Like No One Ever Was

“I passed I passed I passed!” Cyan screamed, running into my room. Guess she’s back from Alfornada. I thought she’d be back later with the fashion show there. She was grinning broadly and had probably been running as soon as she was dropped off from the flying taxi into my room, her hair a little messier than it usually was (which reminded me that my hair was getting pretty long and I’d want to get it cut short for the summer).

I smoothly shifted away one of the notebooks I had been working on as I turned to face her. ‘Legendary Pokemon and where to find them’ would raise enough eyebrows on its own, even without me cross-referencing the lore of this world and my meta-knowledge.

“That’s great! Have you decided on-”

“A Popplio,” she declared firmly.

“Ah, that’s a good choice. I’m surprised though, I didn’t think they were ones you were looking at?” I inquired. Not that I’m complaining, mind. Any of the Alola starters are really cool and strong.

“I wasn’t at first, but when you mentioned Milotic I started looking into some other aquatic Pokemon. Primarina is almost as beautiful as a Milotic, a great singer and dancer, and even as a Popplio they’ll be able to travel with me on the land way easier than a Feebas could.” Thinking ahead, that’s a good sign.

“Sounds good, but how do you plan on getting one?”

She waved my concerns aside. “I already reached out and I’ll have an egg sent from some five star breeders in Alola.” She said, pointing at her phone. “Oh! I’m so excited, my Primarina, she’s going to be the most beautiful singer in the world! Did you know that they’re really hard workers?”

“No, I didn’t,” I admitted. Always so much to discover in this world. “Well, good for you, I know you studied tons. But if you want to evolve her to a Primarina, you’ll need to train her plenty.”

“Urk! That’s true. Could you help me with that?”

“Of course, I’d be happy to!” My sister froze at my words, or maybe the smile on my face.

“Nevermind, I take it back, she can remain a Popplio forever.” I glared at her for a second before my expression broke at the sight of her own twitching lip and we both broke out into laughter. She trusts me, and honestly, I trust her too. We’ve come a long way from where we started.

“Just remember that your Popplio might not always perfectly get along with you-” I began before she interrupted me.

“And to put in the work and understanding yada yada,” she waved my concerns off. “I get it.” I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. I guess I did go on a bit about my views there when I was helping her study. In my defense, I don’t get many captive audiences people who I can talk to about this.

I still went online at times to see what kinds of views people held on that, but most of the talk was dominated by the Tera Orbs. Months later the ‘hype’ around them still hadn’t died. ‘My’ video had gone viral right away, and still got tons of likes and views, being one of the first, but several more had joined since, getting way more views. Most commenters were nice, but some were really rude, especially being upset about the fact that I had Dunsparce, of all things. I did my best to ignore those people.

In part, I suspected it was because there hadn’t been a big tournament with them yet, so everyone was waiting to see how well they could do. Overseas, people were waiting to see how this stacked up against Z-Moves, Dynamax, and Mega-Evolution.

“Alright, alright. I’m surprised you’re back so early. I thought you were going to see Tulip’s fashion show.” She wasn’t a gym leader yet, but Tulip was still a model and a rising star, according to my sister at least.

“I know, but I just got so excited I had to come back here and talk about Pokemon!” She paused as she realized what she said. “Oh no, now I’m going to be an obsessed Pokefreak like you!” She wailed.

“Hey! It’s not like people like Tulip aren’t interested in Pokemon either. She’s actually a really strong Psychic Type specialist- and she’s gone.” My sister immediately started running back out of my room and down the stairs at that.

“Oh wow, I gotta get back then. If I hurry I can still get there in time to watch the show and maybe ask her some questions about beauty and Pokemon tips!” She shouted as she rushed down the stairs. With a small groan, I got up from where I was sitting (tired from having already done a workout for the day), and chased after her.

“Wait up!” I said as we got outside. She already had her Rotom Phone out and was using it to call the Flying Taxi down.

“Hmm? Do you want to come with me?” I paused, considering it for a moment. It’d be interesting to get to talk to Tulip before she becomes a Gym Leader. But on the other hand, I’m not sure how much of a chance I’d get, and it’ll mean sitting through a boring fashion show beforehand.

I thought it over for a moment. Fashion shows aren’t really my thing, and I honestly doubt we’ll actually manage to get that much free advice from Tulip about battling at the end of a fashion show. Spending more time with my sister however, wouldn’t hurt. “Sure.”

“Ok- oh, our ride’s here.” Cyan pointed up, and the taxi was already descending down. Wow, that was fast. Perks of a rich family, I guess. Flying Taxis would often come to help people out for free, or very little cost, if they found a trainer stranded in the wilderness. They could also be used for transport from city to city for a standard fare, though for extra pay like my family could afford, apparently, you could get them to come much faster than they’d otherwise be.

“Wait, I left Rotom recharging! Just a second,” I said, running back through the house to grab Rotom off their charging dock. 47% charge. That could last a couple of days, we should be fine.

“Wha- young miss?” They said, a bit shocked as I woke them from their slumber.

“Sorry, gonna head to Alfornada wanna come with?” I blurted out. They blinked for a second before they slowly bobbed up and down.

“Bzzt, that would be acceptabl-” Grabbing them, I raced back outside. “Wait-!”

I ran and jumped into the Flying Taxi that was already beginning to take off. “Geez! You couldn’t wait one minute?” I complained as I rolled over the side of the basket and inside the taxi.

“Nooooo. The fashion show starts in five minutes!” Cyan complained putting her hands on her hips.

“Oh, are you going to be able to make it?” At my doubts, the pilot just chuckled. He was a middle-aged man with an aviator's cap and goggles. I’d seen him a few times when I’d been on the Flying Taxi before, and knew he often covered this area of Paldea.

“Not to worry young missies. My Sqwakabilly team will get you there in the blink of an eye. Double time fellas!” He called out to the four birds above us, and we suddenly rocketed ahead. I fell back a bit, holding on to the edge.

“Wow, that’s impressive. How do they coordinate so well?” I shouted over the wind. All four of them moving at once in synchronization like that must take a lot of work. Just one bird pulling just a little bit too hard or lightly would unbalance the whole thing.

“They chatter and communicate with each other. Also comes from finding the right balance, I find. I’ve got mostly White plumage Sqwakabillys, they’re very team-oriented, with a Yellow plumed one to lead the others.” He explained.

I nodded thinking about it for a few minutes. My silence prompted Cyan to speak up. “Pokedollar for your thoughts?”

“Just thinking about team-building. Pokemon battles are more than just a series of one vs. one matches, they’re all about how your team functions as a whole. You could easily have a team entirely weaker individually than your opponent, but still win because you organized them better.” Rotom hovered in as well, slightly interested too.

“How so, bzzt? Should not the strongest team win?”

“Well, there are set-up moves, ways to put an opponent at a steep disadvantage even if your first Pokemon loses the fight. Controlling the terrain so that your other Pokemon can continue to use it well even after a Pokemon has fainted, etc. Also just switching around to gain type advantage.” Really, I’m just scratching the surface of how complicated full-scale battles can be. A lot of the videos I’ve studied have shown even things I wouldn’t have expected, like an errant Ice Beam that ‘missed’, can be critically important to the match, 3 or 4 Pokemon later when an opponent has trouble keeping their footing on that section of the battlefield.

I didn’t have time to get into it any further because we were already arriving at Alfornada.

We crested over the rocky ridge separating Alfornada from the rest of Paldea, getting my first glimpse of the city. It was clearly bigger than it was in the games, with more buildings and people stretching out further towards the ocean in this world. Still, it held a rather picturesque image.

Hmm, no, not ‘picturesque’ exactly. It still feels secluded and cozy, however, with the ocean spread out in front of it and the rocky cliffs supporting its back. The largest building by far was a cylindrical one with a flat top, and a large set of stairs winding up around the outside of it to reach the top.

I think there’s a Dark Type gym leader here currently? I hadn’t kept up too much with the current gym leaders since a lot of them would have changed by the time I was anywhere near challenging them. Larry and Kofu were the only ones who were currently Gym Leaders, and the former wasn’t an Elite Four yet.

There were plenty of amenities, but it wasn’t a huge city. Part of me wondered what led to it being built in the first place, as isolated as it was. If it had been built onto the water I’d understand it as a port connection, but it very purposefully doesn’t extend that far. Maybe it was the victim of one conquest or another that stalled out. If the leader of an empire, warband, or budding nation fell, then the people in the new colony might have just settled down on the spot, now wanting to take their chances with the chaos and anarchy further away or closer in. There were a lot of cases like that in Paldea’s history.

“C’mon, we’re here. Stop daydreaming and let’s goooo!” Cyan said, taking me out of my thoughts, and causing me to realize we’d landed.

“Ah, sorry. Thank you for the ride!” I said to the taxi man, and then repeated for the Squwakabillys as I clambered out, then rushed after my sister. I had a bad habit of getting lost in my thoughts if I wasn’t doing anything important at that exact moment; there was just so much to discover! So many new things to think about. Even as I followed my sister, I was wondering what kind of Pokemon lived around here.

The fashion show had already begun by the time we arrived, but only by a couple minutes, and (after a bit of name-dropping from Cyan), we were allowed inside. The fashion show had a catwalk the audience was gathered around it, much like I was ever-so-vaguely aware was the case in my previous life.

What was more unusual was the lighting which was largely handled by Pokemon hanging near the rafters. Occasionally they’d do Moves or something like that to modulate the lighting as different models walked up and down. And the models could be very different indeed as some of them were Pokemon!

The Pokemon admittedly seemed to just be wearing accessories usually, not full outfits like the models, but it was another element of integration I hadn’t anticipated. There were plenty of (thankfully smaller) Pokemon out of their Pokeballs watching the show too. I even saw one Pikachu sitting atop a girl’s head, lightly tugging at her hair and excitedly pointing at a Ponyta in an ascot that had just pranced onto the stage.

With it being acceptable, I decided to let Dunsparce out too. He gave a confused noise before I picked him up off the ground to get a better look at what was going on… which still left him confused. “It’s a fashion show,” I explained. “They’re wearing fancy clothes and accessories. Let me know if you like any of them.” Fashion wasn’t my thing, but I didn’t want to deprive my Pokemon of that if they wanted anything like that.

Dunsparce adopted a look of intense concentration at that, making a few approving sounds at some of the different Pokemodels. I wish I could tell the connections though. The Riolu had little booties on and the Hariyama had large rings, none of which Dunsparce could wear. Only the crown the Dolliv was wearing-

“Wait, those are just Pokemon you want to battle against,” I said, suddenly realizing how Dun had taken my words.

“Spar, sparce!” He agreed happily. If I wasn’t busy holding him, I would have facepalmed. As it was, I laughed out loud, which attracted a few stares from people nearby and a glare from my sister (though it wasn’t loud enough to draw too much attention away from the show). “Du?” He asked, curiously, and I shook my head.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Fashion isn’t my biggest thing either.” I put him back in his ball (since he was decently heavy for my childlike body to hold up) when I saw her enter. A cloud of pink smoke filled the stage at first, created by a Florges and Kirlia standing just backstage. Out of it, Tulip strode onto the catwalk, to much excitement from the crowd. Tulip was wearing a long, dazzling dress with a small train, many symbols of different types woven into the fabric and glittering in the light.

“Impressive. I wonder what type of move they did to make that. Maybe Misty Terrain?” I wondered aloud. The ground around the catwalk wasn’t lingering with the pinkish energy I would have suspected from that, but Tulip did have an ethereal air about her. Possibly a variant of the move.

A lot of trainers, pretty much all of them really, invented ‘variants’ of standard Moves for their Pokemon after a certain point. These Moves tended to be harder to copy and replicate than the standard ones Pokemon could learn, naturally or through Technical Machines. Things like Ash’s ‘Counter Shield’. Announcers and the like would hype them up a lot, but on closer analysis, they were often fairly similar to other ‘base’ Moves (understandable given the vast plethora of techniques out there) with just a few trade-offs. Sometimes the trade-offs could even be mostly unfavorable, so it was something I’d have to be careful of when looking at creating my own. That’s a long way off, however. I still have to get the basics mastered before I’d even want to begin something like that.

Tulip strode effortlessly on the catwalk, staring out straight ahead. For a split-second, however, I thought her gaze met mine. My hand moved to raise Dunsparce’s ball as if to answer an unspoken challenge.

Then the moment broke and she turned around, abruptly pivoting at the end of the catwalk and strutting back down it. Right, that’s silly. She wouldn’t be ‘challenging’ me in the middle of a fashion show! Still, I thought I felt… something there.

Tulip was young (only 16), but was very much the ‘star’ of this show already, so the show was dying down after her debut. Cyan went on and on about her earrings and her dress, a million different details that had completely missed me. At least she’s having fun. It’s nice to see her so happy after how hard she had been pushing herself to study. She also chatted with some other girls, a bit older than her, talking eagerly about the show.

When Cyan marched over at the end of the show and demanded a backstage pass to talk to Tulip, I figured the security team would turn us away. However, just name-dropping us as ‘Glitterati’, and we were escorted in. Really? Is it that easy?! We could have been anyone and just pretended we were rich. Though I guess it is true, and the security team for her is kinda not necessary either, with Tulip having a very strong Pokemon team of her own.

Going backstage, I saw several models removing makeup or otherwise relaxing after the show. Several assistants ran around them, helping clean things up, giving advice, gathering up accessories, and more. It was enlightening to see how many people were involved in prettying someone up and how different the models looked with even a bit of the makeup off and preparations removed.

At Tulip’s door, the security guard knocked and said “Two young VIPs to see you, Tulip.” Something about the way he said that makes me think they have different codes for different people looking for the models. There was silence save for some shifting inside before she responded.

“Send them in.” He opened the door, letting us inside her dressing room before closing it behind us. Tulip was sitting on a chair, her Kirlia and Florges standing on either side of her. She smiled warmly at us. “So nice to see such budding beauties. Did you enjoy the show?”

“Yes!!” Cyan squealed. “You were so pretty Ms. Tulip, your dress looks fantastic, and the way you made an entrance, just wow! I’m Cyan, and this is my sister, Nim- Nemona”

My sister gushed a bit more about Tulip’s show. She was more knowledgeable than me but sounded ‘rough’ in her praise - as to be expected from an eleven-year-old girl who wasn’t a professional. She also talked about how she’d be getting a Popplio soon and talked about how beautiful Tulip’s Pokemon were as well (as I hadn’t seen any Florges or Kirlia in person before, I didn’t really have any point of comparison, though I did assume they were well looked after). Throughout Cyan talking her up, I felt Tulip's gaze on me.

“Thank you so much dear,” she said to Cyan. “This was my biggest show to date, so I’m glad you enjoyed it.” She turned, taking a small set of makeup from her desk and passing it to my sister. “This is the new product La Oran is promoting. I think you’ll quite like it.”

Cyan made a noise so high-pitched that I was surprised that humans could make it, hugging the kit close. Is that something different to Poke Humans, or just me unused to preteen girls? “Thank you thank you thank you!!”

The model smiled at her before turning to me. “I’m afraid I don’t have anything for you. Though to be honest, I don’t know of any makeup that would fit your wild aura.”

“You know about Aura? I’ve been looking all over for information about that-” I stopped as she started giggling.

“Ah, sorry for that. I was merely speaking about your emotional state, not that power which you speak of.”

“Oh. Sorry for assuming-” I began embarrassedly before stopping myself. “Wait a moment, how would you have seen my ‘emotional state’ without Aura of your own?” I mean, she is a Psychic Type specialist, they often have Psychic powers. Is that separate from Aura, or just one aspect of how it can manifest?

Cyan looked between us, a little confused. “What are you two talking about?” We were spared from answering her as someone kicked the door in.

“Tules, you looked great out there!” A young woman with long black hair tied in a ponytail burst into the room, heedless of the security team that had tried to stop her. She was wearing a martial artist’s Gi, a black belt firmly tied around her waist. “Oh? Who are you pipsqueaks?” She asked, looking at us.

Cyan puffed up indignantly. “Who are you to ask us that, after barging in here, you, you brute!” Dendra (as that was only whom I could assume this would be) seemed taken aback by that. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tulip struggling to conceal her laughter while discreetly waving away the security team.

“Cyan, Nemona, this is my old friend, Dendra. Dendra, these are two guests who saw my show. I was just giving them some advice.” Tulip turned back to us. To my sister, she said “Try some natural, simpler beauty techniques to start with your Popplio when you get her. A crown of flowers, maybe coral or a ribbon given Popplio’s aquatic nature, can do as much to bring out one’s beauty as the most expensive accessory, and it gives her a chance to feel out what she will like.” Solid advice, questionable source, given the big fashion show and all.

I stared her straight in the eyes as she turned to me. “For you, I’d say the best way to bring out your, and your Pokemon’s, natural beauty will be in battle. Show off your true self there.”

Dendra clapped her hands behind us, reminding me of her presence. “Ooh, I know of a great tournament for a youngster like you! They’re hosting a beginner’s tournament in Mesagoza in a month. Only people with less than two badges, however.”

“That’d be perfect then, we’ve been looking for just such a challenge. Thank you Dendra-sensei.” I said with a small bow to her. She clutched over her heart, uttering something along the lines of ‘too… cute…’ Gazing back to Tulip’s amber eyes I said. “If you can, please, watch me do well there, and see my ‘natural beauty’ shine.”

Unspoken was my request: ‘If I do well enough, tell me what you know about Aura.’ I don’t really have any leverage to enforce that, but I’m hoping if I do a good enough job, she’ll be willing to tell me what she knows about that mystic art. Aura had been something I’d looked into, but it appeared thus far as if there was little widespread information traded about it - but enough hints that it definitely existed. Psychics were somewhat well known, if only due to flashy Gym Leaders like Sabrina.

Ever so slowly, Tulip nodded. “I think I would like to see that indeed.”

Her martial artist friend let out a whoop of joy, pumping her fist in the air. “Alright, we’ll be cheering you on, Nemona.”

I nodded my new goal set firmly in my mind. Time to enter my first tournament.