#to make it worse imagine this is actually Morty and Eusine talking

[fluffs-n-stuffs]

"Poltchageist's sealing abilities are incredible! Do you ever wonder if there are any broken things that even it cannot fix?"

"No, no... I find that quite hard to imagine."

[aqqleshiqqing-archive]

Hi, Jil!! Just popping in because of your tags on my fic asdfghjkl

I did write "this one is for my Pokémon mutuals" with the thought "specifically Jil" in parentheses in my head--you're like ... my main Pokémon mutual. Gotta share some breadcrumbs of Aria/Eusine with THE Pokémon mutual, of course.

Also Eusine is a fairly arrogant character--he's very proud of his knowledge of myths (oh no ... a man who likes history ... and me having a history degree ... how could I resist ... /lh) and does tend to dismiss others when they try to correct him. He's not as dismissive of Aria or Morty, though, because ... *childhood friends beam.* Also maybe he likes Aria that way, so he's a bit easier on her, who knows--

Anyway, I had the misfortune of seeing the only (?) Johto anime episode with him as a kid, and little 9-year-old Sarah really though, "Man. This guy's a jerk." Little did she know she'd fall for that jerk years later. We don't talk about that--

The loss of the shiny Pidgey exists because I was training Ollie (my Chikorita/Bayleef/Meganium) in HG the other day, encountered a shiny Pidgey, and realized I didn't have any more Poké Balls--massive loss. But also a win because ship lore. And also the second time I've run into a shiny Pidgey while playing a Johto game ... maybe someday I'll actually catch the thing.

ANYWAY. I always felt Suicune would prefer Aria over Eusine (similar to the way the plot unfolds in the games, with Eusine eventually ceding the right to catch Suicune to the player), and while she would like to catch it, she's not as ... let's say ... passionate about it as Eusine is. Hence why Suicune tends to respond to her.

... she does think him chasing after Suicune all the time cute, though. It's very subtle, but she would've been mega embarrassed to fail that Pidgey in front of him--because, while it's not stated directly, she's imagining a scene where she failed at her life goal in front of her crush. It's not like Eusine doesn't do that on a regular basis, but that only makes it worse for Aria asdfghjkl

I also liked writing the subtle “… you were talking to Suicune about me?” followed by Aria immediately changing the subject--and then her adjusting his bow tie later. Subtle things get me all the time--

Anyway, uh--Morty, huh? 👀 /lh

(And sorry for the essay--I just. Have a lot to say and like to respond to tags through asks, sometimes asdfghjkl)

~ heart-of-aspiration 📖

HI SARAHH!! - oh man the fact you had me in particular to share the aria/eusine ship makes me SO honored ("THE pokemon mutual", that made me audibly giggle) and i'm honestly here for it, and you can tell i can definitely like - have the capacity to take batch after batch of hardcore pokemon ship/self insert lore (and be equally as talkative and lengthy about it...) so naturally i'd immediately gravitate here, and it's characters belonging to gen 2 which i'm incredibly biased to.... AHFJSHFGAS

i should've expected this from eusine - it would seem that he doesn't seem too dissimilar to his manga counterpart (which is radiating the same vibes as how you written him, he's definitely arrogant but kind enough to help) i actually should share some panels of him maybe! i'll admit that he was really hilarious for being lowkey petty due to a certain circumstance in the manga, but moving on!

i respect that his attitude is toned down towards aria and morty, they're totally good friends and morty doesn't seem like someone who'd engage in fights quickly - he's super relaxed and wise...

the whole pidgey story got me WAHUSHASHDAF THAT'S SUCH A MISSED OPPORTUNITYYY but that moment was enough to be a realistic incident for aria and i LOVE it. i hope you can actually catch that shiny birdie!!

i can totally imagine a scenario where she notices eusine on his failed attempts to catch suicune and he probably curses to himself (assuming he's alone) and aria would just quietly laugh, reminding herself how much she adores him and how cute he is for that - i swear i know a dynamic where they had a similar vibe to this but i can't seem to point out who or what -- but my point is, i love that dynamic so much. it doesn't feel TOO much like a rivalry but it's enough to at least poke fun at each other's professions + their little romance heheh ITS JUSTTT. YEAHHH!!!

let's not talk about morty /lh /pos the headband makes him look so cute combined with his relaxed personality and i'm on a hunt for a misdreavus and to name it after him as we speak WAHUSDHAUFS (IT'S NOT SUCCESSFUL HOWEVER BUT I'M GETTING THERE) let's just say he's one of the early crushes i have - not too active but i... would like to hold his hand HWAJHSDJAHJFDSAF. if he ever resurfaces im running to you immediately /pos /lh

[pkmnomegaverse]

do you have any hcs for whitney in this verse? like her and rosette. who they're friends with, what they do, etc.

I’ll admit that I haven’t thought that heavily about Whitneyand Rosette, and about half of what I have applies more to the timeline Faller!Lonanis from than what Main!Verse Whitney is doing. As far as general things thatapply to both versions, Whitney remains the Goldenrod Gym Leader, largely sinceit’s a good source of income for her and Rosette.  Whitney and Colden (Rosette’s father), weredating for about a year before Whitney got pregnant.  The relationship was already rocky at thispoint, but they tried to see if they could make it work for Rosette.  After a couple years together, Colden decidedthat he couldn’t do it anymore, and gave full custody of Rosette toWhitney.  The two have extremely minimalcontact after this, as Whitney tries to do what she can to give Rosette theoption to know her father (despite her animosity towards the guy), but Coldenis largely distant.  He meets with hisdaughter a handful of times here and there and occasionally speaks with herover the phone, but doesn’t really want anything to do with his daughter orex.  He only keeps some contact out of asense of duty, since as a father, he should probably at least be aware of thestatus of his child.

Despite the situation upsetting Rosette at times, Whitneyand Rosette largely ignore Colden and his lack of presence doesn’t hang overthem that much.  Whitney remains herbright and bubbly self, and has a lot of friends both in Goldenrod and throughoutthe region.  She’s pretty good friendswith most of her fellow Gym Leaders, but gets along with Jasmine and Morty thebest.  With Jasmine, the initial sparkfor their friendship was camaraderie as the two omega girls in the Johto League.  From there, they continued to keep in contactover the years (helped by the fact Jasmine also remains a Gym Leader).  With Morty, it was a proximity thing.  Their towns were close, so Whitney took itupon herself to try and get to know her fellow Gym Leader better by visitinghim in Ecruteak.  Morty foundher to be a bit much at first, but her perseverance eventually won himover.  Jasmine and Morty are generallythe people Whitney turns to for advice and help.  When the whole situation with Colden wasgoing down, they were her main support in helping her get back on her feet(Morty even half-jokingly offered to hex the guy for her).

One of the bigger differences between the two timelines is herrelationship with Falkner.  In thetimeline where Lonan lives, she becomes good friends with him as well, sincethe two families become close family friends, helped by the fact Lonan andRosette are playmates who love spending time together.  Lonan in particular is very insistent about Rosettecoming over to visit and nags his parents about it, which leads to Whitney andRosette visiting more often (the National Park is a common meeting place forthe families as well).  Whitney 100%encourages her daughter’s budding romance with Lonan, and is prone to embarrassingher daughter with her unsubtle comments about the matter (made even worse ifLonan or his family are around).  Whitneyreally likes all of Morty and Falkner’s children and dotes on them, being a bitlike an eccentric aunt to them.  For asmuch as she and Rosette go to visit them in Ecruteak, she encourages them tocome down to Goldenrod, since the kids need to be exposed to the happening citylife to even out the stuffiness of Ecruteak (both Morty and Falkner take offense tothis sentiment, but she insists on it anyway). Astor’s issue with large crowds complicates things, but they make thingswork and all three kids do love going to visit Whitney and Rosette inGoldenrod.

Unfortunately in the timeline where Lonan dies as an infant,while Whitney remains friends with Morty, she never gets close with Falkner,Kele, or Astor.  Lonan’s death causesFalkner to almost completely close himself off from other people.  He can barely tolerate Morty half the time,interaction with someone like Whitney is out of the question.  Even once Falkner starts to recover and thetwins are born, he still mostly keeps to himself when he’s not focused on hisfamily.  Kele and Astor also end up muchmore sheltered in this timeline, since both of their issues lead to theirparents being extremely overprotective.  Theyalready lost one child, they’re not going to risk losing another.  Whitney certainly knows of the twins and hasmet them (afterall, her and Morty talk about their childrento each other), but doesn’t take on the aunt-like role she has in the othertimeline. Rosette also isn’t that close with any of them, which leads to herbeing more of a shut-in in the Main!Verse timeline.

The only real pro, if one could even consider it that giventhe reason, is that in this timeline, Morty confides in Whitney a lot moreabout his troubles and insecurities. While Eusine is his best friend, he’s not always the best when it comesto issues involving people or relationships, so Whitney ends up being theperson Morty comes to in regards to Falkner and Lonan.  He doesn’t actually expect her to be able togive him any advice on how to help Falkner (or himself) handle Lonan’s death, butit helps him just to have someone to talk to.   While Whitney really has no idea what shecould possibly say to help her friend, once she comes to understand that allMorty really needs is someone to vent to, it becomes easier for her to talkwith him.  While she’s always willingto help her friend, she can’t help but to imagine what it would be like if shelost Rosette.  While her loyalty to herfriend makes her wish Falkner would do more to support Morty, she can sympathizewith Falkner as well.  After all, she doesn’tthink she’d be able to handle the death of her child either.