TEEN: Orre: The Desert.

[Ryoma Maser]

Orre: The Desert.​

Welcome to Orre: The Desert. As you can see this story takes place in the desert region of Orre, the setting of Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness. The story follows a young woman named Cecilia Matthews, seven years after Gale of Darkness as she travels across Orre as a part-time delivery girl for Orre's package delivery company and the encounters she experiences along the way. Come see how Orre has change or what as remain the same in this barren desert, and what befouls Cecilia in her new life.

This story was born as a ten minute free-write in my Creative Writing class. After writing two more ten-minute free-writes, I took my Writing Journal and took to the internet and type up the story into a Word Document and voila this story was born. I'm taking all my lessons I've learned from my English classes, from your guy's stories here on forums, and other things I've heard in the Writing Channel on the Bulbagarden Discord. Will I succeed? Probably not.

Though I must point out; this story will focus more on the human characters more than Pokemon, as this is a Pokemon fic they will take a role in the story, just more of a backseat but you will see them frequently.

As per rules of the Writer Workshops handbook; I've decided to make this story TEEN due to Orre being a more darker place in the world of Pokemon.
Expect to see at some point;[Strong Language] [Abuse] [Violence] [Crimes; Small & Major]
Rating may be change if need be when we get to darker chapters.
​

Table of Contents:

Volume 1:

• Chapter 1-Sands and Wind (Updated October 2nd, 2021)
• Chapter 2-Tiger Eye Hideaway (Updated October 2nd, 2021)
• Chapter 3-Fresh Start (Updated November 5th, 2021)
• Chapter 4-Lay of the Land. (Updated November 27th, 2021)
• Chapter 5-Angelite Questions (Updated December 23rd, 2021)

Misc:

• Trainers of FanFiction 2020: Cecilia Matthews Interview.
  • Further Questions Asked & Answered.

​

 

[Ryoma Maser]

First of all, while this chapter is now updated and much different from the original version, I will still give a big thanks to @diamondpearl876 for looking over the first version of this chapter long ago. Thank you for being an inspiration in the creation of the fic and all the advice you gave when first drafting this world.

Orre: The Desert
Chapter 1: Sands and Wind (Updated October 2nd, 2021)
​

The motor of my hoverbike screeched over the empty desert. Sparse, except for myself. I would be lucky if even a single Aron or something showed up in a place like this, but Orre isn’t really known for wild Pokémon.

Racing around this region has become my life as of late. For fun? I wish it was, instead it feels like I’m trying to find something to no avail. Just constantly getting rejected by the majority of people.

The beast within my hoverbike died down as I put into a stop. I lower my goggles down onto my neck. I could only hear the gentle breeze of the desert fly by.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been here.” I said to the scenery. “This spot looks like as good a place as any to sketch for a bit.”

I could barely hold any excitement as I went to pull out my sketchbook. People celebrate through different ways but I celebrate through drawing. Why am I celebrating? Well..

“I got the job, I got the job,” I started childishly singing to myself.

About six to seven months ago, I honestly don’t care to remember how long ago it was; I left my old job as a mechanic at my father’s shop. It wasn’t pretty that night, but I’ve been trying to move past it and all the shit that came before that. I still wonder why it took everything to come crashing down to make me leave that hellscape.

I sat on my bike facing away from the handlebars. Raising my leg onto the bike in a half cross legged way, I rested my sketchbook arm upon it. I put pencil to paper and began the newest sketch.

I come to this spot to draw often. All it is just a bunch of rock formations a little bit ways off from an abandoned building around the center of the region. I always end up coming back here to draw, even if it is just rocks. The peace and quiet is really just nice, no one would really come out all this way for this small spot. I even come out here to clear my head once and in awhile, not even bothering to draw.

Due to job hunting, I haven’t been able to come to this spot recently. I think the last time I came here was two or three months ago? But hopefully, now with a more permanent job than the few temp jobs I did the past few months in the middle of job hunting, I can come here a bit more often. Maybe I’ll take Tomoko here one day. I remember her mentioning she wanted to see it after I told her about this place.

When did I find this place? It’s hard to remember. I felt like I’ve been coming to this spot forever and it so out of the way it begs how I found it to begin with.

Wait...

I look up from my drawing for a brief moment.

“Now that I think about it,” I say aloud. “Wasn’t there that one time...something was here right?”

I scratch my head. Maybe I was confusing this place with something else, or even a dream for that matter. I just felt I saw a flash of blue at one point here, just can’t place my finger on what it was. It was probably just my imagination that day.

Reminiscing about all that, I just bursted out laughing after all that.

“Man,” I said. “It feels like it’s been forever since I just sat down and thought about anything other than finding work and minimizing my finances. I think the only time I’ve done it recently has been just sharing meals with Tomoko and that’s barely counting it.”

I change my posture on my bike, awkwardly trying my best to sit on my bike in the most comfortable way possible. Think I would have learned how to find the most comfortable spot by now, yet to no avail, still haven't figured it out.

I end up just putting my knee up to my chest the best I can with my other leg just spread out normally and then returning to my drawing.

The Orreisian desert’s wind picks up and kicks the sand all around, barely hitting my eyes. Each strike of the pencil being the only sound heard besides the beating sun and the gust of wind.

The sketch was turning out alright, the newest rock formation I’m basing it on is in the shape of a giant hand. I think there’s another rock formation like this at one of the colosseums but even larger but I don’t think I've ever seen it but I would love to draw it.

I forgot exactly when I started sketching in my free time. It was when I was kid and just kinda kept doing it after all those art classes in school. Personally, it helps me get my mind off these and let’s me clear my head as I often focus on the drawing then the other stuff around.

I haven’t been able to sketch much though recently due to the long job hunt outside of a few pieces every now and then. Ironically, one the ones I made during this chaos is one of my personal favorites. I wish I could make a job out of this, but I don’t think many people have the demand for it. Plus, everything is going digital nowadays, even if the change is taking longer to take effect here in Orre. I don’t feel comfortable with my funds right now to purchase those drawing tablets or tables.

Right now, the job I have now will satisfy me until I figure out what to do with my life. I never really did figure that out. All I knew is that I didn’t want to be a mechanic fixing bikes and cars for the rest of my life.

I raised my sketchpad in front of the rock I’m sketching. Am I getting it right? Maybe I should add the background besides just the rock, depth always helps. Yeah, I’ll do that.

“It shouldn’t be too long to add the background.”

Backgrounds can be simple for drawings since distance in this case can let me forgo some of the details. Though some cases for backgrounds do have to be extra detailed for certain types of them. Luckily, thanks to the desert background and the simple sketch I’m doing, I don’t really have to go hardcore on the background.

And like I said, I was almost done with the background. There were not many other rocks visible around this one and most of the details come from shading as well as the mid-setted sun. I might need color for this piece but I don’t often sketch with colors. A few pieces I do have color, but most of the sketches from this spot often don’t get colored. I like them better with the default pencil gray.

Right around as I was doing the finishing touches upon the sketch, I felt a rumbling coming out of my pocket.

I slid my M*DA (Mini Digital Assistant) out of my pocket and raised it. The screen lit up with the words;

‘Incoming Call: Tomoko Homura.’

“Tomoko? Why is she calling me?”

I pressed the answer key on the device and put it up towards my ear.

“Hello, Tomoko?”

“Oh hey, I didn’t think you would pick up,” I heard on the other end.

“And why would you think that?”

“Well, the last few times you’ve had job interviews, you didn’t take the rejection well,” Tomoko replied. “I was just worried since you didn’t come back to our
apartment.”

I stared down at my watch out habit. Oh crap, it’s around six already? I guess I was here longer than I thought. No wonder my roommate got worried, I haven’t
taken the majority of rejections well.

“Well, I got lucky this time,” I said. “The place I went for this job interview actually hired me!”

“Seriously!? Just after the interview like that!?”

“Some stuff needs to be taken care of first, but I can probably start working, or at least training, around the end of week according to the owner of the place.”

“That’s great!” Tomoko said. “It must be finally nice to have a place give you a chance after the six month search.”

“Technically it was longer, I just found your roommate ad first,” I corrected. “But yeah, I got so happy and excited I went to my usual drawing place to celebrate.”

“Oh, no wonder you took so long. Here, I was jokingly thinking your interview was like two hours since it was at four.”

“Nope I wasn’t trapped there forever, pun not intended,” I said. “But I’m on my way back now.”

“Alright, I'll see you in a bit Cecilia.”

I closed the call and placed my phone back into my pocket.

“Ah, Tomoko, she’s too kind for her own good sometimes,” I say aloud. “Though in fairness, I act the exact same when talking with her.”

I put my sketchbook away in my messenger bag and threw it into my hoverbike’s sidecar. I proceed to sit down properly onto the vehicle. I turned the key as
the engine roar engulfed the lifeless desert once again.

As I went to raise my goggles from my neck, I looked ahead of me.

“Huh? It couldn’t be.”

As I looked into the distance, I saw something blue, a flash of blue more like it. It cannot be, can it? I thought it was just my imagination back then, but it
couldn’t be real.

I blink and just like it appeared, it was gone once again. I guess since I was thinking about it earlier my mind decided to play tricks on me. Guess I should go to bed early tonight.

“If my time for daydreaming has returned, I must be doing something right.”

I raised my goggles to my eyes properly this time. I kick a stand-like mechanism which prompts the bike to rise above the ground and hover amongst the sand. I put the pedal to the gas and took off.

​

 

[Ryoma Maser]

Orre: The Desert
Chapter 2: Tiger Eye Hideaway (Updated October 2nd, 2021)​

The motor of my bike ran rampant as sand blew across into my goggles as I drove across the dusty dunes.

My black hair flew with the wind, the breeze combing through over and over. I should really invest in a new helmet after my old one broke. I still don’t understand how that happened; I thought it was just the strap at first when it snapped but then the whole thing came apart. I guess that’s what happens when it’s about four years old and you overuse it. A new one is important, but the breeze without it just feels so great.

I drive over a bump as my bike raises itself higher to avoid it. I passed by Phenac, the place I was at earlier today and went further northeast into the region. Not many sights this far in, but there is a reason I have to go this deep.

In the distance, a mountainous area emerges. Within there, an average size apartment building lays rest between the mountains. I always thought it was strange that someone put an apartment complex all the way here but it turns out that this building was once the base of Team Snagem, a group of Pokémon thieves that were prominent a little over a decade ago. I guess since the majority of the members have been arrested or have just straight up disappeared from Orre, the building ended up in someone’s hands and they turned it into this. I actually don’t know who owns the building, but whoever turned it into what it was now must have some connection to it.

I pull and park into the area’s relatively small parking lot. Turning the bike off as it lowers and lands it tracks onto the payment. I take my goggles off and rub my eyes before I proceed to go in.

You think many people would come here looking for the places, but since it’s so out of the way not many would come here, so rent is a bit lower than usual prices apartments go for. Not to mention, I didn’t even hear about it until I found a roommate ad for someone living here. For a team like Snagem being a part of Orre for so long, it was just weird how easily we forgot about them when they dissolved and then this place remained, broken like the team who called it home here before.

I ended up calling this place the “Hideaway” at one point as a joke. The complex’s real name is really Tiger Eye Apartments, but it’s not really an eye catcher like one would think. Just hidden away in the mountains, a hideaway for Snagem and a hideaway for me I guess. It fits in a way.

The setting sun follows behind me as I get off my bike and continue into the building. I start walking towards the stairs, my roommate Tomoko and I are on the third and top floor. The building has an elevator but the stairs make for good exercise.

“Wait, Cecilia!” I heard just by the edge.

“Oh! Mr. Longfellow!” I exclaimed. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t even see you there.”

“Ah, it’s fine! I just saw you myself while leaving my office.”

I walked back down and up towards the main desk of the floor.

“How was your day?”

“Uh, fine I guess. Quiet, which was nice,” the older man responded.

“Ah quiet days are so nice. It must be really nice for you as the building manager and not having much to go through regarding the residents.”

Mr. Longfellow, gave me a smirk and eyebrow raise while listening to my response.

“You seem to be in a good mood, did your job hunt finally have a breakthrough?”

I returned with a big goofy smile. I feel like a kid in a candy store despite being nearly twenty.

“Yep, my interview went well today!” I responded. “The owner seemed to accept me and hired me. I can start by the end of the week when they get my employee papers and other things done.”

“They took you in right after the interview? What place did you go to for it?”

“Uh, Phenac Delivery Service Company. I think the owner said they were looking for more employees due to the airport that’s opening up soon.”

“Oh, I think I met him at a charity party that Phenac’s community center has once per year. I believe he mentioned the same thing.”

“Yeah, everything is finally going to change for us in Orre.”

“Though rumor has it that when it becomes open, some Unovan businesses are gonna edge their way in here and buy out some of our stores to make their chains continue so I’ll be careful in the coming year.”

It makes sense on paper really. Orre and Unova share the same continent so it makes sense we have some of the same businesses, but we never really interacted that much since we’re separated by a lot of mountains, one of the reasons we’re so isolated from everyone else. Ironically, I think our relations with the island regions like Johto and Hoenn are better.

“I think you’re just being paranoid, Mr. Longfellow, the airport doesn’t open for another year,” I said. “But I make sure to keep an eye out in my stretch of the world.”

“Speaking of that,” Mr. Longfellow moved on. “There’s a package here for Tomoko that she forgot on her way up, could you bring it to her?”

Mr. Longfellow put his hand under a part of the desk and took out a large book-shaped box. I promptly took it into my hands to take for my roommate.

“Of course, it’s not like her to forget things but it’s been stressful at her job as of late with the PokéSpot project.”

“Trust me I know,” he replied. “I can hear her grumbling to your apartment from my office.”

“Alright, let me get this to her,” I say. “Thanks for the conversation.”

“I’m still surprised, it’s only been six months since you two young ladies have been living together and you’re already so close.”

“Sometimes, people just click.”

I walk away from Mr. Longfellow’s desk, making my way back to the stairs. Conversations with Mr. Longfellow are so nice. It’s good to have him as the building manager.

“Oh, one last thing,” I heard Mr. Longfellow say. “There’s gonna be construction in front of the building next week, shouldn’t be too long but we’re expanding the road for other places to be built.”

“Oh okay, thanks for telling me,” I responded.

Oh yeah, I think Tomoko mentioned that she heard at one point the owner of the building wanted to make a new town of sorts around here or at least some type of area stop. Guess that’s finally happening.

“No problem, and congrats on the new job!”

I wave my hand as a gesture to say thanks as I make my ascent up the stairs. I climb up to the third and final floor of the building. I take a few steps and turn quickly, luckily the apartment I live in is pretty close to the stairs so no further walking for me.

I take out my key, wait no, Tomoko should be home you idiot, she’ll probably left it unlocked for you. Damn habits, guess I should at least check to make sure she didn’t lock it. I take the door knob into my hand and turn it with it responding to the movements of my hand and then I push open, revealing the door to be unlocked.

I walk into the apartment, a bit void of light. Why is it dark? Wasn’t Tomoko home? Maybe she’s in her room getting changed? Or laying down? She was home when she called earlier I believe.

“Tomoko?” I ask the fading natural light. “Where’d you go?”

I go over to the light switch next to the door and flick it on, illuminating the main room of our apartment.

“Boo!”

I jumped at the sound of that. Tomoko appeared from out of nowhere jumpscaring me into submission. I feel like I jump to the ceiling every time she does this.

“Son of a...Tomoko!! Not again! I asked you to stop that!”

“But the face you make every time is so worth it!”

Tomoko begins laughing heavily. I walk over to her location in her laughing madness and raise my hand over her head; well, more like as high as I can go, she’s two inches taller than me. I give her a bonk as retaliation.

“Hey! Come on!” Tomoko said. “Bonks on the head is the wrong retribution for that!”

“I don’t care!” I said back. “You know how much I scare easily and I ask you a million times to stop with the jumpscares! I almost dropped your package too!”

“Package?”

“Yeah, Mr. Longfellow gave it to me since you skipped over it.”

“Oh, my mistake.”

“Here,” I say as I hand her the package.

“Oh hey, this must be the book for work I ordered.”

I go to turn around to take my shoes off near our front door, when I feel an embrace come behind me. Is Tomoko hugging me? Why?

“Huh, Tomoko? What’s this for?”

“Congrats on the new job. Your hard work finally paid off.”

“Please, I just got lucky for the first time in a while. My luck will be back to what it usually is after a while.”

“Come on! Luck doesn’t count here,” she fired back. “You kept going and going and never lost your determination, that’s what got you that job.”

“I guess,” I weakly replied back.

Tomoko let go and walked away. I went back to the door and took off my work boots that I wear most of the time, especially while bike riding.

“Oh, hey enough about me,” I said. “How did your day at the lab go?”

“Not bad, we’re preparing for the next PokéSpot expedition soon. We should know the next hypothesized spot soon judging by data, but I took a half-day so I
don’t know any more details if there are any.”

“Why’d you do that? You’re not one for doing those things,” I asked.

I got up from where I was sitting and put my boots on the shoe rack near the door. In the process, a white-hair Pokémon showed up in front of me, eager to see
me wagging their nine tails.

“Hinata! Good to see you girl.”

“She’s why, I finally got her papers in for a full transfer to a Pokémon Doctor here so she could get a regular check up regarding her condition.”

“Oh right, it’s so rare for a fire-type, especially a regular Ninetales variant to have something like albinism,” I say as I pet Hinata.

“I don’t think it even is albinism since as a Fire-Type she would need to encounter the sun and the sensitivity would counteract that, possibly canceling all
function in a way, which she doesn’t have any problems with. I think the working theory between both her Johtonese doctor and her new one as well as myself
with what I know about Pokémon biology from my minor in university is that one of her parents is an Alolan variant who passed down a gene to make her
mostly white with some tints of red remaining from her regular Kantonian variant.”

“How’s she adapting to Orre?”

“Fine, I’m pretty sure,” Tomoko responded. “I think the sunnyness of Orre is helping her in some ways.”

I look up at Tomoko.

“How are you doing here?”

“May I ask what you mean?” She responded confused.

“I mean, it will be a whole year in three months since you came here from Johto. So, how are you feeling living here?”

Well, if it wasn’t obvious enough, Tomoko is not from Orre. She’s from the Johto region on the other side of the world. From what she told me, after she
completed her masters in ecology focusing on Pokémon habitats and a minor in Pokémon biology she was offered a chance to come here to Orre to work with
the Pokémon HQ Lab stationed here under Professor Krane and company. About five or six months ago, when I was double hunting for both a new job and an apartment I discovered Tomoko’s roommate ad online. I think she was living with Professor Krane and his daughter for her first three months until she found this place and placed out an ad looking for a roommate. The rest pretty much led to now.

“I’m doing good here,” Tomoko responded. “I’ve liked it better here than working at the research labs I was at in Johto during my Masters program, maybe
because it’s a more “official” one for a lack of a better term. Also the feeling that everyone is watching me because of my status as a prodigy feels gone since it really doesn’t matter here, so it feels much better.”

“Are you planning on going back anytime soon?”

“When the airport is completed, I’ll go home for a visit. I am not going on another long boat ride. It was not pretty on my end.”

“I can imagine. I’ve not been on that many boats and not for long either, but I still felt queasy.”

“Besides, I’m not keen on going back to Johto soon anyways….”

“Huh, what did you say Tomoko? I thought I heard you say something, I must have tuned out a bit or were you mumbling?”

“Oh sorry, I said the boat rides to get here are the only thing I dislike about Orre currently,” Tomoko said. “Though the fact Hinata seems to like you better than me might be the second thing.”

As she says this, I realized I was still subconsciously petting Hinata. At this point it just felt like the white-fured Ninetales was all over me and looked like she
was about to jump on me.

“Oh,” I said as I stared down. “That’s enough petting Hinata, your fur is going to get all over my nice interview clothes.”

The silence enters the apartment for a few moments as Tomoko slowly turns her head to me.

“Wait, please don’t tell me you went to your usual drawing spot on your hoverbike in a suit and stuff!?”

“I wore my hoverbike jacket over them and I wore my work boots like I usually do.”

Tomoko just looks at me as she raised her glasses to rub her eyes. Meanwhile I’m just looking at her as I’m confused about why she seems confused.

“Just change out of it before you get it covered in Hinata’s fur.”

“Yep, I know.”

I proceed to get up as I take my jacket off and walk towards my room, before stopping.

“Oh what are we doing for dinner? I forgot who’s turn it was to cook tonight.”

“Don’t worry, it is my turn,” replied Tomoko. “We’re doing Johtonese Curry for dinner, something simple tonight.”

“Do you need any help?”

“No, thank you for asking though. Go get changed.”

I gave a smirk to Tomoko as I walked off to my bedroom. I love all the Johtonese recipes she makes and the Johtonese recipe for curry she cooks is one of my top favorites.

I walk forward in the slightly larger than average hallway towards my bedroom. This apartment that Tomoko and I live in happens to be one of the biggest in
the complex. This is because this apartment was once the room of Team Snagem’s boss; what was his name? Gonzo? Gonzales? Gonzap, yeah something like Gonzap. But anyways, his room was one of the largest in the building and when it got converted this room and most of the top floor ended up having the largest apartments among the rest. Some of the salvageable furniture was also kept and repurpose for residents to use. In my room I have an old desk and bed frame originally from when this place was the Snagem place. For an apartment so large and everything else involved in it, I’m surprised between Tomoko and myself, the rent is so affordable.

I opened my door into my, honestly bland bedroom. I never really fully gave a personal flair outside of some photos, probably due to my job hunting but I can change that. I start removing my hoverbike jacket and the interview blazer I have under it as I went to pick out some pajamas from my dresser.

I think I’m just still in shock that I’m going to bed tonight with a job, well ‘in the works’ for lack of a better term. Tomoko has been supporting me since we started being roommates, but I always feel guilty for not doing more due to the need to minimize my savings, which while plentiful from working as a mechanic,
I really didn’t want to take too many chances. I am still surprised she even accepted me as her roommate. Temp jobs could only get me so far for so long and even they seem like they didn’t want me due to the status of working at my asshole of a Dad’s old place.

It was then I heard the sound of glass being tapped on. I turned and walked to my window, still not fully out of my interview clothes. I opened it up despite the windy evening we are having, soon after a black bird Pokémon flew and landed on a small perch I had in my room, revealing a Honchkrow.

“It’s good to see you, Schwartz. Visiting for the fun of it or do you have a letter from Mom?”

The bird swings over a small, soup-canister like container to their front. I take the sash over and remove it from the bird.

“Ah, letter time, thanks. Do you want anything Schwartz? Water?”

The bird nods. I raise my arm near the perch and Schwartz hops onto my arm as I start walking out of my room and back into the main part of the apartment.

“Hey, Tomoko,” I say. “Can you let me through for a brief moment? Schwartz came with a letter and I wanted to give him some water.”

“Oh, sure. Nice to see you, Schwartz.”

The Honchkrow waves with his wing as if he was waving a hand. Then, he flew off my arm and onto the tip of the chair as I moved to grab a bowl and fill it up
with water.

“I find it kinda ironic that I’ve met your mother’s Honchkrow plenty of times and yet I still haven’t met her.”

“Oh right, I forgot you were working the day I fully moved in where she and my step dad helped.”

“Yeah, even when she may have visited I’ve been stuck at the lab.”

Tomoko went and stared at Schwartz, seemingly trying to get a reaction out of him with our conversation. I walked over to the table and placed the water bowl on it.

“There you go buddy.”

“God, every time he is here, he’s so quiet,” Tomoko said as she returned to where she was. “Does he say anything, I never heard anything like a ‘caw’ out of him.”

“We got worried about that as well, but his vocal cords seem to work perfectly after we got him checked up. He just likes to remain quiet.”

“Between him and your Noctowl, your family has some very unique Pokémon.”

“Come on, Cole's not that different from a normal Noctowl,” I say. “But let me read my mom’s letter and send a reply.”

I walked back to my bedroom and sat down at my desk. I open the canister and pull out the letter. My mother was never a fan of a lot of modern things like sending messages through a M*DA, it’s probably why she works at a library. She started the letter thing when I was a kid, saying it’s always more meaningful to get a letter than it is a text message or email. Ironically, I was going to call her in a bit to tell her the news but then Schwartz showed up.

I unfold the letter in question:

“Hello Cecilia, I hope you are doing well. I know it has been a while since I’ve written, but a letter is always a surprise. How are you getting along with your roommate, Tomoko was her name? I’m surprised how well you two are getting along with what you’re saying about her. I hope I finally get to meet her someday. Come and visit soon, I’ve missed having you around, it’s not the same with just me and Quinn, bring along Tomoko as well with you if she's off from work. Has your job hunt gone well? I still wish you could do something with your art in the form of a career, but regardless I’m glad you are finding your own path instead of the one your father wanted. No matter what you do, I’m proud of the path you have taken. Once again make sure to visit sometime soon, we miss having you here in Gateon, you’re always welcome here, my little lumiére. With all my love, your mother Amelia.”

I read the letter again. My mother always knew what to say at the right time. I start to prepare my reply; just stating that the job hunt finally went successful and where I will be working now along with some other information. I fold the letter and place it inside the tube and seal it back up. I walk back out into the main room with the tube in hand.

“Hey, Schwartz, I got my reply ready to go. How bout you?”

The Honchkrow flew back up and onto my arm. When he landed, I put the sash with the container over him and made it ready for transport as I walked back into my room. As soon as I entered my room again, Schwartz flew back onto the perch. After that I opened up my window a bit further so he could get through.

“I’ll see you later Schwartz, always good to see you.”

The bird Pokémon took flight and flew out the window back to my mother’s home in Gateon Port. I put myself out the window and started waving.

“Safe travel home!”

I pop back inside and close the window. I shiver a bit, yeah, probably should’ve not popped out my window like that on a night like tonight.

“Hey, Cecilia!” I hear Tomoko yell. “Dinner’s all done!”

“All right, give me a few seconds and then I’ll be there!”

 

[Ryoma Maser]

Orre: The Desert
Chapter 3: Fresh Start (Updated November 5, 2021)​

Brzzt!! Brzzt!! Brztt!! Brz--

Slamming my hand onto my alarm clock, I stumble awake.

“I don’t want to get up, let...me..sleep..longer.”

I say that but I probably won’t be falling back to sleep anytime soon, I always get around this time of day regardless if the alarm went off or not.

I pulled up my body and put myself on the edge of the bed.

“It’s time.”

Everything is in place. HR data and whatnot, I can finally start working today. It just feels so surreal, six months of nothing excluding the temp work I did and I finally can continue on. Well, let me get ready.

After several minutes and a shower later, I’m ready. I didn’t go crazy on my wardrobe, a simple white shirt under my favorite albeit slightly worn-out blue utility jacket and some dark brown work pants along with my dark brown work boots that I wear everywhere.

“Let’s see; M*DA check, Cole’s Pokéball check, wallet check, my various IDs check, planner check, keys check, goggles check, pocket knife check. I think that’s everything I’ll need.”

I slid most of the stuff into my messenger bag, before eyeing the stack of sketchbooks on my desk. Should I? What the heck, why not?

I grabbed the top one (it was the most recent one I used anyway) and slid it in my bag along with a case of pencils and pens along with everything else. I might not get an opportunity to draw, but hey you never know. Always need something to keep you occupied.

I double check everything to make sure. I’m usually pretty good at remembering things but you can never know. With that complete, I start moving towards the kitchen to grab the last few things.

“Oh, morning Cecilia,” I hear as I walk in.

“Huh, Tomoko? You’re up?”

Why is she up? I thought she was still in bed. But here she is, dressed in her usual nice work attire; a red button up shirt under a white leather jacket, with a
black skirt and leg coverings, currently covered by an apron of course. I just look at her confused.

“Sit down,” she said. “I made you a bagel and tea, it’s the blackberry cinnamon one you like.

I follow her instructions, still perplexed to no belief. I thought her day didn’t start for at least another hour, I thought I wouldn’t see her until we both got back. I reached for the tea Tomoko brewed for me and sipped it. She even added cane sugar to it! I can taste it, it helps balance it out for me.

“So, why are you up early?” I asked as I put my tea down and reached for the bagel. “You don’t usually have to be at the HQ Lab until 9 or 10.”

“I woke up when you did and couldn’t fall back asleep,” she responded. “I wanted to get there early today anyways; remember the other day when I mentioned we were surveying a new area for a Pokéspot. Well today’s the day we go out and scout it out to see if it’s viable for it. We’ve also heard rumors of Vullaby and Mandibuzz migrating from Unova to take root here, so we’re looking into that as well.”

“Migrating to Orre? That’s surprising.”

To explain; Orre has a sorta ‘wild Pokémon drought’ if you want to call it that. For some unknown reason, Orre is very uninhabitable to wild Pokémon. So most of the Pokemon here were brought from regions like Tomoko’s native Johto or Hoenn. But several years ago, then-Pyrite Town Mayor Duking had found habitable areas for Pokémon and began campaigning to help spread these so-called PokéSpots. Ever since the second Shadow Incident ended, the HQ Lab Tomoko works at is currently helping Duking make Orre more habitable and try to find why Orre is like this in the first place.

“I know, kinda rare,” Tomoko replied. “The lab has only recorded about fifteen species that have either migrated or appeared with no known source in Orre since the PokéSpot project began at the lab. That includes the original nine from Duking’s findings as well.”

Tomoko boxed something at the counter and took off her apron. She then proceeded to sit across from me at the table. Giving me a smile as she sits down.

Tomoko puts her hands together like she’s clapping: “Itadakimasu.”

I swear she has some radiant glow when she does things like this.

“Oh, that means ‘thank you for the meal,’ right?”

“Yep, you’re picking up Hinodego pretty quick, especially the Johtonese dialect.”

“I’ve still got a long way to go,” I shot back. “I’ve only gotten some basics down and what I was able to get from hanging around you for the past several
months.”

“Fair point,” Tomoko replied. “But enough about all that. How about you, excited about your first day on the job?”

“Yes, in combination with being a nervous wreck,” I replied back. “I’m really happy I woke up with a job this morning, but I just feel that itch in the back of my head that something can go wrong real quick and I’m back at square one.”

Tomoko just sighed at me.

“Everything is going to be fine Cecilia,” she says as she reaches her arm to mine. “There’s no point in worrying, they saw potential in you and that’s all that matters. You got to have confidence in yourself, you made the choice to quit your last job which you disliked and left your father for good, no more second chances for him. Bring the confidence you had then to you now. You don’t have to live your father’s expectations anymore or anyone else's for that matter. Just live up to yours, especially with the delivery job you're now working.”

“I know, it’s just hard to let go when you've lived with these types of things for a long time.”

“I understand how you feel,” Tomoko replied. “The same has happened to me, especially with the whole prodigy thing, with being pressured to do things I was hesitant to do.”

“How bout we move on before we make each other sad?” I proposed.

“Agreed, very few sentences but with a lot of emotions.”

“Oh hey, I’m curious,” I say to change the topic. “But can you say what type of PokéSpot you're hoping to find today?”

“Oh yeah, I can,” Tomoko said. “We’re hoping for a mountainous area, since that’s where Vullaby and Mandibuzz often hang out. We’re also hoping for some other Flying-Type Pokémon sans the Zubat family.”

I pause for a minute as something pops into my mind.

“First thing in my head, but Rockruff & Lycanroc can appear in mountainous areas right?”

“Yeah they could, but I doubt they’ll show up if the spot is certified,” Tomoko explained. Especially since they haven’t been spotted near here yet, even in
Unova. Only close ones are the Midday and Dusk variants the Orre police use along with Luxray instead of a standard Arcanine like most other police.”

“Yeah, I was thinking of that. Well, I guess I shouldn’t get your hopes up then.”

“I have my hopes up for something, our last few PokéSpot expeditions have gone south so I’m praying for some success.”

“Well, let’s pray for luck for you today,” I said. “I hope my bad luck hasn’t rubbed off on you.”

“Cecilia, I want to stop these constant conversations about you having so much bad luck,” Tomoko said as she checked her watch. “Oh, look at the time! I
didn’t realize it is almost seven, we better get going.”

“Oh it is?” I say as I do the same. “Felt like it was much longer.”

We both get up and clean up our dishes. I proceed to get ready and leave ahead of Tomoko. I really don’t want to be late on my first day, no matter how much I enjoy discussing things with Tomoko. I head towards the door.

“Oh wait, Cecilia before you go,” Tomoko says catching up with me. “Here, I made you lunch for today.”

Tomoko passes over a container, covered with red cloth. A Johtonese bento I believe it is called. I guess I must’ve forgotten about it when I shared breakfast with Tomoko, I feel like it’s all right assuming she planned this in a way.

“Thank you,” I simply say as I take the box. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“Hey, we’re friends and I wanted to do something nice for you as your friend, isn’t that okay?”

I just nod. I suppose I’m still not used to having a friend like Tomoko. Still feels nice, even after so many months.

“I seriously don’t know what I did to deserve you as a friend, Tomoko.”

“You took your own path in life with your hands, that’s what you did.”

Tomoko grabs my shoulders and pulls me into a tight hug. It took me a minute to realize, but when I did, I reciprocated the hug.

“Good luck on your first day of work.”

“You’re kinda acting like a mother sending her child to their first day of school.”

“Well, maybe I am a mother and you’re my daughter.”

I chuckled in response.

“Yeah, no. You are twenty-three and I’m nineteen going on twenty, this doesn’t work in any way possible, even with adoption in the equation.”
Tomoko let me go from her hug.

“Ah don’t ruin it!”

“Hey just saying, my mother would be mad too!” I say. “But, you've basically been the sister I’ve never had. And regardless of who you are in my life, I’m happy you’re part of it Tomoko.”

Tomoko grabbed me once again and spun me around towards the door, pushing me towards it lightly.

“Get going before you make me cry, okay,” Tomoko said. “I’ll see you later Cecilia.”

I turn around quickly before grabbing the door knob and wave to my roommate, though really she’s been more than that. My best friend and even more, I really got to do something for her to say thanks. Mental note; do something nice for Tomoko, take her somewhere or get her gift after your first paycheck. Second mental note; write it down in your planner so you don’t forget.

“I’ll see you after work, I’ll probably be home before you judging by your last expedition. Good luck and stay safe in the mountains.”

I made my way out of the apartment and into the hallway. I passed by a neighbor and waved as I went down the stairs towards the first floor. I walked into the main lobby and by the main desk, empty, Mr. Longfellow nowhere in sight, probably too early for him.

I continued on out of the complex and into the small parking lot, the rising sun greeting me, blinding in amalgamation the sandy dunes. I raised my arm in front of me to cover my eyes.

“Swear the sun here gets brighter and brighter everyday.”

I walked over to my hoverbike stationed here. My bike is what’s known as a MAR-229 Garchomp. This is actually a custom variation mostly done by me back at my old job; this silver-blue sports hoverbike was remodeled to include a sidecar with the inner workings being parts of newer models. Truth be told, I’ll never get why certain things have these really weird names like this one or have to be named after certain Pokémon. I understand they’re for production most likely, but they just seem so weird and out of place.

I climbed over onto the bike’s seating and grabbed my goggles out of my bag, then placed my bag over in the sidecar. Entering and turning the keys into the ignition, the bike starts to hover off the ground. I slide my goggles over my eyes and kick up the brake and begin pulling out of the parking lot of the apartment complex.

Between here and Phenac is about a twenty minute to half hour quiet drive. I live in the middle of nowhere basically, so it would make sense. Now that I think about it; there really is no such thing as traffic or at least bad traffic in Orre since we don’t have many roads and we don’t have specified Routes like other regions. Once in a while a separate vehicle shows up, but otherwise it is just me, my bike, the desert and wind.

Honestly, this calms my nerves so much. Tomoko was right not to be worried, but you still can’t help it. The cool morning desert wind flowing through my hair, just everything about this just helps.

After a while, I don’t know exactly how long, I tuned out a while back, I passed by a construction lot getting ready for the day. Oh yeah, I keep forgetting I drive past the in-construction airport pretty often. God, I talked about it so much the other day with Mr. Longfellow and Tomoko, then this just slips my mind.

It just feels weird to have an airport that’s going to be finished soon. It feels like it’s going to be done as quickly as it was ordered too, though with Pokémon like Machamp, it would be a lot shorter than with just human manpower alone. Orre’s never has had this direct connection with the rest of the world, besides our one port through Gateon and even still. Outside of trade imports and other things, we’ve just been on our own but hopefully with this airport being open, the other regions can finally stop being asses with us.

Though with what Mr. Longfellow was saying about certain things, who knows what will happen in the coming year. I’m just hoping it’s nothing too major or too bad, especially with the job problem I’ve been having.

A little while longer, I finally arrived at Phenac. I parked at the West Gate, the closest to my workplace building. I shutdowned my bike, pulled out my keys and took my goggles off. I slid off my bike and grabbed my messenger bag then into the city of Phenac.

Entering the city and being greeted by the dusty rose-like granite walls and other scenery. Stores and homes began lighting up as the day continued to begin and I walked by.

If I recall correctly, Phenac expanded greatly over the years. The city is much larger than it was during the Second Shadow Crisis, where it was taken over by
Cipher for a brief period of time. I think part of it was in response to that, it was a strange way to fortify it so it wouldn’t be easily taken over again and another part to compensate for it from losing its main attraction, their Stadium. The west side which I entered through became a much larger commercial district, when previously it was just a few shops and the mayor’s abode. The East Gate side was the residential district which was also expanded, with a few convenience stores or cafés trickling in but nothing major I believe. The stadium was transformed into a community center that anyone can use, becoming the new heart of the city along with what it is known as the Pre-Gym. At least, that’s what I believe it was, I don’t come here often enough to figure it all out, though I guess that’s going to change.

“Let’s see,” I mumbled aloud trying to remember the way. “Take a right from the west gate, and then take another right past the electronics store.”
It’s still early in the morning, about the half hour or longer mark for seven, so I imagine most stores haven’t opened yet. While walking by the electronics store, one of the TV’s in the store’s window started up. I assume whoever opens the store must’ve turned it on with the rest of the place, guess they’ll be opening soon. The feed of the TV came up, showing a news update and the sounds of it began to echo out. Out of curiosity or out of nervousness, I stopped.

“Welcome back to an ONBS News Update; I’m your host as always Nelly Ancha. For our headline story this hour we have some breaking news; we have gotten word of the arrest of former Cipher Admin Dakim after his escape from prison. Dakim was a Cipher Admin during the first Shadow Incident twelve years ago, and was given a life sentence with no chance of parole over various charges. He was found trying to stowaway on a cargo ship leaving Orre for the Kanto region but was found and recaptured by Orre police. We asked Orre National Police Commissioner and one of the two heroes of the first Shadow Crisis, Wes Thompson, about his take on the incident.”

The screen changes to accommodate a second feed where a sandy-blond man wearing a dark blue suit comes into frame. Showing his nice fancy office and desk, I take notice of a red and black coat-sleeve like object behind him in a display case. It doesn’t fit the theme of the room, but yet it fits like it has to be there.

“Dakim’s escape was highly unusual and we are still trying to figure out how he escaped,” Wes said. “We have theorised that he may have had outside help.”

“Do you believe that former Cipher Admin Ardos may have had a hand in Dakim’s escape? The reporter questioned. “Who in mind, has been still at large, seven years after the second Shadow Crisis where he escaped custody after Cipher’s defeat at the hands of Micheal Weaver.”

“We are looking into the possibility but if we must be honest, the chances are very slim. We have increased police presence all across the region and shipping networks over the course of these past several years; the chances of him coming back into Orre unnoticed is very difficult. We’ve been cooperating with the International Police to find him, but no new information has been discovered recently.”

“Despite the increased police force over the years, there are still many criminals here in Orre,” the reporter explained. “What are the police’s plans for dealing with this? Especially since Dakim’s temporary escape may have inspired these lowfolk.”

“As of right now, we have no idea what reaction this might bring,” the Commissioner replied. “Since Dakin’s escape was only temporary and he was found before the ship left port, we are assuming no major response for the time being as we regroup and continue our current ongoing investigations into groups.”

“That is all that we have for today Commissioner Thompson. Thank you for coming on today and from us here at ONBS we like to wish you congratulations on you and your wife’s second child.”

The commissioner before cutting away gave a smirk and a small laugh; “Thank you for having me and thank you for the congrats.”

“After the break; we go over Orre’s opening of our first airport in the coming year, what happens next? Also up next is the possible resurgence of the Under, closed down due to safety concerns and a takeover by Cipher, why is it coming back into the limelight? And finally, it looks like we might have sightings of our next major sandstorm, should you prepare for the worst? Those and more on ONBS.”

I began to walk away from the window when the news program started fading to black. Wes Thompson, considered one of the two heroes of Orre during the first Shadow Crisis and more recently after his return to the region after taking out other branches of Cipher, he went to become the first national commissioner of the new expanded police force in Orre. All at the relatively young age of thirty-two! He's always been one of my heroes and role models, I mean who wouldn’t have him as those?

“All right, let’s go.”

I take a deep breath and then finally go right past the electronics store. Soon after I take a left, revealing the sign in front of a moderately sized building saying
‘Phenac Delivery Service Company.’ For a small company it seems so large.

I took another breath and started walking into the building

“Hello!” Someone said as soon as I walked in. “Are you here to send something?”

I jumped, I looked towards my front and noticed someone was already sitting at the front desk. A young brunette dark-skinned woman about my age if a little older I believed sitting there, actually really identifiable with her yellow cardigan on. Did the place open when I was staring at the news over at that electronics store?

“Uh, no,” my reply came out awkwardly. “I am the new employee Mr.Dodds hired the other day, he asked me to come in early today for training.”

“Ah yeah, Dad mentioned you I believe. Cecilia Matthews, correct?”

Wait, did she ‘Dad’? I guess I should’ve expected that. My reply was only me nodding my head.

“Alright then, he should be in his office right now, I hope. Do you remember where it was from your interview?”

“Enter into the back room and take a left, right?” I said as I pointed to the doors behind the desk.

“Yep, you got it.”

“Thank you, what was your name?”

“Arial, Arial Dodds. You can call me Ari,” she replied.

“Thanks again and nice to meet you.”

“Same, better get going,” Ari said. “My dad won’t rough you up I swear, and I’m looking forward to working with you.”

My feet start moving in the direction of the doors behind the desk Ari is sitting behind and raise my arm to push one of them open. The opening door reveals the surprisingly large package sorting room. With multiple conveyor belts albeit stopped at the minute, boxes nearly everywhere, and crates with packages marked with what city or town the package is supposed to go to.

I shifted myself left to another door, my new boss’s office. Subconsciously, my right leg started shaking up and down out of nervousness, a bad habit of mine that I think I will probably never get out of.

“You were fine the other day Cecilia,” I mumbled to myself and grabbed my jacket tightly in order to calm down. “You are fine, everything is fine, everything is fine.”

I took a deep breath after what I called my “calming mantra.” Something I made up in order to keep calm if I ever get really nervous. It may succeed sometimes but it’s the only thing I have thought of that works most of the time.

I raised my arm and finally knocked at the door a couple of times, after enough how many delays I gave myself.

“It’s open! Come on in!”

I nervously grabbed the handle and pushed the door open into Mr. Dodds’ office. It was a simple office to be frank. Just a desk with a computer and other stuff
like photos on it with him sitting behind, two chairs in front of the desk, and two bookshelves. I would expect more in an office like this, like you would see on the TV or movies, but this isn’t TV or movies sadly. That would make things so much easier actually now that I think about it.

“Ah Cecilia!” The man rose from his chair and began speaking. “Welcome back, it’s good to see you again.”

Mr.Dodds walked over to me and raised his hand for a handshake. I complied with returning his handshake.

“Thank you for giving me this chance to work here sir.”

“Oh please, don’t call me sir,” he said. “You may just continue calling me Mr.Dodds, or by my first name Adam if you prefer. Here we treat everyone like family.”

“Alright then,” was all I said.

“Now please, take a seat.”

Mr. Dodds went back behind his desk and sat at his desk. I followed suit and sat in one of the two chairs with my leg following suit as well starting to pance up
and down again. I quickly put my hand down on it and pushed it onto the floor.

“So, today’s training day. It should be easy to grasp the ins and out of this place.”

I nod.

“Remember, I gave you a chance not based on your last name. I know you mentioned a few workplaces you applied to but didn't accept you due to your father’s reputation in Orre’s business community.”

Where is he going with this? Please don’t tell me he’s going to ask why I left my dad’s mechanic shop, I’ve already had to deal with that enough with all the other job interviews and was happy he didn’t bring it up during the one here.

“Honestly, I’m just more surprised no one else took you in,” Mr. Dodds said. “For someone your age, no offense if any, I’m surprised at some of the skills you mentioned in your resume besides your mechanical skills on vehicles.”

“I just put in what I thought people would want. Took from my time in school and working.”

“Still, organizational skills with workplace related programs, and though minimal, accounting and managerial skills. Outside of your position as a delivery
person, I might throw you in some other areas of our workplace so we can expand these skills of yours, a lot of prospective places look for these skills.”

I’m surprised at all this praise he’s giving me. I only obtained some of those skills by filling in for my father when he was unavailable and by virtue of being one of few of the consistent workers at the place. Those accounting skills came in handy though minimizing my funds over the past few months though.

“Well, let’s move on from this. I sound like I’m talking to my daughter, I’m sorry if I’m coming off as anything weird.”

“Uh, don’t be? You’re just looking too far ahead I guess?”

“True, today’s the day you start and learn something new, not going over what you’ve done with you at your old workplace,” Mr. Dodds said. “Also, not my place to pry about things, but I gathered talking about whatever went down with your father and your past workplace is something off limits, but if you ever want to talk about it, I’m happy to lend an ear.”

“Thank you,” I simply said.

“Now let’s officially start training. I wanna do a sorta blind test with what you can do out on the field with minimal knowledge,” Mr.Dodds said as he got up and walked to the doors. “Come on.”

A blind test? Well, semi-blind test is more like it I guess. I wonder where this is going. Not even a full day and this feels a lot better than working at the mechanics.

I followed Mr.Dodds back out into the sorting room, where in the short span of time I was in the office it felt like the building started booming. Workers were
starting to come in and get everything moving, hover trucks started blaring, those conveyor belts started moving.

“Morning boss!” A bunch of workers said.

“Morning fellas,” Mr. Dodds replied.

“Sup Adam,” a worker mumbled walking past us.

“Morning Blake, still waking up?”

“Yees, slept badly last night.”

Are bosses usually this well liked? I thought this usually happened on those stupid TV shows that fill out the endless re-run time slots. Mr. Dodds can’t be this kind, can he?

“Who’s the girl behind him?” I heard someone say in the distance. “She looks about Ari’s age.”

“I believe she’s one of the new hires for the delivery position. I heard she’s the daughter of that Matthews guy.”

Seriously? Gossip on me already and related to my Dad already. I change my mind about what I said about this being better than the mechanics. Actually no scratch that, it’s actually still at least somewhat better.

“Wait, as in Holden Matthews? That horrible dude who runs a mechanics shop in Pyrite?”

Mr. Dodds stops in front of me for a moment and turns to the majority of workers present in this large room. Taking a few steps forward in front of me.

“Hey everyone!” His voice suddenly boomed and echoed. “This here is one of our newest hires starting today as a delivery worker. Meet Cecilia Matthews! I want you guys to treat her well and show her the ropes if I need you to.”

“Gotcha boss!” The group chimed.

“Welcome aboard,” a passing voice said.

Similar chimes came by, of welcomes, looking forwards and what not. Almost a complete 180 from what they were whispering only a few moments earlier. Did
my new boss do that on purpose? Though all this attention made me feel red and I soon started to put my face into my hands.

“Cecilia hold this for me please.”

I look up and see Mr. Dodds handing me a package which I took promptly into the hands that were just in my face.

I look back down at the package while Mr. Dodds and I began walking again into another room. The first thing I looked at was the address out of curiosity.

Eugene Stacy:
73 Parker Lane
Phenac City, Orre Region.

Soon after I look up again, Mr. Dodds and I landed in a staff room of some kind. The room is large, like the size of a large one room studio apartment. With a kitchen area and a small living room like area. There are about twenty or so half height lockers across one of the walls on the opposite side of the room which Mr.Dodds leads me over to.

“This last one on the top right will be your locker while you work here,” he says as he points to the locker marked Number D10. “There’s a company jacket and hat in there for you, we had to estimate your size for each, so just ask if they don’t fit. Though you don’t need them yet, however you’ll need this device.”

He hands me a large bulky remote like device with a screen on top and a type of pen in a clip on its side.

“This is a Mobile Delivery Device, or a MDD for short,” he explained. “This is what you will use to have packages signed or scanned. This was implemented
to make it easier on us since we are expecting to have way more packages coming up when the airport finally opens to the public and we won’t have to waste paper on people’s signatures. This also makes this easier on the authorities since they can tell which is a proper package or not, or track stolen packages.”

I start fiddling around with the device to at least somewhat know it best I can. I’ll probably guess how much of it works while I’m heading over to wherever this guy lives.

“I assume you're getting the gist of the blind test?

“Test how I work on deliveries and how quickly I’ll pick up this device?”

“In a way, yes,” my boss replied.

“Is this guy with the company by chance?” I asked. “What are the chances he’s not there?”

“If someone’s not there we usually leave a note on their door or mailbox if it requires their signature,” Mr. Dodds explained. “But this person is a friend of the company, he’ll be there.”

I nod in understandment.

“Well, about you go give it a shot in the field? Get going, first delivery time Cecilia!”

 

[Ryoma Maser]

Orre: The Desert
Chapter 4: Lay of the Land.
(Updated November 27th, 2021)
​

I started leaving through the door whilst I came to deliver my first package. The lobby of the center was still empty as I passed by the reception desk.

“Let’s see,” mumbling aloud. “Have I been down Parker Lane before? It can’t be too hard to find, can it?”

“Huh, Cecilia?”

“Parker Lane was by the community center right?”

“Cecilia?”

I stopped a few feet before the door, still wondering where Parker Lane was. I’ve only been to Phenac a few times before today and don’t have a lay of the city like I should’ve.

“Cecilia!”

A voice which I had been ignoring had emerged in front of me in the form of Ari.

My obvious reaction was a jump followed by an; “Ahh!”

“Sorry!” Ari exclaimed immediately. “I didn’t mean to scare you! I called out to you but you were so lost in thought I couldn’t reach you.”

“No, no. It’s fine, I get scared easily,” I hastily explained. “Just trying to figure out how to get to this location for a blind test Mr. Dodds put me on.”

I handed Ari the package her father gave me for the test delivery and pointed at the address given.

“A blind test? Dad is already sending you on deliveries?” Ari mumbled as she grabbed the package to look more easily at the address. “Oh, this address is about ten minutes away.”

“Really?”

“Yep,” she replied. “By any chance did my father give you a MDD?”

“Yeah, what does that have to do with this?”

“Take it out, I’ll show you something you can do with it.”

“Is it alright that you tell me about whatever? This is a blind test.”

“Whatever my father doesn’t know, won’t kill him,” Ari said. “Now, take out the device.”

I do as Ari asked, and grab the Mobile Delivery Device out of my messenger bag and pass it along to her. She subsequently grabbed it and rotated her hand to
show the bulky device’s screen.

“Since there is a scanner in here that we use to scan packages and track them, we can use it the other way to act as a GPS,” she presses a button that leads
into a menu and scrolls down to a bar aptly named GPS. “You can either put in the address manually or use the device to scan the barcode.”

Like Ari explained, she pointed to the top of the MDD at the package’s barcode and clicked the button in the middle that said scan. A red light flashed the
barcode and voila, the address popped up with directions when Ari passed it back to me.

“Thank you,” I simply said. “I didn’t know mailing companies had stuff like this.”

“It’s part of some new regulations I believe, I haven’t bothered paying close attention to it,” she explained. “Most of the stuff in our MDDs are unique to Orre,
this is so we can prevent theft and make sure our packages get to the correct recipients.”

“How much stuff is in here?” I asked. “There’s a scanner, GPS for directions and tracking, as well as a touch screen for signatures.”

“That’s usually the basic stuff most of those have,” Ari said as she crossed her arms. “Like I said there are more unique things but I’ll explain that later. Don’t you have a package to deliver Cecilia?”

“Shit,” I slipped out. “Thanks for the advice about the MDD.”

I quickly ran past Ari, out the door and back into the streets of Phenac. I raised the MDD to my face to look at the GPS.

“Let’s see, according to this thing, take a left from here down Petalite Street.”

I do as the GPS says and begin to take a left from the delivery company. The bright side of this ten minute walk to the package’s recipient place is I guess I can see more of Phenac City. I’ve always enjoyed the dusty rose sand like color that the Phenac buildings always gave off. The several times I’ve been here, reminds me of a city of sand that has come to life. If I wasn’t doing a delivery I would try and draw the city.

I arrived at the end of Petalite Street to a small three-way intersection, and stared down at the GPS again. It says to keep moving forward where I am and then take a left into Parker lane. Ari wasn’t kidding about it being so close to the company building. I wonder if there’s going to be some extra test with this, is this guy gonna act like a jerk or something? Wouldn’t be the first time, won’t be the last.

I took the left and looked up looking for a street sign that says Parker Lane. I know I have the GPS on the MDD with me now, but I wanted to make absolutely sure. I find the sign for Parker Lane and start going down that path of the street.

I turn my head and start looking down at the houses that Parker Lane displays in rows looking for 73 Parker Lane as I walk by.

“55, 56, 60, 63,” I say out loud to myself as I walk by each house and read their numbers. “65, 68, 70, 72, there! This should be 73 Parker Lane...I hope.”

I walk on into the presume yard of the Stacys. My steps echoing on the stone platings as I walked towards the amber color door. I look at the mailbox, to see a mark on it with a 73 and the name “Stacy.”

I pressed the doorbell, with its chime echoing through my ears.

“Just a second!” I heard a voice muffled through the door. “Kiara dear, if you would mind getting the door?”

His partner or a child? Eh, it doesn't matter. I waited for a couple seconds, and I heard some type of footsteps inside, though what it sounded like was more light I heard the doorknob click and slowly open up. Revealing a Pokémon opening the door; tall, almost human-like, with greenish hair, dark yet somehow pale ivory skin, with almost blackish highlights forming a dress. Do I know this Pokémon? If I did, it feels like it’s different than what they should be.

“Garde,” they went and moved out of the way revealing a man in a wheelchair.

“Um, Mr. Eugene Stacy I presume?”

“Actually it is Dr. Stacy but whatever you prefer, you are correct though,” the man said. “You must be Ms. Matthews, then? Adam said you were coming.”

“Yes!” I weirdly shout out. “Do you want me to hand over the package and MDD to your companion here so you may sign it?”

“No, please come on in,” Mr. Stacy answered. “It's a tad chilly than it usually is today and I don’t want to bring a draft in.”

I paused.

“Isn’t that -- what’s the word, ah forget it I’ll use something else,” I say. “Isn’t that against something?”

“No, Adam gives me permission to let his workers in when I have packages delivered,” Dr. Stacy explained. “It’s usually when I don’t have Kiara here, but she
has a doctor’s appointment which my husband is taking her to real soon, so I’m making an exception.”

“Are you still sure?”

“Yes, now come on in Ms. Matthews.”

I reluctantly and hesitantly follow Dr. Stacy’s instructions. As I entered, the Pokémon shut the door behind me and led me to the table Dr. Stacy rolled himself into to sit at.

“Thank you Kiara, you can go meet with Bruce for your appointment.”

The Pokémon closed their eyes and breathed in quietly, soon in a flash of light they were gone. Leaving only myself and Dr. Stacy.

“Uh, wow,” I said. “What kind of Pokémon were they?”

“Oh, Kiara?” Dr. Stacy replied. “She’s a Gardevoir, a Psychic Pokémon originally native to the Hoenn region, though a little different from a normal one. We adopted her to be our assistant Pokémon, especially for me.”

“Huh, I've never seen one before today.”

I went and placed the package on the table, holding the MDD over it. I pressed the down button and scrolled on the screen and found the scan package function Ari showed me earlier.

The screen flashed and changed to asking if I wanted a GPS or signature, I selected the latter of the two choices. I pointed the top down and pressed the middle button, scanning the barcode on top with a little beep. The screen changed asking for a signature.

I looked to Dr. Stacy to hand him the device, to see him taking notes.

“Ah, sorry, Adam asked me to take some notes on how you conduct this,” Dr. Stacy explained as he took the device and signed it like it was second nature to him.

“What’s your relation to Mr. Dodds? Uhhhh, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to!”

Dr. Stacy laughs as he hands the MDD back.

“It’s fine, no secrets here,” he said. “We’re brothers-in-law, he married my older sister, Tamara. I help him from time to time with some stuff regarding his business in exchange I can get my packages a tad earlier than intended and I get some research assistance though I’ve stopped the latter.”

“Research assistance?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Oh, I’m a psychologist and sometimes I can’t get out to do research on people, so Adam usually sent someone here for me to psycho-analyze or more in layman's terms, simply read people. But I’ve stopped intentionally doing that after some complaints.”

I raise my eyebrow further.

“After so much intentional psycho-analysis and reading, you learned to do it unintentionally,” said the psychologist. “Kinda like how you learn to read and then gradually learn to do it on auto-pilot without even trying.”

I stop and pause for a moment. Soon after, the realization kicked in and I understood what he meant.

“Also, sorry to impede on you, but could you grab me the pocket knife that’s on the counter over there?” Dr. Stacy asked. “I would like to check to make sure the thing I ordered is in good condition. I ordered from outside the region so I want to be sure it arrived safely.”

“Actually,” I replied as I began digging through my bag. “I have one myself if you would like to use it.”

“Oh, why thank you,” the man said as he took it from my hand and began using it to cut open the package. “How convenient! Rare to see these carried around nowadays.”

“I’ve been looking into one of those multitools as an upgrade. It’s been more useful than I thought for a gift from my dad.”

Dr. Stacy sliced down the tape on the package and closed the knife. Quickly passing it over the pocket knife back to me and placed it back into my bag.

“I heard about your father from Adam,” Dr. Stacy said. “Just out of curiosity, are those rumors from the business community true about him? I’ve heard some very peculiar things about him and how he runs his shop. I'm honestly surprised he can keep it afloat with those rumors around.”

“Which ones are you referring to? I asked. “There were so many that I stopped bothering reading about them after the first several showed up.”

“How he runs his business specifically, I’ve heard he drives people to perfection when doing work on vehicles or his strictness regarding how it should be done his way.”

I shuddered so quickly at the words, rubbing my arm at the thought. I still feel some pain from some of those. Just remembering how my father wanted me to fix something that came into the shop and the constant yelling at me if I didn’t do the way he taught me how to do it. There’s a lot of bad memories there that I would wish to forget. Why did I keep giving him so many chances?

“Yes, they are correct,” I said while still rubbing my arm, tracing something on my arm through my jacket. “No matter what I learned, if it can go a different way, if it wasn’t the way he taught me how to do it, it was wrong no matter what. Even when you did it his way, it still felt like it wasn’t enough. Even when he was “too busy” to run the place half the time.”

Why am I saying this to some random stranger? I guess psychologists know how to answer the right questions.

“Have you heard some of the rumors regarding yourself?”

“There’s rumors about me?”

“Not many fortunately, but they only started to show up after you left it seems.”

“So they’re likely wondering why I left?”

“Correct,” Dr. Stacy replied. “There’s also some wondering why you didn’t leave sooner.”

“Yeah, I’ll give the gossipers that one. I gave my father way too many chances.”

“You seem like such a nice girl, it’s sad that you have a father like him. I hope you go places he would never imagine.”

The doctor opened up the package and started to look inside.

“Ah yes, it is about time this shows up,” Dr. Stacy said, changing the subject.

I peeked over a bit to view what the contents were, but then immediately backed up. I shook my head to myself, I shouldn't look at the content of people’s packages. I should probably get going.

“I ought to be getting back to the company building now that I’m thinking about it,” I bring up as I back up towards the door.

“Ah yes of course,” Dr. Stacy replied. “I’ll contact Adam on your way back and tell him that the package was received successfully.”

“Thank you and have a nice day.”

“Wait, one more second.”

I stop mid turn and see Dr. Stacy holding a card towards me which I promptly take.

“I apologize for asking those questions, the analyst in me got out a bit,” Dr. Stacey said. “But if you want to talk further, I’m all open. Also if you want, I do research studies and often look for volunteers, it’s a paid part too.”

“I’ll consider it, thank you. Once again, have a nice day.”

“Same to you Ms. Matthews.”

I walk out and close the door behind me. My first delivery was completed, not bad for a (well, not so much thanks to Ari) blind test.

Welp, time to make my way back to the company building.

~

The walk back to the delivery center was easy since I already knew the way thanks to the first trip earlier. When I walked inside it was still primarily empty since it was still early in the day and the places were just opening up.

I walked over and pushed through the employees only door and into the sorting room. The room was more active than it was when I was here earlier, where now the workers were working the conveyor belts and sorting packages. I wonder when I’m not delivering packages, will I be doing stuff like this?

“Ah Cecilia, welcome back,” I heard someone near.

I turn and see Mr. Dodds walking towards me. I place my hand on my chest and breathe deeply in and out.

“Ah hello Mr. Dodds,” I say when he walks up.

“I got a call from Eugene and I heard the package delivery went nicely,” he said. “Well done, he also said you were very polite with your approach.”

“Oh,” I simply said. “Tell him I said thank you for the kind words next time you talk to him.”

“No problem, I will extend that for you,” he replies. “Now, since your blind test has gone well, let’s test your organizational skills.”

I might see where this is going, but I don’t comment to make sure exactly what I am doing.

“You see the packages on the conveyor belts entering the crates?” He said as he pointed over to said objects.

I nod in response.

“When they are done and landed in the crates, just take them and put them in the one for the corresponding town or city.”

“Understood,” I responded.

“One just finished up, so start on that,” Mr. Dodds said. “If you have any questions ask for a worker named Joseph.”

I started sorting the packages as Mr. Dodds told me to do so. Putting the packages in their correct bin. A lot of packages are meant for here in Phenac City or
Pyrite Town. The rest of the towns have about a third of the packages that Phenac or Pyrite get. I’m even surprised my apartment building has its own crate (despite how small it is) since we don’t really connect to any certain town, you’d think it would be connected to Phenac since it’s the closest city or town to the building. Seriously, who turned that old Snagem base into an apartment complex of all things?

Before I knew it, two hours had passed of me just sorting the packages. Might have been since I stacked them in every crate nicely as I could instead of just tossing them in like I imagine most people would do most of the time. Despite how boring this seems, it was kind of relaxing and I tuned out of it just doing it. I only snapped out of it when one of the workers came to give me new crates to work with after I finished and filled the ones I had. I check the time placed on my watch, only about eleven, it seems it’s been longer. I work for another hour, tuning out yet once again only being taken out of it again by one of the workers.

“You’ve been sorting packages for three and a half hours straight, take your lunch break and I’ll have someone take your place.”

I looked at the time and it is nearly twelve-thirty, it doesn’t even feel like it’s been that long to be honest.

“Oh, alright then,” I simply said to the worker. “Thank you very much.”

I leave the sorting room and walk into the employee area, taking a seat at the empty table present in the room. I placed my bag on the floor and opened it to
grab my lunch out, as well as my planner.

“Thank you Tomoko,” I whispered to myself. “What would I do without you?”

I placed the box with my lunch on the table and opened it to reveal the Johtonese style bento style lunch prepared for me with some of the leftovers from last
night. Seriously, Tomoko is too kind for this world, she did not really need to do stuff like this. I need to repay her big time someday.

I flipped open my planner as I took my first bite of my lunch as I wrote some things down.

Things to do after first paycheck:
New bike helmet, full faced hopefully. Possible spare if you feel comfortable.
Multitool?
Gift or something for Tomoko.

I slap my chin with my pen, trying to think of what I wanted to buy and other stuff after my first paycheck. I knew there was one thing but I can’t put my finger on it.

Though I go and put one more thing on the list: personalizations for my bedroom.

I put my planner away for later so that I can continue the list if I think of anything else. I decided to take out my sketchbook in place of it, figuring it would pass the time while having lunch. Better than eating my lunch alone in silence.

I took another bite of my lunch as I pondered what to draw. I’m kinda tired of just doing drawings of a certain object and their surroundings like I do at my usual drawing spot. I decided to do a drawing of a human; it’s been awhile since I drew a human or any living being for that matter so I think. I can’t become better at drawing if I’m just drawing rocks all the time, and I'm really tired of drawing rocks.

Sketching humans is usually tricky for me since how different people can be and it’s always taken multiple sketches for me to accomplish one. For some reason, I decided to use Ari as a base, though how decent her drawing will come out since her appearance is not ingrained in my mind since I did just meet her this morning is up to fate.

I started with the basic face shapes, drawing a simple cross sign in order to get the shapes and positions right.

“Was her face more rounded or sharp?” I pondered aloud when sketching out the head, scratching my own with my pencil.

About several minutes into drawing, I felt a tap on my shoulder and immediately jumped in my seat. I really need to work on this.

“Jeez, you weren’t lying when you said you scare easily,” I heard a familiar voice say behind me.

I turned my head around to see Ari walking by me and taking the seat adjacent to me at the table I was sitting at.

“Mind if I join you?” Ari asked.

“Can’t stop you now, you’ve already sat down,” I replied. “But joking aside, that’s fine.”

Ari began having her lunch while I started to draw once more, now with her here I can use her as a model for the drawing.

“You draw, Cecilia?” I heard her ask.

“Yeah, a hobby of mine since elementary school,” I explained. “Helps me get my mind off of things.”

“What are you drawing right now?”

I slide over my sketchbook sheepishly over to her to show her while silently looking away from her.

“Why are you turning away like you're embarrassed for some reason? Do you think it is ba…” She stopped mid-sentence when she looked at the drawing. “Is this supposed to be me?”

All I can mutter out is a speaky voice-cracked; “Yes.”

“This is…”

Yeah, I know it’s bad, just come out and say it already. It’s not like I’ve already dealt with negative criticism my whole life. Just say it Ari.

“This is amazing Cecilia!!”

“Huh?” Was all that popped out of my mouth.

Is she just being kind to me, just because? Or is she actually being serious and does enjoy it? Despite technically drawing her without permission. I suck at reading people.

“You’re an amazing artist, you nearly got my face down perfectly for a rough sketch but, just, wow.”

“Thank you,” is all that I can muster with a slight blush.

Ari handed me back my sketchbook which I immediately put back into my bag. I don’t think I can draw again for today after what just happened.

“So that aside, how was the blind test earlier?” Ari asked.

“Oh,” I said, snapping back to reality. “Well, your uncle was a nice man. Honestly don't know what to say, it’s cool he’s a psychologist and it was awesome seeing a Gardevoir for the first time.”

“You’ve never seen one before?”

“Never heard of the species before today either,” I responded. “I mostly know Kanto and Johto Pokémon, with only bunches from the others, I don't know the exact number. My roommate blathers about a bunch all the time, but I forget half of them.”

“Eh, that’s what we kinda get for the region we live in.”

“I know.”

“Anyways, did he do that psycho-anyalsis on you?” Ari asked. “I never heard if he stopped since my Dad sent so many people his way?”

“Yeah, I was slightly thinking about that. But no, not intentionally as far as I know.”

Ari paused. Before realizing what I was talking about, she must have heard the same from Dr. Stacy as well.

“My Dad sent a few people there once because of problems no one would talk about,” Ari explained. “So he sent them to my Uncle Eugene to have them unintentionally reveal their problems but then once they figured it out they must have stopped it.”

“Could’ve he just asked?”

“I know that would be much simpler, but my Dad tried and failed but he pries way too much sometimes.”

“Your dad is like an enigma or something with how he tries to do stuff,” was all that I said.

“Yeah, he’s pretty weird,” Ari agreed.

We both laughed at our shared statements regarding her father, I pray that he’s not behind us or anything. There’s this nice joyful feeling growing within me now, I’ve never felt this way while working before. I’ve always felt some more somber feeling while I was working back at the mechanic’s shop. The feeling now, it’s so different from before.

“Hey,” Ari said after we calmed down from laughing. “How bout you join me in checking in on the collection boxes around the city? I can show more of what to do with the MDD like I promised and we can play a question game to get to know each other.”

“You do the collection runs?” I questioned. “And will your father be okay with me doing that?”

“Only the Phenac City ones, there’s usually not many, and Dad will probably be okay with it. Consider it a continuation of your training.”

“Oh, that makes a lot of sense actually,” I said. “Sure, I’ll take you up on your offer.”

“Sweet,” Ari said as she began to rise from her chair and did a quick stretch. “I just need to tell my Dad and grab the collection cart, then we will be on our way.”

 

[Ryoma Maser]

Orre: The Desert
Chapter 5: Angelite Questions (Updated December 23rd, 2021)​

“Hey Dad,” Ari said.

I watched the dark-skinned girl lean into her father’s office while I waited around the side of the door where Mr. Dodds could not see.

“Yeah?”

“I’m going on today’s collection run and I’m bringing Cecilia with me.”

Ari grabbed my arm and dragged me into the frame of view of the door where her father could now see me.

“Ah uh, yeah I’m going with her,” I said in my awkward new position.

“Ah yes, good idea,” Mr. Dodds said. “All right, show her the ropes well, dear.”

Ari gave him a thumbs up and walked out of the door frame moving towards the exit of the sorting room while I sheepishly followed her. She grabbed a giant bin near the side of the exit door and dragged it out with her while I grabbed the back to help push it.

We left the sorting room and then the main exit and entrance of the building, where Ari brought the cart to the right of the door while we were exiting in front of some type of the container.

“This is our collection bin, there’s a total of four of them here around Phenac,” Ari explained. “The one here in front of the main building, the community center, the actual Post Office, and the Pokémon Center.”

Ari grabs out a MDD and squats down closer to the box while I follow suit, kneeling one one leg instead, in order to see better.

“See this silver circle in the middle?” Ari said while pointing to the center of the box. “This is the collection container's lock and key, by placing an MDD onto the center it acts as the key in order to open the box's door.”

Ari moved her hand with the MDD grasped in it as it magnetized towards the silver circle on the box’s door. The MDD’s screen fills and changes with numbers rapidly, with the numbers bringing in a pip-like sound. The numbers stopped and faded quickly, with another louder pip-like sound accompanying it and voila, the door was open.

“Pretty simple, right?” Ari asked. “Any questions?”

“How trickable are they?”

“Trickable? What do you mean?”

“How easy can the box’s system be fooled?” I asked. “All it takes is someone easily mimicking the MDD to break the lock.”

“I never even thought of that, though I imagine the MDD’s signal is hard to mimic,” Ari pondered. “I’ll bring up with my Dad. What brought up that type of question?”

“Curiosity more than anything,” I responded. “Though I was a mechanic, so we had to be extra careful with people’s vehicles, especially when they had to be left overnight. Probably that’s why it’s my first thought.”

“Makes sense, in a way I guess.”

Ari opened up the collection box’s door and took out a few packages and placed them into the bin behind us. Closing the door and removing the MDD from it.

“Okay, more than usual today, but moving on!”

The dark-skinned girl started moving down further right from the Delivery Center as she motions me to follow, which I did promptly pushing the cart.

“So, now while we walk down to our next stop,” Ari began again. “A question game to get to know each other!”

“And what brings this idea along?”

Ari pouts; “Are you no fun personified?”

“No, I hope not,” I awkwardly say. “I just haven’t done a question game like that since I was in, like, elementary school. Just wondering why you want to do it.”

“I actually want to do this. Just like doing these in general, something simple and to the point, if you get what I mean.”

“Sure.”

“Okay then! Rules, I have a coin flipper application on my M*DA, so whatever side we call lands decides who gets to start the round of questions,” Ari explained. “Since questions always follow more questions, I’ll set up a timer for about a few minutes so we don’t load up each other on them.”

I just simply nod.

“Good,” said Ari as she took out her M*DA. “Time to flip, what do you call?”

“Heads.”

“Alright.”

Ari clicked a button on her device and the sound effect of a coin echoed. Quickly after, we heard the sound of the digital coin landing.

“And it’s tails! So, I'll start!” Ari exclaimed as she pressed her phone again and placed it in her pocket. “I really want to know this, but how did you get my face done so well in your drawing, especially after only seeing my face so few times?”

“Oh, that,” I said. “I guess you can say I have a better memory than most which helped with the drawing. I don’t know if it’s a photographic one or something I gained overtime, maybe the latter with how I had to memorize all the shit my father taught me in specific ways but maybe not.”

“Is it possible that I can see some of your drawings other than the one of me?”

I stop myself and the cart for a brief moment to open my messenger bag and pull out my sketchbook again. I take a small breath and hand it to Ari who opens and starts to flip through. I begin to push the cart again.

“Why are there so many rocks?”

I laughed a bit; “There’s a small spot near some abandoned building a little off from Pyrite which is filled with nothing but rock formations, I usually go there to draw in peace and quiet. I just went the other day after your father gave me the job.”

“Wow,” I heard her say. “This drawing is beautiful, the woman and her Ninetales -- wait, does the Ninetales have white fur? -- the two of them are beautiful as well.. Who is this if I may ask?”

She showed a rare colored drawing to me despite automatically knowing who it was. It was Tomoko sitting on the ground reading a book with Hinata.

“That’s my roommate and my best friend, Tomoko Homura, next to her is Hinata. She’s from Johto and she works at the Pokémon HQ Lab. And yes, she is beautiful, I would never tell her this but I consider the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

Ari looked at me with some type of face I couldn’t figure out for the life of me, but she quickly changed her tune and asked; “How long have you known her?”

“About half a year now, I know it’s probably too soon to be calling her my best friend, but she’s been my first real friend in a long time and I don’t care.”

“Her name sounds so familiar, I think she was in the news at one point regarding the HQ Lab but I don’t remember exactly,” Ari pondered.

A ringing noise starting blaring from Ari’s pocket

“Ah it went off, next coin flip, what do you want to call?”

“Tails.”

I heard the Ari’s device go off as we continued walking.

“It’s tails again, so it's your turn. Take a couple seconds before I put on the timer.”

I pondered for a few seconds and then asked; “Are you a student? Or do you just work with your Dad?”

Ari clicks her device and turns on the timer.

“Yeah, I work part time at the center to help with my college funds. I’m a junior at Pyrite University with a major in Business and a minor in Communication,” Ari explained.

“What do you intend to do after graduating?”

“I’ve kinda wanted to start my own business, don’t know what I’ll do though. If not, probably find somewhere that would work or just continue at my old man’s company.”

“You sure you want to do that though?” I mumbled.

“Hey, what brought that type of question along?” Ari asked, seemingly ignoring what I said.

“Oh, I never got a chance to go to college so I was looking to see if I can get any ideas if I save up enough money.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s stuff to help you and plus I don’t think it’s too expensive. Pyrite’s bordering on free, Libra Memorial on the other hand. Your folks didn’t let you go?”

“My mother supported me, my father kinda did but he recommended I take a gap year to save up money and by the time I could send in stuff it was too late. I think he said that to make sure I couldn’t go so I had no choice but to become a mechanic like he was.”

“Oh,” was all that Ari said.

“Plus, I don’t know exactly what I want to do in life. All I know is that I don’t want to be a mechanic like my asshole of a father wanted me to be so badly.”

“I can understand not wanting to be one, but don’t mechanics make a lot of money here in Orre?”

“Oh loads,” I responded. “No matter how bad my old man was, he always made sure to pay me for what I did. Heck, I left with at least enough money to support myself for a while without the temp jobs I did. Though granted I minimized my spending best I could”

“Did you apply to become a mechanic elsewhere after you left?”

“I tried, but no one wanted to hire me because of the stigma my Dad left. Two of them just looked at my last name and said no without anything else.”

“Seriously? That’s not, I don’t even know what to say,” Ari said. “Fair? Ethical? Did you ever consider changing your last name?”

“I did,” I responded. “I wanted to change it to my mother’s surname, Lovelace, but I never got around to doing so. Plus, hasn't it been made to be real difficult to do it here in Orre recently?”

“Don’t ask me! Do you think I look up how often the law changes?”

“Fair.”

Once again, the timer goes off from Ari’s pocket. Thank the skies, I didn’t want to continue that line of questioning after it turned out to be that.

“Heads or tails for Round 3?”

“Tails again,” I responded.

I hear the faint sounds of the app's sound effects go off from the phone as we arrived and stopped at the Pokémon Center as Ari bent down and started to open up the collection bin in the process.

“Oh hey it’s heads, my turn!” She went off. “Oo, since you were a mechanic you must know all the good stuff. What do you drive? Hover car or bike?”

“A MAR-299 Garchomp hoverbike,” I answered without hesitation. “A custom build that includes a sidecar. Did it pretty much by myself back when I was a
mechanic full-time.”

“Wait!” Ari exclaimed as she set her MDD to the box. “Aren’t those models really rare? I’ve only seen photos online of it due to one of my Business major colleagues being interested in it. How did you get it?”

“Are they rare?” I said. “My model is just the shell of one, it was found in an old scrapyard we used to rummage for anything salvageable.”

“Lucky find, I guess.”

“The insides are taken from some of the newer models like a NVR-1717 Dusk -- didn’t someone give that to the shop, I forgot -- that obviously was due to the older parts not being in it and just not being up to the current ones.” I explained. “The sidecar addition was meticulous to add, but I did it somehow. I’m not
going to even try to explain that part.”

“Thank you,” Ari said. “Some of this is going over my head. How long did it take you to do it?”

“Let’s see,” I do some mental math in my head as I try to remember. “I think I was fourteen when I found it and finished it by my sixteenth birthday.”

“Wow, just wow,” Ari went. “I knew you worked as a mechanic long but not as long as I originally thought.”

“Even longer actually, but hey what do you drive?”

“Just a standard R.O.R.O.S. Sandskimmer hover car,” Ari said. “Kinda boring after what you just said. I’ll never be brave enough to drive a hoverbike, or do
something similar to what you did for your vehicle.”

I just laugh nervously as the timer of Ari’s M*DA went off.

Ari finished inside the Pokémon Centers collection bin and closed it up while rising. Signaling me to head up northward towards the center of Phenac with her arm, I push the cart in said direction.

“Round 4! You know the drill!”

“You decide this time.”

“Fine!” Ari exclaimed. “I call heads! Ah, phooey, tails you go again.”

Seriously, I can’t even think of another question. Wait, I just realized something.

“Oh!” I exclaimed aloud, mentally hitting myself. “How come I didn’t think of this question sooner!? Do you have any Pokémon?”

“Oh, yeah, wow,” Ari realized the same as well. “I have just one, a Mawile who was a rescue at a shelter named Citrine.”

“Ahh, Citrine is such a pretty name!”

“Yeah, the shelter named her such and I liked it so much we kept it. I believe it was a type of gemstone she was named after,” said Ari. “What about you in this department?”

“Oh, I have just one as well. A Noctowl I named Cole, he’s been with me since I was about nine or so as a Hoothoot.”

“A Noctowl?” Ari questioned. “A strange Pokémon to have to be honest, not many usually own a Noctowl and why is his name Cole?”

“All Coles everywhere will be insulted by that statement,” I joked. “I think I found the name in a storybook as a kid when I was at the library my mother works at. A book related to snow and snowmen, I think one of the characters was named that. I was just always fascinated by it as a kid, wanting to see snow. Still kinda a dream of mine, but I’m still here so my friend reflects that dream as well.”

“Such a nice experience it sounds like and it’s a good dream to have,” Ari said. “Was he given to you or did you adopt him from a shelter like I did with Citrine?”

“My mother adopted him for me as a birthday gift but he is from a shelter, in fact he was born at the shelter we got him from,” I explained. “His mother was brought into the shelter but sadly died shortly after laying his egg due to some complications, he hatched in the shelter and was raised there until my mother picked him up.”

“Daaaw, I feel bad for him. Is he with you by chance? I would like to meet him,” Ari asked. “Actually, now that I think about this, let me stop the timer for this cause I know we’ll go over this”

“Oh yeah,” I say while quickly stopping the cart. “I always bring him everywhere with me, it gives me reassurance like a friend is nearby in a way.”

“I don’t have Citrine with me today, I would love to do the same for you.”

“That’s fine, we’ll always get another chance.”

I opened up my messenger bag and quickly sorted through it, looking for Cole’s Pokéball. I bring it out of the bag; it looks a bit worn from age, with the red
paint looking a tad darker and chipped. I’ll need to get it refurbished or even replaced soon, another thing to add to the list of things after my first paycheck. I
activated the release function on the ball, which made it promptly open as the bird Pokémon flew out of it and onto my arm after I raised it.

“Cole, this is my new coworker Ari,” I said to him. “Ari, this is Cole.”

Cole raised his wing like it was a hand to be shaken. Ari responded in kind.

“Nice to meet you Cole,” Ari said before her face changed from what it looked like to one of joy to one of confusion. “Wait, is it just me? Or does he look a bit different from a normal Noctowl?”

“No,” I answered. “You’re not seeing anything, Cole, since he’s been here in Orre his whole life compared to most other Pokémon who’ve been imported to
here, his body ended up doing a little adapting to help him deal with some of the stuff here in Orre.”

Cole, unlike a normal Noctowl from their native Johto, is a bit more of a dusty brown color than the usual light to dark browns his species is. His horns are a bit more gray than the usual sandy yellow the horns are. His wings are really no different on the outside besides the color, but he can fly easier in sandstorms compared to other regular Pokémon outside, say a Skarmory. Outside visual differences and a stronger wingspan, Cole is really no different from a normal Noctowl, not even his typing is different like one would believe.

As I explained Cole’s difference to Ari, I noticed that her eyes seemingly just keep gleaming brighter and brighter. I didn’t even know people could be that excited that their eyes could burst out of their head.

“Oh my god!” Ari yelled. “You might have a one of a kind Orre native form, I’ve only heard about these happening in regions like Alola and Galar, I didn’t think it was possible to happen here!”

“I wouldn’t imagine Cole is the only one in Orre, actually I was thinking your uncle’s Gardevoir was one of them. But Cole is the only one that I personally know that’s adapted here.”

“Actually Kiara’s differences are the result of a disorder but I don't remember exactly, not an adaptation like your Noctowl,” Ari said. “Still, it’s so cool. I have never seen a regional variant in person before, and for one to be in Orre like this.”

“Cole, go stretch your wings for a while and meet us at the Community Center,” I said to the bird Pokémon as he flew off my arm. “I remember some researchers got interested in him, but having examined him they really couldn’t figure anything out and that was about it. Tomoko’s been nuts about studying him during her free time though.”

“Some researchers those people are,” Ari mumbled.

“It’s like you said though,” I echoed. “Regional variants or just normal adaptations haven’t been documented here. I don’t blame the researchers for not figuring anything out. If anything, Tomoko is more likely to figure something out but she’s more focused on ecology.”

We start moving again as we see Cole disappear from our realm of sight.

“I guess the researcher thing made sense,” Ari said. “Do you two battle by any chance?”

“No,” I bluntly say. “He knows a few moves for self-defense if necessary, I never been one for violence even if it is for sport. He’s been acting more as a messenger nowadays.”

“A messenger?”

“My mother and I exchange letters through our Pokémon, she never really liked digital messaging so we do old-style letters,” I explained. “Her Honchkrow, Swartz, does it most of the time, but Cole does it as well from time to time. Do you and Citrine battle? I know Mawile are liked for that type of role.”

“More or less the same as you, only self-defense,” Ari responded. “She has a permanent injury on her jaw braid that doesn’t let her fully use it for battling. I like watching battles though. I was upset when Phenac Stadium shut down and later turned into the community center. Now I can barely get into what’s left of
Pyrite Stadium and I could never get into Realgam’s for live battling or could get in there period. So I just watch online.”

“Well, it is one of, if not the only popular things to do here.”

“Yeah, true,” Ari said. “I like how you and Cole operate though.”

“Yep, it’s just been me and him for a long while until Tomoko and Hinata showed up,” I said. “Well, I guess you count now too.”

“Don’t count your eggs before it hatches,” Ari jokes. “But thanks for the thought… Actually here.”

Ari soon does an underhand throw to me and quickly throws her M*DA. I scrambled to keep it in my hands.

“Don’t throw your phone at me!”

“Put down your contact info in there and I’ll do the same in yours.”

Ari stops and goes in a position ready to catch something like I was going to throw it. Nope, not going to do it. I stop myself and the cart, gently walking over to her and placed my M*DA in her hand.

“Aw, lame.”

“Not spending the bucks to repair or replace it if it breaks,” I responded. “I have other things I need to buy.”

I slide Ari’s M*DA up as I typed out my info into her device as I watched her do the same with mine in the corner of my eye. Let’s see, number, blah blah, email, name and done. I pass the device back over to Ari as she completes mine.

“See, now we’re really friends!”

I smile faintly as I put my phone back in my pocket.

“Oh hey, another round of questions?” Ari asked, getting ready to use her program again.

“You go if you have one,” I responded. “I have no more I can think of.”

“Then I’ll make this the last one, is that okay?” Ari asked.

“Sure.”

Ari gave a quick smirk to me, seemingly already knowing the question she was going to ask. I probably should’ve not let her do this, but it's too late now.

“This is more for complete curiosity really. But are you dating at the moment? Or have you dated in the past?”

“No to the first,” I said. “And…uh, kinda a yes-no answer to the latter question.

“Really, no to the first,” Ari said perplexed. “With the way you talk about that Tomoko woman, no matter how briefly, it sounded like you two are dating.

The second Ari mentioned her thinking Tomoko and I were dating, my face flared to the brightest red possible.

“Me? Tomoko? D...D..Dating? I..mmean, of course I think she’s beautiful but us dating, that’s imimimpossible,” I stuttered throughout. “I mean why would she want to be with a plain looking girl like me? Who’s barely able to get a job no less. Tomoko is too kind to me and is the older sister I’ve never had, but I can’t see us dating.”

“Good lord, Cecilia,” she said. “You don’t have to get embarrassed about it. Not a lot of people don’t say people are the most beautiful they have ever seen if they at least don’t have some sort of crush on them.”

I laugh very nervously. Seriously, what is she saying? A crush on Tomoko? Why would she even want to be with me though if I did?. It’s….It’s a miracle we're even friends.

“Is this somewhat related to that yes-no you were talking about?”

I snapped back as we grew closer to the community center as I saw Cole in the distance, sitting on the collection bid. Do I want to tell her? It’s only been half a day since I've known her. I start rubbing my arm again like I did earlier with Dr. Stacy, tracing with my finger as well.

“Look, if I’m prying too much, you don’t have to answer,” Ari said as we made our stop at the community center. “I’m not like my father, he loves to pry. He must’ve been holding back real hard during the chat you two had when you showed up this morning to start asking about stuff.”

“It felt like he was going to ask about a certain something, but deflect it into something else.”

“Yep, that’s how he does it when he tries not to pry,” she said.

I laugh again, albeit less nervously and more, in relief I guess.

“Okay, it might be prying but I'll let you know,” I finally say. “Just promise not to tell Mr. Dodds or even Dr. Stacy, I rather tell them on my own terms. Though, it was never really a secret to begin with.”

“Cecilia, you sure? I’ll keep it a secret from my old man and uncle, but I’ve only known you half the day.”

“I thought the same, but you asked a question and I’ll answer it,” I said. “I think you’ve earned some trust and like I said it was really never a secret.”

I walk over to Cole on the collection box and bring him closer to me into a semi-hug as a reassurance.

“I’ve dated but at the same time I’ve not. There was a guy about my age, if a little older, who worked with me back at my father’s mechanics shop named Damien. Surprised he stayed so long, usually the younger workers often leave pretty quickly after dealing with my father. One time he asked me to hang out with him and I accepted. I had fun the first time so we kept doing it every so often,” I paused to catch my breath. “It felt great, just to do stuff out with someone since I didn’t have that many friends who invited me places, or really any for that matter. Even though I always thought he just felt bad for me working with my asshole father. But in actuality, to Damien, we were on dates and during our last hangout he went and tried to forcibly kiss me, thinking I felt the same, despite never once actually sounding interested in that way. I forced him off of me and ended whatever relationship we had. I haven’t seen him since leaving my dad’s workshop and have no desire to see Damien again. I’ve swore off dating until, until I feel ready ”

Ari just gave me a look of dumbstruck shock with her face as she was bending down to open the collection bin.

“Oh god, I feel so sorry for asking now!”

“Don’t be, please, just please.”

Ari gave a small pout like face from where I was looking.

“What happened after that?”

I sighed, remembering what happened after that. I pushed Cole a little deeper into my chest as he patted me with his wing.

“I went back to my dad’s place since I was staying there for the night and told him about what happened,” I began to explain. “But my father didn’t take it well, he really liked Damien for some reason and took his side. We had an argument that lasted hours, it was so bad the local police in Pyrite got involved. Finally, I just packed up what I kept there and left for my mother’s home in Gateon Port. I gave him so many second chances, defending that creep among other things that was said that night finally broke the Camprupt’s back.”

Ari stood up and closed the collection bin, from what I can tell with barely anything in there.

“Okay, Cecilia, you can stop, I don’t want to hear any more,” Ari said. “Can…Can I just give you a hug? You seem like someone who can really use one.”

I was at a loss for words. Actually no, I think I ended up with a cotton mouth from talking so much. I almost actually let out a giggle from that thought, it’s just a tad funny, but I stopped myself.

After a small bit, I ended up croaking; “Sure.”

Ari quickly got up and ran over, quickly hugged me. This is kinda awkward but comforting in a way. Hope this doesn’t begin a trend in my life or something.

“I might not have the full story,” Ari said into my ear in the midst of the hug. “But no one, no one should go through what you did.”

“Thank you,” was all I could say.

Ari let go of me from her hug but kept one hand on my shoulder.

“I know my father probably had it all laid out and probably my Uncle Euguene too, but if you want to talk about it, all of it. I’m open for it, hugs and all.”

“Thanks,” I say again. “Let’s move on and finish the run.”

“Yep, don’t want to take too long,” Ari said.

“Last one’s at the post office right? Debating to put Cole back in his Pokéball.”

“Yeah it is, keep him out! He can ride on the cart if he wants or can meet us there.”

The bird Pokémon quickly took off and started going ahead of us again towards the post office.

“Aw, man,” Ari lamented.

“Let him stretch his wings,” I said. “I know he’s cool to you but he doesn’t like all the fawning and stuff, he gets it a lot because of his adaptations and stuff.”

“I seriously do not have any respect for people’s boundaries today, do I?”

“Don’t get upset about it,” I pleaded.

“Still,” I heard her mumbled

We go in silence for a while as we make our way towards the post office’s collection bin. I have no clue what to say now. I hope I didn’t do anything to ruin the friendship we were somewhat building.

“I GOT IT!!” Ari suddenly exclaimed.

“Huh?” I say, I’m more surprised I didn’t jump at that. “You got what?”

“A nickname for you, I was trying to shorten your name but I had trouble doing so but I figured it out!”

“Huh, a nickname?”

“Yeah, like Ari for me from Arial,” she explained. “I was actually able to come up with two, but if you don’t want it that’s fine.”

“Let’s hear them first then decide.”

“I got Cel or Ciel, do you like either?”

“Where did you g--- Oh now I get it, I keep forgetting you kinda say a L in the beginning part of my name.”

“Yeah, verbally sounds like that sometimes.”

“Go with Ciel, I like Cel but I don’t think it works,” I say. “Plus if Tomoko hears, she’ll probably make non-stop anime jokes about it since she’s a big anime fan. I think there’s a name similar to it in one of the shows she watches, I forget which one though.”

“Okay, no offense,” Ari went. “That is a little bit funny.”

“Yeah, it kinda is,” I responded. “Ironically, I’ve gotten into those anime shows, so it's slightly even more funny.”

We both laugh, probably just for the hell of it. Ahh, I needed that.

“So Ciel it is, Ciel?”

“Yep, first time I’ve gotten one like this.”

“Woo!”


~~~

My first day at the company finished several hours later, around five-five thirty where I was punching out and taking my leave. I feel exhausted for some reason, even though I felt I didn’t do much today.

“Hey, Cecilia,” I hear.

I turn in the direction of the voice calling me, with Mr. Dodds waving towards me.

“How’d the first day go?” He asked.

“All right.”

“I heard you and Ari are getting along nicely,” Mr. Dodds said.

“Oh yeah, I kinda wasn’t expecting to make friends so quickly on the first day, not to mention someone so close in my age range.”

Mr. Dodds gave a big smile towards me.

“Hey, that’s good!” He said. “I think Ari is happy as well, she even gave you a nickname already.”

“And it’s only reserved for her at the moment, so don’t get any ideas.”

Mr. Dodds proceeded to give out a big hearty laugh. While I didn’t jump, it did freaked me out a bit.

“Don’t worry, I’m not one to use nicknames unless you prefer it.”

“Ah,” I just simply said.

“Anyways, getting used to everything here?”

“Yeah, I think so,” I say. “Just a lot to take in from all the various tasks and stuff.”

“I know, but once you get used to it, it just becomes a breeze,” Mr. Dodds explained.

I nodded, I knew what he meant. Same thing happened when I was a mechanic.

“Anyways, get going and get home safe. We’ll go over the next phase of your training next time. Have a good night.”

“Good night,” I say back.

Both Mr. Dodds and I walked away from each other, him back to his office I assumed while I went to the front exit. I rub my eyes before I start going through my bag looking for my hoverbike’s keys and my goggles, trying to distract myself from exhausted thoughts.

I exited through the same doors I’ve gone through many times already today, I have to remember to park in the employee lot next time and go through the back entrance. Kept forgetting there was one today, probably my nervousness from earlier. I walked past the main desk like I did many times today, where Ari was packing up for the day as well.

“Oh Ciel,” she said.

I simply waved, I really don’t know what to say anymore to anybody.

“Heading home?”

“Yeah.”

“Have a safe drive,” she said. “It’s been getting windier as of late and you live far right?”

“About a twenty to thirty-minute drive, not bad.”

“Still, be safe regardless.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Have a good evening, I’ll see you later.”

“Same to you,” Ari said. “It was nice to get to know you earlier and pleasure to be working with you.”

I walked out the building and into somewhat calm sandy slate-like streets of Phenac as I moved towards the city’s exit as I put my goggles on ahead of time.

As I trekked towards my bike, I felt my pocket starting to rumbling. I pull my M*DA out of it revealing the caller I.D on the screen to be Tomoko. I slid the
screen up and pressed the answer key.

“How do you always know exactly when to call?” I said as it went through.

“Magic!” Tomoko said. “How was your first day? Made any friends?”

“Are you seriously doing the mom bit again? Anyways, it went well, I made friends with my boss’ daughter Ari who works there.”

“Hey! That’s great! I assume the start of your training went well too.”

I paused not knowing what to say, before going, “It went well, I feel exhausted but I’ll explain more in detail later. Anyways, how did your day go? Did you certify that Pokéspot?”

Tomoko sighed; “No, it was a bust. We couldn’t even verify the rumor of Vullaby and Mandibuzz migrating over from Unova. That’s the third Pokéspot
expedition failure we’ve had recently. Professor Krane has taken it in stride, though his daughter Rina was oddly upset about it.”

“I mean, I would be as well when that’s been the lab’s main goal for seven years now. Didn’t you say you’ve only had about fifteen confirmed species or spots?”

“Around that number for the former, yeah,” Tomoko verified. “We didn’t get to view all of the mountainous area we surveyed, so there might be one there. But it got really windy today, so we had to turn back sooner than planned when we got to a certain spot.”

“I saw a news thing at an electronics store in the city today when walking in,” I said. “We might be getting a sandstorm soon.”

“A sandstorm?”

“Oh yeah, that hasn’t happened yet since you’ve gotten here,” I realized. “Yeah, it’s kinda our only weather here besides sunny skies and cloudy days.”

“Oh my,” I heard Tomoko groan.

“I’ll keep an eye on it, it might just be windy and nothing else.”

“True.”

“So hey, it’s my turn to cook tonight, any special requests?” I asked. “Just to cheer you up after today.”

“Cecilia, please you don’t have to do that.”

“Come on, you do so much for me,” I said. “It’s fair to do something for you now and again, or is that a crime?”

“Wow, you were right, Tomoko,” I heard someone say in the background. “She is a very kind person! You two sound exactly the same when talking about each other.”

“Rina!” Tomoko said in a scolding tone. “Don’t listen in on my calls! Sorry, I’m in the middle of leaving and Rina just came into my office to give me some papers before I leave. I must have the volume on my M*DA a bit higher than I thought, still ain’t used to these things.”

“It’s fine, your work is much more chaotic than mine, it was bound to happen,” I say. “Just, what have you been saying about me at the HQ Lab though?”

“Nothing bad I swear! Just how kind you are,” she hastily said. "How bout you decide for dinner? I have no preference, I like all that you cook.”

“There’s been a recipe I have been wanting to try out, so I’ll give that a try. How about that?”

“Sweet,” Tomoko said. “I’ll see you at home, I want all the details of your day.”

I laughed; “Okay, it’s going to be a doozy, I’ll see you later, bye!”

 

[Ryoma Maser]

As of today, every chapter of Orre: The Desert has been rewritten, revised and expanded! From Chapter 1 to now. Thank you to everyone who left reviews of the current five chapters and everyone who help in either the help threads or the Bulbagarden's Discord Writing Channel.

The Update Notes of every chapter: (If you want the old versions of these chapters to compare, don't be afraid to ask!)

Update Notes for Chapter 1:
-Word Count is now 1,705.
-More explanation and world building from Cecilia.
-Extended conversation between Cecilia and Tomoko, now through a phone call instead of text.
-New plot hook and hopefully more details on existing plot hooks.

Update Notes for Chapter 2:
-Word Count is now 3,783.
-Updated Chapter name.
-Extended conversations between characters like Cecilia, Tomoko and Mr. Longfellow.
-More background information on locations.
-More background info on Tomoko Homura.
-Introduction of new Pokémon character.
-Nod to a later chapter.
-More hooks. THE HOOKS!!~~

Update Notes for Chapter 3:
-Word Count is now 5,263.
-Change of timeframe for the chapter, this now a few days later after Ch.2.
-Longer and updated conversation between Cecilia and Tomoko.
-More news in the news update.
-Updated and better introductions for Arial Dodds and Adam Dodds.
-More background on Cecilia.
-Introduction to some workers of Phenac Delivery Company.

Update Notes for Chapter 4:
-Word Count is now 4,269. Yes, nice.
-Redone conversations between Arial Dodds and Dr. Stacy with Cecilia.
-New Pokémon character introduced.
-More background on Dr. Stacey and the Dodds-Stacey family.
-Hopefully, less prying.

Update Notes for Chapter 5: Also specials thanks to @more than a torchic for looking over a few scenes on the Discord.
-Word Count is now 6,208.
-Updated Rules and timer added to Ari's question game.
-More background on questions and more detail in general.
-More details on the incident that made Cecilia leave her old job.
-Updated conversations at the end of the chapter, either changed or extended.

And that should be all. Chapter 6: Town of Jade is next to be worked on, expect in the new year as these updates have taken my time the past few months. But I will say as a teaser, we will be going to a brand new location I've created for my version of Orre, so look forward to that.

Thank you for reading Orre: The Desert up to now.