#does meowth get paid? i wonder

[smallestapplin]

Okay okay I'll just, balance it out.

Stray cat Nanu. He comes to your backyard one night and just kinda chills. He looks rough, like he'd been out on his own for a while but has learned to fend for himself. You end up feeding him because despite that he looks really scrawny for a cat his age.

Now he doesn't leave. At all. He's found a way onto the roof and lays on your balcony all day. He says it's because of the other, more rowdy stray that keeps bugging him for fights but is it really?

Not me trying not to go feral for him-

(Notes : I tried ;-;)

-

-

Stray hybrids are a common occurrence around your neighborhood. You never paid them any mind, most seem to stick to themselves anyways so it’s not like they were hurting anyone.

You’ve seen this one around before. A taller male hybrid, much older than the rest, but the other hybrids on the streets seem to leave him alone.

He has a more slender build, but with how he slouches you can’t really see, one of his ears looks like it was torn years ago, over all he’s very rough looking.

Still the heart attack you just had didn’t take into account he’d be in your backyard. Granted you don’t have a fence but seeing glowing red eyes in the dark didn’t make it any less terrifying.

He didn’t pay you any attention, just continuing to pet one of the many meowths around him.

Even from inside your house you can see him lounging on one of your chairs at there.

He doesn’t look all that well kept, so taking some fast food you had gotten you walk out back and leave it on the outdoor table.

“In case you’re hungry.” That was all you said and you left.

You didn’t miss his alert but confused look.

But you continued about your night as if you didn’t feed the hybrid man.

He kept showing up more frequently after that, you didn’t know if it was for food or not, he never seemed to ask for it. He just kind of hangs around.

You let out a short scream when you walked out onto your balcony and he laid there.

“Sorry about that.”

“Sir how the fuck did you even climb up here!?”

He shrugs “anything to get away from the kits around this place, I ain’t much for fighting.”

You stare at him but he only lays there, eyes closed and looking like he’s napping.

You decided to leave him be, but still left him some food. You continue to do this, having small chats with him and the meowths that follow him.

You learned his name is Nanu, and he just wonders around. But you’ve been feeding him and his four legged friends, so he’s been sticking around more to feed them.

Which you thought was sweet.

Nanu didn’t need you figuring out he’s falling for you.

You give him food, nap near him, talk to him a bit, scold him and patch him up when he gets injured, and his meowths love you.

It’s everything he could ask for. But he doesn’t need you seeing how soft you make him.

He hopes you never notice his tender glances.

Or how he fights back purring when you’re patching him up.

How he seems to oh so slowly be getting closer to you.

He’s an old hybrid, you deserve someone more youthful and exciting, not a lazy old man like him. But he can’t help the feeling like he needs to scent you.

Nanu wants to be your life long mate. If only you’d look at him like he does you.

[hereliesbitches--me]

Continued from here @floralcrowns​

     Rosie has grown a fondness and familiarity with the Skull Boss, after weeks of steady practice. Like a wild animal domesticated and tamed, she is a pokemon first, a girl second, and there was a long road ahead in reverting back instincts that had served to protect her in her 19 young years of life. Not that it was ever impossible -- it was, however, difficult. Yet Guzma took to that challenge of patience, to help her , offer sanctuary where others may have chased the wild girl or sent her off to a ward. Time flies, and his efforts of socializing her again had paid off. If only in small steps, at the very least she took to him fondly for comfort, to converse in fashions that had felt unusual to her adapted mindset of speaking with her pack alone. Humans were an enigma to her, prone to violence and selfish intentions, a lifetime behind closed doors and cold cages left the girl with nothing but vicious, resentful feeling for the species that she looked most like. To a frightened pokemon, humans would always be the bane of her existence, better left at arms length than to try to live among them, for they would try to extract her from what she truly was. In time, though, she learned one very new lesson ; Not all humans were terrible.. Some could be kind. Some cared, not because they wanted something from her, but because..   Its a hard to place thought. How could she have described it? Why were humans kind? Because.. Rosie only has one point of reference, for passing years of trauma were not enough to steal her most cherished memories as they did everything else -- her father. Humans were kind, because there were people like her father that existed in this world. Ones who do not die in fires.. good people saved from the calloused hands of lesser, crooked humans that try to vanquish them. After so long, she realizes in that quiet moment at his side, she found the kindness that she needed to remember the girl she used to be.

A girl full of curiosity. A girl that understood her world through touch.

      Was it invasion of personal space? Maybe it was. However, Guzma had not lashed out to push her away when she touched him. It would be a lie to say that she wasn’t curious about those colorful pictures that marked his skin. One of the first things she noted about the Skull boss when her adrenaline died, and her teeth and claws were retracted, was that the giant hid colorful patterns beneath the baggy clothing. Was that natural for humans to have, the same way that pokemon had their patterns? She’d watched from the shadows as passing locals varied : Some smooth, some bearing odd patterned pictures, some with shiny metal sticking from their face or their ears. All things she wondered, but never believed was a worthy enough question to reveal herself and ask. Up until now. The Pokegirl practically pulls him down by the shirt to see, well under a foot shorter as her fingers trace the markings, then look at her own scarred skin curiously. Tattoos, he says, not patterns. That word she had read before now has the means to place it to a picture. Her brows smoothed and raised now, surprised as she absorbed his granted information gradually, those blue furred meowth ears twitching and bobbing with interest. Then folding back.

“ I never had a Ma.” Was that what they were called? Not mothers, or mommy, or Mama? Had she read it all wrong as a child? The statement was not said with pain or remorse, not like it was a sore wound she was ever aware of. She answered simply as it was -- a fact. A simple fact that maybe had bothered her once in her childhood, like many aspects of it did, yet one could not miss what one never had. Rosie released his collar and settled back down on her feet, thoroughly perplexed by his answer.

“My ma would tell me that these tattoos would protect and heal my body”

the cat took a long look at the ink, then drifted her gaze down to her own scarred skin. The evidence of her strength as a pokemon, that she survived every battle, every attempt to break her spirit , with the mark to show for it. Rosie stares hard, scrutinizing her raggedy wounds to the smooth skin of her companions. She pursed her lips, “ I never.. I never heard about anything like that. Pokemon are born with patterns, and our abilities protect and heal us, but..” a sense of shame washes over her then, a notion of her flawed existence eating at her suddenly as she tucked her arms behind her back to hide from prying eyes. Rosie looks down like a wilting flower, folded ears drooping to match,

“ I guess… because I’m human, I didnt have tattoos as markings to help..  Is that why people get them? Does it boost their strengths for battle, so they dont leave the visible marks when they heal? ”

[krazy-holly]

Here is the second day of my 12 days of Christmas drabbles!

Day 2 (Dec 14th) Fandom: Pokemon. Prompt: Ugly Sweaters

Meowth entered the room Jessie and James were sitting quietly in, playing a game of chess intently.

“Hey guys…” Meowth announced himself and grimaced when the pair turned to look at him.

“The invitation came…” He said simply and James’ face fell while Jessie’s lit up.

“It did!?” She demanded, rushing forward and snatching the piece of paper from the pokemon’s hand.

Reading it quickly, she grinned and dashed from the room, laughing in a rather frightening manner.

James and Meowth shared a look.

“And so the hell begins…” James muttered under his breath and Meowth collapsed onto the couch beside him.

“Do ya think Buck has to worry about this too?” Meowth asked James as the human began to put the chess set away.

“Buck? I thought his name was Bush.” James stated, closing the chess box and putting it away on the shelf.

Meowth shrugged and James sighed. “Either way, I’m sure he isn’t going to suffer quite like we are about to…”

Meowth grimaced and nodded in agreement. “I suppose this means we’re gonna get dragged to the Christmas store, ain’t we?”

James grumbled. “Yeah…”

Just then Jessie popped her head into the room and grinned. “Go get Mimi and Wobbuffet. We’re going shopping~!” Jessie sang and Meowth and James sank into the couch in disappointment.

The hell had only just begun.

***

The five of them entered the Christmas store, Jessie skipping while James and Meowth were dragging their feet and rueing the day they were born.

Mimikyu seemed completely indifferent about the situation and Wobbuffet seemed equally excited as Jessie.

“We have to find the perfect one!” Jessie exclaimed, bouncing off into an isle full of the most ugly sweaters James had ever laid eyes on. Meowth was tempted to put on sunglasses due to the amount of glitter and bright blue pom poms adorning the disgustingly awful sweaters.

“Ooh, look at this one!” Jessie cried out, holding up possibly the most horrifying sweater in existence.

Meowth would much rather spend an entire day translating Mimikyu then look at that sweater for one second longer.

“You know…” Meowth began. “Why don’t you just put Mimikyu onto a sweater. Then you’d win for sure.” Meowth suggested with a grin in Mimikyu’s direction. The ghost-fairy pokemon just stared at him passively in return until Meowth got the chills and had to look away.

Jessie ignored Meowth and instead began to look at a sweater adorned with way too many pepto pink ribbons.

“How does this one look?” She turned to ask James. James shrugged. “Ugly.” He answered.

“Perfect!” She exclaimed. “Then we got one out of five done!”

Meowth and James looked up at her with surprise at this.

“Wait-what do you mean ‘one out of five’?” Meowth asked hesitantly.

“Why, I’m going to get all four of you ugly sweaters too!” She exclaimed happily and James and Meowth paled in horror.

Wobbuffet looked excited and Jessie pat him gently on the head in approval.  “Come on, i’ll get you one first.” She told her pokemon before heading off into a different section of the store.

“We gotta get outta here…” Meowth hissed, watching fearfully as Jessie picked out a bright yellow sweater covered in brown pom poms for Wobbuffet.

James nodded in agreement. “Let’s go!”

The pair began to rush for the doors when suddenly Jessie was there, blocking their way, a grin on her lips.

“Not leaving, I hope.” She smirked at the pair before looking down at Mimikyu and cooing gently at him. “I bet we can find a perfect ugly sweater for you to wear over your pikachu costume!” She exclaimed and picked him up gently before heading off. Of course, not before sending a warning glare that promised death if James and Meowth so much as took one step out of the building.

The pair swallowed thickly before resigning to their fate and slumping onto a bench.

“We’re doomed.” James moaned.

Meowth simply grumbled under his breath.

***

(Three hours later)

“You guys look perfect!” Jessie beamed at her team as they stood there looking like pouty toddlers as they let her smooth out their sweaters and gaze at them in approval.

“I hate this…” Meowth growled. James nodded in agreement.

“Alright. I think we’re done here!” Jessie exclaimed, heading to the cash register much to Meowth and James’ relief.

“Finally!”

They paid for the way too expensive ugly sweaters and headed home. Just in time too, because they had to head out almost immediately afterwards if they wanted to make it to the party in time.

***

The five of them entered Giovanni's giant building to be greeted by loud music and a large crowd of other team rocket members mulling about, eating and dancing.

Jessie instantly scanned the crowd before her eyes settled upon her subject of loathing hatred.

Cassidy.

James and Meowth tried to back away from the pair as they stomped up to each other but Jessie tugged them back.

“Cassidy.” Jessie spat.

“Jessica.” Cassidy grinned. “Looking good, I see.” She gestured to Jessie’s sweater.

“Touchee.” Jessie gazed at Cassidy’s equally ugly sweater.

Then, in a rare moment of friendliness, the pair shook hands. “May the worst sweater win.” Jessie nodded to Cassidy before turning on her heel and walking away, dragging James and Meowth alongside her.

Meowth and James quickly made their way to the buffet table, ready to stuff themselves with food. Meowth growled under his breath as he scratched at his arm. He hated this stupid itchy sweater Jess was forcing him to wear, and from James’ uncomfortable look, as did he. But both did not wish to feel the full force of the wrath of Jessie...So they grinned and beared it.

Roughly a half hour had passed when the crowd went silent as a member of team rocket that James did not know went up onto the stage in the back of the building and spoke into a microphone.

“Attention all members of Team Rocket! As you know, Giovanni was oh so generous as to let host this Christmas party once more for us. And as I’m sure you all are aware, the time has come for the votes to be counted to see who's ugly sweater won this year’s ugly sweater contest!”

James heard Jessie suck in a tense breath from beside him and Meowth looked up at her, nodding in encouragement.

A moment passed and James knew that it was purposeful for added suspense.

Finally, the team rocket member spoke.

“And the winner is-”

Another unnecessary moment of suspense.

“Bush!”

A moment of silence.

“WHAT?!” Jessie and Cassidy’s outraged yells echoed through the building.

From across the room came Butch’s furious shout. “IT’S BUTCH.” A moment passed. “AND I DIDN’T EVEN WEAR A UGLY SWEATER. MY MOM MADE THIS.”

James and Meowth sweatdropped before restraining Jessie before she could cause harm to everyone in the vicinity.

They briefly wondered if they would get out of this alive…

It would most certainly be a Holiday party they would not forget...

Well, that was my second fanfic to ever post online! I hope you enjoyed it!! I had a blast writing it! Big warm thanks to my BFF for helping me proofread it and edit it: @ninjagamer25

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s fanfic!

[pokemaniacal]

Litten, Torracat and Incineroar

I have a little personal conjecture about how Incineroar was designed.

Game Freak deeply, sincerely, earnestly didn’t mean to make a fourth Fire/Fighting starter Pokémon.  They were just going to sit down and come up with some unique, entertaining and vaguely Hawaiian-inspired Fire-type.  But then Incineroar just rose up, unbidden, out of the primal mists of Game Freak’s collective id, embedded himself in their tortured psyches, and refused to leave.  Aware that they were making another Fire/Fighting starter Pokémon, but horrified by their inability to stop, they desperately called on Yveltal for help, and the vicious and cunning death god answered their prayers by corrupting Incineroar into a brutal Dark-type.

I mean, obviously some of that is speculative, but I think the general outline is close.

Litten, Torracat and Incineroar are our Alolan Fire-type starter Pokémon line.  As Fire-type cat Pokémon they are a little in danger of being a sequel to generation VI’s Litleo and Pyroar, but fortunately their final stage, Incineroar, takes a very different direction.  Litten is a kitten whose oily fur is highly flammable, causing him to hawk up flaming hairballs.  That’s… a bit of a weird fighting style, but at least an elegant way of bringing the Fire element to a cat Pokémon, so we’ll call it a win.  Likewise, instead of shedding hair all over the place, Litten just sets all his fur on fire and burns it up in seconds (something I occasionally wish my cat could do).  Litten’s notoriously withdrawn and standoffish nature is appropriately cattish as well, and possibly meant to anticipate his eventual evolution into a Dark-type.  That progresses to a highly aggressive, but simultaneously petulant, attitude in Torracat (again, not unlike a bad-tempered housecat…).  Torracat’s most distinctive physical feature is the little fiery bell at his throat, actually his fire-producing organ, which makes a ringing sound when Torracat uses his powers.  Presumably this mimics the bells that cat owners sometimes give their pets to warn off prey, which I suppose constitutes another interesting way of manifesting Torracat’s Fire type.  It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t go anywhere, though; Incineroar loses the bell for a flaming navel and fiery belt.  I would have liked it if Torracat’s bell somehow manifested in Incineroar’s wrestler design as the bell that rings between rounds of a wrestling match; it seems like a really good opportunity to unify the design that was missed.  There are a lot of cat Pokémon now (Meowth in two regional forms, Skitty, Shinx, Glameow, Purrloin, Litleo, Espurr…) and to be honest Litten and Torracat don’t do enough on their own to convince me that we needed another, but it’s Incineroar who was tasked with taking this design in a new direction.  So let’s talk about that.

Incineroar has the species designation “the Heel Pokémon,” which makes pretty clear that we’re dealing with the evil counterpart to Hawlucha – a Pokémon based on a villainous persona from the world of professional wrestling.  Incineroar comes from a similar masked wrestler tradition to Hawlucha, where a mask is supposed to give you a whole new identity to fight under, and you fight for the honour of that identity (often a totemic animal).  Incineroar, as a villainous version of this idea, is not only a jerk, but ostentatiously a jerk, specifically going out of his way to be destructive and chaotic, just as a heel is supposed to.  I’ve seen people specifically locate Incineroar’s inspiration with one Japanese wrestler in particular – or rather, one masked persona, used by five wrestlers over the years: Tiger Mask.  And at first I was sceptical, but the deeper I go down this particular rabbit hole the more I think he probably is iconic enough in Japanese pop culture to actually be referenced by a Pokémon design (besides, according to the WWE website “it would be difficult to overstate [his] influence,” and I try not to question heavily-muscled men in capes and speedos).  The only problem is that Tiger Mask is emphatically not a heel.  The wrestling persona was originally inspired by a 1968 manga, where the character was a Japanese wrestler who had played heel in the United States and turned “face” when he returned home, but the real-world Tiger Mask has always been a heroic character, as have his anime adaptations (because of course there is a Tiger Mask anime; there was even a reboot last year).  There is a corresponding heel character called the Black Tiger, who has a red-and-black colour scheme in the anime, but he doesn’t seem to be as well known, and also the wrestler was arrested for drug smuggling back in 2012 (this is the kind of trivia I just know now; SEND HELP).  Anyway, if you were going to create a Pokémon that paid homage to the Tiger Mask mythos, why go for the derivative villain rather than the iconic hero?  Something about it doesn’t quite ring true – and kinda brings me back to my (only partly tongue-in-cheek) introduction.

I had a whole debate with Jim the Editor over what Incineroar’s type should be, because his feeling is that it doesn’t make sense for this Pokémon not to be a Fighting-type, that Incineroar’s Dark-type traits are secondary to – dependent on – his Fighting-type traits; as a heel wrestler, he can’t be a villain without first being a martial artist.  He’s typed wrong, and this is a blemish on the design.  My counterargument was that the concept of a heel involves an element of theatricality that you could say makes them primarily villains and only secondarily fighters (i.e. pro wrestling is fake; fite me irl).  I’m also inherently disposed to liking this line of reasoning because I have a pre-existing idea that one of the characteristic traits of Fighting Pokémon is that they are supposed to be honourable, so it actually makes a great deal of sense for an ostentatiously villainous Pokémon like Incineroar to be specifically excluded from the type.  Having said that, “Fighting = Honour” isn’t exactly an obvious inference from any official source, and doesn’t fit all Fighting Pokémon (i.e. f#&%ing Primeape), so if you don’t particularly buy into my personal brand of nonsense, Fire/Fighting is arguably a better fit than Fire/Dark for Incineroar – probably because they started from “wrestler” and then looked for ways to justify a type other than Fire/Fighting, rather than actually starting from an idea that was demonstrably Fire/Dark.  Jim the Editor’s suggestion for such an idea, to be submitted here to the court of public opinion, was to have Incineroar be a sort of arsonist/con artist, starting fires outside to draw attention and lure people out of their homes while gangs of Litten and Torracat plunder all their stuff (Incineroar could easily pull off a sort of circus strongman or ringmaster look that would be appropriate to this concept with only minor physical changes).  Litten in this scheme could then be street performers and pickpockets, which gives them a more interesting identity too.  Feel free to heap scorn on this idea in the comments, lest Jim get a swelled head.  That’s enough on the design and flavour side, though; I should get on with how Incineroar works.

Incineroar is a physical tank in the tradition of Ursaring or Machamp: you’re slow and can’t avoid hits, but in theory you can survive them long enough to hit back.  This is an odd thing for a Fire Pokémon to be, and arguably the only pre-generation VII Pokémon who can even do it are Emboar and Arcanine (no, Magcargo and Torkoal, you do not count), so we’re in a field with little competition.  His hidden ability is Intimidate, which would be a wonderful thing for a Pokémon like this to have (or, well, almost any Pokémon to have; a free attack debuff every time you switch in is just really good), but alas, for the moment this is not to be, so we’ll have to make do with the generic Fire-type starter ability, Blaze.  Incineroar has a really solid selection of attacks; in addition to his Dark-type signature moves, he gets Flare Blitz, Earthquake and Cross Chop, all powerful attacks that threaten an excellent variety of types.  Outrage is interesting, but probably not recommended; Dragon attacks have great neutral type coverage, but that’s not one of Incineroar’s flaws anyway, and they hit almost nothing super-effectively (not to mention that being locked into Outrage can stop being fun abruptly).  For some reason, Incineroar can learn Leech Life, which Sun and Moon buffed into a surprisingly solid attack, and honestly, health drain is probably quite a good thing for a Pokémon with Incineroar’s stat profile to have.  Alternatively, U-Turn is also on offer as a source of Bug-type damage and tactical flexibility; it does less damage, but Incineroar isn’t short of power moves anyway, and being able to tank an attack for the Pokémon you’re switching in is a decent use of Incineroar’s bulk.  Swords Dance is there too, to send his attack stat into the stratosphere, but bear in mind that Incineroar is just not fast enough to sweep anything.  It really hurts in general that he’s so slow, and that Fire/Dark is not a great defensive combination: Fire attacks are great; being weak to Rock, Water and Ground is decidedly not, and Dark adds a nasty Fighting weakness to boot.

If you are inclined to buck Fire Pokémon stereotypes and push the defensive, tanky side of Incineroar, there are some support options that he can take for that, although it is maybe a bit of a waste of his excellent physical attack stat.  Will’o’Wisp is nice because burns cripple physical attackers, and doubly nice if we can eventually get Intimidate on him.  Taunt can stop support Pokémon from messing with you, but again, his poor speed hurts; you ideally want Taunt on a fast Pokémon that can actually anticipate and counter a support move, not just shut them down after the fact.  Bulk Up might be interesting, especially in combination with Will’o’Wisp or Leech Life; Incineroar is already far from a pushover defensively, so if your opponent seems to be missing special attackers that can easily take him out, there might be some merit to going all in on buffs.  Body Slam is nicely thematic, and being able to paralyse opponents is good for Incineroar and probably for the rest of your team too; it’s just unfortunate that Normal attacks are terrible.  In an entirely different vein, you could try to turn him into a sort of bastardised surprise physical sweeper by speeding him up with Flame Charge.  It’s no Agility, and the move itself is so weak that you do pretty much have to pack a second Fire attack (there’s no room for, say, Swords Dance), but if you play your hand close to your chest you might be able to confuse someone to death in the late game.  Finally, Incineroar does get Nasty Plot, with a passable selection of special attacks (Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Overheat with Dark Pulse and Focus Blast), but unlike Decidueye his base special attack score is average at best, so the very most I would suggest is putting Overheat on a physical attacker set to maybe surprise a physical wall (bonus points if you make a Z-move out of it).

Because Incineroar is a pro wrestler, and pro wrestlers have a love for signature moves that goes beyond all logic and common sense, he has not one, but two: Darkest Lariat and Throat Chop.  Of these, Darkest Lariat is the one you generally want.  It’s actually one of the strongest Dark-type attacks in the game, though I should stress that this isn’t saying much, since Dark has no really high-powered attacks.  Darkest Lariat helpfully ignores defence and evasion bonuses, and until recently I might have written that off as mostly useful for screwing with the AI, since defence and evasion buffs aren’t common in competitive games.  Specifically in doubles, though, Darkest Lariat does have the peculiar advantage of beating the living $#!t out of the infamous Infinite Defence Palossand (of course, Palossand also has Ground attacks to blow up Incineroar, but it’s something).  The other signature move is Throat Chop, and this is much more niche.  It’s slightly less powerful than Darkest Lariat, and has the unusual effect of disabling the target’s sonic attacks by striking them in the windpipe.  There aren’t a lot of powerful or common sound moves, so Throat Chop is mostly useful against a few Normal-type special attackers, like Exploud and Pyroar, who use Hyper Voice as a major source of damage.  However, I do find it really amusing that Throat Chop can quite badly screw over Incineroar’s Water-type counterpart, Primarina, by disabling her Sparkling Aria.  In practice you still wouldn’t choose to take that fight as Incineroar, because Primarina might just have a different Water attack, but it’s interesting that the designers built in this little reversal of the standard Grass-Fire-Water starter dynamic.  As far as I can tell, Decidueye doesn’t have any similar thematic advantage over Incineroar, nor Primarina over Decidueye.

I’m not as convinced by Litten, Torracat and Incineroar overall as I am by Rowlet, Dartrix and Decidueye.  They have the same sudden, fairly radical shift to a different sort of design at the third stage that I noticed in Dartrix, but it doesn’t quite fit as well – there isn’t really anything tiger-like about Incineroar (tigers being famously ambush hunters), probably because he’s tiger-via-masked-wrestler, but then again, Hawlucha’s the same thing, and her human and animal inspirations do slot together a bit better because of the focus of lucha libre on “aerial” moves.  And… well, to be honest, the whole “slow physical bruiser” thing just hasn’t been a great game plan for most Pokémon who’ve tried it in the past; Emboar has never been especially prominent, and Incineroar is trying to do something fairly similar.  I mean, there’s nothing I think is especially poorly done here, but not a lot that excites me.  I’m calling this one a solid meh-out-of-ten.