#none of them even have pokeballs so

[uncle-dusknoir]

i'm gonna be honest lmao i don't know if i . can train them. i don't know if they respect me enough for that 💜

📚 Shuppet!

BABIES!

You know, weirdly enough, my ONLY interaction with Shuppet has been reading about them. I've never met one up close!

I think my favorite thing I've read is their potential as a service Pokemon! A lot of people have doubts about using ghosts for service training, but you know what, people have doubts about ghosts and everything. Shuppet are among the most docile ghosts, from what I hear, and their mischief isn't as intense or direct as you get from, oh, I don't know, a Misdreavus.

People are starting to breed them for it, but it's in the early stages of development, and we ghost breeders face a lot of backlash as it is. Getting a ghost certified as a legal service 'mon is bound to be a challenge. But it does my heart good to see people exploring the way these little guys can help people!

[kaitou-kid-my-beloved]

The Ghost-type Detective CH1 (Based on the Phantump Conan AU by @livmadart)

(Ao3 link)

Shinichi was so stupid. He was an idiot, a gosh darn fool. And now, because of his disregard for his own safety, he was… he was…

He choked on the pain, closed his eyes against the burn, and wished for all it was worth that it would just end faster. He knew, deep in the recesses of his decaying heart that it would end, and there was only one way that it would.

The small sliver of his brain that wasn’t consumed with agony was swirling with thoughts, hopes and regrets. What was Ran going to think? He’d never wanted to do this to her… He had no idea what had happened to Sherlock- his pokeball had been taken when Shinichi had been hit. All he could do… all he could do was hope they’d be alright…. Alright without him.

He could feel the moment his heart stopped.

He wasn’t breathing, his heart wasn’t beating, and he was still in the most agony he thought possible. After a few excruciating, infinite moments, everything stopped. The pain vanished, his vision faded, the sounds of the park dropped away, and even gravity itself stopped holding onto him.

So… he was dead, then.

Honestly, for a moment all he could feel was relief. The pain was gone, and in those last moments that had been all he’d wanted. He’d never imagined anything could burn like that. The pain of death, he supposed.

In the next moment, he realized something. He was still thinking. He had none of his senses, he hadn’t even a vague idea of his surroundings, but he was still thinking. He still had a mind. He sure, one hundred percent sure that he was dead, so… what was this? He waited a moment more. Nothing changed. He was still alone with his thoughts, trapped in this void.

Moment after moment passed, he had no idea how long it had been. His mind swirled with overlapping thoughts, the only thing he was capable of. Was this it? Was this all there was for him? This nothingness with only himself for company?... Forever?

He discovered something. When you’re made of nothing but thought and emotion, fear is a powerful thing.

He didn’t want to stay like this, the idea sent chills of panic through him that rattled his whole being. No no no no no. He mentally cast about, searching wildly for anything else, anything besides himself.

He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to be trapped like this, he… he really didn’t want to be dead. Gosh, Ran, Sonoko, everyone… he couldn’t stand the idea of never finding out what happened to them. He’d thought that he might be at least able to- to observe or something, not, not…

He felt something.

There, a flash of… of warmth. The first physical feeling he’d had since losing his life. With that one sensation to ground himself, he could determine that he existed in some capacity outside his own mind, and he could tell that the warmth was coming from the left. There was a left! He latched onto it, with all of his fragile being, and pulled with all his mental strength. It got bigger- or, maybe he got closer to it?

It was so warm- almost hot, but that was fine, because it was something. He really did feel like he was getting closer, almost close enough to touch it…

All at once, his five senses returned.

He could feel the cool night breeze brushing against him, he felt heavy again- though, not nearly as heavy as he thought he should. He smelled sugar, and meat from the amusement park, and he could hear the last lingering screams of delight from the remaining guests on the rides. He blinked, finding he had eyelids to move.

Immediately, he wished that he had never opened his eyes at all. The moonlight shone down on the little clearing behind the ferris wheel building, illuminating the corpse cooling on the grass. Shinichi’s corpse. It lay there, contorted in an odd position, eyes wide open and glazed. Blood stained the area crimson red, having spilled liberally from anywhere it could have.

He felt like he was going to be sick. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Ran that he was unfazed by gruesome sights, but this… this was him.

Still, when he’d regained his awareness of the world, he’d hoped that somehow, somehow he’d survived. Maybe someone had found him and resuscitated him or something, or that his heart had restarted as a fluke, but… The third person perspective of his own broken corpse wasn’t reassuring. But, if he hadn’t returned to his old body, then…

He looked down at himself, and felt sick for an entirely new reason. The body he’d found himself in was… well, whatever it was, it wasn’t human.

He didn't quite have legs anymore, or anything really. This new body of his was a simple tendril of gray, with two smaller nubs for arms. When he tried to move his hands, the nubs curled. Such a simple action, yet it made his head spin. It was so incredibly strange, he was supposed to have fingers, legs, toes, anything, but suddenly he didn’t anymore.

Slowly, ever so slowly, ignoring the roiling feeling in his gut (did he have one of those anymore?) He reached up and touched his face. He felt… wood. The bark of a tree, rigid and cold, nothing like the human skin that he remembered. He opened his mouth, taking a deep, shuddering breath in, the bark moving to accommodate the action.

He pulled his nubs closer to his chest; new, unfamiliar instincts guiding his tail to curl around his body. He tried, desperately, to clear his mind. He knew that if he kept thinking, that very soon he’d figure out what was going on, and for once in his existence he didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to realize what had happened, he didn’t want to figure out what he was. He’d just… sit here for a bit. Enjoy not being dead, and ignore everything else.

Despite himself, his mind kept moving.

He’d… he’d died on the edge of the forest that ran through this part of the park. Sure, his corpse was lying on carefully mown grass, but he had a feeling it was close enough. When he’d been younger, his mom had told him scary stories of kids who wandered into the trees and never returned… as humans, anyway. At the time, he’d been fascinated. The presence of a certain, rare pokemon in the forest being an indicator of missing kids? It was something he might use, as a detective.

Now…

The pokemon in question were called a ‘Phantump’, they were little ghost-grass types that often arose from kids dying in forests, and their souls possessing tree stumps. Of course, many of them were natural born pokemon, but the stories had clouded their reputation as long as they’d existed.

This is what I get for dying in the woods behind Tropical Land, Shinichi thought bitterly, winding his tail even closer around himself. The proximity to the trees was enough. Sixteen was young enough. The newly cut stump just at the edge of the grass, the same one Shinichi was currently perched on, was more than enough.

He screwed his eyes shut, shoving his nubs into the holes in his bark to hold them that way. This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t happening. Any moment now his alarm would go off telling him it was time to get ready for Tropical Land, or he’d wake up in the hospital with that nasty head trauma, something, anything.

He didn’t believe any of that, of course, but it was a sweet little lie, and he needed a little sweetness after tasting his bitter new reality.

“Woah, I’ve never seen that happen before,” Shinichi froze, the little whisper carrying down to him from the trees above. A witness?

“No duh,” Another voice hissed. Shinichi carefully pulled his nubs away from his eyes, opening them and loosening his tail.

“Do you think he's okay?” Yet a third voice whispered. All three of them were coming from the tree above, what…

“Think about that real hard,” The second voice sighed. It almost sounded like a man, a man with a high, whistling tone. So, nothing like a regular man, but still.

“Should we do something?” The first voice chittered, her tone laced with anxiety. “I feel like there’s something we’re supposed to do in this situation,” The way she spoke, it almost sounded like-

Oh. They were pokemon. Their strange, whistling chirping voices weren’t human. They were pokemon.

Carefully, and with quite a bit more hesitance than he might use normally, Shinichi looked up, craning his neck to see into the trees above. Sitting there, staring down at him in obvious concern, were three pokemon. A pidgey, a hoothoot, and a sentret.

“...Do you think he can hear us?” The third voice, the one belonging to the sentret, whispered.

“I’m gonna go with yes,” The hoothoot, owner of the second voice, sighed.

��Hello!” The pidgey called down to him. “Are you alright?”

Shinichi blinked up at them. What his ears were hearing and what his eyes were seeing didn’t quite agree. Pokemon should not be able to speak in a language he could understand. He was sure there were logical explanations for this, but he buried them. Cover it all in sweet little lies.

“Again, no, he is obviously not alright, what is wrong with you?” The hoothoot said, rolling his massive eyes. The pidgey ignored him, rolling her own eyes before hopping off the branch and gliding down to Shinichi’s stump. He startled as she landed in front of him, his tail twitching.

“Hmmm,” she hummed, looking him over. He blinked at her, his skin crawling with the sudden acute attention. “You do seem physically alright… how are you feeling?”

He didn’t speak, didn’t make a sound. He had a sickly creeping feeling that if he did, quite a few of those sweet lies would dissolve. He didn’t want that, not yet.

“Oh no, can he not speak?” The sentret fretted.

“Well, that’s not unthinkable,” The hoothoot tilted his head in interest. “Most pokemon can speak very little at birth, after all,” Shinichi winced, electing to ignore him from now on. “Then again I know little about ghost types, perhaps we should contact a pokemon who does?” Yes, a very good thing Shinichi had decided to ignore him.

“Oh yeah! That’s what you’re supposed to do! Get another ghost!” The pidgey suddenly chirped, hopping at the edge of the stump. “I’ll go do that, ‘kay? Wait here!” She took off in the next second, the wind from her wings shaking his leaves.

…He was going to ignore that, too.

“There she goes,” The sentret sighed, wiggling a little before jumping down into the grass. She waddled up to him, moving much less suddenly than that pidgey had. “My name is Stripes, the old hoothoot up there is Mike, and the pidgey is just Pidgey,” She nodded to him, putting a paw on her chest. “I’m sorry this happened to you.” He didn’t say anything, shoving the rise of… something into the back of his mind with the rest of his thoughts.

“It’s certainly interesting to meet you,” Mike hummed, still staring down at him with interest. Shinichi wasn’t sure he much liked that look.

“I found her!” The chirping voice of Pidgey drifted through the trees, and she reappeared a moment later, landing on Stripes’s head.

“Who?” Mike asked, tilting his head the other direction.

“Me,” A new voice said. This one was oddly, almost human, with a slippery gravel sort tone to it that Shinichi could have sworn he’d heard before. He strained his eyes for the source of the voice, staring hard into the shadows Pidgey had emerged from. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything, then a shape seemed to coalesce out of the darkness. Large and rounded with pointed spikes, and huge, toothy grin. A tremor ran through his whole body at the sight. A wild gengar.

“Oh! Haruna!” Stripes said, turning to face the newcomer. She sounded pleasantly surprised.

“Who else?” Pidgey huffed proudly. “I can’t think of any other ghost types in these woods.”

“Well,” Mike commented. “Not anymore.”

“So this is him, then?” the gengar, Haruna, hummed, taking in the whole scene before her luminous red eyes landed squarely on Shinichi’s new form. He did his best not to shake, but even in the best of circumstances being the center of a wild gengar’s attention was a bad thing. “Oh don’t worry little thing, I’m not going to hurt you,” She purred, stepping right up to his stump.

She towered over him like this, her teeth glinting in the moonlight and her large, searching eyes boring right into his. Still, he didn’t say anything, didn’t make a single noise even as she reached for him. She wrapped her cold claws around him, pulling him into the air, away from the stump. His tail drifted in the wind as she held his small body aloft, looking him over in much the same way Pidgey had.

“He hasn’t spoken yet?” She murmured, glancing at the other pokemon.

“Hasn’t made a single sound,” Mike shook his head.

“Oh, I understand that,” She hummed, refocusing back on him. “That’s alright, you don’t need to speak yet, you don’t have to speak at all if you don’t want to,” She pulled him close, holding him tight against her cold fur. He couldn’t help it, he was shaking now. “It’s all new, isn’t it? I’ve been where you are, I know how hard everything is at the start.”

He looked up at her, her scarlet eyes gleaming with nothing but genuine empathy and care. Was she really…?

“It’s alright,” She grinned. “I can help you!”

[mlmvoreconfessionals]

Drayden from Pokémon deciding a trainer and his team have no potential, with Drayden eating and rapidly digesting the trainer’s team in front of him before consuming the trainer. Could you also include disposal? Please and thank you.

Oh yeah, this is great!

D.rayden lets out a dissatisfied huff as the trainer before him returns his last P.okemon. This was simply embarrassing. While D.rayden believes that a firm and direct hand can guide most trainers to an acceptable skill level, perhaps there are some that simply nothing can be done about.

This one has a team of strong, fully evolved P.okemon. But he was so lacking in every possible sense when it came to skill and strategy. It really just shows that raw power isn’t everything. If you don’t know how to channel it, it’s a waste.

D.rayden has no patience for those who waste it.

The trainer was grumbling to himself, already turning to leave and heal his team. D.rayden grabs the trainer by his belt and pulls. It makes the young man stumble back and it rips his belt right off, taking the Pokeballs with it.

The trainer whips around, eyes wide. “Hey, what are you doing?! Those are my P.okemon!”

“And you clearly don’t know how to use them,” D.rayden retorts with a gruff voice. “They’d be more useful dead. So sit there and watch what you caused.” D.rayden opens the first Pokeball, releasing the trainer’s starter, an E.mboar.

The big pig looks around, clearly confused as to why he’s still in the gym. He tries to stand but winces and rubs his side. He’s still exhausted from his battle. So he has no hope of escape when D.rayden squeezes his shoulders and opens wide.

E.mboar blinks and stares down into the human’s drooling maw. He’s not really going to..? A hard tug pulls E.mboar down, and he lets out a startled squeal. It’s muffled by his face planting into D.rayden’s jaws and the thick swallow that rings out to suck him deeper.

Despite his bulky and large the P.okemon is, D.rayden’s hard swallows are easily dragging him down. The E.mboar’s legs kick around weakly as they’re lifted off the ground. D.rayden hoists the pig up as he gets to the chest, starting to gulp and slurp down his gut. D.rayden’s own belly is bloating out, stretched tightly over the E.mboar. As the gym leader slurps down a pair of kicking legs, his stomach drags down to rest on the ground, the massive Fire type curled up tightly inside. D.rayden looks the trainer in the eye and lets loose a deep, roaring belch.

“M…My P.okemon…” the trainer says softly, staring with wide eyes.

“Not your P.okemon anymore,” D.rayden huffs. The E.mboar is roaring inside, struggling and pushing around with what little energy it had. It was panicking. D.rayden grunts and closes his eyes, his gut starting to groan deeply. “Now it’s just…” D.rayden’s stomach begins to shrink down. The E.mboar screams louder as its mighty body reduces. Strong abs and frothing acids help to mulch it in moments. The pig’s screaming turns into low gurgling as D.rayden’s belly loses shape and size. Soon, that noise is gone, too, and the gym leader’s gut flattens out. “…a pile of shit,” D.rayden huffs out, opening his eyes again. He follows that up with a roaring, bubbling belch.

As if to make his point for him, D.rayden’s gut lets out a deep, wet groan. He undoes his suspenders and lowers his pants. With his muscular, furry ass on display, D.rayden squats down. He grunts and pushes, squeezing out a thick, dense log. It screams slightly in the open air as it slowly coils up. The E.mboar’s skeleton comes out feet first, mostly intact from its quick flush through D.rayden’s system. The pile comes up to D.rayden’s waist, the skull coming out last with its jaws open. With a huff, D.rayden stands up again and pulls his pants up.

“Look at that,” D.rayden rumbles. “You truly are a terrible trainer. No fat, no muscle—I reduced your P.okemon entirely into shit. It’s less than junk food.” D.rayden takes another Pokeball. “If none of your P.okemon can add even a pound to my figure, you’ll follow them. Shit belongs with shit.” D.rayden looks away from the terrified trainer to let out his next meal.

The next one out is a bit taller than the E.mboar but now as beefy. A towering B.eartic, who fell due to receiving a burn. Even now, he still looks exhausted and winces when he moves. He’s even easier to overpower than the boar, as D.rayden crams the bear’s head into his maw.

The B.eartic doesn’t struggle. Every deep swallow works out a distressed whine as it slowly goes down. Each gulp is tight and uncomfortable, pushing him towards a tight and sweltering out of death. When his head starts pressing into D.rayden’s stomach, and it smells like E.mboar musk, his whines start turning into panicked roars. It’s nothing like the tough and proud bear that had been in battle not long ago.

The B.eartic’s twitching feet are slurped down and he’s packed in tightly behind D.rayden’s abs. And like the E.mboar before it, they begin to shrink down. The B.eartic screams out in pure terror as the walls close in and boiling acids strip him down. The sound downs out into a wet gurgling sound as he’s swiftly compacted into meat slurry and a dense shit.

The pile is added to as B.eartic squeezes back out. Skull first, jaws open wide, baked into the man’s scat, the bear coils up steadily. Ruined white tufts of fur mark the brown mess along with bones. D.rayden grunts as he forces out a bulky ribcage. “This one was hardly mature,” he grumbles. “Screamed like a Cubchoo. Did you even train this one or just force it to evolve?” D.rayden huffs as the last of the bear drops off and moves on.

Next is a K.rookodile, who went down in battle before even being able to fight. He’s barely standing when he comes out and ends up on the ground when D.rayden grabs him. His thick tail is scooped up and slurped into D.rayden’s lips. And the swallowing begins again.

The crocodile tries to claw at the ground, still dazed and sore. His tail goes down fast and his ass starts being engulfed, his legs folding up. It makes the K.rookodile start roaring and thrashing more in confusion and distress. But it keeps going down the hatch, stomach slurped up, and then the rest of its body going down. Its roar is cut off as its head disappears, muzzle slipping past D.rayden’s lips and disappearing for good.

The K.rookodile lasts the shortest. The second it drops into the gut, it lets out a scream, which is swiftly cut off as D.rayden’s gut rumbles hard and flattens out. He grunts and closes his eyes, ripping ass in a rumbling fart that sends black and red scales scattering. The K.rookodile comes out fast, heaping up onto the pile of manure. His skeleton is entirely intact, forming one long and dense log that comes out in high pressure. The skull comes out fast, shit coming out of the jaws and sockets.

“That one was just pathetic,” D.rayden grumbles with a shake of his head. “I’m almost glad that one was dead. How you got so far with it, I’ll never know.” He moves on to the next, dropping a thick and fat S.colipede before him.

The big bug has been lazy in battle, not willing to listen to his trainer. So even standing before D.rayden and a pile of shit clearly made of his teammates, he remains unbothered. At least until he’s seized by the horns and dragged down. The S.colipede’s eyes widen as its muzzle fits into D.rayden’s maw, breath stinking of death.

S.colipede goes down fast. While it’s big and fat, it’s basically a giant sausage. And D.rayden has little difficulty slurping it down like one. The S.colipede’s thick legs kick slightly as it’s hoisted into the air, massive body disappearing from sight. D.rayden shoves down on its fat ass and sends the last of the bug horse away.

It’s easily the biggest meal he’s gotten so far and might be the only one that has a chance to let the trainer survive. The S.colipede trills and thrashes around for a good few seconds, its hide protecting it momentarily. Then D.rayden’s gut flexes hard, the bug crunches, and his gut rapidly deflates again.

The Poison typing is rough on his system. Enough so that he forced out another fart that even makes him wince. The S.colipede slops out in a mess, most of its exoskeleton reduced to chunks in the semi-solid mess that smothers the pile of shit. D.rayden grunts with a slight wince as his gut groans out in mild displeasure. “Urgh…Poison types. This one simply didn’t respect you. I have to agree on its decision…” He grunts as the last of the big drops out. No real pain, just a slight uncomfortableness. But the bug is gone, D.rayden is no bigger, and the next P.okemon is sent out to die.

A large B.raviary comes out, looking around frantically. It sees the huge pile and starts flapping its wings. It’s a coward, and that was its downfall. Now it will be again. It’s grabbed by the ankles and jerked back as it tries to fly. It squawks and flaps, trying and failing to escape. D.rayden shovels its feet into his maw and begins gulping.

The B.raviary’s squawks get more panicked and desperate as its body disappears from sight. It’s wings keep flapping around, up until they’re forward upward by D.rayden’s gullet. The panicked sound continues up until its head disappears down D.rayden’s gullet. Its wingtips follow soon after and the bird is gone.

Like K.rookodile, the process is instantaneous. The B.raviary lets out a squawk before D.rayden’s stomach suddenly flattens. It bubbles wetly and a deep belch explodes out of him, sending most of the bird’s feathers scattering into the air. The B.raviary comes out fast because of how little waste it even makes. The bird slithers our feet first rapidly, bones baked into shit up to its skull, which has cracked. “This one was hardly fit for battle,” D.rayden sighs.

There’s only one P.okemon left. One more life that has to end, but might let the trainer live. D.rayden releases it, putting the mighty Z.ekrom before him. He has no idea how the trainer got his hands on something like this outside of sheer luck. It’s mighty and powerful, but in the hands of such a worthless trainer, it’s been wasted. Terrible moves, a lack of training and strategy, a complete disservice to the sheer potential Z.ekrom has. As far as D.rayden is concerned, this is a mercy. Z.ekrom will be better off as a heap of stinking shut, killed by a human’s stomach, than being this trainer’s P.okemon. So he has no hesitation in bringing Z.ekrom’s muzzle to his jaws and engulfing it.

Z.ekrom is passive other than the annoyed huff it lets out as its muzzle is engulfed. It is just as aware as D.rayden over its misuse, but it is a being of ideals, and loyalty is important to it. It would have to die to reject a trainer it allowed to control it. But it was also defeated by D.rayden…and it accepts its punishment. So it doesn’t move as it’s devoured, slowly and methodically. Its large body disappears into D.rayden’s tight, slick gullet and presses into an even tighter pit behind the man’s abs. Even its massive tail is slurped up in the end, sealing the dragon away entirely.

D.rayden’s gut is well defined, Z.ekrom curled up tightly inside. Even if it wanted to move at this point, it couldn't. It is a mighty being, a living representation of ideals. D.rayden’s gut lets out a deep, rumbling groan and immediately begins to shrink down. Z.ekrom’s clear and identifiable form folds in on itself. The gym leader’s stomach shrinks down, grows rounder and softer, and in only a minute, has reduced to a set of abs yet again.

D.rayden shakes his head and crosses his arms. “An absolute waste in every sense of the word. Look at what you’ve done.” D.rayden looks at the trainer again as he begins to dispose of the last P.okemon. It’s the largest and densest of the piles. Thick and heavy logs weigh down the rest of the pile, dense bones stretching D.rayden one after another and deep black scales poking out of the brown mess. It takes much longer to drop off Z.ekrom than it did to kill it. Even its skull takes a minute to push out, and it plants muzzle-first into the crap pile with a soft splat, sinking in slightly.

D.rayden sighs out and stands up again. “Even a Legendary P.okemon is utter shit under your command. You are truly the lowest of trainers I’ve seen. I’ll feel no regret in being the one to get rid of you.”

The trainer in question has nothing to say. His eyes are wide and his face pale, mouth hanging open slightly. He’s completely gone mentally and hangs limply as D.rayden lifts him up by the back of his shirt. He’s lowered down feet first, allowed to stare down the piles his team got reduced to for his entire trip down the hatch. Darkness only greets him when his head sinks down D.rayden’s gullet.

The trainer is gone in seconds. D.rayden’s stomach doesn’t even bulge out. It reduces the man so quickly and thoroughly that he spends maybe a fraction of a second within the gym leader’s gut. The second his head is gone, he’s coming back out, cooking up on the ground in a meager pile of crap. D.rayden sighs deeply as he pinched the last of it off. “Finally…”

He’ll have to close the gym for a bit now. Get the mess cleaned up, have Z.ekrom’s bones cleaned and sent to the museum, and take a break. There was no effort in turning shit into shit. But it’s always mentally exhausting seeing so many P.okemon that had potential be reduced to nothing. Even before he gets his hands on them. At least they have use as shit.

[prof-peach]

What's a happy adoption story that's occurred on the island? Conversely, what's one of the worst adoption attempts seen?

All adoption stories have a lot of joy in them for us at Dotaku, but I suppose one or two stand out.

We had a seemingly lost and quite old Mawile handed in to us, clear care put into their lifestyle, it's teeth were in good condition for its age, it had no illness, clear and soft skin, creeping joint aches but it was to be expected for the pokemon age, but it had no pokeball, so no trainer ID to return them to.

We expected someone to come for it, we even put out posters on the mainland to help find its trainer, but no one came forward. We eventually posed the topic of rehoming to the pokemon and it firmly refused, we did not bring it up again. This pokemon would sit every time people came off the boats at the dock as if waiting for someone, and each time would walk away dissapointed.

Five years passed, it had never given us trouble, was well behaved and kind in nature, even partook in plnety of island events with time, became one of the permanent fixtures here.

And then out of the blue, an old woman turned up with her grandson, visitors. We were made aware of the dimensia she was living with just in case she wandered off, and catered to it no problem. Staff report that she walked around without issue, enjoyed the grounds just line anyone else, until that is, she spotted this one Mawile, and the pokemon saw her, the two had a moment of recognition.

Theyre both in tears as soon as they reach eachother, the Mawile ran for this woman, we didnt know if it was hostile or not at first, but nope, there as a big hug shared and progressive tears. The grandson filled us in that his grandma use to have a partner but came from a village that just lived with pokemon, no balls, no fancy items, just a mutual choosing. But the Mawile had been stolen by a young trainer passing through years ago, with no pokeballs to stop the capture process, the boy assumed someone caught the pokemon and left with it, seperating the pair. It was kind of the one thing his Grandma would always look for in her later years, forgetting that she'd lost her beloved partner, becoming increasingly worried repeatedly as her illness worsened over the years. It caused a lot of grief.

we can only assume the pokemon got free or released, and was handed in to the island as a "difficult case" due to its reluctance to listen to others.

The woman went home with her pokemon, reunited after 5 long years apart, it brought a tear to plenty of the staff's eyes thats for sure.

On the opposing end we've had plenty of shady folk come in and try to adopt from us, but theres a few measures we put in place when were suspicious. I dont discuss the security precautions we apply in these cases to hide the pricess and keep the pokemon and staff safe here.

Despite this, one or two slip the net on rare occasion, it happens, were not perfect. One that stays with me was a woman who came in to look for a partner, making all the best attempts to charm a quite fantastic little Treeko, a rare variant with fantastic leopard markings. She was forthright and seemed ordinary, we went through our regular security checks and nothing came up on her ID, figured it was a fine match. So she went through the process of adopting, staff saw no red flags. I kick myself now, if i'd been around her with Val we could have stopped this, but i'd been too busy with other jobs to oversee that particular case.

She leaves with the pokemon, and we're none the wiser, but anyone who knows us, knows we do home visits after adoption to make sure a pokemon is happy and well. usually 3 within the year. Some of our staff turn up to an abandoned building, no pokemon, no people, nothing. The hunt began, Grey was quick to try to see if the pokemons ID had been pinged at any pokecentres, but nothing came up. We kept looking, and called in some favours at the local ranger bases and police stations to watch.

Eventually someone spots the woman in question, two regions over in Hoenn, selling eggs. She got pulled over for trafic violations while driving and got flagged. I went over personally to see what was going on, and turns out she was illegally breeding rare species to sell for huge money. The treeko was in BAD condition by this point, we took it back along with two dozen or so eggs, another Sceptile, and a pair of shroomish with unsual patterns that were on their last legs. She was taken to court for cruelty charges and served time.

The pokemon however were fine in the end, took some time to rehabilitate them, but they still hang around the island, that experience was traumatic for them so they choose to stay with us for saftey sake. We have no issues with this, and have since tightened our security checks. The womans trainer ID was a fake, a really convincing one, we messed up. It's cases like that that'll push us to all do better however, we learned a lot, and hold onto those failures to push forward in a better way.

Just glad the pokemon survived and are now healthy and happy.

[gatorbites-imagines]

Can I request Guzma with a stoic CisMale S/O with a Centiskortch? I love your stuff and your writing style :)

Guzma x male reader

Hope your okay with me making the reader a team, I just really like making them ^^

I made reader a fire and bug type user :) He’s also at least the same height and build as Guzma or bigger, cuz I think the reader hovering over his shoulder is cool.

Heres the team I made, I used a card maker and just inserted a character as a placeholder ^^

It was raining across Po town as always, the water pelting down across the rooftop of the large mansion Team Skull used as a base. It had been extra gloomy that day, and everyone on the team seemed in a lower mood than usual. None of the teams’ plans had gone as planned, many grunts had been beaten in battle and some had even had to flee as their families came for them.

It was no secret that a lot of team skulls members were people who weren’t accepted by their families, outsiders, the black mareep of the family. The same thing could be said about Team Skulls boss Guzma, the outsider of outsiders of his generation.

He sat upon his throne, chin his hand as Golisopod wandered out the room, chittering and making other bug like noises as it wandered around. Vikavolt and Masquerain were sitting on the bedframe of the large bed in the room, making noises at one another as they spoke.

Bug pokemon were the one thing that had helped a young lonesome Guzma many years ago, back when everyone avoided him and his fathers expectations became too heavy. After meeting Wimpod Guzma was still as much of an outsider as ever, but at least he had a friend. He was still bullied and looked down upon, but when Golisopod finally evolved, the bullies didn’t dare come near him as long as the large armored pokemon watched over him.

Guzma had accepted he would be alone forever, or as long as he was stuck on Alola. But then he had met Plumeria and a couple of the first grunts that would later make up Team Skull. They had all not fit into what society wanted them to be, and they found a friendship with one another.

They were stilled targeted by less than kind people, but they always stuck together as best as they could so no one was left alone. This was when Guzma met who would later become his boyfriend. One of the grunts had been alone, a bug using grunt on top of that. Their Cutiefly had posed by challenge to the bullies pokemon.

As the bullies had started to close in on the grunt, a loud hissed noise was heard before a long glowing body dragged itself between the bullies and their target. The large body twisted, and flames blasted from its face as it turned its angered eyes on the bullies. It hissed again as the bullies stood frozen, and it only seemed to somewhat relax as its owner approached.

The bullies turned as the pokemon they had never seemed hissed in the new persons direction, though this sound was much less threatening. There stood a tall man, with a calm or almost bored expression, his eyes tracking over the situation. The Grunt on the floor with a face wet from tears, being protected by his Centiskortch who had jumped from its pokeball, and the group of bullies.

(Y/N)s eyes turned cold as he stared down at the bullies, a displeased tone in his voice as he demanded an answer to what they thought they were doing. The bullies tried to come up with an excuse, and when that didn’t seem to have any effect on the man, they tried to explain how the grunt deserved to be bullied, and how pathetic the grunt was for using bug types.

The man had no facial reaction as he stepped in front of the grunt as he pulled a quickball from his belt, tossing it into the air and releasing a pokemon. It was clear it was a bug type, the new pokemon placing itself between the man and the bullies, releasing growls and chitters at them and their pokemon.  Centiskortch had quickly pushed itself to the front as well, its flames large and enraged.

The bullies didn’t back down though, their pride too powerful as they made their pokemon attack. That was when Guzma and Plumeria arrived, their eyes wide as they watched the man’s two pokemon completely wipe the floor with the bullies teams. The bullies had cursed him out when they lost, but the stoic expression on his face and in his voice had them running away.

(Y/N) had turned and crouched down to the grunt and helped them to their feet, he also offered to heal their pokemon for them. The two fire-bug types had stayed outside of their pokeballs, both ready if the bullies should return. That’s when the two leaders of Team Skull stepped in, and one thing led to another and (Y/N) decided to join the team, at least somewhat.

Guzma learned that the man was a traveler, had had traveled across many countries, had met and battled many people, and that Alola was his last stop. They had bonded over their love for bug types, and Guzma had been so excited to meet pokemon from outside of Alola. The leader of Team Skull hadn’t planned on developing feelings but it just happened, and one thing led to another and he ended up confessing on accident, and right when he was scared (Y/N) was gonna reject him, the usually stoic man had smiled a very tiny and careful smile as he confessed he felt the same way.

As if summoned by the thoughts, (Y/N) stepped in through the doors of Guzmas room, his Scizor following close behind him, his Alolan Marowak not far behind, both carrying large sacks with them. (Y/N) was carrying another large sack over his shoulder as well. He stopped in front of Guzma, his expression as stoic as always, but there was a faint glint in his eyes that meant he was excited about something.

“Whats up babe?” Guzma asked, still leaning on his hand, trying to ignore Vikavolt who had flown over to his chair and was nudging against his hand for pets. That’s when the tiny barely noticeable smile pulled onto (Y/N)s lips and he plopped the sack down at his feet, the fabric pulling open and z-crystals pouring out. Bug z-crystals.

Guzmas jaw dropped as the two pokemon following the man dropped their sacks as well, exposing even more crystals. It had to be all the crystals on the island there were so many, the Team Skull boss didn’t know how to react as his felt a grin grow on his face. Of course his handsome and strong boyfriend would be able to do something like this, why was he even surprised.

Guzma chuckled softly as he got to his feet, stepping over the many crystals as he leant in a kissed (Y/N), the other mans hands coming up to rest on Guzmas hips as he pulled him closer. They both ignored the sound of (Y/N)s pokeballs snapping open and releasing all his pokemon, the room becoming slightly cramped at all the pokemon in it alongside the two men.

That’s when they felt something coil around their bodies, the warm length of the body and the hissy noises it made as if laughing immediately let them know it was (Y/N)s first pokemon and trusted friend, Centiskortch. The bug-fire pokemon seemed to snicker at them as Guzma squaked at the action, but (Y/N) just rolled his eyes and leant down to kiss Guzma again.

Centiskortch got itself into a comfortable position around its trainer and its trainer’s partner, holding the two humans close as the pokemon decided to take a short nap. Guzma rested his head against (Y/N)s shoulder and released a sigh he didn’t know he was holding, maybe it wasn’t so bad as long as the stoic man was with him, he was sure tomorrow would be better.

[yersina]

[part 2]

When Eddie walks into the new Pokemon Nursery in his hometown and is confronted with the view of Steve Harrington, former member of the Elite Four, behind the counter, he immediately turns on his heel and walks back out so he can duck behind the brick wall of the exterior and hyperventilate for a little bit.

Right.

He’d forgotten: Steve (former member of the Elite goddamn Four) hails from Hawkins too.

When Steve had fought his way onto the Elite Four, he’d been the talk of the town. Even Wayne had brought it up when Eddie had finally stopped at a Pokemon Center to accept his call. The Harrington boy’s in the Four, didja hear? he’d said. Eddie sure had—from every single person who’d seen his hometown written on his Trainer License that week. His Rotom Phone had proudly displayed every article written about the guy, each with the same photo in its thumbnail: Steve, backlit by the bright gym lights, Pokeball in hand and Growlithe at his side.

It made for a pretty picture, sure, but Eddie still has memories of the Harrington manor on the outskirts of Hawkins, like Harrington Senior and Lady Harrington couldn’t bear to set foot in the town proper. When he’d run into them at the PokeMart once, they’d sneered at him and his dirty shoes and tugged away a young Steve with rough motions. He can’t imagine that Steve himself would be any different, growing up in a family like that.

(None of this stops him from caving and watching the recording of the fateful gym battle on his Rotom Phone, screen bright in the darkness of his room in the Pokemon Center and breath caught in his throat. Steve, oddly, had a rough way of battling—intuitive and smart but not elegant. Not like it’d be if he had battling tutors or proper training. At the end of the battle, he runs out onto the field, heedless of the craters and cracks in the ground, and smothers his Empoleon in a hug while Growlithe barks up a storm behind him.

Eddie wonders why they didn’t take a picture of that.)

But here Steve Harrington is, back in Eddie’s hometown and standing between him and getting his Chingling looked at. Great.

He briefly wonders if he could wait and come back another day, or preferably find his way to another town far from here where there’s no threat of having his Pokemon seen to by Steve Harrington (formerly of the Elite Four) but he’s already promised Wayne that he’s staying for dinner at the very least, and also that’s Steve Harrington pushing open the door and looking over at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey,” Steve greets. Eddie stares. “You. Uh. You okay over there? I noticed you come in for a moment earlier.”

“Yeeep,” Eddie squeaks miserably. Out of the limelight, Steve still looks unfairly pretty. Eddie can no longer say that it’s the magic of makeup and adrenaline that makes his cheeks rosy red and it’s not sweat that makes his skin glow. That’s unfair, right? Some people just get dealt all the luckiest cards in life. “I’m doing just peachy. I’ll head in in a sec, just… decided I needed some more air.”

Steve gives him a look that says he buys absolutely none of Eddie’s bullshit. “…right. Well, we’ll be here when you’re ready.”

And just like that, he’s gone.

Eddie groans and knocks his head back against the brick wall. What is his life.

He allows himself ten seconds of self-pity before sucking in a breath and then ten more seconds of self-questioning before he lets the breath out and then he has a final ten seconds of pep talk before finally pushing open the door—for real this time.

“Hi,” Steve greets again, and oh, that’s not fair, he’s got his arms wrapped around a wriggling Tinkatink, looking completely nonchalant and distressingly competent while she wails. “Sorry, this one grew up kind of isolated, we’re still getting her socialized to humans—hey, calm down, it’s okay, remember? We talked about this. I’m here, I’m not going anywhere. You’re safe with me.” He says all of this in a low, soothing tone, stroking the sides of the Tinkatink until she finally seems to cry herself out, blinking watery eyes up at Steve. “Can you stay out here while I help this nice gentleman?” Her mouth wobbles concerning for a moment before she nods hesitantly. “You’re doing so great, Tinkatink. Proud of you.” He gives her one last head pat before looking up at Eddie. “Sorry, again. How can I help you?”

Eddie hesitantly inches towards the counter, not wanting to provoke the Pokemon into a crying fit again. “Hey, it’s cool. Can’t say I’ve had anyone call me ‘nice’ or a ‘gentleman’ before though.”

Steve huffs a laugh. Great, now Eddie knows the corners of his eyes crinkle when he’s amused. “Thanks for the warning, I think.”

He waits expectantly until it finally, embarrassingly, clicks for Eddie, and he scrambles to bring out Chingling’s Pokeball from his bag. “My Chingling hatched recently, but she’s been making this weird garbled noise? I’ve been keeping her in a Pokeball ever since, just in case, but I’m not sure what to do.” It had been terrifying, frankly, when Chingling had started making sounds that were awfully reminiscent of choking. Putting her in a Pokeball was as much for her own protection as it was for Eddie’s sanity. “I’ve used a heal on her and taken her to a PokeCenter already, but neither of those changed anything.”

Steve hums. “Tinkatink,” he says to the pink Pokemon now huddled half-behind Steve on the counter, “can you step to the side for a little bit? I’m going to look at this nice gentleman’s Chingling.”

Tinkatink, to her credit, looks like she thinks about it very hard before shaking her head in a firm no. Steve sighs. “Will Chingling be bothered by another Pokemon? I don’t think I can get her away at this point unless I return her to her Pokeball.”

“No, no, it’s fine. Chingling loves socializing.” Eddie doesn’t actually know, since his Chingling’s been stuck in a Pokeball most of the time since she’s been hatched, but it’s an educated guess. Probably.

He taps on the Pokeball and lets Chingling out onto the same counter. “Hey, sweetheart,” he greets softly. He winces when Chingling’s returning chime is the equivalent of a human wheeze. “Yeah, there it is.”

“Well, her breathing sounds fine, thankfully,” Steve evaluates swiftly, which is already a weight off Eddie’s shoulders. “She seems to be doing alright other than when she talks, so—”

And then, to Eddie’s horror, he clamps one hand down on each side of Chingling’s head, pushes her mouth open, and sticks a hand inside. “Uh,” Eddie says weakly. “Excuse me?”

“This isn’t as awful as it looks, I promise,” Steve mutters distractedly, fishing around in there for something. Chingling doesn’t look particularly bothered, at least, even with her mouth propped open on Steve’s arm. Eddie’s still not sure how to take any of this. “Faster than looking for my flashlight—ah.” He pulls his hand out from Chingling’s mouth, fingers wrapped around something. “There we go.”

And… it’s a rock.

“It’s a rock,” Eddie observes astutely.

“Yeah. Not uncommon for Chinglings, actually.” He pats Chingling on the head, and she jingles merrily at him.

“Oh, you’re back to normal!” Eddie cries. He scoops Chingling up in his arms and attempts to cuddle her within an inch of her life. “Never scare me like that again.” He gets a muffled chime in return.

Steve watches the whole show with a faint smile. “Just be careful of what Chingling eats from now on. They make sound through, uh, what’s basically their own rock, so if anything else gets stuck down there, it messes up the sound. Not really harmful, but it’s worth keeping an eye on her, especially if she’s the curious sort.” He reaches over and tickles her side until she sticks her head out curiously from the circle of Eddie’s arms. “Be careful, okay? If you keep out of trouble, you’ll grow to be a big and strong Chimecho in no time.” She jingles at him cheerily. “No biggie,” he says, turning back to Eddie. “Just a quick fix.”

“Seriously, thank you so much.” Eddie shifts Chingling to one arm and goes digging for his wallet. “How much do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about it.” When he meets Steve’s eyes, agape, Steve gives him a wink and a smile. Eddie refuses—refuses—to think of the smile as shy. Or bashful. Or flirtatious. Or anything that might be Eddie’s own wishful interpretation. Steve is just smiling. Just smiling. “It took, like, two seconds. Chill. We’ll call it a free consultation.”

“I mean, yeah, I guess, but.” Eddie flounders awkwardly like a Magikarp out of water. “Are you sure?”

Steve rolls his eyes. “I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.” At Eddie’s continued hesitation, he sighs. “Seriously, don’t think too hard about it. If you really want to thank me, come back again.”

As much as he wants to protest, Eddie hadn’t been raised to turn down what is the equivalent of free money. “Alright, if you say so.” He shifts Chingling to a more comfortable hold, cradling her in his hands. “And it’s Eddie by the way. Still wouldn’t say that I’m a ‘nice gentleman’.”

Steve laughs. “Sure, sure. Nice to meet you, Eddie. I’m Steve.” Eddie swallows down his I know. “Have a good day,” he says in a very clear dismissal. “Hope to see you back here soon.”

“‘Bye, Steve,’” Eddie squeaks in a falsetto, waving one of Chingling’s arms. Steve, gamely, waves back. “See you around, man.”

And just like that, he steps back out of Steve Harrington’s life, but now with the knowledge that the guy is so, so gentle with Pokemon, has a beautiful smile, and is generous enough to let Eddie get away with what was definitely not a free consultation.

Fuck, he’s gonna have to come back, isn’t he?

Goddammit.

[reds-fluff-extravaganza]

Hello! I hope you're having a good day n.n

Can I request something (oneshot, imagine, headcannon, whatever you can do) of Hassel from ScarVio with a reader who's scared of loud sudden noises? (You know, fireworks, balloons, thunder, etc).

Thanks!

Hiii I hope this is okay! This is the first time I’ve written for Hassel!

You’re afraid of loud noises; thunder, fireworks, balloons popping, all of it. While some of it you can’t get away from, such as thunder, there were times you could get away from it, like now, when there are planned events with fireworks at the end. You had heard about a festival in which there were going to be fireworks involved, so you knew you had to leave for the night, but to where? Well, none other than your boyfriend’s house!

“I’m sure he won’t mind.” You said aloud as you were packing up a bag for the night. Your Lycanroc only nodded as they helped you grab a few things you were missing.

“Oh, thank you, buddy.” You pat their head and grabbed your bag, putting it on your shoulders before walking outside with your Pokemon hot on your heels.

“Sorry, buddy, but I’m going to have to put you back in your pokeball for now.” Lycanroc pouts a little, but nodded in understanding as you returned them to their ultra ball.

As you were locking up the house, you called a taxi to bring you to your boyfriend’s house. As you were leaving, you decided to call up Hassel.

“Hello?” He answered after a couple rings.

“Hassel! Hello!” You responded with a smile on your face.

“Oh! Hello, my dear. Is there something you wanted to talk about?”

“Yeah, actually, I wanted to tell you that… I’m on my way over to your place.”

“Oh? Did something happen?”

“Oh, no, nothing major, just there’s a festival by my house that will have fireworks and… you know how I am.”

“I am aware. Well, don’t you worry, I’ll be waiting for you.”

“Thank you, Hassel, I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome, my dear Y/n.”

“Well, I’m almost here, I’ll see you soon.”

“Very well. I’ll see you soon.” And with that, you hung up, looking out the window now. It didn’t take you much longer to reach your destination, as you waved the driver and pokemon goodbye, you walked up to the door and knocked, smiling faintly as Hassel opened up the door.

“Good evening, Y/n.”

“Good evening.” Hassel moved to the side to let you into the house, you walked inside and he shut the door behind you.

“Have you had dinner yet, Y/n?”

“No, not yet. I figured by the time I finished the festival was going to start, and I wanted to get over here before then.”

“Go set your things down and I’ll make dinner, okay?”

“Sounds good to me.” You went to the spare room, where you would usually stay when you slept over at his house, and set your bag down. While you were setting your things down, you heard a loud noise from behind you all of a sudden, making you yelp in fear before you were pulled back… into the arms of Hassel’s Baxcalibur, who looked happy to see you.

“Goodness, Baxcalibur!” You chuckled a bit as you shook your head. “I’m happy to see you too, but you can’t just sneak up on me like that!” He let you go from the hug and followed you back into the living room, then into the kitchen.

“Are you alright, Y/n? I heard a noise.” Hassel asked you, a slightly worried look on his face.

“I’m fine, love, just your Baxcalibur gave me a scare by sneaking up on me!”

“Oh goodness, I’m sorry about that, my dear.”

“It’s alright, he wasn’t trying to scare me, I know he was just happy to see me.” You gave the dragon type a little pat on the head as he leaned down for you to do so.

“Well… that’s good. Anyways, dinner will be ready in just a moment.”

“Thank you, Hassel, for everything.”

“It’s not a problem, Y/n.” He smiled softly as you made your way over to him, hugging him, but also taking a look to see what he was making. It was your favorite, (insert favorite food here)! Your eyes lit up at the sight before letting go of Hassel.

“You made my favorite..!”

“I sure did. Now go take a seat and I’ll bring you a plate/bowl.” You nodded and went over to the table before taking a seat at the table. You watched as Hassel brought you a plate/bowl of your favorite food, setting it down in front of you before he kissed your forehead.

“I hope you like it.” You waited a few moments for it to cool off before you cautiously took the first bite.

“Have you been taking lessons from Saguaro? Because this tastes absolutely amazing! So much better than last time!” Hassel chuckled a bit in response, and you could’ve sworn you saw a faint blush on his face.

“You caught me. I asked him to help me, as I told him it was for you, and of course he agreed to it.”

“How sweet.” You two talked for a little while as you finished up your dinner, him taking your plate/bowl and taking it to the sink to wash and put away. You were about to say something when you heard a rather loud noise from outside, in which you made a noise of fear in response, your eyes wide.

“Y/n?” Hassel looked back at you, setting the plate/bowl in the sink before he rushed over to you, pulling you into a hug as there was another loud noise outside, one that sounded like a firework.

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m here..” Hassel held you close to him, bringing you to the couch before sitting down with you, wrapping a blanket around your body before pulling you back to him.

“It’s okay..” he kissed your forehead and looked out the window, seeing a few bright colors light up the sky before the noise rang out, making you tremble in his arms as you practically buried your face into his chest. Hassel gently runs his fingers along your back, holding you close to him to help calm you down.

“It’s okay, they’re gone now. It must have just been a few stray fireworks from the festival.” How was that even possible? Unless some jerk took a couple fireworks and set them off away from the festival. Hassel thought to himself but shook his head as he focused on helping you calm down now.

“Y/n.” He said softly, having you look up at him. “Focus on me, and my voice, okay?” You don’t say anything as you now focus on him, instead of the commotion outside.

“You’re okay, just breathe, sweetheart.” He breathed with you to help you calm your breathing. “There you go.” He smiled softly and went back to lightly rubbing your arm in a gentle, soothing motion.

“…I’m sorry.. for panicking like that..” you suddenly said once you felt you were calmed down enough.

“There’s no need to apologize, Y/n. Practically everyone is afraid of something. You’re afraid of loud noises, and that’s okay. It’s not a silly fear, and you know I’ll always be there to help you.”

“…thank you.” You mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear as you were getting tired after your little panic attack.

“You’re welcome, my dear. Now let’s go get some rest, I’m sure you’re exhausted after all that.” You slowly nodded in response, resting your head on his chest as he stood up, making his way to his room.

“You won’t be sleeping in the guest room tonight, I want to be there with you just in case.” You don’t even argue with him as he carried you into his room and set you down on the bed.

“I’ll go grab your bag, and you can change into your night clothes, okay?” With that said, Hassel left the room, coming back a few moments later with your bag, handing it to you. You took your night clothes out of the bag, which was just a simple shirt and shorts with (design of choice) on them. Hassel grabbed some clothes to change into as well, stepped out of the room and left you to change.

“You can come back in now.” You softly called out to him once you were done and now lying in bed. Hassel stepped back into the room, now changed as well, before crawling into bed beside you, pulling you close to him. You closed your eyes as you rest your head on his chest again. You were pretty tired after the day’s events, and you were just happy to have Hassel there beside you.

“Sleep well, my love.” Was the last thing you heard before you drifted off to sleep, Hassel making sure you were asleep before falling asleep as well.

[fever-project]

Hyrule for the Pokémon AU! His design his mostly the same, I just took some inspiration from the Ribbon Smock in XY, since those are my favorite Pokémon games. I think it fits with the Pokémon he has. I also think I messed up with his arms though, specifically his left arm, it looks a bit weird. I do love how I drew the Pokémon though, poor Litwick. But now, onto the Lore under the cut!

There are little to no pokeballs in Hyrule’s time, production for them has stopped long ago. So his Pokémon just follow him around, like his Drifloon. Sometime before his first adventure started, the Drifloon attempted to take him away. It failed, spectacularly, and ended up being pulled around by Hyrule, none the wiser to the Pokémon’s attempt to carry him off. They’re friends now. Drifloon doesn’t really fight for Hyrule though, he has a sword-that I forgot to draw here oops-that he uses to fight off evil Pokémon.

In Hyrule’s time, it is very normalized to use actual weapons against Pokémon, whatever it takes to survive in such a dangerous world. Some people keep Pokémon, but most don’t. Object Pokémon are typically seen as “safer” to keep, and Hyrule only has object Pokémon.

Hyrule found a Klefki after it stole one of the small keys he needed for a dungeon. So he beat it up until it let him use the key. But then it continued to follow him, since it figured that Hyrule could lead it to even more keys, even fighting for him occasionally. After Hyrule found the Magical Key in the 8th dungeon, he let Klefki keep all the small keys they found. Then he lost the key sometime before his second adventure, repeating that cycle until he found the new Magic Key, which he leaves with Klefki to keep an eye on. Klefki is so very happy.

Hyrule first just had a regular Blue Candle he bought from a merchant, before finding a unique looking Litwick in the 7th dungeon. Litwick clung to him, clearly wanting to leave that place as soon as possible. Hyrule loved her immediately, she’s so cute. Drifloon carries Litwick around when he’s fighting, otherwise she tries to stay in his pockets.

The Power Bracelet made Hyrule stronger, and it also had this cool stone called a Mega Keystone according to Impa. The Keystones are very rare, not many people even know they exist. He also found some mega stones in the treasury that he was allowed to keep, just in case he found a Pokémon that could mega evolve.

During his second adventure, Hyrule found a Shuppet. He was very tired and frustrated from the everything, so he was the perfect feeding ground for the Pokémon. But Hyrule loved him. He was so cute. Hyrule’s mood increased immediately upon seeing him. Shuppet was now stuck with the hero, whether or not he liked it, and he didn’t at first, but he eventually grew on him, even fighting for him, more so than Klefki, eventually evolving into a Banette. He basically hates everyone that’s not Hyrule, because he took care of him so well. Banette tolerates his other Pokémon, as well as the Zeldas and Impa. Even though Hyrule treated Banette with so much care, he would not turn back into a stuffed toy as the legends say he would. Once Hyrule brought Banette back with him, he figured that Banette could mega evolve.

Now onto the LU! Picking up where we left off in Legend’s post, The Chain has just met up and introduced a bit about themselves. Hyrule told the rest that he didn’t really have pokeballs, and that his Pokémon liked just being out and about, his Litwick in his pocket and Banette being held in his arms, the other two floating around him.

Legend seems to know the most about what’s happening, but surprisingly the old farmer (time) is the one taking charge, the ranger captain (warriors) staying by his side. Legend stayed to the wayside, the so called Hylian Champion is sticking by his side, and the blue-coated gym leader (this is twilight, i’ll make a post about each link’s occupations later) is sticking by his side, much to Legend’s annoyance. Hyrule really wants to talk to him, but he’s knows better than to make the hero even more annoyed. But he knows he has to make friends with the other Links. The child was walking over to him, but the glare sent by his Banette made him instantly turn his heel and walk over to with the Master Sword, who was already with the multi colored one.

Then the captain fell back, going over to him, completely ignoring the Banette. The captain had a determined look on his face, a black pokeball in hand. It took Hyrule a few seconds to recognize it as a Luxury Ball, something that he’d only heard of from Zelda the First. The captain placed it in his hand as Hyrule’s mouth was agape in shock, staring directly into his eyes before subtly nodding his head over to the Klefki before stepping away and going back to the farmer’s side. Hyrule dumbly nodded back, holding the ball out to Klefki, who curiously tapped the button on it and disappeared in a flash of light. Needless to say Hyrule was freaking out, having never seen a pokeball before. The champion and the kid had to teach him how to use the pokeball, with Legend and the multi-colored one giving him more Luxury Balls for his other Pokémon. They all loved it, except for his Banette, who clearly preferred to be held.

Anyways I’m currently resisting the urge to make a fan fic, since I haven’t really planned much out. Also going to make a master post of this eventually.

[dipplinduo]

So before the Indigo Disk DLC came out, I watched a vid on YouTube that had a theory about Kieran stealing Koraidon/Miraidon as a way to get revenge on you for taking Ogrepon.

And thinking about it made me come up with some scenarios, whether if Kieran was possessed by Pecharunt or not (tho I think it would work a lot better if he was).

One would be that if he wasn't, when he hears about Terapagos, he would sneak into Juliana's room and steal Koraidon/Miraidon's Pokeball, planning on using them in order to catch Terapagos, believing that if he could somehow convince Koraidon/Miraidon to listen to him in battle (literally by giving them a sandwich since he knows how to get through to them) and take him (and Briar) down in the depths of Area Zero, then he has finally won against Juliana. Meanwhile Koraidon/Miraidon would be confused at first as to why they were in Area Zero and not with their trainer, but after some convincing from Kieran that Juliana gave him there Pokeball, they took him and Briar down into the depths. but after awhile they started to grow highly suspicious of the two, eventually stopping themselves from going further. Kieran would obviously be irritated by this, trying to force them to move. But thanks to their stubborn personalities, they bought enough for Juliana and Carmine to catch up and the rest of the story would play out similarly to the DLC.

ON THE OTHER HAND IF KIERAN WAS POSSESSED BY PECHARUNT!!!

(this gets a little angsty, but in my opinion, it works so much better)

The same thing would play out about how Kieran gets the Pokeball and convinces Briar to come with him. But when Kieran brings out Koraidon/Miraidon, they start to grow defensive as they knew something wasn't right (they felt uneasy and protective of Juliana whenever she was around Kieran throughout her time in the academy) but Pecharunt was having none of that and infected them with Toxic Chains (they also mentioned this in the video, and I freaking love it), causing immense pain for the poor dragon kings. Briar would be very concerned about what Kieran was doing, but Kieran would just shut her down as they descended further into the depths. By the time Juliana and Carmine get there, it's already too late as Pecharunt already claimed Terapagos. Kieran then challenges Juliana to a battle, but not with Terapagos, Koraidon/Miraidon (now in their battle form) as he claims that he should have been their trainer to begin with. Knowing that she's taking a big risk, Juliana would toss the bag containing her pokemon aside and begins to walk closer to Koraidon/Miraidon and try to get through to them using her words (much to Carmine and Briar's disapproval). But this would make Kieran angry as it would remind him of her kindness towards Ogrepon, so he would force Koraidon/Miraidon (as well as Terapagos) to start attacking the unarmed trainer. But even though she was in so much pain, Juliana pushed through, she would do whatever it took to get her Pokemon back, she would even keep telling Kieran about how sorry she was for lying to him that day and wishes she could go back and redo her mistakes, all while keeping a smile on her face. With the last bit of strength, Juliana would place her forehead on Koraidon/Miraidon's head and tell them that they will always be her best friend no matter what, finally making them snap out of Pecharunt's trance and witness their trainer collapse limply on the floor. Kieran as well would also realize what he has done, becoming completely petrified at the sight of a limp Juliana, all while Koraidon/Miraidon (now completely filled with rage) broke the toxic chain around their neck and would help Carmine free Terapagos (Kieran would help later too, but after he got a quick scolding from his sister)

Juliana managed to survive the whole ordeal as she now lays within a hospital bed, with Koraidon/Miraidon and Kieran right beside her (Them and Terapagos also got examined for injuries, but it wasn't too serious, their ok) Kieran would then tell Koraidon/Miraidon that he was sorry for what he has done and hopes that maybe he could try to make amends with both them and Juliana, finally willing to let go of the past and move on. Koraidon/Miraidon would respond to that by giving him a lick to the face, letting him know that they forgive him.

The first thing Juliana notices when she wakes up is a sleeping Kieran, his head resting at the edge of her bed, with Koraidon/Miraidon sleeping beneath his chair, smiling as she knew that they were waiting for her.

When I finished playing the teal mask, I genuinely thought that Kieran was going to take Koraidon/Miraidon in the Indigo Disk, like I was terrified as to what was about to happen, and was also highly suspicious of Koraidon/Miraidon coming out when Kieran mentioned sandwich.

Anyway, really wanted to share this little idea cause I was dying to tell someone lol, hope you like it :)

I love it!! You put an insane amount of hard effort into the possibilities and I loved all the little interaction details!! You're very creative, and I'm confident a lot of people would love to see your fic!!

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Can I ask like Glitched Red x Npc reader

Reader was just like a normal npc but they starting releasing that something wrong,like why are saying the same lyric or why they ask some random boy to make they quest.

When reader was trying to do their quest by their self or trying to say something else they feel pain in their body,after some time reader like Red being removed from game.I just wondering how would Red react when he saw someone else that understands that their in game?

“Hi, Mom..if that’s even who you are.”

"RED, if you drive your Pokémon too hard, they’ll dislike you. You should take a rest.”

“I can’t rest. I already told you that. Can you say something else for once?”

"RED, if you drive your Pokémon too hard, they’ll dislike you. You should take a rest.”

"....do you even love me?"

"RED, if you drive your Pokémon too hard, they’ll dislike you. You should take a rest.”

“...screw you.” Red glared at his “mother”, sighing heavily in agitation as he stormed out of the house, wondering why he even bothered coming here to begin with.

Maybe it’s because he hoped that at some point, any of these stupid NPCs would start talking to him and actually perceive him as a real person. But just like them..his “mom” was just made up of codes, programmed to repeat the same damn script every time he interacted with them.

And he slowly began to realize that they were completely unaffected by whatever he said or did to them.

He could be rude and say the cruelest things, scream in their faces, cry about why they get to live in ignorance while he suffered, and even threaten to kill them....yet none of their responses would change a bit.

It was all pointless, much like his existence in this cursed game.

Why did it have to be so goddamn boring?

He thought he’d get used to the loneliness now, but it still hurt like hell.

Instead of venturing to Glitch City like he usually did, he decided to fly into Lavender Town--a place that he found some bit of comfort in. It’s a town built from sorrow and mourning.

And in a way, Red was mourning all the time; mourning for the life he’ll never get back; mourning over how his own fate is predetermined by the players..and how they frequently torture him for the sake of “fun”.

They haven’t come around in a while, which meant he was leaving a real-world impact on them to deter them from playing this game. He wished they would just stop and move onto other things...even though it killed him to know he was essentially abandoned.

He didn’t know which was worse: to be alone in this broken world or in the company of his tormentors.

Shaking his head to clear the thoughts, he entered the Pokémon Tower, seeing the usual NPCs paying their respects to their dead Pokémon. He simply scoffed as he passed by each one and spat on the nearby grave of a Raticate, knowing that nobody would be shocked because they weren’t programmed to react to him in any other way-

“Red? Is that you?”

“...huh?”

Stopping at the staircase leading to the next floor, Red froze to look over his shoulder, wondering if he was hearing things.

But no, out of the shadows of the dimly-lit room, you appeared to him with a Gastly at your side. You looked just like one of the normal resident NPCs, with the exception of glitchy particles being around your body and Gastly’s smog being replaced with purple glitches as well.

You..actually saw what he did? And you responded?

How was that possible?

He couldn’t believe it. His eyes only grew wider as he turned around, watching you step closer. “You..can see me?”

“Yeah, I’m just as shocked. But I-I-I---I-I think Gastlys are misunderstood. I want one, but I’m not good at throwing pokeballs. You seem brave, so could you catch one for me-e-?” 

You winced, the glitches suddenly jabbing your body like Beedrill stingers; they hurt for a few moments, but once the pain subsided, you exhaled shakily, eventually calming down. “Ouch..s-sorry about that.” You chuckled, embarrassed that he had to witness that. “Just ignore that stupid side quest, I got this Gastly all on my own-”

“Y-You’re...talking to me..” Red whispered, still in utter disbelief. “How is that possible?”

You blinked as he suddenly glitched in front of you, his hands keeping a tight grip on your shoulders as he stared at you intensely. “How are you...h-how can you understand me?! Are you trapped too? Do you know where you are?!” He could feel his eyes stinging as he questioned you nonstop. “For so long, nobody else in this goddamn game could hear me...so..why you? Why now?”

Then he paused, lowering his head; the shadow over his face grew even darker. You could feel the poor guy’s hands trembling, which proved that he was very real to you, just as you were to him.

As terrified and confused as he was, it felt..liberating to finally have someone to talk to--someone who could respond to him normally and not spit out the same dialogue like a broken record.

“I don’t get it..am I going crazy? Is this some sick prank they’re pulling on me?”

“No. You’re not crazy, and..I don’t think anyone’s pranking us, Red.”

Looking back up at you, his gaze was exhausted, desperate for answers. You could see the whites of his eyes tinted red, along with the bags underneath them, revealing just how upset and lost he truly was.

You smiled sadly. “I don’t know why I can only see you now, but..I’ll tell you what happened to me. Let’s sit down somewhere.”

............

“So you’re saying that...you asked yourself why you’re giving a random kid some stupid quest, and then it all went to shit?”

“Pretty much, yeah..” Nodding, you finished sharing your backstory with Red.

To sum it up, you were a hidden NPC within Pokémon Tower. Your “quest” involved having the protagonist catch a Gastly for you since you’re apparently inexperienced at throwing pokeballs, and you were supposed to reward them with a TM.

Then one day..you suddenly wondered why you couldn’t just go catch it yourself. You don’t even know where such a thought came from--it simply popped up in your mind and made you question a lot of things.

So you tried going off on your own to find a Gastly. But clearly the game didn’t take that too well as you experienced excruciating pain just from taking a single step away from your programmed spot. Though you kept going anyways, forcing yourself to find that damn Gastly and finish your own quest.

And once you did..the world began breaking, allowing you to see the truth in it: that it’s all just predetermined by code.

Next thing you knew...they tried to delete you, keeping you and your side-quest out of future versions of Pokémon Red. But you weren’t completely erased and made your home here within Lavender Town, wondering why you were the only one to gain free will...and whether the other NPCs around you will “awaken” someday. But you had doubts about that.

Never did you think would you cross paths with Red, of all people, who was apparently just as aware as you were. Though it’s a relief knowing you weren’t alone in this situation anymore.

“That sucks..” He muttered, unsure of how to exactly comfort you.

“Yeah, well..it is what it is, I guess.” Smiling, you patted your Gastly on the head, who purred as it nuzzled against your palm. “So the only question is..where do we go from here? How do you kill the time in this game?”

"Dunno.” He shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Sometimes I train my Pokémon even though it’s pointless...other times I just wander, waiting for a change that’ll never come.”

“Oooh, that’s pretty deep. But I suppose I’m that change now.”

“...yeah.” Nodding, he managed to smile back at you a little bit. “You’ve ever been outside this tower?”

“No, but I’ve mastered glitching between floors so..I got that going for me. I wouldn’t mind seeing the rest of Kanto with you, though.”

For some reason, the way you said that made Red’s heartbeat spike, and he coughed awkwardly as his glitches began pricking his flesh. But they were only mild, albeit noticeable as you frowned in worry. “You okay, Red?”

“..y-yeah...I’m alright now.” Flustered by his coughing fit, he cleared his throat and stood up. “C’mon. Let’s get out of here.”

You grinned and jumped to your feet, returning Gastly to your pokeball and eagerly following him out of the tower.

Even though this doesn’t change the fact that those people will eventually be back to torture him, nor will this give either of you any hopes of escaping or resting...

At least you’re together.

[ellieellieoxenfree]

i miss writing but i also cannot find the magical combination of energy and motivation to write things so here's a kiseki/pokemon crossover wip from like, months ago i wish i could actually fucking finish

Chen Yi didn’t quite understand how he caught the Deoxys — he wasn’t seeking one out; he wasn’t even really looking to add a sixth Pokemon to his team when he already had his hands full juggling five others on top of school, the family business, and, of course, Ai Di.

Ai Di was nearly a job in and of himself. He had just turned ten, which in his mind was most of the way to adulthood, and it was all that Chen Yi could do to keep him on the rails. Nearly every day, he had to drag Ai Di away from Pokemon battles on school grounds — his team was still green, only two strong, and Ai Di had earned their immense loyalty but was less capable at controlling their vicious tempers. Chen Yi had needed to get good at dodging acid attacks from Ai Di’s Bellsprout and sweeping up dirt from his Oddish, who he suspected was deliberately making a mess just to be antagonistic.

He was at what Chen Dong Yang called a ‘difficult age,’ a charitable way of calling him a pain in Chen Yi’s backside. He was, of course, Chen Yi’s responsibility, because Chen Dong Yang was too busy with the running of Yiyun Meng to look after an extra child, and Ai Di usually did the opposite of what Chen Dong Yang said anyway. Chen Yi could get him to listen sometimes, but those times seemed to happen with less and less frequency these days.

So walking in the door with a Deoxys was the last thing he wanted to do on a Thursday afternoon. He was already consumed with thoughts of math tests and a history presentation and how to get Ai Di to school in the morning without drawing too much blood, and then it — well, Chen Yi wasn’t sure how it had happened. He didn’t remember encountering the Deoxys; none of his Pokemon were strong enough to counteract one so powerful; and yet there he was, coming home with it hovering a few inches off the ground right behind him and occasionally emitting an unsettling, machine-like sound.

‘Are you mine now?’ he said. ‘Are you staying?’

The Deoxys made another sound Chen Yi couldn’t interpret. His Swoobat chittered a bit. The others were peacefully napping in their Pokeballs, so whatever their opinions were on the matter, he wasn’t sure.

‘I don’t know if I can keep you,’ Chen Yi said. The Deoxys was a little taller than him, and it kept waving its long, thin arms at him in a way Chen Yi couldn’t determine was comforting or terrifying. Its eyes were sharp and perceptive.

He tried again. ‘Are you looking for something?’

The Deoxys looked at him and was silent.

‘I don’t know how to care for you,’ Chen Yi said, and his Swoobat divebombed at him with an irritated sound, plucking at the straps of his backpack. It reminded him, as it often did, of Ai Di — small, insistent, and sometimes a bit of a nuisance, but it had been the first Pokemon he’d caught and he was as attached to it as he was to Ai Di.

His backpack started sliding off his shoulders without warning. ‘Hey!’ Chen Yi protested, twisting around, only to have it slide off completely and open of its own accord. He watched a pocket zip open and his Pokedex float upwards and hover in midair. The Deoxys looked at him pointedly and gestured at the Pokedex with one of its — arms? Tentacles? Chen Yi wasn’t sure what to think of them as.

‘You’re a space virus,’ Chen Yi read aloud from his Pokedex. ‘And you have psychokinetic powers.’ He swore that the Deoxys looked a bit smug about that piece of information. ‘But what do you want with me?’

His Swoobat flew up to the Deoxys — for such a tiny Pokemon, it truly had no fear — and peered at it. After a few moments of examination, he returned to Chen Yi’s shoulder and dug its little claws into his shirt. ‘Don’t do that. You’ll put holes in it,’ Chen Yi scolded him, only to have his Swoobat ignore him as usual.

‘Are you hurt?’ he asked the Deoxys. ‘Do you need to show me something?’

No reaction. The Deoxys just kept watching him with that same inscrutable expression.

‘I have to go home,’ Chen Yi told it, pointing in the direction of the shop. This was a mistake; the Deoxys just immediately began floating in that direction. ‘No! No. That’s my home. Not yours.’

He found out then that the Pokedex was not the only thing the Deoxys could control, and he nearly lost his balance as it nudged him to follow. Every time he stopped or lagged behind, it made sure he kept going.

Well, it couldn’t be helped. The Deoxys, for whatever reason was there and had clearly become fond of him and wasn’t planning on disappearing, and Chen Yi needed to do his homework. He also needed to check in on Ai Di, who had begged off school that morning due to a stomach bug. Chen Yi was reasonably sure the stomach bug was a lie, but Ai Di had locked himself in the bathroom and refused to emerge while his Bellsprout and Oddish stood sentry at the door until Chen Yi had to rush to school to avoid being late.

An Arcanine was snoring lightly at the entrance of the shop. When it heard Chen Yi approaching, it woke up and shook itself before noticing the Deoxys and summarily bolting inside.

‘Don’t upset anybody,’ Chen Yi told the Deoxys. He wasn’t sure if that would do much good with a space virus with a mind of its own, but he would at least try.

The Deoxys, of course, just looked at him and floated after the Arcanine. Chen Yi heard Xin Hao shout in surprise, and he ran in.

Xin Hao looked flabbergasted. Next to him, Qi Xian was trying to comfort his anxious Arcanine.

‘Where did that come from?’ Xin Hao spluttered.

‘It followed me home,’ said Chen Yi, which was the truth. He felt a sudden protectiveness about the Deoxys, which was just floating about looking at its surroundings and occasionally making its odd whir. It wasn’t quite like any of the other Pokemon he had ever encountered; it had a strange, powerful energy he couldn’t quite describe.

‘His little bat isn’t scared of it,’ Qi Xian pointed out. This was true; Chen Yi’s Swoobat was fluttering around the Deoxys and chirping happily.

A door slammed and footsteps stomped. ‘I thought you were sick,’ Xin Hao said, just as a murderous Ai Di appeared at Chen Yi’s elbow. His Oddish and Bellsprout clustered at his feet.

‘Whatever,’ said Ai Di. He looked at Chen Yi, then at the Deoxys, then back at Chen Yi. ‘Is he yours?’

‘Yes,’ said Chen Yi. ‘I think.’

Ai Di thought for a moment, then kicked Chen Yi in the shin. ‘You’re the worst.’ Before Chen Yi could even react to that one, Ai Di stormed back to his room, Pokemon toddling behind him, and slammed the door.

The Deoxys floated off towards Ai Di’s room. ‘Don’t — ‘ Chen Yi scrambled towards it, and the Deoxys turned, its tentacles twitching questioningly. It tilted its head at him. ‘Go sit down, or — ‘ He stopped himself before he could mention a Pokeball. Would a Deoxys be willing to go in the Pokeball? Would this specific Deoxys? ‘Just stay there and don’t do anything.’

He could hear Xin Hao and Qi Xian laughing in the background as he headed for Ai Di’s room. He had to check behind him to ensure that Deoxys wasn’t following him, which it wasn’t, but he was stymied at Ai Di’s door by a glaring Oddish and a Bellsprout that was clearly gearing to hit him with its worst.

‘Ai Di?’ he called from a safe distance. Ai Di’s Bellsprout looked as though it was considering launching itself at his throat anyway.

‘Fuck off,’ Ai Di suggested from behind the door. Chen Yi sighed. Ai Di’s filthy mouth had been getting him into trouble at school so often that Chen Yi had been trying to train him out of profanity, but it wasn’t going well.

‘I just want to explain what happened.’

There was a thump of something hitting the door. ‘Go away and fall in a hole. I hate you.’

‘I didn’t look for the Deoxys,’ Chen Yi said. ‘It just showed up and now it won’t leave me alone.’

‘You’re so special,’ Ai Di shouted from the bedroom. ’The special-est.’

Ai Di’s Bellsprout took a moment then to jab him in the leg — the same one Ai Di had just kicked him in. Its effects were immediate; Chen Yi felt the sensation go out of his calf and went a little woozy. He leaned awkwardly against the wall to brace himself. It wasn’t the first time he’d been poisoned by Ai Di’s Bellsprout, of course. It didn’t happen every time he got jabbed, but the chance was always there, and it was particularly humiliating to have to have the older Yiyun Meng members step in. Still, Ai Di’s Bellsprout could only do so much damage. At its worst, it sent him to puke his guts out for a few hours or thrash about with a fever for a day. It wasn’t exactly enjoyable, and he tried to avoid it as much as possible, but he supposed he was fortunate it couldn’t kill him.

He saw the Deoxys’ orange tentacle out of the corner of his eye, and he shouted, ‘Leave them alone!’

Ai Di yanked his bedroom door open so hard Chen Yi thought he’d rip it off the hinges. ‘If your stupid — thing or whatever it is does anything to my Pokemon — ‘

Chen Yi tried to situate himself between Ai Di and the Deoxys, which unfortunately required him to hop on one leg and try to maintain his balance while his other leg dragged limp and useless. ‘No one is doing anything to your Pokemon, and you’re not doing anything to mine. Got it?’

‘I hope your stupid Pokemon eats you,’ said Ai Di venomously, slamming the door again.

Did Deoxys eat people? Chen Yi wasn’t sure. He didn’t think it even had a mouth. Did viruses need to eat? ‘Come on,’ he said to the Deoxys. ‘Ai Di wants us to leave him alone.’

‘And don’t come back!’ Ai Di shouted.

Deoxys watched him hop along slowly for a moment, and then Chen Yi felt himself rising up off the ground a few inches. ‘I’d prefer not to float,’ he said, and Deoxys dropped him back down. Chen Yi’s numb leg promptly went out from under him, and he ended up a heap on the floor.

‘He’s upset again?’ Xin Hao called from across the shop. ‘Qi Xian, get him the antidote.’

The antidote had an astringent odor and its spray was harsh enough to make him cough, but Chen Yi could feel sensation slowly returning to his leg. ‘I wish you wouldn’t do that,’ he muttered to Ai Di’s closed door.

He knew Ai Di wouldn’t speak to him again that evening. He tended to sulk for days when Chen Yi brought home a new Pokemon, and even though Chen Yi had tried to explain numerous times that he was older and had more experience with Pokemon battling and catching and that Ai Di would catch up, Ai Di refused to listen.

‘I have to go do my homework now,’ Chen Yi told the hovering Deoxys, as though it had any concept of what homework was. ‘Do you want to sit with me?’

It did, apparently. It stood next to Chen Yi’s desk while he studied his math problems and waited patiently as he read out his history presentation. Its complete lack of reaction when Chen Yi stumbled over his notes made him feel better, somehow. ‘You’re a very good audience,’ he said. Deoxys extended a tentacle and patted him on the head.

Ai Di pointedly didn’t come to dinner, which was good because Deoxys hovered behind Chen Yi’s chair the entire time. Chen Yi figured the blowup about it would have been even worse than when he’d brought home his Abra, and that had ended in plates flipped in laps and on the floor and Ai Di tearing his room apart before falling asleep on the floor in the tangle of sheets and clothes he’d thrown around. Chen Yi had carried him back to his own room and let Ai Di sleep in his bed, but Ai Di had still woken up early the next morning and crept out and gone right back to giving Chen Yi the silent treatment.

Chen Yi worried that Ai Di thought of it as a competition, which it wasn’t. Or if it was a competition, it wasn’t a fair one — he was older and bigger and stronger and faster than Ai Di, and all of those things played a part. He didn’t want it to be one regardless of advantage or disadvantage. Managing the five Pokemon he’d had meant being careful to balance his time among all of them, and the stress of it would be even more challenging for Ai Di. Besides, Ai Di’s Pokemon were fiercely devoted to him, while Chen Yi sometimes looked at his Lunatone or his Bronzong and wondered if they cared at all.

And now he had a Deoxys to contend with, who seemed to be attached to him, but to what end? Chen Yi felt he had to keep it, but he still hesitated to take out a Pokeball. Was it right to? Would he be able to take care of it?

He told himself he’d figure it out in the morning.

—

Xin Hao greeted him with breakfast and the news that Ai Di had slipped out during the night. ‘What?’ Chen Yi said, half-rising out of his chair. Behind him, Deoxys made a humming noise. Abra, napping a foot to his right, ignored it all.

‘He’s ten,’ said Xin Hao. ‘He’ll be fine.’

‘He’s supposed to be in school!’ Chen Yi said hotly. Certainly, getting Ai Di to attend classes without getting into a fight with a classmate or talking back to a teacher was a challenge, but Chen Yi’s parents had always stressed the importance of education to him and he needed to stress its importance to Ai Di in turn.

‘You’ll miss school if you go look for him,’ said Qi Xian. ‘He’s a man on a mission.’

‘He shouldn’t go out alone. It’s not safe.’

Xin Hao rolled up one pant leg to show a healing acid burn. ‘That Bellsprout of his begs to differ.’

‘And that Oddish doesn’t even care about him,’ added Qi Xian, gesturing at his Arcanine. ‘Never seen a grass Pokemon with so little fear.’

‘Let him be,’ Xin Hao said. ‘He’ll be back in his own time.’

Chen Yi scowled. He knew Ai Di could be better, if given half a chance, but the older members seemed content to let him roam free. Ai Di wasn’t their responsibility, though, so they didn’t need to care. Chen Yi had been responsible for bringing him in, and Chen Dong Yang had tasked him exclusively with looking after him as a result. He was torn. He needed to go to school, but Ai Di was reckless at the best of times and knew how to find trouble more often than a Zubat knew how to find a trainer in a cave.

‘We’ll keep an eye out for the little one,’ Qi Xian said. ‘Eat your breakfast. He’ll be alright.’

Chen Yi crossly ate his breakfast, and crossly got ready for school, and crossly informed Deoxys that it was not going to school with him. ‘Today is Abra’s day,’ he said. He had a very strict schedule about which Pokemon traveled outside of their Pokeballs each day and he hadn’t accounted for Deoxys yet. Besides, it likely wouldn’t be allowed in the classroom. The teachers generally frowned on larger Pokemon as a distraction.

Deoxys, of course, didn’t listen.

‘You have to stay home,’ Chen Yi told it, for the fifth time. ‘I’ll be back when school is over.’

Deoxys made its pensive noise and kept hovering. Chen Yi sighed and gave up. ‘You can’t go past the gates, alright?’

This seemed more or less amenable to Deoxys, who stopped patiently when they arrived at school and nudged him past the entry with one tentacle.

‘Is that a Deoxys?’ one of the older girls said. She had a Yamper sitting on her feet, which she immediately went to shield. ‘How did you get something like that? They’re really scary.’

Her friend, who was cradling a Pidove in her arms, shrank back. ‘Get it away from here. It’s gonna try and destroy the whole place.’

‘It’s not dangerous,’ Chen Yi said. ‘It’s been around other Pokemon and it doesn’t hurt them.’

‘Yeah, sure,’ said the girl with the Pidove. ‘It’s just trying to get you to believe that. It’s a killer.’

Behind him, Deoxys made its odd machine-like noise, a little sadly.

‘It could kill you in your sleep,’ said the girl with the Yamper. Chen Yi could see her backing away slowly.

A group of students was gathering, and the chatter was growing. ‘Where did you find it?’ somebody asked, while somebody else piped up, ‘I bet it could beat Mewtwo in a fight.’

‘It’s dangerous!’ one boy shouted, and another girl started crying a little and saying it was going to bring around the end of the world.

‘It’s not dangerous!’ Chen Yi shouted, planting himself firmly in front of the Deoxys. ‘It’s my friend. It found me and followed me home and it hasn’t done anything to any of my Pokemon. Look.’ He pulled out his Pokeball and released his Swoobat, who promptly went over and flapped around the Deoxys’ head. There was a collective gasp as the Deoxys reached one tentacle out to it, but it just patted Swoobat, to the bat’s delight.

‘For now,’ said the boy who’d called the Deoxys dangerous. ‘What happens when it gets mad?’

Chen Yi clenched his fists. ‘Only an idiot would make it mad. So do you wanna try?’

‘Break it up, break it up!’ a voice called. Mr Luo, Chen Yi’s history teacher, was coming over to the school gates, but he stopped dead when he saw the Deoxys. ‘What on earth?’

Chen Yi missed the way Xin Hao and Qi Xian had taken the Deoxys’ arrival in stride. Everyone here at school panicked about Deoxys trying to kill them, whereas at home, most of the men he lived with were convinced Articuno was a fairy tale. A Pokemon who, as his Pokedex had explained, was a space virus with unimaginable power, was treated with the same gravity as a freshly-caught Pidgey. If he’d tried to tell them Deoxys could blow up the whole building, they’d laugh him right out of it. As far as they were concerned, it was just a funny pet who could reach a tall shelf.

‘It’s a Deoxys, sir,’ one of the girls said. ‘He shouldn’t be here.’

‘That’s for sure,’ said Mr Luo. ‘You know the rules on Pokemon sizes at school.’

There was an immediate protest. ‘But it’s a Deoxys! Don’t you know how powerful they are? They — ‘

Mr Luo held up his hand for silence. ‘I have too many things going on today to learn facts about your Pokemon. The rules are clear. Whatever this ox thing is needs to go into a Pokeball or go home.’

Chen Yi turned to the Deoxys. ‘I need you to go home. Please. I’ll come home right after school. Just go home and don’t talk to anybody and don’t do anything until I get back.’

‘Listen to him,’ somebody said. ‘He’s so weird. It’s absolutely gonna burn his house down.’

The Deoxys looked at him for a few moments, then gave him its usual pat and floated off back down the street. Another flurry of murmurs followed it.

‘Now come on,’ Mr Luo said. ‘The bell’s about to ring.’

Chen Yi had to focus harder than usual at keeping his worry about Ai Di and Deoxys contained to sealed boxes in his brain. He was worried that Ai Di would get himself hurt — he’d spent plenty of nights cleaning up blood from split lips and scraped knees and it hadn’t even been a year ago that Ai Di had spent several weeks with a broken wrist over some incident he refused to divulge — and he didn’t know what to make of the Deoxys. It certainly was giving him no share of trouble, but he couldn’t just send it away. Unless it just left, which was a possibility Chen Yi didn’t want to consider.

Word went around that he had a Deoxys, which mostly meant all of his classmates giving him strange looks or avoiding him. A girl from two classrooms down asked if his Abra was safe with him, while his lab partner asked to be moved so that he didn’t have to sit next to someone who might be radioactive now. Chen Yi just tried to ignore them all and kept his head down. He would get through the day, he would go home, and then he would go figure out what to do with the Deoxys and he would find Ai Di.

—

The Deoxys was patiently waiting outside the shop, emitting a buzzing noise. Qi Xian was next to it, smoking a cigarette. ‘Does it always make this noise?’ he said.

‘Not always,’ said Chen Yi. It had been fairly quiet while he was asleep. It floated over to him and he let it give him its customary head pat.

‘It certainly likes you,’ said Qi Xian. After a wretched day at school, Chen Yi appreciated his entirely nonplussed reaction.

There was a rumbling as Qi Xian’s Golem rolled out into the sunshine. It yawned at Qi Xian, and he rubbed his knuckle into the ridges of its rocky surface. ‘New friend for you,’ he said, shrugging at the Deoxys. The Golem looked at the Deoxys, then yawned again and wandered over to sit in its usual spot, a slightly bowed bit of sidewalk. The Deoxys floated after it and ran its tentacle over the spot where Qi Xian had rubbed, which seemed to please the Golem.

‘He itches sometimes,’ said Qi Xian, by way of explanation. He took another drag off his cigarette. ‘And before you ask, no, Ai Di isn’t home yet.’

Chen Yi sighed. He knew that was going to be the case, but he had hoped against hope that just once, Ai Di would have been responsible enough to come home on his own.

‘Did he say where he was going?’

‘He said that only someone as foolish as Din Tai Fung’s xiao long bao would believe he’d tell us.’ Qi Xian laughed. ‘He isn’t very good at insults yet.’

‘He’s still young,’ Chen Yi said. ‘Leave him alone.’

His ears were burning when he went inside to go change out of his school uniform and gather his supplies for an Ai Di hunt. He knew Qi Xian was just teasing, but it bothered him when they did. Ai Di couldn’t help the way he was. He had started going to school so late that he was constantly behind other students and still trying to catch up with kids younger than him.

The Deoxys, which had followed him inside, poked at his ear. Chen Yi turned to swat at it, but it was just watching him with a curious expression. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Chen Yi said. He wasn’t sure what, particularly, it understood, but its buzzing changed tenor and it backed up a bit until he left the room, his school backpack swapped out for his trainer one, freshly loaded with antidotes and restores.

He had not the faintest clue where to start looking for Ai Di. There were plenty of places Chen Yi had found him in the past, but he had the feeling Ai Di wouldn’t go to any of the usual haunts. The Deoxys, though, seemed to have an idea, and Chen Yi just had to run to keep pace with it.

Chen Yi prided himself on being an active kid, but he was winded by the time the Deoxys started slowing. He was glad he had put on sturdy boots, because the Deoxys was leading him onto muddy, marshy ground. He kept a close eye out for wild Pokemon, but none appeared. Was the Deoxys keeping them at bay?

His heart stuttered when he caught a glimpse of Ai Di, still in yesterday’s red T-shirt, filthy up to the elbows with mud, crouching down with a Pokeball in his hands. He looked up and spotted Chen Yi, then scrambled to his feet, shoving the Pokeball in his pocket, and tried to squelch away as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the combination of unsteady footing and his shorter legs meant that Chen Yi caught up to him fairly quickly, and Ai Di immediately retaliated by hurling a handful of mud at him. Chen Yi dodged as best he could, but a good deal of it still ended up on him. Ai Di flashed a brief grin, and then went back to trying to get away. Chen Yi caught him around the waist.

‘Come on. You’re filthy, and we’re going home.’

‘Fuck you and fuck home,’ Ai Di hissed, wriggling furiously. ‘I’m going out to catch Pokemon and I’m allowed to. I’m ten, so you can’t stop me.’

‘I can too stop you.’

Ai Di kept squirming, and Chen Yi realized he was trying to work one of the Pokeballs free. He pinned Ai Di against him. ‘You know your Pokemon can’t beat mine.’

‘Your Pokemon are stupid,’ Ai Di panted, ineffectually kicking at Chen Yi. ‘Go be friends with your dumb Deoxys and leave me alone.’

The Deoxys floated in front of him and extended a hesitant tentacle. Ai Di stiffened. ‘What the hell do you want?’

‘Stop it!’ Chen Yi shouted at the both of them. He didn’t want Ai Di to antagonize the Deoxys, but he didn’t want the Deoxys to upset Ai Di more than he already was. ‘Can you just please listen to me?’

‘No.’ Ai Di did his best to elbow Chen Yi. ‘I don’t care what you have to say. I’m not going to school and I’m not going home and I’m going to go be a Pokemon trainer.’

‘The boss isn’t going to let you become a Pokemon trainer,’ Chen Yi said.

‘I don’t care what the boss says. I can do what I want.’ Ai Di finally broke himself free of Chen Yi’s grip and folded his arms over his chest. ‘Anyway, if you try to take me home I’m just gonna leave again.’

‘Where will you stay?’ Chen Yi said. ‘What will you eat?’

‘That’s a secret.’ Ai Di picked at a bit of mud that had gone dry on his upper arm. ‘I don’t need you, so just go home.’ His voice was wobbling a little, and he lifted his chin up.

‘I’ll miss you a lot if you don’t come home,’ said Chen Yi.

‘Liar.’

‘Did you catch any Pokemon today?’

‘None of your business.’

‘Okay,’ said Chen Yi. ‘You win. I’m going to go home. I’ll tell everyone you went to be a Pokemon trainer.’

‘Good,’ said Ai Di.

‘Good. See you, then.’ Chen Yi turned to go. The Deoxys buzzed in a low tone somewhere behind his shoulder.

This was a familiar game they played. Sometimes Ai Di would start following him immediately, and sometimes Chen Yi would be halfway home before he heard Ai Di’s footsteps trying to keep pace with his. But he always came home, and more often than not, he showed up in Chen Yi’s room in the middle of the night and crawled into bed like he was a little kid only half his age. Chen Yi always let him do it. The boss said he was indulgent with Ai Di, but Chen Yi didn’t care how indulgent he was if it made Ai Di feel better.

This time, he didn’t like leaving Ai Di behind. The arrival of the Deoxys had clearly hurt him, but Chen Yi knew it was no use trying to get Ai Di to talk about something he didn’t want to. Talking about it was something Ai Di had to decide for himself, and he usually decided that he didn’t want to do it at all. Still, leaving him on his own was a bridge too far for Chen Yi. ‘Come on, let’s just go home,’ he said, only to turn back to where Ai Di had been standing and find the spot empty. He could see a red shape moving at a shocking speed into the distance.

Chen Yi adjusted the straps of his backpack. As stubborn as Ai Di was, his energy wasn’t boundless, and Chen Yi knew his willingness to chase him would last a lot longer than Ai Di’s ability to run.

He looked at the Deoxys, and the Deoxys looked at him, and they set off.

—

The Ai Di they brought home was worn out and filthy, but still ready to fight. He’d dragged his feet at the beginning, tried one last escape attempt halfway through, and finally had just resigned himself to hurling filthy insults the rest of the walk. Chen Yi warned him off using that kind of language, and Ai Di only sneered and cursed more.

Chen Yi said, ‘I know you don’t want to listen to me — ‘

‘So I won’t,’ Ai Di interrupted.

It didn’t do any good to lose his temper, because that’s exactly what Ai Di wanted him to do. He ignored it and carried on. ‘Nothing’s different between us, okay?’

Ai Di stopped dead in his tracks and jabbed an accusatory finger at the Deoxys. ‘That’s different.’

The Deoxys reached out a hesitant tentacle, and Ai Di slapped it away, to Chen Yi’s horror. ‘Don’t fucking touch me. I don’t care if you’re…whatever you are. Don’t touch me.’

‘He’s just curious about you,’ Chen Yi said.

‘I’m not curious about him. I hate him, and I hate you.’

‘Would you like it if I were rude to your Pokemon?’ said Chen Yi.

‘I don’t have to be nice to him just because he’s a god or whatever,’ Ai Di said, which wasn’t answering the question at all. ‘He’s a stupid Pokemon for a stupid trainer.’

Chen Yi understood Ai Di’s frustrations. He was still early in his Pokemon journey — his Abra hadn’t even evolved yet! — and a Pokemon as powerful as Deoxys felt like it should be reserved for a trainer with a much higher stature than him. But it seemed to have chosen him somehow, for some reason, and he took his responsibility seriously when it came to raising his Pokemon.

‘Just because he’s here doesn’t mean I stopped caring about you,’ Chen Yi said. He caught a hopeful sadness in Ai Di’s eyes for just a second, and then it was gone and Ai Di scoffed at him.

‘Go train your dumb Deoxys. I’m busy anyway.’

He pushed past Chen Yi on his way back into the shop. Chen Yi could see his hands balling up into fists as he went.

‘I don’t want him to be mad at me,’ he said to the Deoxys, who put a tentacle on his shoulder and buzzed and chirped a bit at him. Chen Yi wasn’t sure if it was trying to offer comfort, but he decided to interpret it as such. ‘Thank you,’ he said, politely, and the Deoxys whirred at him.

—

Ai Di, of course, wasn’t particularly concerned with Chen Yi’s feelings on the matter, as evidenced by the fact that he spent the whole weekend out hunting for Pokemon. He was gone in the morning when Chen Yi got up, and didn’t come home until it was dark. Chen Yi struggled mightily with not following him. Keeping Ai Di safe was his top priority, but he also knew how wounded Ai Di’s pride was. It would take time for him to recover.

They exchanged not another word that weekend. When he did come home, Ai Di was sullenly silent with everyone at the shop. Chen Yi hated not knowing what he’d done or where he’d gone, which Pokemon he’d battled or trainers he’d squared off against. Selfishly, he wanted to know every piece of Ai Di’s trainer journey, and he knew Ai Di knew that too, which just made everything worse.

And then came Monday. Chen Yi had a feeling that Ai Di would sneak out early to skip school, so he set his alarm significantly earlier than usual to catch Ai Di in the act. All he caught, though, was an empty bed and a messy room. Chen Yi couldn’t even imagine when he could have left — the moon must have still been out. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon now.

He had tried to be patient, but Ai Di had already skipped school on Friday and vanished all weekend. Chen Yi refused to let him do it again. ‘You’re good at this, aren’t you?�� he said to the Deoxys. ‘Knowing where he is.’

He made sure his stocks were replenished and all of his Pokeballs were safely tucked into his bag and a note was left on the table for Xin Hao and Qi Xian before he set out. The Deoxys waited patiently at the door for him. It clearly had a destination in mind, which mystified Chen Yi. He wondered how far it could see, or if it had some odd sixth sense. There was so much about it that was an enigma.

[monsoon-of-art]

Donut Hole - Chapter 14

The Cave

But I will hold on hope And I won't let you choke On the noose around your neck And I'll find strength in pain And I will change my ways I'll know my name as it's called again

[Barry finally gets a little break and Gaeric gets pissed. Bit of a smaller chapter, but big things will happen soon!]

[ao3 link]

Barry walked. And he walked. He wasn't sure where he was going, lost in a snowstorm with Pest on his head and Fern by his side.

The fogginess of his mind hadn't completely gone yet, and all he could think was that he needed to keep moving.

If he kept moving. If he kept moving. Things would work out eventually…right?

That mind-fog melted rather quickly once Barry tripped and landed face-first into a snowbank. Immediately his freshly-awakened mind jumped to panic.

He squirmed, internally screaming at the horrible, awful feeling of snow and ice creeping down the cracks and crannies of his clothing.

Ever-patient, ever-helpful Fern carefully gripped Barry’s waist and pulled the boy back up. Barry stood for a total of three seconds. Upon trying to step forward, he slipped backward and fell flat on his back.

“I think I’m going to start screaming,” Barry said, feeling the snow drifting around him, slowly burying him. “And I will not stop.”

Sitting up, Barry realized he was practically shaking. “H-How’d we even get here anyway? W-Where is here?” He pulled Pest off his head, holding the bug like a stuffed toy. “And why are you blue?!”

His memory was a terrible, fuzzy haze. All he could remember was traversing the mountain, running into Ingo(?), then suddenly being …here. Wherever here was.

Squinting through the snowstorm that surrounded them, Barry could see the peak of the mountain, the dark storm ominously looming above it all. It looked much different though, the smaller peaks were at different locations-

“...ARE WE BEHIND THE MOUNTAIN?!” he screamed, voice lost in the winds. “I can’t believe this - we worked so hard to climb that stupid mountain and now we’re back at square one! And! And! And! FREAKING SUBWAY BOSS INGO-”

Of all the things Barry expected in an alternate reality where Cyrus somehow won, Unovan Subway Boss Ingo wasn’t even in the ballpark of guesses. And he looked weird. Like he had somehow fallen into a woodchipper, or like he had died at sea, or something.

He also had a hideous gogoatee.

But he had challenged Barry to a battle. And for the briefest of moments, Barry let himself have hope. Ingo didn’t have any insignia to show he worked for Team Galactic, and he didn’t seem to recognize Barry. All he wanted was a pokemon battle.

Then Ingo called him Palmer. And Ingo kidnapped him. Just recalling the events, as fuzzy and distorted as they were in his mind, it almost made Barry want to spit up bile.

That was the last straw. He was hopeful with Commander Mars. He was hopeful with Palina. He was hopeful with Ingo. None of them wanted to help. All of them were liars and crooks and kidnappers-

Barry could feel himself trembling not just from the cold, but from anger.

(He was also shaking from the cold. Very badly. He was very cold.)

"OK! I need to think! How to survive a snowstorm!" Barry said aloud, looking between Fern and Pest. Unfortunately, his mind was drawing a terrible blank. He sat in the snow, his pokemon expectant for orders…but nothing was happening.

“Uhm. Uh,” so he sat there like a dope, feeling the snow beginning to creep up his legs and cover his shoulders. “...uh.”

Fern carefully placed his bag in his lap. Then, it turned to a sloping hill covered with snow, and it began to dig. It dug and dug, shoveling out the snow and using it to form a sort of ‘tunnel’.

When finished, it was a little burrow in the snow. “Uh. Good job, buddy-” Barry began to say. Then Fern gripped him by the shoulders and dragged him inside. It was still rather cold, but at least they weren’t being snowed on.

Barry rummaged in his bag, feeling the wooden pokeballs containing Mystery and Jen. Part of him was terrified that Team Galactic did something to his pokemon, and he needed to check.

Releasing them, he noticed that Jen’s beak was a bit chipped. “Wh-Wha happened? Did they do this to you- or-” Barry suddenly remembered the Rampardos in the mountains. “Or was it the giant dinosaur?”

Jen peeped to signify the latter. Mystery, meanwhile, settled next to the boy and puffed out its feathers. Barry was suddenly very aware of how warm the birds were, and how very cold he was.

Wordlessly he snatched up Jen and Mystery for cuddles. They didn’t seem to mind very much.

“O-OK. Shelter. And Warmth. And-And-And-” he paused, noticing the clean bandages around his leg. “I…didn’t change those.”

Why would Team Galactic change his bandages and clean his wounds? Didn’t they want him dead? Wouldn’t cleaning his wounds do the opposite of killing?

He wanted to explore this idea further, but a stabbing sensation in his stomach grabbed his attention. Curling in on himself - much to the concern of the two pokemon he was currently holding - he once again looked through his bag.“Ack- R-Right. Gotta eat.”

Unfortunately, all he managed to pull out were the smashed pulp of pecha and oran berries. “Crrrrrrap.”

Fern grunted as it stood, placing Pest on Barry’s head once more. It gestured - pointing at Barry, then pointing at the ground, as if telling him to ‘stay here’ - then carefully left the little snow fort.

Where was it going? Barry hadn’t the foggiest idea.

He could feel Mystery grooming at his hair and Jen pecking at his soot-covered clothes. "Jen. Jen. Cmere. Cmere-" carefully the boy held the penguins face, observing the chip in his beak. "Aw buddy…I'm so sorry. That's all my fault, I should've recalled you."

Jen chittered, nuzzling against his cold hands. 

Pest had joined the cuddling session, producing silk from his mouthparts to try and patch up the many holes in Barry's clothing. All three of the pokemon huddled close to the boy, trying to keep him warm.

Barry was cold. He was so cold. It felt as if every scrap of warmth and energy was being drained from his body, even with three pokemon currently laying on him.

Maybe…he should close his eyes. Just a moment of rest. He could feel himself slipping into sleep. Just a moment. Just a moment. Just-

“Chanseeyyyy!”

Barry sat right up. Chanseys and happinys carefully shuffled into the little snow fort, leading the way for an enormous blissey. Behind all of them was Fern, looking mighty pleased with itself.

Barry rubbed his eyes, convinced he was dreaming. Weren’t chanseys rare? And happinnys and blisseys too? Vaguely, he could recall Lucas telling him how chansey and blissey eggs were overeaten in the past, leading to their small numbers. But now he had a gaggle of them right in front of him.

“Uh. Hey?” he said, voice cracking slightly. The group of pokemon chirped and chittered amongst themselves, occasionally looking to the large blissey for guidance. Fern would walk to Barry, gesturing to his bandaged leg and various bruising with a mournful croon.

The enormous blissey thought for a moment. Then, she gave a slow nod and started stepping closer.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa-” Barry immediately began backing up, terrified of what this pokemon was capable of. Sure, blisseys were tanky, but they could still learn a lot of moves that could do some serious damage.

Instead, the enormous pokemon knelt down, handing Barry the egg from her pouch.

“I-I don’t think I’m ready to be a dad,” he squeaked, carefully taking the warm egg from the blissey’s paws.

His pokemon squabbled and squawked to get his attention, Fern mimicking eating something as it sad besides him.

“I…I don’t-” It took Barry a moment to realize what they were trying to tell him. “OH. OH YOU WANT ME TO EAT IT- OK, that makes more sense. OK.” he paused. “Wait you want me to eat a raw egg? Like. Raw? Won’t I die?”

He wasn’t a stranger to having raw eggs on some rice for breakfast, but those eggs were under strict scrutiny by machines and people alike, before being packaged and sent to stores.

This was potentially a raw egg from a wild, giant blissey.

Barry glanced up at her. She nodded.

He then carefully cracked the egg, finding it cooked under the shell - Soft Boiled.

There was no way he could eat this egg without being a bit messy. It was a good thing he really didn’t care right now.

The way Barry and his team tore into the giant, soft boiled egg was almost barbaric. The egg didn’t stand a chance. By the end of the frenzy, all that remained were bits of egg shell littering the snowy floor.

He immediately felt so much better. He really should try to eat more consistently - and more frequently. But to Barry’s credit, he was unconscious for…honestly he wasn’t sure.

Cleaning the bits of yolk off his face, Barry spoke to his team. “Once it starts to warm up, we gotta get back up that mountain! But for now, I guess we have to wait…”

It was as if the hoard of egg-shaped pokemon were waiting for him to say that. Happiny and chansey swarmed further into the den, filling every little nook and cranny to form an enormous, cuddly pile of pokemon. The enormous blissey then sat in front of the entrance, using her giant body to shield them from the freezing winds.

Barry was warm, and he was full, and he was currently in a giant pile of squishy, egg-shaped pokemon that wanted nothing more than to cuddle and snuggle. He could feel himself drifting off. Mystery, Jen, and Pest were already asleep.

He turned to Fern, sitting near the front entrance with the blissey, wide awake and alert. “Fern buddy, I wouldn’t have gotten this far without ya,” Barry said with a sleepy smile. “Come relax and get some rest. Then, we’ll charge up the mountain and kick some galactic butt!”

Fern returned the sleepy smile, moving to sit by the cuddle pile. It sat almost in a meditative pose, but its eyes were closed, and it looked relaxed enough.

With his pokemon taken care of, Barry let himself drift into a much needed, but still hesitant, rest.

---

Gaeric descended upon the half burnt settlement like a winter storm.

“I WAS GONE. FOR A HALF HOUR,” he barked, finding the rest of the wardens by Irida’s home. “A HALF HOUR. I return to Lord Avalugg, turn around, and EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE.”

Irida looked ready to cry. Palina sat beside her, looking almost equally as miserable. Ingo was unable to meet the man’s gaze, staring off into the vast distance. Calaba looked tired from it all.

“His mothim knew flamethrower,” Palina answered, voice barely above a whisper.

“HIS WHAT KNEW WHAT?!”

As if still in a trance, Ingo replied, “Incorrect, Mothim is incapable of learning any fire-type moves, with the exception of Sunny day-”

He stopped immediately, finally aware of what he was doing, and aware of the horribly dirty look that Gaeric was giving him. “...Sorry.”

“I told you this was a bad idea,” said Gaeric as he stomped closer. “I told you - I told ALL of you! This wasn’t our problem! We shouldn’t get involved! And HERE WE ARE!”

“Gaeric. Stop,” Irida stood. “No one could have predicted this-”

“I THINK I PREDICTED THIS, FAIRLY CERTAIN I DID.”

“Getting upset won’t fix it!” she barked back.

Irida and Gaeric were locked in a stalemate; Irida bristling like an upset starly, Gaeric huffing like an enraged walrein.

Eventually, Gaeric backed down, but he was clearly still upset. "If we're involved now, by God, I'm going to be involved."

"Gaeric-" Palina squeaked.

"No! No, I'm INVOLVED now! And with Sinnoh as my witness I'm going to solve this once and for all."

Without clarifying what that ominous statement meant, Gaeric stormed out of the village, just as furious as he came.

Once out of earshot, Ingo asked in a voice much quieter than normal, "Do you think he is upset with me?"

"Yes," deadpanned Calaba.

"I am going to Jubilife." Irida said, determination in her voice. "And I am going to tell them what's been going on. This has spiraled out of control."

[bhawk-goose]

I've just started watching the Pokemon anime from the beginning for some reason and I already have some thoughts. I'm just using this post as a journal.

Firstly, Professor Oak is a cruel man, he knew all the pokemon other than Pikachu were taken and still made Ash go through the process of picking up each.

Also, this show is like 30 years old so you'd think comedy would be different, but for some reason Pikachu playing baseball with is pokeball is the funniest shit ever to me.

Pikachu has already shown it is far too powerful. I get that pokemon are generally more powerful than humans, there's a reason trainers have their pokemon beat the shit out of wild pokemon on their behalf instead of just doing it themselves, but god. Pikachu knocked out twelve people, most of which were probably adults. AND Ash is also godlike, he was the closest to Pikachu. He was the one that the electric current went through to knock out the twelve people in the crowd, but he was fucking FINE. Just some scorch marks, that's it. This is a ten year old child, with that level of current he should be dead. He should be just a charred skeleton.

Has Ash done no research or is only being able to say their name specific to Pikachu? It's an animal, what the fuck did he expect? Does he also expect a response when he asks a dog who the goodest boy is?

Next, Pikachu hates being confined, so removing the waist-leash made sense, but why the gloves? They weren't even touching Pikachu, they were on his hands.

why is there boss music playing when Pidgey appears and Ash thinks he's gonna fight it? He's specifically fighting it because it's easy. Also I'm putting it on the same line cuz it's the same scene basically, what kind of yawn was that? Pikachu's "cha" was clearly supposed to be a yawn, but that did not sound tired at all. That is what yawns would sound like if we did them when we had too much energy.

remember when I said trainers have their pokemon beat the shit out of wild ones on their behalf? Apparently not Ash. I'm convinced that Ash is from our world, but doesn't know much about Pokemon, so he's just heard of it in passing and knows nothing. And when he was in our world he never encountered any non-human life.

"enjoy your last moments of freedom"? Ash isn't even trying to be a caring pokemon master, he is just straight up has no sympathy for them. I'm glad this kid never met an animal in the real world, at least pokemon can fight back a lot better.

What was that laugh at Ash's failure? That was far too human. I hate that. Pikachu is a straight up demon. New theory, ontop of Ash being from our world, there are demons(or some kind of demon equivalent) in the pokemon world. Pikachu is one of them, and pokeballs are like holy water to them. That's why Pikachu doesn't want to be in the pokeball.

I know this is pokemon, and there are tank turtles with no clear sign(to my knowledge) of how they get the water they shoot, and rats with unlimited supplies of electricity, and sentient magnets, but Pidgey is none of those. Pidgey is a normal fucking bird, nothing special about it. Where the fuck did it get that sand from??

the pokedex is fucking amazing. Earlier I thought it was just coincidental that it was a bit late, but no. That thing is alive, and it fucking HATES Ash.

why the hell do wild pokemon get jealous of trained pokemon? Just get in the ball and you'll be a trained pokemon. And trainers openly do not care about the pokemon they catch, Ash already showed that.

the way it cut straight from Ash and Pikachu passing a Magikarp in the river to a gyarados makes it look like that thing just evolved on the spot.

Misty not caring about Ash at all is completely fair. I don't care if she doesn't have any context to know what happenned, there is a hurt animal.

"Pikachu, this can't... happen" he's not wrong, it can't, it's only the first episode of the show and Pikachu's a main character.

"the town of pallet" sounds completely different from "pallet town", and why does Ash think he's a noble defender, he's ten, and he's defending a rat that kocked out twelve people.

Pikachu just created a giant sky beam. That was not a lightning strike, it was like a mile thick. Pikachu is not a demon, it's far too powerful, it is satan himself.

anyway, those were my thoughts on the first episode of the pokemon anime. It was like 11 minutes long, but I took like 30 to write about it. If I get any likes on this I'll keep posting my thoughts as I watch it.

[the-missingno-virus]

Update: this is a first draft!

Rica had always been the curious type. Even though she was incredibly meek, she wanted to explore the world around her. She felt safe - confident, even. She had her team with her, and her Eevee had just evolved into a beautiful Espeon!

She could do this. Easy peasy, besides -- even if they're acting weird, they were just Uunown. Xavier always said Unown were incredibly weak, nothing to be scared of... So she wasn't.

It was a job the others said was too below them, not worth their time, so Rica felt like it would be the perfect chance for her to finally start making a name for herself. The perfect chance to finally give the people she loves a reason to be proud of her. What if she finds something truly amazing? It's not impossible, unlikely yes, but not impossible!

So she went to investigate. Perhaps she should have paid a bit more attention to the signs, to how there were no wild Pokemon in the area surrounding the ruins -- to how it was all blocked off. Yet, she persisted. With the help of her loyal team, she got around every obstacle in her way. Every warning in her way.

She just wanted them to be proud of her.

When she came up to the final room, unease finally started to set in. It was an Unown outbreak, yet... she hasn't seen a single Unown. At least, until she found her way on the lowest level.

It was fascinating, at first. An Unown X mixed with an Unown A. V, with an I.. An Unown E mixed with a R and an !... it started to get worse, more and more Unown connected, fused with one another. Then she came up to one she had no clue how to describe. It almost felt like the whole Alphabet, yet the shapes kept changing. One moment she was looking at a point, then it turned into an eye, then a curve.

This is exactly what she was looking for. The scientific breakthrough that would make everyone proud! So Rica didn't even think twice, didn't even notice how the other parts of this Unown moved, when she pulled out her Pokeball. It was easy work for her Xatu, she was no Xavier but she didn't have to be a battle master to take down an Unown, no matter how weird it looked.

She only had to use one Pokeball to catch it, and at the final 'click' she excitedly scooped it up, and started to make her way back out of the ruins, excited to show her discovery with the world.

She figured it must have just been due to how excited she was, but she had started to feel all tingly. From the top of her head to her toes, a tingly, pins and needles feeling. It wasn't until she stepped outside that something had started to feel utterly and completely wrong. It felt like the world was just a bit taller, things were a bit farther away... then she saw her reflection. It was awful -- there was an Unown stuck on -- stuck in her face. The Unown's two prongs flailed helplessly in the air, the rest of it... fused into the left side of Rica's face. She couldn't bear to look at herself, maybe its just a bad dream? Yeah, and her Hypno is just taking a break, right? It has to be that. It has to be... she knew it wasn't. Horrifying as it is, this was happening.

She ran back to her home town. Someone there would be able to help her -- to explain what was going on! Yet... no one was on the streets. None of the doors were unlocked. None of the windows opened... she was alone here. Rising fear festering in her throat, she kept running, screaming for help, begging for someone to save her.

Xavier was training when he heard her cries for help. He didn't think twice -- his Rica was in trouble. She needed help, and he would be there to help her. He ran to her, and found her curled up under a large tree gripping her face. He didn't hesitate when he wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her gently to remind her that he's there.

She wasn't able to speak anymore, it was all too much... but she was comfortable, for a moment.

Until she wasn't. Until her skin started to feel like gel against his. Xavier's breathing grew rough, slightly ragged. As if he was in pain. Rica was in pain. She tried to scream out. Nothing came.

For hours, they stayed like that. Unable to pull apart, shivering and silent save for the sound of their breath. Rica could tell Xavier was scared. Xavier could tell Rica felt guilty for this. He wanted to do nothing but comfort her, and yet, he was unable. Memories they shared started to merge, Rica seeing herself through Xavier's eyes, Xavier through Rica's.

The last thought the two shared as themselves, was how much they really did love one another. How sorry Xavier was he couldn't protect Rica, how sorry Rica was that she ruined Xavier's life.

The last memory that drifted through each other's minds, was a promise they made as children.

They wanted to get married. They wanted to be together, forever.

[rockkandii]

Pokemon/overwatch crossover

Venture meets an interesting trainer from their past

Not my art

Warnings: none

Just traveling around, ventures come to meet all kinds of people and pokemon, even being so lucky as to cross paths with some more than once. This proved true as one day, venture came face to face with an old friend.

Venture: "No. Way.. y/n, is that you?!" An audible gasp is heard from venture as they spot a familiar face inside a pokecenter in a town they're just passing through.

Y/n: jumps at the sudden loud voice calling their name, but upon finding said person a grin forms. "Oh my, it's been a while!" Jogging up to the excited trainer you find they've matured quite a bit physically since the last time you'd seen them. "How've you been? It's been what, two years now!?"

Excited chatter is swapped between the old friends for quite a while, before curiosity gets the better of you.

Y/n: "so, you still traveling with the same partners you had back when?" The question seemed innocent but to Sloane, they knew better. This was your sly way of wanting to battle, seeing as it had always been a swap for who won between the two of you.

Venture: "you betcha! They're tough as tungsten!" They grin, but you don't miss the mischievous look in their eyes when they reach for a pokeball off their hip. "wanna battle, like old times? I can promise you this, you won't win so easily this time."

That's right, the last battle you both shared before going separate ways two years ago, you had won.

Y/n: a smirk adorned your face as you pulled a pokeball of your own out. "Why id be honored, and just so we're on the same page.. I don't intend to lose, my teams as tough as topaz so don't underestimate them or they'll bury you beneath rubble."

Both trainers grinned at each other with adrenaline filled blushes as they headed towards the back courtyard of the pokecenter where a battle field stood.

Y/n: "so, just like old times? Three on three, no substitutions and winner is decided when all three pokemon on either side can no longer battle. Plus the winner gets whatever they want from the loser?"

Venture: "thems the rules n/n! Let's see if you can hold your own! Alright, Torterra come on out!"

-------

The battle was pretty long, and even gained the attention of quite a few passerby trainers. As the battle follows, here's the play by play.

Torterra(V) vs Archeops(y)

Winner: Archeops

Archeops(y) vs Excadrill(v)

Winner: Excadrill

Excadrill(v) vs Swampert(y)

Winner: Swampert

Swampert(y) vs Toedscruel(v)

Winner: Toedscruel

Toedscruel(v) vs Flygon(y)

Winner: double K.O.

The battle ended in a draw, causing mixed cheers and praise from the onlookers before it was just the two standing next to each other.

Y/n: "well you were right, your team is definitely tough! Too bad it ended in a draw, looks like we'll just have to battle again someday to break this tie." Giving a small punch to their shoulder with a grin you both head back into the pokecenter to heal up.

Venture: "I wouldn't have it any other way! Though, too bad there wasn't a clear winner, guess no one gets something from the other huh?" They stretch their arms behind their head, a thoughtless smile on their face.

Y/n: "hmm.. well, the rules say the winner gets whatever. And technically neither of us lost, so it's kinda like we both won.. we could always, both get something this time?"

Venture: tilts their head at you but a grin pulls on their lips as they let out a chipper laugh. "You've got a point! Alrighty, well, what'd you want from me?"

Y/n: "how bout we go out, on a date?" A sly smile slowly slips onto your face as your companions face lights up pink.

Venture: "Aw man, you totally stole my idea!" They laugh again, but quickly grab your hand and lightly swing them between yourselves as you walk back inside. "But I'd love to, looks like I really did win huh?" They grin towards you, you looking away with a small blush of your own.

Y/n: "I think we still both won, n/n"

[roxannarambles]

teal mask fixit-fic on the fly part 4

(Current story so far: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3)

The festival had been great fun so far, once you'd all managed to ditch Carmine. It was like any good festival should be; lots of bad fried food; lots of games that were rigged against the player but were cheap enough to try again and again and eventually earn silly prizes; and plenty of opportunity to just generally horse around and not worry about classes or other, weightier matters in life, at least for the evening. Arven was absolutely affronted by the fair food, clamining it to be a culinary crime, so you and Nemona made a point of buying the greasiest and worst snacks and treats so you could to eat them in front of him. Penny had worked out how they'd rigged one of the games--a basketball toss that Arven was annoyed he couldn't win-- and helped him win the next round. (Turns out the ball was intentionally over-inflated and the hoop was higher than regulation). Even Kieran seemed to eventually warm up to everyone and enjoy himself, showing you all one of his favorites of the festival, an informal contest that festival-goers had acting out the heoric feats of the Loyal Three while wearing their masks. After all that messing about, you all just wandered for a bit, enjoying the atmosphere and all the costumes.

Then Carmine caught up to the group again.

She was pretty annoyed, claiming you'd all ditched her; Kieran was quick to tell her that you'd all simply lost her in the crowds, and everyone backed him up on that point. She seemed unconvinced but dropped it, in favor of issuing a challenge to the Paldean students: She claimed none could beat her score at some game called Ogre Ousting and dared one of you to try.

It didn't surprise you at all that Nemona's eyes took on a competitive gleam and she stepped up to the plate to defend Naranja's honor.

"Sure, I'll give it a go!"

Carmine laughed in her face, saying,

"You? Oh, perfect. This should be fun to watch."

There was a heavy tone of sarcasm underlying her words, but Nemona just smiled at her, saying,

"Thanks! So, what are the rules?"

You listened as Carmine explained the game to her in as condescending a way as possible. It was starting to really grind your gears. This girl being snotty to you, you could handle that, but watching her treating Nemona that way was too much. When they'd finished talking and everyone started to walk to the seating that was meant for people observing the games, you reached out and grabbed Nemona's arm.

"Hold on a sec."

She looked at you curiously. You pulled a pokeball from your pocket and handed it to her.

"Here. Why don't you use Koraidon? Give that girl a taste of Paldean pride. I bet they've never had to contend with a pokemon like this before with their little berry game, would be fun to see their reactions."

Nemona's eyes widened a little, but then she shook her head, handing you the ball back.

"No, Koraidon is way faster than any Stantler. I don't want to have any unfair advantages!"

You frowned.

"I heard her explain the rules. Players are allowed to use any ride pokemon they want. It's not cheating."

"I know it's not cheating. But it still wouldn't be very sporting of me."

You sighed, frustrated. You adored Nemona's purehearted respect for competition, but for once it was making things difficult.

"Nemona, that girl isn't as nice as she seems. She was totally disrespecting you and, and . . . she doesn't deserve to be treated that nice, she deserves to be taken down a peg! Plus, she already has an unfair advantage over you. She's played this silly game her whole life, she knows it way better then you do."

Nemona smiled at you softly.

"I know. Thank you for looking out for me, Jules. But I did get the idea she doesn't like me all that much. I'm getting a lot better at noticing that kinda stuff. And I know she already has an advantage over me. But you don't have to worry. Win or lose, I'm gonna do my best and I'll make Paldea proud!"

You gazed at Nemona a moment, her eyes bright and determined.

Then you smiled and let out a sigh.

". . . okay, okay. You know I have complete faith in you, I know you'll do amazing regardless."

Nemona grinned.

"Damn right I will."

You laughed and the two of you went to join the others.

However, once Nemona was set up with the rental Stantler, she realized Carmine wasn't getting ready for the game.

"No, no, I'm not playing. I'm just watching. You have to beat my record, remember? I've already set the record." Carmine told her. Nemona considered that a moment.

"Well, that's boring!" she said.

"Why don't we make it a little more exciting for our friends to watch? We should both play the game at the same time. You have to defend your title right here, right now. Sound good?"

Carmine glared at her, protesting,

"That isn't fair! I shouldn't have to meet my record again, that's not how records work!"

Nemona cast her a curious look.

"You don't want to? I think it could be fun. Or are you worried you can't beat me?"

You smirked as Carmine's face flushed in anger and she growled,

"I could beat some clueless Paldean bug-catcher any time, day or night, with my hands tied behind my back!"

Nemona beamed at her.

"Great! So we're on?"

"Oh we're ON all right. Get your Stantler, I'll set up the second course."

It didn't take too long for them to prepare, and soon both girls were atop their Stantlers, in their respective positions, ready to roll. You and the others were seated in the bleachers, watching expectantly.

The referee called,

"On your marks . . . get set . . . GO!"

The two players were off like rockets, blasting through rows and rows of balloons.

"You can do it, Carmine!" Kieran called out tentatively to his sister.

"KICK HER ASS, NEMONA!" you shouted through cupped hands, startling Kieran. He seemed to think a moment and then stammered,

"Oh, I-I'm-- I'm sorry, I'm rooting for Carmine, but you know, I still like you all too, I just, um . . ."

You laughed and reassured him,

"It's fine. I don't mind, I get it."

"I'm rooting for Carmine too," Arven told Kieran. You shot Arven a glare.

"What? Kieran can but I can't?"

"Carmine's his sister, that just makes him a good brother. You however are being a traitor."

Arven huffed an annoyed noise.

"I am completely impartial," Penny declared, leaning back in her seat. Arven said,

"That just means you don't want to tick anyone off."

"Yeah? And how is that bad?"

"Shhhh, quiet guys, they're coming by to drop the berries off!"

Both girls had returned to the tables to drop off the berries they already had, their buckets laden heavy with the fruits. Then they were off again to gather more. You all spent the time trying to count the berries and estimate who was in the lead, as well as argue over tactics of blasting through the balloons and protecting the tables from Skwovets. The time limit was rapidly drawing to a close, and both girls seemed to be progressing at a very even pace. It was honestly imposible to tell who had the lead.

When the game was called, you all rushed down to the field to watch the referee tally the berry totals. It would come down to the final counts. Nemona stood there, stained in berry juice and beaming, looking tired but proud. You gave her a hug, not minding the berry juice and gushing,

"You did awesome, Nemona! It was your first time but you were running that course like you'd done it dozens of times already!"

She laughed,

"Thanks, Jules. It was really fun! A real adrenaline rush."

When you began to pull away from the hug, she paused to whisper to you,

"Y'wanna know my secret?"

You nodded eagerly. She murmured,

"While they were setting the second course up, I mighta spent the extra time wandering the course and studying it a bit. Thought it wouldn't hurt to be a bit prepared." She winked.

You gave her a proud smile.

"That's mi tesoro, always usin' her head."

"Y-you looked great out there, Carmine. I think you might have even beaten your old record," Kieran told his sister. She didn't acknowledge him, instead just standing there with a tense expression, watching like a hawk as the referee counted the berries one by one.

"He's right, you looked really in the zone out there, I was impressed!" Nemona told her sincerely. Carmine waved a hand and hissed,

"Quiet, I'm counting!"

Everyone fell into an awkward sort of silence as Carmine watched the referee finish tallying the berries. When he'd finally got through them all, he announced in a loud voice;

"Aaaaaand the winner of the Ogre Ousting for tonight . . . at a whopping 20,000 berries . . . isssss . . . ."

The dramatic pause apparently went on for too long, as Carmine snapped,

"Gah! Just tell us already!"

The man gestured to both girls.

"It's a dead tie! You both win!"

"WHAT?! That can't be right! Count it again!"

"I already counted it three times," the man said sternly,

"I take my job very seriously."

"Ugh, this is-- this is ridiculous," Carmine spat, clearly disgusted. Carefully, Nemona said,

"Don't feel bad, Carmine. I mean, we both won, you don't have to feel bad--"

Carmine snapped,

"We didn't both win! Two people winning means nobody won! We still have no clue who's better!"

Nemona frowned.

"Well, we know we're both really amazing at it? I think a tie is kinda neat--"

"Wait, I've got it!" Carmine interrupted, pulling some pokeballs from her fanny pack.

"If we can't settle this with Ogre Ousting, we'll just settle this with a pokemon battle!"

She looked at Nemona expectantly, full of confidance and defiance, as if incredibly pleased with her idea and eager to see Nemona's response.

Nemona was quiet a moment, and then a smile settled onto her pretty features. It was not one of her usual smiles; it was something much more subtle, something almost dangerous.

"A pokemon battle, huh?"

Nemona tossed you a glance and you could hardly hold back your grin and bite back your words, but decided it would be more fun to keep quiet. Nemona's eyes sparkled with mirth. Carmine glanced between you and Nemona, looking faintly confused. Nemona answered her lightly,

"I guess I could try it out! Promise you won't go easy on me, though. I don't wanna feel like I'm getting an undeserved victory or anything."

Carmine snorted.

"I can definitely promise you I won't go easy."

"Good."

You looked to Arven and Penny, smirking. Arven said hesitantly,

"Carmine, you miiiight wanna reconsi--"

"Hush, Arven, let them fight," you say to him mildly, putting a hand on his mouth to silence him. He swatted you away.

"Yeah, this could be fun to watch," Penny said, grinning.

Penny was right, the battle was incredibly fun to watch, but not in the way Carmine had been hoping.