#ducklett writes

[milliemuus]

Day TWO of toxicchaintober is rolling around, and the prompt was chains!

This is kind've sad, but necessary. Evil villain plot stuff, yk? Maybe don't get so greedy, Kieran smh

Speaking of villain origin story, why don't I write y'all a little excerpt?

READ BELOW THE CUT (!!!!MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING FOR ASPHYXIATION!!!!)

It was a very dark night.

Kieran hurriedly raced away from home, having snuck out of the house without getting caught. His adrenaline, mixed with both fear and anticipation, rushed through his veins with each trot as he made his way to the bridge that seperated town from the wilderness. He knew he really shouldn't be out here this late, but given the circumstances, he didn't care.

It was about time he grew up, anyway.

As he reached the path that led to Kitakami Hall he took a turn, headed down the slope and toward the river.

"I just have to remember how to get to the woods, and then out of sight for a little while." He panted, coming to a stop before approaching the bubbling stream before him. He looked down at the water for a moment, taking in his reflection.

"I look...I look so tired..." he whispered, still drawing in deep breaths. He brought a hand up to his cheek.

"What is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?" He asked himself, feeling the small, familiar flicker of irritation as he began to recall the events since coming back home.

"You make your first friend, want to prove to her you're not some loser wimp and then your stupid sister comes in and swoops her away! And now she won't even talk to you, much less look at you!" He growled, his panting becoming slower. Even still, his heart pounded in a mix of bubbling frustration and fatigue.

"You can't even make friends right, much less DESERVE ANY!" His voice rose, echoing through the still air as he swiped the water with his hand, as if to eradicate the insecure reflection before him. This caused some neaeby ducklett to quack from being startled.

"I hate you! I hate this stupid town, and I hate my sister. It's all your fault!" He rambled on.

"If you weren't SO WEAK—" He grit his teeth, near forgetting why he was here before he felt a rattling in his pouch, nearly causing him to fall over in surprise.

"Ghh-?!"

His fanny pack rattled again. Oh...right. He shouldn't be here wasting his time. The thing rattling in his backpack had reminded him of wby he was headed to his destination in the first place.

He sighed, taking a deep breath.

"If I stay any longer, someone'll be bound to find me. I gotta get going." With that, he set off once again, this time he was going to make sure he didn't lose breath.

...

After what felt like forever, he recognized the thick greenery of the forest. Many had warned him of the dangers, but he didn't care. He stopped, clenching his fist.

"I have to go in." He swallowed "I have to prove my worth. Maybe then she'll like me then." He then began scaling the steeper hill of the forest, making sure he didn't tumble on the way down.

As he landed at the bottom, he whispered "I wonder how she does this...I'm already done outta breath..."

He sounded disappointed in himself, shaking his head.

"No, Kieran. Steel yourself. Part of the training is tolerance!" He growled softly, pushing deep into the dark woodland of Timeless Woods.

Thankfully he was wearing his jacket—so many swaths of bramble had poked out, scraping his legs. As annoying as it was, he would just stomp them to the ground with a flare of annoyance.

"No doubt meemaw is going to question how I got these in my sleep," he thought to himself.

"Maybe I can just say my Sentret did it out of excitement....seems believeable."

Convincing himself, he pushed forward, a branch near hooking his headband. He growled at this, struggling for a moment before it let go.

"Geez...!" He adjusted his headband.

"To be honest, is this even worth coming so far?" He began asking himself, now wandering aimlessly. "That voice said it would be...so I guess it wouldn't hurt. Still..." As he was about to speak, a loud shriek echoed in the distance, the hair on the bsck of his neck standing up.

"A-Aw man....I oughta make this quick, then-"

Without further hesitation, he knew he had no choice but to go forward. He whimpered slightly, throat burning in fear as he picked up the pace.

"Did we really have to meet out here...?!" He panted again, already losing the air pocketed in his tiny lungs. The terrain here was unstable; what if he fell? What if a scary pokémon caught up to him-?!

The panic rose in his chest. He felt more hypervigilant, the rattling in his pouch only startling him further.

"W-Wait...!" He puffed "We're almost there—"

He could faintly make out an area in the distance, his focus locking onto it. The pouch rattled again, this time with more ferocity.

"C-Can't you just wait?! I'm trying, here!" He wailed, his hands travelling to his fanny pack. Whatever it was, it was ready to come out compared to when he was near Mossui.

He began unzipping it, eyes still locled onto the clearing ahead.

Zzziiiiip-!

"Okay, I'll give you some ai— Wuuaahh—!" Suddenly the weight under his feet was gone, his body feeling as if it was soaring. A choked cry escaped his throat before it was automatically stifled by his front-half landing on the ground.

"Oomph—! Oowww..."

Kieran whimpered. He slowly sat up onto his knees, trying to rub his eyes.

"Mmghhh...uh?" He stopped, his vision refocusing. That's when he noticed something small and a pinkish-purple laying in the grass in front of him, moonlight reflecting off of it.

He began grabbing at his pouch, realizing that it was now empty as well.

"What-?! How did-?!" He scooched up further, about to grab it and stuff it back in the bag before his eyes landed on two, yellow orbs that stared right back at him.

"WH-WHAT THE--?!" He took his hand away. The item-now-turned-creature hissed.

"Silence, child!"

It rattled, this time the weird, soft shell began to undulate.

The air felt like it was sucked out of Kieran's throat. What the hell was going on...? Had he hit his head too hard somehow? Maybe ate too many sweets the day prior?! He had to slap himself for a moment, as if he was dreaming.

"Ugh....this is just a dream...it has to be a dream..."

The creature rolled its eyes for a moment before Kieran felt something—something that physically wasn't there—grab his face. This grabbed his attention, his whole body tensing up as he sensed danger.

"You call yourself a "trainer", yet you can't tell when a pokémon is right in front of you or not. How pathetic..."

With it's soft outer shell, the creature hoisted itself up. It was shaky, much like the spherical-shaped robots breaking down like in sci-fi movies Kieran had seen. He watched in horror as the peach-shaped pokémon lifted itself in the air.

For him, this was like witnessing the birth of Arceus, or the existence of life itself. Did Millie know what this thing was?

As he sat there, dumbfounded, the tight, invisible feeling left his face. He reached to rub his chin instinctively, looking at the creature that was slowly regaining its strength.

"You...you can speak?" He asked shakily.

"Yes...I suppose I am able to now..."

"Now?"

"It does not matter. What matters right now is that I have brought you out here for a multitude of reasons..." The creature's yellow-eyes squinted at the child. Kieran sat there, watching its every move as it began floating around him, as if to observe him. It stopped above his head, leaning in a little closer.

"Wh-What are you doing...?" Kieran asked, confused.

The peach-shaped creature's horns seemed to move back for a moment before it floated away from Kieran, looking down at him.

"Studying you...you'll see." The creature finally answered. Kieran tilted his head.

"Studying me? Why?"

The creature floated up to his face, glaring at him.

"It is simple, foolish child. I need your help." The creature insulted Kieran, which he slightly looked away in agitation.

"We both are in a predicament, and I think we could benefit from one another, no?"

This caught Kieran's attention. His eyes flickered for a moment.

"Y-Yeah!" He barked, before his face contorted in confusion.

"Wait...how did you know I was going through somethin' right now?" Kieran, now struck with realization, stared down the anomaly in front of him. The creature gently shook from side-to-side.

"Peh-heh-heh...you really are so stupid...I really did hit the jackpot with you..."

Kieran's fists balled up as he sat there, becoming impatient.

"Enough with the insults! Just...answer my question." Kieran's voice was more demanding, it taking all of him to not just grab at the creature and scream at it. The critter made a weird groaning sound, rolling its eyes again.

"I don't know how it couldn't be anymore obvious...but I've kinda been alive the whole time..." It revealed, "To put it simply: the first time you touched me, I suppose it activated something within me to wake up. Then I had to play the waiting game...make sure you're worth my time-"

"Worth your time...?" Kieran squinted, perplexed.

"You're so hopeless. Anywhoooo...." The creature tilted to the side.

"You said you wanted to get stronger, right? I kinda overheard when you rudely stuffed me into your little smoking-case there—"

"H-Hey, woah-!" Kieran put his hands in front of him "First off, this isn't a smoking-case, it's a pouch! Aren't those like really old, anyway?" He scratched his head "Also, I suppose yer not wrong. Sorry for doing that, by the way-" He looked down, blushing slightly from embarrassment. The creature looked down on him.

"Coulda swore that was something else. Anyway, to repeat what I said—"

"Yeah! I do wanna get stronger!" Kieran, impatient with excitement, grabbed his own knees in anticipation.

"...Okay, kid. Slow down."

"Sorry!"

"Oookay...anyway...I need your help. If you wanna get stronger, then I have two favors from you. I really think these things could help you get stronger..."

Kieran leaned forward, now in a semi-bowing-position.

"Please! I'll do anything!" He cried, his head bowing to the ground. The creature wanted to giggle at his patheticness to work for him.

"Wow...that didn't really take any convincing and I didn't even get to tell you the conditions yet. Consider this...a sub-challenge..." For a moment, it felt pity for the kid. How desperate would a kid his age have to be? It almost seemed unfair-

When was it ever fair, anyway?

Kieran sat up again, nodding. The peach began to float to-and-fro.

"Firstly: You really need to prove your strength by helping me re-unite my buddies and I together. What better way to prove your strength than through friendship?" It began to explain, nearly cringing at the last few bits. Before it could continue, Kieran piped up again.

"Who are your buddies?" He asked. It would only be natural for him to ask just so he knew what to do.

"Err...they are very...anonymous folk. They prefer to keep their identity hidden."

Before Kieran could say anything else, it continued,

"Secondly, I need a few, specific masks retrieved."

Kieran's eyes widened, and he piped up again once more.

"Like...like The Loyal Three's?"

The creature looked at him in surprise. The Loyal Three?! If it wasn't so upset at them for failing their job previously, it would have been pleased with the title.

"Look, save your questions for later. Once I see 'em, I'll let you know, okay? For now, I'm just trying to work this dea—trade—out with you."

His voice sounded stern for a moment. If things went his way successfully, he wouldn't have to explain his reasons. It's not like he was going to remember anyway-

Kieran looked embarrassed once again, nodding in understand.

"Okay-"

"Thank you." The creature sighed before floating up into his face.

"If you can do those two things for me, then I can grant you the power you seek. Do those conditions sound good to you?" It asked. Finally finished with it's propisition, it now waited desperately, looking into Kieran's cat-like eyes.

Kieran was quiet for a few moments, which was completely agonizing for this mystery pokémon. If it had hands, it would have its fingers tied behind its back.

'Just take the bait, kid. Come on!' It thought, tensing a little.

Kieran tapped his finger against his chin before he finally spoke.

"So, if I find your friends and retrieve these mystery masks, I can catch you and join my party?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"Indeed— Wait...catch me?"

"With a pokéball!" Kieran beamed, looking up at it with moon-round eyes. Never had the pokémon been so confused and offended before. What the hell was a pokéball?! It made a weird "peh" noise before shaking itself again.

"Y'know what? Yeah, we'll work that out when we get to it..." It grumbled. Might as well save itself another headache before it wastes the little energy it has...

Kieran had never been so overjoyed before. He was finally going to be able to achieve his dreams of becoming the strongest trainer in the world, and finally have an attempt at impressing Millie! His heart began to pound and, before he could stop himself, he blurted out the fastest "Yes" his body could conjure.

For a moment, the creature was too stunned to speak. This was easier than it thought it'd be. Was this kid really that gullible? Did he never get the lectures most kids got when he was younger? The creature blinked, before the answer finally hit it. It finally got what it wanted.

"Yes?" It asked "Are you absolutely sure?" It wanted to clarify that it had not heard things, making sure that Kieran could undoubtedpy be bound to it.

"Yes! If you can give me strength, then I will do these things for you! Kieran repeated, bowing again.

Wow. This kid WAS serious.

"Pehra, Pehra..." It made a noise akin to a pokémon, sighing. It was excited, but it also pitied the kid to a degree.

"Okay, kid! You got yourself a deal!" It cheered, it taking everything not to squirm too much so its shell didn't open up too much.

"Sit up and hold out your hand!"

At its command, Kieran sat up for a moment, confused. He just shrugged, thinking ut was just the simple gesture the mystery pokémon had picked up from others when it came to sealing deals.

"Okay!" And with that, he held his hand out, eyes closed in a smile.

The creature could hardly believe it; it was going to be able to take Kieran's vessel (and smoothly, at that)! It made a little chirp, the chirp becoming a few quiet giggles as Kieran felt something invisible wrap around his wrist.

The pokémon's eyes remained closed, the noise getting happier as the invisible force began to tighten agonizingly around Kieran's wrist.

"Ow ow, hey-" Kieran opened his eyes "I know you're excited, but—" Before he knew it, the pokémon began glowing a faint purple around itself, now looking back at him with dark intent.

"You really are so STUPID....!" It snarled. Kieran's eyes could do nothing but hopelessly watch as the invisible pressure he felt began to glow purple, materializing into a faint, circular object that seemed to stretch from the sides of the pokémon.

It was at this moment his heart dropped, the atmosphere around him turning into one of despair.

There was no doubt about it; he had been duped, used yet again by another creature that saw him as nothing but weak. He could feel his heart quicken in terror, his immediate instinct to pull away.

"S-Stop it!" He cried, trying to pry his arm away from the sinister creature that had a death-grip on it.

"Let go of meee...!" He grit his teeth, his arm screaming in pain as he pulled as hard as he could. The pokémon drew closer, laughing darkly at the kid.

"I feel bad, kid. I do," It faked the pity; in reality, it had played its cards right, and Kieran had fell for its plea

"But you did agree to this trade! Fair's fair!"

Kieran growled in panic, his eyes welling up with tears.

"I NEVER AGREED TO— MMMPHHH—" Before Kieran could scream at it, he the weird texture of the unidentifiable object the creature was using dart into his mouth, as if to stifle him.

"Whazzat?" It asked "Did a totodile bite your tongue?"

Kieran glared at the pokémon, the familiar ache in his chest swelling. He couldn't make any noise as the chain-like miasma pinched his tongue. He did squeal, his throat burning as the prongs pinched harder.

As Kieran began to struggle, the chain that was snaking up his arm suddenly lunged, now wrapping around his throat. He began to panic, realizing exactly what it was trying to do. His eyes welled up with tears as the creature floated behind him, chuckling.

"That's a good kiddo. If I didn't have my toxic chain in your mouth, I'd totally give you some mochi as a reward!" It chimed. Kieran growled, struggling some more. Not only was this pokémon actively going to kill him, but it was offering one of Kieran's least favorite foods.

The despair ate at Kieran. He had followed a disembodied forest out into Timeless Woods, accepting some sort of stupid offer. He was disappointed; it was as if life was just out for him.

'This is my fate..." Kieran thought, the chains getting tighter. He could feel his throat slowly close.

'Maybe this is what I deserve. Maybe sis was right about me being a stupid child that doesn't know any better...' As he began to pity himself, the chains fully closed around his neck, closing his windpipe. The tears slowly stopped, him unable to heave any air.

'I'm going to die. I'm going to die in the middle of the woods.' Kieran looked up at the sky, trying to gasp for air as the creature's other chain used it's prongs to stretch his mouth open.

'I'm going to die alone, and nobody will be here to save me.'

Suddenly, Kieran began to miss everything. His house, his school, his family, his friends....

...Even Millie. Why was it that, even at the face of death, she was the one that crossed his mind? The despair gnawed at him, and he was helplessly a victim to it.

He began to panic, clawing at the chains that held onto him, sucking the oxygen out of him. This only caused the creature to wiggle the chains, laughing.

'...I really need sis right now...' He finally felt a heavy weight upon him. It was as if Carmine was tucking him into bed, telling him things would get better.

"Looks like we've got a fighter! I hate to tell you this, but the more you struggle, the worse it'll get!"

It was taking excitement in Kieran's suffering. He could feel his vision tunneling, white, fuzzy spots dotting it. His struggling became less amd less, the movements becoming mere twitches.

'I feel so cold...' Kieran thought.

'If only sis were here...I need her...I need...sis...'

And that's when the weighted feeling took over, as if a blanket had fallen over him, one that Carmine was holding, telling him that things would get better and that tomorrow they would make things better.

Just like she used to. Right before he felt like he didn't need her love or comfort anymore.

Before he knew it, he had slipped into the comforting void of darkness.

.

.

.

.

.

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[luckyspot]

Pokemon I hope get Regional Forms and/or Evolutions in Pokemon Legends: Z-A

*Wow, this dry spell is...something, huh?*

I'm bored, restless and have no life! So let's do this!

1. Ducklett/Swanna

Swanna is already so lovely, it'd be hard to make a new form that can show it up. But...Kalos was known for introducing a lot of new features for our characters and I admittedly would like some more world building. If we should find ourselves in an City from long ago, I'd enjoy seeing a Swanna geared more towards performing for crowds of people instead of just it's own kind. Maybe Water/Fairy or Water Psychic, using tricks to make a stage for it's dances?

2. Minccino/Cinccino

I mean, look at it! It's a Chinchilla wearing a fur coat! The Reference writes itself! I honestly like Pokemon who look like they're wearing clothing without being TOO on the nose. This Pokemon is a Fashion Icon, imagine if you had to give someone who wants to make a clothing store this Pokemon and seeing bask in the attention on onlookers. A Fairy typing would be quite obvious, but I suggest a Dark Typing instead to reflect the vain fashion designer. Or maybe even rock type to make it sparkle like jewels!

3. Miltank

Tauros got not 1, not 2, but 3 new forms in Scarlet and Violet! I've personally never used Miltank and it feels like it's been a while since it got to flex it's muscles! I'd suggest a full fairy type; one that has milk that is well suited towards cheese! Maybe color it white instead of pink to match some of the French cattle. You could also make it Ice-Type to help keep the cheese fresh!

4. Vullaby/Mandibuzz

Just like with Miltank and Tauros, Mandibuzz has been shown up by Braviary time and time again as of late. (And they technically aren't even related!) Mandibuzz has been sitting in the dust for long enough and it's time for our girl to get her day in the spotlight! There's too many Fairy Types in here, so I suggest a Pure flying type. A Mandibuzz that migrates to Kalos and has it's dark typing purified by the Fairy Aura that covers the region! Maybe make it resemble the Bearded Vulture.

5. Sunkern/Sunflora

Okay...pretty much any flower based Pokemon could fit this slot, but Sunflora's been waiting for a chance for a long time. Look how happy they are! Paris has many gardens full of many beautiful flowers; it feels like a waste to not have a beautiful flower Pokemon. (Floette already got her post) Imagine a large flower that was so tall and had a smile so bright, that it was said that it called the Sun to rise each morning; not Grass/Fairy, not Grass/Psychic but Grass/Fire! Beneath that smile lies a truly warm heart!

Add some of your own to this post and let me know if you'd want to see some of these ideas.

[viewer-of-many]

Flufftober Day 17

The Pokégirls' place only has one bed, and Tamasi is the one that gets to use it at night. She sets up a nice little blanket, a fluffy pillow(Ducklett down- which she collected herself), and a notebook to write about any Pokémon that end up sleeping near her. She sets her head down, and lets the sound of the water flowing over the bed next to her gently lull her off to sleep...

wait, what kind of bed did you think I was talking about?

@flufftober

[bigassbowlingballhead]

pokemon for Tommy? (because you're the expert)

Kayla i can not tell you enough how much i love these

first off. Swanna (water/flying)

Tommy is a firefighter and a pilot. how could he not have a water/flying type. and swanna. one of swanna's abilities is big pecs i mean. c'mon. it writes itself. plus look how adroable ducklett, swanna's pre evolved form is. tommy loves adorable things.

speaking of tommy's love of adorable things

skitty (normal)

this rambunctious little kitten pokemon it so cute and tommy took a shine to it the second he saw it. because of course he did. tommy's the only person this little skitty pays any mind to and likes to climb up him like the tree he is and ride on his shoulders. skitty also takes naps nuzzled between buck and tommy on rainy sunday afternoons.

Mienshao (fighting)

tommy has a mienshao who he practices muay thai with. He met the little mienfoo on a call takes it in. it eventually evolves into his mienshao.

Lyconroc (rock)

on the subject of adorable things tommy loves, he also rescued a rockuff from a call in the mountains. poor things hurt it's paw. tommy does what he does best, takes it in and cares for it. it becomes his faithful companion but hates flying in the helicopter.

Indeedee (normal/psychic)

the male indeedee (horns up) act as valets for those they serve, tommy relates to this as he loves to take care of people.

and finally,

revavroom (steel/poison)

tommy loves three things, love actually, craft beer and monster trucks. he loves watching this revavroom run and crush cars and various objects.

[eyes-of-arceus]

Beach days with Larry

Commission I got from a friend who wanted their oc written with Larry. I thought it was cute so I wanted to share. And yep my writing commissions are open a 0.01$ a word.

The gentle chirping of Fletchling waking up to the coming dawn sent a pleasant sound through Harlow’s apartment, though, he would have been glad for them to have waited a few hours. While he enjoyed his work at the Naranja Academy he had to admit he was becoming more and more of a workaholic. He’d spent most of the prior Friday night working overtime, making sure all his ducklett were in a row before his upcoming vacation he was overdue for. Still, he wished he could have gotten at least a few more hours of rest before meeting Larry at the airport. Just thinking of the man made him blush. They’d been dating for months now and despite the age gap he’d never felt closer to someone in his live.

With a groan, he began to force himself out of bed as he doubted he would be able to get back to sleep. His Tyrunt grunted in annoyance, despite the relatively small bed, the heavy fossil Pokemon made a show of readjusting himself to fill in Harlow’s void on the bedsheets. Getting out of bed, Harlow quietly laughed at the bratty dinosaur before going about his morning and checking for what felt like the millionth time he had his suitcase properly packed.

As he walked around his room he had to avoid stepping on a few of his other Pokemon. His Amaura comically had her head resting on the bed while the rest of her body sat in a pile of blankets on the floor. His Yamask sat quite comfortably on a chair by his desk, curled in on the pillow there he had for his back.

With a sigh, he paused his suitcase checking to just take in the sight of his Pokemon peacefully sleeping as he checked Larry’s goodnight message from the night before. He was lucky, so lucky he felt to have the life he did now and how different it was from just a couple years ago. He still felt the need to meet as many Pokemon as possible to make up for those years he lost out on. And in a way, sometimes he hoped he was doing the same for Larry. Dear Arceus it had been difficult to convince the workaholic man to even go on a vacation but as their salaries could both afford it and they had the PTO available it seemed like the perfect time.

He got back into focus, his suitcase was definitely settled and he even packed some pokeballs in case the opportunity to meet a new friend presented itself. Harlow loved his current team, but sometimes he did wonder what other incredible Pokemon were out there.

Leaving his room and letting the Pokemon there get some more rest, he went about making himself breakfast, texting Larry that he was awake and to think about finding a palace for lunch before the flight.

Larry, as sweet as he was, could sometimes have his senior moments where he struggled with technology like Rotomphones making typos incredibly common and something which Harlow found endearing. His response was just as cute however as Larry had sent him a Mausehold sticker with a heart and okay attached. Harlow beamed, setting his phone down. The second he reached for the eggs there was a familiar sound of clattering in his living room as his

Archeops tripped into the kitchen, always the most food driven of his team next to Tyrunt.

He was always guilty of spoiling his Pokemon, but given the day he decided to be extra sweet as he tossed Archeops a few eggs which the pokemon caught and swallowed hungrily, “That’s all for now, I promise Alola will have all sorts of great things for you to try.”

That seemed to be enough to placate his partner for a moment as the Arcehops hopped off. The cute way of hopping they did always reminded Harlow of how they first met at the lab back at Kalos. The archen fossil wasn’t set to be revived but an error in indexing had led to the little guy waking in the modern world. From the way the Archen, and later Archeops had followed his every step for quite a while, he didn’t doubt the bird pokemon saw him as his Papa.

The rest of the morning went on as usual for Harlow, fixing his own meal and settling his Pokemon down for their own meal. Ever since he’d caught the unusual bug Pokemon in the Paldea Crater his food budget had needed to increase significantly, but he managed to justify it to himself to still buy the fanciest Pokemon food considering that Yamask didn’t even eat.

Before he knew it he was returning them all to their balls and catching a taxi to the airport where Larry had mentioned a surprisingly good restaurant he sometimes stopped by before his work travels (Travels Harlow expected Larry tried to not see as anything more than work).

At the air port, he spotted Larry’s fluffy mop of dark and grey hair almost immediately. It looked so much like a bird’s feathers to Harlow he jokingly wondered if Larry was related to some yet unknown bird Pokemon. But what ultimately mattered was as soon as he saw him his already good mood skyrocketed with excitement over the trip they were going to share together. He was normally very reserved with physical affection in public, but wasted no time in rushing forward and grabbing the man in a surprise hug from behind. “It’s wonderful to see you my feather brain.” Harlow said, quietly so just only he and Larry would hear.

Larry seemed to be relatively startled by Harlow’s appearance but relaxed right away, turning around properly in order to give Harlow a quick kiss on the cheek. “I was hoping you’d get here early.” he hummed, “Although we’re not in much of a rush as I booked us business class.”

“Ah Larry we didn’t need to be so fancy!” Harlow fretted, concerned, “Please tell me it wasn’t that expensive.”

He gently waved off Harlow’s worry, “It’s okay, I have enough points from travelling quite a bit for work. And you’ve never flown business class, I thought it would be worth it to make it even more memorable for you.”

Harlow gave his hand a squeeze happily, “Thank you Larry, i really appreciate it. But you mentioned a restaurant you wanted to check out before the flight right?” Larry’s face redened and it was on of Harlow’s favorite things about him. Just how easily the man grew flustered from Harlow’s touches, or comments. Admittedly, he certainly found it funny sometimes to see just how flushed he could get Larry. Although today he would thankfully be merciful.

“R-right.” Larry replied as he cleared his throat. “Its right this way, thankfully it’s part of the airport. Actually, the reason there’s this whole thing of food before flights is because in the air your nose dries up and ruins your perception of taste.”

That was another thing Harlow loved, while Larry was so prone to forcing his mind to only talk about work, when he brought up a fun fact or information about cooking or food places, you could visibly tell he lit up. Harlow was grateful that in the months they’d been dating he was seeing more and more of that light as the days passed. They shared a boss in Geeta and while he felt she had good intentions she could be a little too zealous in her projects, typically unloading them onto people below her. Harlow and Larry had had to make it abundantly clear that they were not going to be ‘on call’ while on vacation and would certainly not be coming in for anything. Hell, Harlow had even considered leaving their phones behind and only decided against it for the safety concern.

The restaurant looked incredibly upscale with what looked to be a Furfrou as the mascot (was it still called a mascott for fancy places?). He immediately felt underdressed but relaxed a bit as he noticed other exhausted travellers inside with their luggage. They sat themselves and Harlow took in the Kalosian style from painting of Lumiose on the walls to intricate paintings of some of the legendary Pokemon of the region. “I’ve told you about my time in Kalos right?” Harlow asked as he took in a particularly lovely Xerneas painting.

“Some of it, you’ve mostly mentioned how you met Tiny and Teeny.” Larry said as he picked up the menu, of course, Harlow loved talking about his Pokemon, these two being his Tyrunt and Amaura.

“Have I told you about Anistar City.” Harlow asked as he motioned his head towards a painting of a tall, colorful, crystal like structure in lovely hues of pinks and yellows. When Larry shook his head he continued, “It’s a pretty simple city, a bit less bustling that most of the rest of Kalos but I ended up going as I was offered the chance to research the Sundial and its effects on Mega Evolution for a while.”

“I thought you weren’t very fond of Mega Evolution?” he asked, briefly pausing the conversation so the two of them could get some simple drinks.

“I’m more so indifferent.” Harlow clarified, “There’s just a lot of conflicting science on it with some sources declaring it the ultimate bond between trainer and Pokemon while others showing evidence it hurts the Pokemon. But I’m mostly interested in how it looks more like it’s a type of primordial evolution based on the similarity of Roaring Moon to Mega Salamance.” he explained.

“So what did you do in your research over in Anistar City?” Larry asked.

“Nothing all that new, but it was still pretty exciting, just the chance to see how the sundial seems to affect all mega evolution stones, and there’s types of phenomenon that cause it to glow with mega stones around the world lighting up at the same time.” Harlow said, “Really it’s incredible.”

Larry smiled as he listened, although when the waiter returned with their drinks, Harlow was made to realize he had no idea what he wanted to order. Pausing and trying to quickly scan the menu before Larry reached out and touched his hand to calm him down. “I would suggest the Ratatatouille.” He said to Harlow.

“Oh, yes right, I’ll umm, try that.” he replied, fair that Harlow was as easily flustered as Larry was.

The waiter smiled before heading off to complete their order as Harlow took a breath to relax, “If you like the Ratatatouille it’s pretty simple for me to show you how to make it yourself.”

“Thank you, sorry I got a little too focused on that topic.” Harlow apologized awkwardly.

“It’s just a place I think you would like.”

“I’ve been to Kalos before. Though I never got the chance to visit Anistar. Perhaps we can note it down if we get the chance to go on another vacation.” Another Vacation? The idea already sent butterfree up Harlow’s stomach happily, they weren’t even on their first and he was already talking about a second. Larry certainly had changed. “I would love to visit again.” he nodded, “But for this one, Alola is a fairly small region I believe, I think we’ll have enough time to visit every island. And well if we run outta time Poni Island is mostly just for battlers so I think we’d be find skipping it.”

“Pom Pom was originally a rescue from Alola, I think she’ll be happy to be back for a visit, I don’t have any interest in battling for this trip either.” Pom Pom, Larry’s Oricorio. That was right, Harlow had gotten so used to the Pokemon’s presence in Paldea he forgot they were actually native to Alola.

“The flowers there have nectar that would allow her to change her form, maybe we could pick some so that she’ll have some options if she wants.” Harlow suggested, trying to remember what types those forms even were but blanking.

“I think she might like that. Although her name might not fit as well.” He chuckled, “Did you bring your whole team?”

“Yeah it felt rude to leave any of them behind. I thought they’d enjoy a trip.” He said, admittedly hoping that Larry wouldn’t ask….

“Even Shanks?” he asked and Harlow knew he’d been caught.

“Uhhh, their name is Mothra now, Shanks didn’t really fit anymore.” Shanks, or well, Mothra, was an unusual Pokemon Harlow had found during one of his….excursions into the Paldea Crater. Later, Harlow would learn they were called a Slither Wing though he would never be unable to see how clearly they were a Volcarona ancestor. In any case they were very much a bit of an illegal catch. While Larry would never turn him in he did try very hard to make sure Harlow was careful about it. “And yes, I also didn’t want to leave them behind. They’ve been clingy ever since I caught them, which is an issue when talking about a bug with biceps.”

Larry sighed, but there was a laugh in it so he probably wasn’t too mad. “Just be careful, though, thankfully I don’t believe they’ll be as recognizeable in Alola.”

“I will don’t worry.” he assured Larry, “What about you and your Pokemon?”

“Everyone but Kola,” Larry’s Komala, “Will be coming along, it’s a shame but he just saw no interest in heading to Alola, he seems like he’ll just sleep while we’re gone.”

“That’s a shame, but I suppose he is the laziest and we’re going to be pretty busy.” Harlow nodded, nose catching the scent of their food and he immediately turned his attention to the waiter that was settled on their table, “Thank you so much!” he replied, eager to dig in himself.

Unsurprisingly, Larry had gotten a pretty extravagant meal himself, a le gogoat d'agneau, some sort of leg of gogoat with a fancy dressing that looked delicious. But looking at his own meal Harlow’s mouth watered just as much at the colorful dish. “This place uses extremely fresh ingridients and goes above and beyond from typical airport food. The tomato berries are typically more sweet than spicy and their budew leaf herb butter is wonderful.”

It was Harlow’s turn to listen to Larry go on about the food. Larry was just as excited about food as Harlow was about Pokemon Archaeology. Despite the strikingly different topics, the two had picked up enough on eachother’s interests that conversations never got too confusing.

Harlow took his talking to get the chance to take a bite, giving a satisfied ‘mmm’ when he did. Larry wasn’t wrong, it was wonderfully seasoned and clearly very fresh. “I would like to see what berries they have in Alola as well.” Larry said after taking a moment to have a bite of his own meal, “Some can be dried and would be wonderful seasoning to have on hand.”

“I’ll be happy to go looking with you. I was hoping to avoid too many of the ‘touristy’ places. I feel it would be better to see the places that are more naturally ‘Alola’ if that makes sense.” Harlow replied.

“Of course.” Larry agreed, “But we have to get there first don’t we?” ------------------ Lunch was naturally wonderful and they had just enough time to get to the airplane and take off. Admittedly, as exciting as business class was, Harlow found himself drifting off into sleep instead with the gentle lull of the plane as he rested his head on Larry’s shoulder. After a few minutes of this, Larry’s hand reached up and began to stroke his hair and then Harlow was gone.

His sleep was pleasantly empty, filled with nothing but the occasional jitter of the plane and the soft beating of Larry’s heart. It was probably for the best he was getting his rest now as the plane ride was not a short one, and Larry no doubt would want to check out the food scene as soon as they settled at their hotel.

A fact that seemed to be solidified when Harlow would later be awoken by Larry’s grumbling stomach. Harlow’s eyes blinked open with a yawn as he looked up towards Larry who seemed to have only recently woken up from his own nap. He glanced down to Harlow, “We’ll be landing soon. The hotel will be just outside of the Akala Island Airport so it shouldn’t take long for us to get settled.” he said, while Larry could often be food driven as part of his passions, he was always the most reliable man Harlow had ever met.

In response, Harlow exadduratedly stretched as much of his body over Larry as he could, “Hmmm, but I’m comfy.” he chuckled, leaning up to peck Larry’s cheek for a moment. “Are you going to want to rest when we get there or are we heading out right away?”

He seemed to think for a moment before resting his chin on the top of Harlow’s head, “Good question, though considering we slept most of this flight anyways why don’t we take a short look around then rest at the hotel?”

“That’s fine, it would give us a chance to see our first sunset of Alola too, they’re some of the loveliest in the world, at least that’s what the tourist guides say.” He smiled.

There were no issues in their arrival, although Harlow was surprised when they were greeted with leis and a hearty Alola before they were dropped off at the Airport terminal. Plenty of trainers and plain tourists muddled about collecting their luggage. Thankfully they found their luggage fairly quickly (and of course had kept their Pokemon on them the whole flight), and were able to head out. The air felt clearer here compared to the cities of Paldea, and especially more so than Galar. The abundance of Comfey and Cutiefly popping around through the bushes and flowers planted at the airport indicated that even the Pokemon felt the same despite how much pollution Airplanes usually generated. Harlow took a deep breath in, just enjoying the moment as the sweet smell of flowers met his nose, “We barely arrived and I’m already dreading leaving.” Harlow said, interlocking his arm into Larry’s.

“Then let’s make the most of it.” he replied, leading the two of them to the hotel where they only briefly checked the room before leaving their luggage and heading out.

Despite only being there a moment, a small part of Harlow longed to dive into the king sized bed that looked unbelievably plush. But the call of the new locale was stronger so he happily went along with Larry, “Where to boss?” he asked once they were back in the garden area outside of the hotel and airport.

Larry pulled up his sleeve to glance at his obsidian watch that sent a reflection of sunlight just above Larry’s eye that Harlow found kind of cute as it ended up shaped like a pokeball. “We’re not far from Konikoni City, they have a fairly famous restaurant, I can call now and see if they can squeeze us in?” he suggested.

Harlow knew a food place would be Larry’s first choice and he didn’t horribly mind given

that he was getting pretty hungry after the flight as well, “Go ahead and call then. I’m going to look at the Pokemon here.” he said, squeezing Larry’s hand before hurrying off.

He’d seen Comfey and Cutiefly before, while they weren’t native to Galar they’d been brought in some 70 years ago. The difference between those in Galar and those here was still notable however as they seemed to be more vibrant in color and happy to come up to him while the ones he’d known had been far more shy. Already, the science side of his brain was working as to if the increased Sunlight in this part of the world affected them, and if Alola’s more open landscape made them more docile. Evidently though, he’d gotten lost in thought enough that one of the Comfey worried over him, settling on his head and drifting a pleasant scent that slowed his mind some.

Really the smell lulled him into a comfortable state as soon others came by him to covery him in their bright flowers. “You look like a fairytale prince like that.” Larry said as he walked over, the shutter of his rotophone waking Harlow from his trance.

“Oh, sorry they just started clustering around me.” Harlow realize he looked like a bouquet. “Were you uh, able to get the reservation?” he asked as he began to stand up. The Comfey, their job done, floating off to do who knows what else but leaving their sweet scent on Harlow.

Larry softly smiled, “They like being around people who have good hearts they say. And yes, I didn’t mean to but I ended up mentioning who I was and they assured me they would have a spot open.” He leaned in, taking in the sweet smell left on Harlow.

Harlow welcomed his touch, perhaps a bit giddy still from the Pokemon’s power. “Wonderful, then let’s get going so we don’t leave them waiting too long.” They were able to catch a local shuttle to Konikoni that lasted only around 20 minutes. By now the sun was setting and the drive gave them a lovely view of it as the soft yellows, pinks, and oranges of the sky set Harlow at ease he almost drifted off again. Konikoni city at night was almost as beautiful with the almost Kantonian style buildings illuminated by a mix of old style lanterns and modern lights that didn’t intrude as much as most streetlights around the wolrd. The shuttle had to drop them off at the entrance of the city due to it being primarily footpaths but Harlow didn’t mind. Interlocking his fingers into Larry’s as they walked through.

There were multiple locale vendors and family shops with mixes of trinkets and locale foods and other items. More than once Harlow had to remind Larry that they were already going to go eat and they could have snacks after. Although Harlow was just as guilty of drifting towards stalls and shops. Spotting one that seemed to sell all sorts of evolutionary stones and what looked to be fossils. Grant it, Fossil Revival was serious business and not typically left for ordinary trainers…but looking at the shop it seemed they were more to appreciate the natural processes that lead them to becoming fossilize. He made a note of it for later.

The restaurant was certainly popular as they saw the line before they even saw the sign for it. Given that it also offered Pokemon battles in between meals there were primarily league trainers in the line (with a few clearly recognizing Larry), but they were able to slide past once they gave their information at the host stand and were lead inside to the upper balconies where they would be able to see any battles below.

Personally, Harlow didn’t really care to deal with Pokemon battles on vacation but the prospect of seeing new Pokemon in person was enough to keep his interest. Larry was already fixated on the menu and Harlow paid much more attention this time. “Could I uhh, just have a hard Pinap Juice please?” he said once the waiter came by to ask for their drinks.

“Roserade Tea for me please.” Larry said, and Harlow couldn’t help but notice that the waiter’s Id badge had a little Starraptor Pin attached.

“Of course, I’ll be right back.” they said before hurrying off.

“I wonder if they recognized you.” Harlow chuckled, “I swear they did a double take when they saw you, and did you see their Pin?”

“We’re on the other side of the world, it’s probably just coincidence.” Larry assured him as he flipped through the menu. “Or maybe not if they follow a certain Pokemon Type for Gym leaders.”

“Or Elite Four members.” Harlow added, spotting a particularly delicious looking roast grumpig on the menu. “What do you think of this?” he asked as he showed it to Larry.

“That would be good, based on the size I think the two of us would be able to share no problem if that’s alright with you?”

“Yeah of course, you know I’m not as much of a big eater.” Harlow laughed, hearing the sound of a bell from below and glancing down, “Looks like they’re starting a battle.“ he noted as one of the chefs came out sending a Munchlax to fight while the young trainer sent out a Brionee. ”I never understood fighting in such a closed place like this.”

“As long as no one has a Snorlax or Steelix we should be fine. Establishments like this have allot of precautions in place to prevent any issues. I also believe mostly starting trainers are invited here.” Larry explained, giving their order to the waiter once they returned with the drinks.

Harlow watched the battle, more interested than he’d expected to be, more so when the Brionee fainted and the trainer sent out a red Oricorio. “Hey look they have a Pom Pom.” Harlow laughed as he watched the bird Pokemon unleash a wave of fire type attacks.

“If Pokemon were allowed on this level I’d let her out so she could see.” Larry smiled, “But I’m sure we’ll see more, from what I recall there are 4 variations of Oricorio, at least that we’re aware of.”

“Electric, Fire, Psychic, and Ghost right?” Harlow asked, going off of what Larry had told him before about his little yellow bird. When Larry nodded he looked back to the battle. “You know I wonder if alternating Pokemon forms are a new development as all Fossil Pokemon we’ve revived haven’t shown anything similar.”

“We’re on vacation try not to run your brain too ragged.” Larry said, reaching across the table to grip Harlow’s hand. “But it might make for an interesting research report when you get home.”

“Right. Actually I think that’s why the Comfey started mulling around me to begin with.” he admitted, “I was thinking of how vibrant they seemed from the ones from Galar despite being the same Pokemon in all other ways. It makes me want to research more Pokemon that are native here. But I think that can wait. Really I’m just happy we were finally able to get this time off.”

“It was about time. I’ve told my rotom to just sent all of Geeta’s calls to voicemail.” Larry admitted with a laugh.

“Dear Dragons I’ve done it, I’ve broken through your workaholic nature. It’s a miracle.” Harlow said, “Now if only I could get you to drop one of your three jobs, do you really need to be a Gym leader and an Elite Four member?”

Larry took a sip of the Roserade tea, “If I did it would likely be the department store supervisor job. But the ladies I work with are so sweet, it always feels mean to just leave them behind.”

“You have three jobs though!” Harlow laughed, “While I will always be in awe of your time management, you really don’t have to.”

“It might be four soon actually, I’ve been looking into becoming a divorce lawyer as well.” he delivered dryly before chuckling, “That’s a joke, I don’t think I could handle being in the middle of that on top of everything else.”

“Okay you almost had me there.” Harlow sighed once he realized the joke. “I think I would crack just watching you be under all that stress.”

“I’ll try not to pick anything else up then for your sake.” he smiled as the waiter returned with their meal that smelled absolutely heavenly. “Ooooh thank you.”

The waiter was about to leave but turned back around, “And I am so sorry but are Larry, like the one from Paldea’s gyms and Elite Four??” when Larry nodded in the affirmative they immediately ripped a page from their notepad and handed it to him along with a pen, “I’m so sorry but I’ve been a fan of Normal Type Pokemon since I was a kid and you’re my favorite gym leader, could I have an autograph??”

Larry looked surprised, but after a moment he nodded, scribbling his name back and returning it to them, “Thank you so much! I actually named my Staravia after you…oh um, I’ll leave you to it.” the waiter hurried off.

“A staravia named Larry. I think it fits.” Harlow said once they walked away. Immediately going to take a bite from the Grumpig and sighing at how good it was.

“I’ll admit I don’t get many fans. I’ve been told I’m a bit too ‘average’ for most people.” he said, grabbing his own share.

“Nah, you’re not, you’re a good role model for allot of people, especially young trainers. Clearly people agree and those who don’t see it can be wrong.” Harlow shrugged, “This is really good. Grumpig aren’t native to Alola though right?”

“No but I believe some farms in Poni have them. In any case they’re delicious.” Larry agreed, despite being such a skinny and malnourished looking man, he could really eat.

As they ate, another Pokemon battle started below but Harlow was much to focused on his meal now to even care even when he got sprayed with a mist of water by some Pokemon or another. “If all the food here in Alola is as good as this place we’ll be eating well for the next week and a half. “

“Agreed.” Larry said in between bites. “But afterwards, was there anywhere here in this city you want to check out before we go back to the hotel?”

Harlow thought for a moment as he swallowed, “There was a rock and fossil shop a few doors down, if they’re still open I’d love to swing by for a bit.”

“That shouldn’t be an issue.” he smiled, “Just so long as you promise not to go to wild at it.”

“Please Larry, I’m an adult, with adult responsibilities, and an adult paycheck.”

“And who two weeks ago bought about a dozen of the new Unova line of Pokeplushies.” Larry countered.

Well, he had him there. ---------- By the time they left the restaurant the bustling streets were relaxing some with a few of the smaller mom and pop stores and stalls already closed. Thankfully, the rock and fossil store that Harlolw was so interested in was still open and even empty leaving Harlow and Larry to have the shop to themselves.

While Harlow had studied primarily Palentology in college he’d also had quite a fondness for stones, both evolutionary and not and so was soon dragging Larry through the shop. Pausing at a line of fossils from around the world, “Allot of places just give these fossils nicknames rather than the taxonomical, or even colloquial names of the Pokemon they’re from. Like the claw fossil for instance.” he said as he pointed at a curved fossil with a sharp end, “It’s from the Pokemon Anorith and its line with most samples being from the Hoenn region along with…ah here they have one a root fossil from Lileep.” Harlow explained. “They’re both very cute Pokemon though I’ve decided to try and avoid bothering my old university with any more revival requests. It uh…requires allot of paperwork.”

“I can imagine from what you’ve told me.” Larry said, wandering a short distance off, “These rocks are um, pretty, are they evolutionary stones?”

Harlow hurried over to where Larry was in order to look at the rocks he was checking out, “Oh, these aren’t evolutionary although the rose quartz has been mistaken as a potential Fairy evolution stone. Actually all these are quartz, they get their different colors due to different impurities in their formation like iron ores creating a rusty red color.”

“You really know your stuff then.” a woman’s voice spoke as a dark skinned woman with quite a few crystals on herself stepped over. “Most people just like to talk about their ‘mysitcal’ purposes or their attempts to find a new evolutionary stone. Nice to see someone who actually knows rocks. My name is Olivia.”

Harlow straightened up right away and smiled, “Oh well I um, well I studied fossil Pokemon in college and a few geology classes were part of that.” he admitted feeling a bit sheepish.

“Still, nice to meet you, and I think I recognize you as Larry from the Paldea Pokemon League, it’s nice to meet you as well. I take it you two Luvdiscs are here in Alola for vacation?” Olivia asked.

Harlow blushed at how quickly she’d worked out they were dating but realized that it had been hot news for a few tabloids back when they first got together. “Y-yes we wanted to get a break from that hectic schedule back in Paldea.”

“Well we’re happy to have you two here in Alola.” She smiled, “We’re getting ready to close soon but I’d love to talk more if you have the time during your vacation, I also wouldn’t mind a battle or two if you’re up for it.” she added as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a business card that was quite shiny with her name and number along with ‘Kahuna’ on it.

Larry took it for them (and Harlow would have probably lost it), “We weren’t planning on doing any battling while here but it would be nice to hear about your favorite places in the region for us to check out.” Larry nodded.

“Happily.” she said, turning to head out, “Have a safe ride back to where you’re staying~”

“Looks like everyone knows you here.” Harlow laughed as they headed out to leave the shop, although he was still tempted to run in and buy a few fossils.

“She’s a Kahuna, they’re similar to Gym Leaders so we run in similar circles. I’ve met Nanu, another Kahuna, as part of a league event so I suppose word gets around.”

“He’s the one who collects meowths right? I feel like you two got along well.” Harlow laughed having seen Nanu in an unrelated Pokemon Home Weekly article.

Larry smiled as the two of them caught the shuttle to head back, “Actually yes, although his sense of humour is painfully dark, he once told a child to prepare their funeral before a battle, how grim.” he laughed.

Harlow smiled as well as he leaned into Larry’s shoulder, the jetlag kicking in as he was lulled into a brief nap by the motion of the bus as they returned to the hotel.

----------------- The air conditioner was on when they reached their room and softly thrumming as Larry turned on the light. Briefly, Harlow contemplated taking a shower before getting into bed but found his body far too exhausted. Instead, he just stripped off his clothes, pants, shoes, and socks before flopping face first onto the bed with nothing but his boxers.

“That tired?” Larry asked, being a bit more careful with dressing out of his day clothes and into a rather old timey looking nightgown. “I don’t blame you, we can sleep in a bit tomorrow since breakfast runs til 11 am. He sighed, moving to the bathroom to clean his face some before returning to the bed with a partially wet towel. “Come on, let me at least clean your face and under your arms, we got pretty sweaty today.”

“Ughhhh can’t it wait for tomorrow when I shower??” Harlow groaned but sat up to let Larry do so anyways.

“You’ll feel better I promise.” He assured him, giving him a sponge bath and finishing with some lotion, “There, now you can crash.”

“Hnnnnn, okay. I love you being responsible but sometimes sleep is sleep. Now come here so I can squish you.”

It was Larry’s turn to obligue as he crawled under the covers with Harlow, reaching over to turn off the light, “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Harlow sighed. -----------------------------------------------------------------

[lady-lancer]

Mizuki: Family Matters

Takumi Sakumoto Mizuki's Father (Johtonian by birth, childhood spent in Unova)

A well known painter, he was regarded as one of the best pokeball customizers in the Matsudan (Kanto - Sinnoh) region. Friends with Kurt, he used his money to help grow more apricorns in order to promote the unique pokeballs the Johto region has.

Though not a battle trainer, Takumi has his own partner pokemon that's been with him since he was a child - a Shiny Chandelure. Despite the rumors about the line, Takumi enjoyed painting under the orange flames of his partner.

Of his two children, he was closer to Mizuki after she became interested in art as well. Many days were spent in his studio, with him taking her critique as though she was a queen, and Mizuki giggling over how dramatic he would become over her doodles.

Chandelure followed his trainer, preferring the company of Mizuki over the rest of the family. By the time Mizuki was five, Chandelure would only respond to the name Mizuki gave him: "Candy". (As a child, Mizuki had trouble speaking. Chandelure was shortened to "Shandi", eventually becoming "Candy".)

Takumi passed away when Mizuki was 8 due to chronic illness, as the only treatments would have forced him to leave his family. He also kept the illness secret from the media, unfortunately leading to rumors that Candy was to blame for his "sudden" passing.

Unlike most Ghost types, Candy did not follow his trainer into the next life. Takumi asked that Candy watch over Mizuki, and Candy would fulfill his master's last request. Due to changes in Johto's trainer laws, Mizuki would only be registered as Candy's trainer when she turned 15.

The fact that Candy has not moved on is the only solace her friends have when Mizuki goes missing.

Chloe Sakumoto Mizuki's Mother (Kalosian born and raised)

As a child, Chloe wasn't interested in staying behind the battle lines. Taking a Bisharp as a starter, Chloe was an early dominator of Pokemon Fencing - a sport where both pokemon and trainer wielded blades against foes.

She met Takumi during a tournament in Johto, after losing to a Kantonian katana-user and their Scyther. They would eventually fall in love, with Chloe agreeing to a life in Johto instead of Kalos.

Chloe is closest to Sora, her son and oldest child. Compared to Mizuki, Sora took to the rapier with the grace of a Ducklett to water. It was common to see the two working together in the house gym, especially after Takumi passed away.

Despite her love of Takumi, she never really liked Candy, and would constantly ask that he be put away whenever she hosted parties. In her grief, she would blame Mizuki's love of the Ghost type for Takumi's passing. The fact that Mizuki held many of her father's features and enjoyed art made Chloe's grief and misplaced anger even stronger.

She would eventually remarry when Mizuki was 10, further breaking relations with Mizuki. When Mizuki was 12, Chloe forces her to leave home to start her pokemon journey. This is a problem, as new laws enacted after Team Rocket is ousted from Kanto-Johto mean that 15 is the new age for new trainers.

Eventually, she is contacted over Mizuki going missing. The media circus when they find out she kicked Mizuki out is nothing compared to the circus that will erupt when Mizuki finally makes it home.

Sora Sakumoto Mizuki's Older Brother

Sora is his mother's child. Preferring the sword over the pen, he learned to parry before learning how to write his own name.

As a child, he was protective of Mizuki, helping her with school and the first to defend her art from bullies. He also tries to help Mizuki get better at wielding rapiers, but her left-handedness causes both of them issues.

However, after his fathers death when he was 12 changed things. Just like his mother, he saw his father's death as Candy's fault. Unlike his mother, he was unaware of Takumi's illness, and truly believes that Mizuki took their father away.

This would come to a head a few months after the funeral, when he finds Mizuki crying in front of Takumi's art studio. Sora lets his emotions get the better of him, screaming at her and chasing her with his rapier, too angry to recognize that he has a real blade with him. The chase ends when the family butler takes the blade from him, but not before Mizuki ends up with a cut in her upper left arm, which ends up healing into a mockery of a crescent moon like her name.

He would take off not long after, going to Kalos to start his trainer career along with his PokeFencing. Despite his best efforts, he is not as good as his mother, rarely getting onto the podium in higher level competitions. In the battle circuit, he's made multiple attempts at the champion's cup in Kalos, Hoenn, and even Sinnoh. However, his split attention means that he doesn't make it past the Top 32.

He would rather forget that he has a sister. He fumes as the media wonders where she went, and after her return he decides to prove to the media that their attention should be on him, not her.

Hisao Mizuki's Stepfather

The Kantonian that defeated Chloe before she met Takumi, Hisao was a familiar face to the Sakumoto family. Straightlaced and focused, he has no time for the 'soft' skills that Takumi and Mizuki prefer.

Hisao gets along with Sora, as Hisao began teaching him how to wield katanas.

With Mizuki, he doesn't give her much credit. He can respect the skill that art takes, but considers Mizuki's interest as a passing fad. He was the one to suggest to Chloe that Mizuki should be sent out on her journey early, intending to force Mizuki to learn how to live 'in the real world'.

Hisao doesn't think much when news breaks of Mizuki's disappearance, but plays the part of a heartbroken step-father in order to sate the rabid reporters. The facade breaks when Mizuki comes back to learn that he was trying to sell Candy's to the highest bidder.

Ogawa The Sakumoto Family Butler, Mizuki's unofficial Grandpa

Hired by the Sakumoto family not long after Sora was born, Ogawa is a 60 year old man who hates what the family has become.

He first met Takumi when he was the definition of 'starving artist', taking the young man in out of pity. But after seeing the skill Takumi had, Ogawa hired him to paint the pokeballs that the Kimono Girls would use during their performances. The pokeballs were a hit, and that got Takumi's name out into the world.

They kept in touch over the next few years, and eventually Ogawa was let go from his own job. A broken leg that healed wrong meant he couldn't properly examine the structure of the Burned Tower. Jumping at the chance to return the favor from years ago, Takumi offered Ogawa the job of being the family butler.

The house was big, their careers active, but neither Takumi nor Chloe wanted to have others raise their kids. What they wanted was someone to oversee the other employees who took care of the house and gardens. Ogawa accepted the job, and quickly became a pillar of comfort for those that worked the Sakumoto estate. For Mizuki and Sora, he was the grandfather that was always there.

He was the first to comfort Mizuki after her father's death, and the one to break the news of Takumi's illness to her after realizing she was beginning to believe Sora's accusations.

In the years after Takumi's death, Mizuki would only grow closer to him, while Sora, Chloe, and Hisao would come to see Ogawa as 'just another employee'.

After learning of Chloe and Hisao's intentions to kick Mizuki out, he helps Mizuki pack and sends her to his niece in Goldenrod, where Mizuki is able to stay until she can actually start her pokemon journey.

In respects of Takumi's wishes, Candy is under his protection until Mizuki is of trainer age. However, a heart attack not long before Mizuki disappears has him planning to send the pokemon to another of Takumi's friends, concerned over Chloe's distrust of the pokemon.

All Ogawa can ask of his heart is for it to last long enough to give Candy to Mizuki. He refuses to leave before then.

[coldslaws-gear-station]

Just a warning, I haven't written an actual fanfic in so long, so I'm incredibly rusty and this is certainly not my best work by any means. But I had to scratch that writing itch somehow, y'know? Also I am unsure how this'll come out on phone as I'm on pc, whoops

Scarring (Outstanding title ik)

"What are you doin'?" It was hot, too hot even, the sun blaring down onto the valley was just about unbearable. "Relaxing my muscles, I get chronic pains, you know this." "Yeah, but why are you in a hot spring? It's like, fifty degrees right now." Ghetsis was simply relaxing within one of the hot springs around the valley, a few Duckletts and Torkoals passing by and winding down near the bubbling water, in Alder's mind it makes no sense as to why they would be here on such a scorching day. His clothes were lying on one of the many rocks that make up the spring itself, is he completely naked? He couldn't tell. The steam rising from the waters making the water cloudy enough that he can't even see past Ghetsis' torso.

Ghetsis leans his head back at Alder, his hair flowing around the ripples in the water from his movement. "Why don't you come in? The water's nice." Alder lets out a sound of displeasement, "On a day like this? You're out of your mind." Ghetsis hums in acknowledgement, turning his head back and sinking deeper into the waters, his eye closing with tranquility. "Your loss."

Alder just stared at Ghetsis, seemingly getting more and more exasperated with his calm dismissal at his own worries. "Fine." Ghetsis didn't even open his eye, a satisfied small smile breaching his face at his silent victory. Although Alder refused to completely strip, he knows it's mostly expected to remove every article of clothing before entering a spring, but he felt as if that was far too personal. It wasn't like anybody would actually care anyways.

Alder slowly sunk himself into the spring, mumbling about the water being too hot, but he eventually quieted down as he fully submerged his body in the relaxing waters. "Soothing, isn't it?" Alder only hummed in response. It became quiet again, save for the sound of the bubbles popping on the water's surface. "So, why are you actually in this spring." Ghetsis cracked his eye open to look at Alder for a second, calculating, before closing it again. "I don't think I understand what you're insinuating." "Cut the bullshit, you always take hot baths in your quarters when you need to soothe your joints. So why are you actually in this spring."

Ghetsis frowned, making direct eye contact with the man in front of him. "First of all, that's a coin. Secondly-" He relaxes his body further into the waters, "-I find that the waters here helps to loosen up my scarred skin." Alder looks at the man questionably, "Does it actually?" "Yes, it does." Ghetsis snapped back, uncharacteristically snippy. Well, more snippy than usual at least. Ghetsis sighs, "I'm sorry, the labs have been awfully stressful lately. I swear they're testing my patience on purpose. I simply can not afford to retire early due to the fact the skin around my right arm became too tight for it to move." Ghetsis raises his right arm out of the waters to emphasize his point, the arm shaking slightly, although less than usual.

"Why does it shake like that?" Ghetsis made eye contact with Alder again, "Sorry, is it too touchy?" Backtracking, hoping he didn't offend the other man by stepping on sensitive ground. Ghetsis shakes his head, lowering his arm back into the soothing waters, "No no, it's fine. I have severe nerve damage in my arm from Atropos attacking me when I was much younger." "Your dragon? Holy shit, how are you even still alive?" Ghetsis huffed through his nose, turning his head slightly away from the offending man. "It was an accident, he didn't mean to. It was entirely my fault for getting too close to him when he was startled, Hydreigons and the like have an "attack first, questions later" type of reaction when startled. I knew this, yet I still made the same mistake twice." "Twice?"

Ghetsis tilted is head slightly, "My eye." It was rare for Alder or anybody really to see his eye, he normally had it covered up with an eye patch or something. The skin around the socket discoloured, tight, and fused. Whenever Ghetsis closes his eyes, the scarred socket would not move, seemingly stuck in a half lidden manner, it makes Alder wonder how he keeps that eye hydrated. The eye itself looks completely normal, albeit a bit distant, like a far off stare. "I was around fourteen last I can recall when Atropos first evolved into a Zweilous, the shock from evolving had him completely off-guard. So I, stupidly may I add, approached him to try and calm him down, he obviously responded with biting down onto my face." Alder's face grimaced, "Dragons, that must've been so painful…" "Actually, the adrenaline from it all made it barely hurt. If anything, hearing my skull crunch was the worst part!"

What went from a simple grimace became downright horror as Alder stared at Ghetsis, the man chuckling to himself as if he was talking about some silly story from his youth. "Well, I guess you got to keep your eye in the end, that's a silver linin'?" "I'm flattered! But this isn't my actual eye." Ghetsis tapping onto the eye itself with his manicured nails, it makes a soft clinking noise, "It's actually glass, I had it custom made! I'm glad it looks enough like the real thing for you to think it was my actual eye though." Ghetsis hums, looking towards Alder, "Well?" "…Well, what?"

"Are you going to tell me about your facial scar?" Ah, his facial scar. A long rigid and jagged scar that stretches' from his left temple to the bottom of his right cheek. It goes quiet, Alder thinking, Ghetsis' face softens. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." His hand moving across the waters to rest on Alder's in comfort. A noise of discomfort rips itself out of Alder's throat unwillingly, "No, it's fine. It's just hard to remember, y'know? I couldn't have been older than sixteen when it happened…"

-

Heavy pounding, I didn't even get a chance to open door before somebody caved it in, invading my home, exposing it to the entire public's peering view. "Hey! What are you!!-" They didn't even let me finish my sentence before they silenced me, pulling out a switch blade and slashing it across my face. It went deep and I crumbled, screaming as i fell to the floor clutching my face in agony. I could feel every fiber in my face ripping with the glide of the blade, the wetness on my face as it kept bleeding without a chance of stopping anytime soon. "Stay down and shut up." One of the men growled at me, leaving to continue raiding my home with his fellow man.

Keres, my Larvesta at the time, noticed my pains. She crawled slowly to me and curled up into my arm, trying to comfort me the best she can. "I fucking knew it." I heard the main man shout, coming back to the front area of my home, holding a bunch of raw meat that I kept to myself. "You fucking selfish bastard!" Kicking in my stomach, winding me, bile bubbling up in my throat from the pressure. "So you were just going to keep this to yourself? While we all were fucking starvin'!?" He didn't relent, if it wasn't for the fact that I hadn't eaten in a few days I probably would've thrown up. I kept Keres as close up to my face as possible, soaking her in my blood but it kept her from getting kicked and possibly dying. Larvestas are not and never will be the strongest creatures in the world.

He stopped eventually though, just watching me quietly as I shivered and sobbed on the floor, clutching Keres tightly even though she was burning my arms due to her horns. "The Chief will be hearing about this, you better fucking pray he treats you with mercy." He spits on me before turning to leave, "Hey, shouldn't we just kill him? Wouldn't it be easier that way?" One of his lackey's asked, he lets out a booming laugh. "Just look at him! Lying there, shaking and trembling like a coward, clutching that pathetic weak bug. Trust me, we've done enough. Besides, after the Chief is done with him he'll be begging for death." I felt cold, so cold, I was convinced I was going to die that day. I didn't want to die, I didn't want to die alone, I was so scared…

With that, they all left. Leaving my home wide open for anybody to look into, and believe me when I say people came in just to look at me with distain that I was holding out on them, or to steal whatever treasures I had left lying around the house that they could sell for a coin or two. I didn't mean to, I was just so hungry, I couldn't help it. Nobody helped me, in the end though, the Chief did spare me. I was too useful and he thought permanently disfiguring me was a worthy enough punishment. I didn't get to eat for at least five days after that, that didn't help the healing process at all. It didn't matter how skinny and ill I had gotten, in everybody's eyes it was deserved, after all I was nothing but a greedy and selfish bastard for holding out on all this food.

-

"… But that's about it, I was lucky I didn't die of blood loss." Ghetsis was quiet, looking at Alder with disturbance. "… You said you were sixteen?" "Mhm." "I can't-" Ghetsis rakes a hand through his hair, clearly in distress, "I can't even imagine that, how could someone do that to another person? To a kid, of all things!? How can you be so cruel as to do such a thing!" Alder sighed, looking out and away from Ghetsis, finding the wandering Pokémon around the Valley a more appealing sight than what's going on at the moment. "Honestly? I don't blame them." Ghetsis pauses, "You don't?" "Nope, they were starvin'. They were all just like me, scared, hungry, and desperate. Hunger makes people do cruel things."

It goes quiet again, but it was an uncomfortable quiet, Alder wanting to be anywhere but where he was right now. Ghetsis lifts his and Alder's hand out of the water, gently caressing it. "…What about your hands? Why are you nails so short and you knuckles so scarred?" Alder stares at their hands, resisting the urge to shiver from the physical contact, he doesn't remember being this touch starved… "Those? Um, I once had a group of people in Driftveil pissed off at me. So they beat the shit outta me and locked me in a small public bathroom… I had to claw and break down the door to get out. My nails never properly grew back after that."

With every story Alder tells Ghetsis becomes more and more distraught, a lot of things about him were starting to make sense. Why he hated small and closed off spaces, why he hated switch blades… Why he kept himself locked inside of his room for so long. "I'm… So sorry." Alder shakes his head, "Nah, don't be. These were years ago, I barely remember them!" "But they still effect you, even now, don't they?" Oh, perceptive bastard. That's one of the many cons of befriending a man like Ghetsis, they always know what makes you tick, but they always know how to make you feel better about it.

"Would you like to see the one on my side…?" "You have one on your side?" "Mhm." Ghetsis raises his body slightly out of the waters, not wanting to know the answer to his first thought question Alder averts is gaze away from the other man, Ghetsis lets out a laugh. "Oh, live a little will you? I'm not naked if that's what you're thinking, merely shirtless." Oh, that's not so bad. Alder turns his gaze back onto to Ghetsis and is immediately greeted with the sight of many deep gashes and bite marks in his right side, the scars itself purple and seemingly healed very incorrectly. "Oh holy shit, how'd you manage those?" Ghetsis let's out a single yet loud laugh, "Crass, aren't you? I had gotten these was I indeed very young, before I even got Atropos' egg."

"Lovely and all, but you ain't answer my question. How'd you get em'?" Ghetsis hums, resting his body back into the calming spring waters, quiet as he thinks for a moment. "… My father, he wasn't the nicest man on earth." Ghetsis scowled, "Actually, I've understated that. He was quite possibly the cruelest man I have met to date. I'm sure you've heard of the Harmonian Clan, no?" Alder nods, fully engrossed into the story being told. "Well, at the time I had around maybe twelve half siblings? Cruel creatures, they treated me horribly. I didn't even get to live in the palace amongst them, I had to live in a small rotten house that was made to be one of my elder sister's doll house. I was a bastard child after all, a child born of my father's affair with another woman." "Geez, does your dad not know what a damn condom is?" Ghetsis giggles, "Apparently not!"

"But all of my half siblings were constantly trying to claw their way into the head seat of the clan where my father stood. He had a Hydreigon as well, in fact, my own is the only left of kin of his Hydreigon that still lives to this day. However I made the terrible mistake of speaking out against him one day-" Ah, Alder could already see where this was leading to, "-and he responded by having his Hydreigon absolutely maul me. He thought this was an appropriate way to teach me a lesson for my transgressions, the only reason I didn't pass away that day was because of the efforts of one of my eldest sisters. She was the only one of my siblings to treat me with an ounce of decency, she cared for me."

Ghetsis looked far off into the Valley, he sounds sad, despondent even. "She helped heal me the best she could, but she's not a miracle worker by any means, hence why they're so ugly to look at." "I don't think they're ugly." Ghetsis turns his gaze back onto Alder, making eye contact, an odd look apparent in his eye. "You… Don't?" "No, not at all." Ghetsis' face furrows as he tilts his head, clearly confused over what Alder was talking about. "And why don't you?" "I think they look kinda cool, don't get me wrong the way you got em is horrible. But it's still you, y'know? I don't think any part of you is ugly, they're like battle scars to remind you that you survived. Not that you made a mistake and were punished for it, but that you survived a terrible injury and managed to make it out of that position alive, they're reminders of your victories not mistakes."

Ghetsis' gaze softens, "… Since when did you become so emotionally intelligent?" Alder smiles, it's warm and knowing. "I dunno, maybe you've been rubbing off on me or somethin'." Ghetsis hums, a silence stretching out between them. Although this one wasn't so uncomfortable and sad like the other moments of silence, no, its comfortable, warm… When did it become so hot outside again? "… Listen, I-" Ghetsis was cut off by the sound of his phone ringing and vibrating, he mumbles what sounded like a swear word to Alder as he opens his phone. "I've spent too long out here, there was a meeting I was supposed to supervise and I was out here the entire time!"

He rushes out of spring, scrambling to get his clothes and himself together in a neat and tidy manner, dragons forbid him walking into the labs as if he just rolled out of bed! "Shit, I'm so sorry, I distracted you I didn't-" "It's fine!" Ghetsis snapped, his voice raising louder than what Alder would think is normal for the man. "Just. We'll talk later, alright?" With that, he rushed off back into the palace, leaving Alder by himself in the springs, only able to mumble out a quiet "Okay" to the fleeting man.

With the spring now having space cleared up, a small Ducklett splashes itself into the pond. Swimming up to Alder to puff up it's feathers and nuzzle lovingly into the man. Alder scratches the feathers on the baby duck's neck, "Looks like it's you and me now, huh?" Relaxing his body further into the spring, more Duckletts coming into the water and demanding his attention and affection, maybe he can stay here for just a bit longer, the water is really nice after all.

-💌

AAAAHHGGGH I LOVE THIS. OH MY GOD!! THIS IS SO GOOD THANK YOU.. THEY WORK SO WELL TOGETHER why do they have chemistry. i love ghetsis actually help me he's such a weirdo but in a nice way. very fitting for a harmonia

dw it looks fine on mobile!! i love this thank you!!! the duckletts... :(( ohhhh. idk why that detail gets me it's just so cute. and i really like that you had alder's story from his pov i think it adds a lot!! i thought fs we were about to see keres fucking die ngl. the horrors. and i like that you addressed nerve damage and discomfort from scarring rather than just having them as cool scars that cause no issues whatsoever like people commonly do unthinkingly

also hi ghetsis 🤝 bn "my dad had his hydreigon maul me for something that was not worth mauling a kid over"

this was weirdly cute and horrifying and a really good insight to them both and i enjoyed it lots >:) keep writing!! or else /th (/lh)

[chuthulhu-reads]

Catching up on nuzlockes rn and I just wanna say that I absolutely adore Airheart. A Flying typelocke of Pokemon Y, it follows the semi-feral child Rav and his team traveling a Kalos rocked by a brief but devastating clash of Yveltal and Xerneas. Nobody knows where the gods came from, why they suddenly disappeared again, and when they might be back...

Balancing a large main cast is always the trickiest part of a nuzlocke with talking Pokemon, but Dee gives the whole team such distinct characters and traumas. Candle, a Charmander who dreams of flight, is more the protagonist that Rav, getting more POV sections and inspiring others with his shonenesque determination and dreams. I particularly love Prof, the curious and intellectual Ducklett, and Bucket, the raggedy streetsmart Skitty who adopts Shauna. I love Diantha's POV because she is so incredibly awful, a cruel and calculating elitist from generational wealth and power who truly doesn't seem to comprehend viewing others as anything but property.

As ever with Dee, shit gets DARK. Wild Pokemon discuss their moral stances on eating each other and respectful treatment of the dead. A terrorist organisation are killing innocent people without remorse or hesitation. Several characters have very visceral PTSD of the deaths of loved ones and at least one is having nightmarish visions of death and decay. Dee's writing style is not lurid about injury and death, but can be very stark and effective at suddenly hitting you directly in the emotional solar plexus.

I also loved Dee's previous work, the epic The Dark We Carry, a massive and powerful Colosseum nuzlocke about trauma, corruption, and healing. The fic is "hope has bloody knuckles and has just spit out a tooth as she rises for another go" made manifest. Cannot recommend it enough <3

[pokemon-ranger-booker]

What are the responsibilities of a Pokémon ranger in Unova?

A large part of the job is rounding up invasive species that random idiots release into the wild. I don't know what it is about Unovans but the amount of idiots there are is astounding. Like I recently met a guy who thought it was a good idea to release like thirty Rattata into the subways in Nimbasa City where they quickly began to spread through the tunnels and found their way to Anville Town and created an epidemic of Rattata infestations in people's houses. There's a reason you always see those jokes about Unova Man headlines on the internet.

Other parts of the job mainly include subduing rampaging Pokemon, which usually is caused by idiots bothering strong wild pokemon until they start freaking out as a defense mechanism, as well as patrolling different routes to keep an eye out for anything amiss with local Pokemon, such as populations suddenly getting larger or smaller, new species making their way into the area despite never being there before, and keeping an eye out for any diseases or other ailments that may be spreading through the area. If we catch outbreaks before they get out of hand that's always preferable. And you can't forget our trap, spay/neuter, and release of certain species that tend to have large litters so their populations don't get out of hand and overwhelm the local ecosystem. And occasionally we are tasked with investigating possible new groups and reporting in to local governments so we can squash that before they become Team Plasma 2: Electric Type Boogaloo. We mostly keep on the lookout for them though and report in any suspicious activity; we don't really engage with them since that can be dangerous depending on their goals. No one wants the elder gods setting their house on fire again ya know.

Also paperwork. So much paperwork. So much paperwork about every little thing that happens and every item used and every encounter we have and every little thing that the office needs more of and this and that and the other thing it is NONSTOP some days. So much of it isn't even necessary too, like why do I need to write a report and fill out two forms saying that literally nothing happened on a random day when you can just submit a very short report that says "nothing happened today" instead of detailing that nothing happened on every column of one page and in every bullet point for possible incidents on the report. It's so stupid and I'm losing my mind. Please send help and possibly a Box of Joe from Ducklett Donuts.

[pkducklett]

“The Friend Of My Enemy...Is My Friend” - A DST Fanzine Fanfic

Now Available on Ao3!

Fandom: Don’t Starve Description: Wurt unlearns some prejudice regarding the tribe of scale-less living in the Constant, and makes some new friends along the way.  Rating: Gen.  Characters: Wurt (Don’t Starve), Webber (Don’t Starve), Wendy (Don’t Starve), Abigail (Don’t Starve), Wickerbottom (Don’t Starve) Pairings: n/a Author’s Notes: This was my part of the Don’t Starve Together fanzine, this effort was a labor of love for the Don’t Starve community and its creators. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this piece on a character which, until recently, I had overlooked. Wurt is now probably among my favorites in the cast, and it was really through writing this that I came to love and appreciate her as a character. I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

Wurt was small, but she would grow. She was young, but would age. She was different, and…

She clutched the object in her claws. A series of papyrus pages with words and illustrations on them bound together with pigskin and string. The object was her fascination, something she had never seen in her marsh village. The scale-less left the object behind when they were chased out of merm territory. 

At first she told herself she was on a mission to return it. Drop the object outside their village and sneak home; she’d never have to face them. The scale-less couldn’t be trusted. That’s what she was told since she could remember. Afterall, scale-less allied themselves with pigfolk. By trading with the pig “king”, they had placed their kind in direct opposition with mermfolk. Wurt knew this, the scale-less just destroyed when they came into the swamp. It was for this reason, she set out to have as little contact as she completed her mission. 

The object slipped in her claws and she was snapped from her daydream to catch it. The midafternoon sun above barely touched the evergreen forest floor where she was standing. She looked around to catch her bearings, all traces of swamp had been left behind hours ago. How far was the scale-less village? At least there was some semblance of a path; she could only hope it led closer to them.

Walking allows for time to let the mind wander - which is why she felt another idea pushing through her brain. Perhaps scale-less had more paged objects, and maybe she could trade to get more. If she established a trade with the scale-less, maybe more merms could as well. Then the scale-less wouldn’t need to rely on pigs ever again. Wurt could be the first merm to reach out to the scale-less and usher in a new era for mermkind. It was ambitious, but she felt the responsibility of all her young years on her shoulders. 

Shaken again from her daydreams, she heard movement come from the bushes. She stiffened, placing the object safely on the ground next to her and adopting a defensive stance. “Stay back, florp!” she was woefully aware of how defenceless she really was all alone in the forest. 

The movement stalled slightly before some… thing popped up to face Wurt. They floated above the forest floor, completely transparent and unblinking. The apparition bore no difference to the specters that occasionally wandered into merm territory - except the flower atop its left side. 

Wurt felt the green drain from her face. An angry ghost was likely to rampage and destroy anything in its path. On the other hand, a neutral ghost was like a stalker, following just close enough waiting for a chance to strike. It was an ultimate darned if you do situation. She shook her head, no she couldn’t back down now. She was going to save mermkind; she had to be brave. “You...nice?” her voice faltered, but she managed to stay standing.

The apparition blinked and twisted around to get a closer look, brushing their ghostly tail against her side. Shivers rose from the spot and she had to push herself to keep standing. “Hey! Stop that.”

They stopped, surprised and cocked a ghostly head in confusion. 

“You understand me?”

A nod.

“You know where scale-less is, glort?”

They cocked their head again. Looking Wurt up and down before focusing on the object at her feet. She noticed and rushed to grab the object tightly against her chest. 

“No, this not yours!” She growled “This belongs to scale-less. Me going to return it myself!”

Once again the ghost looked confused. They maintained eye contact with Wurt for a brief moment before turning back toward the bush. 

“What is it, Abigail?” a voice called before pushing out from the bush. A scale-less girl brushed leaves from her shirt. She was pale with round expressionless eyes and long yellow hair tied in symmetrical pigtails. The flower pinned on the right side of her head matched the spector’s. She regarded the ghost briefly before turning attention to Wurt. “Oh. A merm.”

Wurt could feel her heart pounding against the object and tried to readjust her posture to appear confident once again. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by-

“-Wendy! Don’t run too far ahead!” from the bushes came another figure, covered in a thin layer of fur and eight blinking eyes. They were a spiderfolk but apparently someone forgot to tell them that they had to walk on eight legs, not two. Like the first scale-less, they almost immediately noticed Wurt, who was beginning to think meeting scale-less was a bad idea.

“Oh you’re a merm!” They spoke in an excitable manner and waved one of their spider arms in greeting. “Are you friendly? My name’s Webber, and this is Wendy,” they pointed to the other scale-less “and this is Abigail” they pointed to the ghost. 

“What are you doing away from your swamp?” the other scale-less, Wendy, questioned.

“Wendy!” Webber reprimanded. “Be nice, she could be lost.”

“Am...not lost flurt.” Wurt’s voice shook more than she cared to admit. She breathed, here goes nothing. “Me looking for scale-less village. Wanted to know-” she paused and held out the object for the scale-less to see. “-Wanted to know if they had more of these.”

Wendy and Webber shared a look before Webber broke into a big, fangy, grin. “Oh that’s one of Miss Wickerbottom’s books.”

“Book?”

“She writes them herself.” they further explained. 

“How did you find it?” Wendy asked.

“Was in swamp. Scale-less left it when village chased them away.”

Wendy and Webber exchanged a glance and Wurt’s heart dropped. Had she said something to provoke them? If so, it was all too clear who would win this fight. Merms fight best in groups, and Wurt was far from home.

Webber was the first to make a move, pulling Wurt’s arm further into the evergreens. “Come with us.” Their voice sounded almost too cheery if killing her was the objective. 

Despite the growing feeling of dread, Wurt obediently followed at the spider kid’s insistence. Wendy took a spot behind, with the ghost following alongside. Wurt kept pace between the scale-less, but kept her eyes elsewhere. At the first sign of trouble, she had to try and escape. They had her boxed in. The path wound further into the forest, bushes and underbrush lined the sides of the path.

“So,” Webber’s excitable voice broke the silence that had hushed over the group. “I don’t think we actually caught your name. What is it?” The spider was walking backwards now to face Wurt. 

Wurt looked away, keeping her gaze off their multiple eyes. Her nerves were fraying by the second, and with it her bravery ebbed away. She wasn’t sure if she was visibly shaking, though she felt like she might be. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Webber lowered his voice. 

“Fear is an unnecessary reaction.” Wendy’s tone was flat.

Wurt continued to stay silent. The piney forest floor was soon ending into a grassy path. The world was cast in an orange glow as dark was soon approaching. Away from the trees, Wurt felt less claustrophobic, but not completely safe. 

“Hey,” Webber pulled Wurt’s arm, the concerned look on their face was top acting. “Are you okay?”

Wurt didn’t respond, she couldn’t. Her chest was tight and it locked up her voice. She was positive she was visibly shaking now, and close to tears. 

“Children, is that you?” a separate voice called. “Get back to camp before it gets dark!”

The voice provided just enough distraction that Wurt took no time sprinting away from her kidnappers. She charged back into the evergreens. Her thoughts raced as she desperately tried to remember the way back to the swamp. Dusk was giving way to night and the forest floor looked darker than ever. The shadows expanded and through her petrified mind Wurt remembered what the elders had said about going out at night. She remembered the stories of a shadowy night lady that had scared her so much she still occasionally had nightmares. Looking up, she could see the last of the sun’s light wane into the night sky. 

Now she could feel something; she was no longer alone. Tears blurred her vision, she continued running; her swamp was still so far away. She heard whispers from the shadows, and now she felt something grab her. It pulled her foot, and Wurt collapsed onto the pine needles, the book sliding into the bushes. She whipped around and caught the creature’s eyes. Pale white against the blackest black. The eyes illuminated some of its face. Sharp teeth aligned into a malicious grin opened and Wurt could feel the creature’s claws against her stomach. She let out a shriek; the creature’s mouth opened wider and its claws dug harder. She closed her eyes; she didn’t want to die.

Then the creature’s weight was gone. Its claws lifted from her belly and she could no longer see its evil smile. There was light, a torch. 

“That’s her Miss Wickerbottom!” Webber’s loud voice proclaimed. 

Wurt could see the two scale-less that held her captive earlier had come back with a third, older woman. Her gray hair was tied tightly in a bun on top of her head. She had sharp features, wrinkled some with age and dark beady eyes. The torch in her grasp was extended towards Wurt and she was intently watching her. “Oh dear.” She breathed.

“Stay back.” Wurt warned hoarsely. The older woman had bent down to her level. Webber and Wendy following suit. Every muscle in her small body ached and her throat felt like she had been eating spikes, yet she still tried to look somewhat threatening. “Keep away from… me, florp.” It hurt to speak.

“I’m just going to make a fire, dear.” the woman responded calmly. She set down the torch in her hand and pushed the kids away with the other. She worked quickly and soon the forest was illuminated by a small campfire. 

Wurt pushed herself to sit up. The spots where the creature's claws dug into stung. She tried to not look at it. Instead she kept her eyes on the three scale-less (and one ghost) who were keeping their eyes on her. The suspense was eating at her, no one was saying anything to her, just watching.

“What you...waiting for?” she hissed. “Scale-less want to hurt, just do it, glorp.” 

“We don’t want to-” Webber started but was shushed by the elder scale-less. 

“You are a long away from home, little one.” she said softly.

Wurt fought back more tears. Her muscles tensed. She was cornered, hurt, and not in any shape to fight back. 

The older scale-less moved a little closer. “What brought you out of the swamp?” 

“She found one of your books.” Wendy said flatly.

A smile. “Did you now? I wonder which one it was.” She continued moving closer to Wurt. 

“No...no closer.” Wurt struggled to get the words out. 

She complied. “Are you scared, little merm? I promise we aren’t going to hurt you.”

Wurt stayed silent, still very aware of her trembling. She curled in on herself and shut her eyes. It would be useless trying to run now, she was once again outnumbered, except this time she wasn’t even sure she could stand on her own. Something brushed up on her toes, and she flinched. Looking down, she saw there was another book at her feet. It looked similar to the first book, bound in pigskin, but the print etched into the cover made different shapes. She hesitated, but slowly picked it up flipping through the papyrus pages and revealed several pictures of little birds. A small smile crept up her face.

“I had a feeling you might like that one.” The elder scale-less was smiling with satisfaction.

She blinked. “Me called Wurt.” she said softly; her voice still hurt.

“And it is a pleasure to meet you, Wurt.” She moved a bit closer to Wurt. “You can call me Wickerbottom.”

“Wick...Wicker-lady?” Wurt struggled on the syllables. “That a...funny name, florp.” 

A smile. “I suppose it is.” She situated herself next to the merm child. “Now, are you quite alright Wurt? That was quite a scare you gave us.” 

Wurt blinked confused. “Me...scared you?”

“You ran into the forest by yourself.” Wendy interjected. 

“We were afraid you were going to be eaten by Charlie!” Webber cried. 

“Alone in the woods at night is no place for a little one like yourself. Especially without a light.” Wickerbottom spoke with a calm, concerned voice. 

“So, you really not going to hurt me?” Wurt asked.

“Goodness no.” She spoke as though the mere suggestion were outlandish. 

“But...scale-less and merms?” Her thoughts spun. 

Wickerbottom placed a hand on Wurt’s knee. “I know we’ve had our differences, but we really are here to help you Wurt.”

She trembled, tears pooling in her eyes and she flung herself onto the elder scale-less. Wickerbottom pulled her into a hug and she didn’t even fight; just sobbed harder into her chest. Then she felt someone else embrace her. Soft fuzzy arms held tight grasp on the merm child. Then another embrace joined the pile. Wurt opened her eyes, all three scale-less (and one ghost) were clinging tightly to her comfortingly. 

She smiled and let herself sink back into the hug. It felt right. She was Wurt, she was going to bring about peace between mermkind and the scale-less village. Though the beginnings were rocky, she felt assured that she had the ability to make the friend of her enemy… her friend too.

[luckynatured]

HC Dump - Clay

Out of all the Gym Leaders that Hilbert took on for the duration of the Black Nuzlocke, Clay was the only one that he actually lost a Pokemon to - his  Ducklett had been killed by Excadrill’s Rock Slide. 

It was a reckless move on Hilbert’s part, really - Merlot had put it to sleep, he figured Derek could use the experience, and Excadrill woke up than Hilbert anticipated and used Rock Slide. Looking back on it now, he would readily admit that the fault was his there.

That didn’t make the scolding from Clay sting any less. He was pretty harsh in what he said - about how Team Plasma may have been right if they were talking about trainers like him. 

Not only that, he refused to give Hilbert the Quake Badge at first; “Don’t get me wrong; ya got potential and ya did beat me, but I ain’t completely convinced yet. If ya can make it t’ Chargestone Cave without causin’ another death, maybe I’ll give it to ya there. I gotta head there anyways, so I’ll be seein’ ya.”

In truth, Clay did intend to give him the badge there - the entire point of refusing to give him the Badge right away was to get Hilbert to really consider his actions going forward. He had a feeling that Hilbert would take the lesson to heart, and he was proven right when he noted that there were no other casualties - just an addition of a Deerling in his party.

[pkducklett]

Just be sure that if you type your college paper in comic sans that you remember to change it back to one of the more "acceptable" fonts before you submit. Otherwise, this is a trick that works super well. I have used it numerous times.

Anybody else got that Evergiven sized writers block

[artsymeeshee]

literally can't get over mama!Stan with his ducks. I'm writing gravity falls pokemon au stuff rn and I'm beyond tempted to write something like that except with like, Duckletts or something. it's so cute. ur art is so good.

Mama!Stan has a special place in my heart TwT

Ahhhhh that would be so cuuuuute!! ;w;

[draftingteacups]

Soni and the Ghost Marriage Event

Note: I don't know if I'll ever write anything for the Ghost Marriage Event for the story, so I decided to make this a cool thing for Valentine's Day 👍💖

So yeah, enjoy this What If Scenario everyone! In this What If Scenario, people know that she's the Champion/Grand Duchess and used Mega Evolution already.

The Start

Soni is a heavy sleeper, so she probably wouldn't hear the chaos of her Pokemon fighting against the ghost army until they were right at her bedroom door

Ghost: "We are going to take over this place for her Highness!"

Soni looking very unamused: "Oh really? Do you not know that you're in the presence of a Grand Duchess, the highest authority in her land?"

Ghost: "M-Miss, please don't mess around! We know all the royals here in Twisted Wonderland!"

Soni, her eyes turning sharp at the BS she needs to deal with in the morning: "Ha! I'm not from Twisted Wonderland as I'm from an entirely different world, yet it still applies all the same! If you need to know of my qualifications, let me show you my Pokemon's true strength."

Yeah, she manages to kick out the Ghosts and seal them off using special Ghost balms that Sam had in his store combined with her own Pokémon using their powers to block them off

Soni went back to sleep, calling it a vacation day; she ain't gonna deal with this crap hell no

Needless to say, when the whole school got taken over and the whole Operation begins, everyone headed over to Ramshackle as it was the only place that the Ghosts hadn't taken over if what the Ghosts were saying were real

Ghost: "Stop what you're doing! In the name of her Majesty's happiness-!"

Soni: "Oh, I am a Majesty and you're making me very unhappy right now. Get out of my sight."

Ghost: "WAHHH-!" *POOF*

Ghosts were scrambling to go into Ramshackle, only to get rebuffed and destroyed in an instant

Everyone just going, "Ah yes, the one person who could probably single-handed destroy the school, have a good day- wait, we need your help-!"

Soni is not amused

Meanwhile, Eliza is wondering who the heck has taken over Ramshackle because her guards apparently insulted royalty without realizing it and trespassed

Idia is just relieved by the fact that Soni's a huge Boss Battle that no one can overcome and is stalling out time for him to not get taken to the Ghost World

Crowley does his whole roundabout "Save Idia-kun" speech and gets the others to help out

Soni only helps once Crowley gives her a nice hefty bonus because she's not getting fooled by his tricks again

Everyone's gotten through their ideas and people think just throwing her at the bride to destroy her would solve the problem

Soni's like "Nah, it wouldn't get rid of her permanently" and she wasn't going to spend eternity fighting off this person

Thus Operation: Propose was born

As the guys work together to deal with the Operation, Ace, Deuce, and Grim just cheer on Soni for beating the crap out of the Ghosts

Swanna's helping them out because those Ghosts have been pissing it off

Croagunk's also joining the party

Soni: "You guys are the worst for just sitting there like a bunch of Duckletts."

Ace: "You're the only one with limitless power to handle these guys, teacher's pet!"

Deuce: "I need to take care of Happiny and I don't want her to distract you when you're busy."

Grim: "I tried to fight them off earlier, but you were sleeping a whole bunch, henchman!"

Soni is very not amused

Lunch rolls around and then everyone's treated to Soni's cooking while watching Round 1 of the suitors getting slapped

Deuce gets dragged away by Cater for the operation and Happiny's not happy about it; Uncle Ace takes over with Riddle assisting him

Soni's brain is working overtime at plans because this is almost doomed to fail

Now, Deuce can talk to Soni now, but that was after prolonged exposure to her and being her friend with Happiny in the mix.

If you add his inability to talk with women plus the stressful situation at hand, he's definitely going to freeze up still.

Eliza: "What kind of talent do you have?"

Deuce: "...Ah-"

Eliza: *slaps him* "How dare you ignore my question!"

Cater: "Ahaha, Deuce-chan really can't talk to anyone outside of his family and Assistant-chan, can he?"

Deuce flusters around: "It's different!"

Meanwhile, Happiny is not amused by this lady slapping her daddy; how mean!

Angy Happiny goes to crush the Ghosts with boulders and sends them scrambling back to NRC in a heartbeat wait how does that work with ghosts

Ghost 1: "Your highness, we've encountered another problem at the dorm! A small, pink monster is throwing boulders at us!"

Deuce: !!! "Happiny!"

Cater: "Aw, Happiny-chan really loves her daddy~"

Deuce: "Cater-senpai, please be quiet-!"

Eliza: "The little monster's name is Happiny? And she's your child??"

Eliza's just confused by this information

Then Eliza sees Happiny from a photo from Cater's phone that the guards confiscated and instantly falls in love with the little one; look at how cute she is!

Eliza deems Happiny an ideal Flower Girl and the Ghosts rush off to pick her up; Deuce is not happy at all by this

In the chaos, Soni is doing her best to keep everyone safe, but none of the students can assist her because they need to keep trying for Operation: Propose

Happiny gets taken from Ace and Riddle, even as they're doing their best to protect the little bun

Soni is ready to throw hands with this Princess and Ace has to keep her calm; it's not at all easy because he's pretty pissed off himself at this whole situation now

Meanwhile, Happiny's just crying 🥺🥺🥺

Happiny's white stone from her mom and dad is taken in favor of a bunch of flowers in her pouch and Happiny is incredibly upset because the white stone is important to the little bun

Happiny adamantly refuses to smile and pouts, looking upset and adorable; Eliza plays with Happiny's hair and removes the ribbon that looks like her mom's for something more fitting for the wedding

The little bun is even more upset and wails

Leona's like "Please make her stop crying. It's terrible on my ears."

Cater is guilty because it was his big mouth that got Happiny in this mess

Happiny sits near Deuce and cries while Deuce wishes that he can pick her up and comfort her, but he's stuck in place due to the curse; it's a total nightmare come to life

Swanna gets taken into the Marriage Hall and causes chaos that everyone's happy about this time around, just plain pissed by this Ghost Bride who thinks the Pokemon would be a wonderful symbol for their wedding

Vil says, "Ah yes, chaotic and noisy- very fitting for this marriage."

Everyone watching this sees Soni look like she's gonna storm into NRC, but Crowley distracts her saying that they needed to gather as many people for the Operation

Operation: Propose is on the shoulders of Rook, Epel, Riddle, and Ace in the end

As they're getting dressed up though, Sam guides her to the back to show off a few new items

Soni: "Sam? I thought you showed off what I needed?"

Sam: "Well, little lady, you definitely will need this! It's something that only you can have!"

Soni stares at the items in question: "...You've got to be kidding me."

Soni is highly not amused and will badger Crowley for a pay raise

The boys go into the school being told the Soni will be right behind them

They're so confused by the fact that she's hiding though

Ace: "Eh? She'll be in the shadows, ready to save us if we need it?"

Crowley: "Yes, Miss Monet is the person who's been responsible for holding them back. They'll automatically attack her if they know who she is."

Riddle: "I truly don't understand why she isn't leading the charge, Headmaster."

Crowley smiles: "Well, she has her own weaknesses."

Everyone except Rook: ???

Rook: "Ah, even the strongest of people will have their own fragility. How beautiful!"

Like Soni's in the shadows ready to assist them and they can hear her, but they can't see her

Soni watches Epel coming with a horse and just goes, "Ah yes, Eliza's acting out a stereotypical fairytale princess ending"

She watches everyone do their proposals and commends them for the whole speech

Then Riddle lights the ghosts on fire for his height being mentioned

Soni tells them to get moving with the ghosts coming at them; Ace wonders what's the big deal with her hiding in the shadows

Soni just tells him to get moving don't you dare ask again

Meanwhile, Idia's dressed up and ready; the Bride took to preparing in a spare room in order to get ready

Happiny throws things at the guards that try to put more stuff on her, pouting all the way

Little Happiny distracts the guards that way because little bun can throw things fast and hard

Deuce honestly has been going through the worst hours of his life, so he's full-out supporting Happiny in his state

Eliza tells him to control Happiny, but he refuses, saying that Happiny wants the things that they've taken from her back; Eliza says that would clash with the wedding theme

The wedding goes as expected with Ace running into the room and the guards trying to stop them

Ace: "Honestly, stop trying to find someone who doesn't exist! A marriage partner should be someone who'll you laugh or cry with. Someone who'll stay by your side no matter how hard it is. Honestly, this is such a pain! What kind of talk did you surround her with?!"

Ghosts: "Don't be so unkind to the Princess' dreams! She's been looking for 500 years!"

Eliza: "...Someone who doesn't exist...?"

Ace: "You're honestly a terrible person, just doing whatever you please. I swear I've seen this situation before."

Cater and Trey laugh nervously; Happiny's never been happier to see Uncle Ace and cries louder for him to help Deuce

The rest of the Tuxedo Gang appears and everything seems to be going to plan, but the ghosts keep respawning.

They get held back as the wedding continues; Idia's doing his best to stay away from Eliza and wonders where the heck is Soni please save himmmmm-!

Chubby: "We will ensure that the Princess' dreams come true! She's dealt with too much to have her Ideal Prince snatched away!"

???: "They aren't even dreams. They're nothing more than unfulfilled promises and fantasies by people who enjoy watching this circus. That's why you're on this planet still, right?"

???: "Honestly, you're so delusional. It's making me laugh."

Everyone: ??!

Chubby: "Show yourself, villain!"

???: "Villain...? Me? What a joke!"

???: "I'm pissed off at you for all the crap you've put me through today! Hurting others for the sake of your happiness, putting a literal child through this crap!"

???: "You talk about loving someone, but you're deluding yourself into thinking that forcing that love on someone else is fine when it's absolutely not!"

???: "You call me a villain when you come here and treat people who don't meet your impossible standards like trash! You don't see reality because you're stuck in your own head! Worst of all, you don't even consider the harm you're causing others because you're so fixated on a person so perfect and ideal when such a thing doesn't exist!"

Soni teleports into the room with a flourish of her SSR tier wedding gown ensemble with Dior and Primrose by her side: "People like you should go six feet under and stay there!"

Soni's outfit looks similar to Black Tea's Fragrant Rosebud dress, but with blue accents instead of pink, white gloves, and without the cleavage dip; She's holding out a bouquet of blue roses for sucking up negative energy as well with her hair down for once

Soni tells Primrose to unleash Aromatherapy to release the paralyzed students and they are freed from the curse, shocking Eliza because how in the world had her slap been nullified-?

Happiny is so happy to see her mama and runs over to her side, throwing away the flowers that kept getting stuffed into her pouch

Happiny just gets calmed instantly by the love and concern radiating off of Soni; Eliza's doubly shocked by the appearance of another bride

Eliza: "Wait, are you the royal my guards have been talking about all day?"

Soni smiles angrily with a vein pulsing on her head: "Yes, I'm so glad to finally meet you. Shall I repay your slaps towards my fellow students and utter disregard for Happiny's distress tenfold?"

Happiny: "Happiny!" Go, mommy, go!

Dior and Primrose get to work destroying the ghosts who honestly cannot reform fast enough with everyone finally free from their binds

If they get overwhelmed, then Soni sends out Aegis who terrifies everyone into staying back because Aegis sucks up the ghosts' life energy without hesitation

Leona told her that she should've done this hours ago, but Soni was busy trying to figure out a way to safely get everything done without being a casualty

Vil while he's fighting off the ghosts comments where she found the dress and Soni just says, "Sam had it."

Suddenly Ace and Riddle realize why she never appeared from her hiding spot, no matter how much they asked her why

Chubby goes Gigantimax and Soni releases Mega Evolution for Dior with the Tuxedo Boys helping out massively; Dior's been at the frontlines keeping them safe, so they had to return the favor

In the battle, Eliza gets slapped by Soni multiple times, each one leaving a terrible bruise on her cheeks for each of the guys who got paralyzed as well as Happiny's unhappiness

Chubby tries to stop Soni, but Soni beats him up with her bare hands like "Bitch, you better be joking."

Everyone at NRC is cheering her on, by the way 🤣

Eliza realizes that Chubby is her Prince Charming, but Soni's like "Screw your happy ending, you better give me compensation for all the destruction you caused at Ramshackle as well as Happiny's distress for your tantrums."

During the clean-up to which Soni managed to get paid for since she was not the damned janitor, Soni cleans out Happiny's pouch and fixes her up back to normal

Happiny promptly passes out from crying so much and snores; Deuce is handed Happiny and he's just trying not to feel terrible about what happened

Then the conversation with Ace's Ghost Marriage SSR happens

Soni has varying reactions to the others and their perspective on love

Soni isn't too surprised by Deuce's lack of girls approaching him during his Delinquent stage

She thinks that Jack's dedication to one person is honestly admirable, but she can see how it could be overwhelming to people if they're not up to that sort of thing

She just snickers when Sebek talks about the whole letter thing

When Ace brings up his example about focusing on his studies, Soni's in agreement that saying that it honestly felt way too soon for something like love anyways

Ortho tells them all about how genuine Ace was during his speech and everyone, including Soni, teases him about it

Then Ortho tells them the statistics with Soni's speech

Ortho: "According to my data, Soni-san was concerned about everyone that was involved. There's a guaranteed likelihood that her words on love are genuine!"

Soni: "Forcing someone to love you is just straight-up wrong. It's honestly kind of annoying."

Ace: "Who's the unlucky guy that tried to pull that on you? How hard did you turn him down? Did you punch him?"

Soni looks like she's done with everything for the 1000th time: "It wasn't just one person. I don't remember any of their names because they're not that important."

Turns out Soni has gotten a sizable amount of fan mail and love letters from people since she was 14; that number has only risen in recent years

All of them were rejected in favor of Soni not really being interested in love because doing so would be a pain to deal with on top of her regular duties as Champion

She's also been faced with people who say that she should love them because of their gifts, which makes her really annoyed because love nor affection cannot be bought

In the end, she's fine with not being in a relationship, despite people online saying that she should be interested in it.

Deuce: "W-Wow... I never expected you to be super popular."

Epel: "It's honestly impressive how used to this situation you are."

Soni: "Like I've said in the past, the faster you deal with the source of the problem, the less bullshit you need to deal with in the future. Works very well against dramatic people."

Ortho: "Soni-san, I can tell that you're rather romantic in your own way though! Dealing with your duties first and foremost is pretty cool! But I sensed a bit of longing in your voice too."

Soni: "....That's because I was thinking of my parents. My mom and dad were pretty romantic with one another. They weren't perfect, but nothing really is in the world."

The others are curious and then Soni details how her mom and dad met near one of the most romantic sights in the region, the old Lumiose Tower.

It wasn't love at first sight, but genuine curiosity on her dad's part about her mom's culture and Johto as he'd never talked to someone from there before

Kirako not-yet-Monet was horribly shy and scared due to the cultural stances between men and women in Johto, but Zavier Monet was respectful of her wishes and what she wanted

It wasn't a perfect first meeting, but they were friends far before they ever fell in love

Zavier Monet was a traveling trainer who had 8 Gym Badges from his home region of Galar and was traveling Kalos as it'd been his father's homeland

Kirako not-yet-Monet had little experience in traveling, much less being a Pokemon Trainer, and did so as to be independent of her family who were... less than kind about her departure, to say the least

Zavier met Kirako again, this time on the way out from Lumiose City and they decided to travel to their next point of travel together; and then another; and then another

Ortho: "It really sounds like a true love story of friends falling in love!"

Jack: "It's honestly a nice story."

Soni picks at her white gloves where her marks lay: "... It really is."

Soni: "Well, I'm certainly not as romantic as Ace, that's for sure."

Ace: "Hey!"

Soni doesn't really care if romance never comes for her. She's got all she needs at this very moment.

Happiny: "Happy Hap!" Mommy, you look pretty in the gown!

Soni: "Thank you, Happiny."

There's also a part of me that wonders if any of the boys would try to bridal style carry Soni for fun because hey, why not?

Soni is definitely not amused by it though

Jack can lift her with ease, although he's shy about it and Soni just keeps quiet as to not embarrass him

Epel can lift her up and Soni asks him to be careful to not trip on the dress because it's pretty long

Sebek nearly drops her because he didn't expect her to feel so heavy and she straight up hits him with the bouquet of flowers in retaliation

Both Deuce and Soni turn red for different reasons; Deuce never expected to be doing this sort of thing and Soni can hear Happiny cheering like please stop baby

Deuce did carry Ace before piggyback-style, both in the story and from Croagunk's Poison Jabs

Bridal style with Soni wearing an actual wedding gown- nope, his brain went poof-

Soni can understand Happiny and Happiny's basically going, "Mommy and Daddy are getting married!"

Like it's cute, but it's still embarrassing to hear; worse, only Soni could understand what Happiny was saying, but others could guess what the little bun is saying based on the sheer happiness radiating off of Happiny and the situation

The first thing that Ace said when Soni got lifted was, "Crap, you're heavier than I thought you were."

Soni said, "How is it that I managed to carry you bridal-style and I didn't even complain as much?"

They bicker about it and promptly stop by Othro commenting how the two of them really looked like a proper groom and bride

Like Epel's dressed up like a groom too, but it looked more like a sibling carry; Epel's sulking over it

With Ace, it really looked like two people that trusted one another in carrying them, even if they fought

Soni just wants the day to be over and sleep because running around in heels is exhausting

Ace says that he wouldn't be interested in someone like her because that'd be a weird thing for him to think about.

She's his friend first and foremost

....Well, that's if he's not going to end up in this romantic What-If here.

I wish you guys good vibes today! 💖👍

[kibibarel]

i’ve seen a lot of really good Pokemon fanfiction writers say shit like “i don’t use Pokemon-based idioms because i can’t take them seriously in writing” and honestly unpopular opinion but if you don’t go the whole emboar and replace every single reference to a real-life animal to a Pokemon then you are a coward. a complete dunsparce. go back to trainer school, you torchicken

[pkducklett]

I'd like to add some based on my DST group if that's okay...

Wolfgang: Congratulations, you're a himbo.

Wickerbottom: You are the mom friend.

Woodie: Generally quiet and hardworking, but also will disappear for days without talking to anyone.

Maxwell: Your favorite D&D class is Warlock, isn't it?

Wigfrid: Will fight God.

Webber: You love virtual pet games and you name all of your spiders.

Warly: Either the sweetest player you'd ever meet or the angriest. Never both. Sometimes it switches mid game.

Wormwood: A pure child who has done nothing wrong. Ever.

Wortox: Why walk, when you can teleport???

Wurt: Angry child who will peak their mics to scream at swamp creatures. Also viciously hate pigs.

Walter: Will not see them until 8 days later when they drop a ton of stuff off and raid the icebox. They will be gone the next day.

an uncompleted list of what your dont starve main says about you

wilson: I Diagnose You With MLM.

willow: you have no self control

wendy: you are small but you just love killing

wx-78: chaotic nonbinary.

wes: cryptid. either an unrepentant force of destruction or the sweetest person you’ll ever meet. sometimes both. shipping roulette wheel.