PMD-U Errand 1, Temporal Travelers: A Blue Box

“So, in short, you have to stop putting such vulgar graffiti all over everything,” said Sarah Jane, “It’s a direct order from the Explorer Guild Leaders.” The smeargle who had taken an hour for her to track and pin down didn’t look very receptive of her words. He gazed down at the purrloin with a half smirk.

“Why should I care what those blowhards say? The way I see it, you can’t make me do nothing lady.” The smeargle folded his arms across his chest in haughty stubbornness. While she remained calm and unaffected outwardly, Sarah groaned in frustration internally. The kids these days had no respect for anything, not the guilds, not their elders, not even their own city. While she herself was rebellious at times, she never tried to do harm in being so, unlike these vandals.

She eyed the smeargle who was quickly losing interest in this conversation. She had to convince him and all the others to stop making such inappropriate art. She had one more trick up her sleeve, but she hated to use it. A girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do, she thought in resignation. She turned away from the smeargle and let her ears droop.

“I really wish you would help me out here,” she said in a sad but lovely tone. She looked back at the smeargle with big pitiful green eyes. His eyebrows rose in surprise by her change of character. “Back at the guild, none of those brutes listen to me. They don’t think I can do anything right. I can’t go back just to say I failed,” she continued her voice laced with honey. She smiled up hopefully at the very confused smeargle. “So, just for me, could you stop making such naughty artwork?” She batted her eyelashes at him. “Then I could show them all I’m not useless,” she smiled a little wider and took a step towards the painter pokemon, “I’ll even make you a deal! You can still do your graffiti, but just nothing nasty, ok? For those with more…innocent eyes.” She gazed at the normal type in anticipation.

The smeargle who was now blushing rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. At last, he sighed and gave in. “Ok, miss. Don’t go getting all upset or anything. We’ll try and keep it profanity free.” Sarah’s eyes lit up with joy.

“Really? Thank you so much! You don’t know how much this means to me, Mr…?” The smeargle smiled charmingly.

“Pica. Name’s Pica. Who would you be, little lady?” The purrloin looked away shyly and tossed her hair.

“I’m Sarah Jane. It was a pleasure to meet you, Pica.” She did a little curtesy before backing away. “I must be off to tell the guild of my progress. Will you pass along my message to the others? No profanity, but the art can stay. Just cover up anything that would be offensive.” Pica nodded, the pleasantly confused look still flickering in his eyes.

“You got it, Miss Sarah Jane. Hope we bump into each other again!” Just like that, the kid was off down the street.  Once she could no longer see him, Sarah rolled her eyes with a sigh. Oh, she hated using Charm. How any self-respecting girl could behave in such a way on a regular basis still baffled her to this day. Hopefully, she hadn’t been too seductive for that kid. It would be terrible if rumors started going around…

She shook her head firmly as though to dispel such thoughts. Straightening her blue vest, she set off down the street in the opposite direction. I wonder how the Doctor is doing, she thought, I rather not have to take care of two sets of troublesome children.

*****

For once, the Doctor wasn’t in trouble or even causing it. He had actually been very productive. As Sarah finally found the older mon, she was stunned by how productive he had been.

“Woah…” she gasped. Having not heard her approach, the furret suddenly spun on his heels to face her. His hands were splotched with paint and he had a paint brush tucked into the band of his hat.

“Sarah Jane! I was wondering when you were going to show up. I’ll have you know I’ve made a lot of progress with the alleyway art community,” he grinned widely, “I persuaded them to become inspired in a less…mature fashion and keep their designs clean.” Sarah still wasn’t really registering what he was saying as her eyes were still glued to the wall behind him.

“Did…did you make that?” The originally bland sandstone wall was now covered by black paint. On the black expanse, the wall was spotted, streaked, and swirled with bright and shimmering colors. It reminded her of the night sky through a telescope with stars and planets…yet in so much more detail and with vibrant color. It was beautiful and awe-inspiring. The Doctor turned to look back at the wall.

“Hmm? Oh, that? Well, yes, with the help of these lads,” he answered before gesturing to a pair of smeargle to his left. They too were paint splotched and marveling at their masterpiece. “Patch and Scrawl, I think they said they’re names were…or something like that.” The Doctor shrugged nonchalantly as he eyed the wall graffiti. “Do you like it?” The purrloin nodded, still a bit disbelieving that a mon who seemed to break anything he touched could make something as intricate as this.

“Yes. It’s amazing.” The furret’s silly grin only grew wider at her praise and approval.

“It is pretty cool,” Patch remarked still holding his tail oozing black paint.

“That was a really good idea for a design. You’re okay, Doc,” Scrawl added with a smile. The Doctor tipped his hat back.

“It’s not that special. Just a basic representation of the Milky way Galaxy in the year 3053. While they ravaged some of the neighboring planets, the solar flares were really quite a sight to see.” The furret reminisced silently with a pleased expression on his face. Scrawl tapped Sarah on the shoulder.

“He’s been going on like that off and on. Does he make stuff up like that all the time or did he just do it for us?” Sarah sighed and shook her head.

“I wish it was just this once. It would make introducing him as not just some lunatic a whole lot easier,” she whispered to the smeargle. If the Doctor heard her, he paid no mind. Still despite her quirky partner, Sarah stared in wonder at the massive mural. Then something caught her eye.

“What’s that?” she asked pointing to a small object that didn’t quite seem to fit in the painting. It was a small, very blue box with a tiny pinpoint of light on the very top. It clearly wasn’t a star or a planet or any other kind of natural space phenomena, so what was it doing there? Patch and Scrawl just shrugged.

“I dunno,” said Patch, “We didn’t put it there.”

“It was the Doctor’s idea,” said Scrawl. Sarah nudged her partner who was preoccupied with scraping dried flecks of paint off his hat.

“Doctor, what’s that?” She pointed again to the blue box. “Why’d you put something like that on the wall? Is it important?” She would have gone on, but she then noticed the Doctor’s silence. Normally, when he knew an answer, he would immediately interrupt her in order to share. In fact, as she looked at him, the furret was standing still as a statue. He didn’t even seem to breathe; he just stared where she had been pointing. His eyes were hollow and empty.

“Why is that there?” he asked, his deep voice monotone and devoid of emotion. Sarah furrowed her brow at his words.

“That’s what I just said,” she said slowly, “Is that box important somehow?” The Doctor’s eyes suddenly became pools of confliction and confusion.

“…Important? Is…it important?” he repeated as if a trance. He appeared to be very deep in thought, lost within his own mind. A sort of sad longing flitted across his face.

“I used to know…I’m sure…I used to know.” By this point, Sarah was getting very worried by the furret’s behavior. She had seen him get this way before when she had told him his scarf was “stolen” and when she had asked what happened to him before he woke up in the fog surrounding Andalusst. All she knew was it wasn’t good. The duo of smeargle just watched the Explorer team in complete puzzlement.

“Doctor, just tell me. What is that box? Why is it bothering you so much? You put it there, after all!” Sarah’s words seemed to fall on deaf ears as the Doctor didn’t respond. Out of ideas, Sarah was ready to slap him across the face to get his attention when suddenly he shuddered and blinked. His eyes were still glazed over a bit and filled with confusion, but they were aware now.

“I don’t know, Sarah Jane,” he said at last, putting a hand to his forehead as though experiencing a headache, “I thought I did…but I just don’t.” He smiled at her softly, “Don’t worry yourself over it. I doubt anyone will even notice it’s there.” Even as he tried to assure her in a more pleasurable tone, the happiness did not quite reach his eyes. Despite trying to hide it from her, she saw that ghost of sorrow and just…lost still drifting in those blue orbs. Whatever that box was, it clearly unsettled him so she would just let it go.

“Alright, I was just curious,” she said putting up a happy façade of her own, “We better be on our way then. We can report back to Luke and Cassidy on the Graffiti situation.” She nodded her thanks to the pair of smeargle still observing not too far away, “Thank you for your help with everything.”

“No problem. See ya around,” said Patch as he left with Scrawl. The two painter pokemon had no idea what had just happened, but they got the feeling it was a good time for them to leave anyway. Now alone, the purrloin looked up at her partner.

“Are you okay, Doctor?” she asked seriously, concern showing in her green eyes. Sadly, as she had expected him too, the furret just threw on one of his silly grins and brushed the whole thing off.

“Of course I’m okay. I’m always okay,” he reassured her. Sarah could see that she would get nothing else out of him on the subject, much to her dismay. Holding back a sigh, she led the way back to the guild with the Doctor just as jovial as always.

From that day forward, Sarah never mentioned the strange blue box again.