Chapter Text
Far away in the distant past there lived an ancient village of people by a river. This village was one of the first human civilizations to ever be made. In this village, lived a simple farmer by the name of Alakko. Alakko was the more shy and introverted of his brothers, taking to farmwork instead of hunting and the like. He worked on the fields all day, early to rise and late to sleep. Life was difficult but simple, but all that would change on one fateful day. Alakko was building an irrigation system for the farm, and all had been going well until he slipped on a bit of mud and hit his head on a rock, knocking him out. Those who were there would have witnessed a boy tripping, hitting his head, and then vanishing from plain sight. With just one simple slip, Alakko would fall into a new and unfamiliar world of the impossible and insane, run by strange creatures with elemental powers.
But that’s not where things start. It all starts with a strange object crash landing in a field…
“So what do ya think it was?”
“Probably a meteor or something, I don’t really see what else it could be.”
A pair of policemen, an ampharos and a bisharp drive to the scene of a call. The caller said they had witnessed an object coming from space and crash landing a few miles away. Naturally, someone had to investigate, and of course they picked 2 of the lesser renowned police in the station.
“Well yeah but it could be aliens!”
“For the love of Arceus Dave, aliens aren’t real.”
“You know my pops once said he saw a flying saucer. They swooped in on him and he sent a thunderbolt at it to scare em’ away!”
“Was this before or after he saved you from a wild mega evolved feral pokemon with his bare hands?”
“No no, this one is real. He even got pictures of it!”
“There’s a reason your dad’s in a home Dave.”
The two kept on driving until they reached where the object had supposedly landed.
“See, no flying saucer. Just a crater with a… person inside it…”
The two stared bewildered at a crater containing an unconscious passimian, in almost perfect shape. The bisharp slowly took out his radio and turned it on.
“Requesting first aid to my location, there’s an… unconscious mon in a crater…”
⧖⧖⧖
Alakko awoke to find himself on a strange bed in a completely white room, indescribable things hooked up to him and beeping like some sort of ritual. He panicked and looked around trying to find an explanation for his alien surroundings. He saw a room filled with white and strange objects all around him, with some strange pink and white beast looking over him unenthusiastically. He remembered the last thing that had happened to him, slipping and falling onto that rock, and there’s only one answer he could think of.
“Am I dead?”
“Miraculously not” replied the strange creature.
“Then what is this place? W-what are you?!”
“This is a hospital… and I’m a nurse…”
“I-I don’t know what any of this is! Why am I on this weird bed with these-” Alakko points to the heart monitor and other medical equipment “-things attached to me?!”
“H-hey, calm down, we’re just here to help you!” said a strange creature seemingly made of a ring of flowers.
“Patient may be suffering from severe brain damage…” the “nurse” creature muttered as it moved some long object across a small rectangular thing.
“What… why am I here?”
“You fell out of space into a field and inexplicably managed to come out of that alive.” the nurse creature said.
“W- th-there’s so many things here I don’t understand… what is a hospital and a nurse and space and what the hell even are you?! You’re some… beast that can talk-”
“Patient lacks basic intelligence and comprehensional skills…” the aforementioned beast muttered loud enough for everyone to hear, causing the flower creature to give it a stern glare.
“And you’re a living being made of flowers! It just… it doesn’t make sense! I-” Alakko interrupts himself as he notices he’s covered in fur.
“No… no no no no NO! WHAT AM I?!”
The beeping gets louder as the flower creature starts to panic. “J-just calm down, we can explain everything!”
Alakko panics as he inspects his body, finding fur and a tail where skin and scars were before. The two nurses look at each other and come to a sort of silent agreement as the pink beast backs away from Alakko.
“I’m sorry about this…” the flower creature says before spraying a strange cloud of blue powder at Alakko.
“What is?! WHAT DID you… d-do to me…” Alakko says before he drifts to sleep.
…
The audino walks up and puts the mask with the sleeping gas on Alakko’s mouth. “We need to get him sedatives or chain him to his bed, the kid’s insane.”
The comfey stays silent for a while before speaking. “You don’t think what he said was true… right?”
“He either has the most severe case of memory loss I’ve ever seen, is insane, or is more likely both. I don’t think anything he said was even remotely true.”
“But it just doesn’t make sense! Just about anyone that falls from a height so high up that it makes an impact crater is just going to be reduced to nothing! How did he fall from that high up and suffer next to no damage to his body?!”
The audino sighs “I don’t know Linda… he only got here yesterday and the police as well as everyone else knows nothing about him.”
“And that’s the other thing! They said his prints were unrecognized and they still can’t find a single lead on this guy’s origins!”
“Linda…”
“I can kind of understand not knowing what a pokemon is but I saw the look in his eyes when he looked at his body.”
“Linda”
“There was genuine terror in those eyes… I… there’s more to this than a mental disorder or brain damage… it just doesn’t make any sense! Someone doesn’t just forget basic things like-”
“LINDA!”
She stopped talking as the audino nurse held Linda, the comfey, gently in her arms.
“We don’t know what’s wrong with him… and we’re not going to be able to find out until we get someone to talk to him.”
“I know, it’s just… I’m worried for him…”
“I know you are, you’d be worried about a 4 year old getting a scrape on their knee… but your job is to help keep people alive and healthy, and you’ve done what you had to and what you can. The rest is up to whoever sorts out his problems, and I’m certain he’ll be in good hands.”
“Thanks honey…” Linda looked at Alakko with a sad look in her eyes and then back at her friend. “We’re gonna have to get a psychologist to check him out…”
“Do you need a moment?”
“Yeah… I-I do” Linda took one last look at Alakko “Why is it always the kids…”
⧖⧖⧖
Alakko woke up once more in that same room, feeing strange and numb. The memories of the last time he was awake came back to him and he started to panic again before a deep voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Do not panic, I’m here to help you.”
Alakko looked to the origin of the voice and was terrified to see a massive blue monster that towered over him with a stomach the size of a boulder.
“Don’t be afraid of me, I won’t bite” The monster let out a hearty laugh.
“W-what are you?”
“I’m a psychologist, I’m here to help answer your questions and ask some questions of my own.” The “psychologist” monster held a massive board up to his face and leaned as far forward as he could to look at it. “Your case is a unique one, it’s said in your file that you don’t know what a comfey and an audino is, so I’m assuming you’re unfamiliar with pokemon?”
Alakko nervously nodded as he tried to get past the terror the creature was causing him.
“Well, I’m a pokemon called a snorlax. Us snorlax can eat what feels like a mountain of food, but we’re not anything to be afraid of, we don’t eat people.”
“O-ok…” Alakko nervously replied.
“Pokemon are the people that make up this world, there are many species and they all have their differences. The doctors you talked to are an audino and a comfey, and you are a pokemon called passimian.”
“I’m… I-I’m not a pokemon…”
“Hm? You’re trying to say you were something else before this?” the snorlax said, trying to play along.
“Yeah… I was a human”
“A human? I’ve never heard of humans before.”
“They’re… I-I don’t know how you don’t know about humans. They look similar to what I am now, but with no hair. The only hair on their body is on their face and head.”
“That’s interesting. What did you do as a human?”
“I was in a village of humans near a river. We worked together to keep all of us alive and I was one of the people that primarily worked on the farms.”
“Hmmm… you said you lived in a village? Do you know when this village was made?”
“It was made before my time, but it’s said that a large group of people split off from a roaming tribe many years ago to try and find a way to stay in one place instead of roaming everywhere to hunt for food. They used their knowledge to build shelters that protected them from the elements and discovered how to farm. They suffered many casualties from sickness, starvation, and the elements, but it’s said that they would pray to the gods above for protection, and would eventually form the village I used to live in…”
“This is all very peculiar… you said they were from tribes?”
“Yes… most humans formed tribes and worked together to hunt and survive.”
“I believe that wherever you were from, your civilization and society has far less advanced technology than what we have today. Your descriptions of the life you lived before this fit the descriptions of the life of someone from the very distant past. Over a massive stretch of time, things like villages would slowly grow bigger and better with the discovery of new things and advancements. Your village probably consisted of around 100 people… most civilizations today have people in the millions.”
“I don’t know how many that is.” Alakko said in a deadpan tone.
“Let me show you something” the snorlax said as they struggled to their feet and hobbled over to a strange cloth hanging from the wall. He pulled the cloth back and revealed a hole in the wall which depicted something completely alien.
Alakko sat up to look at what seemed to be the sky, dotted with massive pillars stretching as far as he could see. He stared at the incomprehensible sight before him while the snorlax patiently waited for him.
“You can come closer for a better look. Just take all those wires off of you and climb out of bed.”
Alakko pulled the wires off of himself and struggled out of the bed, awkwardly shuffling towards the hole and catching himself on the wall. It turned out that the hole wasn’t a hole at all, but a piece of material that was transparent, but that’s not what he focused on.
In front of him, at a height only achieved by the birds in the skies and the gods above, was a massive expanse of confusing objects and sights. Creatures of all shapes and sizes moved across paths that spanned as far as he could see, pillars of stone and other unknown materials touched the sky, a pile of colorful objects moved across a path in a strange dance. Alakko stared in awe of such a peculiar place that seemed to defy the very boundaries of nature itself.
“There was a point in time where us pokemon were just like you, living in small villages and hunting for food. But us, the far far descendants of those people in the past have learned and grown to make what you see before you. Each of those pillars that seem to touch the sky are called skyscrapers. Every single skyscraper you see has been built by pokemon, for pokemon, to house and serve them. We live in a world where instead of having to hunt and cultivate food, a person can go to a place to use their earnings from serving their community to have someone make the food for them. We live in a world where water from distant places can travel to meet people who don’t have a lake or a river anywhere near them. We live in a world where people have figured out how to do things that would be considered only possible through magic and sorcery. We live in a world where the plagues and famines that ravage and destroy communities have solutions that prevent over a village worth of people from death. We live in a world where it’s more likely to die from old age than from anything else. We live in a world full of solutions, and while there’s still problems to be solved and issues to be addressed, people live safer and healthier than they ever have before. Welcome to the world of pokemon, and welcome to the city.”
Alakko stared out into the city, tears streaming down his face as the snorlax went back to the place he sat at and waited patiently for him to calm down.
Alakko eventually calmed down and sat back on his bed. “I-I had no idea…”
“It’s marvelous isn’t it? It makes sense why you don’t know so many things, you aren’t even from here.”
“I guess so”
“In truth, I have no idea how you got here, or if you’re even telling the truth, but I believe you.”
“Thank you”
“Your case is something I’ve never seen before, and I don’t think I’m equipped to help. You have a long way to go to figure out everything in the world, but don’t give up.”
“...”
“Still shaken by the city?”
Alakko silently nodded.
“It’s ok, you can take your time. Passimian actually have a ball they carry with them everywhere, and it seems to hold lots of significance to them. Perhaps holding your ball can help you calm down? It’s on the counter over there.
Alakko silently shuffled over and picked up the ball. Immediately he felt some sort of connection, like he had found something he was missing. He climbed back into bed and hugged the ball to his chest, already feeling the comfort wash over him.
“Th-that really helps… I don’t want to let go now.”
“Heh heh heh, well you don’t have to now, you can cling to your ball all you want.”
Alakko did that, but was interrupted by his stomach rumbling.
“My, I’m sure you haven’t eaten in a while. I can get a nurse to bring some food down, and you’ll get to have your first taste of pokemon food.”
“That sounds nice.”
“Alright, just stay here.” The snorlax squeezed his way out of the door and left Alakko on his own.
Alakko had many thoughts. What he was going to do now, how he was going to learn what everything is, it all felt too stressful, but his ball was with him, he was safe. He seemed to cuddle up to the ball, feeling like the ball itself was radiating a calming aura. He closed his eyes and let his worries melt away as he cuddled the ball. For the first time since he got here, he smiled.
He didn’t know how long it was before he was startled awake by the sound of the door opening. For a moment he quickly leveled the ball in his hand to throw at the intruder, only to stop once he realized that it was just snorlax.
“Woah buddy, I guess you get to have the instincts of a passimian as well.”
“S-sorry…”
“It’s alright. Besides, the food’s here now!” Snorlax pulled a tray of strange looking foods into the room. Most notably there was a massive bowl filled with something.
“Get you some food from the trays there, I’ll help myself to the bowl.”
Alakko grabbed a tray of food but just before he ate he looked at snorlax, who was chugging the contents of the massive bowl. It was almost morbidly fascinating seeing him gulp down food from a bowl large enough to act as a chair for him, but here he was, doing the impossible.
Alakko decided to quit staring and eat his food, grabbing a pile of mushy white stuff. As soon as he did, he could hear snorlax go into a mix of laughter and a coughing fit as he choked on his meal.
“Y-you’re not- cough -supposed to- cough cough -use your h-hands for that!”
“Oh… um…”
“You’re supposed to use a fork or a spoon.”
“Fork?”
“That white object with the spikes”
Alakko looked down and saw that there was indeed a “fork” on his tray.
“You’re going to have to wash your hands now”
“Wash my hands? I don’t see any rivers nearby”
“No, you can use the sink” Snorlax said as he pointed to the sink.
Alakko spent a little bit inspecting it, before figuring out how to turn it on. He put his hand under the water and let it wash the bits of food off. “Huh… how strange”
He went back to his food, now fiddling with the fork to try and figure out how to eat with it.
“You have to use it to pick up and scoop the food into your mouth”
“Wouldn’t it be more efficient for it to not have holes?”
“Well yes but that’s a spoon. A fork can be used like a spoon on certain foods but the points at the end are used to stab things and pick them up.”
“I see” Alakko said, not understanding the concept of spoons and forks.
He scooped the white mush into his mouth and was surprised by the flavor. “Th-this tastes great!”
“That’s mashed potatoes, they’re amazing.”
Alakko continued eating, commenting on how strange this is and how good the food tastes.
“What am I going to do after this?”
“It’s hard to say. People from the past don’t really fall out of the sky very often, so we’re still trying to figure that out. I talked to the government guys handling your case and they said you’re going to be sent to a psych ward.”
“A psych ward?”
“It’s a place where people who aren’t ok mentally go to recover. News of someone falling from the sky and claiming they’re from another world is going to cause people to debate and panic and all that, so the less people that know about that the better. I’m hoping they can teach you how to live while you’re there, since you’re pretty out of the loop when it comes to everything.”
“Yeah, I don’t really know what to do so I’m hoping I can be guided to what I should be doing.”
“We’ll try our best. You’ll be in here for a while since the psych ward is in the same building. I was only sent here to evaluate your psyche and memories, so I’ll have to get going soon.”
“Oh…” Alakko felt sad that snorlax was leaving. He didn’t really know why but he guessed that snorlax was the only person that really understood him.
“Don’t look so sad bud, you’ve got ways to entertain yourself without me. Here, let me show you something.” Snorlax got up and grabbed a weird black rectangle from a counter and pointed it at a large black rectangle hanging from the ceiling, pressing something that caused it to come to life with color!
“This is a television, or a tv for short.”
Alakko looked at the moving pictures on the tv with wonder. “Wow… what does it do?”
“The tv plays different shows for you to watch.”
Alakko tilted his head in confusion.
“Here, let me show you” Snorlax pressed more buttons on the strange rectangle that controlled the tv. “Here, pay attention to the tv.”
The tv seemed to tell some sort of story with audio and moving pictures. From what he could gather it was about a group of 3 weird pokemon going around and helping people. It was oddly hypnotizing, being able to see something seemingly defy reality in front of his eyes, all while using it to tell a story. Alakko was stuck watching whatever this was.
“You can use this button on the remote to change the channel if you don’t like the show you’re watching” Snorlax pointed to a button on the “remote” and Alakko idly nodded.
“I have to get going now, it was nice meeting you!”
“U-um yeah it was” Alakko absentmindedly said as he stared at the tv.
Snorlax left, which meant Alakko was all by himself, laying in the hospital bed and cuddling his ball while watching the tv.
The tv told him lots of things. It taught him colors and shapes like the sphere that his ball was. It taught him morals… which were mostly things he was already aware of. The things on the tv were colorful and nice, and there were characters and things that made him happy.
It was all alien to him, all of this was, but something about it felt familiar. There were still so many questions he had about different things and concepts and what this place even was, but something told him that he’d like this place.
Alakko spent the rest of the day watching tv, but slowly as the outside world grew darker, his eyes grew heavy from the long day he had. He tried to stay awake to watch more, but he found himself slowly drifting off to sleep, cuddling his ball like a pillow. This world is confusing and scary but maybe… maybe with the help of others…
Maybe he can manage.