Searching Far and Wide - 131

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 XXIV

“As I said before, they almost always have a headache,” Pierce explained, his smile turning a little sad as he regarded the psyduck by his side. “That means that they shouldn’t be given foods with strong flavors, at least, as far as I’ve seen. Not saying that you should just give them the blandest food, but an in-between spot is best,” he continued.

Funnily enough, he’d wanted to record a video about psyduck, but he’d somehow gotten roped into something… similar, but different. Misty had pointed out that most of his video content could be good for the people in the sanctuary, especially when it came to pokemon they had. So, one thing had led to the other and now Pierce had most of the staff that dealt with pokemon around, watching as he recorded.

Not a comfortable position to be in, admittedly. Sure, he’d gotten used to recording and also teaching the staff a thing or two about the school. However, both things together somehow managed to make it multiple times as weird.

It didn’t help that Grace’s interns were the ones holding the camera to help him out. The woman herself had come to watch too, on account of the occasion. After all, it was the first time he’d actively promote a product in his channel. Speaking of-

“So, some of you might not have noticed, but I’m using a different blender than usual. That’s because this isn’t the one I had before, this one was provided by the sponsor of today’s video,” he said, a grin forming on his face as he chuckled. “I warned you that there’d be ads eventually, didn’t I?” Pierce asked, looking at the device by his side and getting it going. He could explain while the pokeblocks were in the making. “Before giving you the name and model and all that though, I wanna go into what I’ve learned and then you can look it up if it sounds appealing, yeah?” he started, taking a deep breath in.

This was the important part, after all. He didn’t want to scam companies by taking their money and only criticizing their product in public. He also didn’t want to lie to people, however. So, he’d have to strike a balance.

“Now, it’s a good product, I can tell you that to start off, because I wouldn’t be doing this if I thought it was bad,” he decided to go with, first of all. “Beyond that, what have I noticed after using it and having people in the sanctuary’s kitchen test it too? It’s a very potent device, that’s for sure. That’s great if you have small pokemon and/or young pokemon, because the result will be softer pokeblocks,” he explained, before pausing and pointing up. “By the way, it can be a little loud, but it’s not really an issue. I’ll put an audio comparison from an older video and this one so you can see the difference, if you want. It’s noticeable, but that’s about it.”

With that said, Pierce reached for the ear muffs he’d gotten and placed them on the psyduck he had by his side. When the pokemon let out a relieved sigh, he chuckled. After all, he’d told her that she might need it, but she’d been too stubborn. The rest of the group of Water types had listened, fortunately for them.

“Told you,” he said with a chuckle. “Don’t get the wrong impression though, guys, that’s mostly because psyduck are sensitive to noise that way, especially obnoxious noise. Their headache can get worse with something as simple as tapping on something with your fingers, after all,” he explained further, using the entire thing as a segue.

And also to make sure that people really didn’t get the wrong idea about the noise of the machine he was promoting.

“Back to what I was saying, the blender is strong, that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that pokeblocks are softer than normal. Not all pokemon are fans of that though, but it’s very good with smaller pokemon that might not like it if the snack is too chewy. Usually smaller pokemon, babies and, of course, some pickier eaters,” Pierce said, listing those options off with his fingers. “This also ends up with pokeblocks that have… smoother taste, if that makes any sense. Since the berries are so strongly blended, there’s usually no strong taste from any of them unless the proportions are heavily skewed in favor of one berry. Even then, the taste tends to be softer.”

And with that said, here came the tricky part, the criticism.

“Now, that’s all well and good, but sometimes we want the pokeblock to be a little less soft, in all aspects. You might or might not remember, but I gave some advice sometime in the past where you blended it for a shorter time so that there’d be bigger pieces of the berries for certain pokemon. You can’t really do that with this one. At most you can get a more normal pokeblock that way, which you might be interested in,” he explained, taking a deep breath in. “The same goes for making pokeblocks with stronger tastes or when you want all berries to have their part in the snack. So, all in all, if you have mostly smaller pokemon in your team or family, then I’m confident you can get the most of this device. Also if you deal with a lot of baby pokemon, which is probably not the case unless you have a farm or a daycare, but hey, never know who’s in my audience. Now, with all that said, if it sounds like something you’d want there’s a link below where you can see more info about the-”

Ok, he thought that had been good and Cygnus hadn’t stabbed his mind on Grace’s orders. So, he thought the woman approved, and she was the one that had the most idea about how companies might take his promotion. That was the important part, really. As far as his audience was concerned, Pierce thought he’d done a good job giving them all the information he had on the product that made it stand out compared to others he’d used.

With all that said though…

“Back to the psyduck though, the blender works well for making things that they’ll like better. The fact that they like blander or, more accurately, softer foods means that they aren’t really that affected by food, compared to other pokemon. They’re never gonna be jumping at you for a snack,” Pierce explained with a chuckle, and he could imagine people being surprised by that, considering most other pokemon he’d talked about definitely were like that. “They are generally very calm pokemon, unless they’re dealing with a strong headache, which might cause their Psychic abilities to spike and do something that might not be too good to be close to. Ideally, you want to help them feel better, which includes just… peaceful activities, sightseeing, meditating. You can read to them too, just remember to keep your voice low and soft. The kind of activities that you wouldn’t feel bad doing while you have a headache, you know?”

He thought the transition back to regular video had been good, in his humble opinion. He’d have to see how it all looked afterwards though, but he was optimistic. And if he was wrong, then maybe some editing would do the trick. Similarly to the promotion itself, he’d had Cygnus keep an eye on things with Grace, just to have other opinions. Lily wasn’t around to discuss that kind of thing anymore, after all.

Eventually…

“And that’s a wrap,” Pierce said, deflating a little and stretching. It was always a little tense to make a video, but that day was especially bad, since he was trying something new. With any luck, he’d get used to that like he had regular videos. “I think that went well, don’t you?” he asked, glancing towards Grace to confirm and he was very relieved to see the woman nod.

“I believe companies will be very reassured by this. You didn’t speak badly of the product, simply pointing out strengths and weaknesses. It’s not the ideal, but I don’t see how they could have a problem with your approach if you keep it like this,” the woman told him and he nodded, happy to know that he could count on that source of income. Hell, if it was good enough, he might even be able to get more out of it with time.

That was something for later down the line.

“Now, everyone, back to your posts, please. Class is over here; I’ll do rounds later around the sanctuary,” Pierce said and the staff around started making their way back to wherever they had to be when he wasn’t teaching them stuff. “So, do we need to talk about anything in particular?” he added towards Grace, who was already looking at her notepad as if she’d seen the question coming.

“Nothing specific, no,” the woman replied and he nodded. “Did you want to talk about something?”

“Well, it’s not urgent, but I did come up with some suggestions for the merch stuff,” he said, standing up and yawning. Maybe he could take a power nap after lunch? That sounded heavenly actually. ‘Yeah, I’ll go for it,’ he thought. He’d definitely need the energy if he wanted to take his team to the battlegrounds. “Probably also check what else I can promote. I don’t want to spam my viewers with this one. I feel like that might annoy them,” he said, patting the blender by his side. “Better to mix things up, don’t you think?”

“That could work,” Grace nodded, but Pierce was pretty sure she was only half listening. “I need to take proper notes for this, then. If you’d follow me, we can go to my office.” Fancy way to refer to the tent she shared with all the management staff for the sanctuary, but he didn’t point that out. Instead, he just followed after her and started talking business once she had her computer on and her notes at hand.

In regards to the merch, he shared with her some ideas for clothes, since that was the deal they had been offered. He didn’t know how complex they could make the design, but the main idea was that he wanted to add little phrases related to a pokemon that was the main design of the piece of clothing. Stuff like the random things people normally had on their stuff, but instead of just anything, it was something meaningful. Stuff like making a gyarados shirt that referenced their powerful and competitive personalities. Stuff that could be neat, but also actual advice in regards to the pokemon.

He thought that kind of thing could reflect the spirit of what he did with his videos, trying to help people when it came to dealing with pokemon. It was small, but he thought it was a neat touch. Still, beyond that, he made sure to press for previews of whatever the company would do for the main design. He didn’t want his merch to just have a basic pokemon stamp and whatever phrase he added underneath. That sounded boring and downright awful, really.

Grace actually agreed with him, but she did talk him into coming up with a logo that represented him, his channel and the sanctuary. She even had some suggestions, the best of which had two versions, one that was a gyarados that had three Ps formed where the dorsal fins were. Then there was like a compacted version of that one with all three Ps superposed, each letter slightly off to the side so that they were distinguishable. He liked that one well enough.

So, they had most of the details dealt with there, the rest depended mostly on the company’s design team. Although, the entire discussion did have Grace and him talking about maybe adding a design team for that kind of thing to their growing organization. Both of them agreed that it was kind of early for that, but it probably wouldn’t be for much longer, if things continued the way they seemed to be going.

Pierce wouldn’t deny the fact that he found all that plenty awkward, but it was what it was. Having what was clearly a growing business wasn’t something he ever imagined himself doing, yet that’s exactly what he did. ‘If my family could see me now,’ he thought, equal parts wry, amused and sad. It was certainly a strange combination, but he took it as a win that the stray thought didn’t ruin his mood entirely.

“So, that’s all, right?” he asked, leaning back and cracking his neck.

“Yes, we can talk about your promotion deals now,” Grace said and he almost sighed, even though it’d been his idea to talk about that. Maybe one day he’d get used to all that stuff. That day hadn’t come yet, nor did it seem close.

So, Pierce guessed he’d have to suffer for a little longer.

[}-o-{]

“Keep an eye on him, will you?” he asked, getting an affirmative from Cygnus and a whine from Regulus. “It’s for your own good, buddy. You know it,” he added, patting the meowth on the head.

After he was done with Dig, it was time to start with something else, after all. Thus, Pierce was foreseeing a lot of laziness with the new and very frustrating training. Water Pulse was also not from a type that Regulus would find easy either, so that didn’t help. Alas, considering it was likely that they were going to challenge Blaine next, Pierce couldn’t really train something else with the guy, really.

A roar and a lot of flying sand took his attention away from Regulus, however, and Pierce gave Orion a considering look.

“Actually, keep an eye on both of them,” he mumbled and Cygnus readily agreed, just as concerned as he was. His onix’s Storm’s Eye training was good and all, but it was a move that could easily get out of hand and make a mess. And if it were just them at the beach, he likely wouldn’t have cared much. Alas, there were a lot of pokemon around and there were people working too. So, they had to be careful not to cause issues.

With that out of the way, he turned and went closer to the water, where Andromeda and Bellatrix were. The last – or first, depending on the criteria one used – member of his team was on his back at the moment. Narcissa had evidently woken up in a clingy mood, because not even training time had gotten her to let go. Pierce hadn’t tried very hard either, to be honest.

He liked having his beedrill on his back, for whatever reason, and he was always telling Narcissa that she needed to take a break once in a while.

“How’s it-?” he started asking, but his eager, adorable gyarados interrupted by using Ice Fang, one of the two moves she was supposedly trying to finish working on. ‘Make that one, I guess,’ he thought to himself, watching as she pulled the move off without problems. Was the use perfect? No, but it worked well enough that he could label it as ready, if not battle ready. “That was great, gir-”

Apparently, that wasn’t all that his gyarados wanted to show him. Because she wiggled a little – expected, really, and that wasn’t what stopped him – and immediately afterwards went to use Bulldoze, the second move she was working on. ‘She’s been keeping things from me, the little shit,’ he thought with a wide smile as he took in the news. He had a feeling that he should be upset about that, but instead all that he could muster was pride. He was really happy the sea noodle had made so much progress.

“That’s amazing, you adorable gyarados you,” he praised, getting a much happier wiggle out of Bellatrix. “Someone’s been sneaky, it seems,” he added as he approached her and patted her side with his good side. “Lying to little old me and all, huh? I see how it is,” he said jokingly.

Predictably, the giant softy took that entirely too literally, rearing back and protesting vehemently in defense of her actions.

“I know, I know,” he reassured with some more pats. “That deserves a celebration though. Poffins for you, big lady, and how about we go swimming?” he asked and it was evident that Bellatrix would like that last one first, because she slithered her way closer to the sand he was standing on and got ready to carry him. She was getting good at that, and at carrying him without throwing him off. Even with that though, Pierce didn’t go for it. Instead, he stood there for a moment, considering another option. “You know what, girl? Do you mind if I ride on Boss? That way you can swim without worrying about me, you know? And I’ll still be close by, of course,” he explained.

He’d thought about that for a while. It was something that often accompanied his musings when he considered how bad it was that she was locked to land. Carrying him couldn’t be very fun for her, since she had to be careful what she did. Especially with the condition his arm was in, that was for sure. Maybe once he was fully healed, she’d be able to swim around more freely, even with him, but that was not the case at the moment.

All the same though, he saw her mood kind of plummet when he brought up his idea. She seemed to perk up a little when he added the last part, but not that much. ‘Well, I tried,’ he thought with a weak smile as he ran his fingers through his hair. It seemed his idea hadn’t been good enough.

“Nevermind then,” he said, approaching Bellatrix. “I guess we can do this the usual way if you prefer it. I just thought you’d like to be able to swim more freely,” he explained, patting his gyarados’ side. That seemed to cheer her back up and Pierce had to wonder if there was anything he could do to help her be able to swim more freely without needing to be that separated from her. ‘Proper diving? I think you need a license for that… and equipment,’ he mused to himself.

Something to work on in the future, he supposed.

For the moment though, it seemed like he’d be riding Bellatrix, if that was what the gyarados wanted. Before getting on, however, he looked to the side, seeing Andromeda watching them from a nearby rock and Narcissa’s head peeking over his shoulder. For one, the vaporeon had been working very diligently in Aurora Beam, despite her struggles with Dig beforehand. For another, the beedrill seemed to be in a clingy mood and he hadn’t been spending that much time with his starter those days, so…

“You guys want to come along?” he asked, looking at both of them. They perked up instantly, Narcissa squeezing his neck a little with her pincers and Vaporeon standing up and walking a little closer. “I’ll take that as a yes, then,” he said with a chuckle. Before he could move though, he felt Narcissa stiffening a little.

Looking over his shoulder once more, he tried to guess what that was about. Her glances back at the training members of the team was answer enough to his unasked question though. It was no surprise that she felt like she needed to train. She was the most motivated of them all, he knew. However, he felt like she also needed a break here and then, so-

“You can take it easy for one day, girl,” he reassured, reaching up to pet her on the head. “If you really want to, you can see it as flying training and just move around. Maybe more relaxed speed training?” he offered and the beedrill buzzed with her wings in response, making him grin. “That’s more like it,” he said with a nod.

After that, the beedrill let go, even if she stayed close by as he got on Bellatrix. Not a minute later, they were lazily swimming around the nearby waters. Andromeda appeared here and there in between the waves and Narcissa zoomed around him, sometimes speeding up, sometimes using boosting moves… Other times, she just stayed close to them hovering close by or drawing circles around him.

Sitting on top of his gyarados as she moved around, Pierce took in the sight of the beach from all the way in the sea waters. He could see people here and there working on the building, trying to change it from the abandoned, rundown hotel it had been to something more appropriate to their uses. He could see Misty’s orange hair stand out in between the people caring for the pokemon of the sanctuary. He could see some of those very pokemon hanging out on the sand, those that could, that is. He could also see the aquatic ones swimming in the shallow waters and Boss and Chief moving around, checking on things.

Things were going well for the sanctuary, it seemed.

‘We might be able to continue our journey without issues,’ he mused to himself. Cygnus could teleport them back to Vermilion to check on things every day for a while until they got too far. Although, on second thought, maybe that wasn’t a good idea when they would be traveling by boat to Cinnabar. ‘Hm, maybe not then,’ he thought, which was a bit of a shame.

It was a problem that could be solved by traveling on foot, likely to some other destination, but he didn’t want to put off the boat trip. Bellatrix had waited long enough to be able to swim freely. ‘Then again, she’s gotten to swim plenty here in Vermilion,’ he thought to himself, looking down at the sea noodle he was riding as she gently floated about on the surface of the water.

He didn’t want to delay his journey a lot more than he already had, but he also didn’t want to just rush things that couldn’t be rushed, like his recovery and the sanctuary. ‘Another destination might have to do,’ he thought, lips pursed. But again, that’d meant Bellatrix having to go for another stretch of being in uncomfortable waters and that was something he didn’t want to do at that moment.

‘Hm, if money stops being an issue, I guess I could teleport to Cinnabar and leave the boat trip for some other time,’ he mused and that idea held some merit. For one, it wouldn’t put them in open waters in case there was another attack like whatever had happened to the SS Anne. For another, it’d mean that he could teleport back and forth from there to Vermilion to check on the sanctuary if he was needed for anything.

It required money though, and he wasn’t exactly rolling on the stuff at the moment. He wasn't poor either though, it was just that it could become a real issue at any time. Then again, they were expecting an injection of cash in the shape of his projects. The merch project wasn’t one that he expected to do super well, but the show and his latest idea were likely to do well, in Grace’s opinion. That was a little reassuring…

‘Hm, if we can make something work, I’ll consider just teleporting around until things calm down,’ he decided to himself, following Narcissa as she flew away into the distance as fast as she could. Then he chuckled, leaning down and patting Bellatrix.

“Wanna go a little faster, girl?” he asked, reaching forward and grabbing onto one of her dorsal fins in a way that wouldn’t bother her much. The gyarados, however, let out an unsure sound. “I’ll hold on as best I can, just speed up slowly and I’ll tell you when it’s too much, yeah?” he told her and the gyarados nodded.

He could continue brainstorming things at some other time.

His team wanted to have fun, after all.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

The video parts in this series make me unreasonably nervous, not gonna lie. I don’t know what’s up with that, personally, but oh well. I’m insecure about lot of things, so I guess it’s not too much of a problem. Got used to it at this point, I guess.

Other than that, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What’s your favorite pizza topping?

See you.