The Big Green House - OUTDATED

It was a big house, green with a dark green roof; the paint was weathered and sun-damaged, flaking off on some of the many corners. It was not a mansion, but it was not small, and upon entering it, one would think it was a lot bigger on the inside than the outside. But this was non more than an optical illusion. Victorian mixed with modern colonial, it stood high, with three floors and an attic, no basement. Or maybe there was one hidden away. There were plenty of windows, but they were small and did not let in any good amount of light, except on the western (left) side where the owner, Jenna, kept her terrariums.

Three terrariums, each bigger than the last, an unoccupied desert area fit for any ground or rock pokemon, a swampy marsh terrarium home to a large Politoad, Weedle, and a Goodra/Driftloon. Along with a hazardous amount of bugs, some of which had wormed their ways into the walls of the grand home. The final terrarium house a single Arbok, who was less than friendly, having the whole jungle area to himself. Sometimes the other pokemon would sneak in only to be snapped at and borderline attacked by the hostile Arbok.

Once inside the home, one would enter a long halfway, with the original white paint still clinging desperately to the walls. To the right was a small, very dark living room containing a withered rug and an even more withered faux leather couch atop it that, if one were to sit in, they would sink to the bottom and never be recovered. There were three pillows on the couch, two without coverings and mysterious stains from some sort of food or drink on them. Across from the couch was an ancient television; it was a miracle the thing still worked, let alone was even in color. Two bent wires stuck up from it, and a number of action figures were perched atop it.

Down the hall a little was another room on the right, connected to the living room too, housing a number of boxes that had never been unpacked and might never will be. The room had a surprising amount of natural light, but that may be partially due to the light-colored floral wallpaper. There was also a painted-over fireplace that had not worked in ages. The room would have been good for a nursery and was such for the previous owners. Across that room was a simple oak door, scratched up and locked. The key had come with the house, but Jenna had forgotten about it and lost it.

At the end of the hallway was the kitchen; it was the most modern thing in the house, with fancy new appliances that the old owners had put in. Dishwasher, refrigerator with a built-in freezer, dryer, and washer too. The counters were butcher block and slightly sticky to the touch. Cabinets that closed silently when closed hung above the counters and sat below, too; they were from a general furniture store but were painted a harsh white to disguise their cheapness. The floor was white matte tiles with the strange choice of black grout. Making it so that they had to be cleaned regularly or any speck of dirt would be seen. The backsplash was also white but subway tile with a sparklyish light grey grout. The rest of said walls were a kind of light chocolatey color.

If one was to go back to the entrance of the home and go to the left this time, they would find themselves ascending a creaky thin set of stairs with a banister that wobbled nervously when it was touched. Upon ascending the stairs fully, one would once again be met with a long hallway branching off into different rooms. To the left were three doors, each leading into the terrariums, desert, swamp, and jungle, respectively. The wall on that side had been damaged from where mold was removed, the water systems for the terrariums leaked. But since its both the water system and the mold was fixed, the house came into a much better state. At the end of the hallway was a large bedroom containing Jenna. There were a number of pokemon beds scattered about the floor, and the blue and pink walls were covered in bookshelves housing books read many times over and not at all. The bed itself was somewhere between a king and a California king in order for the pokemon to sleep in Jenna’s bed with her. But sleeping with a large Vikavolt does not leave much room. Fake vines hung from the ceiling, and some stuffed animals were piled atop the bed. There was also a small desk where makeup and a gamer pc and recording equipment sat crowded together. The makeup was almost completely untouched.

Going back into the hall on the right wall next to Jenna was a medium-sized room; black sound-dampening foam was plastered to the walls. And expensive-looking recording equipment and musical instruments stood proudly. Jenna was not the best musician; in fact, many would consider her to be bad, but she had fun and took pride in her work which is what really mattered in the end. Back out in the hallway, which had no paintings or any sort of decoration hanging, there was one more room near the stairs. Upon entering it, one would see a number of pokemon toys scattered about and a steep flight of stairs plastered against the right-hand wall. 

Going up the stairs would lead into the third story, which was completely open, besides the bathroom in the northwest corner. The only walls were that of the outside of the house. The room itself was a mixture between a lounge area and a pokeplay room. Toys and treats were skewn about, along with more pokemon beds for those that did not like to sleep in Jenna’s room. Compared to the rest of the house, this room was modern, much like the kitchen. But instead of the old owners having fixed it up, Jenna had. Jenna was very slowly repairing the home that she had inadvertently caused to fall into disarray, and this was the first room she had fixed up. The second was her bedroom; sleeping on a couch was not doing wonders for her. Followed by the terrariums, all of the rooms she had done herself.

The room housed a large flat screen tv, but Jenna just used the one downstairs as this one was broken from Gremlin smacking into it. The floor was a whitish tan carpet, very soft to the touch. The furniture, more faux leather couches, were all new and slightly broken into. Upon the ceiling was a pulldown hatch revealing a set of stairs where one could climb into the attic, which was dusty and gross. Filled with boxes that many previous owners had left behind.

It was a nice house that had fallen into disarray from the inexperience of a child, now set to be repaired by her. The house had grown wrathful because of this, it did not understand the foolishness of a child, but she was doing her best to regain the home's trust and love.

The leaves in Alola don't change, but it was fall or just beginning to befall. The large greenhouse stood somewhere between proud and falling apart in the large open field it resided in. Jenna, with Bart resting neatly on her shoulder, strode through the tall uncut grass and to the black front door, unlocking it with an old key, she always had meant to replace the locks, but she knew she would get around to it eventually. Leaving the door unlocked, she strode about to the back of the house to a tiny grey shed that was half falling down. Pulling at the door, it would not budge. So she pulled again and again until it came flying off the hinges, causing her to fly backward onto her bottom. Standing and dusting herself off she pulled a green hand push mower out of the container. It was old and rusty, the unpowered type. Pulling a bottle of sunscreen out of her back pocket, she rubbed it on her face and already burnt shoulders, the cold slime soothing them.

The sun was halfway dipping below the horizon as she finished. Sitting upon the small stoop of the porch of the grand greenhouse, she looked across the now cut field. Something about it made her sad to see the pants cut and scattered about the yard, but she knew that it made the house happy. She also knew that the Murkrow that hovered in the trees above would swoop down tomorrow and take the clippings to build their nests and raise their young. Standing and stretching, she picked Bart off her lap; placing him upon her head, she took the soup bowls that they had been eating and returned them to the kitchen before heading off to bed.

The one thing she hated about the house was the stairs. She especially hated caring the heavy junk-filled boxes up to the attic from the first floor. She had almost fallen down the flights more than once but luckily did not.

Now standing in the empty room that had once been a nursery, she plucked up to wallpaper peeler and got to work, Bart the white, brown, and orange Grubbin sleeping peacefully in the middle of the room with Bumble the Skitty/Alcremie and her girlfriend, Shiny the Litten.

There were three layers of wallpaper, each uglier than the last and all floral patterns. The topmost was a very light baby pink color, the second a bright orange, and the last a deep teal with red roses. Jenna really enjoyed peeling the paper, having set up her phone to take a timelapse that she would post to Reddit and TikTok later for those sweet, sweet internet points. It was difficult scraping at first, but she got better quickly as she went along, going faster and faster with practice. Once she was done, the walls were left barren, and she the shavings were almost so high she needed to wade through them. But she swept them up and took them out to the trash. One could almost feel the house sigh that the wallpaper was gone. It was like a snake or reptile shedding its skin.

Laying down painting mats and shoeing the pokemon out of the room, she cracked open the creaky sticky windows and turned on the fan. The pain she had chosen was a light blueish teal color, light and fluffy in feeling. She did not really mind the paint getting on her or her clothes; this was her crafting outfit, after all, and she could always wash it off in the bathroom on the third floor. Making another bathroom was on her list of things to do, but she did not know where to put it, maybe in this room. First, she needed to just get it suitable. But that was another project for another day, and so was finishing this room. Painting and cramping had taken much longer than Jenna had expected.