#found this rotting in OneNote

[viridiave]

Octopath but make it Pokemon

Indulging in a little crack because I lost to that fucking direwolf several times in a goddamn row so let's go Pokemon AU 

You play as Kit probably but not only are you a fatherless protagonist you don't have a mother now either

So idk man maybe he just stumbles into Flamesgrace and they were like 'tf are you stumbling around without a pokemon for here go fetch kid 

And this is how Kit gets a church-sanctioned starter pokemon

Archbishop Josef's like 'hey you should totally challenge my daughter Ophilia she's a Gym Leader on the side' 

Minutes before getting poisoned 

So Kit challenges the slightly neurotic sister who's having a bit of a meltdown over the rituals that now have to be rescheduled but like who reschedules a religious event this important?? 

And her whole gimmick is Friendship Evolutions 

Including a very protective Espeon 

She tells him to move onto the next gym down south in a hurry as she goes back to check up on her dad and Kit's like aight 

She ends up following him after that cuz not only has she been sent on forced leave but now she's also carrying the literal flame of gods that protects the world from devastation unites all people within their nation 

And Kit's very cool with this because he's seen how much ass she can kick 

So they make it to Atlasdam to make a stopover and while Ophilia's taking care of her business she tells Kit to challenge the local Gym Leader 

The problem was that their local Gym was underground and that the Gym Leader was currently preoccupied with being in Ace Attorney Investigations 3 rather than Pokemon Rogue and Noble like the script tells him to so Kit helps him with that first 

This Gym Leader uses Fossil Pokemon and will not stop talking about literally everything no matter what he did 

So not only is Kit getting his ass kicked he's also being given a lecture on gemstones and theft laws 

Kit swears Cyrus's Archen looked apologetic when the professor started talking about rock formations 

Kit wins, which is great, because that got the professor to stop talking and instead congratulated him on his win 

So Kit meets up with Ophilia again in the square, and they're about to head out when they see Cyrus again at the gate with a briefcase and the explanation that he got booted out of the academy on false charges of p*d0philia and is now out to look for a book 

'Professor it's been literally half an hour since I stepped out of your gym what the hell were you DOING' 'A lot can happen in half an hour, as it turns out! Now where to, fellow travelers?' 

Ophilia and Kit now have to deal with the lectures that they are too polite to try and interrupt 

They hoof it down to Rippletide where they witness a robbery 

And in no time at all they were dragged by the ears by a tiny merchant with surprising strength to drug the culprits 

Kit, Ophilia, and Cyrus decide to commit crimes, and perhaps Cyrus is a little too excited at the prospect of drugging pirates 

So they succeed and kick the pirate's asses- and meet this cool guy Leon Bastralle why they were at it 

While they were having lunch at the tavern after this whole thing the merchant plops herself down next to them with a grin and says 'sooooooooooo wanna challenge the Gym?' 'there's a Gym in this town???' 

Tressa decides to take this moment to flex her team of shiny Pokemon- including like three different Meowths that all throw money at Kit's Pokemon 

They may be Bifelgan incarnate but they stand no chance against Kit's protagonist powers so Tressa gives him the badge 

Right as they exit Rippletide Tressa just decides she wants to travel like that cool merchant that saved them earlier so her parents just take care of the gym they guess??? 

Point is they're a lot richer now in the routes between Rippletide and Cobbleston where oh hello- there's been a kidnapping 

They all help out this burly big dude named Berg and Cyrus keeps throwing him and the gigantic sword on his hip suspicious looks 

But it's not until they confront the baddies and Berg's Aegislash pops out that Cyrus squeals in delight because aREN'T YOU THE UNBENDING BLADE OH MY GODS THEY SAID YOU WERE DEAD CAN I TROUBLE YOU FOR AN INTERVIEW OVER TEA LATER- 

Meowth's out of the bag and Olberic comes clean about his past after they rescue his not-kid 

Cyrus does not leave him alone after this. Because on top of being a professor he's also just one massive history nerd. Olberic is surprisingly alright with this arrangement. 

He's also surprisingly okay with leaving his massive technicality of a gym leader status to the leader of the dude they just took in for murder and pillaging because hey didn't Gaston's men literally skin a dude alive for his wallet 

But Olberic has a revenge quest to go on so it's fine

 TL;DR: Kit is on a journey with a funky starter Pokemon, and instead of being sorted by type the Gym Leaders have gimmicks cuz why not

Ophilia has friendship evolutions, Cyrus has fossil pokemon, Tressa has shiny pokemon, and Olberic is uhhhh Double Battles, I guess 

Does this have a Part 2? No. not yet anyway.