GCEA Sinnoh Monthly Short Story Challenge

[Noblejanobii]

Story Submission:
Username: Noblejanobii
Character Name: Amy Risa
Story Title: All the World’s a Stage
Word Count: 2800
Rating/Content Warnings: G
Story:

Spoiler:

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

Amy stared at the stage wide eyed in fascination as the memorized lines spilled forth from her father. She watched as he moved across the stage with graceful coordinated movements, the soliloquy coming to a dramatic close. To her, this theatre was the most famous and the best in the world, even if it was only a rinky dink theatre in the backroads of Kalos. To her, nothing could top her father’s performance.

As the show drew to a close, Amy’s other parent, Jaime, led her backstage. Handing Amy a rose, they pushed her forward towards her father. Amy stumbled forward before running over to her father. “Great job, Papa!” she cheered, holding out the rose to him.

Her father, Lugos, smiled and took the rose. He sniffed it and chuckled. “A rose from my biggest fan, I’ll treasure it forever.” Amy giggled excitedly as Lugos ruffled her hair. He bent down to her and put a hang on her shoulder. “Now Amy, Jayjay and I have been talking. We think it’s time that you get a proper introduction to pokemon.”

Amy’s eyes grew wide with excitement as the statement set in. She stared with childlike wonderment at her parents, grinning wildly. “Really?” she asked, “Really really?”

Lugos chuckled at his young daughter and nodded. Ruffling her bright red hair, he answered, “Really really. I’ll be introducing you to the pokemon I work with. They’re all very friendly, but they are ghost types, so if you think you’ll be too scared we can introduce you to Jayjay’s pokemon first.”

Amy looked between her two parents in thought. Jaime nodded their head with a smile, as if to encourage Amy to pick whichever option she felt most confident in. After a few moments of thought, her excitement got the better of her and she began to bounce. “I want to meet your pokemon! I want to meet your pokemon!” she chanted.

Lugos and Jaime exchanged happy looks before Jaime put their hand on Amy’s back. “Alright then, sweetie. Lugos, please lead the way.”

Amy continued to bounce as her parents led her further backstage. She paid little attention to the other actors and workers, having met them before they were not her focus at this time. No, she wanted to meet the real stars. She wanted to meet the pokemon behind it all. Her eyes darted around the backstage, hoping to catch a glimpse of anyone hiding in the rafters and curtains of the theatre.

Lugos pushed aside one of the curtains and opened a door, Jaime pushing their daughter inside. Amy gasped as she gazed around the room. It was filled with pokemon! Consisting of mostly ghost types, the room has a desk for every pokemon. They were all covered with an array of items ranging from flowers as gifts to makeup for the actor pokemon.

Amy’s mind began to flood with questions. How did the pokemon talk in the plays? Did they make all the cool special effects? Did these pokemon all live in the theatre? She continued to look around, hoping to spot one pokemon in particular, but had no luck as her parents led her over to the nearest pokemon.

“Ya? Yaaa. Yamask!” the pokemon chattered as it spoke to the pokemon next to it. As Lugos and the others approached, the yamask paused and looked over at them. He waved and floated closer. “Ya ya!”

“Good to see you too, Osiris,” Lugos answered. “I wanted you to meet someone knew today and help me introduce her to the others. You know my spouse, Jaime.” Jaime gave a short wave as they were mentioned. “Please meet our daughter, Amy.” Lugos looked down at his daughter and pushed her forward a bit. “Amy, please meet one of our main pokemon actors, Osiris the yamask.”
Amy gasped and stared at Osiris in wonder. She had seen him perform alongside her father many a time. The yamask seemed delighted at the attention from Amy and extended his hand to her. Amy eagerly clasped onto it with both her hands and shook his hand aggressively.

“Eaze up there, Amy, you’re gonna hurt him,” Jaime teased.

“Ya ya!” Osiris protested, waving off Jaime’s comment. He pat Amy on the head and gave her a large smile. “Yamask!”

Amy tilted her head in confusion and looked at her parents. “Why isn’t he talking? He always talks on stage.”

Lugos paused, taking a second to glance around the rafters before pointing to a perch high above them. Nestled in the wooden rafters and velvet curtains was a bird with a variety of brightly colored feathers. As it shifted, Amy saw its head poke out, revealing a chatot!

“That’s the source of the voices, my dear Amy,” he answered. Lugos gestured to Osiris. “Yamask, as well as most other pokemon, don’t have the ability to speak. But thanks to our helper, Muse the chatot, we’re able to create some theatre magic to make it seem like they can talk.” Amy’s eyes grew wider as Lugos continued to talk, completely enamored even if she was too young to totally understand everything Lugos was talking about. Lugos chuckled in amusement and ruffled Amy’s hair. “Alright, now say goodbye to Osiris and I’ll take you to meet someone else.”

“Awww, okay,” Amy pouted. She turned to Osiris and said, “Bye Osiris!” Osiris offered her a smile and bowed before returning to his desk.

Amy followed close behind her parents as they began to lead her to the next desk. Suddenly all the lights cut and a spotlight shown on the trio. Lugos shielded his eyes for a moment and chuckled. “Alright, Shara, stop messing around and come meet my daughter if you’re so eager.”

All the lights returned to normal as a rotom burst from one of the stage lights. It garnered a couple glares from the other pokemon as it zipped its way down to the group. Shara let out a snicker before lowering itself to Amy’s side. “Roto! Rotom!” it cheered as it floated around Amy’s head.

Amy giggled and watched the little orange pokemon in amusement. She liked how her hair stood on end in its direction as it moved around her. “Hi there!” Amy answered back, “I”m Amy! Nice to meet you!”

“Roto roto!” Shara cheered back.
Jaime pointed up to the lights high above the stage and said, “Shara is one of the stage manager’s pokemon. It helps with all the lighting you see, like the big giant spotlight.” They gestured to Amy’s hair and added, “Shara’s part electric type so it’s able to control the electricity in the lights. It also causes your hair to stand up like this.”

“That’s so cool!!” Amy exclaimed, “Make all the lights flicker! Right now!”

Shara got a devilish look on its face, but was quickly intercepted by Lugos. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Amzy, with everyone still working. Maybe another time, okay sweetie?”

“Awww, alright,” Amy said with a pout.

“Yo, Lugos!” another worker called out from the catwalk above the stage, “Can you send Shara back up here? I need some lighting tests done.”

“Sure thing,” Lugos called back. He looked at Shara and pointed to the catwalk. “Alright, you heard your trainer. Back you go.”

“Roto roto!” Shara snickered and waved goodbye to Amy before zipping off back to its post. Amy watched in amazement as it jumped from light to light until it reached its trainer. Her father worked with so many cool pokemon!

“Kirlia!” another pokemon called as it approached the group. Amy looked over and spotted a kirlia with a stufful and a gastly somewhat hiding behind it. She stared at them curiously. She recognized the kirlia as one of the actor pokemon, but who were the other two?

“Oh perfect timing! Amy, please meet Allen the kirlia. He’s one of our bests actors, but he’s assisted by his two companions, Tima the stufful and Aage the gastly,” Lugos explained. Each pokemon nodded their head as they were introduced. “We typically use Allen for more supernatural roles like those of a warlock, so Aage and Tima have been trained to use moves like Haze and Role Play to help create the mystical effects that Allen’s roles require.” Lugos looked at the group of pokemon and asked, “Care to demonstrate?”

“Stuff!” Tima suddenly grew a bit braver and stepped out from Allen’s side.
Aage floated off as well. Taking a deep breath, the gastly began to spew a haze that covered Allen. Allen began to spin, causing the haze to completely cover him. When the smoke dissipated, he was gone!
Lugos pointed across the room where not one, but three kirlias stood. Allen began to dance, the clones following his movements at a delayed time. Another haze began to surround him, creating a mystical effect that reminded Amy so much as plays she had seen in the past.
Then, as quickly as they had all appeared, the smoke and afterimages disappeared.

The three pokemon returned to their posts in front of Amy and all took a bow. Amy clapped eagerly, very impressed with the demonstration. “Bravo! Bravo!” she cheered, “That was so cool!”

Lugos chuckled and ruffled his daughter’s red hair a bit. “It is very cool. Do you want to know how they did it?”

“Heck yeah!” Amy blurted out in excitement.
“Language, young lady,” Jaime chided.

“Sorry. Yes sir!” she corrected.

“Well, when Aage covered Allen in smoke, Allen used teleport to move further away. Then Time used role-play, creating two clones of Allen that followed his exact movements, just with a slight delay. This creates quite the mystical effect that really sells some of Allen’s more magical roles like that of a warlock!”

Amy stared wide eyed and with mouth agape at her father. That was so cool! “How much practice did they need to have to perfect that?” she asked.

“Lots,” Lugos responded, “but with time and that much practice, they’ve created quite the act, don’t you think?” He turned to the trio and waved. “Thank you for your time. Please, rest up and relax for the rest of the day.” The trio bowed away before heading to their dressers.

Lugos took Amy’s hand and began to lead her towards the back of the room. “Now we’re getting to the last three pokemon you’re going to meet today. The next two are my personal favorites. They’re a great team that do a lot of rather underappreciated work for the theatre.”

“Really?” Amy asked curiously, “What do they do?”

“Well, Amy,” Jaime answered, “you know those pretty backdrops that show up in all the plays? Those are designed by these two pokemon.”

“Ooh!” Amy cheered, “So is one of them a smeargle?”

Lugos shook his head. “No, we’ve got a much more talented artist if I say so myself.”

They stopped as they approached an incomplete set piece. Standing in front of it was a Weavile, his fur and claws stained with different colored paints. He tapped his foot as he stared at the semi-completed canvas. After a moment, he snapped his fingers. “Wea,” he commanded.

Amy saw some movement out of the corner of her eye as an inkay flew in with a paint bucket. Spraying some ink into the bucket, the inkay added some powder and quickly stirred it. They waited a few moments before the weavile dipped one of his feathers into the paint and began to coat the uncolored canvas in a brilliant sky blue.

Amy watched in fascination as the weavile made swift and strong strokes, filling a section of the canvas with the blue paint. He stepped back after a moment, staring at the canvas before nodding in satisfaction. Tucking the feather behind his ear, the weavile turned to speak with the inkay, only to realize he had an audience. The weavile blinked a couple times before bowing to them; the inkay doing the same.

“Sorry, Cyrus,” Lugos said, “I did not want to startle you when you were in such deep concentration. The new piece for Hamlet is looking great.”

Cyrus puffed out his chest a little at the flattery and waved his claws a little. “Weavile wea.” He paused and pointed at Amy. “Vile?”

Lugos pat Amy’s shoulder and answered, “This is my daughter, Amy. She adores your set pieces, so I wanted to introduce her to the pokemon behind it all.” Lugos turned to Amy and said, “This is Cyrus the weavile and Joe the inkay. They’re our set design team. Inkay ink mixed with powdered paint really makes for a great color scheme, don’t you think, Amz?”

Amy nodded eagerly, stepping closer to look at the set. “This is so pretty!” Amy turned to Cyrus and said, “It’s for Hamlet? Is this for one of the scenes in the garden?”

Cyrus seemed taken aback at Amy’s knowledge of the play, but gave a short nod in response.

“It looks so good!” she responded, “All it needs is some roses on the hedges and a sun in the sky and it’d be perfect!”

Cyrus tapped his claws on his chin and nodded. “Weavile.” He turned to Joe and nodded again. “Weavile vile vi.”

“Inkay!” Joe responded, floating off to get some red paint.

Amy watched in fascination as they mixed another small batch of red paint. Drawing a different feather, Cyrus motioned for Amy to come closer. As she stepped forward, Cyrus dipped the feather into the red paint and then handed it to Amy. He stepped behind her and began to guide her hand, helping her paint small roses onto the already dried bushes on the set piece. After a few moments, he let go, allowing Amy to paint on her own. She eagerly dotted the bush, the movement becoming muscle memory to her until Cyrus put his claws on her shoulder, indicating she should stop.

Amy handed him back the feather and stepped back, gazing at the new roses with pride and glee. She had painted those! Amy turned to her parents as she squealed a little and saw smiles plastered on their faces. Jaime was especially beaming, the comic artist seeing a bit of themselves in their daughter.

“What do you say, Amy?” Jaime encouraged.

Amy spun back to Joe and Cyrus. “Thank you!” she said eagerly. Cyrus and Joe smiled back her and nodded back.

Lugos put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder and guided the red head past the canvas to a more isolated dresser. “And now, for your final pokemon today, I wanted to introduce you to Freya.”

Amy gasped as she spotted a froslass floating next to the desk. Freya was Amy’s favorite pokemon actor to watch perform. She had seen her star in so many plays as the leading role, and even had signed letters thanks to her father. She looked up at her father and asked, “Is it really okay?”

Lugos nodded and chuckled. “Of course. She’s looking forward to meeting her biggest fan.” He gave Amy a small push forward.

Amy approached Freya nervously, freezing up when the froslass turned around to greet her. Freya offered a small smile to the young girl and extended her hand. “Fros. Froslass,” she said.

Amy stares at Freya for a moment before shaking her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Freya. I’m… I’m Amy! A-And um… I’m your biggest fan!”

Freya giggled and nodded, as if to say she knew. “Froslass lass fros.” Freya turned away, gliding gracefully to her desk. She picked up a small white flower and turned back to Amy. Taking a deep breath, Freya blew freezing air onto the flower. A chill ran across Amy’s body, goosebumps popping up all over her arms as she watched Freya freeze the flower. Moving closer to Amy, Freya held out the flower. “Froslass!”

“Well now isn’t that special,” Lugos chimed, “a permafrost flower. That will last quite a long time, Amy.”

Amy took the flower and eagerly cheered, “Thank you! Thank you!” She held it close and grinned widely.

Freya smiled back, obviously pleased at Amy’s excitement. She pat Amy’s headband blew another cold wind over her. She bowed and returned to her desk.

“A blessing too,” Jaime said, “aren’t you a special girl, Amy? Now come on, it’s time to go home.”

“Okay, Jayjay!” Amy chimed. Waving goodbye to the theatre pokemon as they exited, Amy clutched the white flower to her chest, the coolness prickling her fingers as the memory became one that Amy knew she would cherish forever.