[ti]open[/ti][001] An Unfamiliar Something, Someone

Upon leaving the starter lab, Emery played around with the new, unobtrusive UI that had manifested smoothly on her screen. Well, her eyes. It was a UEye alright. Everything was extremely intuitive and largely seemed to just require a simple thought to operate. Not to mention the sense of being in the open field she was in was spot-on with many of the open fields she'd experienced in her life: gentle wind in hair, clean sunlight, a queer feeling of suspended calm. In the distance, she could see a small town - the gravel path that led to the lab (that she'd never seen since she was dropped straight there after character creation) disappeared into the town's horizon.

The four new quest markers in her FOV urged her forwards, and since it seemed like a bit of a ways to go, Emery tried to start at a brisk jog, only to be slowed by a supremely strange sensation back down to a leisurely walk. A popup at the bottom left corner told her that the Run feature wasn't unlocked until she acquired the aptly-named item Running Shoes.

Well, I guess I am wearing Oxfords right now. They're not exactly the best to run in.

It was an acceptable and semi-realistic reasoning, so Emery let it pass. She went at as brisk a pace as the game allowed: some steps more than an idle shelf browser, but a far cry from the capital city street commuter she was. Along the way, she took in the peaceful, idyllic scenery, watched the not-birds fly around and settle in trees far from the path. About halfway there, near a groaning tree and a battered street sign she couldn't read anymore, Emery decided to meet this Popplio fellow she still held in her hand. Oh, she was aware that she could 'store' the ball in an invisible inventory, but c'mon. Live a little.

Emery gave the ball a small squeeze, hearing it click, and threw it out with a tiny burst of anticipation. The ball stopped midair and opened, a beam of pale pink light jettisoning out onto the ground, revealing first the silhouette, then a full...

The first thing in Emery's head was it looks like a seal quickly followed by it looks like a clown. The creature was a pleasing, soft blue with a cyan frill around its neck and a round, pink nose. It was literally just a seal with floppy ears and was the size of a small puppy. Round, wide eyes darted all round before settling on a frankly stunned Emery, and then she was thrown one out of left field as -

"Hi, hi, hi! Are you my Trainer?"

"I-," it can talk?! Right, right, Emery'd clicked the POKEMON SPEECH toggle from the start. She hadn't thought it would've literally been - "I..."

"I can't think of anyone else you'd be!" The seal's voice was full of pep, but fell blessedly short of being too grating. It sounded vaguely like it was coming through soap bubbles. The seal did a quick flip in the air...and proceeded to stay hovering there, the air around it bending ever so slightly like some sort of wavy mirage. “Oh, oh, this is actually really fun!”

It giggled, doing more crisp flips, making as if to chase its own tail.

Emery hadn’t been expecting something so sentient. Maybe it was the Speech toggle’s fault, but even then, she’d been thinking single, rudimentary words, not full-fledged sentences with cadence and tone that conveyed a, a personality.

“I…”

“What’s the matter? Meowth got your tongue?” The seal brayed a tinkling laugh, a bubble popping out from its nose. It reminded Emery of snot.


“I know it’s hard, Viv, but please, just…just try to make friends, alright?” Papa’s voice even breaks a little at the end. You can tell that he’s holding back tears. He’s like that.

“I do try, but no one seems to want to stick around.”

Papa sighs and fiddles with something off-screen. You bet it’s the 16x16 Rubik’s Cube made from wood, engraved with Dad’s initials and the date they got together.

“It’s not your fault, Papa,” you say. You know that he blames himself for not being there and for constantly moving the three of you around in the early days. “Uni’s a big world; I’m sure there’ll be someone out there who’s willing to put up with me!”

A little white lie that you don’t believe in, nor do you care to. Papa doesn’t seem to believe you either, but he smiles weakly and you feel a warm glow even through the webcam. For him, you’d try, or at least have the intention to try.

Dad and Papa were always the ones with the clearest eyes to you.


The seal was eye-to-glistening, glittering eye with Emery and it took a lot to maintain the thought of it’s just a bunch of code in her mind. But it had been so friendly to her. No one had ever…she’d always been the one to…and they always shied away…

“No,” said Emery at last, and her mouth quirked when the seal visibly slumped. “No, I’m not, I don’t want to be your Trainer…but I can be your friend. Let’s be friends instead, how about that?”

Immediately, the seal brightened. “Sure thing! Sounds even better!”

Emery broke out into a grin, a real, honest-to-god grin that came unbidden.

“Then, what’s your name?”

“My name?” The seal cocked its head. “Hmm, I don’t think I have one. You could give me one!”

“Me? Oh, I suppose like a pet.” Emery’s forehead creased. This was par for the course, of course. She’d seen the Pokémon gameplay videos; players had to name their newly caught creatures or else the game would default to naming them by their species, which was vaguely unpleasant. Like naming a human, Human. She’d asked the seal reflexively, the question slipping out like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“But you’re not my pet, you’re my friend,” murmured Emery slowly. “I don’t suppose you’d like to name yourself?”

The seal did another flip, leaving tiny bubbles in its wake. “To be honest, it feels like I was born just a few minutes ago, so I don’t know much about anything. But I do know I’m a Popplio, so if I had to go with something…”

A newborn?

“Ok,” interrupted Emery, thinking quickly. “What do you like to do, do you know that? Any favourite things? Any, um, any goals for the future?”

Typical questions from a How to Make Friends and Build Rapport style of self-help book. Not that Vivi had ever been interested in reading those, but it was often in Papa’s many mini-sermons.

“Oh, I know those! I feel them in my very soul, hehe!” The seal clapped its flippers happily. “I love to sing and dance and make people ooh and aah!” It did a twirl in the air, then settled close to Emery as if it was sharing a secret. Emery could smell salt on its skin. “One day, I want to become the best performer on all the seas. I want to dance with a backdrop of stars and seafoam, sing so well that the moon itself weeps into the ocean. I just know I was born to do this, you know? It’s something only the best of us can do, and one day, that’s going to be me!”

It smiled a smile so full of confidence and reassurance that Emery was once again shocked into silence, struck dumb by a clown seal.

“A-are you sure you were just born?” She managed.

The seal shrugged and spun around to float on its back. Maybe the Pokémon Speech function just substituted its words and feelings with the closest ones in Emery’s own vocabulary, which would make perfect sense.

“But that’s a, a beautiful dream. I love it,” continued Emery genuinely. It was nice, to have dreams. She hadn’t thought this small creature would, and nothing so passionate. “I really do.”

“Thank you! You’ll have front row seats, I promise!”

It’s just a tactic for them to endear themselves to you so you feel emotionally invested in the game.

She knew that, but at the same time, good god, she’d never felt so strongly towards another person before. This wasn't even a person.

“I look forward to it. But also…hmm, singing and dancing and dreams of a big stage. I guess that is all the rage right now. You know, we have a word for that where I come from: idol.”

“Idol?”

“Yep. It has another meaning, but nowadays it’s definitely more to do with a performer who dances or raps or sings or does all three. Some of them are so famous you wouldn’t believe; I’ll try to show you a video sometime, if I can.”

The seal’s eyes sparkled and it nodded vigorously.

“How’s that, then?” Emery gingerly reached out and cupped the seal’s two flippers in her palms. Its skin was smooth and cool, vaguely damp. “For your name? Idol?”

“My name as my dream! That's poetic, like a song!” The seal pressed its flippers down on Emery’s hands, tail swinging up and down.

“Idol it is. By the way, I can’t tell, but are you male or female?”

Emery and Idol talked the rest of the way to the marker for the first tutorial quest. Emery noticed that the more Idol talked, the larger his vocabulary grew to be. He became very verbose, and had a highly extroverted personality that in turn brought out Emery’s own energy, that which had been dormant for so long with lack of people to express it to. There was actually someone to reciprocate her friendship now. She had been totally ready to view the seal as a simple tool, another obvious NPC like the Pokémon professor, a clear piece of unreality that she could treat as she pleased.

But it seemed that her resolve had melted in the face of a passionate, talking animal. It wasn’t even a human being! Maybe it was easier because of that. What a chump she was. She’d have to dissect this phenomenon later.

They followed the marker to an unassuming house in the middle of a larger neighbourhood, and the lack of fences paired with wide driveways reminded Emery of certain London suburbs (not a good thing). There were several colourful flowers in the front yard and an odd wreath hung on the door. What appeared to be berries dotted the grass. Everything was clean, well-kept, but there was an unsettling air about the place. No car in the driveway, but about 15 bicycles of varying designs lined up neatly.

What’s more, someone was already waiting around the front door, and going from the name hovering above their head when Emery focused on them, they were definitely not “Mom NPC”.

“Oi! What are you doing in front of my house?” demanded Emery immediately, eyebrow cocked and tone flaring. Idol swam up cautiously behind her.