Find Everyone
Jared wondered, Who’s this? “Uh… Yeah! I am.” Someone who works with me?
She stood aside and opened the door further. “Did you forget something? Are you coming inside?”
So this is the office. This lady… Is she my secretary “Um, no. I was just walking around town.” He stretched his legs nonchalantly, helping to ease some of the strain in his thighs. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a good walk.”
“Oh, well alright!” She stepped out and closed the door. “I’m headed home now. See you tomorrow, boss.” Then she sauntered down the street, her soft, graphite tail swaying behind her.
Jared watched her as she went and waited until she was gone to approach the office and walk inside. The interior was just as plain as the outside, exactly like he expected to find inside the average office building. A squat front desk greeted him, accompanied by a line of office chairs against the wall. On the desk was a brass call bell beside a nameplate that read TINA. There was a framed photo of the woman he’d just seen walking out. Well, that’s one name at least.
He wandered through the rest of the building, making a quick mental map of the place. His own office was small like the rest of it, featuring an oversized desk and a nameplate that said JARED. On the wall behind it was a panoramic image of what looked like the entire village population posing in front of the cliff with the valley behind them. Jared saw himself hovering above them, his wings outstretched in a flapping motion, a proud smile on his face. He stood up to it closely enough to see his somber reflection in the glass. No memory existed of taking this photo, and yet there he was as its prime focus. He started counting the number of folks in the picture, but lost count after 89. An entire village of Pokémon who depend on me, who call me their leader. It was a hell of a big leap from being a restaurant host. Tina even called me her boss. It’s all so surreal.
If he was going to be a mayor for a week, he would at least take the effort to memorize names and faces. In his office was a loaded bookshelf which held a roster of the entire village’s population. It contained the names and species of over 200 people, a great number of whom were marked as deceased, some as recently as half a year ago according to the date. People I knew personally, probably, but their names don’t ring a bell. He felt some level of guilt because of that, but he wouldn’t let it discourage him. He plopped his rear end in the seat of his leather chair and went to work memorizing every single name and species the town had to offer.
It was easier than expected, mostly thanks to the fact that every single resident had a name that was a play on their species. Tina was a Mightyena. -tyena, Tina. One resident Bulbasaur was named Bulba. A Pidgeot which Jared assumed was the one he’d seen flying earlier was named Pid. A Grovyle named Grover, a Skuntank named Skyler, and so on and so forth. So long as he could remember the name of the Pokemon, he had a good idea as to what the person’s name was.
He spent half an hour memorizing and quizzing himself on every single name until it had been drilled into the very core of his memory. A total of 121 people lived in the village, low enough for there to exist an interpersonal relationship between every single person. Jared new them all, and though he possessed no memory of them, he could at least identify them and perhaps befriend them for what would be the second time in that realm’s timeline.
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 09 September 2025
The end (for now)