#pokeballs can’t catch feelings

[bespectacled-bunny-writes]

We’re so BACK

[hangup119]

FEELS LIKE A THRILLER! ᯓᡣ𐭩

07. boy best friend activities written chapter | 1.1k words

“ANTON, YOU'RE AWAKE!” you cry out as soon as you look up from your phone, coming face-to-face with the aforementioned man who looks like he has seen better days. Anton currently sits above a patch of grass on Giselle's front yard, hands gripping his phone while Seunghan silently stands beside him, worriedly looking over him after the former had suddenly rolled off of his back while being carried.

“Guys… ugh,” Anton says, blinking slowly. “I’m so sleepy…” 

He’s about to say something else, but ends up slumping against Seunghan’s leg instead.

You sigh. Earlier, you had just been bickering with Seunghan over his inane obsession with Pokemon Go, like something possessed you to chastise your longtime crush on his interests when it was the first time in years that you’ve properly interacted with each other. But even if you kept squawking about the fact that he cut you off over a pixelated animal appearing on his phone screen like the major nerd he is, Seunghan’s protests were humorous in nature, taking no offense at all, and even asking if you wanted to catch it instead. 

(“Why the hell should I!?” you ask, looking at him incredulously. “Do I look like I give a rat’s ass about Pokemon—“ 

Seunghan hands you his phone, where the screen shows Snorlax dumbly looking out into the open with the pokeball right in front. “C’mon,” he drags, “don’t worry, I won’t blame you if you waste my balls. Just catch him.” 

He’s grinning, and he’s so close, and you… realize you can’t really say no to such a face.

… Stupid fucking Pokemon Go.

“Don’t say it like that,” you groan, moving closer to touch his screen. Not knowing much of the mechanics, you just drag the pokeball and unceremoniously throw it at the Snorlax. “Fine, I’ll catch your stupid Snorlax.”

Seunghan just laughs.)

And while the two of you kept squabbling over the game, what you failed to notice was the incoming figure staggering towards you from the front door, only to end up falling face-first on the grass just a few meters away. It was only when Seunghan stopped responding to you that you finally noticed the unfortunate Anton on the ground, immediately screeching out his name in the dead of the night.

And Anton, who obviously reeked of cheap alcohol, just murmured a simple “goodnight” before passing out.

And now you’re here. 

“What do we do now?” Seunghan dumbly asks, awkwardly looking down at the still-inebriated Anton clinging to his leg. “He won’t budge. I feel like I’m dealing with a little kid. A six-foot kid.” 

You shrug, crouching down in front of your friend. For someone so tall, he looks surprisingly small right now. “Hello, Earth to Anton?” you wave your hand in front of his face. “You okay, buddy? You smell like shit, by the way; what’d they give you back there?” 

You look towards Giselle’s house, noting how the door still hasn’t opened yet with Eunseok stalking towards you like Anton’s personal guardian angel. He did say Anton was his responsibility for the night as he’s the one driving him home, but you seriously can’t deny the fact that you just wished Eunseok would hurry it up so you can continue having your precious alone time with Seunghan. 

You look back at the aforementioned man and sighed. Stupid Anton, why’d he have to ruin your moment with Seunghan? He’s supposed to be your wingman now that the tides have changed! 

At least… that was supposed to be the case, but didn’t Seunghan just recently go on a date with a girl from your class? One personally recommended by Eunseok himself? 

God, Eunseok is so dead to you, you thought darkly. You don’t even really know the guy!

Anton blinks wearily, before letting go of Seunghan’s poor leg. He yawns, rubbing his eye with one hand, looking back at you, then at Seunghan, then back to you. You look at him curiously, wondering what’s working inside that mysterious brain of his, before he says:

“You guys are so cute.” 

There’s a pause after that, and then…

“Huh—” you don’t even get to finish your sentence before he’s flopping down towards you, nuzzling into the crook of your neck. “Anton, what the hell!” you screech, feeling heat rise to your face not because of his close proximity but mainly because of his silly little commentary. 

You turn to face the bemused Seunghan standing above the two of you, sputtering out: “Help me…!?”

But the fucker just snaps a picture instead, teasingly saying, “No, you guys are cute.”

You feel your whole world shatter into pieces.

“Oh, nah, nah,” Anton starts, rising from his position, “we’re just friends—”

“Eww!” you cut him off, shoving him away. 

He lands against Seunghan again, wordlessly staring back at you with his mouth open. Seunghan blinks at your sudden outburst.

“No, absolutely not,” you spiral into a rant, “he is so ugly, this filthy creature! Why is he even born? Why does he walk this Earth with me? I would never look at him with my own two eyes heissouglyohmygosh.” 

Eunseok arrives at the scene after you finish with your little breakdown, jogging towards you and stopping just a few centimeters away. “I finally got away from Sungchan! Hey, is—” 

He stops, taking note of the tense silence between the three of you. “Uh… are you guys okay?”

Anton starts sobbing loudly, still drunk off his ass. “Y/N hates me,” he wails at his grown age, “she won’t buy me Gundam anymore.” 

Seunghan pats his back comfortingly, and Anton clings to him until they’re embracing each other. “She probably doesn’t mean that, bro. It’s okay, Anton,” he says, though he doesn’t look entirely convinced of himself either. 

You cringe. You messed up.

Eunseok turns to you. “What’d you do to him?” he asks, exasperated and unsure if he really wants to know. 

You step closer towards Anton and Seunghan, carefully saying, “Forgive me, Anton… I didn’t mean all of that. You’re not ugly. You—You’re cool, alright? … C’mon, dude, we’ve known each other since eighth-grade and I know for a fact that you’ve had a massive glow up since then. I’m sorry, okay? Please stop crying now; I can’t afford Gundam but I can pay half the price for one. Also, why are you drunk in the first place? You’re not even twenty-one yet...”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Eunseok huffs, crossing his arms. “It was probably Wonbin.” 

Seunghan expectantly looks at Anton, gently breaking apart their hug. Anton remains silent, but at least he finally paused his obnoxious crying. 

You apprehensively meet his gaze. “So…?” you ask meekly. “What do you say, ‘ton?” 

Anton takes a deep breathe, before—

“… I’ll forgive you if you and Seunghan go on a date,” he states firmly.

You nearly fall on your back. 

“What?” You, Eunseok, and Seunghan practically scream at him. 

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SUMMARY. pining after hong seunghan has always felt like an unachievable reality; however, just a few months into your first year of college, it seems that the gods have finally listened to your prayers when news breaks out that your long-time crush is single once again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE. i hope u guys get that tiktok reference orz ... prolly not

TAGLIST. @shguacamole @miyawwn @starwonb1n @hwadejectedyoung @revehosh @alwayswook @snowyseungs @rksbae @emohoon @nujeskz @ilovejungwonandhaechan @meowbini @nakam00t

[smallestapplin]

NO REGRETS FOR BEING THIS EARLY-

But I am intrigued on how the fight between naga Volo and naga Warden Ingo would go- a continuation of a prompt I saw you write for here a while ago-

GIRLS THE NOODLES ARE FIGHTING-

-Zorua anon ❤️🖤🦊

I hope you like this! ^^ (I apologize I’m not very good at fighting scenes.)

Based off this

-

-

“Ingo please, let’s just go home.” The tension is thick, almost suffocating.

You know Ingo is strong, but Volo is venomous, and in a time without anti-venom one bite could mean death. But the fierce look on Ingo’s face tells you he’s already thought of that, yet he won’t back down.

“If he wants to try and lay a claim on you, then he already knows he must get through me first. I’m not going to turn away a challenger.”

The viper before you two smirks, showing off the very long fangs you’re worried about. The two snake men stare at each other, glaring, and waiting for the other to make the first move.

Ingo was never one for violence, but he can’t shake the feeling this was much needed and a long time coming.

But he knows he must be careful, Volo will not go down easy nor fight fair.

And he was right, the moment his eyes flickered behind him to make sure you were out of the way, Volo lunged.

Ingo barely dodges the attack, ducking under to slam into Volo’s chest and tossing him to a spot further away from you. The blonde rag dolls for a moment before righting himself and doing it again.

This time the golden snake goes low to the ground, and while Ingo dodges, Volo is quick to slam his tail into his chest, knocking the air from the warden.

Yet Ingo sinks his claws into Volo’s tail, taking him with him. The yellow snake hybrid whips around just as the warden grabs a stick near him and lifts it between them, making Volo bite the stick instead of Ingo.

Venom leaking and glistening in the light.

It doesn’t last long as the merchant is grabbed and lifted by a wave of psychic energy, one which he struggles against. Your Alakazam holding him in place and further away from him, as you rush over to Ingo making sure he’s okay.

“Did he bite you? Are you okay!?”

Ingo grunts, sitting up and coiling the end of his tail around your waist, before swiftly moving you behind him.

“I’m fine, dear. Please, let me handle this.”

“Ingo….fine.”

In a flash of a pokeball, the constrictor hybrid is lifted by his own Tangrowth.

“W-what!?”

“I’m sick and tired of this, I don’t want anyone hurt. So stop this useless fighting, we are going home.”

You ask Tangrowth to start the trek to the highlands, and once it does you’re left with a still floating Volo.

As Ingo's shouts start growing fainter, you stare at the blonde.

“Anything to say for yourself?” You figured you’d be polite.

But he huffs.

“He’s a useless mate, he can’t even fight for your hand properly.”

“I don’t want or need that, it’s pointless to fight. I can make my own choices, what makes you so sure I would’ve picked you anyway?”

Your words cut through him like a dagger.

He’s speechless, for once he can’t think of anything to say. He can only watch as you toss the scarf he made and scented in front of him.

“I’m taking my leave, if you try anything again you’ll be answering to me.”

He can only stare at your retreating form, calling for Braviary to catch up with your lover.

Alakazam drops him once you’re out of sight, and teleports back to you.

Leaving the hybrid alone.

Just as he has always been.

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Here’s a simple ask. Banette!reader x FNF Lullaby Poképasta trainers? Also, the reader has killed multiple people in the past in incredibly gruesome ways but is friendly with the Poképasta trainers because why not? They also like to hoard plush dolls and they’re also extremely powerful.

Oop my pokepasta interest is finally creeping back in-

.........

Glitchy Red

You’re just like him fr: being so full of hatred and wishing harm on those who abandoned you. But you go beyond maiming--instead murdering them via voodoo dolls.

When you cross paths with Glitchy, you wonder if he’s really a Pokémon himself bc of his impressive Scary Face.

But even though he’s (sorta) human, you actually end up befriending him bc he’s not a typical trainer. He “haunts” a game and seems cool. Plus he empathizes with you on multiple levels.

“I get it. The feeling of no longer being useful...of being thrown away once you can’t offer them anything more. Must be hard for you, huh?”

“Hmmm...Nette!” You offer him a Gengar plushie, smiling. 

Alongside making voodoo dolls of your worst enemies, you loved to collect regular plush Pokémon dolls, ensuring none were ever left behind like you were.

Glitchy just blinks, before barely smiling at the gesture. "...that’s actually kinda cute. Who did you murder for that?”

Grey

Was honestly scared shitless upon meeting you. You just showed up while he was walking through some tall grass and nearly gave the poor kid a heart attack.

He’s still getting used to seeing Pokémon irl since they were all broken/messy glitches/nonexistent back in his game, but he did know the reputation Banettes had.

Tries throwing a pokeball to catch you, only to be flabbergasted when you intercept it and look at him annoyed.

But you notice that he’s not just some dumb trainer who signed his own death certificate..because he’s been dead for quite a while (albeit in a weird state of limbo since he’s free from the game, but not exactly who he used to be).

So you befriend him, though Grey is still very much wary around you despite Shinto immediately warming up to you and sharing your adoration for plushies.

You give him a Snorlax plush for him to hug and hold onto whenever his anxiety gets the best of him. You just wanted him to see you’re not totally evil.

He thinks it’s haunted 100% but doesn’t wanna tell you that, fearing you’ll be offended.

Gold

Immediately believed you were going to harm his Unowns and tried to “Scary Face” you away from his realm.

But you weren’t fazed, and when they reacted violently, you dodged all of their Hidden Power attacks before managing to reason with the doomed trainer.

You can tell he was in a great deal of pain, abandoned and forgotten as you were, so you showed him some sympathy, reassuring him you’re not here to hurt anyone.

With your expertise in stitching, you closed up his wounds and took care not to accidentally use your powers near his Unowns. 

Oh and you definitely let him lean against one of your bigger Pokémon plushies. It’s cute seeing him cuddle up to them and feel safe for once in his existence.

It certainly seemed out of character to not wanna harm this kid when you’ve killed so many trainers like him in the past..

Yet seeing Gold’s dilemma struck a pin into your cold heart.

Steven

He looks menacing on the surface, but you saw his softer side after offering him a Charizard plushie.

Usually he’s not one to accept gifts, though...he just couldn’t refuse yours. Even if it resembled what Miki used to be.

Speaking of whom, she adores you a lot! You’re just as cruel and unforgiving as her while in battle. 

She’d never think to combat you, though, as you’ve made her trainer happy and wouldn’t wanna chase you off.

Ofc, there might be some quarrels over who gets more attention from him considering she’s his ace, but it’s a friendly rivalry.

Steven lets you stick around while you endlessly roam Kanto together, not stopping you if you wanna lash out at some poor trainers who insulted him when he grieved Miki or accused him of murdering Mike (despite it being true and you knowing this, too).

He can’t stand to have any other Pokémon on his team besides Miki, though you’re an exception.

[blues824]

Do you also do Pokémon? Pokémon crossover? Because I got a request that involves the obey me boys react to mc who’s a trainer from the Pokémonverse who got summoned to Devildom with their Pokémon in tow. Mc could be a 10 year old kid if you want, because I kinda want to see the brothers react when this 10 year old human child tells them the story of how they ending up toe to toe with a terrorist group from their region with their Pokémon and saved the world in the process.

Everyone, join me in our national anthem. POKEMON! GOTTA CATCH THEM ALL!!!

This is platonic, obviously

Also, check out @reiketsunomizunomegami and their art. Beautiful, truly.

Lucifer

He knew Diavolo wanted exchange students from both realms, but he didn’t expect an angel and a human who looked like they were just learning their ABC’s. This is where he draws the line. How can a 10 year old human academically keep up with demons who have been around for many millennia?

The short answer is: you can’t. It’s quite literally impossible, okay? So they set up different courses that are more simple so that you can get a better grasp on the lessons. After all, if you’re going to be staying here, you need to understand magic. 

Lucifer most definitely takes you in as a younger sibling. It’s not his first rodeo, after all. Plus, he’s intrigued as to why the system chose you out of every other human besides Solomon. Because you’re 10 and don’t know much about what should probably be kept a secret, you tell him all about your home in Pallet Town.

When y’all first met, he noticed the red and white spheres you kept on your person. He also noticed that there was one particular familiar that followed you around. He asked you about it and told him that it was your Pokémon and the spheres held other Pokémon that you use in battle. 

He’s intrigued because this seems like it’s straight out of a show for kids. He has to explain that there are no Pokémon in the Devildom, but you don’t care. Lucifer’s glad that you can defend yourself to some degree. You then tell him about the run-ins you’ve had with Team Rocket and he is immediately concerned. Grown ass adults are stealing the Pokémon of literal children?? May God forgive them, because he won’t.

Mammon

I’ve seen the headcanons where this guy is a sucker for kids, so I’m putting this into play. Older brother Mammon, I choose you! He sees you overwhelmed and gets down to your level to try and calm you down.

He will be the one to give you a tour around RAD and introduce you to his brothers. Most of the time, he has you on his shoulders so that it’s a bit of a better experience for you. He knows that the little things matter in situations like this.

Mammon takes his role as your protector very seriously. He will gladly throw hands with his own brothers if they mess with you. It’s amusing to you because he will always act so tough when in reality he’s a huge softie.

On one of your shopping trips (he most definitely spoils you), he notices your satchel and asks you about it. You pull out one of the Pokeballs and throw it, shouting Shedinja, I choose you! He let out an audible yelp when he saw a cicada looking animal come out of the ball. It was your weakest Pokémon, so you chose that one.

You explain more about your home region and how Pokémon are the norm just like demons are here. Pokémon are used in battle so that the Trainer can move up through the ranks. You also told him about Team Rocket and how they try to steal rare and powerful Pokémon, like your dear friend’s Pikachu. 

Leviathan

At first, he wants nothing to do with you. Children are loud and irritating, so he tries to steer clear. That is until Lucifer forces him to interact with you. Then he realizes that your situation is a lot like the anime in his favorite genre: isekai.

He feels bad that you are a literal 10 year old child in Hell. Not just that, but there really isn’t an elementary course at RAD. Did Diavolo do any calculations right when he was selecting the exchange students?

Eventually, Leviathan warms up to you. Whenever you come to his room to hangout or for him to babysit you, he has snacks and juice for you. You both have a blast just playing some kid-friendly games while listening to some anime intros.

During one of these babysitting adventures, he asks you about the spheres you keep checking up on. He’s seen something similar in a children’s anime, but he just wanted to make sure. You happily explained what Pokémon are and how they are utilized in battle. He was surprised about the battle part because these fights could potentially be life-threatening with the abilities of the Pokémon.

You go on and give an example of such a battle, more specifically the ones where you were going against Team Rocket. He definitely felt anger bubble up when you told him about how they tried to steal you and your friend Ash’s Pokémon on many different occasions. He was very mad, now. How could grown adults have the audacity to steal Pokémon?!

Satan

Found you quite intriguing, and amusing because it’s not everyday that you see a 10 year old human in the Devildom. He already has so many plans to prank Lucifer, and you are gonna be the bait in the situation… with your consent obviously.

He does feel genuinely sorry because you are a 10 year old human in hell. You had a pure soul as well, so that made things way worse. On his worst days he feels the temptation, so he can’t imagine how scared you must be.

He will always invite you into his room to read. If you need it, he’ll even read you a bedtime story to help you sleep. It’s adorable and flattering that you trust him at your most vulnerable state. It makes him realize that he is so much more than just Wrath. 

He does notice the spheres you keep in your room. He’s asked you about them a few times, but the one time you give him an actual answer you tell him that they are your Pokémon. He just stands there until you go more in depth. You tell him about the battles you constantly go through just to become the Champion of all the regions and he is astonished.

You also go further and tell him about Team Rocket and how they constantly go after you and your friend Ash whenever you’re on your way to another Gym Trainer. Satan was unbelievably angry that you had to go through something like that at such a young age. How dare they try and hurt you?! They will be personally answering to Lord Diavolo as well as the Avatars of Sin.

Asmodeus

Oh, you’re so adorable to him~ He will absolutely try to steal you away from the idiotic brother that Mammon is because you don’t need to be influenced by him. Instead, come hang out with big brother Asmo!

He would gladly listen to any issues you need to rant to him about because he knows all about bottling up emotions and how it takes a toll. It’s better not to start that habit. He will have tissues on hand as he wipes away your tears.

He would absolutely love dressing you up! The first part of feeling good is looking good, or at least that’s how he lives his life. He would give you trendy outfits (that you are comfortable with) and he would definitely take you out shopping.

At one point, a demon child was taunting you for being human and being weak, so you brought out your Pokémon. You had a full on battle with this kid and one. Asmo knows he shouldn’t be condoning this behavior, but damn did he feel proud. But wait, you never told him about your Pokémon.

You tell him how you managed to befriend each and everyone one that was in the pokeballs you had and how you teamed up with Ash Ketchum to help each other get stronger. While going off on a tangent, you let out your stories with Team Rocket and Asmo is very close to dialing up God and telling Him that His creation malfunctioned again.

Beelzebub

He most definitely loves you like a younger sibling. I feel like he would be great with kids, and we can see that with how he treats Luke. You both share an unbreakable bond and it’s only been 5 minutes since you appeared.

He’s always happy to see you in the stands whenever he has a game. Sure, there are a bunch of other people and maybe a few cheerleaders, but it doesn’t stop him from always looking for you and the bright smile you always have when cheering him on.

He’s the type to always bring you to the kitchen to get some snacks and jokingly ask you to keep it a secret between just the two of you. He would also wipe some whipped cream on your nose to get you to laugh.

It was during one of these midnight kitchen raids where you told him about your life back in the Human Realm. You showed him one of the Pokeballs that you keep with you in case you were attacked and told him the story of befriending it and having it join your team.

He asks you if you’ve ever had to use your Pokémon in battle and you nod your head, telling him about Team Rocket. You’ve never seen such an angry face, but as you go on about all the crap they put you through, his face gets angrier and angrier. He wants so bad to go to the Human Realm and beat those guys to a pulp, but he knows that it would cause you a lot of stress if he did. You are his first priority.

Belphegor

Even though he is portrayed as mean and murderous, he still has a heart. You are a child, and so were they at one point. He’d act indifferent towards you. He doesn’t hate you, but that doesn’t mean you’re his favorite person in the whole world.

He has never seen a child so down to nap, though. Half the time when you’re not at school, you’re asleep. Now you’re speaking his language, Y/N! He will make sure that you don’t get cold by covering you with a blanket.

He does warm up to you and will eventually ask if you want to use his pillow sometimes. This is a very high honor, Y/N. Don’t mess this up, because he’s letting you use his most prized and valued possession.

During one of these napping sessions, he can feel you moving around a lot. He uses his power to see your dream and he sees you with a bunch of animal-looking things going against a lady with pink hair, a guy with purple hair, and a talking cat.

He wakes you up and asks about it. You explain that it was a nightmare of one of your many battles against Team Rocket because they stumbled across you and your friend. They saw how powerful your friend’s Pikachu was and decided to attack the both of you. As you went on, Belphie pulled you close and slowly lulled you back to sleep using his powers. He told Lucifer about it (which means he’s very serious), and went right back to the spot next to you to watch over you in case you had another nightmare.

[charcadett]

Hi! I really like how you write, it’s very good.

Can I request an angsty situation where Rika finds her partner being attacked and jumps in to help them but for a moment it seemed like she was too late and the damage was too severe even if her partner does survive?

Thanks, you’re awesome!

Ohhhh yes I love angst heheh. I hope you enjoy this one! Time to feel some agony Rika, I’m not sorry about it.

CW: Injury and hospitals

Rika’s Partner Gets Hurt By A Pokemon

- After the events of Area Zero, more and more paradox Pokemon have been leaving the Great Crater into general Paldea. To take care of this, the Gym Leaders, the Elite Four (minus Poppy), and Geeta herself are dispatched periodically whenever a sighting is reported. Rika gets a call from Geeta to take care of an unruly Paradox Pokemon. Given that she has dealt with them many times by this point - out of everyone she somehow has the most free time - she’s more than confident in her ability to take care of this. So, she invites you along. Consider it a date with a short work interlude. Plus, you get to see how cool she looks taking this thing out.

- You giggle and lean against her, feigning fear as she wraps you into a firm hug. Rika presses a kiss to your cheek and gallantly decrees, “You don’t have to worry about a thing, not with me here to protect you.”

- As you walk both make your way to the location Geeta provided, you’re laughing and roughhousing. Rika knocks shoulders with you as you try to catch her off guard with a kiss. The two of you are too caught up in each other to notice the shadow overhead until it’s too late. Roaring Moon descends directly towards you with a terrifying cry as you fumble to grab one of your Pokeballs. Clodsire is already out, both it and Rika ready to defend you. Roaring Moon opens its mouth to release a powerful Dragon Breath towards Clodsire. When you stumble to your feet, the movement catches its eye as it snaps its head towards you. You barely have time to blink before the full force of its move knocks you against a boulder with a sickening crack.

- She never wants to feel like that again. Seeing you crumpled against the ground, not knowing if you’re still breathing. It was like her world shattered. Adrenaline-fueled panic had her rushing to your side and hoisting you into her arms to get you far away from the furious Pokemon. When she finally gets you to a hospital, it’s all she can do not to break down when she’s told moving you was dangerous. You’re in critical condition, your ribs are broken, and all she can do is sit here and try to get a hold of someone to do the job she should have finished an hour ago. She should have never brought you along. What has she done?

- Rika blames herself. If only she was faster, if she was paying more attention, if she hadn’t brought you, every single variable is clogging up her head. You would be fine if it wasn’t for her. She finally gets in contact with Larry, who tells her he’ll go take care of the Roaring Moon. After forty-five minutes, Hassel comes jogging into the waiting room. He apologizes for not getting her calls, he has his phone off during the school day. If it wasn’t for Larry dropping by, he wouldn’t have had a clue.

- She doesn’t cry. No matter what, she doesn’t cry, but Arceus, she wants to more than anything. When a nurse steps out of the back with a grim frown, all Rika wants to do is vomit her breakfast all over the clean linoleum floor. “They’ll be okay, but-“ She can’t hear the rest over the relieved ringing in her ears. It’s a miracle Hassel is there to catch the rest of the conversation as she slumps back into her seat. The adrenaline she’s been running on since the encounter with Roaring Moon has been sapped out of her, but when the nurse says she can go visit you in your room, she’s on her feet in an instant.

- Seeing you in that hospital bed, hooked up to machines and engulfed by the stench of blood and chemicals, makes you look so terribly small. You’re alive, though. Hurt, but alive. Finally, she breaks down, gripping your hand like a lifeline as she silently sobs into the side of your bed. Rika’s apology is incomprehensible and gurgled out between rattling cries. You run your shaking fingers through your hair. “It’s okay. I forgive you, it’s okay. We’ll be okay, Rika. I love you.”

- She takes off work to spend every second she can with you so you’re not lonely in the hospital. When you’re finally discharged, she waits on you hand and foot. No matter how many times you voice your forgiveness, it’ll take a long time for her to forgive herself. With your insistence, she starts going to counseling to help work through her mess of emotions. It’ll take a while for you to heal physically, but even when you do, Rika is always checking up on you to make sure you’re okay. She loves you more than anything, and time really does heal all wounds. Both you and Rika will be more than fine in the end.

[roxannarambles]

Title: Wings of a Butterfly, Eye of the Tiger (Part 4)

Ship: Nemona x Juliana (Julinemo/Terajules)

Summary: Nemona and Juliana just can’t resist returning to Area Zero once more. They find new places to explore, new pokemon to discover, and a new things to learn … about pokemon battling, but also about each other. (Sequel to Picnic in Paradise)

Chapters: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Tags: Slowburn, Romance, Friendship, Crushes, Action/Adventure, Pokemon Battles, Fakemon

“What the heck kind of Tera type is that?!” Nemona yelled, eyes wide. 

“Umm, I have no idea!”

“So we’re seeing a brand-new type?! Holy crap! Jules, this– this is incredible!”

Nemona’s eyes were gleaming nearly as bright as the Terastallized pokemon. 

“Y-yeah, but–”

The dragon opened its mouth and expelled a cloud of flames. You yelped and backed away, grabbing Nemona’s hand and dragging her with you. You were able to escape the reach of the flames, although you could feel the wall of heat they put out. Hellcat snarled, agitated by the attack. Nemona said,

“Aw geez. I’m sorry Hellcat, this has been a real trial by fire for you, hasn’t it?”

Hellcat clearly wanted to fight back, but the Roaring Moon was still out of reach, floating above the pit of blackness.

“Jules, what secondary type did this thing have?”

“Dark! I think.”

“Ok. Hmm, if it’s gonna keep us at arm’s length like this, we’re gonna have to send something out to meet it!”

You looked at your assortment of pokeballs, exclaiming,

“But what? We have no idea what Tera type it is!”

“That’s true, but it’s okay, we’re just gonna have to improvise!” She selected one of her pokeballs and looked to you, asking,

“You ready?”

“I-I, um . . .” You struggled to make your selection, flustered over having to deal with so many unknowns.

From the sky, Roaring Moon began to fly in several looping circles, its body glowing in a purple light. Nemona’s confident expression slipped.

“Crap, it’s Dragon Dancing! Juliana, we gotta hurry!”

“Right, right, sorry, ready!”

You both tossed a ball, Nemona releasing her Flutter Mane, you sending out the new Screech Tails. 

“Moonblast!”

“Dazzling Gleam!”

The pair of fairies floated out to meet the dragon, one on either side of it. Roaring Moon shrieked, lunging forward and swinging one of its mighty forearms, its glittering talons shredding into Flutter Mane like it was tissue paper. It fainted instantly. 

“Dangit!”

Nemona’s pokemon may have been cut short before it could get an attack off, but your Screech Tails took advantage of the momentary distraction, firing off a Dazzling Gleam before Roaring Moon could do anything more. 

You could hear a loud crash like shattering glass, and the air was filled with shards of crystal spraying in all directions. You and Nemona watched in shock as Roaring Moon returned to its usual form, looking momentarily stunned as it drifted there in the air. You said,

“Already? Whoa, that didn’t last long.”

“Guess Roaring Moon doesn’t have much stamina. Try to lure it over here with the next attack so we can catch it!”

You nodded.

“Okay. Uh, I don’t think it can take another Dazzling Gleam, though, and Psychic won’t work. Uhmm . . . Screech Tails! This way, come back over here!”

You waved a berry at it, trying to draw it over. You’d literally just captured this pokemon, after all, and hadn’t had much time to train it yet. Fortunately, Screech Tails slowly drifted back towards you, drooling.

Unfortunately, Roaring Moon had finished shaking itself from its daze. Its yellow eyes narrowed, locked onto the puffy pink fairy.

“Uh-oh. Screech Tails, use . . . umm, something else!” 

You hadn’t actually had the chance to see its full moveset yet. Screech Tails’ eyes began to glow pink, its tails drifting upwards.

“No, no, not Psychic–”

The ferocious dragon swooped at your pokemon, roaring as it closed in, but its body phased clean through Screech Tails as if it wasn’t even there. The dragon slammed into the cave wall, the ground trembling with the force, causing you and Nemona to jump. Screech Tails unleashed its energy at its foe, but it was a futile effort.

“Try again Screech Tails, use something else, quick!”

Roaring Moon righted itself and turned about, apparently too bent on revenge to bother with anyone else for the moment. It slashed its long claws into Screech Tails, doing some heavy damage. In return, Screech Tails fearlessly bit down on the dragon’s arm, latching on with its fangs. This only seemed to tick the dragon off, though, and it bit and slashed at Screech Tails with its other arm, wrestling in the air above you and Nemona. Your friend called,

“Now’s probably our best chance, start throwing balls!”

Your Screech Tails fainted soon after she’d shouted it anyway; she chucked a pokeball and it drew the dragon inside. It released immediately and you started throwing balls as well. Eventually, one of your Dusk Balls captured it successfully. You picked up the ball, then turned to Nemona. With a little smile, you said,

“Well . . . looks like you got your Roaring Moon.”

Nemona grabbed you and answered gleefully,

“Not just a Roaring Moon, but a new Tera type too?! Let it out, we gotta see it in action!!”

You laughed,

“Okay, okay. I guess since we can’t explore further anyway, we might as well . . . um . . . uh . . . N-nemona?”

“What?”

You pointed wordlessly behind her. She turned to face the tunnel that had been previously blocked by the large, dense cluster of crystals. 

There was now no trace of the crystals.

“What??” She turned to you. “How–”

“I don’t know.”

She went to stand in the tunnel, looking around. 

“We’re not crazy, right? They were just here!”

You went to stand beside her.

“Yeah, they were. I dunno what to say.” 

It wasn’t like they had broken up during the course of the battle, either; there would have been shards all over if they had. It was like they’d just . . . vanished. You both scratched your heads a bit puzzling over it. Nemona guessed,

“Maybe it had to do with the Roaring Moon we fought? That’s the only thing I can think of. It did have that weird Tera type, so maybe it’s connected somehow?”

You shrugged.

“Honestly, in the absence of any other information, that seems as good an explanation as any. It’s the only thing that really changed since I last saw the crystals . . .”

Nemona hummed, nodding. Then she turned to you and said brightly,

“Well, let’s not look a gift Mudsdale in the mouth, we can keep going now!”

“You sure? I thought you wanted to check out our Roaring Moon.”

“I do! I’m so excited I could puke, but I also wanna keep exploring just as much. I mean, we don’t have endless time down here and we’re already this far in, right? It might be now or never.”

She had a good point; you weren’t even sure if you two could return again after today, if your transgressions were discovered somehow. 

You nodded.

“Ok. No getting side-tracked, let’s keep going until we no longer can.”

“All right! Let’s go, Hellcat.”

The tunnel took you down to another room that was more confined, with a much lower ceiling. The good news was there were several directions with additional tunnels in here. The bad news was they all seemed to be blocked by the same dense crystal formations. You and Nemona looked around for a while, frustrated to be met with more roadblocks so soon. There weren’t any wild pokemon lurking about, but you did eventually notice a small gap much higher up, towards the ceiling. 

“Hey what about up there?” you asked. Nemona looked to the corner you were pointing towards.

“Oh, hey, nice eye! Maybe there’s a way through.”

It took some climbing to scramble up there, but it was only the work of a few minutes. Well, for you and Nemona, anyway. Hellcat bounded up there in just a few clean leaps, taking mere seconds. You were jealous.

“Man, you ever wish you were a pokemon?” you asked, watching Hellcat venturing ahead of you. 

“Oh my god yes, like all the time!” Nemona answered immediately,

“Can you imagine battling as a pokemon?! That would be SO much fun.”

You chuckled. Of course that was the first thing she’d think of. The pair of you followed after Hellcat into the small gap, going deeper into the cave.

“What pokemon would you be if you could choose?” you asked her.

“I dunno, there’s too many to pick from! That’s like trying to decide my favorite type, I’ve never really been able to. Mmm, it’d be so cool to be a giant dragon with all that raw power, but what about something small and super agile that can shoot lightning? Or something that breathes fire? Or can punch a hole through a mountain! And that’s not even touching on all the cool abilities . . .”

“I think I’d wanna be something that can fly.”

“Flying, yeah!! Oh man, there’s just too many choices.”

The small tunnel you were following kept narrowing and snaking around. 

“Well maybe they’ll make a machine one day that lets us be a pokemon for a while.”

“Haha, if they do, I’ll be the first in line, I can promise you that!”

The tunnel finally fed into a room: as you entered, you found it was a cramped space with a low ceiling coated in a ton of tera crystal. The crystals occurred in big lumpy sections, covering the floors, walls and ceiling in seemingly random places. 

The most eye-catching thing about the room, however, was that the ground was absolutely covered in tera shards. 

Normally, whenever a Terastallized pokemon battles and their tera form is broken, it sheds a bunch of tiny pieces in the process. Usually those pieces are tiny and brittle, though, and people call those tera fragments. Tera shards, however, were the much rarer, higher-quality pieces that sometimes were dropped by pokemon. These pieces were of such high quality that if you collected enough of them, a Pokemon’s Tera typing could be changed with their power. That made them incredibly valuable. Finding them was very uncommon, though– normally it takes a lot of battling, although if you were lucky you’d occasionally just find them laying around.

This was most assuredly not a normal number of tera shards to just happen across, though. There had to be hundreds of pieces packed into the small space you were now standing in. What’s more, they were shards of almost every type; dragon, fire, psychic, bug, rock, poison, ice . . . the floor covered in an assortment of colors, shimmering like stardust.

“Uhhmmm . . .” you said, staring in disbelief at the cache. Hellcat was sniffing around curiously at the ground. Nemona’s eyes were as wide as saucers.

“Is this for real? Juliana, there’s . . . this . . . there’s hundreds of them . . .”

You reached down and picked up a handful of the precious gems as easy as grabbing a handful of sand. Something suddenly sprung into your memory from your classes from months back, when you’d first arrived. “Remember the rumors that there was treasure hidden in Area Zero?”

Nemona laughed. She still sounded in shock.

“I never imagined they were true. We could change the Tera type of any of our pokemon with all this! Multiple times over!”

That sounded pretty good to you; there were a few ideas you wanted to experiment with in terms of the tera typings on your team. You pulled the bag off your back and zipped it open.

“Guess we better start collecting, then!”

You both started to stuff tera shards into your backpacks like hungry Sableye grabbing fistfuls of treasure. Before long your bags were laden heavy with them.

“I’m actually starting to feel kinda bad about this. I don’t think we should take them all . . .” Nemona said, looking down into her backpack. Your backpack was much larger than hers, but even yours would soon reach its limit.

“I don’t think we can take it all, anyway. But I don’t see a reason to feel bad, I mean, it’ll just sit down here in the dark if we don’t take them, right? Might as well put them to use.”

“I guess . . .”

You headed over to another part of the small room that had an especially large pile of Steel shards and began to shovel them into your bag.

“I can’t help wondering if there’s a reason they’re here, though. It’s almost like they were put here on purpose? There’s so many of them,” Nemona said, still sounding reluctant. You answered,

“Maybe. But if somebody put them down here, it was probably a really long time ago. Area Zero’s been off-limits to most people for ages now.”

You were digging deep into the pile of steel shards, and were uncovering what looked like some shimmery rainbow shards beneath it. Ooh, you’d never seen shards like that before? From behind you, Nemona said,

“Yeah . . . but it’s also possible whoever put these here weren’t human . . .”

When you tried to grab the rainbow tera shards, you realized the shape didn’t feel right– and then they moved in a sudden jerk, and there were a pair of eyes staring back at you. You yelped, falling backwards as a brilliant flash filled the room. Nemona commanded,

“Hellcat, in front, quick!”

The large tiger leapt in front of you, snarling as the bright rays of light struck it in the chest, the air sparkling with tera energy from the attack. Nemona was at your side a second later, helping to pull you to your feet.

“Jules, are you okay?!”

You nodded quickly, looking back at what attacked you.

“What was that?”

Beneath the pile of tera shards, the glittering figure of a Terastallized pokemon appeared, pieces of shards falling aside as it stood on all fours and shook itself off. Its body was small and slender and very catlike: it seemed to be short-haired, but it had jagged, star-shaped tufts of fur on the tips of its large ears, by each of its paws, the tip of its tail, on its cheeks and at a small ruff of fur around its neck. Its almond-shaped eyes were bright like polished opal, and it had a small spiral horn at the center of its forehead. It was crowned with the same Tera Jewel as the Roaring Moon had been, decorated in a rainbow of colors.

Hellcat looked eager to attack, growling at the pokemon and bearing its long fangs, but Nemona held up a hand, saying,

“Just a second, Hellcat, let’s take a look at it first. Whoa . . .”

The wild pokemon blinked its eyes, a soft, ethereal light glowing gently around it. You didn’t recognize the move, but at least it seemed to be fairly passive. 

“Nemona, am I crazy or does this pokemon look like–”

“--an Eeveelution?” “Y-yeah!”

“Yeah, no, you’re not crazy, it looks exactly like one.”

“Oh my god.”

She nodded, grinning.

“My thoughts exactly. Okay, Hellcat–”

You touched her wrist, saying,

“Wait!”

“Hm? What?”

You looked back at the pokemon, which was simply standing there, its piercing gaze watching the three of you closely as its tail swished back and forth. 

“It seems pretty peaceful. I think I just startled it, when I thought its ear was a tera shard and I tried to grab it.”

Nemona turned to you and answered,

“Well yeah but you still wanna catch it, don’t you??”

You nodded,

“Yeah, of course, I just. I dunno, for some reason I feel kinda bad. We came into its home and robbed it, woke it up and now we’re gonna battle it?”

Nemona blinked at you for a few moments and you felt silly for even saying it until she answered,

“Well when you put it like that, I feel a little bad too . . .”

You looked at your backpack, slumped on the ground and spilling out treasure.

“I guess we could try to leave it be . . . give it back its tera shards?”

The thought clearly seemed to pain Nemona– mostly the idea of not catching the new pokemon, you imagined– but after a few moments she smiled a little and nodded.

“Okay.”

She turned and called out to the pokemon.

“Sorry for disturbing you. We, um, we didn’t know this was your home. We’ll go if you want us to . . .”

The pokemon stared at her, motionless. You went to cautiously pick up your bag, backing away.

“Yeah, and we’ll give you the shards back if you–”

The pokemon jerked, turning to you and giving a cry. It sounded very high-pitched and rhythmic, like glass wind-chimes, but it didn’t sound happy. You looked down at the bag in your hands and stammered,

“N-no, wait, I’m going to give them back, I was just–”

“Jules, look out!”

Colored little balls of light began to fill the air above the wild pokemon. They looked quite beautiful, actually, but you knew better than to be fooled. You scrambled to get out of the way as fast as possible. Nemona yelled,

“Hellcat, quick, Dire Claw!”

Hellcat sprung forward, raking its claws across the mysterious Eeveelution. The colored balls of light started to rain down on Hellcat in quick streaks, like shooting stars, each strike sparkling with tera energy as it landed. The accumulated damage was incredible, the tiger swaying weakly on its paws by the end of the onslaught. 

“Holy crap. This thing’s no joke!” Nemona said, eyes wide. 

The Eeveelution cried out again, a vengeful little melody. It looked at you and Nemona, its eyes shining like diamonds, power gathering around its body from all around in a big, glittering swirl. 

It looked like it was preparing to Tera Blast.

“Oh my god. Hellcat, I need you to Thorn Fang! Now!”

Hellcat was weary but still obeyed immediately, leaping forward and biting down. The wild pokemon screamed and staggered back and there was a loud crash, fragments of tera crystal exploding in the little room as its Terastallization was broken. It seemed the wild pokemon had been stunned, interrupting its attack. You breathed,

“Geez, that was close.”

“Great job, Hellcat!” Nemona quickly turned to you, asking,

“You still want to leave it be, or should we go ahead and catch it?”

You looked back to the pokemon briefly.  It looked very weak and vulnerable, and you could see poison seeping out from the wounds marring its shimmering rainbow fur. It was clear that at this point, it was much better to take it with you than to leave. 

“Catch it,” you answered. You didn’t need to tell Nemona twice; she whipped out her pokeballs and immediately started throwing. After around six attempts, the ball clicked shut, and the little room you were in fell eerily silent.

You both stared for a few beats. Then Nemona went and retrieved the ball before turning to you. She held a hand over her mouth and made a muffled, excited little squeal.

“Did that really just happen? This is getting so unreal, I swear.”

“Penny’s gonna be so jealous.”

“I know! Man, I’m glad we interrupted that Tera Blast though, that probably would have been very bad in this confined space.”

You choked on a laugh.

“Yeah, we might not have been around to enjoy this.”

Nemona carried on blithely,

“And that move it used, with the colorful lights! I had no idea what it was, but wow it packed a punch. Whatever pokemon this is, it’s tough.”

You looked down at the pokeball in her hands.

“What do you think it is? An ancient version of Espeon, maybe? Or maybe Sylveon . . .”

Nemona shook her head.

“I really don’t know, it’s hard to say since it was Terastallized into that mysterious type! And it’s not like the moves it used can help us to figure it out. I saw it use Swift, Cosmic Power, and that unknown move of course. And then Tera Blast! Which . . . honestly, I thought no wild pokemon could know. I thought Sada developed the move herself.”

You gave a thoughtful hum.

“That’s a good point . . . that is weird. But I guess maybe tera energy came from a long time ago, and so these ancient pokemon know how to wield its power? She might have developed the move from them.”

“True, that would make sense! Although it doesn’t help us narrow down what this Eeveelution is.”

“Mmm, yeah. Well, I guess it doesn’t have to be an ancient version of something we already know. It could be a brand-new evolution, too. Like a Rock-type Eeveelution, maybe!”

Nemona’s eyes widened as idea struck her and she said,

“Or, or! What if it’s an evolution of whatever this new mysterious type is?? So its actual type matches its tera typing. This new tera type is all rainbow colored and stuff, right? That matches this pokemon pretty well . . .”

Your eyes widened too.

“Oh my god, yeah, that might actually be it, Nemona!”

“Heheh, right? Wouldn’t that be cool?”

You gestured at the space around you, saying,

“Well let it back out, maybe we can figure out more–”

She held up a hand, interrupting.

“Ah-ah, Juliana! Remember what we said earlier?”

You blinked, thrown off for a moment before recalling.

“. . . oh, yeah. Um, no more getting side-tracked?”

“Yeah, c’mon Jules, you know you’re like 85% of my impulse control, you can’t tempt me like that–”

You laughed,

“Okay, okay. You’re right, we shouldn’t get distracted now or we’ll never get any further.”

Nemona nodded.

“Right, and things just keep getting cooler and cooler. I wanna see how deep this rabbit hole goes.”

You grinned.

“Let’s back out of this part of the cave, then. If our theories are right about those weird crystal roadblocks, maybe a new way’s opened up out there.”

“Okay! Hellcat–”

She turned and saw Hellcat was laying on the floor, looking completely exhausted. The tiger gave a pitiful little chirp when Nemona said its name. Nemona’s eyes widened and she held a hand to her mouth.

“Ohmygosh, I’m so sorry Hellcat! I completely forgot– ugh, here, let’s get you fixed up!”

She pulled a potion from her bag and went to tend to the tiger’s wounds. Hellcat clearly wasn’t a fan of being potioned since it apparently stung.

“Come on, now, I know it’s smarts, but if you hold still it won’t take me very long . . .”

She sprayed again and the tiger snarled, bearing its huge fangs at her in a threat.

“Don’t you take that tone with me, buster! Sit down. Now.”

Hellcat backed away and sat, making a miserable grumble. She continued to gently spritz potion on the pokemon.

“Easy now, okay. We’re almost done, I promise.”

When Nemona finished, she gave Hellcat plenty of berries and praised it.

“There you go, that’s such a good kitty! These are your favorite kind, right? You like the bitter ones. You did such a good job, thank you for all your help.”

After the treats and the praise– and the potion working its magic– Hellcat seemed much happier, perking right up. 

“Oh here, let’s get you a couple Leppa berries too, okay? Guess if we keep coming down here to battle and we’re keeping you a secret, we’ll be needing a lot more Leppa berries, hah. Here you go.”

Hellcat snapped the berries out of midair when Nemona tossed them. 

“Sorry again for forgetting you for a minute there. I, um, I kinda get distracted sometimes.”

You spoke up,

“To be fair, so did I. I think most people would be, this is some pretty exciting stuff.”

She glanced to you. 

“Mmm, still. . .”

Hellcat bumped its head against Nemona’s leg and rubbed against it, making a small rumble, before walking off and wandering back out into the connecting tunnel. Nemona stared wide-eyed after the tiger. 

“Did they just . . .”

You giggled.

“I think they forgive you.”

Nemona bounded up to you and cheered,

“They like me!! They actually like me!!”

 “Of course they like you, you’re amazing.”

She laughed, looking a bit shy at how readily you praised her. She glanced away and said,

“Um, let’s finish getting these tera shards, we might as well since we have the pokemon now!”

So the two of you finished filling your bags with tera shards, to the point where you had plenty but weren’t weighed down an excessive amount. Then you headed out of the secret little treasure cache room. Once you’d climbed back down to the main portion of cave where Hellcat awaited, you found that one of the paths was indeed now unblocked. 

“We were right! Yessss, let’s go!”

Nemona grabbed your hand and rushed ahead with you. You laughed, Hellcat chasing after you both. When you entered the new tunnel, you found it sloped gently downwards as you traveled. There was the sound of rushing water from somewhere, and the air felt noticeably damper.

Your voice echoing in the damp, cold space, you said,

“Oh, hey, I can hear water?”

You both slowed your steps so you wouldn’t trip on the slightly wet ground.

“Yeah, it’s been a long time since we have. Guess all that water’s gotta go somewhere though, right?”

You nodded. After walking for a while, you commented,

“We really just keep going deeper, don’t we? All these tunnels have been going steadily downward.”

“Mmhmm. They keep getting more and more crystally, too, I noticed.”

You glanced around, noting just how much of the walls and ceiling were coated in tera crystal now. 

“Yeah, you’re right. Plus, I dunno if this is just my imagination, but I feel like even the air is . . . more shimmery down here?”

It was the same sort of gleam that the air on the surface of Area Zero had, but it seemed thicker here, like a dense cloud of dust motes suspended in a sunbeam. Nemona agreed,

“Yeah . . . I wonder where all this stuff comes from, anyway.”

You both fell quiet for a bit, pondering the mysterious origins of the tera crystals and energy. But before your idle thoughts could formulate into anything particularly solid, the tunnel had led you to a space that opened up again to a huge ceiling and a large drop. The path led into a continuous curve heading downwards, like a massive spiral staircase. From somewhere above you, water leaked out from the ceiling, forming a waterfall that dropped down the center of the room.

“Whoa,” you said, peeking over the edge of the path. You could see the waterfall crashing into a pool of water far below. The glow of all the tera crystals reflected in the water, bouncing and shimmering, casting all kinds of mesmerizing little rainbow flecks on the cave walls.

“Forget the Ten Sights of Paldea, they don’t even come close to this,” Nemona mused. 

You both began to descend the spiral path, but the floor was uneven and slippery from the damp air and so you had to be very careful. There was a portion where the stone had fallen away entirely, but a big chunk of tera crystal had fallen across the gap, acting as a precarious bridge. This was by far the most unnerving section, especially since it was too narrow to comfortably walk side-by-side holding hands. There was a pool of water below you, of course, but you couldn’t actually tell how deep it was, so there was no way knowing if it was safe to fall into. Hellcat took the bridge first, and then Nemona, and finally you, each step careful and measured on the slippery crystal. After that point, the path was comparatively easy, and you worked your way down until finally reaching the bottom.

From down here, you could see the waterfall was crashing into an elevated portion of ground, and the water was relatively shallow and rocky. In fact, you could walk along some parts of the ground until you were practically right beneath the waterfall. The elevated ground continued on for some ways like this, but you could see the water was running off into a deeper pool a bit further ahead. You both worked your way over to stand as close to the waterfall as possible, looking upwards into the room you just descended from. 

“Too bad we can’t dive from the top up there,” Nemona joked. You snorted.

“I’m okay with not jumping that.”

Nemona reached her hand out and through the waterfall.

“This is incredible, though, Jules, it’s like some kind of fairy tale down here or something.”

“I know. I wonder if Sada’s ever been down this far. Or anyone, for that matter.”

Hellcat was not as impressed with the splendor laid out before you. The tiger was sitting on the highest portion of the damp rocks, looking displeased with all of the water and licking its paw. It made a little ‘hrrumph’ sound.

Nemona shook her head.

“You’re gonna have to face your fears sooner or later, Hellcat.”

The tiger glanced at her briefly, then returned to licking its paw, ignoring her. Nemona shrugged.

“Have it your way. You can hang out here while Jules and I check ahead.”

The pair of you walked as far as you could on the raised ground, sometimes hopping over rocks as stepping stones where the water was deeper, until you came across another tunnel. It led into a portion of cave with a very low ceiling and tera crystal formations that were growing wildly out of control, incredibly thick layers built up on the walls and ceiling– way more than you’d seen anywhere else. At its center seemed to be another tunnel entrance, but it was blocked by another one of the crystal roadblocks.

“Wow. The crystals are getting a little intense here, aren’t they?” Nemona said, touching the walls covered in the dense layers of pearlescent sheen.

“I’ll say. I wish it wasn’t blocked off, though. I feel like it must look really cool in there.”

“Well, maybe we can find another one of those weird Terastallized pokemon! I bet there’s one around here somewhere.”

You chuckled,

“Your hunches have all turned out correct so far, so I have no reason to doubt it. Let’s keep looking.”

Nemona seemed to love the prospect of finding yet another new pokemon.

“All right, sounds like a plan! Ooh, plus we can learn more about this mysterious new type at the same time. Hm, we need to give it a name, we can’t just keep calling it ‘the weird type,’ huh?”

You suggested,

“Maybe ‘Rainbow Type?’”

She beamed,

“Oh yeah, I love that! Or maybe ‘Light’? Since rainbows are made of light. I mean, we have Dark types, it would be so cool if there were Light types too, maybe Light would be supereffective on Dark? Oh, but that reminds me–”

She stopped walking and turned to you, excited by her new train of thought.

“The Terastallized pokemon have been confusing me. That Roaring Moon used a move that used tera energy– you can always tell when a move does ‘cause you can see the air swirling with the tera energy, you know?–  I wasn’t sure what move it was though, so I thought it must be this new type, Light or Rainbow or whatever, right?”

You nodded. Nemona continued,

“But I swear when it used the move a second time, it wasn’t powered up anymore. And then that Eeveelution used Swift and it looked like the move used tera energy, too, which is like, what the heck?! Then it used that mysterious move of course, which also used tera energy. So now I don’t get it! Does it get something similar to Pixilate? Or maybe I was just seeing things, I dunno. Did it look to you like that Swift was powered up with tera energy?”

You scratched your neck and answered sheepishly.

“Well, uhm, I was kinda busy panicking at the time, so I’m not sure . . .”

“Oh, right. Pshh, sorry, of course you wouldn’t have noticed. Well it’s fine, I’m sure we’ll find out more soon. Honestly I’m so excited to face an unknown type, part of me doesn’t wanna figure it out too fast.” She laughed and added, “Is that weird?”

You thought about it and shook your head.

“Not at all. When I was exploring Paldea, every time I came across a new pokemon I loved trying to figure out what it was all about.”

You’d been ambling along the tunnel at a leisurely pace while chatting, not really in any hurry. Nemona clasped your shoulder and grinned, saying,

“Exactly, it’s like that! You don’t really want it to end, do you? I was thinking, before we battle later with our new pokemon, we should make sure to train far away from each other. That way we’ll know as little as possible about each other’s teams and there’s more surprises.”

“Sure. I like surprises.”

Her shoes splashing through the shallow water, Nemona enthused at you,

“Yeah, me too! I can’t wait to–”

A sudden, sharp cry caused the both of you to stop in your tracks and look up. Just ahead of you was a Terastallized pokemon, its colors and jewel immediately demarking it as the new Rainbow type. It stood on two legs and appeared to be some sort of raptorial dinosaur, although its slender body was covered in feathers, which included a feathery crest on its head, furls of feathers on its arms, and a long train of feathers on its tail. The pokemon stood quite tall, looking down at you and Nemona over a narrow snout with its pinched eyes and an expression that left you feeling as though it was regarding you with disdain.

You and Nemona exchanged a brief look.

“Speaking of surprises,” you said quietly. Nemona turned back to the pokemon and gushed,

“This is so cool, we’ve had the best luck with finding awesome stuff down here!”

The pokemon lowered its head a little, lips curling back to reveal sharp, needle-like teeth. A cry vibrated in its throat, rhythmic and strange-sounding, almost like a sound an exotic bird might make. Nemona was standing a little closer to the pokemon than you were, and you didn’t like the way it was looking at her at all. You muttered,

“Nemona, careful.”

“Of course. Hmm, what should I use . . . oh, I know–”

She reached to her belt to select a pokeball, but the raptor’s eyes followed the sudden movement and it reacted instantly by unfurling its massive tail.

The sight was breathtaking, dozens and dozens of long, elegant feathers creating a collective shape like a huge blooming flower or a setting sun, each feather tipped in round spots that shimmered with a brilliant, ever-shifting light; the effect was only heightened by its rainbow Terastallization. The pokemon’s tail shivered, causing the feathers to sway and bob in a very hypnotic way. In fact, the more you stared, the stranger you felt; your head grew heavy and you started to feel a sense of vertigo creeping in. 

Uh-oh.

“Nemona!”

Nemona was staring at the pokemon’s tail as well, transfixed, her hand still frozen in place from when she’d been reaching for her pokeballs. 

“Nemona, don’t look at it, I think it’s–”

“–too late, I, nghhh– I can’t– move,” she said through grit teeth, her body quivering with the effort, her fingers unable to even curl around her pokeball. You also tried to move and gasped, your limbs suddenly feeling as though they were as heavy as lead. 

“No, no! Fight it, Nemona, one of us has to send a pokemon out!”

She grunted,

“I’m trying!”

You were trying too, but the mere act of lifting your arm was overwhelmingly difficult. You could flex your fingers but that just wasn’t enough, because you had your pokeballs all in your pockets. You slid your hands up a few inches and couldn’t get any further– it was like your body just refused to listen. It was terrifying, and you wondered if this was how pokemon felt whenever they got paralyzed.

The raptor pokemon took a few slow steps forward, its tail swaying as it moved, its eyes locked on Nemona. Power began to gather around the pokemon’s body, its tail glowing with a warm pink light. From the color you guessed it was charging a Psychic move. 

“Stay away from her!” you screamed, your voice high-pitched in your panic. The pokemon didn’t listen, its tail glowing brighter and brighter, its power rapidly reaching its peak. Nemona was staring at the oncoming move with the expression of someone who realized they’d really screwed up.

You battled hopelessly against your numbed body, your head spinning as you cried,

“Nemona!”

Just as the air began to ripple with the strange energy of a psychic move, there was a shrill, furious scream and the advancing pokemon crumpled under the weight of the tiger from hell leaping onto its back. The pair crashed to the ground, Hellcat clinging to the raptor with its claws and trying to bite it, but ended up getting a mouthful of tail feathers instead. The two grappled desperately for a few moments and somehow the lithe dinosaur was able to slip away from Hellcat’s grasp, although bunches of feathers were left behind in the tiger’s claws. The raptor righted itself and turned to face its foe, flashing its mesmerizing tail feathers in Hellcat’s face.

Nemona shouted,

“Hellcat, be careful, don’t look!”

Hellcat was crouched, ready to leap and pounce, but its pupils widened and it snarled, struggling to move. 

“Damnit,” Nemona cursed quietly. The raptor opened its slender mouth and let loose an enormous blast of water right into Hellcat, the force of the hit pushing the tiger back and crashing it into the wall. The air whirled with mist and glittering tera energy in the wake of the move. Nemona yelled,

“Hellcat! What the heck, now Hydro Pump gets powered up too?! This makes no sense!”

In your efforts to better see the pair of battling pokemon, you realized you were starting to get movement back in your limbs– they prickled with a painful pins-and-needles sensation but you could actually drag them along slowly.

“Nemo, I think I can move again, sort of!”

Nemona answered quickly.

“Perfect! See if you can get into my bag, the side-pouch on the left side.”

You were confused why that was a priority but you trusted her, so you inched along the ground until you reached Nemona’s back. 

“Left side?”

“Yeah, there should be a yellow bottle!”

You lifted your arms slowly. A bit further ahead in the tunnel, you could see the raptor was skulking its way back up to Hellcat. Hellcat hissed. You grasped the zip of Nemona’s pack and dragged it open, fumbling about for a bit before pulling the bottle from her bag.

“That’s it, that’s it! It’s a Paralyze Heal, squirt it on yourself! Then you’ll be able to use some on me.”

“Right, okay!”

You pointed the nozzle at yourself and struggled with squeezing the handle, which they made way more difficult to use than they needed to. You could hear another blast of highly pressurized water and glanced up, seeing Hellcat snarling in pain.

“Hurry, Jules!” Finally, the dumb bottle released its contents, dribbling the medicine on your hands, which immediately made it easier to use. You were able to douse yourself quickly after that, and it felt like magic, the numbness and pins-and-needles melting away, your muscles loosening up again. 

“I got it, I’ll do you now!”

You came around and used the rest of the bottle to spray Nemona all over.

“Great, perfect! More on my legs, they’re still rubbery!” You heard a vicious cry and briefly turned to see Hellcat lashing out, raking the raptor across the face with its toxic claws– then you turned back to finish dousing Nemona with the potion.

“Okay, great job Jules! Let’s go help Hellcat!”

You both approached the pair of pokemon further down the tunnel. The raptor had recovered from Hellcat’s attack and was glowing hot-pink again, preparing another move. Nemona fished around in her bag and pulled out another Paralyze Heal.

“Crap, we’re kind of on the wrong side of the battlefield here,” she realized. The raptor’s back was turned to you both, Hellcat on the other side.

You reached for your pokeballs.

“We can double team this jerk,” you suggested. The raptor finally released a ball of energy, but instead of hitting Hellcat, the energy drifted upwards into the air before simply vanishing away. It was very odd, but you didn’t have time to ponder it, because the next thing you knew, Hellcat sprang forward, sinking its fangs into the dinosaur’s neck.

The Terastallization shattered, coating the ground in little rainbow fragments. The wild pokemon staggered backwards, groaning. 

“Or, um, nevermind, looks like Hellcat has it covered,” you laughed. 

“Great work, Hellcat! We’ll take it from here,” Nemona shouted, chucking a pokeball at the raptor. The ball missed, bouncing off a rock instead. Nemona’s eyes widened and she looked embarrassed.

“Uh, hm, whoops– I haven’t bungled a throw like that for a while . . .”

You looked at how she was holding her braced arm and said,

“I don’t think I potioned you enough, it might be the lingering effects of paralysis. Don’t worry, I’ll get this one.”

She nodded,

“Right, thanks Jules!”

A few Dusk Balls later, and the raptor was safely contained in your pocket. Nemona quickly went to Hellcat once the coast was clear. The tiger was limping from the paralysis and drenched from the Hydro Pumps, looking quite pathetic, but it still allowed Nemona to crouch down and douse it with a Paralyze Heal.

“There you go, this should help. You did so good, Hellcat! You really saved my skin, thank you so much!”

When she’d finished with the potion, Hellcat could move freely again. It shook water from its body vigorously, then butted its head affectionately against Nemona’s. The tiger wasn’t quite aware of its own strength and had bonked Nemona hard enough for her to land on her butt with an “oof,” but she didn’t seem to mind in the least; in fact, she seemed over the moon.

“You’re such a good kitty, you faced all that water and battled through the paralysis just for us,” she said, petting the oversized cat behind the ears. You could hear a deep rumble and at first you worried Hellcat was growling, but then you realized it was purring. 

“Jules, do you hear that?” Nemona whispered, eyes wide with wonder and joy. You nodded.

“I guess it took almost dying for them to realize they like you,” you teased. 

“Oh pssh, we didn’t almost die, it was just–”

She paused when there was a strange crackling noise. You both looked up to see a sphere of pink energy materializing out of nowhere in the air above your heads. Nemona’s eyes widened.

“Crap– Hellcat, MOVE!”

You didn’t know what was going on, but Nemona was sitting on the ground and there was clearly very little time, so you lurched forward and helped yank her to her feet and scramble out of the path of the oncoming orb of energy. Hellcat leapt aside as well, and the orb smashed into the ground, a wave of pink tera energy swirling and sizzling before dissipating, leaving behind a sizable impact crater.

You just stared at the crater for a few seconds, blinking. Nemona let out a sigh. At your confused look, she said,

“Future Sight. Forgot about that, haha . . .”

“Oh,” you said, once it had sunk in,

“Isn’t that a base 120 power move?”

Nemona nodded. You added,

“And uhm, it seemed powered up with tera energy . . .”

She laughed weakly.

“Apparently.”

You looked at Nemona again, your expression one of great dismay.

“Nemona, I think that maybe counts as almost dying!”

“Well it does now. Maybe she should, um, take a quick breather.”

You nodded.

“Yeah, good idea.”

The pair of you walked back to the chamber with the really intense crystal growth to check and see if the way was now clear for travel. However, oddly enough, the crystal roadblock had not budged. It didn’t make much sense, since you’d captured the Rainbow Tera pokemon in the area. You both took the opportunity to rest for a bit, though, sitting on a crystal and snacking on trail mix. You helped apply more Paralyze Heal to Nemona and Hellcat groomed itself so that its fur was all fixed up from its last encounter.

After your rest, you walked back to the section of cave with the big waterfall, searching for any more pokemon along the way. There were a few Carbink and Glimmora drifting around, but no other Rainbow Teras in sight. 

“I’m not sure where else to look. It’s so weird that the one we captured didn’t do it,” you mused, sitting by the waterfall and watching the Carbink floating around. Nemona peered further into the cave and suggested,

“Well, how about we explore this river? It looks like it goes for quite a ways back there, we might find something.”

You stood and came beside her, looking into the water.

“Worth a try. Looks like it goes pretty deep, I’ll get us some help.”

You pulled a pokeball from your pocket, sending Koraidon out. The big lizard looked excited to be let loose again, trilling happily and stomping through puddles, sniffing around. 

“Okay, Scarlet, you ready to go for a swim?”

He immediately turned and ran up to you, eager. You patted him and then hopped aboard, followed by Nemona, who settled onto Koraidon’s flat back right behind you. 

“I doubt Hellcat’s as excited for a swim as Scarlet is, so I think it’s time they rested in their ball for a bit,” Nemona said, pulling out a pokeball and recalling the tiger.

“Probably a good idea. You all set, then?” you asked.

“Yup!”

“Okay then, let’s go, Scarlet!”

Koraidon waded out into the still waters. The water got deeper very quickly, so the pokemon switched to a dog paddle. It was impossible to tell exactly how far the underground river continued on; when you gazed ahead through the narrow channel, the view was eventually obscured in the dimness of the cavern. You felt a little thrill over venturing into the unknown, despite the fact you’d been doing it for a while now; maybe it was the sort of thing that just never got old. As Scarlet carried you both onward through the waterlogged tunnel, the ceiling grew lower and lower, until it was barely higher than your heads. The number of crystals in the cave walls and ceiling also decreased, so there were far fewer gems to throw out their light– as a result, it became much darker. Most of the light came from the tera crystals growing under water, casting a soft, ethereal glow to the cave around you that was more diffused and mysterious than the usual glow from the rest of the cave. You told Koraidon to slow down, moving through the narrow, dark tunnel at a leisurely pace. For a while, there was only the sound of water dripping from the ceiling and the gentle, soothing paddle of Koraidon’s feet through the water. 

“It’s so pretty here,” you said softly, gazing around at how the water cast rippling shades of green and blue onto the walls. It reminded you a little of photographs you’d seen of the aurora borealis. Nemona agreed,

“I know. It feels so magical and secluded through this part, doesn’t it?”

“Mm-hmm, exactly.” 

You breathed the damp air deeply, just enjoying how peaceful it felt to drift through the tunnel. The slowly shifting colors of the water were almost hypnotic to watch. You relaxed in your seat, letting yourself lean back a little against Nemona. She didn’t seem to mind at all, wrapping her arms around you in response, in a way she sometimes did when you were both racing on Koriadon’s back together. You secretly reveled in the feeling whenever she did it, probably far more than she realized.

Nemona giggled,

“I just thought of what this reminds me of, it’s kinda like one of those Tunnel of Love rides, right? Like the ones at the fairs.”

You froze perfectly still, the heat rising to your cheeks. Why’d she say that at this exact moment?

“U-uh . . . y-yeah,” you said, trying to fake a laugh, but it came out sounding more like a squawk. Nemona seemed to sense your unease.

“Oh, sorry if that was weird, it just popped into my head . . .”

You forced your voice to sound more normal and quickly answered,

“N-no, it’s not weird, I-I mean you’re right, they are kinda similar!”

It came out a little more forcefully than normal. Damnit, over-compensated. Lucky for you, Nemona didn’t pick up on it. Instead she just said,

“Yeah! Although I’d say this place is way prettier. Feels more special, too.”

You cleared your throat and agreed,

“Definitely.”

Koraidon slowly followed the bend in the tunnel, curving around a large crystal growing out of the water that had managed to reach the surface and grow beyond it. There was something brighter you could see up ahead, and you both subconsciously leaned forward, curious. Koraidon carried you until the narrow tunnel fed you into a room that opened up wide, your view suddenly expanding to a dazzling underground lake filled with long, sloping tera crystals framing the cave walls. At the center of the lake was a small island, dominated by a single, lonely oak tree. 

The tree was completely encased in tera crystal, everything from its trunk to its branches to every one of its leaves– all of it translucent-blue, a rainbow of colors reflecting along all of its smooth surfaces. It looked frozen in time, a silent witness to bygone eras. 

“Oh my gosh,” Nemona murmured from behind you. Koraidon paddled slowly out to the center of the lake, affording you a great view of the entire area. It was almost impossible to tell which crystals were growing beneath the perfectly clear, still waters and which were reflected from the ones growing on the ceiling above. It was an incredible feeling, just being in this place and taking it all in, perhaps the first living creatures to be here in eons. Your skin prickled in goosebumps at the thought.

You felt Nemona’s arms squeeze gently around you, and her voice came in a gentle hush in your ears.

“I’m so glad we slowed down to enjoy this, tesoro.”

Your goosebumps spread further, but now for different reasons.

“Me too,” you answered her softly. Nemona’s chin came to rest against the top of your head, her body pressed entirely against your back, and as you floated together in that sparkling cavern, you thought perhaps this was the best moment you’ve had in life for a while now.

Neither of you saw the triangular dorsal fin sticking up out of the surface of the water, silently slicing through the smooth, still waters. Even Koraidon didn’t notice, not until it was too late.When the calm waters were torn asunder with an ear-splitting roar, you and Nemona tossed violently from Koraidon’s back, the only thing you could think was Are you kidding me, NOT AGAIN–!

[ownerofthisaccount]

Originally I was just gonna leave the previous post on Agee and Chei as a one off, as I don’t own them and it was just me spitballing. There was also a repost saying I was thankful for the attention it got and that anyone is free to have their interpretations on it, but I deleted it as I didn’t want to bombard the original creator too much. My anxiety can get bad especially when it comes to interacting with popular creators or making fanart due to stuff I rather not get into, but it can lead to me struggling a bit with knowing how to go about things or if I’m being too pushy. Even now I’m a little anxious posting this giant section, and can take it down if asked, but after reading my what if my brain wanted to expand on it with images more detailing what happened that first day.

I will warn this contains body horror, implied and shown death, injury, and a small bit of blood. This is also NOT my work or ocs. Like before, both design and the original story comes from @raisans-art and they should be given the credit for these great character designs and engaging stories. This is just my interpretation on a what if both twins got experimented on.

As stated before, this version starts off the same with Emmet taken first and dies in the process of becoming Agee. But in this version the scientists catch on to Ingo’s snooping and struck him from behind when he finally encountered Agee. There was actually a deleted image showing that directly after, Durant popped out and, seeing Ingo limped on the ground and scientists quickly flooding in, grabbed Ingo’s pokeballs to try to at least save his team with the hope of being able to come back later to save the twins. He escapes through a vent, but in the process three pokeballs are knocked off and left in the lab, where Durant can’t grabbed them because the scientists are gaining on him. This wasn’t drawn cause for the life of me, I couldn’t draw full body Durant without looking like a knockoff lego.

“What do we do now?”

A little while later, the newest experiment Chei wakes up to a “frightening” giant. Meanwhile, the friendly fusion tries to welcome their new cell mate with open arms. I absolutely loved drawing that frame of Agee.

A familiar image from before, but the shadows and Agee’s tail are actually here. This is an outside view of the scientists observing how the two fusions will interact with each other given the origins of the two used for this.

Doesn’t go well. I realized I also missed the scar on Agee’s face, so I added it to the what if lore by having Chei feel threatened and slashed Agee with their face blade. Agee out of instinct and shock slammed their tail into Chei without realizing.

A fun fact I mentioned in the comments last post, but Chei’s tail, chest, and face are made of glass. It’s a softer/flexible and more durable glass, but can still be cracked. As long as the core/soul in the chest is unharmed though, the glass will repair itself some time after with the length depending on how severe the damage was. So Chei will be fine, but Agee still feels bad for hurting them.

Chei takes shelter in the corner to heal while Agee decides to give the new guy a little space for now, still determined though to make this friendship work as he feels a connection to this fusion. There was also a second cut drawing of Chei waking up later to an “I’m Sorry” poorly written on the ground while Agee anxiously taps their fingers together for a response.

Elsewhere in a realm inaccessible to ones like us, a few spirits watch this disaster go down…

And that’s it! That was all the drawings made for that what if scenario. Will there ever be more? I’m honestly not sure as this was already a stretch. But I will be finishing my top ten list very soon if you want more Pokémon drawings from me and to yell at me for putting Lickilicky in my top 10. But once again, thank you @raisans-art for being the creator of the Emmet Chimera Au and may you all have a great rest of your day!

[blueberry-gills]

Legend has it that if you hike up to the peak of Glaseado Mountain on your birthday, you’ll get to see a wonderful gift of nature—Diamond Dust.

Gill only realized she had fallen asleep when she was stirred into consciousness. Her skin curdled under the feeling of something pressing against her cheek. Slowly, she peeled open her eyes.

The Drifloon floated back from her head, seemingly satisfied. Gill blinked blearily at her. She could feel Sizzle’s claws around her neck, digging into her flesh in tandem with her breathing. In any other instance, she’d be terrified.

“…What’s the time,” she said blankly, knowing full well there was no one nearby that could answer her.

“Loooooon.” The Drifloon leaned backward. Her tendrils grew taught around Gill’s arm. Gill felt one of them loosen, untwining from his jacket as the Drifloon raised it up- She could untangle herself at any time? She was just hanging on for fun? Oh Arceus, I can’t feel my hand, is that a blood flow or cold or kidnapping soul thing-?

Pressed her heart to his chin-

Wait wha-

-And tilted his head upwards.

Gill barely had time to react before the first snowflake landed on his nose.

The sky was a cloudy gray. A vast expanse of off-white, a mirror to the earth beneath it. You could argue it looked more beautiful earlier.

But that wasn’t the point.

It was snowing.

Gill’s breath hitched in her throat.

She had seen snow before, of course. Despite her aversion to the cold, she had spent quite a good amount of time in the Polar Biome at Blueberry, thank you very much. She had suffered through artificial winds whipping as snow sliced against your skin. Through opening your mouth and catching a face full of ice. And even before that, her parents had brought her to Montenevera before. Glaseado Mountain was nothing new.

What was new, however, was Diamond Dust.

…It really did look like crystal.

It was soft, gentle even, not fierce or piercing. The snowflakes melted on her blazing skin with a quiet numbness, sparkles dancing in her eyes. As if someone had thrown glitter into the heavens. As if Gill was resting inside a gorgeous snowglobe. A gentle breeze tousled her hair.

It was dazzling. It almost hurt to look at. Gill lifted her free hand and watched as the flakes tumbled out of the sky like dazed Ribombee, gently landing in her palm.

Like shavings of sunlight.

It was beautiful.

It was cold.

It was gorgeous.

It was really cold.

It was decadent.

It was so, so cold. Gill couldn’t feel his feet. Or hands. And he was pretty sure the Drifloon was still trying to lead his soul astray.

But the tears still pooled in her eyes and the glitter danced in her vision all the same.

It wasn’t Lental. It wasn’t the desert. It wasn’t a party in some fancy restaurant surrounded by friends and family who cared.

But it was the best she had.

…And it wasn’t too bad.

The Drifloon hummed in satisfaction as Gill stood up, grabbing the Pokeballs at her waist. Sizzle dug her claws in deeper.

Happy Birthday, Gill. She’s turning seventeen by herself on a mountaintop, speckled with freezing cold Diamond Dust.

With her team beside her. With Pepper sniffing at the long-since-dead Whismur-lite and Salt wordlessly watching beside her, with Locke flitting around and prodding Sizzle, with Key resting a tacky hand on Gill’s shoulder as Sugar decorates a tupperware of berries in cream, with Spice and Baryon watching from afar while Junebug curls up by her bag. With a Drifloon looming over her. (She ought to start thinking of a name.) With regret still lingering in her heart, but a resigned peace nestled beside. Blistering cold and shocking warmth.

And so, the taste of mint and chocolate in her mouth, her skin abuzz with relief and frostnip, Gill wiped the tears out of her eyes and smiled to herself.

Maybe today wasn’t a disappointment, after all.

[parissa-faith]

Our Special Dance

NB Reader catches a Ampharos as their partner

For writingrenna

You love the wind. The feeling of the air moving in its swirls, makes you feel light and happy. So happy, that once it became windy you couldn’t help yourself but just twirl in the wind. Endlessly, until the wind calmed down. Until that day…

“ Mom! I’m going out! “ “ Okay! Come back within 2 hours and stay safe” Your Mom shouted from the kitchen, as you left the house running to the wide, open grassy plains. It may  take you lots of time to get there but you can’t help yourself. The wind is amazing there and at those plains especially before nightfall.  Running there is also such a blast! Forcing the wind to blow right in your face and your hair all over the place ! Sure Mom was going to kill you when you got back home but you only live once. 

At last. After 20 mins of tirelessly running open and grassy plain. You could feel it, the wind picking up. Taking off your jacket and throwing it on the ground. You closed your eyes and began to focus on the wind, starting to move slowly to feel the wind properly before you know it. You start to dance in the wind just losing your mind in the dance and only caring for what you feel at this moment. While dancing you could tell something was there on the path off your dance. It was weird because the area of the plain you are in, so you stopped dancing in front of it to see what it was. When you opened your eyes, you saw.

An Ampharos with an opened mouth, looking into your eyes with sparkles in its eyes. Looking into Ampharos’s eyes you felt a feeling on excitement bubbling in your chest. Then the wind began to pick up the pace, you and Ampharos immediately broke into a smile. You could feel the same excitement both Ampharos had for dancing. You immediately started dancing in sync, no need for words, it was just known in your hearts. If anybody saw you and Ampharos they would think that you guys would have known each other forever and have practiced this dance for months. Both Ampharos and you couldn’t take your eyes of each other and smile to your heart's content.

Soon the wind began to calm down and Ampharos and you started to stop dancing. Both of you panting for breath but still smiling with sparkling eyes at each other. Then a thought came to your mind. “Hey Ampharos!” You said while still panting. “Ampharos?” “Why don’t we become partners? Then we will be together forever and we can dance like this together again!”. “Ampharos!” Ampharos nodded its head smiling, and ran up to you and gave you a hug! “I guess that’s a yes!” You returned the hug and then threw the pokeball. 

You caught a Ampharos as your partner. “Come out Ampharos!” “Ampharos!” You both broke out in a hug. Then you heard the alarm from your watch. “Ampharos, I'll show you your new home!” “Ampharos!” You happily walked home with Ampharos.

[dogdaysareover365]

more rw&rb incorrect quotes

adding a few new characters to add spice

Henry, with their hands cupped over each other: I found a cool spider!  June : Oh? Lemme see!  Henry, opening their hands to see nothing there: …hm.  Nora: …where’s the spider.  Henry: *looks troubled and stares at their hands*  June : Oh no.  Nora: HENRY, WHERE’S THE SPIDER?!

———

Bea: I’m not lazy, I just find it hard to put effort into things I’m not passionate about.  Zhara: What are you passionate about?  Bea: Sleeping.

———

Zhara: *watching the squad's shenanigans with concern* Do you feel like this has gotten out of hand?  Martha: I don't know. Feels normal enough for a group that's on 911's blocked callers list.

———

Nora, throwing a pokeball at Percy:Percy, I choose you!  Percy, not looking up from their book and catching it: You need an Ultra ball to catch this Legendary Pokémon.

———

Percy: Maybe the true treasure was friendship all along. But I hope not, because I can’t spend friendship on new clothes

———

Oscar: I currently have 7 empty notebooks and I have no idea what to put in them. Any suggestions?  Nora: Put spaghetti in it.  Oscar: I am currently taking suggestions from everyone but you.  June : Put spaghetti in it.  Oscar: I am currently taking suggestions from everyone but you two.  Shaan : Put spaghetti in it.  Oscar: I am no longer taking suggestions.

———

June : You're violent.  Nora: Yeah but I'm also short and that's adorable.

———

Phillip, Bea & Percy: *screaming*  Nora: *runs into the room* What's wrong, Percy?!  Phillip: Wait, why are you asking Percy that when Bea and I are also here?  Nora: Because Percy wouldn't scream unless it's an emergency. You two scream whenever you have the chance.

[daisychainsandbowties]

Ava hungry to taste all these new snacks and drinks, Bea noticing what flavors she likes best and getting more of those. Saving some to try for the first time with ava so they can experience new things together.

Bea rescuing pokemon but the line gets blurred until you don't know who truly saved who in the end. That s1 scene with ash shoving everyone in their pokeballs to keep them warm but them all coming out and wrapping themselves around him but with bea and her equally stubborn pokemon

Bea someone stealing a few pokeballs and potions before shes 10 and making her way into the world with nothing but the ghosts of her past

Gymleader!Lilith(?) Pushed only it by her family but equally trapped and unable to see the world joining bea along the way(????)

Ava and the ghost haunting her walls Ava and her ghost Ava and her G-

beatrice who only goes into the city with her binder on, her hair stuffed under a cap, telling anyone who asks that she’s ben (and yeah, she’s also ten)

finding that she likes it, sometimes; how it feels when someone calls her “young man” (she’s polite, occasionally) her face a scattering of bruises from training with rockruff. drifting through stores with a small handful of cash stuffing chocolate bars into her pockets, using rockruff as a distraction so she can sprint away with a 6-pack of sodas in hand.

at ava’s window mussing up her hair, binder tight around her chest as she tries to catch her breath, spraying herself with so much deodorant she starts coughing uncontrollably. rockruff sitting there doing the puppy head-tilt, nibbling at the loose threads dancing at the ends of her cutoff shorts.

getting different flavours of soda for ava. running away from everyone else but toward her. and ava saving her fruit, passing beatrice an apple with a stern expression and bea watching her, brow creased as she eats the apple, core and all.

“oh no bea did you just eat that entire thing?!”

“shouldn’t i? is the middle bit poisonous?”

“no, but it’s gross.”

bea, who has eaten garbage and chewed at uncooked mushrooms with her stomach like an animal trying to tear her apart, just shrugs. takes the banana ava offers her next, “bea, you definitely don’t eat all of that.”

rolling her eyes but bananas are imports so she’s not had once since home, when her mother used to cut them up into little disks for her.

“ava?”

“yeah bea?”

“why do you say my name so much?”

and ava shrugging, blushing but beatrice you idiot. it’s because she knows there’s noone else in the world who does.

beatrice who is so so loved but afraid to see it, like looking might scare the love away. but out in the cold, trapped in an ice storm trying to coax dratini into its pokeball, rockruff pressed into her ribs under her threadbare coat and both of them shivering.

skarmory with its wings tented around them, standing a little back because steel only gathers up the cold, but guiding the wind around them. charmander in her lap and bea with her hands cupped around its tail because that little light has to stay, has to be protected.

brows creased, “please. you need to go inside the pokeball. you’ll freeze out here… you’ll die.” and beatrice in the hills (not) alone, crying suddenly because she can’t lose them, would rather die alone than in company. but her pokemon staying with her, charmander huffing warm breaths into her face, rockruff solid at her side, dratini humming to itself (maybe the edge of a lullaby?)

the huddle of them waking together like ash and pikachu after the spearow attack. hazy, charmander having run out when the storm settled to collect twigs strewn loose by the storm. a small fire burning and beatrice waking up. her first thought is of her pokemon. hand on rockruff’s head.

her second thought is about ava

[shatteredvioletnuzlocke]

Chapter 5: Mezagoza (Patch)

Not too far away from Arven’s lighthouse, was the tranquil village of Los Platos. Palm trees touched the sky, children ran down the amber, brick-paved roads, and Vivilion fluttered to bushes with fragrant flowers. After the hectic day they’ve been having, Patch and Nemona decided to grab a treat at the local Sugar-N-Ice cart. Patch went with a classic, mint chocolate chip. While the champion fancied a fruity mango cone.

Once the two paid for their food, Patch began to lick their ice cream. The sweet sensation of peppermint cooled them off and sent a tickling chill to their head.

Patch spotted two young children having a Pokémon battle; it was a Scatterbug against a Bountsweet. The silkworm released threads of string shot, but the Bounsweet countered with a rapid spin attack. Yet it proved to be useless as the fruit Pokémon’s twirling only managed to wrap itself in a ball of silk. 

“Use bug bite!” the Scatterbug’s trainer cheered.

As the Scatterbug tore away at the cocoon it made, a memory snuck into Patch’s mind. Violence doesn’t solve anything as much as you think it does, Arven’s voice echoed. Patch began to fear for the Bountsweet. Once the Scatterbug chewed through its silk, would it also gnaw away at the Bountsweet’s flesh? Just thinking about it horrified them, and they felt the need to step in before it got gruesome.

“Wow, I’ve never seen a Scatterbug with that tenacity!” Nemona chimed in, feeling casual about the whole ordeal.

“I don’t get how this can be fun to watch,” Patch passively confessed, “they could get hurt.”

The champion gave them an encouraging look, “I get you're still trying to figure out what you want to do as a trainer, but you have to understand…battling is kinda natural for Pokémon.”

“What do you mean?” Patch asked.

“Pokemon fight with each other all the time in the wild and some Pokemon are bred just to fight. If you deprive them of that, they get wound up and testy,” Nemona explained.

The new trainer found some fair reasoning in the Champion’s knowledge; it did seem somewhat cruel to keep nature from taking its course. Yet there was still a tinge of doubt that they couldn’t shake off.

“I get that…” they nodded, “but would that put them at a greater risk of getting killed?”

Given such a heavy question Nemona took a moment to scarf down their cone. Finally, after that she responded.

“Oh, the league would never allow that… There are special rules to prevent those kinds of things. So a Pokémon can only lose battle unless they get exhausted.”

Patch was surprised, the Pokemon battling was more thought out than they realized. 

“Of course,” she went on, “Pokemon still need to be taken to centers after a fight. And we can’t prevent a Pokemon from dying in the wild, it’s only for general trainer and gym battles.”

Patch felt thrown back into their obsessive thoughts. So gym battles are safer than the wild…crazy. I don’t know if this makes me more comfortable to battle. I’m being more careful when I catch Pokemon. But… What happens if I don’t let them battle at all? Will they hate me? And what about Kapheria? Arven already told me not to make her fight… 

“Yo, earth to Patch?!” Nemona waved her hand in front of the dazed trainer. 

They snapped back into reality “Oh, sorry!” 

“Come with me,” she giggled, “I wanna show you something!” 

They threw away their now melted cone, being too distracted to finish it. They followed Nemona down the path, occasionally licking the peppermint-flavored stickiness off their hand.The two trainers walked to what seemed to be a gas station located in a village with no cars. A bright red sign with a Pokeball symbol spun slowly from a pole. The gas station’s anning had the same color scheme as the sign, underneath stood a woman dressed in a medical outfit and a man dressed in an apron. There were no gas pumps or enough space for a car to drive in.

“What are we doing here?” Patch looked around confused.

“This is the Pokémon center!” The black-haired trainer smiled.

This?! This can’t be! Patch was familiar with Pokemon centers, the one back in Nacrene was at least an entire building. This station was out in the open with only a desk. How would anyone get treatment like this?!

“Do you need a quick fix?” The nurse kindly asked.

They weren’t sure what to say, but they felt curious as to how it worked. “Sure,” they answered.

Patch went into their polyester bag and scooped up Tamarind and Kombucha’s Pokeballs. They handed the Pokeballs to the nurse who locked them into some type of machine. The chattering typing of a keyboard could be heard, as the nurse clacked at a console in front of her. 

“Here you are, all healed up!” The nurse claimed.

In awe Patch took the two Pokeballs, It’s that easy?! 

“Over here!” Nemona called to them, standing near yet another weird machine. It resembled some kind of fancy vending machine. 

“What does it do?” Patch wondered. 

“Put one of your Pokemon here, and find out!” She playfully suggested.

There was a circular slot intended for a Pokeball and a crevasse breath that looked like it would dispense something. Being particularly curious about this high-tech center, Patch inserted Tamarind’s Pokeball. Above the slot, a screen read: Fuecoco. 

“Alright, now what?” The brown-haired trainer turned to find Nemona looking through her bag.

She pulled out three CDs in cases, “Pick one,” she said, holding them out like folded cards.

Patch confoundedly grabbed the case in the middle and found that it had a pink disk inside. So I must have to slide this in? They took out the disc, holding it from the sides to avoid smudging it with fingerprints. Upon sliding the screen went into a loading menu, and then displayed a green check mark. This still doesn’t make sense to me. The confused trainer let Tamarind out of his ball. 

“Tamarind?” Patch knelt to the fire croc, “Do you feel okay?”

The Fuecoco’s cheeks were puffed out and his eyes were pressed closed, he looked constipated. The trainer began to fret, their fire type was about to burst.

“Fuey!” Tamarind wailed in a honeyed pitch. Instead of fire the crocodile produced visual, pink sound waves shaped like hearts.

“Nice,” Nemona said, “That disarming voice will for sure come in handy!” 

Patch recognized that disarming voice was the name of a fairy-type attack. It then began to click, that machine teaches Pokemon different moves! It was all so astounding, Paldean technology was truly unlike anything they had ever seen! 

“Here,” the champion handed them a golden brown colored disc, “Teach this to your Lechonk!”

They inserted Kombucha’s Pokeball into the tutoring machines and slid in the disc, “What’s that one for?”

“Mud slap!” Nemona grinned, “Great for lowering accuracy!” 

Patch hadn’t a clue of what that meant but they trusted her judgment.

“You can have some of my extras,” she offered them some more discs, “then if you want different attacks, the TMM will make you new ones from ingredients.” 

“Really?” Patch asked intrigued.

The champion nodded and pointed to the machine, “I made this one with Wooper slime!”

“Oh cool…” they faked a smile. What the hell?

As soon as the move was learned, Patch placed Kombucha’s ball back into their pocket. But they became fixated on the prairie near the center. It was wide open with plenty of space and small sky blue pools where golden Psyducks waddled to go swim. Two Skovets scampered around the pale green grass, as an Azurill bounded along on it’s tail. The enchanting feeling of nature was seemingly inviting the trainer to visit.

“You can go on and catch something, I’ll just be awhile” Nemona reassured them, “but once your done, then we really have to head out.”

Patch squinted towards the sun, now bending to the east. Damn all that took up a good portion! 

They picked up Tamarind, “I won’t be long!”

With their fire croc in their arms, Patch jogged along the grass scanning the area for their next teammate. Compared to Poco Path, the land had more to offer. A small, pink Happiny totaled about in a bed of mauve pyrenees. Next to her a little, plump Fidough began digging a hole. So cute! 

Patch’s family had a pet Fidough back home named Piper. While tempted into approaching it they didn’t want Piper to feel replaced; there was only one Fidough in their life and that was enough. What else is there? 

All the more curious, the young trainer wandered towards a grove of shady trees. The sun was completely obscured beneath the trees' canopy, giving off a cool temperature. The only light seeping through, was the Fuecoco’s flickering tuft.

“Fuey…” Tamarind yawned.

“Don’t sleep now, buddy. We’re almost to the academy,” Patch whispered.

From the dim glow of the crocodile, they noticed loose strands of silk hanging off the branches. There are bug Pokémon nearby! Hopefully it’s just Scatterbug this time! They held Tamarind tightly in their arms, hoping that his warmth would protect them. 

But then they spotted odd placements of color along the grayish bark; blotches of blue, yellow, and red. Painted bark… Patch recognized with a growing smile, my next catch is here! They followed the pattern trees with eager footsteps. 

“Shoo shroo!” A high voice squeaked. 

Underneath the trunk of a blank tree a small gray rodent with a black face peaked out of the grass. 

“Shroodle!” Patch softly squealed. 

Shroodles were one of Patch’s favorite of the native Paldean Pokemon, because they shared an artistic soul. When studying Paldean fauna, they learned that Shroodles could produce ink-like bile that was used in the most expensive paints.

“Shroo?” The Shroodle gazed its huge cyan eyes at the human.

Oh gosh it sees me! Should I attack it? I don’t wanna hurt the little guy! The shrew padded closer to the human. How can I tell if it’s friendly? The Shroodle stood on its hind legs, sniffing Patch with its bulbous snout. Wittle man, they pouted, what if…

Patch plopped their bag to the ground, keeping Tamarind in one arm to keep him from getting loose. They placed an empty Pokeball beside the Shroodle, as it was bigger than the rodent and Patch was worried they would bonk them. 

“Shroo?” The Shroodle sniffed and nudged the ball, “Shroo!” 

The Pokeball rolled and the Shroodle played with it like a toy. Not my idea, but okay! 

“Shroo, Shroo!” The Shroodle scampered.

When the little Pokemon pressed the button, Pokeball opened and it was instantly sucked in. It bobbed for a moment but then clicked, indicating a capture.

“I CAUGHT A SHROODLE!” Patch hollered.

Their excitement was so loud that Fletchlings began to flutter out of the trees, screeching with distress. 

“Coco!” Tamarind wiggled his feet as he began to slip from his trainer.

Patch put down the croc, as their arms were getting tired from holding him for so long. They ran back to the Pokémon center, they’re hands flapping with giddy. Back at the center, Nemona was busy with the TMM with Fuerte and Pierce beside her. 

“Back already?” Nemona asked. 

Patch stopped to catch their breath, “Look… what I caught!”

They opened the Pokeball and held out their sweaty palm where their new Shroodle materialized. 

“Shroodle!” He peeped.

“You caught… a Shroodle?” She cringed. 

Patch’s purple eyes dilated, “His name is Arturo and I love him!”

Arturo seemed like a handsome name for a handsome lad. Now that they caught him, Patch could use his ink to make all the good paint they want. No more cheap acrylics that would dissolve into a clear solution! 

“Okay… cool,” The black-haired trainer gave a thumbs up, “Now, let’s get going! We’re nearing sunset!”

The two trainers made their way down a dusty path that split the prairie down the middle. Upon the top of the hill a massive cobblestone wall stood taller than the palm trees in Los Platos. It spread far beside the prairie, seemingly never-ending, but Patch knew behind the wall sat the City of Mezagoza; but more importantly the campus of Uva Academy. 

“Why does Mezagoza need those walls anyway?” They speculated, “Is it to keep out stronger Pokémon?”

“Not at all,” Nemona answered, “They were built by the old king centuries ago.”

Patch recalled very little about Paldean history, to their knowledge the region only ever had one king; not that Paldea ever needed one to begin with. A large mahogany wooden door awaited them and what appeared to be two sentry guards at the entrance. Both were wearing the same entire; white helmets with purple stripes and oddly enough Uva Academy uniforms. I guess they're on their way to campus too? Yet the other students sat lazily and ill-mannered in front of the gate as if to guard it

“Oh hear we go…,” Nemona sighed.

 So they know each other, Patch thought. 

The taller of the two students stood up, “Ay, you heading into Meza?” They tapped their boot against the dust impatiently.

“Yes…” Nemona gently pushed Patch aside, “And since when does the city have a toll booth?” 

The other student with dark hair flinched, while the first one faced the champion confidently. Whoever these two people were, Nemona had beef with them.

“You have two options…” the proud student offered, “Either battle us or j-”

“Diego, you idiot!” The shorter student muttered behind her clenched teeth, “That’s Nemona! Champion ranked trainer?!” 

Diego’s brown eyes widened and his smile quickly disappeared upon hearing the word “champion”. “Oh shh! Uh actually I just remembered I have somewhere to be!” His accent fluctuated under pressure.

“No no,” The champion refused, “I wouldn’t mind a battle.” 

By then the dark-haired student had fled the scene, it was just Diego trembling in his combat boots. Nemona’s tangerine eyes were burning not out of rage but with passion, she would never pass up a good fight. 

“Shall we?” She said tossing a pokeball in their hands.

Sweat was streaming down Diego’s quivering face, “Okay” he winced.

Patch gazed up at the sun, the blue sky beginning to turn warm from the east. Battling came first apparently, and who were they to tell Nemona no. A gentle tailwind came through as the battle began, Diego threw a pokeball with green stripes into the frey and out came Grimer. It’s purple sludgy, drippy body flowing to the ground, carrying a putrid musk that nearly made Patch’s eyes water. That smells worse than my Lechonk! Surprisingly, when Nemona sent out her Pokeball it held a tiny orange rodent. 

A Pawmi, they thought puzzled, why not just send in Pierce? It would make things go much faster. Strange choice aside, Nemona was a champion for a reason.

“Punchy, Charge up!” She commanded.

Electricty began to accumulate around the little Pawmi, yet the Grimer remained unharmed. Nemona… what are you doing?

“Gumbo, use mud slap!” Diego called.

“Gruhhh!” The Grimer belched out drops of black sludge from its gaping mouth.

“Dodge with a quick attack!” Nemona pressed forward. 

Her Pawmi suddenly jolted from the incoming mud slap. Although they weren’t  completely unscathed, as the backside of their orange fur was stained with black. 

“Charge once more!” The Champion retorted.

Nemona quit stalling, Patch’s anxiety became restless, Just hit him with something! With each new charge the Pawmi’s fur became a little more golden with electricity. But before both of them knew it, the Grimer took advantage of Nemona’s passive position and engulfed Punchy in it’s oozing body. Oh no! Patch panicked at the Pawmi drowning in sludge, Why are you letting this happen?! 

“Come now,” Nemona reached into her pocket, “Don’t think you’re winning?!”

In her hand, she held some kind of deep black Pokeball with a jewel-encrusted where the button would be. Patch assumed she would be sending in a much stronger Pokemon but the black Pokeball seemed to be gathering particles of light. Did that mean whatever Pokemon was inside was strong, they had never seen anything like it. Mysteriously it emitted a dazzling light, then Nemona threw it at her Pawmi.

It then dawned on Patch that it was something familiar, That’s a Terastlizing Pokeball! I’d never thought I’d see it this soon. As Pokeball opened, odd crystalline rocks pierced out of the Grimer’s body which nearly split it apart. The slimy Pokemon pulled itself away from the cluster which then shattered. In its place, Punchy stood with a shiny coat faceted like a gemstone. He wore a crystal crown resembling a lightbulb, signifying that he was an electric type. 

Patch was dazzled by the beauty of it all, Amazing! I wonder if I could ever do that?!

“Now Thundershock!” Nemona cheered. 

“Paw paw!” Punchy cried, unleashing a dazzling jolt of electricity.

The Grimer’s arms flailed about as it was hit and it let out an agonizing wail, “GRUUUUUHHHHHHH!”  

Diego quickly recalled his Grimer, his brown eyes shaken with fear. 

“Get out of here!” Nemona calmly murmured to her defeated opponent.

Diego ran off almost immediately, leaving the gate to Mezagoza completely unguarded and free to enter through. 

“Mui bein, Punchy!” Nemona congratulated her Pokemon.

A glimmering dust surrounded Punchy, and within a blink of an eye, his crystalline coat was back to normal. The Pawmi was just a bit bigger than Arturo but still able to fit in his trainer’s palm. 

“If you ever see anyone with similar helmets on, don’t talk to them! They’re with Team Star!” The champion informed Patch.

“Team Star?” Patch asked.

The name of it struck accord with a similar group back in Unova; Team Plasma. It gave Patch unpleasant thoughts, Plasma had nearly swayed the people of Unova to join their cause of giving up their Pokemon. During that period Patch was too young to understand what had transpired, but they were now old enough to look back on it in horror. If Plasma had succeeded, would they even be a trainer now?

“Did they want something from us?” Patch swallowed their bad memories.

“Maybe, but they just want new members,” Nemona answered with her Pawmi on her shoulder, “It’s kinda sad though, people who flunk out of the Academy go on to join them. Some of them even play dirty and disregard the League’s rules.”

An alarm was set off in the young trainer’s head, Disregarding the Rules?! Does that mean they’ll kill my Pokemon?! Would they kill me?! No matter what it meant they were thankful for Nemona protecting them from harm’s way. Yet, Patch couldn’t make up a plan if they ran into a Star member in the future. Would they be forced into battling? Could they just say they knew a Champion to get out of it? Maybe… battling another trainer was just as inevitable as losing a Pokemon.

“Anywho…” Nemona looked toward the sun, “If we keep stalling you might not be able to check in to your dorm room.”

The blue sky was now blended with a hue pink, then gold with a splash of amber surrounding the nearly setting sun. Nemona knocked on the mahogany door and it slowly creaked open; revealing the awaited city of Mezagoza. As Patch stepped through the ancient threshold, they felt they were living in the pictures of brochures they read. Just as they imagined, Mezagoza was an artful, grandiose city that couldn’t be contained on a single canvas.

The ground was paved with colorful bits of stone, arranged in a way to make it feel that you were walking on a mosaic. The buildings were painted blue or yellow with white accents to make them feel coordinated. Various shops made up streets, offering various knick-knacks and keepsakes. Nearby restaurants peppered the air with promising aromas that would soothe your nose, widen your eyes, and cause your mouth to water. Upon climbing a flight of stairs, Patch saw that a battlefield made up the center of the city. This time being paved with the finest alabaster marble and the field's borders are surrounded by a different color of tile to represent each type of Pokemon. 

Standing at the highest level of the city was the Uva Academy building. It was structured similar to a castle and its piercing spires couldn’t be missed no matter where you stood in the city. On the left of the building an arched bridge was connected to a separate tower where a tree grew. On the right, a faced dome stood out of place among the medieval structures and it was clear that it was added fairly recently. In the center of the building was a giant glass Pokeball in the belfry. 

“Is there any other way to get up there?” Patch asked, intimidated by the massive staircase leading up to the building. 

Nemona laughed, “You’re not a Uva student without climbing that staircase! Come on!” 

They treaded onward to campus, still dreading the rigorous climb. Well, it’s better than the Skyarrow Bridge, they thought. Patch was already out of breath when they made it up twenty stairs, while Nemona was already at the top waiting for them. Oh, come on! They complained in their head. The day had been long, but if it was going to be over they just needed to make it to their dorm. As they climbed more stairs they let the new possibilities in Paldea fester in their head. First day of being a trainer, in a day or so it’ll be my first day of being an art student. I’ll get to learn Pokemon anatomy. The Pokemon I caught today could model for me! I wonder how I would keep them still? Tamarind would probably be easiest, it’s easy for him to relax. I hope I can catch more Pokemon though. Finally, after all of that, they arrived at Uva Academy,

The campus courtyard was just as big as the city plaza, with plenty of room for grass and cypress trees to grow. Students who had already checked in were scattered about either on their own or forming cliques with others. Fate could only decide who Patch was going to befriend, but they had faith that the art classes would lead to happy connections.

“So now we’re here!” Nemona took a good stretch, “I wish I could have gotten you here sooner.”

“No no, it’s okay! Today was crazy!” Patch shrugged.

“Anyway…” Nemona yawned “This is where we have to part. You need to get settled into your dorm and I have to review my class schedule.”

The young trainer nodded back without a word. Although they had only really known Nemona for a week, they were the closest connection they had in Paldea. In a way, she held a mentor-like role to them and it would only strengthen as Patch would be seeing them around campus.

“Just get your keycard from the front desk,” the champion waved to them as she walked away, “Feel free to stop by my office anytime!”

From there, Patch followed the travertine path to the academy’s front door. Upon entering the building, they found themselves in a glorious hall akin to the inside of a castle. The wooden ceiling felt stories high, yet the hall was not overcrowded with echoes. A set of opposing staircases led to a second floor, which was supported by alabaster pillars. A library made up most of the hall, with every mahogany shelf being chalked to the brim with books. I wonder if they have any Swords of Justice? Patch thought marveling at the assortment of books. A white banner was hung above the front desk that read “Welcome New Students”. A brown-haired student and their Mawile sat behind the front desk, waiting for students to check in.

“Patch Callune?” The stylish student asked whilst applying makeup.

“Umm… that’s me,” Patch nervously adjusted the hat from covering their eyes. 

The upperclassman handed them a keycard, “Room 302. Take the stairs to the left, then go up the elevator to the third floor.”

The student immediately left their post with their Mawile beside them. Am I the last to check in? I hope I didn’t make them sit there all day. Part of them wished they had arrived earlier when Clavell, but the other half was grateful for staying with Nemona. Without her, they wouldn’t have caught two new Pokemon as well as a temporary member.

Up the stairs, they went to the elevator which wouldn’t open unless they scanned their keycard on a sensor. The elevator itself fit the ornate aesthetic of the school with rich wooden walls and a purple carpeted floor. However, Patch could not find any buttons to press and the doors quickly slid shut. Beneath their feet, they felt the elevator moving upward which only made Patch more confused. Soon after the doors slid open into an entirely new corridor lined with doors on each side. Could this be my floor? Patch strolled along the hallway to see that the door closest to the right was labeled 302, their room. 

A little relieved, the exhausted trainer scanned their keycard over the lock and the door opened to a pleasant little room filled with boxes. It wasn’t as big as the guestroom back at Nemona’s but it was still cozy. On the leftside their small kitchen space complete with a sink, countertop, and some cabinets to hold snacks. On the other side where most of Patch’s boxes took up the floor, but once they unpacked it their would become a nice space to sitdown and relax. A desk sat in the corner of the room, perfect for drawing and studying. Across from it was a bed, already made in anticipation for Patch’s arrival. 

This is it, they gleamed with excitement, My humble abode until I graduate! They slid most of their boxes to their desk to open up some open space, and then they reached into their bag and released their Pokeballs. All at once, Tamarind, Kombucha, and Arturo appeared before their trainer; curious as to where they were. Being the smallest, Arturo scampered about into any dark corner he could hide in. Tamarind sniffed the boxes to see if there was any food inside them. Patch made sure to keep Kombucha from rubbing his putrid odor on the fresh sheets of their bed. I should figure out how to give a Lechonk a bath… 

While the other Pokemon were roaming freely, Kapheria was still locked inside her Pokeball. Patch wanted to let her out but worried that she would exacerbate her crack in such a tight space Knowing well that Kapheria deserved some attention, they caved in and preceded to release the metallic dragon. Once out of her ball Kapheria took up a lot of space within the confines of the dorm, but their was still enough room for her to properly raise her head and tail  

“Arg?” Kapheira purred. 

Patch held the dragon by the sides of her jaws, “Have a good rest girl?”

“Arggggh!” she yawned letting out a big roar.

“Aww,” Patch scratched beneath her chin, “This is going to be your new home. You’ll be staying with me until your trainer comes back!”

Patch felt a tug at their sock, and they turned to see Tamarind at their feet. The Fuecoco held out his arms to his trainer, gesturing that he wanted to be held. As the trainer picked him up and felt the warmth of crocodile’s body, they sensed a blissful relief in their overly-shaken heart. Despite knowing their Pokemon for only a day, Patch would happily care for them like their own children. Despite feeling intimidated they would allow their Pokemon to battle if it kept them from going stir crazy. Despite feeling unsure of everything, Patch would always have their Pokemon by their side.

<- Chapter 4- Chapter 6 ->

[battle-subway-ghost]

SHIT OKAY OKAY OKAY

Pelipper Mail - A pokeball containing Tag the arcanine- attached is a barely legible note "STAY WARM STAY WARM PLEASE GHOST"

((feel free to ignore this if it messes with ur plans))

(Seems he’s moving too fast— the Pelipper can’t catch up to him, and ultimately has to head back.)

[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.

[savebatsfromscratch]

31. Gone.

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51262894

Words: 1,330

Cws: Swearing (including the word “whore”), mild torture, crying, hopeless situation, seemingly endless conflict, generally gets a little bit goofy (I literally can’t think of any other way to describe it, look at the swearing warning), death, injury, blood

Notes: I was gonna do Hetalia, but I just HAD to end on Pokespe. >:) (Lol, catch the connections to my fics “Insomnia,” and “Perfect,”??? (Also in this Whumptober series.)) If it sucks, no it doesn’t.

Prompt: No. 31: “I thought that I was getting better.” Emptiness | Setbacks | “Take it easy.”

Red screamed, and his hand snapped open to drop his Pokeball as the Grunt's heel twisted into the soft part of his arm. His vision blurred as tears pricked at the edges of his eyes. That fucking hurt.

”Stay down,“ the Grunt hissed out a laugh, and Red didn't need to be an expert to see that the man was enjoying this more than he should have been. (Of course, Red was an expert, so it was all the more clear the intention when the villain grinned down at him and spat in his face.)

Red glared at him, but to tell the truth, he couldn't find it in himself to fight back, not anymore. He'd already lost the battle, and agony from every little injury bit into him like knives as he lay in the dirt, why should he keep fighting?

”What? Too tired to fight?“ The grunt sneered, kicking at Red's head as he began to circle around him, ”I thought you were supposed to be good at this, it's clear you're just a pushover!"

Red felt far too weak to speak, but the edge of his mouth twitched with some ghost of defiance as the grunt continued to laugh. Lucky shot. That's what he'd gotten. If Red hadn't been so god damn tired he knew he could have beaten him to the moon and back, but with all that was going on...

Why, the fighter seemed to have lost his fight!

“Pff, can't even respond?! Did that cut really deep?“ The man crouched down, and Red only just managed to hold the grunt's gaze as he wrapped a gloved hand around Red's throat. He squeezed lightly, toying with an already bruising mark from a Pokemon attack that he had left there, but Red found himself unable to respond either way.

The man frowned, but even though that should have made Red feel happy with where he had taken this “conversation,“ he felt nothing by pain.

The world was spinning.

He'd thought all of this was going to get better by now.

”Well, if you're not going to say anything I guess I should leave,“ the Grunt straightened up as he laughed. He lifted a communicator of some kind to his mouth, said something to whoever was on the other end, and then smirked back down at Red. ”Not much of a fighter yourself, eh?“

He gave Red's head another purposeful kick.

”Whore,“

Red felt those pricking tears begin to slip out of his eyes, and the man only continued to laugh as he walked away, his bag full of all of the important information that Red had been meant to protect.

Red knew he should have ran after him. He should have stood up and kept fighting. He shouldn't have gotten himself in this situation in the first place! He should have made it smoothly through this battle, gotten back what he had been so clearly intended to save, and made his merry way back to base.

It should have gotten better by now.

Red tried to push himself into a sitting position, but his arms were slow to obey him, and his wrists failed to even hold his weight once he had finally gotten them under himself. He hurt all over. He hurt so fucking much.

Was he dying?

No matter how often he joked that Team Rocket was more like a friend than an enemy by now, he knew it was not true. They did things like this to people, for Arceus' sake! There was so much blood that it seemed to mix with his shadow as he lay limply against the ground. It spurted from cuts on his arms, dripped warmly from under his hair, and sank wetly into his clothing as he lay there. (He knew that his Pokemon fared no better no matter where they lay on the battlefield, but there was nothing he could do.)

Before this, before all of this, Red had been a fighter. He'd been someone who never seemed to lose, (if you took resilience as a clue for that sort of thing, anyhow), and it was true. More often than not, Red had won. He'd won against his rival, he'd beaten Surge, heck, he'd even won the league! He had never been one to lose.

But...

These days, winning didn't seem to be quite the same.

He knew that he was still winning most scrimmages against these villains, but there were just so many. There was no end in sight for him, and he knew it. Before this, he'd hoped it had been getting better, that he might finally be free to live the life of a normal trainer, and for a moment there, he had really believed it.

How naive he had been.

His blood seeped into the ground, and his tears followed as the agony seemed to take over his entire body. He cried and swore. Where had his strength gone? Years ago, he knew he would have shrugged this off like it was nothing, but now?

Maybe this was some kind of awful last straw, one final loss as he lay in the dirt.

Ruined and broken, just like the good toy he had been convinced he was.

His breath came in ragged gasps, and his fingers twitched uselessly. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. Even his mind itself was whirling and spinning as the sky seemed to morph and warp above him. 

This had happened before, this pain. Back at the Viridian Gym, back when he was just a kid, he'd been hurt this badly. Red had never liked to think about it, but he'd nearly died that day.

It was by no means the only time he'd been close to death, but it had always felt like the one that hit closest to home. It wasn't something unavoidable, like his stint in the stone statue, or something that he was saved from by his Pokemon, like his several close calls with drowning, it was something entirely different.

It was the first time he had truly felt like he was nothing more than a piece in some awful puzzle game. Just some battered kid bleeding out on the forest floor. That had to have been, what, nearly two decades ago now? Surely he should have learned from it, surely he couldn't find himself in nearly exactly the same position now, right?

But as the world warped and spun around him, Red's breathing became more and more labored, and he knew that he had. He had thought it was going to get better, and that was costing him his life.

If he was up for it, he would have sworn, but he couldn't find the strength to speak. All this, and for what? A couple badges? A few friends that he had never been able to truly trust? A trophy that just collected dust on his shelf in the home he never had time to visit? What had he lived for?!

What had he become?!

He coughed, and he didn't have to look to see that there was blood in it. Whatever attack had hit him had hit him hard. (Distantly, he wondered if those old scars on his stomach had opened up, that would do it.)

He didn't have much time left.

Why didn't he feel like fighting?!

Despite all of the agony, despite all of the pain, he knew that life was something he didn't want to lose. Despite everything, he wanted to live. He wanted to find peace, he wanted to see Team Rocket destroyed, he wanted to be normal. Why couldn't he just fight?

If he had been at all up for it, he knew he would have sobbed.

Here he was, one of the most well known people in the region, all alone in the wilderness. Not even his friends could save him now. The world spun one last time, and everything went black as emptiness clouded his mind.

Happy Halloween!