fanfiction Lovesick Chapter 3: An Unintelligible Truth

[ArdillaVerde93]

  *Warning! This chapter contains spoilers for Pokémon Heroes.*

 

  *Chapter Three: An Unintelligible Truth*

  *Meanwhile, inside of a dressing room in Realgam Tower*

  There are, at the time of this writing, 54 Pokémon who are considered to be Legendary. Each one boasts unimaginable powers(several times, the world has nearly been brought to a violent end as a direct result of these demigods fighting.), as well as an indefinite lifespan. Shaymin, for example, was near to Tyler's age of 21. Had she been alive for millennia, however, the only way Tyler would know would be to ask her. Legendaries age so slowly, not only do they appear immortal, but they appear ageless, as well. Indeed, the Giratina ruling over the Distortion World, and the Rayquaza worshipped by the citizens of Hoenn, are the very same individuals as in the beginning. There are, of course, exceptions, though. Mewtwo, being manmade, is known to have at least 1 other of its species. Latios, having died while protecting the city of Alto Mare from high-ranking Team Rocket members, was replaced by the children of his sister, who remains alive, along with the children. As for Shaymin, there were others before the one who was currently sleeping fitfully atop Tyler's guest bed following a beautiful dream tragically cut short by an Emergency Alert System test, but they had all met their ends. Nonetheless, the astounding longevity of these amazing creatures caused Kevin to question the validity of Tyler's claim of Shaymin nearing death. He voiced his skepticism in no uncertain terms. "You're fucking with me; right?"

  Tyler glared at his friend of several years with an expression of hurt and anger. "Why in Arceus' green Earth would I lie about something so terrible?!" "I dunno!" Kevin replied defensively. "Maybe you're making stuff up so you don't have to give her the 'D!'" For the second time in the last few minutes, Tyler struggled with a quickly intensifying desire to strike Kevin. "Kevin, that is a sacred creature, worshipped as a goddess!" "So are Azelf and Mew," Kevin pointed out, as simply as if he were talking about milk, rather than encouraging his best friend to have sex with a demigod. "Didn't stop me, in case you forgot." "Just because I don't fuck everything with a pulse and a pussy doesn't make you better than me," Tyler said coldly. "And, besides, my sex life isn't the issue here!" "Depends on who you ask, but alright," Kevin gave in. "What's going on?"

  Tyler took a deep breath before beginning his explanation. "Well, that's just it; I'm not sure! Her symptoms don't add up. I'm most concerned about her hyperpyrexia and vivid hallucinations, but there's more to it than that. I just can't figure this shit out!" "Well, can't you give her medicine?" Kevin asked, truly thinking the solution to be as simple as that, especially to someone with as much experience in the matter as Tyler, who responded with a shake of his head. "Not if I don't know what she has. Nothing curative, at least; treatment so far has been nothing but palliative. I've been giving her antipyretics for her fever, and some mild painkillers for, obviously, pain, but that's about as much as I can do for her until I know what I'm dealing with."

  A sharp intake of breath from Kevin showed that, while he didn't understand some of the terms his friend used(he usually didn't. Most notable in this case were the words "hyperpyrexia," "curative," and "antipyretics."), he at least understood the seriousness of what Tyler and Shaymin(especially Shaymin, in fact.) were up against. "Isn't there someone who can help? Something you haven't tried?" "I've tried damn near everything I can think of!" Tyler answered him in a tone of desperation. "Nothing's working, and, what's more, while I'm wracking my brain trying to figure this out, poor Shaymin just keeps getting worse and worse!" Tyler's answer seemed to dull Kevin's happy-go-lucky attitude; he shook his head and placed a hand on Tyler's shoulder. "I-I'm sorry, dude; I didn't know. How bad is she? How long has she been sick for?" Tyler hung his head in sorrow, his long blonde hair falling to the sides of his head and trailing like countless golden ribbons. This action matched his voice, which cracked and wavered with emotion. "I-I don't know... how long exactly; I haven't slept in days(Kevin gasped at this point, but Tyler kept going.), so the days... kinda blend together, and I'm losing track of time. It's been a while, though; I know that much. It's... It's definitely been a while. As for her condition,... it's critical, to say the least. To say more than that,... my prognosis for her is that whatever disease she has is gonna finish her off before the week is out." Kevin gasped again, but Tyler stopped talking this time, allowing his friend to do some talking of his own. He could only bring himself to say 2 words at the moment, though, thanks to the intangible weight of Tyler's explanation. "Today's Wednesday." In response, Tyler could only come up with a single word. "Fuck."

  "You... really aren't messing with me," Kevin said, looking into Tyler's bloodshot eyes with an expression that was, at the same time, puzzled and shocked. Tyler scoffed. "I told you, I wouldn't lie about Shaymin dying!" Kevin waved a hand as if someone had just blown smoke in his direction. "Not about that, Ty; I'm not done talking about that, though. I meant when you said you haven't been sleeping. You weren't kidding." "No, I wasn't," Tyler replied. "What's more, the pills are wearing off." To illustrate his point, he tiredly reached into the front pocket of his coat. When he pulled his head back out, a small, orange, translucent bottle was clutched in it.

  "What the fuck is in that?!" Kevin demanded, as if Tyler was holding a bag of marijuana or cocaine, instead of a bottle of prescription medicine. If he weren't about to fall asleep on the spot, Tyler would have countered with a hearty laugh. As it was, though, he at least didn't begrudge Kevin an explanation. "Relax; they're caffeine pills. I don't like coffee, I'm allergic to most energy drinks(they gave him a crippling headache that he had likened to being stabbed from inside.), and I can't drink alcohol on the job, so I use these instead. They're safe; a Nurse Joy even recommended them to me. In fact, could you pour me a cup of water, Prudence? If I trip, I'll be asleep before I hit the ground."

  At the mention of his daughter's name, Kevin turned on his heels, trying to see if Tyler, like Shaymin, was hallucinating. Luckily, standing next to the water cooler was, indeed, Prudence Sakura Houghtaling, who was looking at Tyler with a look of disdain. "Don't call me that, fairy!" Despite her nasty, uncalled-for shot at Tyler's femininity, she fulfilled his request and brought him a conical paper cup filled with cold water. "Here you go, Tink." Taking the cup in hand, Tyler raised it in the classic "cheers" gesture, before saying "bottoms up," and emptying it into his mouth, making his cheeks bulge out slightly. Then, he put the cup down, and, with the deftness of someone who had clearly done this sort of thing enough to do it blindfolded, he opened the medication bottle, counted out 2 pills about the size of hearing aid batteries, and swallowed them along with the mouthful of water. "Thanks, sweetie; I needed that." By way of a "you're welcome," Prudence turned to face the side of Kevin's head, her admittedly beautiful blonde hair whipping around behind her before falling limp against her back as she did so. What she said next, and the conversation afterwards, was too quiet for Tyler to hear. "How do you deal with him without kicking his teeth down his throat, daddy?"

  Prudence, who, with her long, platinum blonde hair, blue eyes, and overwhelming femininity, looked more like a relative of Tyler than of Kevin, was too old to still be calling her father "daddy," but she didn't care, and, to be honest, Kevin preferred it. As such, he didn't take much notice of it, and laughed at the question that preceded it instead. "Well, it helps that I don't know half of what he says a lot of the time!"

  After a few minutes, the pills Tyler took had begun working, and it showed; he was much more bright-eyed and awake. Unfortunately, the pills, as he had previously explained, were merely caffeine pills, and not antidepressants; his mood hadn't changed. Of course, in his current state of mind, even a shot of morphine was unlikely to make him feel much better. In all fairness, though, he had every right to have a metaphorical storm cloud over his head; desperately trying to diagnose, and save the life of, a Legendary Pokémon, and failing time and time again, despite your best efforts, has a way of doing that to even the most strong-willed of people. Regardless, Kevin had specifically said that he wanted to know more about Shaymin's condition, and Tyler had no problem obliging. "Alright; now that I'm... bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, what do you wanna know?" By this time, Kevin was sitting down in one of the large, cushy armchairs spread about the room, and Prudence was sitting in his lap, cuddled up to him and giggling. "Well," Kevin said after a few seconds, "you said she's really sick, but you don't know what she has." Tyler nodded wordlessly, which Kevin took as a sign to continue. "Do you at least have some ideas?"

  "Plenty, but they all get shot down pretty damn quickly," Tyler answered. "Influenza, infected wounds, tuberculosis, since she's been coughing blood for a while,... I've looked her over; she's been through more tests than the Emergency Alert System, and, so far, the only progress I've made has been finding out what she doesn't have." "At least that's progress," Prudence offered, the first genuinely nice thing she had said to him that day. "Think about it; if you keep ruling stuff out, eventually you'll find the answer." "You're suggesting a diagnosis of exclusion?" Tyler asked, genuinely interested. Prudence shrugged her shoulders. "If that's what it's called." "Well, that's a good idea," Tyler admitted, "but -" "Attagirl!" Kevin praised his daughter, punctuating his words with a laugh, followed by a kiss on her lips, which she quickly returned. "But,..." Tyler continued, a hint of annoyance in his voice, "...a diagnosis of exclusion would take time, and lots of it. Much more than Shaymin has left, for sure. Not to mention the strain another battery of examinations and tests would put on her body. She's circling the drain as it is, you two. A few days ago, her fever spiked again,... and she had a seizure." This time, Kevin and his daughter gasped in unison.

  "Normally, I would share your fear," Tyler admitted, "but that was a febrile seizure; they look bad, but they're more or less harmless in the long run. If it happens again, though, I'm gonna give her one of Ruby's(Tyler and Eleanor's daughter.) pacifiers." "That's awful harsh," Kevin scolded him. "She's - how'd you put it? - circling the drain, and you wanna jam a binky in her mouth?! What kinda twisted fuck -" "Seizure victims," Tyler interrupted him angrily, his fists clenched, "have a tendency to bite, or choke on, their tongue during convulsions. Some people refer to that as 'swallowing their tongue.' Having something in their mouth can stop that from happening. Any more questions?" Kevin opened his mouth for a retort, but closed it when he couldn't think of one. Prudence, however, found her voice. "I have one. If Shaymin's in bed, dying from some unknown disease and in desperate need of someone to make her feel better, what're you doing in Orre?" Tyler glared at her, as if the blonde bombshell should've already known the answer. "I was hoping to find a specialist. Oh, and, by the way,..." He held out his right hand towards Kevin. "...I forgot to tell you, you and your Pokémon were great out there." Kevin laughed as he shook Tyler's hand. "Your team is awesome, too! So much power in such adorable bodies." Tyler flashed him a slight smile. "Thanks. Well, I hate to go, but I have to get back to Goldenrod." "Mind if we tag along?" Kevin asked. Tyler scoffed. "Damn; how boring is your day? Alright; but we've gotta hurry."

  *Author's Note*

  Maybe I was wrong; Maybe Tyler really IS an asshole. XD Either way, this is what I get for spending the majority of my waking hours for 2 days watching my box sets of Scrubs and Nip/Tuck. Also, this is the obligatory "this is why we're doing what we're doing" chapter. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with medical terms, here you go.

  Hyperpyrexia: A very high fever, at least 104° Fahrenheit.
  Curative: Capable of curing.
  Palliative: Treatment with the intention of relieving symptoms, rather than curing the cause of them. For example, if you broke your leg, and you took painkillers, the pain would be gone, but you'd still have a broken leg.
  Antipyretics: Medicine used to cure a fever.
  Influenza: Fancy medical word for the flu.
  Tuberculosis: A very dangerous, lethal disease, the most well-known symptom of which is blood leaking into bodily secretions, such as mucus and vomit.
  Diagnosis of exclusion: A diagnosis made after ruling out all other possible diagnoses.
  Circling the drain: Doctor slang meaning "dying," or "near-death."
  Febrile seizure: A rare form of a seizure, caused by a high fever. As Tyler implied, it isn't as bad as it looks.
  Convulsions: The medical term for the uncontrollable jerking and shaking that commonly happens during a seizure.

  Now you know, and knowing is half the battle! It's worth mentioning that I do, actually, have formal training in medicine. So I know what I'm talking about.

  This chapter was originally called "Friendship Is Tragic." Also, at the risk of being called a terrible person, I keep picturing Shaymin with a pacifier in her mouth now, and, every way I look at it, it's adorable. There was also a joke that got cut. Tyler was gonna tell the lovely couple of Kevin and Prudence that, during a particularly vivid hallucination, Shaymin thought he was Bijou, from the children's anime Hamtaro. Prudence would deliver the punchline by saying she would've guessed, out of all of the characters in that show, that Shaymin would've mistook him for Pashmina instead, since Tyler and that character both wear a scarf. So, after that, who wants a fourth chapter?

[Neptune]

I bet Kevin feels more like an asshole than Tyler is xD

Another good chapter; it started of fantastically :D I still got a little confused with the speech still jumbled together like that. But, it can be annoying dealing with speech like that; I know I hate it xD 

I hope you do the next chapter ASAP because I really wanna know what's going to happen next!

[SMFoxy]

I think I was one of the first to read this, but due to a minor issue I couldn't comment.
I really am enjoying this so far.

Can I ask, do you have everything planned out, or just the ending and you're kind of rolling with it until you get there?
It's not that it comes across that way, I'm just curious about your writing process.

[ArdillaVerde93]

Thanks to both of you! Well, I understand what you're talking about, Neptune, and I'll try my damndest to do better. As for your question, SMFoxy, neither one of your guesses are correct. Aside from a couple of things(Shaymin's meeting with Tyler being a hallucination, and her getting woken up by the Emergency Alert System.), which are planned, I'm pretty much just winging it.

[Jordii~kins]

for a story that ur just winging it is pretty good. i am enjoying it a lot and i cant wait to read more

[ArdillaVerde93]

Aww! That's very sweet of you to say! Thanks!