PMD: Crux of the Self

Peulvan

"You can call me Wyn."

"And I'm Von!" He followed after Braixen as she led him out of one hall and down another. "I'm allowed to say that, right?"

"Only to other humans," she winked, "But even then, use your judgment. Especially when there's fairies about."

"Sorry, fairies? Is Titania a Pokemon now?"

Wyn smirked wryly. "How much more disbelief can you afford your circumstances right now, Von?"

"Good point. Sorry."

They stepped into the castle's kitchen. A wide oak table dominated the center of the room, though it only rose a foot and a half tall. Wyn beckoned for him to take a seat on one of the low straw-padded stools, and he obliged.

"Where would you like me to start?" she asked.

"If I may make a guess; you haven't found a way back to Earth yet?"

"Correct, though we are still searching."

Von knew this answer was coming, yet his heart still sank. There would be no easy escape from a hostile world of powerful predators and warping landscapes, forever trapped in a toxic body.

Wyn was quick to read the despondency on his face. "Would you like tea, Von?"

"Oh, sure?" At least there were distractions. The last hot drink he had was burned coffee out of a styrofoam cup at a truck stop. Not like Earth is friendly either. But at least back home, I can be in my own skin.

Plenty of time to languish later. There was another human with him. He wasn't in this alone. "Do you know how we got here?"

Wyn made her way to the kitchen's fireplace. In one swift motion, she drew the stick of driftwood lodged in her tail and it lit up like a torch. One wave of her wand and the fireplace roared to life. "Nothing conclusive, but we've all got our own theories. How familiar are you with the franchise?"

"The franchise? Like the games?" He shook his head. "I played Emerald when I was fifteen. I gotta say, that didn't quite prepare me for whatever's happening."

She tucked her wand back into her tail before she filled an iron teapot with water from a clay pitcher. "It's difficult to quantify the vastness of what Pokemon are capable of. It sounds like you stopped playing the games before they introduced gods, yeh?"

"Yeah, how does that work? How is any of this real? Are we made of pixels on a cellular level or something?"

"You don't need to get all existential, we're still flesh and blood. Unless you're made of steel, or a sentient rock," she corrected herself. She hung the kettle above the fire and stepped back over to the table. "It's wild to think about, right? Does this prove multiverse theory correct, were we somehow pulled into a parallel universe where Pokemon are real? Or did we all unknowingly get Sword Art Online'd?"

"I don't know what that last one is."

She sank cross-legged onto a seat beside him. "What was the last thing you remember doing on Earth?"

He had to think for a moment. He parked in a lot outside of a hardware store to use their bathroom, but his recollection grew foggy after that. "I stepped out of my car."

"Nothing else? No portal to a magical land? No government goons jumping out of a van and strapping a VR headset on you?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm not an anime protagonist, no."

"You never know. But we're in agreement that multiverse theory sounds more plausible, yeh?"

"Sure, why not. Pokemon, though?"