Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman

Chapter 57

I wake up in the Center, where I just barely got to before collapsing last night. I also slept in my clothes again and that ensured I didn’t get too restful a sleep. Nevertheless, the girls are nearby, ponies again as with every morning. I just scooch over and use Twilight as a pillow, her being much more comfortable than the couch cushion I laid on all night.

Unfortunately she wakes up when I try to ‘fluff’ her.

“Mur-wha?” she grumbles sleepily, looking around. “Anthony? What’re you doing?” she asks, looking utterly baffled and not entirely awake.

“Trying to sleep. You need to be comfier...”

She furrows her brows in tired confusion. “M’not? But I’m not a pillow...” she says, looking adorable as she puffs her cheeks out in sleepy frustration.

“Don’ care, are now...” I readjust my position, putting my face in Twilight’s back and trying to sleep. She’s not that plush, but she’s at least soft.

She murrs and mumbles some more, but evidently isn’t feeling energetic enough to bother booting me off, and just goes back to snuggling with her own pillow.

A few hours later, I’m awake and less tired. I stretch and stand up, deciding that Twilight would make a better pillow if she got less exercise. Then again, aside from our adventures, she sits around mostly. How does she not look fat?

Oh well, I’ll leave the two of them to wake up on their own. I go over to the PC and take a closer look at Gulpar. Using the terminal’s built-in ‘dex I check out the entry for it, see if there’s any fodder for a good name in there.

Gulpar, the Big Mouth pokemon:
- These eerie pokemon can open their mouths almost eleven feet wide, and their sinuous bodies have been known to float in the air when taken from the water.
- Their translucent bodies make them hard to see, but the insides of their mouths are full of glowing lures visible only when their mouths are open. They can swallow almost any living pokemon whole.

Well, can’t think of a better name than Gulpar from that, but still, it can ‘swim’ while out of water? That’s useful. I switch Ghowl for it, and Geodude for Chantlette. Should probably have them get used to me.

The switching sequence done I go up to the arena area upstairs and see that a few trainers are having a battle. I go over to the next arena section and release my pokemon. You know, with Ghowl and Litwick on my team, I’m getting a lot of ghostly pokemon.

Oh well, I’m sure my next one will be a grass type or something. But I gotta remember to pace myself.

The Gulpar appears, and looks just like a swimming pokemon in the games do, just hanging in midair and undulating slowly. Pale, glossy-white eyes watch me, the first third of its nine-foot-long body wrinkled with deep furrows where its mouth is pleated shut.

Chantlette looks around, gets one good look at Gulpar, and shrieks in terror, darting around behind me leg and pressing her face to the back of my knee, still screaming in fear.

“Chill out, same rule as all my other Pokemon: no eating something unless it’s wild. That means my pokemon are not gonna get eaten by my other Pokemon. I just caught the both of you recently so I figured you should get used to each other. And everyone else as well.” I toss out the rest of my team. “This isn’t everyone, but most of them. So... yeah, get acquainted.”

Carvanha looks at Gulpar from the pool and her reaction is one of leery unfriendliness.

Other than that, introductions go well. “I figured you wouldn’t need to meet Geodude, he... doesn’t really care who else is on the team. He does him and I do me as it were. Other than that, we’re just missing Luna, Ghowl, and GLaDoS.”

I get an idea. “I’ll be right back. You guys... mingle for a bit.” The only ones who are really moving are Magomental who is swarming as usual and Gulpar who is phantom swimming.

I figure they’ll be alright, Litwick backing up Chantlette against the more monstrous of my group.

I head down to the counter to ask Joy a question. “Hey, I know there’s a six-pokemon limit, but I just want my team to meet some newcomers. Am I allowed to have them all meet up at once as long as I don’t leave the Center, or is that still illegal?”

“Oh, that’s perfectly fine! We actually have a Party Room, meant for birthday parties and other celebrations; it’s not in use right now, so if you want to let all your pokemon out for a stretch, feel free! There’ll be an announcement if it gets booked for anything.” she says, smiling gently at me.

“Thanks! I’ll go get the rest of them then.”

“Oh, no need, you can access a console in the room itself,” she clarifies, still smiling happily, “Just remember to select a pool for your swimming pokemon before sending them out.”

“Okay, that’s great. And don’t worry, if it suddenly gets booked I won’t be a hassle.” I head back upstairs and, looking around, I find that the lobby that leads to the arenas does in fact have what amounts to a Union room, so I head back to the arena room to collect my team still out of their balls. Last I saw, Litwick was backing up Chantlette, so I’m guessing they’ll get along. Or at least Chantlette won’t be scared. The scene I come to when I enter is not that different from when I left, everyone just sort of sitting around and waiting for something, though a few are getting introduced without prompting. I have a feeling Geodude is gonna be anti-social as usual so I figure he’ll just be off by himself. Either way, I recall everyone and move to the party room where they’re let out.

The place looks a lot more welcoming than the sterile environment of the arenas, the party room decorated with bright colors, though the walls are a weird, blank gray with faint, dark lines forming a hexagon pattern. There’s a few bland chairs and tables, but a closet in one corner is already brightly colored and labeled ‘The Party Station’, and it has a computer console on the door. Heading over, I see that it noticed my approach and opened up, listing off several options, and has a button highlighted that says ‘Theme’.

I search around for a sort of greeting theme and I get kind of close with a ‘Welcome’ party setup. I go with that, and decide Twilight and Rarity would probably like to join me. Not sure how acquainted their pokemon are either.

Upon hitting the button, I sense more than see movement behind me, and I turn... and see that the whole room has become brightly lit and simple, tasteful colors and patterns cover the walls and floor, even the tables gaining a color and pattern like wood, but repeated. Two and two go together in my head, and I realize the room must be set to have pattern displays in everything to let the room be customized on the fly.

Those of my pokemon capable of clearly-readable emotion are impressed with the room as well. “This will probably do better than an arena.” I notice Carvanha is jumping up and down and recall the pool Joy mentioned. I search the console for something like that and part of the wall pulls back like part of the Aperture Science Testing chambers, revealing a large pool set into the wall with glass that had been covered, giving Carvanha a good view of the room, Gulpar floating casually over to settle into the water as well, much to Carvanha’s distaste.

“Alright, now that we have a better place set up, I’ll go get Twi and Rarity and then we can bring out everyone.” Luckily the room is overall big enough to house several Snorlax, so there’ll definitely be enough room for the full entourage.

Downstairs again, the ponies are getting interesting looks. Right, they seem like pokemon and they can’t just turn human or speak at random, lest someone faints like the last Joy we met. I just come over and get them, ushering them up the stairs. “We need to figure out a better way for you guys to be ponies in public without getting all the attention.”

“Well, not everyone minds as much as you do.” Rarity says coyly.

“Yeah yeah, you’re pretty, I get it. Now come on, I found a room where every one of our pokemon can meet up. Don’t want our teams to be strangers.” After they agree we enter the party room and I head over to the console at the back... yeah, I can withdraw my other teammates too, while before only the ‘switch’ button was highlighted. Guess this one must be special.

Soon enough my entire team is out and getting acquainted with each other, as well as Twilight and Rarity’s pokemon. I never realized how many pokemon we had altogether. The place isn’t crowded... too big for that yet, but there’s certainly a lot more space covered.

Feebas gets into the pool of water and immediately swims up to Carvanha to give a glub-ified ‘hello’, though my fish just looks put off by the other’s enthusiasm. “Come on girl. You too Geodude. You get out of the corner and at least say hello.”

“Your pokemon aren’t all that friendly Anthony.” Twilight notes, her entire team getting along fine, same with Rarity’s team. Mine is the only one with any anti-socialites aside from Twi’s Spearow, and that’s only when it comes to others outside her team.

“Thanks for noticing.” I reply, voice dripping sarcasm like sap from a spiled tree in autumn. “You got any crazy spells to ease the tension? A mood-booster or something?”

Twilight shakes her head. “None that would be a good idea. The only spells like that I know are the Want-It Need-It spell, and the Evening Star’s Emotional Outburst, but that just amplifies emotions, it doesn’t make new ones.”

Well great. Guess it’ll have to be done the old-fashioned way as usual. I decide to work on my team first, deciding to work with Geodude first. “Come on man, the sooner started the sooner over, right?” I turn towards him, expecting him to be in a corner, but he’s actually having some sort of conversation with Glimmer. Rarity’s pokemon seems to be perfectly happy hovering in midair and talking with him.

Huh, guess the gruff demeanor is a cover...

Well, I know that right off the bat that Carvanha will be trouble, given he reaction to Gupar and Feebas. I figure I’ll work on her later, seeing Sewaddle having some sort of... well, bee-like dance-conversation of sorts with Magomental. Either that or they’re dancing as well as they can without limbs. Odd sight but pretty funny to watch. Glorious is hanging with Litwick. Oh yeah, that’s right they both lived in the house. They probably already know each other. Chantlette is looking at Pignite like he’s going to eat her but Pignite just seems confused. Man, this is going really well... and not at all at the same time.

Twirunt is sticking next to Twilight, who in turn is simply talking to Rarity in a corner. The white pony’s Ledian comes over to me and waves with two hands.

“Heya. So, we don’t get much chance so... what’s being evolved like?”

The Ledian begins to speak at a high speed, making wild gesticulations and absolutely losing me. General impression, though, is that it’s a generally very positive feeling.

“Yeah, trying to get my team higher level. You’re lucky, being contest pokemon. You don’t have to evolve to be fantastic in your area... well, Feebas maybe, but you get the idea.”

Ledian nods sagely, then pauses for a moment, giving me a ‘one moment’ gesture, zipping off, then zipping back with a red flower, and tries to offer it to me. The pokemon takes an exaggerated sniff from it then offers it again to make sure I get the idea.

I take the flower and smell it. It’s actually really pretty. I don’t often get flowers that smell, they’re usually out of season... but if all flowers smell like this, then they’re more than just pretty, this is nice. “Very nice.” I say aloud. “Did you make this or... whatever Bug pokemon do with flowers?” I rub my head in embarrassment, not really knowing. Never was that educated in ladybugs. All I know is that they ate aphids.

Ledian shakes her head, and when I try to return it, she just pushes my hand back to me with a smile. Seems it’s a gift.

I decide to stick it in my empty berry pot to preserve it, thankful that it can substitute for my lack of a green thumb, one of the few things I didn’t inherit from my mom. “So I figure you’re having fun. What did you think of the Journeyman’s contest?” I ask, recalling she was the only one of our pokemon who watched it.

Ledian nods happily, making more happy noises. Man, I hope I can pick up that weird translation ability people in these situations always seem to develop.

Oh well. “So, have you met Luna?” I notice said moth is just sitting on the wall doing... whatever moths do on walls. I just know that that’s where they tend to gravitate and Luna is no different.

Ledian turns sees the moth pokemon and makes a curious humming noise. Ledian turns back to me, tilting her head in query. I’m guessing she wants to meet the pokemon, and I’ve admittedly not had much time with Luna myself, besides the Gym battles and brief training.

“Yeah, I’ll go with ya.” I say, Ledian hovering behind me as I walk up to Luna and pat her fuzzy body gently to get her attention. Boy, is she soft or what? “Hey there, wallflower.” I say, chuckling at my own joke.

Luna turns her head around, making a soft cooing noise. “Luune~?”

“Listen, I figured we should talk a bit, outside of battle. I haven’t really been giving you a break and that’s unfair of me. I want you to know that first off, I like you, and I don’t care how much you lose, you’re still mine, y’know?” The furry moth pokemon gives a hesitant nod. “Good. I don’t want you to think I just caught you to fill out a collection like some of those bug catchers around. I’m just having a hard time finding a way to accommodate your small movepool. I... don’t really have any TMs you could use.”

The pokemon nods, fluttering away from the wall to hover in front of me, patting me on the cheek with a fluffy leg, the fluttering to the table, where I see some food has been delivered. I don’t remember ordering any, though...

Oh well, guess it’s complimentary. That’s good. I don’t really know what most of my team eats. Well, Magomental finished that zucchini easily and Carvanha is definitely a carnivore... GLaDoS seems fine with photosynthesis and nutrients from rich soil... Same goes for Oddish, and Litwick seems fine without food, ‘eating’ off of me. Gulpar looks like a meat-eater... Ghowl... either eats nothing or like an owl. Not sure about Geodude. He seems content to eat human food.

Well, diets aside, I have a pretty diverse team, I realize. I mean, I already know I have good type coverage but... These guys are from all kinds of environments and geni. It’s pretty cool, and I notice that Chantlette is getting along better with Pignite since I last saw them, and as well, Litwick has moved atop Chantlette’s hat brim. Mossulk is just ‘harrumphing’ at Gulpar through the tank, and Gulpar is making strange motions that I read as communication. Maybe. Could be wrong, though.

This whole way of pokemon communicating and being able to understand each other baffles me. If another person came up to me and started speaking Swedish, I’d have no clue what they’re talking about... but these guys... it’s like they all speak the same language... metaphorically speaking. Half my pokemon don’t actually talk.

Chantlette puts on her dark sunglasses, then poses in an obviously forced ‘gangsta’ pose, making several pokemon laugh at the ridiculousness. She also cracks a smile at the attention. Well, at least she’s just skittish, not shy. I figure Carvanha will be the biggest hassle here, so I just leave her to ignore Feebas, who seems to be adamant about making friends.

I figure I should mingle with pokemon that aren’t my own, but most of them seem occupied already. Spearow and Ledian are in a sort of aerial conversation of their own, Luna joining in. I look over to Spheal who then rolls off to become a beach ball for Feebas, who is happy she can find someone other than Carvanha to play with.

Well... all in all, it looks like a pretty good party. The only person who doesn’t have someone to socialize with but wants one... is me. Huh. Well, only one way to fix that: become part of a conversation in progress. I walk over to the ponies and listen in to find out if they’re talking about anything interesting.

Twilight, continuing on from something Rarity had said, explains that pokemon can be turned into digital data, and that there’s terminals to observe and interact with them in this state. Something I didn’t know, but I’m not sure if I’m too interested in that at the moment. Unless it’s like a video game. That’d be pretty neat, except I’m already living my favorite video game.

With a sigh I head over to the table and look around for something to eat.

Sitting down, I find a plate of pancakes, next to a plate of what looks like a few basic poffins, for the pokemon. Y’know, I’ve always wondered what one of those things tastes like.

I grab a red one and take a careful bite, expecting a flavor like spicy dog food or something. Instead I get what tastes like a mouthful of cayenne pepper, or maybe what I imagine accidentally licking a lava flow would taste like.

Thankful for my being cautious and only taking a small bite I spit it out into a napkin and grab a drink, noting that the cups are filled with a sort of punch that cools down my mouth, though milk would be best but I don’t see any. I decide to try a different poffin, and pick a Yellow one, being more a fan of sour than spicy, and hoping for better results. Again, I take a small bite just in case.

It’s like sucking the essence of a lemon, or having a ground-up Warhead painted onto my tongue. Even with my tastes, this is just too much. Man, I hope the higher-grade poffins taste better than this.

Oh well, that’s another bust. A pink one might be so sweet I go into cardiac arrest so I leave the poffins for the pancakes, but they’re a little bland. I reach for some syrup until I get an idea. I take a knife and put teeny tiny little slivers of the yellow poffin and use it as a topping, and with the combined flavor of light sour on pancakes, it’s better than any syrup could make it. Well, maybe not that blackberry syrup I concocted once but there was barely enough berries and sugar to make enough for more than one waffle.

It seems the ponies are hungry and wanting breakfast so I offer one of my ‘spiked’ pancakes to them, and they give it a taste.

Twilight’s face is priceless, as it’s caught between ‘oh no this is gross’ and ‘I absolutely love this’, the two expressions warring with each other across her face. Rarity takes a few munches and politely nods. I don’t see her take a second bite, but she isn’t alternating between trying to spit it out and take another taste.

“I admit it’s a bit stronger than the usual ingredients I experiment with but this is pretty good. And these are low tier so they are pretty easy to make. Poffincakes? Panffins? Idunno, I’ll think of a name later. So what do you think? Not bad for a random science experiment, is it?”

Twilight’s face is still stuck, but Rarity nods. “I believe having a bit more spice to it, perhaps a bit of a drier flavor. The sourness isn’t well balanced, and is too strong in the pockets its formed. But a good first try, yes.”

I gratefully take the comment. “I was best in Home Ec class. Did I tell you the time I attended class and was supposed to make baked goods, but I came in nearly unconscious?”

“This sounds like the start of the Baked Bads incident...” Rarity comments with a hint of fear and a look of concern.

I chuckle. “Okay, so this morning we were trying a new form of medication, supposed to do... something to make school easier or something. Anyway, I accidentally OD’d on it and couldn’t even see out of my right eye. I went through the recipe as best I could, but I was literally falling over onto the ground. And eventually they took me to the hospital before I could touch the heated oven to put the hush puppies in. A few days later I got back to school and I got an A for them. I can cook while half insensate.” I add. “And my mom was there, she can confirm.”

Rarity and Twilight are both staring at me in shock. Rarity whispers, poorly, to Twilight, “He’s like an alien version of Pinkie.”

“How? The fact that I’m a damn good baker, or that I’m bragging that I can cook while having bodily spasms?”

“More that you can cook even while virtually incapacitated. Pinkie has successfully baked a three layer cake on her own while -for reasons that have yet to be adequately explained- she was tied to a chair with three hooves secured.”

I laugh. “Maybe she and I should have a bake-off some time. I make a damn good Flan, so I’d have to say grain products aren’t the only things I can do. Anyways, yeah I experiment randomly. Eitherwhats, it seems this little meet-up is going well except for Carvanha, but that’s fine. She can be antisocial if she wants. Anyways, thoughts on my more recent catches?”

I point at Luna and Ghowl communicating with one hand, and gesture at Gulpar with the other hand.

Twilight looks at them with interest, and Rarity actually comments. “They certainly seem like they have plenty of potential.”

“Oh, yeah, you need to see what Gulpar can do. Hey, open wide!” I call the last part to my pokemon, swimming idly in the tank.

The massive eel-pokemon rises from the water, not a single drop falling from it as its mouth opens wide... wider... wider still... until it’s actually partially phased through the floor and ceiling.

“Awesome!” I comment, and toss one of my Panffin things into the gigantic black-hole-esque maw, which is lined with various lights.

The pokemon simply closes its mouth with a snap and a rush of air as it goes from around eleven feet wide open, to completely closed in the blink of an eye. I await Gulpar’s opinion of my cooking. The ghost eel simply swallows, with absolutely no other reaction. Well, at least he doesn’t dislike it. “How’s that for cool? Caught him while on the tour before I ran into the Krakinos.”

I look around, and I can’t find either of the ponies... or about half the other pokemon in here. Finally, I locate them, all huddled together in terror under the table, eyes wide.

I nod. “Yeah, kinda scary the first time huh? No worries though, he knows the difference between friend and food.” At least I figure so, considering he hasn’t tried eating Spheal, Feebas, or Carvanha even though he’s had every opportunity to. Gulpar slowly settles back into the water soundlessly, blank, pale eyes staring sightlessly at either me or the huddled mass under the table, it’s hard to tell.

I roll my eyes. “Fine... scardey cats...” I take out the oddly-shaped depth ball and recall the eel from inside the tank. “There, he’s inside his ball. Happy?”

The group remains shocked and awed, eyes still wide and scared and... Y’know, now that I think of it, that’s absolutely adorable. I pull out my eTech and take a snapshot, happily keeping it for either blackmail or other such material later. I’m sure Pinkie will just love getting ahold of a copy or six.

“So do I have to drag you all out? Carvanha isn’t impressed, she’s got more guts than you all.” Granted she didn’t see the inside of the mouth, just got a less-scary rear-view but still. Geodude scared shitless? Never thought I’d see that.

Actually, on a second look, Geodude’s expression hasn’t changed, and he’s actually slowly petting Twilight, who has a deathgrip on Twirunt. Twirunt, meanwhile, is convinced he needs to protect his momma, and is growling slightly, eyes darting around, evidently having not recognized Gulpar as a threat.

Pignite, being the largest of the present group, however, looks like someone just ordered extra crispy bacon, and Chantlette is whimpering, Litwick patting her back supportively, seemingly not afraid either. Must be a Ghost thing.

Sighing, I begin to work on getting the ‘scared monkey’ impersonators out from under the table. Seems a lack of courage has ended this party early... darned prey instincts.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

If this was Pathfinder, thered be a whole load of level up XP just from the surviving the shock of not being swallowed whole.

[the-pieman]

6810872 PRAISE LORD OVERUSED-MEME!

[jaxman147]

The only spells like that I know are the Want-It Need-It spell, and the Evening Star’s Emotional Outburst, but that just amplifies emotions, it doesn’t make new ones.

I now very badly want to see use of an 'Evening Star's Emotional Outburst'.

[Spirit of Harmony]

I chuckle. “Okay, so this morning we were trying a new form of medication, supposed to do... something to make school easier or something. Anyway, I accidentally OD’d on it and couldn’t even see out of my right eye. I went through the recipe as best I could, but I was literally falling over onto the ground. And eventually they took me to the hospital before I could touch the heated oven to put the hush puppies in. A few days later I got back to school and I got an A for them. I can cook while half insensate.” I add. “And my mom was there, she can confirm.”

Please tell me this is a true story!