fire breath was scary. A cat who could throw lightning was infinitely more horrifying than a mouse that could spew flames.

Oshawott, on the other hand, didn’t buy into his opponents intimidation tactic. Whether out or courage or stupidity, the otter tapped the side of Reno’s leg, getting his attention and showing off his scalchop. 

Was this supposed to be some kind of reassurance? 

“Don’t even think about it-” Reno said through gritted teeth, trying to extend his leg out as slowly as possible to pull Oshawott back toward him. 

“Think about it! Cyndaquil and I will back you up!”

“Dawn! NO!” Reno and Cynthia both said in unison.

“Dawn! YES!” Dawn responded cheerfully.

That was all the go ahead the otter needed. 

Oshawott made the first move, dashing forward and launching himself body first at his opponent, throwing all of its weight into one Tackle attack. The blow, a veritable sucker punch of a hit, was more than enough to cause both pokémon to stumble off the main hill path.

Thankfully, he still managed to send the Shinx stumbling farther than he had, but because his body was more built for aquatic mobility than land mobility, it took him longer to recover than his opponent. 

That was the only opening the Shinx needed for a counterattack. More electricity began to accumulate on its fur, shooting off in sparks as it quickly began to close the gap between the two of them. 

Reno, acting out of sheer –and somewhat protective– instinct, threw himself forward, wrapping his arms around Oshawott. He flung his left hand outward, recoiling in pain as the Shinx’s fangs sank into his flesh for what felt like an eternity.

He rolled over as fast he could, releasing the pokémon from his hand, facing his back towards the Shinx to take the brunt of the upcoming blow it was about to give.

A horrible idea.

One he prayed he’d never repeat again.

The pokémons' small size belied a sense of power Reno had never felt before. Every muscle and fiber of his being screamed in pain, and eventually, he did too. It was like he was being burnt alive. A searing sensation began branding itself dead center in his back, and his grip around Oshawott grew ever tighter.

The next thing he knew, he passed out.

Chapter Text

Growing up, Reno heard a lot of people say that high school would be the best four years of your life. That was a statement he vehemently disagreed with. If he said that aloud his parents would instantly swoop in with how that just wasn’t true and that he wasn’t trying hard enough to make friends.

All four of those years brought nothing but pain and misery. If he wasn’t getting bullied for just being weird, having to spend a good portion of his summers and after school hours doing marching band, he was getting constant reminders that his older sister was better than him in every possible way.

They’d both attended the same school, and as it was a small student body with an even smaller set of teachers, comparisons between the two of them were far from uncommon.

So, needless to say, when he finally came to and found himself not in the Obsidian Fieldlands, but in the cold, desolate, life-sucking halls of his old stomping grounds, his heart leapt up to this throat. 

The smooth, white marble floors. The rows of dirtied, blue lockers lining the off colored beige walls. He could remember it all. And the worst part about all of this? The hallway seemed to stretch on forever.

Seriously. He couldn’t make heads or tails of where the hallway started and where it ended. If he tried jiggling one of the doorknobs of the classrooms that separated the rows of lockers, he was met with nothing. Every single room was locked up tight. Peering through the classroom windows also yielded no results. Unless, of course, all he wanted to see was pitch black darkness.

God. What was he even doing here?

The last thing he remembered was trying to catch that Shinx… But then…

Oh.

Oh no.

Was he dead?

“Are you sure you made the right choice?”

“Huh?”

Reno looks around. The voice that called out to him sounded familiar, yet he just couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It sounded pish, with a hint of posh.

The sound of a clearing throat finally clued him in on who was speaking to him. Looking down, Reno was met with the shocking surprise of seeing his Oshawott talking to him. The pokémon seemed much more… intelligent than usual. His eyes, which were usually filled with big, adorable pupils, were a lot more human than before. The sight of it sent goosebumps across his arms.

“I said: Are you sure you made the right choice?” Oshawott repeated a second time, glaring up at Reno. His tiny hands resting on his hips.  

Reno was at a complete loss. He wasn’t sure how to respond. He opted for a more funny and lighthearted approach; mostly to try and spare his own sanity, “... Do you mean, like, the whole Shinx thing? Cause that was your idea, if we’re being honest here…”

“Is this a game to you?” A large dose of venom laced the pokémons words. “A college major is nothing to pick on a whim. It will dictate the line of work you go into and the life you will be living after you graduate.”

God dammit. One of these conversations again. If he did die, he was definitely in hell.

“I’m sorry, can we roll it back a bit please?” Reno made a circular motion with his index finger. “Weren’t we just out on the field Catching pokémon or whatever? Where is all this coming from all of a sudden?”

“Why am I not surprised? Graduation day is right around the corner and you’re still living with your head in the clouds. You think your Professors are going to tolerate this kind of behavior? Do you think your sister is out there day dreaming in her lectures?”

Ok. That was a low blow.

Reno readied a retort, but the feeling of a cold, wet hand slapping itself on his back stopped himself in his tracks. He tumbled forward, face hitting the tile beneath him, vision quickly blurring, but not before hearing one final thing.

“Why can’t you be more productive like your sister?”

~~~

It would be a little over a month before Reno fully regained consciousness again. 

It would be only a few days before he dreamt himself back in highschool, repeating the same conversation with Oshawott each time.

And it would be a bit more time before he finally regained the ability to hear. 

His ability to speak, rather unfortunately, was still robbed of him. A fuzzy feeling –like his mouth was full of cotton– permeated and lingered on his tongue longer than he would have liked.

That is to say it lasted longer than a few minutes.

For a time, he was confident in the thought that he was in some form of purgatory. Everything around him was too bright –to the point he couldn’t make out any of the details around him–, and the constant ringing in his ears drowned out any and all sounds around him too. 

This made tracking time difficult too. Just because everyone else knew how long he was bed ridden, didn’t mean he did too. Fading in and out of consciousness, unable to really hear what was going on around you, made everything blend together into one, blurry blob.

A few hours could feel like a few days; and a few days could feel upwards of a few weeks or longer.

The only frame of reference he had for the passage of time were the frequent visits from Dawn, Cynthia, and the Professor. All of which squashed those initial thoughts about purgatory with each small amount of time he got to “spend” with them.

He used the word “spend” EXTREMELY loosely. A lot of one-sided conversations had been had; Most of which just involved talking about how he was feeling (a specific type of question he couldn’t even begin to answer in his current state), and the latter of which described what life had been like for his two colleagues in his absence.

Oshawott was fine (thank God), and was choosing to spend most of his time with Reno whilst he recovered. Reno didn’t want to admit it, but he had grown surprisingly attached to the little guy in the less than 24 hours he had known the thing. 

Despite him being KO’d by a Shinx (a fact he felt he was never going to live down), they still passed, so, uh, yay…? 

Dawn had confided in him that she was the one who caught the Shinx in his place. She stressed that even though it was a white lie by technicality, it was more of a half truth if you wanted to look at it that way.

Reno had been attacked by a Shinx and said Shinx had been caught in the aftermath of said attack. All the girl did was just… gloss over some of the finer details.

And a little glossing never hurt anyone!

Speaking of being hurt though…

The searing pain that was branded on Reno’s back continued to return in small, almost rhythmic, flashes. Some days he was without back pain, and others it was so unbearable all he could do was scream. 

The pain in his left hand didn’t seem to go away completely. It had become a dull, almost null feeling, but the second anything came in contact with the skin, the searing sensation returned.

The bandages that were wrapped around his afflicted areas did little to ease the discomfort; Depending on how he shifted his body they actually enhanced the amount of pain he was feeling.

“Alright, it’s been more than enough time you should be all clear to go and be back on your feet!” Pesselle, the leader of the village's resident Medical Corps said with a bit of a sigh, though a smile was still painted on her face. Her hands gently undid the bandages around Reno’s body, and she did one final check of the damage that had been done.

A majority of the wound had healed, leaving only a large, smooth scar in its place. This was partly thanks to the medicine that was a special remedy made by combining a medicinal leek and a few rawst berries. 

Normally cheri berries would be used for wounds dealt by electric type pokémon, but seeing as how most of the damage had already been done –and most of the back on Reno’s flesh had been singed by the electricity– a rawst berry would assist with any of the residual burns.

“I must say you aren’t the first person to have a run in with a dangerous pokémon, so you can consider yourself lucky we were able to treat the wound with the medicine we had on hand!” Pesselle said with a smile, pulling a small bottle from one of the many cabinets surrounding the room. The bottle held what looked to be a light blue ointment.

She placed the bottle in his right hand, clasping her fingers over his until he was gripping it tightly.

“Make sure to apply this on the scar until the bottle is completely run out. Just for safekeeping.”

Before he was dismissed, Pesselle draped a black glove over the bottle she had just given him, “Until you feel like your hand is getting better I would wear this glove as well. It should help protect from any abrasive surfaces or anything that would otherwise cause irritation. Lastly there’s a new set of clothes for you on the table on your way out. I would recommend changing. We weren’t able to salvage your original set of clothes”.

~~~

Reno stumbled slightly as he walked out the front doors to the Galaxy Hall. He hugged the wall of the building, trying to keep himself supported as much as possible. His left leg felt heavier. It felt lopsided. It felt like it could snap in half like a toothpick at any moment. 

He choked back the lump that was beginning to form in his throat. 

He tried to connect some dots in his head. How long had he really been out? How long had he been here? Was this just going to be his life from now on? What would happen if he suffered another one of these attacks? Would he be able to recover?

Would he even be able to retain his motor functions?

God. More than anything in the world right now, Reno wanted to scream. He wanted to cry.

“Think of the positives, Reno, think of the positives… You got some new clothes. That has to be something, right?” Focusing on a new set of clothes only granted him little comfort. He supposed it was better than nothing.

He had to admit, at first he was worried about pulling off the look . Years upon years –decades even– of primarily just wearing t-shirts and shorts made wearing any other article of clothing… unusual to him. 

Yet a black and white kimono with some fancy new trousers and sandals felt way better than they looked.

The outfit fit so well in the back of his mind he wondered if maybe, just maybe, Dawn, Cynthia, and/or Laventon had taken his measurements while he was out cold. 

That would have been weird.

Surely they had some form of common decency, right?

“There he is!”

Speak of the devil.

“Look at you in the fancy new duds! We got some too, in case it wasn’t obvious~!” Dawn pulled at the nonexistent strings of what he could only guess was supposed to be a pair of overalls? Suspenders? Either way she was pulling at something that didn’t exist, that’s what he was getting at.

But, the girl was right, both her and Cynthia were decked out in clothes that much more suited their current predicaments: A set of kimonos followed by the same style of trousers and sandals he was wearing. The stark differences in their attire came in the form of the coloring and how they chose to style their hair.

Dawn was wearing primarily blue, her hair now tied up into a ponytail partially covered by a white headdress.

Cynthia was wearing a mixture of a more purplish (or blueish?) color, with an orange and yellow pattern thrown around the kimono as well. She described it as being similar in appearance and style to a pokémon she was partnered with back home: Garchomp. Sounded scary. Sounded chompy.

What really impressed Reno was how Cynthia was able to tie up all of that hair into a ponytail that rested neatly on top of her head. Did she cut most of it during his mini coma there? Or was he just losing his marbles?

Either option was completely viable, if he was being truthful.

“Yes, these will be one of our many styles of uniforms we’ll be wearing as official members of the Galaxy Team Survey Corps. I hope you don’t mind. I picked out most of your outfits.” Cynthia rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. Clearly she wished she would’ve had a totally conscious Reno to discuss his fashion sense with, “I wasn’t sure what style you prefer, so I just went with simple colors for now. If you want to expand your wardrobe, you will, unfortunately, have to work for it. As will the rest of us.”

“Have to pay for our own uniforms? What is this a boarding school or something?” Reno shook his head. Not the end of the world to have to spend whatever hard earned cash they got on clothes. It was like that back home for him too.

He was still going to be sour about it though.

He liked to complain.

It was fun.

A small series of chirp-like sounds pulled him out of his negative headspace. The familiar sight of a white and blue otter producing itself from out behind Cynthia’s legs greeted him: Oshawott.

The pokémon was displaying a level of… positivity Reno had never seen before up until now. Oshawott danced around his legs, patting his small paws against them every now and then, a cheery smile on his face all the while.

“This little one was waiting with bated breath for you. It was a miracle we were able to pry him away from your bed to eat and sleep back home with us from time to time.” Cynthia gingerly wrapped her hands around Oshawott, scooping him off the ground and bringing him closer to Reno’s face, giggling as the pokémon began smooshing his paws up against his new –and probably his first– trainer's nose.

He hesitated to return the pokémons affection initially. The memory of its dream counterpart ripping into him about his life choices after high school is still pretty fresh in his mind. He fought to remember that the Oshawott that was in his head was much different than the one standing right in front of him.

“I wish Rana was more affectionate like your Oshawott… All she likes to do is sleep. She uses smokescreen on me when I try to cuddle her though.” Dawn kind of mumbles that last part, watching Oshawott fawn over Reno with noticeable jealousy. 

It was criminal a pokémon as cute as her new Cyndaquil wouldn’t even let her cuddle her as she slept. If she wanted her personal space why did she have to be so darn cute? Did she ever think of that?

Probably not.

“Who?” Reno took Oshawott out of Cynthia’s hands and into his own, trying to conceal the look of pure excitement he had as the pokémon began nuzzling into him. God he never thought he’d get this attached to an animal this fast.

“Rana! My Cyndaquil! I named her during the downtime we had. Cynthia named her Rowlet too!”

“He was so adorable I couldn’t just not name him… I will admit it took longer than I would have hoped, but I settled on the name Hawthorn.”

“A bit lengthy for an owl don’t you think?” Reno raised an eyebrow. Not a name he would have picked, that was for sure.

“Nonsense! My Grandma’s Garchomp is named Pretty Boy!” Cynthia waved her hand.

“And I assume he’s pretty?”

“Oh, no, he’s utterly terrifying. Probably one of the scariest Garchomp I’ve seen in my entire life.”

“So then why is he called Pretty Boy instead of Scary Boy?”

“Because that would be rude, Reno.”

“Ah. Yeah. I suppose so.”

~~~

Now that the house they had stayed in was truly theirs, Reno felt much more at ease on the futon, and all it took was almost biting the dust and having to write “Death by electric cat” on his tombstone! 

Yay!

In the time he was away, however, it looked like Cynthia and Dawn had been keeping themselves busy. 

Plates of rice, noodles, mochi, and dumplings lined the tops of their cupboards. Small origami decorations were strung alone the walls too. Was this some type of welcome back party for him?

Not only that, their small, one room house had gotten a little bit of a redesign as well. Most of the preexisting furniture was still there, just rearranged in a way that gave their futons more space in how they were laid out. From the looks of it no longer was the looming threat of being kicked and punched in his sleep going to be on the horizon, and he could finally rest peacefully.

New additions to the space included a desk, a pot with a small tree sticking out of it –which Cynthia’s Rowlet Hawthorn was using to sleep right now– a mobile bulletin board, and numerous stacks of papers, writing materials, and other miscellaneous items lining the floors and walls of the small back area of the property. The words written on the papers were all but lost to him –as he still had no idea what any of the alphabet here even said– but from what he could gather everything that was on the bulletin board was interlocked in some way? 

The more he stared at it the more it reminded him of one of those conspiracy theory boards. The ones where you had a bunch of pictures and stuff loosely connected by string or rubber bands.

That kind of stuff!

As Reno readjusted his position on the futon, he winced as a slight pain shot through his left leg. He readjusted himself again, trying to make himself, and now Oshawott, comfortable. It looked like the pokémon was content to sit in his lap now that his trainer had returned.

He ran his hands over the top of Oshawott’s head. It felt… good to pet something. Maybe it was high time he thought about giving the little guy a name. Cynthia and Dawn had both named their pokémon. So he was the only odd one out.

As he thought to himself, Cynthia brought him a glass of tea from the kettle in the center of the room. The drink had been speedily and expertly heated by Rana, who was snoozing underneath it, the flames rising from her back burning steadily.

“So… How are you feeling?” Sitting herself down next to him, Cynthia gently placed a hand on his leg. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what was running through Reno’s head now. Especially after everything that had happened.

She herself couldn’t even begin to fathom most of what had been going on. Throughout the time Reno had been gone she’d cursed to herself silently. Had she properly blocked out time before their test for them to officially meet and discuss any of his questions, would he have ended up in the medical corps to begin with?

If she had properly explained to him the demeanors of the three pokémon they were tasked with catching before he encountered them, would he have avoided the fate that was bestowed on him.

As the guilt began to mount up to her chest, her fingers slowly dug into Reno’s leg, only stopping when she heard him wince in pain.

“Ah! Easy! Easy! I’m lucky I can still walk on this thing!”

“O-Oh! I’m sorry!” Cynthia quickly recoiled her hand away from Reno, cheeks glowing red. “I suppose I got lost in thought there…”

“Can you, like, not do that again?” Reno rubbed the side of his leg, his expression full of concern before he noticed the evident flush of red that had begun to spread its way across Cynthia’s face.

His lips curled upward into a smirk, and he began tending to his wound with more earnesty this time around, “God I think you broke skin with that…”

“I said I was sorry…!”

The sensation of a warm spot poking out from underneath his clothes quickly wiped away the smile from his face. His earnesty, which was only a means of pushing Cynthia’s buttons, began to actually take precedence in his mind as he checked himself over. He either may have grossly underestimated how sharp her nails actually were, or Pesselle glossed over some internal (or would it be external now?) bleeding.

“Oh man. I think I actually am bleeding right now hold on.” Reno rubbed his leg a few more times, his eyes scanning for any possible stains on his new trousers. “Does blood feel warm, or does it feel cold?”

“Depends on the situation, really.” Dawn chimed in, bits of rice stuck to the corners of her mouth as she spoke. She coughed and patted her chest with her fist, almost choking on the mouthful of food she had.

“When a Zubat bit my forearm when I first set out, I remember feeling really cold but my blood was kind of warm? It’s really sticky, actually. No one really expects it to be like that I think.”

“The fuck is a Zubat?” Reno raised his head, eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

“You know… Zubat! No eyes? Big ears? Really fast? They swarm you when you’re in caves and stuff. Honestly it feels like I can’t go five steps without one freaking out and attacking me.” Dawn made a little mouth motion with one of her hands, pretending to bite herself on the arm as she does so.

“Are we going to have this conversation every time you mention one of these pokémon things? Because I’m choosing to assume Zubat is a pokémon. I don’t know what pokémon are.” Reno says, as he resumes petting Oshawott after a short lived display of disapproval.

Dawn snorted at the display, digging her fingers into her bowl, plopping another pieceful of rice into her mouth. Talking with Reno was funny. Insanely so, actually. The ways in which she was treating him was both as a means to get some entertainment for herself, and to gauge how he was as a person. 

She may not have shown it, or even communicated it to Cynthia, but she found his entire presence here to be… odd. Why would whoever sent them here want to pick Reno of all people? She could understand why her and Cynthia had been chosen: Not only were they both Sinnoh Champions –with Cynthia even being the first Sinnoh Trainer to rank in the top three strongest trainers in the world–, but, the two of them had wracked up some impressive victories under their belts too.

Not everyone could say they got to fight Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina and won.

Compare all of that to Reno; Some random guy she’d never seen before, who had absolutely no idea what a pokémon was to boot. It was interesting. It was intriguing. It was a little confusing too, if she was being honest.

At the very least he was fun to be around. 

“Can we get back on topic…! Please…!” Cynthia manages to choke out exasperatedly. Here she was trying to genuinely connect with and comfort Reno, and he returns the favor by choosing to pull at her emotions. If it hadn’t been for the fact he was displaying some inkling of positivity –even at her own expense– she would have reacted much differently. 

“I’m just sayin’, I’m just sayin’...” Dawn places her finished bowl of rice on the ground, raising her hands in front of her defensively, like she had done a few times to Reno already.

“You’re always just sayin’ . And now I’m sayin’ I need, like, a list of everything the both of y’all know and I’ll make a list of everything I know and we can compare notes.” Reno points his index finger at Dawn and his pinky finger at Cynthia. His remaining hand still stays glued to Oshawott, who is, at this point, really leaning into the pets he’s getting.

“A list of what we know? Perfect timing, actually!” Cynthia claps her hands together, deciding to shelve the topic of Reno’s well being for now. If he wanted to talk about how he was feeling, she was sure he would come to her.

That was the hope, anyways…

~~~

“So! Here’s what we know so far.” Producing a long, thin, wand-like stick from one of the stacks that were populating their house, Cynthia positioned herself in front of the board that took up most of the room. She would dramatically whip and whoosh the wand as she spoke, pointing to various documents on the board whenever she brought up a specific topic.

“After some research during your recovery period, Dawn and I have concluded we are, indeed, about 300 to 500 years in the past. Give or take. I would place us in a nice middle ground and eyeball it around the 400 year mark. The primary foundations of the common language is spoken, but modern slang is, unsurprisingly, not well known yet.” 

She brings her wand to a poorly drawn picture of what looked to be Cyllene. 

Reno could only make that guess because of the exaggerated frowny face that was given to her.

“More initial suspicions that have been, more or less, confirmed: The Captain looks to be an ancestor of a man Dawn and I know as Cyrus. The modern day leader of an organization called Team Galactic. This further supports and solidifies the fact we’re in the past.”

“Team Galactic? What, they some kinda space organization? Like, they use rockets and stuff?” Reno took a sip of his tea. Man it was good. What kind was it? Green tea? It tasted like it.

Anyways.

He was absorbing as much of this information as he could, but he couldn’t help but feel like he was missing a LOT of context here.

“Bombs, mostly. They blew up an entire lake one time.” Cynthia turned her head to face Reno, her wand still pointing at the drawing of Cyllene.

“And the personification of space, time, and antimatter.” Dawn chimed in, taking a sip of her own tea. She seemed surprisingly astute in this situation. “They were going to use them to rewrite the fabric of space and time.”

“Ah. Yeah. That’ll do it.” Reno nodded in understanding. He had no fucking idea what they were talking about. Personifications of space, time, and antimatter? Huh??

“So if the Captain is related to this Cyrus guy, does that mean the Galaxy Hall guys are related to the Team Galactic people too?”

“Excellent question! We posed the same hypothesis to each other as well. Nothing is concrete yet, as even in the present day with my extensive library of historical literature the names Galaxy Hall and Galaxy Team hadn’t shown up at all. I may have overlooked them.” Cynthia tapped her chin with her wand. She hoped that was the case and that the earlier iterations of Team Galactic hadn’t found a way to alter history in some way.

“I’m glad you’re picking up on things! Good job!”

Reno smiled.

He felt smart.

That was nice.

“Less important, but, I also pose the theory that Jubilife Village ends up as Canalave City in the future.” Cynthia brings her wand back to the bulletin board, placing it on a small cut out of a map, showing the village, which he picked up because of the giant red circle that was encapsulating it.

“Discussing historical geography is an entire lecture in it of itself so I won’t bore you with the details.” Cynthia waved her hand dismissively, whipping the wand back to the board, slamming it against the next piece of paper with such ferocity that she almost made him spill his tea. The pokémon had all woken up as well.

They didn’t look too particularly happy about that.

“Back to important topics: Your phone!” A crudely drawn picture of his phone was presented next. Was Cynthia the one drawing these? Or was Dawn the artist behind it all?

“Attempts to reach out to our mysterious benefactor have yielded no fruits. But the initial mission of seek all pokémon still remains in the notification center.”

“That Angry Birds game you have on there is fun too!” Dawn chimed in with a smile. That information wasn’t important in the slightest. Cynthia still gave her a reassuring smile nonetheless. Best to not break the poor girl's spirits.

“We’re still trying to figure out more, but we'll just put that on the sideline for now… Our last topic to present to you is… You!” Last –but certainly not least– an extremely crude picture of him was presented. Reno didn’t even get the luxury of having a semi detailed portrait. 

It was just a stick figure of him with the >:P expression drawn on it.

Peh. As if he looked like that.

He thought, as he made practically the same expression in real time.

Sometimes life really did imitate art. 

“ Very good ? I know elementary schoolers who can draw better than this!” Reno waved the paper around.

Cynthia tried her hardest to stifle and swallow her laughter, “Ignoring artistic interpretations of each other, we know nothing about you outside of the following information: You don’t know what pokémon are, you’re not someone we know, and… you have a sweating problem?” 

Her voice trails off as she continued to read off the notes they had taken about him, looking confused by that last part.

“I wrote that one!” Dawn raised her hand with a shit eating grin. “I felt it was very important to include.”

“Ok. Wow. Rude. I do NOT have a sweating problem.” Reno folded his arms across his chest (mostly to hide any underarm sweat stains that may have formed). Unbelievable. He didn’t work his ass off back home to get where he was now and be called sweaty by some teenager.

If he wanted that he would have just visited his grandparents house. One of his cousins would have said that to him for sure.

“Well… You do get pretty sweaty sometimes from what we’ve noticed… You did sweat a lot when you were with the Medical Corps…” Cynthia averted her gaze a bit, her cheeks flushing red again.

Unbelievable.

Was he getting double teamed?!

“Even if I was –and I’m certainly not saying I did– that doesn’t count because I was dying.”

“Perspiration problems aside, it has come to our attention that the two of us know nothing about you! We know about each other, as we’re already familiar. We think it would be best for all of us to get better acquainted with one another! Seeing as how, for the foreseeable future, we’ll be living under one roof and working together.” 

Reno blinked a few times, arm folded across his chest, his body noticeably loosening. The tension he originally had as a byproduct of his sour mood –induced by Dawn– fizzling out of him like a balloon. He was not expecting that statement from Cynthia. From either one of them, actually. 

The bulk of his thoughts had been so laser focused on trying to figure out where he was, what was going on, and trying to get home that the idea of actually bonding with Cynthia and Dawn didn’t even cross his radar. Sure, messing with Cynthia had been some good fun. But the act was meant more in, ‘a poking fun at your coworker’, kind of way. He wasn’t sure if he could consider the two of them friends yet.

Mostly due in part to the fact she hadn’t outright called him her friend yet. Until he had that confirmation he was to assume they were acquaintances at best and coworkers at worse.

Her idea of bonding still made sense. All three of them were stuck in the same situation and, whether they liked it or not, that united them for the foreseeable future.

The big glaring question now was: How could he talk about himself without trauma dumping on them?

Talking with people –believe it or not– had never been his forte. 

He’d always had friends growing up –his parents made sure of that–, but taking a three year long gap year after high school kind of stunted most of his social development and overall conversational skills; It was hard to talk to people your age when you spent a majority of the day by yourself and only had brief 10-20 minute conversations with your parents every day at dinner. 

Even now that he was in college he still found it hard to relate to his peers and hang out with them outside of usual class hours.

Now he was expected to try and relate to two people that lived entirely different lives than him?

That was going to be next to impossible.

“Ah. Uhm… Where do you even want me to start? It’s not like I do anything particularly interesting.” Reno scratched the back of his head, “I’m in college, so I guess that’s something.”

“That’s a good start! What do you study?” Cynthia clapped her hands together excitedly. 

Dawn didn’t look too thrilled to be talking about anything school related. She grimaced a bit and went back to drinking her tea, averting her gaze from Reno and Cynthia as they spoke.

“International and Global Studies, or Global Relations if you wanna call it that.” Reno also averted his gaze from Cynthia. Not because he didn’t want to talk about this particular side of him —well, maybe that too— but because ever since he picked the darn major in the first place, he’d been bombarded with questions from his extended family about the usage he could even get out of that degree.

He was never one to particularly find enjoyment or understanding in the field of STEM, and the field of business only made his brain feel like it was ready to explode. His power, as he saw it, was always in people and subjects related to it. A bit of an ironic thing considering his social graces –or lack thereof– but sometimes you didn’t need to be good at talking to people to want to help them.

The field of humanities was his bread and butter. Plain and simple. 

People, while still difficult in their own ways, were much easier to figure out and comprehend than, say, the sciences and economics.

So it was heartbreaking to learn that, despite his chosen major, he still had to take at least one economics class.

What was even more heartbreaking was hearing he wasted his money on a major that would yield him no job opportunities upon graduation from his own family.

The fact most of those comments came from one of his uncles who was still living with his parents at age 40 didn’t help either.

Needless to say, even just uttering the name of his major made his cheeks flush a bit. The sweating problem he so furiously denied had begun to flare up. Sweat began to accumulate on the back of his neck.

Cynthia, however, didn’t look at him with the same, shame-filled, judgment-laced looks his family normally gave him. In fact she seemed weirdly… invested? Interested? She didn’t look at him like he was stupid. That was what he was getting at.

“Fascinating! What do you intend to do with that major? Are there any particular jobs you’re interested in?”

There it was. Out of all the questions he hated the most, that one took the cake. Reno always had a vague, ballpark idea of what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Preferably he wanted to be in an office. Just because that particular setting just felt the easiest to him.

“Political work…? Maybe…? I just want to be able to feel like the work I do helps people, I guess. One of my professors suggested non-profit work. But I heard the work there is killer… You’re serving a community 24/7.” Reno twirled some of his hair in between his fingers.

“I kinda want a job where I don’t have to bring any work on the way home…”  

“I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve been told I write stellar recommendation letters!” Cynthia smiled with a triumphant huff. She looked at Dawn, that same smile still on her face. 

Would employers take letters of recommendation from people from different worlds? Probably not. He doubted their contact information would go through. 

Unless Cynthia’s service was really just that good…

“I can write recommendation letters for you, too! It’s never too late to start looking at good universities!”

Oh, thank God the focus moved away from him and onto Dawn. Reno felt butterflies beginning to dance around the pit of his gut. He hated being asked about what he was going to do with that major. Truthfully, he had absolutely no idea what he wanted to do after college. 

Ugh…

Now he wished he was back in the Medical Corps room.

At least he didn’t have to think about the future while he was unconscious.

Sure, he would have been in pain, but it was physical instead of mental.

And THAT he could handle...

“Look, I love to talk about myself as much as the next guy, and I’m glad you’re all comfortable enough with me to be all buddy-buddy and have fun,” Reno started, his voice a bit shaky as he spoke, “But are we going to finally address the elephant in the room here? I’m glad we have a roof over our heads, truly and honestly. But I don’t want to stay here. I want to go home.”

Even if it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, admitting all of that out loud didn’t make him feel any less guilty. Here the two of them were, trying to make him feel better, and the only thing he could even begin to think about now was getting home.

Those original thoughts of bonding with them seemed to flicker out and vanish; and he was torn between wanting to talk with them and wanting to just get all of this over with. It wasn’t like he’d ever see them again once all of this was over.

“What even are we supposed to be doing here? Seek out all pokémon, yeah, I know, but are we really just gonna assume that completing the pokédex is what we were sent here to do?”

A tense and awkward silence hung over the air when he finished speaking. Neither Dawn nor Cynthia really knew what to say in response to that. Dawn opted to just continue eating her bowl of rice with her hands, her eyes purposely avoiding Reno’s as she did so. 

Taking a few seconds to gather her thoughts, Cynthia leaned back against her futon, arms supporting her. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. There was really going to be no good way to tell him what she was about to say next. In her experience with Reno he’d only proven to be erratic and unpredictable in how he responded to most things.

Like just now, for example. He seemed comfortable enough to poke fun at her, yet he was still panicked enough for him to bring up going home, this time more officially.

“Well, we wanted to have this discussion tomorrow, but… Dawn and I think it would be best for you to sit things out until we can find our way home. I’m still of the belief that Mt. Coronet would be our best ticket to our original time.” Cynthia twirled a strand of hair around one of her fingers.

“Not that I think having you with us wouldn’t be a huge help! I just find it in the best interest of our productivty . Dawn and I are already well versed in handling pokémon. If we put both of our skills together we should be able to return us all back to our old norms before we know it.”

“... What?” A chord was struck in Reno. His body noticeably tensed up. 

“I mean, technically , it was only Cynthia who thought that. I think it’s a total missed opportunity keeping you locked up here. What’s the fun in an adventure with only two people? You know what they say: Three is company, and two is a crowd!”

“... I’m choosing to ignore what you just said for now, but I’m gonna come back to it, eventually.” Dawn completely butchering that saying almost made Reno lose his entire train of thought. Thankfully Cynthia’s words filled him with just enough shock and disbelief that he managed to keep that metaphorical train on the rails.

Being told that felt demeaning. It felt belittling. 

Even if he didn’t care for this pokémon catching business, he still had enough of an ego to want to protest. 

“What do you mean it’s in the best interest of our –no, your– productivity? You want me to just… sit here and do nothing? How is that productive?”

“Oh! Please don’t think of this as doing nothing. I’m sure there’s work to be done here at the village with the Professor! It’s just that, you know… you’ve been out for a while now. I don’t think it’s a good idea to risk any further injury. Not to mention you haven’t been caught up to speed on the Survey Corps training. Dawn and I are-”

“Are what ? Better than me?” Reno folded his arms across his chest. “It’s because of my major, isn’t it? Because I didn’t decide to study pokéology or whatever.” Now he was just projecting at this point.

“Reno, no! That has nothing to do with this! It’s just because-”

“I mean… We are kind of better than you,” Dawn shrugged, finally joining in on the conversation, “Pokéology isn’t even a thing, either, just FYI.”

“Oh thank you . How ever would I have known that without your infinite wisdom ?” 

Cynthia shot Dawn a small glare, returning the notion with Reno too, “Enough! The both of you!”

Reno grumbled, a hand finding itself back on Oshawott’s head. He ruffled the hair of his pokémon, aiming to soothe the anger that was beginning to rise into his chest. 

“Reno, look, I understand being told to sit at home all day may not sound appealing to you, but I’d rather not have you repeat the same pokémon related scare you just had. I’m sure if you spend some time training with the Professor like we had, you can get caught up to speed and join us out on the field in no time.”

Great. You spend a month in medical care, and you suddenly miss everything. Perfect. Just perfect. Didn’t these two have the common decency to wait until Reno felt better before they started doing important things? 

As if he hadn’t been feeling inadequate enough already, now he was having to deal with the fact he was way behind everyone too.

Different world, different time, it didn’t matter… He’d always be bottom of the barrel.

“Or… and hear me out… We could give him on the field training.” 

Reno’s eyes widened ever so slightly when Dawn said that. He wasn’t expecting that kind of answer from her. Like, at all.

“It’s a simple solution, really. We just keep him close to one of us, show him the ropes while we’re doing our job and bing, bang, boom we get him caught up to speed in no time!”

Cynthia shared the same level of shock as Reno had. Her eyes were glued to the young girl, her mouth hanging just slightly agape. What should she say? What could she say? If she tried to use the Reno getting hurt excuse it could very easily get shutdown by the fact Dawn had already mentioned one of them would be keeping a close eye on him.

Plus, if he did pick up some more skills along the way it would make reaching the peak of Mt. Coronet all the easier too. She was still fixated on that decision. Continuing to work on the pokédex would be fine –it would keep the roof over their heads after all–, but ideally the first chance she got to take them to Mt. Coronet, she’d take.

After a few more moments of silence, Cynthia spoke, “... Alright.” Another slight pause.

“Those terms are… agreeable enough.”

Chapter Text

Reno could count on one hand the amount of times he had gone camping; and he could count on the same hand how many times those trips had been successful. 

It was no surprise to anyone that his least favorite places in the world were outside. Growing up in Texas made him used to the heat and the great outdoors, but it didn’t mean he liked either one of them.

In his own words, he was “built for office life”, “designed to live a content existence in air conditioning”. Anything less than that would be criminal; torture, even.

To cut to the chase, it had been only two days into their expedition, and Reno was swiftly beginning to regret the tantrum he threw back in their house. 

For whatever reason he forgot that "on the field training" meant ON THE FIELD TRAINING . 

Immediately upon his awakening the first morning of their expedition, he was bombarded with so much information that he could barely keep up. 

Steps regarding how crafting his own supplies and other needs out in the wilds, the proper amount of materials to bring to ensure he didn't starve to death or shrivel up like a raisin due to dehydration, and what specific types of pokémon data to record in their own copies of the Professors Pokédex was just what he could recall off the top of his head on a whim.

It was all just too much.

He didn't even know where to start.

His brain had been swirling with so many incomprehensible thoughts before hand too, that, for the briefest of seconds, he’d totally overlooked the type of work they were going to be doing; aka, the type of work he was eager to prove himself in.

Their first day promptly reflected this mental state of his.

Bidoof, a pokémon that was once so easy for him to catch during their entry trial, was now becoming more of a nuisance than a means to show he was worth his salt.

Maybe it was karmic justice, maybe it was a sense of hollow, inflated self confidence, or maybe it was even creeping levels of exhaustion that had slowly been worming its way up into his body and mind thanks to sleeping outside. For the life of him, Reno could not find any success in catching the one pokémon that even he could secure on the first try.

If he didn’t miss the mark entirely, the Bidoof broke free from the pokéball after only a few shakes. If there were more than one of those derpy beavers (or were they just really fat chipmunks? Reno couldn’t tell) in the area, then they’d all flee the second one of their own was struck.

You’d think that with legs as short and stubby as theirs, a valiant escape would be a fleeting dream. If you thought that you’d be wrong. Apparently curling up into a ball and rolling downhill was an effective strategy when it came to high tailing it out of danger.

Even Oshawott was finding himself struggling against opponents as simple as them. Any attempts to intimidate them –scary faces, brandishing his scalchop, even puffing out his chest– were met with blank stares.

Neither Oshawott nor Reno could tell if the Bidoof weren’t scared of Oshawott simply because they didn’t find him that frightening, or because they were too stupid to understand the possibility that they could be in danger.

The constant hand holding from Cynthia was doing Reno no favors for his success rate either. A lot of people found comfort in a mentor that had a more hands on approach; One that would be present with them and show them the ropes in real time.

Reno did not consider himself lumped into that specific group of learners.

Going with the flow and just doing what his mentors asked of him had always been easy enough. It was less of a hassle. It required less brain power, too. In this instance, being told what to do felt… demeaning.

For a woman who agreed to let him get hands on training out in the field, Cynthia wasn’t doing a very good job letting him experience the whole hands on approach.

After a certain point, his many failed attempts at throwing a pokéball stopped being met with words of encouragement and affirmation. 

“You can do this!” Swiftly began to transform into: “Maybe try doing it like this instead!”

Eventually even that phrase devolved into words that made his entire body and mind freeze up: “Here, just let me do it.”

There was never a more obvious indicator that he was doing a shit job at something than those six words right there. He’d heard them during early days of new part time and seasonal positions. He’d heard them during study sessions with fellow classmates. And he’d most certainly heard them when getting course walkthroughs with his professors during their office hours.

Reno could feel his internal body temperature rise. Sweat began to accumulate in all of the usual places, and he found himself trying to retreat into whatever hole –metaphorical or literal– he could find. 

He completely froze up when Cynthia decided that catching pokémon could be shelved for the time being. Something about how he’d have an easier time “handling them” if he “knew them inside and out.”

Or, in latent terms, “you’re so ass at this that I’m thinking it’ll just be best if you start on a baby level, because, frankly, I don’t think I can trust you to do this.” 

Most likely not as wordy as he was making it, but he felt he was more or less in the ballpark there…

~~~

Cynthia’s reputation as a Champion was known far and wide. There was even a common belief that simply uttering her name would cause her to spontaneously appear and challenge you to a battle –and numerous mock matches she did with various trainers during her vacations to Unova only furthered these rumors–. 

In the mind of the general public, she was invincible. Second only to Leon of the Galar League. For a time, that perception of her fueled a part of her ego every now and then. Getting a big head and falling victim to her own hubris was an act she fought to avoid at all turns.

At the same time, though, having that inflated sense of confidence helped a lot with difficult situations. 

Why worry about your own safety when you were THE Sinnoh Champion? The same Champion that people wrote horror stories about? If you struck fear in the hearts of millions across the entire world back home, what was a little excursion in the past going to do to you?

That’s the attitude she was trying to convince herself she had, at least. Similar to Reno –although much more well concealed– Cynthia had found herself bouncing between feeling she had a grip on things, and feeling like she had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

The last time she felt like this was during her trip to the Distortion World. The nature of that world itself and the nature in which she arrived to it put herself in a far from stellar situation. 

None of her pokémon felt comfortable traversing the terrain. Waterfalls flowing in reverse was something her Milotic, Lapis, was never prepared for; and the less than stable gravity meant flying on her Togekiss, Seraph, was out of her picture too.

If she knew her position would have required her to travel to such remote areas, she would have built her team a bit better. They were always focused more for combat, anyways. 

Defending the region from a bunch of nutjobs dressed like astronauts was not communicated as an essential/possible responsibility of her job. Being sent back in time without any of your pokémon also wasn’t in the Champion job description. 

Training someone who had the trainer skills of stale, white bread also wasn’t in that description either .

A bit of a rude way to describe his skills, and she made sure to mentally kick herself in the shin for thinking it, but she wasn’t completely off the mark either.

Since they arrived, Cynthia had been wanting to spend more time slowly easing Reno into the idea that he could complete his Survey Corps work without having to catch or battle any wild pokémon. 

Heavy emphasis on the words “without having to catch or battle.” Cynthia wasn’t sure if he had just woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, or if his previous bouts catching pokémon were total flukes, but Reno was struggling. And he was struggling HARD.

His throws were so weak and limp she found it hard to believe that this was the same guy who was so eager to prove himself as capable and reliable just the other night. Was he taking this seriously at all? Did he even want to take this seriously at all?

She hadn’t forgotten the part of his outburst that dealt with the idea of productivity either. What he meant by that was still beyond her.

In fact, now that she was giving all of this more thought, coming out onto the field was entirely Dawn’s idea, and the girl had very sparsely been seen throughout the expedition. The only times the two of them spoke out on the field were in between her catching sessions, and Cynthia’s mini training sessions with Reno. And even then their conversations went no further than just basic pleasantries.

Was Dawn ignoring her? Cynthia couldn’t recall saying or doing anything that could have rubbed the girl the wrong way. She also could have sworn that their agreement in bringing Reno out on the field was a mutual one.

So… what was the issue?

Every now and then Cynthia would spot Dawn etching small markings into her pokéballs, undoubtedly to differentiate the pokémon caught from one another. Though, she could swear that the usual spark in her eyes would wane every now and then; as if she was worried about something.

She decided to shelve those thoughts for now. It must have been her imagination. 

Dawn was more than capable of taking care of herself…

Right?

Call it a byproduct of being a Champion, or just a side effect of their situation, but Cynthia just wanted to be in control right now. She wanted to feel like she had a true grasp of what was going on, and she wanted the others to feel that way too.

If she wasn’t someone they could rely on then… What good was she?

… No. No, there was no good thinking like that.

She was the Sinnoh Champion, after all…

And right now she had a job to do.

~~~

Reno could feel drool trickling down his lower lip as he fought to keep himself awake. The gears in his head turned slowly, barely able to keep any of his basic functions, well, functioning.

He could no longer count on his hands how many Bidoof’s he’d encountered that day; and if he even so much as thought about those pokémon one more time he was certain his brain would keel over. The human mind could only comprehend so much derp-ery in one sitting.

And by god his mind had comprehended so much of that. If Reno wanted to –and let’s be real, he didn’t–, he could write a full, 25+ page thesis on that species of pokémon; the bulk of that essay could be taken up just by their dietary habits too. They didn't care what was put in front of them so long as it wasn't a meat-based protein. Reno was even convinced they'd eat mud if it smelled appetizing enough.

Berries? Check. Springy Mushrooms? Check. Hearty Grains and Plump Beans? Check and check! 

It was disgusting that he knew so much about them in such a short amount of time. It was even more disgusting that he had a lot of this information committed to memory.

Though, suddenly being told that he was officially upgraded from only studying Bidoof, to now being able to study Starly should have been the highlight of his day. After all, it proved –to him at least– that Cynthia didn’t think he was a complete failure. She was willing to throw him this bone, after all!

Unfortunately, Starly were just as boring as Bidoofs were; if not MORE. At most, the only interesting thing one of them did was hop around in a zig-zag pattern for a few seconds, before deciding this particular area of the fieldlands was no longer interesting to it and flying off like it owed someone money.

It didn’t matter if this was an entirely different world. A bird was a bird. And that meant the most exciting thing they would do at any given moment was peck at the ground in search of food.

Even Oshawott was sharing the same mindset. The pokémon, which was normally very expressive and energetic when it counted, was fast asleep in the dirt. He laid belly up, his paws clutching his scalchop, a snot bubble rhythmically growing and shrinking with his breaths.

“Reno, are you paying attention to this?” Cynthia whispered, her voice full and distant in Reno’s ears.

“Huh?” Reno said back louder than he’d anticipated, startling the Starly and causing the flock to fly off.

“Well, guess it doesn’t matter anymore…” Cynthia sighed and snapped her pokédex shut, the sound swiftly rousing Oshawott from his slumber; an act that was marked by the popping of his aforementioned snot bubble. 

“H-Hey! Come on… I’m trying my best here…” Reno protested, blowing a quick puff of air through his nostrils, his composure almost completely shutting down. 

All of this pokémon business was harder than it looked. The fact he had yet to confide to anyone that he couldn’t read and write the same language as them only further complicated things.

It was hard to take notes on pokémon when the knowledge that, whatever you wrote down and submitted to the higher ups, was in an alphabet that no one would be able to understand. Last thing he wanted was for Cyllene and Laventon to think he was stupid.

To make matters worse for him, he’d also already begun to regret allowing himself to get railroaded through everything up until this point.

He knew so much but so little at the same time.

He thought he’d be used to a feeling like that, but, it wasn’t like he’d had a particularly good track record of being correct most of his life.

Just going with the flow, not questioning things, and doing what was expected of you was always easier than trying to chart your own course. The few times he had the guts to step out of his comfort zone to try and take more of a leadership role ended only in disaster.

“I’ve just been… having trouble sleeping, is all.” That wasn’t a complete lie. Even though Reno finally felt like he was adjusting to sleeping on a futon, he was not adjusted to sleeping outside. Having a raggedy old cot or not, lying in the dirt was still lying in the dirt. 

The constant, mind numbing anxiety of having more weird dreams wasn’t exactly helping his case either.

Cynthia just folded her arms across her chest and sighed, shaking her head. Bringing him out here was starting to feel like a mistake.

“Then go rest up. Why don’t you head back to camp for now? Here, let me help you.”

“I can walk myself back to camp, thank you very much.” Reno said with a grumble, shooing the womans hand away with his own.

His walk of shame, or rather his limp of shame , felt as pathetic as it looked. Every now and then Oshawott would stop in his tracks, giving Reno time to catch up before sprinting forward again in another burst of energy. 

Reno knew the pokémon wasn’t doing this maliciously. It didn’t mean it made him feel better about himself, though. Hard to look tough and prove to someone that you can do an act as simple as walking when you could barely even keep up with an animal that didn’t even have a quarter of your leg length.

“Ugh… What are we going to do, buddy?”

~~~

Reno sprawled himself out atop his sleeping bag. His internal body temperature and sweaty form deeming it too uncomfortable to snuggle himself up inside the thing like intended. He took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. Pulling a hand towards his face, he opened and closed it before him multiple times, as if to check if everything he had experienced was still real.

It was… strange , this situation of his. He knew it had been about a month and a half since he’d been here, yet it felt like he’d only been in Hisui for a week at most. He hadn’t forgotten about his life back home, nor had he shelved the sudden change in his physical appearance.

Even those dreams he’d been having, a nonsensical mess of goopy, soupy thoughts he could barely make sense of, were still somewhere along the forefront of his mind. 

He most certainly didn’t forget about everything that had been going on with his phone. Their benefactor –simply logged down as “ A ”– hadn’t said a peep since wishing them luck on their test day. From what he gathered off Cynthia and Dawn, even them trying to text “A” yielded no results. How they went about texting that guy –Gal? Dude? Person?– was beyond him.

The few times he managed to peak on his phone, his keyboard was still in a language he could read and understand.

Come to think of it… Could Cynthia and Dawn even read the alphabet that was plastered all over the village? Speaking with everyone proved to be no problem, but written communication was a whole different beast compared to verbal communication.

A very minute detail in the grand scheme of things, yet still a topic he couldn’t help but focus on. Maybe whoever sent him here helped with that? Whoever they were, they could have sprung to help him out in the literary sense too. Speaking with people was all fine and dandy, don’t get him wrong, but reading was just as vital if not more than that.

A part of him wanted to confide these random, nonsensical thought tangets with Dawn and Cynthia; To finally get them off his chest and out into the open. 

Though, considering the last time he aired his grievances to them it ended up in a bit of a squabble, he chose to keep these feelings bottled up for now.

He doubted they’d be able to truly understand where he was coming from, anyways. Cynthia would probably baby him even more from then on, and Dawn would most likely make some stupid joke at his own expense.

These mounting piles of realizations only ended up hindering the idea of breaking out of his shell. 

So what if they were all stuck together? That certainly didn’t mean he had to get to know them…

Groaning, Reno pressed his palms against his face. Too much continued to swirl around his brain, and if he kept humoring every single thought that crossed his mind he was certain he’d go looney. That is, if he hadn’t gone so already.

The pressure of a tiny paw against the side of his arm broke him out of his concentration. He’d be lying if he said it the sudden sensation hadn’t scared him a little. With a slight jolt running through his body, Reno rolled over to his side, eyes meeting the small pupils if his pokémon.

“Osha?” Oshawott barked, pressing his nose up against Reno’s until their foreheads were practically touching.

“... I don’t suppose you would be interested in hearing my problems, huh?” Reno said with a sigh, positioning himself sitting upright, patting the sides of his legs, inviting the pokémon to take a seat in his lap. 

If he couldn’t talk his problems away, he’d just pet them away.

And pet them away he did.

He was happy to see that Oshawott was as soft as he looked. Reno would have guessed that, for an animal that spent most of its time in water, its fur would feel a lot more… coarse? Rough? Sand paper-y? A texture along those lines. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, as his pokémons fur was ridiculously soft. It was like petting a pillow.

“Hm… I guess I should be giving you a name now, huh?” Reno continued to run his hands along the otters head, finding himself chuckling a bit as Oshawott leaned into the movements, a content smile appearing on his face. 

“Can’t keep calling you Oshawott . Like calling a dog… dog .”

Pinpointing the exact moment he grew attached to the otter was difficult. It kind of just came out of nowhere, if he was being honest. He knew they were dangerous –his whole Shinx situation proved that to him in more ways than one–, yet he still found comfort in Oshawott.

Which was funny considering most of his interactions with him weren’t really stellar to begin with.

“You want something cool? Like Zoro? Or Link? Or Killer?” 

No response to any of those names. Not even an acknowledgement.

“No dice? Hmm… Bluey? You are blue, after all.”

Still no response. Was he even listening? 

“How about… Oswald? Get some alliteration up in here.”

“Osha?”

That got the pokémons attention. Oshawott –or Oswald as he would henceforth be named– looked up at Reno.

“Hah! So you like that one huh?”

Oswald returned to leaning into Reno’s hand movements. A content sigh –and what Reno could have sworn was purring– emanated from the pokémon. His eyes slowly began to shut, and soon too, did Reno’s.

~~~

By the time Reno awoke, the sun was already close to setting. The familiar chirping of crickets having been the initial catalyst as to why he woke in the first place.

He felt like shit. He probably looked like shit too. In fact, he arguably felt more tired than if he just stayed awake in the first place. He smacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, trying to shake off the dry, fuzzy feeling that had started to permeate. 

Feeling a slight bit of weight on his chest, he arched his head forward, the sight of Oswald laying belly up right smack dab in the center of his stomach coming into vision. 

He let his head fall back onto the cot, staring at the beige ceiling of the tent. 

When was the last time he had time like this to himself? No Cynthia dragging him around like a baby. No Dawn constantly yapping in his ears with her normal grating tone. Just him, Oswald, and whatever bits and pieces of comfort he could get.

“Ah! You’re awake! How do you do my boy?” 

Reno spoke too soon. Being able to up and pretend that he was still asleep and didn’t hear the Professor in the first place was no longer an available option. The man had seen Reno moving, and undoubtedly smacking his mouth together, so there was no use trying to avoid the conversation.

And conversation was an act he deathly wanted to avoid.

“Oh, you know, I’m doing… A little bit of this, and a little bit of that… the usual…” He feigned a smile, hoping that by grinning from ear to ear he could fool Laventon into thinking everything was fine.

“Feeling much better though! Feeling, uh, fighting fit!” Reno pumped a fist in the air, his lips straining to keep his smile on.

His face may have shown joy. His eyes, on the other hand? 

They told an entirely different story.

“Wonderful! Oh, it’s so good to know you’re back up and running again lad! Why, I’m sure it goes without saying, but you really had me worked up in a tizzy when we carried you back to the village! To think you got injured so gravely while on my watch… I’m ashamed I wasn’t more attentive!” Laventon’s cheeks flushed a rosy red as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“If you’re feeling fighting fit , as you describe it, can you assist me with something? Believe it or not, cooking isn’t my forte! Any hands you’re willing to lend would be most appreciated!”

“... Uh…? Sure…? I can help…?”

“Wonderful! Splendid! Jolly good! There’s no time to waste then! I aim to have dinner out before your friends return back to camp!” 

~~~

Reno shifted his weight atop the rock he was sitting on, staring into his bowl of rice and potatoes, fingers loosely pinching his chopsticks, holding them just well enough in place to where they wouldn’t fall. 

At this exact moment in time and space, nothing else mattered to him other than the sight of his “ delightfully” starchy dinner. It wasn’t his first choice for a meal, truth be told, but considering the day he’d been having so far, two of the most comforting foods he could think of would have to do.

It was strange. He’d been here for so long now, yet, it felt like he hadn’t even been here for more than just a few days. Time had been moving so slow and so fast at the same time. Being bedridden for such an extended period only contributed to this sense of time dilation. 

Dawn and Cynthia having grown so accustomed to their new lives here while he was still trailing behind and picking up whatever pieces of himself that he could, filled him with an embarrassingly large amount of jealously. 

Why though? Why did he care about whether or not he was on the same playing field as them? All of this pokémon business would be useless the second he got to return home. Was it an ego thing? Low self esteem? Reno always felt that his self inflicted standards were normal for someone his age. It wasn’t like he was trying to shoot for the moon, or find the cure for an incurable disease, or even find a way to stop world hunger! 

He was just trying to survive…

He huffed to himself. Eating would do him a lot more good than thinking right about now; A phrase he commonly told himself to avoid giving important topics the time of day. His fingers got back to work operating his chopsticks, yet they continued to slip through his fingers.

It honestly felt like the world was out to get him at this point. Every time he held his food between his chopsticks, it either found itself back into the bowl, into the dirt, or onto Oswald’s head; not that the pokémon was complaining about those last two locations. Whatever pieces of food he could snag from Reno’s dinner was welcome to him.

He even noticed that, the closer the food got to his mouth, the greater chance it would fall out from his chopsticks. A large, throbbing vein began to manifest on Reno’s forehead. His finger movements became more stiff and aggressive with each piece of food he dropped. If he tighented his grip any more, he’d run the risk of snapping the chopsticks in half.

The crackling of the fire began to smodler up into a loud hissing in his ears.

He was going to lose his shit.

“Reno? Are you doing quite alright, my boy? You look like you’re struggling.” Laventon cleared his throat, his mouth hanging a bit agape, his own food just inches away from his mouth.

Reno whipped his head around to Laventon, one of his eyebrows twitching, his lips curled up into a manic grin. If you looked close enough, the veins in his eyes could be seen to, “Struggling? Me? No, I'm doing fine! Better than fine! I’m doing GREAT. Who told you I was struggling? Was it Cynthia? God she hasn’t let me do anything all DAY today so I wouldn’t take her word as gospel-” 

A good chunk of the way through his statement, he paused to truly take in Laventon’s expression. The mans eyes were wide. His mouth still hanging widely agape. The chunk of potato he still had between his chopsticks slowly slid out of its grasp and onto the floor, prompting Oswald to snatch it up hungrily. 

“... Ah. You’re not talking about the expedition, are you?”

“N-No. I was talking about your dinner. Are… Are you not used to chopsticks? I can bring additional utensils next time, if you’d prefer.”

“Uhhh, yeah. I’d appreciate that.”

“Very well.”

“Nice. Good. Yeah. Awesome.”

The crackling of the fire did little to conceal the awkward silence that begun to hang in the air following Reno’s outburst. His grip on his chopsticks loosened considerably, to the point he just opted to set them off to the side and eat his dinner with his hands. Not a very graceful look for someone his age, but he considered himself far past the point of grace. Presenting himself in the most professional and “nice” way possible was so far on the backburner it was ridiculous. This place, Hisui, filled him with so many strange feelings of agitation and frustration, and he didn’t know why. 

Well, that was a lie. He did know why, but he still couldn’t help but hate himself for letting it get the better of him. 

Thinking about his life back home made him feel… guilty. Dawn and Cynthia were in the same boat as him, and they undoubtedly felt the same way as him too. They were all out of their own element –some more than others–, but the two of them had more time to adjust to their new lives. Reno, on the other hand, was desperately playing catch up.

Against all of his wishes that had become a focal point of his identity right now. 

He was slow. He was lagging. He was behind. All of that being metaphorically and quite literally.

“So… Are you and Dawn related?” Laventon broke the silence with a simple question. He asked it in confidence at first, and quickly began to back peddle when he noticed the strange look Reno was giving him.

“Ah! I do hope that question wasn’t rude! Just curiosity speaking, that’s all!”

Reno stared at him, blinking a few times, even sizing him up like he wasn’t real, “No? We’re not related? I have a sister, an older one, and Dawn is not it.” He couldn’t believe he was just asked that. What parts of him and Dawn made Laventon think the two were possibly related in ANY capacity?!

“Oh, my apologies again! It was just curiosity speaking. She speaks very highly of you, so I imagined the two of you must be related by blood!” 

“Dawn? Speaks highly of ME ? Yeah. Sure. And I’m the Queen of England.” Reno made jazz hands as he spoke, only to end up awkwardly leaning back when his ‘joke’ didn’t land. He had to remember that these people probably –no, definitely– wouldn’t be able to comprehend his specific brand of humor.

Laventon gave Reno a slow nod when he finished talking, picking up the conversation again, his tone more… cautious; like he was worried one wrong move or one mispoken word might set Reno off, “... Though, I do suppose it makes sense you two aren’t family. After all you don’t know what pokémon are while she does.”

“You don’t gotta remind me, Professor…” If Laventons goal was to make Reno feel worse about himself, then he was succeeding. 

“It’s not a bad thing at all! In fact, I would say it is wonderful!” 

“It is?”

“Yes! Many in the village have the same knowledge of pokémon as you do! Yet, just look at how close you’ve grown to Oshawott in such a small period of time! Why, I would say even with your limited knowledge, you’re not afraid in the slightest!”

“I wouldn’t go that far…”

“Hah hah, yes, I suppose you’re right. To say you are completely unafraid of pokémon would be a gross exaggeration. It’s normal to harbor fears of them. They can be dangerous, you’ve seen it first hand yourself.” The smile that had found itself on Laventon’s face slowly began to drip down into a frown. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. His hands clutched his own bowl and chopsticks, then he placed them on the ground. Oswald scurried over and began licking up whatever bits of rice remained.

“... I do hope none of this has been discouraging for you, and I hope that you’re still willing to work with the Survey Corps. As disheartening as it is for me to admit, my work is not very well respected amongst my colleagues. I’m told that, first and foremost, we are to be exploring the Hisui region and pinpointing possible places for expansion. Understanding and learning about pokémon comes second, I’ve noticed.”

Laventon sighed, reaching a hand downwards to ruffle up the fur on Oswalds head.

“Apologies for spilling all of this on you. You just have a golden opportunity to help me show the people of the village that we can coexist with pokémon! If you could, please consider still being a member of our team. I do think we could do quite a lot of good for our fellow villagers.”

Laventon slapped both of his knees and stood up, leaving Reno to stare solemnly into the campfire.

“Quite a lot of good, huh…?”