Alola to a New World!

by Tapu Meme

9. Pencil Full of Lead

“Raffelisa!” Rafe’s father called, and Rafe winced at the use of his full name. Rafe hated being called anything other than his four-letter nickname, but his father (named Starfish) always used it because ‘that’s what your mother and I named our son, and that’s what I’ll call him by.’

His mother, Botany Garden, had chosen it. Nevermind that ‘raffelisa’ was a species of putrid smelling corpse flowers, it *~sounded pretty~*.

“Yes father?” That was the snarking response he always made. You’re my father, not my dad. Dad is just so linguistically incorrect (neither side of the debate really knows the truth to this argument).

“Zip Zam came to visit. Should I let him in?”

Rafe paused. Was he ready for a guest right now? He looked around at the disorganised landfill that had settled to the bottom of his spherical coral cave room.

He had piles of old paperwork that he really should have tossed in the recycling bin (standard Hawhinnian printer paper tended to be magically waterproof), various thrift shop knickknacks from the surface that were useless underwater, ranging from mismatched teacups (just try to drink anything underwater), to tangles of hand-sewn blankets and pillows (merponies sleep floating or in sandbanks), and footstools and chairs that held even more things that he had no use for. (Underwater living means that loose furniture often floats away, and in most residential housing the rooms are spherical and the walls are made of rock with no windows. Therefore, wall alcoves are widely used in place of such things as desks, closets and pantries.)

Rafe was, unfortunately, somewhat of a packrat of any and all things from the surface.

“Uhh...yeah, let him in.” Rafe said as he started sorting his mess into random alcoves with telekinesis.

Rafe’s dad poked his head through the empty doorway of the bedroom and looked around at the impromptu spring cleaning.

“Raffelisa…” Starfish sighed as a very familiar seapony stuck his head into the room as well.

“Z!” Rafe dropped his cleaning session to nuzzle his friend (hugs are difficult with fins, so nuzzles and kisses are used instead. This has proven to be one of the bigger cultural gaps between surface ponies and merponies). “Sorry about the mess, I didn’t think you were already here.”

“And I didn’t think you could be any more embarrassing to be friends with.” Zip Zam laughed and swam into Rafe’s room, grabbing onto a heavy table leg with his tail as though he was taking a seat.

“Well, if that’s the case, you can leave the way you came.” Rafe turned away from his friend and continued to sort his things into various alcoves.

“Dude, I was kidding!” Zip Zam began to float away with the table and Rafe had to grab it and set it back down again, putting some heavier items on top of it to keep it on the ground. “But seriously, all of this junk in your room is not doing you any favors.”

“Mmhm. Don’t get tangled in the coral fans on your way out.”

“I hate you so much, dude.”

Rafe finally looked back at his friend, smiling from ear to ear. “It’s mutual, bro.”

Starfish looked between the two of them, then shook his head and left. “These kids…” he grumbled as he thought about what sort of snacks to make.

There were no more accusations or declarations of hatred between the two of them for the rest of the seapony’s stay. Rafe was still cleaning, but that didn’t stop him and Zip Zam from their lively banter.

“So, Z, remember those pokemon that have been appearing everywhere underwater?”

“Bro, don’t tell me they’ve been on land too.”

“But they’re everywhere!” Rafe exclaimed, throwing his fins up for emphasis. “And the ones on land are even weirder than the ones you’ve been seeing.”

“Are you sure? You don’t know what I do in my free time.” Zip Zam crossed his fins with a challenging smirk.

“Yes I do.” Rafe put a fin to his chin and said in a sultry voice.” You read those awful dime romances.”

“You can NOT prove that was even my copy, dude.” Zip Zam scoffed, ducking as Rafe carried a large school trophy over his head and plunked it on the table

“Then why was it in your room last time I slept over?”

“Because that was half a year ago and my roommate was pranking me. Obviously!”

“Raptor moved out way before then, liar!”

“Well, before he left the outskirts to go to the Capitol, he left me one last prank. That’s just how he is.”

“Oh, sure! Whatever you say, my most trustworthy friend. Anyway, you know Milotic?”

“The big snake?” Zip Zam side-eyed him.

“That’s the one. She’s still looking for her human, and I think now that the police are looking as well she and her friend can be reunited!”

Zip Zam’s faux hostility melted. “D’aww. Oh, so what’s she doing in the meantime?”

“I dunno. I haven’t seen her since this morning. I’ll look for her tomorrow, probably”

“Hmm…”

The two friends lapsed into silence, having exhausted all pleasantries so quickly in their conversation. Starfish came in and gave them spicy algae patties wrapped in kelp leaves after awhile, so they ate in silence.

“Hey.” Rafe asked thickly, as he finally cleared a sizable portion of his room’s clutter. “You mind if I finish grading some worksheets?”

Zip Zam shrugged, so Rafe grabbed his bag and one last patty with his magic and started grading his student’s math homework at a cramped desk alcove. Zip Zam let his gaze wander around the room as the sun coming through the skylight slowly faded, eating out of boredom rather than hunger.

“I’ve been sending letters to Raptor.” Zip Zam said suddenly. “He said he was promoted to a palace guard for Queen Oceania.”

“You could’ve said something sooner.” Rafe smiled down at his work. “I’ll have to send him something to congratulate him.”

“I was thinking the same thing. Which is why I came to you, yanno? You’ve got piles of junk that would make great gifts.”

“To a nursing home, maybe. But to a royal guardspony?”

“I wasn’t gonna send him one of your tables, dude.”

“Then?”

Zip Zam looked around a bit before answering. “Like...Maybe a board game? You still have that old parcheesi set, right?”

“I don’t have it in travel size. Where would Raptor stash it? When would he use it?”

“Then how about a perfume bracelet?” (Aerosol perfume doesn't work underwater, so perfumes are often embedded into jewelry.)

“Are you saying he smells bad?”

“No, but what if he was just at a really sweaty training session and he has a date with his new marefriend in a couple of minutes and he doesn’t have time to wash up?”

Rafe pondered this. “I don’t have any good or new ones. We could go through my dad’s room--”

“Nah, I’ll just buy one tomorrow. He’ll probably be more offended if I sent you something from your room rather than an actual gift.”

“Ah. I see.”

More silence, and it lasted much longer this time. Zip Zam finished the plate and brought it to the kitchen. When he came back he noticed that some of the stuff that Rafe had tried to sort onto the wall alcoves had settled back to the bottom of the room. Zip Zam gently picked up a round ceramic teapot and set it onto one of the less slanted shelves.

Zip Zam looked up through Rafe’s skylight at the dark water of nighttime that seemed to absorb the light shining from the assorted lamps Rafe had turned on as night fell. He quietly swam over to Rafe and tapped his shoulder.

“Hey. I’m going home, okay?”

Rafe snored.

Zip Zam blinked and shook him awake. Rafe squinted awake and slowly rubbed his eyes out with his fins.

“Dude? You okay?”

Rafe yawned, seeming to finally notice Zip Zam. “Oh. Sorry, I fell asleep.”

Zip Zam waited as Rafe roused himself, not moving even when Rafe was awake enough to read his expression.

“What?”

“Have you been getting enough sleep?” Zip Zam asked with a worried expression. “I know you have your bad habits from summer vacay.”

“I’m fine, Z.” Rafe sat up and made himself look as awake as possible. “The neighbors have been a bit loud recently and it’s been keeping me up. I’m kind of glad I’ll be out of the house this weekend, you know?”

Zip Zam looked confused. “Music?”

“Yeah, I think it could be ‘cause of the whole pokemon thing. There are some really weird ones.”

Zip Zam’s expression hadn’t changed, so Rafe straightened up and returned the stare.

The two held their staring contest for a minute, until Zip Zam could see that he was fully awake.

“Make sure you go to sleep early tonight, okay?”

“Mmhm.” The two exchanged goodbyes and Rafe turned back to his work as Zip Zam swam out the door. He wished that he could sleep early, but he knew that he wouldn’t have time to finish grading tomorrow.

The finished pile of homework stacked higher and higher as the hours went by, but Rafe knew he wouldn’t finish before those awful noises started up again.

He was on the last page when he heard it. He rubbed his tired eyes with a fin and cast a sound dampening spell over his ears. He wasn’t sure what kind of music the neighbors or those pokemon were playing, but it was really echoey and ambient and made him feel sick to his stomach the longer he listened to it.

With his magic covering his ears Rafe had to use his mouth to put away the worksheets. He shoved them in, crumpling them all in the process and probably ripping a few. He struggled with the zipper for about a minute before he gave up and released the spell over his ears to fix up the mess he made.

As he magically uncrumpled and unripped his students worksheets, Rafe began to really listen to the music his neighbors were playing. But the more he listened, the less it sounded like music. It was ear-grating ambient noise, but it was also just that. Noise. Noise with no beat, rhythm or pattern. And the more Rafe listened, the faster that sickening feeling from last night crept up on him and threatened to turn his stomach inside out.

He finally straightened out his bags and recast his invisible earmuff spell. He pondered going to sleep, but then he realized that he might as well cast the same spell on his dad, too.

Rafe dragged himself across the house to his dad’s room, not wanting to wake him up at such a late hour. He quietly poked his head past the coral fan doors and squinted into the darkness of his dad’s room.

His dad was fast asleep, and it took Rafe only a moment to cast the spell. He had retracted his head from the room and turned around to go back to his own bed when he felt his dad’s fin on his shoulder.

Rafe turned and watched his dad attempt to speak for a few moments before he realized what was happening. He gestured to his ears until Rafe took down the spell for both of them.

“Raffelisa, is this some kind of prank?” his dad grumbled.

“Eugh, no, it’s not,” Rafe clutched his ears. “I just thought those weird noises might also be keeping you up and--”

“What noises?”

Rafe made a face and raised his voice over the sounds. “Dad, c’mon, the noises you’re hearing right now? I thought it was music yesterday, but it’s louder now, and I’m starting to feel sick the longer I listen to it--”

“Son,” His dad yawned. “Except for you yelling, it’s pin drop silence in here.”

Rafe had recast the spell over his ears again, before his dad could tell him to go to sleep. He swam back to his room, unable to make sense of anything with his sleep-fogged brain.

Perhaps he should have gone to sleep earlier, after all.

Comments

[Krazyfan1]

FORESHADOWING!

[Tapu Meme]

8348275
Ah, but for what? The where?? The whomst????????

[Arcticbrony]

Happy to see someone else who is still writing for this universe^^ You quite the promising story here, keep it up^^

[Tapu Meme]

8359777
Thanks^^dude^^!^^^^^^^^^