A Pokemon Parable

As the boy sat at the table, the fourth to sit down, Eric began to pack away his papers into his satchel. Charmander repositioned himself on his chair, moving to center with the plate and placemat, away from Eric as he eagerly dug into his own breakfast.

<”I need to head into the office a little early today champ, I trust you can walk yourselves to the bus stop?” Eric asked, standing up from the table, his plate having been completely cleaned. Diane smiled and gave him a quick kiss goodbye as she was nearly finished with her own food. “Stanley, you’ll need to hurry, or else you’ll miss the bus” his mom reminded him, as Stanley shoved the last piece of toast into his mouth. A full slice, dangling by a corner in his mouth, as he grabbed his bag with one hand and Charmander with the other, bolting out the door and up the street.>

Charmander could only watch as the majority of his breakfast receded away from him, along for the ride. “Here’s hoping I can swipe a few snacks later,” he grumbled. The jog was fairly short, only elongated by the indignation of the pokemon laughing at the sight of him being dragged about like a stuffed toy.

There can’t have been more than six other kids seated around them, and Charmander was the only pokemon visible, if the only one on the ‘bus’ at all. Trying to avoid garnering unwanted attention, he turned his gaze out the window to watch as the world went by. From what he learned this morning, the small school was located in Aquacorde Town to the north.

The girl gently sat back down and faced forward, having gotten no response from Stanley. Charmander seemingly took note of the interaction, glancing back at Stanley. The city was growing as they approached, and much larger than Vaniville had been. Overall the journey had been relatively short, as the ‘bus’ pulled up in front of the small school. The building was fairly small, maybe capable of holding three or four hundred students at a time. The age range of the students walking in or milling about was large, implying the school itself covered the formative years up until the start of their pokemon journeys. Some kids were escorted by a parent, others laughed while riding up on bikes. Above the entrance was a large sign, ‘Southern Kalos Preparatory Academy’.

Charmander took a longer look when they stepped off, the ‘bus’ had been just a special carriage pulled by a pair of odd pokemon he didn’t recognize. The powerful quadrupeds were barely exhausted from the trip and stood tall in the morning light, with soft brown fur topped with a mane of green leaves, and a pair of large black horns on their heads. Miss Potts herself was an equally imposing figure, a woman roughly Diane’s age with a clean-cut pantsuit of deep purple with lavender pinstripes tastefully spaced in a vertical pattern. Her glasses had thin rims, perched in front of light brown eyes, and a face that would be considered stern. Her hair was stylized, with a base color of black, straightened and shoulder length, with a gradient to neon purple ends.

<”Stanley, good morning to you,” she greeted, her tone firm but friendly. Stanley gave a small wave as he waited to hear what she had to say. The other children seemed to notice Stanley and his pokemon, but merely exchanged a few whispers before moving away. They likely expected him to get in trouble for violating school policy. Oh how Stanley was feeling smug, eagerly awaiting the moment they would realize their folly. “Stanley, as you know the rules you are free to continue on while I educate your pokemon on what expectations we have of them,” Miss Potts informed, her back staying completely straight and upright. Stanley agreed, his pokemon would need to know what not to do while they were at school, and nodded before walking ahead.>

Once he was far enough ahead, Miss Potts crouched down closer to the small lizard, until her head was roughly the same height the boy’s had been. “Welcome to Southern Kalos Preparatory Academy. Given what Eric described over the phone, and how you carry yourself here I must admit I am impressed. Young fire types aren’t exactly known for composure and restraint,” she said, examining the fire monster while extending an open hand. “I trust you will be able to behave as expected, and not force my hand to send you both home?” Charmander, with a resolute smile, accepted her handshake with his tiny closed fist. The handshake was somewhat comical to a witness, and with a smile Miss Potts stood again, pocketing her fist after the physical ritual of agreement.

Charmander, while walking in the hallway alongside Miss Potts, was being fully briefed on what to expect for the day. “I primarily teach math, and Stanley’s classmates are fairly early in their progression. There are going to be smaller children in the class, and I expect we’ll need to allow a moment for the novelty of a pokemon in the classroom to wear off. All I need you to do is remain silent, and not hurt any of the children; can you do that?” she asked, preparing the lizard for what he was about to face.

“Yea, I got it; be a statue and don’t hurt the other kids.” he responded, aware that nobody in earshot would understand.

“Stanley has what we call the Protagonist’s seat in the back right corner of the room, so you only need to worry about in front of you and on the right. But today is a test run, and I expect no outbursts from either of you. However you wish to help him is up to you, but do not distract the rest of my class.” Her warning came just as she walked up to a solid wooden door, with a frosted glass window mounted in the upper half and a cheerfully painted blue number ‘106’. The door opened without a sound as Miss Potts held it open for the two of them to step through.

<”Settle down class, settle down,” Miss Potts called, as her students stopped conversing and realized today would be different. The class of nine was borderline buzzing in their seats. Miss Potts brought in a new pokemon today! “Now, this Charmander belongs to Stanley, and it has been helping him with his math homework. Say hello everyone,” she smiles, as a loud cacophony of greetings from the eight other students in the class.>

Charmander does his best to remain still, even as the children leave their seats to touch him. Keeping his claws tucked into fists, and mouth closed, he has faith that the adult beside him can keep the wandering hands away from his open-flame of a tail tip. It was certainly a trial, as the 8 young kids were seemingly trying their best to get a reaction.

Cool as a cucumber, or in this case an Articuno. Charmander’s eyes scanned the room, trying to find anything he could use to help express math in physical constructs. As he had suspected, there was not much he could access without causing a distraction. Notably, each student had a small whiteboard on their desk with a dry erase marker.

<”Now class,” Miss Potts began, “You’ve been doing very well on your additions and subtractions, so this week we’ll be learning about addition of larger numbers,” she explained, as she began to write on the whiteboard at the head of the classroom. “Let’s start with something simple, what is ten plus ten?” she asks the room, and immediately a few hands raise into the air. Stanley was worried, he didn’t have that many toys to use to count. Miss Potts motioned towards a child in the front, who correctly responded with the answer of twenty. Miss Potts would proceed to write more problems on the board, calling on a different student each time, until the only one left was Stanley. “Now Stanley, your turn, what is thirty plus twenty?” she asked.>

Charmander watched as the boy sat completely still, lost in thought, until Stanley began to write the problem down, and locked eyes with the pokemon, pleading for help with the most stoic face he’d had all day. Gently, Charmander put a single finger on the problem, covering up the three and two, showing the problem of zero plus zero. With a nod to his trainer, he watched as Stanley slowly understood and wrote a zero. Then, the finger shifted to cover the column of zeros, revealing the problem of three plus two.

Charmander stood a little straighter at the praise, with a soft smile. He shuffled over just behind Stanley so he could see the board while helping the boy.

Charmander did his best to suppress a cry of pain, the headache and foreign memories flooding in. Even if this time was only an hour or two, this was going to be an issue. Forget being exposed for his ability to read and write, these time skips were killer, even if so far they had only been a few hours at a time. The idea of one being longer, perhaps a day or more, was causing the poor pokemon a near panic attack. “No, please no. No more, please,” he cried softly, begging for the pain to stop.

Gradually, the pain began to fade, leaving the Charmander hale and hearty.

With a panicked jolt, Charmander sat upright, scanning the room to find the source of the second voice, the soft and kind one. “Thank you… are you, like him, the other one?” he asked softly, trying not to be overheard, his face contorted in fear.

No, but I’ll make the memory sync less painful. Listen; you are strong, you will get through this. Just know that I’ll be here to watch over you.