Searching Far and Wide - 136

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Kadabra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

- Regulus, Meowth

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Ivysaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

- Cinder, Vulpix

Rota Town III

“So, you just… know?” the man in front of Pierce asked, expression incredulous as he checked with the other people around as if trying to confirm he’d heard right. When he noticed that all of them looked the same way he did, he could only turn back towards Pierce.

To that, all he could reply with was a shrug.

It was his second – first? He wasn’t entirely sure how to look at it – day at Rota and, after breakfast in the morning, he’d been guided by Queen Ilene to a library of sorts where there were aura users waiting to teach him a crash course in the stuff before he had to go away. From there, the woman had to leave, but that was hardly surprising, really. She was a queen, after all, and as such Pierce assumed she was very busy.

Actually, he wasn’t sure if she was just queen of the palace, or Rota, or if it worked some other way.

As it was, he was kind of surprised she’d dedicated so much time to his situation. Then again, she had seemed very excited about the entire Aura Guardian thing through their conversations. That and the fact that these individuals – Pierce still had a hard time thinking of himself as one of them, admittedly – were very important for Rota in general.

Back to his teachers though, the first thing they’d done was try and figure out where everyone stood, especially Pierce. So they’d asked him what he could do and how he did it, which he thought was weird. After all, he hadn’t really known he was doing anything supernaturally special until… Well, the previous day, really.

“Yeah,” he said when it seemed he’d thoroughly baffled the people that were supposed to teach him. “I just… look at a pokemon and I get an idea of how they are feeling, what they are thinking. Like, Espeon over there,” he tried to explain further, pointing at the Psychic eeveelution. “She's amused by your expressions right now, but before she seemed mostly curious about Andromeda. Maybe she hasn’t seen many eeveelutions? Or vaporeons, that’s a possibility too. No,” he paused, tilting his head as he regarded the pokemon who was now staring at him. “It’s something else,” he guessed and the surprised expression on the pokemon told him he was right. “I don’t know if it’s aura, honestly. I’m mostly just… guessing from what I see,” he finished with.

But when he turned to the side, he was greeted by… calling them shellshocked sounded a bit dramatic, but they did seem fairly surprised and puzzled. He knew what he could do was strange or surprising for most people, but was it surprising for aura users too? Because that sounded like a step too far?

“How do you do your thing then?” he asked, both curious and a little awkward. Those days, it almost seemed like life was trying to find out how many kinds of discomfort he could feel and they hadn’t found a limit yet. Between Lance and Ilene and the Aura stuff and now the attention he was getting from the aura users… Well, Pierce wasn’t looking forward to what else could make him feel awkward.

“Ok, so normally,” a woman started, looking very pointedly at him. Pierce thought that was exceedingly rude, honestly. “What we do is…” And from there he tried to follow, he really did. However, his concentration was kind of shot when he started noticing something the more the woman talked and the more others offered their own insight.

“That sounds like Psychic Arts,” he pointed out when there was a moment of pause and every single one of the aura users glared at him. ‘Ok, so that might not have been the best thing to say, I gather,’ he mused, raising an eyebrow at the strong reaction.

“No,” another man replied, firmly. “Just no,” he added, for emphasis and to make it very clear. “Psychic Arts are about the power of the mind, reaching out with your own to touch others’ and manipulating the world through your will. Aura is different, aura is about using your energy, your soul, to connect with that of others. Auras touch and they speak to each other, that’s what let’s us know what-”

And what followed was a bit of a long lecture in which several of them very strongly offered their own opinions on the matter. Sure, there was a difference, but the more they talked, the more Pierce felt like it was just another flavor of Psychic type. Kinda like Ground type and Rock type, or Rock type and Steel type. Sure, they were different, nobody was saying otherwise, but Pierce was seeing a lot of similarities, except for the very obvious mind vs soul thing.

He refrained from voicing that though, since the aura users thought it was exceedingly insulting to compare the two, apparently.

They followed that with pointing out other things that one could do with aura, like creating barriers or attacks… And Pierce had to hold his tongue again, because he was pretty sure you could do that with Psychic Arts too. Admittedly though, not quite in the same way, so he would give them a small point there. It didn’t warrant nearly as strong a reaction still though, in his opinion.

The bit about possibly talking to the spirits of the dead and allowing the dead to interact with the world once more though? That’s where Pierce had to admit defeat himself. Although, those were legends. Like, true legends, at that. The records cited didn’t sound very reliable and not even the aura users themselves knew if those accounts were true or not.

He was very interested when they mentioned that it might not be all though.

“Not all aura users work with Aura the same way,” a woman that hadn’t spoken so far said, her voice barely above a whisper. She wasn’t one to talk much, was what Pierce was gathering. “Like you. What you do is aura,” she continued and she said it with certainty. Too much certainty, in his opinion, but- “It might work in a different way from what we know, but you wouldn’t be the first nor the last. I’m not really a conventional aura user myself,” she commented with a slight smile. “I myself can see the aura. Not consistently, but I can, and I’ve seen you use it,” she added and his eyes widened a little.

“I… see,” he mumbled slowly, a little taken aback by the decisive blow to his theory that maybe he wasn’t an aura user, let alone an Aura Guardian. Because sure, he could think she was lying, but why? Why would she lie when such a thing could likely be easily found out?

So… he had to believe her.

“I see,” he mumbled, gulping and nodding to himself.

He was really missing the days when things made sense.

[}-o-{]

“That’s so cool,” he said, eyebrows raised as he saw the man in front of him perform literal magic. He’d brought his hand up and a flickering light formed a small shield in front of his hand. ‘And this is nothing? I have to wonder what Aura Guardians are supposed to pull off,’ he thought to himself, because even that small – in the words of the aura users themselves – display of Aura looked like… like a super power, no two ways about it.

After a long session of theory, the users seemed to have decided to show off a little in the spirit of letting him know what Aura usage looked like. The more mental uses of it were less flashy, predictably, but attacks? Barriers? Those were a sight to behold. ‘I’ll be able to do that?’ Pierce thought, feeling more excited than ever.

Because sure, he’d been working on Psychic Arts, but those took literal years before he could do anything substantial. Aura, from what he’d been told, was something he could start making progress towards relatively faster than that. Especially if they weren’t wrong and he was an Aura Guardian in the making. 

He was trying not to get his hopes up too much on that front.

He was also failing, miserably.

“How long did it take you to get that far again?” Pierce asked and he saw some of them look a little disappointed, others frustrated, several both. At that moment, he thought he might have stepped on another conversational landmine somehow. Fortunately, if it was, then he got off lightly compared to the Psychic thing.

“About a year or two,” the man said, a bitter smile on his face as he brought up his hand. “At least, to be able to do it at all. From there, I’ve mostly just… perfected it, but I haven’t been able to push for much more than what I achieved in that time. Only so much potential,” he explained and Pierce suddenly realized what the blunder he’d made that time.

Because all these people, they were barely aura users. There was, from what he was picking up, a huge difference between aura users and Aura Guardians. Like the difference between a caterpie and a gyarados, aura users had access to only a sliver of the power Aura Guardians could tap into. They were limited by their own potential in a way that Guardians were, supposedly, not, at least from what he’d been told in his impromptu lecture.

What could he even say after that? Was there something he could say that’d not make things more awkward? He didn’t know, and not for the first time did he wish he had as easy a time talking to people as he did with pokemon.

“I think that’s enough demonstrations,” another man said then, sparing him the painful moment with a clap. “Now, how about we go back to the lecture. As I understand it, you’re not going to be here for long.”

“Not really, no. I have responsibilities to go back to and my journey,” Pierce replied and he was once more surprised by how Pokemon World culture worked, because nobody so much as raised an eyebrow at that. If anything, all of them seemed to be understanding. It was odd, he’d admit, and he wondered if he was ever going to either become part of it or at the very least accept it.

“We have to make sure you know the basics, at least, then, so let’s get going,” the man told him with a firm nod. “Come on.”

And so they made their way back to the library from the open area where they’d moved to better display their abilities… and, admittedly, to stretch their legs a little. Several pokemon were recalled and Pierce himself was left with only Andromeda again. She did great in most “public” settings after all, along with Regulus and Cygnus. The problem with the former of those was that Pierce didn’t trust him to behave himself and the latter didn’t particularly like being around people. His kadabra wasn’t a loner per se, but he did enjoy his peace and quite a lot more…

So long as the alternative didn’t involve physical fighting in some way, that is.

“So, beyond what you’ll be able to do, you should be wary of who you tell about your ability to use Aura,” a woman started with a grim expression that took him aback a little. “Because you might have heard of the Rockets, but there’s no shortage of shit people in the world and aura users in general can… draw attention. You? You’ll draw even more,” the woman warned.

That’s when Pierce noticed her hand moving to rub her forearm and his eyes caught a scar peeking from under her sleeve.

“Most people don’t believe Aura is a thing, of course, but you should still be careful. Not everyone is skeptical and even those that are can be tempted with the possibility,” she continued and his eyes focused on hers, taking what she said as seriously as he could.

He’d already been warned that someone might come for him before the Aura thing had come about. And faced with living proof of what he was being told about? He wasn’t that stupid, so he tried to commit every warning, every piece of advice, to memory. All the while though, he hoped that none of it ever became necessary, admittedly.

[}-o-{]

“That looks good, girl,” he said, managing to inject some cheer into his voice despite his mood.

That last lecture with the aura users hadn’t been fun, at all. It had killed whatever good mood he had and left him feeling… not down, but a little numb. With how positive and just generally nice the Pokemon World and its people were, it was easy to forget that it had its dark side. He’d seen that several times, but he always managed to forget about it eventually, because the place was just that bright in general. It made him feel like those were isolated cases, just the Rockets being pieces of shit in a generally good place.

Yet, what he’d been told painted a different picture for him, one that left him feeling… He wasn’t quite sure, but he imagined disappointed was a good enough word to describe it. It wasn’t a nice feeling, to know that there was scum in that world the same way that there’d been in his old world. Somehow, the fact that it was generally very good just made the shadows that much worse.

“Sorry,” he said, turning and giving Andromeda a sad smile. She’d just been showing off Aurora Beam, finally having finished the last touches with the move to be able to use it properly. She’d struggled quite a bit there at the end, so he wanted to congratulate her as she deserved. Unfortunately, his mood had been kind of shot.

The vaporeon didn’t seem to mind though, simply yipping something at him before walking up to him, rubbing her body against his side and sitting beside him with her head on his lap. Absently, he started patting her head while making a mental note to spoil her later. She deserved that much, especially for being so understanding, nevermind all the help she usually provided by keeping an eye on the others.

Speaking of…

Most of them were working on their own things, but Bellatrix and Regulus had paired in order to work on their Water type moves. Pierce was trying to keep an eye on those two, because that was a recipe for disaster if he ever saw one. So far though, no issues other than the meowth getting a little antsy after failing a bunch of times, but a quick interruption had taken care of that. From there, Narcissa, Orion and Cygnus were all kind of in the middle stage of their move training.

They had the base of it already, but they weren’t particularly close. It was mostly a bit of a mess of energies that they managed, vaguely related to what they were trying to do. Narcissa managed some Fighting type energy around her stinger, Orion was managing to channel Ground energy into the… well, the ground, and Cygnus was managing some red sparks around his fist. That was about it, but it’d be nothing but up from there. He wouldn’t be surprised if they made a breakthrough soon, any or all of them.

“Are you liking it here?” he asked idly, his eyes still on the rest of the team while he petted Andromeda. He got a yip that could have meant anything, but he was pretty sure meant she did, indeed, like it. His vaporeon was very open with her opinions, at least when it was just the two of them, so he knew it’d have been very clear if she didn’t like it there. “We’ll probably be coming here a lot,” he added and he got another sort-of affirmative answer.

He did think they’d go there in the future, considering… Well, what he’d learned in that visit. He didn’t think he could afford to ignore that and he didn’t really want to. Why would he want to do something like that? It was already kind of a struggle to have to let go to go back to things, but that was unavoidable.

Maybe once everything was said and done, with the sanctuary well established and the Indigo Conference already over, he’d be able to go there and stay, learn what he needed to and generally just be around, because Rota seemed like a good spot to spend time at… right next to Cerulean and Vermilion, he supposed. Maybe if Daisy got some time off, they could both spend a break there.

‘Should bring it up next time we talk,’ he noted to himself, but he couldn’t imagine the blonde wouldn’t like that idea. The place was magnificent and there was plenty of water for her pokemon – and his, obviously – to spend time in. ‘Maybe for the Hero Festival, it’ll be fun to dress up medieval style,’ he thought… although he was less sure if Daisy would like that, but it was worth asking, he supposed.

Eventually, the vaporeon stood up and he turned to see her gesturing that she was going for a swim… and Pierce found himself immensely jealous. He wanted to swim too. Alas, his arm was still recovering. ‘I feel like I haven’t been able to do shit since forever ago already,’ he thought bitterly, his hand moving to scratch at the upper part of his cast. He really couldn’t wait to be told he was fine and could do whatever he wanted.

If he never broke a bone again, it’d be too goddamn soon.

“Go for it, girl. Have fun for the both of us,” he told Andromeda, who seemed entirely too cheerful when she yipped before jumping into the water. With a deep breath in, Pierce proceeded to stand up and move to check more closely how everyone else was doing. Might as well, since he’d just grow more annoyed if he watched his vaporeon swim around.

At least his mood was somewhat better, he supposed, if not by much.

[}-o-{]

[Ilene Cameran]

She loved being queen, she did, just as she loved Rota as a whole.

However, there was no denying that sometimes the duties and responsibilities could be… tiring, overwhelming even. That day though, they were annoying. The reason for this was very simple, really, and that was because she finally had something that she’d rather be doing. After a long time of waiting – not that long, all things considered, but that was how she felt –, Ilene had finally come across a Guardian, one that she would sponsor, manage, teach.

Just like every generation of Cameran, she’d have a Guardian of her own.

It was probably childish, but she’d grown hearing the stories of every guardian her family had been connected to. From Aaron to the latest of her parents’ findings, she’d heard about them all and she’d dreamed about the day when she finally had a story of her own, a legend of her own. She’d never stopped wishing for it, ever since she could remember and it was finally happening.

And instead of being there, she had to take care of her duties.

Never had she been more vexed by her situation as she was that day.

All the same, she’d finally managed to finish all that she ought to do and she could go back to Pierce. She could go back to being the Rin to his Aaron. Giggling wouldn’t have been proper, but she sorely wanted to do it anyway. It was definitely childish, how excited she was, but she couldn’t help it. It was like her five year old self had been waiting all those years to make an appearance again and Ilene barely could find the will to hold her back.

Pushing the door open, she walked into the library and saw Pierce by himself, a stack of very familiar books by his side and one that she definitely knew front to cover in his hands. He was diligent, she’d give him that. Not that she expected differently, considering what Lance had told her about the man. Working tirelessly for the sake of pokemon, in all sorts of ways. The one pertinent to that very thought being how thorough he seemed to be in his studies of medicine.

“Queen Ilene,” he greeted her when he heard the door and looked up. She could see how uncomfortable he was, not only with the formality but with the situation in general. He was getting used to it at least, and remarkably fast considering that he’d looked much worse the previous day. He’d looked as lost as she’d ever seen anyone be when they learned about Aura, maybe even more. He’d looked borderline distraught, actually, which had been… unexpected. “I hope your day went well,” he said and she couldn’t help but smile.

He looked like he’d rather be anywhere but there and like it took genuine effort to talk at all. Yet, Ilene appreciated that he did all the same. He wasn’t the first to react in such a manner to her… environment, she’d admit.

“It could have been better,” she said, instead of the proper answer she should have given. Ilene even went as far as letting some of what she truly felt show on her face. She’d learned that “informal” people tended to relax when you were a little more open than was “appropriate”.

Sure enough, she saw his expression clear a little and his tense shoulders loosen.

“That bad?” he asked then, more calm.

“It can be tiring,” she admitted with a slight nod as she walked in. “How about you?” she asked back, genuinely curious. “I hope it wasn’t too much to drop on you.”

“It definitely was,” he said with a barked laugh, and he seemed only half-realize how open he’d been then and there. He didn’t backpedal though, pushing forward with a weary smile. “I thought my life was done turning on its head,” he added and while she wanted to speak, Ilene could tell that he wasn’t done. “I’m managing though, thanks for asking.”

How… refreshing.

She didn’t know what had happened there between his awkward greeting and his brutally open answer just now, but there had definitely been a change. It was like he’d decided to take whatever problems he was feeling at the moment and throw them away in favor of just… talking to her. Like he’d taken a look at his priorities and thrown propriety out the window in favor of honesty.

Idly, Ilene wondered if that attitude had anything to do with why pokemon liked him. When had been the last time someone had just… talked to her like that, open and unguarded, without even a reason for either. Lawson had just… answered, honest and without reservations. It was refreshing, in the world of manners and flare that she’d grown up in.

“It can be a lot,” she said, softly and trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “If you need anything though, we’re here,” she added. She was surprised to note that rather than help, that seemed to put him on edge, if only the slightest bit. “Even if what you need is space and time for yourself.”

“I think I do need some time to wrap my head around all this,” Pierce admitted with a slow nod and Ilene didn’t take any offense in that. She had needed plenty of space and time herself at times in her life. She hadn’t always gotten them, but she knew how that was all the same. “My pokemon and I loved it here though. We’ll definitely come back as soon as things… as soon as we can afford to,” he explained, sighing and running his fingers through his hair.

“We’ll be glad to welcome you here again, Pierce,” she said and she didn’t even have to rely on manners and etiquette, even if she sounded like she did. Because underneath everything, her inner five year old couldn’t wait for him to come back already so that they could build a legend together. Or, considering the things he was already doing, so that she could be a part of his legend.

“Might change your mind once you have to deal with my pokemon,” he commented jokingly and she had to hold back a wide grin.

“You sound sure about that,” she all but urged and he took her up on her unspoken request without issue.

Yes, she was going to like spending time with Pierce Lawson, Ilene decided.

Even if his stay was already almost over, there’d be other instances.

She already couldn’t wait.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I feel like the streak of chapters in which things feel odd continues, but I chuck that to us as readers (yes, I’m counting myself as a reader too) are dealing with the same thing Pierce is. Life threw a curve ball and we’re kind of dealing with all that it entails now, processing and all that shit. That’s what I’m trying to convey through Pierce, because it’s supposed to be a little like that.

I admit though, that I understand if you guys aren’t all fans of it. As I said, it does feel odd, especially from a narrative perspective, but I hope it’s not too bad.

I also hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Did you watch the movie where Rota and all this stuff (minus my AU stuff, obviously) come up?... Have I asked that before? Anyway yeah, that’s the question.

See you.