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Several episodes of the pirate program had flown by, though distracted by May’s ramblings Astra wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone about what had happened. There had been a bear, maybe? And a dragon? They may have been the same character?
Either way, whether they were scaly, furry or both didn’t seem to matter, because Brendan had just clicked the TV onto the guide. “Alright, let’s see what’s on next.”
“The squids been on for ages” remarked Astra, eyes flicking up and down the rows of programs which had suddenly revealed themselves. Where was Opelucid City, and why were its housewives so important? Who did want to win a million? A million what? She’d love a million berries, though storing them would pose a difficulty, but what would you do with a million fishing rods?
“Yeah, its blocks just ending.” Brendan was more focused, reading out the words in the highlighted row. “Though I was the number one weakling – hey!”
May had yoinked the controller from his hands and switched the channel. Apparently, if you wanted to win a million was just one of the many questions that program asked.
“Forget it” She said. “That’s just a faller”
“Huh” A thoughtful look flashed over Brendan’s face.
The other girl turned on him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just surprised you don’t like them, that’s all.”
“Of course I don’t like the slop. Now, if it was Digimen or another good one…”
Astra, by now, was getting used to not knowing what half a conversation was about. Even so, she raised a hand before an argument could get any further away. “Ummm, what is a faller show?”
Crossing her arms, May leant back on the bed. “Trash, mostly. Basically, a faller is a person who is sent to a new world.”
“Or sometimes the past, or the future.” Interjected Brendan. “It can be the same world, as long as it might as well be different.”
Like if you’ve lived in the woods all your life, then suddenly go into the city? Best not to suggest that, Astra thought.
“Yeah, but those are rarer. Point is, so many shows just give their protagonist an op ability, and they steamroll the conflict! Which I don’t like, because cool as that can be, it’s obvious it’s going to happen!” May exclaimed. “It’s only epic if there’s tension.”
“True. And the harems don’t help either…”
Harems? Another unfamiliar word. From the look on May’s face, it was probably something teasable; she had a sharp grin, and was batting her eyelashes like it was pollen season.
“I don’t know. Two girls, one guy-“
“Don’t you dare.”
“Anyone would start getting ideas…”
“Stop!” Shouted Brendan, a faint blush on his face as he turned to keep May’s shit-eating grin out of sight. “Enough people actually think fallers are real for there to be loads of government conspiracy theories about them, and the international police even have a semi-official branch covering supposed cases.”
Eyebrows finally settled, May nodded. “The unintentionally displaced unit. Arresting truck drivers everywhere.”
Astra was pretty sure that was a joke. If truck drivers could travel between worlds, why would landing on the moon be such a big deal? “So, it’s kind of like if-” she caught herself before she could say I “A pokémon teleported me without realizing.”
“Yeah. And if in the place you teleported to, everyone had skitty ears.”
“You mean like…” Miming ears by her head and consciously not paying attention to her horns, Astra was pleased to get a nod. The less she thought about the other ways they could have those ears, the better.
The conversation drifted away after that, but the idea lingered in her head. Going to another world – she could understand the desire to get away at times, but a whole world? One was big enough. And being stranded in a strange culture? She’d chosen to go, and still the difference got to her. To not choose…
No, Astra decided. She felt sorry for those fallen. And so, they whiled the night away.
It felt nothing like falling.
Cold mud sept through the back of Astra’s dress; the sky was blue and clear. “Ow” She thought to herself as pushed herself up, tangled issues rushing through her head.
A black void, stars replaced with rushing streaks of colour. A dreamlike buzz. It hadn’t felt like falling – teleporting felt nothing like falling either, now that she thought about it. It had felt more like – a car?
Yeah, that sounded right. She hadn’t actually been in one, but they looked really fast and they were more like a raft than a boat, so you could probably feel the speed much more. Stepping was like teleportation, and driving was like whatever… that… was…
Wait a second! Immediately, what had happened struck her like a rock to the horns. She’d been not-teleported! That wasn’t right! She couldn’t even remember being teleported, last thing she knew she was going to sleep, and then there was that tunnel and she didn’t eve know where she was! Swiping her head back and forth revealed she was in some sort of marshland, but that wasn’t any help. She had a mission! If she was in another region, or the past, or the stereotypical fantasy RPG, whatever that meant, how was she supposed to protect the village! This was all…
No. Just calm down Astra. Just calm.
Take a deep breath in – she breathed – and out.
Astra stood up, collecting herself. Arriving in wherever this was had left enough of an impact she’d made a snow gardevoir from the impact – well, she supposed it was a mud gardevoir. Absently she wrung some water from her sodden hair, inspecting how her horns had cleaved two faint lines from the silhouettes head.
With a pinch of psychics she moulded it away. She didn’t want somebody spotting that and using it as a clue. It did clue her into something though. Her hat was missing.
“Great” She thought to herself. Looking around didn’t find it lying anywhere, and a quick patdown inventory of herself revealed everything else seemed fine; balls, pokédex, badge and otherwise – everything else was there. Some of her travel supplies were missing, but none of them would be starving any time soon. It was seemingly just her hat that was gone.
Of all the problems she’d been anticipating, that hadn’t been one of them. It wasn’t even a problem, just a weird inconvenience – she tried to imagine what sort of illusion could cover it up.
A hat like Brendan’s, maybe. His seemed a bit thicker than May’s, so it would cover more – she just had to make sure people didn’t try to pat her on the head.
Most importantly, all her pokéballs were still safely attached to her belt. If they’d gotten lost, it didn’t bear to think. Stuck beneath mud, or worse, floating through that place…
Brrr.
It wasn’t that she was handling this well. More like there was no point panicking. May and Brendan would be doing fine, surely. There was no point in panicking, she just had to be productive.
Pick a direction and move. Forward, she decided. Astra walked.
Her shoes weren’t meant for walking in this marshland. Cliffs taller than her but still short enough she could have possibly levitated herself up rose all about her, water dripping from their edges. Moss bristled on the rocks she could see, and the entire place felt divided into multiple tiers. A smell of mildew and damp hung in the air, and no thoughts seemed about.
Except, just now, brushing against her awareness, one.
Odd. She couldn’t see the source of the thoughts, hidden as they were by the twists of the land, but they didn’t feel right somehow. Not wrong, and not like the horror stories told over the campfire about the rigidity of hypnosis, of mind control, of the holes the Hollow-eyed Gnasher would leave that anyone could stick their minds in and puppet the powerless victim about. Just different.
And shouldn’t those thoughts be in the floor?
The mystery only increased when she turned the corner to find nothing at all. Just more rock, more mud that she was glad that she at least wasn’t short enough she had to wade through. But the thoughts still buzzed, saying they should be before her.
Maybe the Hollow-eyed Gnasher was the right path. Maybe this was what ghosts were like. Astra felt a chill that had nothing to do with the damp.
But if it was in the floor, then maybe she was just missing it? Lowering her gaze, Astra could make out something on the ground. Two points emitting from the floors surface, which didn’t quite look like rocks.
Psychically she drew a gob of mud from the floor, moulding it to the size and shape of a pokéball, before pitching it down the path.
Any celebration at getting a direct hit was stopped at the eruption that followed. With a thunderous snap two vicious jaws crashed together; mud sprayed in every direction. Eep! Astra nearly jumped out of her skin as the unfamiliar Pokémon writhed – she knew those thoughts were too low.
Berrypip eyes shrivelled in its head, confused over why it wasn’t currently tasting stray Kirlia. Strangely, the action came with the tinkle of bells – some sort of cloth was strung around its neck, untarnished by its stay in the mud.
Seeing the creature didn’t change how weird its thoughts were. Almost fluid – a water type levitating a bubble in the air, compared to… whatever thoughts normally felt like.
Huh. She’s never really thought how to describe it. Like…
She had more important things to worry about. But still. It felt if she reached out to brush…
Beartrapwormtrickwouldntitbescaryif
For all it involved picking things up, psychics didn’t entail having invisible mind-hands, but if it did, she’d have recoiled them like prodding an open flame. What the?
Was this her – what did they say faller programs called it – cheat skill?
The worm whipped its head towards her, hurrying all those thoughts from her head. Oh crap.
It roared, rising from the ground on surprisingly stubby legs. Fight or flight? She could probably outrun it – but what else was out there?
Ground type, probably, based on how it hid. Maybe steel? Did that cloth mean it belonged to someone?
Her hands went to her pokéballs. Grovyle! Marill!
“Gro!”
“Mare!”
With those cries, her Pokémon burst into the damp air, feet splattering into the mud. Astra felt a thrill of pride as they broke into a dash beside her – she didn’t even have to ask!
“I don’t know where we are,” She called to them “but that things a threat”. There was no time for her violin, she was running, and even then she had a feeling the monster wouldn’t appreciate it. At a distance, so…
Marill, water gun!
The round mouse nodded, with its proportions rocking its entire body, and swivelled on its paws. A buzz of fear came down the link as she saw the slavering jaw of the creature, but her cheeks puffed up, and a stream of water ripped through the air.
It hit the creature dead-on. With those impractical proportions it swayed off balance, weird little bells tinkling. Was it Astra’s imagination, or did the skin almost look softer?
Off balanced meant she was more comfortable getting Grovyle in close. Grass Cutter. She turned.
The lizard sprang forwards, curved leaves extending from his wrists. He swung, carving furrows into the enemies skin, and it shrieked with pain. It’s jaws came thrusting forward-
Dodge!
-and pierced the blade clean through. Grovyle’s body may have escaped, and he wasn’t injured, but the blade cutter made was refusing to disappear, held tight by the yellow teeth. The monster shook itself like a zigzagoon with a toy, Grovyle flailing along with the movement with a cry of “Gro! Gro!”, before it slung him towards a wall.
“vyyyyyyyyle!”
Astra winced at the impact, the damp of the cliff face leaving a trail as Grovyle slid down. He wasn’t fainted, thank fuck, but he was winded. Distract it, Marill! The spherical mouse let out a cry of rage – she couldn’t let it land a finishing blow.
Would it land a finishing blow? Wild pokémon, apparently, weren’t supposed to try to faint a trainer’s, but though it was different Astra had fried way too many Magikarp in her life to think a potential meal would go unappreciated. And who said this was a pokémon at all? Her partners, now that they were out, clearly lacked the fluidity of thought this creature possessed.
Wait a minute. No humans were around…
As the creature turned, she teleported straight to Grovyle’s side. Why hadn’t she thought of that sooner! Astra held out a hand, which was quickly grasped, and she helped Grovyle to his feet.
As she produced some medicine, however, something else caught her eye with a wet spluttering noise.
Was that a fucking present?
Mimicking Marill, the creature had puffed its cheeks and spat out a pink box. It soared through the air, bonking Marill straight on the forehead.
What?
It didn’t seem to do anything. And then the clown popped out.
What!?
Hoohohooha! The pallid face cried, springing on some kind of spring? Marill screeched, and Astra could feel her vibrate, like its laughter was resonating the mouses very bones. Her tail swiped, and the jester popped beneath the blow, vanishing into nothing.
What was the point of that? What sort of move even did that, summon a present that created a clown that… what?
Maybe it was a confusion move, because Astra certainly felt that way.
Drool hit the mud, snapping Astra from her distraction. The monster was totteringly dashing towards Marill, its jaws flapping with every step. Get up! She called, and the little mouse rolled, great jaws snapping behind her.
Telekinetically, Astra tugged on the creatures’ ankles. Already unbalanced by its attack and ridiculous proportions, it slammed onto the floor with a thud.
“Rilll!” Marill trilled triumphantly, jumping on it and beginning to thwack with her tail. Back on his feet, Grovyle caught her eye.
Go, she nodded, and he dashed forward to join the assault.
Something in Astra tugged in uncertainty at the action. This was three versus one, and it didn’t feel fair kicking the creature whilst it was down. Especially when she had sort of provoked it in the first place. But on the other hand, it had been wanting to eat them; even now its hunger was palpable, rolling off its strangely fluid psychic presence like steam off a hot stew – it was so hungry it was making her hungry…
Her stomach growled, and she caught herself. Making her hungry by a reasonable amount! Like when someone laughed and that got everyone started! She wasn’t about to start throwing any balls of dark or bruising the sky!
“Can you grow some vines around its legs?” She asked Grovyle. Her pokémon gave her a look. “I don’t know how all this works! Just try, okay? Marill, be ready if it tries to do anything.”
Receiving nods of affirmation, Astra approached the monster. Only now did she get a good picture of its height; when it had been chasing her, she’d been too discombobulated and in the fight she’d had more important things to care about. Now she could tell that its’ jaws were large enough that she could’ve lain snugly up to its throat – ew, why did she have to think that – and its legs were the same height again. Back in Rustboro, she’d questioned the shape of Roxanne’s pokémon – this beast evoked similar questions.
How does it eat with such a small body? Why have legs at all, when you have a snake tail? And why bells?
Because seriously, they were definitely bells. Cloth and skin had no clear distinction, the two merging directly into each other.
Weird, Astra thought. Seriously weird. There was the present too. The right moves could apparently create matter out of thin air, but a present? Unless it was an illusion?
“I’m going to try something” She said aloud. The creature’s fluidity had stilled slightly, in the same way as a sleeping mind. “I think it’s knocked out, but be careful.”
“Rill!” “Gro!”
Time to try cheating.
Astra shut her eyes, and reached out to the creature, Again, she felt that rush of surprise tada hungry look at that pink thing auntie, but this time she plunged her mind further.
It was strange. Like… gravity? If a human found they were falling slower, and when they jumped, they didn’t come down. Something natural, but different. Something…
“Careful son” the hunter said. “I’ve put traps out”
The forest was crisp and cool, the ground covered in growth. Fallen leaves and sprouting scrubs mingled in equal measure. Above, the canopy was near white from filtered light.
“I don’t see anything?” Said the boy.
“That’s because their hidden.” A hard grip settled on his shoulder. “Beneath the earth, jaws that no one can see”
“Like worms?”
“More dangerous. So don’t go running off, okay?”
“Ok’eigh! Alee! Ulo! Areala!” Hot hot hot, the sun beat down on the desert sands. What rock was beneath their feet – the only place that was safe. Still, the ogres shivered.
“Behold the Lambton!”
A worm erupted from the sand, arcing towards the sky, and landing in her hand. She grinned, seeing the views jog up by another load. “See, the trick with juggling is…”
And Astra pulled herself back out, panting.
Trapwurm. That was the creature’s name. It was made of thought, and just being in it felt strangely…
No.
…familiar.
She shook her head, distracted by the strangeness of it all. Feeling another’s emotions was one thing, crowds another – this was diving underwater. If her mind had a mouth, it would be gasping for air.
Grovyle and Marill were looking at her, concerned. Astra winced. “Don’t worry. I’m okay – did I zone out?”
“Yle”
“I’m better now” Whether the Trapwurm was too another question – she prodded it with one foot, expecting at any moment for it to spring back into revitalised action from her interference. A creature made of thought – how was she supposed to know what it could do? First the clown thing, now, what? Was it sapping her psychic energy just by thinking about it or something?
If it was, it was being stealthy about it. Like a trap.
Distracted, Astra registered the new presence approaching perhaps a second too late than she should have. It was hard and vague, as it should be, and also undisputedly human.
“The battle of beasts reached my ears” A voice said to her. “So I hurried to investigate.”
Eek!
On instinct, Astra raised her illusion, heart thumping. Of course she’d get complacent, just because there was no one around to see!
A woman stood at the top of the chasm, a red sleeveless jacket lightly flapping around her. It must be windier where the rocks didn’t protect. A grey cap was on her head, and her skin was a darker shade than most of the human’s Astra had seen; she had the look of a trainer, but there were no pokéballs visibly on her person.
As they weren’t flying at her either, Astra comforted herself, she probably hadn’t caught her illusion.
“Have you suffered any grave injuries, or else require assistance?”
“Well…” Asking where the heck she was probably wasn’t the greatest idea in the world. People didn’t tend to ask where they were in the middle of the wilderness. Unless she downplayed it, she supposed. “I have gotten myself rather lost.”
“Of course.” The woman nodded. “Navigating these marshes is a difficult issue indeed. There are as many places to get lost in as there are to hide.”
Saying that, she stepped off the cliff. Wincing didn’t mean Astra expected her to splatter, but that didn’t mean she expected what happened either. Where she’d imagined releasing a pokémon to carry the woman down, or else some sort of fancy climbing boots scraping against the cliff face, wings sprouted from the woman’s back. Each was green and forked like flower petals, flapping slightly as she glided to the ground.
Was this, perhaps, a demihuman? Something about the term rubbed her off the wrong way when May had explained it to her. Also, she didn’t want to be basing all her knowledge of this place on tv shows, so until the woman acknowledged it she wouldn’t bring it up.
Having wings wasn’t treated as anything odd, at least.
The woman eyed Grovyle and Marill warily; their returning stare was that of curiosity. “Are your companions going to transform? I understand caution, but truly I am a friend.”
Transform! Had – so the woman had seen her before her illusion. Oh fuck. If Astra actually knew where she were, she’d have teleported away that very instant – as it was, maybe this woman could be convinced.
“Transform?” She asked, feigning obliviousness.
“Yes?”
“I’m not sure what you mean”
“Do you not?” A concerned look flashed on the woman’s face. One of her hand vanished into her coat, and when it reurned there was a rectangular object in her grip. Astra vaguely recognised it as an old human music device – it matched, she realized, the headphones she also wore. “This box doesn’t mean anything to you?”
“It plays music?” Astra offered.
The woman’s eyes widened. “Does it? That is the purpose of this machine? How ingenious! They did say these devices had another use. Apologies, I did not mean to digress. So these spirits aren’t people, but beasts that you are masters of?”
“I am their trainer. They aren’t beasts though – their my partners.” Her companions. Her friends.
“Sorry. Offence was not my intention. Though I fear I may be the bearer of ill news…”
“Why?”
“Am I to surmise you are unfamiliar with this land? Seeing your creatures I know not whether your familiar with strange beasts, like this land is full of monsters beyond measure. My name is Viola , and many weeks have passed since I washed up on this isle’s shores; its name is New Wirral, and from what they say, it is not of the world you resided in”
So the faller theory was correct. Yippee. But that lead to a very important question.
“How do I get home?” Astra asked. A solemn look passed across Viola’s face – it wasn’t empathy, or seeing the suture, or any legendry ability that told Astra what she was going to say, but simple recognition.
“I do not know”
Oh fuck. Of course.
Revaroom-kun, she’d been told, never hit anyone important. May had been very clear on that. “Their always some nobody.” She’d scowled, “depressed salarymen and shit who wish they could have gone on a journey but don’t have the drive to do it.”
“Drive” She’d chuckled to herself.
Around that point of the conversation, Astra had been a little distracted, because not only were things like motors still a new concept for her, apparently there was some pokémon out there which looked like them? She’d got the gist though. Fallers in stories were meant to be average people, so people could more easily imagine being them. It was like how evolving to Gardevoir was usually saved for the end of the tale, both to show the power the character had accomplished, but also because most of the audience were Krilias so they want to see Krilias do things. Ralts at the end of stories became Krilias, but because humans were like trees they didn’t have that convenient narrative shorthand, so instead made their own.
But if they were a nobody at their home, then they had no reason to return. Falling in real life wasn’t like that. It meant being ripped away from your friends, your family, your whole life…
“Theres no way to go back” Astra inquired, as she followed Viola to where she’d said she had a camp. “Absolutely none?”
“I cannot say for certain” replied the woman. “Much of this isle is unknown to me, and I admit I’ve had my focus on a matter more pressing to me. What I have gleaned, however, bodes ill.”
She wasn’t about to scream or shout about how unfair life was. Somewhere in her mind, she’d already accepted that fact; comparing humans advancements to her people’s own certainly carried implications to that matter. Yet there was a difference between someone being bad at Rebound and actual ‘effing lightning zapping you from the sky whenever you tried to play.
“Pressing matters?” She asked. A distraction being handed to her like that was too good not to exploit.
“Before I was waylaid upon these shores…” Viola stopped. “It would be unkind of me to burden you.”
“Don’t worry!”
“I shall, but if you truly wish to know; I was with my brother when a storm cast us here. So I pray that he may have arrived here also – a several weeks search has yet to yield results, but still I hope. Have you been here long? I presume not, but from those creatures of yours…”
“My Pokémon?” Astra remarked.
“Is that what their called?” Silently, Astra was mulling that fact over. Did that imply Viola’s world didn’t have pokémon? Weird. Were humans, like, the only thing there? They’d be so lonely – but she put the thought aside. There was enough to be panicking about. “Of course, I suppose those who live with fairies must know them more truly.”
“Fairies don’t exist, I have that on good authority. Or- ” It felt strange to say it. “Fairies don’t exist in my world, is that how it’ll be?”
Astra reoriented back to the original question. “I haven’t been here that long. In fact, I’ve only just arrived, I think. That Trapwurm – I’d just woken up, and I was exploring, and I found that. So, I am now.”
“How fortunate you could defend yourself then. These moors are a perilous land.” As if to prove her point, the noise of battle sounded in the distance. Reaching out, Astra found them too far away for her to sense – she could only imagine what bizarre creatures were clashing against each other.
“Yeah” Astra agreed. “Fortunate”
She had to find a way home. No ifs, no buts. But that just lead to a single question…
How the heck was she going to do that?