Searching Far and Wide - 132

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

Vermilion City XXV

When he woke up that day, it was to the feeling that getting out of bed would be complicated.

And he didn’t mean that because of the fact that Regulus was sleeping on top of him, no. It was because he felt extra lazy that day. It was both surprising and not, if Pierce was honest. He hadn’t been the most productive human on Earth before his sudden… transmigration or whatever. So, it was actually kind of the usual for him to get up late and not do much more than what he absolutely needed to.

The problem was that since he came to be in the pokemon world, he had a lot of shit that he needed to do. Responsibilities were something he’d avoided, because they were the only ones that could get him to bother doing stuff and he liked doing nothing. Alas, he hadn’t had a choice in the matter ever since he woke up in that forest. Slowly, the world had thrown stuff at him that he had to deal with and…

And he wasn’t precisely complaining, not really, but he did miss times when he could do nothing and not have to worry about anything.

‘Makes the whole hospital thing kind of ironic,’ he thought, but maybe he’d changed in more ways than he’d initially thought. ‘Maybe not that much though,’ he added, relaxing on his bed and just… letting time pass by. A few minutes wouldn’t be the end of the world. His pokemon would still be able to train enough, the sanctuary wasn’t going to fall apart and… everything else would be under control too.

It was different from when he’d been confined to the hospital room though, he pondered idly while procrastinating for old time’s sake. Back then, he hadn’t wanted to be there. There had been a million things he needed to do and he couldn’t. Now though, he was choosing to lie there and rest. It made all the difference in the world, as it turned out.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay there forever.

“Come on, buddy,” he said, his voice almost a weary sigh, more out of laziness than actual exhaustion of any type. Regulus whined on top of him, shifting but ultimately remaining where he was. ‘You’re not helping, you lazy cat,’ he grumbled internally as he reached to shake the meowth. “Come on. There’s training to do and a million other things to check on. Let’s go.”

‘I feel you, man,’ was what Pierce didn’t say when he finally got his pokemon out from over him and they started getting ready to tackle the day. They dragged their feet and they complained and groaned, but they did so. ‘I should do this from time to time,’ he mused, rubbing some of the stubbornly remaining sleep from his eye. He didn’t think he’d ever had only Regulus with him in the morning, but he kind of liked the idea of letting his inner lazy bastard out to play.

Sure, it wasn’t productive, but it left him feeling a little better, more rested somehow.

“Hey, everyone,” he greeted, sitting on the ground in the space at the Pokemon Center’s back. Normally, he’d feel a little awkward letting out both Orion and Bellatrix in such a small space where they would be either frowned upon or outright banned. Pokemon Centers didn’t have a lot of space and they didn’t want to deal with too many big pokemon around.

Hell, the Center he was staying at had one such policy in place.

It was just that they made an exception for Pierce, on account of what he’d done. ‘That’s never not going to feel weird, is it?’ he thought, a little amused and a little disturbed. Alas, it was what it was, he supposed, and he’d have to deal with it. Certainly helped that it worked in his favor for a lot of things, which compensated for all the uncomfortableness.

“Sleep well?” he asked, looking around the gathering of pokemon as they stretched and got ready to tackle the day. Most of them didn’t have nearly as much trouble as Regulus and he did, which was a little sad, for some reason. Better for them, that was a given, but it meant that he only had that in common with the meowth. ‘Well, it’ll have to do,’ he lamented, petting the cat pokemon on his lap. “Well, food’s all set up, so dig in and we can go from there if you want,” he told them and all of them went right ahead.

Granted, some of them did so in a more calm fashion, like Andromeda and Cygnus. Narcissa wasn’t necessarily a messy eater, not really, but she was enthusiastic about getting to what came next. Then there were the children, which… yeah. At least Regulus was small. Still, Pierce was grateful that the meowth had to get off of him to start on breakfast.

All that aside, Pierce took a sip from his coffee and considered the rest of the day in his head. It’d be a standard one, really, with some training, followed by helping at the sanctuary and he’d finish off the day with some Psychic Arts training. Nothing out of the ordinary, at least as far as he was concerned. Life could very well throw a wrench or two at him, but he was optimistic all the same.

“So, not sure what you guys would rather do, regular training or visiting the battlegrounds? I’m feeling like going all in on one of those instead of a bit and a bit,” he commented, leaning back and taking in the responses he got. They turned out to be varied, expectedly, but he’d work with that. Besides, one never knew when his pokemon might find themselves in agreement.

It wasn’t the case that day, but it could happen.

[}-o-{]

Lightning55Turbo

He calmed down a gyarados!

HE CALMED DOWN A GYARADOS!

SnowflakeMeowth_Gifs

Huh… That sounds like the kind of pokeblocks that meowths would like. Now I’m wondering if I should change mine for one of those. It is getting a little old. But it does get the job done…

But my meowths might like it more…

Jonhyyoung4733

It’s kind of crazy how this guy is selling me a blender that I don’t even need. I have a geodude and a tauros, man. I don’t need no soft pokeblocks!

And yet, maybe…

CorphishOutOfWater

Proxyman’s real power was selling stuff to people all along, it seems.

Also, very nice video. I have a golduck myself and I gotta admit, some of this stuff would have been nice to know back when it was a psyduck. Great content as always, Proxyman.

CrystalMorgan9655

Are you actually getting paid for this? I mean, I can see it helping sales, but you’re also pointing out bad stuff. Kind of crazy to think someone would pay you to broadcast stuff like how the blender is a bad choice for some pokemon and such.

Is Proxyman also a magical negotiator?

NamelessStacy3213

Is there anything Proxyman can’t do?

Pierce – Pokemon Proxy

Use my arm, for one.

@SnowflakeMeowth_Gifs It might be a good investment if you have several meowths and your blender happens to be one that’s on the opposite side of the spectrum I talked about for this one. Even with that, it depends on your situation too. Don’t feel like you need to fork over the cash if your blender works well enough for you and you don’t have money to throw out the window.

@Johnyyoung4733 I might have a thing or two to sell you in the future, buddy!

@CrystalMorgan9655 I do. The money I get is a lot lower than it would be if I promoted normally, but I want people to know what I’m selling isn’t just empty words. The deals I make are – as I said in the announcement video back in the day – all taking into consideration this kind of promotional content. The last thing I want to do is have some pokemon suffering because I sold something that wasn’t actually good.

CorphishOutOfWater

We don’t deserve this man. All Hail Proxyman!

SphealWithoutHat

I almost wanna see what the Darkest Hater will post regarding this, because damn, this man is too good. Blender doesn’t seem compatible with my pokemon, but I’ll keep it in mind. Might give one to a friend, now that I think about it.

Also, is it just me or do psyduck sound chill af all of a sudden? Like, all they wanna do is zen stuff. That sounds kind of neat.

I know there’s some close by, so maybe…

Jonhyyoung4733

I now fear Proxyman, Friend of Pokemon and Destroyer of Wallets.

0DarkestType0

Man, how bad of a product does it have to be for them to have even criticism in the promotional content. Wouldn’t buy that blender if you paid me. Proxyfraud over here trying to kill pokemon now, I guess.

Turtwigguy38

That’s some next level hate you got there, man.

Also, neat blender. Not for me, but now I’m curious about what you’ll be selling next time, Proxyman. See you in the next.

Ruxlay

Would.

Poison_Sniffa

Same.

Shi89

Same.

ForestEnjoyerClub

Huh, that sounds like it’d be great to make some pokeblocks for the small pokemon in the forest… Yeah, I think I’ll get one. That and some Proxyman teachings will make the next trip there a blast, I bet.

SharpenadoStan

Can I just say? I know Proxyman isn’t a Water type specialist, but I’m loving the fact that most of his content is about Water types. Between Cerulean and now Vermilion, lots of great stuff about the aquatic world. Here’s to plenty more videos like this.

PS: Now you’ve got me intrigued about what you’ll promote next, Pierce. Much better to see stuff like this than going with gut feelings.

PokemonSitters_Fuscia

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We never considered that different blenders might have that kind of impact in the end result and the ones we’re using for the smaller and baby pokemon aren't quite compatible. We’ll probably be getting these blenders for them.

PokePuffPuff

Great video as usual.

Also, Proxyman making bigger sales? That’s gotta be good for his business, which in turn means it’s good for us. Nevermind the sanctuary.

Love to see it.

PolaroidBoy

It’s kind of wild the amount of stuff that he’s doing, isn’t it? Training, making videos, making deals, building a pokemon sanctuary, all the while healing from a broken arm that he got for saving a city. Proxyman is just from another species, I guess.

TM-gaming-and-fishing

A much more handsome species. He makes even psyduck look good.

SharpenadoStan

Woah, woah, psyduck catching strays right now. Poor thing isn’t here to defend themselves, man.

NamelessStacy3213

Hey, you take that back! Psyduck are certified cutie patootie!

Poison_Sniffa

Let’s be real, psyduck aren’t the prettiest pokemon on the planet. They are far from the worst though, gotta admit.

AndromedaFan#1

Andromeda makes every pokemon look ugly.

AndromedaFan_1st

What the impostor said.

DanielDadford35

Huh, I gotta say, I like the format of the promotion. I actually was paying attention. Felt like I was consulting with an expert.

Pierce – Pokemon Proxy

Far from an expert, but I hope to help all the same.

PolaroidBoy

Keep telling yourself that, Proxyman.

Coldizard

I work at a breeding ranch, definitely bringing this up with my boss. I know the babies are gonna love those pokeblocks even just looking at them through the screen.

Thanks for the (promotion) tip, Proxyman!

Kingdreigon

How is it that only one guy has two brain cells to rub together in this community? The guy is selling you trash and you’re all talking like it’s the best product ever.

SphealWithoutHat

Thanks for your opinion, Drei. You can go back to writing fanfics with characters wearing all black and using red katanas.

PolaroidBoy

Ouch, almost feel bad for the guy after that. Almost.

[}-o-{]

“Thanks for the good work, guys,” Pierce said, giving a wide smile, some pats and plenty of snacks to the pokemon that had gathered around him. Most of them were humanoid-like Fighting types, which was… kind of expected, he supposed. “Take the break, you deserve it,” he added.

“Don’t spoil them too much, or they’ll stop listening to us!” some man called from behind the pokemon, making all the creatures turn and glare at him. The crew around him chuckled though and the man, to his credit, only cowered a little bit.

He did believe all of them had earned a break though.

Pierce had gone on a little walk through the hotel building to see how things were looking. He hadn’t expected much, to be honest, considering it hadn’t been that long. Surprisingly, things were underway fairly well, by the looks of it. It wasn’t going to be all done anytime soon, but progress was being made.

Soon, some of the rooms that required little work would be ready and that’d open some more space outside, which would be all the better. They couldn’t work on the pokemon space of the sanctuary until the main building was ready, after all. Difficult to do that when a chunk of the area was occupied by tents and working space for the staff.

Still, things were progressing pretty fast, which wasn’t what he’d expected when Grace told him about Surge’s suggestion.

Apparently, a good chunk of the crew were actually cops, firefighters and such from Vermilion. According to what he was told, most of them already did work like that on the side. So, paint work, drywalls, electric work, AV work and more was all done by these people. And they were charging him almost nothing too, which was… less surprising than it probably should have been.

People in the pokemon world had to be generally nicer than back in his world or something, because they were entirely too open with their shows of appreciation. He was still getting offered free stuff when he walked through the streets. Pierce was unlikely to ever forget what he’d done for Vermilion, because the city’s people wouldn’t let him.

‘You wanna fight some of them?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow as his lips pulled up into a smile. Off to the side, Cygnus stood in front of a machoke, staring rather intently. His kadabra had always been fascinated by the more martial oriented Fighting types, after all, so Pierce was hardly surprised. ‘We have time and you do seem to have the energy,’  he added and he could almost see the cogs turning in Cygnus’ head.

“So very tempting, Protector-Voice,” his Psychic type replied thoughtfully. “They are working for the sake of the school, however,” the kadabra continued with a sigh. “Let’s look for someone like this next time in the battlegrounds, yes?”

‘I can do that,’ Pierce answered with a nod, getting one right back.

“Well, I don’t want to take more of your time,” he said, stretching a little. His injured arm always felt stiff, but it wasn’t like he could do anything about that. Furthermore, it made the rest of his body feel kind of uncomfortable too, which was why he had to try and deal with that every so often. To little effect, but it wasn’t like he could just forget about it. “I’m sure you want to be done here and go home as soon as possible,” he added, towards both the pokemon and the workers.

“I don’t know, wife was in a mood today,” one of the men commented with a chuckle, starting a small wave of similar joking comments. Pierce ended up talking to them for a few more minutes before finally being able to step away. Not that he minded, they seemed like nice enough people, although that might have something to do with the fact that everyone seemed to have at least a somewhat good opinion of him after he saved their city.

He was really never going to get used to that.

“Almost makes me want to pay them more,” he commented as he walked away. Alas, he wasn’t in a position to throw too much money around. He was still waiting to give Grace a raise, after all.

“Pretty sure those pokemon see the food you gave them as a nice bonus,” Cygnus commented, walking beside him. Pierce grinned and chuckled, because he was probably right. Still though, that was just on the pokemon’s side of things.

‘And that’s great, but I’d like to give something to those workers too. They are doing great work for a pittance,’ he thought to himself, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out. ‘The things I could do if I had infinite money,’ he lamented, not for the first time in either life. He was kind of missing the times when he didn’t know what to do with all the money he had.

As it turned out, he hadn’t had nearly as much as he’d need, but his past self hadn’t known that.

“And you can’t just use food too?” Cygnus asked.

‘Food isn’t as important for us as it is for pokemon,’ he answered, although that wasn’t half bad an idea anyway. Maybe he could treat the workers to a good meal at some point. It wouldn’t be much, but it’d be a start. ‘Hm, maybe I don’t need to use money though,’ he thought, looking around at the slowly developing sanctuary. ‘I could offer discounts or even free service for those that help with this… not only the workers but people giving us deals and support,’ he mused as he walked.

Something to bring up with Grace, that was for sure.

Good thing he had a meeting scheduled with her later. Although, maybe after they dealt with whatever she seemed to want to talk to him about. She’d mentioned something had come up and how she and her developing team were dealing with a situation that had come up.

She hadn’t had time to talk a lot, but it’d certainly left him curious.

[}-o-{]

“What do you mean we don’t need to worry about food anymore?” he asked, blinking at Grace and already feeling like he’d need a cup of coffee. Or another one, considering one of the interns had just given him one. “Did you strike a good deal?” he added, somewhat surprised.

Grace had struck him as the kind of woman that asked before doing that kind of thing. Then again, Pierce had also repeatedly made comments that would encourage her to make decisions on her own. He barely knew what he was doing, after all.

Still, he didn’t think he’d succeed so qui-

“In a sense,” Grace answered, which only left him with more questions. Fortunately, she passed him a sheet from her trusty pile and started explaining. “That deal was actually going very slowly and I was getting worried we wouldn’t be able to get better numbers.”

“But…?” he encouraged absently as he looked through the document she’d passed him. Something about an association offering food and pokemon to him.

“But we were contacted by this group,” Grace started, tapping the sheet. “They are offering food and certain pokemon even, in case we want them, in exchange for your services. In a way, it’s a very similar arrangement to what the League has with you, but on a smaller scale.”

“Who are they? How small a scale?” he asked, eyebrows raised. The name in the paper didn’t really ring any bells in his mind, admittedly.

“Basically a group with people in the farming and breeding business. More farming than breeding, admittedly,” Grace explained, which was its own surprise for him, really. “Apparently, you were very highly recommended to deal with pokemon related issues, from both the inside and outside kinds.”

“I took a lot of jobs of that kind,” he mumbled. He had had a lot of personal requests too, hadn’t he? He’d kind of forgotten about that with all the things going on…

“Well, they must have liked how you worked a lot, because they want you on speed dial. Depending on how urgent the situation is, they want you to respond to the calls very quickly,” Grace replied and Pierce tried to see if he could guess her opinion on the matter. Alas, he wasn’t as good at reading people as he was pokemon, and it didn’t help that Grace was generally rather cold and controlled.

“What do you think?” he asked in the end, leaning back and leaving the sheet on the desk between them. “Is it a good deal?”

“As far as I can tell, it’s a very good deal. But it depends on how much you want to be tied to them. You’re already tied to the League so…” Grace explained and he could understand her reluctance. However… Was it so different from what he was already doing?

As he said, he’d already been taking jobs like those for farms and ranches. He’d also already been involving himself in situations like what the League expected him too. The responsibilities were only being increased a little.

… Well, more than a little, but still.

“Ok…” he said slowly, taking a deep breath in and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Let’s discuss this more,” he decided, because he might not need that much more money, in light of his future shows and merch and other sources of income. However, if he wanted the sanctuary to develop as much as he’d planned, then he didn’t have nearly enough. The surrounding areas could increase their prices or be bought by someone else, for one. There was also the fact that if he had more resources, he could develop the place more than they were planning at the moment, which would be better for the pokemon and the staff.

So, with all that in mind, he started going over the details of the contract the association was offering him.

He didn’t really need the part about pokemon. Maybe later on it would be nice to have that in the back pocket for staff members and such, but that was far from something he wanted to sell his soul over. Especially then and there, that was for sure. That alone would offer him some wiggle room so that he wouldn’t need to answer calls unless they were real emergencies. Most of his worries were regarding that, after all. The last thing Pierce wanted was to be pulled around just to deal with some minimal issue that anyone could have dealt with.

He wanted a deal, not a leash around his neck.

“Ok,” Grace said, slowly and thoughtfully as she looked down at the million sheets of paper on her desk. “I think I have what I need to properly talk with the representatives of the group… If things go perfectly, we’ll strike the deal and that’ll be that.”

“And if not, we’ll talk about this again,” Pierce finished with a wry smile, nodding and taking a sip from his second cup of coffee. He almost wished he could drink beer instead, but he had a feeling that would be bad for decision making. It was a hunch that he had, really. God would it have made it all more bearable though. “Anything else we need to discuss.”

“Yes, there is,” Grace replied, and going by her tone, she knew perfectly well that he wanted to be done with it all. Alas, she had no mercy when it came to dragging him into business talk. He’d picked well, Pierce knew, but sometimes he wished he’d picked a little less well.

‘Suffering from success, I guess,’ he thought, running his fingers through his hair as he settled for what was likely at least another hour of discussing business and one more cup of coffee in his future. Not how he wanted to spend his time, but the universe didn’t seem keen on giving him fun stuff to do. ‘And then I should do some Psychic practice after this,’ he thought, already feeling extra tired just thinking about it.

He really missed the days when he could just be lazy.

‘Am I really wicked enough to not get any rest?’ he wondered idly.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Ok, so looking at this in the editing phase, I think the comment section is a little… It feels a little out of place? Maybe? Or I guess it can give that impression. The reasons why I put it there though, are two. One, it felt even more odd to me to put it in the last chapter, since I had other things to talk about there. Two, I like to see it as Pierce checking the comment section either during breakfast or through his morning.

On another note, I wanna thank Roy for some of the worldbuilding I threw in the scene with the workers and their pokemon. I feel like some of the details I added thanks to you makes it all a lil’ better. Although, maybe you disagree and you hate my guts now. Maybe I didn’t do a good job writing it.

… So I’m a little paranoid, what’s the problem with that?

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Are you a morning person? Personally, I haven’t been a morning person like… ever, but lately I’ve been waking up early without an alarm and I’ve even been sort of productive instead of being in zombie mode until noon. It’s kind of weird.

See you.