#i'm chilling in the poetry center rn

[goodplace-janet]

on one hand, the arabic speaking test i just bumbled my way through was only part of my final exam, not like, a career-defining score

on the other hand, i think it's a little easier to perform on this kind of test when the examiner is a complete stranger and not the professor who's judgment i'm very familiar with and can easily visualize as i'm failing to answer his questions

[wooahaes]

ok svt pokemon au [version 2] for funsies. this is still league stuff bc i don't feel like figuring out their normal everyday teams/jobs rn <3

starting off with the gym leaders. in order: vernon -> jun -> joshua -> minghao -> wonwoo -> jeonghan -> mingyu -> seungkwan

vernon is a bug type gym leader. i put him as the first gym leader because he's kind of the least competitive of the group, and chose bug type for him because i think he'd see the potential that bugs have. yeah, some kid can come in and wipe his gym with a fire or flying type, but he's here to try and teach 'em something along the way. i could see him having a joltik and a paras on his team as two little guys, with beedrill serving as his ace pokemon. while not on his competitive team, i could also see him having a snom/frosmoth as well as a pokemon that he's buddies with. i think his gym would probably be relatively straight-forward, no huge gimmicks, just battle his trainers and face him and he'll congratulate you on a job well done.

jun has a water type gym and is probably the friendliest gym leader to new trainers. he tends to be a bit laid-back and more of the educational guy, especially when he battles kids. i think his ace would likely be a quagsire (friend-shaped lil guy) and the rest of his team would be composed of a psyduck and a lotad. i 100% also see jun being the kind of gym leader who gets very involved with his own community and gets well known because of this. tending to gardens, hosting cook-outs, etc. i honestly could see his gym being a restaurant, if i'm honest? you have to take out his trainers/staff and that's when he'll come out of the kitchen to 'cool off' with his water types. man who tells you its important to take breaks, probably.

joshua comes next as a flying type gym leader who loves his silly little birds so much. the kind of leader who spouts off poetry and really plays up this airy, gentlemanly character when he's on the clock. outside of it, he's just a mostly chill dude who goes off to get drinks with the other gym leaders and teases them. his team has a swellow and a swablu on it, while his ace is a vespiquen that he'll openly admit was achieved with the help of vernon (to find a female combee). he trusts her with his life btw and they're a terrifying duo. i think he'd have an open-air gym, maybe with some flowers to really sell home the cozy, casual vibe he's aiming for. the kind of place that you can bike through on an average day (and he does).

minghao is an ice type gym leader who also plays up a certain image when he's doing his job. while plenty of people have seen his warmer side, when he's in gym leader mode, he's colder and much more calculated--a very intelligent gym leader to go up against. his gym either involves some sort of skating puzzle or for trainers to cross ice flows, balancing to get across to him. his team has a froslass, lapras, and weavile, all leading up to his ace: alolan ninetails. like joshua and his vespiquen, minghao and his ninetails are a terrifying duo because of their close bond. i think he's the kind of trainer who 100% makes sure to train a lot with his team so that they're all highly coordinated. unfortunately is very aware that his gym has been a tough spot for some trainers to the point where they've quit, but a very vocal advocate for trainers to step back, examine their teams and strategies, and use their own frustration as a motivator to kick his ass.

for wonwoo, i ended up going the kind-of predictable route this time of giving him psychic (because ghost is going to someone else). unfortunately, i'm also not original, because i still think his gym being a library is so fitting for him. it'd be more of a modern library with nice big windows and a tech center, and probably doubles as such with a arena in the center for battles to be contained to. his ace is a gallade he's lovingly raised from an egg. he also has a meowstic, xatu, and a hattrem who would likely have been his ace if his gym was a little later in the league (giving him a hatterene). all of them are nicknamed after literary characters btw. highly intelligent, very good with strategy in terms of battling. absolutely records the battles he loses (and wins, but the loses are more important for this) and goes back over them with his team later to see how they can better prepare for future battles. not the kind of guy to be competitive in the 'i hate losing' sense, but in the 'i want to be the best at what i do' sense.

jeonghan comes shortly after with his team of ghosts that do help him pull pranks on his friends. very friendly and very jovial for a guy who's gym fully leans into a more gothic aesthetic. maybe even placed within an old castle to really ham it up. i could easily see jeonghan playing into a vampire-y role as well, just to have fun with his job. his team has a sableye, banette, and mimikyu, with gengar serving as his ace. they're his little pals and he loves them dearly. there's a lot of stories floating around out there, typically from cheol, about jeonghan's little team of pranksters that he has pulled together. they, with joshua and his team, are the worst to deal with because they can easily get the drop on you either by not being visible or by swooping in via flying types.

mingyu is very high up in the league because he's one of the more competitive people, so he likes a solid challenge. he's a steel type gym leader who i could see having some sort of factory as his gym, complete with some sort of conveyor belt puzzle for trainers to solve. his team has a mawile, a bisharp, and a togedemaru. people constantly question the presence of his bisharp, but they're just bros and probably one of the first pokemon mingyu ever trained up. his ace is a tinkaton because of course it is. a reckless, impulsive pokemon that likes doing whatever it wants? he enables her and lets her pick out whatever scrap metal she wants after battles--win or lose--as a reward for doing her best. his tinkaton is basically his child.

and while mingyu is highly competitive, i think seungkwan is the one person out of this group that can and does beat him on a regular basis enough to have earned that eighth gym leader slot. man who 100% monologues about how he's tougher than he seems and is proud of his place. his fighting type team are his babies and he is 100% also the kind of trainer who's ace, bewear, has been with him since the beginning of his own journey. he loves the rest of his team dearly, though: pawmot, lucario, medicham, and breloom. all are pretty formidable in their own ways, but watch out for the synergy he has with that bewear.

as for the league... the elite four can be challenged in any order.

seokmin is the fairy type elite four member, who's chamber leans more into a fairy tale aesthetic, complete with him being kind of a knight or princely figure. he is absolutely the person who congratulates you on making it this far first, and says he hopes your journey to become champion doesn't end here, because he's 100% not going to let you win without a good fight. he has a dedenne, gardevoir, florges, and a galarian rapidash on his team, with a togekiss being his ace. like a lot of the others on this list, seokmin raised his togekiss from an egg and is very close with the little guy as a result. he's outright admitted that it makes him sad when his togekiss faints, so he's usually the first party member he recovers before congratulating the trainer on defeating his team. he feeds his team snacks after a battle while taking care of them. he 100% has a poffin recipe that he swears by, too.

jihoon is the ground type member who is pretty widely known for being extremely reliable and someone who's own dedication often motivates others to do better. his chamber is surprisingly more laid-back and cozy, as it's more of a place for him to let go and enjoy battles than it is for him to do his job. he takes it seriously, don't get him wrong: but battling for him is something he cares deeply about, he won't be a pushover, but it's freeing when he and his team are on the same wavelength. his garchomp, his ace, is his longtime teammate and actually the parent to the garchomp that seungcheol has on his own team. he also has a gastrodon, excadrill, flygon, and nidoqueen to round out the rest of his team. they're protective of him in the same way he respects and cares for them: he wouldn't be here without them, and he's proud to be their trainer.

soonyoung is the electric type trainer who's chamber is over the top with fireworks and a sick ass light show that he easily turns off for trainers who need that change. it'll still have fancy lighting, but nothing that can harm anyone. he's the guy who hypes you up and says he's gonna give this battle everything he's got, but also congratulates you if you've already faced jihoon (or warns you that jihoon's one of the strongest trainers he knows if you haven't). soonyoung's ace is a luxray, the closest thing i can get to a tiger being an electric lion. he also has a zebstrika, emolga, boltund, and ampharos to round out the rest of his electric type team. guy who is so, so intense in battle but if you see him outside of his job he's usually one of the most chill people. probably plays fetch with his boltund a lot.

seungcheol is probably one of the scariest dragon type trainers in the business. he's carefully raised his entire team from eggs ever since he was a kid, and that effort shows. to help balance the e4 out a bit, he tends to play a more serious role like jihoon does. if he's the last trainer you face, he'll congratulate you highly on performing so well this far and that he's hopefully looking forward to seeing you go on to face the champion. if he's the first, he definitely admires your courage to face him ahead of the others, since he knows about his reputation. his ace is his tyrantrum, restored from a fossil forever ago and his closest pal. but he trusts the rest of his team just as intensely: duraludon, dragonite, garchomp, and kingdra. yes, his garchomp exists to match jihoon's. if he could have matched a pokemon to soonyoung's and seokmin's teams, he would have. also another guy who goes back over battle footage with his team in order to better prepare for future battles.

and then finally, there's the champion: the future of kpop himself, lee chan. the room you enter is going to be the most elaborate stage set-up in the fucking world. he has fought long and hard to get to this place, he is going to ham it up and have his own fucking overhyped monologue that seungkwan calls overdramatic every single time he has to hear it. he doesn't stick to a single type, instead having a variety of pokemon. his ace is his tyranitar, and the rest of his team is as follows: metagross, blaziken, rosesrade, milotic, and blissey. like cheol, he's trained his entire team for an incredibly long time to have earned the title of pledis champion. i can see him with sharp looking sunglasses and a jacket thrown over his shoulders that you're left wondering how it stays on. if you beat him, literally everyone shows up to clown on him /j. nah but fr, he straight up tells you not to get too comfortable: he'll rise up to challenge you for the title again soon, but he congratulates you on a battle well fought.

and then everyone clowns on him once you're out of the room to be added to the record because they saw that speech. loser lmao!!!!! big dork!!!! what a dramatic NERD!!!! and he probably laughs it off because where else is he going to just be able to ham it up and be a big dramatic goofball