#thunderheart - orange's pikachu

[pikatrainer99]

Here's a little headcanon of mine involving Partner Pikachu and Eevee.

Ash's Pikachu, Captain Pikachu, Red's Pika and Yellow's Chuchu are all Partner Pikachu.

Chloe's Eevee is a Partner Eevee.

Bonus: In my fanfic universe, Thunderheart, my OC Orange's Pikachu, IS a Partner Pikachu.

[pikatrainer99]

Got some Orange content for y'all finally after a long while...it's a song!

First off, this is old, I did this over a year ago now. Second, I have had no vocal training so the singing (especially the high notes) isn't perfect by any means. Third, this is a parody of "Light Of Hope" from Sonic Forces so if the melody sounds familiar that's why...it's the same song, I just wrote my own lyrics to it to fit Orange. It covers his whole life story from the Viridian Forest attack in the FRLG arc when he was 4 all the way up to the point of him going on his own training journey and it's sung from his POV (he's addressing his Pikachu Thunderheart the whole time so whenever the word "you" comes up it means Thunderheart), though I'm not putting a voice on when I sing this, I'm just singing as myself, to lyrics I wrote that are from Orange's POV.

Hope you like it... I'm nervous about posting it but I wanted to post SOMETHING Orange related because I've been doing too much Trolls posting lately and I want everyone who follows me for Pokémon/PokéSpe/Orange content to know that I haven't forgotten about my boy, he still lives rent-free in my mind, I just get distracted by other special interests sometimes, as you can probably tell with all the Trolls posts I've been doing...I just tend to get hyperfocused on one special interest at a time and it's all I can think about for a while (how long the while is depends on how intense the hyperfocus is). Sometimes I can focus on more than one special interest at once but it makes it harder to manage...sometimes I wish I didn't have multiple special interests but I don't choose them, they choose me, so I've got three living rent-free in my mind 24/7 right now.

[pikatrainer99]

This made me emotional while drawing it 🥺

Orange and Thunderheart have both just woken up in a cold sweat from nightmares and immediately turned to each other for comfort...they've both been through SO MUCH (sometimes they even have the SAME NIGHTMARE at the SAME TIME) and they find the most comfort in each other. Orange in particular feels that Thunderheart is the ONE being in the world he can be completely honest around, vulnerable around, 100% himself around, etc. He knows that Thunderheart will never leave him for any reason and Thunderheart knows Orange will never leave her for any reason. He's her number one source of comfort, just like she is his. He was the one who saved her life when they were both so young after all, so it makes perfect sense that after a nightmare about that near-death experience, she'd just jump right into his arms and burst into tears. And Orange immediately looked for her when he woke up from his nightmare about reliving everything traumatic he's been through in life one after the other...because she knows about all of it, she knows absolutely EVERYTHING and is his number one source of emotional support...to the point that she even REFUSES TO EVOLVE so she can still be that emotional support Pokémon for him, because Raichu don't fit on a person's shoulder, and she knows that, so she's perfectly content remaining a Pikachu forever for that reason. Their bond is really wholesome and special and there's nothing that'll change that 🥺

Now about the drawing itself, drawing Orange from the side view was...really difficult. It was so hard to get the hair right (he has a LOT of hair) and drawing Thunderheart jumping into his arms was also difficult because her head is drawn in side view while the rest of her body is drawn in back facing three-quarter view. This is because her head is already on Orange's shoulder while the rest of her body is still mid-jump. It's not the best, but my main focus with this one was the emotions they're both feeling. They're both crying out their pain and finding comfort in each other, hence the writing on the drawing, which is an important message I myself need to remember. It was hard to draw the tears, but I did my best, and I personally think the facial expressions are done decently this time, I feel their pain just looking at their expressions and I wanna give them both a hug. This particular drawing takes place way down the planned fanfic timeline for Orange's story, but this same thing happens a lot more often than just this instance, and it hurts me to do this to my characters but after all they've been through, it's inevitable...and I say this as someone with PTSD myself...I know how it all feels, I know what they're going through, I know all this stuff on a personal level...and that's why it hits so hard...

I went on way too much here, but this drawing just hits different for me, so I felt like I had to talk about it...sorry if that's annoying 😅

[pikatrainer99]

Yet another drawing of Orange!

I drew this one back in August of last year, it's 11-year-old Orange heading out on his first journey (after convincing his parents to let him go and be a proper Pokémon Trainer even though they don't think it's a good idea at first) with his first four Pokémon! He's on his way to Jubilife to watch Dia and Pearl's comedy contest performance before really setting out. His Pokémon are Thunderheart the Pikachu, Chimzilla the Chimchar, Star the Starly, and Storm the shiny Shinx. He cares deeply for all of them and treats them like family, because he loves and understands Pokémon so much (hence his first Dexholder title "The Communicator), he considers them best friends as well as siblings, and wouldn't hesitate to risk his life to help a Pokémon in need (hence his other title "The Rescuer"). He listens to their voices and their wishes and makes sure to fulfill each and every Pokémon’s needs and wants. He keeps them out of their Poké Balls so they can experience the world alongside him. He trains them the way they want to be trained, making sure to always listen to their opinions on things, vowing to never ignore anything they have to say or be anything like how the bullies back in Viridian City were towards him. He just wants to be the best friend and Trainer he can be to them, because he loves and cares for them so SO much!

So anyway, I've gone on too much about Orange's love for his Poké-pals, so now on to the drawing itself...there's a bunch of white blobs on it because this is one of the ones cluttered with text, so I decided to 'white it out' as best I could...it looks really messy but it's better than a bunch of my terrible handwriting all over the place taking away from the drawing itself in my opinion. It was my first time drawing Starly so that's why it's so big compared to the other Pokémon, and Thunderheart is on Orange's shoulder because she's his emotional support/shoulder Pokémon, she's always there for him when he needs her. He's holding up a Poké Ball because he's so excited that he's a proper Pokémon Trainer now (hence the huge grin), and I tried my best to draw him in a running pose, I know it looks wonky but I tried my best...also please try to ignore the erased bits, I know there's a lot of them but drawing is hard, okay? 😅

[pikatrainer99]

Another drawing of Orange, helping out a Pokémon in need like the compassionate, caring guy he is 🥺

So, turns out I DID in fact, have another drawing of Orange without too much text on it...this one is one of my favorite ones too, it shows how much he cares for Pokémon. This shiny Shinx is one of the first Pokémon he obtains after starting his journey at age 11 (he moved from Kanto to Sinnoh at age 8). This poor little Shinx was abandoned by his family for being a different color and standing out from the crowd (I personally have always wondered how shiny Pokémon would be treated in the wild by others of their kind, and this unfortunately doesn't seem too unlikely to me). Orange is listening to the Shinx's story in the drawing while stimming with his scarf (did I forget to mention he's autistic in my other post about him...?) and his Pikachu, Thunderheart, acting as emotional support because he's remembering all the times HE was bullied and treated terribly back when he lived in Viridian City...after hearing the Shinx's story, he takes him in, names him Storm, and tells him that he'll never be left behind or treated badly again, and that they'll work together to become stronger together.

Why a shiny Shinx, you may ask...? Well, I love the Shinx line as a whole, including their shinies, and it was the first ever shiny I specifically hunted for in any Pokémon game ever, so I made my OC have one as an homage to the first time I ever successfully found a shiny.

Why are his Pokémon nicknamed without any particular naming scheme like the other characters in PokéSpe who name their 'mons...? Because the nicknames Orange gives his Pokémon are based on actual nicknames I give my own Pokémon in the games they can be caught in...so TECHNICALLY, there IS a naming scheme there. I do in fact, name all my Shinx "Storm", and specifically female Pikachu, "Thunderheart", and the rest of Orange's Pokémon will follow that trend of being named the things I actually name those species when I catch them in the games.

Anyway, try to ignore the erased bits, I know there's a lot of them, but this pose was a hard one to draw, I drew this back in August last year, and I still need practice with more complex poses like this...also, drawing Pikachu in the PokéSpe style, as opposed to the anime/game style, is HARD...I actually needed references for this Pikachu style...whereas with the anime/game style, I can draw that from memory. This was also my first time drawing a Shinx, so that's why it's bigger than it should be, because I needed to make sure I was drawing it right 😅