The Taillow stopped hopping around and tilted its head in a quizzical manner.
"Heh. Don't worry about it," Alden said, still unable to erase the smirk from his face.
In the corner of his vision, a translucent rectangle materialized in thin air. Alden's gaze immediately shifted to it.
What he saw was a rounded green box surrounded by a red border. Within, he saw white text typing across the box at a humanly impossible typing speed.
[Enter your character name! Be careful. The name is permanent and cannot be changed!]
Underneath, another similar hovering screen appeared, showing all the letters and numbers he could choose from.
"So… is this VR or is this real? It feels too real to be VR, but now I've got text boxes. AR maybe?"
One eyebrow raised, he looked down at the confused Taillow, pointed at the hover text boxes, and asked it, "Do you see these things?"
The Taillow blinked. Then, it hopped back.
"Taillow."
It flew away with wariness visible in its gaze. This human obviously had brain problems. Better to avoid him.
Shrugging, Alden turned back to the hovering screens. The Taillow obviously couldn't see them based on its reaction. He started typing in his typical gamertag, H4x0r, while contemplating how easy it was to pick up on the Taillow's thoughts about him.
Then, finger halfway to the enter button, he paused.
If this world felt this real, would he have to hear people calling H4x0r all the time?
He cringed at the thought.
Instead, he backspaced the gamertag and simply entered his name, Alden.
After entering it, the screen asked him if he was okay with that name. He casually accepted.
The name-entering window then fizzled out of existence, leaving only the original text box. New words sprawled across the translucent screen.
[Welcome to the world of Pokemon, Alden! Your adventure now begins in the town of Littleroot!]
Upon seeing the little down arrow bouncing at the corner of the text box, Alden reached out to press it. However, the moment he thought about continuing through the text, it continued on its own without him pressing it.
"So it follows my thoughts," Alden concluded.
Another larger screen popped up in place of the text box and showed a cut scene in the style of the third generation remakes. Contrary to his expectations, though, the cut scene did not start in the back of a truck. Instead, the camera panned closer to the Northeast of the village that contained more buildings than the original game and phased through the front door of a smaller home close to where he was currently sitting.
Raising his head from looking at the screen, he looked over and saw a more realistic but similar shaped single-story home a short walk from his spot on the hill. Although simple, it looked far nicer than his Florida apartment.
After taking note of the real house, he returned his attention to the cut scene.
On the screen, the camera panned over to one of the bedrooms and showed a female character lying in a bed with some medical equipment at the side. Another character who looked like a child sprite version of Alden sat at the bedside.
Text followed.
[It's going to be okay, Alden.]
The sprite Alden remained silent.
Time fast-forwarded to the next scene. The child Alden now stood in front of a grave with a male adult sprite at his side. The adult male sprite shiver and kept his back to the screen.
[Don't worry Alden. Your mother is in a better place. Healthy and skipping around with her Skitty. And I'm still here. We have each other.]
The sprite Alden nodded slowly. Only an ellipses showed up in his text box.
From there, the scene shifted to his father leaving on a rescue mission at Mount Chimney due to his status as a well-renowned Pokemon Ranger.
But he never returned.
Sprite Alden mourned in silence, barely leaving his house even when the neighbor boy, Brendan, visited with his parents bringing food or on his own to try to play.
Professor Birch often visited to tell him stories or tales about Pokemon.
Watching all of this play out, Alden felt a stinging pain in his heart. He clenched his shirt near his chest. His eyes glazed over, and tears dripped from them. Within his mind, he felt like he was experiencing all of it for himself.
Eventually, his eyes cleared. He wiped away the handful of tears that streaked down his cheeks, chuckled to himself, and said, "This is crazy work, giving me an orphan start."
With a subtle sigh, he stood up and walked down the hill while watching the rest of the cut scene. It eventually sped forward until it showed sprite Alden sitting on the hill like he often did until he walked away. It caught up with reality.
Alden rubbed his chin that lacked any hint of stubble and commented, "Now that I think about it, I definitely feel way younger."
He looked down at his own body. It was undeniably his, yet it looked a fraction smaller and skinnier than he remembered.
"I'm maybe fifteen or sixteen here?" He wondered aloud to himself.
In the final parts of the cutscene, the camera panned up above the town and showed a moving truck pulling in from out of town. At the end of the journey, it pulled in front of a house at the other end of town, and a girl hopped out. The scene ended, and the screen fizzled out of existence.
Raising his head, Alden spotted the moving truck sitting outside the larger house across town since Littleroot, although bigger than in the game, was still a relatively small town. When the truck's door lifted, a lively young lady in sporty red attire hopped out and excitedly ran into the house.
Another text screen popped up in front of Alden at that moment.
[And so your journey begins.]