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PMD-Explorers writing app: The Pioneers

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    Andrew and Lizzy huddled under the overhang outside the front door of the merchant’s hut, soaked to the bone. Lizzy shook her fur and crackled, her mane and tail spiked with electricity.
    “I can’t believe he’s made us wait this long! He said he was expecting us!” She stamped a small hoof against the ground and tossed her head in frustration, which shook even more water off and snapped the small, scaly rodent beside her with a weak charge of electricity.
    “Lizzy!” Andrew leaned away from the temperamental equine as much as he could while still remaining under the shelter of the overhang. “Please don’t do that here…let’s try knockin’ again. Maybe he’s just busy in a back room and couldn’t hear us before.”
    “Ok, ok,” Lizzy said, and she beat at the door hard with one hoof. She didn’t care if she scratched it. She beat on it once, twice, and just raised her hoof a third time when the door swung open. A grisled, grey fox greeted them with a long, toothy smile, and he opened the door wider as he stepped to the side.

    “Come in, come in!” he said, his dry voice high with surprise. “My goodness, come in! I can’t believe you’ve all been waiting outside in the rain all this time! You could have knocked earlier, you know!
    “We did,” Lizzy said, and bounded into the welcome warmth. She shook her soaked fur and splashed the fox in the face, and he squinted his eyes shut and shielded against the attack with one of his nine tails.
    “Yes,”he said. “Go ahead and bring the rain in. I’m sure there’s not enough of it outside.”
    Lizzy felt a little bad about being mean. A little. But she was quite sure he knew they were there all along, and he looked like he needed it- did this canine ever take a bath? The tips of every one of his nine tails were stained black with ink, and his fur was matted and so grey it was impossible to tell if he was a shiny of his species, old, or just dirty. Lizzy figured he was dirty, because he kinda smelled, and she was just about to say something when Andrew nudged her.
    “Hello Sir,” said the sandshrew to the fox. “Thank you, the rain is awful nice, but-”

    “My name is Callahan,” the fox said, and his smile made his red eyes narrow almost into slits. “Or Calla, for short. I’m the guild registrar, you know. I’m quite good at it!” He lifted his head proudly and flourished his many tails.
    “Oh,”Andrew said. “Much obliged to meet you Sir. My name is And-”
    “Oh, please allow me to take your belongings, they’re all wet!” Callahan moved quickly, his eyes suddenly wide and horrified at the thought that the young pokemon’s belongings were just as wet as they were and probably thoroughly ruined. He didn’t wait for Andrew to give him the small leather sack he carried, but took it himself. He grabbed the strap with his teeth and walked to the near wall, where a crackling fire burned and kept the entire room dry and warm. Despite Andrew’s protests that everything was just fine, Callahan opened the pack, took everything out, and layed it out on the stone in front of the fireplace. “I’ll just hang this in front of the fireplace to dry as we go over the formalities,” he hung the pack on the metal guard that stood in front of the fire. Lizzy hung her pack next to Andrew’s before Callahan had the chance to take it from her.
    “So how do we get signed up?” Lizzy was getting tired of all the delays. Callahan squinted with that odd smile again as he moved towards the door at the far end of the room.
    “The paperwork, of course!” He said, Lizzy had never seen a pokemon more excited about paperwork. “There will be a lot of that, don’t you worry one bit!” The two young pokemon followed the fox through the door and down a hallway to an office near the back of the building. Callahan sat behind his paper-littered desk.
    “You do have the forms that we’ve mailed you filled out, yes?” He asked as he shuffled the various high stacks of paper on his desk. “That does always make things go much quicker here…” Andrew opened his mouth to answer, but Callahan interrupted him with a dramatic sigh.
    “Oh, standing out so long in the rain, when you really should have just knocked and come in…why, how could I have forgotten how your packs are all soaking wet? What a shame! Those forms would be sopping wet and no good at all!” He shook his head regretfully, completely ignoring Andrew and Lizzy’s protests.
    “I set my form by the fire,”Andrew insisted. “I’m sure it was saved-”
    “The ink has run I’m sure,” Callahan did not seem to hear the sandshrew. “Goodness, we’re in for a lot more paperwork than I could have hoped to dream of! No matter, I have spare forms, and all the time in the world!” With a long, toothy smile, he took a sheet of paper from one of the piles on his desk. He started to dip the tip of each tail in a small pot of ink beside him. “I trust you have no pressing appointments yet, so I’ll write down your information now. With your help, of course.” Lizzy and Andrew looked at each other.
    “Well,” Andrew said, trying to hurry so the fox wouldn’t interrupt him again. “Both our folks are waitin’ for us at home, and they’d be awful worried if we stayed out terribly late.”
    “Let’s get right down to it then, shall we?” Callahan’s smile didn’t change, but he poised the tip of a single tail over the form in front of him. “My fastest time for entering a team in the official guild registrar is a touch under a few hours; let’s see if we can break the record!” He wrote a few notes in a couple of the boxes, and then looked up.
    “All right now…names, please?”
    “Andrew,” said the sandshrew. “Andrew Dugger, an-”
    “And I’m Lizzy!” The black-and-white striped pokemon flicked her short tail from side to side. “Lizzy Dashenmyer!”

    “Ahh…” said the fox as he wrote down Andrew’s name on the form. “What…commo-er, good names you all have! How do you spell your last name Lizzy?” Lizzy recited the letters in her name, and Callahan quickly wrote it down. “Interesting spelling! Are you foreign? French, perhaps?” Lizzy and Andrew frowned.
    “French?” Lizzy asked. “What does that mean?”
    “Ah, no, forget it,” Callahan said, shaking is head. “France is just made up here, you know. Often used as comic relief.” He grinned. Lizzy looked sideways at Andrew’s puzzled frown with a raised eyebrow. Callahan cleared his throat. “Er, just forget that. Moving on! What alias do you wish to give you lot of fellows? I hope it’s something good! I’ve been so bored by Pokemon insisting to use a name like “Team Awesome” or anything of the sort. More like “Team Mediocrity,” I like to think! I’m sure you have a much more original name.”
    “We had a hard time with-” Andrew said, but Callahan cut him off.
    “No need for backstory just yet,”he said. “I’m sure it’s terribly exciting, but we’ll have plenty of time to hear your tale in a minute. Now what is your team name?”
    “Pioneers,” Lizzy said, her short mane crackling with static. She shot a quick glance at her friend, but Andrew was just as pleasant as ever. He nodded, his beady eyes crinkled in a smile.
    “Yes,” he said. “We’d like to be the Pioneers.” Callahan returned the smile.

    “I knew you wouldn’t let me down!” He said. “Is that the normal spelling, or do you insist on losing letters, or replacing them altogether entirely?” Lizzy noticed a curl to Callahan’s lip as he said it, and she got the impression that he was really hoping there would be none of the things he just mentioned. She shook her head no, and he continued writing.
    “And…done.” He dipped another tail-tip in the pot of ink and leaned back in his chair. “All right! Next topic!” He pointed a paw at Lizzy.
    “You there, lass!” he said. “You seem to be the leader of the team, here. Why don’t you tell me about yourself? Please make it-”
    “I’m not the team leader,” Lizzy said, stopping Callahan midsentence. She nodded to the sandshrew beside her. “Andrew is. He’s older than me you know.”
    “Ah, of course,” Callahan said quickly. “How interesting…well then, why don’t you tell me about yourself? Please make it interesting!” Andrew shuffled his feet, hesitating.
“I’m not filing a police report, you know,” He said, and his eyes squinted with that smile. Was it supposed to be reassuring, because Lizzy didn’t much like it. “I don’t get paid for this, either. I do it for the stories people tell! Everyone has a story! (Some are better than others, though. That’s for sure..) However, I do hope yours isn’t filled to the brim with angst and darkness, you know. We have enough of that as it is with the recent crises we’ve been going through!”
    “Oh no,” Andrew said, with a small chuckle. “I don’t think my story is very interesting in that way, not at all. I’d reckon my story is rather ordinary, actually, so I’ll keep it short.”
    “Ah, how refreshing,” Callahan said. “Let us hear your ordinary tale then.”
    “Well,”Andrew said. “I was born in Sandsong Desert, and all my family lives up in Gambitville. I’ve got my Ma, my Pa, my older brother Jonathan, and my sister Rachel. My Pa works at the sandstone quarry in Gambitvile, and my Ma dyes fabric, which she sells to all sorts of places, so between the two of them we come to Tao Village rather regular. My Ma and Pa really like that I’m comin’here, they say it’s character buildin’, but I’m really comin’ for myself. Anyway, I just wanna help people, and bein’ a Rescuer I can do that.”
    “What an enchanting tale!” Callahan said as he finished writing. “I can see why you’d probably like to join the Rescuers then.” He looked up at Lizzy with a smile as he leaned forward in his chair. “And you there, lass, what is your story? Your leader has done an excellent job of keeping me awake at this late hour, I hope you do the same!” Lizzy tossed her head to get rid of the sleepiness clinging to her heavy eyes, and pranced in place. She cleared her throat before beginning her story.
    “I live with my Mom and Dad,” she said. “My Daddy is Russel Dashenmyer, and he was a rescuer when he was younger, when the groups were first started. That’s how he met my Mama, when he was working on a task way back when. I want to be a hero like my Daddy.” Lizzy stood up as straight and tall as she could, and her long, thin legs almost made her look like she was on stilts. “My family lives in Tao Village now, Steel City isn’t what it used to be, and I met Andrew. After um…an accident happened to someone we know, we decided to come here and help folks that need it.” Lizzy quickly looked over at Andrew- had she said too much?- and Andrew frowned slightly. Callahan did not seem to notice, and he nodded as he took down notes. When he finished, he yawned as he leaned back into his chair again.
    “Very well, then!” He said with a smile that squinted his eyes closed. “It seems I have all I need in order to register you here in our peaceful Tao Village! Just to make sure all the facts are correct, please look over them and sign your initials at the bottom! Don’t forget to sign off on your belongings! You wouldn’t believe how many people forget their accessories, only to leave them here with me! (Please don’t do that, I have so many things cluttering up my attic in dusty old boxes..)” He flipped the sheet upside down so the two young pokemon could read it, and Andrew sighed and leaned forward in his chair and looked over it carefully, squinting with his nose almost touching the paper as he struggled to read it. Lizzy shook the sleepiness off and looked over Andrew’s shoulder.
    “I’ll read it to you Andrew,” she offered, and the little sandshrew sighed and leaned back with a small smile on his face. He closed his eyes, and Lizzy read the information written on the form.
    “Team name,” she began. “The Pioneers. Good.
    “Rank…Chatot. I don’t know what that means, but that seems to be fine…
    “Member one is Andrew Dogger…” she shook her head. “No, the name is Duh-ger-d-U-g-g-e-r.”

    “Oh my,” Callahan said. “My mistake!” He made a note of the corrected spelling, and Lizzy continued reading the form.
    “Male,”she said. “Ok…Member two. Lizzy Dashenmyer- female.
    “Member one trait and personality, gentle and capable of taking hits…
    “Member two trait and personality, brave and strong-willed.  You bet I am!
    “Member one moves, so Andrew’s moves are defense curl, rollout, poison sting, and rapid spin. That’s all good.
    “My moves are shock wave, quick attack, charge, and thunder wave…yep!” She nodded.
    “Accessories…”she continued. “We don’t have any yet, though Andrew’s Mom says she’s going to make us something. We don’t know yet…
    “Guild affiliation…Rescuer of course…and all that’s left are signatures. Awesome! Um, I just have one question. Why are there four slots here when there are only two of us? I thought teams could only have two members?”
Callahan’s red eyes were closed, and Lizzy cleared her throat and stamped at the ground. The fox snorted and shook his head awake.
    “What’s that, you say?” His eyes opened to half slits, and he gave them a long smile. “There are only two of you? Of course I know that! I do have eyes, you know! What if, during your travels, you decide to recruit, or add on an extra member to your team? Would you really want them to fill out all this paperwork from scratch? There’s no problem with me for that, I assure you! This is just a convenient foresight! There is only room enough for four signatures on here, though, so please, no more members than that!” Lizzy nodded, and read the final section of the form.
    “By signing here,” she said. “You agree that the above information is correct and true to the best of your knowledge…ok Andrew, all we have to do is sign on the blank here.” Andrew nodded and took an ink pen from Callahan.

Signature 1: Andrew Dugger        Date: 07/01/2013
Signature 2: Lizzy Dashenmyer     Date: 07/01/2013

    “Well, now!” Callahan said, and his mouth opened wide in a long yawn, which revealed lots of sharp teeth. “I don’t think I’ll keep you here any longer, I have everything I need from you! I haven’t broken any records for time tonight, though. Your story took up quite a bit of it! (Thankfully, it didn’t put me to sleep…it’s happened before). Oh well! Time to conclude our business here!” He stood, almost stumbled, from his chair and ushered them out to the door. “Goodbye now!” He said as he almost pushed them out into the pouring rain.
    “Wait!”Lizzy said suddenly just as Callahan was about to close the door behind them. “What about our things?”
    “Ah, yes!” Callahan flashed a toothy smile as he ushered the two young pokemon back in and towards the fireplace. “Well why didn’t you say so? I really do have enough things crowding the attic, so it’s good you remembered!” Andrew and Lizzy gathered their things around the fireplace and packed them into their sacks before walking out the door at last. It was still pouring rain and their parents were worried, no doubt, but Andrew and Lizzy exchanged tired, soggy smiles.
    “Well,”said Andrew. “That was an interestin’experience.”
    “Are you kidding me?” Lizzy failed to stifle a huge yawn. “My mom’s gonna kill me when I get home all sopping wet! And that fox! He was so rude!” She snorted and shook her short mane.
    “Well, we’re Rescuers now,” Andrew said with a yawn. “And that’s really what matters about this whole ordeal, right Lizzy?” Lizzy nodded.
    “Right.”
Here's my writing application for :icon-PMD-Explorers: It's a pretty cool group with sentient pokemon that go on adventures and quests, small or big. It's just a stupid little thing that I can practice getting stuff done quickly and on a deadline, and also stretch my drawing muscles on various subjects that I basically suck at, like horses. :D I will eventually illustrate this little piece. :)

I was working all month on my entries! And in the end I still didnt get them finished on time. It wasnt clear if we would have June 1st to enter our entries or not...but oh well. I'll still post my entries and just not get the rewards for them I guess, because a few of the events this month where pivotal in getting my characters the oomph they needed to become rescuers. So I guess its ok that I don't get points for it anyway, since Andrew and Lizzy weren't official rescuers when they accomplished the task. :D

Oops, just realized I never entered their traits! I'll add that in as soon as I can. :)

Enjoy!

Pokemon is copyright to nintendo
© 2013 - 2024 Ja-Kitsu-Ryou
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Deeborm's avatar
"It's spelled 'Pion33rz'."