A.N: You'll need this for the chapter. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY
If anyone were to stumble upon Berry Fall’s meadow on this day, they might grow concerned or wary about what they heard. It wasn’t a car crash, nor a dying pokemon in its death throws of howling pain, but a completely disjointed, unlearned, and struggling group of pokemon and a human trying to play instruments they had no business even holding.
Ethan had once, long ago, played the trumpet in middle school. That, along with his love of music was where his ‘expertise’ ended. He vaguely recalled how to read sheet music for the trumpet, but tabs for a guitar were like reading alien script to him. He could listen to a song and very slowly piece together the right chords and tempo over time, but that wasn’t a very good foundation of learning to fall upon.
And considering he was struggling with his own instrument? Needless to say, his pokemon were not faring much better. For maybe the first time, Ethan found himself in a position where he couldn’t tutor his pokemon! Tinkatink was at least enjoying her time with her drums, but her enjoyment came from sitting on her tiny anvil like a chair and banging and bashing the absolute shit out of her drumset without any rhyme or reason. Hit this part? It makes a boom! Hit this other part? It makes a bang!
Chatot at least had some natural instinct on music and melodies. Her struggles mostly came from flinching whenever the musically disinclined Tinkatink decided to go try some other combination of bangs and clangs and a mounting frustration of trying to explain rhythm to a pokemon who found her own disorderly smacks and kicks more fun that whatever structured nonsense she was spouting.
Smeargle… Smeargle was actually pretty okay, surprisingly. He wasn’t playing Yes by Roundabout anytime soon, but he could at least structurally find a pleasing, if simple, bassline to play and practice. He was by far, the best of the bunch.
Seeing as his little afternoon jam session was falling apart before it even started, Ethan decided he needed some professional help. “Be right back.”
Two minutes later, Ethan returned from his short trip to his house with his laptop. Unlike his time on Earth, he hardly ever used the thing other than to check emails and do some light research for things he needed to do around the ranch. This was going to fall into the later use case, but with a little bit of extra help added on top. “Porygon, are you there?”
Slowly, like the Grudge, Porygon inched out of the flat laptop screen snoot first. No matter how many times he saw Porygon leave his machine, it was always eerily magical. Once fully materialized, Porygon kicked its feet, causing them to spin a full three hundred and sixty degrees as it looked around at the meadow they found themself in.
Ethan coughed, feeling a little awkward about interacting with his personal FBI agent about… music help. “First, thank you once again for setting up my new phone with all of my music.”
Porgon trilled out a digitized cry, which Ethan had no clue how to interpret. Since his old phone was shattered in the cave, he got a replacement. It was the same make and model (free and cheap). “Do you think you could help us by finding proper methods in which to learn all these instruments? Also, would you want to join our little band?”
Instead of turning, Porygon’s body digitized itself and reappeared facing the opposite direction. It looked from pokemon to pokemon, from instrument to instrument, then digitized and flew as a stream of code back into the laptop. Ethan watched as his laptop automatically began pulling up pages and started multiple downloads. Pages on the species of his pokemon here with him popped up and got closed within seconds as Porygon scanned them and seemingly read all the information within milliseconds. Next, various musical theory pages opened and closed, along with many instruments and their introductory teachings.
Ethan even saw a document being filled out in real time in the background of the opening and closing pages, detailing the changed and improved holding pattern for Tinkatink to hold her drumsticks with less than five fingers to achieve the same functional output as a human with five.
To say he was impressed would be an understatement. Within three minutes, Porygon had laid out a training plan and instructions on personalized training methods for his pokemon and their given instruments—adjusted for their physiology, temperaments, and needs. The smart little guy also even sorted through his catalog of Earth music and picked out the easiest songs to play and created recordings of each individual part so that everyone could listen to their part, and only their part.
After picking his jaw off the floor, Ethan tucked a hand in his coat and withdrew ol’reliable. With a flourish, he smiled and held out his palm. “Would you like a berry?”
Porygon’s didn’t eat—No, that wasn’t true. They didn’t have to eat, or sleep, or drink… but they could eat. Porygon poked the berry with its flat nose and the berry was sucked into its form, as if it was one of the magic bags on his waist…
Wait, Silph Co made the bags and they also made Porygon… didn’t they?
Banishing that thought, Ethan went ahead and changed his terrible plans of practicing together and instead decided to go one by one, leaving himself for last. “Chatot, come pick a song from this list for us to attempt to play.”
With two strong flaps of her wings, Chatot fluttered onto his shoulder and looked at the list of songs on the laptop. Smeargle also wandered over to take a look, but Tinkatink continued to babble and smack the ever loving shit out of her drums.
“♪ Chatoooot! ♪” Chatot poked the screen with the tip of her beak.
Ethan read the choice of song and shrugged. “Blink-182 it is.” He hummed as Porygon brought up the song ‘I Miss You’ and all of its relevant information. “You guys practice your parts while I help Tinkatink.”
Chatot and Smeargle gave him sympathetic looks, causing him to laugh and slowly shake his head. “Oh ye of the little faith.”
“Tinkatink!” He shouted over the banging of drums. “Let me have a try!”
Excited to hear Ethan’s banging and wanting him to partake in the glorious smashing, Tinkatink readily hopped off her little anvil and gestured all about with excited babbling.
Tinkatink’s Christmas drumset was way too small for him to comfortably play, but it was a proper set of drums. This was no kiddy drum set toy for children, but the real deal. After popping a squat on the grass after shoving the little anvil seat away, Ethan grabbed Tinkatink’s custom drumsticks—which were normal drumsticks that had her motif of gray and pink, matching her hammer—and threw in an earbud. Porygon was a class above the rest, as before it was even snug in his ear, the drum track was playing through the bluetooth connection.
It took a couple minutes for Ethan to figure out the very repetitive drum pattern, as he didn’t have any experience with the drums, but he eventually found out how to play it. Tinkatink’s excitement for smashing faded as he wasn’t attempting to break her drums with his strength, and instead played normally. “Can you do this?” He asked his pink gremlin as he continued to play. “If you can, then we’ll go on a trip to get some more metal this weekend.”
Before he could blink, a pink blur smashed into his shoulder, knocking him over and away from the drums. “Ow! You little shit!”
Tinkatink… had problems understanding that Ethan was a feeble and weak meatbag compared to the other pokemon. Her dropkick hurt. She ignored his complaints and used his hip as a seat to start playing and copying him. Seeing as he was now furniture, he laid sideways in the grass and did his best to listen to her play. He had to coach her a bit, mostly telling her not to hit the drums so damn hard, but she eventually got it down to a reasonable level. The part that threw her off the most was the taps on the rim instead of the drum itself. After ten minutes, Tinkatink learned her part.
Tired of being a glorified chair, Ethan shook his butt and knocked Tinkatink off himself. “Good job! But, keep practicing. We’ll go get some metal this weekend.”
“Tink-ka baba!” Tinkatink shouted as she situated herself back on her anvil chair.
Meeting up with Smeargle, Ethan saw that the bass part of the song was very simple and easy for him to learn. He was having fun though, he seemed to enjoy the more simple bits rather than the complicated ones. Ethan gave him a proud pat on the head as he moved towards Chatot, who was singing the vocals out loud. Thankfully, she chose the… more interesting voice of the two, saving himself from embarrassment. She wasn’t using her own voice, just mimicking for now, which was fine. Her instruments didn’t really have a place for this song, but she didn’t seem bothered. She liked singing more than playing.
Seeing as he was the last to get ready, he focused on the guitar chords. They weren’t difficult, but remembering the order and which way to strum wasn’t his strength. He also had to re-tune his guitar, causing him to spend thirty minutes before he was ready.
They were missing some of the instruments for the song, but they weren’t trying to compete with the original. They were just practicing. “Okay, let’s try for real and all together. First, let’s listen to the original, then give it a try.”
They all settled around the laptop and listened to the real track play once. Chatot had heard the song many times before, but Smeargle and Tinkatink hadn’t been around their little singing sessions every single time they had one. Smeargle looked intrigued, piercing together his part with the rest of them. Ethan’s lip twitched upwards as he saw the intrigue in his painter's eyes. Tinkatink just listened and waited impatiently to play her drums again, while Chatot sang softly under her breath.
“Alright,” Ethan said, slipping his guitar strap over his shoulder. “Positions! Tinkatink, lead us onwards!”
Tinkatink spun her drumstick—quite adeptly, he might add—and started off the track. Ethan and Smeargle jumped in with their parts, a little disjointed, but adjusted to the tempo within moments.
Ethan started off with the vocals, but flubbed the guitar bit trying to multitask. It was a good thing that practice made perfect… but he’d need a lot of practice by the looks of it.
“♫ Hello there, the angel from my nightmare ♫” “♫ The shadow in the background of the morgue ♫”“♫ The undsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley ♫”“♫ We can live like Jack and Sally if we want ♫”
It was at this point that he noticed that the strings and piano were playing. Looking over to the little pill-speaker he had and his laptop, he saw that a digital keyboard and other instruments were up and playing. Porygon was a part of their band!
He finished off his part of the singing and nearly broke into laughter when Chatot started her part.
“♪ WHERE ARE YOOOOOOOOU? AND I’M SO SOOOORRRYY! ♪”
His fingers stopped playing, refusing to move as he shook and tried not to laugh. Chatot flashed him a knowing smirk as she continued to belt out her part of the vocals. By the time he came around, he had to join in with a shaky and terrible, “♫ I miss you. ♫”
“♪ DON’T WASTE, YOUR TIME, ON MEEEE, YOU’RE ALLLL, READYYYY, ♫”“ THE VOIIIICE INSIIIDEE MYYY HEAAAD! ♫”
By the end of the song, he determined that they all sucked, but it was still a fun time. A good first try! He slinged his guitar off his shoulder then pointed to Tinkatink. “Okay, your turn to pick a song.”
The rest of the morning and afternoon flew by as they practiced. Joyce, James, Meowth, and Jessie all came by to listen and cheer, though they mostly just came by to laugh at their butchered attempts and to have their lunch with a show.
Nonetheless, the day was a good one. When they got better, Ethan decided that he’d enter a contest with his merry band of pokemon just to have some fun.
Who knows? Maybe they might even win!