Palemoon was content to remain a passive observer throughout the second round of explanations, giving Ren space to ask his little heart out. His and his dad’s conversation went much further in terms of scope than the one she’d had, no doubt helped by all the understanding—if surface level—that Ren already had. She didn’t fuss about any of the follow-up explanations that went over her head. The connection between Ren and his parents was more important. And, besides, his excitement and awe each time his dad revealed another bit of the world to him made her feel much warmer by proxy.
Just because Luna opted to stay out of the questioning didn’t mean that Ren forgot about her, though. Once Kaori brought back the blanket she had left upstairs, the boy wasted no time wrapping it around them both and huddling up to his magical friend. He constantly looked up at her in affirmation whenever another bit of trivia blew his mind, and each time she’d gladly reflect his smile back at him.
It was dark outside now, and it took her off-guard.
Thinking back, she could recall seeing glimpses of the sunset or the dimming world around them when she observed Kaori helping Ren with his ‘homework’, but the change from that to utter darkness was still shocking. Her people were hardly unfamiliar with artificial lighting, made by campfires and primitive torches or even Will-o'-the-wisps, but this was different. The light she was familiar with merely let her and her family barely make each other out, or filled a small clearing with warmth and smoke. It didn’t, it couldn’t fight back against the night, it could only slightly remedy it.
And here, under the artificial lights, she hadn’t even noticed it got dark outside. They weren’t just handy; they were not unlike Humans’ own personal suns. And not just rhetorically, even—in any other circumstances, Palemoon would’ve already been heading bedward, or at least felt the exhaustion of a wintry day in her body. Instead, aside from the occasional dull ache emanating from her injuries and slight overexertion, she felt completely fine, with just the faintest veil of drowsiness creeping up on her. She could keep going for hours more, easily.
That internal change wasn’t missed on her, even if its exact causes were uncertain. Was it just the lights that messed her body’s perception of time, or was it also the warmth of this place, effortlessly keeping it livable even for the psychic-less, furless creatures around her? Did the foods she’d had earlier also affect it, nourishing her body more than what her people often prepared? The last factor was especially dubious, and not just because it hurt her pride, but it couldn’t be wholly discounted.
Either way, Ren was just wrapping up his latest barrage of questions, his racing mind finally running out of things to ask. In that very instant, at least. Before he could refuel his mouth with more words, though, his mom spoke up from her padded chair, looking over them all as she got up. “Aight, the hunger’s getting to me. Time to finally order that pizza, eh, Ren?”
The boy didn’t have to be reminded of the treat twice; his previous train of thought got discarded with enough force to leave a crater. “YEAH! Are you really gonna order it, mom!?” he asked pleadingly, leaning towards her in Luna’s light embrace.
Kaori chuckled. “Of course! Here, I think we had the pamphlet for a nearby place somewhere around here...”
While his wife got to rifling through the various drawers lining the living room and surrounding corridors, Hiroto watched, concern creeping into his features. “I’m surprised you’re actually following through on that, honey.”
A flash of furrowed brows went through her at hearing what she initially parsed as an insult. “Why wouldn’t I?” she snapped back, sounding much more cross than intended.
For Hiroto’s sake, he noticed the misstep and figured out its source, raising his hands in a calming gesture. “Not because of anything bad on your end. I didn’t mean to make it sound like that. It’s just that caving to bad ideas and shortcuts like that is unlike you.” Ren flinched at hearing the upcoming meal be described like that, eyes immediately shying away from either of his parents. Luna was torn between conveying his state to his father directly, hoping to make him reassure his son, and focusing on comforting the boy.
Thankfully for her, Kaori took the former task upon herself. “Who says it’s a ‘bad idea’? If there’s any day where takeout is the best possible idea, it’s today. I am too frazzled to touch the stove, so unless you wanna make something for yourself, we’re ordering.” She spoke firmly, her tone unwavering even as her eyes dug through the containers before her. “Besides, I figure Ren especially deserves something nice like that.” And then, she flinched and abruptly continued, as if foretelling what her husband’s immediate response would be. “And yes, he’s earned it.”
Despite his mom’s words being firm in his defense, the tension in Ren’s body lingered. His mind immediately associated raised voices with him having done something wrong, and it wasn’t until he’d found it in him to actually parse what his mom had said that he calmed down. Hearing that he had earned the treat didn’t bring him even half the relief he thought it would’ve, though. After all, that’s how he should’ve always been. He’d just met the minimum expectations.
Even Hiroto was convinced now, though not without a parting comment of his own. “I just hope this won’t become a regular occurrence...” he muttered, before refocusing on the black rectangle in his hand.
“Oh believe me, this occurrence is anything but regular. And even then,” his wife began, looking up from the pile of old advertisements printed on gleaming plastic and towards her son, “maybe what we think of as ‘regular’ should change, too. Anyhow—finally found the leaflet.”
As Kaori walked back for her phone, gleaming dark red sheet in hand, Luna shifted her attention to the boy beside her, holding him closer. “^How are you feeling, Ren?^” she silently asked, making him scurry under the blanket and hold her side as firmly as his little arms were capable of.
“I’m okay,” he whispered. The sound was much too quiet to be caught by Palemoon’s physical ears, but plenty audible to her mind, and she held him tighter in turn.
“^Are you sure?^”
He hesitated, eventually losing the fight against a sniffle. “I’ve earned this, right?” he asked nervously.
“^Of course, sweetie!^” she stroked his shoulder. “^Of course you deserve this.^” Not the exact question he’d spoken out loud, but the one he’d actually meant.
Ren nodded shakily, getting his expression under control as he poked his head out of the blanket again, looking at his disinterested father. “I hope so...”
Kaori’s words, loud and clear, put an end to any more covert discussions, if only because her speaking up made Ren pause. “Hello, I’d like to order some pizza.”
Palemoon turned to look at who she was talking to, holding Ren tighter all the while. The answer appeared to be ‘nobody’, except maybe for the same kind of black rectangle her husband was holding, now pressed against the side of her face. That’s how it looked like at first, but after a couple annoyed grunts, she did something with the rectangle, and out came words.
Words the Gardevoir had no hope of understanding, but words all the same.
“Alright, I can hear you now. As I was saying—I’d like to order some pizza.”
For all the weird Human devices, the purpose of this one was surprisingly straightforward. Kaori and another voice were speaking in turns, clearly talking to one another over a distance. Lack of any mental or even physical presence backing up the other voice was off-putting at first, feeling deeply wrong to her psychic senses, but even that part made sense once she’d thought about it. Just like the psychics she was familiar with transported underlying thoughts, this contraption transported the physical sounds. She had absolutely zero idea how one could do that, but the ‘what’ was self-explanatory for once.
“I’ll have a large Castelian, and a large... goodness how do you pronounce it, large Karara—no, Kala—ugh. Large number sixteen, please. Unovan, I swear. Genuine Castelian? Uhh, sure—WAIT, no!” Kaori suddenly snapped, eyes wide at having almost made a very big mistake. She took a shallow breath, glancing nervously towards Luna, and continued. “Yes, not the genuine one, the other one. Yes, that one, thank you. Yes yes, drinks too, why not. One large bottle should be enough. Yes, we’ll be paying by card if possible. Our address is 21-37 Hidaka, Tobata Ward, Rustboro. Fifteen to thirty minutes, got it. Alright, thank you!”
*click!*
Palemoon didn’t expect an act of casual talking to drain Kaori to the degree that would have her exhale in relief afterwards, as if she’d come close to getting grievously hurt. The exchange about ‘’Genuine Castelian’’, whatever it was, was the obvious culprit. She was torn between asking about it and leaving the topic be, but eventually settled on the latter—the downright terrified look Kaori gave her in the middle of that conversation was deterrent enough.
“Alright, that’s the order made. Shouldn’t be long,” Kaori smiled at them all, regaining her confidence and reigniting Ren’s excitement.
Even if Luna would rather stay away from that Donphan in the room, there were other, much more innocuous yet no less confusing, things to ask about. Especially with everyone else just sitting there contentedly. “^So, what happens now? I assume that conversation was with someone who would make the food, but how does that food get here?^”
Hiroto was keen to explain. “A delivery person will bring it here once it’s prepared.”
It was the kind of comically cynical idea that Palemoon had discarded earlier, and yet here it was, bluntly shoved into her orange-eyed face. The outside was dark and cold, and having to bring food to someone else through snow sounded more like a punishment than anything else. Though, maybe said ‘delivery person’ would end up dining with them? That would still be an unfair arrangement, but they’d at least get something for their effort.
For her kin’s reputation of having faces like marble masks, Luna’s proved itself to be surprisingly expressive. Kaori wasn’t sure which exact part of her husband’s explanation didn’t connect, but she didn’t mind elaborating for him. “Oh, don’t worry Luna, they’ll get here by car. They won’t have to walk through the snow or anything. They’re paid, too—not as much as they should be, but they are paid.”
It was a reassurance that Palemoon only understood a sliver of, but at least it provided pushback against her imagination. Not walking through snow was good; compensation was even better, even if the word ‘paid’ didn’t map to any ideas she was familiar with. That just left the big question mark of a noun in the room, one that’s been writhing inside her skull for a while now. It was finally ready to be dragged into the discussion, proudly displayed, and dissected. “^I see. What is a ‘car’, though?^”
Whatever it was, her lack of awareness of it was enough to surprise even the boy beside her, the entire family looking up at her with confused blinks. “You really don’t know what a car is?” Ren asked, equal parts curious and puzzled. She firmly nodded, and he continued. “But you’ve seen them before, right?”
Have I?
“^I suppose I may have, Ren, but I don’t know what that word means.^” The ‘may have’ was there more so to accommodate his question than to express uncertainty. She could infer that ‘car’ related to a method of transportation or mobility, and of all the Human items she had seen around the house, exactly nothing looked useful in that regard. Maybe Ren was thinking about some kind of toy?
Kaori began without skipping a beat. “Alright, so cars are—”
Only for her son to cut in, sliding off his seat and yanking Luna’s arm to follow him. “Oh, oh oh I can show you! Dad, can I go to the garage with Luna? I wanna show her our car!” Ren asked, having completely forgotten about the concept of indoor voice in his excitement.
Hiroto exhaled through the nose. “Sure. Just remember to turn off the lights.”
“Thank you, dad! Come Luna, come!” Ren continued, and who was Luna to go against such a raging current of excitement? She and Kaori exchanged quiet giggles as she was dragged from the couch, shivering at the much-colder-than-she-remembered temperature in the house. Being taken to a part of it she hadn’t seen before was intriguing, enough so to make her overlook the shivers rattling her thin body. The door to that particular room looked almost impossibly plain, made of a uniform off-white material with a black, rounded handle. Neither of their textures rang even the most remote bell in Palemoon’s mind.
But what she saw inside that room most definitely did.
Adrenaline gripped her body the moment Ren turned the lights on, psychic energies surging through her spine and arms in anticipation of having to defend herself or flee. Her eyes narrowed and fists clenched as she faced down a metallic beast she’d seen many of the previous day, her shock amplified by not having sensed anything alive in there while they approached. A light blue flare filled her eyes for but a moment, enough for the boy to notice and ask, “Luna? Are you okay?”
...
It took a few long seconds until Palemoon acknowledged his words, her stare-off against the massive beast’s back ending in a stalemate. She’d assumed it to be a threat, but Ren obviously wasn’t afraid. Even more importantly, whatever the object before them was, it wasn’t alive, steadfastly triumphing in its utter inertness. Whether the Gardevoir was ‘okay’ was an entirely separate matter, but at the very least, she had nothing to be immediately afraid of right now. She let out a breath she’d been holding, loosened her posture, and whispered back, “^I am, don’t worry, Ren. I just thought these things are dangerous.^”
“Mom tells me cars are dangerous and that I should always look around when I cross the road,” the boy innocently explained. Before Palemoon’s brain could leap back into fight-or-flight mode again, though, he connected the dots. “HEY! So you have seen cars before!”
Hard to deny that. “^Yes, I have, it seems. So, those are the ‘cars’ I’ve heard about?^” she asked as she cautiously approached, her mental voice keen.
“That’s my dad’s car. He takes mom to work and me to school in the winter in it!”
‘In’ was a pretty important word here. Sure enough, when it wasn’t sprinting past her with a roar, Palemoon could actually make out the insides of the... contraption. And they didn’t turn out to be visceral either, soothing another spurious worry. The seats inside weren’t an exact match for either the couch or the armchairs Ren’s parents used, but they were close enough for her to recognize the similarities between them—those were the places where Humans rested their oddly large bottoms. Everything beyond the seats was squarely beyond her ability to recognize right now, or even describe for that matter.
Instead, she shifted her attention to the rest of the room, the scant little free space that wasn’t taken over by the metal behemoth. Lining the walls and horizontal surfaces were a mix of items she clearly recognized as tools—if much larger than the ones their craftspeople used—and items she clearly recognized as Human trash that littered the woods. And judging by the corrosion gnawing away at many of them, she doubted her classification was all that inaccurate.
“^I see. So you enter this ‘car’, and the ‘car’ then moves with you in it?^” Palemoon asked, backing out of the room as her airways got increasingly weary of its many unpleasant scents.
Ren firmly nodded. “Yeah! My dad has to drive it, though. It’d be nice if his car could drive on its own, m-maybe that way we could talk more while driving...”
Another unpleasant topic, another scurry towards her to hold her hand. Palemoon was under no delusions that her visit here would single-handedly fix the relationship between Ren and his parents, but she deeply hoped it would at least help a little. She ruffled his hair as he turned off the lights and closed the door to the garage, her curiosity temporarily sated.
Very temporarily—before they’d even turned the first corner, unknowns were already bubbling up to the top of her head. Most were technical, ones expressed with ‘how’. How did Humans craft objects this big; how could it move in the first place; how were they so blindingly fast; how many of them were there. The answers to these would fill in a tiny spot in her understanding of Human technology and knowledge, barely larger than a single drop of rain, leaving the rest of the canvas that spanned the sky as blank as it was before that.
Not all her questions were like that, though, and it was these outliers that her conscious focus leaned towards. The massive black stone path she’d seen at the beginning of her journey was just a path for those ‘cars’. That much was straightforward. But why was it there, cutting through the middle of their woods like a scratch on the face of the world? If the cars needed these paths to move around, and the Humans needed the cars to move around, then the answer was simple—they wanted to get to whatever laid at the path’s end.
But there couldn’t have been much there—it approached the foot of the mountains directly. She wasn’t aware of any Humans living in that specific direction, as far as she knew this was a path to nowhere. By Human standards, at least. Which left the underlying question: why was it built? Why was it here, reaching far beyond Human cities, carving chunks of woods they didn’t even live in?
It could be a begrudged necessity, the only way Humans had for moving between their settlements and reaching one another. They obviously could walk, so cars weren’t the ‘only’ method of getting around, but as Ren and Kaori said earlier, they lived too far to get to places on foot. She supposed she could justify that; a scar on the land to connect Humans with each other—but then why did they build their dwelling here? Why expand that way? Did their settlements have no space left in them?
“^That road next to the house takes up so much space,^” Luna broke the silence. “^Where does it even lead?^”
Ren reached into the vast puddle of his memory and only found mud. “I don’t know,” he admitted, not particularly interested in the question. “It has to lead somewhere, though.”
I figured that much, yes.
Palemoon nodded silently as they neared the last couple corners, ending up back on the warm comfort of the living room couch once more. Ren wasted no time resuming his huddling under the blankets, only drawing a warm smile from his mom. His friend’s attention laid elsewhere, though, and once she felt enough time had passed to where bringing up the topic wouldn’t feel awkward, she spoke up. “^That road next to the house. Where does it lead?^”
Both adults perked up at the question, recalling local geography. Hiroto was curious why Luna asked that, but his wife cut him off before he could put words to that curiosity. “Oh, just a couple of villages, I think. There’s a resort close to that route through the mountains to Fallarbor, but I don’t think anyone but weird hotshot trainers and mountaineers ever takes it.”
So, there was something there, but not very much. “^That doesn’t sound like many people.^”
“Nope,” Kaori confirmed. “I’d be surprised if it was more than a few thousand total, and that includes that resort.”
Palemoon’s ‘not a lot’ and Human ‘not a lot’ were clearly very different ideas that only accidentally shared a name, but her general point still stood. A part of her really wanted to ask what was ‘a lot’ to Kaori, but that could wait until later. “^Does that justify the sheer size of that road, then?^”
“How else are the people there gonna get around?” Hiroto asked tersely. “I don’t think they’d enjoy being cut off from the world.”
That was a very fair point, but also not really the crux of Palemoon’s confusion. Annoyingly, Kaori didn’t see through it either, also choosing to point out a technical detail. “The road has two lanes, but it’s not that big, right? It’s what, six, seven meters across? Cuts through the woods, sure, but it doesn’t take up that much space.”
Kaori was technically correct in the strictest sense, but it wasn’t how the Gardevoir saw it. “^But what about all the space around the path? I remember when I approached it yesterday, it felt like life itself avoided even getting close to it as much as possible. It felt downright haunted, and with those—the ‘cars’ whizzing around at their blinding speed, it’s not like it’s not a dangerous place to cross.^”
Hiroto sighed. “Isn’t it a good thing, then? If the wild mons are staying well away from the road, doesn’t that mean there’s less chance they get hurt?”
“^But why should they stay well away? Why should they have to run just because Humans decided to expand and build a ‘road’ there? Are they really necessary with how massive they are?^”
Palemoon raised her mental voice more than she’d wanted to, but the Humans’ ignorance—be it accidental or deliberate—was getting annoying. Fortunately, Hiroto actually gave the dilemma some consideration, despite less than pleasant knee jerk thoughts immediately in response to the Gardevoir’s words. She knew better than to judge people by them, but she’d be lying if she claimed she never did. Ren clung closer to her, confused and now unnerved by this entire conversation.
Kaori was uncertain about the whole point. “There is a train line there too, right? Or at least there was, I remember going to Semboku by train when I was younger. Hope they hadn’t dismantled it in the meantime.”
Hiroto didn’t let the Gardevoir think the trains were a magically better option, either. “Doesn’t a train line take up a comparable amount of space to a road, anyway?” he pointed out.
“I’ve no idea, honey,” Kaori frankly admitted. “Though even if it does, they tend to be built further away from woodland where possible, right? And have paths and tunnels and what not around them for mons to get around.”
“So do some roads I’ve seen.”
So there were ways to have those roads be present without affecting their environment as much? It was good to know, but obviously it wasn’t the case here. “^This isn’t really what I was asking about, it’s—^” she sighed out loud, trying to get a grip on her train of thought. “^Why have Humans spread this much and carved out so much land for themselves? Was there simply no space remaining where they used to live?^”
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As far as the Humans in the room were concerned, this was an entirely different topic, only tangentially connected to Luna’s previous question. She, instead, saw them as deeply intertwined, as humanity reaching a colossal arm of black rock and metal through the surrounding train to claim whichever parts of it they saw fit, whenever they saw fit.
“That’s a question for a sociology researcher. As far as I know, no space remaining was part of it. Our population has been growing for as long as we’ve kept track of it, and while our cities have expanded greatly, so did the number of them. Especially historically, we’ve been growing a ton of crops to feed everyone, and that requires a lot of space, which means expanding as far as the eye can see.”
Kaori’s explanation was appreciated, even though the idea of a constantly expanding population didn’t sit well with the Gardevoir. Surprisingly, it was Hiroto that contributed the next piece of the puzzle, one that cleared up the resulting picture greatly. “Semboku and all the other towns and villages down the road have been there for centuries. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were older than Rustboro. I genuinely don’t know what else you are expecting Luna, for us to just abandon entire towns, thousands of people, to save a tiny slice of the woodland?”
They have been there for centuries; that’s the detail she’d been missing. A surprising one, for sure. The elders made it sound like Humans were a plague that had decided to show up one day, not as a part of the world that’s been there for just as long as her own people. It made some things made sense, but there remained large gaps in her understanding, infuriatingly large. Of course the Humans would make sure the people already living there were looked after, but was it always like this? She certainly would’ve heard many tales of those Human roads if they’d been there for as long as the Humans themselves have; they couldn’t have been as ancient as the Human populations themselves.
It’s not like the Humans living there could’ve been wholly disconnected from the world before their creation. There must’ve been some other routes, other pathways, and... sigh.
“^Was that road always there, always like this? I know I’m missing things for sure, but it just feels so... alien. It doesn’t just feel like a route between your town and those other towns, it feels like something more. Especially if it apparently could’ve been made in a better way, but wasn’t. Why wasn’t it?^” Luna sighed, just about ready to give up on the whole confusing, messy conversation.
“I’d guess they crunched the numbers and figured out it wasn’t worth the extra effort to do so,” Hiroto suggested, only barely holding in a shrug.
“^Is that all it takes? Convenience and calculation?^” Palemoon asked in disbelief.
“I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if some of it was to prove a point, too,” Kaori mumbled. She tapped her fingers against her thigh, sorting through the many ideas in her mind and trying to put herself in the shoes of Luna and other woodland creatures, trying to really see how something innocuous and everyday as a paved road looked like through their eyes.
And what she glimpsed scared her.
At least, before the drawn out *ding-dong* chime cleaved her train of thought in twain. “Pizza’s here!” she quietly cheered as she got up from her seat. Both for herself, her son, and for relief that the dour topic would be hopefully swept off to the side. Not how Palemoon would’ve rather she thought about it, even if she too preferred to focus on something more upbeat.
Luna tried to listen in to the brief conversation taking place out of sight, but another sense soon took priority in her mind. The arrived meal smelled like absolutely nothing she’d ever perceived, the air downright thick with grease. It was frankly off-putting, but she couldn’t say it didn’t kindle her curiosity further as to how a meal that smelled like that could’ve possibly tasted.
Ren leaned in excitedly the moment his mom placed the brightly colored boxes on the table, immediately looking up at her in a wordless request to grab himself a slice. “Just let me grab plates for us all first, Ren,” Kaori giggled as she left the room again, putting her son’s patience to the test. A challenge most grueling, no doubt, but just about manageable with the support of his magical friend to hold his hand, squeezing it each time his focus waned.
With the plates finally placed down, Ren opened the topmost box with more force than either Luna or the boy himself expected, and admired the spoils. And so did his friend, curiously leaning in as she basked in the meal’s radiant warmth.
It didn’t look all that good, in all honesty. There were slices of various berries and mushrooms she was familiar with. Those and some less familiar vegetables aside, though, the surface of the meal was a mishmash of yellows, reds and browns in a way that almost reminded her of a wound. The yellow stuff was especially off-putting, looking downright slimy between its composition and just how glossy it was. Not a texture she liked, but again—she certainly wanted to at least try the mysterious, overwhelming Human meal.
Once Ren had snatched a slice for himself, his mom handed everyone else their portions on glass plates, giggling the whole time. Hiroto was clearly unconvinced about the meal himself, and Kaori didn’t particularly care either way. Ren, however, loved it, and that emotion only tripled in intensity once he got to eating. Palemoon had no idea how to identify the taste sensations going through his mind, but it didn’t take a psychic to realize how delicious he found them. Encouraging, if nothing else.
“Bon appétit!”
With Kaori’s probably-blessing, it was finally time. Her fingers didn’t appreciate the greasy texture, and the scent from earlier was incomparably more intense up close, but the Gardevoir pushed through it until the tip of the triangular portion was in her mouth. She braced herself for the unpleasant textures she was probably about to experience, and bit down.
...
...
!!!
Luna froze as she savored her nibble, her taste buds utterly overloaded. The pancakes she’d had earlier were already overwhelming with their utterly sweet ‘chocolate’ flavor, and this... this was so, so much more. Slimy, sure, but also incredibly savory, and most importantly, salty. Way more intense than she thought food even could taste, but this time, it clicked with her. Before she could even finish processing her first bite, she was already onto her second and third one, gawking eyes staring unfocused at nothing in particular.
It was so salty, and so incredibly tasty because of it. Her people were familiar with and loved salt, but with how woefully difficult it was to obtain, any ingredient with even a hint of saltiness to it was cherished and only prepared for celebrations. She wasn’t quite sure if her first bite of pizza had more saltiness to it than everything else she’d had in her life, but it had to have been very close.
By the time she’d finished that thought, she was already over halfway done with her slice. She was torn between wanting, needing to have all the wonderful food she could get her hands on, and savoring every last nibble to get the most out of the special occasion she was accompanying the family on. The result was her pausing herself intermittently to savor the meal, before inevitably speeding up to a full-blown stuffing the second her thoughts veered elsewhere for even a second.
If not for Ren doing the exact same, he might’ve poked some fun at her being so ravenous now when earlier she was chastising him with the chocolate spread.
“How is it, Luna?” Kaori asked, steadily growing worried at the Gardevoir’s lack of response.
It took her guest worryingly long to answer, but once her plate was cleaned, reddish grease aside, she finally did. “^This is the most intense flavor I’ve ever had in my life.^”
“Isn’t it?” Hiroto quietly remarked, feeling justified in his opposition to the idea.
At least for a second, before the Gardevoir finished the thought. “^It’s utterly delicious.^”
As her husband grumbled to himself, Kaori giggled at the Gardevoir, surprised. “Really? Would’ve thought it’d be off-putting with how salty it was, especially since you guys mostly eat berries and what not.”
Luna didn’t see the connection. “^Yes, we do, but we love salty foods, too. At least, all the psychic friends and family I have do. They’re just really difficult to find or grow.^”
Kaori smiled. “Fair enough! Oh, Luna, do you want Ren to pour you some cola too?”
The boy froze in the middle of pouring a dark brown liquid into a glass, almost spilling it. The cream-colored foam that almost overflowed said glass gave the Gardevoir a pause, but her curiosity was stronger. “^Uh, sure! What is it?^”
“Oh, cola? Not my thing, but kids Ren’s age love it—and so do older kids too,” Kaori added, winking at Hiroto. “It’s a sweet, kinda sour drink, non-alcoholic in case that’s an issue.”
The final point went over Luna’s head. ‘Alcohol’ didn’t ring any bells in her mind, and an attempt at tugging at the mental thread attached to the concept in Kaori’s mind brought to mind the many warnings the Gardevoir had heard about the dangers of fermented berries. She wouldn’t have imagined that Humans not just didn’t mind that kind of poisonous mental alteration, but also seemed to have a fondness for it—at least if Ren’s mom was anything to go by. Palemoon found the idea of not being fully herself scary, but if Kaori didn’t treat it like a big deal, it meant that Humans must’ve been able to remain in control of the faculties even while poisoned by alcohol. Not a skill Palemoon expected, and probably not all that useful, but remarkable all the same.
Anyhow, since the drink before her didn’t even contain said alcohol, she had nothing to worry about. She thanked Ren for pouring her a half glass and brought it close to take a sniff. Contrary to pizza’s raw, overwhelming presence, cola had almost no scent whatsoever, with only a very faint sweetness. Despite that, something about it still wrinkled her nose involuntarily, but not anything she could consciously smell.
But maybe something she could taste.
“Oh, oh oh!” Ren lit up, seeing she was about to drink her portion, and lifted his mostly empty glass into the air, holding it there expectantly. Kaori was about to explain what her son wanted, but her guest figured it out first, tentatively clinking her glass against Ren’s, then sharing in his joy at being able to have a toast with someone after seeing it on the TV so many times.
With Ren proceeding to empty his class in a single swig, Luna gave it a shot, too. She brought the glass to her lips, slowly leaned her head back, felt the drink spill into her mouth,
And panicked.
She only barely had enough grasp on herself to redirect the loud coughs down towards the floor, forcibly expelling every single drop of the deceitful drink from her mouth. Her airways burned; she felt like she was choking up, desperately trying to draw a breath only for her spasming throat to refuse over and over. She watched Hiroto snap out of his seat in the corner of her eye and approach her, the alarm in his mind mirroring her own. And then, finally, a painful breath flowed into her lungs without being immediately coughed out. And then another, and third, and before long, her normal breathing returned, shaky and raspy.
Her whole body shook, both at the sensations and at the mess she’d made.
“Luna, are you okay!?” Ren anxiously asked, taking the shaking glass out of his friend’s hand.
Palemoon slowly nodded, still breathing as deeply as she could. “^I’m okay, I’m okay. I’m sorry for the mess, but, how do you drink something like that!?^” Her raised voice was equal parts shock and genuine curiosity, both of them adding up into her coming off more strongly than she’d intended.
The boy beside her had no idea how to respond. “Wh-what do you mean, Luna? It’s just cola!”
“^It felt toxic, like it was going to burn a hole in my throat!^”
“That’s just carbon dioxide,” Hiroto clarified. “It tastes fizzy and acidic, but is harmless.”
Despite everything the Gardevoir had learned, all the weird truths of the Human she was forced to confront and accept, this one just refused to click. “^I have no idea how, frankly. D-don’t think I’m ever gonna try that ‘cola’ drink ever again...^”
Kaori chimed in. “Well, suit yourself! Definitely an acquired taste, hah.”
Palemoon perked up at hearing her voice approach, then shuffled off to the side as she got to cleaning the floor and table legs with a roll of something white and soft. “^S-sorry for this mess,^” she whimpered, more upset at her own inability to maintain composure than at having choked.
Ren’s mom just dismissed said worry with a flick of her hand. “Oh believe me Luna, Ren used to make a mess like this every other day when he was little.”
“Hey!” the boy cut in, embarrassed and not wanting to be used as a rhetorical device.
“Sorry, sweetie. Either way, don’t worry Luna, I’ll take care of this. I think we have some juice in the fridge if you’d like that. Or maybe water if the flavor was too much and you need a detox. Care for either of them?”
“^I’ll have water, please.^” Palemoon didn’t have to repeat herself. Ren leaped off the couch and bolted towards the kitchen, outrunning even his dad’s grumbling about not running in the house. “^In all honesty, I don’t think I even caught the taste of that ‘cola’. It just tasted like—like burning.^”
“And here I thought you’d have to grab at least a strong shōchū to taste burning, heh,” Kaori chuckled to herself.
Ren running back into the room with a tall glass of pure clear goodness cut his friend off before she could ask Kaori to elaborate. She took a deep swig, each drop soothing her rattled throat until she felt more or less normal again. “^Thank you, Ren. With how intense all the Human foods taste, I’m surprised you all aren’t drinking more water.^”
“They aren’t all this intense,” Ren’s mom tried to defend herself. “My usual tofu katsu is much milder, really most of Human cooking is. It’s the Unovans that really enjoy having their foods melt their mouth.” With one hand full of bundled up, wet paper towels, Kaori was finally done, picking herself up and heading back to her seat. Not without taking another slice with herself after she’d freed her hands up, though—if those pesky Unovans are sharing their weird cooking, might as well take advantage of that.
Despite having nearly been laid out by the cola, Palemoon wasn’t far behind either, refilling her plate soon after. It was intense, but it was her preferred kind of intense, which made it good and righteous, unlike that foul, acidic drink. Ren was next, wanting to keep stuffing himself before his stomach could catch up with him, followed finally by his dad, trying to keep his visible enjoyment of the unusual dinner down to the very minimum.
“Speaking of melting mouths—part of me wants to dig up that bottle of hot sauce we had lying around and see if Luna will enjoy that one.”
The jovial undertone to Hiroto’s words was unexpected and ever so slightly worrisome. ‘Hot sauce’ did not sound very alluring, and considering Ren’s dad then thought of a burning sensation, Palemoon was positive she wanted nothing to do with it. “^I do not think I would, no,^” she stressed her words, feeling content not experiencing any more ungodly flavors today. Hiroto just shrugged and went back to his meal.
And so did everyone else, the chatter becoming temporarily replaced by sounds of chewing, swallowing and drinking. Palemoon might’ve been much larger than the boy beside her, but her stomach was about the same size as his, and she wasn’t sure if she would have the space inside her for another portion. She certainly wanted to, though; it’d be a shame to not be able to taste any more of the goodness before her, but whether she’d be able to grew more and more dubious.
Racing ahead and opening the second box would definitely help in outrunning her stomach—
It took the rest of the room a moment to notice Luna having frozen while opening the second box; her expression turned completely blank. Even once Ren did, tilting his head while looking up at her, all the Gardevoir did was very slowly sit back down with her head fixed straight ahead and her hands clenched, mute shock filling her face. She gulped, took the weakest breath of her life, and reached out mentally to just Ren’s mom. “^Kaori, is that... flesh on that other pizza?^”
A wave of shock went through the Human woman, much like it’d filled Palemoon moments prior. Kaori dashed over to the box and flung it open, shaking eyes darting over its contents. One tense moment passed, another; Ren and Hiroto alike stared at their mom and wife with uncertain worry. Until, finally, a relieved exhale. “Thank the gods—no Luna, it’s not real meat. I think it’s just, like, mushroom paste flavored and made to look like meat.”
Palemoon’s heart skipped a beat—Kaori was being truthful. She less sighed and more so deflated, the release of tension making her body bend forwards. She dared another look, and even despite knowing that what she was looking at wasn’t flesh, she couldn’t help but find the sight deeply off-putting all the same. She couldn’t imagine it not being so. “^Okay, thank you. I—I have to ask, though. Is this an... alluring sight for Humans?^”
Hiroto glanced at the pizza, and then back at Luna, eyebrow raised. “You mean salami?”
She had no idea what that meant, and considering the context, she sincerely did not want to know either. “^I meant flesh specifically.^”
“If you mean raw meat, then no,” Kaori explained. This wasn’t gonna be a pleasant topic, and she hoped she could remain as objective as possible. “I don’t think we can even eat raw meat, I’m not sure. There are many kinds of prepared meat that are popular as delicacies, though, and there're loads of different foods that try to imitate various meats in texture and flavor—like this mushroom salami.”
Despite prepared flesh being no less a disgusting idea to her than raw flesh, Luna still appreciated the clarification. Monstrous as it was, it was hardly a Human exclusive thing, just something that she personally found unpalatable to even think about. “^Is it like Chesto, where it’s only tasty when prepared?^” she hazarded an uncertain guess, hoping that comparison would steer the conversation away from flesh.
“Pfft, tell that to Lilycove weirdos,” Hiroto mumbled under his breath.
Kaori nodded, “Essentially, yes. But, just to be clear, meat is rare—having those few slices be real meat would’ve made the pizza cost almost twice as much. It’s just that people like the taste, so food that can replace it is common, be it actual fake meat or tofu or what not.”
If there was a silver lining to that entire conversation, it was that final reassurance. Palemoon had a negative interest in finding out how flesh tasted like, be it real or imitation, but if humanity at large mostly stuck with the latter, then that was a good thing. The best possible outcome, considering such a stomach churning topic. Well—the actual best outcome would’ve been them being vegetarians like her people were, but that was beside the point.
“Now I’m wondering what your people eat,” Hiroto chimed in. “Do you grow anything?”
Thank the stars, an out to this whole cursed discussion. “^We do! We tend to the berry bushes in the woods around us, and have been slowly cultivating them in more places. We’ve been trying to grow a few kinds of mushrooms in a nearby cave, but have had trouble getting them to bloom. As to what we eat,^” Palemoon straightened out, not wanting to make her people look primitive by comparison, “^All the earth and skies have to offer! Root stews, roasted Lums stuffed with legumes and honey, baked mushrooms—all that can be made with fire, patience, and ingenuity!^”
The delivery was hammy, but the intent was there. For what it was worth, Kaori really liked that framing, and Ren was preoccupied by making a disgusted expression at the mention of mushrooms. They weren’t her favorite either, so Palemoon could understand him, but her attention was entirely on Hiroto, who was even further intrigued. “I see. What about grain? Do you grow any?”
“^There are a few patches of flax we look after, yes.^”
Hiroto shook his head. “I meant do you grow any? As in, separate from any wild plants.”
As straightforward as the concept of agriculture was to him, all Palemoon could do was tilt her head. They probably could try planting the grains they gathered and cultivate them closer to their village, but there was no need to do so. They could share, and the woods had plenty to sate them all. If anything, grains were the least important part of their diet, between berries and fermented grasses being its central pillars—though the Gardevoir had no more fondness for the latter than Ren had for mushrooms. “^No, we don’t.^”
“How does your food taste, Luna?”
Ren’s question lit a brilliant light in Palemoon’s mind. She could try explaining it to him, but she could also show him directly. She’d taken some of the dried nut paste with her for her journey, after all. Which...
“^Kaori, where is everything I had brought with myself?^” Her patched up, slightly bloodied outfit was there, right where Kaori had left it earlier, but in the chaos of the past couple days, she had entirely forgotten about everything else she’d brought with herself here. Not to her detriment—it’s not like she’d needed any of the supplies or tools during her stay at the stone fortress the Humans called home, but it was an embarrassing realization to make all the same.
Ren’s mom perked up at the question, picking herself up from the seat and making a round around the room. “You had some food with yourself, so I put it in the fridge, but everything else should be here.” She opened a nearby drawer and passed its contents over to Luna, before walking out of sight.
Couldn’t share her meal with her friend yet, but she could show him other stuff in the meantime. Both Ren’s and Hiroto’s attention immediately leaped towards the small flint knife once she’d taken it out of its sheath. The former found it awesome, the latter... amusing. “Woooowwww... can I hold it?” the boy asked.
“^Of course, Ren. It is quite sharp though, so be careful,^” Palemoon chided. The tool was only about the size of his hand, with the handle making up most of its size. He swished it around, first in abandon, before catching a glance of his dad’s unamused look and slowing down.
Said dad had his own comment to add. “Wouldn’t have thought you had a knife on yourself. You’re the last person who needs one.”
Luna blinked at his words, confused. Even simple, tiny knives were so useful in so many situations! Her psychics were good with linear forces, but while there were techniques for compressing them into an edge or even a needle-like point, she could never get a good grasp of them. It was just so much easier to just use a blade as an intermediary; why not carry one with herself everywhere? “^Why so? Do Humans have some other tools that have replaced knives?^” It was the best hunch she could come up with, but she knew it was at least partially wrong—the utensil she’d seen earlier when eating pancakes was very much a knife, if dull and serrated. Human technology was weird and fantastical, but not so that she could believe that a ‘knife but worse’ would succeed regular knives for everyday use.
Her response only ended up passing the ball of confusion over to Hiroto, who stopped, chewed on it, and finally teared his way to the misunderstanding at its center. “No, no. It’s just that outside of homes, people often use knives for self-defense, or at least intimidation.”
...
Palemoon wanted to ask how in the world could a tiny flint knife be considered intimidating, but she soon figured it out herself. As she’s realized earlier, she and other mons were scary to Humans in no small part because of the raw difference in power. Even in her injured state, she would’ve had no issue in defeating the entire family in combat and it wouldn’t even be close. With Humans being so utterly unarmed, even something as pathetic as a single, makeshift claw would make a world of difference. “^I see. In all honesty, I hadn’t even considered it being used as a weapon.^”
“I figured.”
Hiroto’s comment chilled the room, but before long, Luna was back to showing off everything she could to the boy beside her. The gourd of water was self-explanatory, but it was funny to hear that Humans also used these once, and nowadays they served a shorthand for medieval times. She had to explain the purpose of kindling to Ren in much, much more detail than she would’ve expected for the boy to ‘get’ its purpose. The Human dwellings didn’t use open fire anywhere, that was true, but were Humans so divorced from its usage that they had no idea how to start it anymore with tools?
Luna didn’t expect the paste block to be chilled when Kaori brought it back, but it was probably just being kept outside to preserve it. And, more importantly, to not stink up the house. She watched as Ren grew to regret his decision to give it a bite in real time, trying her hardest not to giggle too loud at the sight. Thankfully, the provision tasted better than it smelled, but clearing that particular bar just involved resisting the urge to grab a shovel and dig oneself underneath it.
Once the paste was ushered back into the fridge and the rest of her stuff was placed back in the drawer, silence invited itself back into the room again. There were few bites and gulps to fill it anymore as everyone’s stomachs caught up with them, but some were more resolute than others to stave their influence off just that bit longer.
What was even better than the food, though, was the warmth that filled the room, one that Palemoon took for granted and which Ren yearned for. “It’s nice sitting like this together,” the boy spoke up, not sure how else to put that thought into words.
Luna felt the pang of guilt that shot through the boy’s parents, but their faces didn’t show it, both of them responding with a soft smile instead. “It really is, heh,” Kaori chuckled. “Forgot how nice moments like this can feel.”
It was only now that the Gardevoir caught onto the fact that even something as basic as coexisting with his parents was uncommon for Ren. Maybe it was for the lack of anything the whole family could do together? “^They really do, indeed. My family huddles together like this almost every evening.^”
The boy’s eyes shot wide, his drowsy mind lighting up with something she hadn’t sensed him feel yet—jealousy. It didn’t last long, smothered in feeling guilty about it, before being supplanted by curiosity. “What do you all do!?”
“^Many things!^” Luna began, holding him closer to her side. “^We meditate together, recount stories passed down from our ancestors—sometimes just goof around and cuddle, or sketch on the walls or the floor. Every once in a while we all focus together, share a vision amongst ourselves, and all weave a story together, everyone adding something to it.^”
Ren found the idea of someone as magical and distinguished as Luna drawing on the walls to be hilarious. His parents honed in on her last example, with Hiroto dismissing it as being gibberish, while Kaori... found the premise quite familiar. “Role playing stories together, eh? I used to play these games a bunch in college.”
Luna leaned forwards, fascinated at the thought of a non-psychic replicating something as reliant on her powers as that. “^Really? How? Do your devices let you partake in shared visions?^”
The Human woman just chuckled. “If you mean actual visions, then no, but we all got our imaginations, right? Just need some game pieces and a map and everyone can fill in the blanks themselves. Hell, I’m sure there are video games nowadays that will do that for you, too, just not exactly how you’d imagine it.”
Collaborative storytelling without the sensory aspect sounded very stilted as a concept, but hardly infeasible. “^I see! Is that kind of ‘role playing’ common?^”
“In the right circles, it sure is! Though then if you go too deep into those circles, you end up arguing with strangers on the internet as to which rulesets are the best and having to endure people trying to defend inherently evil races of sentient beings and so on, at which point everyone loses,” Kaori grumbled, ranting from experience.
The specifics went right over Luna’s head, but one word caught her attention. “^Rulesets? Why would you need rules for such storytelling?^”
Hiroto didn’t speak up, but he furrowed his brows at the question, at the very idea of rule-less anything. Of course, something as involved as this needed rules, otherwise it’d be a chaotic mess! Not a frame of mind that Palemoon really understood, but Kaori’s answer made much more sense. “Oh, they’re mostly for combat, from what I recall.”
Which did make sense. “^Ah. We rarely have fights in our stories. Though, I suppose when they do happen, having a set of rules is a better way of handling them than listening to my cousins argue with each other about whose character would win in a duel for an hour...^”
Kaori broke into laughter, followed by Ren, Luna herself, and finally Hiroto. The boy didn’t get the full implications and his dad’s amusement was laced with an unspoken ‘I told you so’, but it was good laughter all the same, the kind they all needed. It might’ve been cold and dark outside, and the day might’ve been strenuous for everyone involved, but at that moment, they were all happy.
Ren wanted this moment to last forever.
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From the Vast! and
