h.3
(April 28th 300 A.S. – 1245 – Coastal General Hospital, Coastal City, Ruby League)
Today was the day. He’s leg had been aided in its rebuilding by that vile tasting pink goop that somehow sped up muscle growth and was now considered fit to walk on steadily. He had a slight limp to his step, but it was faint. Now came the big moment. What was he going to do? He still knew nothing of any bill that he may receive for being treated at the hospital. God he hoped he didn’t go to prison. That in itself was farfetched, but he still worried.
He had some street clothes provided by the hospital, cheap stuff. He had a white t-shirt, boxers, jeans that didn’t look like they’d hold together for very long, and sandals because no one could find anything to fit his colossal, size fifteen and a half feet. He scratched at his hair. It was time to visit a barber so he could tame his hair down to manageable levels. Not that kind of tame.
A doctor walked in, clipboard in hand, and looked him up and down as a cursory inspection.
“Well,” he began with a very clear tone and almost invisible accent, “Vitals check out, fyou can wak, and there be no really reason to keep you stay here.” Despite the fact that he had already been briefed about this, He felt a wave of relief roll over him. Maybe it was the reinforcement of the knowledge that he was healthy again? “However there is the question of your medical bill,” the doctor stated, a hint of distaste in his voice, “Your treatment cost quite a bit, and there is not record of your insurance. This means that you are indebted to the hospital.”
Ah, there was the bad news he had been dreading. “How much?” He asked, dreading the response.
“503,600 SLC,” the doctor stated coolly.
The size of the number brought fret and worry crashing back down upon him. Granted, he wasn’t intimately familiar with this places monetary system, but it still was probably a lot. “H-how,” He’s voice almost cracked so he paused to recollect himself, “How will it be collected?”
The doctor smiled at him sympathetically. “Speaking generally, the Hospital will add your name to a list- one of many adding I might- and periodically check up on your finances, generally bank accounts and other assets through the interleague database if necessary. You can expect a lean to be placed on something sufficient. Sometimes you can find a good lawyer to get the amount reduced, but a lot of times the cost of legal service outweighs the gain.”
He didn’t know how to feel about this. On one hand, if he left the League like he was planning, it might slow down their hunt. Maybe he should change his name. Yes, go to Azure and change his name. That way, he might be able to duck out of paying for the hospital bill and assimilate into the Azure populace. It would be difficult to completely blend in because of the gargantuan culture gap, language barrier and their bizarre practices such as favoring certain pokégirls over others, namely Near Human and Very Near Human types, but then again, he’d probably have enough difficulty acting normal around pokégirl slavery anyways so it didn’t really matter.
What should he change it to? Something local, Germanic or Slavic. He’d figure it out later. His identity as Matt Brandt was already exposed here and he’d probably get ratted out even if he moved to Azure. Besides, was his identity-less name worth 500 grand? It’s not like he’d be starting over. He was already a nobody in this world with no money and no friends to tie him down. Hell that wasn’t even his real name to begin with.
“Well,” He began, “it’s just another thing I’ll have to face eventually.”
The doctor nodded sadly. “Dya, it’s a shame that you escape death only to face a debt like this, but,” he pulled a card out of his white coat pocket and held it out to him, “this is the card of a colleague of mine, a very good psychologist. I know that you were cleared by one of our psychics, but you still went through a hellish experience.”
He took the card out of politeness, not having the desire of visiting a shrink. Hell, he couldn’t pay for one even if he did. “A psychic?” he asked out of polite curiosity.
The doctor smiled. “He’s human but does have the Telepathy Blood Gift, so I suppose technically yes. He does pro bono work for interesting cases and especially traumatizing circumstances.” He scribbled something onto his clipboard then looked back up at his patient. “You can leave whenever you’d like.” The doctor looked as if he was about to leave before remembering something. “Oh, by the way, your pokégirl was found to be in good health. She has had been sent through a Healing and Cleaning cycle and be waiting in a courtesy ‘ball for you. It seems that you checked out well enough to leave with her. Luckily we finally found your records. Took long enough. We were afraid we might have to confiscate and shove her through the grinder.”
Grinder? It was probably something better left unmentioned. That aside, he was semi relieved. But what record could they have possibly found? Was it some other shmuck they confused him with? Did they create one for him? Did the psychic know where he came from, and the League decided to launch some sort of ploy? What if they had a way to track him genetically or worse? He hoped not. Also, if they had found erroneous records of him, how could and why would it have proper credentials? What was that all about? Or, maybe there was something else going on. Like a higher hand? Naw, couldn’t be. That’s too convenient.
Maybe if he shipped off to Azure and started over with a new identity like he had often contemplated, he could avoid all the nonsense that had come up here. The situation reeked of nonsense and illogic. He was confused which meant that something he held to be true was probably false, but what did he hold to be true in this world? Never before had he really taken the thought of horrors from beyond the veil seriously. However, it turns out that’s just what Cthulhu wanted them to think.
He was getting off track.
Rather than look a gift horse in the mouth, he decided to take his chances and proceed with the hand dealt him. What choice did he have anyways?
He bid the doctor good day and strolled towards the end of the ward, picking up the pokéball that ‘his’ pokégirl was apparently waiting in. The ‘Joy working at the station winked at him when she handed him the ‘ball. What was that all about? Did she know something? Was she bad at subtle flirting? Did she have something to do with him keeping the pokégirl that saved his life?
Damn, he didn’t even know her name. That’s poor form. Then again, he’d never been good at collecting and remembering names. Well, worse than the average person.
To his surprise, as he wandered towards the elevators he saw that Louis, the tamer that had found him in the wilderness, was waiting for him near the lobby for the Short Term Care ward. His old rescuer waved at him and beckoned him over. Having nothing better to do, He complied and moseyed over to him.
“Hello, Louis,” he said, trying to sound casual.
Louis nodded to him politely. “Ai fegeeured dhat,wet vyourre setchooaashiion, vyou ‘uld niid ta traanset ta nasasary war byt,” he offered.
After vaguely translating the odd grammar and accent in his head, he interpreted Louis to be offering him a ride. Not one to pass an opportunity up, he decided to pounce on it. “By teleport?” he asked.
“Dya, f’kan.”
He considerably brightened. “Perfect, shall we first leave the hospital? I suspect it might be rude to teleport from the middle of one.” In reality, he didn’t want anyone here to know where he wanted to go.
Louis shrugged at his suggestion but followed him towards the ward’s exit. He could’ve sworn one of the nurses grabbed his ass on the way out, but he never saw who. Eventually, they reached the ground floor and exited the building entirely.
“Z’war ta?” Louis asked
“Have you ever been to Azure?”
Louis smiled triumphantly. “Nyew vyou war von dar. Dya, hav, n’aas var aas Lindis. Gud?
He grinned ecstatically. He heard Lindis. It was a major city and he could just take the tamers test there which allow him to survive if barely. “Lindis would be perfect.”
“Maagnivi. Bavor vyou gaoo, ha’s com nombar. L’mne naw ha’ow vyourre gaooeng samtaem.” He handed the survivor a slip of paper and then plucked a small red and white ball from his belt. It suddenly grew from the size of a grape to the size of a grapefruit and spat out a glob of red light which materialized into Louis’s A-bra. He flinched as this all suddenly happened in front of him. Even though he knew what to expect, seeing out-of-this-world sci-fi shit happen in front of him like it was everyday happenings- although technically it was here- still freaked him out.
The A-bra blinked sleepily and looked to Louis questioningly before nodding as if she suddenly understood something. He assumed they had some sort of telepathic conversation. His speculations were cut short as the psychic, without any sort of prompting, grabbed onto his arm and teleported him away before blinking back, causing Louis to sigh. It seemed her bedside manner was never going to improve.
(April 28th, 300 A.S. – 1330 – Southern District Outskirts, Lindis, Azure League)
He stifled his startled yelp as he suddenly appeared somewhere entirely different. His head spun and he clenched his stomach as a wave of nausea washed over him. Teleportation is definitely something that takes getting used to. He mustered his bearing and finally took in his surroundings after checking to see if his thick notebook full of notes he took from his nigh month long study session was still in his possession.
He seemed to be in a developing area of a city, the outskirts. As he scanned the area, in the distance he saw a gargantuan concrete wall. This city was heavily fortified. He looked in the opposite direction and saw an equally large, although much closer, concrete wall. Both visible sections of the walls had massive archways with open heavy metal gates centered on them. The further gateway had nothing beyond it but a short clearing before a thick wood sprang up. The closer gate revealed a much denser section of the city. That was probably where he needed to go.
As he headed towards the inner wall, he contemplated the fortifications. As this appeared to be the outermost section and the least developed, he inferred that whenever the city ran out of room, they cleared away more of the surrounding woods and built a new wall so that the new area would be protected from whatever elements the fortifications guarded against, most likely ferals. Still, despite the fortifications, the city seemed much spread out. He also noted that this current street, although a wide avenue that ran through both gates, seemed to have very light traffic despite its seeming to be an ideal main thoroughfare.
Traffic got slightly denser as he neared the inner gate, but it was nowhere near the level of congestion he expected in even small cities back home. He saw some children here and there, usually being guided by older women whom he assumed were pokégirls. He also saw some very immature pokégirls, or rather pokékits, as well although they seemed to be watched much more intently by their guardians than the human children. He’s stomach lurched to the side as he thought of babysitting superhuman children.
When he finally reached the gate, he was thankful to see a map to the left of the entrance in visible sight of oncoming traffic. He approached it and saw simplified map of the entire city and an enlarged section which was of the upcoming area. The map of the entire city showed that it was in the shape of an octagon with each side facing a cardinal or intermediate direction with a main street going through the center of each wall’s main gate and other streets connecting the main streets in a wagon wheel design. There were four octagonal walls in all. The map of the entire city showed the different districts and had little square areas that were labeled C, R, or I, which the legend translated to commercial, residential, or industrial. He snickered as he was reminded of Sim City.
The section of the map that displayed the upcoming area was much more detailed. It displayed orderly, numbered roads that were laid out in a grid which only broke at one of the octagon’s corners. He noted points of interest on a blank page in his notebook such as the one or two pokécenters and public transportation even though he doubted it was free.
When he was done inspecting the map, He headed through the massive gate and spotted some blue haired women in police uniforms, obviously OfficerJennys and Doberman-esque Hounds with finely cropped ears and docked tails patrolling in similar guard uniforms. Oddly, the Hounds adorned with no signs of rank unlike the Jenny’s whom all had two or three chevrons on their shoulders. It did seem as though Azures favoritism towards Near Human and Very Near Human type pokégirls wasn’t nearly as subtle or swept under the rug as he expected.
He smiled at one of the Hounds he passed near and wished her a good afternoon which seemed to surprise her, but she responded in kind as he went on his way. In terms of appearance, she reminded him greatly of a doby he had when he was younger. Nostalgia swirled in his mind until he forcefully cleared it from his head, not wanting the heartache that it came with.
He thought of what he needed to accomplish. He had three major things that needed to be done. One, he needed to take the Tamer’s test so he could have a means of survival. Two, he needed to sell the wad of bills he had rescued from his home’s ruins before setting out on his little adventure through the forest.
He had no idea what the bills were worth if anything at all. He would have assumed paper money from before war that nearly destroyed humanity would be incredibly valuable in the near mint condition his were in, but then again it might be fairly common. He had no idea.
Deciding to go for the surefire achievable goal, He made a beeline for the closest pokécenter that the map had listed to take his test. It was a good ways away, so he had time to contemplate his plan of action. The first thing he needed to do was to think of a new name. The name held no value to him or anyone else. Let’s see, he was trying to pass as someone who was descended from here so he had to pick something that at the very least hinted of the appropriate heritage. He didn’t have an ounce of Russian in him and knew a pathetic amount about Russian culture other than things concerning the World Wars and the Cold War; he knew even less about the other Slavic nations. Then again, his knowledge of Germanic culture was probably laughable.
Okay, what name should he go by? Dieter Rosenblum, a bit too obvious at trying to blend in; Ben Goldberg, not Germanic but maybe he should give himself an English or Christian first name and explain with some kind of back story if it turns out to be abnormal; Harold Bauer, he couldn’t see calling himself Harold or Harry; Jeremiah Feuerstein, now that had a ring to it. Wait, he already used that one. Damn!
What was a really common German surname? Bauer, Blum, Rosenblum, Brandt? Sorta fitting, and he could just say that his Granddad emigrated from Azure after the Anti-rights lost control of the country. What about a first name? Matthias? Pshaw, no one would take that seriously with his accent. Matt, he’d go with Matt. Let people assume whatever.
Now, if people ask about his history, he would need to tell them something and not seem or sound cagey. He repeated a series of lines through his head. ‘My parents raised me with anti-politics but I disagreed with that standpoint for several ethical and pragmatic reasons. Besides, I could never bring myself to like most Jhotos anyways. My home got destroyed in a feral attack I was hospitalized. My home owner’s insurance company declared bankruptcy and I didn’t see a dime. I took the disaster as an opportunity to start over back to where I have always wanted to eventually come back to, home.’
He grinned to himself. He wouldn’t say that to any psychics or people who would probably detect falsehood or have the mind or need to check him for a paper trail, which probably wouldn’t exist even if it was true. He grimaced to himself at the thought of people actually getting suspicious enough to check up on him. He just would need to be careful about spreading this story too far. You never know who might become suspicious.
(April 28th, 300 A.S. – 1600 – Southern District Pokécenter #2, Lindis, Azure League)
He finally reached the ‘center after getting lost twice. He didn’t know how he lost his way with how orderly everything is laid out. He must’ve been distracted by the sights, such as a sleek and surprisingly quiet motorbike with solar panels lining it that he found himself gawping at.
When he entered, he reminded himself that he was now Matt Brandt before he looked for something to clue him as to how he should proceed. He saw a short line of mostly kids in their late teens and possibly early twenties in front of the front desk. Technically he was really not older than they, but he knew he stood out with his more mature characteristics. A couple of people sitting in some of the chairs lining the walls with their pokégirls were starting to stair. Apparently seeing “older” people in a pokécenter wasn’t common
He coolly ignored the onlookers and took a step forward with the line every couple of minutes. When he reached the front he smiled at the attendant, an anthropomorphic red fox, probably a Kitsune seeing as she wasn’t in a personal Harem. He noticed her looking at him with a certain glint in her eye, but he had more important things to focus on.
“Hallo, I’d like to take the tamer’s test,” he said, noticing the look of surprise on her face and most of the room looking at him. Even those who weren’t looking at him seemed to have an ear cocked in his direction.
“Bet, bi dou’cht än lißchan alt?” the Kitsune blurted out before realizing her blunder and looking sheepish.
Holy shit, these people had completely different accents. Uh… fuck. It sounded like German. Alt, was she calling him old?He smiled indulgently at her and answered politely, only vaguely understanding through that monstrous accent. “I assure you I’m younger than I look. I’ve still got plenty of spry years left in me.”
“Gud, Aich kan geh dou setup right avay.” She looked eager to mover past what was probably an embarrassing slip of the tongue to her. Rudeness was probably punished in this world, at least to pokégirls. “Nam?”
“Matt Brandt.” Yes, that’s right. He was now Matt Brandt. But hell if he could understand that first sentence.
“Gebirthtag?”
Huwhat? Ge-birth-tag? Birth… Tag was day, right? Birthday? That was something he didn’t think of. Should he give his real age? He was pretty sure the hospital in Ruby knew his relative age so he probably shouldn’t just in case.
“April 1st, 280.” That would make him just barely twenty officially. He was younger than that, but he knew twenty was believable and indiscernible. Besides, April fools’ day? Who would’ve guessed that? Was he trying to get caught?
“Blud Träts?”
“None.”
“Vant dou än test zo sehe ob any hab appeared?”
“No need.”
He hoped the pressure hadn’t caused him to make any stupid mistakes.
“Nur än Ayeblink,” the Fox-girl said.
She got up and went back to a door behind the front desk and called out for someone. She came back and a normal looking woman wearing the same uniform as the Kitsune, however where the fox-type’s outfit had a much shorter skirt and more than a few buttons undone, the Ingenue was dressed comparatively conservative outfit. She appeared through another door to the right of the desk. The newly dubbed Matt figured she was an Ingenue or similar breed since she was wearing identical clothing to the other civil service ‘girl.
She appeared to be very serious, even when she greeted him, “Herr Brandt.”
He rolled his eyes. “Do I even sound like it’s necessary to use a German honorific?” His understanding of the local pidgin was threadbare, but it would probably improve over time, especially if he traveled to the more remote parts of Azure. Dear god, maybe that’s what they actually used in Azure as the norm! God he was such an ass. Why oh why did he do that? Shit. Or should he say Scheiße?
Despite her well trained expression, the civil service ‘girl had at least enough decency to shift uncomfortably at the annoyance in his voice and on his face although he was in fact far more annoyed with himself for that unnecessary comment.
She gave him an odd look. “Mne so’ch zharry, Sir,” she said with an odd accent, similar to the one he had heard in Ruby.
Matt winced at that. He felt kind of bad for that. He had been an ass. No doubt about it. “Wait,” he said. She turned and faced him with a vaguely inquisitive look. “Look… I’m sorry for that outburst. I’m tense, so I’m snapping at everything,” he explained. It was partially true, true enough for the situation.
She merely arched an eyebrow before nodding and saying “Aaksipted, Dankdou,” she said without a hint of emotion other than annoyance. She had in a seeming mix of the Ruby accent and the molasses thick Germanic accent the Kitsune spoke in. She led him through another door, and paused to turn and face him, holding up a cue tip and saying, “Ain chiksvap für keying vyou zo veuer ‘dex.”
He frowned. “Come again?”
“Cheek svab für d’ pokédex DNA lock.” she repeated.
“I haven’t passed yet.”
“Dya, n’ob Aih tu dhiis naw, et kan bit done vile vyu test ind du woll’cht hab zo wait tzvo hauers für die coding zo finisch.”
Wow, understanding the speech here was harder than in Ruby. Or, maybe he had just gotten used to the Ruby one during his ‘visit.’ Then again, the medical officials seemed to be very familiar with English, especially the doctors, while the civilians seemed to speak something entirely different, almost as if there was a hierarchy of language. It seemed to be similar here too. The Kitsune, a less respected pokégirl, spoke something that seemed to mainly be bastardized German while the Ingenue, a very near human type that was higher in the pecking order in this particular League’s eyes spoke something mainly similar to the Ruby accent with some hint of the German root.
He complied, and she put the moistened cue tip into a sanitized plastic container and passed it to a passing by Bunnygirl who bussed it to somewhere through the door labeled ‘Employees Only’ behind the front desk.
“Fallou mne, pliise,” she said, sounding self assured.
Her attitude caused him to restrain himself from rolling his eyes again. That was not the kind of things that would be constructive here. Her movements were stiff and tense, completely forced as if she were trying a little too hard. He suspected her to either be a newbie who got a high ranking job, probably because she was a Very Near Human type, or just a hardass who took things far too seriously and didn’t know how to moderate herself reasonably.
“Lead on,” he responded in an overly dramatic fashion. She twitched but said nothing, even as muffled snickers were audible from the Kitsune out front, who had most certainly heard with her enhanced senses. This must be the Ingenue’s usual attitude. Although he hadn’t meant for his hammy dramatization to be inciting or inflammatory, he stopped and paused, hoping that he hadn’t worsened his situation. Oh well, he doubted she could make his life too difficult
He was lead down a hallway into a sparse, probably mostly unused, room with a desk, chair and a paper-thin monitor with a stylus next to it. He sat at the desk and examined the monitor. Its thinness was astounding, and he wondered if it had a cuttlefish design like what had been in the works in his time/world or if it was something completely foreign to him.
The Ingenue gave him the standard rundown on how cheating would get him zero points and tacked on a rather intimidating tidbit about it including a two year ban on testing for the tamer’s license or any other League employed/supported profession. He handed her his giant notebook of notes and pocketed his pen just so there’d be no excuses. He caught her thumbing through his notebook but figured there was no harm. He’d know just who damaged his hard work if he checked it before he left, anyways.
(Same day – 1715)
Well, that was easy, he thought. He double, nay triple, checked his answers since he had unlimited time to take it. He was sort of lazy on his last run through since his stomach was rumbling terribly by this hour. His only real problem was that the Ingenue watched him like a hawk while he was taking his test. It was unnerving to say the least, and regional dialect it was displayed in. He was prepared, and the only thing that really made him pause was recalling the nutrition facts of pokéchow. He had a slight skip in his step as he followed the Ingenue back out to the front room. She told him to sit in one of the chairs lining the walls. She then disappeared through the hallway door, her job apparently done.
Matt occupied himself during the wait by doodling in the back of his notebook. It was a few minutes before the Kitsune beckoned him to the front. When called, he stood and went to the front. One of the kids in line looked at him indignantly for whatever misconceived or egocentric reason he may have had but made no complaint other than muttering to himself in what sounded like a Russian pidgin.
When he reached the desk, the Kitsune held out a small handheld device whose face was mostly occupied by a screen and said, “Klückwishes, Mr. Brandt, dou hast dour test bestand mith bestnotes. Dese iss dour pokédex; in et iss dour Tamer info und templizenzenginfo. Thiehn tu’cht mach hardcopies fon dese. Aulchso, hier iss dour fri copy fon most versölt Taming for Dummies. Hier iss ain digital credit für ain starter pokégirl, reneuble um any League accredited ranch unt ainse adoption centers. Ins Saturday, die airship dat tak Tamers fon Lindis zo die East Azure Tamer Training Camp goh um 9:30 A.M. Müschklükfürdou.”
A couple of the kids in the room cheered, mostly hamming it up. Despite how cheesy it was, it still made him smile. He turned towards the two cheerers, who looked like one another’s brother, and bowed, eliciting a quiet chuckle from one or two people nearby. Fortunately for him, he also received a slip of paper that roughly sounded like he had to be at some kind of air port to leave for the mandatory training camp that Azure League forced all of its fresh tamers to attend in two days from then.
With that moment of silliness done and over with, he turned back to the Kitsune and asked, “Saturday’s a couple of days away, do I have access to the ‘center facilities until then?”
The fox-type nodded vigorously, seeming a bit too happy about this. “Abet, die access stehps Saturday.
“Excellent, while I’m up here, can I check into a room?”
The Kitsune hit a couple of buttons on her computer terminal and handed him a key card looking fairly excited for some reason.
“Thanks.” At that moment his stomach chose to voice its emptiness to those in earshot.
The civil service ‘girl just smiled pleasantly and pointed to the door that led to the hallway. “Die Cafeteria iss den Hallende unt recht.”
Matt hid his embarrassment and absolute lack of understanding with a thank-you and jogged off in the vague direction the Kitsune had been pointing in.
(1745)
Being free for the night now that his main and pretty much only priority was done and over with, he had nothing to really do. One of the first things he had done when he had gotten into his bedroom was release ‘his’ pokégirl. She had been confused at first, but smiled when she examined the room. When she had been released, he noticed that her figure had filled out. The healing cycle that the hospital in Ruby must have fixed her malnourishment and helped her… bounce back.
He picked up one of the two trays of food that he had brought with him and set on the nearest flat surface and offered it to her. “Sorry if I didn’t get anything you like, I just picked up some random food from the cafeteria for us and brought it.”
Her mouth made a cute ‘o’ as she accepted it graciously. It was almost as if this was a special thing. Then again, the aspect of her life where she was born into a slave race might have led to that being just the case. The tantalizing smell of steamed vegetables and slightly overcooked meat wafted forth, almost disguising the fact that it came from a cafeteria.
The way she ate worried him. She held her knife and fork hesitantly and seemed unsure as to just what she should do. Thankfully, she was still eating but, at the same time, seemed worried and wielded her utensils clumsily.
“Are you okay?” Matt asked concernedly.
“What?” she asked. It seemed as if she had been trying to adapt to some of his pronunciations.
“You look nervous.”
She gave him an apologetic look. “Zharry, Ai’ne pon.”
Sadly, the reply had just confused Matt. “I don’t understand.” Apparently, neither did she, as his words appeared lost on her.
“Understand,” he repeated, trying to mime out what he thought to be an epiphanic expression. “I don’t,” he continued while shaking his head exaggeratedly. “I don’t… understand,” he said slowly whilst giving an exaggerated shrug. Her eyes lit up in seeming understanding.
Matt was taken by surprise when she copied his pantomime while sounding out “Ai... ne… ‘pon.”
“’Ai ne pon’ means ‘I don’t understand?’” he asked. She nodded. “Well, that makes sense… but I think I forgot what we were talking about.”
She apparently understood enough of that to chuckle. Seeming less tense now, she finished her food quickly but neatly. Perhaps she had been nervous about him?
Even though they could only speak to each other in the simplest of terms, things were quite amiable between them, and soon a comfortable silence had blanketed the atmosphere.
They had both finished their meals, and neither seemed to be about to break the silence. So after the after dinner cleanup, Matt simply sat on the bed and lied back, exhausted. It’s not every day you illegally cross a border, legally integrate yourself into a society, become a slave trafficker, and prepare to ship off to boot camp. On top of all that, he still had shit to do. He needed to pick up his free ‘starter’ still and look into seeing if he could find someone crazy enough to buy “pre-sukebe money,” but he had no energy left to do it today. It just wasn’t going to happen.
He was going to have to continue his business tomorrow. Surprise overcame him when he noticed that his companion had crawled onto the bed and snuggled up next to him. His heart sped up at the sensation of a soft woman up against him that didn’t consider him a midmorning snack.
His body turned towards her slightly. Matt realized that he knew not a damn thing about this woman despite having spent a great deal of time with her over the course over a short period. Well, he already knew that, but he felt bad about it. His self berating was cut off as his visual senses got lost in her features. Her pale skin faintly shined in the room’s artificial light. Whatever deity out there had truly smiled upon him when it had sent her to him. His life was owed to her.
Before he knew what he was doing, he was kissing her. She gave no resistance to his advances, and his tired mind made no attempt to snap him out of his trance. Time flew by.
(2230)
He sat on his bed, fiddling with his pokédex and generally relaxing, his day complete. The bed sagged a bit but was better than the hospital bed he had been stuck on for so long. The room was fairly spartan and austere; having only a single double bed, an air conditioning unit, one screen flush with the wall that He figured out was a TV/simple computer operable with a remote on the nightstand, and an empty minifridge. The en suite bath was a bit nicer, having a floor-to-ceiling mirror, a deep sink, a freaky future shower/bath thing that he was still too confused to use. Although, his companion- pokégirl that still didn’t have a name. He needed to remedy that- seemed to know her way around it just fine. Oh well, there were far too many squirty nozzles that reminded him too deeply of Japan for him to enter without trepidation anyways.
He had already played with the TV thing, eaten, had fantastic sex with his friend(?), and taken a shower. The only thing left of any real interest and current object of his fixation was the pocket supercomputer- at least ‘super’ by his standards- known as the pokédex. It was an amazing device with an absolutely infuriating operating system. Did it have revolutionary, user-friendly data access and navigation? No, it had pictures… pictures everywhere, stupid little icons populating everything without a word in sight, asinine organization without any rhyme or reason, no logic, no options, no customization. In other words, like Windows Vista’s inbred, schizophrenic child except much, much worse.
Utterly and totally frustrated, he decided that it was time for a break since if he had to deal with this thing any longer, he’d probably throw it out the window. He pocketed the thrice damned device and exited the room and headed towards the front. He paused and looked to his pokégirl to see her snoozing on the uncomfortable bed. He wouldn’t be very long, so it might be best to let her sleep.
He slipped out of the room after quickly checking to make sure he had the key card –still flabbergasted that these things hadn’t fallen out of use- and made his way out through the hall and into the front room. It was completely empty save for the Kitsune at the front ‘dex. She noticed him walking through the front room and called out to him “Et gohes gud zo dou?”
He glanced up at her. “Well enough. You?”
She looked at him like he was some kind of alien who just beamed into the room and asked her what her cup size was. “Uh,” she started unsure of how to begin. Was common courtesy this foreign to her? This was supposed to be a pro-rights League! “Mein shift haas end, so Aich’in hier bil ather attendant to show up.
He nodded, a little unsure of why she was looking at him like that before remembering that even thought this was a liberal League, she was a pokégirl and a type that was with less standing. It’d probably be like talking pleasantly to a black woman in the 40’s, or much much earlier. “Good, good. I-“
He was interrupted when his ‘dex started chirping in a grating electronic voice. “Kitsune, the-“ It was cut off by Matt irritably hitting buttons on his ‘dex in an attempt to shut it up.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” he said with clear annoyance, “Haven’t quite gotten this stupid thing figured out yet.”
She giggled, causing her whiskers to twitch cutely. “Dun’cht varry. Nieain gehts in first. Taming for Dummies habs zierry lißchan enfo obt die ‘dex”
He snorted and muttered to himself, “Or anything substantial at all.” Then he realized what she was offering. “Wait, you know how to-“ he cut himself off when he realized the stupidity of the question. “Of course you know about these. You handle them as a part of your job. I should’ve thought of just asking for help.”
He was met with a sly smile. “Nieain dun.”
Despite not knowing what that last statement was, he breathed a sigh of release and handed the ‘dex over to much more capable hands. “Thanks, you’re a lifesaver Miss…” he paused, feeling silly, “I’m sorry, I never got your name.”
“Carol,” she said, “nur da’nam Carol.”
He nodded. “Carol,” he said, “you have probably saved me many hours of humiliating myself before figuring out all the vital things.” He hopped over the desk and sat in a spare swivel chair. Carol looked a little surprised, but didn’t say anything.
“Zierry gud,” she said brightly, seeming happy to help.
Despite her grating, virtually incomprehensible accent, some of the information actually managed to penetrate his mind. Occasionally he needed to stop her and clarify what her odd lingo was trying to express. It turns out that her pidgin wasn’t actually just the ‘lower class pokégirl’ dialect like he had expected. After his first interruption for clarification, she apologized and explained that she had only recently been transferred from Azure’s western landmass where the primary tongue is based mostly around ‘ancient’ German and Pollock whereas here in the eastern landmass it’s almost solely based on Slavic languages, Bulgarian, and especially Russian with the exception of some of the Scandinavian dialects mixing into the eastern landmass.. Although apparently, he would only hear strains of the dying dialects in backwater villages, but strains of both main dialects have started to homogenize across the League.
Of course, her accent was just the first and least adverse barrier to the information he desired. There was also the fact that she seemed to constantly do little things like brushed her all but bare thigh up against his hand while giving him a clear view straight down her blouse. Not that he minded, but it was like she was intentionally trying to make him go empty headed and start to drool. It didn’t even cross his mind that that was probably the norm here until he had caught a small semblance of a smirk creeping across her features. Well… it actually made sense. How else were civil service ‘girls supposed to stay sane?
“Dies is vast mökt dou, d’ moßt importand fieatur in hier. Dou can mak chanyes zo d’ funschions of die ‘dex u recreate folder organizieng.”
Matt resisted the urge to sigh. This would have been a lot easier if she had just started and ended with that rather than going through all the functions that would be obsolete the moment he could make them so. “Okay, how do I find it again?”
“Aich’ll mak ai abbreviate hier.” It looked like she made some kind of shortcut to the function.
“Oh, thank god,” he mumbled to himself. This device would otherwise have been a nightmare and a half. “I could kiss you, ya know.”
Carol looked over at him slyly. “Ke-“
“Hiya Carol!” interrupted a high pitched, cheerful voice.
Matt looked up to see a short pokégirl with light brown, fluffy fur and a long, even fluffier tail, probably an Eva. Carol half-heartedly acknowledged her “Hallo, Beth.” She nudged him with her arm. “D’ oder attendant is hier.”
The Eva finally noticed Matt and smiled brightly. “Oooh? Int hu by’dhis?” she asked, leaning over the desk to get a closer look at him.
Carol frowned. “Ai tamer. E gask zo mi helf mith die ‘dex.”
He didn’t know what to make of it- probably because he couldn’t understand what was being said- but suddenly Matt just noticed how adorable the Eva was, and, before he realized what he was doing, he had plucked her up off the ground on the other side of the front desk and was hugging her plush body to him.
His eyes snapped open and he looked down at the ‘girl he had picked up. She didn’t seem to mind, but he set her down anyways and began sputtering apologies.
Carol tapped his shoulder and said with a not in the least bit conservative amount of disdain “Schie’st abusing iher Aura of Cute.”
Beth, the Eva, shook her head, looking all too happy with herself. “Nuh uh, just si ha’ow cuddly Ai’bt.”
Matt recovered from his embarrassment and straightened himself out. The Eva was a bold one. That and whatever that aura thing was- Aura of Cute, that’s right. He remembered something about that from the old pokégirls fandom- made him forget what he was doing. It was like seeing an adorable baby animal but laced with some kind of arousal. Not exactly harmless if used in a dire situation. A Distraction like that could kill you or get someone killed.
Carol scowled at her coworker. “Dun’cht start now.”
“Ai’bt ne.” Beth rubbed up against Matt’s side. “Vyou hwant cuddle? Et by’slow dhese hours c wye kan geht mith nimt.” She looked up at him mischievously. “Int mehry.”
Subtle, he thought. Not starting anything, she says. He didn’t know a fox’s face could scowl. Maybe what she had was a mix of human and vulpine that her facial muscles could make expressions akin to a regular human.
Normally he would have been intrigued by such a blatant offer momentarily before suspicion kicked in, but right now he had a responsibility to the woman who had saved his life, he had to keep her from a potentially cruel life. It’s not like he wouldn’t be benefitting from her well being anyways what with his new profession.
So, Matt went with a tactful way to weasel his way out of it. “If you try that here, the security cameras will see you shirking and you’ll get in trouble. I don’t want to get you punished for something frivolous.”
“Kom in,” Beth whined, “Dhey ko’sheck dhem when Dhere byt ai problem reported.”
Carol rolled her eyes and said “Zey hab än Ladyba vaching die sichturty feeds für die latz tzvo yahr.”
That caught Matt’s attention. If he recalled correctly, Ladybas and their evolution have total recall, they never forget anything. Having them watch security footage would save time, manpower, and therefore money if there was ever a need to review footage. Interesting.
“Ai don’ne dink shii rat uns out int ne geht ai frii show,” the tiny Beth retorted.
He watched the two bicker back and forth whilst trying to hide his amusement. They chattered at each other in a manner that reminded him of territorial squirrels. He stayed silent watching their interaction. Beth, the Eva, stayed cheerful and teasing throughout the entire debacle while Carol was getting more and more irritated. He thought he had an idea of the dynamics of their relationship.
But still, he’d wondered if this was how his relationship with pretty much every woman would be like from now on. It was intriguing and vaguely disturbing at the same time. But still, he needed to tactfully excuse himself without offending them. Well, he wouldn’t let their offence get in the way of his leaving, but he would be polite if possible.
“Excuse me?” he said. Both of them snapped their attention straight to him. It must have been habit from years of service. “I’ve got a busy day on the morrow, so I’ve got to get some sleep. S’been great chatting ladies. G’night.” Hoping to avoid being held back, he hops back over the desk and wanders through the hallway and back into his room, not pausing for fear of accidentally doing something that would hold him up and cause an awkward situation he had no idea how to handle. It had already been pushed to the back of his mind that Carol had all but stripped for him and that Beth had been even less subtle.
When he shut his door behind him, he turned around and saw his companion- who he really needed a name for- was awake and sitting on the bed patiently. He was bad with naming thing, but this was abhorrent. Also, how long was she awake? Damn, he should have thought of her before just abandoning her here. Well, it was only maybe a couple of hours, so it wasn’t abandonment. Still, it wasn’t right. Was it? She was an adult… A dependant adult. Shit this was difficult.
“Hey,” he began unsurely. “Have you been awake long?”
She understood enough to shake her head. “Small dan how’har.”
Smaller than… How’har… hour? Less than an hour Well, at least she wasn’t alone the entire time. He probably was out there for two and a half hours. He needs to get into the mindset of someone being dependant on him. Still. “Sorry about that. Did you get bored?”
She looked at him blankly. Perhaps he should steer clear of idioms when trying to communicate. But still, if he gave her permission to entertain herself, would she get into trouble? Why would he have to worry about that? Oh wait, because she was his responsibility. Crap.
“If you have nothing to do, you can watch TV or something. Or maybe browse the internet. You don’t have to just sit there and waste away,” he explained despite knowing that hardly anything would probably get through to her.
She cocked her head and shrugged.
“You don’t understand,” he said resignedly.
Letting out a frustrated huff, she pointed to the screen on the wall.
“Oh… uh… Do you not know how to work the TV?”
“Dya.”
“Ah, okay. It’s simple enough.” He picked up the somewhat unwieldy super remote that went to the insane number of functions and settings the screen on the wall had. “Can you read?” he asked offhandedly. She shook her head in negative. “Okay then,” he said, expecting as much. He heard of a T2, a device that installed reading knowledge into pokégirls, that was made in Blue by another author’s character, but he didn’t know if it had been made yet or if that timeline even applied to where he was.
He held the remote in front of her and pointed to the power button. “This turns it on.” He pressed it, making the screen light up. The news was on with a topless catgirl, whom had doubtlessly had her breasts bloom powdered to death and beyond, bouncing on her heals as she reported some goings on behind her. “This button changes the channel, putting something else on.” He demonstrated. “This one goes back, and these two change the volume.” He turned it off and set the remote on the night stand. “If you ever want to watch TV or something while were in a station like this, go ahead so long as it doesn’t bother anyone. Eventually there’ll be more people in our group, so you’ll have to share of course.”
She nodded although he didn’t know how much actually got through to her. He’d just have to wait and see.
All aside, he needed to go to bed. Too much work to be done in the morning. He had napped already, so he might have trouble getting back to sleep. However, it had to be done. With a few quick moments, he had discarded his clothing and slipped under the covers of the bed. He saw that his companion was reaching for the remote, watching him out of the corner of her eye and gauging his reaction. He ignored it and rolled over to go to sleep. So long as it wasn’t too loud, he’d sleep through it.
An indeterminate amount of time later, he was startled awake by a loud knock on the door. Groggy as all get out, he was half tempted to ignore it, but he forced himself onto his feet. He saw the flashing screen of the TV on and was quite startled to see hardcore porn. His pokégirl was watching the lizard girl on the screen getting plowed in the ass while some snake girl was running an obscenely long tongue across her front. This did not help the erection he had woken with.
Matt placed a hand on his companion’s shoulder. “Oi,” he said to get her attention. She turned to him, her eyes widening when she saw his erect member. Apparently she really was enjoying what she was watching because a smile was tugging at the corner of her lips when she looked up at him. “There’s someone at the door. I need to turn the TV off for a second.” She frowned disappointedly, but nodded. “Don’t worry you can finish watching it when I find out what they want.”
He didn’t wait for her reaction and shoved his only pair of jeans uncomfortably over his erection, hoping it would go down soon, and went to the door, not bothering with a shirt. To his surprise, it was Carol whose clothing had been since replaced with a getup much more revealing. Her blouse barely hid her cleavage and her skirt was more of a belt or sash than anything else. Apparently, his pants wouldn’t become looser any time still.
“Carol,” he said in genuine surprise.
“Hallo,” she replied with a grin.
“I-“ he gave up and sighed, grimacing involuntarily and causing an expression in Carol that he didn’t recognize. It was probably a troubled one, but he couldn’t tell. Of course he’d never had to read an expression off of a fox before. “I have company,” he explained.
“Oh.”
“Look, under different circumstances, I’d invite you inside in a heartbeat, but I have prior obligations.” He tried to give her a sympathetic smile, but it was probably more of an uncomfortable one. “Sorry.”
Just then, his companion appeared from his blind spot to see Carol. Not bothered in anyway by seeing him talking to a barely clothed woman, something that baffled Matt, she nudged him in the arm. “Vyou hwante ihr? Mne care ne.”
Carol eyed the stranger with intrigue.
“Ah, this is,” he paused, “Samantha.” His companion looked up to him in surprise but looked happy.
“Zie is oir starter?” Carol asked with polite curiosity.
“Starter?” Matt began. “Oh, she’s mine.” He evaded directly saying starter, still wanting the free pokégirl. The starter would be useful if only as monetary denomination if things didn’t want to work out. He didn’t know if already having one disqualified him or not, and he could always say he found Samantha- god it’s about time he named her- feral and was in a weakened state so he caught her. But where would he get the pokéball? A good soul gave him one. Wait. Crap. He needed to think that out.
Samantha reached past Matt, utilizing her small, five foot frame to fit past him and grabbed Carol’s arm, pulling her inside. Carol didn’t object even as things immediately seemed to fast forward to them both naked on the bed. Was she going to be this bold with everyone but him? Was his sex life going to be this awesome from now on? God he hoped so.
TAMER DATA ENTRY:
NAME: Brandt, Matt
CELESTIAL AND/OR PSYCHIC TESTED ALLIGNMENT:
As of 4/28/300: N/A
LISCENCING: Temp. Non-Combat Tamer
Scheduled for attending training on Sat. 4/31/300
CURRENT BANK ACCOUNT BALANCE: N/A
POKÉGIRLS: N/A
STATUS: Euphoric
LISCENCING: Temp. Non-Combat Tamer
Scheduled for attending training on Sat. 4/31/300
CURRENT BANK ACCOUNT BALANCE: N/A
POKÉGIRLS: N/A
STATUS: Euphoric
23,000+ words all together