#I really like writing the stuff Dusknoir's going through it's so much fun

[roxannarambles]

Finally finished playing Legends: Arceus-- the main storyline, at least, I have not completed the full Dex, but I did everything else. Some thoughts below.

So, there's a lot this game has going for it. There are lots of lovely natural environments to run around in and explore, and the pokemon really do feel integrated into a complete world, full of personality and ways of interacting with them you just don't get in other games. The controls feel good, the mounts are very fun to use, the aesthetic is on point, and the story's pretty fun. Crafting is a neat addition to the game, there's plenty of side-quests, and there's some interesting new battle mechanics. Overall, they switch things up from the mainline games and try a lot of new things, which I do commend them for.

But, um. Here's the thing. I really hate the gameplay, for the most part. Which is why I bought the game and really, really wanted to enjoy it, and I tried several times to play through, but each time I got so intensely bored I just couldn't go through with it. Don't get me wrong, catching pokemon and using berries and stun items and other stuff feels good, and it feels fun. For like, the first hour. But you have to keep doing it.

Over and over and over.

I just don't enjoy catching a billion pokemon and grinding out other research tasks, like beating up on wild pokemon in various ways, using a specific move a certain number of times, etc. It's so mindless and dull and grindy and boring. You know how PokemonGo is mostly just . . . catching pokemon? Yeah. That gets old, I hate that. I can see how it's just chill and relaxing for some people, but it just isn't for me. I did my damned best to get into it, I promise, but I never did. It was a slog the whole way.

I tried to make it more interesting to me by doing a "bug only challenge." I was only allowed to catch and use bug types, the whole game. (The exceptions are plot-required catches: namely, the Tutorial pokemon and a Dusknoir at some point in the main storyline) And it . . . was sorta nice, I guess? But it didn't do much to make it more fun to me. In some ways it made it even more of a slog since it's harder to earn Star Ranks when you're severely limiting the species you catch. Still, I'm kinda proud I was able to do it, I guess?

Trainer battles in the game are frustrating, too, due to their rarity. You do have battles in the game, and new battle mechanics to try out, too, which gives you a desire to have battles-- especially since it can break up the monotonous research tasks. However, battles are so incredibly rare, and typically incredibly, incredibly easy and are over in almost an instant. You never get to really use the pokemon you've trained. And I get it, the emphasis of the game is research, not battling, since battling is still in its infancy in this era. It still feels frustrating though. I craved battles.

I didn't get to ever feel attached to my team, either. Since most of the game involves research tasks, a lot of those tasks involve battling against wild pokemon. If I used my main team for all that, they'd get way overlevelled in a hurry. So I was always using different individuals. I hardly ever saw my main team, so I did not get the chance to bond with them emotionally-- especially since we rarely had trainer battles anyway.

I didn't feel attached to most of the characters in the game either, to be frank. This isn't any fault of the writing, I actually think the writing was very strong in this game, this is more of just a personal preference. The Pokemon Professor is fine enough, but I never got over the disgusting pube-hair look he has going on his face (I am allowed to dislike characters for shallow reasons, okay). Rei was okay, but I certainly didn't feel fond over him. The leaders of the Pearl and Diamond clans were okay I guess, but the 'arguments' about time and space were so fucking stupid and took up most their screen time, so it kind of ruins them. I just, I dunno, I didn't feel strongly about any of them.

Except for Volo. I always liked him. (The moment I saw him I hoped he was a butch lesbian and got all excited. When I found out he was a dude I was a bit disappointed but oh well, he's still pretty) He was friendly and charismatic and I appreciated his curiosity and his wanderer's spirit.

It's a shame I didn't play and finish the game when I first bought it, because then I might not have been spoiled to Volo's little twist at the end. But, finding out Volo's heavy involvement in the game and the twist at the end was what motivated me to bother finishing the game, so. There's that. I really don't think anything else would have motivated me, because the gameplay was just such a slog for me.

I am glad I bothered to finish the main story, though. It was interesting. I do love the premise of people being very wary and frightened of pokemon and exploring that kind of world. Portraying pokemon in a scarier role was a bold move for the franchise and I love them exploring that side. I LOVE pokemon chasing after you and attacking you directly and the 'alpha' pokemon mechanic and the spookiness of it all. And the story is honestly a neat one. The idea of MC being displaced in time and space and having to work for their room and board has a cozy-survival feel to it, and the deep mistrust of everyone and slowly earning their respect was interesting. Although I did feel actively annoyed that no matter how much work I did, and how many requests I fulfilled, people still often treated me with mistrust. But I think that was the point, to be honest!

When you quell the final Noble and the sky goes boom, that's when things get truly fun, though. I love that Kamado turns on you, which was not too surprising since he'd been one of the ones who really banged on and on about mistrusting you the most. I LOVE the short scene of showing you being walked out of the village as you're banned. I LOVED the feeling of being suddenly on your own, and I LOVE that both Pearl and Diamond clans turned their backs on you so that they wouldn't risk war with Galaxy. And who is there when you have no one else to turn to, alone in the wilderness, when you need a friend the most?

Volo.

He brings you to Cogita, where she fulfills the heavy burden of Exposition Lady. The years of bearing that burden of Exposition have turned her tired and a little snippy, apparently (in truth she's only snippy with Volo, and I think it's because she senses a bad aura, but from an innocent standpoint it seems needlessly snippy, since Volo's Mask is a genuinely nice guy and he's given a nearly flawless performance). I don't know if Cogita was even needed for the story, since Volo's specialty is myth research and he could have easily given us that exposition and also given us a neutral ground to shelter at while the other clans turned their backs on us. But whatever, they wanted a Cynthia ancestor, I can understand that. Dang her house was pretty to look at, and the music there was great. They really put effort into that part.

And then you go and forge the red chain and climb the mountain and . . . potato guy? Why are you here? Oh, he's randomly a ninja. Actually, that part was hilarious and I loved it, I had a grudge against Beni the ENTIRE game because he didn't want to serve me his stupid mochi, so I was so excited to kick his ass. And the extra lore was nice, not to mention the extremely rare chance to have a battle. Anyway, after that, you battle the boss and then take care of the scary Legendary pokemon and all that jazz, and the story . . . ends. Rather abruptly, to be honest. It felt a bit sudden, as if Act 2 was cut a little short. I think it's because the post-game is still what you'd call the main story. Post-game content normally is extra, bonus stuff, but man, if you skip the post-game plot in Arceus, you'll be missing a whole chunk of actual story. Tbh I think they shouldn't have rolled credits 'til the end of the Volo battle, but that's nitpicking. Besides, it amuses me to think some people stopped after the credits and never learned the truth about Volo, which is just a hilarious thought.

Act 3 takes place after a festival celebrating the fact MC saved the world and the Diamond and Pearl clans no longer need to fight (sadly, we don't get to see the festival though!! other than a tiny photo in the credits!) It's pretty short and mostly running around doing errands involving facing off against legendaries and mythicals; the most satisfying errand was a rematch with Kamado because it was a trainer battle aaaaaa!! So few of those. And then we climb the mountain again because Volo, um, really wants to meet the creator's 'unwanted child' for some reason . . . sounds like a good idea right??

The battle with him was fun. Having Cynthia's banger theme was hype, didn't expect it. I was doing the bug challenge run, my team was levels ~60-65, and I beat him on my first go, down to my last pokemon, Heracross on full health.

And then he brings out Giratina without letting me heal. Ahaha, uhhm.

Thankfully I had a lot of Max Revives stuffed in my bag which I FINALLY had a use for. The second phase for Giratina was not expected, so that was a fun surprise, but I scraped by on a few more max revives and careful juggling, and we won. (I dunno what happens once you meet Arceus itself, because I think I need to 100% the Dex for that to happen, but presumably our character can finally return home.)

Was it a good game? Yes, objectively speaking, definitely. I think Legends: Arceus was a very strong game. The writing was very good, and that's a precious rarity in Pokemon games. The world itself was carefully designed, polished, pretty, and felt like truly exploring nature and encountering pokemon, in a unique and refreshing way. The gameplay tried something very new and it generally implemented its intentions very well-- it felt fun to control the character, to throw pokeballs, to craft and collect items, to use mounts, and go up against the Nobles. The story and the universe cast pokemon in an exciting new perspective.

It's just a shame that a million grindy research tasks are so utterly boring to carry out, because the main thrust of the game and what you spend the most time on just plain sucked for me to do. So much so, that I did not enjoy most of my experience playing this game. But oh well, what can you do?

[totallycorrectpmdquotes]

I'm on another PMD kick, and I stumbled across your Backfire fic on AO3, and it's super good so far! Even if it's a while to the next update, it was totally worth reading what you have so far-- so good job, and good luck with it if you ever continue!

Thank you so much! :DD

But speaking of updates...

(Chapter 1) (Chapter 2)

Uxie’s powers aren’t just limited to his lake, and affect all memories which could be traced back to the Time Gears. It’s easy to imagine the mental catastrophe this could cause in the mind of someone who’s spent nearly their entire life looking into them. In his defense, Uxie was really mad at Grovyle.

-

3.

For Chatot, it had been aparticularly frazzling evening. The Guildmaster had reorganized a storage roomwith a rather small window for Grovyle by throwing all its contents into thehall. Bidoof and Loudred carried out their orders to clear the mess away quicklyenough, although Chatot would not bethe first one to open the closets they had stuffed everything in. When OfficerMagnezone had led the secret transport of the still unconscious Grovyle,Dusknoir had followed. As Grovyle was deposited in his new bed – closer to theGuildmaster’s chamber than any of the apprentice’s, just to be safe – Dusknoirhad promptly positioned himself outside the door.

“Dusknoir, Sir,” Chatot had said,“we can have the apprentices take over that position. You don’t need to troubleyourself for us.” His intention had been to send Chimecho to take over, andmore importantly, have her make sure the Great Dusknoir was alright.

But Dusknoir had waved him offand refuted any further attempts to convince him that they could help. “I camehere to find him, I’ll guard him. It’s no trouble.”

A few minutes later, Dusknoirapparently caught sight of his reflection in one of the lower-level drinkingfountains and jumped in fright. No one dared to ask what startled him. Herefused to leave his post when dinner was ready as well, despite the fact thatGrovyle wasn’t due to wake for another several hours. And Chatot, well, mayhave reacted by bringing him a plate of leftovers sprinkled with a portion ofground sleep seeds.

He was concerned and had everyright to be! Dusknoir would surely be upset when he woke, and Chatot would takethe consequences of his actions in stride. He would apologize for hisdeception, but not for his actions. Dusknoir needed to rest – whatever ailmenthe was suffering from would not be treated if he ran himself ragged.

Night fell on the guild, andChatot enlisted Chimecho’s help to move the now fully asleep Dusknoir to theGuildmaster’s bed.

“And remember, this stays betweenus.” Chatot said, well aware that Chimecho already knew and wouldn’t say a wordabout Dusknoir’s condition. Nervousness kept him tittering about, though. “Areyou certain he has to be awake for you to examine him?”

“Sorry,” she said, and used herpsychic to gently set Dusknoir down. “If he’s against it, we could have someonetalk with him and I’ll examine him while he’s distracted.”

Chatot hesitated for a secondbefore he sighed. “You have better eyes for this than anyone in the guild. Ifyou think that would be enough for you to help him, then I trust yourjudgement.” He shrugged off Dusknoir’s bag and did his best not to look at thesleeping form. “You may take your leave and return to your quarters.” He was very aware she would not be doing that;the apprentices would be meeting in Team Relic’s room, where the two would bebombarded with questions about why they had decided to let Grovyle stay.

Chimecho nodded, and with a quietring of her bell, she left the room. Chatot watched her leave before he nudgedDusknoir’s bag closer to him. There was something strange about the bag,something that Chatot struggled to put a feather on, but it clicked when hefound a worn patch on the right side where a few rolled up pieces of parchmentwere visible. The bag was the same model as Grovyle’s.

Chatot allowed himself a momentof short, quiet laughter – he’d had such a horrifying feeling, and all it hadamounted to was that. How incrediblysimplistic. Those bags must be mass produced in the future with that samedefect. It was unfortunate that the Great Dusknoir had such a poor qualitytreasure bag.

With one long look at the piecesof parchment which, really, were none of Chatot’s business and were not something he’d be prying into,Chatot returned to his post outside of Grovyle’s room. The Guildmaster sat tothe left of the door, two crochet hooks in his hands and what looked like a half-finishedyarn apple in his lap.

“Hiya!” The Guildmaster said,loudly, but clearly trying to be quiet. “How’s Dusknoir? Is he having sweetdreams?”

“I’m sure he is,” Chatot said,and made himself comfortable to the right of the door. “And Grovyle?”

The Guildmaster put down his yarnand stared across the room. “…No,” he said, “he’s still having nightmares. Buthe’ll be awake soon. He’ll be happier then.”

Chatot glanced back, through thecurtain they’d draped over the doorway. The shadows were twisted around Grovyle,and in the dim light almost looked like they were standing over him.

Chatot pulled the curtain openfarther as Grovyle shuddered, and the illusion faded.

.-.

There was no vulpix named Breannain the Wigglytuff Guild. However, there was one who’d introduce herself by hernickname, Breeze.

She hadn’t known that Pokémon goby their species name unless interacting with their family until she was told.She was practically illiterate – everyone around wrote and read in footprintrunes, but she didn’t even know the alphabet. When asked where she was from, orwhy she had made her way to Treasure Town in the first place, all Breeze had tooffer was a shrug.

Honestly, it was impressive thatno one had figured out her secret yet. Well, they’d figured out about herDimensional Scream, but her secret of being a ‘human turned Pokémon withamnesia who couldn’t even remember her own real name’ was still safe.

Mostly.

Breeze sat beside her partner,Dusk, with their guildmates crowded into the room with them. They’d beenarguing for the past several minutes. Breeze had been reorganizing her treasurebag for most of them and left Dusk to deal with their friends’ questions.

At least Chimecho had taken pityand brought him a chalkboard so he wouldn’t strain his voice anymore.

“But I don’t understand,” Sunflora said, “he’s a bad Pokémon!”

Dusk dipped his paw in chalk duskand drew several footprints from various normal-types while Breeze triplechecked her stash of orans for any orens. She returned them to her bag as Duskgestured to his writing.

“I guess,” Sunflora hesitated,“but you can’t change nature.”

“We are still worried about youtwo,” Dugtrio said, “you may be confident in this second chance, but we wouldhate to see a horrible fate befall you.”

Breeze didn’t look at him (them?She really needed to find a chance to ask what Dugtrio preferred) and insteadgently dumped out her orbs. She started to sort them by function, thenalphabetically on top of that. Dusk used some grass and water-type footprintsthis time.

“We will not question yourdecision further,” Dugtrio said, “but know that you may fall back on us if thisfails.”

“WELL, I will!” Loudred announcedand was promptly shushed by the rest of the apprentices.

“Oh my gosh, do you want Chatot to come tell us off?”Sunflora said as she whacked him with one of her leaves. “Be quiet for once!”

“Fine!” Loudred said in whatcould barely be counted as an indoor voice. Breeze heard him stomp towards her,and kept her eyes focused on the orbs. “Vulpix, don’t do anything stupid.”

Breeze pawed categories of orbs alittle bit farther apart. “I won’t.”

“I mean it,” Loudred said, “Idon’t care if you think he’s cool,you get yourself or any of us killed we’re going to have a problem.”

Breeze licked her lips and didn’tlook up at him. “I won’t,” she repeated, “I know what I’m doing.”

“But that’s what we want toknow,” Chimecho pointed out, her voice gentle. “What is your plan? We know hewon’t remember you, and that you feel bad because of how much he’s missing, buthe nearly killed you both. Why are you putting so much faith in him?”

Dusk started to write somethingdown, but Corphish held up a claw to stop him.

“Hey-hey, no offense Riolu,” hesaid, “but I want to hear what Vulpix has to say about this. She’s been tooquiet.”

As an agreement rippled acrossthe guild, Breeze coaxed her orbs back towards her. “Uh,” she swallowed,“well…”

Breeze frowned. Why… why was she doing this? Yes, she felt badfor and identified with Grovyle, but she hadn’t been a bad person. She’d neverhurt anyone who hadn’t deserved it, and Grovyle had nearly destroyed the world.He’d tried to kill her, Dusk, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf – everyone. What if she was looking at this all wrong? What if hestill remembered how much he wanted to hurt them, just not the why? What if she was being stupid, andputting so much trust in someone who was just going to hurt the guild?

“Come ON!” Loudred said, yellingright by her ear, “Spit it out!”

There was a muffled squawk beforea tremor knocked the apprentices off their feet.

.-.

Dusknoir sat on the edge of afrozen riverbank beside a man dressed in shades of gray. They had a pile ofrocks between them and sat in silence as they threw them into the river. Thesound of a splash was there, but the water didn’t move as it sucked the rocksdown. Dusknoir pulled out a rock, flat and circular with small protrusionsaround the edge, and handed it off to the human. Immediately after touching itthe human gasped and gripped his head. The rock fell from his hand and rolleddown the bank, bouncing twice before it finally settled in the shallows.Dusknoir stared at the man, and he stared back with blank, unseeing eyes.

Dusknoir blinked.

He was on a cliff face, a body infront of him and his hands stained a dark red. There was a loud, shrill noise.There had been for the past minute.

He turned around, and the imageof a small child with red-brown hair drifted away like smoke. The cliffblurred. The body faded.

He was in a blank but colourfulroom, and in front of him was an unfortunately familiar shadow form with a wispof white hair.

“Hello, Hope,” Darkrai said,absolutely smug, “are you having a nice nap?”

“Don’t call me that,” Dusknoirsnapped, immediately on guard. “What are you doing here?”

“What, you thought you were theonly one who followed those idiots when they fled back in time?” Darkrai said,“I knew you were dense, but I was hoping you weren’t stupid.” He sighed,overtly dramatic as Dusknoir scowled. “Of course that was too much to hope for.Tell me, what was your theory for why the brat doesn’t remember you anymore?The power of friendship between you and your minions?”

“You don’t need to act like achild,” Dusknoir growled, and continued to stare at Darkrai’s smug face. “You…did you do that to her?”

“If it’s any consolation, it wasa happy accident. I was aiming for the nuisance your friends have dumped in theother room – I planned on blasting him out of existence, but your little bratsaw me and took the hit.”

“She’s not mine,” Dusknoir corrected,“if you did this to her, why don’t you go finish the job?”

“What, and take all your glory? Please,” Darkrai grinned, “besides, Icould ask you the same thing. You’ve completed your mission. Why are you stillhere?”

Dusknoir narrowed his eye andspoke carefully. “There was an issue with creating the Dimensional Hole back.”

“Oh, why didn’t you say so?”Darkrai said, faux cheerful and still unbearably smug. He snapped his fingers,and the dream world shifted to hold a frozen Dimensional Hole. “I’ll just set thisdown right outside, and then you can finish your job.”

No! “That’s not necessary,” Dusknoir said quickly. “Besides,they’re both still far too entwined with the others in this time. I’ll needmore time to separate them so I can take them back without severely -”

“If you’re going to make excuses,at least put some effort into them.”

Dusknoir froze. Darkrai suddenlyseemed so much bigger than him. “E-excuse me?”

“I own dreams, you idiot. This is my realm.” He was barely the size ofDarkrai’s eye now. “I know you don’t want to leave. For all you try and protestyou want to stay here and enjoy this time before it’s gone, while still pretendingyou’re just doing your job. And who could blame you, especially with your history? I wonder what Dialga wouldthink of this after how much faith they put in you. I’m sure they’d be rathercross.”

“Don’t question my loyalties,”Dusknoir shouted back, and struggled to keep himself steady as Darkrai’s laughshook the dreamscape. “I’m just as loyal to Master Dialga as you are!”

The laugh grew louder. Thecolours got brighter, more saturated, and began to drip into each other.

“That’s not a very high bar,”Darkrai said. “Still, if you’re oh so convinced of your loyalties, then let memake the task simpler for you.” Dusknoir looked down and saw that his handwrapped around Chatot’s neck.

“Wait -” he couldn’t shout. Hisvoice wouldn’t get any louder than a whisper. The ground below him started toshake as the shadows morphed into Wigglytuff, and the colours dripped into thebackground of the Wigglytuff guild. Dusknoir tried to shout again, but no wordscame out.

“The Dimensional Hole will beatop Mt Bristle when you’re done,” Darkrai’s voice said, echoing fromeverywhere and nowhere at once. “Don’t take too long. Make sure you don’t needmy help again.”

A variety of faceless shadows ranin from down the hall, led by that same little girl with red-brown hair.

Dusknoir jolted, free from thenightmare. Breanna, who’d led the charge of apprentices through the guild’sshaking halls, was a vulpix again.

Dusknoir dropped Chatot and backedup as quickly as he could. The guild stopped shaking as Dusknoir raised hishands, and everyone ran over to help Chatot up. He had tiny flakes of ice inhis feathers, and Dusknoir glanced down at his hands in horror. There was norecovery from this. He would be run out – he needed to grab the two he had comefor and be done with it. He had no time to waste.

“I’m alright,” Chatot wheezed,and looked over at Dusknoir, halfway across the room. “Dusknoir, sir?”Wigglytuff grabbed Chatot and held him tight as the rest of the guild movedcloser. “Are you okay?”

Dusknoir swallowed and glanceddown at his hands. He scrambled to find the words, but his tongue was stillfrozen. He couldn’t think of what to say.

He looked up, at Chatot at first,then past him at Breanna’s horrified look. Then past her, at the green form inthe doorway he was supposed to be guarding.

Grovyle met his eyes before he ducked back, andDusknoir was confident he’d seen the whole thing.

[pokehumanmagines]

(Hey sorry I haven’t really posted yet! I’ve got a couple requests in drafts but I’ve been suffering through some physical illness and writer’s block. Obviously the physical illness was more worrisome. Straight up had to go to the ER, really sucked. Anyways, to tide you all over here are some hc’s of some of my favorite Pokés with an autistic reader, cause it’s mostly for me.)

Feraligatr

Oh no big bite baby. 

They tend to be a forgetful but they’ll try so hard to help you remember to take your medication on time! Waking you up on time is a lot easier in comparison though. They’ll roll on top of you or nom softly on your arm to wake you. 

If you’re overwhelmed from a sensory overload, like super loud noises and crowds, or some bad smells coming out of nowhere, time for a ride on their back outta there!! They got big ol hands so they’ll cover your ears if you don’t have headphones, if you’ve accidentally left them home or they broke.

 If you like pressure on you, they👏 are 👏 here 👏 to lay on you gently. But they’re also a heavy so you may want to remind them not to do that and get you weighted blanket instead, or one of your lighter Pokés.

 If you do hand flaps when you’re happy they love doing hand flappies with you!!! Hand flappies all around! Also happy noises!! Lots of happy noises! Back when they were a Totodile they most likely chewed on everything of yours, and if you’ve got some oral fixation, guess what, chewable jewelry buddies!! Or you might call them chewies like me. Theirs is a lot bigger tho.

 Also if anybody makes fun of you for all this stuff, that bitch is gonna be turned into a chewie. Unless you stop them of course but they do not tolerate people being mean to you.

 If you’re one of those people who love physical affection, guess what, them too bitch!!! Hugs and cuddles for days! Their scales are so smooth, they’ve got such a nice texture you can’t help but give em gentle rubs and full body hugs! 

If you have trouble with verbal communication they’re gonna try so hard to tell people stuff, even tho they can’t speak human languages ;-;, they try tho!!! They definitely get what you’re asking even if you have difficulty actually saying stuff!! They get you!! 

Dusknoir

Oh ho ho another big pal/ s/o. 

Also got giant fricking hands to cover your ears in emergencies. They are all absolute big brains so they are super good at reminding you to take your medicine on time, they probably organized it in one of those holders the sweetheart. 

They are a ghost type, but not to worry, they can definitely give you that physical affection kick when needed. Seriously they give fantastic hugs! Those arms aren’t just for yeeting spirits into the afterlife y’know. Though their texture isn’t unpleasant it isn’t like, as comfy as like a dog tummy. A little cold too.

Will also yeet anyone who’s being an asshole to you! They must protect. 

They don’t really have a mouth like people or other Pokémon but so they don’t really get oral fixation but dammit if they aren’t going to help you pick out some cute chewies. Yeah sure they got the tummy mouth but it’s not the same thing, they don’t really have teeth.

 Like fiddling with stuff in your hands so your mind doesn’t wander off or so you don’t feel anxious, yeah they like fiddling too. Get one of those fidget cubes or a rubix cube and they will be occupied for a while. Or maybe just play with each others hands! That’s always really cute. (๑>ᴗ<๑) Yes they will let you fiddle with the antenna on their head, but don’t do it too much! They might accidentally take it another way. 

Since they only have one eye, they have some depth perception issues, so if you have problems with running into doorways or tripping over stuff even when you know they’re there, they get you on that. They’re also super worried cause like, ow. 

They don’t really do hand flaps but they think it’s super adorable when you do it! Shows that you’re happy and they love it when you’re happy.

 Verbal communication problems? No worries, they’ve got you. They most likely know quite a few sign languages, so they’ll help you get by when you can’t say anything out loud. 

Look they might be big brain but first thought they had when you said you liked pressure on you they thought to lay on top of you. sksksskk They totally remember to place a weighted blanket on you but they love snuggling with you so much they just thought they’d help more directly.

Gothitelle 

(ok we all saw Gothitelle coming. she is the face of the blog pretty much and i call myself mod Goth lmao)

Like all psychic types they are very in-tune with your emotions even when you’re not. Like, if you’re feeling overwhelmed and are maybe red-faced over stuff, they get that, literally. They legit feel what you’re feeling and will do what they can to fix the problem, by helping you calm down or by getting you out of the situation. They only have those tiny little mitten hands so they can’t really cover your ears that well but trust me that they will remember to have backup headphones just in case. 

They will very much hug you when you’re craving physical affection, they may have noodle arms but their hugs are so comforting. Also texture wise, on the dress and bow-like parts of their body, they kinda feel like t-shirt material, so they are very comfy if you like that texture. 

Will also yeet people who are being mean to you, but with psychic powers cause psychic type and noodle arms. 

They’re really not a chewer and since they don’t really have fingers they can’t really fidget/fiddle with stuff either. But they will definitely join in with hand flaps! 

Also since psychic type, they can just telepathically tell people what you’re trying to say, or just talk to you that way. Much easier than trying to use your vocal chords when they’re not wanting to work. 

Another big brain who’s super good at organizing your medication and getting them to you on time. Also very good at waking you up on time, gotta keep everything consistent or the medicine won’t work right!

Will absolutely remember to lay a weighted blanket on you when it’s time for bed, gotta keep you comfy!

They’re just so gentle and will smooch your bruises when you accidentally bump into stuff. 

Will also do brushies on you when needed! Gotta make sure those nerves are firing correctly and that certain touches won’t overwhelm you too much!

(I hope these were ok! I know these were mostly for myself and some of these things I don’t have, the weighted blanket thing for example, but I know fellow autists have those! Btw to the anon that sent in the Lucario thing, seriously that’s just so precious and I haven’t ignored your ask! Trying to get back into writing has been a bit hard but I promise that it should be out before the 25th! - mod Goth)

[catflowerqueen]

Musings on the Torterra Guild

I always like to believe that the things you do on the last days of the old year/first day of the new year sets the tone for how the rest of the year will go. Hopefully that holds true for me, and the next year will allow me to have a good balance of work and fun—along with time to write.

 On that note… for today’s edition of “Ramblings and thoughts that consume me and make me want to write them even though I already have many other WIPs and actual Real Life things I should be working on instead,” have some thoughts about the Torterra Guild that has been mentioned/alluded to in some of my other works.

 And I’m probably also going to spend a little time working on some of those other WIPs (though probably not Déjà vu today—at least not right away), so maybe expect some first chapters for some of my other “What if…” series ideas soon. No promises, though.

 Happy New Year!

     The Torterra Guild is structured a lot differently than the Wigglytuff Guild is, and they start training young. The thing about their training, however, is that they divide the sorts of things they teach based on age and experience. It’s run a lot more like a boarding school type deal, compared to the Wigglytuff Guild. Whereas you get more one-on-one type instruction/training on the job immediately in the Wigglytuff Guild (emulating the type of “instruction” that Wigglytuff got from Armaldo), the Torterra Guild actually has multiple different classes/courses that one takes, each with its own teachers. Think of it as a little bit like the school in Serene Village from Super, if a bit more broad and intensive (because, really, that school definitely seemed more focused on “how to explore without dying” than what one would expect from a school, especially because the pokemon world does seem to have a sort of society, what with the shopkeepers, policemen, post office, bureaucracies, and I’m pretty sure that Super had its own cinema equivalent). Their end goal is also to produce explorers who thrive when it comes to long-term exploration, rather than the short-term ones that the guild focuses on, since most of those can be completed within a day (Again, this hearkens back to Wigglytuff’s days with Armaldo—since obviously Armaldo would need to make sure Wigglytuff/Igglybuff made it home every evening so his parents wouldn’t come looking for him, thus blowing his cover). Obviously the Wigglytuff Guild does dabble a bit in the long-term stuff, given that they regularly go on expeditions, but they’re much more focused on smaller explorations—or gaining the strength needed to essentially plow through all their enemies and explore in an almost speed-running fashion as compared to what everyone else is doing.

      As such, a lot of the early years at the Torterra Guild are focused on teaching things like life skills—sewing, medicine, tool-making, foraging, etc.—as well as book-learning, so that they can learn things like navigation and map-reading, ciphers, history… things that would make it a bit easier for them to make connections and uncover hidden secrets. This is why Paula knows how to read footprint runes—not only did she often ask to see what Ricky was up to and the sorts of assignments he had whenever he would come home for a visit (which was actually semi-regularly, since the Torterra Guild isn’t quite as strict on that as it is more long-term) but he isn’t the most organized and would sometimes accidentally send his assignments home instead of the letters he meant to send. Also, Paula always knew she wanted to be an explorer, and wanted to get a sort of head start when it came to learning how since she assumed that it’s the sort of thing every explorer had to know, since her early exposure only came from the things Ricky was learning. Also the fact that the Torterra Guild was pretty nearby, and maintained a wide network of explorers due to how large it was and how many apprentices it had—and the close ties all the graduates kept with each other since it had been such a large part of their lives for so long—so most of the explorers passing through the nearest town were graduates of the guild. They actually have courses focused on building webs of influences/alliances/information as well, since being away from civilization for so long would necessitate maintaining friendships and ties with allies so that you could be assured of the ability to find help even when in some obscure places—whether because those friends would be willing to team up together for a time as they explore, or simply because more friends means more chances to just randomly run into someone you know as you explore farther afield. Also, if you actually teach people how to make friends and interact with others, then it means people will know how to keep doing that even when they’re on their own. This is part of why Ricky’s flirting skills have gotten markedly better over the years, even though he wasn’t learning specifically how to flirt. The Wigglytuff Guild, on the other hand, might encourage people to be friendly to anyone they come across (“Smiles go for miles,” after all), but they don’t specifically teach their recruits how to interact with others or make friends/allies, nor do they have any networks set in place. Sure, they get a lot of strangers and teams coming to the guild—sometimes including famous ones like Team Charm, Dusknoir, and Ricky himself—but many of those groups only come because the guild itself is famous, or because they know somewhere there personally. In other words, they want to use the guild’s name or meet/find one specific person rather than trying to foster any real ties with the people training there, even though that does, of course, happen. It’s just that it’s a happy coincidence/consequence rather than the initial intent.

       Regarding “serious” training that involves going on actual explorations… that wouldn’t happen in the Torterra Guild until around age 16 or 17—so roughly the age Paula is around the beginning of Déjà vu. Even then, one would need to pass a lot of examinations and supervised practice runs first. This is why Paula’s parents had no problem letting her go off to become an explorer at such a young age. They’d already gone through it with Ricky—he’s between 8-10 years older than Paula is, and they actually made him wait a little bit to join, so he got a later start than many of the other Torterra recruits, since they weren’t sure about the whole thing yet. But once he’d joined and they started learning what it was like from his letters, they deemed it actually pretty safe, and that their initial fears were an overreaction. Since they’d also lived by the Torterra Guild for most of their lives, they—just like Paula—assumed that it was pretty standard for the way all guilds were run. As such, even though it was a bit far away, Paula’s parents were ultimately okay with her going to the Wigglytuff Guild because they assumed she’d still be stuck learning at a desk for a few years (and they/Ricky’s team may have given her an escort to the town itself and then left her to make her own way to the actual guild, rather than let her travel so far on her own before she’d received any actual training). This, by the way, is why Paula was so surprised and upset by how mundane the Drenched Bluff assignment was. In her experience, when a guild sent you out on a mission without oversight from an older guild member/one of the teachers or staff, it was for some sort of serious exploration—more like the Waterfall Cave assignment—and it was because they deemed them fully prepared to explore on their own. Having those small jobs—with no oversight even in the choosing outside of those first few days—be their own teaching assignments just wasn’t something Paula was used to. Neither was the fact that they would actually see any money from these assignments—all payment rendered from services at the Torterra Guild was handled by actual accountants and bankers. The students never saw any of it themselves, though portions of the earnings were set aside in order to pay for their tuition and most of their supplies. After graduation, there would either be a yearly fee they would pay for maintaining their permits/badges/whatever, or there would be letters to the alumni requesting donations—much like colleges here on Earth. But they would have to deduct that themselves from their entire earnings over a longer period, unlike how the Wigglytuff Guild takes its cuts per job. Part of this is because the Torterra Guild doesn’t have a job board posted up for any explorer to take a look at, unlike the Wigglytuff Guild does. Since the Torterra Guild directs all its apprentices during training, much of the income afterwards comes any treasures found on explorations which were planned of the graduates’ own volition based their research, or from jobs which are exclusively available for the purview of Torterra Guild graduates or which they just happen to come across on their own—and unless they go to someplace like the Wigglytuff Guild or other Federation approved locations, these requests might not be properly vetted—leading to instances like I’ve already talked about with Armaldo. Of course, part of the training in the Torterra Guild focuses on how to actually vet those requests and make sure they’re legitimate.

      But not everyone knows about the inner workings of the Torterra Guild. It might be one of the big names as far as guilds go, but to those not in the know, the expectations and experiences of the recruits are rather secretive, and the way they work can be rather confusing and misleading to the rest of the world. In comparison to the Wigglytuff Guild, the Torterra Guild is a bit more selective about who they let join in the first place, since they dedicate a lot of time and energy to the preparation. There are actually two different tracks when it comes to the guild. One is the actual explorers track, and one is just basically a school—because those life lessons are useful for everyone, not just explorers. So it is possible to join just for the life lessons, with no expectations of becoming an explorer. A lot of people do that—Paula and Ricky’s parents included, most likely. It’s just that some of the lessons are explorer-track exclusive, and you can only get into those if you do really well on the more public portions—which are more like a day school. So when Ricky was just starting out, he would get to go home every day/every weekend/every two weeks (depending on exactly how far away the clearing that the Sparks family calls home is from the guild). The classes are also a bit less intensive. But once it was determined that he had the skills and ability to become an actual explorer, he was offered an exam to take in order to join the explorer track. If Paula had joined the Torterra Guild, she likely would have been allowed to join the explorer track immediately—or at least much sooner, and they would have kept a closer eye on her progress than they did with Ricky’s initially—due to her connection to Ricky and the fact that he was a proven explorer. Since she was his sister, it meant she would also probably excel at it, right? Or she would at least have had a bit more heads up and preparation due to the fact that he maintained close contact with his family through letters even though he wasn’t allowed to visit home as often. Heck, they probably just sent the written portions of their exams straight to her house once they heard that she was interested in becoming an explorer. But the very fact that a lot of this attention was given to her solely because of Ricky is what made her wary of joining—as she mused in my recent online snippet.

      This two-track system is why people get confused about exactly how the Torterra Guild is run, since, because of the distinction between those guild members who learning to be explorers and those who are simply taking some of the lessons on life skills—they don’t necessarily realize that all of it is run under the same heading, and that everyone taking classes there, regardless of what track they’re on, is still technically a member of the guild. The fact that the Torterra guild has multiple buildings, each headed by a member of the Torterra family (although not all family members are necessarily actually torterra), also doesn’t help much unless you are already in the know, since everyone, regardless of the track, has to spend time taking life skills classes, often as a mixed group with the other track, and those classes typically take place in one building whereas he more “serious,” exploration based classes exclusive to the explorer track take place in another one. This means the difference between being a graduate of the life skills portion and the explorers portion is typically as minor as saying one was an apprentice versus just being a graduate—since only the graduates of the explorers portion get to use the term “apprentice” rather than merely saying “member” or “student,” kind of like how anyone who has earned a PhD can use the term “doctor,” even not all of those doctors graduated from a medical field. Unfortunately, since this is so outside the norm of the way the rest of the guilds in the world operate, it means that a lot of people only see that secondary building for the explorer-exclusive classes as being the “real” guild, and, thus, assume that only the classes undertaken there comprise the “real” training that the guild offers, even though that is very far from the case.

      With the exception of Wigglytuff (whose experience as an apprentice was way, way outside the norm for multiple reasons—although there probably are many cases in which an explorer will take on a solo apprentice , or sets of them, rather than maintaining an entire guild’s worth the way Wigglytuff ended up doing), most of the pokémon in and around the Treasure Town area are more used to a guild which runs the way Wigglytuff’s does—an apprenticeship which can span multiple years, yes, but one without a lot of book-learning, and with more hands-on experience that results in a bit more of an eclectic skillset that varies from graduate to graduate. Most of the “life skills” that one learns as part of the Torterra Guild are expected to have been learned before joining, or it’s at least expected that the apprentices will have the responsibility to ask someone at the guild for help honing a specific set (for example, Chimecho actually has a good relationship with Chatot and Wigglytuff that is closer than a lot of the other apprentices because even though she did come in with a lot of skills—like cooking and sewing—she also specifically asked Chatot to help her learn more about nursing. Something that Sunflora also eventually decides is a good skill to have, mostly because of the things she and Chimecho talk about as roommates, which is why she started to learn as well and is thus the one to be administering medical attention during chapter two of Missing Scenes, even as she comments that she isn’t nearly as skilled as Chatot is). As such, prospective apprentices are generally expected to be in their late teens before joining (Diglett may have been a bit of an exception, depending on how long he and his dad have been part of the guild, but the fact that he came with his father changes the rules a little bit, as it means he had more direct supervision from an actual parent who was and is still actively involved in raising him… even if his obsession with the ocean means that Diglett has lately been the more responsible of the pair). So even though apprentices of both guilds only really start doing serious explorations in their late teens, because Wigglytuff’s Guild doesn’t have the same mandatory “life skills” training period that the Torterra Guild does, this is why everyone assumed that Laura and Paula were simply on the younger side of that spectrum—maybe 15 or so (in other words, Paula’s age at the time of The World’s Treasure)—upon joining and are so surprised by the revelation that, no, Paula was only a teenager through a technicality (since she hung around for quite a while before actually joining the guild, even though she left home when she was about twelve) and Laura was literally a child—eleven years old exactly at the time of joining. But despite that, the two still managed to graduate in a little over a year.

      Paula didn’t really think it was all that strange at the time since her exposure to the Torterra Guild meant that she still equated the idea of guilds with schools, and assumed that if an authority figure such as Chatot was sending her out to explore in the way that he did, and as early as he did (from her perspective, at least), then it meant that he thought she was more than qualified to go out like that—she may have thought it was a little odd that she didn’t at least get a quiz about her abilities first (because how else would he have known that? Could he tell just by looking at her?), but she would have chalked it up to differences in guild management. She may have also assumed, looking back on it, that the Drenched Bluff assignment was the placement exam. Since she and Laura completed it so easily, it just meant that they were automatically fast-tracked to the upper levels of classes/learning—if they had failed, then they would have been placed on the slower route. And in a way… she wasn’t exactly wrong? After all, given Bidoof’s special episode we know that he was put on a lot of milder assignments and didn’t really get to go out to dungeons yet—and even when he did, they sent him out with Sunflora so that she could act as his guide and teacher.

      …Come to think of it, that entire special episode may have been why Chatot immediately started their training by giving them an actual assignment off the job boards. His experience with how antsy Bidoof got—to the point where he would actually go out and do something as reckless as he did in his special episode—may have made Chatot think that he was being too cautious and overprotective, and that he should give these newcomers a shot at something more serious first. As Wigglytuff said after the Perfect Apple incident (but before he realized it meant he wouldn’t have any Perfect Apples to eat for a while), everyone fails sometimes; and like he told Bidoof in the aforementioned episode, failing and learning from it is how one becomes stronger. So if Team Rainbow had failed that first assignment, it would have been no big deal; someone else would have completed it later to help Spoink, and the girls would have learned that they weren’t quite ready to go on assignments like that, and would have (hopefully) been more willing and patient than Bidoof was when it came to actually learning and training, especially if Chatot modified his approach a bit. It’s just that… they didn’t fail. And they kept succeeding until the whole Perfect Apple incident—and even then, that was because of outside interference rather than necessarily being a reflection of their own skills. And even if it had been because of their lack of skills, the fact that Wigglytuff let them go on the expedition anyways, and that they did so well there, just meant that they were fast learners and improved quickly. Which… they are, its just that people expected that most of their skill came from age and practice rather than because they were, essentially, prodigies who had been thrown into the deep end. So in that case, it’s rather lucky that Paula was so interested in preparing ahead while she was little, and that she did spend a lot of time in Ricky’s shadow (as much as she dislikes the idea), and that Laura’s crazy life meant that she retained the knowledge of a lot of important skills, even if she can’t consciously remember learning them. It meant that even though they didn’t acquire all the skills they would have at the Torterra Guild, that they at least knew enough that they could get by as being only a little under average for the typical expectations of newcomers to the Wigglytuff Guild, and also that they were more willing to be more proactive in asking for help learning new skills—yes, even Laura for how quiet she was about it. Though in her case it may have been more that people watched her trying to emulate them and then took pity on her more disastrous attempts and decided to offer help… or she reminded them of siblings or people they knew growing up so they just naturally inserted themselves into her life out of habit. Or they didn’t manage to catch her watching them, but she still managed to learn from observation anyways. After all, it’s amazing how many people don’t think to look up, even if they can feel eyes watching them from somewhere…

      All this to say that if anyone had actually bothered to ask her or Laura their ages once they joined the Wigglytuff Guild, their approach to their training would have been a lot different. They may or may not have even let them join at all—on the one hand, their methods are geared towards older pokemon, but on the other hand refusing entry would still mean Paula would have to traverse the long distance to make it back home on her own (which, yeah, she obviously made it to town just fine the first time and has been successfully living on her own ever since, but no one is going to be happy at the thought of a child being in those conditions despite her apparent successes so far—and even if she did have an escort, unless she manages to clear up the misconceptions that everyone has about the Torterra Guild, then they are going to assume that whatever guardians she had were extremely neglectful when they allowed their twelve-year-old to wander off and try to join a guild) and Laura literally has nowhere else to go at the moment—and she probably wouldn’t have even known her age, and may not have even had a guess or bothered to devote any introspection to that specific matter, rather than her identity as a whole. Her upbringing was strange in general, and her concept of what childhood consisted of would have been extremely skewed, for a multitude of reasons. As I’ve said before—if in Déjà vu Jirachi had de-aged her to the child version of her current incarnation, things would have been a lot darker from the onset and more upfront about how terrible her childhood was, rather than the vague implications that something wasn’t quite right that the childhood of her first incarnation is going to exude by the end of the story. They probably would have assumed she was around the same age as Paula, though. Or even if they did think she was older—because, again, her upbringing make her act older than she actually is, even subconsciously, simply because she hasn’t had any real experience with what childhood typically entails—the fact that she’s an amnesiac who doesn’t necessarily understand her needs as a treecko would definitely have given them pause and led them to seek out some professional help, rather than the vague attempts that Wigglytuff tried/is currently trying to give her in-game—because he definitely realized that she needed help, but he didn’t quite realize how dire the situation actually was because she’s so competent/used to acting older than she actually is, and that means no one quite realizes that a lot of her talent came from a combination of being a legitimate prodigy in certain areas, the fact that the Dimensional Scream ability gives her insight into things that she otherwise shouldn’t be aware of (which she then shares with Paula, obviously), and the fact that a lot of her skills were hammered into her as a child for some very unfortunate reasons. So even if they didn’t let the two of them join right away—though they would probably tell Paula that she could come back and try again in a few years—they would still feel obligated Laura as their ward/tried to find someone who could take care of her for a while like they did with Walrein and Manaphy (which would probably mean that they ended up sending her to Sunflora’s aunt/found a sceptile or other Grass-type who could literally teach her how to be a treecko if she ended up divulging her former species). And depending how that particular conversation with Paula went as far as why her guardians allowed her to try and join a guild at age twelve, they may feel obligated to make Paula their ward as well.

      (Incidentally, despite his own rocky upbringing, Grovyle also thought she was older than she actually is, and only part of that is due to the fact that he had no prior experience with humans, so couldn’t really gauge her age well. He knew that she was younger than him, but didn’t realize by quite how much until literally a few moments before Celebi sent them into the past that first time.)

      But if they did allow the two to join anyways (or if they made them their wards with the assumption that they would join for real when they were older), depending on exactly how the Wigglytuff Guild would have modified their approach to teaching the two of them, they may have actually thrived very well. After all, Paula went in expecting that she would spend a long period of time on book-learning and chores—it was only when she learned that she would be thrown out into the field immediately that she got upset at how “boring” her first assignment was. And the fact that she actually studied footprint runes—among other things—of her own volition bodes well for how she would have fared under such a modified schedule. She enjoys all aspects of exploring, after all, the learning and preparation as much as the actual activity. Learning is its own sort of exploration, in a way, as trying to figure out how things work and how to decipher things is its own sort of mystery, and gaining new knowledge and skills is its own reward. This approach to training also would have been much the same sort of thing that Laura would have expected as a typical member of Relatia’s people (And especially as a typical nascent Rainbow Child, though she wouldn’t have been aware of that aspect at the time), since their lifestyle is obviously more centered around life in a society rather than life as an explorer—although depending on what type of job they do, they may end up in more dangerous situations where knowing things like foraging would be extremely important and helpful—so much of their training involves things like learning languages and their culture’s history, as well as some specific education on religious ceremonies and the like. Again, she has no prior conceptions of what she’s supposed to be doing because of her amnesia—and her subconscious would be telling her that this is the sort of life that she is supposed to be having when time and space are working as they should, her guardians aren’t horrible people, and she hasn’t been kidnapped by a legendary pokémon. She would only really get an inkling that something is wrong when the effects of Temporal Tower’s breakdown started becoming more apparent, and even then she wouldn’t necessarily know what she is supposed to be doing—only that there is something wrong that she should maybe be doing something about. Of course, by that point the outside forces of Dusknoir and Grovyle’s shenanigans would have forced her into some sort of action, if only because of the disruption it would cause to guild life. As well as the fact that she would specifically be targeted once either of the two of them finally clued in to who she was.

      Anyways, the point of all that is that Team Rainbow probably wouldn’t have gotten as desperate as Bidoof got in his special episode because they either had no prior conceptions of what guild life is supposed to be, or because the modified approach is more in line with what they would have expected anyways and they wouldn’t have found it strange or been more wistful than envious when everyone around them was getting to do the cool exploration jobs while they were stuck back at the guild learning how to cook or repair ropes or whatever. And neither of them even thought to wonder or comment on the guild life that they got in canon, because the reality either exceeded their expectations and they didn’t think to mention what their initial expectations had been for them to have been exceeded so thoroughly, or because, again, they had no expectations going in.

      These sorts of issues may or may not prompt some people to try and make communication and transparency among the various guilds more of a priority, or to at least invest in some better informational pamphlets for their own guilds, in order to prevent such miscommunications again. It may also lead some people to wonder if these sorts of miscommunications are why so many guilds have high drop-out rates, especially from pokémon who travelled from farther away in order to join. It will definitely prompt Chatot to start asking about ages of prospective recruits, however, or at the very least to seriously consider the possibility of an entrance exam, because even though things worked out fine this time, there were definitely some exceptional circumstances leading to those successes—and even then, there were multiple times where things could have ended very, very badly for either of these kids. Not to mention all the unnecessary stress the two still endure from time to time.

      Incidentally, Jirachi doesn’t really understand things like relative ages, bureaucracy, or what, exactly, goes on in a guild—otherwise he may have tried to send that dream about the Wigglytuff Guild backlit by stars to a different, older, explorer-hopeful. Then again, even he doesn’t necessarily have full control over his powers and the way they work at all times, especially for more complicated wishes, or those outside his area of expertise (think of the way in the Jirachi movie that he granted the wish about snacks—pulling them from a snack cart rather than creating them from nothing, likely because of a combination of it being less costly in terms of energy as well as not knowing anything about the human economy/money). And also, there was so much going on at the time and so many different factors/forces involved that it’s hard to know exactly how much influence he had anyways. The dream was definitely because of him—but who’s to say he was actually the one to decide who to grant it to?