#if they so much as Think about the word unova in any context other than announcing arc suit n i swear to god

[claitea]

pokemon day in less than 24 hours how are we all feeling. me personally i'm about to deconstruct into individual atoms

[shallahi-and-snowflake]

Hello! Sorry about the roughness of my blog, I mostly just used this one for lurking before I ever thought to get in on anything.

I’m Shallahi Ksheh Bah-Teft, I’m… around… Nanish-er, that’s 20 years old, I think? (Years, months, days, and hours are different where I’m from.) (UPDATE: it’s closer to 22.) I’m human (mostly), Thaylen/Alethi, but I have longer eyebrows than most half-Thayleni. (I’m a Luxray Hybrid now, as of 2-29-24.) Yes, long eyebrows is a weird thing here. I tend to wear them over my ears, if that’s a good image to use as a metric.)

(Update: Apparently I’m Luxray-kin? I just figured it out, so…)

I’m from Kharbranth, also known as the City of Bells. I’m a Knight Radiant (something like a “Chosen” for a smaller, less powerful being. I’m of the Sixth Order, a Lightweaver of the Fourth Ideal as of 1-23-24), a Worldhopper (a “Faller” with more agency in where they go, basically), a collector of stories and knowledge and a lover of food and adventure!

I am a member of Bridge Four and an Incursionist.

I thought I was 6-foot-something, but I’m closer to 6-and-a-third of this world’s feet in height.

I use she/it/fae, and by your standards of gender, I would be transfeminine. (I transitioned by accidentally taking in an entire lamp’s worth of Stormlight, so no need to worry about HRT access, thank goodness. It’s such a shame that others can’t just breathe in magic and—poof! Be properly aligned to their Spiritual aspect.)

I may say words that don’t make sense to you, or don’t fit in the context you’d use them in, that’s just a consequence of the mixing of my own vocabulary and knowledge that I took with me here, me learning new words and assuming their meaning, and the Connection tricks I use to help learn new languages.

I said I was a Worldhopper earlier; don’t worry, while yes I might steal away to Scadarial or elsewhere for a bit, I’m making this world with weak storms, static grass, and colourful fluffy creatures my home. Like Shinovar but with more colour and less ksenophobia!

Now for you, Snowflake!

Mmmmm…

Ah! I am called “Snowflake” or “Snowy,” (She/Her) and I am a Patternspren or Crypticspren. A spren is… mmmm… a small fragment of a God. Not your gods, mind you. I am bonded to Shallahi, who you have already heard from. This world is strange to us. There is no Shadesmar, no Cognitive Realm that we could find. This means that I am just a Pattern on a dress or other form of clothing. I am dictating my words to Shallahi. Mmm… unfeminine.

(SH: Don’t listen to that stupid old book, it’s full of lies.)

I like lies. You know this.

SH: Then why let those lies dictate your life?)

Mmm… I am called Snowflake because that is how my Pattern looks. This is everything I can think to say.

I sign asks as ❄️.

I have a ton of siblings from Bridge Four, and also Oppy @freeroaming-curiosity is my sister!

Malkah (@faller-of-kharbranth) who just Fell here recently, is also my sister now!

Konnie @abyssanon is also my sibling, as well.

My little sister, who goes by Kitt but is technically a younger me, is at @kitten-of-kharbranth.

SALUTATIONS. I AM HER MAJESTY THE DUSK QUEEN LUNALA, THE PSEUDO-PATRON OF SHALLAHI.

My name, should you need it, is Nyx, and I use she/he/it/moon pronouns.

Should I send any asks, I shall sign them with -Her Majesty, the Queen of Dusk, Lunala.

Rose @hisuianhellion is MY GIRLFRIEND AND I LOVE HER SO MUCH!

I have 12 kids:

• Sword @sword-of-injustice, who talks like this. (Your pronouns.)

• Crystal @crystalclearribbons, who doesn’t live with me. (She/Her)

• Vivillon @shinx-oh, who also doesn’t live with me. (She/her)

• Fox (Eevee), who lives with Vivillon. (He/him)

• Illanero @zoruascanbetrainerstoo, who is the Champion of Hoenn, Kanto, Kalos, and Unova!! (All, but mostly xe/xem)

Xe usually travels with Cresselia/Zrosenza @moondreamscape. (she/it/dream)

• Svirak-Daughter-None, a Squawkabilly (She/Her).

• [Zeradin, a Zebstrika] (They/He).

• <Zan, a Dwebble> (He/Him).

• {Vinette, a Joltik.} (She/It).

• Palana, a Natu (She/Him)

• Navari, Eevee/Axehound hybrid, egg obtained from Quasar ( @rogue-nebula) (She/her? Hatched. Unknown.)

Here’s my Trainer Card:

Annoyingly, there are very few darker-skinned Trainers with blue eyes in the options. Nessa(?) here is the closest I could find.

Pelliper Mail is ON!

Same with Musharna Mail!

Don’t be afraid to ask me stuff, serious or silly!

In fact, don’t be afraid to be goofy with your asks.

Magic Anons are ON, but FILTERED!

Current Arc: Arc Shash (on hold sort-of), Purrsona! (more of a topic tag).

Previous Arcs: Purifying Waters Arc, Time Heist Event, Rotomblr in Wonderland, Lightweaver Luxray, Robot Rescue, Mini-Arc: Curse Of Angy Teen, Muse Mixup Madness (Get PMD’d (Luxrayposting)), Mini Arc: Pokesona Time!, Muse Mixup Madness (Shashariposting) Mini Arc: More Cat, Castelia trip!!

//No proshippers, no TERFs, no NSFW stuff. I don’t really want drama, I just want to have fun. Oh, yeah, also, POTENTIAL COSMERE SPOILERS!

//Sentient Pokémon are A-OK to interact, if previous reblogs haven’t made it clear.

//Self Insert Fallers and Branded are also clear to interact.

[prof-polaris]

heya - get some good rest?

some new posts dropped, other people have been sending in questions. i'll summarise what might be important, but it's definitely possible i've missed stuff through lack of context, so i attached all the posts to look through i'm curious how much of what's about your/'your' past is actually accurate. we might be able to find clues in what's been changed.

ask: did you consult uxie on this; answer: yes of course + team galactic as justification for bringing back old alpha zoroark guarding the cave. logical explanation here

ask: flicker's personality; answer: sweetheart, cuddly and clingy, lazy and sleeping most of the time, favourite pets are muzzle rubs. might be able to determine if something's off from how you remember...

ask: have you had a pokemon named tiph; answer: one of flicker's littermates adopted to a nice family in unova. whoever asked didn't give any reason for asking that specific name but hopefully it didn't raise suspicion

ask: would you ever own a hisuian zoroark; answer: no, first i don't like the word own, we'll be partners and equals, second they're powerful and owning one may not be safe due to poor health plus long fur and such. possibly look at the exact wording closer here?

ask: tell us more about flicker; answer: wasn't allowed pokemon growing up due to poor health and them being too energetic and/or allergies, but when flicker was born he was perfect due to gentle and short fur. how much of that is what was the case for you?

ask: plans for bringing chroma corp to greater heights; answer: conservation of native pokemon + hisuian variants, mother is working on funding hospitals more. sounds logical enough

ask: relationship with parents; answer: 'Aww, I love my parents of course. They've given me the best life they could have :)' insert X doubt meme here. and professionally worked pretty hard but that makes sense

ask: about 'yourself' + uncle's house; answer: 'you' enjoy the snow, swimming, and playing with the pokemon in the area, and house used to be a daycare, is owned by lilliana and violet, and is thought abandoned. the former - if the swimming is made up i at least give them points for swimming being super helpful for fibro; the latter - you'd be more sure than i am on whether they actually don't know or are just pretending

ask: interaction with uxie; answer: did have a couple when young, it's where the yellow in eyes comes from. not explicitly saying anything about being chosen, although this could be implicitly saying it - not familiar enough with the concept for if anyone would see that and think 'ah, chosen'

this. i am not sure what to think about it - in the best-case scenario they legitimately just want to bring back the hisuian variants and are just using your image to help get people interested in the idea for. some reason????? but i'm worried it could be a defamation attempt, now i think about it. if 'you' bring back zoroark and someone is promptly attacked by one - say, perhaps, the one that is currently pretending to be you - then 'you' will probably be blamed for it... and there's always the possibility that it's not aimed at you but something regarding all of sinnoh. bringing it back to an earlier time perhaps, though what would that even accomplish for them? makes even less sense than the whole hoenn weather debacle...

anyway. i'll keep you updated on anything that i see, though i'm a little out of it today (almost certainly unrelated. i got completely different bureaucracy going on here) so i'm not sure how much i'll be able to get out of them myself.

stay safe, okay? and---i'm sorry about worrying you with potentials yesterday. i hope maple took good care of you, can you thank her for me?

[attached is every post from chroma corp in text form for easy searching, with timestamps and image metadata and descriptions included] //so i don't have to copy-paste them all and lengthen this unnecessarily

okay. this is a lot, let me try and address all these separately...

consulting Uxie makes sense, my parents do that before doing just about anything.

Flicker's personality is all accurate from when he was a cyndaquil, although he was never really lazy and sleepy. if anything, he followed me around constantly, he was always on that move...i hope his health is alright...

asking about Tiph is ballsy, but their response was smart, saying she was adopted out. They're being very careful not to mention any pokemon they don't currently have..

hah! flexing the power of a hisuian zoroark. actually, they might have taken that as a bit of a threat based on that phrasing. i wonder if my father captured them or if they're a wild zoroark...if they're captured this may not be what they want to some extent...

my poor health..yeah i'm allergic to most furred pokemon and grass types, and i had some other health stuff going on at the same time, so finding a partner pokemon for me was hard. they're pretty correct on that front, although most of the allergy stuff stopped being a problem when i was old enough to take medicine for it

the conservation and hospital stuff all seems right, those were Chroma Corp goals from the beginning.

aha. ahahaha. yeah no the loving the parents is a bold faced lie, but i suppose if the truth was told about that it wouldn't look good

i can sort of swim, although i wouldn't say i enjoy it. i'm not very good, have to use a kickboard. i still do it cause as you said it's good for fibro. interesting that they said auntie owns it still and its abandoned. my parents know it was left to me in uncles will, although i guess saying that would sound a bit weird and leave opportunity for more questions

a 'few' interactions. haha. more like twice weekly. arc. they are right about the eyes thing though.

...all your theories seem viable. it's hard to Know what my parents are thinking. i appreciate you keeping me updated though :)

Maple took very good care of me and she got all the pets, i'll give her extra thanks for you

[ramblyngrobyn]

Juvenile (Pkmn/Prsk crossover) Prologue notes extended

Okay! So! This is the start of a little big something I've been sitting on for a while. For the last several months (since at least April 2023) I've been occasionally poking at this ever-expanding AU in my phone's notes, adding ideas for story beats and things to do with the characters and world. I always figured I wouldn't actually turn this into a real thing and figured I'd just keep it to my own imagination but the brainworms eventually won, so here I am!

Uh, so I don't know how "good" this is gonna be? Hell even this first chapter I'm already worried that maybe I tried to do too much at once. As I was writing a lot of extra ideas hit me for how I could better build this as a solid foundation of the rest of the story. I wanted every scene to like, matter, yknow? It might just straight up be too long! But any time I considered cutting a scene just to make things more brief I was like "no, no, I need that part". I could have also cut it into multiple chapters but it's the same amount of content so like, what would the point be. If you're wondering, the break points for a 3-chapter version of this would have been Mafuyu showing up at Kanade's place and Kanade seeing the others off at the train station.

Right off the bat, the prologue is a bit different tonally and I wanna talk about that. There's not a super high saturation of Pokemon stuff in this opening! I hope that isn't too weird considering this is a Pokemon AU! I wanted to ease Kanade into it before dropping her in the deep end for the last chunk. When the next chapter hits, we’ll be in full on Poke-mode. This chapter also has a handful of more serious moments, which is par for the course since y'know, Niigo. I actually cut out or edited some bleaker moments because I thought they felt out of place, lol. It's gonna get a lot more consistently lighthearted from here, I promise! (Mostly!)

I have the broad strokes of this story outlined, both in written notes and a map that I scribbled out. I don't have all the details in-between locked in, I'm being flexible there, but I know where I want this to go and generally speaking what I want to do with the whole cast.

I'm not aiming for anything super profound with this, and I have no practical experience in long-form storytelling. Hopefully that doesn't bite me in the butt too hard. Going forward, some chapters might end up being mostly choreographed action, some might be the characters sitting around talking for a few thousand words. At the end of the day, this is just me having fun with my favorite characters in one of my favorite fictional words. I'm trying to not think so hard that I corner myself.

On that note, I think it's worth noting up front that this is very much my version of these characters in my version of Unova. Not in a "my fic don't like don't read" kind of way but like... you might not agree with every choice?

For the most part character origins will have to be built from the ground up, though as you can see from this first chapter I've tried to keep bits and pieces from canon that I think naturally fit. Niigo's origin story is honestly pretty easy to write and intuit around considering they first met remotely. And while I did do a lot of expositing in this opening I think that instead of every character getting an airtight, perfectly laid out backstory, I'll leave some things to the imagination.

As far as the laws of the Pokemon universe goes, it probably goes without saying that I definitely won't be following strict rules from the games. Some Pokemon might end up learning moves that aren't in their learnset, for example (or at least, if they make sense for the Mon in question). Some moves and abilities might have their function tweaked for this context, or I might go for a different interpretation of how the move manifests physically. There’ll be Pokemon that have more than literally four moves. Stuff like that. I'm inserting some headcanons, some ideas that I think fill in gaps in the world building, and there'll be a lot of changes to the design of the world. I joke to myself that this is a "post-globalism Unova", because there's some locations that are really different, a couple totally original locations, and Pokemon here that don't show up in Pokemon BW/2. You could call it "anime logic" if you want, I just think loosening the rules makes things more interesting and fun to write and read. 

One more little nugget: In case you didn't recognize it, the title is from the Jin song made for the Project Voltage collab! It's my favorite song so far from the crossover, it makes me feel so many things. It just felt like a perfect fit for this story vibes-wise, as well as a fun coincidence since I’d been imagining Kanade with an Eevee for months beforehand.

I may run out of steam eventually, but I'm publishing this first chapter because I'm currently feeling fired up about it. Even if the current enthusiasm wanes over time this'll be here for me to poke with an update whenever I want.

I'd love for you to join me on this silly journey, and I hope you can enjoy it!

[profsilverleaf]

Jessie and Silverleaf's Search for Blizz (Giant Chasm)

The following is a transcript from Discord of me and @guitarandgallade role-playing on day 1 of the Unova Freeze event. The characters decided to join up and look for Blizz leading to them searching the Giant Chasm.

I'm playing Silverleaf and they are Jessie

There will be a few links to other posts, that give additional context or were posted by the characters during the time of their interaction.

Silverleaf started to bundle up, afterwards he would put his snowshoes on. It was cold in Undella and just starting to lightly snow. He was getting more bundled up than he needed to be right now. But dragons know how cold the Chasm would be, especially if Kyurem was there.

"Hey there. You look like one of those Galarian Darumakas" Jesse joked. They're quite bundled themselves, clad in a bright blue snowsuit. They offer a large thermos to Silverleaf, full of some hot drink. A Gallade towers behind them, adjusting Jesse's snowsuit and goggles for them.

Silverleaf takes the offered thermos. "Thanks I hadn't considered bringing a hot drink, but yeah something like this will help." Silverleaf uses his phone to get a look at himself. "Your right I do look like a Galarian Darumaka."

Jesse laughs quietly, glad to lighten the mood. "Gotta be careful, your eyebrows might freeze like theirs, too." The Gallade chirps at Jesse, who pats his shoulder in return. "Right, right. This is one of my partner pokemon, Quote. He's pretty resilient to the cold, so he'll accompany us up to the Chasm. Besides, it's almost impossible to keep him in his ball when he's worried," Jesse explains. The Gallade, Quote, seems to get flustered at that and begins gesturing wildly to Jesse. He seems to mean that 'with a trainer like Jesse, of course I'd be worried!'

"I have 4 Pokemon myself." Silverleaf releases one of his Pokemon, a Klang. "This is Clack. It'll be accompanying us. Other than my Klang... I have a Magneton named Click, a Porygon Z named Zipfile, and an Abra named Houdini." Silverleaf paused. "My Abra is very talented at teleporting... however I would hesitate to use him right now except for emergencies. He recently got badly injured and is still recovering."

"Ouch, poor thing. I'm sure he'll get better in no time." Jesse glances at the sky, contemplating. After a moment, they place the thermos in their large backpack and fish out a scarf. Jesse wraps the scarf around the Gallade carefully, then turns to Silverleaf. "We should get going before it gets any worse. All ready?"

Silverleaf nods "All ready, let's go."

Jesse returns his nod and offers a hand up. "The easiest way to the Chasm is to go back up to Lacunosa. I got word that the Marine tube was evacuated and closed. I guess the temperature drop put too much fatigue on the structure."

"It's unfortunate, I hope the marine tube isn't too damaged long term. I'm fine with going through Lacunosa"

"Sounds good. Quick question, do you get motion sick?"

"No?" Silverleaf says this with uncertainty. He doesn't get motion sickness but he worries a bit about whatever plan Jessie has cooked up.

"Great. Wonderful, even. Quote, if you'd please!" Quote nods, grabs onto Jesse and Silverleaf, and starts glowing. After a moment, he flashes bright white! Everything goes dark as they both realize that Quote has teleported them...to inside someone's house.

Jesse's quiet for a long moment, before speaking quietly. "Well... we're in Lacunosa, at least."

"Ah I see. Quote knows teleport then? I'm used to teleporting so no problem for me. Now... who's house are we in?" Silverleaf looks around "Well it's not my parent's house anyway."

"We're in my cousin's house. I crash here when I'm in the area." Jesse gives the front door a good shove to open. "Now's the real problem. I think there's a shortcut to the Chasm nearby?"

"Indeed there is. Kids around here liked to dare each other to go in. I've gone inside, but never far." "I'll lead you to the short cut." Silverleaf starts walking out. He can clearly see why the door needed such a big shove. The snow is 2 feet deep. He's glad to be wearing the snowshoes.

Jesse follows behind him, clearly troubled. Quote manages to walk faster than both of them, but stops occasionally. He seems to guide Jesse as they try deciphering on their phone.

"There's a Z in here. I guess I can just try shifting letters until I get something."

"Ok you focus on deciphering the message. I'll focus on getting us to the shortcut. It'll be a couple of minutes before we get there." Silverleaf pauses. "Actually with all this snow slowing us down it'll take longer than normal."

"Not an issue. You'll wanna stand back, though." Jesse tells him. They look up from their phone and throw a pokeball. With a flourish, a Chandelure spins out of the ball. "Stella, Flamethrower!"

Silverleaf stumbles back "Wha! Wha! Flamethrower on what?"

"The snow!" Jesse explains, as their Chandelure melts a path in front of them.

"I guess that'll make things faster. Are you going to have them using Flamethrower the whole time?"

"Just short bursts, when the snow gets too thick." On cue, the Chandelure stops for a break. She seems more confused than tired.

"Well let's carry on then." "I think I can see the entrance to the short cut in the distance there."

"I think I see it too! Alright, let me know if we need Quote or Stella. I think I have an idea on the text."

"Cool, we'll just go through there, and we should be able to get into the Chasm."

Jesse looks up from their phone and sighs. "Yeah, let's get going. I can't make heads or tails of this right now." They motion their Pokemon closer, just in case they run into any grunts.

"Alright. In we go." Silverleaf says as he goes in to the Chasm.

Jesse follows Silverleaf. Their Chandelure hovers closer as Quote keeps watch. All three of them seem on edge, as if waiting for something to happen.

The snow in the chasm is very deep. 3 feet deep to be exact. The wind was blowing fiercely. It was hard to see because just how white everything was. Silverleaf looked around trying to spot anything other than snow and trees, but he didn't have much luck. It was just white white white white white.

Jesse let out a low whistle. Stella spun around before blasting the snow with Flamethrower. The fire type lit the Chasm in eerie purple hues as she melted a path forward. Jesse walks towards the center, obviously anxious and bothered.

Silverleaf walked alongside Jessie, behind Stella. Swinging his head back and forth looking for any sign of human activity. But if there was any signs it had already been covered by the snow. It was hard to believe that anyone, even Blizz would be hanging around somewhere so inhospitable.

Quote made a sound to Jesse, snapping them back to focus. After staring at each other for a moment, they both sighed. "Nothing. Doesn't seem like anyone's here or has been here. We can look for clues, but there's no people or Pokemon in the Chasm."

"The Pokemon were smart to get out then. We should too if there's isn't anyone here. And I doubt we'll find any clues under all this snow."

Jesse swears under their breath, then follows the melted snow out of the Chasm. They recall Stella into her ball and pull out their phone. "Well, professor. Any other ideas?"

"Uhhh... to be honest this was my best idea. We could also try maybe... high up locations? Closer to the clouds to make them cold or something?"

"Highest place in Unova. Either one of the mountains, Unity tower, or one of the skyscrapers in Castelia. No idea which one, though."

"All of the locations are worth a look. Can Quote teleport us to any of the locations to check? Or is it too far for them?"

[ooc addition: it was about this time that the code from earlier was solved and Blizz's location found. There were several characters in a group chat together, including these 2 and the solved code was posted there]

Jesse looks at their phone in disbelief. Of all the places in Unova, it chose the City sewers. The sewers filled with zu- and woo-bats, sludge, and horrible smells. If Jesse's limit hadn't been broken long, long ago, they'd have just hit it. Hopefully a good night's rest can help fix that. "Castelia, huh." They look at Silverleaf with a tired smile. "Wanna crash at my apartment?"

Silverleaf carefully considers it. "Do you live in Castelia? Because if so, yes. It'll be more efficient to stick close to where our targets are."

"My apartment's in the City. Right next to the station, actually. It shouldn't be a problem to meet up with everyone there."

[ooc addition: the characters in the group chat had decided to meet up the next morning to take on Blizz]

"Alright then, sounds like a plan. But, I really outta go check on my parents first though, if you don't mind. I know they were worried about me when I told them I was going to check the Chasm." "They are in Undella town right now."

Jesse nods. "I get it! Do you want Quote and I to teleport you back to Undella?"

"That would be nice, thank you."

"Of course. We have to watch out for each other, especially when it gets scary." Jesse motions to Quote, who gives a slight bow before grabbing Jesse and Silverleaf. With a brilliant flash, the trio ends up back in the Undella pokemon center.

"Ok I'll be back soon. I'll just run off the find my parents and then I'll be back!" Silverleaf runs off.

Jesse waves and turns to the counter. They being talking the nurse on staff about transporting pokemon.

Sometime later Silverleaf returns. "They're doing ok. I'm glad my dad is doing well, in particular. He taking stuff in stride. He lost his arm in the Neo Plasma attack, y'know."

Besides Jesse stands, what can only be described as, a behemoth of a Gardevoir. He easily towers above everyone else in the Center, eyes wide and cold. The Gardevoir's lower gown is in tatters, full of holes and small tears. Everyone around the two seem unnerved and leave a wide gap around them. Jesse frowns. "Jeez, that's terrible. I'm glad your folks are doing okay though. They need anything?"

Silverleaf is a bit taken aback by the giant Gardevoir, but shakes it off. "My folks are fine but thank you. I'm alright now with going to your apartment."

"Okay. Cadence, if you'd please." Cadence gives Jesse a flat stare. He switches looking at his trainer and Silverleaf several times. He seems unimpressed, or maybe just stubborn. Eventually Jesse frowns at the Gardevoir and holds out their hand. Cadence takes their hand immediately and reluctantly offers his other hand to Silverleaf.

Silverleaf takes the offered hand.

Instantly, the trio are in Jesse's apartment. It's surprisingly clean and organized. Pokemon toys, such as a worn kick toy, a heavy duty chew toy full of teeth marks, and a tall cutting mat. Binders sit closed on their coffee table, next to an ice cold cup. Before anyone can move, something from the bedroom starts yelping. In a flash, a tiny Zorua darts out and headbutts into Jesse's leg. They coo and pick him up. "Teeny Tangeriney! I thought I put you in your ball." Jesse laughs. They turn to Silverleaf. "Sorry, sorry. He's just excited. Do you want anything to eat or drink? Or do you just wanna crash on the couch?"

"I think I'll just crash on the couch. It's been a long day."

"Yeah, I feel that." Jesse hands Tangerine over to Cadence, who begins carefully petting the Zorua. They disappear into their bedroom and come out with several pillows and blankets. "Alright, should keep you warm for the night. I'll let you get comfortable. Let me know if you need anything or something happens. Night!" They herd their Pokemon into the bedroom and close the door.

"Good night" Silverleaf says.

The End.

[mala-sadas]

For context: [x]

The Pokémon World Tournament is nothing like the prim, pompous sponsorship parties that Leon frequently has to attend. He’s surrounded by fellow Champions – kindred spirits who understand the hearts of their Pokémon and the joys of Pokémon battling better than anyone else. Talking with them is easy as breathing; there’s so much he can learn from Trainers who rival him in skill but have years more experience. Leon feels like he could do it for hours, soaking up as much wisdom from them as possible.

So, really, is it any wonder that he doesn’t think to keep an eye on Hop the whole time?

Hop was sticking close to him at first, shadowing him around while Leon greeted – and, in some cases, met – everyone else. He had introduced Hop to all the Champions he already knew, mostly from exhibition matches and the like. But sometime between meeting Wallace and Professor Kukui, Hop must have drifted away from him, and Leon feels awful that it took him this long to notice.

“We’d better Aqua Jet back to our seats before the ceremony starts, yeah?” Professor Kukui says.

“Right, that’s a good idea,” Professor Burnet agrees. “It was lovely meeting you, Leon.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Leon says, only half paying attention to the professor’s words. He scans the rapidly growing crowd for any sign of his little brother. How did he lose Hop already? They haven’t even been in Unova a full day!

“Looking for someone?” asks Diantha, the Kalos Champion, who’s seated in the front row.

“My little brother,” Leon admits, rubbing the back of his neck. “I thought he was right behind me, but…”

She nods in understanding and stands up, glancing across the seats. “What does he look like?”

“Short, purple hair, always wears a denim jacket…”

“Looks like a miniature version of you?”

“More or less. Did you…?”

She points to one of the seats in the second row. Leon has to shift his position to see which seat she’s pointing at, and – ah! There he is. Sitting behind Alder, who’s probably the tallest person there, and looking just about ready to nod off. “That’s him. Thanks,” he tells Diantha, who waves him off with a “no problem” and a kind smile.

Leon squeezes past the other people on the row to reach where Hop is sitting, between Lance’s cousin Clair and an empty seat. Hop’s head is starting to drift forward, but he jerks it back up to look at Leon when he approaches.

“This is really boring,” Hop says, rubbing his eyes.

Leon quirks an eyebrow at Hop as he takes his seat. “I told you it would be.”

Hop sighs and rests his head on his hands. “I’m tired.”

“I told you that would happen, too,” Leon says, not bothering to hide his amusement. Hop looks so jetlagged that Leon doesn’t think he’ll even notice. “And I offered to let you stay at the hotel and sleep. But you insisted that you’d be fine.”

He groans and slouches in his seat. “Stop being right,” he grumbles.

“Can’t. I’m always right,” Leon says cheekily. An announcer comes on over the loudspeakers to ask people to get to their seats, as the ceremony will be starting in five minutes. “Just a couple more hours. You can make it,” he adds, ruffling his little brother’s hair and giving him an encouraging smile.

The ceremony begins when a Seismitoad meanders onto the battlefield in the center of the arena. A Hydreigon flies down from somewhere up above to meet Seismitoad, and the crowd noise dies down as people begin to sense that something is about to happen. Water begins to condense in a ball in one of Seismitoad’s hands, and Hydreigon’s mouth begins to glow with bright orange energy. Leon leans forward eagerly in his seat – are they about to have a battle?

But to his confusion, instead of launching the attack (a Water Pulse, Leon recognizes) at Hydreigon, Seismitoad lobs it up into the air; Hydreigon tilts its head upward and shoots the ball of energy (a Draco Meteor) straight into Seismitoad’s attack, causing an explosion that sends a rain of sparks and water droplets on everyone in the rows closest to the battlefield. It’s fun, flashy, and gets everyone’s attention, just in time for Iris and a stout man wearing a wide-brimmed hat to walk onto the field.

“Welcome, welcome, everybody!” Iris exclaims, waving to the crowd with both hands. The giant telly behind her, which had just been displaying the PWT logo, now switches to a camera focused on her face. “Thank you all for coming to share this momentous occasion with us!”

“The Pokémon World Tournament’s been a long time comin’,” says the man, putting his hands on his hips. The screen switches to a camera view showing both him and Iris. “It ain’t easy ta put together somethin’ as massive as this, eh, Iris?”

“You got that right, Clay! But it’s totally worth it!” Iris grins. She stops beside Hydreigon and pats its head. “Hydreigon’s been chomping at the bit to see all the Trainers from all over the world who’ll be coming to participate in these tournaments. The Pokémon World Tournament is a place for all the strongest Trainers to test their skills against each other!”

“But it ain’t just fer them, ya know,” Clay says. He nods at Seismitoad. “Seismitoad here is all eager to meet the young ‘uns and the rookies who are lookin’ to start makin’ a name for themselves. Ya never know which feisty li’l whippersnapper will turn out ta be the next Unova Champion.”

Iris laughs. “I better keep an eye out, then!”

The pair exchange a few more introductory remarks before Iris dismisses herself to give Clay the spotlight. While he continues to talk about what the opening of the Pokémon World Tournament means for Unova, Iris takes the seat beside Alder, right in front of Leon. She twists around in her seat, and just as Leon opens his mouth to comment on the fantastic job she did with that opening, she reaches over and taps Hop’s knee.

Hop jolts back to semi-alertness, glancing first at Leon and then at Iris. She waves at him, and he gives her a tired smile.

Iris turns back around, and Leon nudges his brother to get his attention. “You can sleep on my shoulder if you’re tired. It’s okay.”

Hop blinks at him a couple of times, and Leon wonders for a moment if Hop couldn’t hear him over the crowd noise and Clay’s speech. But then Hop shakes his head. “I can get through it. I’m not gonna fall asleep,” he insists.

“Alright,” Leon concedes. He doesn’t want to force him. He just hopes that, when Hop starts feeling sleepy again, he’ll remember to lean on Leon instead of continuing to fight it.

Meanwhile, Clay is still talking, and Leon is starting to think that it’s going to put him to sleep, too. The opening ceremony of a world battle facility should be more exciting than an old man droning on about tournament rules and sponsors. Can’t Clay have his Seismitoad throw some more Water Pulses in the air or something to keep things interesting?

Clay, Clay…where has he heard that name before? The only people from Unova that Leon has heard of are members of its Pokémon League, and Clay is clearly a strong Trainer. And if he’s working with the Champion to start a battle facility…maybe he’s a member of their Elite Four? The Elite Four are the Trainers who work the most closely with the Champion in other regions, after all. Would only one of the Elite Four be helping out with this sort of thing, though? Maybe he’s just the local Gym Leader. His Seismitoad doesn’t seem anywhere near as skilled as Leon’s own.

Leon feels pressure on his arm, and he glances down to see that Hop has finally given in to the exhaustion and leaned against him. Hop’s eyes are still half-open, though – he’s nothing if not stubborn. Leon smiles fondly.

Unfortunately, not even a minute later, Iris stands up and asks all the Champions to come with her so she can introduce them to the crowd. Hop looks a little disappointed when Leon gets up, but there’s not much Leon can do for him besides ruffling his hair to help him wake up a little bit.

The Champions line up next to one of the staircases leading up to the battlefield; Iris calls them up one by one and talks a little bit about them – who they are, where they’re from, and what kinds of Pokémon they use. Leon doesn’t know what she’s going to say about him; he was never asked to submit an introduction of any kind. Either Iris or another organizer wrote the introductions themselves, or Chairman Rose submitted an introduction on Leon’s behalf – which typically means that Oleana wrote something for the chairman to send in. He hopes that’s not the case – he can’t imagine that something Oleana wrote about him would be terribly flattering.

“And, last but not least, please welcome to the field…Galar’s Champion, Leon!”

Showtime.

Leon puts on his best Champion smile, jogs up the stairs, and waves to the crowd. Their cheers are far less enthusiastic than the kind of reception that he gets back in Galar, which doesn’t surprise him at all. The unbeatable Leon has far less notoriety outside of his home region. That’s alright, though – he’ll just have to give them something to cheer about!

“Hailing from the small town of Postwick, Leon holds the impressive distinction of being the youngest-ever Champion, earning the title when he was only ten years old,” Iris announces. “While he uses a diverse team of Pokémon, he tends to favor Dragon- and Ghost-types. Shauntal and I love him – give it up for Champion Leon!”

Leon continues smiling and waving at the crowd as they cheer for him again, but inside he’s cringing. Of all the fun facts about him that they could have used, they had to pick the one that emphasizes just how young he is? Nothing about how long he’s been Champion, or the fact that he’s never lost a battle… Oleana definitely wrote that introduction.

Iris talks a little bit about how the tournament of Champions is going to be structured, and then the tournament bracket is displayed on the big screen. Leon scans it for his name and discovers that he’s matched up against Cynthia in the first round. He glances across the battlefield at her, and she nods at him, a smug little grin on her face. He shoots her a cheeky grin back.

He fought Cynthia once before in an unofficial battle when he visited Sinnoh several years ago. He had lost to her then, but it won’t happen again. Not when the whole world is watching. Not when Hop is watching.

Speaking of which… Leon glances back at their seats, wondering if Hop has managed to stay awake this long. He doesn’t see him, which could mean that he’s fallen asleep, or it could just be that he can’t see Hop from this angle with all the other Champions’ guests blocking his view.

Thankfully, the ceremony wraps up not long after that, so Leon can follow the others back to their seats. While the other guests get up to meet their respective Champions, Hop is still nowhere to be seen. When Leon reaches their row, he discovers why – and he can’t help chuckling at the sight.

Hop is curled up in a ball in his seat, his head pillowed on the armrest. He doesn’t stir when Leon approaches him, but he shifts a little bit when Leon scoops him up. Leon could probably carry him all the way back to the hotel like this, but his arms would be sore for the rest of the tournament – especially when factoring in the extra time it’ll take when he inevitably gets lost on the way. Plus, Hop’s at that age where he’s super self-conscious about looking childish, so he probably wouldn’t appreciate being carried back to the hotel like a little kid.

(Even if he is, in fact, still a little kid.)

So, Leon only carries him to the end of the row, where he puts Hop down and attempts to rouse him. Hop lets out a half-hearted grunt of protest. “C’mon, Hopscotch. You’re too big for me to carry back to the hotel.”

“Lee…?” Hop mutters, not opening his eyes.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he says softly. “Ceremony’s over. Let’s get back to the hotel.”

Hop finally allows Leon to pull him to his feet, but he flops into Leon’s chest as soon as Leon lets go of him. Leon wraps an arm around him to steady him and keep him from falling any further.

“’m tired,” Hop murmurs.

Leon rubs his back. “I know. Let’s get you back to the hotel and you can sleep all you want.”

“You’ll…get lost.”

Leon grins, shaking his head. Only his little brother could be half-asleep and still find the energy to roast him. Or maybe he’s just concerned. Still. “I’ll manage, Hopscotch,” he says fondly.

He lets go of Hop and takes Hop’s hand instead so he can lead him back to the hotel. Hop follows right behind him. But the first time Leon has to stop because of the crowd, Hop keeps going and bumps into him. That’s when he realizes Hop still hasn’t opened his eyes. The tacit display of trust fills Leon’s heart with even more affection, and he holds Hop’s hand a little tighter to be extra certain that he won’t lose him.

When they reach the lobby, Iris and Alder are standing just outside the main flow of people exiting the stadium, and they wave Leon over when they see him. “Hey, Leon! How would you like to join us Champions for a little afterparty?” Alder asks, grinning heartily. “My son and daughter-in-law live here in Driftveil, and they’re letting us borrow their house for the night!”

“There won’t be any alcohol or anything. We’re just hanging out,” Iris adds. “Hop, you can come – Hop? What’s the matter?”

Hop’s face is buried in Leon’s side, and as happy as he is that Iris extended the invitation to Hop as well, Leon knows he has to decline. “Jet lag hit him pretty hard,” Leon explains. “I need to get him back to the hotel. I can’t join you all. I’m sorry.”

“Aw. Well, maybe after you drop Hop off, you can come to the party?” Iris suggests.

Leon considers the suggestion for a moment; Hop will be fine to sleep alone in the hotel room for a few hours. But Hop’s not the only one who jumped ahead six hours today, and even if he’s not feeling it now like Hop is, he will definitely be feeling it when he has to wake up at seven in the morning in order to get back to the stadium on time tomorrow. Best to get in as much sleep as he can.

“I’d love to, but I can’t,” he says, shaking his head. “Thanks for the offer, though!”

“Aw, darn,” Iris says, pouting. “We’ll have to do it another time, then. See you tomorrow!”

“See you!”

After they make it outside, Leon runs into Professor Kukui, who asks him if he and Hop are coming to the party; once again, he has to explain that he can’t because he needs to get Hop back to the hotel. The professor is understanding, though, and asks if Leon has seen his wife instead of pressing further.

Professor Burnet shows up a moment later, and Professor Kukui tells her about the party. She immediately assumes that Leon is coming, too, and he doesn’t have the heart to correct her. He says goodbye to the couple, and after subtly watching other people to figure out what direction most of them are heading in, he heads towards the PWT exit, Hop stumbling along behind him.

He’s a little disappointed that he has to miss the party; it would be a blast to hang out with his fellow Champions even more. For the first time, he wonders if it would have been better to invite Sonia as his guest instead of Hop; the guest accommodations were clearly made with adult guests in mind, and he wouldn’t have to let his activities be so rigidly dictated by what she could or couldn’t do.

But…he thinks about how excited Hop has been about this trip, and how much fun Hop has already had so far. He thinks about the joy he felt having Hop sprint into his arms back at the airport, and how amusing it is watching Hop’s reactions to everything. He looks back at Hop, following behind him faithfully like a Growlithe following its Trainer, and his heart swells with so much love that he thinks he could burst.

No, he wouldn’t trade this time with Hop for anything in the world.

When Leon turns back to watch where he’s walking, he comes to the sudden realization that he wasn’t paying any attention to his surroundings while he was lost in his thoughts, and he has absolutely no idea where they are. He stops and lets out a resigned sigh. He knew it would happen, but it’s still a pain to get lost once again.

Normally, in situations like this one, he would let Charizard out of its ball and let him lead the way. But Leon hasn’t let Charizard out since they arrived in Unova, so Charizard has little more idea how to get to the hotel from here than Leon himself does. Hop is far too tired to give coherent directions now. There’s only one option left.

Leon lets go of Hop’s hand to crouch in front of him. His eyes flutter open, unfocused and confused. Leon smiles apologetically, grabs Wooloo’s Poké Ball from his waist, and releases the Pokémon. “Hey, Wooloo,” Leon says quietly. “Think you can guide us back to the hotel?”

Wooloo glances around for a moment before bleating in affirmation. Meanwhile, Hop slips his hand back into Leon’s, and Leon squeezes it. Wooloo begins to trot back in the direction they came from, and Leon and Hop follow him. Leon doesn’t bother trying to memorize the path Wooloo takes them down; he’s rubbish at remembering locations, and this whole area will look completely different in daylight.

By the time they make it back to the hotel, it’s nearly ten o’clock, but the hotel’s main doors haven’t been locked yet, thank goodness. Leon waves at the concierge as they head over to the elevator and take it up to the twenty-third floor.

He has to let go of Hop’s hand again so he can open the hotel room door, but he doesn’t take it again afterwards. Hop is capable of getting himself to bed from here without needing Leon to guide him, especially when he has Wooloo at his feet to nudge him in the right direction.

Leon isn’t going to make Hop change into proper nightclothes when he’s so tired, but he knows Hop will be more comfortable sleeping without his jacket on, so Leon takes it off for him as Hop slips off his trainers. He hangs it in the closet next to the bathroom, and he hangs up his cape beside it while he’s in there.

By the time he turns back around, Hop has already crawled into bed, Wooloo curled up by his feet. Leon heads over to the bed and pulls the covers up to Hop’s chin.

“Night, Hopscotch,” Leon murmurs, leaning down to kiss his little brother’s forehead. “I love you.”

Hop is already too soundly asleep to reply.

Leon smiles fondly at him, but it’s broken up by a yawn. He needs to be getting to sleep himself, but there are a couple of things he needs to take care of before he can.

First order of business is feeding his team. He would prefer do it somewhere where they won’t run the risk of disturbing Hop, but he doesn’t have anywhere else where six large Pokémon can fit comfortably to eat. And even this huge hotel room might get a little tight. But his team is exceptionally well-trained; he trusts them to be able to eat quietly.

So, he sends out his team, and the first thing he does is shush them. “Hop is sleeping,” he whispers, pointing to Hop’s bed. “We need to be quiet, okay?”

The Pokémon all seem to understand, so Leon proceeds with taking out their food bowls and filling them up. He sets out the food for everyone, getting to Charizard last, who nuzzles him in thanks. Haxorus, Dragapult, and his Dreepy decide to join in, and Leon can’t help barking out a laugh at being assaulted with affection by all his dragons all at once. Then Charizard sticks a claw in his face to remind him to be quiet. Leon grins; of course Charizard would take that rule super seriously. He’s always had a soft spot for Hop.

“So,” Leon whispers, taking a seat in the middle of the floor. “Tournament map. We’ll be facing Cynthia in a one-on-one tomorrow, and Alder or Diantha in a two-on-two the day after that. The final match will be a three-on-three, and we could be facing just about anyone. Charizard, Aegislash, Seismitoad, you three can handle anything that comes our way.”

Charizard and Seismitoad nod their agreement, while Aegislash holds his shield a little higher.

“Haxorus and Rhyperior, you two can take on anything that Alder or Diantha throws at us. And you, Dragapult…” Leon grins. “You’re well overdue for payback against Cynthia, don’t you think?”

Dragapult grins eagerly, while Charizard lets out an annoyed huff.

“Sorry, buddy,” Leon says, rubbing his snout. “You’ll get your chance for a rematch, too. But for this tournament, I’m counting on you to give everyone a great show in the final round!”

With his strategy settled, he returns all his Pokémon and heads out into the hall to make his daily call to Mum. Since he doesn’t have as much privacy out in the hallway, he opts to make it a regular phone call instead of a video call. However, it’s only after he dials her number that he remembers it’s the wee hours of the morning over in Galar, so she’s probably fast asleep.

She answers on the second ring.

“Mum! Why are you still awake?”

“Why are you calling me if you didn’t think I was awake?” she teases.

“I wasn’t – I didn’t think it all the way through,” he says sheepishly. “We just got back from the opening ceremony, so it was a convenient time for me to call…”

“Well, better a late call than no call at all,” Mum says. “I haven’t heard from you since you left, and I couldn’t sleep a wink if I didn’t know that you boys had made it to Unova safely.”

Leon winces. “I’m sorry, I should have messaged you earlier,” he says guiltily. “Yes, we both made it here in one piece. Although, Hop’s been vibrating with so much energy today that I’m afraid he might have shaken something loose,” he jokes.

Mum laughs. “I’m glad to hear it! Where is he? Can you put him on?”

“He crashed after the opening ceremony,” Leon says. “Well, during, to be precise. He’s fast asleep now.”

“Oh, well… I don’t want to disturb him,” she says. “I’ll wait ‘til tomorrow, then. In the meantime…how are you doing?”

“Me? I’m fine. Better than fine, in fact. I feel great!”

“Really? I watched the live broadcast of the opening ceremony. I saw you’re going up against Cynthia in the first round,” Mum says. Leon swallows. “You’re not nervous about that?”

“Of course not! Why would I be nervous about facing Cynthia?” he says lightly. “I’m unbeatable! I won’t lose to her.”

“Leon, honey, I’m not your brother. You don’t have to put on a brave face for me,” she says. “If you’re really not worried about losing to her, you wouldn’t feel the need to assure me that you won’t.”

Leon casts his gaze to the floor; Mum’s hit the nail right on the head. “I…I’m much stronger than I was the last time I fought her. But – but she’ll be stronger, too. I’m…I don’t wanna lose to her, Mum.”

“But you’re worried that since it happened once, it could happen again,” Mum says knowingly. “You know, even if you do lose, it’s not the end of the world. You’re still Champion. You’re still undefeated in the Galar League. You’re still loved.”

“Yes, but…” Leon runs a hand through his hair. “I just – I invited Hop here to watch me win the tournament, and I don’t want to let him down,” he admits.

“Oh, sweetheart, you could never. Hop adores you.”

“Hop doesn’t know that I ever lost to Cynthia.”

“And why is that, hm?”

“Because I don’t want him to,” Leon says quietly. “I want to be someone he can look up to – someone he can always depend on. I want to be his hero.”

“You already are,” she says. “One loss isn’t going to change that.”

Leon nods wordlessly. She’s right – he knows she is. Hop will still love him and look up to him even if he loses to Cynthia tomorrow. So there’s really no reason for him to be worried. He and Dragapult will give their best tomorrow, and that’ll be good enough – regardless of the outcome of the battle.

But it won’t matter – because he’s going to win.

“Thanks, Mum,” he says, stifling a yawn.

“Anytime,” she says. “But I think it’s time for both of us to be getting to bed, now. Goodnight, sweetheart. Good luck tomorrow! I love you!”

“Night, Mum. I love you too.”

He hangs up the phone and heads back to the room, where he changes into pajamas and brushes his teeth. He pauses by the foot of Hop’s bed for a moment to pet Wooloo, noting with satisfaction that Hop is still sleeping soundly. He lies down in his own bed, kicking off the too-thick comforter and snuggling under the sheets. The mattress is soft, the pillows softer. He closes his eyes, and within minutes he’s fast asleep.

[letswritefanfiction]

Mistakes Were Made

A  series of disconnected oneshots that poke fun at the fandom hivemind,  canon, and past!me. I’m taking things that I’ve either observed or done  myself and reframing them in parody where hopefully we can just all have  some low stakes fun and, at best, maybe learn something about our  favorite characters and writing.

Read on ffnet here.

Chapter Four- Wait, How Did We Meet Again?

It was only natural that the Cerulean Gym became the hangout place for all the PokéGirls. First of all, Misty's sisters provided the house with everything one could possibly need for a girly sleepover. Nail polish, gorgeous clothes, lots of makeup, face masks, etc. Secondly, one could presume it was a large space. Certainly it looked that way from the outside, especially after the renovation it must have gotten before Sun and Moon. Similarly, one could only assume that Misty and her sisters lived there, since they're never shown to reside anywhere else. Then there was the central location. Of course, no one has a map of all the anime regions, but since Ash gets to all of them via Kanto—most on foot to boot—we can at least pretend that Kanto is in the middle of all the action.

And, thanks to Misty's dead, missing, or otherwise absent parents—and her aloof sisters—there was no supervision to concern themselves with!

For all of those arbitrary and possibly made up—not to mention rarely canonical—reasons, Misty, May, Dawn, Iris, Serena, Bonnie, Lillie, Lana, and Mallow found themselves sprawled all over Misty's room. Let's say it's a large room, since according to Showdown in Dark City owning Gyms is a good way to make money despite no evidence proving this.

Lana was eyeing all of the Water Pokémon paraphernalia Misty had while Lillie was perusing Misty's closet—Misty, after all, didn't have a mother to force her into clothing that makes her look like a non-Pokémon from another dimension. It was pretty exciting. Dawn and May were gossiping about coordinating while Mallow was trying—and failing—to explain bread baking to Misty. Serena, meanwhile, was dabbing a light amount of makeup on Bonnie's face. The girl was way too young for it, but it was all in good fun, so Serena couldn't see the problem with doing it in the context of a sleepover.

Only Iris was alone. Not only because she didn't have much of an interest in nail polish or makeup, but because…well, she was confused. She kept on glancing at Dawn—and everyone else—trying to gauge if she was the only one who felt out of place in the situation. But if anyone else felt the way she did, they weren't showing it. Finally, in the din of the room, she cleared her throat to speak up.

She said something, but it was lost in the noise of the girls' chattering. She tried again, a little louder, but again, it was swallowed up like a lone voice in a cafeteria. This time, however, Dawn looked over at her and asked, "Did you say something, Iris?"

She said it just loud enough for the room to quiet by half. Taking that as her cue, Iris said, for a third time, "I'm sorry, but just who are all of you?"

Dawn blinked, not sure what her friend was talking about. "Well, I'm Dawn. We met in Unova, remember?"

"No, I know you!" Iris said sharply, not able to hide her frustration any longer. "But who are the rest of you? Whose house is this?"

By then, everyone had hushed and was staring at Iris. They seemed alarmed by her questions and that caused Iris to recoil a bit.

"Well…this is my house," Misty said. "But I'm not sure about the other part. We're all best friends. We all met through Ash."

"Okay," Iris said, almost eagerly, having found something to cling onto. "But how did you guys meet?"

Misty, having accidentally become spokeswoman for the room, took it upon herself to continue. "Uh, well, I met Mallow, Lana, and Lillie in the airport when they came to visit Kanto. And May and I met in Hoenn for the Togepi Festival. And then…"

Misty looked between Dawn, then Iris, then Serena and Bonnie. Her brows furrowed as the words left her. She was left with nothing more to say than, "I…I don't remember."

"Did Ash introduce us?" Iris insisted.

Misty shook her head slowly. "I don't think so. He's not very good at that. I mean, Ash is only indirectly responsible for me meeting any of the rest of you."

"Do we have anything in common?" Iris asked, now on something of a roll.

"Of course we do!" Dawn answered. "We're all great friends with Ash. We all love Pokémon. We've all gone on journeys—"

"Technically we haven't," Lillie interjected in a meek voice. "We do travel occasionally, but I live in my mother's house."

"And she has a butler who drives her everywhere," Lana added.

Iris blinked. "Yeah, that's not so relatable to me."

"Well, we all have careers and aspirations in Pokémon, right?" May asked. "Misty's a Gym Leader and Dawn and I are coordinators…"

"I wanna be a Dragon Master," Iris agreed.

"I've been making a name for myself in Pokémon Showcases," Serena offered humbly. "And Bonnie—"

"I can speak for myself!" Bonnie said. "I wanna be a Pokémon Master, just like Ash!"

"I hope you mean what Ash wants and not what Ash is," Misty mumbled.

"I want to be a Water Type Trainer like Misty," Lana added.

"And I suppose I've been toying with the idea of being a Pokémon researcher," said Lillie.

Mallow was the holdout. She looked awkwardly at the other girls and said, "I think I just want to work at the restaurant with my dad. I mean, my Pokémon work there too and I want to serve to Pokémon customers but…it's just a restaurant."

Her comment was met with silence. Silence which Iris was quick to interrupt. "So. What I'm hearing is that we don't necessarily have a lot in common. I mean, I'm sorry…" she gestured towards Serena, whose eyes grew wide with having been singled out, "but I've never even heard of Pokémon Showcases. That, combined with the fact that I have no idea how I ended up in the same room as any of you, makes me a little hesitant to call you my best friends. My best friends are Ash and Cilan, and Dawn is an acquaintance. The rest of you are strangers."

Once again, the room was thick with silence. This one, profoundly awkward. Silence was not a thing meant to happen at slumber parties. If there was a lull in the conversation, put on a rom-com. If people started ignoring the rom-com, throw on some throwback music. If that failed, take it upon yourself to prank call any one of Misty's sisters. Apparently a lot of unknown numbers were in this room, ready to be utilized for prank calls. However, none of that happened.

"Well, that sure took the fun out of everything," Bonnie pouted.

"It's okay, Bonnie," Serena comforted. "She's probably right. Maybe we should both go home."

"To Kalos?"

Serena shrugged. Just as she was about to stand up to leave, Misty said, "No, that's ridiculous. The least we can do is stay here and get to know each other. We're all friends with Ash and that's enough in common for me. I trust his taste in friends."

"Me too," Dawn said decidedly.

"That's fine with me," Iris said, surprising everyone. "You're just not my best friends."

Moral: Um, sudden endings are off-putting? Sorry, it seemed as good a place to end it as any.

Real Moral: Most of these characters don't know each other. I've read a lot of stories where Misty, May, and Dawn are all best friends, but Misty and Dawn have never met in canon. And there's never any explanation for this. As Misty said in this story, I don't trust Ash to have done a thoughtful introduction between any of these characters. I would buy that May would introduce Dawn and Misty but when? Why? Where? These are good questions to consider when putting these characters in a story together.

Exception: Really, there are lots. I've certainly done this (the chapter "Effeminize" in my Alphabet Challenge comes to mind) and I'd say being a oneshot is the most common exception. The truth is that not every oneshot is going to have the space for this kind of exposition or back story. But, generally, if you can avoid being arbitrary with this kind of thing (or anything) the better your story will be. Specificity is almost always the way to go. But in a multi-chap there's really no excuse for not fleshing this out.

Secondary (Tertiary?) Moral: Yes! A second one! Apologies for this level of preachiness. The second moral is that even if these characters have been introduced, they are unlikely to be best friends. Take into account how much time they've spent together and what they have in common. There might be less there than you'd think. Example: Misty has a real friendship with Lana because they have so much in common, but they're still not best friends like her and Ash or Brock because they haven't spent much time together. She and Tracey spent a lot of time together, but they don't seem to have too much in common, so they're close, but probably not best friends.

Exception: A character who doesn't understand emotional boundaries? I don't know.

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

1, Angel Rose. ;3c

I hate how, despite you having never read a piece of the canon she exists in, I’ve told you enough about her that you can just drop me a prompt that dead-on nails the essence of her being.

1. “It wouldn’t be the first time you broke a promise.”

Angel is one of my Pokemon OCs infamous for being a fuckup, and this writing piece below is just purely self indulgent because there is literally no other person, living or dead, in the world who can fully understand everything I’m picturing here. Like most of it’s referring to old stories I’ve written and will never share beyond the one (1) person who read it back when I wrote it, but then the setting is a concept I’d been floating for myself if I ever wrote in my Pokemon universe again.

Anyway this is 2.5k words of a bunch of idiot teenagers and 20-somethings with grudges yelling at each other and being dramatic soap opera idiots while the end of the world looms so maybe (I hope) it’s funny even without full context.

“You can't shut me out of this!" Rose - Angel - whatever the fuck her name is - snaps, rounding on Glynis, and Rowena leaps to her feet and swiftly places herself between them. Sure, she's pretty sure that if a fight starts, it will have been Glynis who started it, and Glynis who emerges the victor, but it will still be the absolute last thing any of them need now. Plus, if her sister starts throwing down with the lying two-named stranger in their midst, something will probably get broken, and Professor Rowan is very protective of his laboratory equipment and knows that if a brawl starts, Rowena tends to be the instigator, so even if for once she isn't, any damage will first get attributed to her. And that is something else she would like to avoid.

"And why the fuck not?" Stacey demands. She is standing back behind Glynis, a wheeled office chair overturned behind her when she flung herself up out of it when Rose - Angel - made her confession.

"I know more about the Distortion World than anyone," Angel says. She shakes her blonde hair back - is that or the blue her natural color? Is Angel or Rose her real name? "And all of this" - she jabs a finger at the scanner printouts that they have all crudely scrawled upon the past several days, at the monitors and further details updating themselves faster than Rowena's eye can take in - "is about the Distortion World! If you're messing around with any of that you need me!"

"Being stranded there for five years doesn't an expert make," Glynis says dryly. "Maybe you got real good at figuring out a pattern to the screwed up gravity but what the hell do you actually really know about about its fundamental makeup, the way it's connected to our world, and how portals to it keep spontaneously opening!"

Rowena knows it wasn’t five years but that’s so far from relevant, and will just spark a hundred problems, so she lets it go.

"And what do you know about that, then?" Angel asks. She folds her arms and shifts her weight back and forth from one foot to another. "You know even less than I do." She doesn’t correct Glynis on her timeline either.

"Glynis - Stacey - all of you, listen," Toshiro says. He stands like he's trying to command everyone's attention, sounds like he's trying to be authoritative, but something of the picture is broken by the way his Joltik is firmly clinging to his forehead. "Rose is right. She -"

"Do you know what she did?" Glynis asks. "The whole, actual, goddamn story?"

"Yes," Toshiro says. "She told me. I know."

"She tried to piss Arceus off enough to destroy the entire universe," Rowena says. "Just - just to reiterate the main point. Like I dunno how she tells it but that's fundamentally the point: she nearly erased all of us from existence. Like do you get that?"

"Yes, I do get that," Toshiro says. At the edges of his words, Rowena can hear his patience starting to fray. "And she helped us - me - in Unova. I trust her. She helped us stop -"

"Hey, not to, like, start shit," Brook calls from where she and Storm are sitting on one of the lab tables, "but -"

"Please don't start more shit," Jenny says. "Please do not start more shit."

"But - I'm gonna start shit, sorry - I think I remember you two mentioning that didn't Toshiro join up with Team Plasma once?"

Angel's mouth his half open and then without a word she closes it. 

"For two months - it was a mistake," Toshiro says. "I know it was a mistake -"

"Yeah and it wasn't so much of some warning flag, like yeah we've all been dumb and helped people we shouldn't have" - Rowena knows that Glynis will be staring directly at the floor right now, and probably half of the others have turned to look at her as Brook says this - "but when you put you with her, and her really really really really really big mistake of trying to blow up the whole world..."

"You'd think Professor Juniper could've found better lab assistants to send us than Team Galactic and Team Plasma's rejects," Stacey says loudly, to no one in particular.

"Yeah sorry but the Heroes of Truth and Ideals are otherwise engaged," Toshiro snaps. He has given up his veneer of pleasantry.

"Isn't one of those two Heroes the leader of Team Plasma?" Dawn asks. "I wouldn't trust them either."

"Hey, no, he wasn't the leader of Team Plasma so much as -"

"Rose, now's not the time -"

"- he thought he was and thought they were working toward a different goal than -"

"So a guy with a super powerful legendary dragon is a gullible idiot instead of evil?" Stacey asks. "Super great."

"He is not -"

"Rose, now’s not the time" Toshiro repeats. "Rose. Seriously. I guarantee you N does not give half a fuck about whether you defend his honor or not. I promise you he doesn't care and we're already so far from the argument we're trying to make that -"

"Oh, good, you're on a first-name basis with the leader of Team Plasma too," Glynis says. "My confidence in your credentials increases by the minute."

"Glynis," Angel says, looking past Rowena, "please. Please, trust me. I swear I can help, I promise that I -"

"It wouldn't be the first time you broke a promise," Glynis says coldly.

Angel recoils, just momentarily, and for a moment Rowena is willing to entertain the idea that she is sincere. And then she looks at Rowena and Rowena can recognize the girl from half a decade ago. She almost looks nothing like her - time has twisted the face in Rowena's memories, undoubtedly, but she remembers someone paler, almost sickly, skeletal, blue hair half in tangles all around her face. But her eyes, her gray gray eyes, are the same, that same look, and something in Rowena's stomach hardens into ice. 

Rowena almost wonders if Angel will go pleading to each of them in turn, but of course - if she can't win over Glynis again, she'll go to the other one out of them all that she knew best. "Rowena, you trust Darkrai, right?" She doesn't leave time for Rowena to answer the rhetorical and continues, "He trusted me - he let me go, he told you that he let me go -"

"What?" Glynis asks.

And the roulette wheel of confessions, gone from Angel to Toshiro, now rolls to Rowena. "You knew?" Glynis asks. Rowena finally looks away from Angel, still not sure that the woman won't morph into some sort of monster as soon as her eyes leave her, to her sister. Glynis looks... not angry, like Rowena expected, but hurt. "The - Darkrai told you? When?"

"About a week after everything went down," Rowena admits. So much for avoiding this conversation.

"Time doesn't work the same in the Distortion World," Angel says. "It felt like years."

"A week?" Glynis repeats. "And for five years you didn't - tell me?"

Something inside Rowena's chest snaps and she is twelve years old again, a stupid angry child who hates her older sister. "Well first I didn't tell you because you were already moping so much about your sad stupid crush on her -"

"You had a crush on me?" Angel repeats blankly. 

Throwing Glynis under the bus was one way to shift the roulette ball out of Rowena's own slot, and she's certainly mixed her metaphors well. "- and then as time went on and the world didn't end I figured that you know, maybe Darkrai was right that she was sincere!"

"Ignoring that the world did almost end in Unova, two years after that," Stacey says.Rowena rounds on her. "And what, I figured, and you would have too, were the bloody fucking chances of her having ended up in Unova?"

"So you trust Darkrai," Angel says, a little desperately, "so you'd trust -"

"I trusted Darkrai then," Rowena says. "Now's like..." She wiggles her hand back and forth. "Eh."

Angel's face falls. "Sometimes I think I trust him,” Rowena continues, “and more often I'm pretty sure he just thrives on the chaos and only stopped you because if the universe got destroyed he'd be gone too and wouldn't have any entertainment."

"You know," Angel says, and she still looks sad, but her lips almost twitch toward a smile, "I hate admitting it but you're probably right about that one. He's an asshole." She closes her eyes and presses a hand to her forehead. "So you won't trust me either."

"I'll tentatively trust you," Rowena says, and Angel's eyes snap open, something like hope transforming into suspicion. "Conditionally, as in - the world is already fucking ending and we're gonna have to take a chance somewhere or other to save it, probably."

"That sounds like a terrible idea," Stacey says.

"You know what else sounds terrible?" Rowena asks. "Sinnoh gets sucked into an alternate dimension because Giratina or some fucker keeps opening portals and no one stopped it. That sounds bad."