#i'll say it does just pretend the x isnt explicitly for shipping i guess..?? since these r platonic

[drifloonz]

Hihihihi, If you’re okay with me requesting something, can you maybe write Steven and/or Mike (separate if you write them both plz :DD) with a Reader that somehow managed to become a Champion with only like.. A Blastoise and a Charizard on their team where they got from god knows where? If it’s possible, can it be written after Miki’s death yet before Mike’s death? For some reason I find it funny to imagine a random trainer with only two starters on their team absolutely wrecking everybodys shit,,

can do! i was originally gunna assume u meant write as in like write an actual short story but then i realized u said to make them separate so. HOPEFULLY you did mean a sort of bulleted headcanon shortform post more than an Actual Piece of writing. which honestly if so good im not that good at writing short stories quickly or efficiently. hopefully these r good bc i didnt know much of what to write.

these are platonic which i hope is okay. anyways, this feels lackluster but i hope it suffices </3

anyways, steven and mike with a champion who only has blastoise/charizard!

READER

( this is just stuff and headcanons for the reader that add additional context or backstory bc i wanted to also think abt them as a character a bit, but whether you accept these or not is up 2 u lol )

• you probably got both a charmander and a squirtle from professor oak because somehow he gained more starter pokemon this year than he needed, and they were too rowdy to handle. therefore, you got two, since somebody already took the bulbasaur of the new batch of starter mons. who? idfk. maybe your rival if you have one.

• your two starters are at odds at eachother a lot, but in the end they do get along, they just tend to bicker. sort of like siblings ( lol ). playfully competitive with eachother.

• both of your starters are fucking powerhouses and nobody knows why - they probably evolved early and are naturally stronger than other starters - either that or you're just a particularly skilled trainer. this isn't undocumented, after all there did used to be a charizard who was a powerhouse. But you know. Used To.

• if you're the champion of kanto, which i'd assume that's the case, you either fought mike, lance ( bc tbh mike after the incident would've probably also willingly refused to become champion again after steven retired from the role after the incident ), or someone entirely unrelated ( like your rival if you have one ). your choice tbh.

• this is something i just considered After finishing this but if you also grew up in pallet town you probably actually knew steven and mike and were even friends with them which isnt written in any of these but thats a spin on it you can think abt if you want to. imagine if you were and you named your respective starters after both of them that'd be so awkward

STEVEN

🔥 dude this mans depressed as hell rn and i think when he hears or sees you with the starter he chose and with the starter his brother who he couldn't stand to think about right now chose... he just goes "The audacity of this bitch." in his head.

🔥 ok not really he's not that rude but it does remind him of himself and mike... both in positive and negative ways. you remind him of himself before the incident, which makes him sort of long for that kind of thing back. but hey, if you become the champion, it means the league would probably get off his back and hopefully forget about him. which is good. ( if you're even the champion of kanto. )

🔥 he didn't really know anyone else who had a charizard other than him, so seeing your own charizard made him remember miki. which of course, made him even more sad at the thought. he's really just processing several things and your presence complicates it for him a little... has complex feelings about you despite not really talking to you. if you did happen to be the champion of kanto, you'd've fought mike or someone entirely different, not steven, since he released all of his pokemon - and even if he didn't, he would never want to stay the champion without miki... so he didn't really know you, probably - but you may've seen him during one of his regular Depression Roams around the region, or even bumped into him, since he didn't really have any spacial awareness when he takes aimless walks around kanto like that. he'd just mumble an apology and move on, probably. if you were one of those trainers who often had your pokemon follow you, he'd probably just wordlessly stare at both of your starters, especially your charizard, and then excuse himself and walk off a little faster.

🔥 he finds you beating the elite four and the gym challenge with only two pokemon impressive but he also essentially did the same thing*. he still finds it impressive its just... you did things similarly to him. you reminded him of too many aspects of his life and it felt weird.

*its technically implied that steven had more than miki on his team in the pokepasta but i like to think it was mostly for hms, possibly pokedex stuff, and progression, so he basically solo'd kanto w miki

🔥 although if you become good friends with steven, somehow, he will become very friendly with you and your two pokemon. obviously, your charizard would never replace miki... but having one to pet and play with did help out with his depression a little bit. he thinks miki would've liked your pokemon if she were still here. the two's sort of playful rivalry between eachother also reminded him of himself and mike, and furthermore miki and... whatever the hell mike named his blastoise.

🔥 honestly you being there if you did befriend steven did... surprisingly help him a lot? it didn't make everything suddenly better, but having a real alive charizard, even if it did sort of remind him of miki, made him smile a little. he appreciates your presence and sometimes invites you to just take a stroll around with him. he didn't have any pokemon and all pokemon oddly avoided him, but with you around they seemed to no longer do that... maybe they realized he seemed to feel better? sometimes he just idly plays with the wild pokemon when he's around you and bored. he possibly even catches one as Emotional Support. i like to think it's an eevee bc its technically a starter and im biased.

🔥 if he were in a better mental state he'd probably brag about how miki could take both of your pokemon on despite having a pretty clear disadvantage. he'd probably be right tbh miki was built different, but it'd be a close battle were it to ever happen. he wishes he met you earlier.

🔥 assuming you did befriend him, fun fact you probably helped him enough for him to not eventually go find a missingno at the dead of night and also snap mikes neck. this is a win. he's still pretty closed off, depressed, and awkward, but he's at least trying to get better now.

🔥 if for some reason you wanted him to he'd essentially babysit your pokemon for you. i don't know why they'd have to be babysat, they're grown starter pokemon and they're possibly the only ones you even have ( which would be dangerous to go without ), but hey the offers open ( he just wants an excuse to play w them to get things off of his mind tbh. )

🔥 randomly gifts you lemonade and coffee, which he has a startling abundance of. it's an excuse for him to throw away all the gifts people give him because he does not want that shit ( ... mostly. he keeps a bit of the coffee ).

🔥 if you're around steven, you'll be around mike at least a couple of times. steven intentionally avoids mike nowadays, but you'll probably cross paths, especially if steven invites you to his house.. mike appreciates that you hang around his little brother a lot, and will sometimes talk to you, but will immediately try to leave the conversation when he hears or sees steven. so . Woops. steven probably also shittalks mike to you sometimes if you ever bring him up but he'll probably never explicitly mention The Incident, just imply it ( eg saying things like "...Don't keep your Charizard around him." or something ). he doesn't want to talk or think about mike, especially not around you.

🔥 he takes fucking terrible care of himself. he probably has spent a week / multiple days in the pokemon tower in front of miki's grave and he barely sleeps or eats. i think your blastoise and charizard would also notice this and like push him to a bed or try to nudge him berries or something. please make him eat he rlly needs it.

🔥 overall he thinks your interesting, but you remind him of a lot of his life before the incident... which makes him nostalgic and sometimes a little sad. but he grows used to it.

🔥 the steven section of this is literally just him going "Man. This reminds me of Miki and Mike and that makes me feel shitty." and im sorry abt that bc i didnt know what else to add (*&^% steven's not in his best state rn so its harder to write him having any sort of reaction that isnt like that </3. i tried to make it a little more lighthearted at the end but ya

MIKE

💧 mike on the other hand is slightly less depressed ( slightly ) but he still got pretty scarred from the incident. he still tries to be his same energetic self but that is clearly a lot more faltered than it used to be. he usually stays home a lot more often, while steven goes out a lot more often to roam the region and pay his respects.

💧 he thinks you having both a blastoise and a charizard is dope! Unfortunately, it also reminds him of miki because god knows seeing that charizard die right in front of him due to his persistence did negative things to his psyche. i think he's even more dodgy and awkward around your charizard than steven is since steven absolutely blames mike for that whole thing and he knows that and also sorta blames himself. he's afraid he'll hurt yours as well.

💧 HOWEVER. with the blastoise. he'll be like "SAME STARTER???" and hi-five you and he'll let you twos blastoises play w eachother. they get along suuuper well which hes happy about.

💧 he also thinks you being the champion is funny in a sort of morbid way since you straight up just have both him and steven's starters, so the pokemon league effectively had a replacement for both of them. obviously steven and mike had more pokemon than those two, but those were their aces. which, he guesses worked out. he didn't intend to become champion again because he really wasn't in the right mindset for it anymore, so that's fine w/ him.

💧 since he did not release all of his pokemon like a certain someone ( sorry steven bullying you is funny ) nor had one of them die he can fight against you and happily will. mostly to take his mind off of things

💧 he's also been taking horrible care of himself similar to steven, just in a bit of a different way - sleeping in too much and not eating that much. he feels guilty if you help him out with this but its appreciated if you do. just your presence helps, though.

💧 steven is sometimes hanging around, usually against his own will - he'll catch you two doing something together, and he'll also probably see your charizard sometimes. it sort of pisses him off that mike can just Go on with his life and be happy ( mike isnt entirely happy, he's just doing better ) after he "murdered" miki. aaaand that makes the whole atmosphere tense and reverts mike to being a little dodgy and nervous again. the only thing the younger brother has ever said to you is something along the lines of keeping your charizard away from mike. Sibling drama moment ig.

💧 due to this steven's kind of a dick to both of you if you chose to hang around mike. thankfully, steven's usually out nowadays to pay respects to miki's grave and roam the region aimlessly, and he isn't often even in his and mike's shared home anymore. if you try to hang out w them both equally it would make everything so awkward and tense between the two and they'd eventually fight over your friendship, probably - the person starting that being steven, since mike's content with him also being your friend even if it's awkward.

💧 loves to tell you the tales of his adventures. he loves recounting his happy memories and events of his adventures, the pokemon he caught, and battling steven - even if steven sort of hates him nowadays. he'll encourage you to swap stories and tales from both of you twos adventures since he's very interested in how you yourself handled the gym challenges.

💧 unfortunately choosing the Mike Path ( trademark ) will probably make steven eventually kill him still especially if in this hypothetical you don't really talk to or care abt steven much, so take that how you will. that's angst material that im not writing bc this post and all posts i make are already too long.

💧 there is also a chance that you hanging around mike ( especially if u also hang arnd steven ) might make steven just straight up not do that due to the fact you'll probably be around, or in the best option possible he sort of reconciles with mike a little and slowly gets less and less vengeful about it because of you being friends with the both of them. having a third party who didn't just pity the two and offer them apologies and items was helpful, after all. he'll still be very awkward and mostly negative with mike though, just not As much.

💧 overall mike is very happy to find someone to talk to since steven sort of... stopped being social with him or anyone. he finds your methods interesting

i feel like these were sorta lackluster bc its hard to tie in this prompt when both of the brothers are in Depressive Episodes but i hope my attempts were good ! ( also god i really have to condense my writing but i almost physically cant ) anyways ty for requesting - wispy