To Live is to Dream (Sinnoh Pokemon Trainer Quest) (2024)

Technically, since you were already carrying so many friggin' wild Pokemon symbols, the Pachirisus giving you their own was genuinely complete overkill by this point—especially since you've collected enough comments and complaints about the Burmies and the Dustoxes from all the different packs that they didn't really need to pile on. However, the Pachirisus want to make a point—and when their anxiety fades from realizing that you were willing to carry their complaints with them as well, they turn positively gleeful.

The Pachirisus even ask you for permission to watch you walk up to the Burmies and Dustoxes from afar. Oh hell, it really was a pack of Maynots.

Their symbol of respect turns out to be a singular Oran Berry that you latch to your belt like it's a pokeball. The Pachirisu pack was synonymous enough with berries for this to be enough—and the little bastards actually start rubbing their hands and giggling as you begin to turn around and march towards the territory of the Burmies like a girl on a mission.

Said bug Pokemon apparently eat all the seeds and other bits of food that they can from on and out of the ground, including whatever's been buried away by others—and not only that, according to the Luxray earlier, they have apparently overhunting the tree frog population.

Today, you have learned that tree frogs exist. What the f*ck.

You have no skies-damned clue how the little worms could have nabbed the Buizels' fishes, but if it turns out that they are responsible, you are going to give those friggin' trash worms an ass-reaming of a lifetime. And all the while, your head is still boiling with confusion over what could have possibly led the wild Pokemon of Old Jubilife to do as they did.

All those past interactions and experiences...you can look back on them now and realize that what had grown to become normal for you was utterly at odds with what you had learned was normal from them. All of those encounters carry a sense of purpose to them, a purpose that, try as hard as you can, you can't ascertain.

Pokemon did not do things for no reason, but the reasons that you try again and again to come up with all fall flat. Try as hard as you might, you've struck a wall—you just can't understand...

Your peaceful interactions with Pokemon have always been built on deals, you see—on exchanges that both parties considered fair. As your worst self, you had raged, yelled, threatened, postured, and enacted violence—but unlike with your fellow humans, you would always be the weaker and slower party in comparison to any Pokemon. In order to get the things that you wanted in what had been an entirely new environment and even world for you, you'd needed to learn how to ask instead of just...taking. It had been...humiliating the first time, you remember. You'd felt so weak...but you had gotten what you'd needed.

You'd gotten temporary shelter. You'd traded for water and food. You'd gotten help.

You'd found...rest.

Your relationship with wild Pokemon has always been fair, just, and even kind on the Pokemon's part, but there was always this atmosphere of something mercantile around it, which had always made so much sense to you. Why would anyone extend a hand out to you, after all? It was why it had been such a ripple through your world and a complete shock when Sparkplug had done as they did...a younger you would have immediately expected a lie or impending betrayal and preemptively lashed out. Luckily, your eyes were wide open by then—the you that Sparkplug had met and the you that you were right now was out of the darkness. You were certainly of it, but you were out of it. You weren't that person anymore.
Liar...your skin prickles even now.
But...there was no first deal in place that made all these different wild Pokemon decide to collectively...let you in. To allow you into their lives in the first place while breaking every rule, failing every test, threatening everything that they cared about—repeatedly going too far beyond what should have been their limits.

The way you had acted back then was the complete opposite of how easily you navigate the wild Pokemon's world as a human outsider, right now. You do not understand.

Your thoughts are an angry jumbled mess and you are so f*cking tired of this bullsh*t that you boldly walk straight for that hollow tree that you see in the distance with little figures squirming or worming around it. You can see them immediately panic when you glare in their direction, and...

...huh. They're covered in leaves. Now that was definitely unlike the city...

Hanging in the hollow of that large, dead tree is a leafy and flowery version of a Pokemon that you'd first seen during the Cleverness Contest...oh, huh. So a Wormadam was the evolved form of a Burmy? You should've probably connected that in your head earlier, but whatever. The elder bug type Pokemon seems to draw in a deep breath as you sternly approach. "Worm...adam?" the matronly Pokemon meekly asks.

You are not impressed.

The impression that you get from the Wormadam was that she was less of a pack leader and more of a henpecked mother, which certainly explains the ill-disciplined behavior of the Burmies in this forest. After being forced to sit through your explanation and wilting with every reference to what her children have been up to, the Wormadam defeatedly accepts that she should have probably asked for the assistance of the other bug Pokemon for looking after the youngest Bagworm Pokemon—the responsible but easygoing Kricketots were her first pick of possible positive role models. The Wormadam then bows to you politely, sucks in a deep breath, and lets out a piercing shriek.

Suddenly, quite a number of nervous looking Burmies seem to pop out of nowhere to join their siblings around the hollow tree. Some of your anger fades into amusem*nt as the Wormadam proceeds to give the little Pokemon a tonguelashing of their own to remember, then interrogates each and every one of them while you carefully study their body language and draw on your psychic potential...

...and none of them turn out to be responsible for the fish disappearances. You profusely thank the Wormadam for her assistance, accept her personal token of a flower from her body to slip beside the red flower already tucked in behind your ear, and march back in the general direction of the Beautifly's clearing.

You are going to be having some f*cking words with those Dustoxes if they really turn out to be behind all this sh*t you've been forced to go through.

---

Now, here's the thing—when you walk into the shady cave where the Dusxtoxes rest during the day, you do it fully knowing that you are asking to be swarmed like you'd avoided doing with the Zubats. This particular cave is of a different sort than what the Bat Pokemon had, you note—rather than extending underground, this one remains fully above and even has a few scattered, cobwebbed holes in the ceiling for streaks of light to shine in.

You deliberately walk past the invisible line separating the outside and the inside of the cave and immediately hear the angry squirming and fluttering due to all the noise that you've been making with your stomping. Immediately, a cloud of Poison Moths fly out of the murk towards you, their wings already outstretched and ready to let out the toxic, powdery scales that their species was so well known for—

And then they freeze up. Some of them ram into the sides of the medium-sized cave or even into stalactites out of surprise. They look at you with shock and no little fear as their usual smiling expressions are completely reversed.

After all, how else would even a large eclipse of Dustoxes react when you walk in here bearing the seals of approval of every single one of their neighbors. You possess a scarf from the Combees, fish scales from the Buizels, a carving from the Bidoofs, a lily pad from the Lotads, an acorn shell from the Nuzleafs, a crest feather from the Starlies' Staraptor, the shed baby fangs of the Zubats, a tuft of fur from the Luxios' Luxray, a prized flower from the Beautiflies, a wreath of blossoms from the Kricketots, an Oran Berry from the Pachirisus, and the personal bloom of the Burmies' Wormadam. All things said and done, however, what strikes the most fear into the Dustoxes is the statement of authority that you carry in your hands...

You are wielding your motherf*cking bat.

"This is an inspection," you spit out boldly. "Your neighbors want to know why the f*ck you keep eating everything that you can get your mouths on!"

"D-d-d-dustox—"

"OH NO,

"Dustox! Dustox!"

"Really?" you say, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Are ya' sure none of your food binges have led you to maybe Gusting a bit of meat outta the river at any point? It sure sounds like you've been munching on everything else."

"Dustox!"

...they sound like they're telling the truth. Internally, you're bewildered (okay, then who the f*ck was stealing the fish?!), but outwardly...you raise an eyebrow.

This swarming stuff might have been normal for the cities where there was less food to go around, but unless their populations have been growing a sh*tton, things shouldn't be like this—you'd even passed by the Beautiflies to ask and double-check. The Butterfly Pokemon confirmed that as far as they know, the number of Dustoxes haven't been growing as much as their own numbers lately...so you might as well press them for their secrets.

They instantly cave—the Dustoxes lead you deeper into the cave tearfully. Your eyes end up needing to adjust to the low amounts of light in here even if the holes in the ceiling help you—at the furthest point of the cave, at its very back...is a Dustox nesting in dried grass, surrounded by dozens of leaves, nuts, berries, pieces of prey, and other food.

It's eating. It's eating even now, weakly munching away without noticing you or the rest of its family one bit. You're taken aback—reminded of what had happened when you'd encountered Torkoal, you wince and expect some sort of feedback to happen...thankfully, all you get is a spike of sharp pain. No knocking you to your feet from sheer emotion today.

Still, though...something is wrong with the Dustox. It's...oddly faded compared to the other Dustox, you say. Thinner, like it was wasting away...

Profession Interrupt: Novice Caretaker

Oh sh*t—you're pretty sure you know what this is. It's the most common affliction that a Pokemon can get after being exposed for too long to an environment of an energy opposite to their typing—a deficiency of their main body's type energy.

...what the heck. Did this Dustox spend too much time in a heatwave's sun or in a heavy tornado or something?

After noting this, you nod at the Dustoxes silently and carefully back away from the sick Pokemon together with them, returning to the cave's mouth.

"Okay..." you start. "So you haven't actually been eating everything you can get your mouths on—you've been gathering up food to help your sick friend. How long have they been like this, though?"

"Dustox..." one of them notes sadly.

"Yeah—that makes sense. It's kind of rough for a Pokemon to heal up for something from this on their own." You tell them what little you know of the condition and the Dustoxes share worried looks. "I guess it's your first time to come across this stuff?"

The Poison Moths nod, and you sigh. "Basically, your buddy's body is stuck with not making a lot of bug-type energy right now—that's why they're so hungry all the time. If you just leave them with food like this, it'll be months before their body goes back to normal." This was how this sort of condition manifested in bug-type Pokemon. "If you want them to heal back up faster, there's two things you can do—first, shorten the healing to weeks instead of months by basically spammin' out bug-type moves around them everyday. Second...feed them a nutritious food that's been exposed to a lot of bug-type energy, like..." You trail off as you try to remember the textbook-provided examples of that sort of...

...wait. Wait a f*cking minute. WAIT A—

You slap both your hands onto your face to the utter confusion of the Dustoxes and the Pokemon watching from your belt.

f*ck, SON OF A f*ckING BI—

---

"The Dustoxes would like to buy one small jar's worth of royal jelly."

Vespiquen and her Combees all seem utterly flabbergasted at the changes in your attire since you'd first set off from the Combee colony. The Dustoxes had even given you a little raw silk to carry as their representative, which you'd put right next to the Luxray's furball on your lily pad hat. "One of the Dustoxes is sick," you exhaustedly explain. "I know you're really curious about what's been going on, but can I sit down while I tell the story, your highness? I've been standing up for ages."

Thankfully for your dying legs, the Vespiquen graciously allows you to sit down on a nearby rock—you sigh in relief. "Okay...so this is what happened when I went to talk to the Buizels."

This is the last explanation that you give for the day, and it's by far the longest one. With every twist and turn in the story, Vespiquen grows more and more embarassed on her fellow wild Pokemon's behalfs. "Vespiquen..." the queen mutters as she scratches her head when you reach the end of your tale. "Vespi, Vespiquen..."

In a tone full of contrition, the Vespiquen will consider the Buizels adjusting their territory to go along with the Combee's relocation plans as payment for the royal jelly that the Dustoxes need for their sick pack member. You relax in your makeshift seat—the stupid loop has been finally closed.

And yet...one thing about this situation was still bothering you, and the insect monarch clearly still notices it on your face. "Vespi?" she asks worriedly.

"It's just..." Well, aside from your thoughts of home... "Seriously, I have no idea what's up with the Buizel's fish," you admit. "I went through pretty much everyone today, y'know?"

Vespiquen nods seriously—she waves her arms about and tells you that theft of a Pokemon pack's personal, cultivated food source like that was definitely a serious matter. She thinks that she'll be reaching out (herself, she stresses sheepishly when you freeze up) to the Buizel to offer her colony's assistance in scoping out whoever's been taking that fish. The colony does not stand for that sort of transgression, and they'll be certain to do their best to keep the Buizels' remaining stock of fish safe. The Combees floating about bob seriously in the air at her words, each putting on a brave and focused expressions...but a section of them look confused.

"Combee?" one of these smaller ones say. "Combee, Combee Combee?"
...wait, all the fish in the river are the Buizels'?
Vespiquen's head snaps towards that particular Combee so fast that it leaves a blur.

You did not need to directly understand Pokemon to get the gist of what that implies. "What the FU—" you almost exclaim before stopping when the Vespiquen authoritatively raises an arm up in your direction. Right, not your place.

"VespiQUEN?" she orders out warningly, and those younger Combees immediately panic and flutter about in the air.

"C-Combee...Combee..." they mutter, before demonstrating.

The little sh*ts had been using Sweet Scent of all things to make the dumb fishes jump out of the water.

You are so friggin' done with today. Of course the perpetrators would turn out to be a part of the one group you hadn't spoken to about the missing fish until now—the first ones you'd met!

Why the f*ck is your luck like this. You hate this day with every fiber of your f*cking being.

You watch as the Vespiquen draws closer to the trembling little Combees, the other colony members all looking away and desperately trying not to watch as their pack leader moves in to enforce discipline. You sigh...yeah, you've seen this loads of times before—the youngest members of a pack getting into all sorts of shenanigans before needing to be taken to task.

The Vespiquen crosses her arms, and narrows her eyes in a—

In a...familiar...manner.

Very familiar.

Too familiar—

---

Oh sh*t, you've been caught.

You raise your hands up as the towering figure approaches and then essentially forces you to march back out of the den that you'd snuck into. You were still carrying the pieces of fruit that you'd taken from the feet of those sleeping Machops—challengingly, the Machoke presents his hands out, and you deposit the food into the fighting Pokemon's grasp.

f*ck. f*ck, you were soooo dead.

The Machoke's face has been in shadow all this time—in the cover of the decaying building. With powerful thuds, the Superpower Pokemon walks into the illumination of the full moon hanging overhead...and you flinch. Hell, you

You can't take it—you can handle rage, but you can't take it as—

---

—the Vespiquen stares at her children with a look of total and utter disappointment.

She lectures them, but you tune the meaning out. She gives them some kind of punishment, but you miss the details.

She thanks you for how you've gone above and beyond for the colony, but you're out of sorts. She promises you that she'll handle the reparations to the Buizels herself, and that she can spare the stocks of honey now for the delivery since they can pretty much get started with the new colony right away and don't need to stockpile as much as she thought they needed to wait—she can do it as soon as tomorrow, in fact.

You accept this silently, with a singular nod.

The Vespiquen notices that you're seriously off-kilter at the moment, and realizes that you must be seriously way more tired than she thought. She offers you temporary sanctuary on her territory to rest up for as long as you wish before heading off to inform the other packs of the pulling through of the overall change of deals. You thank her just as quietly.

You feel the sheer alarm coming off of the Pokemon on your belt—Maynot especially. However, they don't come out since the Vespiquen hadn't given them permission to, even as the insect monarch takes her leave to talk to the Buizels with a number of her colony members, including the fish thieves—the Combees that were left behind would still be able to see them if they did come out.

You just sit there, wordless—still. Not really seeing or hearing anything in the present.

You are currently lost in memory...

---

Ambit said:

You and Spheal frantically nod. "Yes, sir! Crystal clear, sir!"/"Spheal, Spheal!"

"Good," the captain sighs as you try not to fidget under his relaxing gaze. Terrifying...it was like you were being stared down by that one of the Machokes you knew after he'd caught you trying to steal food from under the noses of a bunch of sleeping Machops. He hadn't looked angry as much as he did disappointed, which had felt way worse. "And please understand that I am not scolding you out of anger, but worry—I am being genuine about the dangers."

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I know that I said this would take a few hours, but then I realized that I should split this up. Thus, this chapter will be followed by a special interlude—in fact, it'll be A Memory...well, more like Memories. It'll be the first and possibly the last of them to make it into the main threadmarks and outside of the sidestories.

Thank you for playing along with my silly and obnoxiously long running gag and letting me have my fun. Your reward for doing so is a very important realization, one that will have massive narrative effects.

It'll even affect one of your main Traits.