RE: Winds of Time - PokéBeach CYOA - Chapter 1
Your stomach rumbles at the smell of stew on the wind and the decision is more or less made for you. You don’t expect the villagers to be generous enough to just give you food, not in such difficult times when everything potato and ounce of grain matter, but perhaps you could work for a meal and a bed. With a sigh, you sling the arrow over your back and caution Piplup to stay behind, but not too far. You don’t know what kind of reception you’ll get.
The closer you get to the village, the more you can make out. It’s a proper, permanent settlement, very unlike the shelters you and your people built. You wonder how the people can travel to find enough game to feed everyone when they’re all stuck in one spot, but of course you’re further south now, so it’s likely that there are simply more Pokémon around, and therefore more food. Most of the houses are small, little bigger than your summer tents, and there are no visible people, through light shining in from the buildings is proof enough of fire and therefore inhabitants.
There’s one smaller, fenced-in building towards the middle of the village that draws your attention, and you walk close up to it as you enter to get a better look. You startle as a yellow head pops out the door and then breathe a sigh of relief as its followed by a small, waddling yellow body. A bird Pokémon of some sort, and docile by the look of it. The little hut must be some kind of habitat for them.
A faint *click* noise behind you causes you to freeze in place. “You could probably grab one o’ them Psyducks if you’re quick enough,” a strange, deep voice growls, “but you wouldn’t be fast enough to make it outta here alive with it.”
You raise your hands to show that you mean no harm, and that you haven’t stolen any livestock, and slowly turn around to face your accuser. He’s a tall man, lanky, with blond hair going to grey. In his arms is a large rifle, pointed at your head. Some of the other members of your settlement had such weapons for hunting, though they were often unreliable in the cold. You could probably make a break for it if you wanted, but you came to the village with good intentions, and if you ran, there would be no coming back.
“I’m not here to steal anything,” you explain. Your voice hoarse and rusty from disuse, and you cough a bit as the chilly air touches your throat.
The man releases the trigger and pulls the gun up, resting it on his shoulders as he looks you up and down. “You’re one of those northerners, aren’t you? A girl, and starving too, by the looks of things. The wife’ll have my head if I let you go hungry. Come on, girl, I’ll put some food in your belly before you go back on your way.” Without another word, he turns and heads in the direction of one of the larger houses, and you scamper off after him.
The man’s house is warm and inviting. You breathe an involuntarily sigh of relief as the warmth of the fire begins to soak into your fingers and toes. You wiggle them as the tingling fades; you can’t even remember the last time you’ve been properly warm. The woman tending the fire fusses over you and runs off to grab flatware while the man sits down in a worn chair next to the hearth. He introduces himself as Rex and the woman as Molly, his wife.
There’s a scratch at the door and you slap your own forehead in stupidity. Piplup! He had been trailing behind you unseen and probably had the door slammed in his face when Rex brought you in. Molly scurries over to open the door, but shrieks at the sight of the small, blue Pokémon and dashes back towards the fire, leaving you and Rex to investigate.
“He’s mine.” You smile sheepishly and bend down to pick up Piplup. The little guy was as scared as Molly was, and huddles in your hood, shivering.
Rex makes a face as he closes the door and makes his way back to the fire. “I’m surprised you trust one of those creatures.
“You have the Psyducks,” you retort, pulling Piplup out of your hood and wrapping him up in the ends of your fur cloak as you cuddle him next to the fire.
Rex scoffs. “Them creatures be dumb as mud. They’re hardy enough, I’ll grab you that, and they lay some mighty tasty eggs, but that’s all their good for. Them sort on the other hand,” he gestures at Piplup, “I’ve seen them come down from the mountains sometimes. Vicious.”
“I’ve had Piplup since he was an egg, so I’ve more or less raised him. Maybe the wild ones are different.”
As you’re talking, Molly comes over and brings you a plate of food. There’s potatoes and a slab of meat, both covered in a savory gravy, a hunk of bread, and two hard boiled eggs, likely from the aforementioned Psyducks. You dig in hungrily, offering a few choice bits to Piplup, ignoring the steady gaze of Rex as he watches you eat.
“Does he listen to you?” Rex asks suddenly. “Obey your commands, like?”
You nod, chewing. You’ve never given him any complicated commands or anything, but he does well enough.
“Has he ever fought? Like with another Pokémon?”
You tilt your head to the side as you think and swallow. “I’ve had his help taking down some wild ones for food, but that’s about all. Usually he just acts as a lookout, or helps me with gathering. I’m good with bow and spear, and that’s good enough for most game.
Rex leans back in his chair, deep in thought, and you dig back into your meal.
“The northerners have always been good friends of ours,” Rex talks wistfully, fiddling with a pipe but not lighting it. “I know you preferred to stay up there and do your own thing, and that’s fine, but we’ve traded in the past, helped each other out when we could. You know, bein’ neighborlylike.”
You nod and continue eating. While you hadn’t specifically known you traded with this particular village, you know there were some things you had that you couldn’t shoot, gather, or craft, like the metal for spear tips and arrow heads, the fine mesh you preferred for snowshoes, some of the more unique spices.
“We didn’t know none of you was a Pokémon trainer, though.”
“A Pokémon trainer?” you ask. You haven’t heard the term before.
Rex gestured at you with his free hand. “You know, like you and Piplup.”
“Well, I guess I did train him.” You look down at Piplup and he looks back at you, cocking his head. You never really thought much about it; he just kind of was there.
“Now, see, there’s something I think you could help us out with.”
You smile as you wipe up the last of your gravy with a bit of bread. You knew the meal and warmth, nice as they are, wouldn’t be free, and now the discussion of payment was at hand. “Well, I’m pretty handy, that’s for sure. I’m a mean hunter; if you want to stock up on your game stores for the winter, I’d be more than happy to help you out. Or I can work, help you with building or construction…” Your voice trails off as you see Rex slowly shake his head.
“Naw, we got some boys in the village that help out plenty with that sort of thing. My son might have left to go seek his fortune, but there’re plenty more to take his place. This town’s survived winters without any northerner help. What I’d like you to do is something a bit more…” he spun his fingers impatiently as he sought the right word, “a bit more particular-like.”
You furrow your eyebrows. “What is it you’d like me to do?”
“Well, you see…” Rex pursed his lips as he began his tale. “There’s this band of thugs that come ‘round here from down near Celestic. They don’t come up here too often, maybe a few times a year or so, but…” His voice trailed off as he stares into the fire. “It’s hard for a man to admit that he can’t protect his wife and his town, but dagnabbit there’s only so much I can do! He has this rabid… thing on a leash that can tear the flesh off a man faster than you can snap your fingers. None of us here can battle him proper; we have the Psyducks and some Magikarp in the fish pond, but thems not the sort of battlin’ Pokémon.”
Your heart sinks with fear as you figure out where this story is probably going.
“We expected them to come ‘bout a week ago,” Rex continued, oblivious to your deduction, “but that storm probably tripped ‘em up. So, they could be here any day I figure, and if anythin’, that storm and the slowdown probably made ‘em madder than a Beedrill’s nest.They never take enough so’s we can’t survive, after all they’d have no one to steal from if we all died out, but raid right before winter with these ice storms, well…”
“You want me to fight this gang for you, is that it?” You interrupt.
“If you’d be so obliged. Seems like you got a nice fighting Pokémon there. You might be the best chance we have of keeping our stores intact for the winter.”
Your grimace visibly, food hardening in your stomach. Sure, Piplup is more or less trained, and smarter than the average wild Pokémon out there, but he’s never actually battled another Pokémon before, and anything that gang would have would be bound to be trained to fight and much tougher than the wild Pokémon Piplup’s tangled with in the past.
You weigh the options in your mind. You could certainly offer to stay and fight the gang. It would be the polite thing to do, after they fed you and all. But if there’s anything you’ve learned throughout your life in the northern reaches, it’s that when it comes to survival, niceness can get you killed. You never help someone build a shelter before you’ve finished your own or you both could freeze. If you fought this gang and lost, Piplup could be hurt, captured, or even killed, not to mention what the gang would do to you personally for challenging them. You shudder as you remember the stories.
You wouldn’t have to be mean about turning them down. You could offer to sit by with them while the gang raids and then help them hunt and gather afterwards to make up for the lost stores. Though your cheeks burn at the thought of how cowardly it would make you seem to Rex and his wife. You could always just agree to help and then skip out in the middle of the night so you wouldn’t have to face them; after all, you don’t really owe these people. You never asked for the food, or for their troubles. There’s no reason for you to risk your hide for them, or waste time gathering food for them that you could keep for yourself to help in your own survival. They might be facing a hard winter with the gang pressing on them, but not as hard as your own.
You turn your face to the fire to avoid looking at the hopeful couple as you think and plan.
So, once again, we’re left with a three-prong decision. Vote for your favoured option!
A) Help the village by offering to fight the gang
B) Decline to fight, but offer to help rebuilt after
C) Skip out and leave in the middle of the night
Today, we also have a special DOUBLE VOTE! To help us plan ahead for the next few chapters, we’d like to offer up another choice a bit early to help us decide what Mia’s second Pokémon capture will be. This will not happen right away in the story, but having the decision made earlier will help us to plan for the capture and make it fit better into the story.
Please pick your top 3 choices for Mia’s second Pokémon from the following list of Pokémon:
Votes for Pokémon choices must be sent to Athena via PM. You are, of course, allowed to debate and discuss choices in this thread, but only votes sent in via PM will be selected. We are keeping this vote a secret vote so that it will still end up as something of a surprise to the readers. In case of a tie, the authors will choose between whichever Pokémon are tied for first.
Please note that this vote is only for Mia’s second Pokémon. This does not mean that she will only ever capture Pokémon from this list (this was just the list we chose for the first capture), nor does it mean that any Pokémon not chosen from this list will never be captured. We may use a similar voting system for later captures, through we reserve the right to do it other ways, too, if the mood strikes us.
In case it makes a difference in your vote, as far as this story is concerned, both Fairy-type and Mega Evolution are in-canon, even though neither was present in the original 4th Gen games. However, there’s no guarantee that Mega Evolution will play any kind of a role in this game, so don’t base your choices solely off that or there’s a good chance you’ll be disappointed.
Votes for both Pokémon and Choice Option will be open until Sunday, September 14th!
Chapter 2
Your stomach rumbles at the smell of stew on the wind and the decision is more or less made for you. You don’t expect the villagers to be generous enough to just give you food, not in such difficult times when everything potato and ounce of grain matter, but perhaps you could work for a meal and a bed. With a sigh, you sling the arrow over your back and caution Piplup to stay behind, but not too far. You don’t know what kind of reception you’ll get.
The closer you get to the village, the more you can make out. It’s a proper, permanent settlement, very unlike the shelters you and your people built. You wonder how the people can travel to find enough game to feed everyone when they’re all stuck in one spot, but of course you’re further south now, so it’s likely that there are simply more Pokémon around, and therefore more food. Most of the houses are small, little bigger than your summer tents, and there are no visible people, through light shining in from the buildings is proof enough of fire and therefore inhabitants.
There’s one smaller, fenced-in building towards the middle of the village that draws your attention, and you walk close up to it as you enter to get a better look. You startle as a yellow head pops out the door and then breathe a sigh of relief as its followed by a small, waddling yellow body. A bird Pokémon of some sort, and docile by the look of it. The little hut must be some kind of habitat for them.
A faint *click* noise behind you causes you to freeze in place. “You could probably grab one o’ them Psyducks if you’re quick enough,” a strange, deep voice growls, “but you wouldn’t be fast enough to make it outta here alive with it.”
You raise your hands to show that you mean no harm, and that you haven’t stolen any livestock, and slowly turn around to face your accuser. He’s a tall man, lanky, with blond hair going to grey. In his arms is a large rifle, pointed at your head. Some of the other members of your settlement had such weapons for hunting, though they were often unreliable in the cold. You could probably make a break for it if you wanted, but you came to the village with good intentions, and if you ran, there would be no coming back.
“I’m not here to steal anything,” you explain. Your voice hoarse and rusty from disuse, and you cough a bit as the chilly air touches your throat.
The man releases the trigger and pulls the gun up, resting it on his shoulders as he looks you up and down. “You’re one of those northerners, aren’t you? A girl, and starving too, by the looks of things. The wife’ll have my head if I let you go hungry. Come on, girl, I’ll put some food in your belly before you go back on your way.” Without another word, he turns and heads in the direction of one of the larger houses, and you scamper off after him.
The man’s house is warm and inviting. You breathe an involuntarily sigh of relief as the warmth of the fire begins to soak into your fingers and toes. You wiggle them as the tingling fades; you can’t even remember the last time you’ve been properly warm. The woman tending the fire fusses over you and runs off to grab flatware while the man sits down in a worn chair next to the hearth. He introduces himself as Rex and the woman as Molly, his wife.
There’s a scratch at the door and you slap your own forehead in stupidity. Piplup! He had been trailing behind you unseen and probably had the door slammed in his face when Rex brought you in. Molly scurries over to open the door, but shrieks at the sight of the small, blue Pokémon and dashes back towards the fire, leaving you and Rex to investigate.
“He’s mine.” You smile sheepishly and bend down to pick up Piplup. The little guy was as scared as Molly was, and huddles in your hood, shivering.
Rex makes a face as he closes the door and makes his way back to the fire. “I’m surprised you trust one of those creatures.
“You have the Psyducks,” you retort, pulling Piplup out of your hood and wrapping him up in the ends of your fur cloak as you cuddle him next to the fire.
Rex scoffs. “Them creatures be dumb as mud. They’re hardy enough, I’ll grab you that, and they lay some mighty tasty eggs, but that’s all their good for. Them sort on the other hand,” he gestures at Piplup, “I’ve seen them come down from the mountains sometimes. Vicious.”
“I’ve had Piplup since he was an egg, so I’ve more or less raised him. Maybe the wild ones are different.”
As you’re talking, Molly comes over and brings you a plate of food. There’s potatoes and a slab of meat, both covered in a savory gravy, a hunk of bread, and two hard boiled eggs, likely from the aforementioned Psyducks. You dig in hungrily, offering a few choice bits to Piplup, ignoring the steady gaze of Rex as he watches you eat.
“Does he listen to you?” Rex asks suddenly. “Obey your commands, like?”
You nod, chewing. You’ve never given him any complicated commands or anything, but he does well enough.
“Has he ever fought? Like with another Pokémon?”
You tilt your head to the side as you think and swallow. “I’ve had his help taking down some wild ones for food, but that’s about all. Usually he just acts as a lookout, or helps me with gathering. I’m good with bow and spear, and that’s good enough for most game.
Rex leans back in his chair, deep in thought, and you dig back into your meal.
“The northerners have always been good friends of ours,” Rex talks wistfully, fiddling with a pipe but not lighting it. “I know you preferred to stay up there and do your own thing, and that’s fine, but we’ve traded in the past, helped each other out when we could. You know, bein’ neighborlylike.”
You nod and continue eating. While you hadn’t specifically known you traded with this particular village, you know there were some things you had that you couldn’t shoot, gather, or craft, like the metal for spear tips and arrow heads, the fine mesh you preferred for snowshoes, some of the more unique spices.
“We didn’t know none of you was a Pokémon trainer, though.”
“A Pokémon trainer?” you ask. You haven’t heard the term before.
Rex gestured at you with his free hand. “You know, like you and Piplup.”
“Well, I guess I did train him.” You look down at Piplup and he looks back at you, cocking his head. You never really thought much about it; he just kind of was there.
“Now, see, there’s something I think you could help us out with.”
You smile as you wipe up the last of your gravy with a bit of bread. You knew the meal and warmth, nice as they are, wouldn’t be free, and now the discussion of payment was at hand. “Well, I’m pretty handy, that’s for sure. I’m a mean hunter; if you want to stock up on your game stores for the winter, I’d be more than happy to help you out. Or I can work, help you with building or construction…” Your voice trails off as you see Rex slowly shake his head.
“Naw, we got some boys in the village that help out plenty with that sort of thing. My son might have left to go seek his fortune, but there’re plenty more to take his place. This town’s survived winters without any northerner help. What I’d like you to do is something a bit more…” he spun his fingers impatiently as he sought the right word, “a bit more particular-like.”
You furrow your eyebrows. “What is it you’d like me to do?”
“Well, you see…” Rex pursed his lips as he began his tale. “There’s this band of thugs that come ‘round here from down near Celestic. They don’t come up here too often, maybe a few times a year or so, but…” His voice trailed off as he stares into the fire. “It’s hard for a man to admit that he can’t protect his wife and his town, but dagnabbit there’s only so much I can do! He has this rabid… thing on a leash that can tear the flesh off a man faster than you can snap your fingers. None of us here can battle him proper; we have the Psyducks and some Magikarp in the fish pond, but thems not the sort of battlin’ Pokémon.”
Your heart sinks with fear as you figure out where this story is probably going.
“We expected them to come ‘bout a week ago,” Rex continued, oblivious to your deduction, “but that storm probably tripped ‘em up. So, they could be here any day I figure, and if anythin’, that storm and the slowdown probably made ‘em madder than a Beedrill’s nest.They never take enough so’s we can’t survive, after all they’d have no one to steal from if we all died out, but raid right before winter with these ice storms, well…”
“You want me to fight this gang for you, is that it?” You interrupt.
“If you’d be so obliged. Seems like you got a nice fighting Pokémon there. You might be the best chance we have of keeping our stores intact for the winter.”
Your grimace visibly, food hardening in your stomach. Sure, Piplup is more or less trained, and smarter than the average wild Pokémon out there, but he’s never actually battled another Pokémon before, and anything that gang would have would be bound to be trained to fight and much tougher than the wild Pokémon Piplup’s tangled with in the past.
You weigh the options in your mind. You could certainly offer to stay and fight the gang. It would be the polite thing to do, after they fed you and all. But if there’s anything you’ve learned throughout your life in the northern reaches, it’s that when it comes to survival, niceness can get you killed. You never help someone build a shelter before you’ve finished your own or you both could freeze. If you fought this gang and lost, Piplup could be hurt, captured, or even killed, not to mention what the gang would do to you personally for challenging them. You shudder as you remember the stories.
You wouldn’t have to be mean about turning them down. You could offer to sit by with them while the gang raids and then help them hunt and gather afterwards to make up for the lost stores. Though your cheeks burn at the thought of how cowardly it would make you seem to Rex and his wife. You could always just agree to help and then skip out in the middle of the night so you wouldn’t have to face them; after all, you don’t really owe these people. You never asked for the food, or for their troubles. There’s no reason for you to risk your hide for them, or waste time gathering food for them that you could keep for yourself to help in your own survival. They might be facing a hard winter with the gang pressing on them, but not as hard as your own.
You turn your face to the fire to avoid looking at the hopeful couple as you think and plan.
So, once again, we’re left with a three-prong decision. Vote for your favoured option!
A) Help the village by offering to fight the gang
B) Decline to fight, but offer to help rebuilt after
C) Skip out and leave in the middle of the night
Today, we also have a special DOUBLE VOTE! To help us plan ahead for the next few chapters, we’d like to offer up another choice a bit early to help us decide what Mia’s second Pokémon capture will be. This will not happen right away in the story, but having the decision made earlier will help us to plan for the capture and make it fit better into the story.
Please pick your top 3 choices for Mia’s second Pokémon from the following list of Pokémon:
- Absol
- Clefairy
- Duskull
- Eevee
- Gligar
- Ralts
- Sneasel
- Snorunt
- Snover
- Swablu
Votes for Pokémon choices must be sent to Athena via PM. You are, of course, allowed to debate and discuss choices in this thread, but only votes sent in via PM will be selected. We are keeping this vote a secret vote so that it will still end up as something of a surprise to the readers. In case of a tie, the authors will choose between whichever Pokémon are tied for first.
Please note that this vote is only for Mia’s second Pokémon. This does not mean that she will only ever capture Pokémon from this list (this was just the list we chose for the first capture), nor does it mean that any Pokémon not chosen from this list will never be captured. We may use a similar voting system for later captures, through we reserve the right to do it other ways, too, if the mood strikes us.
In case it makes a difference in your vote, as far as this story is concerned, both Fairy-type and Mega Evolution are in-canon, even though neither was present in the original 4th Gen games. However, there’s no guarantee that Mega Evolution will play any kind of a role in this game, so don’t base your choices solely off that or there’s a good chance you’ll be disappointed.
Votes for both Pokémon and Choice Option will be open until Sunday, September 14th!
