Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Sam and Eva

Special Episode 1 - On the Road to Capkin Town

Author's note:
This chapter was written for me as a Drabble by another Pokémon Mystery Dungeon fan who goes by the name of Rue. They did a great job, and so I decided to upload it here. It is a conversation between Sam and Eva during the week they were walking to Capkin town. I hope that you enjoy!

While on our way to Capkim Town, Sam had asked me about a curious question. I didn't think much about it at first when I mentioned to him about this topic before, but what seemed to be an innocent question spiralled into something that went out of control even for me to bear. At least it passed the time though.

"Hey, Eva? There's something I wanted to ask you about before."

"Hmm? Yeah, what about?"

"Remember when you said that Pokemon in your world didn't exist, right? That we're just something out of a fantasy or something?" Huh, this came from out of nowhere, why was he bringing this up now?

"Yeah, what about it? In my world, you guys definitely don't exist."

"I was thinking, if Pokemon weren't real in your world, who thought of us into your existence? Isn't that weird?" he asks me. I guess to someone like him, that question would make sense to be asked. I certainly can't imagine if I were faced with the fact that us humans were fictional make-believe characters in someone's other world or something! But then again, isn't that what it's kind of like in this world? Apparently us humans being myths or whatever? This is starting to make my head spin from just thinking about it...

"Um... uh. How do I put this... in our world, Pokemon were pretty much created just to be entertainment for us, in our world."

"Entertainment? You mean like playing games and reading books?"

"Er, sort of. But it's this huge thing in our world you see. There's all sorts of stuff made around it! Stuff like... um... video games, anime, and trading cards!"

"Video games? Anime? Trading cards? What are those?" Great, now it seemed that Sam was even more confused at my explanation. Why am I making this harder for myself? And he's asking so many of them, I can't answer them all at once!

"Wait hold on, you're asking so many things at once Sam! Sorry, but could you slow down a little for a bit there?"

Having seen his mistake, Sam quickly apologized to me, "Oh sorry, Eva! But yeah... what are those you mentioned?"

Seeing as we're basically just walking at this point, I might as well humor Sam while doing so. Maybe that'll pass the time faster as we head to town, "Ok so," I breathe in as I begin to explain, "This world has paintings, right?"

"Yeah, usually Smeargles are the ones who are well known to be good painters in the area," I was not even going to bother asking what a Smeargle is but at least he's got the idea. That's one thing in common in our worlds at least.

"Okay, so, imagine you see that painting, right? Except it moves and such," I explain to him and his eyes widen in amazement and his tail excitedly moved at such a thought.

"Wow, a moving painting? How does that work?"

I try to formulate an explanation to Sam that would make sense to him, "Say right now that a... Smeargle was it? Yeah, that. Say that they're painting us walking right now: they make that painting. Then they do it again but our position's slightly different: they do that painting too. And it just keeps on and on until they've made several paintings of us walking."

"That sounds like a lot of work." Sam frowns at the thought, "Why would a Smeargle paint multiple paintings of us walking?"

I groan at the question, "Just... just roll with it for now alright? But yeah, we've got this multiple paintings of us together. Now, try to imagine those paintings... um..." I looked up for a bit, how was I going to explain this next part... oh right! "Just imagine that you're putting them in a pile together in order. Then have the pages flipped. Can you imagine the paintings as if they're almost moving?"

"Um..." Sam had a look on his face that told me he didn't quite understand what I said. "I... guess so?" Well, at least I tried. It's not exactly easy to explain something that doesn't quite exist in this world anyway, cut me some slack!

"Anyway, as for the trading cards..." I say to him, I think he could probably understand what this is, right? "Those paintings from the Smeargles are sometimes sold to other mons right?"

He nods, "Uh huh, depending on the artist, those pieces of artwork could go on as high as millions of Poke."

"Right, now I think those paintings are generally quite big so let's say... they make they make multiple copies of certain paintings in a smaller piece of paper, like something that you could easily with your paw," I wonder if cards exist in this world, but honestly I'd rather not make this even more complicated that it has to be. "And then those mons collect those paintings and sometimes trade with other mons with those paintings! Er, if that makes any sense?"

"Hmmm..." Sam crosses his arms likely trying to imagine the things I mentioned to him. Ugh, why am I even bothering to explain this, I barely even touched all this back home! "Umm... sorry, I'm trying to imagine what you're trying to say, but it still doesn't quite make any sense to me! Sorry..."

I sigh at that, "Well, at least I tried. But yeah all of you guys were made for us to be entertained. You know, like a children's story book or what not."

"I can understand at least," he says, "But still, you haven't really answered my other question..."

Wait, did I not really answer whatever he had asked? I try to recall the question, but I guess over my rambling that it kinda got lost in the conversation somewhere, "Um... could you remind me what you asked again?"

"Yeah, if we're fictional, then who imagined us in your world?"

I groaned. Oh boy, this was going to be a long walk.

Author's note:
That's all for this chapter! The story will resume with chapter 12 next week! Thanks for reading as always! Stay safe out there!