#⋇ BUT YOU'VE STILL GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL: POKÉMON

[lunarscaled]

you're gonna need a jacket for all this chill

[team-pokefriends]

[Catherine and Sophie wander through the ground level of the bustling city, walking around many houses, tree homes, and other buildings.]

[Catherine] "They should be around here somewhere."

[Sophie looks around for any sign of the Sylveon.]

[Sophie] "I don't see 'em anywhere. Lemme check this corner."

[Sophie runs around a corner and spots a Sylveon walking down the street with an Umbreon by herself.]

[Sophie] "Think that's them."

[Catherine also turns the corner, but Sophie runs off towards the Sylveon. Now by herself, Catherine's anxiety grows as she has to carefully maneuver around Pokémon smaller than her in order to catch up to her friend.

Meanwhile, Sophie has already made it to the Sylveon and their Umbreon friend.]

[Sophie] "Hey there. Are you the Sylveon looking for a challenge?"

[The Sylveon gasps with excitement and looks to their friend.]

[Sylveon] "I told you someone would accept!"

[The Umbreon sighs, and the Sylveon looks back at Sophie.]

[Sylveon]

"Are you strong?"

[Sophie] "Oh yeah, I'm strong. Check this out."

[Sophie flexes her right arm.]

[Sophie] "I'll gladly be your opponent."

[Umbreon] "Please be careful. He just evolved."

[Sylveon] "No! I want a serious battle. I got all the best moves!"

[Sophie] "Hey, you got it."

[Sylveon] "Great! Quick, to the Timburr Dojo!"

[The Sylveon runs off. The Umbreon sighs, and both he and Sophie go after her. Catherine is still trying to catch up to them the best that she can.

After some time of walking and talking, the three of them arrive at the dojo, a stone building with steel supports at the corners. There are two arenas available for Pokémon to spar in, and the three head to the one on the left. Before Sophie steps onto the arena, she looks back.]

[Sophie] "Yeah, we left her behind. Let's wait for her to get here."

[Just as Sophie finishes talking, Catherine steps into the dojo, her right hand is on her heart. Sophie waves at Catherine to get her attention, and the Dragonite quickly goes to where she is.]

[Sophie] "Sorry 'bout that. Client's really excited about this battle. You okay?"

[Catherine, worried] "A little… Please don't leave me alone like that."

[The Sylveon was speaking with Umbreon when he hears Catherine's voice. When he looks over and spots the Dragonite, he gasps with excitement and runs over to her.]

[Sylveon] "Wow! A real Dragonite! You've gotta be really strong!"

[Catherine, worried] "Um…"

[Sylveon] "You and I gotta battle, right now!"

[Sophie crosses her arms and looks confused.]

[Sophie] "Woah, wait. What about our battle?"

[Sylveon] "I wanna battle the Dragonite!"

[Umbreon] "You already said you'd fight-"

[Sylveon] "The Dragonite!"

[Catherine closes her eyes and puts her right hand on the side of her head.]

[Catherine, thoughts] "(I don't like this…)"

[Umbreon] "Do your battle with the Slowking, and then we'll see if the Dragonite wants to battle."

[Sylveon] "But, I want to battle the Dragonite, now!"

[The Sylveon looks at Catherine.]

[Sylveon] "Can we?"

[Catherine takes a deep breath, opens her eyes, puts her hand down, and shakes her head.]

[Catherine, worried] "I don't want to."

[Sylveon] "But, you accepted the request."

[Sophie] "We accepted it. I'm still here, y'know."

[Umbreon] "Sylveon. Just battle the Slowking like you agreed to do."

[The Sylveon sighs.]

[Sylveon] "Okay, okay."

[He then turns to face the Slowking.]

[Sylveon] "No matter. I'll give it everything I've got!"

[Sophie nods and smiles.]

[Sophie] "Let's do this."

[Sophie and Sylveon walk onto the left arena to get ready for their battle, while Catherine and Umbreon head to the bleachers to sit down and watch.]

[Sophie is temporarily unavailable for asks as she is focusing on a battle.]

[chase-omega]

Hey Pokéfans, here's a hard to swallow truth pill.

"Gotta catch 'em all" is outdated, nobody cares if you've developed a hoarding problem and locked up a bunch of innocent creatures. In fact, you can just release unused Pokémon, and they still count as registered in your Pokédex. If the Professor really wants a complete dex, then he or she would just pool together the data from the different Pokédexes he or she gave to various trainers, and compile it all into one single dex on his or her harddrive. Then that'd leave only a few unfilled slots, and the responsibility of filling them could be divided among the multiple dex holders.

Ya know what people ACTUALLY care about? How strong your party is.

"Gotta catch 'em all" was nothing more than a localization thing to groom kids into making their parents buy tons and tons of merch, and then make those kids continue playing gen 1 after finishing it since there wasn't a real postgame until the Stadium games came out.

Having every Pokémon will not make you a Pokémon Master or even a better trainer. I knew this even as a little kid. Know what WILL make you a Pokémon Master? Actually gitting gud at battling.

[lunarscaled]

if lyric could pick three legendaries they identify with, who would they be ?

hmmm this is a good question! I had to seriously think about it. I think Lyric wouldn't necessarily view themselves as a legendary pokemon-esuqe trainer, and definitely thinks of themselves as someone more common, but if they had to pick three they would do a lot of research on other regions, the origins and myths behind them, and try to think about how those pokemon feel.

The first one isn't too hard to pick ( and is debatably canon in their PokeMas EX un-official verse ), which is Articuno ! It was the pokemon I picked for their Sygna suit like two years ago.

Articuno's original gen 1 Red entry is:

A legendary bird Pokémon that is said to appear to doomed people who are lost in icy mountains.

Which I think speaks to Lyric a lot, since they don't necessarily feel that being a gym leader is their calling per-say, and they're on a gym on a mountain alone like 90% of the time without their pokemon. Lyric probably has seen Articuno flying at least once and wondered if it, too, was lonely in the mountains.

Second would maybe be Phione, for its sort of off-brand Manephy nature, never able to succeed the original and theoretically one of many. it's pokedex entry is

It drifts in warm seas. It always returns to where it was born, no matter how far it may have drifted.

I think Lyric sort of idolizes that ability to always return home and the idea of the cradle of the sea. Lyric has two water/ice pokemon on their gym team but they don't get to see the ocean much because their gym is on a mountain, but they probably romanticize that sort of free-drifting existence with no responsibilities.

Third is Glastrier. For simple reasons: Lyric is a farm kid and that is an Ice Horse. Big "It would understand me" vibes. Part of its entry on bulbapedia is also

Glastrier possesses incredible physical strength and extraordinary destructive power. It is noted to be an aggressive Pokémon that forcefully takes anything it wants. ...Glastrier's legs allows it to travel through the snowiest of lands and worst of roads. It enjoys challenging any strong opponents it finds worthy of battling.

Lyric doesn't really want to admit to it, because they're worried about being someone who is aggressive and childish instead of the strong, intimidating gym leader they feel they should be, but Lyric does like battling. They want to be strong. As a trainer Glastrier is the kind of force they would want to be on the battle field, but their anxieties and self doubts hold them back from pursuing that.

bonus mentions for: Magearna, Shaymin, and Meloetta which are all legendaries Lyric probably just likes reading tales about because they remind them of their mother + brother in some way.

[lunarscaled]

tag drop part 3 thats how many fucking verses ive got