clairvoyant ascetic

…Wait, where did that last thought come from?

Out of the corner of her eye, Karen saw just that, and one that’d she’d seen before, at that! Standing towards the other end of her table was a familiar blonde head with a familiar face to match: Morty, a good acquaintance of hers, and one she always liked to keep her eyes on.

"Well, well~" the woman started in a low, elongated tone, meeting the man’s eyes with a pleased expression. "Hiya, blondie."

Did we mention he’s blonde? Karen loves blondes, and thus started her soft spot for a certain gym leader.

"Me? I’m just watching over this clown as she swipes all of your ghosts." She nodded toward the duo of gengar with a chuckle. "You appearance certainly explained a lot. Sorry about Fatome’s capture; apparently, she just has that charming effect on others."

At her mention, the female gengar darted towards her trainer and away from her new found friend. She let out a sound of delight as she hovered in front of Karen arms bobbing up and down and she moved. 

Karen smiled at her Pokémon’s joy, moving her eyes over to her and then swiftly back to rest on Morty. It was here that they stayed until she suddenly noticed Fatome slow to a lack of movement from the corner of her sight. Turning her full attention back to her partner, she found that the Ghost-type had indeed stopped bouncing and even seemed displeased. She was staring at the idle stone that remained void of any signs of life upon the table. Karen then knew what was on her mind.

"Yeah, I know…" she cooed Fatome’s worried expression, Karen’s gaze then turning softer. She grabbed the stone off of the table and held it her palms near her gengar, who followed its every movement.

"Our little idea failed…"

After the words left her mouth, Karen found her expression turning sour, brows furrowing in frustration. She let out a quick breath and then looked back to Morty.

"Oh, I wouldnt worry about Gengar.  He thrives on attention, I bet he'd tag along after her if there was even a slight chance she'd take interest."  He chuckled, seeing Gengar frowning at him from out of the corner of his eye at the friendly slight.  Sableye, seeing that there was nothing of interest going on between the two other ghosts to begin with, crawled up into the chair Morty was leaning onto, now curious about the object on the table.  Morty turned his attention to it as well, hoping it wasn’t going to end up another snack for Sableye.

“Hey, Fatome, you better not have wandered off far!”

A certain elite’s voice boomed through the evening air, projecting off of the café she’d just exited with an icy espresso in hand. She wandered away from the door and to a nearby table, eyeing the scenery that flanked the building as she walked and sat down.

The beautiful flame colored forest that made up the wonder that was the Bellchime Trail was a breathtaking sight, but it was one that she had seen countless times, being very fond of it and of the city of Ecruteak itself. Yes, the woman took pleasure in the aesthetic of it very often, but at that moment she was gazing into its depths for a reason other than personal enjoyment; she was looking for a familiar figure which she had sworn she’d told to stay close by, at least until she had gotten her coffee and came back outside.

Tapping her heel in annoyance, she began to raise to her feet once again in order to call out a second time. But, in that exact moment, the face she’d been searching for appeared out of a large yellow shrub. Fatome, her gengar, trotted out from the foliage with a gaping grin stretched across her face. Two giggly ghastlies trailed behind her. The party halted not far from Karen’s table. The blunette eyed her Pokemon, making a questioning yet somewhat amused expression.

“Well, it certainly didn’t take you long to make friends,” she observed, clicking her tongue with a slight smile. The ghost-type emitted pure delight, cackling as the smaller spirits circled around her. Karen scoffed again, sporting a full-on grin at her partner’s joy.

“Take it easy on the passersby’s,” she gave as last one order, knowing what a fanatic her gengar—as well as all ghost-types—was of mischief upon the innocent. Fatome took the advice with an eerie squeal, then turned tail to run around the building and out of sight,

Karen exhaled, taking a sip of her beverage. With that out of the way, it was time to pay attention to a different matter, one which was her true reason for coming to the city today: Wisp, another one of her ghost-type Pokemon.

The woman drew a single, medium-sized stone from her bag and placed it on the table in front of her. She simply observed it for a moment, making no further contact with it after setting it down, almost as if she was expecting it to do something on its own. After a while, she placed a hand gently upon it and tried speaking.

 “Maybe you wanna try making friends, too?”

There was no response. Not a quiver, not a nothing.

“No good, huh?”

Her voice held the faintest hint of a sigh as she continued to poke at the stone. Eventually, she admitted defeat, drawing her hand away and bringing it up to support her face.

“I really don’t know what to do with you,” she added, pouting her lips to one side.

To any passerby, Karen probably looked very strange in that moment; she was talking to a rock, or at least it appeared to be a simple rock to most people. But, it was no ordinary rock. The strange engravings upon it said differently, and as did the fact that she had seen the strange being that made its home within it with her own eyes before—only once before, though.

This strange stone was actually Karen’s spiritomb, Wisp. Though it was a member of her team and sat alongside her other partners, this particular Pokemon was one that Karen’s connection with was very different. As a matter of fact, she had no connection with it, because it refused to interact with her whatsoever. The only time that she saw the spirt attached to it was when she first caught it, which had been by pure accident. During one of her trip’s to Sinnoh, she’d gone hunting along Route 209 and tripped. When she fell, a Poke Ball flew from her hand and landed on a nearby stone. That stone had actually been a Pokemon, which was very shocked when it was suddenly captured, exiting its tomb only to make a short cry before disappearing into the ball. Oddly, though, it had made no attempt to break free from the device, or at least had been unable to.

Wisp really was an odd member of her team. Karen had tried for as long as she could remember to get it to react to her or other Pokemon, but to no avail. Today was just another failed attempt. She’d brought Wisp and Fatome here to Ecruteak together hoping that Wisp would have been drawn out by all of the spiritual activity from other ghost-types in the area, perhaps per swayed by Fatome’s interactions. But, obviously, things were not going as planned.

Karen truly didn’t know what to do.

As she sat and pondered the situation they were in, suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar shrill screech. She quickly rose her head and looked around only to see Fatome had returned to her… but, with yet another friend beside her: a gengar.

 Karen made a face at her Pokemon, tilted her head slightly. She knew ghost-types were of high quantities in this area, but a gengar? Due to their odd method of evolution, gengars weren’t typically found in the wild. If so, what was this gengar’s story?

                His gym trainers would never allow him to simply hole up in the gym as he was wont to do, however, and made certain that he got out even on warm days like today. His pokemon needed the time outside as well, even if they were ghosts.  Morty looked up from his iced tea (not his favorite, but at least it was cold) and watched Gengar chat animatedly with some gastlys.  Sableye was sitting beside him, kicking his legs and snacking on some rock he had found, enjoying the evening air.  He seemed more at home in it than his trainer, and Morty envied his disregard for the temperature.  “Maybe I should have spent my days training to endure a little warmth, huh?”   Sableye looked up at him curiously, tilting his head at Morty’s strange comment with his mouth still half open and full of rock, and Morty chuckled.  He patted Sableye’s head, which seemed to satisfy the small creature, and looked back to Gengar.

                Or, rather, where Gengar had just been—because when Morty turned his attention to that spot, his partner was already floating off into the trees.  “Gengar?”  He stood up and Sableye followed suit, both looking at Gengar’s retreating form.  The pokemon was not one to go far without his trainer; he knew that Morty liked keeping him close, and had long ago abandoned the habit of floating off without warning.  That didn’t mean he never did it, however—just when he knew it would be alright.  Sableye looked up at the gym leader again, making a soft cry.  “Come on, let’s follow after him.  Maybe he’s found something interesting.”

The two strolled through the brush, Morty too sleepy in the evening heat and Sableye too preoccupied with his food for them to bother with going any faster.  Gengar didn’t seem to be wandering so much as cutting a path through the trees , so there was no concern that they’d not catch up to him eventually.  It took a few minutes, but the two finally found themselves out of the trees and at the backside of the café Morty had bought his cold drink from earlier.  From around the other side, Morty heard the cry of a gengar, but not his own—perhaps a female one?  Sableye, now finished with his rock, scampered around the building without Morty to investigate.  Morty, still finishing his drink, followed behind at his own, slower pace, still not too worried about what was going on.

Both Gengar and his new companion, another gengar, were on the other side, as expected.  Sableye was standing beneath them, apparently curious about what was going on and babbling at the two of them.  Gengar ignored his teammate in favor of chatting up the lady he seemed to be trying to impress, to surprisingly good effect.  Beside them, sitting at a table, was their trainer: a woman he recognized from League meetings.  She had a drink of her own, and a strange stone of some kind that seemed almost familiar to Morty, though he couldn’t place it.  “Hello, Karen.  What’s brought you here today?”  He smiled to her and rested his hand on the chair opposite hers, waiting for her reply.