#I mean for one we got olimar’s wife

[hana-bobo-finch]

what’s with pikmin characters and being irresponsible with money

[your-local-grubdog]

Wait actually can we talk about Leaflings real fast. Because. What the actual fuck.

Also sorry if I curse a lot more here than usual but like 90% of my genuine reactions to this topic is "what the FUCK" so uhh get used to it I guess.

Huge thanks to @saihahas for helping me with some image transcripts as well.

Major story spoilers below you have been warned. Ok let's go.

So you're able to just rise from the dead in pikmin 4. No, seriously. You can do that.

At the end of Olimar's side story we get this scene and associated line:

[Image transcript: White text on a black screen that says "But at that very moment, my life support system failed" END TRANSCRIPT]

Like. He died. His life support system failed. He DIED. And moments later, he was revived as a leafling. He died and came back from the dead. Like, what the fuck????

It even fixed up his injuries he got prior to becoming a leafling. Just a full on revival.

Image transcript (one leads into the other naturally)

Collin: By the by, Olimar, is there anything you remember from right before or after you became a leafling? Any additional details?

Olimar: Not particularly. It didn't feel bad or anything like that. In fact, it was quite revitalizing.

Olimar: My chronically stiff shoulders and all the injuries I'd sustained during my explorations healed immediately.

Yonny: Hmm... Perhaps leafification has highly restorative effects...

Yonny: This is definitely something worth looking into, eheheh. END OF TRANSCRIPT.

Now we don't know if everyone who was a leafling had to die before hand, though there is a common thread that they were at least unconscious... And had just escaped deadly situations... I think Olimar found them moments before they died and, not knowing any other way to save them, leafed them as well. Something they bear no ill will towards him for - in fact, they're thankful for him.

Image transcript:

Jin: When I was leafified, I could not stop thinking about the art of Dandori. It was like an endless meditation.

Jin: A leafling appeared in front of me after the ship crashed and I had used up all of my flagging energy.

Jin: My intuition told me they were not a bad person. I also felt as though they were determined to achieve something

Jin: I am afraid I do not recall much of what happened after that, as I lost consciousness. END TRANSCRIPT.

Image transcript:

Corgwin: I was attacked by a creature, and right before I lost consciousness, I saw something overhead. It was a leafling

Corgwin: They had such sad eyes, but there was more going on in there. Their eyes were full of determination.

Corgwin: I have to believe there is a reason why they do what they do. Turning castaways into leaflings, I mean.

Corgwin: Your time is limited, so think it through! END TRANSCRIPT.

Image transcript:

Bernard: You need anything else?

Bernard: Even when Olimar was leafed out, he was still trying to RESCUE folks!

Bernard: And there I was with my head focused on nothing but Dandori stuff. HOO, he's one tough cookie!

Bernard: You need anything else? END TRANSCRIPT.

Ok Bernard's conversation doesn't add to the "he found them in deadly situations" point but it DOES show that all of his "victims" think highly of him for the fact that he had saved them and others. (Also, side note, Olimar had sad eyes... Poor bastard thought he was never going home to his wife and kids, was visibly depressed over this, and STILL was trying to save people. Olimar is like, genuinely such a good fucking person God damn.)

Now being a leafling is undead and comes with its own slew of problems. Namely, the fact Dandori takes over your brain (probably the pikmin survival instinct) and the fact you can no longer leave PNF-404. It's not even an air thing, it's not being on the planet that causes sickness, so not even spacesuits can fix it.

But then you're able to cure yourself of being a leafling. And just. Go back? To your normal life?????? Like nothing ever happened. You died and came back. What the fuck.

And to make that point worse. One of the key ingredients is Glow Sap. Which is produced by the Luminknolls. The only other thing the Luminknolls make is uh. Glow pikmin. Which.

“Although they've been named Glow Pikmin, it's not entirely clear whether or not this species is actually a type of Pikmin. These creatures possess the same fundamental behaviors of Pikmin, like carrying things, propagating, and fighting. They also share special characteristics, such as the leaf atop their head. Yet they do not spawn from an Onion but a Lumiknoll, and they are only active at night or underground. During the day, they revert into seeds and enter a resting state. What's even more surprising is that they exhibit no signs of life. When a Glow Pikmin "dies," if that word can even be used, it does not expire in the typical sense. Instead, it just becomes a form of light-or perhaps a photon-and returns to the Lumiknoll. Putting aside my "scientist" hat for a moment...it seems to me that this creature or entity may not be a living organism at all but some manner of spiritual substance.”

[Image Transcript: a screenshot of the Piklopedia showing the very end of the above quote. END TRANSCRIPT]

And just as some icing on the cake:

[Image transcript: Louie's piklopedia notes on the glow pikmin. All it says is "Doesn't smell alive." END TRANSCRIPT]

Cool they're fucking ghosts. Sorry I can't be convinced otherwise, they're clearly some sort of supernatural entity at MINIMUM. I just think spirit is most likely. They don't have to be the spirits of dead pikmin... Although... You can convert a Glow Pikmin into normal pikmin via a candy pop bud. I've done it before, I have no video of it but you can go and try it yourself if you'd like. And if they are spirits of pikmin then that means that we can also bring pikmin back from the dead. What the FUCK.

Anyways. I got side tracked sorry. My point was the Luminkolls make two things: Glow Sap and Glow Pikmin, which have similar names and similar appearances and. Are we using ghost juice to cure leaflings???? Which is used to reverse all negatives of being leafed. Which can be used to bring the dead back to life.

I don't know how to end this. I really really don't know how to end this. I just need someone else to scream about this with because it's so. It's so fucking WEIRD like what the hell. It's not enough that they may be humans, noooo, there's also undead creatures (excluding the mushroom guys those freaks have an explanation at the very least). This game is weird as hell but tbh I love it.

[pikkish-moved]

Growing in Other Directions

In which the Koppaiates encounter a new species

Today, the Koppaiates were returning to the Garden of Hope. There was still some fruit to be gathered there, and this time, returning with Captain Charlie, they were sure they could add to their juice supply exponentially, and maybe even find some hint to the cosmic drive key’s whereabouts.

Alph was, as usual, at the helm of the Drake, scoping out the best landing place. Thus far, it seemed such a spot was the very same place he had landed the ship when first seeking out Brittany. Then, he hadn’t so much been looking for a good landing spot, but merely somewhere close to her signal.

But, now, coincidentally, it seemed that was the best landing spot anyway.

Alph panned over the map onscreen one more time, just to be sure. No better landing spot caught his eye, but something else certainly did grab his attention, something he hadn’t really paid attention to on his previous scans of the topography. The image was small on the Drake’s map, nestled under some tall foliage in the northern part of the Garden, but the longer Alph looked at it, the more certain he was that he knew the familiar shape. Still, the unlikelyhood of it being what he thought was so great, he couldn’t be entirely sure.

“H-hey, um… Captain Charlie?” Alph called, seeking a second opinion. He pointed to the map as Charlie approached. “What do you think that looks like?”

Charlie leaned in, his brow furrowing as he looked at it. After a moment, the sudden widening of his eyes, the sharp hiss of breath between his teeth was all the signal that was needed to tell he had come to the same conclusion as Alph. “I… I would say it’s a spaceship.”

“A spaceship?” Brittany asked from across the room, where she was still pulling on her suit. “Another one? Did someone get here before us?”

“Seems that way,” Charlie responded. “Or, at least, around the same time as us.”

Alph looked to the captain. “Should I land the Drake nearby?”

Charlie nodded. “We might as well introduce ourselves, and try to make a good impression.”

Brittany muttered something under her breath about how it shouldn’t be Charlie to make first contact if they were going for a good impression, then, but it wasn’t quite loud enough to reach the other two’s ears.

✿✿✿

Alph landed the Drake a safe distance away from the other ship, and after calling out a band of pikmin, the trio made their way towards the other ship.

But as they neared it, it quickly became clear something was wrong. The ship was nose-down in the ground, its hull scorched and stripped, the interior of a ship clearly exposed in some places. Wreckage was strewn about all across the ground, and there was a trench cut in a long line where the ship must have impacted the ground and then slid.

Worst of all, the pikmin seemed nervous. They were unnaturally quiet, not keeping up their usual enthusiastic chatter and sticking close together.

And as the Koppaiates approached the wreck, their pace slowed considerably.

Eventually, Alph took the lead. As the engineer of the crew, he could tell a lot about the ship from a single look that the others couldn’t, and some of his nervousness was dampened by his curiosity in the alien vessel.

“It… looks Hocotatian-made, I think,” he relayed to his companions. “An older one, too; it’s still got the whole ‘aerodynamic rocket’ design. Looks like… I think it’s a deep-space freighter, probably a single passenger ship. The crash is… it must have hit the ground from freefall, probably from the upper atmosphere, though… I think it’s probably been here a long time. Most of the shielding is gone. Looks like a lot of the equipment is missing, too, though-“

Alph froze as there was a crunch underfoot. Looking down, he saw something glinting in the mossy ground.

“Alph?” Brittany asked as she and Charlie came to stand beside him.

Alph didn’t answer, just knelt down, looking for whatever he had stepped on. After a moment, he came up with a clear shard of-...

...Oh.

“Is that glass?” Charlie asked.

“No,” Alph said quietly, turning the shard over in his gloved hands, careful to not let the sharp edges cut his suit. “It’s polycarbonate.” He didn’t look up to meet his crewmates’ blank looks, instead reaching down to unearth more pieces. “There’s-... probably more of it nearby, too. I don’t think-... Whoever it was, they would’ve had to land pretty hard for-... for their helmet to shatter this badly.”

There was a long moment of silence as his companions processed what he had just said.

Finally, “Are you sure that’s what it is?” The quiet plea that Alph was wrong was still audible in Brittany’s voice. She may not have had the greatest opinions of people in general, but that didn’t mean she wanted to find some poor person dead of oxygen poisoning.

Unfortunately, Alph was certain. “Yeah. Same stuff our helmets are made of.”

For a good long moment, there was silence among the Koppaiates.

Then, looking over his shoulder at the wreck, Charlie said, “We should check the crash.”

Both Alph and Brittany recoiled at the suggestion. The very thought of setting foot in a derelict ship that had crashed there long ago, possibly still with the remains of some crew…

But Captain Charlie was a veteran space ranger. This wasn’t the first, nor the worst crash he had ever seen, and, he added, everything had to be inspected in case any of it could be if use. They were in a hostile environment, and everything that could provide them with an edge was to be claimed.

“Besides,” he added in a slightly more sympathetic voice, “we ought to see if they left any sort of log, or journal. To try to figure out who they were, and… Well. I can tell you from experience, it’s better to know the fate of a loved one than to be left wondering forever.”

Though Alph and Brittany hated the thought of being such bearers of bad news, they couldn’t argue with that, and with significantly lower spirits, they followed after Captain Charlie towards the crashed ship.

✿✿✿

Captain Olimar had, in fact, left a voyage log.

On arriving at the derelict ship, the lettering “S. S. DOLPHIN” still faintly visible on its scorched, scraped hull, the trio of Koppaiates had left their group of nervous pikmin to board the ship. Once inside the small main bridge, Alph had found the main computer to, surprisingly, still be functional. He had navigated to the captain’s log file. Inside, there were two folders, one marked “notes,” and  the other “logs.” Inside the logs folder, there were a mere twenty nine entries.

At Charlie’s quiet direction, Alph opened the final log entry.

“Entry 29”

“Tomorrow, is the day my life-support system fails. If I do not recover all my parts, I have no choice but to try to blast off. Missing a few parts may not affect my attempts to return to Hocotate...but then again, it may. At any rate, I must try to recover the remaining parts tomorrow."

“I... feel so very tired.”

“That… doesn’t tell us a whole lot about them,” Brittany murmured. “Except maybe they were a Hocotatian.”

Biting his lip, Alph selected a different log.

“Entry 14”

“Looking from this planet into the skies above, I see the pale white moon floating overhead. It brings to mind memories of the moon from back home. I bet that even now my wife and children are sitting at home, gazing up at our pale red moon... Hang on, dear ones! Your Olimar will return some day!”

In that moment, all three Koppaiates felt something of the same grief. It was not to be so; Captain Olimar had perished, and his family would never see him again.

Almost out of a sense of duty, then, Charlie took over the computer terminal, and opened the first log. And from there, they read, from the beginning, the final trials of Captain Olimar.

They read his accounts of his crash landing the first time, to awaken on a strange planet, his ship broken and incapable of flight. Of how he discovered the pikmin, and with their help, he recovered his ship’s engine, and at least managed to reach the relative safety of low orbit for the night.

How he had a mere thirty days of life support battery to recover all his ship’s missing pieces and escape the planet.

They read his discovery of yellow and blue pikmin, of his valiant battles with the indigenous monsters of the planet to recover the pieces of his ship.

Of his hope on the recovery of every ship part, and his despondency on the days without success.

And they read of his longing for home, of his love for his wife and children, as he watched himself growing thinner in the mirror and only thought of the worry his absence was causing his family.

When they had finished reading Captain Olimar’s voyage log, they sat for a moment, in silence.

“I… suppose we’ll have to find his family when we get back,” Alph eventually said in a whisper, barely meeting his crewmates’ eyes.

Charlie just nodded in solemn agreement. There was another long moment of silence.

Finally, Captain Charlie turned away from the computer. “At any rate, we’re wasting time here. We are on a mission, after all.” Being a space ranger in the war, he had seen his fair share of death, and more than once had to postpone mourning for the sake of work.

Alph and Brittany quietly agreed, and turned to follow Charlie out of the ship. But when they got there, they found the pikmin they had left were not waiting patiently for their return. In fact, the entire group was marching away, as if led by one of the Koppaiates themselves.

Or… maybe a new type of pikmin? There was, at the front of the crew, a bright red flower that rose a bit higher than all the others- about the height that the antenna of one of the Koppaiates’ helmets rose.

Regardless, whoever it was, they were leading off one hundred pikmin, possibly into danger.

Running forward, closely followed by Alph and Brittany, Charlie let out a sharp blast on his whistle, calling for the pikmin to stop. The pikmin, being very well tuned to the more urgent tone of the whistle, froze, and disbanded, leaving the would-be leader alone in front of the charging Koppaiates.

All three of them quickly slid to a halt, however, on seeing the figure in front of them.

For he stood with the same confidence and determination they had come to expect of him, and though his suit was dirty and torn, and his face smeared with mud, and his helmet long gone, swapped for a stem and flower, there was no mistaking it.

Standing before them, pikmin gathered about him and looking to him for instruction, was the very same recently deceased Captain Olimar.

[your-local-grubdog]

Together in the Storm Chapter 2: Locked Away

Chapter summary: Olimar has finally arrived at a hospital, and Rose comes to visit him.

Read on Ao3

A short one for this week, some upcoming chapters are much longer though!

“Thankfully, due to the Koppaites’ care, it seems the effects of starvation and dehydration have mostly been dealt with. That being said, you’ve also got a minor case of malnutrition. You’ve been hooked up to an IV to get you the vitamins, minerals, proteins, and other such nutrients that you’re in need of.”

“Mph, alright…”

“Do you know how long you went without food? The Koppaites had said they didn’t know how long it had been.”

That made Olimar pause as he laid there in the hospital bed. After a few moments, he admitted “I’m… not sure. I spent much of it asleep.”

“I see…” the doctor beside him began to write some things down. “On that note, we’ve found evidence that you’ve inhaled far too much of the emergency sleeping gas put in those suits. Does this sound correct?”

“Probably. The suit automatically fills up with the gas whenever the wearer’s heart rate rises too high. Supposed to save on the actual air we need…” He sighed.

“That means your heart rate was regularly accelerated during this time as well.”

Olimar just nodded.

“It’d be in your best interest to remove that from your suit, or just get a new suit. I’m not even sure why you’d have a suit like that anyways, it’s far too easy to fatally overdose on even a little bit of that stuff.”

“My suit’s old. It was a fairly regular thing to have in ‘em when I first got the thing.”

The doctor grumbled about something, though Olimar couldn’t hear. “Lastly, you’ve sustained rather nasty injuries, particularly to your lower back. Sir, what happened there?”

Olimar wasn’t able to respond, just freezing up as he clutched the blanket that was laid over him.

The doctor waited for several moments before letting out a sigh. His ears then wiggled as he held his hand up to a small comm device within his left ear. Such tech was uncommon on Hocotate, oft beyond what the average person or business could afford, though some places had them. The doctor nodded to whomever was talking to him on the other end despite not being able to be seen. He answered a quick “Alright, thanks.” before turning to Olimar. “Your wife has arrived to see you. I’ll tell her everything I’ve told you.”

Before Olimar could react much, the doctor stood up and left. He groaned as he leaned back into his pillow. What am I supposed to tell her? HOW do I tell her?

There was just... So much that had happened when he was with the golden creature. Good things, bad things, things he didn't know if they were real or not, things he couldn't tell if they really happened with the golden monster or with his father. None of his time with the beast felt real, it was like a bad dream, he only knew it to be real due to the Koppaites' testimony and the horrible pain he was in.

And then there was the bracelet. That fucking bracelet that haunted his every step. It felt stupid to be so upset over a bracelet, but that didn't make the feelings go away. He didn't think he could ever explain that thing to anyone. How would he? He'd probably hide it once he was home. Hide it, try to forget about it, and fail miserabley. It still felt like the best option to him, though.

The three Koppaites had dropped him off not that long ago. They unfortunately (but very understandably, given their situation) needed to quickly return to their homeworld afterwards, but they promised to come back and visit him. He was asleep for most of it, having only recently woken up. He wasn't sure where Louie was, either. Or how Rose was contacted - then again, Louie probably did that. He shifted around in the cot. He didn't like being in an unfamiliar room. It smelled too clean. He wanted to be back home, where everything smelled like cinnamon. Though, he supposed he would be home soon…

His ear flicked as his wife opened the door. He offered her a nervous smile. "Ah, h-hey hon… kids at school?"

She nodded a bit, silent. It made Olimar's stomach twist with anxiety. She walked over to him without saying anything before gently touching the hand that didn't have an IV in it. He held it, squeezing tightly and ears leaning back. She herself pulled a chair closer to sit by him, and they stayed like that for a few moments. Normally, Olimar would call it blissful. Laying in bed with his wife, hardly a word spoken but holding onto each other as if for dear life… he loved it. It felt pure, in a way. But now it just felt tense. Anxiety ate at him more and more the longer she went on without saying anything, and he struggled to get a read on her.

After a few moments she managed to speak in a quiet voice, choked up as if she were holding back tears. "The doctor told me everything. Louie also said that some Koppaites saved you from that planet."

Olimar just slowly nodded. "Yeah."

"... what - how did all of this happen?"

"I -" Olimar began, but soon went silent. He felt almost like even if he knew what to say, he wouldn't be able to speak.

Rose waited a few seconds before repeating "Please, Olimar, last time you came home from that planet y-your ear was torn and you had bruises and now - now you're in th-the hospital and-" she sniffled then, wiping away tears with a free hand. "Please, I need to know."

Olimar wasn't able to respond. He just… couldn't. He was only able to tighten his grip on her hand.

"Why can't you tell us anything?!" Rose then demanded.

Her voice hadn't risen much, but it was enough to make Olimar flinch (especially when he was already on edge). After a few moments he finally managed to say "B-Because it's just so much. There's so much… I…"

Rose frowned, slowly leaning in to give him a gentle hug. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry… I'm just so worried, honey."

"I know. A-And I'm sorry…" he nuzzled against her neck, holding onto tightly. "I'm sorry."

The two cried silently, holding on tightly to each other. Rose eventually began to rub his hair back and brush tears off of his face, in an effort to calm him.

As she did that, Olimar began to talk, leaning into her hand. "It… it was another creature. It had kept me captive for a while. Louie was unable to get to me. It caused all of this."

"J-Just one? Only one did all of… this?" Her ears pinned back hard.

"M-Most things there are just… animals. That's all. Dangerous, but with pikmin, I'm okay. But others are… more. The pikmin themselves for one. The Progg, the Titan, the Wraith, that golden thing…" he shook his head. "They're rare, but they're worse."

Her ears leaned back far then. "I can't believe your boss would send you back there like that." She then sighed. "No, no, I can. I just…" she paused for a moment. "I miss when you had Destiny around. She really did keep the boss from pushing you around."

Olimar tensed then, chest tightening at the memory of his late mentor. "She did. I… gods-" he was shaking hard now, crying uncontrollably as he struggled to speak. "I wish she was still here. I - I need her help. Fuck, I need… I need help…" He then felt Rose pull him tightly against herself. She began to rub circles on his back, the movement soothing him slightly. After a few moments, he was able to speak again. "The golden creature. It kept me captive. It… acted more like a person th-then an animal. It reminded me of h-how my parents were. I was n-never sure when it'd… a-and the pikmin, j-just like the m-mouse… where I could see, with such cru- c-cru…" he began to shake harder then, finding it much too hard to talk.

"You don't have to say anything more, hon." Rose responded. "Please, don't force yourself if you can't."

Olimar nodded then, nestling under her chin as he sobbed hard. He wasn't sure how long he laid there in her arms, but eventually his tears ran dry and his eyes began to burn. He felt Rose kiss his forehead, which he gratefully (or maybe desperately?) leaned into.

"We'll see what we can do for you hun. Okay? I promise. And no matter what, you won't be alone." She brushed his hair back, now gently leaning her forehead against his. "But right now, you need to recover… physically."

The specification of "physically" did make him flinch. But it was the truth. He couldn't keep running from it. So, he nodded. "Okay. Okay. I… I'm sorry I didn't try to do anything sooner Rose-"

"Shhh…" she rubbed his cheek. "I know it's not easy for you. You have nothing to be sorry for. You'll get help, that's what matters."

"...Alright. R-Rosie?"

"Yes dear?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."