#Which of course also had to have one of two very specific pokeballs and be male

[amplexadversary]

Oh fuck. Ashton and Orym are probably getting new art next episode, if they haven't already.

I don't think I'm willing to re-do the fashion frame I themed around Ashton on Warframe but I might be okay with changing the outfit for my Orym dragon on Flight Rising. Especially since I'm not actually going to be able to finish the latter until December unless I suddenly become willing to pay a premium for some apparel. (Stupid wrong-color crystal moon ball I don't even know what I want to use for the second moon *grumblemutter*)

The pose on fae dragons really makes me wish some of the accessory apparel had more than one option for placement because as it stands if I want to give him a shield I can't give him the vines and flowers on his hands because they get covered up. The compromise I came up with was to put it on the fae dragon's tail but that's kind of unsatisfying.

It's probably a good thing that I haven't even started on the outfit for an Ashton dragon on FR because the idiot wildclaws I'm trying to breed keep spitting out the wrong color ranges. I really don't want to do an all-wildclaw breeding project but I refuse to compromise and settle for a different dragon. I doubt I'll have a suitable dragon for Ashton this year unless I get absurdly lucky in a search.

[h4nn4hra]

Incorrect quotes

P3

I kind of made this for more brotherly content between Will and Gilan but cralt somehow managed to sneak in, so there's also a bit of that.

These mostly fit a specific au but I'm not gonna explain that here. Let me know if you want it though.

----------------------------------------------------------

Gilan: Which is correct, seven and five IS thirteen, or seven and five ARE thirteen?

Will: Neither.

Will: Because it's twelve.

---

Gilan: Dom or sub?

Will: I guess Domino's, since I don't go to Subway that much. Don't see why you'd put them in the same category though

---

Gilan: I need you to come meet me, and I need you to come alone.

Will: And I need you to be less vague and weird.

---

Gilan: I know this isn’t going to end well and I don’t care. So don’t you try and stop me, Will!

Will: I wasn’t stopping you. I was asking if you had a spare camera so I can record this.

---

Gilan: I’m so excited!

Will: We’re gonna have the best costumes, get the most candy...

Gilan: And have the biggest stomach aches ever!

Will: Yeah!

---

Gilan: This bloodline ends with me.

Will: That's the fanciest way I've ever heard someone say "I'm gay".

---

Gilan: What happened?!

Will: Do you want the long version or the short version?

Gilan: Sh-short??

Will: Shit's f*cked.

Gilan: Okay, long.

Will: Shit's very f*cked.

---

Gilan: Let's just agree to both say we're sorry on the count of three.

Gilan: One... two... three.

Will: ...

Gilan: ...

Gilan: See, now I'm just disappointed in both of us.

---

Gilan: Hey Will, can you give me the opposite of these words?

Gilan: Always, Coming, From, Take, Me, Down.

Will: Never, Going, To, Give, You-

Will: The f***ing satisfaction.

---

Gilan, throwing a pokeball at Will: Will, I choose you!

Will, not looking up from their book and catching it: You need an Ultra ball to catch this Legendary Pokémon.

---

Gilan: Who hurt you?

Will: *snorting* What, do you want a list?

Gilan: ...Yes, actually.

---

Will : Here comes the lightning!

Will , whispering: You've got to imagine it coming out my fingertips, wherein I am an almighty wizard.

Crowley: Ok, currently imagining that. Hmm, not bad. Not bad at all.

---

Gilan: You look mentally ill.

Will : I am. Let’s go.

---

Gilan: Guys, they're definitely prepared for us. They even have a training model of our brand new top-secret stealth helicopter.

Will : No you idiot, that’s ours we crashed!

Gilan: Oh yeah. I guess that makes more sense

---

Crowley: Hey Halt, I’ve got an idea for how to solve this.

Halt, pulling out a shotgun: Yeah?

Crowley: Wh- No! That’s not the idea, Halt!

---

Crowley: Ow!

Halt: What’s wrong?

Crowley: I have this weird pain right above my eyebrow.

Halt: It’s called a stress headache. I got my first one when I was four.

---

Kidnapper: I have your partner.

Will: What? I don't have a partner...

Kidnapper: Then who just called me a lowlife and spit in my face?

Will: Oh my god, you have Gilan.

---

*Crowley and Will are in a car teetering on the edge of a cliff*

Crowley: oh my god, Will , backwards!

Will : Really, Crowley? I thought I might go forwards into the river, I thought that would be a fun thing to do.

Crowley: THIS REALLY AIN'T THE TIME FOR SARCASM.

---

Crowley: Where are your parents?

Will : What are parents?

Crowley: That’s just about the saddest thing I've ever heard.

---

Halt: I don't want to fight you!

Crowley: I wouldn't want you to fight me either!

---

Gilan: When you've been on the internet for as long as I have, you develop thick skin.

Will : Navy blue isn't your color.

Gilan: Navy blue brings out my eyes you little shit *Chases after Will *

---

Gilan: Do you even know what an amulet is?

Will : Of course I do! I eat amulets sometimes. I like the ones with cheese and onions!

Gilan: Will , those are omelettes.

Will : Oh. Then I’ve got nothing.

---

Will : Wanna get out of here and grab a bite to eat.

Horace: I don’t usually eat with losers.

Will : Neither do I but I asked you, didn’t I?

---

Will: Do you think different paints have different tastes?

Gilan : They do.

Halt: ...Why did you say that with such certainty?

---

Crowley: Not gonna lie, I'm kind of afraid of Will...

Halt: As you should be.

Crowley: No, for real, they're kind of-

Halt: As. You. Should. Be.

---

Halt: Sorry, I'm late to the party. I've been doing things.

Crowley, entering in an unbuttoned shirt: I got caught up doing things too.

Will: Wow, Halt was late too! What a coincidence!

---

Halt: *raises eyebrows*

Crowley: *screams* Put one down!

Halt: *raises one eyebrow*

Crowley: ah, yes, that better.

---

Will: *walking around disappointed after visiting an aquarium*

Gilan : Will, what did you think a tiger shark was?

---

Will: How do tall people people possibly sleep at night when the blanket can't possibly cover you?

Gilan : Will, it's four o'clock in the morning.

Will: So, you can't sleep, huh? Is it because of the blanket?

---

Gilan : I sleep with a gun under my pillow.

Will: I sleep with a knife.

Crowley: Both of you are pathetic.

Gilan : Oh yeah? What do you sleep with?

Crowley: Halt.

---

Crowley: We call that a traumatic experience.

Crowley, turning to Gilan : Not a "bruh moment".

Crowley, turning to Halt: Not "sadge".

Crowley, turning to Will: And DEFINITELY not an "oof LMAO".

---

Halt: That's ridiculous, Crowley doesn't have a crush on me.

Will: Yes they do.

Gilan : Yes they do.

Crowley: Yes I do.

---

Will: *eating a cinnamon roll*

Gilan: Cannibalism.

Will: *confused chewing noises*

---

Halt: Yesterday, I overheard Will saying “Are you sure this is a good idea?” and Crowley replying “Trust me,” and I have never moved from one room to another so quickly in my life.

---

Officer: What’s your name?

Gilan, whispering to Halt:Can I tell them my real name?

Halt: No!

Gilan: I’m… Halt.

Halt, whispering to themselves: The ONE TIME they get my name right…

---

Crowley: Guess what I'm about to get!

Halt: On my nerves.

---

Will: Someone’s trying to break in. Call the cops!

Gilan: *loads shotgun* I got this.

Will: Last week you fell up the stairs, what do you mean-

----------------------------------------------------------

Hope you liked it :)

[coulombury-conservatory]

tw: Pokemon mistreatment and abuse

It’s always nice to connect with other electric type Gym Leaders, but I always hope for it to be under good circumstances. This time, I was not so lucky.

Elesa, electric gym leader from Unova, reached out to me yesterday because she’d fought a trainer in her gym who clearly was not treating their Pokemon well. And, of course, when they lost the battle, they lashed out at their Pokemon and blamed them for their loss (despite the fact that Elesa could tell that they were actually very strong Pokemon, they just had a really bad trainer).

So Elesa couldn’t help but step in and confront them, mainly because she suspected abuse. And that naturally ended in a nasty confrontation during which, in their anger, they fully admitted to abusing their Pokemon. Thankfully, Elesa had the foresight to record the conversation for that exact reason, and the trainer had their Pokemon taken away from them, their trainer license rebuked, and they are also facing fines.

The real kicker was that the trainer had a full team, two of which just so happened to be electric types. Because the Pokemon were unfortunately confined to their balls way too much of the time (confirmed by a Beheeyem), they are not very close, and did not object at all to being separated. While the other four Pokemon are being sent to places that specialize in their care, I agreed to take in the two electric types.

Elesa was able to personally fly them here today with the help of her fiancee! She’s a good friend and it’s always nice to see her in person! This was also my first time meeting Skyla (Unova’s flying type gym leader) in person, and she was so sweet. I might make a separate post about how their visit went, because this one is a bit too serious for that.

Anyway, our two new intakes are a Blitzle (very young, clearly was the trainer’s most recent catch. I could tell Elesa was very bothered the trainer’s mistreatment of this little boy because of her own Zebstrika) and an Eelektrik.

Blitzle isn’t in terrible shape due to not having been with the trainer as long, but I suspect Eelektrik was one of the trainer’s earliest catches, unfortunately- lots of improperly healed injuries, plus more recent, clearly human-caused bruises and cuts.

Not to mention the fact that… she is TERRIFIED. I could tell almost instantly that she is very confused and very scared of humans. And I cannot even begin to blame her.

I set the room we kept the Wimpods in back up (with everything properly sanitized of course!) for her, with some differences of course. Couple power sources to give her access to some electricity, some rocks, and also the kiddie pool. And plenty of soft blankets! The rocks are set up so she has a little cave to hide in.

I also made an improvement in the time since the Wimpods left- I put a flap door in the door, so I don’t have to physically enter the room to fill the food bowl. I just will put it within arm’s reach so I can retrieve it.

The Blitzle, while also scared, is a lot less scared specifically of humans. I suspect he may have been either a trade or he may have come from a daycare- either/or. I may try and reach out to some places and see if anyone is familiar with him- we could get him returned to someplace he knows, whether that be with a human in some way or where he was originally found in the wild if that happens to be the case.

(It also helps that, while Eelektrik won’t let anyone near her, Elesa was able to get Blitzle to warm up to her in the short time he was in her care- so he is already getting used to the fact that not all humans are bad.)

Eelektrik will probably be with us for longer, so I can make sure she’s fully healed up. If she never warms up to anyone, that’s perfectly fine- we’ll get her back to the wild as soon as we can. Thankfully, in this case, transporting her won’t be too hard because I’ve been given both of their Pokeballs- that I am putting away somewhere safe and secure, as I won’t use them unless I absolutely must. And if they get released back to the wild, the balls will be broken.

All I know is that so long as I have a say in it, they won’t be hurt anymore. Hopefully I can convince them both that they’re safe now.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Pokemon Gen 1 Semi-Playthrough (Part 2)

For context on what this post is about please see the first part where I detail it.

Pokemon: Charmander.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Stage Hazard.

Moves: Flamethrower.

My feelings on it: When it comes to Charmander specifically, the only real strong feeling I have towards it is related to its appearance in the anime, with it being abandoned by a trainer who promised he’d return for it and it almost dying due to the fire on its tail going out. Due to this episode I tend to think a lot more about its tail fire than for its two evolutions, probably because it’s often portrayed as lot more mellow than them both. Beyond this I don’t have many more thoughts, it’s probably my least favourite of the three starters but it still has a distinctive look and isn’t one I dislike by any means.

How I caught it: Same method for the Kanto starters as I mentioned before, starting a game of Pokemon Blue on Virtual Console, getting to Viridian City and boxing it before using Pokemon Bank to transfer it to Ultra Moon.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: This is the first Pokemon on this list who appears only as a stage hazard. Technically I wouldn’t need to catch it in a Pokeball however for this challenge as I stated in another entry I stuck with Pokeballs and Masterballs for almost everything so unless I mention it, every background, stage hazard and spirit Pokemon on this list I still will go for in a regular Pokeball. Since Charmander’s a starter it doesn’t really matter anyway as it would have been more difficult not to have it in a regular Pokeball. The only other thing to note is the move I taught it of Flamethrower which I did through a TM once I’d transferred it to Ultra Moon, to match its attack as a stage hazard in Smash Bros.

Pokemon: Porygon.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Stage Hazard.

Moves: Tackle.

My feelings on it: Porygon is such an odd Pokemon, a man-made Pokemon created entirely out of programming code, I really like how it looks like an attempt using early 3D to create a simple bird or something. It’s a shame given its whole theme of being a Pokemon that can live in cyberspace there’s not been much done with it, often it appears in games as a gift or prize rather than being found in the wild. I really like the idea later Pokedex entries have of it being used to detect suspicious data in cyberspace, personally I feel like it would be really cool to see a game where interacting with a suspicious PC in some lab or powerplant has you encounter Porygon, similar to some of Rotom’s appearances. Of course, it’s impossible to talk about Porygon without at least referencing its infamous status where the only episode it appeared in of the anime was one which led to apparent hospitalizations in Japan due to flashing strobe effects causing seizure-like symptoms. Due to this the episode was banned and never released outside of Japan in any form, but as well as that Porygon seems to have also been denied any future appearance in any form of Pokemon animation aside from a couple of very brief cameos. I would say this reputation may be why it’s not been really available besides as a gift or prize in a fair few games, however it’s had two evolutions that appeared in later generations which were long after the controversy with the anime episode so if anything it’s had more attention than a few other Pokemon.

How I caught it: So, as I mentioned Porygon is often either a gift in games or a prize, in this case it was a prize, one which I’ve never gotten before because you have to raise 6500 Game Corner coins to get it and although I did enjoy playing the Game Corner slots as a kid, I never gave it much real focus. I looked up various tricks to help with winning money on the slots including the ‘luck factor’ (or something like that) which apparently can happen to certain specific machines. I did manage to get a couple of lucky machines and raised maybe 300 coins, but I soon realized if that was the results of getting a lucky machine in the game just how long this would take. In the end I caved in and did what most people I think do, I waited till I’d beaten the game and used the money I had to buy as many coins as I could. Because of my earlier win I believe it helped me manage to buy the amount I needed first time without having to rebattle the Elite 4 for more money so it wasn’t as irritating as I was anticipating.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: As a prize Pokemon Porygon is already in a regular Pokeball and Tackle was a move it already knew, so overall a very simple Pokemon for me once I got over actually getting the money needed for it.

Pokemon: Chansey.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Stage Hazard, Pokeball Pokemon, Trophy.

Moves: Soft-Boiled, Lucky Egg.

My feelings on it: Another cute Pokemon I like quite a bit. I’ve never had a Chansey in my party but it’s one I always want to try raising, especially in games where it’s not as hard to find (often as a result of its pre evolution being available) I’m not very knowledgeable about a lot of the stats but I know this Pokemon always has had a lot of HP. In a lot of games taking one down can be satisfying watching that HP slowly keep going down. I always find it interesting how when the other two pink cute Pokemon of Kanto (Jigglypuff and Clefairy) got pre evolutions in Gen 2, Chansey instead got an evolution with Blissey, and then in Gen 4 Chansey got its own pre evolution. Chansey was also the only one of the three to remain a Normal type with the other two either gaining a Fairy Type or becoming solely Fairy type.

How I caught it: I got very lucky, this is the very first Pokemon from the Safari Zone on this list and I happened to come across two of them when looking for another Pokemon, with I believe me managing to catch the second one. To explain the Safari Zone, it works differently to every other Pokemon encounter in Kanto, you have a limited amount of time to explore the Safari Zone and you cannot battle the Pokemon you come across. Pokemon in the Safari Zone can run away from you and your options are either using bait which makes them less likely to escape but also makes them harder to catch, throw a rock that makes them angry and more likely to flee but also makes them easier to catch and then there’s simply throwing a Safari Ball to attempt to catch them. As I said my first attempt failed but the second encounter ended in success for me, which is lucky because Chansey is one of the many rare Pokemon found in the Safari Zone and I had already been having a hard time with the others, so having to then find Chansey after spending so long on the others would have been even more draining.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Lucky for me, Safari Balls appear as regular Pokeballs in later games, due to this I didn’t have to worry about the Pokemon I caught not being in a regular Pokeball. Chansey only uses Soft-boiled in Smash Bros, a move it knew already when I caught it so beyond the actual difficulty to catch it, I didn’t have too much else to worry about. I later found out after reading through Chansey’s Trophy descriptions that the Lucky Egg is mentioned as a possible hold item for it, it wasn’t really needed but I felt giving Chansey one was a simple enough addition.

Pokemon: Gastly.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Enemy.

Moves: Night Shade/Toxic?

My feelings on it: The only ghost type Pokemon in Gen 1 (along with its evolutions), probably the biggest memory I have of Gastly is its original Pokemon Card. I remember how it was an early 3D style image with the very simple ball form Gastly has in front of an urban looking wall. Everytime I looked at that card it would always make me think of Wet Dry World from Super Mario 64 with the colour of the sky and that grey wall. It probably helped that Gastly reminded me of the ‘Flame Thrower’ which were just simple black spheres that shot fire in Super Mario 64 that also appeared in Wet Dry World. Beyond that out of the three of them, I felt Gastly was probably the least intimidating looking of its evolutionary line with a sort of happier and goofier feel to it, especially with what I remember of its English voice.

How I caught it: Gastly was fairly simple to catch with the only real issue being how I had to wait before being able to do so. You encounter Gastly fairly early in Lavender Town, however it will only appear disguised as a restless spirit. It’s only through getting the Silph Scope that requires you defeating Team Rocket’s boss for the first time you can actually identify them as Gastly which lets you finally battle and capture them. Once I did that I caught one pretty quickly.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: So once again I caught Gastly in a regular Pokeball, where things get complicated is deciding on what Gastly’s actual moveset should be. Despite appearing as an enemy in Smash Run on 3DS which you’d think would mean it’d use couple of moves, Gastly only ‘attacks’ by making you take damage when coming near it. From its trophy description it makes it sound like this is due to its poisons which to me implies the gas around it is Poison Gas. The problem with this however is despite Gastly being part Poison, it cannot ever learn Poison Gas. Due to this I decided to go with Night Shade which is an attack Gastly’s known for. Night Shade doesn’t really work for the way Gastly damages enemies in Smash Run as it is something that uses a mirage to damage foes rather than being anything to do with its gas. The only alternative I can think of that Gastly can learn is Toxic although it’s not as fitting as Poison Gas would have been. In Smash Run Gastly is not affected by physical attacks and can only be hurt by ranged attacks or items, this is in reference to Ghost types in Pokemon not being affected by Normal type moves so it was not anything I really needed to teach Gastly as it’s a natural ability it has.

Pokemon: Snorlax.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Pokeball Pokemon, Spirit.

Moves: Bodyslam, Leftovers, Rest, Snore.

My feelings on it: Snorlax is probably one of the most famous Pokemon with it often being referenced in memes and things in the modern day. For my own personal history with it I’ve used Snorlax a fair few times, in the past because when you find it it’s a fairly good level for that stage in the game and when I got older because I realised it was still a good Pokemon to use without really falling off later. It might be due to this I feel I’ve used Snorlax too often at this point and so even if it’s reliable I’m probably a bit tired of it. Snorlax gained a pre-evolution which might have made it a little more interesting to me in later games (I always enjoy having Pokemon that will evolve just for the thrill of feeling I’m watching my team members grow as the journey goes on) but I will detail in Munchlax’s entry later down the line why that never really panned out.

How I caught it: Snorlax is fairly infamous for its role as a roadblock, sleeping on a road in order to prevent you from skipping ahead. It’s only with the Pokeflute you’re able to awaken Snorlax and battle it in order to catch it. There are only two that can be found in Kanto and due to this I always try to catch both regardless of whether I plan on using it or not. In this case I managed to catch both of them and one I’d use often for HM moves later in the game.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: So being a Pokeball Pokemon, I caught it in a regular Pokeball. Snorlax uses the attack Body Slam which from what I remember it learnt fairly easily if it didn’t know it from when I first caught it. The main issue I had with Snorlax was relating to its spirit battle. The spirit battle references its appearance sleeping on a bridge in Kanto with it being a giant King K Rool who stands still on a bridge. This wasn’t something I really had to consider when deciding on attributes for the Snorlax, however what I did have to take into account was K Rool will slowly regain health which is a reference to Leftovers, an item Snorlax in the wild tends to carry where it will slowly heal itself a little each turn using these Leftovers. This item is not in Gen 1 and can be found in Ultra Moon carried by wild Snorlax and Munchlax. Due to this I had to track down a Munchlax then use Thief with my Weavile to hope to steal the item, still it wasn’t too difficult and I soon had Leftovers for Snorlax. I thought that was the end of what I needed to do, however after reading through Snorlax’s Trophy descriptions, I came across mention of it using Rest and Snore, so I had to use a Heart Scale to teach it Snore whilst luckily Snorlax already knew Rest.

Pokemon: Mew.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Pokeball Pokemon, Trophy.

Moves: Fly, Transform.

My feelings on it: The first Pokemon that wasn’t obtainable in-game and had to be gotten from a special event in the series. Mew has a lot of notable history with it being related to the iconic and fan-favourite Mewtwo, being prominent in the very first movie and being the subject of an infamous playground rumour relating to a inaccessible truck at the port of the SS Anne which was rumoured to have Mew underneath it. Mew was also obtainable through the use of glitches in Gen 1, of which there are far too many and have a lot of steps to achieve to the point I don’t really want to go through them all here. I do vaguely remember going to the house of someone I knew from school in order to get a clone (another glitch) of his Mew, so I did have it back in the original game, however I don’t remember really using it for much and I’m sure I’ve lost that specific Mew now.

How I caught it: You may notice in the picture above unlike the others so far, the background isn’t Indigo Plateau but in fact Lumiose City. This is because this Mew is from a mystery gift event in Pokemon X and Y I did years ago. I cannot remember the details of this Mew but as it was the only option I had for Mew in any form I had to make do with it. There was a way to get Mew for a period in the Virtual Console release of the Gen 1 games, but I missed the date for that so could not get it unfortunately.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Due to this Pokemon being a Mystery Gift one, it is in a Cherish Ball specifically rather than a regular Pokeball. This is irritating for me because Mew is specifically a Pokemon found either in a Pokeball or Masterball in Smash, however I had no real other option so I just had to settle for what I could get. Luckily the only move it uses, Fly (which is just because it simply flies off when appearing in Smash) was simple to teach it. What wasn’t as simple however and was something I forgot it could actually learn is what was mentioned in one of its Trophy descriptions, that being the move Transform. Luckily this was solved with a simple Heart Scale.

Pokemon: Vulpix.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Pokeball Pokemon.

Moves: Ember.

My feelings on it: One of my favourite Pokemon and on what I consider my main personal Kanto team. For Ninetails I always loved how mysterious it felt as a kid before I knew more of what it was based on etc. I always vividly remember the episode of the anime where a really old one appeared using illusions on Brock because he reminded her of her old Master. Speaking of Brock, Vulpix was probably one of the oddest of his Pokemon joining him for a long time on their journey to the point it felt like it was Brock’s main Pokemon, yet after having it a long time he returned it to the breeder who first asked him to travel with it saying he knew he was only ever borrowing it. It’s due to this I found it interesting how twice Brock seemed to have something to do with the Vulpix line in the early anime. One final note I want to make as it probably relates to Vulpix the most of all the Pokemon on my list, is I will cover Alolan counterparts when I get to Gen 7 Pokemon. I am glad however they decided to give both Alolan Vulpix and the original Vulpix appearances as Pokeball Pokemon in Smash.

How I caught it: Because I like Vulpix and often catch one for my team I always remember the route it’s on. This time I remember deciding to hunt for it in a patch of grass that required cut to access rather than the grass just outside of Celadon City. Tracking one down didn’t take too long and it was fairly easy to capture.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Being a Pokeball Pokemon I caught it in a regular Pokeball and Ember’s a move it already knew from what I remember so overall it was another fairly simple Pokemon.

Pokemon: Goldeen.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Pokeball Pokemon, Trophy.

Moves: Splash? Horn Drill, Megahorn.

My feelings on it: Oh boy, so for my thoughts on Goldeen, I think it has a nice design and I always remember Seaking because of old memes, beyond that though it’s one of many forgettable water types to me in all honesty. With that said, this is probably the biggest example of Smash Bros taking inspiration from the anime rather than the games with Goldeen acting exactly how Magikarp is meant to. This decision seems to be based on Misty’s Goldeen in the anime often being useless when used on land but it still being the case even in Smash Ultimate I feel must be some sort of inside joke at this point. I always remembered wondering if Goldeen landed in water when swimming was first added in the Smash series whether it would gain any ability like suddenly being able to use Megahorn or something (a rumour it seems possibly came from Megahorn and Horn Drill being mentioned in some Trophy entries) but when I finally managed to get one in the water I realised it was just as useless. It’s a shame as I feel like it would have been neat with it being in the series for so long if they added some secret to it, but as it is it’s the Smash Bros version of the Dud.

How I caught it: It’s fairly simple to catch when you get the Good Rod and in some cases with the Super Rod too, I’m fairly sure I caught one shortly after getting one of the two but it definitely wasn’t one I remember.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Caught in a Pokeball, the problem is however, similarly to what I said about how Goldeen is essentially in Magikarps role in Smash Bros, the ‘attack’ Goldeen uses of Splash is an attack Magikarp also uses, however it is one Goldeen simply cannot learn in any Pokemon game. Due to this, I have a situation where I simply cannot teach Goldeen this move so honestly that’s all I can really do for it. The worst part is Goldeen got a spirit battle in Ultimate, but the only thing this battle references is Goldeen being able to swim and splash attack again. Goldeen’s never been some amazing Pokemon but the only character I think really gets it anywhere near as bad in the Smash series as a whole is Starfy, and at least he can attack. One final thing I’d like to add which I’ve only just learnt myself thanks to the Smash Bros Wiki, which apparently came from the Japanese official Smash Bros website Smabura-Ken is that Sakurai chose Goldeen over Magikarp because he wanted to use Goldeen’s voice from the anime rather than Magikarps. It’s funny to me hearing this given how much there seems to be a focus on keeping stuff in later Smash Bros faithful to their source. I definitely prefer keeping it closer to the source (I mean, it’d ruin the point of this whole thing I’m doing if they completely disregarded the source material) but it’s still a funny thing to hear as being the reason behind Goldeen’s long running role. Now after saying all that, I have to take a little bit of it back because after reading through the Trophy entries for Goldeen I found Horn Drill and Megahorn actually mentioned. Due to this I taught Goldeen both these attacks which at least gives it something, although this still doesn’t really change how it’s always been in gameplay in the Smash Bros series.

Pokemon: Ditto.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Pokeball Pokemon.

Moves: Transform.

My feelings on it: My feelings in the past on Ditto, it’s an odd Pokemon, it has a really cool ability to Transform that makes it unique even amongst Pokemon now with only the exception of Mew, however I’ve always felt that ability is way too risky to be something I’d actually want to use on my team. My feelings now when doing this whole thing are that Ditto is one of the most essential Pokemon of all time because it has helped me breed so many Pokemon I need for my list. It is thanks to this Pokemon here I’ve gotten as far as I have with my list, so I must say thank you Ditto for your service. Also it’s funny to me the anime episode where a Ditto couldn’t transform properly because it always ended up keeping the same face seems to be a thing a lot of spinoffs like to make be a regular part of Ditto transformations, to the point I believe there’s a plush line of Pokemon with a Ditto face.

How I caught it: From what I remember, because I was playing Pokemon Yellow, Ditto was available in fewer places than in other games and therefore I decided to wait till I was in Cerulean Cave to get it. I believe I managed to catch one on the way to Mewtwo so luckily I didn’t have to hunt it down later.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Caught in a Pokeball, Ditto can only learn Transform so I had nothing else to really worry about.

Pokemon: Eevee (Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon)

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Pokeball Pokemon, Spirit Battle.

Moves: Take Down. (Flamethrower, Wild Charge, Water Gun)

My feelings on it: Eevee is such an interesting Pokemon, not just because of its main gimmick of being able to evolve into multiple different Pokemon (with more added in later generations) but also because it’s managed to go from an interesting unique Pokemon to rivalling Pikachu when it comes to popular Gen 1 Pokemon with the versions of Pokemon Let’s Go that came out having Pikachu as the starter in one and Eevee as the starter in the other. Probably the biggest reason I see cited for this is that Eevee is cute and unlike with Pikachu’s evolution Raichu (I feel really bad putting down my favourite here) all the Eeveelutions feel more like Eevee as a different type rather than a bigger stronger Eevee like most evolutions. When it comes to the three Eeveelutions from Gen 1, I think Jolteon’s probably my favourite, however because I almost always go for Raichu when I play through the Kanto games I usually don’t go for Jolteon. Vaporeon is probably the Eeveelution I go for most often because it’s a decent choice for a water type. Flareon from what I gather has had a tough time in a lot of games due to its somewhat limited movepool not really playing to its strengths, granted this is me going by what I’ve heard listening to various youtube videos and again I’m really not up on a lot of the stats for Pokemon etc. Either way, I’d probably go for Vulpix or Growlithe over Flareon everytime.

How I caught it: In order to do this list I required Four Eevees from Kanto, in the Kanto games the only way to get an Eevee is the one you find in Celadon City. Due to this and knowing this problem would come up for my list I made sure everytime I played through a Kanto game, whether Blue or Yellow to transfer the Eevee to Ultra Moon. With this I can tell by the names Vaporeon was from my own personal playthrough of Blue a few years ago with the others being ones I’ve gotten when playing through the games again for my Smash playthroughs. Luckily, I’ve managed to work things out to the point I’ve never had to specifically restart and play through the game for any of them.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: So firstly regarding Eevee, it will always be in a Pokeball as it can only be gotten as a Pokeball found in Celadon City. Take Down just required a bit of training to level 25 which didn’t take long. This entry is different from others for a very specific reason, Jolteon, Flareon and Vaporeon don’t actually appear themselves in the Smash Bros series, however in Eevee’s spirit battle, alongside the Pokeball Pokemon Eevee is a Red Yoshi, a Blue Yoshi and a Yellow Yoshi. The Blue Yoshi doesn’t have any weapon but the Yellow Yoshi has a Screw Attack item and the Red Yoshi starts off with the Curry effect breathing fire. These three are obvious references to Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon respectively and therefore I chose to count them for my list. Jolteon I taught Wild Charge to match the close range attribute of the Screw Attack, Flareon I taught Flamethrower for obvious reasons and for Vaporeon, despite not really having any sort of water attack represented I chose to teach it Water Gun to match the obvious theming.

Pokemon: Abra.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Pokeball Pokemon.

Moves: Teleport.

My feelings on it: Abra is another one of the Pokemon I have on my personal Kanto team, it can cause some issues due to Kadabra requiring a trade to evolve but I’ve still managed to finish the game with Kadabra on my team unevolved. Abra alone however isn’t the easiest to raise, it can be taught other moves through TMs but in my opinion especially when TMs are single use in Gen 1 it’s not worth teaching Abra anything before it evolves. Due to this Abra requires being used first then switched out to get exp so can feel a bit of a burden, Kadabra however makes it all worth it. I’m a fan of the whole line and I do like the design of Abra a lot but it’s definitely the one you have to put up with to get to the good stuff. Probably the most notable aspect of Abra specifically is that it only knows Teleport, so when you track one down in the wild, unless you can freeze it or put it to sleep your best bet is to just throw a Pokeball first move, if it gets a chance it will escape immediately otherwise.

How I caught it: I was anticipating Abra being a real pain to catch, but beyond taking a bit of time to track down, I actually caught the second one I found fairly easily.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: Abra’s a Pokeball Pokemon so I managed to catch it in a regular Pokeball. Teleport is it’s only move in the wild so similarly to Ditto I didn’t have anything else I really needed to do.

Pokemon: Lapras.

Region: Kanto.

Role in Smash Bros series: Spirit.

Moves: Surf.

My feelings on it: Lapras is a pretty memorable Pokemon, it’s often associated with the move Surf, specifically it’s use outside of battle for allowing humans to ride on it over water. Due to how it’s found in the Kanto games it’s one of those Pokemon that are assumed to be found by everyone and likely owned similar to Snorlax, although unlike with Snorlax it’s a gift Pokemon. It’s likely due to this that Red as an NPC trainer in later games was given a Lapras replacing his Espeon that only appeared in his battle in the original Gen 2 games. Lapras also benefited somewhat from its anime appearance as it fulfilled a unique role in the anime only arc set in the Orange Islands where Ash caught it and would ride with his friends on its back from island to island. Despite having such a prominent role as a Pokemon on Ash’s team it was one he ended up releasing, so beyond the odd cameo it didn’t really appear again. I believe because of it appearing during the height of the anime’s popularity that it helped keep Lapras prominent and likely is why it was chosen as the Pokemon spirit that could travel across the ocean in Smash Ultimate (besides it being the most famous Pokemon for that role.) As for my own memories of Lapras, it’s always something very specific which is the first time I saw it, all I could think about was Dorrie from Super Mario 64. I doubt I’d have thought that with Dorrie’s modern design but it’s original design definitely felt closer to Lapras and it takes me back to when I used to make up games as a kid inside the games I was playing, in this case I used to ride around on Dorrie in SM64 pretending it was Lapras and I was a trainer. I don’t want to make this entry even longer and I forget if I’ve mentioned this sort of ‘role-playing’ I used to do in previous posts now, but I will almost certainly end up going over this stuff in a later post.

How I caught it: As I said in the last section, Lapras is a Pokemon it’s hard to miss as it’s given to you by a Silph Co Employee just after beating your rival and before you take on Giovanni, so unless you avoid talking to the only other person in the room at the time you’re not going to miss Lapras.

Specific aspects from Smash Bros: As a gift Pokemon Lapras is always in a Pokeball when you get it in Gen 1 as well as Fire Red and Leaf Green. Teaching Lapras Surf is simple enough so there’s only one other attribute really that Lapras has in Smash Bros due to its spirit battle is a weapon resist which according to the Smash Wiki references Shell Armour. Naturally I’ve found the Lapras I have has Hydration which is it’s hidden ability instead after checking. If I wanted to change that I can use an Ability Capsule which costs more than the megastones do in BP, however as Lapras has its Hidden Ability I don’t really want to change that so I’ll leave it as it is.

Credits.

For information on this game I used to research relating to attributes such as movesets etc for Pokemon I must give credit to Bulbapedia, Serebii and SmashWiki.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using the Photo Club feature in Pokemon Ultra Moon, screenshots using Nintendo Switch in Super Smash Bros Ultimate and screenshots in Smash Run on Super Smash Bros 3DS.

[ihaveatheoryonthat]

Every Day Took an Age

Note: This is unfinished and I likely won’t be returning to it. It features scenes out of context, ends abruptly and is littered with placeholders/notes. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, you’re better off skipping this.

This was also the very first piece of writing I tackled in this subfandom, so if anything feels especially off, that’s why.

---

The girl took one look at them and her expression cleared. There was the surprise at what she was seeing, of course-- perhaps mitigated by her own circumstance-- but it quickly turned into recognition. Not just recognition in the sense of ‘you have the same face as my friend’; there was something else there.

“You’re the man who likes winning more than anything else.” She said. It was, notably, not a question.

It should have been. That was an outlook Emmet himself had been forced to reconsider over the months.

When she was finished casting a critical eye over him, her attention settled on his face, “Your name is Emmet, isn’t it?”

“I am Emmet.” He [agreed], “How did you come by that name?”

Her eyes slid away, to somewhere beyond his shoulder, cheeks turning pink, “I tripped last week, and accidentally launched a Pokeball right past Ingo’s head. It only knocked his hat off, but I get why he was startled-- I wouldn’t want a high-velocity apricorn that close to my face, either.” / “That was what he yelled: ‘Emmet’. He says a lot of stuff he doesn’t really understand, but...”

[...]

“Be gentle.” She said seriously, “He’s… a little like a Rampardos right now, I think-- super strong, but at the cost of being a lot more fragile than you’d guess.”

---

The sounds of a battle echoed down through their tunnel and, though she hid her trepidation well, Akari’s expression tensed. Wordlessly, she sped up.

“The battle platform is at full capacity, sir. I’m afraid I have to insist that you settle for a later departure time.”

Though they’d already increased their clip, Emmet redoubled it, the steady rhythm of battle compensating for his unfamiliarity with the cave system.

He rounded the corner in sync with a firm, “Sir, if you refuse to follow the guidelines, I will, regrettably, be forced to take matters into my own hands,” and made it to the mouth of the cavern just in time to see a figure dart away, a familiar coat billowing behind them as they wove through the battlefield.

Neither of them had ever been much for triple battles—they were difficult to run properly as a two car train-- but it seemed his brother had reconsidered in the past few months. In the chamber before him, six Pokemon faced off against one another, not counting the would-be freighthopper, and Emmet instinctively gauged the matchups. It took all of two seconds. He redirected his attention to where it really belonged, and choked out a silent laugh, beaming.

Because there he was. That was Ingo.

Pinning a Machoke to the ground.

To be entirely fair, his brother had given it ample warning.

Behind himself, Emmet heard rapid footfalls approaching, and Akari skidded to a halt several paces beyond where he’d stalled. She swore under her breath and a hand dropped to her belt, “Where do you need me?”

“Please remain seated, Miss Akari,” Ingo called back with a surprising amount of restraint, pausing long enough to shift the Machoke into a headlock while doling out a new round of instructions, “This battle is running in accordance with the timetables; we’ll arrive at a scheduled victory momentarily.”

“But those are--! How did you even piss off three alphas at once?!”

Ah. Well, that explained her alarm, Emmet supposed, but he wasn’t convinced it would turn the tides of this battle-- and if Ingo didn’t see any reason to worry, Emmet simply would not.

To the far left, the Golem squaring up against a Tangrowth rolled back in a dead faint.

He might not have known what Pokemon were native to the area, but it was easy to tell which ones had been trained under his brother’s hand, and that all three had been selected specifically to fend off the species which would frequent a mountain. No, it wasn’t just easy to tell-- it was laughably obvious.

So laugh was exactly what Emmet did.

Ingo’s head snapped up, looking directly at him, lips parted as if to say something. It was hardly the time, so Emmet headed it off with a sharp, eager smile and a single word:

“Win.”

For just a second, there was a flash of recollection before Ingo narrowed his eyes; as he said, he’d already had this in hand, but Emmet had just turned it into a challenge.

[...]

Almost as an afterthought, he released the Machoke’s limp form. It was fine-- he’d ended the stranglehold some time previously-- but it did flop down with an audible thud. Then he looked up, as if to ensure that nobody had gone anywhere, and made his way over, eyes never wavering from his destination.

It was absolutely no surprise that he came to a stop in front of Emmet, several polite steps away.

“I know you. You’re important.” He said, quiet, but with an intensity that matched some of his most ear shattering announcements.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Emmet crossed the distance his brother had left and seized both hands in his own. “No, I am Emmet. Whether or not I am important is negligible. At this juncture, the important thing is that you are Ingo. And you are here.”

For just a moment, Ingo’s attention lingered on their hands before shifting back to Emmet’s face. His mouth twitched in something most people wouldn’t bother to call a smile. “I suppose I am both of those things, but please do not downplay your own [importance] like that. Each car is just as vital as the next.”

[...]

Whether or not he realized what he was doing, he slotted in at Emmet’s left side-- and Emmet, for his part, automatically mirrored his brother as Ingo began to point their path. Ingo faltered briefly, taking their arrangement in, then cleared his throat and began anew.

“Now I believe it’s time to return to station; please take measures against becoming uncoupled from the group,”

“Follow the rules.” Emmet added, grin threatening his cheeks, “Safe driving!”

“All aboard!” They said in unison, and started back down the tunnels.

“Holy shit.” Said Akari.

Ingo didn’t look back as he [idk], “Miss Akari.”

“Yeah. My bad.”

---

There was a Pokemon waiting for them at the mouth of the cave, one hand resting on a cocked hip and a single, long feather fluttering in the breeze coming down the river.

“My lady.” Ingo greeted her warmly, unfazed as she invited herself into what was currently his and Emmet’s shared personal space. As had been the case with every individual Emmet had encountered, she gave him a critical once-over and, once she seemed satisfied, looked to Ingo, a visible smirk playing over her features.

“I’m well aware.” He said. The warmth wasn’t gone, but tempered by [fond exasperation]. Perhaps to bury it, he turned in toward Emmet and took a step back, making way for a direct view of their procession. “We are currently hosting several first time passengers. Emmet and Miss Elesa have taken great pains to visit, so please afford them the hospitality you’ve showed me.”

The Pokemon glanced down the line, offered a singular nod, and then back to Ingo, eyes narrowed mischievously.

“I may have misspoken. There are certain hospitalities I don’t believe our guests would appreciate.”

She raised a clawed hand and snickered behind it.

“Yes. Thank you for your patience.” This time, the words rang somewhat hollow-- still fond, but exasperated

---

“Wait,” Elesa cut in, a smile beginning to crack her features, “The old man from the Pearl Clan you mentioned…?”

“Perhaps your own eyesight is failing you, hm?” Melli asked, “He hasn’t managed to forget where he is and wander off yet. You should make the most of that.”

Briefly, Emmet glanced to his brother, trying to take a cue from however Ingo might be reacting, and was met with a neutral frown. Unbothered, but also wholly uninterested. This man was difficult patron, perhaps, although no worse than he’d expected to be met with.

“I’ll bite.” [Elesa] “How old are you then, Warden Melli?”

[w/e]

“Mmmhmm. Lemme tell you a little secret,” She said, leaning in and wagging a finger to point between the twins, “Those two? They’re 27 years old.”

Melli followed her gesture [adj], considering what that might imply for himself. “Well. I suppose that proves that not all of us can age gracefully.”

[...]

Elesa watched him go, one brow arched, and, as he vanished into the tunnels, turned to her friends.

“We’re working on your image when we get back to the village.” She told Ingo, not unkindly, “I’m not letting that guy have the last word on this, but you do look like you spend all your time in a cave.”

He spread his hands in a broad shrug, “If I may, the Highlands boast the finest cave systems in all of Hisui.”

“A tunnel connoisseur, I see.” She snorted, before reflecting on her own words and sobering minutely. “Ah.”

---

As they crossed the threshold into the village, Akari’s hand shot out and snatched Ingo’s, and she immediately started pulling him towards an enclosure.

“I know we just got here, but I’ve gotta show this off. Can you set up Unown’s Path of Solitude for me?”

“Of course,” He managed, once his brain caught up and kept him from being dragged in her wake. She released him as they reached the pasture, and he turned toward the southern gate, “I’ll be just a moment. Please make any preparations and meet me on the loading platform.”

Emmet immediately made to follow, but Akari snagged the edge of his coat. “Nope. It’s a surprise.” She handed the handful of fabric off to Elesa and held a brief conversation with the woman manning the enclosure, running a thumb over one of the rustic Pokeballs as she returned to them.

There was a sharp whistle to the south, loud enough to make itself known over the din of Nimbasa’s commute; here, it rang clearly across the entire village.

“Battling helped before, so maybe this will do him some good now that you guys are here.”/ “This is just the funniest way to do it.”

[...]

Lords above, Ingo had been trying so hard without even realizing what he was doing. Slinking through cave systems until he could navigate them offhand, raising Pokemon in a culture where humanity teetered on uneasy cohabitation with their neighbors, even hosting a battle facility when the number of returning challengers could be counted on one hand.

---

[after the Unown bit, they all ready/swap in for a multi battle]

“You didn’t use Earthquake.” He said, disbelieving, “You’ve been catching Eelektross in the crossfire for years. You chose now to break the streak?”

“It wouldn’t have worked. Gliscor isn’t Haxorus.” Ingo said, and immediately frowned to himself.

Emmet didn’t seem to catch what had happened, “Even now, you understand the source of the malfunction. That leaves one explanation. You have been doing it on purpose.”

“You’re going to have to find a counter strategy someday.”

“Not. If you stop using Earthquake. On the Multi Train.”

“And if someone decides to employ the combination in Doubles? What would you do then?”

“Then they would also affect their own Pokemon. It’s a double edged sword. As you have demonstrated.”

[...]

He pinched the bridge of his nose and tilted his head back, exasperated. “Emmet.”

Emmet did his best to mimic the tone as he [idk] back, “Ingo.”

There was a terse silence. Or so Emmet assumed.

“Wh- wait. Emmet?”

Or… maybe it was confusion?

When he dropped the [not act but idk] and opened his eyes, something had changed-- and not just the fact that Ingo had gone from exasperatedly [w/e] to looking directly at him.

There was a level of comprehension there that, until now, had been missing.

He had exactly two seconds to process that fact. Then Ingo crossed the gap between them at a speed that was frightening, even for a conductor, and lifted him right up off of his feet.

“You are Emmet!”

Ingo was smiling.

Not the usual crinkle of his eyes at a bad joke or [adj] slant of his brows. Not even the faint downturn of the lips that most people would take as mild disappointment. He was beaming up at his twin with a [idk] beyond what Emmet himself saw in the mirror.

Someone sobbed. After a second, Emmet realized he, himself, had been the source.

---

“Battle Subway? Like… the Battle Frontier?” / “Are you telling me your Unova’s Frontier Brains?”

Unfortunately, she’d instinctively directed the question toward the twin she was more familiar with, who gave her a dull look.

“You know perfectly well that I’m unable to give that kind of inquiry a satisfactory answer.”

---

“Ingo, honey,” She said, [idk], “You’re the sweetest man I know, but you look like you’re about to carry out a hit for the Sneasel mafia and dispose of the evidence.”

There was a long silence, during which time Ingo tried to puzzle out a response. He eventually landed on, “That’s… just my face.”

“If that was true, Emmet would look like a maniac 24/7.”

“Sometimes the truth is painted on the subway walls, I’m afraid.” He deadpanned.

Whatever Elesa had been about to say was lost to the slow release of air as she tried not to laugh.

“I am beginning to rethink this expedition.”

[prof-peach]

i don't have a partner pokemon. all the other people my age have found theirs already, and i'm starting to feel like i'm running out of time. i've caught plenty of pokemon (released soon after, or given to people who connected with them), but i've never had that bond that makes a partner pokemon so special. how will i know when a pokemon is right for me? should i be out looking for specific pokemon or should i wait for the right one to come to me? please help! - Confused in Castelia City

buddy, let me tell you, theres no right age to find that one true partner. We often see the high energy youngsters finding their perfect pokemon, its a common thing, usually done at age 10 by SOME professors, not all mind you. We however overlook the huge demographic of trainers who bond to pokemon later in life, its an unspoken fact, that some people just take a bit more time to find the right fit, and thats not a bad thing at all. statistically kids at that 10 year age mark who get pokemon often have to rehome or give away pokemon they receive due to their lack of experience, money, time or a collection of other reasons such as health issues, housing arrangement changes, schooling changes, evolution issues. Theres a whole host of reasons, and its WAY more common for this to hit the younger generation than the slightly older. 

I personally don’t know why 10 was the chosen age, a lot of kids aren't quite ready for the huge responsibility that comes with keeping a pokemon healthy and happy, and caring for something with huge power and dangerous move sets. I don’t usually allow young kids of that age to even adopt without a VERY strong bond being shown, and proof of their knowledge and skill to care for the pokemon thats chosen them, OR a responsible family member who is able and willing to help them learn and care for the pokemon should they be an easier species to handle.  

You know who takes a lot of our pokemon? Old folks, middle ages people, those who have suffered great loss, or are feeling like then need company in what i’d deem a quite hostile and often lonely world that we exist in. Literally just this week we’ve seen a Linoon with a missing leg go to a lovely home with a young couple, neither of which had pokemon of their own, they must have been 30-ish years old. There was a Jumpluff who took a liking to an elderly lady who stopped by for her usual visit, and bonded to her eventually over the course of several interactions and a discovery of their shared interests, now they live together and keep each other company. 

I can promise you theres no such thing as “too late” to make a good friend. 

I advise you do things you truly love to do, go places you enjoy being, and see what comes up to you during this time. A pokemon is often drawn to energy that matches their own, and if you're doing things you like a lot, and they also enjoy those things, then you can start a relationship on even ground with shared interests. Catching pokemon from the wild, especially when your wandering and hunting for them means you've usually approached them, or at least intervened in their normal life, as opposed to you hanging out and waiting for them to come to you. Its starting a relationship on different premises than what you've been doing so far from the sounds of it, and I suggest giving it a good try. 

Patience is very important, rushing a friendship, or pushing a perfect match just doesn't yield effective results, but sharing food, laughing together, finding shared interests, enjoying the same songs, or that park or mall you enjoy the most, maybe swimming? a good walk or a nap in the sun? whatever it is that makes you happy, just do that stuff. Leave pokeballs at home. This process isn't about catching a pokemon, its about making a friend, and if they like you, come back, try to find them again, bring a treat, talk with them, just be an actual friend. Only when they're open to the idea should you bring up a ball and catching, its quite limiting, and not all pokemon want that kind of lifestyle, that doesn't mean they don’t like you, it just isn't a choice they may be interested in at that point in time. A good friend respects their buddies wishes, so listen to them and who knows, they may come round to it in time, or be totally open to it if they like you, and you two find common ground!

whats for you wont miss you, the right fit is out there, and i promise you, wether you find a perfect buddy at 10 or 100, they'll love you, you'll love them, thats all that matters at the end of the day. Good luck, do what you love, something will find that interesting for sure!

[savebatsfromscratch]

Just a little bit brighter and I could head home (a little less blood would be nice too)

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42319995

-

Summary: Yellow gets injured in the middle of the Viridian Forest (far away from her house) and has to heal herself and set up shop for the night.

Note: Yes I know Yellow can heal people with her magic power. I’m pretending that she can’t, just for this fic. (Or maybe she can’t??? It’s actually very unclear, she seems to be able to in later canon, but that was also a random drawing for the anniversary and might not be canon… whatever she CAN’T heal people in this fic.)  

Disclaimer: I have genuinely no idea how to use the first aid I was talking about. This may be inaccurate.

Cws and Tws: Injury, broken bone, a bit of blood, stranded (but she’ll be fine)

Words: 1,070

Prompt: “911, WHAT’S YOUR EMERGENCY?” | Sloppy Bandages | Self-Done First Aid | Makeshift Splint

-

Chapter text (below cut):

“Ow!” Yellow yelped. Her arm was suddenly burning like it had been set aflame. ‘How?!’ she wondered, shocked as her knees buckled and she crumpled in on herself, ‘What happened? I’m out of the battle, aren’t I?’

She instinctively reached for Kitty’s Pokeball, but drew her arm back, remembering the disastrous battle she had only just escaped from. (Being a Butterfree, Kitty could use String Shot, which Yellow commonly used to heal herself.) Kitty had unfortunately been knocked out in the battle, which, Yellow realized, left her not only without bandages, but without flight as well.

Maybe this was a side effect of some attack that had been used on her. (Her mind was rushing too much to think of any now, but she was sure there were at least a couple that had delayed effects like this.) But before she could calm herself at all, her arm went entirely numb.

She bit back a swear word and stumbled painfully over to a large oak tree. (Specifically the roots, as there were two huge roots that stuck up fairly high.) Yellow knew from experience that such things could help keep her warm in the night. (Blocking wind and all that.) Unfortunately, as she was struggling with the few feet over to the tree, she could already tell that she was going to need it. As she doubted her ability to make it home tonight. 

She knew she should be using her magic to heal Kitty (and her other Pokemon, but Kitty was the one who could fly them all to safety, so they were the priority), but the pain in her legs was getting worse by the second. When she had run from the battle, she hadn’t felt any pain at all, so she could only assume that what she was feeling was a psychic Pokemon’s “Future Sight,” or maybe a really really late hitting Pursuit. (Or at least, those were the first two ideas to pop into her head.)

She grit her teeth and braced her back against the truck on the tree, grabbing at her left calf with her one working arm. (The other was lying limply at her side. Maybe this was two attacks? The pain was very different between her legs and her arm.) ‘Ow,’ she thought to herself, somehow finding complaints in her thoughts instead of ways out of the situation, ‘Maybe it hasn’t fully sunk in yet?’ 

She let go of her leg (and didn’t miss the slight relief that the pressure had brought leaving it) and reached for her bag. In it she knew that she had a first aid kit as well as a couple potions. (Of course, she hardly ever used such items because between her and Kitty, her team was pretty set health wise.) Unfortunately she didn’t have very high level potions, at least not enough of them to heal both her and her team, and with her state, she couldn’t spare the energy to heal her team with her magic either.

She didn’t want to pass out in the middle of a forest. Especially not injured, alone, and at night. She opened the first aid kit, noting that it was oddly difficult (or maybe it wasn’t that odd, given that she was only able to use one arm), and began to work her leg with the bandage. With horror, she noticed that the bone was sticking strangely out. Her leg was broken. (And with another mini shock, she noted a smudge of red on her hand when she brought it back. She was bleeding as well.)

She scanned the area, searching for a proper stick that was within arms reach. Her legs were clearly not fit to walk on anymore, and she had to wonder if she had been poisoned somewhere in the battle. (She was now up to a possible psychic type, a dark type, and a poison type. It was possible, if somewhat unlikely, given the darkness that the battle had taken place in, she had been unable to see anything. ChuChu hadn’t managed to master Flash quite yet.)

There! She dragged herself out of her thoughts as she half threw, half pushed herself over the root to drab a nearby stick. It was flexible enough that she would be able to get it into position, but strong enough that it wouldn’t snap. She pulled herself back into her original position, hearing the stick tap against the root as the forest around her darkened further.

She could do this. 

She checked her pant leg again (momentarily placing the stick on the ground beside her so that her arm could move freely), and noticed that her bleeding did not appear to be slowing at all. She groaned and got to work, first pressing the stick against her leg (she did not have the strength to pull her pant leg up) and then sandwiching it between the root and her leg as she got the bandage ready. 

Yellow bandaged her leg slowly and messily (it was honestly quite embarrassing how bad it was), but she was pretty sure that it would at least hold until morning. (And she did have to admit that it was fairly impressive for only using one arm and her teeth.)

She gave the leg an experimental shake, and though pain still shot through it strongly, she was fairly sure that it was at least muted now. (And the blood didn’t seem to be getting through the bandages either. That was a good thing.)

Now the other leg. . . and her arm. Gosh! She really had gotten herself into some real big trouble this time, hadn’t she?

By the time she was done, it was definitely too dark to try and get home. (The only light came from the fireflies and an occasional flash of a Pokemon’s eyes in the night.) She let herself lean back against the tree, exhaling in a way that she hoped would be sufficiently calming to herself. In the morning she could go home. In the morning she could heal Kitty and fly to a doctor’s office.

She shut her eyes, trying to ignore the dull aches and occasional stabs of pain that came from three of her four limbs. But to get to morning she had to get to sleep first. (She hoped that that step was going to be a bit easier than what she was going through now.)

End of chapter note: This was shorter at first but I wanted it to be at least 1,000 words lol.

[epicspheal]

What member of your OCs Pokémon team do they have the most problems with?

Hi there @ladyseychelles! Ooh, this is a good question! I'll start with Jack. He actually didn't have any problems with his Pokemon per se as far as having a conflict of personality. I think if anything though it was just super tough to get his Runerigus (nicknamed Marsala) to evolve considering the very specific evolution requirements.

Calla's hardest mon was definitely her Eternatus (nicknamed Hemlock). Now Eternatus isn't evil in cactusverse, just scared. But it was her first time dealing with a Pokemon that was just so inherently frightened by everything given all that happened. Not to mention, Calla herself was facing a lot of public pressure and scrutiny for catching Eternatus and then using it in her battle with Leon. Considering the fact Eternatus did almost destroy the region entirely and there was massive property loss/injuries not everybody was super thrilled that the new champion used the space dragon for an official battle. So what would've normally been a slightly less daunting task became at times almost impossible because of the sheer scrutiny the young champion was facing. It gets better in that she does indeed tame Eternatus and catches other mons to use in official battles while the populace warms up to the dragon.

Marsha's hardest Pokemon was Nebby (who is a Solgaleo in Cactusverse). Okay to be clear Marsha really did not want to take care of Nebby, to begin with as she felt given Lillie's connection with the Pokemon, she'd be a better fit. But Lillie insisted and Nebby was essentially a baby so she took care of Nebby. Nebby was quite the handful with its newfound powers creating ultra wormholes and what not but some solid battles with the Tapus helped get the young Solgaleo under control.

Valen's hardest mon was Mewtwo. Mewtwo of course was just highly distrustful of being contained in a Pokeball. Red had failed to tame it back in the day, and Jabari would get seriously injured fighting it in that cave in Kalos. Mewtwo would eventually make its way to Alola and neither of the first two champions of Alola, Marsha and Hau, could do anything against it. Valen was able to gain Mewtwo's trust initially because he's a robot. Both Valen and Mewtwo were highly advanced beings created by humans (although Valen with love and Mewtwo with no love in its design). But even with that common ground, Mewtwo was still a handful but over a century of hard work and slow trust-building Valen and Mewtwo became a solid trainer-Pokemon duo. Jabari's hardest Pokemon was Chedder his Greninja. Now it wasn't always like that as one of his first Pokemon. But for a bit, Jabari got a little hyper-focused on mega evolution and focused more on Asiago (Blastoise) and Swiss (Gyarados) which pissed his first Pokemon off. So there was a brief bit of disobeying but luckily good ol' Trevor pointed out the issue and with the help of Shauna and Jabari and Cheddar got back on good terms with each other.

Then finally we have Camellia. Cami's hardest was Osiris her Chandelure. Mainly when it was a Lampent. She caught it outside of the hospital she was doing her clinical rotations at as it was trying to sneak in to take the souls of patients. Now by this time she was already a champion so you would think it wouldn't be much of an issue...but this capture also happened 2 months after she had broken up with Blue and no Cami was not exactly in the best state. And with her time in the clinic, she didn't have a lot of time to go find a dusk stone to evolve it into a Chandelure to curb its hospital obsession. She does get the chance eventually and that helps things a lot.

[leavaloo]

Applin To Give and to Kick Ass

Hi guys! As most of you know, I’ve been extremely busy lately and also dealing with some shit on the side, so I wasn’t able to write anything for Valentines Day! I know, such a crime that an imagines blog didn’t post on V-Day. It’s okay! I’ll make it up to you here~

As a further notice, I will be deleting most of my inbox requests, as a lot of them have been sitting for a while. I apologize to those who are left, but this is needed.

Anyways, have some Raihan V-Day fluff!

Raihan knew a lot about dragons. Like, a lot. Dragon expert to the core, so much so that he ended up taking on some of their draconic qualities. Like protectiveness, jealousy, and every once in a while, a growl. Raihan also knew a lot about the Applin tales, as per his title as dragon expert and the vault keeper. Yet for some reason, he didn’t think that they would play a part in his life, until now.

Applins were fairly common in Galar as a declaration of love, and because of his titles, he had been asked so many times of where to find them, how to breed the right one, yadda yadda. Even some gym leaders like Nessa had asked his advice on this topic. And now, with Valentines day coming up, it was all the rage.

You had been champion for some time now, and already you were proving to be both formidable, dependable, and breathtaking. You didn’t use the typical cape that Leon wore, and instead, made your own outfit that made it look like you were dancing whenever a particularly powerful move whipped your dress around. Honestly, you treated a lot of your matches like a contest, and it had garnered you a lot of attention, and possible suitors.

That’s why Raihan never felt like he had a chance. You were beautiful! Even a lot of the other gym leaders had been talking about you, some of them wondering if you were single. That was when Raihan figured out how jealous he was. He all but snapped at Milo when directed a question about it at him, but he played it off that he was just stressed recently and apologized.

A day before Valentines day, you waltzed into his gym. He wasn’t expecting it, and he was honestly caught off guard. Even in your casual attire, you were striking. You were asking for some documents, and so Raihan lead you back to his office, and all the while, he had a difficult time even looking in your direction.

“Working right before Valentines day? I would’ve thought you’d wanna lay low.” He finally sent one of his signature smiles your way, trying to lighten the heaviness in his heart.

You chuckled and smiled back. “Honestly, me moving about makes it harder for the fanboys to track me. I don’t need anymore applin in my boxes, which might be entirely your fault.”

Raihan sheepishly laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeaaah... sorry about that.” He remembered the onslaught of guys who had sought him out in the previous weeks, all asking for applin advice.

“Though, I guess it gave me some good applins to get my own ideal one.”

Raihan’s eyes snapped over to you, looking over your figure. You were looking straight ahead, small grin on your face and a tiny blush on your cheeks. You had someone in mind for this applin. He figured he might as well test the waters, if not only to quell his own internal panic.

“‘Ideal applin’, huh? Does this applin have an intended recipient?”

You laughed, following the dragon up the stairs to his office. “It does, yes. Do you have an applin for someone, Raihan?”

I did, he thought to himself, but shook his head. “No. The person I would give it to has probably already been taken.”

You feigned a surprised gasp. “The infamous Raihan, with so many thousands of fangirls, somehow doesn’t get his feelings reciprocated?! How cruel!”

Finally, he was able to laugh. He hadn’t been able to do that in a while, what with him stressing, but you always managed to make his mood lighter. Though the dread of him not being your chosen recipient shot through him again when he opened the door to his office. “After you,” he purred. If there was one thing Raihan was good at, it was acting.

As he searched for the required documents, you wandered around his office, looking at all of the different dragon type memorabilia. It took longer than expected, because every time he looked up, you were happily smiling at another picture on his walls. Some were from Lance’s time, another was a championship match from Unova with Iris, and some legendary dragons were sprinkled in there.

After searching all of the file cabinets, his desk and some other places, he got everything together and handed it to you. They were all about how the power plant fared after the recent events with the Darkest Day, and as he approached you, he noticed that your demeanor became... fidgety. Your blush was more prominent, and you wouldn’t look him in the eyes. You just smiled, took the documents, said goodbye and rushed out the door before Raihan could say anything.

With a frown on his face, he sighed and went to sit as his desk. He leaned back in the chair, a huge sigh coursing through his body. It was then that he noticed a new addition to his desk. He furrowed his eyes and leaned forward to look at it closer. A loveball pokeball, sitting there and facing him. His heart rose in his chest, almost scared to touch it. His hands didn’t even meet the pokeball when the familiar blue light popped out, situating itself firmly on his lap.

An applin. Not just any applin. A shiny, bright green applin, already fast asleep on his lap. He couldn’t even make any sound, he was so shocked. His heart was racing a million miles an hour, he could barely process that it was holding two things. A sweet apple, and a note.

Dear Raihan,

I’m not very good at this love stuff, and I know this is really cliche, but this is the easiest way to get my feelings across. This applin is specifically bred to not only be shiny, but also have everything you need to make a badass competitive mon. I figured you already had someone special, so I just wanted to make this quick and easy. I didn’t want to hold it in anymore.

P.S. I’d like to grab some coffee with you sometime.

[Y/N]

Raihan read over the note several times, a smile brimming on his face. Then he took out his phone, held the sleeping applin up to his chest in a warm embrace, and snapped a selfie. He pulled up your text chain with him and sent the picture.

Raihan, 12:59pm

you know you could’ve stayed right

A couple seconds later, he got a ding, and wondered if you had expected something along these lines.

Cutie Bean, 1:00pm

I’M SORRY OKAY I GET NERVOUS

Cutie Bean, 1:00pm

I wanted to stay but I was... to scared.

Raihan, 1:01pm

did u really need those documents? lol

Cutie Bean, 1:01pm

...Yes, but I figured I’d leave that there too...

Raihan, 1:01pm

well, i think i’ll name her Cutie Pie after what I have you in my phone

Raihan, 1:02pm

besides, i think a coffee date tomorrow would be absolutely perfect, my cute little dragon <3

Raihan, 1:02pm

unless u have other plans? :(

Cutie Bean, 1:03pm

You’re my plan now <3

Cutie Bean, 1:03pm

Shit I have to find something to wear.

For the rest of the day, you and Raihan were texting back and forth. Everyone was wondering why he suddenly looked so happy after sulking for almost two weeks straight, but then they noticed the applin sleeping happily in the hood of his hoodie. The more that Raihan looked at Cutie Pie, he realized just how terrifying of a mon this could be. Amazing IV’s, right nature, hidden ability. He vowed to not only kiss you till the sun rose, but also someday kick your ass with this girl. If she were to ever wake up.

[sliggoons]

Raihan, hm? How about a Drabble of Raihan and a crush that has an altaria that mega evolves??? And he's like, j e a l o u s

Yesss FINALLY my time to write for raihan has come!! Also, to be honest, I haven’t finished any of the games or watched the show that actually HAS mega evolution in it (YET) so I did a teensy bit of research and hopefully I’m getting all this right lmao

(also I just wanna say that this was the perfect request UwU so thank you! Specific enough that I had something to go off of, but it left plenty of room for creativity, it was so fun to write!)

???? And I can’t remember if the actual battle against Raihan is in the Vault?? Or just the gym mission thingy? Forgive me 

Mega Crush, Raihan x Reader

    Raihan was confused from the moment you set foot into his gym. Well, long before that actually. There had been talk amongst all the gym leaders that there was a particularly strong challenger battling their way through the league. Milo had confirmed this, adding in the details that you were from a far away region and you were older than the typical preteen gym challengers. Nessa learned that you didn’t Dynamax your pokemon, which Piers was over the moon about, he couldn’t wait for your battle. And Kabu had told Raihan about your beautiful, strong Altaria. 

    As soon as he heard that, Raihan was weak in the knees. He could not WAIT to battle you. He had never seen an Altaria in person. So soon after your victory against Kabu, Raihan spent his free time loitering around Hammerlocke, hoping to find you as you passed through on your way to Stow-On-Side. Just to his luck, he did just that. He had watched recordings of your battles with the previous gym leaders after they told him about your Altaria. And he had watched you blow through the battles with ease. You didn’t even need to use your dragon type pokemon in the first two battles. Through this, Raihan was able to recognize you as you cleared the long staircase leading into his city. He followed after you, conveniently ‘bumping into you’ as you were headed into the pokemon center. 

    “Hey, you’re Y/N?, right?” the gym leader asked, grabbing your attention from the mid-day bustle of the city. 

    “Hm?” You turned to look at who had called your name. It couldn’t possibly have been Raihan. You weren’t from Galar, so you didn’t know him as well as the other gym challengers, but you could definitely put name to face, and you knew the status and fame he held in the region. 

    “I’m Raihan!” He greeted, sticking out his hand for you to shake and flashing you an award winning smile. 

    “Uh, yeah. I know. I’m surprised you know who I am?” You said curiously. He had to admit, Raihan’s heart sank a little when he found out you knew who he was. He was hoping he could just meet someone who would get to know him as Raihan, not The Great Raihan, or Gym Leader Raihan, or Dragon Tamer Raihan. Don’t be mistaken, Raihan loved the fame, and adored his fan base, but it’d be nice for someone, especially if they were as cute as you, to have no previous opinion of him. 

    “I saw your match with Kabu! That Altaria is sick!” Raihan’s heart skipped a beat as he saw your face light up. “You know, all the gym leaders are saying you’re the trainer to watch out for. Might even light a fire up under Leon one of these days.” 

    “Oh, for real? Well, I’m flattered then,” you could feel your face flushing red. “I gotta get some of my pokemon into the center, though. You coming?” 

    “Oh, yeah, that’s where I was headed. The whole reason I ran into you,” Raihan laughed, nervously, it starting to dawn on him that this whole situation might come off as slightly… creepy. He was just doing his duty as a gym leader right? Keeping up with all the strong challengers who have a chance at the championship. You walked up to the counter, handing over your pokeballs to Nurse Joy for treatment. 

    “Can I buy you something to drink while we’re here?” Raihan asked you, following you over to a small table and set of chairs. “Maybe some fresh water or lemonade? I take it you just got in from training hard in the Wild Area?”

    “You don’t have to do that. But yeah, it’s a good place to train up! There’s nothing like it back home. Weren’t you here to heal your pokemon too?”

    “Oh! You’re right. I’ll just go, uh, do that then.” That was a big, fat lie. Raihan’s pokemon were perfectly fine and he knew it. In fact he had only left the house with his Duraludon. But Raihan was in too deep now. So he awkwardly shuffled over to the counter, greeting Nurse Joy and handing over his sole pokeball. 

    He stopped by the cafe to get two lemonades before plopping down opposite of you. Within seconds, Nurse Joy came back over with a tray, delivering your healed pokemon to you. She handed Raihan his one pokeball, a confused look on her face.

    “Raihan, your Duraludon was just fine, there was no need for it to be healed.”

    His face turned red, he looked over at you, a questioning look on your face along with a slight smirk. “Oh, uh, really?” He chuckled. “My mistake!” He gave Nurse Joy an innocent smile, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. When Nurse Joy left, he turned back to you. 

    “What’s that all about? Everything okay, Raihan?” You sipped your lemonade, watching him from over the top of your glass. 

    “Yeah, it’s nothing. I’m just really looking forward to our battle!” Except nothing was okay. Raihan had just made a complete and utter fool out of himself, and the way you said his name might just send him into cardiac arrest. He wished Nurse Joy would have just played along. 

    “Oh.” It seems like he took you by surprise. “I’m looking forward to it too. I’m sure you’ll be quite the match.”

    “I’m sure I will be, princess,” Raihan smirked, his confidence slowly coming back.

    The next time you saw Raihan it was at Stow-On-Side Gym. You weren’t even sure it was him. You caught one quick glimpse of a very, very tall man in the commentator’s booth during your battle. Of course, you were secretly hoping it was him, coming to watch your battles. But your logical side knew he was busy, and besides, would he really be that interested anyway?

    You flew through the Stow-On-Side Gym with ease, passed Opal’s tests with flying colors, Circhester started to slow you down a bit, until finally you reached Spikemuth. You had heard Piers didn’t Dynamax his pokemon. You were a bit disappointed, actually. You respected his traditional ways, of course, but you were hoping for an opponent whose strength called for the trick you had been hiding in your sleeve all this time. Your Altaria’s Mega Evolution. 

    You were confident you saw Raihan’s signature hoodie and bright orange headband sticking out of the crowd in Spikemuth like a sore thumb. Was he really coming to watch you battle?

So when you found yourself walking into the Hammerlocke City Gym, Raihan was eager to get to know more about you. What better way to do that than through the long anticipated battle? The media had picked up on you too, anxiously awaiting for the day you faced off against Raihan. As one of the few remaining challengers, you’d be surprised if all of Galar wasn’t familiar with your name by now. 

Raihan’s team was no laughing matter. He had managed to get you down to only one pokemon, your Altaria. But luckily you had done the same and you were facing off against his Duraludon. The gym leader certainly knew how to manipulate the weather, and his unique double battle style had helped him gain the advantage. 

You smirked, knowing you had finally found what you wanted. Mega Evolving your Altaria took a lot of effort, and wore it out, just like Dynamaxing, so you saved it for when it really counted. You had seen Raihan eyeing the Mega Bracelet that hung on your wrist, and you wondered if he recognized it. He had to, right? He was a gym leader after all, but then again the entire Galar region was hyper fixated on the Dynamax phenomenon. 

You watched as Raihan called his Duraludon back, preparing to Gigantamax it. You knew this would be a tough match up. Your Altaria transforms into a dragon and fairy type during mega evolution, so Raihan’s dragon type moves would do nothing. Mega Altaria would be weak to steel type moves, however. You had spent extra time training your Altaria’s speed. You knew that in order to win this match, you’d have to be able to dodge some powerful blows. 

Raihan had never been this exhilarated in his life. Pokemon battles were when he really came to life. He loved the atmosphere in the stadium, the thousands of fans yelling his name, the raw energy pouring from his Gigantamaxed Duraludon. He was so curious to see how this would play out. He had gone to watch every one of your matches after he met you, and you had yet to dynamax your altaria, or any of your pokemon for that matter. At the beginning of the match he saw something glint on your wrist. Not a dynamax band, definitely not, could it be a Mega Bracelet? Soon all his questions would be answered. 

“Ready, princess?” he asked, just loud enough for you alone to hear over the stadium, a wild smile on his face as his Gigantamaxed Duraludon loomed behind him, dwarfing your Altaria. 

The entire stadium fell silent as you Mega Evolved your Altaria. This was a very, very rare occurrence in the Galar region. Most of the spectators were witnessing this for the first time. Raihan was among them. 

The color drained from his face. A MEGA ALTARIA? He knew your Altaria’s flying type moves would barely harm his Duraludon, but this was something very unexpected. He had learned somewhere that some pokemon switch types when they Mega Evolve. What type your Altaria switched to was a mystery. 

Raihan quickly gained his composure, even though his heart was beating a million times a minute. You were ogling at the crowd, flattered by their insane interest in your pokemon, and Mega Altaria seemed to be enjoying it too. Your opponent took this chance to fire off his first shot, Max Wyrmwind, a dragon type move. He stood there stunned as Altaria remained unaffected.

Unfortunately, neither dragon nor fairy moves would work great against Duraludon’s steel and dragon type, but you did your research. You had been helping your Altaria perfect it’s Fire Blast over the last week. You were surprised to learn that Altaria could learn the fire type move when you found the TM in a dusty old shop in Motostoke, but glad it could come in handy. Steel types were hard to beat. 

Mega Altaria immediately retaliated with Fire Blast, and you could tell how effective it was against Duraludon. Raihan looked even more shocked as he gritted his teeth, dug in his heels, and told Duraludon to use Max Steelspike. Your Altaria just barely missed the hit, moving out of range before you even began to shout. 

“Great dodge! You can do this!” You cheered on your Altaria. It seemed like it was your lucky day, because one more powerful Fire Blast fainted Duraludon, sending it shrinking down to normal size, and back into Raihan’s pokeball. 

You met the gym leader in the middle of the pitch where he gave you a hearty handshake. “Well met, Y/N! What a stunning battle. It seems I might have gotten a bit too cocky with my team, huh? And who knew, that was Mega Evolution, wasn’t it?”

“It was! You definitely presented quite the challenge, I just had to do some special training before I came.”

“Well, congratulations, princess. You beat the Great Raihan,” He handed you the Dragon Badge, a huge smirk on his face. “You get the honor of going through the Finals now! I’ll be looking forward to our next battle, facing off for the chance to take down Leon. Though I s’pose I’ll have to find a way to beat that Altaria, huh?” You thanked Raihan before being ushered off the pitch, a few reporters waiting to greet you and ask about the battle. 

After all the chaos subsided, you were surprised to see Raihan jogging over to you as you left the gym. “I thought you might want this,” Raihan gave you the dragon type TM, as well as the dragon type gym uniform. “I just wanted to say, that Mega Altaria is super cool! Way cooler than I wanted to admit out on the pitch,” He chuckled, nervously. 

“What, is the Great Raihan scared of looking like a total nerd in front of his fans?” you teased.

“Oh, shut up. It just wasn’t a good time. Besides, I’m getting to talk to you again now, aren’t I? How about I take you out to dinner to celebrate your victory?” Raihan winked, taking your hand to lead you to his favorite restaurant.

[alloftimeandspacetosee]

Pokemon get; Aria

So the original like... main Plot Filled Story Doc for Jay is written in journal entries bc I wanted to try something new with it all, which mean like a lot of this stuff is just glossed over? So I wrote up all the pokemon she receives as separate things (I also did the gym battles, but a lot of them get samey so I’m not putting most of them up (I also only ever actually finished the Sinnoh league)).

 This one’s still ok to put up haha

 pls forgive my French! I was relying heavily on google translate.

~

We stand in the atrium of the professor’s building, waiting. His assistant has informed us that he will be with us shortly, but… that was a while back. Even Birch wasn’t this lax about timing, and I expected it of him.

“I’d ask if you want to go wait in a cafe, but I’m going to need you to translate,” I say to Jayden, who laughs.

“I’m fine waiting.” He smiles.

“Some of us don’t seem to be,” Brith mutters, then barks.

I turn to see Soise, caught mid illusion over the desk of a shivering intern. “Soise.”

She laughs and jumps away, shades of possessed ghosts falling from existence after her.

Vulp, at my feet, yaps something at her, to which Soise replies in kind. Vulp bounces forward, ducking down on her forelegs as if begging. Soise tumbles her over and they go racing around the room.

Sesser cheeps and huddles into my neck, keeping out of view as best she can. Between her and Vulp with her nine tails, we’ve caused quite a stir. Soise is hardly helping, her illusions breaking the way in rarer and rarer pokemon. But at least her… latias child had the sense to stay behind, on the ship. I think, anyway. Who knows what Soise’s hiding.

I’d return her, but she seems to like being out all the time.

“Mes excuses, mes amis!” The door slams open behind us.

We turn to see a man in a lab coat with the sleeves rolled up enter the building. This is presumably the professor. I raise an eyebrow at his assistant, who had informed us that he was upstairs engaged in important work.

She had the decency to duck her head, looking intensely busy.

“Hi.” I stepped forward. “I was hoping to register for the league challenge.”

“Ma beauté, anything for you.” He takes my proffered hand and dips over it, kissing the back.

Holy shit. Again with these guys.

I try not to roll my eyes too much.

“Come, come!” He beckons us to follow. “This way, to my office.”

I exchange a glance with Jayden and we follow him. Brith barks at Soise and Vulp once more, and they run to my side, scrabbling at the stairs. Brith grabs up Vulp and leaves Soise to fend for herself.

I almost turn back for her, but actually she seems to be handling them fairly well, so I let her be.

Brith glances back at her, smirking, and I can’t help but feel like they’re definitely hiding something. Maybe Lairisse, maybe something else. Who knows!

“So, you wish to challenge?” The professor turns as we reach his office, leaning back against the desk. “The two of you or…?”

“Just me.” I hold out my trainer card.

He reaches to take it and leans back on his desk, reaching for the card reader there. “And you’ll take a starter, of course.”

“What? I – no.” I shake my head. “I don’t need any more pokemon.” Far more than enough, really.

“Are you sure?”

Soise paws at my leg, whining.

I glance across at Brith.

“She’s pointing out you haven’t trained anyone new in a while,” Brith replies.

Sycamore blinks and stares at her, fingers tapping at the machine in his hand.

“So? I’m fine with everyone I’ve got.”

“They are all very powerful pokemon,” Jayden says.

I tilt my head, looking at him.

He gestures at the card reader. “It’s supposed to be a challenge, right? If your pokemon are all as powerful as yours are, then… there isn’t much challenge.”

I shrug. “I just ask them to use stronger teams.”

“Oh, I see, you have many badges!” Sycamore exclaims. “What is that, four… five leagues?”

“Six,” I correct. “I did the Orange Archipelago challenge as well.”

“I… actually agree with Soise, here,” Brith says. “You should take another pokemon on.”

I sigh, rolling my eyes. “What’s the starter choice here?”

Sycamore brightens and places the card reader – still with my card in it – back on his desk as he stands, striding across to a glass fronted cabinet to take out a display case of three pokeballs. “Fire, water and grass, of course. Feunnec, which becomes the fire/psychic type goupelin.” He taps the first of them. “Grenousse, which becomes the water/dark type amphinobi.” The second one. “And Marisson, which becomes the grass/fighting type blindépique.”

I consider the choices. I don’t have any grass types at all, but then most of my team is fire-based so I can’t imagine it’d fit in too well. That cut out Marisson… even if training a type I was unfamiliar with would be interesting.

The water type would be interesting. “Can you tell me more about the… grenousse?”

Soise flattens her ears and hisses. Apparently she doesn’t like that prospect.

Sycamore smiles. “They are fast, good at speed and dodging and sneaky attacks. Not so much on defence, I think?”

I nod. Fast and sneaky would be an interesting change, since currently… ok, I dealt in quick attacks and evasion and occasionally stalling. A grenousse would actually fit in with that.

And it wasn’t like I couldn’t cancel out any weaknesses already. Glace could use someone in her corner for the ground types.

Which I could say of the Marisson, for helping Ray with water types.

Ugh.

“Why are you making me take this decision?” I narrow my eyes at Brith.

She laughs. “Because it would be good for you.”

Sycamore glances at her again and sets down the tray on his desk. “Sorry, you are not… you are a pokemon?”

Brith nods. “I spent a long time listening, and then forced my vocal chords to cooperate when I evolved.” She flicks an ear. “That’s what you were going to ask? How I can speak?”

Huh. The more you know.

Sycamore walks towards her, gesturing with his hands.

Brith rolls her eyes and tilts her head up, allowing him to examine her throat. Faint burn scars still gleam through her fur, but they’re not half as bad as when she was a riolu.

Soise growls and leaps up onto the desk – she’s definitely hiding something, there’s no way she should be able to make that jump – and pats at the first pokeball, the feunnec. Then she points a paw down at Vulp, sitting quiet at my feet.

“What?”

“The – ah, the feunnec is something like your vulpix,” Sycamore says, looking around. “Perhaps she thinks they will be good friends?”

“But that’s another fire type.” I frown.

Brith shakes her head and backs away from Sycamore. “That does seem to be your area, fire types.”

“So I might as well specialise?” I laugh. “Oh… good a reason as any. I’ll take the feunnec.”

Soise leaps down from the desk with an excited yip, bowling Vulp over.

Sycamore takes up the card reader again and the feunnec’s pokeball, and registers it to my account. “There you go.” He hands them both over with a smile. “The first gym is south, in Santalune.”

“Is there a specific order to take them in?” I pocket my card, rolling the ball in my hand.

“Santalune, Cyllage, Shalour, Coumarine, Lumiose, Laverre, Anistar, then Snowbelle.”

I nod slowly. “Thank you.”

Sycamore smiles and bows extravagantly. “Mon plaisir,” he replies, “Ma beauté.”

I raise a hand, then point a finger at him. “Don’t start.”

His laughter follows us from his office.

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Exeggcute line

They’re not even eggs. You all know that, right? They’re not eggs.

DESIGN: 

Exeggcute is a handful of cracked Exeggutor seeds hanging out together. Individually, they’d be kind of boring, but as a bunch of seeds, it gives it a unique appearance that, especially when they bounce and move around each other.

Exeggcute really raises an interesting question of ‘what is a Pokemon’ though, because while Magnemite suddenly gets two more Magnemites on evolution, Exeggcute is clearly six seeds, but they only become one tree. While we know the six seeds are telepathically linked, aren’t they still six different Pokemon? And why do they hatch from one egg?

And it can’t be that the Pokeball just counts minds, because while Exeggcute and Exeggutor are telepathically linked, there’s other multi-headed Pokemon that don’t get along well with themselves at all.

My brain hurts. On to the coconut tree.

Exeggcute’s evolved form, the thing that grows from the seeds, is a tree. A short, stumpy, multi-headed coconut tree.

At six feet tall, it’s pretty short for a tree, but it gets the job across as a tree Pokemon. It has legs for walking, no arms because it’s telekinetic, and three heads that think independently but work together.  Supposedly, Exeggcute fall from Exeggcutor, and maybe that is how it works because even though everything comes from eggs, nobody’s ever seen a Pokemon lay an egg.

So here’s my theory: Exeggcute ‘eggs’ grow on Exeggutors but they’re actually nuts. When they break open, there’s six Exeggcute inside, which work together, and then later grow into a full-sized Exeggutor.

Anyway, as far as its design goes, I love this goofy tree thing. It’s clearly a coconut tree, but it’s also clearly some sort of monster, and the big coconut heads give it a unique visual that really nothing else compares to. It’s likely based on a creature from Japanese mythology, but there’s still enough differences between Exeggutor and the Jinmenju that you wouldn’t confuse the two.

Its Alolan form is mostly the same except... more correct. 

See, we had hints pretty early on that the Exeggutor we knew and loved was wrong. Pokedex entries stated that it originally came from the tropics, and that harsh sunlight makes it grow more.  And the thing is, we first saw Alolan Exeggutor back in 1997, before Pokemon even came to the US, as a piece of art for the TCG featured a “Jungle Exeggutor.”

Nineteen years later, here’s Alolan Exeggutor.

So yeah, that’s our palm tree pokemon. Also it’s a dragon. This thing is basically the same as foreign Exeggutor, except bigger and even sillier, with an extra coconut tail. Why is it a dragon? There’s a few theories on that, but the best theory is that it’s based on one of a few types of trees called “Dragon Trees” that live in Hawaii.  There’s a variety of Dragon Trees, and some look more like Exeggutor than others, but considering there’s Dragon Pokemon based off of Sea Dragons, Dragon Slugs, and Dragonflies, and one extended pun involving a Wyrm in an Apple, well...  I’m willing to believe “Dragon Tree” is just the sort of thing they’d do.

Art by Ninjendo, which I have to assume is a Nintendo that flips out and kills things

EVOLUTIONS: 

Exeggcute evolves with a leaf stone. If you evolve it in Alola, you get a proper Exeggutor, and if you evolve it anywhere else, you get a short Exeggutor. This is a bit of a problem for introducing Alolan Exeggutor to other games. What I'd like to see in the future is some alternate item or something to get an Alolan Exeggutor (maybe just have it evolve with the Sun Stone instead of the Leaf Stone) but I suppose that defeats the purpose of regional forms. If we get another warm region, hopefully we’ll see Alolan Exeggutors there. 

Stats are such that there’s no need for anything before Exeggute or after Exeggutor, though a Mega Exeggutor could be fun and funny. 

Exeggutor Mirrored by TamberElla

TYPING:

Exeggutor benefits from pretty rare typings, as there’s not much competition for its specific movesets. 

Defensively, neither’s particularly special, with more weakensses than resistances, and each coming with a x4 weakness. What is noteworthy about Alolan Exeggutor is that it doubly resists water, grass, and electricity. While there’s plenty of types it’s weak to, those are some very common attacks that it can effectively no-sell.

Offensively, grass is resisted by a lot, but Psychic and Dragon are both hard to stop. Steel stops all three types, but stumpy Exeggutor is super-effective against five types, and Alolan Exeggutor is super-effective against four types. Neither case is anything special, but it’s still a lot better than being pure grass.

Enjoy the Alolan Way by limb92

STATS: 

The two forms of Exeggutor basically have the same stats: 125 Special Attack with higher-than-average defenses and low speed. Yes, Alolan has more Attack and less Speed, but Special is still better than Attack by far, and speed is poor on both. 

125 is a really solid special attack stat, and while low speed is a problem, Exeggutor can take a few hits as long as the type matchups aren’t actively going against it.

Art by elyoncat

ABILITIES: 

Alolan Exeggutor’s normal ability is Frisk. Nobody cares. 

Malnourished Exggutor’s normal ability is Chlorophyll. This is quite good. Chlorophyll doubles its speed during Sunny Day, and while Exeggutor is slow, it’s not so slow that doubling its speed won’t make it faster than most opponents. Couple this with the ability to use Solar Beam, and Exeggutor has a place on a Sun team.

Both versions share a hidden ability of Harvest, which has a 50% chance each turn to replenish a consumed (but not otherwise lost) berry. During harsh sunlight, this chance increases to 100%. This requires a lot more strategy to use than Chlorophyll, certainly, but there’s plenty that can be done with it.

Obviously if you don’t plan to use a berry, Alolan Exeggutor gets Frisk, but it’s really not impressive.

MOVES: 

Exeggutor has two signature abilities in Barrage and Dragon Hammer, but they’re both Physical and neither’s impressive enough to warrant the 20-30 point stat hit for using physical attacks, so ignore them.

For a Grass type move, the primary question is, of course “am I taking advantage of the sun?” If you are, it’s Solar Beam.  If not, even with it making you weaker each time you use it, Leaf Storm is an absurdly powerful hit.  On a similar note, Alolan Exeggutor is going to want Draco Meteor. Look, this Pokemon’s not a tank, your goal is to kill the opponent as fast as possible. By the time you get to a third Draco Meteor or Leaf Storm, your Exeggutor’s probably falling down anyway.

On the other hand, if you want to try more defensive fighting, Giga Drain’s a solid special attack that helps keep you going. You could also take both Giga Drain and Leaf Storm, softening them up with Giga Drain and only using Leaf Storm when you expect it to kill.

Psychic Exeggutor’s Psychic move is Psychic. I shouldn’t need to explain that one. It’s been using it since Gen 1. There’s an argument to be made for using Psyshock, but that really depends on the meta.

For coverage purposes, True Exeggutor can learn Flamethrower, which is especially good if using the Sunny Day route, and both can learn Sludge Bomb, though I’d only really recommend it on the Dragon type who wants to have Super Effective damage against Fairies. 

Exeggutor naturally learns Hypnosis, which is a great move, but also a trick. With breeding, an Exeggutor can have Sleep Powder, which is the same move but with higher accuracy. Take Sleep Powder.

Art by I don’t know I searched and couldn’t find the original posting

OVERALL: 

I love this stupid tree. It’s so goofy. Chlorophyll and Harvest are both interesting, build-around abilities, and it’s got a reasonable stat lineup. My only big problem is that its signature attacks are Physical and it’s primarily Special. Dragon Hammer’s a good move, but with the attack difference an Exeggutor gets more damage out of Dragon Pulse. And Barrage is just garbage. 

You know, in the old days, Exeggutor was literally one of the strongest Pokemon there was. Now, it’s basically a relic. It’s still mostly fine, but the Physical/Special move divide isn’t always kind to it. 

[apple-writes]

Marvel, but Make it Pokemon (Tony)

Tony doesn’t really have an interest in doing the whole “train a team of Pokemon” thing. Howard didn’t have a Pokemon anymore (he used to have an Ampharos, which he grew up with but... something happened), and Maria’s Delcatty usually stayed in its own room, because it didn’t get along with Howard. 

(”Pokemon have a better read on people than we do, sometimes,” Jarvis told him once. Looking back, he knows why Delcatty didn’t like his father.)

Tony wasn’t gifted a Pokemon when he was born, because Howard thought it was a waste of time. He was always curious about them though, and he adored his mother’s Delcatty, and the Absol that would hang out with Jarvis in the kitchen always let him bury his face in his fur. 

When he was ten years old, he was outside when he heard some pained cries from the treeline near their backyard. Tony immediately went over to investigate and found a wounded Swablu lying on the ground. He panicked and scooped it up, immediately running to find Jarvis for help (he knew his dad wasn’t home that day). Jarvis taught him how to care for Swablu’s wounds and Tony quickly dove into research on proper Pokemon care and medical practices. He and Jarvis agreed to hide the Swablu from Howard and Tony told himself he’d release the Swablu once it was healthy enough to go.

A week later, though, the Swablu was almost fully recovered and wandered out of the room they’d been keeping him in. He found his way into Tony’s room and burrowed under the blankets beside the sleeping boy, and that’s how Howard found Tony the next morning.

Howard tried to throw the Swablu out, but Jarvis and Maria helped fight for it, saying it’d be a good experience for Tony. Also, when Howard reached for the Swablu, it pecked at him, so the Swablu got to stay (and it also hated Howard).

Now, I imagine Tony was already fascinated with Pokemon and making inventions to help them out, but *especially* after he and Swablu bonded, he really dove into it. Howard hated it at first, but Tony started making some cool-ass Pokeballs (imagine him being the one to make ones specific for each type of Pokemon, in order to make them more comfortable. i.e.: Dive Balls, Net Balls, Nest Ball, Moon Ball, etc) and when Howard started making some *good* money on them, he hated it a lot less.

Swablu came to college with Tony. He is generally just a bit mistrusting of people, but he warmed up to Rhodey pretty fast, which helped Tony come to trust him super fast too, cause he trusted Swablu’s opinion of people.

Swablu’s favorite place to hang out is on Tony’s shoulder. He’ll just perch himself there and fold his wings around him, his head buried in them a bit so only the top peaks out. It’s very common to find him laying right beside Tony’s head while they sleep.

His Swablu was there for him his whole life, comforting him and being his true bud. Imagine him crying into Swablu when his parent’s die, and *especially* when Jarvis dies. Swablu rubs his head against Tony’s when he cries, and it always seems to help cheer him up, even if its just a little. 

So Swablu came along to Afghanistan, because it’s just another weapons showing, so it’s perfectly safe.

Not. 

When the caravan gets attacked, Swablu gets taken with Tony cause, while he didn’t take as much of the blast, he sits on top of Tony and attacks anyone who gets too close that he doesn’t recognize (aka anyone that isn’t Rhodey) so the Ten Rings just take Swablu too. 

The Ten Rings realize who they were paid to kill and decide to keep Tony, and already realized the Swablu was his, so they kept him as well for leverage. When torturing Tony didn’t work, it only took one time of cutting off one of Swablu’s beautiful long feathers on his head for Tony to immediately cave and help them as needed.

When they finally made their escape, Swablu evolved in the heat of the battle. Tony was a bit salty, cause he’d made a protectant for Swablu as well, “Now you won’t fit. Of *course* you’d evolve right now.” he grumbled. (Also, I imagine the feather on top of Swablu/Altaria’s head doesn’t grow back... so he has one less beautiful feather on top of his head and sometimes when Tony sees other Altaria with the two feathers on their head it makes him very sad)

He and the new Altaria made it safely out of the cave and into the deep desert. Altaria did his best to help protect Tony from the sun, as well as flying around (but never too far from Tony) to look for help.

Boy was Rhodey relieved when he found Altaria *with* Tony when they finally found the two of them. Altaria refused to leave Tony’s side, and Rhodey was fully prepared to have to wrestle the giant bird out of the examination room, but one panicked look from Tony when he started to try made him change his mind. 

Altaria had never been a *huge* fan of Obie, but Tony had looked past it for the most part, but now Altaria *hated* Obie, and wouldn’t let him anywhere near Tony. This helped cue Tony in a lot sooner about Obie being behind things, as well as uncovering other shit he did with Stark Industries that Tony wasn’t very happy with. 

Imagine Altaria freaking out when Tony is testing out the repulsors and various Iron Man suits, its a combo of “why are you flying??? You shouldn’t be flying human???” and “!! you’re going to die stop that!” Altaria is there during Tony’s first test flight (the one where he almost falls to his death) and loves flying with him, but not the falling part. 

Tony puts Altaria away in a Pokeball when he goes back overseas to take care of the Ten Rings members that are left, and it kills him inside. Altaria pecks him when he gets let back out, but not hard, and he broods for a couple days too.

(Tony coaxes him to not be mad by baking him some of his favorite treats, though)

Just, picture Tony taking naps on Altaria in the lab. And trying to think of ways to protect Altaria better because Altaria *wants* to come fight badguys with him. Like, things that are baby armor almost. Imagine Tony pampering Altaria and he has like, the most luxurious life. Gets to go flying a lot, has the softest feathers from the most expensive care products, has the best food. And he’s like Tony’s lil/big body guard. Very protective of his human. He’s a bit less trusting now than he even was then, but he’s still a fairly good judge of character so he doesn’t *trust* right away but it’s rare for him to be full out aggressive with new people unless they give off Bad Vibes.

Hopefully more to come of these soon <3 If I do make a ton more, i’ll make a masterlist. Just gotta think on them a bit!

[miraculouscontent]

Pokemon anon again! I'd like to hear anything you have strong opinions on (either your personal ships, ones you dislike, etc). I just really like reading your thoughts, so whatever you feel like sharing is fine.

Welcome back, Pokénon!

And sure, I can do that!

Alright, so in terms of ships I dislike (I’m going to go with the English names just so I’m not constantly using both names)...

I guess I should get the obvious ones out of the way, because I’m not really a fan of either “Ash ship” extreme:

Poke//Shipping (Ash X Misty) and Amour//Shipping (Ash X Serena)

I don’t like either of them.

For Poke//Shipping, I have never liked aggressive tsundere characters and Misty is basically a textbook example of that. It’s not that I have a problem with strong/tomboy-ish (though honestly I don’t consider Misty a tomboy anyway) female characters, which I know it sounds like that when I have a distaste for characters like Alix too, but when they’re brash and angry and just so generically “TOMBOY GIRL POWER,” it grates on my nerves.

The idea of having an aggressive character - y’know - be aggressive to their love interest and then cue the sad music when the love interest argues with them or makes any sort of hurtful implication just... no.

Like, I want you to imagine the most sarcastic Clarity possible and then picture me as a little girl watching the scene where Misty is officially leaving the group, because that was literally just me like, “oh noooo, she’s goooone.”

It’s the same reason I don’t do Rocket//Shipping (James X Jessie). One character is too aggressive and the other character doesn’t even come close to balancing it out.

There’s also the fact that nothing comes out of Poke//Shipping. Misty is canonically crushing on Ash (*flashbacks to the friggin’ second movie where they shove it in your face*) but it’s just... there, not to mention that scene where Misty is talking casually to Ash like, “you and I will be married too someday,” which came completely out of left field and - whether for a joke or not - made little kid me very uncomfortable.

Like I said, it’s just there and doesn’t go anywhere, and Ash is already so oblivious that of course he wouldn’t get that Misty is in love with him. It’s basically a long-running gag of Misty pulling a surprised Pikachu face whenever Ash doesn’t understand that she likes him/wants to stay with him/literally wants anything specific from him.

As for Amour//Shipping, I did admittedly like it at first, but just--ugh, oh boy.

First, it’s shipping fanservice, kinda like Pokemon 2000 throwing a bone to the shippers except now it’s the whole two seasons. My followers know how I feel about fanservice just for fanservice and that’s basically all that Amour//Shipping is. That’s why Serena was already made to have met Ash when they were children; so the writers could get a “headstart” on all the blushy fanservice they could squeeze in on Serena’s end.

I fell off the ship sometime around Wulfric, particularly with the scene where Serena comforts Ash. Just that whole, “this isn’t like you,” and then trying to compare her contest losses to Ash’s battles as if Ash hasn’t been at this for seasons upon seasons and battles aren’t a completely different category because they involve actually watching one’s Pokemon get physically hurt (Pokemon battles are a sport, yes, but it doesn’t change anything; Ash also has a special Greninja so of course he’s going to be upset that having all this experience still isn’t enough to just sweep). Like, to relate to someone, yes, it helps to have something you can use as a mental comparison, but that comparison is (usually) supposed to stay mental.

Anyway, after Ash shouts at her because she doesn’t know how he feels at all (because she doesn’t) and he just wanted to be left alone (because he did), Serena throws snowballs at his face and that apparently helps make Ash feel better because Serena can do no wrong here and that just so happened to be exactly what he needed.

(I mean, that whole gym battle and what follows is already pretty trash but that solidified it for me. Basically everything XY&Z added were things I just didn’t care about.)

Oh, and Serena is also implied to steal a kiss from Ash at the very end of the season and you guys know how I feel about that. It’s mostly the fact that she’s so non-apologetic about it, just smiling and blushy and all happy whereas here’s me like, “Wait, I’m pretty sure we just missed a crucial step here??? Since when were you sure that Ash had a thing for you???”

So yeah, I’m not a fan of either ship. I have vague opinions about basically all other ships (The ship between Ash and Iris aka ”You’re such a kid” girl can rot), but Poke//Shipping and Amour//Shipping are the ones I have the strongest negative feelings for.

Brock being shipped with basically anyone is a no no for me. The guy flirts with anything that moves and I have never found it funny or charming. The closest thing young me ever came to a ship with him was Luck//Shipping (Brock X Pike Queen Lucy) but that’s basically it, and it honestly could’ve just been me thinking the idea that Ash and Brock both getting together with Battle Frontier people (I was for Ability//Shipping - Ash X Sailor Maiden Anabel - at the time) was a neat idea and both episodes that featured the respective ships had BLUSH FUEL.

I recall being into Advance//Shipping (Ash X May) when I was young (I was a multishipper back then, you see) but I avoided thinking about it too much because I wasn’t a huge fan of Max (aka “Iris before Iris existed”) and Norman’s game counterpart infuriates me even to this day so I just didn’t want to imagine Ash having to deal with those sorts of things. Plus, looking back on it, he and May were little too similar (then again, maybe that’s why I liked it?).

I expected to enjoy Aurelia//Shipping (Ash X Lillie) when I was getting into the Sun&Moon seasons but it didn’t really do anything for me. I guess maybe I was so burnt out after Amour//Shipping that I wasn’t in a shippy mood anymore? Though, it could also be that their relationship isn’t as “balanced” as I would’ve liked.

Anyway though, as for the ships I actually really like instead of just being indifferent towards or outright disliking, the big one really is just Pearl//Shipping. I suppose it makes sense given that I’m not a multishipper, don’t like Brock enough to ship him with anyone, and most other travel companions are ones I either hadn’t gotten attached to or that I’d paired with Ash long enough that, once I got older, I couldn’t really picture them with other people because my memory of their moments wasn’t strong enough.

Yeah though, PEARL//SHIPPING, I ADORE IT. Like, I’ll try to explain it as best as I can without rambling, but basically:

Dawn doesn’t make excuses when she wants to go with Ash. No “my bike," no meandering, just really casual.

THEY SING THE JAPANESE OPENING TOGETHER AND IT’S RAD. “High Touch” is like, my favorite opening theme???? And they do a duet for it??? I just???? Yes???????

It’s the little things. High-fives are like, their thing. They traded Pokemon with each other which is like, really rare for the series and it made total sense. They both have a Pokemon they keep out of their Pokeball who doesn’t want to evolve (Piplup was the Eevee partner from Let’s Go before it was cool) and no, Misty’s Togepi doesn’t count because it was Gold and Silver’s posterchild. Ash and Dawn also both gave up a speedy physical Pokemon (Primeape and Ambipom respectively) so they could participate in some sort of Pokemon sport that doesn’t exist in the games while I scream in the background because I really like said Pokemon.

DAWN IS ASH’S CHEERLEADER. SHE LITERALLY CHEERS FOR HIM DURING GYM MATCHES. THAT’S PRECIOUS.

They help and get ideas off of each other, which I think is really cool. Them trading Pokemon just furthers that sort of dynamic.

Them just supporting each other in general. There’s a moment where Dawn takes a pretty harsh loss and Ash can be seen sulking like he really gets how she’s feeling.

It also helps that Diamond and Pearl were one of the better seasons of the anime. Paul is a solid rival, I really like the creative battle techniques like spinning and countershield, and just Chimchar in general honestly. I remember the baking episode “Cooking Up a Sweet Story!” vividly and all the feels it gave me.

Yeah though. It’s not any sort of OTP pairing or anything, but out of all of the anime Pokemon ships, Pearl//Shipping is probably my favorite. I’d probably ship them a lot more if they were a little older (like, on par with the protagonists of the Black & White games, who are closer to 14/15; it’s just easier to get a gauge on personality that way).

[artgurusauce]

Oh hey what’s this an AU without Haudion in it? What sorcery is this, Saucy?

Yes yes, another AU spreadsheet. Twist this time: The prompt ain’t for shipping. I’ve been playing with this specific idea in my head for a while now and after rewatching an old playthrough of God of War 4, I got a tad inspired.

Without further ado, let us begin.

Context: As you can probably already tell, the prompt here was “What if Gladion was much younger when he joined Team Skull?” The question of how young I’m afraid I can’t put into precise numbers buuut, about the age he was in the anime when Lillie was attacked by that Nihilego. I’m assuming he was around 7 at that time but that’s just an estimate. Anyways, he runs away from home after stealing a Pokeball containing a Type:Null from his mother. Unfortunately, he grabbed a rather aggressive Type:Null that is poorly trained. It doesn’t kill him, but it often lashed out at Gladion and attacks him, scratching and headbutting him. One day, in the pouring rain, Guzma finds this crying boy sniveling and covered in all manner of bruises and cuts. Taking pity upon him, he decides to take him in.

1.) New Clothes

Since Gladion’s old clothes while expensive and cozy were absolutely ruined, they had to be replaced. Not only were they soaked, but they were terribly scratched up and beyond repair thanks to Null. Luckily, one of the grunts happens to be an expert in sewing clothes and makes up just the cutest little getup for him. However, she makes the sleeves just a tad too long. Guzma also gives Gladion an old pair of sneakers he used to wear when he was about his age.

2.) Roughhousing

Gladion, even as an older more mature boy is quite the emotional one. Often times he’ll lash out quite easily and it’s not hard to get under his skin. Imagine if you were to upset an even younger Gladion with far less experience, poise and who’s freshly emotionally damaged by his mother’s neglectful behavior, not to mention his frustration with trying to train Type:Null. So it’s not hard to imagine that Gladion still wouldn’t get along with the grunts. In fact, they pick on him even more since he’s so tiny and pathetic and gets far more attention from Guzma seeing as he’s the youngest one and needs more care. Usually it would lead to a grunt stepping out of line, saying something like, “Why don’t you go back home cryin’ to your daddy?” or “I’ll bet your ugly little pet would make a better jacket than a Pokemon.” This would obviously lead little Glad to attempt to beat up the older kids, biting and scratching and kicking them. And of course, Guzma would have to break it up and drag Gladion off to give him a stern talking-to, man to boy. Just what on Earth was Guzma going to do about all this pent up aggression he had?

3.) The Little Moments

Of course eventually after a while it should come as no surprise: The little brat is startin’ to grow on big ol’ bad Guzma. Even for the spoiled rotten, picky, ungrateful rugmuncher he can be sometimes, he’s not quite that bad of a kid. After all, Guzma actually somewhat admires his spunk. It’s not hard for him to see himself in this kid. He knew how scary it was being away from home at such a young age, and especially with such a goliath under his belt with no experience what-so-ever. This illustration is one of a few wholesome little instances you could probably imagine. Poor little Glad got tired from training and fell asleep while listening to one of Guzma’s post-battle lectures. It’s almost kind of cute.

4.) Motherly Advice

Oh but of course, Guzma isn’t the boy’s only parental figure. Plumeria, more docile and passive aggressive in nature is sure to give little Glad any advice he needs. While it is important he learns to toughen up, he’s not a brick wall. She’s there to talk to him whenever he needs it. While at first he’s not privy to talking to her as putting up with Guzma is enough of a challenge in and of itself, eventually, he warms up to her offers to listen when the grunts’ verbal jabs begin to wear down his self-confidence. She also is prone to helping Gladion understand Guzma’s rules and why he’s so hard on the poor little fella. They weren’t so different, even if it didn’t seem that way. “Might be tough for you to believe it, but everybody here has had it rough, even me.” Gladion definitely takes all her advice to heart, frankly just appreciating that someone would just talk to him like...a mother would.

5.) Tough Love

And now we get right back to Gladion’s biggest conundrum: Type:Null. I headcanon pretty much in any AU that there are 3 Type:Nulls in existence: A docile one, an aggressive one, and a pack leader. Gladion this time around ends up taking the aggressive one, not knowing the difference between the Beast Killers. While under Guzma’s wing, Type:Null and Gladion both endure intense and rough training that while unconventional is actually quite necessary. Guzma knows how to handle a bulky mass of rage after all. So first thing’s first, he uses his Golisopod to battle Type:Null in order to help it get out all that pent up aggression and channel it in a productive manner. The more it associated it’s power and ability with Pokemon battle rather than throwing temper tantrums, the better. Golisopod is more than happy to help, which creates a tense rivalry between the two. Often times they will even spar without either of their Trainer’s request. In a similar fashion that Guzma is a mentor to Gladion, Golisopod becomes somewhat of a mentor to Type:Null. Then of course, there’s the trust-building lessons to help Gladion and Type:Null establish a Trainer-Pokemon relationship rather than a Master-Prisoner mentality. It doesn’t quite understand that Gladion is it’s ally, it only knows that it is free from the tazing devices and cold, claustrophobic cages that prevented it from ripping anyone that crossed it to shreds. It had to understand that the boy was it’s friend, not it’s foe. Leading that, Gladion himself would learn how to battle using his Pokemon. A process that requires surprisingly a lot more paper than hands-on studying. After all, he has to memorize all the moves and rules if he’s to become a proper Trainer for that powerhouse.

6.) Am I Supposed To Apologize?

After a long, long, looonnnggg time of building trust and coming to see Guzma like a second father, Gladion finally spills the beans about his mother’s cruelty and his father’s tragic death. Surprisingly, rather than Plumeria, it is Guzma he confides in. He breaks down, confessing every little horrific detail. How his father died in a horrible research accident. How his mother shut them out emotionally after the funeral. How she forced him and his sister to dress perfectly proper in almost all white. How she ridiculed and belittled and shamed them just to make them complicit. How she locked him and Lillie in their rooms for hours on end for simply wearing the wrong shoes. How she took away their Pokemon, saying they weren’t worthy enough children to be Trainers. How she began to pretend as if Gladion didn’t even exist anymore and gave all the attention to his sister just to spite him. All they were to her were ugly, useless children. She didn’t love them anymore, and they didn’t understand. He didn’t understand. He didn’t know what to do. All he wanted to do was run away. But he also wanted to piss her off, give her something to really be upset about. At least then she would give him attention. At least then she would acknowledge him, wouldn’t she? She had to! But she hadn’t even bothered to look for him, she didn’t care about him. She never would. Why did she act like this? Did he do something wrong? Was he supposed to apologize? Why did she hate him so much? Guzma is obviously taken aback by all this and takes pity on the poor boy again, letting him cry out all of his frustrations and woes. Nothing is more painful for Guzma than hearing the things some of these kids he takes in have gone through, but coming from the mouth of someone so young, it also boils his blood. Lusamine will surely regret what she has wrought upon this boy...

7.) Po Town Raid

So I came up with an interesting plot idea, perhaps a sort of climax to this story. Team Skull is still very much a group of criminals. They steal, vandalize, and sometimes even shake down young Trial-Goers who were unfortunate enough to run into one of Guzma’s lackeys. Up to now, nobody really knew where they were hiding out. However, the police somehow found a lead, and raid the entirety of Po Town to arrest and detain everyone. Guzma knows there’s not enough time to save everyone, and decides to make a split second decision as the police come dangerously close to knocking down the door to the mansion. He calls out his Golisopod, ordering Gladion to hide under him and not to come out no matter what he hears. Of course, Gladion is terrified and objects to this, but Guzma manages to convince him that he can handle himself. Begrudgingly, Gladion hides in Golisopod’s grip as it curls up into a ball, shuffling itself under some floor boards beneath a rug on the floor. With bated breath and tears trickling down his face, Gladion is forced to listen quietly as his father figure is arrested and escorted out of the building, insisting there’s no one else left to detain. Golisopod is just as saddened as the boy, hesitant to sit back while it’s Trainer is being hauled off, but obedient enough to keep the boy safe as ordered. After a few hours of complete silence, Gladion and Golisopod finally emerge from their hiding spot, wrought with grief and panic to find Po Town was completely empty and devoid of any other humans or even Pokemon. Everyone was gone.

Sooo another plot twist, I may consider actually writing a fic for this one but obviously not right now. Or I could just keep posting about it here, lol. Honestly I really like this one so I’m definitely gonna continue it regardless. But lemme know what y’all think. 

[iceprincessmiyu]

An Applin for an Applin

If anyone is interested in how my OC and Leon first confessed their feelings for each other, I thought I would share the story here!

Small backstory, though: Hiki and Leon were rivals as well as very close friends during their gym challenge, and two years after he became champion, she returned to her home region, Johto, to take on the gyms there. From there she went to all of the other regions to do the same (one region each year). This takes place after she returns to Galar six years later, when they are roughly around 18!

"Alright Leon, all you have to do is give her this Pokeball and she will be all yours!" the ever confident Raihan said. He was giving the champion a pep talk to help encourage him to tell Hiki how he felt. She had recently returned to Galar, so the two boys and Sonia threw a ‘Welcome Back’ party for her.

"But I've given her a Pokemon before! Don't you remember the Charmander I gave her before she left for Johto?" Leon scratched the back of his head. "What if she thinks it's weird that I’m giving her another Pokemon?"

"That girl loves Pokemon! She'd never think you giving her one as a gift is 'weird,'" he responded, air quotes and all. "Besides, everyone in Galar knows what it means when you receive an Applin from someone!"

“You’re right. Okay… I’m going to do this!” the champion said as he smacked the sides of his face. It was the perfect time to approach her, as she was finally alone. He took a deep breath and walked over to her.

When she saw him walking her way, Hiki smiled at him so brightly he thought his heart was going to melt. “Hey, Lee! Thank you for throwing such a great party! It’s been a lot of fun catching up with everyone!”

“We’re all really happy to have you back! I’ve really missed you-- Uh we’ve really missed you!” Smooth. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I have something for you! You can think of it as a Welcome Back gift!” He handed the Pokeball to her, his face just as red as the ball itself.

“A Pokemon! Leon, you didn’t have to do this!” She took the ball and held it close to her chest, practically dancing with excitement. Her adorable reactions were almost too much for him to handle. “Can I let it out right now? I want to meet it!”

“Yeah, of course!” he told her. It was important for her to see what Pokemon it was!

“Come on out, then!” she released the small Pokemon from its ball and knelt down to greet it. “How cute! It’s an Applin! I wanted to catch one of these back during our Gym Challenge, but now I have one of my very own!” She scooped Applin up in her hand before giving Leon a one armed hug. “Thank you, Leon! I promise to take really good care of it!”

He blinked with confusion and returned the hug. She wasn’t exactly responding the way he had expected. “Ah, you’re welcome, Hiki! But… what do you think of it?” 

“Weren’t you listening, silly?” She giggled and nuzzled the Pokemon to her cheek. “I said it was really cute!”

“Uh, right! So does that mean you feel the sa--” But before he could finish his question, he was interrupted by Sonia calling out Hiki’s name.

“Hiki! We have curry over here if you’re hungry!”

Hiki hadn’t eaten since earlier that morning before her flight, and Sonia’s curry was definitely something she missed while she was away. “I’ll be right over!” She turned to Leon before walking away. “Thank you, again, Lee! You always give the best gifts.” She gave him one more smile and went over to where Sonia and a few of the gym leaders were sitting.

Raihan came up behind Leon and put an arm around his shoulders. “Well? She looks happy! I’m guessing that means she likes you back?”

“She… didn’t say,” Leon said, while watching her walk away. He was a little surprised that she hadn’t at least commented on how that meant he felt about her. “She just said the Applin was cute and that she always wanted to catch one.”

“Weird… I was so sure this was going to work,” Raihan responded, almost as lost as Leon was.

---

Hiki sat next to Sonia with a plate of curry, happy to have one of her favorite meals prepared to celebrate her return! Her new Pokemon, Applin, was sitting on her shoulder and the redhead noticed it right away.

“Oh! I didn’t know you had an Applin, Hiki!” Sonia said to her.

“I didn’t! This little one was just given to me!” She smiled and pat Applin on the head.

Sonia gasped. “Oooh~! They must really like you! How did you respond?? Is it someone cute??” How exciting! Hiki had an admirer! 

Hiki chuckled a little. What was with her strange questions? “I told him it was a cute Pokemon and thanked him for it!”

Sonia tilted her head to the side. “You mean you didn’t tell him if you feel the same way about him as he does about you?”

“How I feel? What do you mean? He said it was a Welcome Back gift!” Was there something she was missing? He never mentioned anything about feelings…

“Wait… Hiki, don’t you know the old rumor about Applin?” Sonia asked, realizing that Hiki didn’t seem to catch onto what was actually going on.

“Rumor? No, I haven’t! Applin aren’t native to Johto and I never got the chance to catch one when I was here before, so it wasn’t added to my Pokedex!” Hiki explained.

“Oh that poor boy…” Sonia responded, still unaware of who Hiki’s admirer even was. “So basically if you really like someone and you give them an Applin, then you’ll be together forever! That means whoever gave you this Applin has a crush on you, Hiki!”

Hiki just stared at her in disbelief, not even sure what to say in response. The guy she hadn’t stopped thinking about since they were kids was trying to confess to her and like an idiot she was completely oblivious… It was the exact opposite of how she always imagined it would happen!

“Hiki?” Sonia waved a hand in front of her friend’s face.

“Oh, sorry…” Hiki responded with an embarrassed laugh. “I just really didn’t expect this.”

“It’s okay! You didn’t know what his intentions really were! But I have to know! Do you like him back?” Sonia questioned. 

Hiki looked down to her hands in her lap, where she fiddled with the pokeball. “Actually… I do like him. A lot. You’re sure that’s definitely why he did this?” 

“Really?? You have to let him know!!” she exclaimed. She had to tell him before he took her response as a rejection! “Oh, I know that’s why he gave it to you! Who is it, anyway?” If it was someone at the party, it must have been someone she knew!

“It’s Leon…” She stood from her seat, with a smile creeping its way onto her face. Leon had a crush on her! She could hardly believe it! “And I’ll tell him… but there’s something I have to do first.”

---

It had been nearly a week since Hiki had returned to Galar, which meant a week since Leon had attempted to tell her how he felt about her. When she found out that was what he was trying to do, she went out in search of the perfect Applin to give him not only as an apology, but to tell him that she was also interested in him.

"Lee? You have a moment?" Hiki asked him when she caught up to him. He had just won yet another exhibition match, which meant he should be in a great mood!

However, there was something she didn't know. The champion was still really embarrassed over what he assumed was a rejection from her. It had left him feeling a little down on himself. "Ah, Hiki, I'm sorry but… I have--"

"I promise it will only take a moment! And it's kind of important…" she said, holding her hands behind her back and stared at the ground. She could sense the sadness in his tone, which made her feel slightly guilty.

He sighed, knowing he couldn't possibly say no to her. Spending the past week avoiding her was driving him crazy! Especially after not getting to see her for six whole years. He gave her a warm smile. "Okay, what is it, Hiki?"

"Here, this is for you." She pulled a very special ball from behind her back, a Love Ball to be exact. Leon's eyebrows raised as he took the ball from her hand. It was a very specific choice of Pokeball… "You see… I honestly had no idea what your gift the other day meant. In Johto, we don’t have any sort of traditions like that, but Sonia explained the whole thing to me. So I didn’t want you to think that your gesture was going ignored! Go ahead and let it out! I spent all weekend trying to find the perfect one to show you… how I feel."

How she feels? So that meant her reaction before wasn’t a rejection? But if that’s the case, did that mean there was an Applin in the ball she was giving him? And in a Love Ball, no doubt? He released the creature from the ball he held, and was amazed by the sparkling sight he saw. In front of him was definitely an Applin, but unlike the one he gave her, this one was green. His jaw dropped as he looked back to Hiki. “A shiny Applin?” He knew how hard it was to find such a rare Pokemon like that, and to think she did it all for him… “You did this for me?”

“I felt really bad for not giving you a proper response the other day, so I wanted to make this extra special! Because… you are really special… to me,” she answered, starting to feel a little more nervous than she imagined she would be. She was even too shy to make eye contact! “You know, I really missed you while I was gone.”

He chuckled lightly and took her soft hands in his. "I can't even put into words how much all of this means for me to hear…" He pulled her into him and hugged her tightly. "Thank you for coming back. That is honestly the best gift you could have given me. But little Applin there is very close to taking that top spot away."

Her face grew bright red as it made contact with his chest, but she brought her arms up to return the hug. She couldn't help but giggle at his last comment. 

Unfortunately, for both of them, Leon's phone rang. It was Rose. "Ah, jeez… I'm going to be late. Can we pick this up where we left off later? Maybe around dinner time?"

She put her hands on her hips and gave him a half teasing grin. "Are you asking me out on a date, Mr. Champion?"

"I-If that's okay with you!" he responded, feeling a little embarrassed. He wasn't exactly used to this sort of thing!

"I'd love that." And with that, Hiki sent him off with a warm, happy smile.