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thesidestoaconflict · 3 months

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Middle Ground: Chapter 5

The Castle Of Eyes 2651 words

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Bianca had excused herself as soon as they happened upon the source of the megaphone noise. Hilda saw her stifling giggles as she hurried away and toward the Pokemon Centre, and really, she couldn’t blame her.

The folks who were demonstrating were dressed so weirdly.

A gaggle of people with what looked to be an attempt at modern-day knight outfits stood holding banners and signs with little more than a logo printed on them, and in front of them, speaking into the megaphone, was a late-middle-aged man who, for lack of a better description, seemed to be dressed like a castle battlement.

Hilda shared a look with Cheren, who was hiding his amusement a lot better than she was.

“My dear friends in Accumula town, my name is Ghetsis,” the battlement-guy began, “I am here today to discuss about the lives and happiness of pokemon, on behalf of Team Plasma, a group that I have the honour being a part of.”

A frown fell over Hilda’s face. She was pretty sure she’d heard of this “Team Plasma” from Hilbert. And boy, did she not like what she remembered being told.

“While it is true that people and pokemon have coexisted for a long while now, and we supposedly help each other… can we really be sure that is true? I have been wondering for years; we humans get so much from the help of pokemon, but what is there for them to gain? Food and land that our ever-expanding cities have been stealing from them? A shallow idea of affection?”

Ghetsis shook his head, and Hilda felt Otto climb off her bag and onto her shoulder, his tiny paws hugged her neck, and Helios pressed closer to her ankles.

“Pokemon give humans so much, and all we do in return is take… I cannot believe that these wonderous creatures are feeling fulfilled by lives where Trainers force them into battles, where they are confined in tiny prisons on our waists… I implore you, my friends, how can we possibly do better by these creatures?”

Murmurs broke out within the crowd, though Hilda stayed still and silent.

At least until Cheren nudged her and nodded toward the group stood behind Ghetsis, wearing a sour expression.

“Isn’t that a kid?” Cheren hissed, and Hilda followed his gaze.

And, yeah. One of the banner-holders was oddly small compared to the rest, their proportions fitting those of a maybe-ten-year-old. Their face, round and definitely a child’s, was blank as they stared forward, having to hold the banner up close to their head so that it was even with the side being held by an adult to their left.

She shared another glance with Cheren, though this one was far less amused.

“Liberation!” Ghetsis cried, silencing the crowd and whatever borderline-telepathic conversation Hilda and Cheren were having, “Liberation is the answer! Here in Team Plasma, we follow the word of our King- a blessed One who can speak to these wonderous creatures!”

Hilda saw Cheren’s eyebrows shoot way upwards, and become hidden by his bangs. She withheld a snort at his immediate scepticism.

“And our King has told us the wishes of the pokemon he has met; all of them downtrodden and sad due to the selfish actions of humanity… We must set them free of the burdens we have unfairly placed on their bodies; we must set them free for good!”

Otto clambered inside the neck of Hilda’s sweater, squeaking quietly. And Helios, too, was pressed so close to Hilda’s ankles that she could feel a slight tremor in his body. Clearly, they didn’t seem to agree.

If they could even understand.

And if not, well. Something was upsetting them.

“My friends, I end my ramblings with this plea- it is in humanity’s nature to be selfish, so please, consider upholding the wishes of pokemon before your own; especially if you claim to care for them.” He graced the crowd with a warm smile, “If you do, please feel welcome to come and speak with me or one of my associates about joining our cause. Thank you for your time today.”

He handed his megaphone to one of the banner-holders, and they all dispersed slightly to make it easier for members of the crowd to approach.

“Bit culty,” Cheren whispered, and Hilda nodded, about to agree verbally, when Cheren seemed to notice something and freak out slightly; his eyes darted around the plaza, and raised his voice a little in his new-found panic, “Shit. Where’d Diane go?!”

“She’ll be fine, Cher,” Hilda reassured, as she stooped over to pet Helios, “Purrloins are pretty smart.”

“I’m not worried about her, Hilda.” Cheren hissed, taking hold of her wrist, yanking her back to standing, and began to weave through the crowd with her in tow, “She’s a thief! I don’t want her or me to get in trouble!”

Hilda laughed, even though Cheren didn’t seem entertained in the slightest.

Back and forth they went, both of them hurrying in and out of the crowd in search for the offending feline, when Helios’ ear perked up and he suddenly bounded off in completely the opposite direction.

“Agh! Wait!” Hilda exclaimed, and she made to dash after him, Cheren at her heels.

Both of them cried out multiple hasty apologies as they barged through groups of people to keep the puppy in their sights.

Most seemed sympathetic to the Trainers’ plight, though more than a few were understandably irritated by being unceremoniously pushed aside by a pair of teenagers chasing after a tiny dog.

At the edge of the crowd, Hilda stopped and sighed, relieved at the sight that greeted her. Though her sudden halt caused Cheren to crash into her, and both of them to fall to the ground with a yelp.

It probably looked comical, but it sure hurt.

“Watch it!” Hilda snapped, and pushed herself up into a sitting position, which caused Cheren to roll onto his back on the pavement as he’d fallen onto her back. She rubbed at her aching chin, which had taken the brunt of the fall, and poked him with her other hand, “Hey. Get up. You ain’t dead.”

“I am,” He groaned, pulling an arm over his eyes, “God, that hurt.”

“Least you fell onto something soft and not the fucking pavement.” Hilda huffed, and kicked him lightly with her boot, “Get up.”

Cheren sat up and stuck his tongue out dramatically, “I think I got a mouthful of your hair.”

She grimaced, “Ew. At least I was gonna wash it tonight...”

A hand appeared in the corner of her eye, and Hilda turned to spot the reason why she’d been relieved enough to stop like that.

“Are… you two okay?” said a confused-looking N, stooped over, a purrloin on his shoulder, Diane sitting atop his hat, and Helios wound around his ankles, “That looked painful.”

Hilda gratefully took his hand and let herself be pulled up. She pretended to aim another kick at Cheren before offering her hand to him in turn.

“Thanks,” Cheren huffed, as he got to his feet, “We’re fine. I think.”

“Speak for yourself,” Hilda wrinkled her nose, “I feel like my chin is cracked open.”

“Well, it isn’t bleeding,” Cheren retorted, “Drama queen.”

“Go jump in a river.”

“Uh,” N cut in, though he seemed to more be addressing Helios and Diane, “These two… they’re your friends?”

“Yeah,” Hilda grinned, and chose to ignore the strange look N gave her from the corner of his eye, “Glad they were with you of all people.”

Helios yipped and leaped up at Hilda. She caught him in her arms and brought him up to plant a kiss on his face, before she settled him on her shoulder.

Diane proudly handed a single cent coin over to an exasperated Cheren. He praised her, though, a sweet berry from his bag and a scratch behind the ears was more than enough reward for the feline to purr louder than a motorcycle and clamber up onto Cheren’s shoulders, her tail hanging around his neck like a smug scarf.

“You know him?” He asked Hilda, while he returned the cent to N, who did his best to stifle a chuckle.

“Met him in the PMC,” Hilda explained, “Talked about some legend stuff.”

“Oh. Cool.” Cheren turned to N, “You a Trainer?”

N seemed a little taken aback by that, and paused for a moment to think.

“Well…” he hummed, “I suppose I am?”

“You suppose?” Cheren echoed, baffled, “What does that mean?”

N reached a hand up to pet the purrloin that was on his shoulder, its green eyes were half-closed in contentment, “Um. Well, this purrloin is my friend but… I don’t exactly… battle. Or really use pokeballs…”

His voice was a mumble by the end, and Hilda cut in before Cheren could say anything abrasive.

“That doesn’t make you any less of a Trainer!” she said with a smile, in an attempt to be encouraging, “There’s loads of different ways to do it; we only started out on our journey proper today, actually. But I’ve heard about lots of different people and their pokemon from my family. And Cheren’s done so much research about being a Trainer, too!”

N nodded slowly, “I see… Out of curiosity, if I may ask, what motivated you both to become Trainers?”

Hilda turned expectantly to Cheren, who always had an answer for a question like this ready to go. And of course, he replied confidently with the same sentiment he told everyone and anyone who would listen.

“I’ve always wanted to become one. I watched so many exhibition matches on TV, and even managed to get my parents to pay extra on the license so I could watch the Galar League- the way that League is done is really interesting. We- Hilda, myself, and another of our friends, were gifted pokemon by Professor Juniper-” Cheren continued, oblivious to the frown that darkened N’s sharp features for a moment, though it confused Hilda thoroughly “-and we are planning to help her with her PokeDex research, as well as another important task. Truthfully, while I will dedicate myself to repaying her kindness, I also aim to conquer the Unova Pokemon League.”

After a few moments pause, N nodded stiffly, and then turned to Hilda.

“And… you?”

“Oh. Well,” Hilda stammered a little, “To be honest; I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do on my journey. Other than helping out the Professor, I don’t… know..? I’ve always been around pokemon. My brother and father are researchers, and my mom’s a pretty well-known Ace Trainer. So, this just feels natural to me, I guess.”

“What about you?” Cheren asked, saving Hilda from having to try and explain further, and his tone became slightly more challenging as he continued, “And why are you asking?”

The question seemed to startle N a little, but he did manage to reply, “Oh. Apologies. I’m genuinely just interested. I want to know more about the relationships between people and pokemon. It’s a subject I find to be, um, really quite fascinating.”

Hilda could practically feel Cheren’s bad mood, his distrust of N and his dislike of talking with strangers beyond a basic “hello” merging into a murky cloud of energy that seemed to radiate from his body, while his face remained mostly stoic.

She was about to begin to steer herself and Cheren away, a polite but final end to the conversation ready to go, when N spoke again.

“What did you think of that speech?”

She couldn’t beat Cheren this time.

“Absolute crap.” He snorted, “Sure, there are a handful of bad people in the world who treat pokemon like garbage… But most of us are good to pokemon. Even battling- which so many people completely misunderstand- is actually good for their health! It keeps their energy in check and stuff. As long as it’s controlled, and the rules laid out by the League are followed, it’s practically impossible for anyone- human or pokemon- to get actually hurt in a pokemon battle.”

A dark frown fell upon N’s face, and Hilda couldn’t tell if he was confused or outright angry.

He studied Cheren intently for a moment longer before turning to look at Hilda, directly in the eye, instead. From the corner of her eye, Hilda saw Cheren recoil slightly in confusion.

She heard Diane hiss.

N towered over them both, seeming far more foreboding than he had been; his cold gaze washed over Hilda, and she felt a scowl forming on her own face.

“You agree with him?” N asked quietly.

His tone was almost accusatory.

“Yeah. I think some people are shitty, but not all of them. There’s a lot of people who are just… normal. Not everyone’s a monster. I think that, uh…” she racked her brain for the chess-guy’s name, and came up blank, “The Plasma guy made some good points, but that his solutions are waaay too far.”

She shrugged, “Regardless. We need to go. We’re meant to be meeting our friend.”

And she grabbed a fistful of Cheren’s jacket and dragged him away from N, mildly irritated but far more confused.

Though, as they got further and further from the crowd- she did eventually let go of Cheren’s jacket- she began to reason that, well, he’d been super into the Twin Dragons of all the possible legends to be obsessed with, so he was likely just the type to simply get swept up in the moment of things.

Nobody reasonable would find that legend compelling, and nobody reasonable would jump immediately to “we need to separate humans and pokemon forever!!” because some people were morally unfit to walk the same ground as pokemon.

He hadn’t outright said he agreed with it either. But then, such a weird reaction was a bit of an indicator that maybe he did agree…

Well. It didn’t matter.

He was a weird guy, and chances were none of them would ever meet him again, so who cares?

Cheren still seemed pretty annoyed though.

They found Bianca in one of the cute little tearooms, and after joining her at a table and placing their orders (a shared pot of a floral tea for the girls, while Cheren got a lemonade, and a plate of fresh cookies to share) they managed to fill Bianca in on what had just happened in the square by manner of Cheren launching into a quiet but angry rant about the speech and the peculiar man who had accosted them afterward.

Hilda chimed in occasionally, but mostly just stayed silent, back to trying to think of any possible links between her legends book and the existing research on the stones.

She had come up with nothing by the time they paid and left the teashop, even after taking the two egg things from her friends and turning them over in her hands and looking at them so closely they were practically touching her eye.

They still didn’t feel like anything.

She could, in truth, feel the weight in her hand; the unnaturally smooth texture that made up their surface, and yet they still felt as intangible as air.

It was bizarre. And that was without even thinking much about how both her friends still adamantly refused to touch the other’s stone, insisting (or, complaining, in Cheren’s case) on it being below freezing in temperature.

Still, there was hope for more leads (and a chance for Hilda to seriously indulge) when they reached Nacrene City. They’d trade off on the stones then, anyway, and Hilda could get the opportunity to put any theories she’d have come up with by then to the test!

That would be whenever they reached Nacrene, though.

For now, Hilda found herself, alongside Bianca, tailing Cheren in search of an open space in town, in preparation for their first ever pokemon battle.

#tstac: middle ground #middle ground #chapter

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thesidestoaconflict · 3 months

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Middle Ground: Chapter 4

Letter In A Bottle 2236 words First Chapter Next Chapter Previous Chapter

Upon her arrival in Accumula town, Hilda didn’t spot either of her friends anywhere. Hilbert had disappeared off into the woods after antagonising her for a little bit longer, so she was on her own – aside from her pokemon- to figure out this new place.

It was weird to be here on foot; she’d never actually been to Accumula town before.

Well, not unless you counted bus rides and car rides through it on a drive to visit Nimbasa city for a family day out or a school trip… Those of which she’d usually be asleep through anyway thanks to car-sickness tablets that made her incredibly drowsy.

This was nowhere near as big or bustling as Nimbasa, but it was certainly bigger than Nuvema town was.

It was quite nice. As much as she liked Nuvema’s majority pathways being dirt roads, the concrete tiles Accumula boasted were much easier for her to walk on.

The lack of flowers at the side of streets was somewhat sad, but the even nature of the sidewalks here was pleasant.

As she wandered, she absentmindedly noticed an elderly couple walking their pet herdiers, a group of uniformed individuals setting up banners and signs, shops, a cute looking tearoom, and finally she stumbled upon the Pokemon Centre.

She’d only actually been in one once before.

Years ago, when her mom had been invited to join a veteran trainers’ battle tournament, and both Hilda and Hilbert had been brought along to watch. The battles themselves had been pretty interesting, but Hilda most strongly remembered how bored she’d been in the night afterwards; the room in the Centre’s Lodge was plenty comfortable, but it wasn’t hers, and that was weird.

She hoped she’d have grown out of that sort of thing by now.

A little overwhelmed once she got inside, Hilda looked around the lobby of the Centre. A small seating area with a couple of vending machines at the wall nearby, a small PokeMart, a stairwell on each wall that led up to the Trainers’ Lodge that was free to use for any active trainers, and right in the middle, a central desk and the Centre’s Ward admission, with three nurses standing by, ready for any Trainers or other people who might rush in with a pokemon in need of urgent care.

With the egg in her arms, Hilda made her way over to the nurse’s desk.

“Hi,” she started, as one of the nurses turned his attention to her, and Hilda wished talking to strangers was literally any easier, “Can you, uh, do a check-up on this?”

The nurse carefully took the egg from her, “Of course. Do you have any other pokemon you’d like to have a check-up?”

“Oh, yeah,” she took out Helios’ pokeball, and plucked Otto off her shoulder to place on the desk, “These two, please.”

“No problem. Do you have this oshawott’s pokeball?”

She handed it over, and the nurse smiled.

“This’ll take about ten to twenty minutes. You’re free to browse the rest of the Centre. If you wish to leave, please leave us a cell number on one of the cards on the desk, and we’ll give you a call when your team are ready to pick up.”

Hilda nodded. “Thanks.”

The nurse bowed his head to her, recalled Otto into his ball, and took them through to the wards that were underneath the Lodge.

In the meantime, Hilda purchased a can of lime soda from one of the vending machines, and sat herself down at a table to pore over the documents once more- this time with the heavy book Cheren had gifted her open next to it.

She flipped through the huge contents section, eyes flicking over every word to see if there was anything that could potentially relate to the stones, and she noted the page numbers down in her notebook for later perusal.

As she looked over a chapter about the Swords of Justice, the Centre grew busier. It was around noon, so folks were coming in for a break from whatever they were doing to stock up on travel gear, get their pokemon teams checked for any injuries, grab a drink from the vending machine and sit down for a while.

Hilda paid them all little mind, sipping on her soda as she carefully read through the anecdotes and theories, only pausing briefly to look up as someone sat down at the same table as her- with there being nowhere else to sit.

“Sorry,” he said, somewhat nervously, “I won’t be here long.”

“Uh. No problem,” Hilda shrugged, and glanced down at how her papers and notebook and giant book were sprawled over almost the entire table, “Do you want me to move my stuff out of the way?”

The man shook his head, eyes closed briefly and mouth curved into a tiny smile, “No. No. I wouldn’t want to bother you; your work looks quite important.”

She shrugged again, “It might be, not sure yet. Thanks, though.”

He nodded, and leant back in his chair. Hilda took that as a sign the conversation was over, tried her best to not sigh loudly in relief, and instead looked closer at her book, copying out a sketch of a silhouette of one of the Swords into her notebook.

They were protectors of pokemon of incomprehensible age, perhaps they’d know something about these eggs? Rocks? Things?

Pokemon so ancient as them must have some way of communicating with humans, right?

She sighed, tapped her foot on the floor in frustration, and noted them down as a possibility.

And as she turned to the next chapter- about the oldest tale known in Unova, that of the Twin Dragons- she heard the nurse’s voice call out her Trainer ID.

A brief look over her messy set-up, how annoying it would be to put away to just take out again, and she hesitated while midway through getting to her feet.

“Um. Sorry,” she addressed the man across the table, who was currently absorbed in a small book of his own, and he looked up, “Do you mind watching my stuff for a sec? I’ve gotta go get my team from the nurse.”

“No problem.” He nodded, and Hilda dashed off to the nurse.

Both Otto and Helios burst from their pokeballs as she reached the desk, with Helios leaping at her to lick at her face again, while Otto tried to be dignified and show restraint, though he hugged at Hilda’s hand when she reached out to scratch behind his ears.

“This egg is in good health!” the nurse told her, handing it over once her pokemon were situated in comfortable positions (Helios on her shoulder, Otto on top of her head), “I’d expect it to hatch in just a couple of days. We were able to run a scan to figure out what species it is too, if you’re interested?”

She hummed, petting Helios absentmindedly as she thought, “I think I’d rather keep it a surprise, but do you know what type it’ll be? And what food I should have on hand in preparation?”

The nurse nodded, and informed her it was a part flying type, and it would be good to have easy to chew pokemon kibble, and plenty of roasted seeds on hand for when it hatched.

Hilda thanked him, and hurried back to her table, where she noticed the man from before was looking interestedly at her book, trying to read it upside-down.

He jolted as she sat back down, and for a moment he looked almost afraid, like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t.

“Feel free to read it if you want,” Hilda said, balancing the egg on her lap and she spun the book around, “I’ve heard that legend a billion times, I doubt there’s anything in there that’ll help me with my work.”

The Twin Dragons were almost completely, entirely myth. Symbolic versions of the Twin Kings who had started a war that had almost destroyed the Unova region before it was even born. Thousands of thousands of years ago.

She thought they were both stupid, to be perfectly honest.

Still, she didn’t comment as the man started reading the chapter with obvious interest, and instead looked over her notes, and compared them to the photographs of the ruins, just in case there was an obvious link she hadn’t recognised.

There wasn’t.

Back to square one.

Unless she miraculously were to run across one of the Swords- whose existence was doubtful- and they somehow could speak to her in a way she understood- which was even more doubtful.

“Fascinating,” said the man, and he carefully pushed the book back to Hilda, “Thank you for letting me read it. I do love that tale, but it’s been a long while since I’ve read it. And I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it written about in such a scholarly fashion!”

It was such an obvious conversation opener, and Hilda tried her best to repress a cringe. She liked talking with her friends, but a stranger…

Well. This was what being a Trainer was all about, right? “Broadening one’s horizons and meeting new people and pokemon”, or something… It wouldn’t hurt to just talk to this guy for a minute about books.

Even if he did have bad taste in myths.

“Yeah, the prose in this book is really nice,” Hilda halfway agreed, “Do you read a lot about this sort of thing?”

He nodded, “I do! I find great joy in old stories. They always seem so wise, but that might just be our ability of having hindsight.”

Hilda huffed out a small laugh, “True, true. Say, have you read about the Sinjoh ruins? I think they’re especially interesting.”

“I haven’t!”

“Oh man, you’ve gotta check them out, they’re really cool.” Hilda carefully tore a blank page from her notebook and scribbled down some books that were related to Sinjoh, as well as some other things the man might find interesting, and handed it to him, “Here! If you find any of these books, give them a look. They’re all really informative and well written.”

He took the scrap of paper with a broad smile, “Thank you! I’ll make sure to look out for them. Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on the Twin Dragons?”

Hilda grimaced. “Well, they’re interesting. Not my favourite, though… Such senseless violence over a harmless difference in opinion? Can’t say I’m a fan…”

She continued to discuss legends and such, and amicably debate over the meaningfulness of the Twin Dragons with her new acquaintance. Her pokemon seemed to like him, which was a sign that he was probably a good guy.

But eventually, her phone’s ringtone blared through the Pokemon Centre as Bianca called to ask where she was. After explaining, and promising to meet her friends outside in a moment, Hilda put her books away.

“Thanks for talking with me, I hope you like those books if you find them.” She said as she stood, and reached a hand out to the man, in an offer to shake his hand, “I’m Hilda, by the way.”

“I’m sure I will, Hilda. Thank you for sharing them with me! I look forward to reading them.” He shook her hand briefly, “And my name is N.”

Hilda forced her face to remain neutral as she bid him farewell, biting down hard on the inside of her mouth as she left the Centre with Otto fast asleep on her shoulder, and Helios ambling behind her.

“What the hell kind of name is N?” she whispered to the duo, stifling a giggle, once she got outside, “Just… Just the letter? I guess he doesn’t have any problems with getting it misspelled, though, huh?”

Helios looked up at her with curious eyes, and Otto remained snoozing away, both completely unaware of any oddities about the guy.

Cheren and Bianca were sitting in a small plaza, sharing a pack of chips- which they offered to Hilda as well. She took some and sat down next to them.

“Where even were you for so long?” Cheren asked, “And how many pokemon did you catch?”

“PMC, and I got this little cutie,” she lifted Helios onto her lap, “And ‘Bert gave me an egg, but I’m not sure that counts just yet.”

“Oh, how sweet!” Bianca exclaimed, reaching to pet the puppy under his chin, “I caught a lillipup as well! Her name is Heather, what about yours?”

“Helios,” Hilda said, “What about you, Cher?”

In reply, Cheren pulled a sleeping purrloin from his backpack.

“Her name’s Diane.” He said simply, “Just be wary, she’s a bit of a wannabe thief.”

They all cooed over each other’s newest team members for a while, playing fetch with the lillupups and giving Diane a mountain of treats, all the while, they discussed anything and everything, from the best methods for catching pokemon, to the great mystery they’d been asked to play a part in solving, to the potential of all three of them taking on the Gym Challenge, and more.

At least, until they noticed a lot of people heading towards the sound of someone speaking into a microphone.

In silent agreement, and a surge of curiosity, the trio called back their new pokemon, and with their starters resting on their shoulders, they headed towards the source of the noise together.

#middle ground #tstac: middle ground #chapter

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thesidestoaconflict · 3 months

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Middle Ground: Chapter 3

Follow The Sun 2092 words

First Chapter Next Chapter Previous Chapter

Throughout Hilbert’s little demonstration on how to catch pokemon, Hilda made sure to make as many little jabs at him as she could. He, naturally, completely ignored her, until she ended up accidentally scaring off the patrat he was trying to catch, and he threw an arm around her shoulder and held a hand firmly over her mouth.

And continued his demonstration, with his now silenced sister glaring at him through squinted eyes. Unflinching confidence in his voice, even when she licked his hand.

Though the moment he was done, he recoiled, and glowered at her, “Hilly. You’re the worst and I hate you.” And wiped his hand on her sweater.

“I’m telling mom.” She taunted, dramatically turning around, as though heading back into town, though was stopped by both Cheren and Bianca grabbing her shoulders.

The looks on their faces were amused but also alarmingly serious.

Right. No time to even jokingly head back home. They had places to go to!

And she was excited too! She was!

So of course, she was thrilled to link arms with her two best friends and cross the official threshold out of Nuvema town together with them. And she grinned into the lens as Hilbert took a photograph of them all together with their new pokemon just as her friends did.

And she knew she could go home whenever she wanted.

And her heart still pounded in her chest, though not just from excitement like she wished it would.

“How about,” Bianca’s voice, shaking a little from her own excitement, shook Hilda from her doubts, “We have a competition! We could split ‘til we get to Accumula town, and see who catches the most pokemon!”

Cheren smirked, because of course he did, “You’re on. Though… It’s pretty obvious that I’ll be the winner.”

“Boo,” Bianca pushed him, “As if. I’ll kick your butt. You in, Hilly?”

“Obviously.” Hilda stuck out her tongue, “But I’m gonna win… ‘cause you guys are too slow!”

And with no further warning, she took off at a sprint, hearing both of them yell ‘hey!’ after her.

Hilda was by no means a runner, and her legs burned, and her chest felt tight after only a few paces, but still, she kept going, dashing into the treeline and beyond, with poor Otto clinging to her bag for dear life.

By the time she reached the oceanside ledge, she was thoroughly out of breath, and flopped onto the ground gracelessly, one hand reaching over the side and brushing the waves as they lapped upwards at the earth.

She lay in the grass for some time, catching her breath, and watching the clouds.

Otto, having now realised his trainer was now done sprinting madly, climbed off Hilda’s bag and toddled over to her, poking at her face with his tiny paws, before curling up in the crook of her neck to take a nap.

He was adorable. And even though Hilda had only had him for, what, barely three days, she knew she’d fight tooth and nail if anyone tried to hurt the little otter.

She sat up slowly, and carefully scooped Otto up to place in her lap. She gently petted his head while rooting in her bag with her other hand for the documents that Professor Juniper had given her.

A hiss passed through her teeth as she found the pages, and one cut into her thumb. She stuck it in her mouth as she pulled the pages out and looked, disappointedly, at the lack of information in front of her.

Only twelve pages, each of them with more photograph than text.

Still. It was a starting point.

She shook her lacerated hand, noticed it wasn’t bleeding anymore- not that it had been much in the first place- and set to work reading.

The dark orb that Cheren had taken was found in the Desert Resort, in a newly discovered ruin, estimated to be from a time period that next-to-nothing was known about. About four-thousand years ago. The orb itself had been inside a hexagonal case presumably made of crystal. The orb was easily visible, not so easily touched. Its removal from the case had not been intentional; the site manager, Hawes Tian, had merely moved to take a closer look, his hand had barely touched the thing, and it had melted away like ice.

And similarly, in the report for the light orb, the one Bianca had tucked safely in her bag, it had been in a similar casing. A photograph existed of this one, though it was hard to see, due to the fact that the ruin it was found in was deep under the ocean, miles out from Undella bay.

The fact that either ruin had been found at all was shocking; a strange coincidence where a shard of ancient pottery had washed up on the shores of Humilau City, only a few days before a beaded necklace had been found in an abandoned sandile den in Desert resort by some local rangers.

Most of the photos in the document were of carvings and paintings on the walls, deep blue swirls and reddish diamonds, and undecipherable words, a repeated phrase covering the walls of the rooms where each orb-thing had been found. The same phrase, if it was words, with only one part differing between the two.

“So, they’re obviously connected,” Hilda sighed, worsening her posture to bring the papers closer to her face, squinting as if the photographs would become clearer at her command, “But what are they for? Protecting these things?”

Otto was awake at this point, and had clambered his way onto Hilda’s shoulder to see what she was reading. He tilted his head and squeaked questioningly at her, and she sighed.

“I just wish there was something here to go on, y’know?” she said, mostly to Otto. He nodded sagely, though he had no clue what any of the document was about, since he couldn’t read.

Hilda pulled her notebook from her bag, and was rooting around for a pen, when Otto slid down her arm and squeezed into her bag. She watched as he wriggled around in there, and then grinned when his little paw appeared, proudly presenting one of her pens to her.

“Thanks, bud.” She smiled, scooping him out of her bag- she should really organise it a bit better once she reached Accumula town- and set him on her lap, “Would you mind holding these a sec?”

She handed him the documents, and he held them up proudly for her to look at.

Over the course of what could have been a minute or an hour, Hilda copied down the repeated phrase from the desert ruin, and then again, with the alternate version from the one from the sea.

“You really can’t go an hour without slouching over and sinking into a book, can you?”

Hilda looked up from her work, relieved she hadn’t been surprised into messing up, and saw Hilbert at the edge of the treeline, watching her with the level of judgment only an older brother could muster.

“Clearly not,” Hilda retorted, “How long have you been there?”

“Just got here. Was looking for you, dear sister.” He raised an eyebrow, looking at something near her, “Don’t remember you being so good at making friends so fast.”

Hilda stared at him, completely bewildered for a moment, until Otto lowered the documents he was holding up, revealing a lillipup that was curled up by her feet, snoozing away.

How on earth did she not notice that?!

Was she really so enraptured by the crumbs of information the papers provided?

She must have been.

After overcoming her initial surprise, Hilda reached out a slightly nervous hand to the puppy, and scratched behind its ears. It woke up, blinking bleary eyes up at her, and then its tail began wagging at a million miles an hour, it yipped happily, and licked at her hand.

“Aww…” she cooed at it, “You’re so cute!”

Otto scowled and leaped off Hilda’s lap, clutching the papers covetously, while he tried to shove the puppy away with his shoulder, wanting Hilda’s affection to be solely on him. She laughed, and tucked her pen into the spiral-binding of her notebook, and pet both of the little pokemon at the same time.

“Be nice, Otto,” she teased, scratching under his chin, and he squeaked out indignantly, and darted behind the lillipup to be out of tickling range, “Oh, you’re friends now?”

Otto stuck his tongue out at Hilda, and she laughed again, even more so as the lillipup turned around and knocked Otto to the ground, licking him happily.

“Don’t you wanna keep him, Otto?” Hilda said, pulling a pokeball from her bag, “He likes you!”

Otto pouted, crossing his tiny arms, while the lillipup bounded around, and jumped up at Hilda, licking her face and wagging its tail like mad. She rolled her eyes at Otto’s pretend-sulking, and tapped the pokeball in her hand onto the puppy.

Three shakes in her open palm, and the ball clicked.

Hilda cheered, and Otto dropped his pouting to clap his paws together. Now she just needed to decide on a nickname… There was so many options, she’d have to think hard…

She hummed over it for a few minutes, before deciding on something.

“Helios.” She smiled down at the pokeball as she tucked it into the pocket of her waistcoat, “Helios and Otto, together you two can take on anyone!”

She scratched Otto behind his ears and started to get up off the ground, feeling much more relaxed than she had when she’d first run off.

“This almost seems unfair now,” Hilbert piped up, still loitering in the treeline.

“What does?” Hilda asked, not bothering to look over at him as she tidied her things back into her bag, scooped Otto onto her shoulder, and walked over to her brother, “That I’ve been a trainer for a day and I’m already better at it than you?”

“No. Because you’re not.” Hilbert replied, and swung his backpack around, holding it out to Hilda, “It seems unfair that your buddies are out doing their best to catch pokemon, while you’re relaxing by the sea, and you’ve already got two more.”

“Uh, I only got one more.” Hilda said, staring at him like he was an idiot.

Hilbert sighed, and awkwardly leaned on the tree beside him so he could unzip his bag without dropping it, “What about this, then?”

Hilda- and Otto- peered into Hilbert’s bag, and Hilda stared at her brother in shock when she realised what he was showing her.

“An egg? Seriously?” she exclaimed, “Where’d you get it?!”

“My… friend… found it on Route 10, completely abandoned. Dunno why. He waited around- far enough away, mind- to see if anything was coming back for it, but nothing did, so…” Hilbert sighed, taking it out of his bag and holding it out, “Since I didn’t really get you a gift myself… here.”

“Not true, you got me this great hat,” Hilda said, taking off the thing and spinning it around on her finger, for a moment, “But if you insist…”

Hilbert rolled his eyes, and handed the egg over.

It was warm. Like it had been left in the sun for hours, instead of squished into a decade old backpack with crumpled notes and bags of pokemon food.

“So… What is it?” Hilda asked, as Otto pressed his paws against the egg, chittering at it excitedly.

“Think for a sec, idiot,” Hilbert flicked her forehead after he picked up his backpack and zipped it back up, “My friend didn’t see anything looking for it. We’ve no idea what it is. But it should hatch soon, I think.”

Hilda grinned, she supposed it was fair that she got an egg of her own to carry around- if the things her friends had were eggs, anyway- and it’d be really cool to see it hatch! And since she was so new to training, it would learn along with her and her team…

Then a thought struck her.

“If it hatches into a foongus, I’m going to actually kill you.” She said, staring Hilbert dead in the eye.

“What’ve you got against foongus?” An evil grin split across Hilbert’s face, “They’re pretty fun-guys…”

“Oh my GOD, Otto, use water gun!” Hilda yelled, and her brother was doused in a spout of water.

He glared at her, now sopping wet from head to toe.

Hilda glared back.

“You deserved that.” She said.

#tstac: middle ground #middle ground #chapter #chapter no longer looks like a real word.

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thesidestoaconflict · 3 months

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Middle Ground: Chapter 2

Stepping Stone 2084 words

First Chapter Next Chapter

Two days later- the group needed time to gather up the appropriate gear that a trainer’s journey would need- everything was ready. Hilda and Otto, Bianca and Blaise, and Cheren and Lucian were all ready to head out.

Hilbert had decided he’d walk with them to the next town over, but afterward he’d need to split and head back to his placement work at a lab near Driftveil city.

So, clad in the same outfit as on her birthday- it had been washed and dried; it was her favourite outfit, and she wanted to start her journey off right, Hilda stood a few meters down the street from the Juniper Pokemon Lab, awaiting her friends. She’d fashioned the pretty gem her dad had sent her into a string pendant that was now tucked inside her turtleneck sweater for safekeeping.

She liked to be early to things, knowing she’d end up late if she wasn’t trying to be super early- Cheren, as always, showed up on the dot of when they’d agreed to meet up, and Bianca was about five minutes late.

Cheren rolled his eyes, but the action was free of any actual irritation. And together, they entered the lab.

There was a small kitchen, a sliding glass door to a massive garden protected by a glass dome, a small library, a room with the door shut tightly that was probably full of light sensitive equipment, and finally, they found Professor Juniper, holed up in her study, one biro stuck behind her ear, evidently forgotten as another was in her hand, scratching notes onto a dollar store ring-bound notebook.

She looked up as the three of them walked in the door, glanced at the digital clock on her desk, and bolted up.

“Sorry! Sorry, completely lost track of time!” she exclaimed, jumping up from the ancient chair she was sat in, and leaving the notebook open on her remarkably tidy desk, “How are you three feeling this morning?”

“Great,” answered Cheren, as all three of them were ushered out of the study and into the garden-dome-thing, and the girls echoed the sentiment, “Are you alright, Professor Juniper?”

She laughed briefly, as they sat down at a picnic-style table to talk.

“I’m fine, don’t worry! Just busy! I’m sure your parents have mentioned I have a bit of a task I’d like to entrust to you three, if you’ll take it on,” she responded, leaning her head on one of her hands and finally noticing the biro on her ear, which she promptly tucked into the chest pocket on her lab coat. The three friends feverishly nodded, excited and nervous, “Okay, so, first off, you three know about the basis of my current research, right?”

“I do!” exclaimed Hilda, louder than she intended, “It’s about those new ruins that were found in Desert Resort, right?”

“Yes, exactly! As well as a strikingly similar ruined structure found underwater off the coast of Undella down.” Juniper nodded enthusiastically, “Well, two also strikingly similar artefacts were found on important-looking pedestals in these ruins. Lenora, Hawes, my father, and I are working with Shirona, the old Champion of Sinnoh, to try and translate the texts on these pedestals, but from what we can figure out already, these artefacts are some kind of living thing- at the moment we think they’re pokemon eggs of some sort, but we aren’t sure.”

“Like… that Manaphy thing?” Bianca asked, “I think I saw something about that on the news a little while back…”

“Yes! Yes, pretty much like the Manaphy egg that was discovered! It’s probably not a Manaphy, since these don’t look anything like that egg, but, I’m sure whatever they are must be important to something!”

“So…” Cheren furrowed his brows as he thought, and folded his arms, “You want us to look around Unova for any information about these… things… while we travel? Is that it?”

“Hm, almost, Cheren.” Juniper smiled, “I want you three to hold onto these artefacts, actually. If they are pokemon eggs, they’re more likely to hatch when with active trainers, according to Dr. Utsugi, and he’s the expert on the matter of pokemon eggs!”

Hilda was practically vibrating. Being able to hold onto a piece of important history… to help solve its mystery… it was a dream come true!

Bianca looked intrigued, but Cheren looked… a little sceptical.

“How big are they? They won’t be too difficult to carry around, right?” he asked.

“Oh, no, no, don’t worry!” Juniper replied, reassuringly, “They’re both only a little bigger than a pokeball, actually. So they’ll fit into your bags fine, and they’re both really light, for some reason. And also, Cheren, I’m not going to force you. I won’t take your snivy back or anything like that, it’s just something completely optional. You can change your mind, too!”

“Ah, thank you,” Cheren looked a little embarrassed; possibly having assumed that she might actually ask for the pokemon back if he declined to help with the research, “Have you—”

“Professor, can we see them?!” Hilda butted in, feeling like she was going to explode, “Please?!”

Bianca giggled, and Cheren rolled his eyes once more, both amused by Hilda’s excitement, since it was very typical of her to suddenly get extremely energetic whenever anything related to ancient Unovan history was involved.

Juniper smiled again, “Of course. I’ll just go grab ‘em, okay? Give me a minute.”

And she headed back inside her lab briefly. During the short wait, Hilda was tapping her hands on the table and bouncing her legs up and down, unable to contain her anticipation for this.

Upon Juniper’s return, she’d ended up squeezing her hands into fists so tightly that her nails had made indents on her palms.

“You know, Professor,” Bianca said as Juniper sat back down, a small wooden box in her arms. There was a teasing glint in her eye, and she kept glancing over at Hilda, “I don’t think Hilda’s really all that interested, you might wanna leave this to me and Cheren.”

“No!” Hilda took hold of Bianca’s arm and sank down on the bench, so she was almost lying with her head on Bianca’s leg, though she was holding in a laugh as she added, “Not funny…”

Juniper chuckled, and opened the box as Hilda sat back up.

Inside were two spherical objects. One a piercing white, the other the deepest black imaginable. Almost perfect spheres, save for an inward circular bevel on the white, and an outward circular bevel on the black. The bevels were both the same size, only about two millimetres deep, and on the other side, they were reversed.

Almost like a puzzle, one that could be infinitely rearranged.

Hilda was almost overwhelmed when Juniper passed the things to her first. Light and heavy at the same time. She could hold each one in one hand with very little difficulty. They weren’t warm or cold, it was like they were devoid of a temperature completely. Impossibly smooth. And she understood perfectly what Juniper had meant by them seeming incredibly important, though she couldn’t begin to guess what purpose they might have served.

She handed them to Bianca before she was completely overcome with thoughts.

“Oh!” Bianca exclaimed, and she held up the white one, “This one feels warm!”

She quickly passed it to Cheren.

“Right? Doesn’t it?”

He looked at her oddly.

“No? It’s freezing. What are you talking about?”

“This isn’t the time for sarcasm, Cheren,” Bianca sighed, but he insisted it felt ice-cold to him. “What? Okay, but this one is cold then, too, right?”

She passed him the black one, and a very surprised expression crossed his face momentarily.

“Not at all. This one feels warm.”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not!”

“Are you both being funny?” Hilda asked, “They don’t feel like anything.”

“What are you saying?!” Both her friends exclaimed at the same time.

Juniper looked puzzled by all three of them.

“I’m saying they don’t feel hot or cold. Not… room temperature either. I dunno how to explain it.”

Cheren shoved the white one into her hands.

“You’re telling me this thing doesn’t feel like a block of never-melt ice to you?”

“No?”

“And it’s not warm?” Bianca added, shooting a look at Cheren.

“No. It’s not.” Hilda replied.

“This is weird.” Cheren muttered, “You two are both being serious, right?”

“Yeah.” Both girls replied.

He frowned. And Hilda got an idea. She handed the white orb back to him.

“Hold this for a minute. Really get a good grip on it.”

He grimaced, but did so.

She could see the tips of his fingers redden from the supposed chill after only a few seconds.

And she reached out to touch his hand.

“Holy shit!” she exclaimed, yanking her hand back and shaking it, “You’re freezing!”

“I told you!” he snapped.

Bianca took the black orb from where it lay on the table, and after holding it for a moment, put her hand on top of Hilda’s, who flinched back.

“That’s so cold!”

Cheren reached his hand over to Bianca’s, who just looked even more puzzled.

“But that feels warm!” he cried, “What is this?!”

They all stopped at once, looking over to Juniper, silently begging for an answer.

“I… don’t know.” She responded slowly, “None of my staff have reported any of this. They all just say they both feel a bit cold, like a stone would. But not… icy. Not warm. And none of… whatever it was Hilda said.”

Cheren and Bianca were both holding onto the spheres they’d said were warm, to fend off the chill in their digits. Cheren had been outright shivering when he’d been holding the white one.

Hilda watched her friends as they held onto the things as if for their lives for a minute.

“Professor, have you any notes on them yet that you could make copies on? I’d be really interested to see what you and the others have found so far. On the ruins, too.”

“Yes, of course. Come with me, Hilda, I’ll get you some copies, and we can get all your PokeDexes fully up to date while your friends thaw out, alright?”

“Sounds good.” Hilda nodded as her friends handed her their Dexes, following the professor back inside the lab, feeling a little disconcerted.

While she waited for Juniper to make copies of all her notes so far, and staple them together into a shockingly small booklet, Hilda couldn’t stop thinking about the artefacts. Was there some weird property in each of them that was giving her friends, oh, who knew, a bizarre allergic reaction?

A small pile of papers in one hand, and a fully updated PokeDex in the other- Juniper carrying the other two- Hilda returned to her friends, who had placed the artefacts out on the table between them and were looking at them apprehensively.

“Come on, guys, they’re not gonna like… bite you.” Hilda sighed, reaching out to pick up the black one, and recoiling for a moment as she got a small static shock off it. She shook her hand briefly before picking both the rock-egg-orb-things up. “Who’s taking what, or am I the only one doing this stuff?”

“I’ll take the black one for now,” Cheren said, “You know how I feel about the cold. So something to keep me warm’ll be nice.”

Bianca stuck out her tongue at him, “I’ll take the white, if you don’t mind, Hilda? We can swap around soon, ‘kay?”

“Sounds good. Don’t drop ‘em.” Hilda teased as she handed them over, “And let me know if anything changes with them. This is super cool.”

“Freezing cool, even,” Cheren added, dryly.

“Who says ‘freezing cool’, you weirdo?” Hilda laughed and he huffed, and started insisting it was definitely an expression and that he definitely wasn’t just being stubborn and refusing to let himself be made fun of.

This time, Bianca rolled her eyes.

After a little while more of briefing, and confirming with Professor Juniper that they’d update her as soon as possible if they found anything, and also agreeing to swap around the stone-egg-things with each other when they met up in Nacrene city- since they’d be together until they left Accumula town, and agreed that time between there and Nacrene would be plenty to get started on some solo research.

They then bid the Professor farewell and hurried off to meet Hilbert at the outskirts of Nuvema town, still making light-hearted jabs at each other.

#middle ground #chapter #tstac: middle ground

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thesidestoaconflict · 3 months

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Middle Ground: Chapter 1

The Starting Line 2686 words

First Chapter (You're here!) Next Chapter

“Hilda!”

The invention of the pokeball is credited as being in the Johto region, as recently as just over 200 years ago, though it was not imported to regions outside of that landmass (Johto, Hoenn, Kanto, Sinnoh), until some hundred years later. By this point…

“Hilda, come downstairs, your dad’s calling!”

…the usage of apricorns as a primary ingredient had already started to decline in favour of more synthetic materials. Especially as apricorns themselves began to diversify, making creation of traditional red coated pokeballs difficult, however…

“Hilda! Now!”

…There remains a select few, mostly residing in the Johto region, though a notable craftsman lives in Galar, too, who still create pokeballs using traditional methods. Though I am not able to share the method, as it is a traditional family technique, and I’m sure fellow poke-ball enthusiasts will understand why such a thing is precious to me, it does sadden me greatly to see the rapid decline in appreciation for traditionally crafted pokeballs. This does not mean to say that pokeballs made with synthetic materials by corporations such as Silph Co. are at all inferior; not at all, their functions are…

Her bedroom door bursting open, revealing her exasperated mother, was what finally convinced Hilda Mahelona to close her copy of The Heart of Hiwada- The Mystery of PokeBalls by Gantetsu Waguri and look up at her mother.

“Hilda. It’s your birthday. Are you really not going to come down? Your dad sent over some interesting looking parcels for you!” Hilda’s mom, Katherine, “Plus, your brother’s just shown up, and your friends are coming over soon.”

“Okay, okay… I will.” Hilda sighed, lamenting over having to stop mid-chapter, and finally clambering out from under her covers, “I’ll be down in a sec. Gonna get dressed, first.”

“You got it, sweetie.” Smiled her mom, disappearing out of the room, and Hilda heard her descending the stairs soon after.

As much as she wanted to just pick her book back up, Hilda knew she’d just get completely absorbed in it again, and probably not realise how much time was passing until her mom came to get her again.

Most sixteen-year-olds would be bouncing off the walls on their birthday. And though her mom, dad, and brother always went all-out for birthdays, Hilda wasn’t especially interested in them what-so-ever. Too much hassle.

It was nice that Cheren and Bianca were coming round, though. Even if she’d have to endure their playful teasing about how she wasn’t a baby anymore. That was what happened when you were the youngest in the group, she supposed.

Still, she knew the pair of them were in cahoots with her parents for some kind of birthday surprise. She’d been suspicious of them for ages. But especially since Bianca had sent a message to their group message, and then promptly deleted it after panic-blocking Hilda’s number and a bunch of other silly things she rapidly had apologised for. It was cute. But more importantly: Hilda was on to them.

With her komala-themed pajamas swapped for a fashionable white turtleneck, black tailcoat, and stressed jeans covered in her doodles, she finished the look with all her favourite loom-bandz bracelets and headed downstairs, where the house phone was placed almost immediately in her hand, and her dad’s voice sounded through the receiver.

“Happy birthday, daughter of mine!” he exclaimed, and she could hear his comfey chittering away to emphasise the wishes, “How many pages did you read in the last hour?”

“Hm… about two hundred?” she hummed, balancing the phone between her head and shoulder, so she could use her free hands to grab and eat an orange for breakfast, “How’re you doing, dad?”

“Good. Not much progress on the wormhole biz, but no bother. Went out with my colleagues for dinner yesterday, to some cute diner on Melemele. It was great, you’d love it.”

“Promise to take me when I next come to see you?” she asked, throwing an orange seed at her brother, who was watching TV across the downstairs room, in the lounge area of the open space, “What kinda stuff did they have?”

“Lot of good old traditional Alolan recipes. The owner’s daughter works there, she’s working toward becoming a Trial Captain. She made this thing using those massive radishes that grow on Poni island… they were like those mochi you get in Kanto, or those fancy bodegas… Crazy that she made something like that from those spicy things!”

“Man, wow! They sound great.”

“They were! Speaking of great… Have you opened any of your presents?”

“No, not yet, I only just got downstairs.”

Her dad gave a hearty laugh, and he started pestering her to go open her presents, which she eventually did, promising to call him on the X-Transceiver in the evening, as she signed off the phone.

The very second the landline clicked back into place on the wall, her older brother- Hilbert- grabbed Hilda from behind and lifted her off the floor in a tight hug, though he had to put her down quickly; despite his three-year age advantage, they were about the same height.

“You’re catching up to me!” he exclaimed, teasing, “You’re how old, seven?”

“Try sixteen,” she retorted with a grin, shoving his shoulder and crouching down to pet one of his three deerling- the other two were happily snoozing by the TV in the living room, “Bet I’ll be taller than you, though!”

Hilbert scoffed, “As if!”

“Even if I don’t end up taller…” she scooped up his deerling and took off suddenly toward the living room, “Bet I can ruin you in Smash!”

“Slow down! You can’t even try beat me if I’m not there to fight.” Hilbert replied, purposefully walking as slowly as he could without losing his balance, as their mom rolled her eyes.

Hilda jeered her brother as he inched over, “That’d count as a forfeit in a pokemon battle, y’know.”

“Smash and battles are very different, dear sister.” Hilbert retorted smugly, as he threw himself down on the couch next to her, “Not that you’d know, not being a trainer.”

“Boo… Buzzkill.” She stuck her tongue out, purposefully giving him the wii remote with a faulty senser and an A button that only responded half the time, “I bet I’d beat you in a pokemon battle, too.”

“Go catch a pokemon and battle me, then.”

A few quick rounds of smash bros later (the siblings being at a perpetual tie), they ended up having to stop at the sound of the doorbell.

Hilda kept the good wiimote in her hand as she leapt over the back of the couch and hurried to the front door.

Her two best friends were waiting there, Cheren holding a rectangular package that he was clearly struggling with the weight of, despite how he tried to hide his plight, and Bianca carrying a cute glittery gift bag with the price sticker still attached.

Hilda all but dragged them inside as her friends tried to get out ‘happy birthday!’s, but were cut short by the hug she pulled them into.

She intentionally stood between Cheren and the dinner table so that he had to keep holding onto the heavy gift in his arms, talking to him as she watched him realise exactly what she was doing.

Every slight shift to the side he made, Hilda would mirror, and she felt a smug grin stretch across her face as Cheren’s grimace grew.

Bianca was drinking a glass of apple juice that Hilda’s mom had poured her, as she watched.

After a solid three minutes of inching side-to-side, Cheren made a sudden step left, which Hilda copied, but then he threw himself rightward and slammed the thing down on the dinner table.

“Augh, damn it!” Hilda exclaimed, “Fine. You win this time, Ohashi.”

“Pulling out the surnames?” Cheren responded, feigning shock, “And here I thought you were the type to lose with grace.”

“As if!” Hilda exclaimed, grabbing him around the middle and attempting to hoist him off the ground as he yelled out in surprise. She only succeeded by an inch or so. “Take that, fiend! I’ll never yield!”

She did have to put him down quickly though, not being especially physically strong either.

“Are you two done?” Hilbert appeared from the living room, covertly swiping the wii remote that Hilda had put down on the table before lifting Cheren into the air and replacing it with the faulty one, “I believe Hilly has some presents to open.”

Hilda felt heat rise into her face. That was another reason she didn’t find birthdays especially exciting. She liked getting stuff- who didn’t?- but opening presents around other people felt weird. She didn’t like the spotlight at the best of times- literally; one time she and her friends had decided to sign up for the school musical and Hilda was so terrified of the spotlight she made herself sick enough that she didn’t attend a single rehearsal. She didn’t even have a named role. Just a member of the chorus.

But that nervousness- unusual for her- was always there during times like this.

It didn’t help that she always felt inexplicably guilty for getting things. Even though it was her birthday, and people typically get given gifts on their birthday. And Hilda always got her friends and family the best presents she could for their birthdays. It still felt weird.

She wondered if they all felt like that too, and if they were just better at hiding it than she felt she was.

Still, she’d be lying if she said she completely, totally hated it.

Getting things was always nice.

Especially when those things included a giant set of loom bandz (curtesy of Bianca), a huge, heavy book on Unovan Myths and Legends- a recent edition, and signed by the author (the thing Cheren had been struggling to carry), a shirt that read NAME’s LUCKY FISHING SHIRT, with a lineart print of a basculin, and a beautiful aquamarine crystal (from her dad, so the crystal was surely more than just something pretty), a baseball cap that read NO. 1 DAD (an excellent choice from Hilbert, and she put it on immediately), a set of bright (really bright) pink shoelaces, more loom bandz, three mystery packs of sillybandz, and oddly enough, a camping set and a private link to the Cyberspace Bag System, from her mom, though she knew her dad would have pitched in especially for the latter two.

When Hilda glanced over at Cheren and Bianca, who seemed equally bewildered by the camping stuff; Hilda wasn’t opposed to going outdoors or getting muddy or anything like that, but she was definitely more of a bookworm, and if given free choice of any activity, probably wouldn’t choose to camp of all things…

Unless…

Her mom and brother shared a knowing glance, before leaving the living room to the three bewildered sixteen-year-olds.

They heard the front door open and close, as Hilda’s family left to go somewhere, and all sat in silence for a moment.

“What’s going on?” Hilda demanded, “Do you two know anything?”

“Nope. My parents were acting weird when I set out, though…” Cheren mused, “You have any ideas, Bianca?”

“None…” she sighed, leaning back, “Come to think of it, my mom was also acting kinda suspicious. I wonder if they’ve all planned something together.”

Hilda shrugged, and tossed each of her friends a pack of sillybandz to open while they waited, and they compared each of the bands they got once they had.

Even then, Hilda’s mom hadn’t returned, so Hilda dug out a third, even worse wiimote from the cupboard, and scrambled all three of them on the coffee table before handing them out to her friends so they could play Smash, since it was still on the pause screen she and Hilbert had left it on.

Two rounds later (both won by Bianca, an absolute monster at Smash Bros, even with the most broken of the wiimotes), and Hilda’s mom and brother finally returned.

Her mom was carrying a delicate looking blue box, and her brother had a smaller, but evidently just as precious package in his hands.

The packages were brought through to the living room, and placed on the coffee table in front of the trio of friends.

“So. Hilda. Cheren. Bianca.” Hilda’s mom said, sitting down on the armchair below the windowsill, and Hilbert perched on the armrest of the larger sofa, “Your parents and Keoni and I… we all decided that now that you’re all sixteen, and that you’ve all expressed interest… it would be nice for you to all become Pokemon Trainers at the same time.”

Hilda, on the left of the sofa, felt Bianca- in the middle- stiffen, and she felt her own heart thudding in her throat.

“So, we all spoke with Professor Juniper… and, well…” she lifted the lid off the blue box, “She has agreed to give you all a starting pokemon and a PokeDex. I also believe she has an important task she wants to entrust to you all, if you’ll accept it.”

Inside the box, resting on a soft cushion, were three PokeBalls.

Hilda glanced over at her friends- Bianca had the biggest smile on her face, practically vibrating with happiness, and Cheren’s hands were pressed over his mouth- and he honestly looked like he might simultaneously start screaming with joy and crying at the same time.

“Of course,” Hilbert piped up, “You all should meet your new partners before picking one, yes?”

Then he grinned.

“Unless… you don’t want them?”

Hilda leapt out of her seat and yelled at him, “Don’t even say that, oh my GOD!” she let out a breathy laugh, “Mom, are you serious?!”

“Of course, I am, sweetheart. You’re so fascinated by pokemon, you always have been. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to go out and learn first-hand, alongside your books?”

Hilda sank back into her seat. Yes, yes it absolutely would. But what would she even do on a journey? Challenge Gyms? Try out the musical in Nimbasa? Totally geek out when she got to Nacrene city and never ever leave that library?

Probably all of those and more, come to think of it.

“Mrs Mahelona…” Bianca squeaked out, “I… Are you sure?”

“Of course, dear. Your mom was one of the first of us all to suggest it, actually.”

Bianca’s eyes widened, and she looked shyly over the pokeballs.

“Can… we meet the pokemon?” Cheren asked, very obviously trying to hide his excitement.

Hilbert was the one to grab the three pokeballs. He threw them one by one, introducing each pokemon as he did. Tepig. Snivy. And Oshawott.

And, oh, how adorable they were.

An energetic tepig that could barely sit still. The snivy that kept using vine whip to hoist itself out of the way of the tepig as it ran back and forth. And the oshawott that immediately curled up on the floor for a nap, using the shell that usually rested on its belly as a pillow.

Hilda and her friends were instantly enamoured with all three of them. And she could see them both having difficulty; who would they pick? How could they pick? They all seemed so charming.

She knew exactly which one she wanted, though.

And since both her friends encouraged her to go first- it was her birthday, after all- she had no issue in gently scooping up the snoozing oshawott and dubbing him with a name. Otto.

After some discussion and thinking, Bianca took the energetic little tepig- who she called Blaise- and Cheren took the snivy- who he called Lucian.

And with the pokedexes that Hilbert handed out- which was what had been in the second package… everything was…

Though they were still sat on the comfortable sofa in Hilda’s living room. Though none of them had their shoes on. Though none of them were really dressed for the great outdoors. Though none of them had expected this- even though they had all wished and wished and wished for it.

Everything was different now.

Their journey had already begun.

#middle ground #chapter #tstac: middle ground

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thesidestoaconflict · 4 months

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this was from late last year but i dont think im gonna finish it . still like it though

#shinon #sky #hau #lillie #mo #anemone #nebby

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thesidestoaconflict · 4 months

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make sure to feed your pokemon snacks so they grow up big and strong

#callum #poppy #fields

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thesidestoaconflict · 4 months

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#stares at a wall............... man........................................................................#middle ground

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thesidestoaconflict · 5 months

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hillyyyyy

#hilda mahelona #hi look at her

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thesidestoaconflict · 5 months

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"Let us be brave" with your Cherny and Beebee!!

:> hehe hi reese!! ty for your req this was fun ^_^

lyric from: i'm not ready - sanders bohlke 1171 words

u can send writing requests for my pokeverse (tstac) with prompts from here!! ^_^

Reshiram has been awakened by Team Plasma's king. Hilda has run off onto the moorland and is refusing to talk to anyone. Cheren and Bianca share a room at a Trainers' Hostel for the night and try to figure out what the hell is supposed to happen now.

The hostel room is lit with a dim orange as the world outside settles from dusk into a deep, inky night. The curtains are half-drawn and moth-eaten, but the room itself is nice enough. The heating works- keeping the autumnal chill that seems to eternally linger around Iccirus at bay- and the beds are comfortable enough to sleep on at least.

It doesn’t feel right for everything to feel so normal when their world is basically falling apart.

Bianca sits on the edge of one of the twin beds, staring beyond the half-shut curtains into the world outside as she waits for her travel-sized kettle to finish boiling. It bubbles and shakes with far more force than should be possible for such a tiny thing, and she’s only recently gotten used to its surprising loudness; how it’s sounded like it was one wrong move away from breaking ever since she bought it.

Finally, the switch clicks, and the raucous bubbling dies down almost immediately. She pours the hot water into the two plastic mugs that came with the kettle, and drops a teabag in each. Earl Gray in one; a somewhat fancy hibiscus and raspberry in the other. A teaspoon of sugar in the hibiscus, two in the Earl Gray. She’s out of the miniature milk cups that she usually carries, and so resigns to taking her own tea black.

She takes both mugs in hand, and carries them over to the other bed.

Cheren is hunched over himself, cellphone in hand, thumbs clicking away on the keypad as he scrolls down his contacts list to Hilda’s number and calls her for possibly the sixtieth time that night.

The dial tone rings once. Twice. Three times-

And is cut off abruptly.

“Damn it.” Cheren mutters, and Bianca perches next to him on the edge of his bed.

He tries again, and this time the call goes straight to voice-mail. Hilda has switched her cellphone off.

“Damn it!” Cheren’s voice wavers as he snaps his cell shut and brings his hands to his face.

Bianca nudges him, and silently hands him the hibiscus tea.

“It’s hot,” she cautions as he takes it.

She feels her insides squirm in worry and hurt when he looks up slightly to take the mug, and through his hair she spots the bruise that is blooming across his face, it seems to become bluer by the second, and swells his left eye almost completely shut.

He sips his tea and hisses at the temperature. Bianca shifts so she’s sat cross-legged next to him as she holds her cup and waits for it to cool.

“Thanks, Bee.” Cheren says quietly, and sets his mug on the small table between the two beds.

“It’s just tea.” She mumbles, knowing that isn’t what he’s talking about. “Are you alright? Other than, the… um…”

He sighs, “I got mugged. Literally mugged. Then some… fuckoff huge dragon shows up, I say some shitty things to Hilly and now she isn’t talking to me- God, she must hate me… And now I just…”

He waves his hands around in an attempt to find the words.

He doesn’t need to though. Bianca knows what he means. She feels it too.

Scared, that is.

For all Cheren tries to be mysterious, and Bianca tries to be benevolent, at the end of the day they are both children in over their heads, in a situation neither of them asked for or expected. And they’ll never admit it aloud, but they know.

The lights in the hostel room buzz slightly, Bianca takes a tentative sip of her tea and finds it scalding, and for once, Cheren is the first one to cry.

“I’m really sorry,” he says, trying to hold his voice steady and failing, “I was so… I was such a jackass today. And you’re still… being nice to me. I’m sorry, Bianca.”

“You were a jackass,” she confirms, “A complete. Total. Jerk. To Hilly, and to me, too.”

Her breath catches in her throat as she hears Cheren hold in a sob.

“I don’t hate you, though. I don’t think she does either.” Bianca wipes at her eyes with the back of her hand. “She’s just… trying to be brave.”

“Brave?” Cheren echoes, and frowns, “But she… she ran!”

“Because you were yelling at her,” Bianca snaps, and whacks him lightly on the arm, “She’s not running from being the hero.”

Cheren looks at her dubiously, and Bianca secretly agrees with his doubt. Hilda had been running from it.

The face she’d made when she’d finally admitted that she’d known the stones had been the Dragons for months and hadn’t said anything… and her voice when she’d told Bianca not to follow after her as she ran off onto the moorland that bordered Iccirus. Strained, and hurt, suffocating in barely concealed fear.

But Hilda hadn’t given up the stone, or told Alder or someone else to take it instead.

For whatever reason, she was holding onto it, onto the Dragon, and onto the unfair responsibility forced upon her by the League and by Team Plasma.

Bianca didn’t know the ins and outs of it, but, still…

If Hilda could be so clearly terrified, but still not give up. If she could push Cheren to the floor atop Dragonspiral Tower when he started shouting at her, and feel so guilty about it that she’d turned off her phone so she didn’t have to think about it- or, well, that was what Bianca assumed was happening. And she did know Hilda pretty damn well. And if she could do all that, then. Then…

She watches Cheren take another sip of his tea. It seems to be a much more drinkable temperature now, so Bianca has some of her own.

Floral. Sweet from the sugar. The delicate bergamot scent makes her smile. She likes it more with a drop of milk, but this is plenty nice, too, she realises.

“We can be brave too, I think,” she says, putting her now-empty cup on the little table next to Cheren’s, and lying down to lean on him, “Come on, Cheren. Hilly needs us to be brave with her. So, let’s try?”

“What?” he looks at her, uninjured eye red and puffy, lip wobbling, betraying how close he is to bursting into tears again, “I don’t… feel very brave. I feel like a jackass.”

“You can be both,” Bianca states, half-teasingly, “Can you try? For me? And Hilly?”

He takes a deep breath through his nose and sits up needle-straight. An exaggerated, almost cartoonish attempt at psyching himself up and calming down. They are children after all, even the most serious of discussions needs to have some theatrics.

“Okay. I can try.” He clenches his fists and looks down at Bianca with a forced, faux-confident smile, “Let us be brave.”

Bianca watches as he flips open his cellphone and sends Hilda a quick text. It’s nothing much. Just a “Im sorry. Can we tlk in person 2mrw?” but it’s a start.

#words #middle ground

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