A Foray Into Xenobiology

[Classist_Wierdo]

The anomaly appeared for the first time without warning in a small city in Kansas.

Initially, a group of local trouble makers decided it would be funny to put a hand through it. It was through that boy's sacrifice that it was discovered, along with it's irregular features.

This portal did not neatly transfer from one place to another, no, it transfered the things that passed through it irregularly, resulting in what was initially termed splinching, as matter was scrambled when it passed through.

What's more is that the splinching was variable, and changed at a rate that was both predictable and stable.

Scientists theorized that the splinching would be reduced to zero for a period of three entire days. And lo and behold, it came to pass as they predicted.

Naturally, they sent a team through, to see what was on the other side.

What they found was laughable in concept. A world where a children's game was real? Who would believe that?

Still, the samples, and dozen living subjects they brought back proved otherwise, and spawned two new fields of study: Xenobiology, the study of these alien creatures, and Xenophysics, the study of the energies that seem to facilitate their alien existences and how they interact with conventional physics.

Of course, the government took a very strong interest in this new world, and, when a second portal appeared, they prepped a second team to make another expedition.

This is where you come in, as a specialist brought on for this assignment.

You are

Option 1 [A coach by trade, who ran a very successful mixed martial arts school that produced nearly half a dozen world champions. They brought you on because they thought your skill set would transfer best to training pokemon.
+A flat x2 multiplier to all progress made under your guidance, both to humans and to pokemon. This boost explicitly applies to ALL forms of combat relevant progress, including things like evolution, age based maturation, and other more exotic forms of growth like mega evolution, psychic development, and aura training
+Combat minded, your primary motivation is building a team, as it is literally your job and also something you find deeply appealing. Other options will not prioritize it like this one will
-Uncharismatic and a little weird looking. It'll be hard making good first impressions, and pokemon will require additional justification to be willing to join you
-A bit of a meathead]

Option 2 [A research biologist fresh out of college and one of the first scientists tasked with studying Xenobiology. Your task is simple, decipher these strange and wonderful creatures.
+Once shit hits the fan you will apply your expertise into things like surgery and concocting medicine, and find that you have quite a knack for it. Under your care, there will be far fewer deaths, and you will successfully concoct far more potent medicines and treatments
+/- Your motivations are curiosity and compassion. Pokemon will sense this. Most will be willing to interact with you peacefully, and many will instinctively trust you, and even protect you. Malicious pokemon may desire to take advantage of you
-You are not a fighter. You wouldn't even know where to begin with leading a pokemon team, let alone actually fighting by yourself]

Option 3 [You weren't even supposed to be on this mission. You are a custodian who fell asleep in one of the containers put through the portal.
+You love pokemon. You've put countless hours on every single pokemon game, and a sizable portion of the fan games out there.
+You're lucky on a measurable level. You could flip a coin and guess right ten times in a row based on pure chance.
+This option is a blank check to the reader, allowing you to meta-game to your heart's content. Use all your outside knowledge of pokemon. Use all the Word of God posts I plan on making.
-You have zero training for this, and the other two survivors will dislike you.
-You are scrawny and out of shape.]

 

[iamweirdo]

[X] Option 2

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

[This is my first ever quest, and my first ever forum posted fanfic, so this will probably come out a little wonky while I get used to the format.

Anyways, this is an informational post about the setting, so that the players can make a more educated decision]

The world beyond the portal was designated Earth Sin, the designation coming from the abbreviation of Sinum the latin word for pocket, rather than the word for a crime against god.

As far as the Expedition Team Alpha could tell, this world was the same as Earth, up until May 12, 2012. All written information dates to that time at the latest. There are no newspapers dated to any time more recent than that.

More worryingly, there was neither hide nor hair of another human.

Earth Sin is instead populated by beasts who closely resemble the pokemon depicted in the various forms of media.

This near match raised alarm amongst the decision makers on Earth, but with no other course of action besides exploration, the expedition continued.

What they found was that these creatures, the pokemon, they had a flagrant disregard for what should or should not be, with a tendency towards elemental wrath.

In one notable occasion, an operative attempted to befriend a small amphibian he recognized as a mudkip, unaware that it's mother, a creature they identified as a Swampert, was only a small distance away, hidden underneath the water.

It attacked with a blast of water that hollowed out the operative's torso, and then proceeded to punch through a car and four concrete walls across nearly a football field's length.

The operatives were fortunate enough to not come across the more disconcerting species of pokemon. They were well aware that pokemon like Hypno existed, and grateful that they did not encounter one.

Still, they did have the fortune of witnessing an airborne battle between what they would realize to be a Salamence and a Garchomp.

A stray Draco Meteor levelled a city block.

Suffice to say, Earth Sin is not a nice place.

 

[iamweirdo]

I'm fascinated to see how far we can explore this world before we die.

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

[In interest of taking advantage of my weekend, I will be closing the vote early, so that I can put out the next turn today.]

You are a janitor who was unlucky enough to be accidentally transported to Earth Sin along with the actual expedition team, and then lucky enough to just happen to be away when an angry Garganacl slaughtered the entire team and wrecked the base.

You are missing your left arm, and your right ear, and have rugged scar tissue over your head, right arm, and left leg, from your encounter with the 'bread dogs'.

Your traits are as follows
+Lucky: You are lucky on a measurable level. Random chance will almost certainly go your way.
+Novice Aura User: You are a novice aura user, capable of using two of the four basic expressions of aura, those being attacking, and reinforcement
+/-Permitted: The God of Distortion has corrected you has personally corrected your anomalous nature. You are no longer alien. You have Aura, and are capable of becoming psychic, and run off what you would recognize as 'pokemon logic'.
+/-Protagonist: You have a way of always being there when the important things are happening.
-Alone and Untrained: You have zero training, and zero human allies. If you are going to do anything, you are going to do it alone, and you are going to have to figure it out on your own.

[Other more concrete details such as gender, ethnicity, and name will be left purposefully unstated.]

Allies:
-None

Resources:
-MRE's, a practically endless amount.
-Survival Kits, thirty of them
-First Aid Kits, fifty of them, plus about half a ton in consumable medical supplies like bandages and disinfectant
-Other assorted equipment that can be scavenged from the wrecked shelter

Pokemon:
-Cosmog: A baby legendary. For now, practically helpless. But once it is fully grown, well, according to its pokedex entry, Solgaleo was known as 'the beast who devoured the sun', and Lunala was known as 'the beast who calls the moon'.

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

It was a blur, a rush of hustle and bustle as you worked from the first morning bell to the call of lights out.

It was important that the base was established as soon as possible.

The portal was only safe to cross for three days, obviously you would need to use those three days to transfer as much supplies and equipment as possible.

And now, the set up was complete, and you were essentially on break, until the Sample Retrieval Team returned.

You sat down on a fold out chair within your quarters, and felt a sharp relief, as you began to rest.

How will you spend your break? Choose three.

-Chat with a human. Go talk to one of the other residents of the base.
-[ ] Ramirez. One of the two members of security who remained to guard the base. A large woman, with a gruff professional demeanor to you, with a typical military sense of humor with her friends, which she doesn't count you a part of.
-[ ] Stockton. The other of the two members of security who remained to guard the base. A quiet man, soft-spoken when he isn't in a combat situation. Loves pokemon, and there is a rumor floating around that he's a furry.
-[ ] Tamia. One of two researchers who remained on base besides you, specializing in botany. She is a boisterous black woman, and your closest friend on the team. She has a husband on the other side, and will almost certainly be on call with her if you go visit her.
-[ ] James. The other of the two researchers who remained on base besides you, specializing in chemistry, though he also has a degree in physics. He is a jovial older man who finds Xenophysics fascinating, and has recently began a playthrough of Pokemon Fire Red, in interest of familiarizing himself with the setting.

-Chat with a pokemon
-[ ] Dubwool. A female, and the mother of the egg that you are taking care of. Gentle and motherly, but incapable of speaking english, though she does understand you. She has taken a liking to human music.
-[ ] Mudsdale. A male, and the father of the egg that you are taking care of. Boyish and brash, alternating between horse play and napping, with a physical sense of humor.

-[ ]Simply continue resting. Gain advantage on next roll.

[Advantage in this case is a lowering of the roll needed to succeed to half of what it was, rounded to the nearest whole number]

 

[iamweirdo]

-[X]Simply continue resting. Gain advantage on next roll.

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

You dozed off in your chair, not even going to your bed. You slept dreamlessly.

And then you heard the sound accompanying the return of the sample retrieval team. Which means its time to get to work.

You stand up on still tired feet, and start walking to the lab section of the base.

"What's going on?" You say, as you join the crowd circled around something.

You peer over the top of their shoulders, and see what they were looking at.

It was a... rock? With white cubes sticking out?

"Its a Nacli." Someone helpfully said to you.

A Nacli? You pull out you phone, and open the pokedex application, to look it up.

It made a surprisingly wet gargling noise.

Its pokedex entry says that it's made of salt. And from previous dissections of mineral pokemon, they are rock all the way through.

Where did that noise come from?

And then you hear another noise coming from the outside, similar to the Nacli, of a wet fleshy gargling, but this time it was loud, and accompanied by a grinding noise, like a stone being dragged over concrete.

You get a bad feeling.

You navigate to the pokedex entry for it's final evolution, Garganacl, and press on the button to sound out it's cry.

And what sounded out was a wet gargling accompanied by a grinding stone.

The nacli gargled again, louder. And then you heard the cry of the Garganacl, again, even closer.

And then crashes sounded out, and the walls shook.

What will you do?

[ ] Get the hell out of dodge. This thing's mother is coming, and its going to be angry. You want nothing to do with it. Let the security team deal with it.
[ ] Warn your colleagues. If you are going to deal with this its going to be a team effort.
[ ] Try to convince the Garganacl to calm down, and return it's child peacefully. (Chance of failure: 50% with advantage.)
[ ] Write In.

 

[iamweirdo]

[ ] Get the hell out of dodge. This thing's mother is coming, and its going to be angry. You want nothing to do with it. Let the security team deal with it.

[X] Try to convince the Garganacl to calm down, and return it's child peacefully. (Chance of failure: 50% with advantage.)

We took a nap so we should get this success hopefully.
I can be convinced to get out dodge tho

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

Roll Action: Pacify Garganacl.

Chance of Failure: 50% with advantage

Minimum Result to Succeed: 4

Result: 1. Critical Failure

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

You know what you are supposed to do.

Science team is supposed to evacuate to a more secure location, while the Security handled the threat.

The problem was that there was nowhere to run to.

The basement was still under construction, and with the levels of force that third stage pokemon are known to throw about, it's liable to collapse, and kill them all.

You hear a familiar bellow, like a horse pitched down- Mudsdale, you recognize- and then a low rumbling boom, followed by an explosion that caused you to instinctively dive to the ground.

Booms, resounded, and became more distant, and you dared to look up. The shelter was destroyed.

You duck again, just in time to not get killed by the a flying green projectile.

You watch on in horror as you realize that it's not a projectile, but Floragato's dead body, half encased with white crystal, and visibly mummified, her once eerily human pink eyes sunken in and greyed, as her head hung limply from a visibly broken neck.

Another earthshaking crash rang out, followed by a sickening crunch.

And then, it was silent, save for rhythmic bassy footfalls approaching. You watched in silent terror as the being responsible approached.

It was massive, larger than anything should be, triggering some old forgotten instinct that made your blood run cold.

You looked it in it's alien yellow eyes that glowed with an almost gleeful light, as it pointed a white finger the size of your leg at you.

Your world was engulfed in raw agony, the sting of salt in a cut magnified a thousand times over.

[Game Over]

[ ] Select New Character
[ ] Exit Game

(Not gonna lie, RNGesus straight fucked this guy. Garganacl and Nacli are both randomly generated encounter pokemon and were both separately generated.

The Nacli was just supposed to be a research sample, and the Garganacl as the story's inciting incident, since this was supposed to be a survival themes story, and it wouldn't be much of a survival if you just hunkered down on base.

But turns out, Salt Cure does 1/8 of the target's HP per turn in addition to a base 40 damage. Combine that with base 100 attack and base 130 defense on a pokemon whose minimum level is 38, and has a body with innate healing properties, and thus regeneration, you got a real problem.

Throw in a critical failure, and you got the recipe to cooked PC.)

 

[iamweirdo]

[x] Select New Character

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

The expedition was dead before it even really began.

Eight of the ten expedition members died at the hands of an angry Garganacl, and what was left was wrecked and in pieces.

You were lucky that the portal transceiver survived the attack, letting you call for help.

All they said was to abandon the mission and prioritize survival.

So now, as the first step, you need to take stock of your options.

Your first, and most important tool is yourself. You are.

[ ] The wilderness survival specialist, and a member of the security squad, the only still living one. (The other two survivors will be members of the science team).You survived because a Rufflet had taken a liking to you, and killed the already wounded Garganacl. It was severely wounded in the process however.
+Advantage on all survival related rolls.(Multiple advantages stack) You have a lot of experience cooking with minimal equipment in the wilderness. Your food is universally delicious, which is a tool to get humans and pokemon to like you.
+/-Human allies will be forced to rely on you for guidance. They will listen to you on matters of survival, but they won't know what they are doing for the most part unless you help them.
-The only remaining person trained for combat. It'll be your job to handle aggressive pokemon and your allies will rely on you and your team for safety.

[ ] The local anthropologist, and only surviving member of the science team. You survived because a phantump used Leech Seed to drain the Garganacl, enough that it decided to run.
+You have psychic potential, and pretty powerful psychic potential at that. Psychic Types and Ghost Types will like you and seek your companionship.
+/- You can see Unown.
-Humans will think you are kinda weird, and don't particularly like you, at least at first.

[ ] The stow away janitor. They sent you out of the base to go get some bush bark, as a joke on you. By the time you realized that bush bark wasn't a real thing, and you were hopelessly lost. Luckily, there was this floating sparkling space cloud thing(a cosmog, though you don't know that) that was happy to lead you back to a wrecked and empty camp littered with corpses.
+You are lucky on a measurable level. Thus far, this has manifested in just happening to be away from camp during the Garganacl's attack, and accidentally earning the loyalty of a pokemon that will one day become a legendary.
+/-You live in interesting times. If there was a main plot of this world, you would be there.
-You are without human companions, and mostly untrained, though you got a crash course the last few days.

 

[Psyentific]

[X] The stow away janitor.

Surviving the disaster because you hid away somewhere you weren't supposed to be is, in fact, a Janitor tradition.

 

[iamweirdo]

[X] The local anthropologist

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

Since there is a tie, I'll be flipping a coin to decide which one wins, since I want to keep up my daily posting schedule

1 - Stow away janitor
2 - Anthropologist

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

You are... completely untrained and unqualified.

You sigh.

In terms of equipment, though, you definitely have a lot more to work with.

The base's rations are still basically untouched, packed with enough MRE's to last you what is probably years. Not to mention literal tons of just about all the survival equipment you could ever need.

So, odds are, you aren't going to starve to death, or die of exposure.

Not to mention, you got your little cloud buddy helping you out.

You glance to the side, where he's idly floating.

"You hungry, little buddy?" you say.

He responded with a disconcertingly baritone rumble.

"Alright then." you say, and walk over to the section of the base containing the MRE's, which was one of the few rooms still standing.

With some difficulty, maybe a little more than you'd like to admit, you manage to prepare a set of two MRE's. One for you and one for him.

As you eat the surprisingly not that bad MRE, you open a pokedex you appropriated, and try and look through it, to figure out just what your little buddy was.

You search for quite a while, all the way to the end of generation seven, before you find a picture of your little buddy's species.

Cosmog, huh? You guess the name is fitting enough.

The way his little arms glimmered with stars was certainly cosmic.

You navigate the cursor onto it, and press enter, opening it's entry.

It's stats were disappointing. It's highest stat was HP at a mere 43, with the next highest being speed at 37.

You didn't know for sure that it was weak, stats were a game mechanic, and this was real life. And regardless, generic stats for a species didn't reflect the actual stats of any given pokemon, since that was calculated knowing it's level, something that didn't even exist.

That said, it certainly at least somewhat indicated where a species' talents would be. And evidently, your little buddy wasn't going to be very strong.

You navigate to the next page, it's move pool, and are pleasantly surprised.

Cosmog learns teleport at level 1. Your little buddy probably already knows how to teleport. That is pretty sick.

It's a little less sick how he can't learn any other moves, besides splash, but you know what, teleportation is cool enough that you'll let it slide.

You navigate to the next page, it's evolutions, and are shocked.

Holy shit. Cosmog evolves into box art legendaries!

You glance over to your little buddy, who has spent the last ten minutes trying and failing to eat a cookie, as it keeps falling through his cloud-body.

You decide to not make a big deal of it. Your little buddy is your little buddy. Whether he becomes a god later on or not doesn't matter.

Besides, he doesn't fully evolve until level 53, and considering how powerful even middle stage pokemon can be, there is a good chance you will never see him fully evolve.

You brush the crumbs from your meal off your lap, and stand up. If you are going to survive on Earth Sin, you won't be able to do it by sitting around and snacking with little buddy.

Instead, you decide to knuckle down, and start by taking the corpses of the expedition team, and arranging the so you can give them proper burials.

Ghost pokemon are real in this world, and you certainly don't want to risk any of them taking issue with you.

Still, digging a grave was hard work, and you certainly didn't want to be hanging out with dead bodies at night. So, considering the sun down, you decide to just gather the bodies in one place, and then retire to sleep in the rations room.

As you lay in your sleeping bag, you consider just what to do in the morning.

After some thinking, you decide you will

[ ] Find a pokemon to join your team. Your little buddy won't be able to protect you as he is. And besides, you'd love to be a trainer.

[ ] Focus on giving them a proper burial. They might not have been nice to you but they all had families. And besides, you knew you probably wouldn't be able to fight off scavengers.

[ ] Try and see if you can figure out how to get the communications device working again. The ability to get help would be invaluable. The problem was, you didn't even know how this worked. Eh, you'd probably be able to figure it out. There had to be a guide or a manual around here somewhere (Chance of failure 66.6%. Minimum roll to succeed: 5.)

Plus, you also have to name your little buddy.

You think you'll name him

[ ] Cloud
[ ] Sunshine
[ ] Gregory
[ ] Write In

 

[iamweirdo]

[X] Focus on giving them a proper burial. They might not have been nice to you but they all had families. And besides, you knew you probably wouldn't be able to fight off scavengers.

[X] Cloud

 

[Psyentific]

[X] Focus on giving them a proper burial. They might not have been nice to you but they all had families. And besides, you knew you probably wouldn't be able to fight off scavengers.
[X] Cloud

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

The next day, as the sun began to set, you dumped the last clump of dirt over the second grave. As you already placed the tombstone on the grave, it was complete.

You heard distant howls, and flapping wings. You shifted uncomfortably. "C'mon, little buddy." You say to the cosmog, as you start the walk home.

You know, at first, you didn't like it here in this world. The wrecked city, empty streets with only the occasional abandoned and wrecked car, it was all very post apocalyptic.

But honestly, its kinda grown on you a little bit.

There was a certain peacefulness to it, since most pokemon stayed out of plain sight.

You walk down the center of a road that had once been a city's main street, feeling like you have an entire city entirely to yourself.

Part of you wants to go look and see if you could find some cool stuff in the abandoned city. According to the few reports estimated that humanity jas been absent from this world for around forty years.

You figured that there had to be something out there that hasn't been scavenged by the pokemon.

But you also knew how dangerous it was out there. You have already long since decided that any exploration would have to wait until you had a combat capable pokemon.

As you made it home, and entered the supply room, you felt a bit of relief, as you finally felt at home.

You took your boots off, and nestled yourself into your sleeping bag, enjoying the warmth, as the cosmog flew into the sleeping bag with you.

Idly, you decide that you should give him a name.

"Cloud..." You say, testing the name in your mouth, as you begin to drift off into sleep. Cloud rumbled lowly, seemingly responding to the name already.

The sleep was banished with the warmth, as you suddenly were falling in the midnight sky, falling towards a black abyss.

You flailed, but, as you crashed into the abyss, slashing the darkness as if it were water, the coldness forced you still as it sapped the strength from your muscles and the sense from your skin.

Floating in that blackness, all you saw was the distant full moon beneath you and a black nothingness everywhere else.

"Interloper..." said the abyss, speaking not in tones but in the shrill shriek of a thousand souls torn to pieces.

Your eyes opened, despite already being open, and you saw it.

A serpentine god, gilded, with a golden crest over it's face like a crown, spikes protruding from it's ever dancing body, marked with black and red stripes on a grey body.

Giratina.

"You do not belong to this world." It said. "You are human, a relic of the Old World Order. Man has no place in a world of pokemon."

You can tell, it is judging you. Weighing your existence against simply erasing you then and there. Seemingly, it came to a decision.

"I am Giratina!" It declared. "I am he who rules at the edges of creation! It is my sacred duty to rule over Distortion! Tell me, human! Why should I allow your Distortion to continue!"

[ ] You have some sick dance moves. You bet you could boogie enough to impress Giratina into sparing you. (You will gain the trait Dragon Dance.)
[ ] You have some jokes. You bet that if you can make him laugh, he'll spare you. (You will gain the trait Jester.)
[ ] You are just a human. You have no powers or ability to threaten Earth Sin. (You will gain the trait Permitted)
[ ] Write In.

(Man, RNGesus be trippin. Maybe this guy's luck can break the fourth wall?)

 

[iamweirdo]

[X] You are just a human. You have no powers or ability to threaten Earth Sin. (You will gain the trait Permitted)

 

[Psyentific]

[X] You are just a human. You have no powers or ability to threaten Earth Sin. (You will gain the trait Permitted)

It will allow the Super Intelligent Ape to exist. Surely this will not be a bad decision. Super Intelligent Apes are, after all, quite harmless.

 

[iamweirdo]

Bro, we're just a janitor, plus our goal is to sight see and chill. Hopefully without dying.

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

"I..." You begin to say, before realising that you have nothing to offer to a god. "Why... not?" you say, as you could think of no other reason.

"Why not?" It repeated back to me slowly. It then began to laugh, a horrid noise that felt like nails grinding over your soul. "Ignorant mortal. But... Perhaps you have a point."

It's distressingly large body began to gyrate as it's six tendrils began to grasp at things that you refused to look at, as, even through your peripheral vision, it made you hurt.

"Yes..." It said, "I shall not simply erase your distortion. No. Instead, I shall correct it, and make you a being that does not defy the will of the Creator."

Darkness sunk deeper, becoming even blacker, so dark it hurt.

You begin to scream, but the darkness silenced you.

You felt your very being begin to stretch and distort. As if the dark had grown arms and legs and hands that grabbed you by your bones and pulled.

They pulled and pushed until you tore.
----
You awoke the next morning, as if it were all just a bad dream.

"Wake up, Cloud." you said, waking up the little puddle of stars and space dust that had settled over your chest.

The cosmog lifted it's face, it's tiny yellow eyes bleary, and a tiny little bur of drool coming out it's tiny mouth. It briefly reconstituted, and floated an inch up, before just giving up and splashing down as a puddle back onto your chest.

You chuckle. "You and me both, buddy." You say, "But those graves aren't going to dig themselves. And besides, aren't you hungry?"

Cloud just rumbled and grumbled. You sigh.

"Sorry, Cloud, but we gotta start our day." You say as you sit up, causing the cosmog puddle to fall off your chest and into the bunched up sleeping bag.

You stand up, and immediately start looking through the assorted collection of MREs for your breakfast. Unfortunately, none of them really strike your appetite, so you decide to just skip breakfast all together. You had two of them lest night anyway, so it's not like you're hungry.

So, you throw on a pair of thick work trousers and a tank-top, and scoop up Cloud, carrying him with you, as you head out to where you had the bodies bunched up.

As you walk, you pass by the portal that got you into this mess, since it was in the center of the ruined base, only to realize that it was gone.

You stop in your tracks.

Its gone!?

You reach out to where it used to be and your hand passes through nothing but dusty air.

Its gone.

Well fuck.

There goes your only way home. You knew that the portal would eventually become tansversable for a human in about six months, but now, it would never be transversable.

You were now officially stuck here.

Alone.

You wanted to cry.

You didn't though. All crying did was waste time and tears. You distantly remembered an old teacher's saying 'If you let yourself cry now, you'll cry again and again, until you did nothing but cry.'

No, you just had to find something to do, to distract yourself from it. And conveniently, there were twelve corpses in need of burying right over there.

Besides, you also had Cloud to worry about. Cloud's basically a baby, and you needed to take care of your little buddy.

As you came upon it, you realized that scavengers came and ate them. All that was left was the floragato, and some scattered remains.

You sigh, and put Cloud in your pocket and stab the shovel you casually picked up on the way here into the ground.

You walk over to the floragato, and grab it by the hips and heft it up. It was disturbingly light, and the way it's head hung limply made your skin crawl.

You grimaced, as you threw it over your shoulder. You wished you put on an actual shirt instead of a tank top.

Whatever, you had a job to do.

You walked out to the park turned nascent graveyard, and immediately knuckle down and get to work.

You place the floragato's corpse on the ground, laying as if it was just sleeping instead of being dead, and take your shovel, and thrust it into the ground.

You are pleasantly surprised by how easily the shovel pierced the ground. Yesterday, you were struggling the whole way through.

You shrug it off, though, instead losing yourself to the rhythm of digging.

Hours later, you hear the sound of growls and yowling, like a pair of stray cats fighting, except accompanied by the rather disconcerting crashes and booms of pokemon moves.

You, as a proud owner of basic survival instinct, decide to follow those survival instincts. You decide to mind your own goddamn business.

Unfortunately for you, the business decides to mind you, as a pack of seven dogs emerge from the brush.

Some part of you, some long buried instinct, from back when people were just a bunch of monkeys who were bad at climbing, it recognized that these dogs weren't dogs. It realized that they were small wolves.

Adrenaline began to flow, as you started to wonder just how you are going to get out of this one.

The dogs, who appear to be made of bread because of course they are, begin to circle you, growling lowly, all the while.

You nearly drop your shovel, as a weakness suddenly rushes through your body, like a lingering vertigo.

With alarm, but unwilling to show weakness, you pat your pocket, waking up Cloud. "Cloud, wake up."

Unaware, the cosmog just floats up lazily.

The growls kick up a notch, as your knees buckle, and you are forced to plant your shovel into the ground, so you can rest on it.

They circle some more, as you desperately try to stay standing, even through your weakened muscles.

"Cloud," you say, desperately trying not to shout, as you begin to panic, "You know teleportation right?"

The pokemon rumbled, a response that you hoped meant yes.

"Get us out of here!" You whisper shouted, as the growls reached a fever pitch.

The dogs attacked, one of them barking almost roaring as it came at you with a black maw.

With a blinding agony, you hear a crunch, as the dog broke your arm with a bite.

Another dog bit your back leg.

In a panic, with strength you didn't realize you still had, you took the shovel and stabbed at the dog biting your hand.

Your shovel just chipped away at it's crust, as if you struck granite. In response, it jerked back and forth, until it tore your arm clean off.

You screamed, but it was cut short, as the dog on your leg yanked it, pulling your feet out from underneath you.

It knocked the wind out of you, and more of the dogs descended upon you. You instinctively curled up, hoping to protect your face, as one of the dogs bit down on the hand you had over your head, while another went in and bit down on the side of your head.

You jerked away, and all it got was your ear, which it tore off, along with a chunk of your scalp.

You screamed, and you pushed, and the dogs were sent flying away in a flash of blue light.

You came to your feet in a scramble, stumbling and being forced to briefly rest your weight on your broken hand, as another one of the dogs lunged at you, with that black maw.

"Again!" you shouted, more at yourself, pushing like before.

Blue light flashed again, and this time, the dog just sunk into the ground, it's legs breaking underneath it's weight.

It whimpered and you smelled blood.

You felt a shadow on the back of your neck, and you kicked off your one good leg, as you pushed again, knocking a lunging dog out of the air.

You whirled, as the dogs settled again into circling. You watched warily, waiting for another attack.

Your heart beat roared loud in your ears. But it was slow.

They circled, and you waited some more.

You felt blood pour down the side of your face, and splash out the stump where your arm used to be in time with your heart beat.

You realized something. They were waiting for you to bleed out. They thought they already won.

You glanced at the dogs, and saw how some of them were drooling. They thought they were going to eat you.

You snarled, and roared as you pushed, calling forth that blue light to attack.

You focused it, into a bludgeon on the head, hoping to crack it's skull. It worked, the dog yelping as it's head was smashed, exposing it's white bread-like insides.

The dogs, almost in unison, began to back away, as you turned that blue light on as many of them as you could before they fled.

With another push, you got another one. That seemed to have been the limit, as they decided to run away.

Once they were completely out of sight, you fell down, lightheaded and cold.

You were going to die. You distantly realized. You took too much damage, you lost too much blood.

You were going to die here, alone on another world, without any humans, killed by fucking bread dogs.

No! Fuck that!

You somehow fought them off with the fucking Force or whatever it was. You'll use that same thing to save yourself.

You pushed again, but this time, inward, trying to restore your health.

Impossibly, it seemed to have worked, as the pins and needles began to recede.

The blue lighted glowed underneath your skin, as you tried to sit up, only for you to accidently move your broken leg.

The resulting shock of agony banished the light, causing you to crash to the ground, as you screamed.

The coldness returned, reminding you that this was literally a matter of life and death.

You pushed again, this time moving slowly enough to not aggravate you leg or your hand.

After many long agonized moments, you make it back onto your one good foot, as Cloud fluttered around you worriedly.

You couldn't bring yourself to look twice at Cloud, though, as you had to focus on limping your way home, and hope that no other pokemon decided to take a bite.

A five minute walk lengthened into a nearly hour long, by your agonized limp.

By the time you got home, and got to the supply room, where all the first aid kits were, you were barely conscious.

In the end, you passed out then and there, in the supply room, not even on your sleeping bag.

To your surprise, you even got to wake up!

You propped yourself on an elbow that was really a stump.

You glanced down, and saw your other hand. It wasn't broken anymore.

Thank whatever god was out there. You weren't sure if you'd be able to survive on your own, with no hands.

It was kinda fucked up looking, though. Your fingers were crooked, and didn't look to bend right, and your hand had scars over the bite mark.

A rumble drew your attention, as Cloud woke up from its sleeping position on one of the shelves.

You made eye contact, and the cosmog rumbled at a higher pitch than you've ever heard from him, as he immediately flew in, and latched onto your face.

You couldn't help but laugh, as you patted the pokemon.

"Yeah, I'm glad I didn't die too." you say to the pokemon.

Your stomach rumbles.

"You up for some MRE's?" You ask

Cloud replies with a short rumble.

"Yeah," You say, as you stumble to your feet.

Distantly, you glance down, and see that your left leg is a little crooked, like your hand.

You shrug it off. You can walk on it, you'll live.

As you grub, you consider what your next move is.

Obviously, you need to train whatever that blue light was, but how exactly were you going to go about it.

After some thought, you decide that you'll focus on

[ ] the force pushes(You will learn the move Aura Ball. Aura healing and aura reinforcement will still grow to be usable at will, but will remain fairly weak, about on par with what is shown.)

[ ] the healing.(You will learn the move Lifedew. Aura blasts and aura reinforcement will grow to be usable at will, but will remain pretty weak, about on par with what is shown)

[ ] the reinforcement that let you walk all the way home. (You will learn Bulk Up. Your aura in general will also grow more powerful all around. Aura blasts and aura healing will grow to be usable at will, but will remain pretty weak, about on par with what is shown.)

And besides that, you need a to get a fighting pokemon on your team, because you know you won't be strong enough on your own.

You've seen a few pokemon you think you could recruit already, but you think you'll try and get the

[ ] Roggenrola
[ ] Rockruff
[ ] Bunnelby
[ ] Buneary
[ ] Bounsweet
[ ] Whimsur
[ ] Grubbin
[ ] Rookidee
[ ] Fomantis

(My bad for missing the update yesterday. Here's a bigger chapter to make up for it.)

(Also, the reason why I didn't post was because I got distracted reading Tentacle Time by Major Session. Its was extremely good for what it was, and then it came out of left field with a surprisingly powerful story about a sexual assault victim seeking justice, and the nuances between that justice and revenge. Go read that. It's a worm fanfic on this site.)

 

[iamweirdo]

[X] the healing.(You will learn the move Lifedew. Aura blasts and aura reinforcement will grow to be usable at will, but will remain pretty weak, about on par with what is shown)

With no nurse joy around for the free heals, we are going to need this.

[X] Roggenrola
Either of these well do for us long term and short term for scouting or tanking
[X] Rookidee

 

[Psyentific]

[X] the reinforcement that let you walk all the way home. (You will learn Bulk Up. Your aura in general will also grow more powerful all around. Aura blasts and aura healing will grow to be usable at will, but will remain pretty weak, about on par with what is shown.)

We are currently a Super Intelligent Ape (pokemon?). Fancy aura tricks aren't strictly necessary, self-healing would be grand, but being generally stronger and better would get the most utility imo.

[X] Rockruff
Or
[X] Rookadee
We need a Dog. Man is not complete without Man's Best Friend.

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

The first die decides what the focus for the training session is. The second die decides what the second pokemon capture is going to be.

First Die:
1 - Healing Focus
2 - Reinforcement

Second Die:
1 - Roggenrola
2 - Rockruff

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

Soon you finish up your MRE, and deposit the various plastics that it came in into an opened trash bag.

Then, as you stand up, you feel a little grossed out by all the dried blood crusted onto your body. You need a shower.

You couldn't help but notice that you lost a lot of blood. You open the door, and look outside, and are mildly horrified by the long trail of blood you could visibly see.

Your blood runs a cold and the hairs on the back of your neck raise. Its harrowing, knowing how close you came to dying.

You glance to the side, and see sets of blue eyes in the brush, watching you.

Immediately, you turn on your heels and go right back into the supply closet.

Okay, so, looks like that you are stuck inside for the foreseeable future.

You glance around the shelter. You got MRE's out the ass, and you got about fifteen gallons of drinking water.

At a guess, you figure you could last at least a week without leaving.

You decide to put that time towards training that blue force.

Aura, you think it's called. You remember seeing something like it in the anime.

Then, once you've finished training, you will head out to fight those predator pokemon, and then you'll find a Rookidee to be your first real starter.

----

Three days in, you hit your limit. If you did another pushup you were going to cut your own goddamn throat.

In a fit of boredom induced mania, you ended up deciding to cut your own wrist, so you would have something to heal using your Aura.

That little episode was some of the most entertainment you've had.

So, you decide to try it again. And again, cutting yourself just so you could practice the healing.

It got kinda out of hand, you'd admit, but you also got really good at self healing.

It got to the point where when you healed, your aura coalesced into a sort of actual liquid, like glowing blue water, that healed whatever it fell on.

It was to the point where you could completely heal broken bones, and nearly sawed off limbs in perhaps fifteen seconds.

Still, you felt that you hit a plateau, and that you needed to get out of the supply room, because you were sick and tired of shitting in a bucket with a plastic bag in there.

If that meant getting eaten by bread dogs, then so be it.

You grabbed your knife, which until now had been reserved for cutting up MRE packaging and self-harm, and put Cloud in your pocket.

And then, for the first time in nearly a week, you stepped out into the world.

The sun was bright, brighter than you remembered, and it felt warm on your skin. There was only a thin layer of clouds scattered across the sky, like a smattering of cotton over a blue sheet.

You spent longer than you'd like to admit just staring at the sky, because holy shit did you miss it.

Then you turned around and went back into the supply room, to get your waste bucket, to go empty it out.

Meanwhile, you put Cloud on the top of your head, and told him to watch for pokemon, to try and avoid an ambush.

Cloud responded with a swoosh, like a crashing waterfall, and stood on guard. Or at least you hope so. You can't exactly see the top of your head.

Then, you get out a decent ways from your shelter, and dump the bucket of excrement on the overgrown lawn of what used to be a DMV.

You then spit on the concrete walkway, and turn around to walk towards where you knew there was a canal big enough for you to take a bath in.

You dip a band into the water, and it's flowing a little faster than you're entirely comfortable with, but you figure you'll be fine.

You take your shirt off, along with your pants, and hop right into the water. Cloud flew upwards, presumably to keep watch, you weren't really worried about it.

You wade for a little bit, just watching as the dried blood and dirt just flows right off of you, turning the once clean water a murky red color around you.

You feel a little bad for whoever is unlucky enough to be downstream of you.

Soon enough, you were done washing, and you decide to get out.

You just stand there in the sun for a little while, letting the water just drip off of you. After all, its not like the pokemon won't be there for you once you are done.

Once you are fully dressed, into a clean set of clothes, you decide to head back to the shelter, to pack up with all the stuff you might need for the pokemon you'll recruit.

Soon you make it back, without any encounters, and stock up with a couple pre opened MRE pouches, since you figured food would be a good way to convince pokemon to go with you. You also pack your knife and your shovel since you figured there would be a good chance you'll need to fight.

Feeling ready and well prepared, you head out.

Almost immediately, you catch sight of a peculiar sight.

A single small bird, like a common songbird was fighting a four other birds, pidgeys, you think, all at the same time, flying around, flapping its tiny little wings as it scratched at it's opponents with glowing black claws.

There was also another bird, a comparatively gigantic Pidgeotto, just perched and watching the pidgey's fight.

You know a jumping when you see one. You can already tell that the blue and yellow bird was going to lose.

Two of the four pidgeys had decided to start hanging back, just pelting the other bird with ranged attacks, Gust and Sand Attack, you recognize after a little bit of thought.

You approach, figuring that if that little bird could fight this well at a disadvantage, then it was definitely a pokemon you wanted on your team.

The Pigeotto looks at you sideways, and you immediately have a bad feeling.

It blurred and you felt your ribs crack as you came to your senses on the ground with the bird digging its claws into your chest.

You grab on, and push with your aura, blasting it back a little bit, and disorienting it a little bit. You took that moment to start stabbing away with your knife, going straight for the throat.

Three stabs in, it stopped struggling, since you felt your knife cut something important.

You immediately use your aura healing, and the pain recedes almost the moment you notice it.

You stand up, and look for the other birds and find that there was only the small songbird left, the other four presumably flew away.

It started chirping loudly, almost screaming at you as it began hoping towards you, flapping it's wings as it did. You notice that it's wings were bleeding, and one was broken

You put your one hand up, "Hold on, I'm not trying to fight you." You say, trying to get the little bird to calm down.

You pull out the bag of jerky you already opened, and with a little bit of awkward maneuvering, you tuck the packaging underneath your left nub, and pull out a piece of jerky to offer it to the bird.

"Look, I have food. I can feed you." You say, "I'm even pretty sure I can heal you."

The bird calms down a little bit, but still seems to be suspicious. You toss the jerky over to it, and it takes one curious peck at the chunk of meat, before swallowing the whole thing whole.

It got a little closer, and you gave it another piece of beef jerky.

You then start to gather up a little bit of concentrated healing aura in your palm, cupping your hand so it doesn't run out.

"Hey, this is, uh, Life Dew," you say, the name just come to you, "It'll heal you."

You put your cupped hand out, and it comes closer and hopped into your hand, and into the water, which starts to glow a little brighter as it healed the wounded bird.

It started to chirp a little bit, and started to do a bird shower with the water, doing that little shake and dash of water in it's feathers.

You can't help but find it adorable, as you look at it's unreasonably round body.

"So, uh, you want to join my team?" You say awkwardly,

The bird stopped what it was doing, to look at you suspiciously.

"I'll feed you, and heal you after every fight like this. And I'll help you get stronger." You say, "I'll even back you up when it looks like you might die. All I ask is that you stay with me once you get super strong."

It looked at you consideringly, and then it chirped and got back to showering.

You blink.

Uh, you guess that means that its joining your team.

Speaking of which, what kind of pokemon even is it. You ask Cloud to pull out your pokedex, and navigate it for you, since your newest pokemon is currently showering in your hand.

You look through the list of flying types, and find a picture of a bird that looks like it under Rookidee.

Huh. So you got a rookidee. Sweet.

What are you going to name it?

[ ] Raven
[ ] Rachel
[ ] Willow
[ ] Write In

(I'll get the rest of Turn 6 out tomorrow. Hopefully I'll do it early enough that I can put out Turn 7 tomorrow too)

 

[iamweirdo]

[X] Willow

 

[Classist_Wierdo]

Willow.

Yeah, you'll name the rookidee Willow.

"How do you feel about the name Willow?"

It stops again, and chirped... happily? Honestly, you weren't very good at reading chirps.

"Well, I'm going to assume that you're okay being named Willow."

It chirped again, and then got back to washing itself.

With that sorted, you sit and wait for Willow to finish, which doesn't take much longer.

Once that is done with, you let the bird hop onto your shoulder, while depositing Cloud into your pocket.

Then, after a moment's hesitation you decide that you want to try and eat the Pidgeotto.

So, you throw it over your other shoulder and take it with you, uncaring of the blood dripping out of it's neck wounds.

And then, there they were again. Those blue eyes in the shadows.

"Guess what, Willow," you say, sounding more casual than you felt, "We got company."

The bird made a sound remarkably similar to growling.

The dogs emerge from the brush, slow, with barely constrained violence.

That's fine. These weren't the bread dogs you've been thinking about, but they were close enough.

They stalked around you, growling lowly, in a way that was eeriely similar to what those bread dogs did.

Part of you wanted to start running, and to not stop until you escaped. The rest of you just wanted some blood.

These dogs want to eat you.

As far as you're concerned, that means go for the throat.

"Hey, Willow," you say, your blood roaring in your ears, "Go for the eyes. Blind as many of them as you can."

You pull out your knife, and that flash of silver was the sign that began the battle.

With your aura raging below your skin, the blue energy matching your internal temperament, you moved faster than you expected.

Your knife found purchase before the lunging dog, slipping through skin and muscle, into it's throat.

You tried to pull your knife out, but it was stuck on something. That brief moment opened you to another bite, from another dog.

And then another, and a third, and before long they dragged you to the ground, surrounded by snarling dogs.

You responded with a blast of aura, sending them flying, with chunks of your flesh still caught in their jaws.

A brief pulse of healing aura and a faint drop of fresh water on the back of your neck, and you were back to 100%.

The dogs attacked again, and you delivered an absolutely brutal knee to the jaw to one of the dogs. You feel a crunch, and chose to believe that it's one of the dogs that got crunched.

The dog collapsed immediately afterwards, and started seizing, but you didn't notice, moving on to the next one.

One after another, you killed the dogs, punching and kicking and clawing and blasting.

And holy shit you are tired. As the last dog goes limp underneath you, you release your hold over it's neck, and throw it off of you, and you just lay on the ground.

Willow casually flys down onto your chest and nips at your shirt, as the blood on her feet left footprints in it.

You lift a tired hand, and hold it over the bird, letting Life Dew drip over her.

Cloud rumbled in a way you interpreted as concerned.

You sit up, letting sweat and blood just drip off your finger tips.

"Yeah, I'm good." you say in between breaths, "Just... Just let me catch my breath."

A minute or so later, you get up and, once again, you toss that pidgeotto over your shoulder and start heading home.

Just in time to see another dog show up out of the brush.

This one was lopsided, though, with a shrivelled up front leg, and only one large bulbous eye sticking out of a skull that was a little too small and flat, like a walnut.

It limped towards you sniffing and sniffing, and you realize that its blind, its one eye cloudy with cataracts, and it's eyelids red around the edges.

It stopped by one of the dead bodies, and nudged it with it's nose, and warbled. It nudged some more and started warbling louder.

It sniffed the air, and went over to another of the dead bodies and nudged it too, warbling and almost crying.

You realize that its probably either deaf or mentally stunted.

It reared up on it's hind legs trying to wake up the dog, not realizing that it is dead.

You walk closer, and realize that the dog is covered in bite marks around it's face, fresh red bite marks, with one ear torn off.

You've been around abused dogs before, and you've seen what an aggressive big dog can do to a smaller dog.

Those bites probably came from the dogs you killed. That dog warbled more, and louder, making attempts at barking, as he tried to wake up those that would never wake up again.

You squat next to the dog, and put your hand near its face, letting it smell you. Its tail starts wagging.

You breathe in deep. You can't leave this dog alone. It'll get eaten. And you were the one who killed it's family.

You put a hand out, and start to heal the dog, and watch as it's cuts close up, and it's eye lid turns back to a healthy color. Its one eye stayed blind, however, and it's bad leg stayed bad.

"Alright buddy," You say, "I'll take care of you."

It's tail started wagging in excitement as you healed it.

What are you going to name it?

[ ] Forest
[ ] Sky
[ ] Big Cheese
[ ] Write In

And, once you get home, what are you going to train? (Choose one focus, and four training options. You only get the first bonus if it isn't your focus)

[ ] You decide to focus on yourself, becoming more fit in the process.
[ ] You train your healing, taking it to the next level, letting you not just heal but outright enhance yourself and others. (Gain Acupressure, Your pokemon grow larger and more powerful in the long term due to your aura)
[ ] You train your combat skills, developing a sort of sixth sense for combat using your aura. (Gain Foresight, instinct completely prevents ambushes and gives you warnings when you go into dangerous situations)
[ ] You train your raw power, developing a sort of suicide technique letting you use massive amounts of power at the cost of causing damage to your body. (Gain Double Edge, gain ability Intimidate)

[ ] You focus on your pokemon, growing closer with them in the process.
[ ] You get Cloud to gain the ability to teleport on command, so long as you are reinforcing him with Aura. (Gain ability to teleport, Cloud gains ability to speak telepathically)
[ ] You train Willow's raw power, and her Power Trip gets strong enough to cut sheet metal at base, and after a few Hone Claws, she can cut a tree in half. She gets visibly larger and nears evolution. (Willow gets much stronger. You learn Helping Hand)
[ ] You spend your time trying to correct your Rockruff's disabilities. You heal her blindness. (Rockruff can see. She becomes very large.)