Hi all! So, I haven't written a fanfiction in eons, and I thought I'd try something new and take a stab at writing again. I've been inspired to get back into it, so I've started with a basic concept, spent two hours just designing a protagonist, and so here we go. Let's bring some new life back to the Fanfic forum! Cheers

Initial notes: The story will take place in Kanto. Only the original 151 Pokemon will be mentioned.

Culture Wars

: Premise :

At the center of the worst disaster in the history of the world, Damian Czszewicz makes a wish. His wish comes true, and he finds himself in a foreign world where nothing he learned in his sociology program applies. Trapped on an alien world populated by curious creatures, Damian's only chance for success is to adapt to the peculiar lifestyle of its inhabitants. Even the children are forced into participation in the violent mainstream culture. There is no concept of race here, or ethnicity, or religion. There is only life, and it wasn't like life on Earth at all. How can Damian integrate into this new society?

Chapter 1: The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
It was senior week at Suffolk University, and Damian Czszewicz had never felt so alive. As the barren Boston streets began to show hints of spring, the air filled with the smell of pollen and the sounds of music and laughter. It was time for t-shirts and shorts, Ultimate Frisbee on the Commons, and parties every evening. It was the very best time of year.

The sky was particularly blue on this Tuesday, April 25, and the temperature easily surpassed 70 degrees. Sea breezes pushed flower petals down busy city streets. The pavement shone back up at the Sun, radiating its dirty heat upwards, killing the last of the winter frosts. Nature was celebrating, too. It was a wonderful time to be alive and here.

Always the optimist, Damian couldn't bring himself to look down. His dreadlocks felt scratchy as they rubbed against his shoulders; he was wearing a sleeveless shirt outdoors for the first time since October. The sun just looked so beautiful, so bright and warm, and Damian knew his days here were numbered. Graduation was in less than a month.

It was the first time since January that Damian was not walking with a backpack full of textbooks. He had just sold them back to the bookstore. It was the last Thursday of classes, and he only had one exam this term. He had defended his research project in his seminar class. Other than his math exam next Wednesday, he had effectively finished his major and minor. One more exam, and he was finished.

He felt light on his feet. He felt alive. He felt free.

Watching Damian play Frisbee on the Common, a passer-by may wonder why this man never seemed to not be smiling. Whether it was his pride in graduation, his successful defense of his independent research into the sociocultural advantages of societies that lack a strict gender dichotomy, or just his gentle demeanor, there was something about Damian that made him somehow seem so much cooler than most other 21 year-old college students. Damian was the perfect best friend; he never caused trouble. In fact, it was rumored that he had never been in a fight. Never sarcastic but always armed with a good story, Damian was more comfortable in his own skin than most people are in their favorite pair of sweatpants.

Nobody knew he would disappear overnight.

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It was about 11 p.m. when Damian returned to his apartment in Cambridge. A large third-floor apartment just three miles from campus, this was his first experience of true independence, having lived in the dormitory in his previous years at the school. Although he had a part-time work-study job checking students into the campus gym, his parents paid his rent and utility bills. His father was a dentist, his mother was an accountant, and his older sister was a math professor. He never had to do without, but he wasn't handed everything in life.

As usual, his three roommates were smoking marijuana and playing a video game. Although he tried marijuana once, it wasn't Damian's cup of tea and he stopped as soon as he started. He was never into drugs and didn't smoke cigarettes either. He enjoyed drinking at parties or at local concerts with friends, and was always first in line to go down to a pub for a White Russian or a Long Island iced tea with as many slices of lemon as the bartender would allow. If there was one thing Damian disliked more than canned vegetables or Tyler Perry movies, it was carbonation.

After saying good night to his roommates, Damian went into his room and switched on the small fan in the window. It was a humid night; it might thunder at any time. He checked his iPhone and saw he had had messages from two of his friends with benefits, Jay and Beth. They both wanted to come over and watch a movie. Self-identifying as pansexual, Damian could have gone either way, but tonight was a night for relaxation. Tomorrow was the unofficial Senior Night, and there would be many parties.

Damian looked around his small room for his laptop. He wanted to watch a movie, perhaps a Harry Potter movie or another French film. He was really getting into foreign cinema, but he loved falling asleep to Harry Potter. He didn't really have nightmares, but sometimes he'd dream he was at Hogwarts. He was cool with that. His best friend since middle school, Lana Lovejoy, reminded him so much of Luna Lovegood; the name could have been selected by JK Rowling out of sheer irony of Lana's life. He missed her.

Damian browsed his Netflix account for a while, but eventually selected a Polish romance film that he had never heard of. Despite being Polish, Damian didn't know the Polish language at all. His mother's mother was a Jewish World War II refugee from Poland who had escaped to America just before the invasion of Poland. His grandfather was from Haiti, and so was his father. He often joked about being the only Haitian Polish Jew on campus; his older sister, Sandra, had often told him to be a good sport and to have fun with his identities. This had inspired him to study gender in the first place; he felt his own identity was so unique that surely there were limitless unique identities in the world, each with their own experiences. He learned to never expect someone to intuitively understand how to pronounce his last name the first time; he also became accustomed to the strange looks older people sometimes gave him when they thought his name and his being of color did not match up. He accepted it as a sign that he was ahead of the times with his own mindset, and vowed to dedicate his life to changing the culture so that a future Damian Czszewicz might not have to deal with the same awkwardness.

The movie began. Damian checked his iPhone one more time. He had gotten his daily horoscope, 12 hours late ("Dearest Gemini, today your expectations will be exceede--click to continue reading") and a news alert about an earthquake in Asia. He plugged in the phone and sat on his bed, untying his favorite pair of black combat boots. It was then that he realized it was garbage night, and it was his week to put the trash out on the street. "Dang it," Damian said under his breath, pausing the film and re-tying his shoes. He stood up and went to leave his room, but stopped and looked in his full-length mirror for a second. He still wasn't even used to seeing himself in shorts and a tank top. It was the first proper day of spring, after all. His slim frame looked back at him, his long dreads half in front of his collarbones, half behind his neck. He had an athletic build but very slim. His chinstrap and goatee were dyed with strawberry blonde highlights. His skin had gotten lighter over the winter; if he landscaped again this summer, he would get the tan back. Damian's shirt only came down to the belt of his shorts; if he raised his arms, his bony ilia were exposed. He was not afraid to wear a little less.

Knowing the temperature had dropped a bit, Damian reached for the nearest t-shirt and put it on over his tank top. It was his favorite shirt, a Silversun Pickups shirt he had gotten at a show last August in his hometown in Delaware. He had met the band that day; although they were not his favorite, the shirt was autographed by the band members. He wouldn't admit it, but he had never washed the shirt. He briefly checked himself in the mirror again. Somehow the shirt exposed even more of his waistline, but he didn't care. He dressed like this half because he felt sexy, and half in solidarity with his women friends who occasionally got cat-called and harassed while walking in the city streets. If he was present, he'd retort that everyone is beautiful and deserves to be comfortable in their own skin.

Noticing his shirt again, Damian grinned a bit remembering the concert. His bright white teeth, perfectly in a row, were a testament to his father's effectiveness as a dentist. His acne was flaring up a bit, as his skin got oily in the springtime. Although his skin was not perfect, he was happy with his body. He never felt ashamed.

Damian left his room and went straight to the kitchen to grab the garbage. It was mostly full, but in general the roommates were consistent with taking care of things around the house. He changed the garbage bag, noting that soon they would need more bags for the bin. They still had two more months on their lease, so another trip to the wholesale outlet would be necessary. He went out the backdoor and hauled the garbage bag into the bin. Pushing it out into the street, he saw his roommate Joanna sitting on the porch smoking a cigarette. He walked over to her.

"What's up Jo-Jo?" he said, noticing that she was frantically texting on her phone.

Joanna, who was usually calm and collected like Damian, looked up at him. "Did you hear about the earthquake in Texas?" she asked, appearing alarmed. "It happened about a minute ago. My whole family's from Texas."

Damian grew concerned for his friend. He put a hand on Joanna's shoulder. "I didn't hear about this. Did you hear from your mom or brother at all yet?" It was then that Damian recalled that the news alert spoke of an earthquake in Asia. "I heard one just happened in Asia, too."

Joanna nervously took a drag of her cigarette and quickly replied, "There were two in Africa on top of the Russian earthquake."

Damian began to feel the nerves in his stomach bubble up. He noticed the sky had gotten cloudy and there was heat lightning in the sky. He realized he had subconsciously grabbed his phone and it was in his pocket. Taking out the phone, he saw three news alerts regarding the earthquakes Joanna was talking about along with a notice for a severe thunderstorm warning. He pulled up the weather app and saw there was a storm approaching, but elsewhere the map was quiet.

His phone chimed again. Earthquake in Bangladesh. Catastrophic damage.

"Shit," Damian said, as Joanna seemed to suddenly look relieved. "What did you hear, Jo-Jo?"

"Family's fine, the earthquake happened on the other side of the state," Joanna said. "But I guess it was really, really bad."

"There was one in Bangladesh too, now," said Damian.

"Oh my God," Joanna replied. "I was so effing scared for a minute. Let's go back inside."

Damian and Joanna went back into the apartment. Joanna went into the kitchen and took some Midol out of the cabinet. "It's that time on top of everything else," she said, sounding quite sarcastic.

"Gotcha," said Damian.

"Watching anything good?"

"Some Polish romance movie, since you know, I epitomize Polska."

Damian and Joanna laughed. "Alright D, I'm going to lay down for a bit," Joanna said. "See you tomorrow? Senior Night!"

Damian grinned. "Yeah Jo-Jo, can't wait to rage like wildfire!"

Joanna went into her room, and Damian went back down the hall to his room. As his hand touched the doorknob, his phone chimed twice consecutively. Damian went into his room and checked out his phone again. Another of his friends with benefits was trying to get some tonight, and there was a tsunami in Sri Lanka as a result of the Bangladesh earthquake.

"Damn, what's this world coming to?" Damian said, reaching for his laptop. He plugged his phone into the charger and turned the volume off, minimizing Netflix on his laptop and going to a news website. The headline read,

HELL ON EARTH: Earthquakes, Floods

Thousands killed as consecutive major earthquakes strike populated areas

"Oh God, oh, this is awful," he said quietly, putting down his laptop and reaching for his phone. He had just received another alert about an earthquake in New Zealand. This time, he dropped the phone back onto the nightstand and sat upright on his bed, eyes wide open. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.

A rumble of thunder shook the house, and rain began to hit the roof. The storm was ordinary; these earthquakes were not.

Trembling slightly, Damian stood up and pocketed his phone again. He went to his other roommate Alex's room. Alex was a geology major at another local university. Damian knocked on the door and Alex said to come in. He was reading the same news article, but was getting into the text. "Dude," Alex said, spinning in his office chair to face Damian. "I can't believe this. Something's gone wrong with our seismic structure as a whole. The whole world is splitting apart!"

Damian was shocked. He knew something was wrong on a greater scale, but his minor in Biology wasn't the right kind of science to help him understand. However, the world is splitting apart... He could understand that. "Are there going to be more earthquakes then?" he asked.

"Yes, although I think we'll be safe. We're not on a plate boundary here," said Alex.

Damian's phone vibrated this time. An earthquake in Kentucky. "Alex, is Kentucky on a plate boundary?" he asked.

"No, dude, why, did something happen?"

"Yeah, man, it looks like Kentucky just got struck too."

"Oh, shit!"

"Then this means that..."

"Dude, this means that it's not the plate boundaries that are causing it," Alex said, looking suddenly very nervous. "This means that it could be anything but whatever it is, it's unprecedented. It's unknown. It might even not be anything to do with the earth itself."

Damian felt the temples of his head begin to feel that tightness he would feel whenever he was spontaneously stressed. His vision also got a little blurry. "I'm gonna go lie down, man, if y'all need me you know where to find me," Damian said.

"I'll be here," said Alex. "I'm keeping an eye on this. I sent my professor a quick email. I'll let you know as soon as we think we have anything figured out."

Damian's legs were shaky as he went back to his room. His phone vibrated again, but he ignored it this time. The apocalypse could very well be happening, right now, here in his time, and humanity might not be able to stop it. He thought about calling his parents, but noticed that it was past 11:30 and they were likely long in bed. They will surely find out tomorrow. Maybe Lana will be awake, thought Damian. He again opened his phone. Earthquake in China. Earthquake in Uzbekistan. Oh, God.

Damian sent a quick hello to Lana, hoping she'd still be awake. He was still shaken up, but his movie had finished loading. Realizing he was powerless to control the situation and that these disasters were still too far away for him to help at all, Damian decided to finish the movie and lay down. However, he was very nervous; he didn't even take his boots off.

The rain continued to fall, echoing from the roof throughout his room. Another rumble of thunder, and Damian was asleep.

--------

It was about 3:30 in the morning when Damian suddenly awoke. It was no longer raining, and his room was still there, and his feet hurt from being in the boots all night. He rubbed his eyes; he couldn't see anything in the darkness. He swore under his breath when he realized he had kicked his laptop off the bed while sleeping. He must have had a bad dream.

Instinctively, Damian reached for his phone to check the time. He could barely make out the numbers on the phone: 3:28 a.m. He realized he had notifications, so he opened the screen to check them.

Then he remembered the earthquakes.

There had been at least 30 more.

"Holy crap," said Damian.

He saw Lana had texted him. "Hey, I hope you're safe xo," the text read. He decided to reply in the morning. Damian fumbled for his laptop and found it on the floor. He picked it up--no damage, thank God--and went back to the news site. This time the headline read,

"AT LEAST 1 BILLION KILLED IN GLOBAL EARTHQUAKE OUTBREAK"

One. Billion.

Those two words jabbed into Damian's mind. He felt his heart break. It was worse than his first breakup, or his most recent breakup, or when his friend died in a drunk driving accident. It hurt more than losing Grandma. It struck him like lightning, straight to the heart, and it sunk into his chest like a rock in water.

Something rattled in the corner of his bedroom. Damian could see a little better now, but not well. He switched on his lamp and noticed that one of his pictures had fallen off the wall. Otherwise, it was completely quiet, and he could hear his heart pound in his chest. He felt something in his stomach grumble, and the sound startled him more than it ever would on any other day. He looked back to his laptop and noticed that somehow, it was a little harder to read than it normally is. The words looked a bit blurry, but only a little.

Damian's bed began to vibrate slightly. He noticed that the fan in his mini-fridge had just switched on, and it often vibrated loudly. But not like this. Something--oh, no, not this--

Everything began to rattle. The rattling sound was soon overpowered by a roar, with the sensation of pushing a rickety lawnmower across a bumpy yard with all the vibration of electricity at once. Books fell off their shelves, and the room began to sway. Damian felt his heart clench tight in his chest. Fight or flight had just kicked in, and the adrenaline was soaring.

Why, then, why was he laying on his bed, sobbing uncontrollably? He knew he should leave, but he just couldn't stop crying, the tears wouldn't stop coming, and he felt scared, and alone, and stupid for just laying there. But it was Boston's turn, it was time for him to experience what at least 1 billion more had already experienced. His rational mind was off, his compassionate and sensitive heart overflowing with emotion.

I want to live, I just want to live, and for everybody to live, he was saying in his mind, over and over. I don't want anybody to die, I want the suffering to end, I can still help everybody, this world will become beautiful and safe for everyone--

Something that sounded like a crack of lightning exploded overhead. Damian picked himself up and looked towards the sky, which he was surprised to see. Damian screamed, "I wish I wasn't here!"

Everything went black.

--------

It smelled like grass.

Damian's brain hurt like he had been hit with a rock, or a truck. His eyes ached and they ached to be open. He wanted to move his fingers, to grasp at something, but his eyes were clamped shut and he saw nothing but technicolor spheres and sparkling stars. He felt so much pain, but it was lessening, and it was all coming from within.

He could still smell grass, and the pins and needles faded to the sensation of grass. His face was in grass, and he felt alive. He was breathing, and it hurt less each time, and the air smelled sweet and fresh. He knew he had to open his eyes, but didn't want to stop dreaming. I have to open my eyes. But he was so afraid to open them.

Now he could feel sunlight on his forearms. He thought he could hear a man's voice. Someone was calling to him. He could touch, he could hear--now he must see.

Damian opened his eyes and saw nothing but spots and stars, but they began to fade. His head hurt and so did his chest. He felt like he must have fallen a great way. Soon he saw a lush bluish-green, the color of beautiful lawn. He knew he had to look up. Slowly, he pushed off the ground. He immediately felt nauseous and fell backwards. He could identify a wooden sign which was feet in front of him. It was in English, at least he thought, but it was something he had never seen before.

A man in a white lab coat, much like he wore in his evolutionary biology laboratory course, was approaching him. His grey hair glowed with bright spring sun. The sign read, Welcome to Pallet Town.

There was a village, and there were people looking with great curiosity from behind a wooden fence. The man continued to approach him. Damian opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He wanted to ask where he was, but he was too disoriented.

He felt the grass behind his head again. He must have fallen back. The sky was fading back to the familiar blackness with spots and stars again. The dizziness returned, and Damian slipped out of consciousness.

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<3 Please provide any feedback you may have so far! What do you want to know about Damian? How can I improve where this is going? I know it's a random take on the story, but I feel good about writing this and want to keep going.