(Brassius)


    Poppy pinched her nose shut and stood next to the dumpster—at the back of a building. She nodded to Tinkie, and Tinkie raised one dense fist.


    Bang! Bang!


    The rooting in the dumpster stopped, something shiny and metal pushed the black-ridged lid up.


    "Hello," Poppy said, nasal. "Would you like some keys?" She showed in her hand a keyring, with several keys jangling. There were small silver ones, and large brass ones, a selection between rusty fence and cheap padlock keys.


    Klefki leapt out of the dumpster with a clattering and gleeful chiming. As the lid shut, its stench wafted out as if by fan. Poppy did not react, but Linh, several feet away, did.


    "So." Poppy watched as Klefki eagerly attached the keys to himself, "If you become my Pokémon, I can give you lots of—ignore Linh''s gagging—lots of keys. But I can also give you space to store even more keys!


    "All you''ll have to do, is fight for me! You can fight for me until I collect eight Badges, or fight for me as one of my strongest. But I will be your friend either way!" Poppy leaned forwards, "Do you want that?"


    Klefki watched her, evaulating, then he nodded.


    "Great!" And Poppy took a step back, arm cocking, Pokéball palmed. And she thre—!


    Tinkie coughed.


    "Oh, right!" Poppy turned back to Klefki. "We need to do this right."


    She held her hands out, limply, palms up. Klefki paused, then eagerly unlinked himself, to grasp her hands with either sides of his keyring.


    Poppy nodded, and held back.


    "Then by," she turned to Tinkie, and Tinkie said something, she spoke over Tinkie, a second behind. "Cold iron. By Urban court. By Lock-maker''s word I vow to the compact between Man and Monster."


    Klefki nodded in time with with thrice-by vows. And made a single chime just after Poppy spoke. Poppy grinned, and held up a fresh Pokéball. One Klefki allowed to catch himself.


    "Did I do it right, Tinkie?" Tinkie nodded. Then she hugged the Pokéball to her chest and stamped her feet. "Yes yes yes yes!"


    "What, precisely, was that?" Linh asked, still very far away.


    "What''d you say?" Poppy called back, still grinning.


    Linh took two steps forwards, then grimaced at the smell. He gestured towards himself, and Poppy approached.


    He asked again, "What was that? The vow."


    "Uh," she grinned sheepishly, "Fairy thing? Tinkie showed me it."


    They turned to Tinkie, who was twisting her finger into her ear.


    "Nevermind that—did you get any trash on you?"


    "Uh, no?" Poppy looked down, twisting side to side to check.


    "What about your hands—they touched Klefki. And Klefki''s a bit stinky, isn''t it?"


    Poppy pursed her lips, staring down at her fingers. She tentatively brought them to her face, sniffing them. Then, her tong—


    "Oh for—here!" Linh stopped her, in his hands was a disposable cleaning wipe. The kind that''s folded into a paper packet and given when ordering really greasy food. "Wipe your hands, then lets get out of here, yeah?"


    They left the back, to emerge into Alfornada''s streets. Wide, with brickwork floors. Brickworks on the houses too—clean austere bricks that the Applin crawl up. Roofs in bold colours contrasting the Squawkabilly''s and Murkrow staking out their territory above. Below, in the shrubbery pots stretching across the street, Sunkern and Sunflora gossipped as they watched the Skiddo walk by. Skiddo hitched to cheery red wagons, that their Trainer''s sat in. Sculptures stood in admiring spots—the ends of shrub rows and in places where the light shines bright. But with their little plaques—rust and dirt in the screw-divots—they showed that the sculptures were not admired as art. Rather as public installations that have been there forever.


    Poppy wanted to read a plaque, so Linh held her up as she read the words, finger tracing under them. He read them faster—found the hidden pun, and snorted, looking aside.


    A man was approaching them, a face set old-man grim and gaunt. With his green thorny hair casting deep shadows over his eyes. Brassius. He called out as he approached them.


    "Poppy—it is good to see you again," he said, "Right on time for our... third, bout."


    Poppy twisted in Linh''s grasp until he turned her around—"Brassius! I caught a Klefki just now!"


    Brassius nodded to her, "That''s nice, Poppy." He jerked his head to Linh, "And you must be Linh?"


    Linh nodded.


    "Well. Both of you want a battle?"


    "Yeah!" Poppy grinned.


    "I do have time right now." Brassius half-turned, gesturing down the street, "Shall we?"


    "Perfect," Poppy said, and she wriggled out of Linh''s lift. "We shall!"


    They walked.


    Linh looked at Brassius, gazing out to the side, and not really focusing on the area. "So, Brassius, sir?"


    "Don''t need to call me that," he said.


    "Uh, alright," Linh turned back to the road, "Poppy says your an artist—that you''ve made most of these sculptures on display. But is it only sculptures?"


    "Ah," Brassius gestured to one stone ''gargoyle'' that they passed, a Hoppip perching on a streetlamp. "Yes, when I was still a child I did drawings—and those were what got me into this career, actually." He smiled, before his expression turned back to a sort of dissatisfied neutral. "But I quickly switched to stone. I find paper and canvas so... pervious. Not exactly able to capture enduring nature."


    They passed around a turn in the road, lined by neatly trimmed shrubs, staying behind the brick path. However, one bush a distance away had dirt on the stone, and in between was an Oddish. Flat on their back, with dizzy swirls in their eyes. Brassius let out a tutat the sight.


    Brassius stopped and knelt down—down there, lying on the ground, next to Oddish. When an Oddish gets knocked over, they just stay there until helped, which Brassius did with a hand.


    "There you go." He stood back up, Oddish gave him a thankful cry, and a brush against his leg. And he gently nudged Oddish back to the bush. Poppy looked at that with creased brows. "Do you have artistic inclinations, Linh?"


    "Hassel''s been poking me about photography, and working with Ghost illusions, if that''s what you mean."


    "I do."


    The conversation died, Brassius not elaborating.


    The Gym Building stood a medium distance away—not so close that they could hear the busker at the entrance. Not so far away that they could not see the busker''s partnered Oricorio—red feathers dancing.


    "So," Linh began again, "Most of these sculptures are your make, yeah? Do you... have any favourites? Or any you really think are underappreciated?"


    "I am fond of Surrending Sunflora, although I do wish critiques would talk about my later works. It is... old. And old work may have been avant-garde then, but not very much now." He scratched his cheek, thinking. "... Nobody''s actually brought up Rising Rays. Which is odd—Legendaries are legendary for a reason."


    Linh looked to Poppy to see if she''d share any of her perpetually cheerful encouragement—an often thing, with her. But she just kept glancing back at Brassius, with pursed lips and thinking eyes. Tinkie kept on nudging her, so she didn''t walk off the road.


    "Well," Linh said instead, "I''m sure it just needs the right au—"


    "Why are you sad?" Poppy asked.


    "What?" Brassius spluttered, "I''m... not sad. Why would you think that Poppy?"


    "''S just. You go out of your way to care for the Pokémon." She pointed backwards, towards where the Oddish was. "Normally you''d have stopped to help him reroot. Why didn''t you? Last time I got your Badge you made me bury all of them!"


    "I''m just not feeling like it, I suppose." Brassius remarked. Even Linh, who has never met this man in his life, recognised the despondence in his tone.


    "Now that you mention it—you aren''t really acting enthused about art." He said. And then blinked at Brassius''s split-second scowl.


    "Perhaps we''re just talking about terrible things not worthy of being art." Curtly. Brassius turned away.


    Linh pointed out the obvious. "... We''re talking about your sculptures."


    Brassius let the awkward silence continue, before he sighed and stopped walking. "I suppose it''s no trouble to share. See." His head tilted back, staring into the sky, "I''ve been in a slump. I have this idea I want to make, and nothing else. But it''s not cooperating. Or rather, he."


    "Who''s he?" Poppy leaned forward, hands linking together behind her, with coaxing eyes.


    "Trevenant."


    <Artazon>


    It seemed Brassius was the kind of man who found energy from complaining—as he groused he started gesturing with more life, tone drifting up and down in octaves, instead of droning. He even asked Poppy about Klefki, and complimented his collection.


    "There''s this wild Trevenant who''s been living in the woods behind my studio." By his side, a Sunflora that decided to follow held up her leaf arms beggingly. And Brassius absent-mindedly handed his whip to her. He continued as Sunflora played with it. "Has been since I moved in—and he helped with the plants too. In exchange for some things. Look—there''s the building now."


    Brassius''s art studio stood near the base of a tall rocky face—on a road that departed so far from the town that it turned more dirt then cobble, and deep in a small forest.


    "So, Trevenant''s... stopping you from making art? Is he, I don''t know, stealing your supplies or something?" Linh asked.


    Poppy, cheerfully, toddled side to side. Small-hopping from cobble to cobble. "Oh—maybe Trevenant''s distracting you when you try to complete your project! What if he''s scaring you away from your in-spi-ration?"


    Tinkie, holding Riolu under one arm, and Casket in the other, garbled something too—her own answer in this ''game''.


    Brassius shook his head, smirking, "Close, all of you. Trevenant''s not stopping my project. Treveant is my project. He''s my muse. It''s just, he keeps on leaving before


    I can get the sketches done."


    "Could you not just draw from memory?" Linh questioned, "You have seen him a lot, right? If he lives near you, and is friendly enough that he''ll trade things with you."


    "You would think that, but no. See, there''s this fascinatingly contorted knot on the—" Brassius cut himself off, with a shake of his head. "Doesn''t matter. Here, I can show you—at this time of day he should be in that direction." He pointed into the treeline.


    They went around the house—wooden sculptures pinned to the bushes lining it, and tiny decorative edifices between the creeping vines clinging to the walls.


    "Hm." Brassius stopped, suddenly intent on one patch of the wall. "That''s not good. One moment, please." He held out a hand as he walked away, making the group stop.


    "What is it?" Poppy''s head tilted. Neither she nor Linh could see anything wrong with the vines on the wall—densly packed leaves.


    A grimace, "Kudzu," Brassius condemned. "Sunflora? We need some heat."


    Sunflora looked at the unassuming plant. She frowned at it, gave Brassius back his whip and raised her leafy hands. The light sharpened in between them, and a small, tiny, Solar Beam absolutely obliterated the fuck out of that plant. Leaving only soot-scorched brick.


    Brassius nodded at a job well done, thanked Sunflora, and walked back to Linh as Sunflora sat down to bask.


    "Kudzu''s an invasive species here," Brassius explained. "I keep some on hand, because I like the taste, but sometimes it''ll take root outside of the greenhouse. It''d be irresponsible of me to let it get out of control. Shall we?" He gestured to the treeline.


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    Inside the forest, well. It was very obvious a Trevenant has taken root. The trees seemed to curl around them, branches twisting slightly so the light streaming down looked like curious staring eyes.


    Brassius continued onwards fearlessly, even as Tinkie got closer to Poppy, and made sure Casket stayed right at Linh''s heels. "My next project, the one I can''t get out of my head, is intended to be Trevenant—a sculpture to him, to capture his presence and influence over my life. Now and forever, as a piece of my legacy.


    "Problem is, once I explained this to Trevenant, and he agreed to being my model. He disappeared. Every time I met him I would break out my sketchbook and my pencil, but once lead touched the paper, he was already walking away—red eye behind the trees.


    "And, well. I only have so long before I lose this chance to carve him in stone. He''s very old—old enough only his will is keeping him going."


    Linh commented, "From my understanding, that''s true to most Ghosts. They can leave life whenever they want, they just have to let go of their body." His head snapped to the side, seeing something red in the corner of his eye.


    "We''re here," Brassius noted. He held a bush aside so Poppy could step into the grove. And then followed her through. The branches whacked Linh in the chest—but he ignored that in favour of seeing what they saw.


    A grove of two tree stumps, in the middle of a fairy ring, Trevenant waited. Old, large. A tree possessed to motion. Hexapod root-legs and a great big vertical slit in the trunk, from which a single red glow slides up and down. The eye. To the side and resting on one root, a single large hunk of dead wood. A bark arm with knot and yellow-leaf, curved like a bent elbow.


    "Trevenant," Brassius waved. Trevenant''s eye shifted towards him, and the arm raised up and waved—stocky, janky, movements. He did not react as the group approached.


    Brassius took a seat on one tree stump, "Here—watch. I''ll bring out my notebook and see what he does." Out went his notebook and out went the cover— flipping around and tapping against his hand. Poppy and Linh stood behind him, somewhat awkwardly.


    "Casket," Linh said, and Casket stopped padding towards Trevenant. Trevenant''s eye went from Casket to Linh, before he saw Brassius''s pencil dancing across the paper.


    With creaking heaving groan—like the sigh of falling leaves—Trevenant stood up. And up. And he walked away—backwards, never turning away.


    "See—like that." Brassius snapped his book shut, "Every time! Just hides in the forest, I can''t get any details with that."


    Linh looked at the treeline, in the shadows cast, that red glow looked back, almost... expectant. He recognised that look on Menace.


    "It doesn''t look like he''s going away—it look''s like he wants you to follow." He frowned.


    "He just goes further away."


    "So follow him more?" Poppy made a curious noise, "Like, if Trevenant didn''t want you to follow, he''d just disappear, right?"


    Brassius blinked, then scowled, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He muttered something self-recriminating. "Fine, sure, yeah! Let''s go!"


    Brassius stomped into the treeline, chasing that red eye. Linh and Poppy exchanged a glance, before they hurried to catch up. Poppy and Tinkie, hand in hand—massive hammer swinging side to side. Linh, with Casket on his heels. And Riolu on her heels—barking excitedly.


    They came to Brassius, pacing in another grove—furiously muttering. "He''s gone! Gone, gone, gone! All that''s here is this!" He jabbed his hand towards a broken stone in the middle of the grove. One semi-spherical, split in half so the crude smiley face carved on the flat side was split apart.


    "What is it?" Poppy asked, she came close and peered at it, traced the divots with her fingers.


    "Just some dumb rock." Brassius seethed to himself, standing at the edge of the clearing. His hands were on his whip, running down the length, thorns pricking his skin.


    Linh looked sharply at his back, "Don''t be like that," he muttered. "Hey, Poppy—what do you think?"


    "It, looks like art?" Poppy asked herself, then she looked down at Riolu, she took his paw and traced the crack for him, "Look''s broken. Maybe we can fix it?"


    Linh looked back to Brassius, who did not respond. He considered Trevenant, why he would lead them here, to this object, specifically. "That sounds like a fine idea Poppy. But, how? It''s not like we have anything to fix it with."


    Perhaps a test, and how would Linh answer this test?


    "Hey! You''re standing on some vines Linh! They look cut up." Poppy squinted, "Weird."


    Fix the broken object.


    "So I am. Let''s see—Tinkie? Can you push these split halves back together?" Linh held one end of the vine and offered the other to Poppy. "Why don''t you run around the stone? Lets wrap it tight, that sounds like it''d work to me."


    Poppy took the vine end and nodded, she ran around the stone thrice—Linh holding up the vines so she could duck underneath. They pulled the vines tight—Casket and Riolu and Tinkie pulling the other end until the vine leaked sap over itself. And then Linh and Poppy got to work making a knot at the back of the stone. A headband for the smiley face.


    Well, they tried to work. The vine was slimey and springy in a way that made it slip out of Linh''s grasp. And it was too thick for Poppy to actually wrap her fingers around.


    "Hey," Brassius''s voice came from behind them, he was frowning, but it was because of their poor quality work, instead of his frustration. "Have neither of you worked with vines before? Here, this is how you do it."


    His fingers worked dextrously, and a tight ball-like knot formed. Even with a facsimile of fabric trailing down.


    "There." Brassius smiled, hands on his hips. "That''s how it should look." The smiley smiled proudly back, stone happy with it''s new headband.


    A deep creaking chuckle—and suddenly Trevenant was between them. He turned to Brassius and his arm rose up, and beat against his trunk. Not as a deep woody thunk, but as a clap, clap.


    Brassius froze, then made a confused noise as Trevenant walked backwards, into the trees again. Red eye in the shadows, inviting.


    "What are you waiting for?" Linh asked, "You''re getting what he wants—pray, continue!"


    Brassius glanced at him, then walked forwards, a sort of excitement in his breast.


    <Artazon>


    Trevenant led them to many broken things—left out in empty space so the daylight caught on them. And each time, Brassius fixed them, with his hands, his mind, and his Pokémon. Each time Trevenant appeared, and praised him gladly, and left again. And Brassius led the group deeper and deeper into the forest—growing with every Pokémon he used.


    Until they reached the last clearing. Where not just one thing stood broken, but many.


    Many statues—overgrown with vines and plants, and surrounded by flowers. Statues clearly sculpture-like. Human-tall, yet not all human. Some depicted Sunflora, some depicted Brassius, some depicted the naked form—classical beauty.


    All were unfinished—thigh melding into uneven blocky stone, smooth at the sides and bumpy on the top. Chest leading to neck leading to square untouched marble, the sculptor''s TODO note.


    All were of sporadic quality. The faux-cloth crude. The stone skin chipped. Sunflower petals not shaped like petals at all.


    Brassius wandered between them with gaping mouth, eyes wide.


    "These, these are my sculptures! My first ones—the unfinished ones, that I left behind. How did..." He spun in a circle, taking all of them in, "How did Trevenant find all these?"


    "Where did you discard your statues? It''s not like you''d go out of your way to dump them far away, right?" Linh questioned.


    Brassius just shook his head. "What, what do I do?"


    Trevenant appeared; One moment not there, the next, undeniably. He gently gestured to the sculptures. Brassius''s unfinished works.


    "But. Look at them!" Brassius swung his arms out, "This—the muscles are so bad, the poses are off! The details are just wrong. There''s—this—these can''t really be repaired, they can''t be made whole!"


    Trevenant shrugged, and knocked a statue over. It shattered into parts, the head rolling and rolling across the dirt. Brassius screeched, "What are you doing! Stop!"


    Trevenant stopped.


    Brassius also stopped, heaving. "I. I..."


    From behind him, Linh spoke. He was carrying the stone head—heavy in both hands.


    "Now listen, I just met you, and you''ve been on a real big emotional rollercoaster today. But the lesson seems obvious to me." Linh looked up from the bust. "Either fix them, and make them as best as you can. Or destroy them. Don''t leave your past in this half-life."


    Brassius stayed silent, looking away. So Linh turned to Trevenant and rolled his eyes.


    Trevenent glared. Linh walked back to Poppy. "What do you think, Poppy?"


    Poppy hummed, "I don''t know?"


    "I think... well. I think they should be repaired. As best we can. At the least cleaned up. Brassius carved these out with intent, and it''ll be a shame to leave them dirty."


    Poppy hummed again, "Okay. Tinkie! Let''s go clean these up!"


    Poppy and Linh had picked up a little of what Brassius showed—the skills to repair, with what''s on hand. And clearing away vines and growth is no great hassle. Especially not with Tinkie''s hand, and Casket''s teeth.


    It went faster when Linh cajoled Brassius''s Pokémon into helping as well, instead of just milling around. Watching like Brassius was. Seeds planted into stone, growing stems that turned into sturdy dowels. Internal reinforcement and joints.


    "So—no that piece doesn''t go there, it goes—Kaolin? Can you?" Linh gestured to the missing arm, and Kaolin, Linh''s Polteageist, spilled out an illusion—a stone arm in place against the shoulder.


    Arboliva bent down to inspect it, and crooned with her sleazy and oily voice. She started to gesture, before Trevenant was there—in the way of her wreath-like arm. The leaves slapped against his branch-crown to her surprise.


    Trevenant ignored her, and he ignored Linh''s surprised ''urk''. He said something to Kaolin, and it sloshed back an answer.


    Trevenant nodded, then tapped the illusiary arm. His branch-hand did not go through, it sounded like wood on marble.


    "Wha?" Linh stepped forwards, and tapped the arm himself. It held. He looked down to where the original arm was. It was still there, and still felt real to his foot. He turned to Trevenant, eyes wide, grinning. "That''s—incredible! Can you do it again?"


    Repairs continued, but this time, Trevenant helped—with this strange illusion-yet-real technique that left Linh endlessly fascinated. Sunflora were completed. Brassius basts stood stony in full. The faceless men and women—carved beauty—were given faces.


    "No. Not that one—" Brassius spoke up. "It''s scrap stone, not worth the effort. Leave it."


    "So, what do we do with it?" Linh asked.


    Brassius thought, his gaze snapped to the statue. "My... garden, needs an expansion. I could use the rubble as a substrate."


    Trevenant made an approving sound.


    They continued—some statues set right. Some not. Until every statue stood finished, or was rubble to be carted and used elsewhere. Brassius stood there, expression unreadable. "I..."


    He turned to Linh. "Thank you."


    He turned to Poppy. "Thank you."


    He turned to Trevenant, "Thank you!" He grinned, so wide it hurt.


    Trevenant came forwards then, and clasped his arm around Brassius, and drew him into a hug. One returned eagerly.


    Brassius pressed his forehead against the old tree. Eyes closed, tension in his shoulders. Before he relaxed, and turned to Poppy. His voice far brighter then Linh has ever heard.


    "So, you want a battle? Something avant-garde? I can oblige—and I think we can make a masterpiece together!"