#ARVENS GONNA BE REAL IN 3 WEEKS

[harukaenthusiast]

(CAR SCREECHES) (ALARMS RING) (LOUD WAILING)

GOD BLESS 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

[numberonebidoofenjoyer]

Off Screen Post

Titanic Rest - Part 3

(Part 1/Part 2)

Audience participation via anon is encouraged. If you want, please send the blog anons relating to this event.

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“Do you think Big Bird is a little too on the nose for a nickname?”

Silence. Well, not total silence, but the chopping of the vegetables are deafening in itself.

“Okayyy…what about Bitter Bird?”

He hears Arven take a shaky huff of breath. Good. That means he’s wearing him down.

“Screw it. Gonna put ‘Second Titan-’”

“What is your problem?!”

Arven’s yell echoes throughout the cavern, leaving the other boy in silence. “I-I mean, you just ran up a mountain of giant boulders raining on you, jumped on top of a raging, giant Pokemon and took a Teraboosted Thunder-”

“Still stings by the way.” He leaned up more against Fangs, the dragon begrudgingly allowing its ‘trainer’ to rest on it after some choice words from the Rotom. Arven, meanwhile, chopped up the rest of the batch of Herba Mystica they had just acquired. “So maybe ease up on the burns a bit. My wounds are weeping inside.”

“See! That’s the other thing- it’s like it doesn’t even bother you! You could’ve died and you don’t care even a little!”

Lochland falls silent, leaving Arven huffing in anger. He frowns. It’s times like that where the words fail him the most. There’s no real way to explain without sounding like a lunatic. He sighs, watching the boy go back to cutting and preparing food again. It’s quite for a bit more, as Lochland thinks. The way this was going, he was probably going to be on the news tomorrow, right? Great, there goes his privacy for like a week. Nemona’’s definitely going to yell at him for sure for this…

He massages his head. That’s a headache he’ll have to worry about later. For now, he kinda wants to just lay down for once.

“...Hey. Arven.”

A beat.

“Arrrrveeen…”

“What?”

“What’s your end goal in doing all this?” It blurts out without him really thinking. He watches the man tense up for a split of a second.

“I don’t-It’s for my Treasure Hunt. Obviously.”

“See you say that, but uh-” He purses his teeth. “You only show up for one class, Like, ever? And I know you have a third Pokemon on you. Because you’re carrying three Pokeballs, and let it out after I left you after the first Titan, right? Klawf?”

The cuttings stopped by now.

“And, I’m going to be honest, I dunno if it’s the exhaustion or what, but nobody normally seeks out these things for fun. There’s always some sort of reason, good or bad. And you haven’t exactly been convincing me ir’s something good, so….yeah. Mind explaining that?”

Silence. Pure, actual silence this time. And then, laughter. Not the joyous, humorous type or crazy, conniving kind. But a sort of hollow bitterness in his tone and mannerisms.

“So, that’s it, huh? Think of some sort of- what, criminal?”

“That’s not it.” Lochland scrolled through his phone. “Just..secretive, you know? I don’t think you have malicious intent per say. But, you’re also doing this for a reason. You wouldn’t have been so urgent about it otherwise.”

Arven remained quiet, going back to chopping up food. Lochland decided to just say nothing as well. If Arven didn’t want to talk, who was he to force him to?

“...I’ll tell you if you tell me why you’re doing all this.”

“Huh?”

Arven turned to face him. “What do you possibly gain from helping me out on all of these errands? Maybe I could’ve mistaken it for boredom before, but now? You;re too serious about this. There’s purpose to your madness. You act like the world’s going to end if you don’t defeat these things.”

The man doesn’t miss the way Lochland flinches.

“....Seriously?”

Lochland takes a breath, sitting up a bit as he stops staring at his phone screen. “I…You- you wouldn’t get this but…I’ve been around giant, large Pokemon before and…they hurt a lot of people.” He gulped. “Like, a lot. And…yeah, it is the Pokemon League’s responsibility. But…” He stares at the palm of his fist. “If I have the power to change something- do something- and I just had to stand by and watch innocent people get hurt?”

He remembers. It hurts to remember but he does. Raging, burning fires. The slashes of a strike meant to mow him in half. The scars under those gloves as he held those axes in his hands with all his might.

He clenches his fist.

“I’m the type who can’t just sit around while people get hurt.”

“....” Arven snorts. “So, what, some kinda hero-complex?”

“Wha- No! No, you missed…the entire point-”

“So you need to be involved in, like, every dangerous situation ever? That’s what I’m hearing.” He laughs. “Arceus, that’s….wow. I guess you do have that stoic, heroic vibe to you.”

“What.” Lochland shakes his head. “Okay, actually, I’m not unpacking that. I told you my deal. What’s yours?”

Arven says nothing, for a moment. He sighs, before returning to his picnic table, crafting a sandwich.

“....Dude.”

“Hold on. It’s easier to show you.”

“....It is a Pokemon, isn’t it?” Lochland’s voice is softer now. Arven still doesn’t say anything, just quietly crafting a sandwich. When it’s finished, he takes a Poke Ball from his waist, worn and slightly scratched. An older model.

When it gently opens, a large, furry dog appears. Lochland can’t help but wince. He doesn’t need to be told it’s in bad shape. It breathes wrong, wheezing through its mouth. Its eyes are closed. It doesn’t even so much as bark.

He turns to see Fangs stare at it, a mix of conflicted emotions on its face. When he turns to Roto, the Pokedex app is already loading.

“Mabosstiff. The Boss Pokemon, Dark-Type, the evolution of Maschiff. It loves playing with younger children, adopting a fierce, intimidating look when protecting those it deems as family, bzzt.”

Lochland is silent for a moment. “...What happened?”

“...He got hurt real bad…I-I went…somewhere I shouldn’t have and…one of the Pokemon attacked him. He never recovered. I tried pretty much…everything.” He knelt down with the sandwich, taking a piece off and placing it in front of the Boss Pokemon. Slowly, he began to eat small careful bites. Arven soothed it, rubbing over the fur there.

“...The Herba Mystica was the only thing left.”

“...Yeah. Yeah. Eating all five can apparently cure any illness, or disease. I’m…I’m at the end of my rope.” The man gripped his uniform pants. “If this doesn’t work, I-I don’t-”

Lochland got up and walked over to Arven, resting a hand on his shoulder. There was nothing that could be said that the man hadn’t already heard a thousand times before, but the gesture said what it needed to. Soon, the Rotom Phone joined them. And eventually, even the sound of quiet heavy footsteps made their way over, all watching over Mabosstiff as he ate.

When the last bite was taken, silence ruled over them.

“Hey, bud.” Arven mournfully whispered, stroking the hound’s fur. “How’d do ya feel?”

Lochland said nothing, just looking the Pokemon over. It..Did it work? It looked the same as before, sluggish and tired, eyes bright orange, barely even-

Eyes.

“His eyes.”

Arven stopped what he was doing as if the words petrified him, before slowly looking down.

Mabosstiff stared back.

Arven began to laugh, tears clouding his eyes, each blink sending one rolling down his cheek.”M-Mabostiff. Your eyes, you can see me again, I-I just-” Arven dissolved, gasps of sobs wrenched from his heart, a joy that couldn’t be described by any ordinary trainer. Only one that had gone through the pain of seeing their Pokemon suffer, and watching it all turn out ok.

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They end up camping there for the night. It’s too dark to make it back down the mountain, and besides, Lochland really doesn’t feel like dealing with the crowd of people most likely waiting for him down there. They have a lovely dinner of sandwiches. Which still tasted somewhat bitter even if Arven tried to soften the taste, even Fangs getting a piece. Which seemed enough to give him back some of that original strength the Pokemon had lost.

Lochland, of course, like most nights, finds himself unable to sleep. He just ends up staring, looking at the cavern light, and thinking.

Thinking about how misjudged he was on Arven, on how his reasoning wasn’t bad in the slightest. How the kid just wanted to look out for his Pokemon. How he could see why the kid needed to do this so bad.

He turned to see the man next to him, fast asleep besides Mabosstiff, unable to help the smile on his face. There was a real bond there, between the Trainer and his Pokemon. It reminded him off-

…Of Kicker. Of Selene. Luna. Bessie.

He feels his gut swirl tight with grief, and he decides right there and then he needs some fresh air.

Stepping out of the cavern, he’s greeted with the fresh air of the night, taking in greedy gulps as he sits and stares into the night. Into the stars that twinkle, forming together to make little constellations of the night.

He wonders if anyone he left behind is enjoying a quiet night like this too. Staring at the stars in the village grass, trying to will a shooting star from their minds, always being lectured for staying up far too late and making a ruckus.

He misses those times.

He misses them.

“Lochland?”

He jolts, sitting up. “When’d you wake up?”

Roto floats towards him. “I rarely sleep these days, bzzt.” The phone looks up. “...It’s nice out, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Really is.”

“...You could’ve died, you know.”

“I know.”

“Do you? Do you really know?” Roto interrogates. “You put yourself into earth shattering danger again for what, bzzt?! There could’ve been another way to take down Bombirdier that didn’t involve you jumping onto it’s beak!”

“Was there?” He retorts. “It’s not like you didn’t get a good hit or anything- It was actively withstanding blows after everything- It was like it’s Paralysis disappeared, like it was-”

“But it wasn’t.” Roto said. “And you didn’t even think about working with Arven- you jut dived straight in, bzzt.” It seemed to sigh. “You- We aren’t…there, anymore. And neither are the people we grew to trust. So, we have to trust other people. We have to work with them.”

“...” Lochland looked away and said nothing. A beat of silence passed.

“....Do you plan on going back to bed, bzzt?”

“No, I don’t think so. But, if you can, can you bring me my bag?”

“What for?”

“...There’s something I need to take care of.”

“....Ah.” Roto said. “Out here?”

“I’ll stay with it.”

“Alrighty then…” Roto went back into the cavern. A few minutes later, he came out with Lochland’s bag, resting it beside him. Lochland opened it, beginning to dig out various medicine supplies. Roto accessed his PC system and before he knew it, a Heal Ball dropped at his feet.

He put on his gloves with a hum. “That’ll make things easier. You staying with me?”

“Duh. bzzt.”

“Great.” He picked up the ball. “Let’s do this.”

[ashxketchum]

Okay so after a weekend of consistent playing, I'm here with my thoughts on Pokemon ScarVi.

First disclaimer, I'm playing my e-shop purchased copy of Pokemon Violet on my Switch Lite and have not yet experienced any intense bugs or glitches that are being shared online by other users. My one problem as of now is that my character takes a while to display when I'm shopping for hats and stuff or changing the uniform.

So moving on, I LOVE PALDEA! The architecture and topography is wonderful and very rich and so easy to get lost into. And I mean that literally too because love and light to Gamefreak for thinking that I, a functioning adult, will not get distracted for 1 hour following a trail of shiny objects on the ground 😔🙏🏻 I want to publicly apologise to Galar Champion Leon for making fun of his directional skills all these years, I'm sorry Leon I love you and I now know how hard it is to stay on track 🫶🏻

The Pokemon designs are objectively fitting for the region, subjectively a hit and miss, and yet despite of it all somehow (YES YOU'RE READING THIS RIGHT) I'm yet to add Pikachu to my main team 😭 This has never happened before, I mean Pikachu is my lord and saviour I love it more than life itself, but then some of the Paldean pokemon are just too cool to be boxed! So my current team is this:

Captain Q the Quaquaval [My starter]

Zoro the Cyclizar

Charlie the Charcadet [Soon to be Ceruledge]

Bombirdier [No nickname because that's a bomb ass name right there]

Mimi the Pawmo

Shiro the Grafaiai

I obviously am short on time so I've been taking it slow, I've done 3 gyms, 2 titans and 1 star base so far. I thought of following a set order but then I kept getting lost in the wild, so now my current process is just taking on whichever challenge I can navigate myself towards 💀

Nemona is pretty cool, and also so down bad for the protagonist haha 😆 If Ash came to Paldea after his PWC, she would 100% become instant besties with him.

Arven was a bit annoying at first sight lol, but after finding out his backstory, I started to like him a lot. A soft boy who can cook, sign me the f up!

Director Clavell is so funny, iykyk 🤣

I have a lot of theories about Cassiopeia and Penny and Team Star, but I'm gonna try and finish that route to see if my predictions are correct before I say anything! [NO SPOILERS PLEASE!]

And my absolute favourite thing about the game, WE CAN WASH OUR POKEMON!!! Honestly it's just such a fun, intimate moment people share with their pets in real life, and now we get to have that with our pokemon too! Also the reactions the pokemon give out while getting washed are really cute, and while I suck at placing the ingredients correctly on a sandwich, this is the one thing I truly enjoy about the picnic option.

So that's all, I hope I make more progress in the coming week!