Creig knew some sensible things about what was needed for journeying, but wasn't a specialist, so the advice he could give Tabbys' family was limited. Luckily? for all involved Creigs Aether partner wanted to get to know the people she would be working with in coming weeks, she introduced herself as Maggie, and she was official scout, meaning she had Ranger level qualifications for being in the wilds. Part of the trip would be just scouting items (hopefully) since Tabby wouldn't need them immediately, there was of course how able she was at using them to consider as well. Maggie was also aware of where supplies were sold, so they weren't looking at a map or asking around for half the day.
Wearables, I.E. clothes and belts, were the first stop as they were the first defense against the ravages of nature. Creigs' primary suggestions were pockets with buttons for closing and a variety of gloves, half, full, winter. Secondary was resistance to wear and tear, and wet resistant, if they got lost in the woods they might have to wear the same clothes for extended lengths of time, preventing being wet and cold was pretty much saying prevent disease. While Creig knew some about belts, it was basics, Maggie knew the ups and downs of different styles and materials in different environments. They both agreed on boots as the supreme foot wear, disagreeing on style, Creig preferred steel-enhanced jackboots, while Maggie liked hiking boots, Tabby didn't much like boots as they were "heavy" but tread wear and rolled and twisted ankles were arguments Tabby understood.
For Tabbys' travel clothes, they did a custom order to be delivered later, with the idea that a space bag would hold the variety, winter, rain, wilds, casual, later. For the Island they found some basic pants, a pair of "work" gloves, a weird pair of sneaker/boot hybrid, and a belt that would hold pouches. Creig watched over the pokemon having lunch while the others helped Tabby find undergarments for travel. As extra Tabby found some hair ties and hats to keep her hair from being entangled in nature.
The next couple stores were much easier, mostly because Alola wasn't a region where camping was normally needed, so the products weren't readily available in the quality needed. They did have ways to test carry capacity, it was hard for Creig to remember, but the people of this world had the lift capacity from 4 tons to lifting Snorlax with one hand, Creig would also forget his current body was also that way. Tabbys' mom was the strongest of the current group followed by Creig then Maggie with Tabby being last after her dad. They got a backpack where half the main pocket was a spacebag, along with four pouches that were small goods spacebags (berries, TMs, pokeballs) as well as three independent pouches for her belt that were not spacebags. Things they could find, fire starters, flora and fauna guides, camp cookware, canteen/waterskin, goggles, multi-purpose digging tool (A.K.A. Entrenching Tool, A.K.A. a shovel). What couldn't be found, a tent that was quick to pitch and pack, weather modular, lasting, decent sleeping bag, tarps, rope (not the escape type), flashlight and lantern, attachable cleats/ice shoes, full medpack, ice pick, radio.
Everything else for long term travel was consumables, food and batteries, they were technically over preparing, but preping for being in the wild was better than not doing so. They weren't going so far as to prep for a full expedition though, and berries could generally be found to some extent in the wilds, supplementing when they were actually on the road. Tabbys' family bought some to snack on so they could know what uncooked foods Tabby would eat when not at camp or in an actual city.
Of course they also tried to cater to Tabbys' taste in as much of this as they could, it was sometimes hard to tell what her likes were and what simply caught her eye for a moment. Instead of a normal pillow, she grabbed a stuffed sylveon toy that was more fluffy than stiff. Apparently Tabby viewed ghost type pokemon as "alive" because all death motif objects tended to make her cry, medicine motif made her smile sadly, even the first aid stuff. She was also showing a aversion towards the colors of red, white and black, while, without them being a favorite, she showed a liking towards green and yellow. Her favorites turned out to be silver and deep blue for colors, tacky and adorable for motifs. Creig realized quickly that existential philosophy conversations would not be part of interacting with Tabby, too much dealing with the natures of life and death, there were real answers of course, just that they weren't known for sure be mortals. Criegs life philosophy to measure everything against?: Verum Dues, Verum Vita, Falsus Mors-Verum Mortem ne Quaeras.
Maggie was the most helpful when consulted on pokemon care and grooming in the field in terms of light products. Tabbys' mom knew a lot about general care, but access to the pokecenters supplies left her somewhat ignorant about outside products. There were notes taken about certain products based on chemicals that were thought of as sketchy by medical professionals apparently. Creig wasn't a chemist, Maggie wasn't a chemist, no one was sure if Tabby would remember, so it was safer to say that they wouldn't know what to look for when on their own. Creig and Maggie were the ones receiving advise about actual medicines, they just knew enough about proper packing when it came to advise in that field.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Sunday afternoon they went hiking and camping to get Tabby some practice. It was soon apparent that, while better than the average person, compared to Maggie and Creig, Tabby needed to work on her stamina. Tabby had a bit of a breakdown when digging out the campfire pit, but quickly calmed down. Pitching the tents was a surprisingly normal teaching event with a girl who had never gone camping, except that Tabby had really steady hands and never smashed her own fingers when putting the stakes in, even though she had to hit each three times as much as Creig or Maggie, and put them in wrong twice. Those steady hands were also really good for food prep, even if she didn't know the first thing about actually cooking, Creig turned out to be the groups best cook.
The biggest problem they had was teaching camping etiquette. The first thing that came up was using the bathroom in the wild, the paradox of the need to be watched, yet also maintain privacy confused Tabby for a while. Creig had trouble because in this world being against nudity in the open in your own camp was a preference rather than a moral imperative with exceptions for needs (like going to the bathroom), unavoidable circumstance, or emergencies, so he wasn't sure about giving input in places, though his preference was noted. Creig was able to use practical advice to strengthen this stance, clothing existed for more than just modesty after all. Clean up etiquette was a lot easer to teach, as the biggest differences were ASAP and food smell reduction, the ASAP part was a bit hard for Tabby, but she understood it as its purpose was to prevent harm to wild pokemon and animals and the environment they inhabited. Tent etiquette was left to Maggie since Tabby was sharing as she didn't have a tent yet, Tabby found that her feet were only swollen and not blistered from walking in new shoes, they brought their shoes inside the tent this time. Not that either of them actually cared if Creig saw their bare skin, but the suddenness at which Tabby took off her clothes to change for the night made Maggie panic a bit, she made Tabby aware of visibility in tents which could come in four forms. Shadow figures, ventilation netting, open door (it was closed), and for some tents like hers, actual windows (allowed her to surreptitiously check for camp intruders), for the first two there were hook on curtains? and how the doors and windows open/closed.
In the morning both Tabby and Maggie paid attention to Creig looking to see if they could sus out if he saw Tabby and if he thought she looked nice, they were foiled by his stoicism, mostly on account of not knowing him well enough to know his tells. When he was alone outside, camping instinct had kicked in and he had become acutely observant, being on guard, he had called over Shrift to put out the fire, looked up and seen Tabbys' back. Tabby had several light scars, they were from "skin deep" wounds, but scratches didn't scar, most surgical scars were also this type of skin deep (but still deeper) as well, the most prominent was a diagonal from her left scapula to her right side about where her elbow touched naturally, the rest were minor ones on her arms. It took him all of four seconds to see all that and look away, then Maggies urgent voice pulled his gaze back before Creig registered she had merely said "windows", and he saw Tabby turn around, some more light scarring indicated something wooden had burst apart unexpectedly from her front, the back scars looked more like they had occurred by debris in the tsunami.
OK, so Creig had registered Tabby as looking nice, both with higher and lower brain functions. Unfortunately for Creig, his total abstinence meant he was easy to stimulate, and he experience near excruciating pain for half an hour last night as testosterone and adrenaline made his whole body swell, nearly skin splitting for the most relevant areas, and out here there were no walls to lean on for support. Had a doctor read his hormone levels at that point, it would have come up as the poisoned condition, Creig woke up with a splitting headache. Creig also had a couple contemplations in the immediate aftermath, one was an unkindness to his "fellow" Christians (some were, some weren't), despite the high probability it was true, basically he thought of them finger wagging accusing him of the sin of lust and being addicted to porn, how it made him want to smack them, especially when they had kids and were thereby proven hypocrites in their own standards. The truth of lust was that it is an addiction to pleasure in general which meant adrenaline junkies, drug users, food bingers were true examples of lust, while finding the opposite sex attractive, but not slutting around, wasn't. Not to say he didn't have temptations, he was on the verge with sparring, and he would fit in too well as one of the Thunder Brothers. Those who seek forgiveness need to forgive, those who cry for justice will be judged, so said Christ. His other contemplation was WHY did this body have that function? did God send him to this world, or merely allow him to be brought (it was one of the two.)? Was this part of a test? if so what test?, his ability to discern Gods will, or a test of discipline? or had God nothing to do with it beyond granting permission, and a foreign spirit was responsible for creating his current body and Creig just had to put up with it? Creig did not have answers.
The morning was spent teaching Tabby how to configure the tent for different weather patterns, explaining watches/guard duty for dangerous areas and how to inspect for spiders and snakes and things. It may not have been mentioned, but as back up, all the pokemon watched and listened from the side, some more focused than others, Banette and Sleigh being the most attentive. The afternoon had them hike back home, Creig figured he'd check out the orphanage tommorow.
