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'Dear Diary': A Pokemon Black Storylocke, Part 2

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Dear Diary.

The last few days have been rough.

After my last entry, we finally made our way out of Accumula Town. The route beyond—“Route 2,” Opal tells me; how creative—is not unlike my own Route 1, with whistling grass and pleasing scents.

Master caught a pokemon here, a rough-and-tumble little Lillipup named Keen. Unlike myself, Keen, despite being a wild pokemon, has lived in proximity to a human settlement his whole life, and has a limited understanding of human customs and speech. Limited, but still superior to mine.

Still, I’ve been picking up few pieces here and there. Being constantly submerged in a foreign culture and language is a quick way to pick up on it. For example, I’ve figured out that Master’s name is—let’s hope I’m getting this right—Blair.

It’s a curious name, but no weirder than “Prima,” I guess. It’s nice to put a name to the face beyond just “Master,” though thanks to Opal’s insistence I’ll probably keep referring to him as the latter.

After we battled that mysterious green-haired man and heard the story of Unova’s founding, Master stayed up for several long, long hours. He didn’t talk to any of us, or even to any of the other humans staying in the Center. He just gazed out the window at the strange lights, lost in thought. He had bags under his eyes when we woke this morning.

As for Keen, he’s not exactly what I hoped. I secretly thought, perhaps, that a fellow wild pokemon would understand my plight, but it turns out Keen’s whole family has made it a tradition to be caught and raised by trainers passing through Accumula, so Master catching him was all according to plan. He’s aggressive; not in a mean way, more in a way that makes it impossible to ignore what he says or does. Perhaps magnetic would be a better descriptor.

He’s quickly begun butting heads with Opal, who feels that as Master’s first pokemon, she should be the not-so-unofficial team leader. Personally, I don’t really care either way. Master’s in charge; fighting over the position of “top pokemon” is like fighting for the burrow’s second-most comfortable den.

I learned that morning about “Gym Leaders.” Humans carry pokemon as companions for a number of reasons, but one of the most common is to have us battle for their amusement. Pokemon Gyms are like shrines built to worship the art of battle. The head of each Gym is revered as one of the best battlers in the region, and a human who conquers all eight can challenge the Pokemon League, the best trainers around.

This, I hear, is Master’s goal. It’s lofty; so lofty, perhaps, that I wonder if it’s feasible for him to reach for it. But then I look at that set, determined face, the surety of his stature, the grimness in his eyes, and I think: This is a human who gets what he wants. Always.

Opal is quite powerful compared to Keen and I, so she mostly sat out Route 2 as Master wanted the two of us to rise in power instead.

It was… dangerous. My only fight since joining Master so far was the tame cat the strange man sent out. But here, pokemon both wild and trained are fighting to win. I don’t know if any are going out of their way to kill me… but they hit hard enough, and with such fervor, that I suspect one wrong move could result in my death.

And if this danger comes from the chaff, what happens when I enter a Pokemon Gym and face a Leader?

Thoughts like these made me not fight perhaps as hard as I might have. Master was very angry with me, and yelled at me. I didn’t understand a lot of what he said, but Opal translated that he was “exasperated, disappointed… truly disheartened by your performance.” Her nervousness and the shifty glances she kept shooting at Master made me think that she toned it down for my benefit.

Keen, however, threw himself into battle with daredevil abandon. Near the end of the route he encountered a Lillipup clearly stronger than he was, and Keen himself was already injured! Master kept him in—Opal said it was because he was “fed up” with me—and despite all odds, Keen pulled through, taking down the other Lillipup despite taking such a pounding that I seriously thought he was going to die. Afterwards Master healed him with medicine, and I could see that Keen was much more powerful for the encounter. He did not look frightened by his brush with death; if anything, he positively radiated excitement. “Can’t wait to do that again,” he said, grinning. “Show them who’s really boss.”

Am I a coward? In the wild I always hung at the back of the group and let others do the fighting, but now I have no choice. Opal and the others get out there and fight as hard and as rough as they can, taking hits that make me wince to see. I myself have endured incredible pain, but the Centers and portable human medicine clean those wounds right up. Opal tells me not to worry, that no matter the injury, human innovation will always be able to cure me.

But you can’t cure death.

Near the end of the route, a strange blonde-haired girl approached us. It would seem she and Master are old friends; according to Opal her name is “Bianca,” meaning “White.” She sent out her pokemon for a friendly bout of competition. Her first was a Lillipup; I was sent to fight it. Finally, a chance for a less terrifying challenge!

I was clearly stronger than the Lillipup and didn’t even have to work hard to beat it, but Master kept pushing me. “Harder,” he urged, a word I learned through his repeated urgings. It means that I’m not trying my best, that he expects more from me. “Harder, harder, harder!” And so, even though I didn’t need to do so to beat my enemy, I hit… harder.

I brutalized that poor creature. At Master’s urgings I changed it from a friendly fight to something worse, something primal. I smashed into it, bit at it. The Lillipup cried out, and begged me to stop; but whenever I would begin to pull my punches the voice came again. “Harder!” By the end, the Lillipup was whimpering, barely capable of movement. Horrible, ugly bruises spotted its skin like some sort of sickness.

Bianca herself was clearly distraught. I didn’t need to speak her language to understand the desperation in her voice as she appealed to Master to stop the fight, but it didn’t matter. After the Lillipup she sent in a Tepig and Opal took the stage. Opal handily beat her opponent, also harming it far more than she needed to at Master’s urging. The Tepig gave her a knowing look as she landed the knockout blow. She looked distressed after the fight was over.

When it was done a tearful Bianca hurried away from Master, sheparding her pokemon to a Center. I hope that Lillipup made it. I do. I’d hate to think… to think that it…

…diary, can I tell you a secret? Last night, after that battle, when I closed my eyes I sawthat pokemon lying there.

We came to Striaton City, the place with the Pokemon Gym. We observed a few matches there. The pokemon were so sleek, so dangerous. It was clear to everyone, Master included, that we were outclassed. We needed to train, but before that, Master decided to look for new pokemon. The way west was barred, so after a good night’s rest in the Center we headed east instead, to a place called the Dreamyard.

The Dreamyard is a ruined factory, which Opal tells me is a place where humans make things. Long rods of metal, sharply broken off, stabbed at the sky like fangs, and artificial stone formed crumbling walls. The place reeked of decay.

There was some sort of pokemon nest inside the factory, but a mass of thorny tangles prevented us from going any farther in. We tried and tried, but there was no other entry-point. Growing discouraged, we returned to town.

However, on our way we suddenly ran afoul in a downpour of rain. Master and the rest of us (well, mostly just me and Keen; Opal seemed just fine. Ugh! Water-types; I tell ya, diary!) bolted onto an old cobblestone lane ringed by gnarled, twisted trees.

At the end of the lane was an old stone house.

It was small and grey, the sort of one-room building humans built for themselves not too long ago. A small tail of smoke curled its way up from the chimney. Despite the hesitations of us pokemon, Master led us inside.

Inside was a weary old human woman. She invited us in out of the cold. A depressed-looking Pansear puttered around the house, doing odd jobs.

Master and the old woman talked. According to Opal, Master was quick to tell her about his ambitions. He wanted to take on the gym, he wanted more pokemon, he wanted strength to prove himself a champion. Something else gleamed behind his eyes as he spoke, a dream unsaid.

The old lady listened graciously, nodding her head. She had come here as a young girl when Striaton was barely more than a circle of caravans, and all of Unova’s southeastern peninsula uncharted wilderness. She’d been content to live a rustic life, but her children and grandchildren were something different.

“This Pansear was my dear grandson’s,” she said. “He and my grandson were going to go far, so very far… and then sickness snatched him from us, quick as blowing out a candle.” Ever since then the Pansear had been with her, unhappily puttering about a sedentary life with an old woman while he yearned for adventure and freedom.

The old woman told us that Master reminded her of her grandson in a way, though he was hard like iron where the other had been supple, like wood. Master kept the question unspoken but turned his eye towards the monkey, who looked more than a little hopeful.

The old lady understood. “He’s a rascal, this one,” she said, “but my grandson’s memory lives on in him. You’ll take him, won’t you? You’ll go far?”

“I swear.” Master was quick to agree. “He’ll be cherished and looked after.”

And so Tinder joined us.

The name was what his old owner, the boy, had named him, and he refused to accept anything else. Master seemed irked at first, but soon got over it. We departed as soon as the rain let up, the old woman waving goodbye to us.

Tinder seemed happy to finally be on a journey again, but he was a bit reticent around us. Hopefully his shyness will wear off in time. Maybe he’ll be a friend I can rely on while Opal and Keen incessantly bicker. He’s a bit of an odd duck, though—“Odd duck.” Another human-ism, courtesy of Opal. I can’t say for sure I understand it. What about ducks is so odd?

There was a final surprise waiting for us before we returned to the Center, however. A young man angrily accosted Master before we could go any further. He had a strange air about him; like the man who spoke for Team Plasma back in Accumula, he had a presence that demanded you to listen to him. According to Opal, his name is Cheren. He’s a childhood friend of Master and that Bianca girl.

Cheren was furious at Master for our battle against Bianca yesterday; according to Opal he called him a “brute” and a “betrayer.” Master didn’t have much nice to say in response to Cheren’s accusations, and they ended up battling.

Though Cheren has a tremendous force of will, he’d only brought two pokemon. I crushed the Purrloin myself; I tried to go easier than I had on the Lillipup and Master didn’t pressure me to go further, perhaps because he and Cheren were busy arguing.

Cheren’s other pokemon, a Snivy, has some history with Opal. He accused her of blind worship, of following a trainer’s law without question, and of grievously harming a mutual friend. He said the Professor would have been ashamed. His words chastened Opal, but they floored me. Are there truly pokemon like this Snivy who question their trainers? Would he have refused to go any further when Master demanded me to hit “harder?”

Keen battled the Snivy at first, but the Grass-type’s rage against Opal was too strong, and the poor Lillipup got floored. But Master switched in Tinder, who easily crushed our opponent. Master was quite pleased with him.

After the battle Master and Cheren argued a bit more. Opal was too depressed to translate for us, but thankfully Tinder knows the human tongue. Cheren called Master drunk on power and said he was delusional, and begged him to “wake up;” Master coldly told him that he and Bianca had no business interfering with him and that he would never apologize for anything.

And so Cheren and the Snivy left Opal and Master behind, while I stewed in thoughts of what friendship means.

Afterwards, we all visited the Center, making sure to prioritize Keen. Master told us that tomorrow we’ll be training to take on the Gym Leader. More on that later, diary… for now, I have thoughts to think and dreams to dream.
I'm going to try for an update every Sunday. Let's see if I can make this work. Leave comments if you'd like! I'd love to know what you think!

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As usual, run information below:

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My Route 2 capture, Keen, is a male Lillipup with a Hasty nature. Details are "likes to thrash about." Tinder, my male Pansear, was a gift. Sassy nature, "often lost in thought."
© 2015 - 2024 DeeForty-Five
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StarmeadowSystem's avatar

Hey, all, elliot here

Im coming here from TvTropes and i kinda like this fanfic :>