#((but yeah such individuals are pretty much a minority of Pokemon to her))

[misanthropecopy]

I wonder what would happen if she met a truly evil pokemon.

         “There are no “evil” Pokemon. Misguided, uncontrolled and territorial maybe, but evil? No.” In the very least, Mewtwo was not willing to consider such individuals as ACTUAL Pokemon specifically if they chose that way of living.

[punz4lyfe]

Wasted Plotential: Ash’s Krookodile

Let’s talk about a certain beloved and goated CHAD in the Pokemon Anime.

Sooo, yeah, Ash’s Krookodile.... I fucking simp for this dude, guys. Not only is the Krookodile species one of the coolest Pokemon designs imo, but Ash’s Krookodile was just fucking awesome in the anime. He had a personality, a pretty nice moveset, his own minor goals, a passion for battling, super cool sunglasses to help him stick out from others, a good connection with Ash, and a superb battling fight. Seriously, after getting caught by Ash, he literally only lost one fight under his care and that was before he fully evolved.

Basically, this guy’s the total package! .....But I honestly feel a little move could’ve been done with him.

I mean, when you compare him to Ash’s other aces, both before and after Best Wishes, he doesn’t really stick out that much. He doesn’t go through any type of struggle under Ash’s care nor did he have a personal rival. Yeah, the reason why he followed Ash for almost half the region before getting capture was because he saw Pikachu as his rival, but that just disappeared once Pikachu bodied him.

For this blog, I came up with a scenario that I would incorporate in the Best Wishes in order to give just a little more depth to Krookodile.

Krookodile, his glasses, and Trip

For this scenario, I would have Krookodile be more involved with Ash’s rivalry with Trip, kinda making him Ash’s main mon to end their conflict instead of Pikachu. Firstly, while Trip would still make an appearance in the first episode, it would mostly just relegate down for a few seconds as Pikachu never got struck by Zekrom. Because of that, Ash doesn’t have a need to stick around at Juniper’s Lab for much long, so once he gets a glimpse of the Unova Starters and learns about the Unova League from Professor Juniper, he says his goodbyes to Oak and Delia before rushing out the lab with Pikachu, excited to see what Unova could offer. On his way out, he swiftly passes by Trip, who’s just now entering the lab. While Ash doesn’t notice him, Trip briefly stares towards Ash’s direction with a slightly surprised expression before shrugging it off and continuing his way in.

From then on out, Best Wishes more or less continues normally, with Sandile beginning to follow Ash on episode 3 not out of to find a way to battle Pikachu, but out of respect and curiosity for Ash after he helped him and his pack a bunch of Pokemon.

It’s when the events of episode 10 come to play is when certain plotpoints start to change. At the beginning of the episode, we see Sandile having to have encountered Trip, battling his Servine and revealing Snivy to have been his starter. Despite the type advantage, Sandile manages to pull a decent fight which somewhat impresses Trip until a well-aimed Cut attack manages to knock Sandile’s sunglasses right off his snout, sending him into his panic mode. Disappointed at the side, Trip recalls Servine, puts away the Pokeball he planned to catch Sandile with, and walks away, insisting that Sandile’s reliance on his glasses makes too pathetic of a Pokemon to catch. Sandile overhears this just as he picks back up his glasses, making him a little depressed over Trip’s words.

Later, Sandile spots Ash, Iris, and Cilan making their way towards Luxuria Town and uses Dig to follow them. He doesn’t appear again until we much later during Ash’s 3-on-3 battle against Trip, where he witnesses Trip taking out Ash’s Snivy with Servine. This motivates Sandile to achieve his revenge, so just as Ash is about to send Pikachu out as his last Pokemon, Sandile suddenly runs to battle instead, much to Ash and Iris’ shock and Trip’s surprise, with Sandile’s glasses being a dead giveaway to them. Seeing Sandile’s determination, Don George allows Sandile to fight despite Ash and Iris’ protests that Sandile isn’t technically Ash’s Pokemon. However, seeing Sandile’s intense glare towards Servine, Ash immediately understands Sandile’s ambitions, so he allows it himself. Thanks to Ash’s direction, Sandile is able to pull off a much better fight against Servine up until his glasses get knocked off once again. This causes Ash and his friends to discover Sandile’s reliance over his glasses just as Servine finishes the fight with Leaf Tornado, knocking him out and making Trip’s first victory a little less contrived and a little less bullshit as it was originally.

With Sandile knocked off, Trip’s declared the winner and he makes his leave. Meanwhile, Ash and his friends comfort Sandile over his loss with Pikachu retrieving his sunglasses for him, cementing their new friendship. After the usual Ash-Mon talk of getting stronger together (a per anime tradition, really) Ash takes out a Pokeball and Sandile happily puts himself into it, officially making him Ash’s Pokemon.

From then on out, Sandile does what he can to be a perfect Pokemon for Ash and a reliable teammate. He happily converses with others, helps Ash catch other Pokemon like Roggenrola, cheers for Tepig when he battles Shamus, and overall just be more involved in Ash’s journey through Unova.

As the adventure goes, he soon evolves into a Krokorok to help Ash win against Elesa and her annoying-ass Emolga (because I’m sure we would ALL do something to make that episode letter) and evolves early into Krookodile during his and Ash’s training with Brycen and Beartic. After their training, Krookodile wins, but mostly out of luck that Krookodile’s sunglasses didn’t fall off, like it did during Ash’s battles against Clay and Skyla.

And here’s when things get interesting.

Even after reaching his final evolutionary stage, Krookodile STILL gets nervous whenever he losses his sunglasses, no matter what Ash, his Pokemon, Iris, and Cilan try to do to help him out with that issue. Just as everyone tries to come up with a new strategy to help out Krookodile, some antics by Axew and Scraggy causes the gang to get attacked by a group of Ferrothorn, forcing them to split up and get lost in a treacherous valley. As the plot progresses, everyone manages to get back together except for Ash and Krookodile as a result of the latter losing his glasses from the attack and the former’s determination to find those accessories. When they eventually do find Krooky’s sunglasses, that is when they confronted once again by the angry Ferrothorn. Knowing Krookodile is too nervous to fight, Ash has him take cover behind some boulders while Ash tries to distract the Ferrothorn away so that Krookodile can get his glasses back.

Things don’t go as planned and Krookodile ends up getting chased as well when some of the Ferrothorn find him. Because Ash is, well, Ash, he quickly takes many of the attacks the Ferrothorn have aimed for Krookodile. Seeing Ash’s life in danger, Krookodile regains his confidence, steps in between his trainer and attackers, and, remembering his training and battle against Brycen’s Beartic, fends off the Ferrothorn with Stone Edge and learns Aerial Ace in time to completely ward them off. With the Ferrothorn fleeing away, Ash manages to get the sunglasses back and his friends and other Pokemon regroup with them, having to have heard all the commotion from their battle. Everyone is caught off-guard by Krookodile’s confident stance without his glasses, and while he continues to keep them in order to retain his individuality, he full-on proves his development much later down the series during the Vertress Conference in Ash’s final battle against Trip.

Like in the original, it delves down into a one-on-one, with Ash using Krookodile and Trip using his fully evolved Serperior. It’s a well-fought battle, with both sides fighting to their fullest. Up at the climax of the battle, a Dragon Tail from Serperior manages to knock off Krookodile’s sunglasses. Trip smiles. His opponent’s achilles heel has been struck. Victory is more than ensured. One final Frenzy Plant should end this quick, might as well end this quickly after all. But once the thorny vines struck down towards the downed reptile, Krookodile is up to his feet. He has caught two of the vines and is using them to hold up the others. He then pushes the vines off of him, cancelling the attack and forcing Serperior to recharge. He shows no signs of distress. In fact, he’s glowing red. As the announcer points out, Krookodile has learned a new move. Outrage, replacing his Dragon Claw move.

The fight is then concluded by Krookodile running towards the defenseless Serperior to beat them senselessly with Outrage. Serperior tries to fight back with Energy Balls and Dragon Tails, but Krookodile’s relentless spirit helps him keep going to eventually taking down Serperior, winning his beloved trainer the battle and equaling the score with his longtime rival. He and Ash have now earned Trip’s respect, ending their relationship on good terms, Ash retrieves his sunglasses for him, and a huge hug further emphasizes their developed bond as Pikachu, Iris, Axew, Cilan, Ash’s other rivals, and the entire stadium cheers them on, wrapping up Krookodile’s arc.

So yeah, that’s my own little Krookodile arc for ya. Hope y’all liked it!

[medea10]

My Review of To Heart

How did I get into this anime? I have been curious about this anime for a straight-up decade now and the randomizer decided to bless me with something not incest. Thank you Arceus!

Since she was young, Akari Kamigishi has been best friends with Hiroyuki Fujita. Because of kind acts he did for her as a child, Akari has stayed by Hiroyuki’s side. Now that they’re both in high school, something has changed in Akari and it feels more like she’s falling for her childhood friend. Will Akari find happiness with her best friend or will she end up friend-zoned?

And because this is a harem, there are quite a few girls hanging around Hiroyuki throughout the two seasons. Just to name a few, we have the brash friend, Shiho. Then there’s the tomboy type, Aoi. The very silent type, Serika! And then there’s the robotic maid, Multi. Yes, you read right. A robot! This is Japan after all! Oh yeah, there’s also the class rep, an actual American girl, and a quiet girl with supernatural powers.

Akari, girl, you need to step up your game if you’re up against all these chicks!

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Before I discuss all that, let’s go down the ugly story about To Heart for fans in the U.S. The first season (and only the first season) was dubbed by RightStuf (at least I’m certain about that). Everything else wound up undubbed and even unlicensed. To Heart was kind of left in the dust due to what happened when the first season was supposed to release in the U.S. A lot of damaged material was the culprit and this came during the time when animation was transitioning from animating using cells to going digital. So to sum that up, the anime debuted in Japan around 1999, Rightstuf licensed To Heart in 2004 with a release in 2005, and the actual release was delayed to 2007. And in back-in-those-days times, that’s pretty fucking long. I can see why they didn’t want to bother with this series after it took all that trouble to remaster a series many were calling only “OKAY”.

Now then, on with the good stuff! I went in thinking that this was a Geneon reject, but was blown out of my ass to hear voices from New York! Lisa Ortiz, Jessica Calvello, Veronica Taylor, Wayne Grayson, and my personal favorite (not who you’re thinking), Carol Jacobanis! Yeah, surprisingly I didn’t hear Ted Lewis here. But Jacobanis is my second favorite in the NYAV group. I am in nostalgia heaven! Yes folks, these were the same people to give life to many characters from Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Berserk, His and Her Circumstances, Bakuman, Gravitation…OH, gambled and lost! Well, you get my meaning! Thankfully this dub wasn’t as horrific as Gravitation (despite Hiroyuki’s voice actor is well-known for something from that particular anime). Here’s what you might recognize these folks from!

JAPANESE CAST: *Akari is played by Ayako Kawasumi (known for Ursula on Pokemon DP, Saber on Fate/Zero, Izumi on Beyond the Boundary, Aoki on Bakuman, Laura on Index, Yoshida on Shakugan no Shana, and Nodame on Nodame Cantabile)

*Hiroyuki is played by Kazuya Ichijo (known for Hoteye on Fairy Tail and Zafila on Nanoha)

*Shiho is played by Chieko Higuchi (known for Tomo on Azumanga Daioh)

*Multi is played by Yui Horie (known for Hanekawa on Monogatari, Tohru on Fruits Basket, Hanyuu on Higurashi, Minorin on Toradora, Charla on Fairy Tail, Chie on Persona 4, Maria on Umineko, and Riki on Little Busters)

ENGLISH CAST: *Akari is played by Debora Rabbai (known for Mika from Gravitation, Rika on His and Her Circumstances, Leina on Queen’s Blade, and Boogiepop [original])

*Hiroyuki is played by Rich McNanna (known for Jack Walker on Pokemon Movie 9 and Shuuichi on Gravitation)

*Shiho is played by Jessica Calvello (known for Prima on Pokemon, Hange on Attack on Titan, Excel on Excel Saga, Kanako on Maria Holic, Tsukino on His and Her Circumstances, and Aika on Aria the Animation)

*Multi is played by Tara Sands (known for Richie on Pokemon, Soujirou on Rurouni Kenshin, Mokuba on YGO, Badiane on Sailor Moon SuperS movie, Tori on Pokemon Movie ~ Deoxys, and Filia on Slayers Try)

SHIPPING: So remind me what genre this anime is!

HAREM!

We’re watching a harem! But it’s more slice of life than anything romantic. There are a lot of love interests for Hiroyuki throughout the series. It’s just that it doesn’t develop as much as one might think (except for maybe Akari) in season one.

And it’s so easy to think that Hiroyuki is the object of every one of these ladies’ desire. Serika waits for him to come to the club room. Aoi finds him helpful, as does Tomoko and Lemmy. Multi got attached to Hiroyuki’s headpats. As for Akari, she’s got quite the teddy bear collection because of Hiroyuki. After watching all of season one where Hiroyuki is hanging with all of these ladies individually, I thought there would be a moment of jealousy from one or more of these girls. Much to my surprise, that was not the case. It didn’t go down any of those bad-end routes you’d see with things like Kanon, Clannad, or God-forbid, School Days!

But then season two happened…

Ooh boy! First of all, Hiroyuki ended up getting his first confession of love from the most unlikely person ever. Kotone wasn’t even a contender in the first season as she had other issues. In fact, didn’t she have feelings for Masashi in season one? But halfway in the season, she gets ballsy and confesses to Hiroyuki. He rejects her and thankfully it didn’t get ugly (except Akari heard it and got jealous). Lemmy, I also thought wasn’t in play, but here we are! She was apparently childhood friends with Hiroyuki and brought it up when confessing her feelings. That unfortunately came at a bad time as he’s in a quarrel with Akari so he dismisses her.

And then there’s Akari! She’s been able to put on a smile and kind of be a wall-flower whenever Hiroyuki is doing something with one of the other girls. And most of the season, we see him mostly with Aoi and Multi. Thankfully, Aoi never showed romantic interests in Hiroyuki. I much prefer Aoi x Kotone if you want to know the truth. But halfway into season two, jealousy came in like a drunkard in a bar. Akari was definitely pissed when she saw Kotone confess to Hiroyuki and would get jealous seeing Hiroyuki and Multi together so much.

Oh yeah, good old Multi! Yes Multi loves Hiroyuki. Now does Hiroyuki love Multi back? It’s complicated! Because of Multi, Hiroyuki ends up pursuing a career in robotics and as a result spends quite a bit of time with her (pissing Akari off in the process). But because Multi is kind of a malfunctioning robot, who the hell knows if she’ll even remember being with Hiroyuki.

Now are there other boys interested in any of these other girls? The only other boy that has any prominent screen time is Masashi. It’s just that after season one, he’s only seen every so often because he’s busy with soccer. But in season one, it almost felt like Kotone was admiring him from the distance. Don’t get excited because that was just a one-and-done sort of thing before Kotone set eyes on Hiroyuki. Actually, Masashi does reveal his fondness for Akari (at literally the worst possible time). But it seems like Masashi ends up with Shiho in the end. So…whatever!

Hiroyuki DOES end up with someone. Just go down to the end of season two to get that answer.

ENDING TO SEASON ONE: The last two episodes of this season consist around Shiho deciding that she wants to throw a Christmas party at an old hangout from her middle school days! But this isn’t the only nostalgic kick she feels. Shiho ends up remembering the first day she met Hiroyuki and after he took care of a wound she got, Shiho starts seeing Hiroyuki in a new light. Yeah, up until this point, Shiho and Hiroyuki’s relationship could be summed up by saying they both give each other shit every day. Then you have Akari, who is also feeling a little nostalgic with trying to see if Hiroyuki is able to remember things from their past. During the finale however, Akari does develop a cold and has to bail on the party planning.

When Shiho came to visit Akari, it kinda comes out that both girls do care for Hiroyuki. But because this isn’t one of those kinds of romance animes, it really doesn’t get ugly. It’s more of an “I acknowledge your feelings for the boy I like and good luck to you”. Shiho really didn’t do any confessing and we get a cute moment with Hiroyuki and Akari out in the snow.

Let’s see how Season Two holds up!

OMAKE: Nozomi Entertainment also released the six Omake specials that came with releases of the first season. Not dubbed! Just a couple of minute-long specials that range from cute to wildly absurd.

There were also Omake specials in season two that mostly consisted of all the girls fighting each other in almost a Street Fighter or Dragon Ball style.

REMEMBER MY MEMORIES: Five years after the first season aired, To Heart returns with a bit of a time-leap from where we left off last and some slightly improved(?) animation. And if you’re wondering why this season isn’t called “To Heart 2”, there is a series named that already. To Heart 2 is a spin-off of To Heart. It’s just that none of the characters from To Heart are in To Heart 2. ANYWAYS…

It has been a year or so from where we left off. Hiroyuki, Akari and the others are now in their senior year of high school and a lot has changed. Minor character, Kotone who mostly kept to herself in the first season, has found another role in hanging out with Aoi (the chick who’s into martial arts). Serika is still silent, but that blue hue to her hair is definitely not silent. What the hell is with this new animation? And finally, Multi apparently left a year ago and came back in the first episode of season two. Only now Multi has amnesia. A lot has changed since season one, especially when it comes to romance. Buckle up!

ENDING TO REMEMBER MY MEMORIES: Yeah, this season layed on the melodrama really thick compared to the previous season. All the ladies love Hiroyuki and at least half of them expressed those feelings to him. Akari had some conflicted feelings when it came to Hiroyuki. She loves him, but feels like he doesn’t return the feeling due to him hanging around a lot of other girls (especially Aoi and Multi).

Speaking of Multi, this girl has had such the rotunda of computer issues. My stroked-out Dell PC from 2005 had more working power than this girl! For starters, her memories are in danger of being wiped away at several points of the series. We even begin season two where Multi returns after over a year with full-blown amnesia. And since then, Multi had some sort of malfunction issue arise every other episode. This was showcased in the finale, where Multi gets so upset and runs away to the amusement park!

So, Hiroyuki and all of his friends come together to look for Multi. They thankfully found her at the amusement park (during closed hours) and broke into the main-frame to the Ferris wheel. And did I mention these people almost committed assault on police officers? Yeah, these kids are about to have a rap sheet the size of Texas by the end of the episode. Anyways, Hiroyuki, Akari, and Multi ride the ferris wheel and have a nice talk before Multi falls asleep for…

…Let’s say a long time…

Fast-forward to high school graduation! Hiroyuki and Akari seem to be doing a lot better. They’re both going to attend the same college and are pretty much on better terms than when Akari was having a jealousy, bitch-fit. At graduation, they both decided to give each other the Christmas gifts they never gave each other. Because Multi was having another malfunction, they never got to give the gifts. Hiroyuki got a hand-knit sweater. And Akari got a ring!

Hiroyuki wanted it and so he put a ring on it!

During the ED credits, we see the characters we’ve seen throughout these two seasons and what they ended up doing after high school. Lemmy is back in San Francisco. Aoi and Kotone are still doing the fighting matches. Rio is a primary school teacher. Serica is still into the occult. Tomoko is working for her father’s business. Masashi is becoming a big soccer star with Shiho working on journalism (and I think Shiho ends up romantically involved with Masashi).

And we close with Hiroyuki and Akari working with the HMX robots and surprise, surprise, Multi wakes up.

And before you ask, I did NOT watch To Heart 2. And I don’t intend to…at least not yet. I’m saving it for another day and putting it back on the randomizer list.

This anime was…just okay. Yeah, a lot of things were predictable, especially when it came to who the main male lead was going to end up with. Come on, we all know Akari was going to end up with Hiroyuki in the end. If this were the visual novel, I’m sure there were infinite numbers of routes Hiroyuki could take and there’d be a good end to all of the girls. But I’m mostly anime only here! In terms of recommendations, ehh…I feel like there were other better harems you could watch.

Only season one of To Heart got an official release in the U.S., but you might have to search around for any DVD copies as I’m pretty sure it’s currently out of print. Anything else from the series, you’ll have to do some heavy searching to watch all the way through.

Okay, next licensed limbo/unlicensed classics!

What’s that one play everyone and their mother has seen, but you haven’t?

*sighs* Hamilton.

No, the other one.

Les Miserable? Wait, this never got licensed?!

Okay! I guess I’m watching that. I hope I can do well at this review considering I never watched the play, read the book, or watched that film where Russell Crowe can’t sing.

[whumpster-fire]

Whumptober 2020 Day 13: Delayed Drowning

Okay here’s the other half of the story I did for Day 5. Except not half because this turned out waaaay longer than I expected, something like 8k words.

Fandom: Pokemon

Content Warnings: Animal whumpee, Female Whumpee, Minor Whumpee (juvenile animal), Minor Caretaker who gets hurt too, Animal Abuse, Animal Death Mention, Bad Parenting Mention, Hallucinations, Fear Wetting

“I mean, I just don’t understand… what the hell kind of sick bastard just… throws a bunch of baby Pokemon in the river?” Nico ranted to the nurse on duty at the West Rutile Town Municipal Pokemon Center. “Like… I’ve heard of people abandoning Pokemon because they evolved and they couldn’t take care of them, or something, but like… how hard can it be to find homes for Eevees? I mean, they’re like… there’s four or five of them in my apartment building back home!” During the ride in the back of the police car, which had raced them to the Pokemon Center with the lights flashing, he’d been almost as catatonic as the three Eevee kits in his lap, just answering the cops’ questions about what had happened as accurately as he could.

The lecture about him risking his life going out onto the flimsy tree trunk to pull the bag out of the river hadn’t been as long as he expected, and there was no mention of calling his parents, but he still felt like a damn criminal, especially with all the questions like how long he’d had his Trainer’s License, where he’d been last, and so on. It actually sounded like the guys were genuinely interested – one of them said he’d gotten a couple of gym badges when he was young but competitive battling just didn’t work out – but it was still like an interrogation.

With the car’s heater blasting, the Eevees had started to perk up a little. Two of them, at least. They were shivering violently the whole ride there, and stayed snuggled into the sweater, but they were awake. The other one? The nurse had just delivered the bad news, and right now Nico felt like he had to keep talking, and to stay angry, or he was going to break down and cry. The whole car ride he’d been telling himself over and over not to get attached, that they might not make it, and there was a good chance they were kidnapped and would be reunited with their trainers. But the little creatures had pressed themselves against him, and they were making little mewling cries of distress, and he’d just done what he could to try to comfort them. One of them was a bit more curious, and started looking around the cop car after a bit. The other had managed to crawl up inside his t-shirt. She was still damp and freezing to the touch.

The nurse sighed and nodded. She was an older woman, with brown hair that was gray at the roots. “They’re common, yeah. But that cuts both ways. There are so many born in captivity every year that there aren’t always enough homes for them.” She grimaced. “These kits are six or seven months old, probably from the same litter. Probably an unlicensed breeder: the scanners didn’t pick up any Pokeball ID.” Captive Pokemon in Tektos were required by law to have a registered Pokeball by the age of four months. “I don’t think there was much effort put into finding homes for them, either. They’re almost a pound underweight, and based on all the partially-healed injuries it’s possible they were used as Grinders.”

Nico winced. Pokemon battling, real Pokemon battling, was a carefully regulated sport, and it was mostly safe. There were occasionally accidents, but Pokemon in league-sanctioned battles had a rate of serious injury several times lower than professional footballers. But there were illegal underground battles, and even in the League occasionally someone would get caught doing something cruel or unethical. Like Grinding. The best way for a Pokemon to get better, aside from practicing individual moves and techniques with their trainers, was battling against other skilled opponents who could challenge them. But Grinding meant beating much weaker Pokemon over, and over, and over… just using them as target practice. It wasn’t good even for the Pokemon being trained, and for the ‘Grinder’ it was cruel and dangerous. But…

“Why’d they stop, then?” he asked. “I mean… wouldn’t people who were doing that just… keep them until they died or got too badly hurt to run or defend themselves at all? Why’d they try to drown the whole litter at the same time?”

“If I had to guess, because they got found out and were trying to get rid of evidence,” the nurse scowled. “Since the old commissioner got voted out a lot of these underground fighting rings have been getting busted.”

“Oh.” Nico balled his fists. “Yeah. Good. I mean, not that they were destroying evidence, but… y’know, hopefully that means the sons of bitches who did this’ll get caught soon.”

“Anyway...” the woman scratched the back of her head. “The good news is, both of the little girls you brought in today seem to be in stable condition. We’re going to keep them here for observation for at least another night. After that, they don’t have any Pokeball IDs as I said, so they don’t legally have a trainer at this point. You and your friend are licensed trainers, so you have the first claim to any abandoned Pokemon you capture, even if you didn’t use a Pokeball.”

“Okay. Uhh… I mean I, uhh… I’ll have to think about it!” Nico stuttered. He hastily excused himself and claimed he needed to call a couple of people. Erin had already left by then. He was going to talk to her at some point, just to make sure, but she’d said the other day that after Slana she wasn’t going to be ready for another Pokemon for a while. She had four, which was technically enough to earn seven of the eight gym badges needed to qualify for Regionals even if it would be much harder to do so. Nico only had Kenna and Zagi, so to even challenge a gym for his second badge he’d have to add another Pokemon to his team.

But that was the thing. Even if he took in the Eevees, he’d still have a team of two. They were so young it would be a couple of months before it was even physically safe for them to battle, and mentally? Maybe never. If he remembered right one of the semifinalists in last year’s regional championship had a rescued grinder Pokemon on his team, but the interviewers had focused on that precisely because it was rare. There was no guarantee they’d even be okay with being anywhere near a battling arena, not if  the sights and sounds were a constant reminder of whatever abuse they’d gone through. And it wouldn’t be fair to them to be shut in their balls every time he had a practice match with another trainer, or during sparring sessions while he was spending time with the others. If what they needed was a quiet home, one that was always in the same place and never involved crashing in cheap rooms or on couches at Pokemon Centers, he couldn’t provide that. At a minimum he could be taking care of an extra two Pokemon. A trainer could have more than six and just select which six would be ‘available’ before a battle, and quite a few did, but it was more work, more mouths to feed, more sleeping space… then again, some trainers had Onix or Gyrados.

And, well… really, Nico wasn’t sure about an Eevee at all. They were cute, but the old saying was: ‘Never bring home a Pokemon if you aren’t prepared to care for its fully evolved form’ or something like that. And usually it was pretty straightforward, but Eevee could take any of fifteen different forms, all of different types, all with different needs. Vaporeons needed water to swim in, Jolteons needed lots of space to run, Leafeons were miserable in places with long, cold, dark winters, Glaceons were miserable in tropical climates, Umbreons liked to be active at two AM, Terreons needed places to dig, and so on. It wasn’t completely unpredictable, because they were more likely to take a form suited to their environment, and you could often see the signs in their personality and behavior, but you couldn’t know for sure unless you used an evolutionary stone or made sure to only train in certain locations or at certain times of day or something.

But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to keep them. It was like some part of him had bonded with the little creatures during that car ride. Like he’d felt a connection. But that was stupid. The poor things were so out of it that he hadn’t really even met them. He’d felt something with Kenna from the first few minutes, but she’d been awake, and aware of her surroundings, and he’d gotten to know her a bit and made sure she liked him before deciding on her as his starter. Then again, new parents always talked about how much they loved their babies even when they couldn’t do much besides sleep and cry. But then again, maybe if people could tell who their kids were before they had them, the world might be a better place. Maybe there’d be fewer kids getting dragged across the ocean to Hoenn every summer so their moms could pretend they actually liked spending time with them for a week or two and the other ten telling them to just go outside and make some friends if they were bored. Maybe there’d be fewer kids getting expensive presents in the mail every holiday season that were lovingly picked out for the kid they wished they had. Nico stared at the contacts list on his phone. No… he felt like he could only tell her the good parts of being a trainer, the easy parts. What would she even say? He was going to call Dad at some point, but he was at work right now, and all he ever really said about it besides ‘You’re the trainer, it’s your call’ was no Pokemon that wouldn’t fit in the apartment.

Eventually Nico made up his mind to make up his mind later. He was planning to stick around Rutile Town for a while anyway, so he’d wait until he could actually get to know the Eevees and they’d fully recovered. He tried to take his mind off it. Go to the nearest gym – Rutile didn’t have one of the major gyms where a badge was needed to qualify for Regionals, but there were two smaller ones – and work on hiding an Ember’s direction with Smokescreen for Kenna and Zagi’s control over Quick Attack. Get dinner, and of course now the sun had gone down so the Jivuyena was stir-crazy but the temperature had also dropped a few degrees so she didn’t want to actually get her energy out outdoors. But at some point, late in the evening, he found himself scrolling through lists of name ideas on the internet, and that was the last thing he remembered doing before he fell asleep sprawled across a couch in the Pokemon Center lobby, sweating like a pig in his hoodie with a living hot water bottle curled up on his chest.

He was shocked awake by a crash like furniture being knocked over. He pushed himself upright, dislodging Kenna and sending her tumbling off the sofa with a startled grunt, then fell off himself, landing hard on his elbow. His curse probably woke up anyone who’d managed to sleep through the first noise.

“Ow! Son of a… what the hell?” He stood up way too fast and was almost brought back down by a headrush.

Other voices around him expressed similar sentiments. There were only a couple of other trainers in the lobby at this time of night – the clock by the Clinic check-in desk said 2:30 in the morning. Erin had long since gone to bed in the actual room she’d rented. The lodging side of the Pokemon center didn’t get that many visitors staying for more than a night or two since there wasn’t a major gym in Rutile and the area wasn’t that popular for catching wild Pokemon. No one was camped out in the lobby for lack of space. The only reason to stay here overnight was if you had a Pokemon that was in bad shape.

There were more crashes, and high-pitched screams. Only some of them sounded human. The other trainers reached for the Pokeballs on their belts. Nico did the same, then remembered both his Pokemon were already out. Kenna cackled and stalked towards the doors to the clinic area, wisps of smoke rising from her back. Zagi stayed perched on the back of the sofa, fur standing on end and sparking.

Then the doors flew open. A young man stumbled out, half dragging an older, heavyset woman. Both of them wore nurses’ scrubs, but their clothes were torn. His glasses were bent and missing a lens, and his arm was covered in blood. He helped the woman to a chair, and shouted in a shaking voice: “Everybody stay calm! Stay calm and get clear of the lobby, now!”

The effect was anything but calming. A dozen possibilities raced through Nico’s mind. An earthquake? A gas explosion? Pokemon thieves? - Rutile did have a gang problem. An out-of-control Pokemon? A truck crashing into the building? “What happened? What’s going on?”

“Keep your Pokemon in their balls!” the female nurse snapped at a trainer who had just brought out a Scyther.

The man zeroed in on Nico. “Are you the kid that brought the Eevees in today?”

“Uhh – yeah – I – yeah, that was me,” Nico stuttered. “What’s wrong? Did something-”

“One of them had what’s called a secondary drowning episode – water in the lungs caused inflammation and more fluid accumulation.”

“Oh, no.”

“We were doing everything we could, but-”

Something flung the doors open again, so hard it seemed like they would come off their hinges. They hit the wall with an earsplitting bang, and a creature skidded into the lobby. Nico caught a glimpse of blazing orange eyes wreathed in a halo of unearthly pale blue flame. It was like the air was sucked out of the room. Goosebumps formed on his skin.

“Jesus!” one of the other trainers staggered back, and reached for a Pokeball. The creature’s head snapped towards the sound.

“I said keep them in their balls!” The nurse’s voice was almost as frightening as the creature… the Pokemon. The shock had gone away a little bit with its eyes off him, and he could see it more clearly now. It was small, not much bigger than a Vulpix or an adult Eevee, with four legs and a slender body. It was almost engulfed in the ethereal fire, making it look bigger than it was, but the energy was concentrated around its neck, paws, ears, and tail. Underneath the fire was dark gray-purple fur. The large head, the short muzzle, the long, diamond-shaped ears...

Nico’s jaw dropped. He recognized this Pokemon. At least, he recognized the evolutionary line for sure, and he could guess the type. “Is… is that a Styxeon?” Eevee could evolve into any type except Bug and Dragon, but the ghost and poison forms were the rarest. He couldn’t remember how they even evolved. Were they the ones that evolved through trading? No, he was pretty sure there was some kind of item involved usually because very few locations had a big enough energy concentration…

The man nodded. “Traumatic Evolution. I’ve never seen it happen before! She suddenly went downhill and we were trying to get her on oxygen, but… basically her body thought it was about to die and… forced itself to evolve as a last resort! But her Aftermath tore half the room apart, and she panicked and attacked us!”

Nico couldn’t speak. It clicked together in his brain. Ghost-type… this was one of the Eevees he’d pulled from the river. And panicked was right. Panicked and furious. The Styxeon darted one way, then the other, claws skidding on the linoleum. She was hissing and spitting and screaming at everyone and everything around her. The other two trainers hurriedly backed away, and the guy with the Scyther recalled it. Zagi kept his distance, but Kenna slowly advanced on her, snarling.

“Kenna, stay back!” Nico ordered. “Kenna, stay back! Damnit… Kenna, return! Zagi, return!”

He got them back in their Pokeballs just in time. The ghost-type just hissed and recoiled at first, but stood her ground until Nico tried to call his own Pokemon back. She flinched and shrank away with a frightened yelp, but then lunged without warning, swiping at the red beam of energy with a ragged dark purple plume trailing from her claws. Her gaze followed it straight back to Nico’s hand, and the glowing eyes met his. He hurriedly looked away, but the feeling of unease, of fear, was visceral.

“Uh… don’t you guys have Pokemon with moves that can… cause sleep or something?” Nico asked the nurses.

“Yes, but right now using any move on her’s dangerous.” The female nurse had hauled herself to her feet and was using a chair as a makeshift walker to back away. “She’s having a massive power surge, but she’s also very weak from the strain of evolving too early. We can’t put any more stress on her.”

“Do you have a Heal Ball on you?” the man asked. He had a Pokeball in his hand, but judging by the sticker on it it already had an occupant.

“No. Sorry.”

“Then let’s just try and get her calmed down on her own and make sure she doesn’t get out of this building.” The man edged towards the Styxeon, but an enraged snarl sent him scurrying back, nearly tripping over a chair. He glanced down at his bloody sleeve.

That left Nico as the only thing standing between the Styxeon and the exit. His fingers brushed the empty Pokeball he had on his belt. No. He didn’t know if he could, even as a last resort. He could never forgive himself if something happened. The way she’d reacted… she’d been scared of Kenna, but not the way she’d been scared of him raising his voice.

“Hey… remember me?” He tried to keep his voice as level as possible. Calm, not aggressive but not fearful either. “I saved you, remember?” Avoid eye contact, avoid staring, but don’t obviously look away. She responded with a low, rumbling growl. “I’m not gonna hurt you, girl.”

The Pokemon moved closer, but off to the side, sinking into a low crouch. That was trouble. He followed her eyes. Uh oh. The door to the lodging area! He shuffled sideways to block her way.“Ah-ah, no, you’ve got to stay -” Then the last word became a startled yell. The Styxeon tensed. Her eyes widened, but she sprang with an unearthly screech. Nico threw his arms up to try to protect his face, but something slammed into his chest, bowling him over. His sneaker caught the edge of the carpet, but he barely even felt his head hit the floor. Her voice was boring into his ears, boring into his brain like a dentist’s drill. Claws dug into his chest, but the thing that had tackled him wasn’t the Eevee he’d saved from the river. Her skin went translucent, and then… then it was gone, rotting and crumbling away in an instant with heatless blue fire bursting from the seams. Flesh sloughed away from bone. Images flashed in front of – no, behind Nico’s eyes like a kaleidoscope on a bad acid trip, and horrible, stomach churning sensations forced themselves on him. Cold, overwhelming cold, icy water and thrashing bodies kicking and clawing at him and burning lungs, pitch blackness and spinning vertigo, and then the stabbing agony of the cold being inside him. Cold metal bars against raw flesh, the smell of dried blood and ammonia and dirty dishes left in the sink too long, with the constant buzz of flies around him, insects landing on him, insects biting, things crawling on him, things moving under his skin. His arms and hands gray, and clammy, and the skin splitting and a writhing mass of foaming maggots erupting from the wound instead of blood. And pinning him to the ground was a decaying, mummified carcass, scraps of ragged fur and blackened skin clinging to a skeleton, orange pinpricks of fire blazing in the black void of empty sockets, a bare skull screaming with its fangs just inches from his face.

Then the fluorescent lights of the Pokemon Center Lobby were spinning somewhere above him, and he was lying flat on his back on the thin carpet. His head felt like it had split open. The Styxeon leapt off his chest, but stumbled, looking wildly this way and that. People were shouting, and there was a Jumpluff hovering near the ceiling. It was a few seconds before Nico could make out voices or even move. He rolled onto his stomach and lifted himself to his hands and knees. His heart… it was so fast… he felt faint, and a bead of sweat dripped from his nose. His ears were still ringing.

“Fuck, bro, you okay?” someone asked. “You went down pretty hard!”

“I’m - okay! Yeah! I’m - okay!” He wasn’t okay. He’d hit his head so hard his neck and jaw hurt, and he felt like he was going to puke. He was hyperventilating so badly he could barely get out one word per breath. But the living nightmare had vanished, and in its place a terrified Pokemon was running frantically back and forth, looking for an escape route that didn’t exist. She was panting, the blue fire was sputtering, and there was so much fear in those eyes!

“Styxeon! Calm down, you’ve gotta – calm down or you’ll hurt yourself!” Nico got to his feet on pure adrenaline, but stumbled and had to steady himself against a chair. The Pokemon’s feet slid out from under her. She landed hard, and took a couple of tries to get back up, paws scrabbling on the linoleum. He staggered towards her, trying to herd her away from the door, ignoring the shouts from him to get away. He wanted to yell at them to shut the fuck up. They were hurting his head, and she was flinching at every one. Stop scaring her, you morons!

She tried to dart past Nico again, but lost her nerve at the last second and ended up cornering herself between him, the wall, and the back of a sofa. She was still screaming her head off with every breath, but the ghostly flames around her gave out. There was no hostility anymore, just desperate terror.

“It’s all right… it’s all right...” Nico sank to his knees. “I’m not going to come any closer, okay? Just calm down… calm down… shh...”

The Styxeon shrank back, her ears flat against her head and her tail tucked between her legs. Her whole body was shaking like a leaf, and her back was hunched over. She bumped into the wall, and jolted forward with a startled yelp, looking back like she hadn’t known it was there.

“You’re safe, girl… nobody’s going to hurt you – ah, damnit...”

The terrified Pokemon’s gaze darted back and forth. Nico, the wall, the couch, the other people and Jumpluff a ways behind him. Her wail faded into a pitiful whimper. Her enormous orange eyes filled with tears, and a puddle appeared between her back legs.

“Sweetie, sweetie, stop! Or – ah, jeeze – at least get your tail out of the way – fuck...” Nico pressed his hand to his chest. His heart still wouldn’t slow down. Oh, now he was panicking? What the hell was he supposed to do? This wasn’t something he’d had to deal with as a trainer. Most Pokemon were way faster to house train than human babies. Unless they were left in their ball too long or weren’t given a chance to go beforehand, it was very rare for healthy Pokemon more than a couple of months old to have accidents. The Eevees should have been old enough. But if those… hallucinations were real, if they were bits of memory, maybe they’d spent most of their lives locked in cages. Had they never learned?

No… no, it was worse. The poor Styxeon looked utterly horrified. There was no way she’d meant to, she’d just been so scared… and the little creature was still cowering, looking at him and flinching away like she expected to be hit. She looked down at her paws with an expression of disgust, but shrank back against the wall, trying to make herself as small as possible, her crouch getting deeper and deeper until she sat down on the soaked tile, sobbing violently.

It was heartbreaking. All Nico could do was keep saying whatever he could think of to try to reassure her. By now the noise had caused a small crowd of trainers from upstairs to gather. She wouldn’t let anyone else anywhere near her, and wouldn’t leave the corner even when Nico backed off, but she at least tolerated his presence. He scooted closer an inch at a time, until his outstretched hand was a couple of steps out of her reach. Close enough that she still had to come to him. She reached forward timidly, jerking back at the slightest movement, but eventually she came close enough to sniff his hand.

She shied away again, but after a minute repeated the gesture two more times, as if to prove to herself that she wasn’t imagining it. She let out a soft whine, and started to tremble and cry again. But then… she closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against his palm. He was almost surprised by how soft and warm her fur was. Part of him had expected to feel nothing but bone.

Nico sighed, and rubbed his aching head. That was the last straw. “Welp.” He muttered to himself. “Guess I have a Pokemon now.” Two really. There was no way he was going to separate the two siblings, especially after everything they’d been through. “Good girl, Sedna.” The moment he said the name, he started second-guessing himself. It was one of the ones he’d been considering in spite of everything about it. According to the website he’d found, Sedna was a sea goddess from a region in the far north. The reason was different in different versions of the story, but in all of them she was thrown into the ocean by her father and drowned, but lived on as a sea goddess or something. It kind of fit, but at the same time it didn’t because it was so morbid to give one of the Eevees a name like that. He kind of liked the way it sounded, but he was still leaning against it because it would be kind of weird for anything but a Glaceon or Vaporeon anyway, and… Wait. Sedna was the ruler of the underworld too, wasn’t she? The cold, lightless depths at the bottom of the ocean? No, that was almost too good a name for a Ghost-type.

Sedna calmed down a little after the crowd was shooed away. Most of the trainers had gone back to bed, and the other two who were staying in the lobby retreated to the other side. It was just Nico, Erin, and the two nurses. They’d admitted defeat on trying to get close enough to Sedna to check that her evolution had actually cleared all the fluid from her lungs, but said it should have. They were waiting for a nurse from another Pokemon Center to relieve them, and a friend to give them a ride to the hospital. Sedna had bitten and clawed the man’s arm, badly enough that he’d need stitches. The woman had fallen and twisted her ankle trying to run after getting hit with an Astonish – the same move the Styxeon had used on him. It was probably a sprain, she said, but a bad enough one to need medical attention, and an X-ray just to be sure. Nico was almost glad he’d been tackled. They kept suggesting that he should go to the hospital as well, warning him about a possible concussion. They’d taken his pulse and blood pressure too, and said they were way higher than a teenager’s should have been, and that if they weren’t back to normal by morning, he needed to see a doctor.

But he was putting that off until morning. Or probably afternoon since after this ordeal there was no way he was waking up early. Sedna needed him. She’d let Erin get closer than anyone else but Nico, but he was the only one she’d let touch her, and even then it was only reluctantly. Nico would have loved if he could just get her to follow him to his room and make her a nest of blankets or towels so she’d have somewhere warm and comfortable to sleep but still have some space, and then he could get some sleep. But the poor thing was cowering in a puddle of her own urine. There was no way in hell he was going to bed and leaving her in that state.

He was going to have to give her a bath. He’d only actually had to bathe a Pokemon once, a few days ago after another trainer’s Swampert had knocked out his whole team in a practice battle. Neither of his Pokemon normally needed or tolerated baths, but Kenna was too tired to get the mud out of her fur with fire. She’d put up with getting wet, but Nico had nearly scalded himself getting the water hot enough for her and she’d been grumpy the rest of the day. Sedna wasn’t a fire-type or electric-type, but she’d been tied up and thrown in a freezing river. Nico doubted she was going to enjoy it. He wished he could just use a couple washcloths, but her hind legs and tail had gotten too wet for that to be enough.

Even getting her anywhere near a shower turned out to be a challenge. This sure as hell wasn’t a good time to try to introduce her to Pokeballs, so his plan was to wrap her in a towel and carry her up to his room in it. It took twenty minutes of sitting there freezing in a pair of swim trunks to even coax her onto the towel. It was crazy how much difference clothing made, although he had also had a fire-type on his lap earlier. Sedna was still shivering periodically – he wasn’t sure if it was from cold or fear.

“You cold, girl?” He slowly gathered up the corners of the towel, trying not to make any sudden movement. “This is going to be nice and warm, okay? I’m just going to pick you up, and – whoa, whoa, Sedna, it’s okay!”

But as soon as he tried to wrap the towel over her back, she freaked out again, trying to jump away with a noise that was half growl, half yelp. Her foot got caught on it, pulling her off balance, and as she tried to run she slipped on the wet floor and fell. Back to square one. The poor creature was even worse off than before, and she refused to set a single paw on the towel again. Had it reminded her of the bag she’d been stuffed into, Nico wondered?

He wasn’t sure if she’d let him pick her up at all, at least not long enough to carry her upstairs. If he could wipe her paws off and lead her into the bathroom, maybe he could at least lift her into the tub. But her following him was a big if. Maybe if he kind of wrapped the towel around his arms and chest, it would feel less like being shoved in a burlap sack? It was worth a try, at least.

“All right, Sedna. I have to pick you up. Just hold still, girl. That’s it...” He kept his voice low and moved as slowly and smoothly as he could. “Come’ere… come’ere...” He waited until he was almost touching her, then moved fast, like he was trying to catch a spider under an overturned cup without it darting away and getting crushed under the edge. He scooped Sedna up with one arm supporting her hindquarters and one under her chest, and stood up holding her tightly. Her eyes immediately widened and she tensed, squirming in his grip. She growled softly.

“It’s okay! It’s okay, girl! I’m not gonna hurt you!” Nico tried to reassure her. He could feel her heartbeat pounding against his chest like a jackhammer. And she was so light. Styxeon was the smallest of the Eeveelutions by a wide margin, around fifteen kilos from what he’d looked up. But Sedna couldn’t have been more than ten, probably more like eight. “I’m trying to help you, please don’t maul me… Good girl...” She was relaxing a little bit, and the growling had stopped. “Okay, I’m going to bring you upstairs...” Then he felt something cold against his arm. Had the towel just soaked through? “Ew, ew, ew, fuck! Erin! Hey, Erin, help me with the door please, my arms are kinda full!”

He marched the Pokemon upstairs as fast as he could without jostling her. He nearly had a heart attack when he remembered he’d left his key in his room when he changed, but luckily Past Nico had apparently also left the door cracked. He shoved the bathmat aside with his heel and tried to set her down gently, but as soon as she loosened his grip she wriggled and jumped out of his arms. She landed hard, her front legs sliding out from under her and her chin hitting the tile with a loud ‘Thwok’ sound. Nico winced. Pokemon weren’t easy to injure, but that had to hurt. “You okay, girl?”

Sedna looked around the room with quivering eyes. She stood rooted to the spot with her tail tucked under, then looked up at him with heart-wrenching uncertainty.

Nico sighed. “Sedna, there’s nothing scary about this.” He slid the door shut behind them and turned the lock. “It’s just a shower. Can you get in the bathtub? Come on girl, get in!” He pulled the sliding shower door aside and patted the rim of the tub. No luck. When he tried to lift her in she twisted away with a warning hiss. “Okay, fine. How about I get in the shower?” He stepped into the tub, turned the shower on, and immediately let out a string of curses until he got the showerhead pointed at the wall.

“Fucking freezing! I’m an idiot!” Sedna, and half the bathroom floor, had gotten misted by the spray. She shook her head violently and sneezed. Not a good start. Nico waited until the water was actually hot, then made a big show of rinsing himself off, including sticking his head under the shower. “See? The water isn’t dangerous! I’m not melting!” He picked up the bottle of shampoo. It had a picture of a smiling Pikachu covered in suds on the front. ‘For fine-textured fur,’ the label read. ‘Contains 15 relaxing herbs.’ Perfect. Pokemon Centers generally assumed trainers were capable of buying their own personal hygiene products, and apart form hand soap everything stocked in the rooms was Pokemon-safe products of various kinds. Most of them were human-safe too though, and it was a long-running joke that you could identify a traveling trainer by smell because everyone was too cheap, too lazy, or too weight-conscious to buy separate soap for themselves. Nico certainly didn’t bother. But screw it, he didn’t need to wash his hair tonight anyway.

It took a long time to get Sedna used to the idea. Nico was glad the Pokemon Center had a good water heater. She pawed at the door at first, but when she’d given up on escaping she started to watch him with exhausted curiosity. She peered over the edge of the bathtub, but flinched and backed away whenever a drop of water hit her. Eventually, though, Nico was able to get her to sniff his hand, then let him touch her with wet hands, and finally… the moment of truth.

“C’mere, sweetie. I promise this isn’t going to hurt you.” Nico leaned out of the tub, got both hands around Sedna’s chest, made sure she wasn’t struggling against that, and lifted her in. She immediately went stiff as a board and splayed her legs and claws out, letting out a high whine. She made a halfhearted attempt to climb back out when he set her down, but didn’t shred his arm when he gently held her shoulders down while he slid the door closed. When she saw there was no escape route, she looked pitifully up at him with her ears flat against her head, and shrank against the far wall of the tub. Her back paws slid uselessly on the steep wall. Her tail was between her legs again, and she started to shiver as if in anticipation of what was going to happen.

“I’m so sorry, girl. I have to do this. I’m not trying to torture you!” Nico said. Sedna seemed to have accepted her fate, but it seemed like she hadn’t so much realized it wasn’t bad so much as she was catatonic from fear and exhaustion. Part of him just wanted to get it over with – it wasn’t going to be unpleasant for her one way or another, so why make the process take longer? That was what he’d done with Kenna – helped out by making the water so hot he could hardly stand to touch it – but her discomfort had been mostly physical. Sedna was scared. He had to be as gentle and patient with her as he could so she wouldn’t associate this with being hurt.

He sighed, and sat down with the trembling Styxeon, and went through the process of letting her sniff his hand, then working up to petting her and getting her fur damp, then turning the showerhead on the wall so the mist came down on her, before finally adjusting it to its gentlest setting and spraying her directly. But something had changed. She was still trying to make herself as small as possible as if that would make the water miss her, but she wasn’t pressing herself against the wall anymore. It was more like she was trying to use him as a makeshift shelter. At first she hovered a few centimeters away, but soon she was pressing herself against his legs, making soft, plaintive noises.

If she was trying to make him feel so guilty he stopped, she was damn close. Nico wanted to cry. This poor, sweet Pokemon… He knelt next to her, stroking her sodden head and shoulders with one hand. He pulled the showerhead almost to the floor, aiming it upward to make sure he got the areas that were why she needed a bath in the first place. By now Sedna was as thoroughly soaked as when he’d pulled her out of the river. Once again he was surprised by how skinny she was under the soft, fluffy coat of fur that was now completely plastered to her body. It was worse now than when she was an Eevee, because her new form was naturally more slender, and evolving without getting a chance to build up energy must have burned off whatever body fat she had. She wasn’t emaciated, but ribs and some of the bumps of her spine were showing.

Actually washing her was the hardest part. He dabbed about three times as much shampoo on the washcloth as he probably needed, but the relaxing formula had no discernible effect. Sedna wasn’t biting or clawing, but she was so tense it was like trying to wash a statue, if statues shivered and flinched when he touched a bruise a spot that hurt and sometimes struggled. Struggle wasn’t totally the right word, because she was too strong for him to stop her, but the foam had turned the whole tub into a slip ‘n slide, and when she tried to pull away or climb to freedom she kept falling. He was trying to be gentle, but when he washed her paws he found bruises and scabs where the zipties had bound her wrists and ankles. There were smaller wounds too, that must have been from being kicked and bitten and clawed by her siblings as they tried to free themselves. At least, he was hoping that they weren’t from before that.

He saved the worst for last: her back legs and tail. He’d gotten everything else besides her head – even if the shampoo wasn’t harmful to get in her eyes or mouth it would probably still sting – and he was hoping she’d get at least a little used to being washed. Now though, he was wishing he’d just gotten it over with, because it seemed like Sedna had tolerated it as long as she could, and now she was at her limit.

“Come on, sweetie, I have to get all of you clean!” Nico pleaded. The Styxeon was pressed against the drain-side wall now, giving him a look of utter betrayal, like he really had tried to drown her again. But she didn’t move an inch of her own free will, and he ended up practically having to wrestle her tail from between her legs with a soapy washcloth while trying to restrain the soaked, slippery Pokemon one-handed. It was almost as uncomfortable for him as it was for her. He found out the hard way that yes, the shampoo really did sting like hell to get into his eyes or in an open wound. Not to mention it tasted awful. And he was genuinely afraid that what little trust Sedna had in him had been shattered.

But as he was checking that the scratches weren’t too deep while he gave Sedna a few minutes to recover before he rinsed her off, something changed. Sedna timidly crept up to him, her head lowered and her long ears folded down so the tips almost brushed the floor of the tub. Without thinking about it, he reached out and stroked her head. She jerked away at first, but more startled then scared this time. She approached him again, and the next thing he knew she was on his lap, dripping suds and pressing her soaking wet body against his chest. She was shaking again, and her breathing was fast and sharp like she was crying too quietly to be heard over the running water.

She stayed there the entire time as he turned the showerhead on her again, making sure he got every last bit of shampoo out of her fur. She leaped out of the tub as soon as he opened the door – and slipped and fell on the tile again – but this time she didn’t stop him from wrapping her in a towel. Her fur was too thick to get completely dry without a hair dryer, which he didn’t have and would probably have scared her anyway. He dried her off as thoroughly as she could, but even after he’d dried himself off, changed, and gotten Kenna and Zagi to settle down, she was still damp when he carried her to bed. Kenna was suspicious of Sedna, but luckily she hadn’t seen the worst of the freakout. She sniffed her a few times, then groaned and curled up near the end of the bed. Zagi was already out cold on the clothes Nico had tossed on the floor.

Sedna’s blinking was sluggish, and she kept staring blankly into space with her eyelids slowly descending. Nico was on the verge of passing out, too. Was he supposed to go to sleep with a concussion? For how long? It had been at least an hour. Was that enough? If he was concussed it probably wasn’t that bad anyway. He’d been able to stand up straight, have a conversation… he was kind of slurring his speech now, but that was probably caused by a serious medical condition called Four in the Damn Morning. Fuck it. Bed. He pulled the blankets back and laid the last remaining dry towel out on the mattress. Without the heat of the shower on her she kept shivering, and he figured an extra layer would help keep her warm. Plus, if damp sheets were like damp pillowcases, they’d be cold and uncomfortable to sleep on.

He patted the mattress. Sedna was sitting on the floor looking confused and uncomfortable. She looked up, but didn’t seem to understand what the gesture meant. He tried again, calling: “Sedna! Come on up, girl! Come on, can you jump up here?” If she actually wanted to sleep on the floor, that was fine, but it didn’t seem like she was scared of coming within ten feet of him anymore. She sniffed at the mattress uncertainly.

Nico sighed. He slid out of bed, and picked the Styxeon up without resistance. “Come on, sweetie. Up you go.” She slumped onto the mattress listlessly, staring at him with an expression he couldn’t quite identify. “What’s wrong?” he asked. He reached a hand out slowly over her head, but she flinched, closing her eyes and backing away until one paw slid of the edge of the bed. “Sorry! I’m sorry, girl! It’s okay for you to be up here!”

Sedna timidly padded back to the towel, inching one paw at a time forward. With a faint sigh she started to knead at it with her forepaws. “Good girl,” Nico said. He rolled over to turn out the light, but when he rolled back over he was met with a pair of mournful orange eyes staring into his. He froze, barely daring to breathe. He closed his eyes, but the memory of the ghoulish, half-skeletal figure on top of his chest returned.

“Ugh… I think you’re gonna give me nightmares, girl...” he muttered. “What do you need?”

The glowing eyes closed, leaving the room lit only by the faint city lights through the curtains. Nico felt the weight on the mattress next to him get closer. With a soft groan that faded to a whine, Sedna snuggled up against his chest, resting her head under his chin. “Oh, sweetie...” he whispered. He could feel the chill of her damp fur through his pajamas, but her body was warm. And breathing – little tense, shallow breaths, but she was breathing. She smelled like lavender, almost overpowering the scent of wet fur. She was alive. The monster that had nearly given him a heart attack wasn’t real – or in a way it was, but it was made of Sedna’s own fear, of her memories, mixed with her kind’s natural power. He’d just gotten a glimpse of what had to be inside the poor little creature’s head.

She was still shivering, her breathing still occasionally lapsing into soft crying. Nico pulled the covers up and folded the towel over her. She’d dragged it over to the middle of the bed before lying down next to him. He couldn’t help smiling. That was just adorable! He just hoped it wasn’t because she thought she’d be in trouble for lying directly on the sheets. He couldn’t wrap his head around how anyone could possibly have not just abandoned this creature, but tried to murder her, and her siblings. Only… they’d succeeded. Only two of the Eevees had made it. A sobering thought occurred to him. Did Sedna know? Did she know three of them had died? Did she know any of them had lived? There were a lot of different legends about Ghost-Types. In folklore some species guided lost souls to the underworld.

But myths didn’t mean much here. Sedna was confused, alone, and Nico was sure one way or another she missed her brothers and sisters. This was a Pokemon who was scared of people, and for all he knew had never been treated with kindness in her life, but was clinging to the only source of comfort that was even the tiniest bit familiar. Tomorrow he’d have to bring her in for a checkup, and hopefully she’d be able to visit her sister even if she wasn’t in good enough shape to leave the Pokemon Center ward yet. And then… it probably wasn’t going to be easy taking care of her, and he was still afraid he wasn’t prepared for what he was getting himself into, but he hoped this bond born of desperation would grow into something real. It already had for him.

He wrapped his arm around Sedna and held her, gently but securely. “It’s gonna be okay, Sedna,” he whispered. “Good, good girl.” He started to stroke the soft, downy fur on her head, and her breathing slowly became more even. The last thing he remembered before he fell asleep was her hugging his forearm against her chest, and pressing herself against his.

~~~

A/N:

So, uhh... kinda went way out of my comfort zone on this one. Good News: I haven’t made a character throw up onscreen for cheap Suffering Points this Whumptober (I ain’t counting Day 4 since that was in the past), which is kind of surprising. Bad News: I made a character wet herself. Which is... ugh. Anything toilet-related is a huge phobia/squick for me IRL, I wasn’t sure if I could even make myself write this one. It took for fucking ever, partly because of how long it is, but partly because of procrastinating to avoid writing the uncomfortable scene and cringing. But I had to do it For The Concept.

Basically I’ve seen a few “Caretaker helping Whumpee bathe” type prompts on here and wanted to do one of those, especially with an animal whumpee, and took inspiration from real-life experience occasionally having to bathe my family’s small dogs, who do not enjoy baths and get cold super easily. It’s pathetic and makes you feel like a horrible person for having to do this to them, which also makes it perfect for whump fics, and doing it to Sedna less than 24 hours after she was thrown in a river and nearly drowned is even better!

But that meant I needed a reason why any decent human being would be forced to give her a bath, because obviously that would be horribly traumatic, and getting into something toxic or otherwise dangerous didn’t fit into the plot. And also while doing my like half an hour of medical research I found that secondary drowning is sometimes treated using diuretic medication.

[kotolocke]

Entry #01: New Bark & Beyond.

God it really has been a week since I started this blog and I still haven’t updated it? Gotta stop being useless and post more regularly. I’ve made decent headway into the game so I have several posts I need to make about it. So let’s get started. I’ll save y’all from a long summary of the game events and stick with just mentioning important game-play stuff and how Lyra reacts to them.

First up: Elm’s request.

   This whole little introductory quest that Elm sends her on is actually kinda meaningful to her perception of herself as a trainer. In blog cannon, Lyra immediately goes to collect her starter from Elm after having a massive argument with her Mum about leaving home, which ended with her Mum basically pushing her out of the door and telling her she wouldn’t care if she came back. She would. She didn’t mean it, she was just lashing out. But Lyra didn’t know that and she ran most of the way to the lab choking back tears.

   So she takes a deep breath, calms herself down and as soon as she’s in the lab, Elm’s asking her to act as a representative of the lab and complete an important task for them. At this point, Lyra’s already been helping out around the lab for some time so this isn’t entirely out of the ordinary. But being asked to take care of a “real” “discovery” one of Elm’s peers has made whilst she’s still highly fraught from a fight but is pretending that she’s totally fine? This is the basis of the person she becomes. Someone who thinks of herself as a highly important “chosen person” who cannot express her real emotions or else she’ll won’t be taken seriously or allowed to follow her goals. Because something tells me Elm wouldn’t be too comfy sending a crying eleven year old off into the wild world of Pokemon after a big fight with her parents.

Next up: Lyra’s starter.

   Meet Cabbage!

   She’s an extremely sheltered Chikorita who honestly never thought she was actually going to end up travelling with a trainer. Surely she was just going to spend the rest of her life in the lab with the Professor? Lyra decided otherwise, and decided primarily because she was the only girl of the three Pokemon Elm was raising. Lyra was anticipating getting some flack for being a young girl on a Pokemon journey so she kinda projected some of this onto Cabbage. Moron boy trainers would probably turn their nose up a cute, female Pokemon so she should had to take Cabbage with her so she wouldn’t feel like she was anyone’s last choice.

   Cabbage would have been okay with that but unfortunately can’t tell Lyra how she feels. She’s just gotta learn to embrace all the terrifying Pokemon battles Lyra puts her through. Which happens surprisingly quickly; Lyra’s an impatient girl but she always gives her Pokemon the time they need to adjust. Speaking of adjust:

Cabbage is legitimately confused and slightly irritated about her nickname. It’s the first of many little annoyances that eventually lead to her becoming stubborn and standoffish towards Lyra as she grows more confident.

Next: Mr. Pokemon & Professor Oak.

   In terms of character development, this whole scenario kinda bolsters Lyra’s ego even more. But I want to single it out because it’s the start of one of her three major plot threads:

   This fckin’ egg. This egg is important and eventually hatches into one of Lyra’s core team members. This egg is also lowkey a symbol of everything early journey Lyra thinks about herself. She’s so unique and powerful and special, Elm can see she’s naturally good with Pokemon so he chose her to go on this dangerous quest to collect a mysterious egg! And better yet, during this quest the esteemed Professor Oak, advisory to the legendary Red, asks her if she can help him out with something too!

   He gives her a high-tech Pokedex, an item so exclusive that only a handful of trainers own one? Wow she must be the best trainer out there, she’s only just got her first Pokemon and everyone’s falling over themselves to get her to do trainer stuff for them. Clearly she’s hyper naturally talented and all the smart Pokemon experts know it! She’s a dumbass child. I love her.

   Anyway, why’s the egg important you ask? Oh—

—no reason.

And finally: Silver.

   Did you know: Lyra absolutely hates Silver’s guts pretty much until she sees he also hates Team Rocket? Because he kinda epitomises the older boys who would belittle her for being a girl who wanted to be a trainer?

   It’s pretty clear to Lyra that Silver kinda knows some shit about Pokemon training because she hears him muttering shit about Elm’s lab being “famous”. Bitch, the only people that Elm’s famous to are fringe nutcase trainers who breed for something they call IVs because he’s basically lord high king of egg knowledge or whatever. That makes it doubly annoying when Silver tries to kick her when she asks if he’s getting a Pokemon there too and twice as satisfying when she knocks him over with a retaliation kick and stamps off righteously. She’s especially glad that she chose Cabbage at this point; just thinking of what he might say about her makes Lyra fume. 

   More evidence that Silver is a bog-standard shitface sexist kid:

Whilst Silver would say this sort of crap to anyone, this hits a little too close to home for Lyra and she takes it as a misogynistic insult. Generally implying that she’s somehow not worthy of becoming a trainer is a surefire way to make Lyra go feral because she kinda thinks it’s the only thing she’s good at. And it’s just not true, look at what level Cabbage is at this point:

Three levels above where she started and only around 3-4 hours have passed since they first met. Lyra is insanely good at training Pokemon. She has great intuition when it comes to assessing individual Pokemon’s strengths and weaknesses and encourages them to fight in whatever way suits them best. She doesn’t always have great long-term strategy in battle, but she knows exactly what her Pokemon can and cannot take and dish out and this is what secures her most of her victories.

   Also Silver’s “someone weak” comment  is 100% self-projection, just so we’re clear.

   lyra vc: lmao yeah i am???

   lyra vc: lmao no!!!

   Queue Lyra getting Actually Mad™ because there is no way a dick like Silver could become a better trainer than her?? She’s gonna be the greatest, just you wait and see Tampon!!

   If you don’t think she was holding it in the air just out of his reach then you have fundamentally underestimated how much of a petty little shit my Lyra is.

   Regardless, Lyra then runs back to the lab to see exactly why Elm called her in such a panic.

In conclusion: All cops are bad.

   A kind of recurring theme in Lyra’s story is her distrust of traditional authority figures, and it all starts here.

   Okay, so obviously this exchange is so cartoonishly stupid that I cannot see it going down like this in blog cannon. But the cop that does come to investigate the lab in blog canon is pretty much as incompetent as this guy. Stealing a Pokemon is kind of not a big deal in Johto? Shit happens all the time, the cops are corrupt as fuck and they don’t care about doing their job. It’s the reason Rocket was able to regroup in Johto without anyone really making any attempt to stop them.

   So this guy is mad that he’s been taken really far out of his way to investigate some minor crime in a tiny town and now some brat kid is going on about how some other kid was rude to her? Yeah, he’s not happy and totally belittles her, calling her “girlie” and scoffing at the idea of her and her wimpy looking Pokemon could have defeated a criminal. It’s not until Lyra insists that it was the red haired boy Elm mentioned to the guy she battled that he starts listening to her, and even then he’s still extremely brusque with her. And Lyra cannot stand being talked down to so this drives her round the bend.

   A lot of terrifying things happen to Lyra during her journey, enough that she could easily qualify for police protection, but she never once asks for it throughout her journey. Because whenever she imagines walking into a police station, she imagines a bunch of wrinkly, balding, middle-aged men who will belittle and insult her the same way this cop did. And she’s not going to willingly suffer through that again.

[iamapoopmuffin]

10 Favourite Characters From 10 Different Fandoms

Another thing I’ve been tagged in by @suitcasesoffeathers and something I will 100% struggle with. I assume each character has to be from a different  series, and what I tend to do is have a cluster of favourites who change lead every five seconds. So this will be such an unstable list.

Midorima Shintaro from Kuroko no Basuke. This is a fandom where my favourite changes every five seconds. Up until today it’s been some minor kid from Kirisaki Daiichi. Anyway, I’m not entirely sure why he’s currently my favourite, but I think it’s because he just matches some of my usual parameters and it may also be the mix of him and Takao (another big favourite in my cluster for KnB) as well as his individual quirks which I’m just fond of.

Bickslow from Fairy Tail. Precious eccentric dork, weird and strong and  most of my cluster of favourites is Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe, and Bickslow is the usual top one because he’s weird. I love weird dorks. I love this entire team of dorks. And his little tiki dolls full of souls are the cutest shit.

Miyano from Tanaka-Kun Wa Itsumo Kedaruge because she is just so cute and energetic and she makes me so happy every damn time I see her. 10/10 would friend.

Shimada Kai from Corpse Party because there is no way around it, I am ever so slightly drawn to utter dicks, especially utter dicks who appear to have something going on behind the scenes. Like, I have so many fan theories about his home life and  background coming from the way he acts and the things he says, and I feel like he doesn’t like being an utter dick, so I like both the nasty side of him and the side that suggests he doesn’t like his own nasty side. It’s mostly the line where he himself says there’s more to him behind the scenes (I forget the exact line) that makes me think he wants to change, but I enjoy his dumb rivalry with Kizami and I enjoy the friendship group of the Byakudan kids in general because they all seem so different to each other and...yeah. But the initial draw was him being an asshole, and then the potential other side cemented the feels.

Edogawa Ranpo from Bungo Stray Dogs. He seems  pretty cool, with his skills and whatnot, and he’s got that little  shit side to him that I love so much. From what little I’ve seen, anyway. Great guy. Not very far through the series. Life just needs more Ranpo right now.

Rock Lee from Naruto because he is another one who simply lifts my spirits.  So enthusiastic  and that enthusiasm gets me so into everything. He’s such a fun guy!

Nekozawa Umehito from Ouran High School Host Club. Seriously, the moment I saw him, I was like ‘that’s it, best character, new favourite’. Dark and adorable? How can I say no?

Doctor Nye from Skulduggery Pleasant because best creepy doctor thing. Creepy, dark characters have always interested me? Also added to that, I’ve had a very strong interest in medicine from a very young age and Nye is a fabulous creation. It appeals to my darker nature that secretly wants to  murder everyone and secretly enjoys dissecting internal organs in science classes.

Kamamoto Rikio from K, it’s him or one of the alphabet boys. Bando or Eric. Or Anna. Anyway, in terms of Kamamoto, he seems like an absolutely lovely person. Some of his interactions with others are sweet and some are amusing and he’s one of the kind characters. I like his fighting style and his design and his character and I saw one screenshot where he looks like a Pokemon gym leader. Guys lets make a Pokemon AU. I’m no good at explaining why I like things.

Umm...I think I spent like 90% of my energy on the Kai Shimada section...How about Sakura Chiyo from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun? She’s so adorable and I love her imagination in the anime and her reactions to all the things going on around her  and idk I’m tired I give  up now. Energy is gone. Chiyo-chan is wonderful though.

I  TAG ALL OF  YOU.

[ladala99]

Pokemon Sword/Shield Review - From a Dexit Critic

And no, I’m not here to trash the game.

So yeah, I noticed Sword and Shield went down in price a bit, considered how much that would make the Game+DLC, and decided it was worth a try. I was always intending on eventually getting the game for the purpose of having a primary source for Galar Pokemon for my collection, and the price drop was enough of an incentive to make it be now. Or, actually more like a month ago. I’ve let this sit before reviewing it.

Spoilers ahead!

What I Had Heard Before Going In

I had a very negative perception of the games due to pre-release info and the fanbase’s hate dump. These are the things I knew:

- Dexit - N64 Tree - Pokemon models and animations are the same as previous games, despite GameFreak saying they needed to be redone from scratch - Wild Area empty and uninteresting - No plot - Somehow there’s handholding despite the lack of plot - Game is too easy - Except Leon, maybe - Exp Share cannot be turned off - No one in the region will shut up about Leon - Hop will not shut up about type advantages - No exploration - There are two battle backgrounds - one for overworld that’s grassy and decent, and one for indoors that’s a white void.

The last one turned out to be objectively false - while certain indoor areas that have very few battles (like, 1 or 2 story ones) have the white void background, every route and major battling location has its own background, much like in Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee. And they look really good.

How I Decided to Play

Since I had heard that the Exp Share was stuck on and I had had really bad experience with that previously, I decided on a special ruleset. I would still use only 6 Pokemon on my team, but I would only ever have 3 Pokemon in my party at a time so they would level more individually.

I found that this ended up being just about the right difficulty. Lots of strategy, especially with the gimped team, lots of item usage, and lots of Pokemon Center visits. I did, however, end up having all 6 on me during Gym and Rival fights and the Champion Cup later in the game, though, as I noticed the difficulty ramping up.

I also decided not to get the DLC for my first playthrough. Part of what made me feel that the Game+DLC price was acceptable was the idea that I’d play the game once with just the base game, and then download the DLC and play it again as if it were a third version (on a second profile). And I decided that, after I finished the game the first time, I would set my calendar for three months afterwards to play again with the DLC. That time hasn’t come yet, so I still have only played the base game.

The Story

Now onto the actual review!

I seem to be in a minority, but I adore the plot of every Pokemon game Ohmori has directed, and Sword and Shield is no exception.

The story here revolves around the Champion Cup, which is pretty refreshing - the last game I’d say had the League as its primary plot (barring remakes) is Generation II.

And the story isn’t just about you - it’s about your rivals Hop, Bede, and Marnie. Each of the characters has a different reason to be pursuing the Champion Cup: Hop because he wants to be just like his big brother Leon, who is Champion; Bede because he’s an orphan adopted by President Rose, and he wants to live up to Rose’s expectations of him; Marnie because she comes from a small town barely holding onto Gym Town status since it doesn’t have a Power Spot, and she wants to make her town proud. As always, though, you don’t really have a story. You’re more of a force of nature that ruins everyone’s dreams.

Each of these characters has their own arc as well:

Hop goes from enthusiastic to realizing that he isn’t as strong as he wants to be when Bede (and you) beat him in battle. Bede, channeling Silver, taunts him for being weak and he takes it to heart, changing up his team completely for a while. Eventually, he realizes that using Pokemon he’s not close to isn’t working, and he returns to his original team. He gets really far in the Champion Cup, all the way until the challenger finals, but ultimately loses to you.

Bede desperately wants to be strong and make Rose proud. He collects Wishing Stones for Rose’s purposes while also crushing (most) battles in the Champion Cup. He has a drive to be the best, whatever it takes, and ends up destroying a mural for Wishing Stones. Rose finds out about the vandalism and disqualifies him from the Champion Cup, crushing his dreams. Opal, the Fairy-type Gym Leader, ends up deciding that he would be her successor, even though he didn’t want that role. Even though he couldn’t compete in the Champion Cup, he still challenges you to a rematch, disrupting the competition. Leon doesn’t mind and allows it.

Marnie doesn’t appear in your path too often, and her presence is mostly felt by the presence of Team Yell. Marnie just wants to compete fair and square, but Team Yell disrupt all of the other challengers for Marnie’s benefit, preventing them from moving on before Marnie finishes each Gym, and ultimately blocking the route to Spikemuth completely so no one else can compete. She tolerates her hometown fans up until they block everyone else, at which point she helps you out and scolds them. You face her first in the Champion Cup and I never felt more sorry for crushing her dreams because I felt for her trying to advance her town’s reputation.

The Legendary plot and the Villain plot do exist as well, and they feel pretty separate this time.

The Legendary plot primarily involves Sonia as she travels around the region learning about the Legendary Hero who turns out to be two heroes and two Pokemon. You accompany her to various statues, murals, and tapestries as she tries to piece the Legend together. Eventually, you realize the Pokemon depicted is the same one you and Hop saw at the very beginning of the game, traveling too far into the Slumbering Weald. You go back, find the Rusty Sword and Rusty Shield that the heroes wielded, and summon the Legendaries in the villain plot. In the post-game, as you and Hop return the relics, a couple of guys who claim to be royals and celebrities steal Hop’s relic and try to make that Legendary go wild. When they succeed, you battle that Legendary to calm it down, and your Legendary will appear to challenge you, at which point you can catch it. Hop then goes after his Legendary and befriends it offscreen.

The Villain plot is hinted at through Bede’s collection of the Wishing Stones, and there is a point where Dynamax Energy spikes where it shouldn’t be, but what’s going on isn’t apparent until the very end of the Champion Cup. Chairman Rose interrupts you right before the Champion match to awaken Eternatus in some vague hope to solve an energy crisis that wouldn’t happen for 1000 years.

How appropriate that this happens in a game where some Pokemon aren’t programmed in because “eventually there will be too many to fit" so they decided to stop well before there were too many to fit in the game. Because honestly: there’s room.

Eternatus goes crazy and causes “the Darkest Day” which happened in the past and was what caused the Legendary Heroes to be heroes when they stopped it. You and Hop awaken the Legendaries and do a Raid Battle against Eternatus, ending with you capturing it. Also there are some shenanigans with evil League Staff known as Macro Cosmos and a long elevator ride on the way.

A lot of the Villain plot Leon handles, much like Sonia handles the Legendary plot, both up until you and Hop need to awaken the Legendaries. So most of it feels out-of-nowhere even if some of it was foreshadowed.

The energy crisis, though. There’s no indication of that at all in the game. No one ever says anything like “the rate we’re using energy, we’ll eventually run out. But it’ll be long after we’re dead so whatever.” If enough people had that attitude, I could see where Rose is coming from!

But instead Rose just brings it up at the very climax, and he doesn’t have a good reason why he couldn’t wait even one more day for the Championship Cup to finish. It’s 1000 years in the future - you have time! To find a less-destructive method, even! Like, I don’t think the problem was solved in the end because you captured Eternatus so it couldn’t provide energy.

And no one afterward mentioned the distant energy crisis. No “we’ll need to think of ways to conserve energy so no maniac tries something like that again,” nothing.

In conclusion: Villain plot sucked, Legendary plot was okay, and Championship Cup plot was really good.

Gyms, Battles and Difficulty

Due to how I played, I can’t fairly score this versus other games in the series. I will say that if you’re underleveled, the game is really fun. Every battle on every route is a challenge, and the Gym Battles test your strategies and resources. Especially Raihan.

The fact that the Exp. Share is always on is annoying and caused me to play oddly. I think next time I’ll do a team of 12 instead of a split team of 6, though. Not having the right type matchups ended up making me reset a couple of times as the battle was unwinnable at my level with what I had in the party. I just worry that I won’t feel as attached to the team if I have 12 of them.

Especially since there really aren’t that many overworld battles. It’s especially apparent since the previous games were Kanto remakes, which meant games that had those maze-like routes with a gauntlet of trainers. Now there’s about  3-5 trainers per route, and there aren’t that many routes in the game. At the end of each route you will find one of your rivals that sort-of acts as a boss, but even then that’s still a very low number of battles.

All Gyms have 3 Gym Trainers and the Gym Leader, but what’s interesting in the puzzles. Especially since they’re the only puzzles in the game. Each one is different, and they’re all pretty neat. Also interesting is that Gyms don’t let you leave and heal after every fight. At least, I don’t think they do. I never needed to.

Overworld Exploration

I mentioned it in the previous section, but it really lacks. Routes are mostly-straight lines with some side paths for items, usually really short ones. Even Gym puzzles are really linear.

I’d say there’s two places you can get lost at all - Glimwood Tangle and the water route between Circhester and Spikemuth.

Overworld puzzles are limited to “go on this optional path” and “realize you can go between these bushes/behind this building for an item.” You can feel the lack of field moves.

The Wild Area

Okay, the exception to the linear routes is the Wild Area. The base game essentially has two, but they’re connected and you can access both parts right away.

It’s big, things respawn, the weather and thus spawns change every day, and the Raid Battles scale to your level. It’s really fun, but it feels like a side mode. It feels like something you would access by going to a different option on the main menu rather than something that’s a part of the rest of the game world, especially since it has its own currency.

It reminds me of the Sinnoh Underground except without the Secret Base option. As in, it’s something fun to come back to often, but, again, it’s not really part of the main game.

Yes, it has N64 trees, yes the pop-in is noticeable, and yes the terrain feels unfinished. It has problems, but I find it pretty fun.

My only real issue with it is that you have to beat all of the existing Raid Battles before more will appear, and they stay the same rarity when the date changes. I’m in the postgame, and I’m having trouble soloing 5-star Raids and I’m also having a hard time finding people interested in my base-game 5-star Raids. So I’m basically throwing myself against the same raid over and over again because I have no other options (I’m saving my Wishing Pieces for when I need a specific Pokemon).

Dexit?

Still a thing, and still an issue. I am attempting to obtain every ribbon my Shiny Minun can get on, and Galar still won’t let her in. It also means that if I use RNG on the full Pokedex to choose a team, I’ll have to double-check that that Pokemon can actually be used in Galar. It sucks.

The game tries to make up for it with a huge Pokedex, but that just makes finishing the Regional Dex harder. I used to feel that catching 386 Pokemon to complete the Gen III National Dex was impossible, and Galar has a Regional Dex of 400 species! (As did Alola in the Ultra titles, but it was split into three sub-dexes)

I’ve been tackling the Pokedex using the suggested catches, and I’m about halfway through and bored. I’m determined to keep going until it stops suggesting things, but it feels like an endless climb at this point, since every time I finish collecting a group, another group shows up, and since I’m not going in order, I can’t look at the scroll bar and see “wow, look at how much I’ve done!” I started with this method, though, and I’m going to finish with it.

The National Dex was never my issue, and making the Regional Dex humongous doesn’t help its absence. Because I don’t miss the checklist - I miss being able to use any Pokemon of my choosing without double-checking that I actually can. I’m actually glad the National Dex is gone since it means getting the Shiny Charm is easier. But with the Regional Dexes bloating in size, it’s not helping.

Pokemon Camp

Just going to mention that it’s really cute, but really shallow. And there’s not a reliable enough way to get berries for me to feel comfortable using the rarer berries in making better Curry.

It also gives Exp just from interacting with your Pokemon, so I avoided using it when I played so I didn’t have a chance of getting overleveled. Which sucks because I tend to really like features like this.

I don’t know if I’m going to try to complete my Curry Dex. With version exclusive ingredients that can’t be traded over HOME’s GTS, and the fact that I’m pretty shy about asking the community for things, I don’t know if it’s possible for me. It’s a cute feature, though. I just wish it didn’t require trading.

So Those Flaws?

Let’s look at them again, shall we?

- Dexit Still an issue - N64 Tree Yep. Wild Area is unpolished. - Pokemon models and animations are the same as previous games, despite GameFreak saying they needed to be redone from scratch Yep. - Wild Area empty and uninteresting It’s unpolished, but not empty nor uninteresting imo. - No plot Yeah there is, it’s just focused on the Champion Cup - Somehow there’s handholding despite the lack of plot You know, I never saw Sun and Moon as handholdy. This game is even less-so. - Game is too easy If you use a 6-Pokemon team that you keep in your Party, it probably is. - Except Leon, maybe I did not find Leon any harder than other fights. He is higher level, though. - Exp Share cannot be turned off Indeed. You really need to work around this to have fun. At least, I assume. - No one in the region will shut up about Leon It happened a bit at the beginning, but it didn’t seem gratuitous. - Hop will not shut up about type advantages He mentions it once a battle. Or twice if he hits you with one. I missed mid-fight dialogue, so I didn’t mind. - No exploration Very little exploration, yes.

So many are valid, but some of them aren’t as bad as people made them out to be.

Conclusion

Sword and Shield are very flawed Pokemon games, but they’re still Pokemon games and still fun.

They certainly aren’t all bad, and even do a few things right, like how well-characterized the rivals are and the Wild Area concept in general. This isn’t even going into Competitive since I haven’t dipped my toes in there yet.

I had a good time with the base game, better than I thought I would. But I can safely say Diamond and Pearl are no longer my least-favorite Pokemon games. That title now belongs to Sword and Shield.

[tumblunni]

ALSO TO FIX EXCELLUS

Because tangeants again lol

Recognise that its fuckin stupid and bigoted to expect us to believe someone is a villain INSTANTLY after seeing that they're queer, before they even do anything. Don't spend your entire damn game having the characters go "eww its that disgusting person of ambiguous gender we should kill them because gross" rather than.. Yknow.. "Excellus fuckin murdered those people". Recognise that literally doing this is gonna make your character LESS villainous and MORE sympathetic long before you finally get to goddamn showing them do anything bad except say "ohoho i wanna be a princess". And it'll make bunni REALLY PISSED OFF because nobody wants to feel sad for an asshole murderer yet THAT SADNESS IS FOREVER ENGRAINED IN MY SOUL NOW

Seriously fuckin hell it even made the heroes look less heroic! I felt like Excellus was almost justified in becoming a murdering selfish monster if she spent her entire life being treated that way by both sides in this big good or evil conflict. Why the fuck should she give a shit if she's being degraded? Like FUCKIN OBVIOUSLY murdering people and wanting to conquer a random japanese country as a mad dictator is not a remotely logical reaction to being misgendered. But like they could have changed some stuff and made a perfectly good sympathetic villain who gets manipulated by the bigger bad because of her sad past of being treated like shit and like she feels like this is her only option to be herself. And then maybe you can reignite her hope in the world and her self esteem and moral centre and help her redeem herself and team up with you to take out the real horrible fucks with no sympathetic motives. Instead she's friggin played as THE one who's evil cos she has no sympathetic motive. Like that's her whole Thing, she's supposed to just be selfish and greedy and horrid. Your damn bigotry somehow failed your own story as well as failing all trans people ever!

Or like yknow.. If you want an asshole fuckboi then actually write an asshole fuckboi. Scrubby scrub the trans = bad shit from this plotline and you do indeed have a selfish monster who murders a bunch of innocent people and gets his just desserts. You had a ready made simple character archetype and you were so preoccupied shoving your transphobic screed into your game that you fucked it up!

So yeah i think either make this goofy ohoho trans auntie a good character, make the asshole ohoho bad character a cis man, do both at once, or like even i'm not opposed to having a trans villain exist but like seriously make them a synpathetic villain. If they're the only trans character in the plot its already gonna send a bad message if theyre in the role of "worst most underhanded jerk villain", even if it WASNT also transphobic as fuck. So a sympathic trans villain or adding more LGBT characters so it doesnt seem like this one individual was designed to make a statement on your entire feelings for a minority.

ALSO

like seriously please do not do this stupid thing of mooshing every stereotype together from every LGBT identity and acting like theyre all the same thing?? Like man i fuckin HATE that anime trope that yknow.. The gay man says all this trans stuff cos he's ~just that flambouyant~ Like being a drag queen is what 100% of gay men are, 24/7, and anyone saying theyre a trans woman is just one of those drag queens who's really getting into character. Or just.. I dunno. I cant even wrap my head around what train of logic must have led to that stereotype in the first place! And its so fuckin annoying as a queer person trying to talk about why this is bad queer stereotyping, it just makes me extra sad to straight up not know what pronouns to use for the character so i feel like i'm being just as horrible to them as their creators were. Like man i've only settled on going for "she" for Excellus cos after years of looking into it it does seem like the original japanese was indeed specifically using stereotypes of trans women and not trans men or nonbinary people. Though all languages do seem to call the character male it seems pretty strongly to be a "i believe that trans women are men and can never be women" kind of thing, rathe rthan the character herself calling HERSELF male. She calls herself a woman in both english and japanese, and its just that the english has everyone else use male pronouns for her and added the non-canon "explanation" that she only acts like a trans woman because she has something wrong with her balls. (Ugh!) And in japanese on top of calling herself a woman she also uses feminine (and specifically trans/drag queen coded) variants of "I", and other common speech pattern traits used for negative stereotypes of trans women. Though again we do have other characters calling her a disgusting perverted man instead. Sigh!

Ok ok ALSO BIGGEST FUCKIN FIX! dont draw the character like a horrible distorted cariacature goblin in an entirely different art style to everyone else. Seriously its so annoying how they tried to make you agree with "excellus is disgusting just for acting queer" by LITERALLY DRAWING A DISGUSTING CHARACTER. If you take away the weirdass overdetailed horror movie monster face, there is nothing ugly or even "manly looking" about her! She's just like somebody's perfectly normal chubby aunt or something. You could go out in any street all over the world and see five of her! I hate it cos its almost like psychological manipulation or something? Like i've seen so many lets players who arent bigoted but merely oblivious still agree that excellus is ugly and disgusting and comical because of it, cos all the implications of transphobia/homophobia flew over their heads and all they saw was a character drawn to look monsterous. And just.. This is so common. Its the overwhelming japanese stereotype of trans women. Draw them looking INFINATELY MORE MANLY than the cis male characters. So manly that it really hammers home how "obvious" it is that a man in lipstick or dresses "just looks wrong" and of course there's NO way they could ever pass and ha ha look how deluded they are that they think they look pretty. It's horrid. It really is. Seriously I like to point at Tabitha from Pokemon ORAS for a good counter example, cos he's also an ambiguously transgender character from a game that came out around the same time and by some weird coincidence they look very similar. Except for the literal entire face. The literal entire exact same face, just its drawn hideous and distorted on the one who's supposed to be a negative trans stereotype, and drawn exactly like everyone else on the positive one. And there's not one example in the whole game of anyone calling Tabitha ugly because he looks trans, or even insulting his weight or anything. Same damn character design, just drawn without bias and treated like a human being. I mean seriously right down to them having the small "evil eyes" but with Tabitha he's always drawn with them in a perpetual sort of happy face and then his pose with them looking similar to Excellus is supposed to be a BADASS MOMENT of this comic relief villain showing his worth! And hw literally has red eyes on top of it! His design is even MORE "evil" yet just not drawing it as a stereotype entirely changes the player's perception and he became beloved by many. Whereas with Excellus even the trans people in the audience couldnt relate to her and just felt fuckin sad.

Oh also i guess Excellus is implied to be a trans woman and Tabitha is implied to be a trans man? But i don't think game freak was trying to say anything about trans men being more valid or whatever, cos the first canonical LGBT character of any sort was a trans woman npc in the battle maison. And tabitha being trans isnt really confirmed as clearly as she was. i hope someday theyre able to confirm an LGBT main cast member but until then i will forever hold onto the glimmer of hope that was given to me by Beauty Nova.

Also seriously Tabitha and Excellus both also look EXACTLY LIKE ME IN REAL LIFE so I kinda took Excellus extra hard and latched onto the Tabitha headcanon so much more because it was good healing after all that nonsense. Tho I also did considee nonbinary Tabitha at the time, because his japanese name is a gender neutral one that's merely like 75% female, rather than a 100% feminine one. But then his old RSE design was very masculine so i think maybe a trans man is what they were trying to imply if they did indeed do it on purpose. Anyway i probably would have translated his name as Ashley cos it has the same "technically neutral but more popular with girls" aesthetic while also keeping the same fire pun as Homura. I have no idea how on earth Tabitha is supposed to be a joke, honestly. Tho i meam maybe he's just the one type specialist on the entire poke-earth who doesnt have a joke name?

ANYWAY thank you terrible transphobic stupid manga i read today for reminding me that i love Tabitha. And also the developers love Tabitha. And also all the characters in universe love him, like seriously the only difference between the devon dialogue of him and Shelly is that they mention the other scientists nicknamed him tabitabi. And its so cute how seriously they said it too?? Its like "our boss tabitabi,the most feared and respected genius man".

Lovv dat tabb