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gamifly · 6 years

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Gritos and Guitar Strings

A Coco one-shot for the @cocofanexchange Valentine’s event!

I got @backuppixiedust and I sort of meshed two of her prompts together to make this! I am so sorry this is late, but I hope you like it!

The prompts:

Trying to teach little Socorro about music? Maybe one of the Riveras going “What Would Papá Héctor Do?” And then doing something really ridiculous and dramatic?

“G cord, D cord, F- No! That’s not right!”

“G cord, D cord, c? Grr no!”

“G cord, D cord, A cor-, Gah!”

A muffled slam was heard against a young Rivera’s bed as the girl finally gave up trying, having let go of her guitar in frustration. Grabbing her nearby pillow, she shoved it into her face to let out a muffled scream into it. It didn’t lessen her anger any, but it certainly helped some.

Little six-year-old Socorro Rivera was practising for the performance she was going to give at the families Día de Muertos celebration a couple of days from then. However, this proved a great problem as her family, especially her brother Miguel, was counting on her to be excellent. This led her to stressing over every cord she messed up until she could recite the whole song perfectly.

Groaning a low and loud sound, Coco wallowed in her own pity, frustrated tears budding at her eyes wailed, “I’m never going to get this right!”

“Not going to get what right?” A voice from the doorway called.

Miguel had heard the impassioned wailing of his sister for the last hour or so but decided that if she was determined enough she’d be able to do it. He did, however, become worried when he heard the soft thud of an obviously precious instrument fall to the bed. The soft strings moaned in protest through her slightly ajar door, so he chose to investigate.

“Ah, Miguel!” Coco cried in surprise, pillow falling on her lap. She hadn’t heard him enter. A blush of embarrassment glowed across her face as she glanced up at her brother.

“It sounded like your poor guitar didn’t like being treated like that,” Miguel noted, head tilting in gesture towards the forgotten instrument. Gazing back at his sister sympathetically he observed her watery eyes, “What’s wrong?”

Coco sniffled a little, then wiped her nose, “I can’t get the song right!” she wailed, “Every time I go to start the chorus I stuff up!” she glanced at her guitar with slight contempt, “I think the guitar hates me, can’t I use Papá Héctor’s guitar instead?” she said, her eyes pleading.

Miguel just sighed at his sister’s antics. She loved Héctor’s white skull guitar ever since she asked him about it. Him having told her about his adventure in the Land of the Dead and the significance the instrument played in the story. Now she was itching to start playing it. However…

“You know you’re not old enough to play that yet. Besides,” He sat himself down beside her, placing a comforting hand on her back, “That guitar is special, and I don’t want little fingers that are too weak to lift it,” chuckling lightly at the petulant look on her face, “What if Papá Héctor sees you drop his prized guitar? What would he think?”

“I’m sure he won’t care too much, especially if I’m the one playing it!” She puffed her chest out proudly, “Everyone knows I can play better than anyone in my class.”

Miguel stared at her with a wry grin.

“You have to stop hanging around Rosa so much,” he poked her side, causing Coco to giggle,” Your head is becoming as big as hers!”

There was a beat of silence as Socorro calmed down.

“How bout I help you with the song instead?” he asked imploringly, he knew his Abuelita wouldn’t let the little girl play with such a precious family heirloom, but he still wanted to help his sister. Seeing the frown on her face he lightly bumped his shoulder with hers. “Hey! You’ll be able to play with it eventually! Until then you can try it out on your equally as good guitar, what do you say?”

Sighing at her brother, Socorro nodded glumly. Miguel grinned at his sister.

“That’s the spirit! Now, what do we say to your poor guitar?” he asked animatedly, causing Coco to giggle.

“It’s a guitar, not a person, Miguel,”

Miguel reached over a picked up the instrument and held it upright in front of him, facing his sister.

“I don’t think it appreciated that, do you, Mr Guitarrr?” he said, exaggerating his ‘r’ rolls.

“No, Miguel, I don’t,” he said in a deep, gruff voice tilting the guitar to and fro as if it were the one talking, causing Coco to laugh out loud, “I was only trying to make a beautiful sound when she threw me away!”

“Aww, that wasn’t fair, Mr Guitar. I’m sure she didn’t mean to,” Miguel spoke to the inanimate object, causing more giggles out of his sister. He turned his eyes on her, “Did you Coco?” he ask completely serious.

Coco shook her head, she didn’t want to talk with something that wasn’t alive.

Miguel frowned and tilted the guitar as though it were looking down.

“Oh look, now you’ve really made him upset, Coco!” he faked sniffled.

“I just wanted to help you put on a great show, Miss Coco,” ‘Mr Guitar’ said sadly.

Socorro could see what her brother was trying to do then sighed and gazed at her guitar.

“I’m sorry Mr Guitar, I got annoyed is all,” she spoke to the instrument honestly.

“Apology accepted, Madam!” Miguel replied through the guitar, then passed it back to his sister.

“Now, what seems to be the problem?”

Coco found the beginning frets on the guitar and strummed once as a test.

“I’m fine until I get to the chorus and then I completely mess up all the cords,” she said as she started playing through the first part of the song.

Miguel sat there impressed. His sister took after him he knew, he just wasn’t expecting her to have surpassed him at a younger age than he was at the time. Although, that could be due to the added freedom of a certain music ban being lifted, he was nevertheless proud of his little sister.

She then came to the chorus and got two notes in when the flowing melody suddenly came across a wrong note, causing the player to let out a groan.

“See? It’s the same place every time!” she exclaimed, resting her head on the instrument’s cool side. Miguel studied her for a moment, then the most bizarrely excellent idea came to him. Or rather, a certain skeleton did.

“I know what’s wrong!” he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, “you are way too stressed out by this performance.”

Coco fixed him with a deadpan stare.

“Nah-Duh, Genius! All of our familia will be there!” honestly her brother could be so silly sometimes. She wondered it this was what Papá Héctor was like, after all, she had read all the letters he sent Mama Coco and some of them were just as silly as Miguel was sometimes.

Miguel just chuckled at her.

“No no! I ju-“ he shook his head at his very stupid idea, but looked eagerly towards his sister, “give me your best grito!”

“My best what?” she was so confused by her brother now.

“Your best Grito! Yell all your worries to the sky!” he said excitedly, his arms outstretched. At his sister eye brow raise he sighed.

“You know how I sometimes start one of my songs off with a yell?”

“When you sound like a dying cat? Yes.”

After a moment of glaring at her jokingly, he nodded.

“I’ll ignore that comment for the moment, but yes! It helps me loosen up,” he shook his shoulders out as he remembered Hector doing, “then you’ve just gotta…”

Then he let out a loud screech, causing Dante who was outside in their courtyard to start barking. Coming out of his spectacle, Miguel sighed contently. Héctor was right, it did feel nice afterwards.

Socorro stared at him for a moment in awe.

“You want me? To do that?” she gripped her guitar a little tighter in her hand.

“Yep! Papá Héctor taught me that trick himself when I was nervous about performing for the first time,” he replied proudly. Coco stared at him with wide eyes after he said that.

“He taught you that, really?” she asked excited. She loved it when her brother spoke about their now famous ancestor. Miguel nodded.

“Si! It helped me overcome stage fright. But I think it will help you loosen up enough to perform it all the way without worry,” he had complete faith in his sister and her abilities as a musician.

Coco breathed out a sigh, “Okay, I’ll give it a go!”

After a long inhale, the little girl let out the biggest bellow she could. Although it sounded very squeaky, it was still very loud. So loud in fact that a massive smash was heard from their kitchen. Miguel let out a wince at the sound of plates crashing to the floor when.

“Socorro Rivera! Come here this instant young lady!” their mothers voice could be heard.

Now it was time for both brother and sister to wince at one another. Miguel, however smile proudly at his sister.

“I think you’ve got the hang of it already!” he patted her on the back, “but I think both of us are now grounded until that performance of yours now,” he chuckled.

“Hey! This was all your fault, not mine!” she argued with a smile on her face, “But thanks Miguel, I think it did help!”

“No problem little chamaco. After all, that’s what families for,” he leaned over to hug his sister closely.

“I said now, Socorro!” the voice yelled once again.

Both embracing siblings winced together.

“And apparently,” he commented, “to help bail each other out of trouble too.”

Both brother and sister laughed at that.

#cocovalentinesfanworkexchange!#backuppixiedust #cocofanexchange #coco fanfiction #cocovalentinesfanworkexchange

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jumpchain-drop · 4 years

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Chapter 2.1: 0.0 Years

“….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.

“Where…?”

I seemed to be on a beach, in a faint indent in the wet part where the water washes over the sand regardless of tide, far fainter than the speed it felt I was falling at would suggest. Rocky outcroppings all around me. Aside from seagull cries and the swish of the waves, it’s pretty quiet.

I felt a lot smaller than before. Did I get turned into a little kid again? Going through puberty a second time wasn’t fun at all, I’ll tell you that-

why do I have Sandshrew hands

and arms

why am I a Sandshrew

what did the asshole voice do this time

he already took me from two lives, why the fuck-

I must have fainted, because next I knew, a voice was trying to coax me awake.

“Hey! What happened? Are you OK? Wake up!”

Everything started to come back to me. It was perhaps a couple hours later. The sky was pink with sunset, and the air seemed to be filled with… soap bubbles?

And in front of me was a Turtwig. Who, given the sudden lower vantage point in my perspective, was probably the right size.

I got up again, instinctively brushing the beach sand off off me as I did so. I never liked the beach that much; too cold and too many places for sand to stick to and annoy you to death. Deserts were superior in that regard.

“Great! You’re awake!” the Turtwig said. “You weren’t moving. You had me really worried back there.” It was then that I noticed the voice’s feminine tones, so this was probably a female.

I cleared my throat. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“Nothing to be sorry about! You’re the one that looked to be in trouble. How did you wind up unconscious out here?”

“The best I can tell, I fell from the sky.” I probably should’ve said something that didn’t sound completely ridiculous, but the reason I passed out was coming back to me and I was starting to feel done with this.

“From the sky…? But you don’t look hurt at all.”

“Funny how that works out.”

She seemed to decide to switch topics. “Anyways, I’m Terra. Glad to meet you!”

That’s when realization dawned over me.

“So who might you be-?”

“Terra?!” I exclaimed.

“Y-Yes, that is my name… Or is that also your name? That’d be confusing.”

“No, Terra, it’s me!” I pleaded. “Robert, your trainer!”

“Trainer…? But I’m not… Wait...” I saw the realization dawn in her eyes. “...M-Master?!”

“Yes!”

“Master, you turned into a Sandshrew!”

“I know!”

“How did that happen?!”

“Remember how I told you about the jerk that just dropped me into your world?”

“Yes.”

“They did it again. Only this time they decided to turn me into a Sandshrew. I mean, I like Sandshrew, but...”

“I… can think of why they’d do that, Master.”

I tried to raise an eyebrow at her, but I think I just ended up looking stupid. “What do you think?”

“I seem to have two sets of memories,” she said. “I remember being found and nursed to health by you in Orre, and spending ten years as your partner and evolving into a Torterra. But I also remember being born and raised in that town up around the shore there, Treasure Town, and wanting to join the Wigglytuff Exploration Guild my entire life, but never getting up the nerve. Heck, five minutes ago I ran away after being started by a voice when I tried to go in.”

“Hmm...” I pondered this for a bit. “You’re not entirely my partner, but you’re not an entirely different Pokémon either… It’s like the voice just merged the two souls together into one being or something. Which is not a thing I would put past that jerk.”

“Well from your accounts, at least you falling from the sky is more understandable now.”

“Yeah.” What else could I say to that? “So, if part of you is resident of this world, could you tell me anything about what’s going on here?”

“Let me think...” She pondered. “Hmm… Well, more and more bad Pokémon have been turning up recently. A lot of Pokémon have started being aggressive lately-”

But that was when I heard a sound that had me on immediate edge – one that haunted me for ten years.

The rapidly approaching sounds of a Zubat.

I saw it out of the corner of my eye. “Behind you!” Then I grabbed her and dived us aside, just in time to avoid the Zubat’s swoop.

“What?!” the Zubat screeched. “How did-?!”

“We’ve been spotted!” shouting a Koffing next to it.

I quickly got us both to my feet. “I thought after ten years, I’d finally been rid of…!” I reached for my belt, whether for my Poké Balls or my billy club, only to be reminded I didn’t have a belt.

“Hey, I don’t know you, punk!” the Zubat barked. “Don’t act like you know me!”

“Hey, the treasure!” the Koffing said.

I turned to where he was looking. A chunk of rock that wasn’t there before, with some intricate detail carved on the largest flat side. It looked like it had fallen off Terra’s person, er, Pokémon when we hit the ground. I looked back to find they started flying over us to get to it.

“No you don’t!” I shouted as I tried to leap up and swipe at the Zubat repeatedly, but he just flew higher than I could jump. “Terra, try using Bite on the Zubat!” I called to her as they started to come down on the other side, as she was closer.

But she didn’t move.

“Terra-!”

My voice cut out when I saw the fear in her eyes.

In the old world, Terra was as loyal as they come and never hesitated in the face of a command, but the Terra she had been joined to was a coward that ran away from a doorbell. And faced with two Posion-types, one of which was also half-Flying and had tormented her even when she was a Toterra, that cowardice took full hold.

The Zubat grabbed the treasure with its spindly legs. “This is ours now!”

“Whoa-ho-ho!” the Koffing laughed. “Not going to make a move-?”

My rapid slashing interrupted his taunting.

“Ow-ow-ow-ow!”

“Give that back before I start getting serious!” I yelled, standing defensively in front of her.

“By Arceus, he’s crazy!” the Zubat cried. “Let’s get out of here!”

Unfortunately, they were faster than me, so they escaped into a nearby sea cave before I could hit them again.

I punched the sand and cursed under my breath, then started trying to calm myself.

“I-I’m so sorry, Master…!” Terra sputtered as she hurried back to my side. “I-I don’t know what came over me!”

“It’s OK, Terra,” I said, giving her a light hug. “It wasn’t your fault.”

After a moment, she nuzzled my torso.

I broke the hug. “I take it you’re attached to that treasure?” I asked.

She nodded. “That’s my personal treasure. It means everything to me. If I lose that...”

“We’re not going to lose it,” I told her before she started crying. “We’ve survived dozens of Zubat attacks where there was more than one Zubat. Once we get going, that flying rat isn’t going to know what hit it.”

“And what about the Koffing?”

“How is that worse than an implacable swarm of Zubat?”

“I… I see your point, Master.”

“Come on, let’s go.”

And so we headed into the cave.

Even though I could now find myself understanding Pokémon speech, the Water Pokémon that inhabited Beach Cave (as I later learned the place was named) were not in a talking mood. I had to admit I felt pretty frightened, being a Ground-type surrounded by water, but I had a Grass-type at my side.

Surprisingly, Terra’s moveset didn’t regress with her; she had Bite and Earth Power still. I myself found my claws didn’t do too much damage on each individual strike, but I could hit multiple times in succession, so I think that’s Fury Swipes. I also had Defense Curl, and I think I stacked Rollout on top of it. We still need to experiment, but I’ve picked up on being a Pokémon really well all things considered.

When we finally caught up with those two in the deepest part of the cave, Terra had her old confidence building back up and we trounced them flat. Not even keeping off the ground could keep me from rolling all over them.

“B-Blast it...” Koffing muttered. “How did we get wiped out by wimps like them…?”

“Consider knowing your opponent first,” I spat at them as I ripped the treasure back from the Zubat. “Now scram.”

“Grr… D-Don’t think you’re so awesome…” he replied back as he got just enough hover back to not scrape the ground. “T-This victory was a total fluke…!”

“Y-Yeah, you just remember that…!” the Zubat added, its right wing looking a little limp where Terra had bitten it.

After they left, Terra hopped around in celebration. “We did it!”

“Yep,” I replied, putting the treasure down on the ground between us.

“And thank Arceus, my Relic Fragment is safe!” she added. “That’s, uh, that’s what I call my personal treasure.”

“Is what I figured,” he replied. “The term seems familiar.”

“Hmm...” she pondered a bit. “Master, you told us that you came from a world where my world was just a video game. Maybe this world was also a video game in your world.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” I said. “But it’s not one I played before. Not very far, at least.”

Terra picked up the Fragment and tucked it away… somewhere, I have no idea. “Let’s get back to the beach.”

“Yeah, good idea. All this water has me a little on edge.”

The sunset hadn’t fallen too far by the time we got back out, so we sat on the beach, looking out over the waves.

“So… thank you,” she said. “For helping me out.”

“No problem. I’m your trainer, after all. Or at least I was.”

“I know, but… the new me’s cowardice… It seems to go away when I’m with you. As long as we’re together, I feel like we can stand up to anything.”

“Good to know I’m an inspiration.”

She chuckled. It was nice being able to understand her like this. Her voice was very pleasant on the ears.

We sat quietly for awhile until she started talking again. “This is an age of exploration,” she said. “I’ve always liked legends and lore… in this world, at least… I always get excited by tales from the past. Hidden troves filled with treasure and strange relics… uncharted territories veiled in darkness… and new lands just waiting to be discovered. Such places must be full of gold and treasure. And history! Wouldn’t it be amazing to make historic discoveries? I always dream about that. It’s always exciting to me.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Ain’t that just the fantasy.”

“Hmm?”

“My home world has been completely explored already. There’s not one island that someone hasn’t laid claim to. When I left, if we were going to expand our horizons, it would have to be to outer space.”

“But this world is nothing like the human world!” she declared. “Treasure Town is the only dot of civilization on, like, the entire continent! Adventure is as close as your front door!” She gestured her head over to the cave entrance we had just been in. “We made a great team together in there.”

“We’ve always been a great team, remember. It was just a little different this time. Still… I can’t say treasure hunting doesn’t have its appeal. If I wasn’t so concerned with just surviving back then, maybe I would’ve done some.”

“Hmm… Master?”

“What is it, Terra?”

“You don’t know anything about this world, right? That’s why you were asking all those questions.”

“Yeah… Like before, no background information, no memories about this world, nothing.”

“Then you don’t have anyplace to go, do you?”

“...No, I guess I don’t. With how often I had to sleep on the back of my motorcycle, though, it doesn’t matter that much. I can probably rough it even more like this.”

“We should form an exploration team, Master!”

I turned to look at her. “Wait, what?”

“If we register with the Wigglytuff Guild as apprentices, we’ll have a place to eat and sleep, and we’ll probably be able to find where exactly my Relic Fragment came from, and we’ll probably find loads of treasure! It’ll be great! There probably isn’t a better way to spend the next ten years!”

“Eh, I dunno… Ten years as apprentices?”

“Well we’ll probably graduate long before that. Once we’re a full-fledged exploration team, we’ll be able to do anything! It beats sitting around waiting for time to start screwing up.”

“...Wait, what? Time screwing up?”

“Yeah, that’s why there’s so many bad Pokémon around,” she said. “The flow of time in some areas is going out of wack. Slowing down, speeding up, stopping altogether… Between that and the reemergence of mystery dungeons, like the cave we were just in, a lot of Pokémon are getting messed up.”

The idea of time freezing sparked something within me. “Alrighty then, joining the guild it is,” I declared. “We’ll see if there’s something we can eventually do about that. After that… well, since this world might as well cease to exist in ten years, we just might as well save as much treasure from it as we can. Make that warehouse a little less empty.”

“Hooray!” Terra cheered. “We can do this, Master! Together!”

“Please,” I said. “We’re effectively equals like this, and ‘Master’ is just going to look weird. Call me Robert, OK?”

“...OK. Robert.”

For my first time since arriving here, I smiled.

We started our way down the beach, when Terra pointed something out. A small crate – almost tiny by crate standards – had washed ashore. Painted on its side was the icon that made up the keychain on my warehouse key. I pulled it onto the beach and pried it open with my claws.

Inside was the notebook and the mechanical pencil. I took it and opened it.

Layer 2:

You have 10 years in this world.

Despite my best efforts, you are not a drop-in; the one you’ve become is a human-turned-Pokémon that have lost their memories.

You will receive your other items at the guild.

You will have a VERY busy first year.

None of your team members except your partner will go with you, but your perks and items will.

Entertain me.

“...”

“I can’t read human writing, Robert,” Terra said. “What does it say?”

“...” I snapped it shut. “Nothing of importance. Come on, let’s get to the guild before it gets too dark.”

And so we joined the Wigglytuff Guild as apprentices, registered as Team Firma; Terra had left the name to me and I couldn’t help but draw myself to our eventual double Ground-typing. True to what the notebook said, we received a starting kit. It had a Treasure Bag, an Orange and a Green Aura Ribbon, a Persim Band, and two Explorer Badges. Chatot, the guild’s second-in-command explained there was usually a Wonder Map with each starting package, but there’s been a shortage and until they can get one for us we’ll have to get another team’s help to know where places are.

Luckily my memory seems to be as flawless as it was the last ten years. I was certain once we got to a place before, I’d easily be able to get back there again.

(Also, they didn’t bat an eye at my name. Apparently using “human” names that survived myth was the hip new thing? Whatever saved me the trouble of having to come up with a new name.)

I decided to keep the notebook in the Treasure Bag. I recall there being a chance of losing items, and secretly I relish the possibility of getting rid of the damn thing.

The most bizarre thing was when I recalled not seeing the Relic Fragment for awhile and I asked Terra where it was. She said she was keeping it on her. I asked where, and she pulled it out. I tried mimicking her motions and pulled out the key from the warehouse. The keychain made it instantly identifiable.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t try it out, since the closest thing this place had to a locked door was a portcullis-like gate over the guild hall’s entrance. So, unless I invested in inventing locks (and I’m like half-certain I don’t have the engineering knowhow to do so), I was pretty much without any of my things from the other Pokémon world. Of course.

At least we could wear the ribbons without it messing with that. I took the orange and she took the green; she put it around her neck, while I opted for more like an armband. It looks good on her, and she told me the same about mine.

So far, in the face of nothing mattering, Terra was the only constant. It’ll have to do.

#jumpchain #a man chooses #jumpchain a man chooses #story #layer 2 pokemon mystery dungeon

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