oneluckydragon

[oneluckydragon]

You are not insignificant. Did you know that there are mutuals waiting for you to come in here every day?

[oneluckydragon]

Our Adventure

[oneluckydragon]

Umbreon -- rika

[oneluckydragon]

✨🌸 Sunshine on your skin, flowers in my soul 🌸✨

🌊🫧Summary → In the midst of his reconciliation with Team Wish, Dusknoir begins coughing up flowers. This unfortunate brand of bad luck should be a cosmic joke. A spiteful punishment that the world has brought down on him out of malice, out of vengeance for his past deeds. A cruel, agonizing curse manifested with the single unjustified purpose of preventing him from realizing happiness, ever seeking redemption, ever righting his multitudes of wrongs and moving on with his life. But that's not true, and he knows it deep down. Knows it in the very core of his soul like the flood of petals building in this throat.

This is his fault because he is a coward, and that's all he has ever been. A backstabbing, lonely coward.

And now he is going to die because of it.

[AO3]

[CH. I -- Word Count -- 13,290]

🌒💫 Return → the act of going back to a place, person, or memory

[CH. II -- TBA]

[oneluckydragon]

opposing views

[oneluckydragon]

For a New Life (Without you.)

[oneluckydragon]

✨🌸 Sunshine on your skin, flowers in my soul 🌸✨

🌊🫧Summary → In the midst of his reconciliation with Team Wish, Dusknoir begins coughing up flowers. This unfortunate brand of bad luck should be a cosmic joke. A spiteful punishment that the world has brought down on him out of malice, out of vengeance for his past deeds. A cruel, agonizing curse manifested with the single unjustified purpose of preventing him from realizing happiness, ever seeking redemption, ever righting his multitudes of wrongs and moving on with his life. But that's not true, and he knows it deep down. Knows it in the very core of his soul like the flood of petals building in this throat.

This is his fault because he is a coward, and that's all he has ever been. A backstabbing, lonely coward.

And now he is going to die because of it.

[AO3]

[CH. I -- Word Count -- 13,290]

🌒💫 Return → the act of going back to a place, person, or memory

[CH. II -- TBA]

[oneluckydragon]

hoooooo boy. just finished reading the first chapter of your recent fic and i am plagued with a thousand thoughts, all of which i am going to ramble onto you for the funsies. prepare thyself

dusknoir's guilt and innermost dilemma is one that i can eat and drink up like fine wine because there is something in the way you wrote him that is just amazing. a ghost who experiences warmth, kinship, feelings he had not felt in years, and it breaks something within him. it tears apart the roots of which he had so begrudgingly grown within himself for the sake of self preservation, like a farmer in a garden full of weeds. to be appreciated, to be loved, to be needed, to have one's presence welcomed, that his opinion matters most, it almost makes him turn over. but to every pleasantry comes pain. to every pride comes foil. to every bright day comes a raging storm. dusknoir thinks of himself as he undeserves it all. how long had his mind schemed over wishing he could burn up his grass-type comrades, all before he regained a mortal heart that kills him for thinking so? how much had he wanted and waited for grovyle to bear his vulnerable hide for him to sic and melt him, to wear him like a loose suit and follow suit to ensure that nothing shall stand in his way, only to be stopped in his tracks when his mind triumphed over his self preservation? oh, how the mighty have fallen. greatness reduced to rubble. a roman empire brushed as if it was dust. dusknoir is afraid, for he is loved by those whom should not love him. and when he finally meets face to face with someone whos ire is justified, when he looks at echo in the eye and waits impending doom and judgement, he is granted nothing. not the pain-splitting hatred he believed he would receive, he is toyed with. no reaction. hucker down and *beg* for the scorn, you filthy man. and even when sora reacts in justification to his presence, it pangs harder when grovyle and celebi jump to defend his aid. undeserving, unworthy, yet it still continues. all this support, for all the bridges he had burned. comical. funny. *hilarious*, even. he does not deserve this. a second chance, the gift of life, and the gift of knowing the right from the wrong. but he gets it. for he is still mortal. and he is deserving of change, one he will have to work up from the ground, loath of the self aside. he will have to know the hurt of which he has caused, see it face to face and watch as it threatens to pluck his eye out. and even with echo's proposal given, it almost feels too-good-too-fast. it all happened all too fast, yet the memories loop in his mind in slow motion. gotta relish the ever-so mesmerizing play he constructed out of everyone, after all. actors long tired, long burned out by his own foolish. both metaphorically, and *literally.* at least he knows what to do now. even if it's the most painful thing he will do. this too shall pass, like the leaves in the wind.

@mt-travaii Sinnoh beating me over the head with a steel chair (affectionately)!!!

I am so, so immensely relieved that the way I've written Dusknoir seems to be liked thus far. And having you take the time to write out your feelings and tell me that you enjoyed my portrayal of him makes my heart go crazy!!

Gosh gosh GOSH the way you've broken him down into his most basic essence in this ask. I am speechless. I don't even know what to write, if I'm entirely honest. You always manage to peek directly into my brain, Sinnoh. It's like magic.

I have been trying my best to write Dusknoir as someone who's security blanket (his immense ego, his meticulously crafted persona, the strategic emotional crutch he mentally developed like a protective barrier to cope with his life serving Dialga, enduring that torture day after day after day) has been ripped away from him and now he is forced to adapt, to become someone completely new from what bare bones remain of his true self-- and that someone has to be honest, has to care about his partners that have chosen to stick by his side, has to prove that his life was worth saving and that he isn't a waste of space. That it wasn't a mistake that he was revived.

It was easy for him to pretend these things before, to lie and cheat his way into friendships for his own personal gain. But now he can't lie. It isn't for his own gain, it's because he truly desires to be around his friends. It has to be real-- and that scares him. Because he's never been real a day in his life and he's certain that everything is going to blow up in his face. (He wants them near, he wants them near so badly, but he's afraid, so afraid to tell them so because what if they scorn his vulnerability? Laugh at his need to keep them close? What if he bears his soul, holds his life out to them in his hands, and they choose to crush it? He could not take it. He would break.)

Now, I enjoy classic egotistical/witty/confident/sly Dusknoir just as much as everyone else, and maybe he'll regain some of that haughty confidence eventually. But at least right now, without his mask to hide behind, he's unprepared and exposed and has no idea what to do with his current emotional crisis because he's completely inexperienced.

AND GOSH. I can't even express how accurate your examination of Dusknoir and his interactions with Echo, Sora, Grovyle, and Celebi are in comparison to my literal ideas while I was writing. I JUST CANNOT!!! I have nothing to build on regarding what you wrote. It's perfect. It's beyond perfect. <3

I'm gonna reread this ask 5 more times and lie down face first on the floor. Thank u Sinnoh!!!

[oneluckydragon]

@oneluckydragon Point Nemo and The Point of No Return

[oneluckydragon]

✨🌸 Sunshine on your skin, flowers in my soul 🌸✨

🌊🫧Summary → In the midst of his reconciliation with Team Wish, Dusknoir begins coughing up flowers. This unfortunate brand of bad luck should be a cosmic joke. A spiteful punishment that the world has brought down on him out of malice, out of vengeance for his past deeds. A cruel, agonizing curse manifested with the single unjustified purpose of preventing him from realizing happiness, ever seeking redemption, ever righting his multitudes of wrongs and moving on with his life. But that's not true, and he knows it deep down. Knows it in the very core of his soul like the flood of petals building in this throat.

This is his fault because he is a coward, and that's all he has ever been. A backstabbing, lonely coward.

And now he is going to die because of it.

[AO3]

[CH. I -- Word Count -- 13,290]

🌒💫 Return → the act of going back to a place, person, or memory

[CH. II -- TBA]

[oneluckydragon]

me and my best friend The Reincarnation Of The Embodiment Of All Negativity In Poke-kind

Sora belongs to the cool @oneluckydragon!

[oneluckydragon]

💫🌙The lunar duo🌙💫

[oneluckydragon]

"The other day, an Umbreon bumped into me as I was on my daily outing. As I turned around to meet face to face with her, I looked at her eyes and saw something that stirred a terrifying presence within me. Something that was too familiar to me. And judging from how she looked at me as well.. I cannot help but feel like she felt the same.

Not a single word was uttered between us.

Wherever she is now.. I hope she's okay."

kept thinking about the possible interaction that @oneluckydragon wrote out in that one post i made a long time ago about eridas dynamics with other exploration teams, and i needed to draw it so bad because it's so good and because i think erida would be terrified to know theres someone out there that can relate to her darkrai situation but show a lot of respect for the other person and hope that they hold onto whatever hope they have.

[oneluckydragon]

@oneluckydragon As a fellow Hero is Darkrai enjoyer, I had to draw your girl.

[oneluckydragon]

the sora...

(another drawing for @oneluckydragon, this time starring none other than sora! because id be a shame to draw echo without her trusted beloved partner. oh and theres some dark shadowy figure behind her. i wonder who that could be!)

[oneluckydragon]

I have a few questions about Echo!

1) when did she know she used to be Darkrai? My guess is at Dark Crater, either when she first laid eyes an Darkrai and just *knew,* or something about Palkia's speech about what could happen to Darkrai after being attacked in the portal.

2) what caused the scar on her neck? (Probs darkrai tbh)

3) alright so this is probably me overthinking things but did Echo change genders?? Asking cause Darkrai is typically referred to as 'he/him', and he has a distinctly masculine voice in his movie. Plus, it also makes sense with Darkrai and Cresselia being opposites: Cress is canonically a female while Darkrai is depicted as a male, full moon vs new moon, sweet dreams vs nightmares, day and night, light and dark, and so on. So did Darkrai go from he/him to ???/??? (as a 'human') to she/her? Did Darkrai just not give a shit? Have we been accidentally misgendering Darkrai this whole time?

Basically I'm asking b/c 1) confusion, and 2) is it another layer of symbolism about how Echo is nothing like her former self?

@maxtheirisagent tagging you like requested!

Thanks so much for asking about Echo! I'm happy to answer any questions so feel free to pester me whenever you'd like. It's so exciting that someone wants to know more about her. c:

+++ +++ +++ +++ +++

The truth about Echo's past life as Darkrai clicked the moment she first met Cresselia within Azurill's nightmare.

Not only did she piece the truth together because the sight of her long-lost sister-- someone she had scorned and despised and hated in her original life-- jarred her so much that it cleared away some of the fog in her memory. But it was the feeling. The rush of anger, of fury, the ache she felt upon seeing Cresselia again after years and years of separation. It awoke something inside Echo that felt real in a way she couldn't ignore. Like a puzzle piece finally slotting into place.

And even more, Echo had her suspicions leading up to said point. She cannot dream at all. Not ever. Never figured out why during her time as a human and Eevee, and yet other Pokemon tend to suffer nightmares around her (even as a human, this ability Bad Dreams never went away) which had caused some pain for both Sora and Grovyle over the years. And Echo never shared the secret that she doesn't dream. She never confessed to suspecting that these nightmares might be her fault, so Sora and Grovyle never understood the origins of their own nightmares either-- but Echo was able to deduce that she was indeed the source of the problem. Especially after Chatot had explained that Darkrai caused nightmares and pain wherever he went, and the correlation between Echo's powers, her amnesia, her sudden appearance on the beach, her life with Grovyle in the dark future, the Dimensional Scream/connection to the Time Gears, and Darkrai's personality were too coincidental.

What solidified this conclusion is that while Cresselia was traveling with Team Wish during their attempts to reach Dark Crater, Sora did not suffer nightmares at all-- for the first time in what seemed like ages. And it was a like a gut punch, a vicious stab in the heart, and Echo immediately knew why. It was because Cresselia was accompanying them, and her gentle light purifies bad dreams and brings good health. Someone that could cancel out the nasty effect Echo seems to have on others... and it did. Cresselia DID cancel out these nightmares and that could only mean one thing.

And Echo was angry, then. Angry at Cresselia. Angry at herself. And fueled that anger towards fighting Darkrai for the sake of everyone she loved.

+++ +++ +++ +++ +++

You're right! The scar on Echo's neck is indeed from Darkrai. In fact, both of Echo's scars (the large one along her neck AND the one denting her leg as an Eevee/Umbreon or rather on her arm as a human). Each one was received technically at the same time, but with a twist! During the final battle at Dark Crater, Echo and Darkrai both went berserk and clashed in a desperate attempt to knock each other out.

Echo inflicted a wound onto Darkrai which took sizeable chunks out of his forearm. When Palkia shattered the dimensional portal it then instantly scarred that injury and Darkrai then carried it through ALL future lifetimes. Which is why Echo still has that scar as a Human -> Eevee -> Umbreon. Despite Darkrai receiving this injury during the peak of their final battle, Echo has bore it for all of her past lives up until the point she actually GIVES it to Darkrai. A new wound for him. An old wound for her.

Simultaneously, Darkrai inflicted the neck scar onto Echo who then carries this mark the rest of her life as an Umbreon. It's a bit of a coincidence that her neck scar ends up somewhat, strangely, resembling the red fringe that Darkrai has around his own neck. She finds this to be some kind of messed up joke being played on her by the universe, because now there's ANOTHER reminder of her old life being thrust in her face whenever she catches a glimpse of her reflection. (It's bad enough looking like Dusknoir as an Umbreon, but now this too? How unfortunate.)

A major purpose to these scars is that I think they are a bold (albeit complicated) way to show that both your past and present choices can cause self-harm when destructive, and that it can leave permanent marks that will haunt you through your entire life (or lives in this case!) but that in the end it doesn't define you. Despite everything, you can still grow beyond the trauma inflicted upon yourself. You can be more than the bad choices that hurt you. You can learn to live beyond your own perception and expectations! You can let go of your own mistakes and let them heal/scar, let them fade. And move on to be better.

+++ +++ +++ +++ +++

And my friend, you are not overthinking things. I haven't explained Echo's progression through her life-stages yet, but hopefully I can shed some light on that topic now. (Apologies ahead of time if this is overly convoluted!)

Echo did change gender! Like this:

(Darkrai) he/him or they/them -> (Human) they/them -> (Eevee/Umbreon) she/her or they/them

The reasoning behind this particular progression is that I am guilty of inserting the main game lore into PMD. Whenever I think of legendary or mythical Pokemon (that aren't officially assigned male or female like Latios and Latias) I always immediately think of them as nonbinary in my mind. Darkrai in the PMD universe seems to use male pronouns as mentioned (or rather in the movie, like you stated, had a male-presenting voice) so I think Echo would have used he/him as a personal preference while living as Darkrai. However, he was still technically "genderless" as a mythical (or even nonbinary) and thus was comfortable with they/them as well.

Echo as a human is nonbinary and no longer uses male pronouns. I like to think of them as Echo's "blank slate" form. They think, feel, and appear in very simple but strong terms. And as such their gender binary has been washed away too! They use they/them because it's what Grovyle chose when he met them in the dark future. Grovyle decides that Echo is human based on what minimal knowledge he's gained from ancient tales/myths/glyphs about extinct humans, but he has no idea what a true human would look like since humanity is long dead. And since Echo has no distinct male or female characteristics as a pseudo-human, Grovyle doesn't shove them into a specific box of labels and instead starts using they/them to accommodate. Echo accepts it. Besides, with both amnesia clouding their past and a body that doesn't quite fit, Echo never really felt compelled to argue against his decision. It seemed counter-intuitive and like a waste of energy to argue. Echo was too busy being angry about other things to really care.

Echo as an Eevee/Umbreon uses she/her pronouns. This is because Sora starts using them immediately upon meeting Echo on the beach, and Echo (with a second round of amnesia and a body that now presents more towards female appearances) accepts it because it just makes sense. She has no memory of her past, and because Sora wholeheartedly starts calling Echo "she", well, Echo just goes with it. Because someone as sweet as Sora must know what she's talking about, right? She doesn't seem like the type to lie or play pranks, after all.

Additional note: Even as an Eevee/Umbreon, Grovyle still uses they/them for Echo since that's what he's used too. And Echo is fond of him using it anyway, so she is comfortable with it. It feels like a little promise between them. And it brings back some of the sparse good memories Echo had with Grovyle while stuck in the dark future together.

Additional ADDITIONAL note: Once Echo and Cresselia have begun reconciliation and start repairing their sibling relationship, she often refers to Echo has her "brother" out of old habit (eons of habit, really). Cresselia normally apologizes for the mistake and tries to correct herself but Echo isn't bothered by this at all. "I'm still your brother," Echo tells her, "If that's what you want to call me, then I see no reason to stop." And Cresselia appreciates it, because she's really trying, but it might take a little bit to re-train herself.

And you got it, my friend! The change in Echo's pronouns IS symbolism about how Echo has grown/evolved beyond her original self. That she is no longer the same being of pain and fury that Darkrai was-- and that she has moved away from this shadow of her past. That she has struggled to become something she's proud of, someone tempered by patience and hope. Love has changed Echo, and thus Echo is happy with this new version of herself because her loved ones chose it for her. And she is okay with that!

I also really enjoy the idea that while Echo and Cresselia are still opposites in both powers and personality, they now share common ground on at least ONE thing after being entirely different for their whole mutual existence. They can relate. They can be siblings again. They can heal. And they do together, they work and work and work on being good to each other and being overall better individuals. And they learn to love each other again. <3

[oneluckydragon]

once again barging into your askbox to talk about your girlies because i had that human!echo design + the additional tag tidbits in my mind since yesterday, and its driving me up the wall.

anywho, i more or less went through it in my tags, but the whole idea that a lot of the darkrai traits carried over to her human self, and that her body on its *own* feels broken, misshapen and almost monstrous in nature which makes echo in return feel dysphoric in return and combined with the amnesia is just genius.

looking down at your own body, your hands, your face, *everything*, and it screams of imperfections you don't know why they are there. the feeling that something in your body is wrong, it feels irregular. like being shoved into a compact box that hardly fits your silhouette, despite texts and mythos from millenias ago confirming that this is how a 'human' is supposed to look. how *echo* is supposed to look. yet she still has this feeling in her heart, this feeling and sensation that something is wrong with her. but she has no idea what could be the reason for it. she is human, is she not? did humans feel like this as well? but deep down, a part of her knows. whatever she is, it isnt human. it's a twisted attempt. a monstrosity that bears similarities, but is not what it was made to look after. just a shattered reflection that was glued and tethered together to represent a species that is no longer here.

and the traits that carried over are just the tip of it all, because theres just something about feeling this inexplicable darkness in your heart, this feeling of pent up resentment and vitriol, a will and a need for all life to *cease*, and you have no idea where it all came from, which adds further to the dysphoric feeling. like echo's own heart is folly, that there is something *wrong* with it, and it makes her see red. these sort of emotions and ideas of subterfuge that she does not know how she thinks of and resonates with so perfectly, how she bears her teeth against a world she has no idea how she arrived in strike further in her heart, because she does not know where such instincts and thoughts come from. was this always something that came commonly to her? were these feelings that wanted nothing but to ensure that the world will feel her vitriolic rage always a part of her? a ceaseless beating parasite that would only make herself harder to be with?

and of course, speaking of being with someone, the bond she had with grovyle before their separation absolutely destroys me.

grovyle being this mere young treecko, simply going through his 'daily' whims to survive in an unkind world, and coming across someone who could only be described as.. broken. someone who does not fit in this world. echo did not fit in this world. but grovyle was stubborn, and he made her fit. he made her feel loved. feel cared for. and in return, he changed her. to be loved is to be changed, so on and so forth. he gave her purpose in a world that offered none. and in return, she wanted to make sure he'll feel the warmth of the sun he longed forever. it's the least she could do. it's the least that the thorny burden she deemed herself to be could do.

and knowing that she felt deep guilt for reasons unbeknownst to her at that time will only help further with her now-existing grief and guilt as an umbreon. knowing that at one point, she covered an entire world in darkness, that she was vile and cruel to all life for the fun of it, and that she might have deprived many pokemon of a better life and left an everlasting nightmare on those who did not deserve it.. it makes her feel sick.

because it hurts. it hurts to know that someone like her can exist, redeemed or not. it hurts to know that the poison in her blood seeps into the earth, that it just makes it all the while clearer of how much she was but a product of inexplicable evil. killing the world around her even when she does not intend to, and just how much she was better off at being left on her own to perish. grovyle and sora, big as his heart was, did not deserve to put up with this mess. they did not deserve to know that someone they care for would easily break them apart had they not delicately and patiently nursed the evil away from her heart, and that she really is just what her previous incarnation had the powers to control to its whims.

a nightmare. one that pitifully looks back at its existence and knows that it does not bring anything good with it. and most nightmares at least have the decency to go away when you wake up, echo has to bear the idea that she is a nightmare that not even sora is aware of. something that she cannot open her eyes to, because she does not see echo as a nightmare. none of the people who love her see her as a nightmare, even when she's so desperately thinks that she is.

(and i already said it before, but i think gaia and echo might find some comfort in one another the same way she'll do with erida, given how they both doomed (or nearly doomed) a world in the mass reign and destruction their past incarnations' wakes, and the woes they'll share and how they'll try to cope with everything that follows. it ain't easy moving on knowing that you wanted to destroy the very ground you walked on for whatever reasons you may have...)

@s1nn0hh istg!! HOW!!! ARE YOU!!! DOING THIS?!?!

The descriptions you provided about Grovyle and Echo's bond. The way you perfectly built upon Echo's dysphoria and somehow managed to put my thoughts directly into words!!!

Human!Echo lives in my brain CONSTANTLY because they are so broken. They are wrong and they know it. They are something that should not exist. And they are so angry at everyone and everything. And yet here is someone (Grovyle) that loves them. That cares for them. That sticks by their side in all things and believes in them even in spite of their rage and fire and loathing and scorn. Someone that forgives them for their lashing out and violent pain. And all of that love from Grovyle slowly starts to change Echo.

And that love follows Echo into her next life and spurs her healing. Without Grovyle's love and care, I truly think Echo wouldn't have stayed with Sora. Echo wouldn't have had the willingness or patience to care about her, to start loving, to start wishing and hoping and feeling. And you get this, Sinnoh. YOU GET THIS!!!

You understand SO MUCH about how Echo feels as an Umbreon. The weight of the guilt she carries knowing the full truth about her past, over having the entire picture of her rage and failure. Of the way she'd closed her heart to the world and tried to burn it down. And how much she wants to take responsibility and work at becoming someone better not for the sake of her own redemption, but for the sake of her friends. To pay back the love they shared with her, the love she feels she did not deserve. The love she wants to PROVE meant something.

And gosh!! Gaia and Echo! I really need to do a deep-dive on these two and send it to you sometime. I could rant about them, I just KNOW it. The guilt they both harbor. The urge to right past wrongs. The love they've learned to carry. AHHH! I love Gaia SO MUCH and Echo would definitely find comfort in her. I can confirm they would be very good friends because it's always a reassurance to know that you aren't alone. That someone with similar experiences is in your corner. And both Gaia AND Erida can be that for her. <3