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Blueberry Academy was filled with simple folks. Whenever a new movie, show, game, or hell even meme dropped, it became the talk of the whole school. When the Amazing Spinarak Man came out, no one could stop talking about it for weeks. When the series finale of Game Of Sword and Shield came out, it dominated the gossip scene. When ‘Damn Daniel’ became popular, you couldn't go 5 seconds without someone yelling it across the hall.
So when a new cozy sim game about talking pokemon came out, no one could stop talking about it.
It was Saturday, a time to laze about, every student’s favorite day. The BB league and Kieran were all lounging about in the clubroom, well everyone beside Diana and Crispin.
“Wonder where Crispin is.” Lacey asked from behind her book, “Not like him to miss a hangout.”
“Maybe he got caught up in something?” Kieran offered.
That was of course before Crispin slammed open the door.
“Guys! Guys! You wont believe what my uncle sent me!” He rushed over to the others and flopped onto the beanbags, holing out his Switch 2.
“Is that the new game?” Amarys looked at the screen, adjusting her glasses.
“Yup! He sent it to me yesterday, I was up all night building my town!”
“Oh I've been seeing screenshots of it all over Rotumblr” Drayton chuckled. “The dialog? Top fucking notch.” He said while holding an okay symbol.
“Let's get this place humid!!” Lacey cheered out, something that made the rest of the elite 4 laugh.
Kieran however just tilted his head.
“I'm guessing that's a line from the game?”
All 4 of them looked at him.
“Dude, it's like the most iconic line.” Drayton spoke.
“Have you not been keeping up with it on Rotumblr?” Amarys tilted her head. “It seemed like right up your alley.”
“Im not really on social media” Kieran explained.”And I don't own a Switch 2, too expensive.” An unfortunate truth, though his pockets had begun to feel heavier since he began charging students for his services.
Crispin frowned, hit a few buttons on his console, and passed it to Kieran.
“Here! I made a profile so you can play it!”
Kieran held out his hands “Whoa whoa wait I cant just take your switch 2! That's like a 45000 pokedollar console!”
“What, you plan to throw it in the coastal biome or something?” Crispin laughed.
“No but-”
“Look, its fine, I’ve already put a few hours into the game, you should get to play it, at least for a bit.” He has such a genuine smile as he pushes the device closer.
Kieran sighed. “You wont accept no, will you?”
“Nope!” Crispin chirped.
Kieran simply deflated and took the console. “Fine…when should I bring it back?”
“How about Friday? Gives ya the whole week to play it!” The fire type trainer smiles. “But I feel you're not gonna wanna give it up!”
“Its a really good game.” Lacey added.
“Plus it's all about talking pokemon, you'll like it ol Pokewhisperer” Drayton chuckled.
Kieran looked at the 4 who were all looking at him expectingly and he sighed. “Fine…wont hurt to try it out…”
“Yes!”
“Smart choice.”
“You won't be disappointed."
Kieran rolled his eyes and booted up the game. He wasn't sure what to fully expect, he only knew the game had funny dialog and apparently a massive building community.
The game opened on a sleeping ditto in a blue void. He hit the A button a few times until the ditto woke up and began looking around. Kieran couldn't help but be a bit enamored by the cute animations, especially when the pokedex materialized on the screen and prompted him to design the trainer. He hummed at the character customization options, lots of variety he must say, games these days had so many customization options. He ended up picking the pokeball cap wearing design, with the default bob, darker green hair, dark blue outfit with blue pants, and changed the hat color to green. What got his attention was the one bag set, it kinda looked like an Ogerpon. He didn't hesitate to pick that design.
“Ooo nice character dude! Just wait till you unlock all the fun outfits!!”
“There's other outfits?”
“Yeah!” Crispin's joy was infectious and Kieran couldn't stop himself from smiling as the game began.
The first thing he saw was a white vined tangrowth and frowned.
“Why does the tangrowth look malnourished? Where its blue? Why's it white??”
“Oh my arc, Kieran you cant ask people why they're white.” Drayton snickered.
“You know what I meant!” He shouts back, red checked from embarrassment.
Drayton just laughed, ignoring the angry slap on his arm from Lacey.
Suddenly the clubroom door opened and it was Diana.
“Oh hey Diana! Wanna come watch Kieran play Pokopia with us?” Crispin asked.
“As fun as that sounds, unfortunately we have someone wanting to challenge the E4.”
Drayton groaned. “Who is it now?”
“Randy”
“That guy Owen used to hang with? Arc dammit.” Drayton huffed.
“He did beat Cristy in the preliminary match only a few days ago, so it makes sense he'd be ready to battle us.” Amarys stood up.
“Oh uh should I just-” Kieran was interrupted by Crispin.
“Nah man, play it, have fun, we got some fights to win!” He cheered and hollered as the gang left the room, leaving only Kieran to the video game.
He shook his head and turned back to the screen, watching as his character entered a new area and stumbled upon a squirtle.
- - -
The Bb Elite Four, plus Diana, all chatted as they returned to the clubroom. The battle gauntlet had been close, Randy got through Crispin and Amarys, but got curbstomped by Lacey at the end, and as per the rules of the club, lose in the gauntlet, and its back down to great ball rank.
“Damn, that was waaay too close.” Lacey laughed. “He had me down to Drillsby!”
“Eh don't worry, if he beat you, I would've kicked his butt easily.” Drayton chuckled.
“As if! He's a beast!” Crispin added before turning and spotting Kieran, still lounging on the beanbags playing the game. “Hey man! How ya enjoying the game!” Crispin rushed over to the beanbags and happily plopped down, startling Kieran.
“Oh- uh-I’m enjoying it well enough. Been making some roads and stuff…” Kieran shrunk at the sudden attention.
“Aw sweet!” Crispin’s eyes were glued onto the screen “Yeah your town’s coming along really well! I love the little house you built over there.”
“Thanks…I was trying to make it like a cafe since Gulpin lives here.” He lets out a nervous laugh.
“Already making buildings themed after the residents, your more into it then we thought.” Amarys has a bemused smile.
“Well yeah the game’s super fun, never gotten to play a game like this before. Though I gotta say, some of the dialog is,” He pauses as he tries to come up with the right word. “Well it's just unrealistic.”
“Unrealistic?” Lacey couldn't help but laugh.
“I mean yeah! Like, look I get you guys don't have the same point of view I have, but I listen to a lot of these mon’s on the regular here, and to put it lightly.” He turned the game around to show Hitmonlee saying how Timburr was his best friend. “He wouldnt fucking say that.”
Seeing everyone just look at him he decided to continue.
“Like Hitmonlee? They’re jerks. They love to punch anything that moves, and they most certainly wouldn't be buddy buddy with Timburr. Charmander would’ve thrown Bulbasaur right into the river for suggesting they make the place more humid. And I’m sorry Vespiquen wouldn't call anyone cute.” He shook his head. “The game’s fun, I love the lore they’re setting up and I really enjoy building the town, but I can't get into the dialogue, like at all.”
The others kinda looked at each other with awkward looks. In their defense, they can't understand Pokemon like Kieran could, so perhaps they- and by extension the developers -wouldn't understand these kinds of inner workings.
That is until Drayton suddenly perked up.
“Hey wait a sec. Kieran, are all those examples from pokemon you’ve directly helped?”
Kieran blinked in surprise at the question. “Yeah?”
“So pokemon from Blueberry?”
“Yes.”
“Alright so what about Kitakami?”
“What about it?”
“The pokemon there, how did they act?”
Kieran lit up. “Oh the pokemon back home were always nice- well there was the Yanma who would complain about people trying to catch him, but like everyone else was pretty friendly.”
“Like the pokemon in the game?” Drayton said, trying not to laugh.
"Yeah actua- wait a second…” Kieran looked back at the game.
“I think you might've gotten a biiiiit to used to Pokemon who are exclusively around teenagers.” Lacey laughed, patting his back.
Kieran sighed and bwomped “Arc damnit.”
“Soooo with that in mind…the game’s good, yeah?”
“Yes Crispin, the game’s good.”