Did I ever mention that I wrote a ficlet? Because I totally did.

Dragonspiral's Children - Part 1: Learning Experiences

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Part 1: Learning Experiences

-Oh... Hello. Normally, I’m not really much of a storyteller... But... Since you’re here... And you’re listening to me... I guess I can tell you a bit of one about a family I know.-

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-This story starts on a winter day... One that kids like to make a big fuss over. I remember the snow was a little heavy that year.

The tree was in the corner, decorated with tinsel and ornaments, with only a handful of presents left underneath its boughs. The weather was kinda cloudy, but considering how it’s often overcast around Icirrus, I guess it was a bit of a small miracle that there was any sun at all. If you looked through the window that day, you might have been able to see windmills and Dragonspiral Tower frosted with snow in the distance.

Anyways, the family had three children, with a mom and a dad- a bit bigger than your standard video game family.*There were two boys.

The younger of the family's two boys was around five or six. I remember he was eagerly playing with a toy truck.-

“Vroom! Vroom! No mountain’s a match for these tires!”

-The older boy was right on the verge of going into middle school. Being the sardonic creature he was, he made some commentary while rooting around for a final gift under the tree.-

“Uh huh... So... When should we expect that thing to get across Twist Mountain?”

-The two had a sister who was snugly between them in age. During this, she*chimed in while*examining a music player.-

“Well, your gift can’t be that good if it was just buried under the tree like-”

-Normally, this would continue on until they got tired of arguing with each other, but that day, something else cut the normal banter short.-

“Whoa! You got me a starter?!”

-Which, naturally for the girl, when you see your sibling get something nice that you don't, leads you to jump to conclusions and say things like.-

“What?! Moooom! He’s not old enough to have a Pokémon!”

-Yeah, he was the one who got to open up that ball. A run-of-the mill red-and-white, but hey, with that ribbon and polished surface, it would have been kinda hard to not get excited.

Their father really seemed to be getting a kick out of the occasion. But, being a parent and having to be responsible... He was quick to make a few clarifications.-

“Heh heh... You’re right, he’s not. But... It’s not strictly his gift. It’s something your mother and I got for all of you to practice with.”

-The older brother didn't exactly like hearing that.-

“Aw, come on, I can take care of it! What’s another year, anyways?”

-Yeah, exactly. I didn't fully get why that day played out the way it did with the red-and-white, but given how the daughter took it, I suppose I can understand.-

“... So what did you get us?”

-Though the younger brother was probably the better argument. He had an awful lot of fun with guessing what was in that red-and-white-

“A Garchomp? Oh! Oh! Or maybe it’s a Tyranitar!”

-Uh... Yeah. It wasn’t something that out of the ordinary... At least not for people from this town. Which the father was quick to point out, gotta keep those expectations from running too wild and all.-

“Not exactly. I chose something a bit more... Closely related to home.”

-For context... You know how kids sometimes get a Lillipup or a Purrloin for Christmas or something? Well, in Icirrus, a lot of more traditional folks like to give Pokémon from around that tower in the north in their stead. Which for the kids in the same room as a purple weasel resting and playing around with its wispy fur next to the tree...-

“... Another weasel like your Mienshao?”

-Normally, a scrawny Mienfoo would have been what these kids got, but... 

Someone decided to be a little different.-

“I put some thought into it... But I think that you’ll appreciate the gift more if you see what the Pokémon is for yourself.”

-Which probably wasn't the smartest thing to say in front of his wife. After all, if the expectation is that you're going to give the kids a Mienfoo and you up and say that you're not going to... Well...-

“... Hmm? What did you get them, then?”

-It raises a few questions. Not that they were exactly on the minds of the kids the same way, especially not the littlest one's.-

“Come on! Come on! Open it already!”

“Alright! Alright!”

-And much to everyone's surprise, when the Pokémon came out of that ball, it was a blue winged hunchbacked lizard with a red head. Being drug out in the middle of winter takes a lot out of a Pokémon that needs warmth, so she was kinda drowsy.-

“Gon...”

-After she yawned and started to curl up under the tree, going in order of youngest to oldest, this is more or less how the reactions played out:-

“AWESOME!”

“EEE~ A DRUDDIGON!”

“Thanks for the Christmas present, dad!”

-Which made her open her eyes a bit more, seemingly-random excitement being kinda an impediment to resting and all.-

“Well, I was going to put her under the tree with a ribbon, but... I decided that things would be more exciting with a bit more surprise to it.”

-However, not everyone was terribly enthused about getting a large carnivorous lizard added to their family.-

“Dear... I thought you were going to get them something easy to care for like a Deerling!”

-Naturally, when someone thinks that the thing you're doing is a really bad idea, you try to convince them otherwise, and say things like...-

“Now, now. A Druddigon is easy to care for...”

“... Shao...?”



-... Things that are normally not as big of of a stretch as that. I think I remember even his Mienshao was a bit flummoxed by that claim, too.

Which of course, required some clarification...-

“... For a Dragon Pokémon, of course.”

“They have sandpaper hides! Why did you not get them a Mienfoo?!”



-While what the man said was certainly true... As you could tell, the wife didn't really think that much of that explanation.

I think I remember the father taking a bit of a more academic route after that. Something like...-

“... This one has a smoother hide than some others. And we have a Mienshao... Hardly the sort of Pokémon fit for children who haven’t gotten licensed yet...

Besides, she’s still young, a bit inexperienced. and a great representative of that tower. Why, it’s practically synonymous with this town!”

-I'm pretty sure that this was the point when his wife started to register that she was going to be stuck with a blue-and-red lizard in the house.



One of the things that I'm pretty sure got passed down in the family from the dad's side was a tendency to poke gentle fun at others, since I remember him teasing his wife a bit as she protested:-

“I was under the impression that it was the windmills that were synonymous, dear...”

“Oh come now, if the kids went off on a route, would you trust them with a Deerling or a Druddigon?”

-The wife kinda got really exasperated at this point, and pointed at the Druddigon under the tree exclaiming:-

“I’d trust them with neither! Routes are closed to travelers without licenses!”

-Which is kinda confusing for a Pokémon that's kinda tired and not fully sure what's going on. I'm pretty sure that everyone that was in that room still remembers how the Druddigon poked her head out from under the tree and give it a bit of a quizzical tilt.



It was then that the husband finally pulled out his trump card: An appeal to intimacy.-

“Druddi... Gon?”

“Oh come on, it’ll be a learning experience...

For everyone.”

-Obviously being a 'learning experience' and all, there were bound to be a few innocent misunderstandings...-

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-One of them happened just a couple days afterward.

The younger brother wanted to head out to play in the snow, "winter wonderlands" and all of that...-

“Heeeey! Come on! Let’s play!”

-Which, for a dragon in the dead of winter, sounds about as appealing as jumping off a- ... Wait, that analogy doesn't work, but I'm sure you understand what I meant. Anyways, the Druddigon did what was most logical for her, namely give a low growl back and keep her scales planted firmly in front of that fireplace.



But... Little kids kinda are stubborn types, and the little guy started tugging at the Druddigon's arm.-

“Don’t be such a lazy butt! You’ve been curled up in front of that fire all day already! Let’s go make snow angels!”

-Which again, wasn't a terribly popular proposition for her...-

“Gon...”

-You know, seeing as she'd go into torpor if her body temperature got too low. Just a minor annoyance.



Unfortunately, the little kid didn't really take the hint and only started tugging harder at her arm-

“Come on! I said, get up- Ow!”

-At this point, the Druddigon had had quite enough, and did what any Pokémon fed up with being harried by a little kid would do. Get up, shove the little tyke to the ground, and give a loud growl to tell him to step off.-

“Meep!”

-Once again, misunderstandings, but they worked through them.
That wasn't quite the end of that incident, unfortunately. The younger brother kinda made a bit of an obnoxious and whiny appeal to his father after that. Y'know, trying to get his way with the guy who the toughest Pokémon in the house listens to and all.-

“Daddy! The Druddigon’s not listening!”

-His older brother, being the font of sarcasm that he was, couldn't pass up the chance to put in a barb.-

“Good on her, I wouldn’t want to listen to you either!”

“HEY!”

-Thankfully, I remember their father being a bit of a calmer type. He came right in along with that Mienshao of his. While the Mienshao tried to explain to the Druddigon that the little kid wasn't actively trying to be a little twerp, the father also did his part to try and clear things up.-

“... Erm... Why don’t you try and find something to do with her indoors?”

-Which probably wasn't quite what the little boy wanted to hear then.-

“... Eh?”

-I suppose that it doesn't make sense to be too hard on him, you do a lot of stupid things when you're young. His father kinda spelled things out for him.-

“After all, a Pokémon travels along with humans because it wants to. You wouldn’t appreciate someone trying to drag you off into the snow without clothes on would you?”

-Which, naturally lead him to try and compromise and still somehow try to get his way.-

“... Can’t she just wear a jacket?”

-Which didn't exactly go over well with the Druddigon, seeing as she kinda picked up on what the little kid was suggesting.-

“... Druddigon?!”

-And wasn't exactly what the man had hoped for, or his Mienshao for that matter. I remember that weasel facepalming hard enough to be heard afterwards.-

“Mienshao...”

“... Again. She seems like she wants to stay warm. Surely you have something to do inside?”

-This was around the time when the little guy finally started taking the hint.-

“Well...”

-Kind of.-

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-I still can’t believe that this actually happened afterwards.

He took off his winter wear, and arrayed six stuffed dolls facing off against each other in groups of three.

On one end, was himself.-

“We’re gonna have a triple battle!”

-And on the other end was one very lost-looking Druddigon staring at the dolls blinking.-

“... Druddigon?”

“Yeah! You line up three Pokémon, and they fight each other! The person with the last one standing wins!”

-Given that she was giving a blank stare and visibly yawning at that point, you'd think that he'd have figured out that she wanted rest.-

“Okay, I’ll pick- HEY!”



-Not that her snatching up the dolls, curling up on them, and dozing off right after *left much room for confusion.-

“Those aren’t pillows!”

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-Oh yeah... There were the misunderstandings over what was supposed to be done by whom.

On a night sometime during spring, I remember the father tried to get the Druddigon to do a bit of a favor for him and his spouse...-

“Okay... We’re going to need you to watch over the kids while we’re out...”

-Which to her, surely sounded like nothing.*And the Meinshao would be there with her to show the ropes. Not that they would really be needed, would they?*After all, how do you screw up watching over something?-

“Druddigon.”

“Think you can do that?”

-She nodded then, the first gesture that she picked up from the family, and seeing that the Mienshao seemed to indicate she was responding properly, answered with a confident tone.-

“Gon.”

-Unfortunately, that's kinda where the smooth sailing ended. Seeing as the Druddigon*had just a bit of a different interpretation of*'watching over' than the father probably expected.-

“Ow!”

-Namely pushing over and sitting on top of the closest child to her, the daughter, and vigilantly watching for would-be interlopers.-

"Gon gon."

“DAAAAD! She’s crushing me!”

-Yeah, she was kinda mad about that. Her older brother thought it was awfully funny, though.-

“I dunno, she’s definitely putting the ‘sit’ in ‘babysitting’ here.”

-The Meinshao hastily rushed over and tried to explain to the Druddigon that she had perhaps read just a little bit too much into what was asked of her.



As for the father... Well, I'm not sure if burying your face in an open palm would exactly be characterized as an 'amused' expression.-

“... Erm... Not like that. And don’t do that in front of the wife, please.”

-Yeah, he definitely wasn't amused.-

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-There were misunderstandings over what was okay and what was not okay to do...



There was this one incident when everyone was coming back from a corner store with some small treats.-

“... You don’t think that mom and dad will mind if we eat this before dinner if we paid for it, do you?”

-Now, this wasn't the first time that any of them had made a run like this, but this time... They kinda ran into a bit of a jerk on the way home.-

“What on earth is that?”

-Some college-aged trainer with a Tranquill. Fortunately for the younger brother, he was kinda oblivious to Mr. Bird Lover's less-than-inviting tone and proudly answered back.-

“It’s a Druddigon!”

-Which made the stranger's Tranquil betray a look after that. That obnoxious 'Are you stupid?' look that I'm sure everyone's had to put up with at least once in life.-

“Tran... Quill?”

-The stranger for his part wasn't exactly very inviting himself.-

“I can see THAT, but why on earth do a bunch of little kids like you have one?”

-But for the Druddigon, that was kinda irrelevant, after all, here was a Tranquill. Just sitting in front of her as the humans in the picture were preoccupied.-

“We’re training it together! Isn’t she awesome?”

-And like any carnivorous lizard in proximity to a plump bird, she began to sniff at the Tranquill, and move her tongue over the edge of her maw at its scent.-

“Druddi... Druddigon...”

-The Tranquill started to get unnerved, but throughout the whole thing, that feather duster maintained a defiant attitude. At this point it fanned out its wings in challenge.-

“Tranquill!”

-Unfortunately for the Druddigon, the Tranquill's trainer noticed her behavior and her intentions for his Pokémon began to dawn on him.-

“Uh... Right- Hey, what’s the big idea here! Stop sniffing at him!”

-Namely to make it into dinner.



And this was the part where the Druddigon pinned the Tranquill to the ground and bit and slashed at that bird to try and turn it into her next meal.-

“Gon!”

-Which for the bird, lead to the panicked flailing and attempts to break free. You know, the basic things that you'd expect for something about to become lizard food.-

“TRANQUILL!”

-For an inattentive guy, that jerk sure registered change fast. I don't think I've ever remembered meeting another trainer reaching for a Pokeball as fast as he did. The kids were a close second since they weren't exactly expecting their friend to jump another Pokémon like that.-

“AUGH! Get that thing off of him!”



-So obviously, this was bound to not end well. Given that trained Pokémon aren't supposed to be eating other trained Pokémon and all. Unfortunately for the Druddigon...-

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-She was kinda the one to get in trouble. And didn't get dinner out of it.



The kids' father came along shortly afterwards and tried to apologize for everything. The kids were just a bit taken aback from having to pry off their Pokémon off of some random stranger's. The feather duster was still alive, if busily cowering behind its trainer minus a few feathers...-



"Tr-Tranquill!"



-Okay, it was missing a lot of feathers. And had a few lacerations. And puncture wounds. And the Druddigon was fuming from behind the kids about being stiffed over dinner while the Mienshao played damage control with her... Again.-

“I am terribly sorry about that... She’s still inexperienced being trained...”

-Yeah... Mr. Bird Lover was kinda crabby about the whole ordeal.-

“Mmrph. Some consolation that is to the trainer who almost lost a bird to that miserable lizard! Just look at what she did to his plumage!”

-On the plus side, the older brother did make a fairly memorable defense. If one that probably didn't make the situation much better.-

“That’s a bad thing? That Tranquill was making me drool, too!”

-Moving on from there...-

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-There were also some misunderstandings from the other end... Especially when the whole ‘revisiting homes’ came into play.



Remember when I said that the Druddigon came from Dragonspiral Tower? Well, you could say that it's a bit of a common place to visit for people that live around it. Not sure whether it's the history behind the place, the fact that it's a shrine to a part of the local mythology, or just that people commonly train Pokémon from around there and don't want to make them homesick.



But anyways, those kids weren't an exception, and decided to pay a visit to the forests around the place. I mean, the inside's pretty neat and all, but something has to be said for that exterior craftsmanship, the daughter in particular was particularly impressed.-

“Wow... So this is where dad got her from?”

-The place is really, really old. And in just the right spots, like the one everyone was in back then, you can see Pokémon moving around inside, including the Golett shuffling around to and forth along the corridors. As for how old the place is...-

“Looks like it’s ancient... Think it’s from the sixties?”

-Er... Well, I suppose you couldn't really fault a kid barely in grade school for that. There weren't any excuses for his brother, though.-

“No, you moron. Ancient history started in the thirties.”

-Let's just say the Druddigon and anyone with a half-working mind knew that it was significantly older and leave it at that.

Anyways, in the forests, you sometimes can spot little relics around. Which the Druddigon happened to run across. If I remember right, it was a small decorative pebble.-

“Druddigon!”

-I'm not sure if it was part of a frieze, a mosaic, or was some holy pebble, but it was old, and it was mesmerizingly colorful. Naturally, the older brother couldn't help but go over to pick the thing up.-

“Huh... What a neat rock.”

-Which wasn't the smartest possible thing to do, as two Druddigon and a Mienfoo popped up from the brush behind right afterward and loudly growled and hissed their displeasure.



Which I suppose wasn't terribly comforting for kids, it certainly wasn't for the daughter.-

“... Uh... I think we made them angry.”

-Her older brother's always been the type to get kinda snappy under pressure, which when you're busily backpedaling into the nearest tree, well...-

“Gee, I could have figured that out!”

-The younger brother's been one to try and act in the face of difficulty, even if it's in a bit of a blind panic like when you're outnumbered by angry-looking creatures.



Taking a bit of a cue from what he knew about training, he hastily attempted to command his guide:-

“Q-Quick, use Dragon-!”

-However, credit for resolving that crisis really goes to the kids' Druddigon, who roared in her charges' faces.-

“ACK!”

-And after giving them a good scare that their Pokémon had turned against them, did what most Pokémon from around that area would have done.-

“Hey! Wait, what are you-?!”

-Namely wrench the stone out from the older brother's hand, carefully set it back down where it came from, and give him a scolding.-

“Druddigon!”



-It certainly satisfied the welcoming committee. They headed off after that, if still leering back warily every now and then to make sure that the kids and their guide weren't deceiving them.



It was around this time that the kids started to register just what it was the older brother did that made those Pokémon so upset. I guess he must've found it to be fairly dumb, because he couldn't help but ask.-

“... Wait... That’s what they were mad about? A stupid rock?”

-To be fair, I guess it would have been a little much to expect kids to know that the Pokémon in there guard every last flake of paint there like they would their young. It’s a behavior that makes even brighter scientists scratch their head.



However, their Druddigon kinda was one of those Pokémon. And overhearing a slight over something that you too grew up caring about is... Well, something that quite understandably made her roar into the boy's face.-

“DRUDDIGON!”

“Okay! Okay! It’s not so stupid! Yeesh!*Note to self, look, don’t touch in here...”

-Fortunately, those misunderstandings were easy to figure out.-

____________________________________

-It wasn't all awkward, though...

We wound up finding out a lot about each other in those days. Later that spring, the little brother got into baking with his mother. I'm still kinda impressed the little squirt managed to lug that big tray around the kitchen like he did.



Which the family lizard was coincidentally resting in at the time.-

“... Druddigon?”



-She got roused up pretty quickly by the smell of the stuff on the tray, and like I'm sure you've seen curious Pokémon do before, promptly sidled up to the tray sniffing at it as the older brother walked in and also noticed some stuff on the tray.-

“What is that?”



-They were these kinda misshapen pieces of bread. I guess if you squinted hard at them enough, you could kinda make out a resemblance between them and the Druddigon. The younger brother certainly saw it.-

“It’s Druddigon Bread! Mom helped me make it!”

-Which I guess seemed pretty stupid to the older brother, I mean, dragons and bread aren't normally two words that you hear in the same sentence and all.-

“... Druddigon Bread, seriously?”

“What? It seemed appropriate!”

“Druddigon eat MEAT, mor-!”



-He shut up pretty quickly after he saw the Druddigon take one of the loaves and start to eat it. The first one went down slowly and hesitantly, the others...



Well, from the way she practically inhaled the others, there wasn't a whole lot of room for confusion left.-

“... Huh. Maybe they DO eat bread, too.”
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-Then there was school. It really bites that Pokémon aren’t allowed to mingle with their trainers freely. Not that they didn’t make attempts to get around it.

There was this one time in autumn when the older brother tried to use a cardboard box to get around that for the older brother's school. And it would've worked... If it weren't for the principal making the rounds around the school halls.-

“Good morning cardboard box...”

-... They didn’t really pan out, though.

In retrospect, I suppose betting on the old man not noticing a box in the middle of a hallway with a blue tail and red spikes sticking out was a bit of an unreasonable assumption. Even if he hadn't had his morning coffee.-

“... Cardboard box?”

____________________________________

-That lecture afterwards in the principal's office was surely an annoying one. For all sides of the equation.-

“-ing a Pokémon outside of its Pokéball unattended like that was EXTREMELY irresponsible, young man!”

-That 'young man' thought that episode was terminally stupid, especially since he wound up getting detention from it afterwards.-

“Why? We don’t watch her every minute at home!”

-I don't fully recall the nuances of what the Druddigon felt back then, but I think she was rather lost as to why the old man was so upset about everything.-

“... Druddigon?”

-Which was something that both of them found out pretty quickly as the old man spluttered up parts of his morning coffee.-

“This is a school! Not your living room!”

____________________________________

-To be fair, there were times where Pokémon could be brought into school.



There was this one time where the older brother got to do a report about Pokémon. Kinda like a glorified show-and-tell, if with a little bit of biology worked in. Normally, you'd go up, present alongside your Pokémon if you had one, and things would go smoothly.



That day, he was keen to bring along the Druddigon. As for his report... Er...-

“My report is on Druddigon. Ahem...”

-I must say that he definitely had a good sense of drama, he highlighted his blue-and-red companion and began to read off a hastily-written report in front of the class...-

“Dusk! With an eerie forboding sensation, you hear the tread of heavy feet! Druddigon! With glowing yellow eyes, vivid red heads, and blue hides, these fierce dinosaurs prowl-!”

-Which lead to the swift and unanimous response of the classroom that:-

“DRUDDIGON AREN’T DINOSAURS!”

“Look, who’s giving the report? You chowderheads, or me?!”

-There were a lot of things he could have talked about. The Sharpedo-like... There’s a name for it... ‘Dermal denticles’...? Anyways, we’ll stick with “toothed scales” since the term eludes me. The “glowing eyes” that focus better in low light. The glands that generate gases that get lit up by weak currents for breath attacks... I think they’re called ‘electrogenic cells’. Something like that.

But no, that report was pretty much a cartoon drawing with fangs on it. At least he got credit for the art!-

“Gon...”

-Yeah, I'm pretty sure you would've facepalmed in front of the class like her too after a showing like that.-

____________________________________

-Of course, eventually it came time to actually get starters.

Unlike what television and video games would have you believe, most of the time, your 'starter' Pokémon is just whatever Pokémon you catch first with a license with the help of a borrowed Pokémon. 

It's kinda a big deal and all, when the older brother got his, he pretty much thought he was the king of the world as he walked into the family kitchen*proudly tossing a plastic and metal orb up and down*to show off to his mother.-

“Hey mom! Check out what I got for a starter!”

-She was rather curious that day. After all, it would be another member of her family, and it probably was a little on the fast side for her son to be getting a starter even after clearing formal licensing and testing...-

“Oh? A starter? What did you- ACK!”

-Much to her startled shock, the boy's choice was a magenta and green creature that was probably a bit more chitinous than she would have wanted.-

“Pretty cool, huh? Got the Venipede myself!”

-Which was probably a bit more of glory hounding than was really needed. The Druddigon certainly thought so, she WAS the one who did the hard work helping with the catch and all, and was quick to remind the boy of that with an irked grunt.-

“Druddigon!”

-For the mother, scolding her son over not giving credit where it was due was probably a bit of a secondary concern. She was fairly busy climbing onto the nearest chair and giving feedback to her son's choice of starter.-

“GET THAT THING OUT OF THE HOUSE!”



-Some choices were... Less prudent than others.

The Mienshao thought the whole incident was kinda funny, as for the Druddigon, I'm pretty sure that her expression was more or less the closest thing that a Druddigon could make to an eye roll.-

____________________________________

-Oh, right. I forgot to mention. Apparently there’s something called ‘Trainer’s Leave’ that happens around the time that kids go into middle school. It’s essentially a month of journal keeping and absentee homework as kids take their shot at becoming the next League Champion.



Which for the older brother, came just a few months after getting that Venipede. His pick for a first gym was close to home, the local dugout of a gym before Brycen had retired and moved on to starring in B-Movies.



I recall that he seemed to understand the gravity of the challenge, being the first major test of training prowess and all... But that he couldn't quite decide what to make of the place as he stood outside the main gate.-

“... Druddigon?”

-And of course, the Druddigon was there too. Since only coming with a Venipede probably would have been a rather sad showing.



He was really confident that day, and the emblems of the Unova League plastered around the entrance didn't do much to really tamp down that enthusiasm much.-

“Heh. Ice gym, huh? Well, they didn’t get a tower to themselves.

So let’s win this thing!”

-And like many a trainer before him, he set off with his party of two, met and greeted an old man who gave him a Fresh Water for his ordeal and went in.
Sometimes, kids do some really crazy things during those breaks. But usually...-

____________________________________



-Things get bogged down pretty fast.

In the boy's case, his confidence kinda got squashed by a slab of ice pretty fast along with his accompanying Pokémon. I would presume that on his way out alone, he probably started to register just what kind of ordeal he was up against.-

“... First gyms aren’t supposed to be that HARD...”

-It took all of Trainer’s Leave just for him to get past Brycen! And the old codger was going easy!-

____________________________________

-Some trainers wind up taking a bit of a different approach to training. Trainers like the daughter.



She wound up getting her starter in the spring a few years after her older brother. On the day she picked up her starter, she was positively beaming, and walked into the living room to share her new companion with her father.-

“Daddy! Daddy! Look at the cute Pokémon that I got!”

-I still remember how this played out: He turned to see his daughter, expecting to see a Pokémon from the surroundings accompanying her...-

“Oh? What did you-?”

-Only to see a rather pathetic and startled-looking brown lizard in her arms. The thing had most of its head and snout covered up by some kind of bone helmet. Or at least it looked bony... They're apparently usually made mostly out of stone and clay, so who knows. The little pipsqueak was clinging onto a worn-out bone, probably scavenged from some dead thing, like its life depended on it.-

“Cu- C-Cu-”

-While the encounter was definitely a bit better than when her brother had shown off his first mon, it still took the man aback. After all, here was this strange creature that wasn't from around where his daughter said she would be off searching for a starter...



So then how did she get it?-

“... I thought that you said that you were catching Pokémon up in the north.”

“I was! And I caught a Mienfoo! But then I ran into this trainer with this really cute thingy-”

-It’s called ‘trading’. Basically, Pokémon get swapped around and follow different trainers, take different orders.

It can be an interesting experience, back then, the father's lavender companion took the opportunity to inspect the strange new member of the household.-

“... Shao?”

-Which probably wasn't what it needed, since little lizard rather visibly flinched afterwards as the father explained just what the little creature was.-

“... That’s a Cubone, dear.”

“Right, and he offered to trade! Isn’t it adorable?”

-It was around this time that the runt began to squeak. From what I understand, it wanted to be anywhere far, far away from the strange creatures in the room that probably are fierce and frightening from the perspective of an eighteen-inch tall lizard.-

“Bone!”

-One of the things that kids get taught fairly early on is to not corner a Pokémon when it's scared. And while I guess hugging something doesn't necessarily register as "cornering" or being intimidating to the mind of a young girl, you'd think the squirming would have tipped her off like it did with her father.-

“Um, dear, you might want to set it do-”

-But by then, it was a bit late. The Cubone whacked the girl's arm, causing her to drop it as she nursed a bruise left behind that stuck around for about a week.-

“OW! It hit me!”

-While her Pokémon tumbled to the ground and made a beeline to cower behind the couch.-

“B-Bone! CUBONE!”

-Yeah... That probably could have been a better first impression for the man.-

“Oh boy...”

-Likewise for the Pokémon in the room. The Druddigon in particular was rather unimpressed by the whole debacle and gave an annoyed groan.-

“Druddigon...”

-I suppose it's understandable, though. Trading obviously can be a bit disorienting and intimidating.-

____________________________________



-For both sides of the equation, especially when you find out that those cute Pokémon are a handful to take care of.

About a month after the Cubone came along, spring was melting into summer. And the moon grew full at night. Which for those of you who have ever been around Cubone, is often a terrible time for trying to get any sleep.

For the family that lived in a little house on the outskirts of Icirrus, they too discovered that, as the creature's cries filled the house that night.-

“Argh! Why won’t that stupid bonehead shut UP?! I’ve got an exam tomorrow!”

-The older brother was particularly aggravated by that one. After all, he made the... Erm... "Reasonable?" choice to train a mundane Pokemon from nearby the town, and here he was suffering for his sister's choice.

But such frustrations quickly gave way, or at least I hope they did, after the Cubone's crying died down and the normal quiet of night set in.-



“... Finally.”

-Now, the older brother in the family may have been a bit mouthy sometimes, but he wasn't the type to just shrug things off when something seemed amiss.-

“... Hey wait a moment, that thing never quiets down THAT fast.”

-And that meant getting up and making sure that his respite that night hadn't come at some unexpected cost. It was actually quite admirable... Maybe.



So anyways, he got up, and like any other kid who wants to move around in a house in the dead of night, crept down the hallway quietly towards where the earlier cacophony came from.-

“... Hello? Uh... Curses, what did she name that thing again? Are you alri-?”

-I'm not sure whether or not being answered by a low growl was reassuring or not.-*

“Gon!”

-Though if he wasn't reassured, seeing the household Druddigon curling around the form of a sniffling Cubone that was finally starting to doze off on its flank probably did the trick.-

“... Oh... Er... Thank you...”

-I imagine he must have been grateful, after all, he did get some sleep before his exam that night, or he was a bit too sleep-deprived to really care. Either way, he stuck out his hand and patted the crest of the Druddigon saying:-

“Shame we can’t just ask you what’s going on... You seem to understand that little bone lizard better than we can...”



-Sometimes those little headaches just require a little bit more effort than normal to get to know and befriend. Which was something that I think the boy walked away with that night as the Druddigon growled softer and began to doze off herself.-

____________________________________

-A few months after her rocky first impression with her Cubone, it came time for the daughter to try her luck too at the whole "challenging a gym during Trainer's Leave" thing.



She planned everything out so much, she'd start from Opelucid first instead of at home, and then work her way through easier gyms outward before doubling back home.



It all seemed so perfect to her, or at least someone would have surmised that if they had seen her more or less glowing in front of the gym's dark stone and dragon head statues that day.-

“Well, since someone was a moron and fought the gym he had no chance against for his first gym! We’re gonna try a different one!”


-Not everyone there was quite as enthusiastic, the Druddigon in particular was fairly skeptical, and expressed as much.-

“Druddi... Gon?”



-Were she able to, I think she would've have thrown in an equally skeptical bead of sweat.



Her companions were a bit less openly dubious of their chances. The Cubone had grown more acclimated to its larger companion, and had been joined by a Deerling a short time before this challenge. In case you were wondering, no, the Deerling did not have a stint almost becoming Druddigon food, as corny as it sounds, the Druddigon had figured out the whole "friends aren't food" thing a couple of years back.

But still, the two couldn't help but trade glances to each other, the kind of "are we sure she knows what she's doing?" glances that anyone could interpret.-

“Ta-dah! Why, with this combination of cuteness and toughness, and three Pokemon instead of two, we’re a shoo-in!”



-There's no way I could possibly forget when she did this...-

____________________________________

-Because it utterly sucked.



Like her older brother, the daughter similarly didn't last very long in her challenge, and left the dragon-headed building alone. She was rather taken aback by how much she underestimated her ordeal and how utterly her careful planning evaporated.-

“But I don’t understand... Dragon Claw was supposed to be super effective!”



____________________________________



-What's that look supposed to mean? The story isn't done. And I'll tell you how I know about it later! Sheesh! Haven't you ever heard of pacing?



Though that is more or less how that early part of their lives went...-

Dragonspiral's Children - Part 3: Homemaking

-”Wasn't that the ending?” Eh? Of course not! After all, life's a continuous journey, one where you always keep learning things. And there were still a few awkward phases of life that awaited that little family from the outskirts of Icirrus...-


____________________________________

-Like having to see the nest empty a bit.

The summer after everything regarding that whole "reawakening of legends" thing, it came time for the eldest son to set out from home. Not to try his luck with the league again, but to move onto another school. One where he would learn drier subjects than he would have learned previously, and far enough from home that his presence back in the house could no longer be taken for granted at night. It was a definitely an occasion with great gravity to it, and all of the family turned out that day in order to see off the elder brother at Mistralton's airport... knowing that it would likely be weeks, if not longer until they saw him next...-

“Goodbye!”

-The watching forms of a Druddigon and the other Pokémon in the household watched as the mother went up to the cusp of the gate for security and embraced the young man. They had pieced together that the elder brother's presence would diminish, but they still could not help but find something off about the occasion.

The father joined his spouse, offering a sagely, though congenial, warning to his son as he too went up to embrace him-

“Good luck, and don’t go too crazy out there!”

-The daughter was also present, and bade her sibling farewell on her own terms, taking a page from squabbles past. Though there was a much more amiable tenor to her parting words:-

“Heh... We’ll find out, after all!”

-And then it came time for the youngest to give his farewell, which he did by posing a question:-

“We’ll catch up next time, right? I’ll have a starter by then- Eh?!”

"Druddigon!"

-It was at this time that the family Druddigon interrupted and went up to embrace the older child herself, which the now-grown young man couldn't help but smile at.-

“Yeah... I think that sounds good...

I can’t wait to see what you pick. Heh heh. And you'll definitely have quite the tutor to help show you the ropes.”

____________________________________

-As time continued to pass, they were reminded that they were not getting any younger. The spring after the elder son departed for college, it was once again that time of year when the snow had just melted away in favor of the first buds of spring. And, it was also once again the spring of trainerhood for one of the children in the house. Much as his elder siblings had, the younger brother that day came into the living room beaming, proudly declaring:-

“Mom! Mom! I got a starter!”

-She reluctantly turned from tending to a houseplant towards her child, keenly remembering just how much of a handful the other two starters in the house were, but nevertheless found herself asking:-

“Eh? So what did you ge-?”

“Sni...?”

-Much to her relieved surprise, she was answered by the green, serpentine form of a Snivy tugging at her leg with a pair of stubby arms. The creature looked up curiously, unsure what to make of the strange large creature. It was then that mother noticed that unlike the last two such moments in the household, her son was holding a small electronic device.-

“I signed up for a Pokédex! Isn’t it awesome? And they gave me this Snivy!”



-The woman looked back down at the Snivy, and back at her child. These were creatures just being given out to children to accompany them on their journeys through life, so they would surely not be any more of a handful than a Venipede or a Cubone to take care of...



Hopefully.-

“... Well... At least he looks like he’ll be simpler to take care of...”

-From the room over, the family Druddigon watched the new arrival looking around. She was not sure what to make of the creature, as she began to sense that her purpose with the family's children had seemingly been completed.-

“Gon...”

-It’s jarring how slowly people change compared to most Pokémon. But... I guess that makes the changes all the more unsettling once you notice them.-

____________________________________

-As is unavoidable in life, it also came time to get used to some close friends drifting away. At the tail end of that summer, the family Druddigon lounged on the porch, taking in the sun's evening rays as the daughter and remaining son of the household played with the data entries of a Pokédex.-

"Wow... I had no idea that you'd be able to see this many Pokémon just meeting other people around town."



"Yeah... Still, I kinda wish I had more complete entries in here. Why, if it weren't for you, dad, and the neighbors helping, I don't think I'd even have 10 height and weight measurements in here!"



-It was one of those days where the air would suck any motivation to do anything out of a being. Though then again, perhaps it was not all the weather's fault. The elder brother had left for his faraway school once again, and the house was once again missing the characteristic hubbub that an extra person and two Pokémon contributed.



It was on this day that a certain neighbor girl (or perhaps by that point it would have been more apt to call her a neighbor woman), had reached the same phase of life as the elder brother had the year prior, and one that the daughter was perhaps but a year or two away from reaching herself.



Unlike their prior encounters, there was something visibly amiss with the neighbor today.-

“... Excuse me... Uh... Have you seen- Uh...?”

-At first, the daughter supposed that her neighbor had perhaps misplaced some things while packing. Or perhaps she had forgotten something of the neighbor's she had borrowed?-

“Hmm? You haven’t finished packing for college yet?”



-The young boy's Snivy, which was amusing itself with a rock, began to sense that something was amiss. It was then that a possible realization for the tense visit suddenly dawned on its owner.-

“Wait a minute, where’s your axeface? He’s normally inseparable from you!”

“That’s the thing! I can’t find him! I’ve tried looking everywhere!

I first thought that he recalled himself to his Pokéball, but I don't understand! Where could he have gone?”



-The Druddigon was roused by the commotion, and after staring off into the distance to try and scan for the Haxorus... came across one of the windmills in the distance.


 It was then that she realized where the neighbor's missing companion perhaps was, and began to tug at the sleeve of the daughter's shirt to gather her attention.-

“Gon! Druddigon!”

“Eh? Where’s it that you want to take us?”

-It's not so much the drift away that is the most difficult part with friends...-

____________________________________

-It's having to say goodbye to them.

Much as they had once many years ago, the children found themselves in the noisy interior of a familiar windmill. This time, they were lead by the guidance of the Druddigon they had grown up with.



As they climbed the same familiar stairs, the neighbor girl once again saw her Pokémon looking out to a panorama of Icirrus.



Alone.-

“There you are-!”

“H-Hax...”

-Immediately, the young woman noticed that there was a mournful, sniffling tone to the creature's voice. Much to her concern, as she drew nearer, she began to notice some large drops leaking from its eyes down its face and tusks.-

“Huh? What’s wrong?”



-The children from the Druddigon's household then followed up the steps, and came across the pitiful sight. The younger of the two went over and attempted to soothe the crying Haxorus.-

“Aww... Come on big guy, don’t cry...”

-The neighbor girl began to wipe away some tears from eyes that betrayed a dearth of self-confidence that the children had not seen for years. She pat her now fully-grown Pokémon, attempting to reassure him:-

“Yeah... I’m sure we’ll meet them again...”

“H-Haxorus!”



-To which the Haxorus tearfully interjected, and looked over at the Druddigon.

It was then that the mystery of the Haxorus' behavior was suddenly dispelled, as the Druddigon nuzzled the still-sniffling creature, attempting to quiet it.



The neighbor girl, beginning to realize that this would not be a case that she could resolve easily, questioned her Pokémon reluctantly:-

“... Oh... Is this about that...?”

-To which the Haxorus nodded plaintively:-

“H-Hax...”

-The neighbor girl paused for what seemed an eternity. She too must have wished for a way to give everyone what they wanted, as impossible as it was.



 It was then that she offered what little she could to compensate.-

“... We can arrange for you to come over occasionally if it's okay with them... I mean, the PC system is still a thing, right? But we really do need to get going...

If it would help, though... Maybe you could spend the night together with your friend?”

-The Haxorus still sniffled, though began to calm down as a faint glimmer of self-confidence returned to its eyes as the younger brother offered his endorsement of the neighbor's attempt to soothe her charge.-

“Hax... Haxorus?”

“Yeah... We’d always be happy to have you over, big guy...”

-The Druddigon then sidled up against the Haxorus, as he finally had finally been coaxed from its despair. It was then that the daughter from the Druddigon's household advised the two:-

“Make the most of this time.

Do whatever it is you two want to together...”

____________________________________

-And there was the awkwardness of watching new life enter the household. It's certainly a strange time, one where a being experiences things that it never knew it wanted from deep inside of itself.



For the family, that moment came a few weeks after that night between the Haxorus and their Druddigon. On that day, the Druddigon deviated from her normal routine around the house, having chosen instead to curl up on a purloined blanket around a pair of strange objects.



When the younger brother examined the objects more closely, the creature's strange behavior suddenly began to make a bit more sense to him.-

“... She’s got... Eggs?”

-As her brother attempted to more closely examine the eggs, the daughter quickly pieced together what cosmic incident generated the Druddigon's clutch:-

“... Oh... So that's what they were doing together on their last night...”

“Huh... Interesting choice of-”

“DRUDDIGON!”

-Much to the boy's shock, he was rebuffed by a loud roar and warning swipe from the Druddigon. As the boy tumbled back from instinctively recoiling, he cried out:-

“GAH! What’s with you?!”

-The daughter was not fully sure, but thought that the behavior was perhaps one that she had read of before. She concluded that this was perhaps a matter that was best left be for the time being, and offered her guess as to what was "with" the Druddigon to her brother:-

“I think she’s brooding...”

“So what do we do, then?”

“... Just let her have some alone time... If she lets you interact with her eggs, so be it... Just don’t force it.”

____________________________________

-But... At the same time, you see wonderful things intermixed with those awkward things as well.


A few weeks after their discovery, the Druddigon's eggs became a bit more lively. Occasionally they would rock, and would have what seemed to be faint noises emanate from them.

A now grayer-headed old man went up to the Druddigon, who had had her instinctive edge dulled from the fatigue of a dutiful vigil of incubating her offspring. The man pat her flank, speaking soothing, encouraging words.-

“Heh... It’s quite something, isn’t it, girl?”

“Druddigon... ... Gon?”

-At that moment, the faint, but clear sound of a crack could be heard. The young boy in the other room picked up on the sound almost immediately, and rushed in along with his sister for a moment that they had waited patiently for weeks to witness:-

“They’re hatching! They’re hatching!”

-They were not a moment too soon, as small-but-pointed claws began to force their way through two sets of eggshells. A limb appeared from one- a tired and disoriented yellow eye poked through a hole in another.

And soon enough, the two hatchlings forced enough of their confines open to stumble out. They fell over onto the ground damp and sticky with the residual amniotic fluid from their eggs, and much as any newborn creature would, began to cry out feebly for their mother:-

“Gon! Gon!”

-She quickly shifted over and drew in her two children, diminutive shadows of their future, little creatures bearing their mother’s red head, blue hide, and thorny wings that were roughly the size of the young boy's Snivy. The mother Druddigon was about to attempt to lick the two clean of the remnants of their incubation when she was interrupted by the daughter.-

“Hold on...”

-The mother Druddigon tilted her head quizzically, unsure of just what the daughter wished to offer, or why she had brought a towel for this occasion.-

“Let us help, they’ll dry out a bit faster this way.”

-Aha. So that was her reasoning. The grown Druddigon tiredly consented, and gave a quiet, but happy growl and nudged her offspring towards the waiting girl.

The daughter quickly enveloped one of the two young Druddigon with the towel, which squirmed a bit as the strange human cleaned it off.-

“Gon!”

-Who scampered back to its mother once it was freed from the strange white sensation. The other was a bit more devious, and took the opportunity to latch onto a corner of the towel with its maw and tug against it as the girl attempted to clean the second of the mother Druddigon's young.-

“Hey! Come on, you don’t want a messy rag like that!”

-But the bemused little creature seemed to have none of it, enthralled with its white cotton and polyester quarry.-

“Gon! Gon!”

-As the daughter struggled to clean her troublesome charge, the younger brother approached the mother Druddigon with a cautious entreaty:-


“... Can... Can we pet them?”

-She hesitated for a moment, but... For whatever reason, whether it was reasoning that the young child she had grown with would surely be trustworthy, or whether it was her exhaustion speaking:-

“Druddi... Druddigon.”

-She nodded, and tiredly nudged the small creature that had retreated to her side towards the boy, who took in the sight of him with a curious awe:-

“Dru... Druddigon?”

-The boy was enthralled with the little form, and reached down to heartily pet its head.-

“... Heh... Never thought that Druddigon would start so sm- OW!”

-Only to find himself hastily jerking away his hand from the creature and finding it to be dribbling red fluid from a scrape. The sight elicited a bit of a belated observation from the man with grayed hair:-

“... Ah... Right. That one on the right appears to have Rough Skin. You should pat slower and in the direction of the scales next time.”

____________________________________

-And now that takes us to today, to a family's house on the outskirts of Icirrus, where the air is muggy with the seasonal heat and humidity of early summer.

As you probably guessed, the reason why I know about this family so well...



Well, it's because I'm a part of it. So then, who am I, and whose story is this?-



“Hey! I’m back!”

“Mom! Dad! He’s here!”

-Is it the story of the young man who just opened the door to this house? The one with that Scolipede and that Palpitoad by his side?

Is it the story of that young woman who answered the door along with her Marowak and Sawsbuck?

Or is it the story of the younger brother who just walked in with the Snivy and the-? Wait...-

“About time! What did you do, WALK from Mistralton?”

-Come on... He has another face that follows him now.-

“What? I wanted a bit of a more scenic route than the bus line! And security’s just gotten ANNOYING ever since those morons iced over Opelucid last fa-!”

“Gon?”

-There we go... One of the two little ones wound up tagging along with him.-

“Heh... Little guy’s growing fast, isn’t he?

But... I thought she had two eggs...”

“Well... We figured that the other hatchling should stay nearby... But with someone who’d be able to grow up alongside him.”

“Eh? Who would that b-?”

-The answer is... This story's none of theirs.-

“Druddigon...”

-It's mine. The not-so-little lizard on the left over there. As for what happened to my other child... Well, that neighbor girl did have a brother... And he’s just old enough to be traveling along with Pokémon.



 Oh, and he should be opening birthday presents right about now while his sister's back in town.-

“Oh wow! A Druddigon! Thanks, mom!”

“Ha-Hax?”



“Dear! I thought we were getting another Axew!”



-Hmm, hmm... I guess that’s one benefit of them having a low fence...

I’ll have to make sure to stop by and explain to the Haxorus about what’s going on... Not that his flabbergasted expression isn’t amusing. Seems like the elder brother seems to think so himself.-

“Heh... Maybe we should all meet up over at someone’s home... The locals have calmed down a bit... And... It probably would be good to make it there before the restoration work starts...”

-Oh! That’s right! It’ll be the first time since we were allowed to start visiting again that we’ll actually see things start to get fixed there...-

“... How is it that it’s taken over two years for them to get that started again?”

“How many work sites can you think of that have to be planned around wild mons darting around?”

-Bah, you say that as if that's an excuse for the pace! But anyways... That’s the story of what’s happened to me since I started traveling with these humans.

It’s not the most interesting one... Or the most exciting one... Or the one that most others will ever hear about...

But... I’m glad that I’ve been able to share it with these people...

Hopefully the younger brother plans out his Trainer's Leave a bit better than his siblings, though.-

Context Switch: Part 2 - Extraneous Variables

11 month(s), 29 day(s), 21 hour(s), 28 minute(s), 9 second(s) to deadline:

Soon afterwards, it came time for the young man to depart the ersatz conference room for his lodgings. If this "Cove Lily Motel" had some hint of grandeur he was ignorant of, it was surely not here either.

The garish, peeling paint on the roof and shingles did little to spruce up its pedestrian architecture or hide the fact that its proprietors still relied on metal keys to lock the rooms. The deserted puddle of a pool and its attendant patio furniture downstairs that his Corphish eyed in between pinches at the base of the second floor railing similarly failed to strike him as remarkable.

"So… This is going to be our home for the next 12 months, huh?"

The man sighed as he slipped his room key in, unlocked the door, and after a short struggle yanked it free. The sounds of the man negotiating his passage with the door caught his partner's attention as it turned to see its trainer with his hand on the door's knob.

"Guess we'd better see who our two roommates are…"

The man walked into a small hallway and was immediately struck by the relative size of the room. It was laid out as a suite, clearly meant for customers that planned on staying for a good time. The second thing that caught the man's attention was that a good deal of the free space had been taken up by additional desks. On them papers, PC towers, bulky and boxy monitors, and what the man presumed were the devkits were strewn about willy-nilly.

It was then that a small voice came from another room, as the young trainer and his Corphish saw a small predominantly blue mouse bouncing on a tail orb roughly the same size as its body. There was a moment between the man's Corphish and this new creature as the two cautiously sized each other up, leaving the man to try and learn who the blue creature's owner might be.

That was, until the man heard the owner getting up and following its charge into the hallway.

"Oh, hello! You're that programmer who's sharing the room?"

This was a tad unexpected, the young man had not anticipated that he would be paired with roommates that were visibly older than him. Additionally, the papers on the man's desk and the contents of a boxy monitor on it, although ruining an otherwise unimpeded view of the sea, seemed to be unusually colorful, to which the young man inquired:

"Yeah, and you're…?"

"Why, your maestro of turning ink and paper concept sketches into sprites, of course. I'm one of the graphics artists," the roommate responded. With that mystery solved, the young man briefly caught a glance of the blue mouse cautiously nearing his Corphish which was cautiously clicking its pedipalps clearly sharing its owner's curiosity for its purpose here.

"And the Azurill?"

"A bit of a newer friend, you could say that she's become a bit of a muse. And you?"

"Oh, I'm one of the new programmers brought aboard."

The Corphish took the opportunity to interject here, waving a pedipalp cheerily at the man at the other end of the doorway.

"And this is my little buddy here."

As well as to attempt to nip at the mysterious blue orb attached to the blue mouse, which caused it to squeak and bound up onto a counter in the other room, leaving the Corphish's owner to sheepishly attempt to excuse his Pokémon's behavior.

"… He's just a bit feisty."

"… So I see," the artist grumbled.

"Hmm, aren't we supposed to have three people in this room? So then who's our other roommate?"

"… You didn't already know?"

The young man heard the door open again, and as he turned to see the graphics artist explained:

"It's the director for this team."

Much to the programmer's horror, it truly was the speaker from the debriefing. The young man's face rapidly drained of color as he began to register that he would be spending 12 months in the same room as the project's leader, there over his shoulder to criticize every little potential snag.

The man attempted to put on a brave, if obviously blanching face and hesitantly put out an arm to offer a handshake.

"Er… Nice to meet you, sir."

The director for his part seemed to not be particularly fazed as he reciprocated the young man's handshake while a small blue creature with a protuberance coming from its head, two arms on the sides of its face, and a black tail marched in with a commanding air headed over towards the Corphish.

"While I'm sure you were expecting someone a bit lower on the ladder to be rooming with you, I hope that it helps take some of the edge off of the experience. After all, I don't bite."

It was at that exact moment that blue creature gave an abrupt cry. All eyes in the room turned to see the Corphish playfully grasping one of the blue creature's arms, and the blue creature abruptly slamming the Corphish into a wall to break free.

As the stunned crustacean hastily retreated behind its owner, the young man became acutely aware of the withering stare directed at him from the director.

"… He's normally better behaved, I swear."

_________________________________

10 month(s), 20 day(s), 12 hour(s), 45 minute(s), 49 second(s) to deadline:

Work for the young programmer typically consisted of a series of two-week cycles, in which making a functional game to be sold to customers was inched towards little by little by deciding and implementing objectives during those cycles.

There was a good deal of group conferencing, crude whiteboard sketches attempting to visualize what should do what, and division of tasks. However, the bulk of work was in the end adding characters to an agglomeration of text in a development environment and watching varying messages flash in a terminal. From there, that text, the source code, as it was called, would be forced through a compiler, a program which would turn people's texts into programs.

Indeed, halfway through the first of such cycles, the man knew that his craft was a process that probably would have struck an average passerby as less interesting to watch than the Taillow preening itself on the window balcony at that moment. Until he noticed his Corphish tugging at the back of his pant leg.

"Oh… Hello there, buddy… Did you come to help me find out where the problem's coming from with this callback?"

The creature visibly paused, after all, what its trainer seemed to be doing appeared rather remarkable, while his tone of voice sounded strangely playful. The Corphish, perhaps against its better judgment humored the man's request and gave a cheerful call as it awaited whatever its trainer had on its mind.

"Heh… I suppose it couldn't hurt to describe what I'm working on."

The programmer brought his charge up onto the desk, where the contents of a text editor were visible.

///////////////////////////////////////////

void init_menu_callback(menu_evt *event) {

if(event->active == TRUE) {

menu_type = event -> subtype_ID;
render_menu(menu_type);
lock_map_controls();

} else {

unlock_map_controls();

}

}

///////////////////////////////////////////

"So this is block that handles how the callback for the menu works. I'm pretty sure that this logic is correct, but the error messages say that something's coming from here. Basically, every time that it game detects that there is a menu event, it records the type of menu as a local variable, and uses it to-"

There was a bit of a short silence as the man noticed that his Corphish had not made a sound, but was eyeing the screen blankly.

"… You didn't understand a word that I just said, did you?"

The Corphish responded with a call that its owner could have sworn had a sheepish tone to it.

"Of course. Uhm… Should I use one of the dev kits to demonstrate?"

The Corphish then decided that perhaps it would be better to leave his trainer be until he was less preoccupied with work and cheerfully scuttled off to go pester the graphics artist's Azurill and the director's Wynaut in the other room of the suite.

"Yeah, I didn't think that would help much either. I guess I'm on my own," the man sighed.

___________________________________

9 month(s), 1 day(s), 18 hour(s), 15 minute(s), 57 second(s) to deadline:

The young man's craft was one of fits and starts, much as a writer finds himself oscillating between near-total lack of accomplishment and great progress. Alas, this day was of the latter sort as the Corphish's trainer attempted to puzzle out a strange error coming from his compiler's messages.

"Bah…"

The programmer noticed that the graphics artist, while on his way out from the room with his Azurill, seemed to hesitate as a faint sound from outside occasionally reverberated. He decided that given his lack of progress in work, that it was high time to give his mind a short break to investigate what his coworker was looking at. On his way to the door, he was joined in by his Corphish, who had taken the opportunity to free itself from the Wynaut's attempt to badger it into parting with a berry.

"Hmm? Did you see something?"

There, the young man saw a brown and green sauropod with what appeared to be fruit attached under the base of its neck walking about in a circuit about the motel's unimpressive pool. The creature would periodically look about and call out, seemingly expecting a response from something.

"Is that young Tropius still pacing around the motel pool?"

"Eh?"

"You didn't see her this morning? She was pacing around and calling out just like that."

The creature continued her ritual, as it dawned on the programmer that this Tropius seemed rather disoriented, and couldn't help but feel some pity for the reptile pacing about.

"… She looks really lost. Where the heck are the hotel staff and why haven't they brought her to her trainer yet?"

"I'm certain it will sort itself out, just leave her be."

As the graphics artist and his charge departed, the programmer watched the Tropius for a little longer before returning to his post. After all, surely the graphics artist was right and this matter would sort itself out.

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9 month(s), 1 day(s), 12 hour(s), 58 minute(s), 12 second(s) to deadline:

That evening, the programmer found himself heading back from a convenience store to pick up some small snacks after a long meeting with his fellow programmers. It was an underwhelming end to an underwhelming day, with the only excitement that he encountered so far being watching some local children engaging in an impromptu stunt competition with Acro Bikes outside the convenience store.

While on his way to the stairs, he chanced to run into the graphics artist.

"… Heading back so soon? I'm surprised you're not off at one of the after-hours socials."

"Eh, I had a little more work to tend t-"

The programmer saw that the Tropius from earlier was still beside the pool, if no longer pacing about and appearing visibly exhausted and distraught. It would occasionally crane its head upward towards the sky, as if it were waiting in anticipation for something. As the Corphish and Azurill looked through the gate, the two Pokemon and their trainers couldn't help but trade looks with each other evincing sympathy for the poor creature.

"… Her trainer hasn't come to pick her up this late?"

"… Maybe she should spend the night with us," the programmer suggested.

It was at this point that the graphics artist began to express some reluctance.

"I don't know… A Pokémon that we don't have a Pokéball for? In a room full of computers and devkits?"

"… I'm sure that we'll be able to manage."

And the young man opened the gate and with his crustacean in tow, drew near to the young Tropius, calling out to it.

"Hey!"

The creature instinctively got to its feet, and began to backpedal nervously, beating four green appendages a bit. The programmer noticed that one of them seemed to be moving slower, if lacking signs of injury; perhaps the creature had exhausted it or struck it against a hard object while her caretakers were out.

Still, he knew better than to try and force another trainer's Pokémon into something they were uncomfortable with. He approached the creature with a noticeable berth and presented it a soft drink as his Corphish waved congenially to the creature.

"Aw, come on, don't be shy… You want a better place to stay tonight than on that hard pool concrete, don't you?"

The Tropius paused for a moment, and then slowly drew near before seizing the soft drink with its mouth and beginning to drink its contents. The creature's guard had been lowered, and it seemed soothed as the programmer gave its long neck a cautious pat.

"Heh… See, we're not so scary."

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9 month(s), 1 day(s), 8 hour(s), 14 minute(s), 43 second(s) to deadline:

Later that night, as the programmer backed away from his keyboard deciding to leave his present battle with the current iteration of work to be done for another day, he chanced to see the director come in through the hallway as a the Tropius from the pool gawked around at the furniture and various monitors about it.

"… I see that you caught a local companion for your Corphish…"

"Er… Technically, I didn't. I left a call for the front desk to ask around for her owner," the programmer sheepishly replied.

The comment caused an uneasy look to spread over the graphics artist's face which did not elude his Azurill's notice, "Right… About that. According to the front desk, the Tropius is apparently a female stranded from a herd flying through."

The programmer was taken aback, unsure if he had heard his colleague's words properly, "Wait, what?"

"You didn't know? Tropius can fly. I mean, they have to exploit updrafts and glide for most of it, but they can cover some decent distance while airborne."

"So… She doesn't have a trainer?", the director questioned while betraying a hardening countenance.

The graphics artist hesitated for a long moment, but ultimately answered, "It doesn't sound like it, no."

The programmer and graphics artist traded looks with each other as the director buried his face into an open palm. As the Tropius carried on with her examination of the room and the Corphish sidled up, blissfully inattentive of the conversation between the three trainers, the programmer started to get a sinking expression while his other colleague shot back a small glare reminding him that their present embarrassment was completely avoidable.

"… You brought a wild Pokémon into our room?", the director demanded before turning his attention to the graphics artist, "And you didn't stop him?"

The programmer protested, "Well, I didn't know she was wild! And she's been really well behaved…"

It was then that the uneasy quiet room was broken by a loud cry from the Tropius. The programmer whirled around and saw that his Corphish had latched onto one of the Tropius' wings causing her to dash about wildly trying to knock it free.

After upending some furniture, she eventually succeeded with a loud crash after swatting the Corphish into the side of the programmer's bulky monitor, which fell to the floor and shattered the screen. The Tropius hastily retreated to the side of the programmer baying as the Corphish hissed indignantly at the new stranger for overreacting to a friendly nip.

"Probably not the best choice of words there," the graphics artist whispered.

At this point, the now-seething director had had quite enough of the chaos in the room.

"That monitor's coming out of your paycheck. Get a Pokéball for her or else get her out of here!" he barked at the junior programmer.

"Yes, sir."

Context Switch: Part 4 - Amelioration Patterns

5 month(s), 28 day(s), 8 hour(s), 41 minute(s), 22 second(s) to deadline:

Not long afterwards, the young programmer and his roommates found themselves far removed from their workdesks in a barren waste of sand hemmed in by mountains. In the distance, a Trapinch could be seen pawing at the ground outside a sand pit, seemingly attempting to doodle something into the dirt with its feet.

It was far from a boring location- but also far from a comfortable one. The sun beat down on the three men and their Pokémon as they stared wearily at rolling dunes ahead of them

"How on earth did you ever get us into this?" the graphics artist asked while wiping away some sweat from his blueish hairline.

The programmer gave a bit of a sheepish look after seeing a rather visible lack of amusement from the Tropius and Corphish accompanying him, and attempted to check the less-than-welcome reception.

"Well, hey, it's one way to get out of the hotel room, right?"

"Do keep in mind that there is a practical purpose to this. This is field work for getting ideas for the game," the director reminded, his Wynaut being quick to mimic its trainer's feelings by sternly pointing at the young programmer and giving what he presumed was a withering leer like the one the blond-haired man was presently giving.

The graphics artist's Azurill began to tug at its partner's pant leg. He attempted to soothe it with water from a plastic bottle, only to find it bereft of all but a few drops.

"Well, what is there to take away from this aside from deserts being terrible for dehydration?" he said in exasperation, as the young programmer began to climb a dune in front of the group.

"I'm sure there's some sort of history we can take away from he-"

As the programmer neared the top of the dune, he had the misfortune of having a clod of sand from the ridge thrown into his eyes by a strong gust.

"Ackpth! Okay, so that's why they were selling those goofy-looking goggles back at the rest area!"

As the man's Tropius and Corphish rushed to his aid, the crustacean took a perhaps ill-advised attempt to wash out the sand from its trainer's eyes with a water gun. The director glanced at the unfolding chaos, thoughts stirring in his mind.

"Hmm… The sand and wind acting as a barrier… I think that we could use this…"

______________________________

5 month(s), 21 day(s), 4 hour(s), 45 minute(s), 13 second(s) to deadline:

A few days later, the programmer and his roommates found themselves and their charges walking down a route encrusted in the never-ending rain of light-gray volcanic soot. In somewhat grayed foliage, Spindas with perpetually dazed expressions moved to and fro erratically around their surroundings.

"So… This is where all the ash for those glass blown flutes comes from…"

The young programmer had heard of this place from a travel brochure, but seeing it in person was all the more mesmerizing. The Pokémon with them seemed to likewise find the novelty of the gray land around them entrancing, as they began to lazily make patterns in the soot, trading playful calls with each other.

"It's like a snowy landscape… Except it's hot and muggy and much worse for your lungs."

The director began to notice that the Pokémon playing around them were starting to take on shades of the surrounding soot as it clung to their bodies.

"I notice that the ash tends to stick to you as you move through it…"

"Er, well of course. It's how people around here gather the soot. They carry around a bag and let nature do the hard work," the graphics artist explained.

The episode struck the director as something to mull for filling content.

"Hmm… Seems like it has potential."

______________________________

5 month(s), 15 day(s), 15 hour(s), 6 minute(s), 40 second(s) to deadline:

A few days afterwards, the programmer and his roommates found themselves at an island town of whitewashed buildings overlooking a caldera lake at its center. The town seemed to be a popular haunt for tourists, given the plethora of eateries and souvenir shops, but was strangely empty.

The reason for the seeming incongruity was soon discovered after the programmer and his roommates found a young child from the area, who told a tale of a particularly stormy night just a couple months before the start of their project.

"And the sky was dark and thundering, and the earth was shaking- And there were these red and blue Pokémon that were all 'Rawr, I'm gonna eat you!' and 'Bump wiggle wiggle' with each other! And then this green sky gecko showed up and the two got bored and left."

The programmer and graphics artist traded blank stares with each other after hearing the child. Even the Pokémon with them seemed to feel as if perhaps this explanation was not quite telling the full, and likely much more concerning story.

"I'm starting to understand why that news coverage of the big storm last year seemed like it was missing something."

"No kidding…" the programmer replied.

Meanwhile, the director seemed to be rather enthralled with the child's story. "Bump wiggle wiggle, eh?" he mused aloud, "Very interesting… And I think we have our new plot climax…"

______________________________

4 month(s), 20 day(s), 5 hour(s), 43 minute(s), 0 second(s) to deadline:

Before long, the programmer and the others on the development team completed their last-minute inspiration gathering and returned to the thick of virtual battle with the different builds of their project.

The game was finally beginning to show vestiges of being more than a handful of test results from a compiler, and it was finally robust enough to host a battle between the graphics artist and the programmer through two devkits linked with a cable.

At that time, things were still rudimentary- all of the sprites other than those for the menu were still placeholders. Still, that did not stop the graphics artist as he moved his selector icon twice to the right over along a 2-line list of attacks and made a final, decisive move.

"Whoo! And another victim is claimed for the champion!" the artist crowed.

His Azurill happily cheered him on, while the programmer's Corphish seemed adamant on protesting his trainer's loss. The Tropius quizzically tilted her head and tried to examine the machines in the hands of the programmer and graphics artist, as she was at a loss for just what the two Pokémon and their companions were so worked up about.

"Yeah, yeah. When are you ever going to hurry up and implement character sprites instead of these floating question marks?"

"You can't rush art or battle prowess, young grasshopper," the graphics artist tut-tutted.

It was then that the director, attracted by the ruckus the two made, came in and after a little chin-scratching, questioned the emergent victor over some. "Hmm… That's the tenth time that you've been able to defeat him with more than half a team left… What is the team that you've been using?"

"Ah, just something thrown together with later game monsters.

My star has four offensive moves, a recovery, and a status move," the graphics artist replied, beaming.

"Thing's a blasted juggernaut. I honestly don't know how you're doing that," the programmer replied. A comment which made the director pause and mull something about the graphics artist's string of good fortune.

"Hmm… What would happen if we cut things down to only four moves each again…? Can you quickly reset the match so that the last two moves of each monster have no power points?"

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4 month(s), 20 day(s), 5 hour(s), 32 minute(s), 12 second(s) to deadline:

Once the director's limitations were imposed, the young man was pleasantly surprised to find that luck had shifted in his favor, "Whoo! Knew that things would finally turn around!"

Much to the dismay of the graphics artist, who was quick to bemoan his loss.

"Nooooo… My winning streak…"

The director began to ponder the implications of what he had just witnessed, and mused "Hrm… Maybe it is a little unbalancing to be adding more moves to monsters…"

________________________________

3 month(s), 30 day(s), 11 hour(s), 48 minute(s), 5 second(s) to deadline:

Two months after the field work was completed, the project was beginning to remotely resemble a game, and the programmer found himself with a bout of free time. While an amused Tropius and Corphish watched a young trainer on the sidewalk below toss small blocks from a dispenser to a Zigzagoon, the trainer of the two snooping Pokémon found himself checking up on the graphics artist.

"Hey… Still working on those sprites?"

"Yeah, I just finished up the final form of one of the starters."

The programmer looked at the screen, confused- this was not what he thought the starter his colleague had sprited would look like.

"Eh? I thought this one was supposed to be the 'Latiiken', though."

"Got a memo stating that it didn't seem to mesh well with the other two, so… We have this instead."

"Hrm… Shame. I kinda liked that overgrown bird," the programmer mused while looking over the screen.

The artist realized that the programmer was uncharacteristically away from work...

"Wait, so what are you doing right now?"

"Oh, just waiting on the sound team for something to make up for them tricking me into running a script with a hidden recursive delete command and wiping out a night's worth of work…"

"Just what would that be?"

Just then, the abrupt sound of a cacophony of MIDI instruments could be heard coming from the room next door, all tuned to a singular, distinctive instrument. Much to the displeasure of some voices from next door, both human and Pokémon.

"Hey! This is supposed to be a test of the entire soundfont! Play one of the other instruments already!"

"That's what I've been doing!" another voice cried, "Everything's playing brass!"

As the artist and the other Pokémon in the room turned towards the programmer and began to piece together just what he had been waiting on, the young man gave a contented smile and chuckled while giving an explanation.

"Why, hearing their reactions to having some more trumpets in their lives."