Story Notes:
I use a series of symbols, so this may be a little complicated.Something that looks like dialogue but looks like (this) is a thought inside of Dillon's mind.[These] indicate song lyrics playing in Dillon's head.If {these things} surround something, then it is a dream that Dillon is having.If squiggly lines ~that look like this~ surround something, then that something is written.__________________________________________________________If the above line separates two things, then Dillon has written the passages at different times.__________________________________________________________ For example, if Dillon wrote these story notes, then he would have written the explanation of symbols first, then he would have come back in a little while because he remembered that he forgot to add an explanation for the lines. Then he would have come back and written this part because he forgot to include an example of how the lines work to make it easier for you, the reader, to understand. You got all that?__________________________________________________________NEW SYMBOL FOUND IN CHAPTER 5! If stars *like these* surround a word, then it is only onomatopoeia for a sound that is being made. __________________________________________________________NEW SYMBOL THAT WILL APPEAR IN CHAPTER 6! When two lines || That resemble something like this || are around something, it is a written side note.
"There's still 25 to go"
(Well, that explains a little...) Eying the malady, I notice that it resembled a bite mark. The sight made me sick to my stomach and I nearly vomited. As it was I still tasted a little bit of my lunch. (It must have been Keele, that son of a bitch! Oh, ha-ha, he actually is a son of a bitch. Focus! He's still suspicious. How can I possibly- oh no way, can it really be that easy?) I lay back down. Hopefully they understood human speech as well as I thought they did.
"Hey, uh, Swampert? I uh... well, you don't have to be afraid of me. Believe me, I've got much more reason to fear you than you me, and I really am much more afraid of you than you are of me I'm sure." (His pupils, did they just... contract? Just a little bit?) "Please, I'd hate to frighten you more, but that dog bite would heal much faster, and chance of infection would be significantly reduced if you'd let me try to help." I didn't move a muscle the whole time I was speaking and I kept my arms exactly where they had been pinned, as if I was still being restrained.
Most people would still be cringing at the fact that they were under the complete control of a beast that could kill them without breaking a sweat, but his eyes, for some reason made me feel... safe, I guess is the best way to put it. I didn't feel like he was wondering how much of a threat I was, it felt more like he had just tackled me to save me from being shot by an arrow. (Why do I feel so... relaxed, calm?)
"Please, I want to help." Truer words were never spoken.
Swampert cautiously let me up, but kept his piercing gray eyes locked with mine the whole time. I sat up as slowly as I could, but didn't stand. (A nice sentiment, but what am I supposed to do, just conjure a bandage out of thin air?) Then I remembered the scissors in my pocket from when I was cutting my guitar strings. (I can't believe I'm doing this...)
Very slowly and deliberately, I extracted the scissors from my pocket and finally broke eye contact. Then, I placed them on the ground and removed my shirt. (Sneaking back inside is not gonna be easy.) Picking the scissors back up, I then cut the shirt that I was no longer wearing from the inside of the collar down the front to the bottom. Then I cut what was now basically a sheet of... whatever the shirt was made of in half horizontally, which allowed the makeshift bandage to completely cover the wound, but not overly restrict mobility by needing to be wrapped around the knee.
"Let me put this on you," I said while holding up the shirt-bandage. I suppose that I really should have put the scissors out of my reach then, but I was curious to see whether it would be necessary. Apparently it wasn't, because he came closer and let me handle his leg. I wrapped the half of my shirt around the wound as tightly as I could until Swampert made a sound from his throat clearly meaning "Stop, now!" so I undid it and re-wrapped it in a way that it didn't hug his leg quite so tightly. It wasn't pretty, or too practical, but it was all that could really be done.
"Can I ask you to stay here for a while? I'll be back in a few hours, I promise."
__________________________________________________________
"Dillon? What happened to your shirt?!" my father asked when I came in from the back door.
"I was climbing trees and it got caught on something as I fell." It was a believable lie because I do in fact like to climb the trees behind the yard when I have nothing else to do and I have gotten my pants ripped in that manner once before.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm good, but we're gonna have to get me another Breaking Benjamin shirt. When can we go to the mall?" I left the living room before getting an answer.
When I got back to my bedroom, my brain started flying. (A pokemon? Here? Why here, in my backyard? Why a swampert? How did he get here? Could- hang on...) The box I brought in yesterday still remained in the corner, untouched and unopened, sort of. Curiosity got me and I opened the box, which was easy because the tape was already cut by someone who wasn't me! It was empty inside, which actually didn't surprise me at all, except for a set of claw marks. (What the...) I flipped the box this way, that way, and this way again but saw no return address, or any labeling of any kind for that matter. It yielded no answers, only more questions. (Who sent this, if anybody, and why did they/it send it to me? Obviously it's something to do with the swampert, he was probably in it, but why in hell would someone put a pokemon in a box and send it to me without leaving a clue as to who they were? I highly doubt that he went in there voluntarily, seeing as there were claw markings, so how did he get in there? Where can I find answers?!)
I thought of one place, but he was only capable of saying two syllables. (My only source of information is completely incapable of saying anything I can understand. Pokemon may have the intelligence of any human, or so I think, but for some reason they don't speak any language that a human could comprehend. My school teaches Spanish, French, German, and Latin, but not Pokemonese, so that's out of the question. So what can I do, teach him English?) That last question wasn't meant to be serious, but upon further consideration it seemed like the only option. (There's that meowth on the show, but this is real life! But then, how can a pokemon exist at all? What else could be true?)
__________________________________________________________
"Hey, uh, Swampert? Are you here?" I called. (He has to be close, there's no way he can move too quickly on that leg.) I was just trying to comfort myself with that thought, but apparently I was right because within fifteen seconds he showed up. "How are you feeling?" I'm sure that whatever he said next had something to do with how he was feeling, but I had no way of knowing.
"Uh... sorry, I don't speak your language, Swampert. That's actually why I'm here. I've got quite a number of questions and you're the only one who could possibly answer them and I'm sure you have questions for me, I but unfortunately- well, I think I've made my point. I'd be willing to try learning your language, but that would require you to already speak both English and whatever the name for your tongue is. I think, though I'm probably wrong, that the easiest option is for you, Swampert, to try and learn my language. I know you can understand me, but it seems like your body is incapable of making the wide range of sounds required to reply to anything I say. I was hoping, Swampert, that we would see if it's possible to fight through that. Would that be something you could try for me, Swampert?" I saw on TV somewhere that when you're trying to persuade somebody to say or do something you're more likely to succeed if you say the other person's name frequently while speaking to them. This was my first time trying it, though.
He looked to be thinking about it for the smallest possible fraction of a moment before nodding.
"Oh, thanks so much! We'll start right now. Let's see if we can teach you letters first, starting the letter R. Think of it as saying the AH sound in SWAM just before going into the ER in PERT. Try it." I knew from the get go that this would be difficult, but thought that I needed answers enough to try.
"Swam- swam- swa- swam- swa- swar- swer-" (Unbelievable, I'm trying to teach a pokemon to speak English. Boy, do I wish I could post this on Facebook right now!) "Ert-art-war-" (Uh-oh, he's having a lot of trouble with this. Still, he's learned how to say two words already! Granted they were both accidental, but I'm still calling it a victory!) "war-swar-wer-er-" (OK, this is hopeless, I guess his body just won't-) "R!" (Oh, nevermind.)
Swampert looked quite pleased with himself, now that he was able to say 0.03846% of the English alphabet. Whoopdie-freakin'-do. All joking aside, I really did find it somewhat impressive. After all, he learned the letter R faster than I did.
"Haha, don't get cocky. There's still 25 to go." That wiped the smile off of his face. "Consider yourself lucky, lots of languages have a lot more than just 26. Now let's try S." It ended up that he learned to speak fluent English in a single night.
__________________________________________________________
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Yeah yeah, I know, but I'm totally serious, Shanon, I promise. How about you two come by tomorrow and he can show you himself?" It was lunchtime but Shanon, Michael and I all ate in our third period teacher's room, seeing as we all had the same third period, just so we didn't have to run halfway around the rather large school to get to class on time. Well, that was their reason, anyway. I did it because the cafeteria was just too loud for me to handle.
Michael asks, "Did you take your medicine last night?"
"OK, A) Yes I did, and B) even if I didn't I wouldn't be imagining pokemon appearing at my house." (This is not going well.) "Alright, you got me, I was trying to see if I could get you to believe it. Seriously though, tomorrow's Saturday so how about you come by my house and we'll record our machinima's first episode. I also want to hear what you think of the theme song I wrote." It wasn't a lie because I really was seeing if I could get them to believe it, just not for the implied reason of trying to trick them. Also, I really did plan on shooting Episode 1 and showing them my theme song, so no harm done right? I hope not.
__________________________________________________________
The same old routine went down upon my return from school.
"How was school, Dil?"
"Good, Mom."
"Hey, Nicole, Dad, and I are going out to dinner tonight, so you'll be home alone for a while."
OK, that last bit isn't usual but it wasn't totally out of left field either. I don't like going out to eat, unless it's at Cici's Pizza, because I honestly don't like spending time with my family. I find it boring.
"Alright."
With that finally out of the way, I could get to the part of my day that I was looking forward to: the Q and A session. I went outside and to the usual spot, where the swampert was waiting for me. The first thing I notice is that my shirt bandage was gone. The second thing I see is that the wound is gone, too. "Huh? How did you heal so fast?"
"I'm a pokemon. We battle a lot, so our bodies have to recover quickly, much faster than your body could be capable of." I saw an insult in there, but decided to let it slip in case it was unintentional and I was just misinterpreting things again.
"Cool. Now, how about since you took the trouble of learning my language you get to ask the first questions." (Boy, I hope he makes this quick!) I wasn't against telling him anything and everything he wanted to know, but my curiosity was burning.
"What's your name?" That surprised me a bit. (Oh crap, I never even told him my name? Idiot!)
"Oh, I guess I never said it, did I? My name is Dillon, sorry."
"It's OK. Now, how did you keep so calm when I was threatening you?" (What's with these questions? Not "What am I doing here?" Not "Why was I in a cardboard box and left in your driveway?" He either thinks that I don't have those answers, which I don't, or he already knows exactly what he's doing here.) I didn't want to voice aloud my opinion, though, because "You're asking weird questions," might be taken the wrong way.
"Honestly, I wasn't calm at all. I was really scared out of my mind. I was acting that way to make you think I was relaxed, and I guess it worked."
"No, not that. It was obvious that you were afraid at first," (Great acting skills, Dillon. Drama class is really helping!) "But you actually relaxed after a while."
(What now? Am I supposed to say, "I was so relaxed because your eyes told me to be."? That doesn't sound totally crazy at all!) "I don't know. Something about those eyes of yours, I guess." (Oh my freakin' god, did I just say that out loud?!) "Uh... is that it?" Swampert nodded. (That's it? That's all he wanted to know?!)
"Then I guess it's my turn. I gotta warn you, though, I've got a lot more things to ask than you did. How about I start with 'Why did you appear ay mu house?'" (Wow, is it even possible to ask a more predictable question? Well, I guess there's the person who gets injured, ends up unconscious, and wakes up asking where he is, but besides that.)
"Well, I was swimming in the lake I call home and hunting fish pokemon when something on land caught my attention. I don't really know how to describe it except as a purple circular thing floating in midair. I went back to land to get a closer look and saw that when I looked at it from another angle, it didn't look ovular like it should; just a perfect circle no matter where I looked at it from."
(What? A purple circle?)
"I reached out to touch it but not only did it have no texture, but my hand passed right through it and I couldn't see the part of my hand that went through, like it wasn't even there anymore. I was curious and walked right into it, ending up in wherever this is. I wandered around for a while until I saw what I thought were canine pokemon, and tried to ask them about where I was." I couldn't help finding that extremely amusing, but luckily I had the iron will to keep a fit of laughter from escaping. "And you know what happened from there."
(This thing sounds like some kind of portal, which has to mean another world. Wow, that sounds like something from a crappy movie, but I can't think of a better explanation. Where is this thing? I'd love to go through it myself if I could. But who would I bring if I did? I can't go alone; I wouldn't feel comfortable in a totally new universe alone. But who could I tell that would 1) believe me and 2) come with me?)
"Dillon? Dillon!" I guess that was in thought for a while.
"Huh? What?" (Real smooth recovery, moron.)
"I said do you know anything about it?"
"No, but if you want I'll help you find it." (He doesn't need to know... not yet.) "Give me an hour, and I'll be right back!" I call as I sprint back to my house while already writing a mental list of items to bring.
"Hey, uh, Swampert? I uh... well, you don't have to be afraid of me. Believe me, I've got much more reason to fear you than you me, and I really am much more afraid of you than you are of me I'm sure." (His pupils, did they just... contract? Just a little bit?) "Please, I'd hate to frighten you more, but that dog bite would heal much faster, and chance of infection would be significantly reduced if you'd let me try to help." I didn't move a muscle the whole time I was speaking and I kept my arms exactly where they had been pinned, as if I was still being restrained.
Most people would still be cringing at the fact that they were under the complete control of a beast that could kill them without breaking a sweat, but his eyes, for some reason made me feel... safe, I guess is the best way to put it. I didn't feel like he was wondering how much of a threat I was, it felt more like he had just tackled me to save me from being shot by an arrow. (Why do I feel so... relaxed, calm?)
"Please, I want to help." Truer words were never spoken.
Swampert cautiously let me up, but kept his piercing gray eyes locked with mine the whole time. I sat up as slowly as I could, but didn't stand. (A nice sentiment, but what am I supposed to do, just conjure a bandage out of thin air?) Then I remembered the scissors in my pocket from when I was cutting my guitar strings. (I can't believe I'm doing this...)
Very slowly and deliberately, I extracted the scissors from my pocket and finally broke eye contact. Then, I placed them on the ground and removed my shirt. (Sneaking back inside is not gonna be easy.) Picking the scissors back up, I then cut the shirt that I was no longer wearing from the inside of the collar down the front to the bottom. Then I cut what was now basically a sheet of... whatever the shirt was made of in half horizontally, which allowed the makeshift bandage to completely cover the wound, but not overly restrict mobility by needing to be wrapped around the knee.
"Let me put this on you," I said while holding up the shirt-bandage. I suppose that I really should have put the scissors out of my reach then, but I was curious to see whether it would be necessary. Apparently it wasn't, because he came closer and let me handle his leg. I wrapped the half of my shirt around the wound as tightly as I could until Swampert made a sound from his throat clearly meaning "Stop, now!" so I undid it and re-wrapped it in a way that it didn't hug his leg quite so tightly. It wasn't pretty, or too practical, but it was all that could really be done.
"Can I ask you to stay here for a while? I'll be back in a few hours, I promise."
__________________________________________________________
"Dillon? What happened to your shirt?!" my father asked when I came in from the back door.
"I was climbing trees and it got caught on something as I fell." It was a believable lie because I do in fact like to climb the trees behind the yard when I have nothing else to do and I have gotten my pants ripped in that manner once before.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm good, but we're gonna have to get me another Breaking Benjamin shirt. When can we go to the mall?" I left the living room before getting an answer.
When I got back to my bedroom, my brain started flying. (A pokemon? Here? Why here, in my backyard? Why a swampert? How did he get here? Could- hang on...) The box I brought in yesterday still remained in the corner, untouched and unopened, sort of. Curiosity got me and I opened the box, which was easy because the tape was already cut by someone who wasn't me! It was empty inside, which actually didn't surprise me at all, except for a set of claw marks. (What the...) I flipped the box this way, that way, and this way again but saw no return address, or any labeling of any kind for that matter. It yielded no answers, only more questions. (Who sent this, if anybody, and why did they/it send it to me? Obviously it's something to do with the swampert, he was probably in it, but why in hell would someone put a pokemon in a box and send it to me without leaving a clue as to who they were? I highly doubt that he went in there voluntarily, seeing as there were claw markings, so how did he get in there? Where can I find answers?!)
I thought of one place, but he was only capable of saying two syllables. (My only source of information is completely incapable of saying anything I can understand. Pokemon may have the intelligence of any human, or so I think, but for some reason they don't speak any language that a human could comprehend. My school teaches Spanish, French, German, and Latin, but not Pokemonese, so that's out of the question. So what can I do, teach him English?) That last question wasn't meant to be serious, but upon further consideration it seemed like the only option. (There's that meowth on the show, but this is real life! But then, how can a pokemon exist at all? What else could be true?)
__________________________________________________________
"Hey, uh, Swampert? Are you here?" I called. (He has to be close, there's no way he can move too quickly on that leg.) I was just trying to comfort myself with that thought, but apparently I was right because within fifteen seconds he showed up. "How are you feeling?" I'm sure that whatever he said next had something to do with how he was feeling, but I had no way of knowing.
"Uh... sorry, I don't speak your language, Swampert. That's actually why I'm here. I've got quite a number of questions and you're the only one who could possibly answer them and I'm sure you have questions for me, I but unfortunately- well, I think I've made my point. I'd be willing to try learning your language, but that would require you to already speak both English and whatever the name for your tongue is. I think, though I'm probably wrong, that the easiest option is for you, Swampert, to try and learn my language. I know you can understand me, but it seems like your body is incapable of making the wide range of sounds required to reply to anything I say. I was hoping, Swampert, that we would see if it's possible to fight through that. Would that be something you could try for me, Swampert?" I saw on TV somewhere that when you're trying to persuade somebody to say or do something you're more likely to succeed if you say the other person's name frequently while speaking to them. This was my first time trying it, though.
He looked to be thinking about it for the smallest possible fraction of a moment before nodding.
"Oh, thanks so much! We'll start right now. Let's see if we can teach you letters first, starting the letter R. Think of it as saying the AH sound in SWAM just before going into the ER in PERT. Try it." I knew from the get go that this would be difficult, but thought that I needed answers enough to try.
"Swam- swam- swa- swam- swa- swar- swer-" (Unbelievable, I'm trying to teach a pokemon to speak English. Boy, do I wish I could post this on Facebook right now!) "Ert-art-war-" (Uh-oh, he's having a lot of trouble with this. Still, he's learned how to say two words already! Granted they were both accidental, but I'm still calling it a victory!) "war-swar-wer-er-" (OK, this is hopeless, I guess his body just won't-) "R!" (Oh, nevermind.)
Swampert looked quite pleased with himself, now that he was able to say 0.03846% of the English alphabet. Whoopdie-freakin'-do. All joking aside, I really did find it somewhat impressive. After all, he learned the letter R faster than I did.
"Haha, don't get cocky. There's still 25 to go." That wiped the smile off of his face. "Consider yourself lucky, lots of languages have a lot more than just 26. Now let's try S." It ended up that he learned to speak fluent English in a single night.
__________________________________________________________
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Yeah yeah, I know, but I'm totally serious, Shanon, I promise. How about you two come by tomorrow and he can show you himself?" It was lunchtime but Shanon, Michael and I all ate in our third period teacher's room, seeing as we all had the same third period, just so we didn't have to run halfway around the rather large school to get to class on time. Well, that was their reason, anyway. I did it because the cafeteria was just too loud for me to handle.
Michael asks, "Did you take your medicine last night?"
"OK, A) Yes I did, and B) even if I didn't I wouldn't be imagining pokemon appearing at my house." (This is not going well.) "Alright, you got me, I was trying to see if I could get you to believe it. Seriously though, tomorrow's Saturday so how about you come by my house and we'll record our machinima's first episode. I also want to hear what you think of the theme song I wrote." It wasn't a lie because I really was seeing if I could get them to believe it, just not for the implied reason of trying to trick them. Also, I really did plan on shooting Episode 1 and showing them my theme song, so no harm done right? I hope not.
__________________________________________________________
The same old routine went down upon my return from school.
"How was school, Dil?"
"Good, Mom."
"Hey, Nicole, Dad, and I are going out to dinner tonight, so you'll be home alone for a while."
OK, that last bit isn't usual but it wasn't totally out of left field either. I don't like going out to eat, unless it's at Cici's Pizza, because I honestly don't like spending time with my family. I find it boring.
"Alright."
With that finally out of the way, I could get to the part of my day that I was looking forward to: the Q and A session. I went outside and to the usual spot, where the swampert was waiting for me. The first thing I notice is that my shirt bandage was gone. The second thing I see is that the wound is gone, too. "Huh? How did you heal so fast?"
"I'm a pokemon. We battle a lot, so our bodies have to recover quickly, much faster than your body could be capable of." I saw an insult in there, but decided to let it slip in case it was unintentional and I was just misinterpreting things again.
"Cool. Now, how about since you took the trouble of learning my language you get to ask the first questions." (Boy, I hope he makes this quick!) I wasn't against telling him anything and everything he wanted to know, but my curiosity was burning.
"What's your name?" That surprised me a bit. (Oh crap, I never even told him my name? Idiot!)
"Oh, I guess I never said it, did I? My name is Dillon, sorry."
"It's OK. Now, how did you keep so calm when I was threatening you?" (What's with these questions? Not "What am I doing here?" Not "Why was I in a cardboard box and left in your driveway?" He either thinks that I don't have those answers, which I don't, or he already knows exactly what he's doing here.) I didn't want to voice aloud my opinion, though, because "You're asking weird questions," might be taken the wrong way.
"Honestly, I wasn't calm at all. I was really scared out of my mind. I was acting that way to make you think I was relaxed, and I guess it worked."
"No, not that. It was obvious that you were afraid at first," (Great acting skills, Dillon. Drama class is really helping!) "But you actually relaxed after a while."
(What now? Am I supposed to say, "I was so relaxed because your eyes told me to be."? That doesn't sound totally crazy at all!) "I don't know. Something about those eyes of yours, I guess." (Oh my freakin' god, did I just say that out loud?!) "Uh... is that it?" Swampert nodded. (That's it? That's all he wanted to know?!)
"Then I guess it's my turn. I gotta warn you, though, I've got a lot more things to ask than you did. How about I start with 'Why did you appear ay mu house?'" (Wow, is it even possible to ask a more predictable question? Well, I guess there's the person who gets injured, ends up unconscious, and wakes up asking where he is, but besides that.)
"Well, I was swimming in the lake I call home and hunting fish pokemon when something on land caught my attention. I don't really know how to describe it except as a purple circular thing floating in midair. I went back to land to get a closer look and saw that when I looked at it from another angle, it didn't look ovular like it should; just a perfect circle no matter where I looked at it from."
(What? A purple circle?)
"I reached out to touch it but not only did it have no texture, but my hand passed right through it and I couldn't see the part of my hand that went through, like it wasn't even there anymore. I was curious and walked right into it, ending up in wherever this is. I wandered around for a while until I saw what I thought were canine pokemon, and tried to ask them about where I was." I couldn't help finding that extremely amusing, but luckily I had the iron will to keep a fit of laughter from escaping. "And you know what happened from there."
(This thing sounds like some kind of portal, which has to mean another world. Wow, that sounds like something from a crappy movie, but I can't think of a better explanation. Where is this thing? I'd love to go through it myself if I could. But who would I bring if I did? I can't go alone; I wouldn't feel comfortable in a totally new universe alone. But who could I tell that would 1) believe me and 2) come with me?)
"Dillon? Dillon!" I guess that was in thought for a while.
"Huh? What?" (Real smooth recovery, moron.)
"I said do you know anything about it?"
"No, but if you want I'll help you find it." (He doesn't need to know... not yet.) "Give me an hour, and I'll be right back!" I call as I sprint back to my house while already writing a mental list of items to bring.