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“I think we should take a family portrait,” Delia told Ash one day. “With all of us.”
“…all of us?” Ash glanced at Pikachu. “I don’t know how we’ll fit everyone.”
Delia took his meaning. “Okay maybe not everyone just me, you kids and the starters.”
“Where are we going?” Mikey poked a head with an Eevee on it into the room as another one slipped past his legs.
“To take a picture I think.” Ash shrugged at his youngest brother. Boy that was still weird to think about.
“Oh! That sounds cool!” Mikey accepted. “I’d rather have a picture of my new family than my old one. Not counting Eevee.”
A quick check of the ears proved the Eevee on his head was Eeveetwo, which meant the one sneaking some gourmet Poké-chow was the original. Pikachu noticed too and decided to grab a few bites for himself.
“So you and Eevee, me and Pikachu, Giselle and Golem, Sawyer and Sceptile, Bea and Machamp, and Duplica and Ditto.” Ash counted off. “Oh, and Mom and Shelldon.”
“What about Eeveetwo?” Mikey pointed at his head.
“Eh!”
“If you get to have two then everyone else will want to two.” Delia pointed out looking a little thoughtful. “But I guess then Mimey could join in too…
“I don’t think Mimey would mind either way.” They jumped as the wall seemed to move.
“Duplica,” Delia scolded, “What did I say about using Urban Comouflage in the house?”
“Not in the kitchen…” Duplica sighed and pulled off the mask. “But I needed to test it! And myself! I’ve been here all morning and you never even noticed!”
“I thought you were sleeping in weirdly late.” Delia shook her head. “Were you there the whole time?”
“Yep! Woke up at five!” She said brightly, hands on the hips of her full-body, wall colored disguise.
Ash glanced at the clock. Ten o’clock. “How do you do it?”
“Oh it’s really easy to just turn off my brain for awhile.” She waved off his concern. “Let me show you!”
Her head tilted slightly and she seemed to stare off into space. Her family shared a worried look and Ash waved his hand in front of her empty eyes.
“I don’t think that’s normal. But I don’t think any of us know what normal is either.” Mikey admitted as Eeveetwo joined the others in the chow raid.
“Sawyer’s pretty normal.” Delia said then went red as both boys grinned at her.
“So Sawyer is normal.” Ash prodded. “Just Sawyer.”
“Is there something wrong with me Mommy?” Krookodile tears formed in Mikey’s eyes.
“No! There’s nothing wrong with any of you!” Delia shoved her hand in her face. “I didn’t mean it like that!”
“You guys better not be picking on Mom.” Bea told them as she entered the kitchen, still sweating from her morning run. “Is there food yet?”
“Yes.” Mikey told her as his co-conspirators returned with the gourmet Poké-chow. He grabbed a few pieces from them and started munching just in time for Delia to removed her hands.
“Mikey! We talked about it, no eating Pokémon-chow!”
“But it’s so good!” He insisted and started shoveling it all into his mouth before someone with more sense could pry it away from him.
“I mean I’ve tried it,” Bea shrugged. “Always seems just a bit off to my taste buds no matter what flavor I try.”
Ash paused. “How many flavors have you tried?”
He stopped her at seventeen.
“Why?!” He asked as Delia surrended trying to get the crushed mush out of Mikey’s mouth.
“Look, some nights I was just too tired to try cooking, and Allister is either out early or up all night. And if Machamp and the others liked it…”
Maybe he should have left it there but a morbid part of him wanted to know… “What’s it like?”
“Not so bad, at first at least. It tastes like the flavor advertised.” She explained. “But after that first bite there’s this weird aftertaste that doesn’t go away.
“That doesn’t explain why Mikey likes it…” Ash considered this mystery as Bea started raiding the fridge, but she paused to glance at Duplica.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“She said was turning her brain off,” Mikey answered with a shrug. “I didn’t know that was a thing. But I guess it explains my brothers.”
“Ex-brothers.” Bea corrected him.
“Bea, what do you think of doing a family picture?” Delia brought her original idea back.
“...do I have to wear a dress.” She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t do dresses.”
“I have a picture that says you do.” Ash pulled out his phone and started scrolling, “Astrid was trying to give you personality.”
“I didn’t need a dress! I already have plenty of personality!” Bea insisted.
“And all of it’s rotten!” A voice called from the other room.
“You’re one to talk!” Ash, Bea, and Mikey all fired back in unison.
Giselle stormed in glowering. “There is nothing wrong with my personality.”
“I have a list,” Mikey announced. “I started it the day you joined BattleNET.”
“Which means how much of it is written in crayon?”
“I remember when this morning was peaceful.” Delia mused and sipped her tea.
Feeling a little guilty for how far things were derailing, Ash tried to focus things. “Family portrait! How do we do it?”
“A portrait?” Giselle was instantly interested. “Now I understand, well obviously we need to properly prepare, we need fittings for new outfits, we need to be color coded correctly, but the girls cannot wear the same dress…”
“If you try to put me in another dress I will punt you to Galar,” Bea told her in no uncertain terms.
“I was thinking something a little more casual actually.” Delia tried. “No fancy clothes, just whatever you feel comfortable wearing.”
“And our Pokémon!”
“Hmm, Golem and Marowak cut quite the stunning figures on their own but we can do some accessorizing, Dratini is perfect as always of course, but Annihilape…” Giselle started puzzling over her death monkey.
“Mom wanted to do just starters, so it doesn’t become too crowded.”
“Where’s Sawyer? He should probably be part of this.” Bea looked around for their missing member.
“I’ll get him.” Ash sighed and sent a message. A response pinged a moment later. “Yeah, he’s watching the Pidgey. Give him a couple minutes”
“We need to get that boy a hobby.” Giselle declared, shaking her head.
“I think Pokémon watching counts as a hobby.” Delia chuckled.
Giselle turned to her but jumped when she saw the still blankly standing Duplica. “What-”
“She turned her brain off.” Her siblings answered, again in unison.
“That’s not her default state?”
“Hang on,” Ash thought of something and glanced at Pikachu. “Are we sure that’s not Ditto pretending to be Duplica?”
Pikachu took a few sniffs and scratched his head. “Pika…”
“I’m here!” Sawyer rushed in the back door. “Sorry, I think I identified some more of Arnold’s offspring by the way!”
“At this point, I think I need to stage an intervention for him.” Delia groaned. “Assuming Shelldon and Pix haven’t already tried.
“Sawyer, family picture, what do you think?” Bea spelled out for him.
The Hoenn native went a little rigid. “A picture? Of us? As a family?”
“Yeah?” Confused looks were exchanged.
“I’ve never done one before.” He admitted. “The orphanage didn’t exactly… ya know.”
“Right, neither did I but it’s still just a picture.” Bea shrugged, not seeing the big deal.
“I had to sit through dozens of portraits in my time,” Giselle mentioned.
“I used to try and hide from mine,” Mikey remembered, Eevee nodding in remembrance.
Ash just pointed at a picture on the mantle in the other room. Calling it a “family photo” might be overselling it. It was just him, his Mom, and Shelldon.
“...I mean it should be fine. I just can’t mess it up otherwise I’ll be disappointing everyone. No big deal.” Sawyer was very calm and not at all concerned.
“We were talking about our teams would fit into things, we figured you would want to weigh in.” Ash explained and his brother relaxed enough to nod.
“How would we do it, we have so many Pokémon between us at this point. Even just doing some of them would make the picture incredibly crowded.” He rubbed his chin and looked up for a moment, blinking as he noticed Duplica. “She turned her brain off again?”
“You knew she could do that?” Giselle quirked a brow with obvious doubt.
“You didn’t?”
“Is there an easy way to turn it back on?” Delia asked. “I think she should be present… conscious, for this.”
“Several!” Sawyer perked up, growing a rare mischievous grin. “Do you want the boring way or the fun way?”
The question was really no question at all.
“This is how people catch colds,” Duplica complained, wrapped in a towel. “You guys need to think more about health!”
“Says the girl who stops thinking for the sake of blending in.” Giselle rolled her eyes.
“Hey! I stand out plenty of other times!” She pointed out. “It’s just sometimes for the disguise to work you need to stop being all there upstairs.”
“I still don’t think it’s healthy,” Sawyer muttered. “So instead of doing all our teams, we could just do starters?”
“That could work…” Bea drummed her fingers on the table. “I feel bad leaving the rest out though.”
“And I have two starters!” Mikey reminded them holding up both Eevee and Eeveetwo.
“If you think about it Marrowak and Golem are both my starters,” Giselle claimed and made her case. “Since I had both of them when I started my journey.”
“That feels like cheating.” Sawyer shook his head.
“Hey, instead of just having me and Ditto, could Ditto disguise themself as me?” Duplica asked. “That way it would be like we were twins!”
“We could just pick two each?” Sawyer tried to find a bit of a middle ground but Ash shook his head.
“Then it feels like picking favorites!” It was one thing if it was just their first partner, the rest of his team could understand that. But if it was both their starter and someone else then it would leave the others feeling snubbed.
Not to mention Ash had no idea who he would pick.
“...hang on. Mom how tall are you?” Bea asked.
“Five foot seven?” Delia was a bit confused by the sudden question.
“...Machamp is taller than you. And wider than like three of us together.” Bea put her head in her hands as she started figuring out how to make it work.
“I forgot your Machamp is basically a giant even without Gigantimax.” Sawyer laughed a little.
Delia sighed in surrender. “Alright, unpopular decision time. This picture will just be the humans. But!” She raised her voice before a cavalcade of disappointment could overwhelm her. “We’ll take another picture another time with everyone . I’m not sure where we’d do it or how we’d fit everyone in the picture but we’ll figure it out.”
“Even the Tauros?” Ash asked, Giselle matching his intent stare.
“Even the Tauros. I’m sorry you guys.” Delia looked at the Pokémon in the room.
“Pika pi…” Pikachu looked a little disappointed but not too broken up about it.
“Now that’s sorted, who will we be hiring as our painter. I may not have the connections my old parents had but I may be able to pull a few strings to get us some real talent.” Giselle began digging through her contacts list.
“What, a painter?” Delia looked at her. “No I’m going to hire a photographer.”
“Oh.” Giselle looked slightly disappointed. “Well if you want to be boring about it.”
“Do you really think Ash or Bea could sit still long enough for a painter to finish?” Duplica asked her.
“...excellent point. This is why you’re my favorite.” Giselle decreed.
“Woo!” High fives were exchanged by the others. “Sucks Duplica!”
“WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!” Giselle demanded, her eyes practically turning red.
The others shied away a bit, even Bea. “Please don’t bite me.” Mikey managed.
A thought occurred to Ash. “Hang on if we’re doing a family picture I need to get Amber!”
“That is a terrible idea,” Giselle told him.
He was a little offended. “What’s wrong with Amber?”
“Nothing, she’s perfect and I love her,” Giselle claimed. “But she’s with Casey, and if you try to get her Casey will find out and if Casey finds out Ritchie will find out and then it’s only a matter of time before literally everyone else finds out. Then instead of a quick family picture, we’ll have the entire server trying to take part.”
“Which is the same problem with having all the Pokémon in the picture.” Sawyer agreed. “Sorry Ash, I wish she was here too.”
“How would we explain Amber to the photographer?” Mikey wondered out loud.
“That’s the neart part.” Ash grinned at him. “We wouldn’t.”
“Amber can be in the next picture,” Delia promised. “In fact we can set up a bunch of photos with everyone then. After the Johto League is over I think. I don’t think we have enough time before the season starts.”
“So taking a family picture, no teammates this time, wear whatever we want.” Bea summarized. “When do we do this.”
“As soon as I find a photographer who doesn’t charge by the head,” Delia answered and started searching the world wide web.
“That would be a lot of heads.” Duplica nodded, and then sneezed. “Dang it. I told you!”
"It's just a sneeze not a cold." Sawyer told her. "Wait, why don't we just use Todd?"
"Do you know where he is?" Bea asked him. "Cause I sure don't."
"...good point."
The picture took place the next afternoon, but it was a bit more trouble to sort out the scheduling conflicts than expected.
Somehow everyone had plans for that day, Ash and Giselle were training, Sawyer had been planning to head to Vermillion, Bea’s training schedule was for the afternoon and Mikey was expanding his secret base with Elaine.
In fact the only ones who hadn’t had plans were Delia and Duplica. But Ash and Giselle wrapped up early and Sawyer canceled his trip. Mikey just had to tell Elaine he’d be back when they were done and now they just needed to wait on Bea.
Which was more stressful than it should have been.
“Sawyer, calm down,” Delia told her adopted son. “It’s just a picture.”
“It’s a family portrait!” He insisted, straightening his ascot for the seventh time. “I need to look perfect! I can’t mess this up!”
“I don’t think Mom will get rid of you for messing up a picture.” Ash tried to comfort him and he started hyperventilating.
“Not helping Ash.” Delia sighed. This was more complicated than it should be.
“I still think this would be better if it was a painter.” Giselle complained. “Then we could have a glorious portrait hanging over the mantle.”
“We can still do that,” Duplica told her. “You know photos an be printed in different sizes right?”
“Why would I know that? That’s what I pay other people for.”
“With what money?” Mikey asked and she glowered at him.
“What’s taking Bea so long?” Ash complained, Pikachu matching his glum expression. “It feels like this is taking forever!”
“How long until-“ Sawyer started asking but was interrupted.
“I’m here!” Bea raced down the road, carrying a water bottle and a bag of what looked like pretzel sticks.
Giselle groaned and covered her eyes. “What the sock are you wearing?!”
Bea looked down with a bemused expression. “My gi?”
“This is a photo! You need to at least try to look presentable!” Giselle wagged a finger at her sister.
“Giselle, I said to dress however you wanted, I don’t want us looking stuffy and uncomfortable for this.” Delia gently reprimanded her.
“If anything it looks like you’re the one out of place.” Bea prodded, taking a bite out of her snack. “Well, you and Sawyer.”
“Aw come on!” Duplica defended Sawyer, throwing an arm around his shoulder. “He always wears the fancy duds!”
“And I always look my best!” Giselle tossed her hair a bit, doing her best to show off her new wardrobe.
“I’m a little surprised you went so basic Duplica,” Ash admitted to her. “You have so many outfits!”
“Yeah, but I’m not being someone else today. Just myself.” She smiled a little.
“Why did you take so long anyway?” Mikey asked Bea.
“Hey, I don’t have a proper dojo around here! I gotta set my own training schedule! Not my fault the rest of you have your own busy schedules!”
“And you had to stop for food,” Ash smirked at her.
“I skipped lunch, I need sustenance!”
“You know if you had a flying-type-“ Ash started then cut off as he realized his mistake.
“Good idea!” Giselle immediately took advantage of his error. “The flying-type master here could loan you one or two.”
Ash’s suffering was met with chuckles, even from his electric-type partner. But Mikey had another thought.
“Why didn’t you just use Cyclizar?” Mikey asked Bea.
“...because I didn’t think of it.” She huffed and looked away, her face turning a tinge red.
Before things could devolve further Delia caught the photographer’s eye as he tapped his wrist and she got the message.
“Alright kids, let’s get in position!” Delia clapped her hands and gathered her family together a little. The Pokémon slipped to the side to watch as the Ketchum clan lined up and Delia did her best to get things presentable.
“Bea put the pretzels down! Sawyer, you’re doing fine stop looking so nervous! Mikey stop trying to fit the Eevee under your shirt!”
With a bit of wrangling all the kids were in place, even if Bea still had a pretzel hanging out of her mouth and Sawyer looked like he had a Honedge to his neck.
“Shh guys!” Mikey made a shushing motion at the Eevee before they could complain too loudly about being left out. Pikachu looked a little down too. Delia could already imagine what would be done to make it up to them.
“Say… catch ‘em all!” The photographer told them before things could start going wrong.
*FLASH*
