Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)
Side Story: Flowers and Reverie

“Mghh…”

Nina released her stretch, awakening in a monochrome world; black skies and grey forest. The only sense of vibrancy being the field of flowers surrounding her with their colorful petals and lifeless stalks.

The girl smiled and called out to the owner of this dream. “Gastly~!” But received no response.

An eerie silence permeated the stagnant air, each breath felt like inhaling tar. It was something that freaked Nina out in the beginning, but after a few more visits, she got used to it pretty quickly.

The problem was that Gastly didn’t exactly perceive the world like normal living beings. So it was inevitable that some details in the Ghost Pokemon’s dream didn’t fully correlate with reality.

“Oh well… she’s trying her best.” Nina mused as she forced herself off the ground.

“Now then, where are you hiding, you sneaky little eldritch balloon…” 

Gastly loved hide and seek, though it was a little unfair since the mischievous ball of gas could dive into the shadows. Nina had to have a serious talk with her about proper rules of conduct when she found herself trapped in Gastly’s dream last time — the little Ghost Ball wouldn’t let her wake up unless Nina found her. There was no malice, just playfulness, which made it all the more dangerous.

Luckily, Espy sensed something wrong in the morning when the girl wouldn’t wake and dived into Nina’s mind to rescue her. This was why Ghost Types were dangerous to own — one little bit of carelessness and the trainer might find themselves cursed or vanished.

Nina took a look around her surroundings. Gastly’s dream world was still limited in scope, depicting her old home, the cave where she found her in and its immediate surroundings. Not in its current decrepit state, but what it looked like before it was invaded; surrounded by a garden of flowers and a lush forest, or it would have been were it not for the distinct lack of colors.

“Let’s see here… Gastly hates going into the cave, too many bad memories. So she’s probably lurking around in the forest again… Gastly!” Nina called out once more as she directed her attention to the static trees.

One of those trees in particular really stood out to her, because it was the only one whose leaves were colored, eliciting an amused chuckle from Nina. “Oh Gastly… You’re so cute you…”

Nina pretended not to notice and deliberately wandered around the vicinity, circling the tree a few times before letting out a smirk. 

“Boo!” Nina exclaimed as she abruptly turned around to face the tree. 

The tree shook, a low ominous laughter filled the air, before it dissolved into a little grey ball of gas. 

Nina giggled and moved in to pull Gastly into a hug. The ghastly ball of flames felt warm to the touch, unlike the waking world where ethereal flames of the Ghost Type directly chilled her soul. 

“Hey buddy, you did it. You managed to add color to your world.” 

“Gas…” 

“Next up, just gotta add some scent to the flowers. Maybe make the air less stifling.” 

“Gas…” Gastly did a little twist in the air and nuzzled against Nina before hovering over to a nearby flower and glared at it in concentration. And with much effort, the stalk of the flower came to life with a green tinge.

“Great work, Gastly!” Nina cheered, eliciting a happy cry from the Ghost in return.

“Next, how about we try to practice some of your moves? You’re still struggling with Mean Look because of how nice you are.”

Gastly, Nina found, was quite the pacifist — a Pokemon who was largely uninterested in battles and training. 

Most of the time, when Nina was training with the rest of the team, Gastly was content to just watch in Nina’s shadow. And during the few spars that she managed to coax her into, Gastly was too timid and afraid of harming others. Preferring to take on a more defensive stance instead.

The only exception was in this dream realm, where Gastly was free to do whatever she wanted, with the assurance that nobody could get hurt. Fortunately, she did have a lot of affection for Nina and took her role as the girl’s bodyguard very seriously. So in this dream at least, she was willing to work on her more defensive moves.

“Gas…” Gastly furrowed her perpetually droopy brows and tried to look as tough and mean as possible, eliciting laughter from Nina. 

“Silly Gastly… It’s not enough to just look mean, you gotta imbue intent and Type Energy into it as well. Here, let’s try it again.”

Thus Nina and Gastly spent the night together in the dream — a regular routine for them ever since Gastly joined the team. Fortunately, the sleep still counted, so Nina never woke up feeling exhausted from the endeavor.

***

“Girl date!” Nina declared as she sauntered down Breakwater Bay, the little college town neighbouring the Vermilion Flame, with Espy in tow and Gastly in her shadow.

Brucey and Sir Clodington had gotten into a fight in the dorm and made an absolute mess. So she had Nitey take the two troublemakers out for some punishment training while she, Espy and Gastly cleaned up. All the while apologizing profusely to Mrs Phillipe, the dorm supervisor, for all the trouble.

And now that everything was done, Nina decided that they deserved a break and took the girls out to get treats while the room was being aired out — it still smelled like swamp and detergent in there. Not the most pleasant combination.

“What do you think, Gastly? Is there anything you feel like trying?”

There was no shortage of food trucks and little eateries in the area. So surely they could find something that the Ghost Type could taste. Or at least, something pretty enough to appeal to Gastly’s curiosity.

The girl’s shadow stirred as the perpetually sad looking Gastly poked her head out to look around, her gaze stuck to a little flower shop across the street.

Nina giggled and reached down to scoop her Gastly into her embrace, trying her darndest to resist the sudden frostbite eating at her arms. “You do love your flowers don’tcha? C’mon, let’s go check it out. Maybe we can find something to decorate our room with. And also to add to your dream.”

“Gas…”

The trio crossed the street to admire some of the flowers out on display, with Gastly hesitantly hovering close but never daring to touch the floral buds outright.

“What’s wrong Gastly? Don’t you wanna get close and have a little sniff at the flowers.”

“Oi! What do you think you’re doing to our merchandise?!”

However, before Gastly could respond, an angry voice called out to them from the shop.

Nina frowned and looked over towards the irate woman who walked up to them. “We’re just looking at the flowers you have on display ma’am.” The girl answered amicably. After all, why bother putting the flowers out if the shop didn’t want people looking at them?

But the woman’s face only darkened as she pointed at a sign inside the shop that stated, no Ghost or Poison Types allowed.

Nina tilted her head in consideration and asked in genuine curiosity; “I understand Poison Types but what’s the deal with no Ghosts?”

“GET OUT!!!” The woman screamed in borderline hysteria.

So Nina did what any sensible Karen would do and took a picture of the twisted looking woman in front of her flower shop, and made a post on her Pokegram account, that Beverly arbitrarily made for her but which she never used, with the caption; “Worst service ever in my entire existence. DO NOT COME!”

If Nina was alone then she wouldn’t have cared. But the problem was, the woman’s rudeness made Gastly feel bad and THAT was something that she could not overlook. Even Espy was bristling with anger, and it was everything that Nina could do to stop the Espeon from getting them into trouble.

“Easy now, Espy… She’ll get what’s coming for her,” assuaged Nina as she showered Gastly with kisses, turning her lips all blue from frost. “It’s okay, Gastly… Some people are just assholes. I’m pretty sure there’s another flower shop around the corner, let’s have a look there instead.”

Gastly moaned in dejection and melted back into her shadows, further fueling Nina’s outrage. So in a further act of escalation, she typed out a rant in the Cerulean Gym group chat with the picture she took. “The girls will know what to do…” Every single one of her colleagues were regional celebrities with a lot of influence. That shop was done for.

Nina was cognizant of the fact that she was overreacting. But whatever mistake she made was purely out of ignorance and she had been nothing but polite in her response. The level of hostility and rudeness she was subjected to was completely uncalled for. 

“No one hurts my precious Pokemon and gets away with it!” The girl fumed, receiving a pulse of approval from Espy, who was even more of a Karen than Nina was even during the best of times — a thought that earned her an angry wave of denial and protest from the prickly princess.

The next shop they went to was a lot more amicable than the previous one. Probably because Gastly was still hiding in her shadow.

“So what’s the deal with the no Ghosts sign?” Nina asked the florist who was tending to her.

“Hmm? Oh, that's because flowers wither at the touch of Ghost Pokemon, so we want to avoid any accidents.”

Nina nodded in acknowledgement. It did make sense. “You do realize that most rich people have Ghost Pokemon as bodyguards right?” The girl also went on a little rant about the treatment of the previous florist.

The florist chuckled. “Yes, which is why it’s fine if they stay in the shadows or outside. And I do apologize for what you had to go through — that was very unprofessional of Donna. But that’s also the reason why she has a poor reputation and why our shop is the best florist in Vermilion City.” The man proclaimed, unable to resist jabbing at his business rival.

Nina chuckled. “I don’t know about the whole city, but you’ll probably be the only flower shop in the Bay very soon.” She had seen first hand how nasty those divas over at the Cerulean Gym could get.

“Anyways, do you know if there’s any species of flowers at all that are resistant to the touch of a Ghost?” The girl continued to ask, eliciting a considerate hum from the florist.

“Hmmm… The only one that I know of would be spider lilies… Aside from that, sunflowers are pretty hardy and are actually Ghost repellant. Though they do wilt with enough exposure. Might I suggest artificial flowers for your Gastly instead? They’re more durable, maintenance free and equally as beautiful. We also have perfumes for sale to make up for the lack of scent, though Ghost Pokemon typically don’t have a strong sense of smell.”

Nina tilted her head in consideration and continued to look around with Espy. She wanted to get real flowers for Gastly if possible. Nina had a feeling that Gastly was well aware of the harm she brought to the delicate flora, so there would be no need to worry about accidents. 

It was a shame that the shop didn’t have any spider lilies in stock. Though such morbid flowers hardly suited Gastly’s delicate sensibilities. So she picked out a bouquet of the most vibrant flowers the store had as well as a separate bouquet of delicate paper flowers, no expenses spared, much to the florist’s pleasure. 

She abstained from the perfume though. Much of what the shop had to offer was too strong for Nina and Espy’s liking. And she knew for a fact that Brucey might react poorly to it.

“Es.” 

A series of images were beamed into Nina’s head, eliciting a smile from the girl. “Great idea, Espy. Let’s stop by an arts and craft store later.” Which ended up being unnecessary because the flower shop had what they wanted on sale as well, next to the checkout counter.

***

“Come on out Gastly, the mean lady is gone now.”

Nina tried to coax her ghastly ball of sadness to come out of her shadows, but to no avail. So the girl turned towards Espy for help. The pair was currently sitting on a shaded bench near the beach.

Espy nodded and tried her best to reach out to Gastly’s mind, furrowing her brow in exertion as she did. 

According to Purple Shadow, the realm beyond the shadows was called Limbo, a monochrome world bordering the realms of life and death, beyond the reach of most Psychic Types. In fact, Espy was leveraging Nina’s mind to call out to Gastly by blasting their intent at the girl’s shadow since she couldn’t form a direct mental link to the sulking Ghost Pokemon.

“Don’t you even think about trying to go into Limbo without a strong enough Ghost to protect you. Not unless you wanna turn into a mindless revenant.” The belligerent man had said, when Nina was pestering him about how he was able to dive into the shadows.

Also to note, it was said that really ancient Ghosts as well as Pokemon of the Elite tier could pull people into Limbo without their consent. Hence why they were so dangerous. Though such an act was against the rules in League sanctioned battles. Most untrained Ghost Types weren’t capable of such a feat though, so there was no need to worry.

After much coaxing, a teary eyed Gastly finally poked her head out, eliciting a warm smile from Nina as she pulled the ethereal ball of flames into her arms. 

“Don’t be sad, Gastly… You did nothing wrong. Here, I bought you some flowers.”

Gastly quivered and approached the bouquet with apprehension, being very careful not to make any sort of contact with the delicate blossoms.

Nina chuckled. “It’s fine, Gastly. These ones are fake. The real ones are by Espy. See?” The girl said as she moved the paper flowers closer to Gastly, eliciting a look of surprise from her as she moved in closer to nuzzle against the colorful petals.

“And I got these as well. Tadah!” The suggestion that Nina had gotten from Espy earlier was origami flowers. Which were cheap and a lot more durable than the delicately crafted fake flowers. Which meant that Nina could make a flower crown and wear it on Gastly.

Nina pulled up some diagrams on how to fold origami flowers on her Pokedex and the three of them had an impromptu origami folding party right there on the bench. The results were quite mixed, with Nina’s work looking like it had been done by a kindergartener while Espy was folding masterpiece after masterpiece with a haughty smirk on her face. 

Gastly just watched since she didn’t have hands but Nina assuaged her by saying that she would be able to do it herself soon when she inevitably evolves into a Haunter.

In the end, once they had enough to form a decent looking flower crown, Nina strung them together with her portable sewing kit — a must for any outgoing trainer. Magical Pokemon World cloth was still cloth after all.

Nina squealed as she placed the flower crown atop the bashful looking Gastly. “Gosh, just look at you! So cuuuute!”

“Es!” Espy joined in as well with a nod and words of encouragement, causing Gastly’s flames to flare up even more in a vibrant blue. The origami crown was unharmed of course, since those flames didn’t emit any heat, though the paper was starting to discolor. So Nina quickly called for a selfie.

“Alright girls, that was quite the workout. So how about we go get some snacks.” Nina pointed to one of the food trucks in their vicinity. “That truck selling crepes has one that kind of looks like a bouquet of flowers doesn’t it? So let’s try it out.” She remarked, referring to one of the advertised pictures showcasing a jumbo crepe piled high with colorful fruits and Berries slices.

“Es!”

“Gas…”

“Just don’t tell Nitey about it, okay? He needs to cut down on the sugar.” The girl giggled as she got up to go get food with her Pokemon.

***

Author's Note:

This marks the 6th side story. Which means that we have only one last one to go.

I'll officially start releasing Part Three beginning next week. And the first drop is a 5 chapter bulk release. Which puts the public release exactly 10 and 15 chapters behind the Patreon. Hehe... Look at that, seems I'm not so bad with maths after all.