“….aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
CRASH!
I landed in a face-down belly flop. It hurt, but somehow I don’t think I was injured. Still took a minute to get up.
“Home sweet home…” I muttered.
My shout was soon mirrored by Terra, Manaphy, and Bitbit as they arrived near identically. At least one of them mentioned that’s how they arrived on the Isle o’ Hags ten years ago.
Everyone else was waiting for us: Bolt, Cody, Anita, and Maria. I found a moment to check the roster board and, as I hoped, Tooty’s name had been the first to grace the right side of the list. We got her out, everyone was introduced. It took three days to catch everyone up and explain the shelves filled with nothing but jars of honey.
Not much could be said about the week of downtime we had. We got Tooty oriented with basic nerd-me Earth culture, we made out a lot, everyone didn’t kill each other. There were only three major things that came up.
The first was Bolt being disappointed he and Cody and Anita missed out on so much. Anita was still aloof; even though she had listened to me in the last battle against the Zubat, the fact of the matter was I had yet to prove myself her equal, something I hadn’t recognized until now thanks to Terra’s speech being fresh in my memory. It really wasn’t quite fair, as according to the stat displays of the Pokédex, those three were literally the only ones that had not reached level 100, as they were not part of the constant battles that came with being in an exploration team.
“Can Bolt, Cody, and Anita be imported next?” I wrote into the notebook.
“Very well,” it replied. “When an import option is next available, I will prioritize them.”
I mean, I would do that myself if it would let me. As it was, I felt like a four-year-old asking a grown-up for a peppermint.
The second was we found Tooty could only understand Terra, Manaphy, and Bitbit. As to be expected, the other Pokémon could still only speak Pokémon. It left her the only one that couldn’t understand everyone else. I asked Terra and the others she could understand to try and give her a basic rundown, just in case it would be awhile before they could be imported. Terra mentioned that the last world apparently had an ability option that allowed for fast and easy teaching of anything, she couldn’t remember the details, but none of them had selected it and it didn’t seem I’d been given it.
As such I asked the notebook to also prioritize Shadow and Maria, the other two Pokémon with no human language, and it agreed.
The third was Tooty managed to point out something I had completely overlooked. See, whenever I use a door to enter the warehouse, that door appears inside on the short end of the room near the housing. It had never occurred to me to see if there was a door there during these times between worlds.
So I looked.
It looked like an elevator door.
I immediately tried to forget and failed.
Fucking flawless memory…
“….aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
CRASH!
I landed in a face-down belly flop. It hurt, but somehow I don’t think I was injured. Still took a minute to get up.
“You know,” I said to the elevator, “if there’s a door to here in my warehouse between worlds, you really don’t have to do this.”
“There are many things that really have or really don’t have to do,” replied the asshole voice. “Dropping everyone everywhere like they fell off the edge in Bastion is how I cope.”
“Your way of coping stinks.”
“Perspective is important. I would’ve thought learning the Way of the Mob would teach you that.”
“Fuck you.”
“You are very rude, you know, even to someone who smudged a good few details for you this time.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“On the companion import option for the Banjo-Kazooie jump document, it explicitly states that the points they get are for, and I quote, ‘an origin and abilities.’ Not items; they should have only gotten their freebies, which would be the banjo and the zap stick. However, to compensate for your continuing Zubat issue in the Pokémon worlds, I allowed them item purchases, giving you the giant Feathers, the Turbo Trainers, and the first Glowbo on top of the Wading Boots, backpack import, and a collection of glass bottles. You’re welcome.”
“…I appreciate it, but I’m not going to say thank you to my captor.”
“It’s really quite sad you see it like that. Hopefully, the world you choose next will open your mind a little more.”
The panels swerved to in front of me, each with different inkblots. I studied them carefully.
- The top panel made… my mouth water? Weird.
- The middle panel gave the impression of wind sweeping across my face.
- The bottom panel made me think of the open ocean.
I considered my options carefully before choosing the bottom one. “This one.” I wasn’t scared of the ocean before all this, but two years as a land-based critter had made me far too wary. I clearly needed to readjust. I remember Tooty wanting to go sailing. Terra probably wouldn’t, though… I’d have to help with that.
“World selected. Now making choices.”
The blinking lights are starting to get old-hat by now, which is very worrisome. While I’m starting to appreciate the positives of being dragged around like this – I mean, I was regularly smooching one of my earliest waifus – it was still being dragged around. Would I never be able to fight it…?
“Your selections have been made,” the voice cut me off. “Have a good decade!”
“Here we go again..,” I muttered as I was dropped into the void.
Jumpchain: A Man Chooses 