#until you capture the right pokemon in the right pose

[chronomally]

I've been playing a game called Nuts, which is about a research intern living in the woods for a few weeks to study squirrels (in a universe where squirrels are an endangered species? Unclear) and help fight back against a corrupt corporation that's destroying the habitats you explore. Unfortunately, the main gameplay loop is focused around a finicky camera triangulation mechanic which is not what I would consider "fun"

[r0-boat]

Do you have any yandere Brassius? Just anything of him, I adore him

I think about yandere Brassius a lot

Yandere! Brassius headcanons

Cw: stalking, unhealthy obsession, yandere

Nsfw

Brassius is a delusional yandere, but he is not unaware. He knows what he is doing is wrong, but he thinks that he is the only one for you and he is the only one that can truly appreciate your beauty.

He watches from the top of buildings and mountains with a camera. He Rambles to himself about whatever you doing, taking a picture capturing that moment

Ready to worship everything you own? Anything you give him, he'll keep in good condition, having a shrine-no an entire art room dedicated to you. A desk with your " lost" things with pictures of you in frames. The walls decorated in unfinished sketches, drawings paintings of your face just for them to be scribbled out in what seems to be anger. With wooden statues carved to look like you in various poses, as different things, in different art styles covered with drapes.

He spends hours in the night studying the new photos he has taken of you, exploring every angle, every imperfect mark on your skin to recreate it in his new piece, only to take his anger out on it when he can't recreate your radiant Beauty. And when he does get some sleep, his dreams are plagued by your gentle hand touching his.

To you, however, Brassius doesn't seem any different. Just his usual, quarky, and eccentric Brassius self.

Maybe that's what makes him so much more dangerous. Because you could never see the red flags until it's too late, perhaps you should have noticed his eagerness to see and be around you all the time or his immediate cold shoulder when somebody would dare interrupt his time with you.

Brassius constantly internally fights on when he should make his home your permanent residence. He wants to take his relationship with you to the next level. He wants you to be utterly his. Show you his 'art' room and paint things with (and on)your body he has never done before. But observing you in the wild has been a fruitful experience, and he feels like he's not fully finished with capturing every last drop of your personality. His binder on you has not been fully completed yet.

Brassius is very patient, no matter how much he aches for you to be in his arms. He cannot risk his kidnapping plan failing, especially with his involvement in the Pokemon League and his reputation as an artist. He is careful and plans each thing meticulously. But once that iron threat of patience breaks, he quickly loses composure.

- Brass has a weird obsession with being your only artist. He wants to be the only one sculpting/drawing you or anything you tell him. He dreams about you being his nude model and brushing his hands to get a better feel of your body and, at the same time, taking short breaks by putting his lips on yours. His fingers caress each curve of your skin, dipping lower and lower.

- and I think someone else making artwork about you would be his breaking point. Desperate to gain back that control he once had, he would finally swiftly carry out his plan to kidnap you.

When he does finally have you, Brassius is bursting with excitement. He has prepared an entire room that you'll be living in. hopefully after you realize you love him he won't be needing the room. You slept so soundly on your bed. Brassius admits he has never seen you sleep before. he coos watching your chest rise and fall. he takes the opportunity to touch you. gently caress you touch you in ways he has never gone to, but not touch you enough to wake you up. he shall 'touch' you in that way at a later time. for right now there's too much work to be done. He must cover up any Footprints he has left when he took you from the outside world.

He has to say, Brassius, he's glad that he kidnapped you in the end; he cussed at himself for not doing this sooner. You are a feisty little muse and need to be punished often. Tying you down with his Bramble wrappings with a vibrator deep inside of you. Occasionally tightening those wrappings until the fake spikes dug into your skin. Maybe he could finally fulfill his dream and use you as his nude model.

He is excited to show you his art room dedicated to you. Show you finished paintings and sculptures he has created in your image.

He's even more excited to cover you in his marks. Blemish your skin with his teeth, only he could paint you in this way. Only he could paint your skin white with his cum. He'll treat your marks like a masterpiece.

He can't wait to tie you up and paint your beauty.

He showers you with affection every morning. As soon as you wake up, you're greeted with a home-cooked meal and a smiling Brassius at your bedside. Ready to cover you in this morning's kisses.

Now that he has you, he can't bare to part with you. he'll spend hours of his free time just worshiping your body, Whispering gentle praises, covering your arms or legs in kisses.

[ultraericthered]

One Villainous Scene: My Precious Babies

In all the Pokemon franchise, even to this day I don't think there's been a villain who utilized Realism-Induced Horror better than Lusamine, the President of the Aether Foundation, mother of Lillie and Gladion, and the true chief antagonist of the games set in Alola. And this scene here exemplifies it best, but it is an interesting case where there are two different versions of it, one that features a completely inebriated, unfiltered and crazed Lusamine that really maximizes the horror aspect, and one that downplays that horror due to Lusamine being in a right state of mind this time which might honestly make the moment even more unsettling in that context.

When you first enter this secret top room of Lusamine's manor that's at the heart of Aether Paradise, the silence, the pristine whiteness of the room, the idea that Lillie, Lusamine's child, had no idea this room even existed until just now, and a confidently smirking Lusamine simply telling you to "come this way" is enough to give you a chill. And when you do as she says, it's made clear that these many boxes that line up and decorate this room...are containers for Pokemon that have been cryogenically frozen. The Aether Foundation's stated purpose, Pokemon conservation - this, to Lusamine, is the ultimate expression of that purpose, but it's not meant for the Foundation or for the public to even know of. "What do you think? It's my private collection. My precious babies...they will all be preserved for eternity here!" That this "private collection" exists in both game versions and Lusamine says these exact same lines, speaking so lovingly of the creatures she has condemned to this fate, makes clear that this is something she began doing while not on any toxin. She did it as a response to her grief of losing her husband to something that was completely beyond her ability to control. Her heart's anguish gave way to mental paranoia about how many other loved ones she could suddenly lose and have no control over it happening or where they'd go, so she picked out all of her most cherished Pokemon in the Paradise and had them frozen on the spot. In place, unmoving, not able to go anywhere, completely under her control, all her's to love. Speaks so much to her psychology - if she could go back and freeze Mohn in place before the Ultra Wormhole took him, she would do so. Poor Lillie is visibly horrified to see how far over the edge her mother has fallen, and to learn for how long she'd been falling over the edge.

It's after this point that the scene diverges in some key places - inebriated Lusamine muses that the Ultra Beast she looks to bring out from the wormhole would not be frozen there and that it in fact should not be because, in her rationalization, it will need freedom and an outlet to "express its feelings" of confusion and fury, so she'd be glad to let the beast, and all Ultra Beasts in fact, go out into the Alola region to do as they please....even if "as they please" might pose a danger to everyone and everything else in the region! Clear-headed Lusamine, meanwhile, keeps her focus to her "precious babies" in the room and all those in the Paradise, rationalizing that a loss of light from the world would be akin to a loss of love, or more exactly, her ability to give her love to the Pokemon, again making this a matter of Lusamine desiring control. And to make it clearer that she seeks to assert control and validate the grandiose sense of self she's been losing her grasp of, Lusamine declares that she will personally defeat and capture Necrozma - it's not enough just to protect Alola's light from this threat, she needs to conquer it, capture it, and make it a slave to her love, the crown jewel of her new, improved paradise.

Hau and Gladion then enter in both versions and while in only the second does Gladion bring up their missing father, Lusamine's husband Mohn, in both Lusamine snaps at her children and openly calls them "wretches" who "betrayed her" by leaving her, even though full context of the situation reveals that it was Lusamine's possessive, overly strict and abusive parenting in combination with the unethical things she was using her company to do to Pokemon that drove her son and daughter away from her, but like the classic narcissist she is, Lusamine casts herself as the faultless victim and gaslights her kids to think that they were the problem all along. While inebriated Lusamine has just plain given up on her family and favors putting Nihilego in place of them in her heart, clear-headed Lusamine acts as though they'd disowned her first and so she had to reciprocate in kind, but that even then she will still save them too, going into this sickening self-aggrandizement about how perfectly loving she is.

After the point where Lillie pleads with her mother to not use Nebby to open the wormhole because it will involve potentially killing it to do so (obviously not a very kind and loving thing to do!) but Lusamine goes ahead with it regardless, the scenes just become completely different from each other: inebriated Lusamine gleefully uses the boxed up Nebby to open a wormhole so that Ultra Beasts come out and invade Alola while clear-headed Lusamine just charges up electrical power to zap the Nebby box so that it can open a wormhole only to be met with resistance from Nebby, which she has to admire because love and all that, but her self righteous rationalizations for her selfish actions refuse to yield to this, as she declares she'll use the power of the cage itself to turn Nebby's power against it so that "it cannot resist any further!", essentially condemning the Cosmog to die with a straight face and a cold glare. Guzma then enters in both versions, and you have to battle Lusamine either because she acts like an unhinged womanchild demanding to "love her sweet beast" in peace and for us not to upset the beast so we need to be silenced, or because she wants to prove to her worried children that she's strong enough to face the dangers of Ultra Space and Necrozma on her own, with her own Pokemon. (In the latter, Gladion's concern for what might befall his mother on the other side of the wormhole is met with a despicably guilt trippy "So now you worry for me?" God, I just want to slug her across the face and then kick her across the room!)

Following the battle is how it ends, and I'll admit - the S/M version is pretty lame. Lusamine throws another tantrum, then out of nowhere the wormhole starts to destabilize and vanish, so Lusamine and Guzma hurriedly run towards Nihilego and the wormhole with the intent of catching the beast with a Beast Ball once they're on the other side in Ultra Space. Weird effects happen, Lusamine smirks and waves goodbye, and then she and Guzma are just gone. Just like that, the big, intense event at Aether Paradise is over. US/UM more than makes up for it, with Lusamine, if you defeated her, doubling around and saying "OK, I'm not strong enough on my own, but that's alright since I'll have Guzma with me and we together WILL be strong enough!" just so she can still get her way and go off to capture Necrozma. At Gladion's protest, his mother condescends once again, repeating her earlier line of "children really would all be far happier if they'd only listen to the adults around them!", now said with a spiteful, malicious edge to it. Using Nebby to fully open the wormhole, Lusamine visually displays the core of her character by walking backwards into danger, away from her caring family, her eyes closed and her face calm, her arms outscretched in a strong, saintly, messianic pose. The sheer narcissism levels are off the chart!

While vastly different in service of different directions taken in these games stories, both versions of this scene convey the same basic fundamental flaw of Lusamine: regardless of what befell her husband and how she managed her grief, regardless of whether or not she's doped up on alien parasite jellyfish toxin, she is a sinner who is a saint only in her own mind, a prideful, power-mad womans so obsessed with control and possession that she conflates with the concept of "love", so deranged in her devotion to her public image and self-image as a loving matriarch, that she refuses to recognize that her ways of "giving love" are suffocating rather than nourishing, and it's her own family, whether they be her biological offsprings or her most beloved Pokemon, that end up taking the damage from it. The very family she currently looks to discard in favor of the Ultra Beasts she now obsesses over. So it speaks volumes that in both game sets, her actions only bring darkness to Alola rather than light.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Swift.

Incorporating electricity into cameras is actually a fairly recent invention, happening in 1975. (approximately 42 years ago)

The camera inside the studio is (allegedly) a daguerreptype (invented in 1839) which in order to capture a clean image required people to stand still for several minutes (20 min and then 20 seconds much later) and are commonly sealed inside expensive metal and glass. But that isn't actually with the framing of the image suggests as you're able to use complicated poses. Also require a Very Old Man to engage in poisons such as Cyanide and Mercury. So it instead is suggesting a film type camera (The Kodak 1888) which uses a paper like medium in which where when people want to add color they will literally add color by painting on top of it. A far less expensive endeavor which could lend to the design of what laverton has.

I'm just going to stop right there. I'm also not an expert. I just trifle in photography. If you want to know more just ask

None of this actually matters to anything as YOU have spiked real world time in the ground. ( a Pokemon helped invented this photo but it's a mystery to everyone on what was the type of said Pokemon and that's the lore I'm willing to subscribe for because nothing makes sense otherwise.)

Except the true purpose is for delicious angst for PC~

If film is being used the photos would be incredibly volatile and can be destroyed easily. You think humidity happening on books are bad? Without proper care these things will not last 50 years and sure shit ain't going to last thousands even with proper care. Also far less detail.

If daguerreptype: the image is the image. There is no copy of the image. the images are in fact one of a kind. Far more durable but 3,000 years? Nah.

Having said that it's probably far too Bleak of an outcome. So let's just have Ingo just painstakingly retaking pictures of his previous pictures and just hope that a flood doesn't happen to destroy everything.

Pictures are worth a thousand words and that would be heartbreaking to him.

-Cam

i would just like to say. in my defense. i knew cameras weren't electricity based until very recently. i specified electric types because i was actually thinking of the move flash, which i mistakenly thought was an electric type move. which it is not. so i was wrong about trivia but in a totally different way. i also don't think flash would necessarily help with inventing photography either. what was i imagining when i made that post? the world may never know. i think i was imagining amplifying the effects of a camera obscura but flash wouldn't necessarily help with that either. it also wouldn't help with fixing the images. i also stand by my reassessment that it would be poison types that actually helped with their invention. some hypothetical poison type whose venom has a "darkens when exposed to air and stays like that" effect would, in fact, facilitate the developing of a camera basically as soon as they were tamed.

that said the photography studio in jubilife has a goddamn fucking color photography option with sepia being a filter they're applying so who even knows at this point, throws up my hands, guys don't use the cameras as a pinpoint for what time period pla takes place unless you're going full @/answrs and making it a really involved modern day larp. that's the only correct answer actually.

[leggerefiore]

Please! PLEASE! Make a 2nd part to the 'Ingo goes missing with Emmet's S/o'! Like both memories come back on their own or Emmet shows them around and all the pictures. Please, they deserve a happy end!

○ You and Ingo refused to go along with him until he blabbed out something about the Warden having a mole somewhere unfortunate. He turned bright red, but Emmet kept blabbing about random things that related to him until Ingo finally relented. You're both taken to a strikingly familiar home. (Something in the back of you mind breathes a sigh of relief, yet a sense of calm can't be fully achieved.) Sitting in the couch, you lean into your boyfriend. Sure, he wasn't exactly as he acts in your patchwork memories. (Emmet brings forth strangely nostalgic feelings. His smile so close to the one in your faded memories, but that can't be right. You love Ingo; you must have always loved him.)

○ Your heart shattered like a porcelain vase thrown onto the floor when Emmet presents an item. The photograph sends a memory surging into your minds eye; the very moment it was captured bleeding over the world around you. A frigid winter night when your boyfriend decided to take you out to a musical for a new experience for the both of you. You both dressed up nicely and posed together while a blonde, you still couldn't recall the name, of snapped the photo. The heat the radiated from the body next to you, his slate coat and cream slacks. A big smile on his face as he beamed at you. Emmet. Emmet. Emmet! The named bounced around your head like a rubber ball.

○ Ingo is terribly surprised when you shove yourself from his grasp. His touch now venomous as you recalled your previous relations. You had done many things with the older twin without the presence of proper memory. Many questions rushed your mind as to whether your actions were considered cheating and how you felt in actuality toward Ingo. You still loved him… but you also still loved Emmet. Pearlescent eyes met your own as the younger twin was in near tears. “Emmet,” you coo, “I remember. It's alright, I remember.” He clings to you tighter than his Galvantula binds their prey.

○ The older twin watches the scene heartbroken. Your actions were bizarre, but you wouldn't have acted so strongly unless there was a good reason. He spies around the room until a picture frame lying on the coffee table catches his attention. Two young boys who heavily resembled himself (and the supposed Emmet) were wrapped around each other with two unfamiliar pokemon posing alongside them. It was something that froze him. 'Lit… Litwick' he stared at the candle pokemon for much too long. A foreign warmth and a strange aura surrounding him coursed in his mind. A Scolipede was attempting to attack him and that other boy—Ingo knew what he was, but the word escaped him—when a large fireball came flying at the megapede pokemon. The Litwick rushed as fast as it could to his side with big cadmium eyes. Relief rushed through his body at the safety of him and his twin, Emmet.

○ Your sudden repulsion was understood by Ingo. What had he done with his brother's lover? He felt ill. (At the same time his feelings for you didn't fade… He had truly come to love you.) You pulled away from Emmet as you noticed the shift in Ingo's eyes. The twins gazed into their matching eyes in complete silence. “Emmet, I can only hope you begin to forgive me for what I have done,” the older spoke with a cracking voice. The younger shook his head and ran to smother him next. Ingo's arms went around as well. They hated being apart for long periods of time more than anything.

○ In the end, Ingo let go of his relationship with you in order to keep his younger brother happy. It stung some days, and many memories remained with him. Emmet knew this, yet let it go. Neither of you could remember him, and it made sense to assume he was Ingo rather than him being a twin. (He supposed but wondered quite often… You notice he's more touchy around Ingo to this day.) You're happy to back with your boyfriend, who's just gleeful his partner and his brother are back in his life.

Alt Ending Under Cut!

● It was a strange shift to include both twins into a relationship, but somehow you were making it work. They shared nearly everything and that now included you. Of course, Emmet now plays the “I was dating them first!” card to which Ingo claims you technically dated them both first somehow. It's an odd, goofy relationship. You don't think you'd trade it for a thing. Lazy mornings sandwiched between the twins' warmth were precious moments to thoroughly enjoy. Emmet was content to have you both back alongside his excitement at a new type of relationship. (His brother and him always had similar tastes as much as they did differences.)

[bretttal]

𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄  𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒  .

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓  𝐃𝐎  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘  𝐒𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋  𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄  ?

the sea breeze candle on his bedside table — refreshing, chilling, calming, emotions coming in tides. toasted pistachios resting in the kitchen, an invitation slowly fading away. the hint of rose water in freshly cooked rice, sweet and withdrawn, reminding you of the family waiting for you at home. sunshine on clean sheets, full of hope and energy.

𝐇𝐎𝐖  𝐃𝐎  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘  𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏  ?

sleep is so important to him that he has developed a ritual before it. brett always sought peace in the fact that he could still go to sleep, wake up and feel refreshed. losing sleep affects his state of mind greatly and he would give his life just to get it back. when things are alright, sleep is easy though with many dreams; when things are bad, he tosses and turns and busies himself until he finally passes out in fatigue.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓  𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂  𝐃𝐎  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘  𝐄𝐍𝐉𝐎𝐘  ?

soothing tunes and happy music, but his idea of ‘ soothing ’ often seems to sound lonesome and sad. he is not up with the times, and he fixates on music from years or even over a decade ago. his main genres are indie and jpop ( thanks to satomi’s influence ), sometimes bands and instrumentals. otsuka ai, utada hikaru and yonezu kenshi are artists who always seems to capture his unspoken moods. is aquarium music a thing? because he sure loves vibing to the soft music played in aquariums.

𝐇𝐎𝐖  𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇  𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄  𝐃𝐎  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘  𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐃  𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆  𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐘  𝐈𝐍  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆?

waking up and getting up are at least ten minutes apart — he likes lazy moments like this. he goes to the hairdresser regularly just so he can spent the smallest time with his hair, nothing a handful of mousse wouldn’t fix. getting ready takes about ten minutes, and if he’s feeling extra droggy, he’ll take a quick shower. he needs to prepare his backpack the night before or else he’s at risk of being a little late or forgetting something.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓  𝐈𝐒  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑  𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄  𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆  𝐓𝐎  𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓  ?

pokemon cards, bulbasaur things. he has a good collection of pokemon cards, though he is trying to keep it under control right now. he loves cute things, too, so he has a few of potted plants, flowerpots, funny stickers and whatnots lying about in his room. blue and green and yellow and shiny things.

𝐀𝐑𝐄  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘  𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓  𝐎𝐑  𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓  𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃  ?

right handed. his left hand is not as skillful and nimble but still strong enough.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓  𝐈𝐒  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑  𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐎𝐍  ?

he isn’t exactly religious, but he is most in tune with the buddhist’s way of life and values. he has regular meditation sessions with satomi and the pack and perform activities related to mindfulness.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓  𝐈𝐒  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑  𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄  𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓  ?

lacrosse. i don’t care about lacrosse enough to talk about it

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓  𝐈𝐒  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑  𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄  𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐘  𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆  𝐓𝐎  𝐃𝐎  𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍  𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆  ?

museums, aquariums and botanical gardens! he loves nature and loves to hike too. while he enjoys eating, his appetite poses a cost issue during vacations, so he usually limits his spending on that end. he also collects way too many postcards if he gets the chance. we need an intervention!

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓  𝐈𝐒  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑  𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄  𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐃  𝐎𝐅  𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑  ?

sunny but not hot, breezy but not cold. mild, milquetoast, just-about-right weather. the way clear water feels to fish. he is more tolerant to cold than he is to heat, given his above average hotness — i mean body temperature — and werewolf things.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓  𝐈𝐒  𝐀  𝐖𝐄𝐈𝐑𝐃  /  𝐎𝐁𝐒𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐄  𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑  𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘  𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄  ?

his fears aren’t that weird or obscure. he doesn’t like being strangled. or hunted. or used. or watched. or controlled. or murdered. you know the vibe.

tagged by: @khozmoh​ tagging: @outwards​​ ( kanna or sucrose ), @deitise​ ( megumi ), @arborvitas​

[pokemon-prof-pine]

Caring for Pokemon (And tips for Bug-types!)

Hello everyone! I’m sorry for the long stretch between articles. I recently went away to the Alola region in order to study wild Vikavolt (and, by extension, Grubbin and Charjabug!)

Now that I’m back in my own lab, I’m hopefully going to be able to put out more articles covering specific species of Bug Pokemon. For now, here’s a lighter article covering proper care for your own partners!

Choosing a Pokemon

Obviously, the first step in care is actually having a Pokemon to care for! For some, a Bug-type has become their partner through life experience, others through hunting for that specific Pokemon, or possibly even receiving it in an egg! For others, you may be caring for an injured Pokemon temporarily, or even had to capture a Pokemon so it could be relocated.

However you came to have a Bug-type Pokemon under your care, always keep in mind how they will act. A Pokemon hatched from an egg will act much different from one that was injured, and both will act different from one that wanted to join you. Size, strength, temperament, and even habits have a large margin even within the same species, so don’t just rely on what you know about that species. Also take the time to learn a specific Pokemon’s personality.

Enclosure

Very rarely are Pokemon kept in enclosures, save for perhaps Water-type Pokemon that are brought inland. Most people, trainers or not, keep their Pokemon outside their Pokeballs unless the need arises to recall them. For the majority of us that aren’t trainers, Pokemon are kept around the house (or the lab, in my case!) to freely roam or follow their caretaker in whatever way they please.

With that in mind, many Bug-type Pokemon require some specific needs you may not have at your home. Pokemon that enjoy sunning or like large amounts of heat, like Sizzlipede, may lose energy or be actively uncomfortable during cold months. Keeping an area in or around your home that caters to a Pokemon’s specific needs is important. Sizzlipede, for example, may need to be kept indoors while it’s colder, even if it doesn’t snow. In addition, you may want to keep a room particularly hot so that it may relax properly.

Activity

Many people consider Slowpoke a particularly lazy Pokemon, but did you know they require around 16 hours of activity in a day? This is often juxtaposed by their 16 hour sleep cycle. While it’s not difficult to keep up with a Slowpoke due to its speed (or lack thereof) the sheer number of hours needed to supervise some Slowpoke make them difficult to care for. 

Bug Pokemon are no different, and of course the level of activity will vary be species and individual. Ninjask, my own partner, is incredibly high energy himself, but often only needs about two hours or so a day of activity before he becomes rather passive. It’s tough exercise to keep up with him, but keeping him engaged and happy is worth it.

Food

Obviously, Pokemon need to eat. Just as obvious is the fact that Pokemon eat many different things. Obtaining the right kind of food can be difficult. Pokemon that feed on other Pokemon don’t lose the desire to hunt or the want to eat meat simply because they’re brought indoors. Capturing a Pokemon just to have it be eaten or fed on is also incredibly unethical and cruel. 

Make sure you can find a way to obtain food for your Pokemon that’s ethically sourced. The easiest way to do this for hunting Pokemon is Miltank meat. Miltank are often raised to incredibly old age, and are pampered their entire lives due to the milk they produce. When they die of old age, their meat can be processed for both human and Pokemon consumption. Plenty of Pokemon can’t eat this type of mean, but the vast majority can.

Grass-type Pokemon may not require a direct meal, but providing them with compost is often a good idea. Other Pokemon like Slugma and Aron might not even eat “normal” food at all, preferring to eat rock and metal!  Be sure to do your research first when providing your Pokemon with food.

Bug-types

For many people and trainers, Bug-type Pokemon pose a challenge in care. What does a Caterpie eat? How much room does a Yanma need? Why does my Cutiefly only eat from one specific flower in my yard? While they may have traits of other Pokemon of a similar type, Bug-type Pokemon are in a category all their own, much like Ghost-type Pokemon. Here are some general tips for caring for any Bugs you may take in:

1) Bug-types are often group (or swarm) Pokemon, preferring to stay in their group or hive, possibly even their entire lives. If a Bug-type chooses to stay with you, you become that hive. Having a couple other Pokemon around can help a Bug-type feel at home. Pokemon brought in for care will be scared and confused when it’s all alone and away from the structure of its group. Having one person provide food, a different person provide water, and a different person still feed a Bug Pokemon will show it that you and your hive are not so different from its own, and put it at ease.

2) Bug-types are surprisingly picky eaters. Often, a Bug Pokemon will only eat berries its grown up eating, and may even turn away food intended to have a similar taste and texture to those berries. Those that hunt may refuse “fresh” meat, preferring to hunt for their meal themselves. This can make buying food seemingly impossible or at least incredibly expensive. This can often be remedied by introducing the Pokemon to new food gradually. While you shouldn’t ever starve a Pokemon, delaying feeding of its preferred food by about half an hour or so may prompt it to try something new while its impatient and hungry.

3) Amusingly (at least to me!) Bug-types are considered pests in certain areas for a reason: They’re incredibly adept at thriving in areas that they perhaps even shouldn’t. Volcarona have been found in areas with harsh winters, Surskit in places with no more than a puddle of water here and there, and Dwebble where almost no rocks can be found! Doing your best to care for a Pokemon’s specific needs will very often be enough for a Bug-type Pokmeon. While this isn’t to say that you can just take a Bug and raise it anywhere, you’ll often be surprised at just how well a partner can grow or how well and injured Pokemon can heal outside of its preferred home.

Phew. This article ended up being much longer than I expected. Please remember that these are general tips for care, and can’t always be applied exactly for every species. Even for Bug-types, I often have to consult colleagues like @prof-peach for help! If you need some advice on caring for your Bug-types, please don’t hesitate to ask me! If you’d like some advise on other Pokemon, Professor Peach regularly answers care questions.

Until next time!

Professor Pine

[imjeralee]

Comfort in Despair: Chapter 13 - Edward Rose

Leon x F!Reader

Disclaimer: Do not own Pokemon

Summary:

Galar is rich in folklore and tales of the supernatural.

As a Pokemon Researcher who specialises in ghost types, this is a great opportunity for you to investigate and learn more about the paranormal.

Along the way, you meet Leon (in the most awkward way possible) who becomes embroiled in your adventures.

^ Basically this story is about ghosts :/

Rating: General/Teen

WARNINGS: For blood, gore, vomit, disturbing and graphical scenes. This is really a horrific chapter. If you like this stuff, that’s great, if not I promise it will get better :’)

@marydragneell​ - here is the latest update

Edward Rose

…

…

[Ezra’s Notes on Exorcism Tools:

1. The Odd Keystone. A peculiar stone bestowed to me by the diocese. Quintessential in capturing evil spirits that cannot find salvation and are cursed to wander the earth for eternity (I’m surprised they didn’t ask for it back). It is 'activated' by latin exorcism prayers. If the number of contained spirits reach one hundred and eight, a pokemon will form, ie, Spiritomb.

2. The Khira Dagger. This small, hand-held dagger was used in rituals and sacrificial ceremonies, with roots dating back to the 8th century. It has absorbed so much blood that its power transcends any other. It kills spirits, evil or good. Try to refrain from using this unless you’re dealing with a powerful adversary (again, I’m surprised they didn’t ask for it back).]

…

…

The sound of rapid footsteps approaching can be heard echoing along the dark hall and you and Jace both turn to the source only to be greeted with an ashen-faced Cole.

“Help! I need help!” he exclaims, clearly in distress. He comes to a grinding halt before you and puts his hands on his knees with his head low, panting.

“Are you alright?” Jace asks, as Cole struggles to regain his breath.

You give him a moment or so until his face finally returns to its normal colour and he squeezes his eyes shut before he cries out, “Tan is missing!”

You’ve never seen a grown man look so panicky and hysterical before. “Calm down, tell us what happened.”

“He went to the bathroom and several minutes passed, and he didn’t come out so I went in to check in on him and he tried to scare me but then there was this loud noise outside and he left to check. When I went out, he was gone – there’s no way he could’ve just vanished into thin air so quickly like that, you know? And I was calling his name and saw this shadow run past, I followed it-“

As Cole rambles, he becomes increasingly louder.

“But then I heard footsteps behind me and between these two displays, I saw this face-“

“A face?”

Cole nods and Jace throws you an alarmed glance. “I saw it in the pictures we took. It was following us!”

“Show me these pictures,” you say, and Cole switches on his bulky digital camera, fumbling with a few buttons and switching to view mode where he mutters and mumbles under his breath until he finds the designated pictures. “Here.”

You scoop the camera out of his grip and go through the snapshots under Cole’s instruction; you see an array of photos of Tanner taken when they were on their way to leave the gallery via the right wing. There are a couple of so photos of Tanner striking funny poses in the taxidermy section.

Cole does not fail to point out the grinning face in the darkness that he’d noticed appear in numerous photos he had taken of Tanner after capturing Runerigus.

You peer curiously at each of these photos where you see the face that appears in every picture. Whether it’s above Tanner’s shoulder, head, on his left or right, it is always there.

“And you noticed this after you found us in the basement and after Tanner captured Runerigus,” you reaffirm, and he nods again. You hand him the camera wordlessly.

“The damn asshole won’t pick up his phone either,” Cole growls.

“What should we do?” Jace asks.

“Call Horace. Get all the lights switched back on so we can start looking for Tanner.”

“O-okay, I can do that…” Cole utters, before he fishes out the walkie talkie and pushes on the button; it fizzes weakly before it goes silent and he takes this as an indication to speak. “Hello? Horace? Are you there, over?”

He lifts his finger off the button and waits, but there’s no response.

Cole tries again. “Horace? Can you hear me, over. Can you switch all the lights back on, please?”

Still no response.

“…I’ll go find him,” Cole says with a sigh, “I’ll go through the left wing, it’s quicker that way. There’s no use just hanging around here. I’ll keep in contact with you through my walkie.”

“Are you sure?” you ask, and he nods.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Cole replies, “You guys gonna stay here?”

“We’re going to investigate a bit more,” you say whilst Jace looks unsure.

“Okay, see you in a bit. Arceus…Tan, you better be okay…”

You watch Cole’s retreating back as he disappears towards the direction of the left wing and it’s just yourself and Jace once more.

“Where do you think Tanner is?” Jace asks.

“He could be hiding somewhere.”

“Yeah, he must’ve seen the ghost and bolted for it!”

“Possibly,” you mutter, before you unzip your bag and rifle through, picking up the Odd Keystone you had received from Leon earlier.

How is this going to work, you think to yourself, as you return the Odd Keystone safely back inside; you opt for a small and dirty gold dagger with a thin blade the length of your hand that is engraved all over with strange symbols. You carefully place it into your inner jacket pocket to conceal it but Jace sees it anyway.

“A knife!?”

“No, a khira dagger,” you say quickly, revealing the small blade, “It doesn’t hurt humans, only spirits. Watch.”

You proceed to stab the blade into your awaiting palm but nothing happens, the sharp blade doesn’t penetrate your flesh and skin at all even when you bring the blade down again and again and Jace gawks in bewilderment as you lift your intact hand, wiggling your fingers.

“See?” you say, “I don’t really want to use it, but I’m concerned. If Graves found out about this though, he’d confiscate it so don’t tell anyone.”

Jace chuckles. “Your secret’s safe with me!”

“Thanks, Jace-“

You are both briefly stopped in your actions when you hear the distinct sounds of clanging metal above your heads which makes you look up.

The noise continues, identical to someone with a rod and banging on metal, and you shine the torch at the ceiling. It’s coming from the ventilation and the noises are heading towards the direction of the left wing.

“…Do you think Cole made it out okay?” Jace asks, and you purse your lips.

“I’ll go check,” you say, “Jace, stay here.”

“No way! I’m coming with you.”

“…Alright fine, let’s go,” and you both begin to follow the sounds which are heading towards the direction of the left wing where up ahead, you hear a loud cry of pain.

Hastening your pace, you and Jace rush to the scene as quickly as your feet can carry you until you see Cole a short distance away. He is lying on the floor, though he is not alone for a figure can be seen squatting over his body, emitting guttural and choked croaks and grunts.

You and Jace go to a skidding halt on your heels, shining the torch on the figure who whips round with a feral hiss.

It’s Tanner, yet his eyes are wild and crazed, with lips pulled backwards so tightly they appear to reach his ears. His teeth are clenched together into a grisly and never-ending, distorted grin of malice, his nostrils and mouth drenched with blood. Hot tears stream profusely down from the corners of his eyes and over his cheeks, mingling together with the blood.

“H…help muh…” he manages to grunt out, squeezing his eyes shut for a brief second.

Rising to stand, his body jerks and twitches fiercely. He takes a step forwards, then immediately doubles over, groaning and heaving before he proceeds to vomit, large splashes staining the pristine floor before he begins plodding towards your direction with his arms stretched out, fingers bent into claws.

You’re seized by Jace before you can react; he mutters a string of obscenities whilst the possessed man rampages after you, shrieking and screaming unintelligibly.

“This way!” Jace yells, as he drags you down the hall.

Your heartbeat begins speeding up as Tanner’s hysterical, gnarled screams of agony assaults your ears, along with the violent thudding sounds of hands and feet meeting the floor. Too disturbed to look over your shoulders, Jace reaches for Joltik’s capsule and releases his pokemon.

“Joltik, use Electroweb!!” Jace commands, and the little yellow bug glows brightly before shooting a large spiderweb filled with crackling electricity towards Tanner’s direction.

You throw a quick glance to see the web ensnaring the man but it does little to stop him. He has made no effort to evade and drops to the ground as the web tangles him up and he begins crawling whilst snarling and gnashing his teeth ferociously, dragging himself towards you, reaching with outstretched arms.

“Good job, Joltik,” Jace says, as the little bug trills in response.

You run aimlessly through the gallery, listening to the horrendous noises which are still growing closer and closer until Jace suddenly lets out a yelp. You turn briefly to see he’s been grabbed; you cannot believe your eyes - Tanner has rid himself of the electroweb and he has caught up so quickly – and Jace is promptly tossed high in the air with Joltik stuck to his shoulder and you watch helplessly as he slams against the wall of one of the taxidermy displays and drops to the ground, unconscious.

“Jace!”

As Tanner proceeds to lunge at you, he’s quickly fended off by a dark beam of energy.

Gengar floats in the air, grinning wickedly before he glances at you and nods; he’s got your back.

The possessed Tanner rolls upright, hisses and scrabbles away, disappearing into the darkness.

Your legs tremble as you scan the surrounding area with your torch but he has vanished; all that is left of him is a bloodied trail which vanishes in one corner.

A loud clunk from above grabs your attention and you shine the torch to the source to see that the iron vent on the ceiling has been pried open.

Gengar returns to your side and you exhale shakily.

“…Thanks Gengar, can you check up on Jace and Joltik, please?”

Fumbling for Mimikyu’s capsule, you release her and she looks up at you expectantly.

“Mimi, can you check up on Cole, please? And please return to the entrance and ask Horace to turn on all the lights.”

“Leave it to…mi.” Mimikyu says, imitating a salute motion with one shadowy tendril from its mouth.

You smile at your pokemon; though they are rather reluctant to leave your side, you confirm your instruction with a firm nod.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I know what I’m doing. Meet me in the basement once you’re done.”

Gengar and Mimikyu acknowledges your commands and everyone parts way; Gengar floats away to where Jace and Joltik were tossed, Mimikyu heads for the direction of the left wing whilst you make your way towards the door that will lead to the basement.

You’re going to destroy the damn thing.

Along the way, you check for any airducts and vent shafts and you remain on high alert for any strange noises and signs of Tanner, using your torch to sweep the area before proceeding.

The path is clear and the basement door lies ahead and when you shine the torch on the ceiling to the air duct nearby, you see it is closed.

Without further hesitation, you head over until a brutal force from behind rams into your back and you’re shoved away from the door and to the wall, your head smacks hard against the concrete and you drop to the floor, your torch clattering out of your hand. Your mind reels as your vision slowly grows black and your eyes slide to a close.

Drifting between consciousness, a wet and cold grip seizes your ankle and you’re slowly pulled out of your spot.

You slump over the uninviting floor and as you groan and mumble and mutter, the grip tugs on your ankle again.

You slide forwards and stop briefly.

Then you slide again.

And stop.

You’re being dragged.

Groaning, you muster the strength to open your eyes and stare groggily at the ceiling above you before you lift a hand to the side of your head and press your fingertips over your skin. You are bleeding.

You see Tanner with his back to you and his hand curled around your ankle which is lifted in the air, pulling you towards the direction of the basement. You struggle but you’re wracked with pain, your head throbbing.

Your eyes slide to a close…

…and you wake up by a searing hot stab of pain and you begin screaming uncontrollably, your eyes darting around your surroundings.

It’s the room with the fans and the easel and the accursed canvas and the sounds of flesh squelching and blood gurgling forces you to whip your head to the side where you see Tanner bent over you, biting down ravenously on the flesh of your forearm. As you scream and flail, he looks up, his crazed and possessed eyes meeting yours.

With a mouthful of blood, he slowly shuffles up and away from you, and you gape as he drags himself to stand limply in front of the easel with his shoulders slumped.

The incomplete painting awaits; he regards it for a moment before he begins to dab his fingers into his bloodied mouth and slaps his fingers and palms onto the canvas, smearing your blood over the surface.

You stare at the scene in horror and shock, your eyes widening as he begins to paint.

Slowly, you begin to inch yourself away towards the direction of the closed door as quietly as possible so not to alert the possessed man. Gengar and Mimikyu haven’t come to find you, so you doubt you’ve been unconscious for long. As you drag yourself across the floor, your arm is a bloom of red, brimming with pain and discomfort and bleeding abundantly from where he’s bitten into you.

He stops, having run out of blood and turns round, his crazed eyes pinned on your helpless form on the ground and you inch backwards as fast as you can, struggling away on your elbows.

“Edward Rose, I know it’s you,” you hiss. Lifting yourself off the floor to stand, you cradle your bleeding arm, panting heavily, “You want to finish your painting, right?”

“….Need more blood…not enough blood…” Tanner utters but it’s not his voice, it’s deep and darker.

Without a second to spare, he lunges at you but you reveal the small dagger that you’ve managed to keep safe and thrust the sharpened tip towards his chest but one huge fist grabs your arm and the other seizes your throat and proceeds to squeeze down on your windpipe. You grunt as he slams you against the wall and lifts you high into the air.

You struggle violently as his hand closes around your neck and wrist firmly; with your remaining hand, you clench your fist tightly and begin beating against his shoulder.

Struggling for breath, Tanner’s manic gaze meets yours; his distorted grin is incessant, his pupils are dilated as he hisses and rasps unintelligibly, your ears ringing with discomfort from the grating noise.

You shake and flail as much as you can, your ravaged arm sweltering with pain.

The pressure on your neck increases, the howling grows more and more deafening, your mind grows dark and dreary, your clenched hand on his coat is growing loose.

This must be it, you think to yourself, and you wonder how sad it is that this is how you will meet your end because you didn't think this would how it would end until Tanner abruptly jerks backwards and you are freed from his clutches. You drop to the ground, coughing and choking and gasping for precious air.

You didn’t hear the door open.

Glancing up, you see it is none other than Leon holding the man back. Charizard is by his side, too.

“Leon!!” you cry breathlessly with widened eyes, “Charizard!”

“Are you okay?!” he exclaims, and you force a nod. “Arceus, what’s wrong with him? Has he gone mad?”

“No, he’s just possessed,” is your reply.

As Leon holds Tanner back, having successfully wrenched the possessed man off you, Charizard waddles to your side to inspect you.

However, there’s no time to waste. As Charizard helps you off the ground, you grab your dagger with renewed grip and lunge forwards as Tanner fights and resists Leon thoroughly, screaming and flailing viciously in his hold. You quickly swing your arm forwards with the dagger and Leon’s eyes widens at your action.

He’s never seen you like this. You must look deranged, you think; your eyes must rival the possessed Tanner – wild, manic and desperate. You’re completely soaked in blood, your teeth clenched together firmly as adrenaline pumps furiously through your veins.

But you want to finish this.

An estranged cry of distress erupts from Tanner’s throat.

“Stop!”

And you pause, the tip of the dagger an inch from his chest.

“Please….no….” he croaks out, his voice strained and heavy and belonging to none other than Edward Rose, “H…he….help me…I want to…finish the painting…”

Leon is baffled by the entirety of it all but you cannot spare the time to explain; he looks at you incredulously as you stare at the sobbing man in his grip with widened eyes. Your shaking arm slowly lowers, the dagger returning to your side.

“….Please…please…” he begs, squeezing his eyes shut. Tears leak uncontrollably from the corners of his clenched eyes. A mixture of Tanner’s and Edward Rose. “It is almost…finished…just a few strokes…please...”

An unsettling silence fills the room as Leon throws you another alarmed glance, then at the man in his grip.

“What is it?” you ask, panting heavily and sucking in noisy breaths, pointing a shaking finger to the painting. Your heart beats furiously, your knees trembling. “What is that meant to be?”

“A map…I hid something…a treasure…”

As Tanner continues to sob, you step backwards as you sweep your hand through your messy hair in disbelief. Leon waits for your response as you pace the floor momentarily before you nod weakly.

“…Fine,” you reply, “But you have to vacate this body at once…I’ll allow you to use mine instead.”

“What?” Leon exclaims.

“It’s okay, Leon. Trust me.”

Whilst the Champion gawks at you, Tanner nods, grateful.

“Oh…thank…you…”

Clearly confused by this entire ordeal, Leon cannot help but watch; you’re relieved he doesn’t attempt to step in, nor does he waste time by questioning everything that’s happening.

Tanner emits another anguished moan and as he convulses violently under Leon’s hold, a murky, dark mist expels from his body, rising from his shoulders and chest in tangled wisps.

He croaks with pain and Leon eventually releases him as the man continues choking and grunting excruciatingly. His throat rattling loudly, Tanner dips to the side with his arms taut and retches, mouth stretching wide open to violently regurgitate another mixture of vomit, blood and a strange, yellowish-white substance that resembles phlegm.

Then he drops to the ground, eyes closed. He is out cold.

“…Ectoplasm,” you mutter, as Leon stares with widened eyes and Charizard snorts loudly with disgust. “Think of it like….ghost residue.”

Despite your explanation, Leon and Charizard look incredibly baffled as you drag yourself to stand properly, hopping on one leg and throwing a glance to the unconscious Tanner before you glance at the awaiting shadow that hovers in mid-air before you.

“I’ll be right back,” you tell the Champion as the shadow slinks forwards.

“Wait!” Leon yells, but the shadow proceeds to envelope you.

He watches as you sway on the spot with your eyes closed before he murmurs your name anxiously.

Your eyes re-open slowly a few seconds later although your gaze, now empty and not belonging to you, sweeps past Leon. You hardly bat an eyelid to his presence and proceed to plod towards the direction of the easel, staring lopsidedly at the canvas before you throw your glance to your bleeding arm. You start to sink your fingers into your torn flesh and once they’re soaked, you begin to apply your bloodied fingertips over the canvas.

Leon calls your name again but you don’t respond.

He observes you painting for a few minutes, your eyes empty as you drag your fingers over the board in a hypnotic but expert fashion.

The stench of blood is strong in the air, the metallic, coppery smell assaulting his nose and Leon grows concerned as continuous drops of blood stain the ground from the tips of your twitching fingers. Charizard growls lightly to elicit some form of response from you but there’s not much the pokemon can do.

When you’re finished, the painting has taken form and has become clearly distinguishable to resemble a monument which Leon is quite certain he has seen somewhere in Rose’s manor.

With the painting completed, Leon watches you carefully. The atmosphere in the room is tense, as he waits for your next move; however, he was not expecting your body to abruptly jerk violently and he takes a cautious step forwards, reaching for you as you shudder on the spot, eyes twitching.

You throw your arm out, halting him.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

Mustering a minute shake of your head, your eyes squeeze shut and you emit a low groan.

"What is it?" he tries again.

You merely groan.

Leon says your name and what he perhaps feared finally happens: your face contorts, your expression turning dark.

“He won’t leave. Shut up, you fell for it and willingly let me in, swine, and now you shall suffer; they shall all suffer. Arceus, I should’ve known-”

Erupting into boisterous, mocking laughter, you suddenly throw your head back and howl until tears form in your eyes; you drop to your knees with your arms out, facing the ceiling, chin raised in the air, before you wildly scrub your face with your bleeding wound, smothering the dank liquid over your eyes, nose, lips furiously.

"Stop!" Leon yells in response to the macabre display, calling your name again.

You whip your head to him sharply, your chilling eyes wide and glinting under the dim light.

“Do not call me that! Get away from me, Leon – My name is Edward Rose! Leon, get away from me, now!"

“I won’t,” he says sternly, shaking his head.

"This body is mine!" you scream next, before you bite down on your arm, hard, and draw more blood.

Leon abruptly tackles you to the ground, apologising profusely for his manhandling of you despite your aggressive attempts to throw him off; he successfully pulls your arm free from your mouth and you begin convulsing helplessly, eyes rolled to the back of your head, mumbling and muttering incoherently. Your head bends to one side, your shoulders hunching up and arms going stiff, fingers twisting into curled claws before your back arches off the ground and you begin to grunt with pain.

"Leon-"

“I’m still here. I won’t leave you, I can’t-”

“Futile! I'll tear you apart!”

And you yelp and yell, your clinched fingers creeping into the sides of your head and hair. A few strands are torn cleanly from your head from your maniacal clawing, your fingernails desperately raking over your cheeks and temples.

In response to your distress, Leon grabs your wrists and pins you to the floor before you can hurt yourself further.

“Focus on my voice,” he says, remaining as calm as possible, “Please.”

Your eyes clench shut firmly and hot tears stream down your face. Leon continues, asking you to focus on his voice, on him, on yourself, that you're still there and in control and after an ear-splitting shriek, a black shadow is forcibly expelled from your body and shoots into the atmosphere and your body grows weak under Leon’s grip.

Leon moves to wrap his arm around you as your weary body lies limply in his hold, your head rolling to the crook of his elbow as you pant uncontrollably. Leon and Charizard exchange quick glimpses to each other before he carefully shakes you.

Your eyes gradually flutter open and he breathes a sigh of relief.

“....Leon?” you whimper.

He blinks slowly before he responds with a relieved and reassuring, kind smile which thoroughly warms your heart.

“…Hey,” he says gently, before he finds your bloodied hand and holds it tightly, “you’re back. You did it.”

You scan his features briefly before you return his smile with a thin and weak one of your own. You find you have become incredibly languid and drained and tears begin forming in the corner of your eyes once more and your lip trembles.

"Oh god...I'm so sorry. Did I frighten you?"

"It's okay."

You emit a meek sniff and Leon squeezes your hand tightly.

Having successfully expelled Edward Rose from your body, you cannot afford to let precious time go to waste; the shadow bobs up and down in the air listlessly, seemingly stunned from your forceful expulsion and so you indicate to Leon that there is no time to dither and you must get up. He helps, wrapping an arm around your shoulder whilst clutching your hand tightly though your hands occasionally slip due to the blood on your palms.

With Leon’s help, you lean on him as he keeps you hoisted whilst you hastily grasp the Odd Keystone from your bag which you proceed to hold up.

“Adjure te, spiritus nequissime, per Deum omnipotentem,” you croak, your throat burning.

Despite the weakness of your voice, the keystone is activated and the shadow, having realised its incoming demise, rapidly attempts to escape by flitting across the room, darting to and fro but the brilliant light encompasses it and the Odd Keystone, with a power that surpasses like any other, continues to reel and drag it in. Screeching and convulsing viciously, the shadow stretches and morphs aggressively as it is dragged inside.

Edward Rose's agonising howls and screeches bathe the room and stings your ears until the Keystone sucks him inside, the fissure glowing brightly as it claims another evil soul for itself. The room grows dark and not a sound can be heard.

You’re aware it’s far from over; Ezra’s words echo in your mind and the keystone begins to glimmer and tremble violently in your grip; heat spreads across the base of your palm, something which the stone has not done before and you have no choice but to drop it.

It does not hit the ground; instead, it zooms back into the air, hovering before you and Leon whilst shining brightly.

“What’s going on?” Leon asks.

“It’s the creation of a Spiritomb,” you reply; the stone begins rapidly spinning in an anti-clockwise fashion in the air, the fissure of the keystone resembling a blur yet it continues to glow brilliantly under the dimness of the room. As the stone whirls, the stillness of the room is penetrated by a thunderous sound.

A purple miasma unravels from the center of the spinning stone as the glowing light fades away and you and Leon watch in silence as the stone spins faster and the strange purple cloud grows larger and larger before the stone comes to an abrupt stop and the creature that has formed finally manifests before you.

It’s Spiritomb, and the stone slowly returns to wobble on the ground; ragged green lines and specks form on its body, its expression contorting into a sinister sneer before unleashing a powerful shockwave that takes everyone off guard.

Leon’s instinct is to protect you, so you find him throwing himself in front of you in a split second, shielding you with his body.

A bright light encompasses the entire room and you’re forced to shield your eyes; when you re-open them, Spiritomb is nowhere to be seen.

Unable to muster the energy to chase after it, you slump against Leon’s chest, your body growing light again. He mutters your name and slowly uses a hand to sweep some of your hair from the frames of your face and tuck it neatly behind your ears before he slides his hand over yours once again. There are ugly bruises on your neck. You are still bleeding from your head and arm.

Though you have the strength to squeeze his hand, he helps prop you up against the wall where you sigh and groan under your breath with agony and exhaustion.

There must be a way to stop the bleeding and his t-shirt seems to be a good way to do so he tears several inches of the hem off and uses it to wrap your tarnished arm, looping it around and around your wound.

“Leon, don’t,” you croak; you receive a sneaky and quick peek of his abs but only just for a second or so, “Your champion shirt…don’t ruin it…”

He merely grins at you reassuringly. “Don’t worry.”

You really do not want Leon to see you like this.

This is the side of your work which you didn’t want him to see.

The ugly side, the dark side.

As Leon finishes tying his shirt around your wound, there is a gentle tug on your arm and you see Gengar; he stands to your left whilst Mimikyu perches herself in your lap. You smile at them weakly as Gengar glances at you worriedly and Mimikyu, rather reluctantly and awkwardly, releases a tendril to pat you on the head.

“Mi mi?” she asks, before she slides her gaze to your bandaged arm, the bruises on your neck and your injuries.

“I’m okay…” you murmur as your eyelids flutter to a close.

With a shuddering exhale, you slowly turn your head to the side, your eyes closing as your breathing grows shallow.

As Leon reaches for you, you are far too fatigued to move anymore; he brushes some loose strands of hair from your face and uses his thumb to brush a tear from the corner of your eye. The warmth from his hand on your cheek is comforting and you sigh again.

“Leon…”

“Yeah?”

“I’m tired…”

Retreating from the side of your cheek, he scoops your hand with his and holds you tightly. Your hand is limp in his hold as he sweeps his thumb over your cold knuckles.

“I’ll get you outta here,” you hear him murmur.

You nod wearily.

Removing his cloak, Leon carefully wraps it around your body despite your protests. He tucks it around you and pulls at the collar to ensure you're warm and covered and once you're completely bundled up, he effortlessly picks you up and off the ground, easing you into his arms. He slides one arm underneath the bend of your knees and the other around the small of your back, ensuring you’re comfortable before he rises to stand.

With you safely in his arms, Leon carries you out of the basement as the lights go on one by one.

…

Rose enters the basement, assessing the damage.

Whilst Leon, the pokemon researcher, her assistant and the Ghostbunkers team have been escorted to hospital, Rose slips into his gallery before the night is over. He calls his cleaning staff to make haste and tidy up the mess they made.

He glances at the completed painting and smiles. Oleana stands behind him with a large black case which she proceeds to open.

“What does this look like to you, Oleana?” he asks.

“It looks like one of the dormers of Rose Manor, perhaps the drawing room. East wing.” Oleana replies stoically.

“My thoughts exactly. And that’s where Edward Rose hid it,” Rose replies. “We couldn’t have done it without her.”

“Agreed, sir,” is Oleana’s remark.

Rose lifts the canvas off the easel and deposits it carefully into the case, closing the lid shut.

Then they leave the basement silently.

…

[passionbooties]

title: i bet you taste like gold  rating: t  pairing: raihan/leon  summary: raihan's never been afraid of the chase. because in the end, he always knew he'd be the winner. that all crashes when the reward at the end of the chase is leon: the one man raihan has always lost to.OR five times raihan has mentioned or shown that he likes leon, and the one time leon finally gets it.

can be read on: ao3!

read under cut ! 

I. 

“Damn, we lost again! But ya did good, Duraludon.” Raihan calls back his Pokémon. Rotom flies around to snap photos of the moment. Because even though Raihan lost, he’s still handsome. And there’s something his followers love about his pouts after defeat-a beauty found in the pain, sort of thing. 

He looks upward, to Leon’s smiling face. As brilliant as the sun while he laughs with his partner, Charizard. “Another win for the great champion of Galar!” Leon is so confident , so sure of himself, but so pure. His boasts never come off cocky. Only mere facts that the entirety of Galar have written into their history books as gospel truths. “But it’s to be expected. After all, I’m unbeatable.”

“Yeah, for now.” Raihan snorts, but there’s no derision. No anger. Only this unsettling warmth that seeps into his bones the more he looks at Leon’s smile and continues comparing him to the sun. Bright, orbiting, so expansive and heat-filled that ignoring him was impossible.

Not that Raihan ever tried. He’d been captured by Leon long ago… 

“I was close, though!” Raihan continues, striding over to meet Leon on the other side of the pitch. “Duraludon nearly had your Charizard begging for mercy.”

Leon barks out a burst of laughter, Charizard following suit. “Yeah sure! If that’s what you want to call it, we can work with that.” Raihan rolls his eyes while Leon keeps laughing and laughing. And Raihan’s stomach keeps tumbling and twisting into knots. 

Leon’s laughter is one of his favorite sounds. Better than any music Raihan’s ever listened to. 

Rotom whirrs by, bumping into Raihan’s cheek. A subtle reminder to get his life together and not drool so much over his longtime rival and friend. Right, good. 

“Well,” Raihan works his jaw, adjusting his posture to come off as casual-and not monumental or anything of the sort to show how much impact he wanted his words to convey. “If you were anyone else, I’d definitely try to throw hands. So you’re lucky that I like you so much.”

So much. So much more than any harboring feelings of platonic platitudes he carried for the other people in his life. His heart rate never sped up so viciously as it did around the champion. His thoughts were never consumed by anyone else other than Leon. 

It was horrific. Raihan wanted to scream.

His nerves became static, but Leon doesn’t seem to catch onto his words. Not really, not to their significance. But the smile he gives Raihan is soft, dare he say intimate, and Raihan has to hold back-for now-the urge to pull Leon by his cape and kiss him.

Instead Leon says, “I like you too.” 

And it’s not the same.

Raihan feels the heat dissipate and a weight drop, deep. Then comes the sandstorm. Obscuring the flash of disappointment from breaking through to the surface on Raihan’s face. 

Then they’re swarmed by fans who happened to oversee their battle. Quick as a standard, covering up their tracks, asking Raihan and Leon for photos and autographs of their league cards. Leon, the beloved Champion, falls into the steps of his role. Signs the cards and strikes his pose and sprinkles advice for budding trainers. 

Raihan follows suit. Slips on his little mask and uses Rotom to take a bunch of photos with his fans. 

If every so often, Raihan peeked over to catch Leon laughing with the kids or striking his pose, embracing the spotlight he made with ease, then so be it. 

It was hard to ignore the sun when it shone so close, so brilliantly, anyways. 

  II.

Raihan can’t remember when he fell. 

But he knows it was a graceful fall. A sudden snowstorm that drowned him in the feeling of attachment and yearning and longing for Leon that resonated a powerful chord one day when Raihan least expected it. 

All the leaders of Galar knew about his one-sided affections, except Leon of course.

It had almost become a joke. A running bet among the leaders about how much longer Raihan would skirt around before he finally lost his patience and straight up proposed. Others wondered about the opposite: how much longer would it take until Leon finally noticed?

Both bets ended in similar fashions: whatever the outcome was, it wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

Really, Raihan was somewhat coping with the fact that he was enamored by his best friend and greatest rival who was also, simultaneously, the most powerful trainer in all of Galar.

And the biggest idiot in all of Galar. 

But that’s what was so charming . 

And Raihan really, honestly, should have seen it coming. Leon attracted everyone. He was lion like. Prideful in his strength while caring a sort of regality that made others want to follow him. Raihan always chased after him from the start. To become better than him, to surpass him in the race and become champion. 

Then somehow, someway, the chase ended in a plunge. And Raihan was diving face down into a rainstorm of emotional attachment. 

While he may not remember when the feelings took root, he remembers vividly the first time he ever let it slip to Raihan about his feelings. 

They were eating dinner at Bob’s Your Uncle. Raihan was snapping photos and Leon was making funny faces. Their food was gone by this point, but conversation didn’t stop. It never stopped between them. Leon always had stories to share about challengers who came for advice, for a battle, for a moment to bask in his presence. Raihan was always dishing out strategies, new ways to utilize the elements for his team’s advantage, better ways to craft synergy between his Pokemon in their double battles. 

They were always talking and talking, bouncing back and forth, cracking jokes. Then Leon got called over by the manager and Raihan waves him off, because what is a Champion if not at the beck and call of their people, and as he watches them interact he thinks to himself how Leon looks like a king-cape aside.

Broad shoulders, a strong back, his shoulders squared. Everything in Leon’s stance is that of someone fit to rule. Fit to command. Fit to oversee. Fit to love . Strong and sturdy, a foundation that Raihan found himself wanting to utterly wreck and destroy beneath him.

Then his face got all red. His cheeks burned, a hot scorching sun across the expanse of his face. His eyes wide as he looks at Leon walking back over to him with a bottle of wine and two glasses. On the house from the manager for the two of them being such loyal customers. 

When Leon sat down, he immediately asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I like-” Raihan nearly bit his tongue. Leon blinked and Raihan couldn’t believe he almost confessed. Almost said I like you. I like you. So much, so much that I'm going to be swallowed whole and I had no idea this was going to happen. 

“You like…?”

“Like-that we can use your Champion status to get free drinks, yeah.” Raihan lied easily, smoothly. Ignored the burnt taste on his tongue from his lie. Leon, thankfully, didn’t ask further. They shared drinks and went back to their conversation but this time Raihan couldn’t help but think Leon was the sun, over and over again, and how much he wanted to become an Icarus-scorched by his touch. 

III.

“Honestly, just kiss him.” 

“I’ve thought about that multiple times, Ness.” 

Nessa folds her arms and leans back against the back of the booth, “Super surprised you haven’t gone full dragon mode and slobbered him silly with kisses, at this point. You’re normally much more straightforward with your conquests.”

Raihan rolls his eyes while Rotom snickers. “I’ll bring out the screwdriver on you,” he threatened but that only made Rotom whir and snicker louder. Gremlin. Raihan meets Nessa’s pointed gave, brilliantly blue and as fearsome as the ocean. 

Which he needed, because Raihan was tired of bullshitting himself. Nessa was absolutely correct that Raihan wasn’t being himself. Not really, anyways. Raihan has confidence in his looks, his reputation, and overall swagger that he carries like a crown upon his head. He’s just as notorious, if not just as famous, as Leon-the only man to come close to someone Leon considered a rival. He can get anyone-he knows he can get anyone. 

Usually it only took a smile in their direction, a flash of fang, a flex of muscle, a whisper in their ear covered in husk, sprinkled with secrets they could make between the two of them under bright moonlight and starless skies-yet all those tricks and tactics fell utterly short at Leon’s feet. 

All Leon had to do was exist in the same space and time as Raihan and Raihan forgot how simple it was to breathe.

“Oh wow,” Nessa exhales with a whistle, reaching for more of her shake. She takes a pointed slurp. “You’ve got it bad , mate.”

“Shut up,” Raihan growls, but it sounds pitiful even to his own ears. 

Nessa smirks with her straw still in her mouth, “Listen, I love Leon. Truly do, but the man is only focused on one thing: winning. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him even utter words like dating or love-they’re just too out of his orbit.” 

“You think I don’t know that? The man’s got a bad case of one track mind and he’s barreling down that track at breakneck speeds.” Raihan goes for one of her fries because he needs comfort food and Nessa pinches his hand. “Ow! Rude, Ness.”

“Rai. Call him up and ask him out on a date. Then he can buy you fries.”

“I’ve considered that.”

“And?”

“And… what?”

“Let’s not play the who’s more dense game. Be the forward Raihan I know you can be and ask him out. What are you so afraid of?”

Ah, there it is. What was Raihan afraid of? And truly, what has he to lose? Everything comes snapping at him, fangs and claws at his neck. He never hesitated before. Never, because they were calculated wins. He knew with the people in his past he could obtain them, and obtain them easily. They were games where his outcome always ended with him as the winner. 

But that changed with Leon. Not once, not ever, had Raihan been even close to winning against Leon. Perhaps that spiral of losses had downward dove into Raihan believing he’d lose to Leon in this too. 

Raihan swore and Nessa simply shook her head. “Do what you need to do, Rai. But… if you ask me, I don’t think your chances of success are as low as you think they are.”

Raihan looks up at that. Sees the mischievous glint in Nessa’s eyes and a snow swirl of hope spike up in his chest. “What makes you say that?”

Nessa snorts and finishes off the last of her milkshake before she stands up, “The stars,” she answers impishly before she skips off to the bathroom. Leaving Raihan to stew and mutter and contemplate and go simply mad over her cryptic language. 

Later that night, he texts Leon. Asking a simple question: What would you do if I said I liked you?

He gets a response about thirty minutes later and nearly cries. 

Well of course I’d tell you I like you too. Haha, why what’s going on :P?

IV.

Raihan isn’t avoiding Leon. 

No, he’s simply busy.

He has a gym to run after all. And Pokemon to train. Food to eat and places to explore. The wild area’s raid dens were popping off more often recently. So of course Raihan had to go and explore. See if there were any new dragon Pokemon he could catch, or Pokemon in general to battle against. 

Sure, Leon would text him and Rotom would get all up in Raihan’s face whenever he did. But suddenly, Raihan couldn’t read anymore and to force himself to learn a skill he no longer had would be madness. So he refused to do so!

He was, in fact, avoiding Leon.

But his pride would never allow him to admit that. 

Raihan’s able to pull this off for about three weeks when his luck runs out. 

“Raihan!” Leon’s voice carries across the pitch of Hammerlocke stadium. Raihan stops his training with Flygon and Torkoal, nearly jumping from his skin. 

Shit. Fuck. Shit. Flygon and Torkoal are giving him knowing looks and Raihan’s incredibly close to asking them both to set him ablaze with a flamethrower. 

“Finally!” Leon runs over, all smiles and sunlight and Raihan wants to dig himself into the ground. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all week, yeah? Where have you been? Why haven’t you answered any of my messages?”

Raihan tilts his head. Makes his stance casual, hands in his pocket and words coming out with a drawl. “Been busy, mate. Got a gym to run and all that jazz.”

Leon looks at him strangely. And his sunlight starts to turn harsh. “Right… well, my mum’s grilling up a barbecue tonight. I was wondering if you wanted to come by and hang. I texted you and didn’t get a response. So I thought it’d be easier to just come in person!”

He’s so earnest. And so pure. So straightforward and just. Raihan’s heart squeezes, and aches. Every nerve in his body is snarling at him to confess. To unleash all the truth at Leon’s feet and hope for the best. To not let the fear of losing, again, so visceral, stop him from pursuing the golden man he craves. 

Tell him you like him. Say it over and over until it penetrates the thick fog of obliviousness. Let him know over and over again how you crave the taste of his mouth. Want to run your nails down his back. Want to feel his surety and strength in the palm of your hands. How much you want to-

Rotom softly whirs beside him, having popped out to scope the scene. Flygon and Torkoal are looking at him, encouraging him to say something. To speak. Even if his voice shatters. 

Yet, fear is stronger. 

Fear wins. 

“Can’t tonight,” ashes in his mouth-and the taste makes him sick as he continues. “I’ve already made plans.” he turns on his heel, lowering his visor so it shades his eyes. Leon could pierce through him, easily, and Raihan would rather die than have Leon see how pathetic he feels written all over his face. 

Before Leon can say anything Raihan calls back Torkoal and makes Rotom go into his pocket. Then he climbs onto Flygon and tells it to take him to the Wild Area. Flygon hesitates, for a second. Looks back to Leon and softly hums before taking off with Raihan. 

The mighty tamer of dragons, a coward when it comes to feelings.

Laughable. 

V.

The next time Raihan and Leon meet their world is unfurling at the seams.

Falling apart in bright columns of purple light.

The Darkest Day , Chairman Rose calls it. To save us all! To protect the future of Galar! 

“He’s gone utterly insane,” Raihan hisses as the clouds above them turn pitch black and turbulent. The other leaders and challengers were doing their best to calm the masses and get them to safety. Raihan’s already making plans to go to Hammerlocke so he can go down to the power plant and beat some sense into Chairman Rose himself. 

“I have to stop him,” Leon says from beside him. Raihan is reminded immediately how this is the first time in about a month that they’ve existed in the same space. They had a brief crossing in the locker room before the Championship Cup but it had been tense, and Raihan had kept himself short.

Time apart did his feelings no good. They festered like bacteria, crawling under the ground he tried to firmly pack like worms. Horribly gnawing away at his heart until Leon and the guilt he felt over their last meeting was all he his thoughts consumed. 

“Leon,” Raihan says, the name dropping effortlessly out of his mouth before it can be stopped. Leon glances over at him, his mouth ready to move until the ground starts to shake at their feet.  Crackling, gurgling with ancient energy. “Leon, move!”

Raihan’s body works faster. He pushes Leon out of the way as the earth cracks by their feet. A giant burst of purple energy, raw and vicious, shoots up into the sky. There’s screaming, and the scattering of feet. Dust floats in the air and rubble lays around them. 

Raihan swears again, coughing as the dust settles. He pushes himself upwards, when he realizes the position their in. Leon is sprawled underneath him. Raihan’s on top. And Raihan hates, hates the sort of images that-Leon’s looking at him. And Raihan can read every single emotion behind his eyes-the anger and hurt and surprise and shock and joy and-

“Raihan,” Leon says quietly. Raihan’s snapped out of his thoughts as the world continues to collapse around them. “Are you alright?”

“I,” Raihan works his jaw, tries to make the words come out. “Yeah. Yeah I am. You?”

Leon’s still looking at him, still searching. And for once, just this time, Raihan lets himself be seen. Be pierced. Be examined and looked. Let’s the lion scrape away at the ground until there’s nothing but bare bones of emotion that Raihan can’t really hide from anymore. 

There’s a few seconds that passes, then Leon closes his eyes and exhale deeply. “Help me up, please.”

Raihan does so, robotically. The two stand and stare at each other, a minute more, before Leon steps into Raihan’s space. 

“You can’t go without backup,” Raihan starts. “You’re the Champion and all, I get that. But not even you-”

“I can,” Leon interjects, and he’s so close. So close and so sure, unwavering, Raihan doesn’t know how he thought he could run away from Leon when his gravitational pull was so deep. “And I’ll be back. Safe, and sound, so that when I come back, we can talk.”

“We can-?” Raihan’s words are swallowed whole by Leon’s lips on his. 

Leon kisses the way he battles-sure, strong, and forward. It’s clumsy as all hell though, and Raihan hates the little choking noise he makes in surprise from it all. But Leon tastes like gold, with dirt, with liquid heat. 

Leon pulls back, and his eyes are hooded. But his lips are pulled into the brightest grin as their foreheads touch in the middle of the chaos. 

“Yes, we need to talk. We have a lot to go over." And then, a beat later and with a goofy grin to seal the deal, Leon says, "I talked to Nessa.”

Raihan’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “What did she say-”

“That you like me." Leon says effortlessly. "And that I’m as dense as a house of bricks. And she’s right, I am dense. But she also told me that I need to tell you that yes, Raihan, I like you too.”

Raihan is rooted. Cemented to the ground and Leon just gives him his soft smile, his confident gaze, and Raihan shoots forward to kiss him again. Sharply, one more time before letting go. One more time to make sure it’s real. 

“Brilliant. Absolutely fucking brilliant ,” he wants to laugh in hysterics but now, now is not the time. And this was not the place nor the setting he envisioned where this moment would finally come. “Yes. Okay. We will talk. After we save the world… be safe, Leon.”

“Always, Raihan.” 

[gogogobarry]

@distortsverity​ submitted: 47. - stars (and if you're willing to combine, 10. - nostalgia)!

It’s the evening before Barry and Hikari depart on their respective journeys, but (naturally) neither of them are in their beds. Instead, the two neighbors--with the help of long-established hand signals through closed windows--now find themselves laying on Lake Verity’s soft, dew-stained grasses, their wide eyes trained on the sprawling starscape above, a celestial wall of wonder. It’s as if the lake itself is rewarding their final act of childhood rebellion...

“Hey...I can see Sirius,” Hikari murmurs, eagerly tugging on Barry’s sleeve as her attentive gaze falls upon the radiant body. “Remember those star charts that Professor Rowan gave us...?”

“Thinking about school right now? Nerd. You sound just like Lucas--ow!” the blond retorts with a smirk, only to wince as Hikari gives him a good pinch on the shoulder. “Okay, that’s a definite fine. And no, I just remember using my star chart as fuel for our last bonfire...it’s not like we’ll be needing it once we become Pokemon legends!”

Hikari can’t help but grin at her friend’s enthusiasm. As the pair begins to lapse into another comfortable silence, Barry can’t resist posing a question of his own. “...D’you think that there are Pokemon in space? Like...superpowered aliens?”

It’s Hikari’s turn to scoff (only slightly). “Are you sure that you’re not an alien...?” she teases--Barry’s fault for leaving such low-hanging fruit! Barry stews for just a moment before perking up again, jabbing a finger skyward. “Fine! Since you’re such a non-believer, I’ll just have to go into space, catch a ‘mon, and prove you wrong! After I become Champion, that is!”

“That’s quite the busy schedule...” Hikari observes bemusedly, but Barry’s attention is already focused on something new: “Check it out, Hika--it’s the Big Dipper!”    

There’s a pause, and then a sigh. “Barry, that’s the Little Dipper. Close enough, though.” Another pause, and then the blond finally speaks again, hazel eyes busy following Hikari’s constellation-tracing finger. “...Oh. Well, in my defense, it looked pretty big...”

The two friends talk until the pink hues of sunrise begin to shine through the Verity treeline. Little do they know, their next adventure to the lake will abruptly elevate both of them to trainer status...

---

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

A much-older Barry--now one month removed from his League title attempt--is home again, treading the familiar twilit shores with nostalgia thrumming loudly in his heart. As the Starly begin to tuck themselves in and the Kricketot begin to practice, the adventure-weathered runner-up sprawls himself upon on the grass, its blades tickling the back of his neck. He takes a deep breath. For once, he has no intention of moving. A breezy autumn wind sends a frosty ripple across the lake, but Barry is perfectly comfortable with the chill--he’s Sinnohan, after all.

The blond turns his gaze skyward, but tonight is cloudy, and only one star manages to shine through the obscurity: Sirius. He feels a sudden pang in his chest--how long has it been since Hikari captured the title, gotten swept up by Cynthia and the Sinnohan media? Too long. It’s been ages since their last choppy phone call or laggy Pokemon Center video chat. And suddenly, Barry feels very alone.

“Turns out you were the star all along...” he mumbles towards the sky halfheartedly, hazel eyes fixed on the enduring shine of Sirius. And then, out of nowhere and oh so suddenly, his glum mind state is shattered by a familiar laugh, and an even more familiar voice.

“Are you serious? Arceus, I think that’s the corniest thing you’ve ever said. By far.”

Barry looks up as Hikari’s shadow falls over him, and he can’t help it--despite his friend’s incredulous expression, he’s already grinning ear to ear.

Welcome back.

[misskikuwrites]

Into the Wild (2/8)

Bede/Gloria (dressedinpinkshipping)

-

The train clattered to a stop at the Meet-up Spot, idling at the southern boundary of the Wild Area for trainers to depart. Gloria stumbled out of the station and into the sun, stretching her arms high above her head with a satisfied sigh. Bede followed after her with a beguiled smile that she couldn't see. He forced his expression back to neutral before she turned to face him with a spirited smile, a spring in her step.

"Here we are!" she chimed, motioning to the small wooden fence ahead of them and the land beyond. "The Southern Wild Area!"

"I've been here before, Gloria."

Bede strode past her, ignoring the tingling in his chest, the hum of his blood that ignited around her in a strange song. A damp fog had settled over the land, cutting visibility down to metres in a layer of grey. The air was thick and cool, a chorus of Pokemon cries sounding from beyond.

"Oh, wow!" Gloria gasped as she came up beside Bede at the entrance gate. "I've never seen the fog this thick before."

"It shouldn't pose a problem for us at all, and should disperse when the wind picks up before noon." He glanced at her. "Unless a little bit of fog is enough to put you off?"

"As if!" she scoffed and stalked through the gate.

Bede held down the bark of laughter that filled his chest and followed with the twitch of a smile tugging at his lips.

Gloria studied her hovering Rotom phone for a moment, a map of the Wild Area on the screen. A small marker blinked rhythmically, denoting their GPS position by the gate.

"Lost already?" Bede quipped.

She rolled her eyes, pocketing her phone. "I was thinking we should head west, then loop around to Motostoke. That should take us a few days. That way, we can rest in Motostoke before planning where to go next."

"Sounds fine to me."

She nodded and snatched a Pokeball from her bag, tossing it out in front of her. Cinderace cheered happily, greeting Gloria with a trill, before studying their foggy surroundings inquisitively.

"Fyrian loves the Wild Area," she said, smiling affectionately at Cinderace as he sniffed the air eagerly.

Bede raised an eyebrow as Cinderace dashed from flower to flower, jogging around the dirt track at every new sound, new scent he found, scattering a flock of Rookidee from the grass.

"I can see that," Bede said. "I don't mind you having him out, as long as he doesn't set the whole place on fire."

Gloria snorted. "He wouldn't do that - he just wants to run around and stretch his legs. It's good exercise!" She shook her head at Bede and started down the track, taking a winding path that deviated to the west. Cinderace stayed close, always in sight in the low visibility of the fog, never wandering far from Gloria.

Bede entertained the idea of sending his Hatterene out as well before deciding against it. Hatterene wasn't one for hiking. And, if anything happened up ahead, they'd need a fully rested Pokemon to help.

As they walked through the fog, scores of wild Pokemon studied them from the long grass. Skwovet squeaked and scurried across the path and up trees when Cinderace approached. Gloria giggled as Cinderace cooed sadly to the skittish Pokemon as they fled out of sight.

"It's pretty calm around here," Gloria noted. "It's more of the outskirts, the places people usually don't go, that I need to check. Any problems around here would be obvious and dealt with immediately, so we can move on-" she gasped. "Is that a Ralts?!"

Gloria pointed to a shuffling figure in the grass, barely standing taller than the greenery. A sliver of pink poking up from a green head that timidly shrunk into the grass…

Gloria sucked in an excited breath, ushering Cinderace over with frantic gestures.

"You're not seriously going to send your Cinderace against it, are you?" Bede asked incredulously. "That is, if you want there to be a Ralts left for you to catch."

Gloria pouted. "I know that!" she hissed. "I'm just going to scare it closer. I don't want it to faint on me!"

Bede wasn't so sure but didn't say anything more. He stepped back to give her and Cinderace more room, interested to see how this would unfold. It took a moment, a few seconds of scanning the grass, for him to spot Ralts again. The thick grass rustled and shifted as the small Pokemon walked, blissfully unaware of the trainer whispering to her Cinderace and pointing straight at it.

Cinderace bolted at the grass. He leapt over Ralts, streaking through the air with a powerful jump, landing on the opposite side of the Psychic Pokemon. Ralts startled and bolted. The tiny figure burst from the thick grass and right into the waiting arms of Gloria. She tossed a Love Ball quickly, before Ralts could panic and flee again, and the ball absorbed Ralts in a flash of light. It fell to the ground and began to roll. Once, twice, the Love Ball wobbled on the ground, the clasp flashing red with every movement. It rolled a third time, then stilled. Finally, it clicked.

"Yes!" Gloria cheered. She rushed over and swept the Love Ball off the ground, holding it to her chest as she twirled giddily on her feet. "I caught it!"

Bede gave her a slow, superfluous clap. "Amazing. The Champion of Galar caught a Ralts. Who would have thought that was possible?"

"Oh, hush, Bede." She pouted at him, breathing out a sharp puff of air in his direction. "Just because you've got a Gardevoir already doesn't mean I can't be happy with my first Ralts."

Gloria brought out her Rotom phone, scanning the Love Ball and bringing up the details of her new Pokemon.

"Ooh, it's a male!" She looked at Bede with an elated gasp. "That means I can get a Gallade! We'll be like a pair then! Your Gardevoir and my Gallade will be a perfect match!"

Bede looked away from her dazzling smile, his heart fluttering up into his throat, and tried to act disinterested. Her innocent declaration meant nothing. Definitely not the way his heart, his mind, had interpreted it; wishful and lovesick thinking on his part clouded his judgement.

"That hardly makes us a pair," Bede said, brushing her off. As if his tongue didn't feel too large in his mouth. As if he didn't long to have her realise the effect her simple words had on him.

"We'd be an amazing battle duo!" she continued, completely unphased, and started down the track again. "We'll both have Rapidash soon, I'll have a Gallade - we can be a Psychic-Fairy team! The battle tower will be no match for us!"

"You seem to forget that would leave us open to massive type disadvantages."

"Pfft, who cares."

Bede rolled his eyes at her, still studying her new Pokemon's details on her Rotom Dex. A fresh sparkle lit up her eyes, a sparkle of wonder and delight. It drew Bede in, drew him closer, his head turning to capture that sight and etch it into his memories. He forgot to breathe for a moment as his heart squeezed.

"Oh, it knows Teleport! Glad it didn't use that earlier!" she laughed sheepishly. Her smile fell to the Love Ball cradled gently in her hands. "Guess I need to find you a Dawn Stone soon, huh?"

"Aren't you planning a bit ahead, there?" Bede noted. "Shouldn't you focus on the plan at hand?"

"I can do two things at once," she scoffed. "And, speaking of planning, I need to come up with a nickname for him! Something cool but also fitting… hmm…"

"Nicknaming again?"

"Yeah! That way, it feels like we're family, like they're a part of my team."

She tucked the Love Ball safely away as the path began to slope down a gentle hill. Cinderace leapt into the air and skidded down the hill like a hyperactive child on a skateboard, feet kicking up a cloud of dirt. Cinderace flew forward, curled into a roll and nailed the landing at the bottom, barely visible in the fog.

"Don't go too far!" Gloria called. Cinderace echoed a reply, bouncing on his toes as he waited eagerly for them to catch up.

Bede let himself smile faintly, to relax, as he got used to the quirks and oddities of hiking with Gloria. She was as excitable as her Cinderace, gasping and cooing at the different Pokemon that emerged from the fog, pointing out anything and everything that was remotely interesting. Her Cinderace ran around like a preschooler on sugar, which didn't seem to bother her in the slightest.

They kept to the beaten track as the sun began to rise further in the sky, and worked their way around to the south-western edge of the Wild Area. As the mid-morning breeze finally picked up, the mellow fog lifted and the air began to warm. They shied away from the sun, driving deeper into the thickening trees. The dirt path faded the further they went, weeds and shrubs sprouting and obscuring the track until no sign of it remained. The scattered undergrowth and leaf litter made it impossible to tell whether there had been a path beneath their feet in the first place.

"I do hope you're not planning on getting us lost in here," Bede said pointedly. The tall trees and fallen logs scattered around them all looked the same. He sent a quick glance behind them to the narrowing sliver of sky fading in the distance. The dense forest seemed to encroach around them.

"Of course not. I've got my Rotom phone, remember? The map and GPS are still working."

Bede shoved his hands in his pockets and kept his gaze fixed forward. The towering trees and dense brush was nothing like the cool shade of the Glimwood Tangle. The light pouring through the canopy made Bede feel exposed. Too warm, despite the shade. It was too different to the cool embrace of darkness and earth he was used to.

Gloria scouted a few steps ahead, scanning the forest around them as if it were familiar to her and not an endless circle of repetitive trees. She stopped, pausing to crane her ear to the canopy for a moment. An array of different Pokemon calls, chirps and cries, filled the air. Gloria nodded, satisfied with whatever she heard.

"What, exactly, are we looking for here?" Bede asked as Gloria headed off again. Her Cinderace bounded by her side.

"Anything amiss, really." She shrugged. "It could be anything from overly aggressive Pokemon, to a partially collapsed cliff, a broken bridge or a new nesting site that needs to be protected."

"Which means, we are not looking for anything specific - we are merely wandering about until we stumbled across something wrong. Am I right?"

"Well… Leon didn't exactly word it like that, but…"

Bede sighed. "I cannot believe they force the Champion to do something so tedious. Surely there are other insipid fools they could trick into such a dismal task."

"Aw, come on. It's not so bad!" She gave him an encouraging smile. "It's so quiet and free of people here, it's like we've got the place to ourselves!" She motioned to the forest around them, devoid of people and alive with Pokemon. "It's like we've run away in secret or something, right? Like no one knows we're here?"

The glee in her voice, the cunning twinkle in her eyes, made the protest forming in Bede's throat disperse immediately with a silent, sharp intake of air. The idea that this was a secret between the two of them made his blood buzz in his veins. She had a way of setting his blood on fire, and he almost choked at the sneaky wink she gave him. It knocked the breath from his lungs as if her Cinderace had kicked him square in the chest.

Before Gloria could notice the look on Bede's face, a burst of noise rippled through the forest. Furious hollars and guttural cries sounded to their right. Gloria glanced at him in a look of momentary panic, before the fear in her eyes steeled itself and she nodded at him. Bede pushed away any doubts, anything holding him back, and returned her nod.

They rushed towards the noise, leaping over fallen logs and shrubs, ducking around trees and skeletal branches. Bede snatched Hatterene's Pokeball out and held it at the ready as the torrent of cries, the waves of noise, got louder and closer. Large figures leapt through the trees in the distance. A volley of rocks launched through the air, scattering the Pokemon as they shrieked.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Gloria cried as a group of trainer's came into view. A Gengar hovered in front of them, shooting rocks into the air at the panicked Passimian.

Bede did a quick head count of the four trainers as he came up beside Gloria. The group of young men turned.

"None of your business!" one of them cried. The others jeered.

"Can't you see I'm trying to catch a Passimian?" the trainer directing his Gengar scoffed. "Stupid things won't get out of the trees!"

Gengar lifted a circle of floating stones around it, each pulsing with psychic energy, and sent them flying into the trees again.

"I said, stop it!" Gloria snapped. "They don't want to be caught!"

"Piss off!" one of the trainers spat. "This doesn't concern you."

"Fyrian, Pryo ball!" Gloria cried, and a fireball streaked through the air and slammed straight into Gengar. The Passimian in the trees hollered and whooped.

Gengar spun in the air like a helium balloon in the wind before coming to a stop and grinning.

"Oh, that's it!" Gengar's trainer snarled. His mates sent out their Pokemon; Excadrill, Hakamo-o and Weavile.

Bede sent out Hatterene, his Pokemon settling beside Cinderace. He glanced at Gloria, saw the blazing steel in her eyes, and a smug rush of confidence coursed through him.

"No mercy." Her sharp whisper sent a tingle down his spine.

His lips curled into a smile.

"No mercy."

Cinderace was the first to move. Flames licked off his feet as he launched a burning kick at Weavile. Gengar spat a dark, swirling ball at Hatterene as Excadrill sliced at the soft dirt with it's solid steel claws, burrowing deep and out of sight. Hatterene slapped the Shadow Ball to the side with her tentacle, launching a blinding sphere of light at Hakamo-o. The dragon sliced at Cinderace as he drove Weavile back with precise, swift kicks. Cinderace launched into the air as Excadrill burst from the ground where the fire rabbit had been seconds ago. Hakamo-o and Weavile struck Excadrill instead before Hatterene's Moonblast landed and threw the three Pokemon back into the dirt.

Cinderace landed swiftly on Gengar's head, driving the Ghost Pokemon into the ground. With Hakamo-o fainted and returned, three opposing Pokemon remained. Bede swept his eyes between them. Cinderace cleanly dodged Excadrill's swiping claws, hopping backwards on quick feet. Weavile struggled to stand, Gengar lifting off the ground with barely a scratch.

At Bede's command, Hatterene conjured a wave of fire around Excadrill. Cinderace shot forward with a flurry of powerful kicks as Excadrill flailed in a panic. The steel mole fell back with a thud as the flames died.

Another one down. Two to go.

Hatterene dealt with Gengar in no time with Psychic, Cinderace knocking Weavile down with another Blaze Kick. The trainers returned their Pokemon, snatching more Pokeballs from their belts.

Passimian rained from the trees. They dropped down in front of Bede and Gloria, forming a barrier of fuming, hollering Pokemon. They growled and cried at the four trainers, thumping the ground with their feet and shaking the earth.

One of the trainers screamed and tried to run before a Passimian dropped right in front of him. The trainer stumbled back with a shriek and fell on his ass.

Bede's blood ran cold. The crowd of Passimian bared their teeth with deep growls.

"What the fuck!" one of the trainers cried. "Do something!"

Bede snapped his attention to Gloria as she drew her fingers to her lips and sounded an ear piercing whistle. The sharp sound cut through the forest, through the roaring Passimian, and they stilled. The group of Pokemon shuffled, a ripple washing over them as they chattered and faced Gloria.

"Enough," Gloria said. Her hand, teld tight behind her back, trembled. "Let them go. They won't bother you anymore. I think they've learnt their lesson. Am I right?"

"Y-Yes!" one of the trainers cried, the other's quickly echoing. "Please, let us go!"

The Passimian chattered to one another for a moment, a wave of sound and commotion flowing over the group before they shifted and formed an opening.

"You four, get out of here. You won't be so lucky next time," Gloria said, and the trainers didn't wait another second. They scrambled out of the circle of Passimian and fled through the trees.

The group of Passimian barely gave Gloria and Bede another glance before scattering and disappearing into the canopy again. Cinderace drew up to Gloria's side, sounding a concerned trill, as her shoulders slumped.

"Gloria?"

She jumped, turning to face him with wide eyes. The blood had drained from her face, leaving her skin pale and ghostly white. Her mouth opened with silent, unspoken words, lingering panic alive in her eyes. It pulled on his heart, and Bede took her hand, her skin cold as ice. She stared, agape, at their hands as he cupped her frosty fingers in both of his. Her shoulders trembled.

"I knew you weren't dressed for this weather," Bede chided, keeping his voice gentle.

A deep ache settled in his chest, tight and constricting. He pushed through it, dropped her hand and slipped his jacket off. He drew his large, magenta jacket over Gloria's shoulders, pulling it closed around her. She looked so small and fragile, almost completely enveloped in it. She peered up at him, a sliver of her fingers visible at the edges of his coat as she hugged it closer. Bede let his hands rest on her shoulders for a moment longer than he felt necessary, longer than he knew was proper. A brief moment that felt too long, his thumbs brushing over the fabric of his coat in a soft, barely-there caress he hoped she couldn't feel. He felt her eyes on him. On his face, his eyes, and he deliberately turned away to return his Hatterene.

His face burned at the knowing, cheeky smile Hatterene gave him before he returned her. He heard Gloria sigh faintly. Looked over his shoulder to see her eyes had fallen shut, her nose buried into the collar of his jacket. An arrow of heat shot down his spine, bursting into flames in his chest. Setting his blood on fire. He stiffened involuntarily, frozen and burning at the same time. A shiver washed over him, sending a trail of goosebumps down his arms. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't move an inch, a single muscle, as Gloria stood there with her eyes closed, wrapped warmly in his jacket.

The deep breath Gloria took shattered Bede's petrification and he managed to compose himself before she opened her eyes. A faint hint of colour had returned to her cheeks.

"Thanks, Bede," she said softly. A miniscule smile grew on her face, her eyes drifting over to meet his.

"Well, I wasn't about to stand back and let the Champion go into shock in front of me." He brushed her off as his cheeks warmed. He hated - and loved - the way she said his name. The way she drew out the syllables, making it sound tender and delicate on her tongue. Like a whisper of a song that calmed the tumultuous, raging seas of his heart.

Her soft laugh was a serene twinkle of noise, sweet like a wind chime in a gentle breeze. Her eyes crinkled at his comment, somehow finding amusement in his words.

"That was… terrifying," she said apologetically. "In many different ways. I'm so glad you're here with me, Bede. I don't think I could have sorted that out by myself."

"I suppose I don't mind taking a part of the credit for that. However, if it was up to me, we wouldn't have found ourselves in that mess to begin with."

"Oh? And what would the oh-so-mighty Bede have done instead?" She cocked an eyebrow at him in a challenge, thought it was hard to see her as anything but adorable in his oversized coat.

"I wouldn't have agreed to this in the first place if I were the Champion. Surely there are enough overly eager league staff to do this sort of thing."

"You agreed to come with me, though."

"That's because you asked, or rather, you pleaded with me to join you, if I recall correctly."

Gloria hummed absently. "I did. And I'm glad you agreed to help me."

"You said that already." A steady warmth coiled tightly on his cheeks.

Her giggle was like a spark of lightning in his chest. "I know, I know."

Bede swallowed before he combusted internally. "If we're done here, we should move on." He could hardly wait to escape the confines of the forest so he could breathe easily again.

"Alright," Gloria said, checking their position on her Rotom phone. "If we head north, we should reach the edge of the forest in no time." She pointed slightly to their right and led the way.

The rest of their trek through the forest was mostly uneventful, save for Gloria pointing out the different species of Pokemon she saw. Cinderace strode happily by her side, matching her boundless energy.

Soon enough, they exited the forest and stepped out into the warm embrace of the sun. A patchwork of grassy fields, crystal clear lakes, flowing rivers and sheer cliffs rolled out before them. Gloria hummed in delight as the sunlight kissed her face. She'd slipped her arms into the long sleeves of Bede's jacket a while ago, and raised her arms up with a sigh.

Bede bit back an amused smile at her antics. With the loss of his thick jacket, he was thankful for the heat of the midday sun. Gloria stepped over to the edge of the cliff dropping down before them, a rugged path winding to the ground. A cluster of trees nestled against the base of the cliff beside a flat, glassy lake.

"Ooh, that looks like a perfect spot to have lunch!" Gloria gasped, pointing at the lake. "We can get down there through here." She motioned to the narrow, rocky trail, and returned Cinderace into his Pokeball.

Bede took one look at the trail and recoiled. "No. I adamantly refuse. That does not look safe at all."

"Come on, live a little!" Gloria scoffed and shuffled down the path.

"Gloria…!" Bede protested but she was already stepping down the sharply angled track, kicking up a handful of stones. They clattered off the side of the path, disappearing into the trees below. She looked over her shoulder at him with a grin which did nothing to settle the nerves swarming in his lungs. His feet felt like lead. The cliff seemed to drop away endlessly into nothing, the height churning his stomach as his vision swam.

Gloria peered up at him for a moment before shrugging. She turned back around to continue when a loose stone shifted beneath her foot. Her leg slipped out from beneath her and she lost her balance with a sharp yelp.

"Gloria!"

She stuck her other foot out to catch her but the edge of the cliff crumbled beneath her weight. She slipped over the edge and screamed.

"Gloria-!"

She was gone. Her scream echoed into deafening silence. Fading into nothing. No thud, no cry. Nothing, no sound at all met Bede's ears as he scrambled to the edge of the cliff, seeing only trees and dirt below.

"Gloria!" His cry burned his throat. He sent out Hatterene as his blood ran cold, and froze his heart in icy panic. "Teleport me down there!" He barked, Hatterene flinching as she felt each and every one of his emotions crash through her. Light flashed around them. A blink and they were at the base of the cliff.

Bede whirled frantically, pushing conjured images of her broken body from his mind. Images of blood and matted hair, limbs twisted and-

Bright magenta caught his eyes. Gloria lay slumped on her back on top of a crushed bush, tangled in branches and leaves. Trails of blood ran down her legs from a mess of scrapes and cuts to her bare skin.

Bede rushed over as she shifted, wincing sharply and rubbing the back of her head. Her cap was nowhere to be seen.

"H-Hey, Bede…" Gloria puffed and sat up as best she could on the broken bush. "That's one way to get down here quickly, huh?"

"What is wrong with you?!"

Gloria flinched.

Bede's throat burned, raw and tight, a surge of heat rising up inside him that he couldn't fight, couldn't swallow. It erupted with venom, with pain and fear and fury.

"What on earth were you thinking?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?! What kind of complete idiot are you?!"

A firm touch on Bede's shoulder silenced him. Hatterene nudged him with the tip of her tentacle, the disapproval in her eyes dousing the fire in his veins. He looked back at Gloria slowly. She drew smaller under his gaze, a glimmer of tears in her eyes when she blinked.

Bede's heart plummeted into his stomach. He dropped to his knees at Gloria's feet, a shameful chill cooling his blood.

"Sorry…" Bede said. "That… was not becoming of me. I should not have yelled at you." He sighed, raking a hand down his face in shame. "I thought you were…"

He couldn't finish that thought. He took a breath, closed his eyes and settled the rapid thundering of his heart. When he met her gaze again, fragments of clarity came together in his mind.

"Can you stand?" He held out a hand to her, and she took it after a moment, after she studied his expression and nodded. Bede pulled her to her feet slowly, catching her elbow to steady her. "Let's get you seated somewhere."

He directed her over to a fallen log a safe distance away from the cliff and she plonked herself down on it with a hiss of pain.

"How do you always manage to injure yourself like this?" Bede chided, though his voice was as soft as a sigh. "You must be the most accident prone Champion in history."

"I'm just unlucky." Gloria pouted, hefting her bag off her back with a grunt.

"I would consider yourself lucky to have fallen down a cliff and be able to walk away afterwards."

Bede ignored Gloria's huff and retrieved his first-aid kit from his bag.

"I'm getting a strange sense of deja vu here," Gloria noted with a slight smile.

"You're the reason I packed this in the first place. If it was anyone else, a simple kit could do. For you, I made sure to stock up."

Bede unzipped the kit, revealing an array of different bandages and gauzes, disposable gloves and wipes, along with a variety of creams and salves with a neat package of scissors, tweezers and painkillers.

"Wow, that's a lot of stuff." Gloria studied it intently as he looked through the contents.

"How do you feel? Anything possibly broken or sprained?" He looked up at her and froze. She was leaning over to study the contents of the first-aid kit, bringing her face dangerously close to his. She didn't notice their proximity, too focused on the kit.

"I don't think so," she said, leaning back and giving her shoulders an experimental roll. "I'm just… really sore. Kinda bumped every part of me on the way down." She rubbed the back of her head again before gasping, "My hat!"

"Priorities, Gloria. We'll deal with that later."

She grumbled and slumped with a pout. "But I liked that hat…"

If she was complaining about her hat, rather than the pain, then Bede took that as a positive sign. "Come on, take off my jacket. I need to see if you're hurt anywhere else."

Gloria sounded a noise of protest but relinquished Bede's jacket back to him. She unzipped her own jacket as well, shrugging it off her shoulders. Her arms were relatively unscathed, protected by two thick jackets. A few patches of red bloomed on her arms but that was it. Bede's jacket, on the other hand, was covered in dirt, as was Gloria's legs.

"Did you hit your head on the way down?" Bede asked.

He pulled a bottle of distilled water out of the kit and stood, walking around Gloria so he could study the back of her head. Her hair was a tangle of knots, twigs and leaves. He couldn't see anything through the disheveled mess, lightly gracing her hair with his fingers before sighing.

"Do you have a hair brush? I'll have to untangle your hair before I can see anything through all this."

"Yeah, it's in my bag." Gloria leant over and dug through her backpack, retrieving her brush and handing it to him. "Thanks," she said, not meeting his eyes as she turned away quickly.

A bubble of heat formed in his chest. Bede swallowed the strange, airy feeling in his throat and lungs and tried to focus on the task at hand. Gloria's hair. A mess of brown tangles, littered with detritus. Usually so soft and silky; the memory of how it felt to touch her hair sent a slow trickle of heat to the tips of his fingers and toes.

"Tell me if it hurts," Bede said quickly. He tightened his grip around the brush, deciding to remove leaves and twigs with his fingers before anything else.

"Okay."

She sounded so quiet, her voice so soft and faint, yet it seemed to echo in his ears. Bede steeled his attention on her hair and not the hum of heat filling his body.

An amused trill sounded in front of them. Bede looked up from the tangle of Gloria's hair to see Hatterene grinning at him, the tip of her tentacle held in front of her mouth cheekily. He fumbled for Hatterene's Pokeball, returning her quickly as he flushed.

Damn Hatterene reading his emotions. He scowled to try and fight the blush burning his cheeks as he continued to work on Gloria's hair. With the majority of detritus removed, he began to carefully run the brush through the top layer of her hair. Gloria hummed, making Bede pause.

"What is it?" he asked and swept a few strands of her hair aside.

"You're surprisingly gentle," she noted.

Bede raised an eyebrow that she couldn't see. "You expected something else?"

"No, it's just… guys aren't usually so careful with a brush. I've had Hop try to detangle my hair once and it was a nightmare."

"If you haven't noticed, I have experience with curly hair," he pointed out. "I know how to be gentle with tangles."

"Ah."

Bede breathed a faint laugh. "My hair does not sit like this naturally. If I left it to its own devices, it would look like a Rookidee nest in no time."

Gloria laughed. "I would pay to see that."

"Hopefully, you never will."

Bede worked bit by bit on her hair, finding her snapped hair tie buried deep in a thick knot. He held it out to her, placing it in her hand when she reached for it.

"Great," she huffed. "The one thing I forgot to pack a spare of."

Bede brushed out the remainder of tangles and knots, smoothing his fingers over the back of her scalp. She sucked in a sharp breath and Bede stole his fingers away.

"Sorry," he apologized quickly. "You have a small bump on the back of your head."

Gloria reached back and touched the spot tenderly. "Yeah, that sounds about right." She ran her fingers through her hair satisfactorily and gave him a smile. "Thanks. That would've taken me ages to do."

Her warm gratitude stuttered his heart for a moment. "How are your legs?"

He walked around her, kneeling in front of her legs and pulling out a clean cloth from the first-aid kit before retrieving the distilled water again.

"Covered in dirt," she said. "It might be easier for me to rinse off in the lake."

Bede blinked at her. "Sure. That would also work."

"Why don't you have lunch while I'm gone?" She undid the laces on her boots, kicking them off and removing her socks. "The sandwiches are in my bag."

Gloria stood and wiggled her toes, stretching out her aching legs. The trails of blood running down her bare legs had dried into the dirt caking her skin. Bede stole his eyes away from her long, bare legs mere inches from his face and nodded.

He retrieved a lunch box from her bag as she wandered over to the lake, sitting so that he wasn't staring straight at her but could still keep her in his peripheral vision. He wasn't completely ready to let her out of his sight just yet. He munched away at his sandwich, trying not to focus too much on Gloria as he ate.

Her gasp at the frigid water sent a jolt through Bede. He almost choked on bread when she bent over, her pert ass in the air, to wash her lower legs. He swallowed too quickly, a too large bit of bread sliding painfully down his throat. He stole his drink bottle from his bag and took a few deep gulps of water. His body was alight with searing heat. His chest burned like a furnace, spilling molten blood through his veins. He scowled, trying to force that image from his mind and took a few quick bites of his sandwich.

Arceus, he wanted to take another look.

"It's not that bad, is it?" Gloria said, suddenly beside him. Her legs, arms and neck dripped with water. Glistening beads slid beneath her collar as she peered at him, blissful unaware of how she looked.

Bede suddenly forgot how to breathe. A bit of sandwich went down the wrong way and he erupted into coughs.

"Bede! Are you okay?" Gloria was at his side, patting the square of his back firmly. Bede coughed into his hand, tears stinging in his eyes as his body protested. He frantically waved her off and drank greedily from his bottle.

She settled on the log again, tilting her head in concern as he recovered from his coughing fit. She had no idea how she looked right now, those gloriously long legs stretched out before her, beads of water sliding across her smooth skin. Bede tasted the water on his tongue and a blinding image of him tracing his tongue across her bare legs flashed in his mind.

Fuck.

Bede cleared his throat and stared at the half eaten sandwich in his hands and not the distracting legs in the corner of his eyes.

This was bad. He hadn't even spent a full day with her and his mind was already running wildly. How was he still to last a whole week like this?

"You okay now?" Gloria asked innocently.

Bede nodded, taking another bite of the sandwich so he didn't have to answer her. He didn't trust himself to form a coherent sentence right now. Gloria accepted his nonverbal reply and retrieved the rest of the lunch boxes from her bag. She placed one on her lap, opening the rest, before sending out her Pokemon.

Bede found himself relaxing as the Pokemon surrounding them took his mind off thoughts he didn't want to entertain. His Hatterene, along with her Cinderace, Ponyta and newly acquired Ralts ate happily in the shade. It took a bit of coaxing from Gloria for Ralts to calm down enough to accept the sandwich, but soon settled at Gloria's feet, nibbling quietly. Ponyta came and nestled down beside Ralts, greeting the new Pokemon with a soft whinny.

Gloria smiled in adoration at her Pokemon, the love in her eyes flustering Bede's heart. He felt Hatterene's knowing stare on him once again and focused on eating.

The afternoon passed slowly. After the events of this morning, they'd decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. Bede patched up the raw skin on the back of Gloria's thighs, wincing at the large scrapes as he bandaged them. The rest of the cuts and scrapes to her legs were minor in comparison, and, other than bruises to the rest of her, she was lucky to come away with only those injuries.

Despite Bede's protests, Gloria took his jacket to the lake and washed it off, her Ponyta running laps of the shore and kicking up a spray of water. She hung his jacket to dry on a branch before settling in the shade on the grass beside him.

"Sorry about earlier," she said quietly. She watched their Pokemon run around on the grass, Ponyta galloping after Cinderace, Hatterene tracing something in the dirt with her tentacle as Ralts watched, captivated.

Bede glanced at her. "For what?"

Gloria went to curl her legs beneath her and winced, quickly deciding to stretch them out in front of her instead.

"For not listening to you and going down the cliff. I really thought it looked safe…" She tapped at her phone, marking the spot on her GPS map for later. "That was exactly why they needed someone to scout this place. The next person to tumble down there might not be so lucky."

"Every trainer who comes here knows the Wild Area isn't something they can take lightly. It's supposed to be the first major challenge they face," Bede reminded her. "If they're not prepared, that is their own fault."

"I know, but there are some dangers they shouldn't have to face. Falling down a cliff is certainly one of them." She sighed, putting away her phone. "Anyway, I should have listened to you. It was stupid of me not to."

"You're right, it was stupid." He looked out over the grass as she pouted sourly at him. "But… it did look safe. Even I couldn't have predicted that it would collapse like that."

"Then why'd you protest so much?"

Bede worried his brow slightly. "I… do not deal with heights very well."

She blinked at him for a few seconds. "You're scared of heights?"

"I-I'm not scared of heights, I merely do not like the risk of falling from them, that's all!" he barked in protest.

"Sounds like you're scared of heights to me," she teased. A cunning smile grew on her face in amusement.

Bede huffed. "If I were afraid of heights I would not have gone on the Ferris wheel with you."

She thought about that for a moment. "That's true. You seemed fine up there."

He raked a hand through his fringe with a sigh. "That's because there was no risk of me falling. Ferris wheels, sky taxis, they're fine. Climbing down a cliff like that with no railing is a completely different story."

"That… actually makes sense." Gloria nodded slowly.

"Of course it does."

"Guess I really scared you, huh?" She smiled at the grass between her feet sheepishly. "I've never seen you so upset before…"

Bede's heart fell into his gut, weighed heavily with regret. Nausea rose up his throat as his stomach churned. The biting words he'd spat at her crashed through his mind, his throat clamping like a vice as he winced at the memory.

"I regret that," he admitted quietly. "You didn't deserve any of it. I should have checked to see if you were fine and not…" He sighed, ashamed of the vile words he'd snapped at her without thinking. Ashamed that he'd let her witness that part of him, that he'd aimed that vitriol at her.

A gentle touch on his arms brought him out of his regret. Her hand rested just below his shoulder, and she smiled sweetly at him when he met her eyes.

"It's fine, Bede," she said, settling the abashed throbbing of his heart, the distressing ache in his chest. A wave of calm washed over him. "Really, it doesn't bother me. It actually made me realise that you care about me. A lot."

Oh, shit.

She slid her eyes away from him, her hand dropping from his shoulder, and Bede froze on the spot.

"I…" he couldn't speak. Nothing would form on his tongue, the words lost in the tightening of his throat. His mind swam in panic. He gaped as the walls of his heart closed in on him, shutting down any means of escape or denial. He was trapped.

Gloria curled a lock of her hair around a finger, a bashful smile playing on her lips. "I never really thought about it, but I guess it makes sense. After all this time… now that we're friends, of course you'd care about me."

Something shattered deep inside him. "What?"

"I mean, you wouldn't have agreed to come out here with me if you didn't care, duh." She breathed a short laugh.

Bede stared incredulously at her. "That's the conclusion you came to?"

She tilted her head at him. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Forget it." Bede sighed heavily and decided to count his blessings. With her as oblivious as this, now was definitely not the time to tell her how he felt.

Gloria blinked at him but didn't press further. The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing around with their Pokemon and setting up their tents by the lake. Gloria busied herself with their dinner after insisting that she cook by herself for the first night because she wanted to prove to Bede that she could make a decent curry. Soon enough, Gloria dished out her aromatic curry, handing out the plastic plates to her Pokemon and Bede before settling down with her own on the rug he'd laid out.

Their Pokemon tucked in eagerly, which meant that it had to be fairly edible, and so Bede took a tentative bite. He hummed as the rich spices and flavours mixed on his tongue. There was a faint kick to it, just enough to feel but not overwhelming. He nodded appreciatively as he didn't particularly enjoy spicy food, though he wasn't sure if Gloria knew that or not.

Gloria made a happy noise in her throat. "See? Told you I can cook!"

"It's decent, I'll give you that." He gave her a sliver of a smile. "But if you let the pecha berries cook a bit longer until they're soft, it'll taste better."

His comment didn't perturb her in the slightest, maintaining her grin she ate.

-

Night fell swiftly, the sun disappearing over the horizon as they finished washing the dishes in the lake. They kept a small fire going for a while, chatting to pass the time, before the exhaustive day caught up with them and neither could keep themselves from yawning.

With their Pokemon safely returned into their Pokeballs, Bede and Gloria crawled into their respective tents for the night.

Bede slid into his sleeping bag, a heavy weariness weighing on his eyes. He sighed in the darkness, struggling to believe that it had only been one day and he was already this exhausted. Not just physically, but mentally too. Dealing with Gloria's endless energy, her reckless impulsivity and blissful naivety was utterly exhausting. He didn't know whether or not to be glad she was oblivious to his feelings, but decided he could deal with that for now.

Anything was better than her finding out how much he longed for her when she only saw him as a friend.

He'd just have to keep his heart in check for the next six days, that's all.

Bede stifled a groan.

That was easier said than done.

[durrzerker]

Taskmaster: The Line. A new Taskmaster fanfic!

Hey all, I’ve decided to start a fanfic project to get through all this quarantine business. I’ll try to do at least a couple chapters a week, but regardless, here’s the first chapter of Taskmaster: The Line!

Chapter 1: On the Job

The only thing honest about Bagalia was the weather. High above the jungle of skyscrapers that made up the City of No Laws, a sky as grey as static threatened an onslaught of rain. The last four days had seen a torrential downpour that had driven all but the most stubborn of the supervillains, henchmen, and criminals that made up Bagalia's population indoors, and today looked to be no different. Standing on a street corner near the eastern end of the city in front of an offensively neon vending machine, Taskmaster placed his hands upon his hips and glared through his mask at an empty row of what had once been cream cheese honey buns. His elaborate costume, made up of a skull-shaped helmet, trailing cloak, and blue tights, was one of the most garish to be found in the entire city -- but it WAS weatherproof. "You gotta be kiddin' me. Eric. ERIC!" Sliding open the side door of the enormous, armored van that the pair preferred to use to discretely get around the city, Black Ant poked his head out and looked around. It was drizzling now, occasional droplets landing across the enormous, red lens of his insectoid mask, causing him to grumble and rub them away. "What?!" "There's no cream cheese honey buns left!" Taskmaster complained, kicking the base of the machine and turning about towards the van. "I know! It's a tragedy. What do you want me to do about it, though?" "Get the number of the vending machine guy. I specifically requested he keep those stocked for me." Tapping the badge that read 'Sheriff' across his chest, Taskmaster opened the driver's side of the vehicle and clambered up inside, sweeping his cape up so that it wouldn't bundle under his ass. He hated that. "Can't have someone disrespecting the Sheriff," Black Ant agreed, picking up his phone in one hand and lifting his mask with the other. No sooner had Taskmaster started the van and begun to drive, filling half of the narrow city street with the vehicle, than he heard a familiar plastic crinkling. He nearly slammed the brakes in outrage when he realized what it was: Black Ant opening and starting to eat one of the exact honey buns he'd been looking for." "...You son of a bitch." Taskmaster narrowed his eyes as he hit the accelerator, starting off again. "You're lucky we've got a job to do, or I'd be pryin' that out of yer dead hands." "Thity of No Lawth, Tony!" Eric replied, spitting crumbs everywhere. -- They'd been driving for nearly half an hour before Taskmaster caught sight of their goal: an armored personnel carrier, considerably larger even than their own and with a mounted chaingun on the top, manned by a man in a ski mask. "There they are." Fresh off his sugar binge, Black Ant tugged his mask back down, leaning forward to inspect the other vehicle over the dashboard. "Just looks like your typical gun-car for kids of all ages to me. What's the play here?" "Easy, little buddy." Shifting into a higher gear, Tony accelerated, reaching behind him with one arm to grab his weapons belt off the back of the seat. Simple and black on the outside, the inside of the back revealed the van for what it was: one of Punisher's old Battle Vans, seized after Baron Zemo had captured the violent vigilante some months back. It had 'mysteriously' gone missing during one of Taskmaster's inventory reports since then, and he'd gotten plenty of mileage out of it ever since. "In the unique position of the Sheriff of Bagalia, a city with no laws--" Black Ant thudded his head against the leather of his car seat. "Oh my god, not this speech again." "--I don't enforce the stilted and limited laws of other nations, but the will of the common people! The -citizens- of this great and independent nation!" Taskmaster boasted, rolling down the driver's side window and leaning out, his trusted longbow in hand. A perfect replica of Hawkeye's, right down to the massive draw weight. Picking out an explosive arrow from his quiver, he nocked it. "...Okay, so who's paying us to do this, then?" Eric asked, faithfully taking the wheel and crossing one leg over Taskmaster's own to hit the gas. They'd practiced this move for awhile, despite arguments about the fact it'd be easier to just let Black Ant drive. As Taskmaster had insisted - his (stolen) van, his rules. The gunner on top of the APC was looking at them now, warning them silently to back off by turning the barrel of his weapon towards them. Ignoring it entirely, Taskmaster just waved cheerfully before ducking his head back inside as they opened fire. The bulletproof windshield of Punisher's old ride took it like a champion; he knew he had about four seconds before it finally yielded, and so he popped out just enough to take his shot. His vision rocked as the explosive arrow went off right into the other APC's tailpipe, wreathing the undercarriage in flames and sending it skidding sideways until it tipped over. Ducking back inside, making a face of mild concern at the bullet dents on the van barely an inch from where his head had been, Taskmaster replied, "Oh. Tiger Shark. Said these guys keep coming around to the docks and loading up boxes, and he can't sleep because they're using his pier." "Nice shot," Eric complimented, "But wait -- Tiger Shark?! Isn't he, like, one of the strongest guys in Bagalia? And also a BIG FREAKING SHARK? How come he couldn't handle something like this himself?" "Dunno, but he paid up front. Come on, let's go meet our adventurous little entrepreneurs. Looks like someone's climbing out; guess I didn't do that much damage after all." Taskmaster peered suspiciously at a man extricating himself from the capsized vehicle, pulling himself out of the passenger side window. "Fair enough. First Deputy Black Ant on the scene!" Polishing his own badge, Eric opened his side of the van. "Second Deputy. TESS-one was first," Taskmaster corrected. "Robots don't count, Tony!" "You're an LMD." "--OKAY WELL TESS-ONE DOESN'T COUNT." Eric pointed two fingers at his own mask, then at Taskmaster, before suddenly yelping and ducking out of the way of a pressurized jet of water. It proved to be a smart call; as soon as the water hit the van behind him, it bored a hole through the armored plating like it was paper, causing both Taskmaster and Black Ant to exchange a wary look before settling into a defensive stance. "HELLO, LOSERS!" Spreading his arms wide, the man advanced fearlessly. He was stripped to the waist, wearing only a pair of loose pants. His exposed skin, of which there was far too much for Taskmaster's liking, was a deep and vibrant blue. "You've made the mistake of intruding upon the business of my employers! It has fallen to me, Jason Waterfalls, to stop you -- and stop you I will!" Straightening a little, Taskmaster furrowed his brow behind his mask. "Wait--" Black Ant, sharing his confusion, lifted a finger. "--What did you say your name was?" Deflating very slightly but still maintaining a boastful tone, the blue man jabbed a thumb at his chest. "JAAAAASON WATERFALLS! Master of the most essential element of life!" "That's -- that's awful," Taskmaster proclaimed. "How'd you manage to come up with something even lamer than Hydro Man?" Dropping his arms entirely, sounding exasperated, Jason glared at them both. "You idiots, it's like the song!" "What song?" Black Ant asked sincerely. "You know! The famous one!" Clearing his throat, breaking into song in the middle of the street, he struck a pose. "♫...DOOOON'T GO JAAAAASON WATERFALLLLS!♫" Turning his attention back to the pair, he beamed. "Get it?" "...It's 'chasing waterfalls', you stupid asshole!" Taskmaster cried out, rapidly nocking and firing another explosive arrow. "The absolute insult to Destiny's Child!" As the arrow whizzed towards its destination, Jason simply lifted a hand, a sheet of water surging out from his body and forming a wall in front of him. It not only absorbed the explosion but provided a counter-attack, blasting Taskmaster off his feet.

"I thought that song was by TLC," Black Ant commented, looking down at him before offering him a hand up.

"Shut up. Either way, dumb name, very powerful. Got it," Taskmaster sighed, forcing himself back into a standing position and making a run for the battle van. "I'm gonna guess this guy is why Tiger Shark couldn't handle this himself," Black Ant said. "What's the game plan? Doesn't take an expert to assume that the fact it's about to rain means he's probably going to get even tougher. This isn't really what I had in mind when I said I wanted a wet and wild weekend, Tony." Both of them were put on the defensive as the opposing supervillain continued launching jets of water at them, punching more holes into the van and keeping them pinned down. "You ever fought Hydro Man before?" Taskmaster asked, opening the back of the van and ducking another jet before grabbing his shield from inside. To his relief, it didn't look damaged; whatever power allowed their ridiculous new foe to fire water hard enough to penetrate steel, it apparently couldn't get through genuine vibranium. "Nope. Have you?" "Nope. Damn. Uhh...what's water weak against?" Using his shield for cover, Tony peeked out over the edge of the van. He managed to block the next projectile, but even though it couldn't get through the shield, it nearly sent him right back off his feet again. It was raining harder now, the drizzle having erupted into a genuine torrent. "According to my Pokemon game, Electricity and...Graaaaasss? Does Bagalia have any local parks?" Black Ant checked his phone. "--Electricity, Eric. We're gonna go with electricity." "That's probably the better idea, yes. I'll distract, you zap?" "Bingo, little buddy." They bumped fists and then Eric shrank, using the Pym Particles in his suit to minimize his profile. By the time he was done, he was barely six inches tall. "The weather's gonna make this tricky," Black Ant warned. "It's a lot harder to ignore dog-sized rain, so make it quick!" Proving his point, the next droplet smacked square into his back, sending him stumbling as he dove out into the open, growing to catch Jason's attention. "Hey, jackass!" Shrinking even smaller when he was shot at, he successfully seemed to grab the man's attention. "Disruptor arrows won't quite do the trick by themselves," Tony grumbled to himself, fishing a few out from the van and glancing around. They could, however, cause the chain reaction he needed. Waiting until Jason's back was turned as he chased Black Ant with his attacks, Tony took aim and launched his shield upwards, perfectly mimicking the stance of Captain America as he released. This was going to be tricky, even for him - but it was the best idea he had. The sharpened edge of his shield cut a power line crossing the street, sending it whipping loudly towards the street. His attention drawn, Jason turned to regard the cable, jumping out of the way as it crackled and swung past like an electrified vine. "You morons; you think I'm not paying attention to you, Taskmaster?!" "I'm hoping you are." Lifting his bow away from Jason and towards the sky, Taskmaster fired his disruptor arrow just in time as another blast of water smashed into his stomach. The protective fabric of his costume managed to protect him from the worst of it, as he'd been counting on -- but he could still feel at least four ribs break from the sheer concussive force; without being able to penetrate, the powerful jet had dissipated painfully against his body. "Rrgh." Assuming he'd made Taskmaster miss, Jason was forced to turn his attention back to Black Ant, who was launching himself at the man in a seemingly desperate gambit. In truth, it was simply a distraction from the disruptor arrow -- Taskmaster had gauged his shot carefully, using every combined skill he'd gained from Bullseye, Hawkeye, and Cap in the process...along with a little trust in his best friend. Rebounding off the shield that was still sailing downward from the arc of its throw, the arrow ricocheted perfectly towards Jason Waterfalls, hitting him square in the back. His body surged with the EMP contained in the arrowhead; he staggered forward, swinging wildly at Black Ant, who ducked behind him to catch the power line on its next swing, jabbing it square into Jason's eyes. "You...mother--!!" The man roared before his teeth began to chatter from the current running through him. Launched like an uncoiling spring, he catapulted himself to the ground with bone-crushing impact as his muscles seized. "Huh," Black Ant murmured. "I kinda figured he was MADE of water." "--Yeah, me too." Taskmaster nudged the body with his foot once it stopped moving. "I guess a power line to the face is gonna put you down either way, though. Nice job." "Thanks. --Shield!" Without looking up, Taskmaster lifted his arm to catch it. "I know. They never watch the shield on the way back, do they?" "It's a little sad, honestly. --Hey, let's go see what they were shipping, anyways. Stupid name or not, this guy was some pretty serious muscle. Maybe we can sell it." Eric made his way towards the APC, quickly checking for other survivors in the front seat and shaking his head. "Clear! Now for the loot." Rubbing his hands together, he circled around to open the back hatch. "Come to Eri--oh." Swallowing hard, Eric looked up. "...Tasky? You might want to come see this." Taskmaster grabbed his sword, following Eric to take in what he'd found. He couldn't remember the last time he'd heard his pal sound so distressed, but it didn't take long for him to figure out why. "--Ah, hell." Curled up in a group as far away as they could be from the costumed mercenaries, half a dozen children, none looking over ten years old, stared at them with wide eyes.

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Pokemon Orange Islands, Episodes 20-22

It’s time for a TOURNAMENT ARRRRRrrrrrrrhuh, maybe this isn’t gonna be as fun as I hoped.

Battle-Weary

Yu Yu Hakusho was one of the earliest anime I ever watched for this blog, and if there’s one thing I’ll always remember it for, it’s the hundred-layered tiramisu of kickass that was the Dark Tournament. Considering I came to anime late and thus haven’t watched most of the big shonen franchises that got most of the current weeb generation hooked on the medium, my anime experience has been shamefully lacking in good old-fashioned tournament arcs. Setting up creative scenarios for battles to occur is all well and good, but sometimes, you just need to throw a bunch of colorful characters together in the same place and have them beat the snot out of each other one-on-one until only one is left standing. It’s the essence of action storytelling boiled down to its most essential building blocks, and done right, there ain’t nothing in the world quite like it. So I was pretty damn excited for Ash to finally reach the Pokemon League and set up shop for a tournament arc of his very own. Battles between lots of different Pokemon, with opportunities for countless different match-ups even in the space of a single match? That’s the stuff Pokemon fans’ dreams are made of. This had the potential to be a tournament arc to remember, a distillation of all this franchise’s most viscerally entertaining moments one after the other.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that potential is going to end up being realized.

See, what I somehow managed to make myself forget in the build-up to the Indigo League is that the actual Pokemon battles have consistently been the weakest part of this anime. There’s rarely anything more than trainers shouting out moves one at a time until one party is quickly defeated, and whatever strategy there is usually just comes down to Ash learning a simple lesson and doing one unusual move to gain an advantage. And on top of that, the animation is nowhere near strong enough to make the fights exciting on a pure spectacle level. This is a long-running series, so it’s not like I expected Mob Psycho 100 levels of polish, but this show’s action choreography essentially just boils down to speed lines and repeated poses. Every once in a while we get a legitimately cool showdown like the match against Blaine on top of the volcano or the kaiju Pokemon smackdown from just a couple episodes ago, but those are few and far between. To go back to Yu Yu Hakusho, which finished airing before Pokemon even started, you could definitely tell it took some animation shortcuts, but the battles all managed to have some really dynamic, exciting action cuts, with strong choreography and lots of subtle little nuances to bring them to life. And I remember really loving the fights in Diamond and Pearl, so this is definitely something that’ll improve with time as the animation becomes more and more up to date. But there’s a reason I’ve so often sung the praises of this anime’s focus on the daily lives of living in the Pokemon world; that kind of subtle, non-explosive chill time is the kind of stuff that can still work under this show’s limitations. When it tries to capture the same kind of thrill ride the games do? Not so much.

In other words, what we’ve essentially got at the moment is the first big culmination of Ash’s journey thus far, a massive, multi-episode arc to send this chapter out with a bang, but it’s centered around all the stuff this show is worst at. None of the battles in the league have been very interesting thus far; the strategy is still weak, the animation is still unimpressive, and with the exception of Ash’s Krabby evolving into a Kingler, there hasn’t really been much in the way of actual story going on. And with everyone trapped in a single location to ride this tournament out, it can’t help but feel like we’re wasting time on not much in particular. I hope this gets better once Ash makes it to the actual league stage instead of these dull preliminary matches, because I’ve really been enjoying Pokemon recently, and I’d hate for it to go out on a low note. Pull it together, guys. I believe in you.

Best of Team Rocket

-”That birds me off.”

-”There’s no reason to get fired up over an old flame!”

-”We can make a fortune from the blaze that pays.” “Forget about it, the blaze stays with us!”

-”Oh, he’ll feel the heat, when we turn up the firepower!” I’m guessing the dub team was trying to get all their fire-related puns out this episode, yeah?

-”I like that guy’s style.” Game recognize game.

-”So act like a TV reporter, not some radio talk show host!” WOW SAVAGE

-”We’re on your side this time, so you better dump that skunk!” “Use some spunk and leave him sunk!” I FUCKING LOVE YOU GUYS

-”Thousands are inside rooting for Ash while Team Rocket is outside rooting through trash!”

Odds and Ends

-”Ash is approaching the league with grace and quiet determination!” Top 10 Most Inaccurate Statements Ever Uttered

-...Yeah, no, that’s dumb. Cheap shortcut to make plot happen; there’s no way they’d let some random 10-year-old carry the Olympic torch.

-Sending out a grass Pokemon to put out a fire? Real smart, James.

-”I’m gonna regret this.” akjsdhaskdh he can’t believe he has to help them again

-Lol, I like how Moltres’ flame has an attitude.

-Aaaah, that’s a sweet OP drop.

-Yeesh, Gary, what happened to the team spirit you were showing last time we saw you? Ass.

-Lol, of all the disguises, that’s the one Ash manages to see through.

-”It’s check-out time for you, Brock.” Misty’s a good egg.

-”Gee, I thought I had confidence.” DRAG HIM ASH

-Lack of self-control aside, it is kinda sweet that Brock took the time to learn the differences between the identical-looking Officer Jennys. He really does care!

-Lol, Pokemon in Love is still playing. Wonder when Psyduck’s collecting his royalty check?

-”You want a plate?” “Only if it’s a collection plate.” pfft

-”Togepi, don’t you try anything dangerous like that, okay?” Togepi is chaotic as fuck, man.

-”See, Ash? My internal Nurse Joy Detector is never wrong!” NOT THE TIME BROCK

-Aah, I love it when the gang remembers they have more Pokemon at their disposal than just Pikachu.

The battle continues. See you next time!

[pokeshippingflashfic]

One word prompt request "Calendar". Loving this blog!!

(Note: Howdy doody, this blog’s first request! And remember, you don’t have to limit them to one word prompts!)

”This is impossible and you three are the worst!” a certain redhead shrieked, clutching both arms so tightly over the front of her torso that she could hardly breath, one tightening its grip on the towel she’d managed to throw on, and the fingernails of her other digging into her own shoulder.

The cameraman gulped at her ferocious ire and pitch black gaze, knowing better than to cross the teenage girl right then and even going so far as to take a step or two backwards.

“Oh, c’mon, lil’ sis!” Daisy began, “How can you possibly be angry at your first big break that wasn’t specifically handed to you by your talented–”

“–flawlessly beautiful–” Violet crooned further.

“–gracious older sisters?” all three of her older siblings concluded in screeching unison.

“You, like, wear a bathing suit all the time at the gym or on the beach. Why is having your photo taken for a theme calendar any different?” Lilly beseeched her in hushed tones, hoping to quell her fire with some familiarity and logic.

“Th - that’s obviously not the same thing! I’m training my Pokemon or battling near a pool, or when I’m on the beach I’m probably sunbathing when I wear one then! This is embarrassing! You told me the calendar was honoring female gym trainers around the world!” Misty hissed back, still holding her arms protectively over her front. “Why do I have to be in some stupid bedazzled bikini for that, posing like that without a single Pokeball? I should be releasing Gyarados o - or Corsola or one of my other Pokemon, maybe have them use an attack!” she finished cryptically, eyeing a few of the assistants who were bustling around trying to keep busy as though she’d already found her Pokemon’s targets.

“You know, Misty,” Daisy tried again, “for someone who, like, claims to be the most beautiful water-type trainer in the world, you sure aren’t acting like it.”

The redhead flinched at having some of her own words thrown back at her.

“Beauty is totally meant to be seen, to be shared! And nobody said you couldn’t have a Pokeball or two next to you! You should just, like, try to remain open-minded about the project! The rule of show business is you have to stand out if you want your exposure to last longer than fifteen minutes, you know?”

“Show business…” the redhead muttered to herself in response, grunting, groaning, eyes closed to ward away the oncoming headache. She could feel her face on the verge of setting fire as she very slowly began to convince herself to remove her claws from where they sat raking into her own skin. “This wasn’t supposed to be about show business…”

When she’d first been told that a Kalosian company had wanted to feature the Sensational Sisters in their calendar project, she’d been touched that her sisters brought it up to her at all, even if they’d joked at the time that the only reason they were doing so was because she’d become so well-known at the gym by that time that there was no way to hide her somewhere.

And it wasn’t as if she had a problem with her body or with showing it off either… The problem had more to do with being mislead about the whole thing, about being manipulated by her siblings (which she should have seen coming), and about how the very purpose of this rag’s existence was going to be for teenage boys and creepy middle-aged losers to gawk at bodies like hers.

But another part of her battled against these thoughts in fiery declination.

It was still nice to do something as an equal with her sisters. The calendar was still going to be adorned with the subtitle: Strongest and hottest female gym leaders from around the world! And, as previously pointed out, if she could ignore the gross groups of boys and men who she suspected would be the general audience to this debacle then… maybe she could find herself enjoying the attention.

“There you go…” Violet murmured appreciatively, going out of her way to assist with tugging the towel from Misty’s vice-like grip and throwing it unceremoniously onto the reclining deck chair behind her.

“This should be over quick at least, right? I mean, they only need one or two shots of us, don’t they?” the redhead whined as Daisy grabbed her shoulders from behind and coaxed her into a proper position among their group, warily eyeing the cameraman now as he readied his device to capture their pose.

“Um, well, actually…”

Misty didn’t have the opportunity to hear where her sister was going with this before a bright flash and shutter echoed around the rafters of the gym arena, somewhat disorienting her. Unwilling to give the redhead anymore opportunity to gripe and condemn the entire scenario and those involved, her sisters kept her busy with new postures, assisted by the Kalosian company’s experienced staff.

Almost two hours and what seemed like two thousand shots later, the redhead was sitting in the aforementioned reclining deck chair with the towel under her back, one leg kicking softly over her other thigh, eyes closed just enough to make her eyelashes flutter, giving the impression she was resting poolside without a care. She could feel the slight draft of the air conditioning against her exposed and pickling skin, inhaling deeply to brace herself better against it.

“I don’t understand the point of these photos! I mean, we only have the one page dedicated to us, right?” she couldn’t help complaining, though she was a decent enough contributor to know to keep her pose in tact at least.

“Don’t you worry about a thing, sis. You’re doing great!”

“But aren’t they going to use the group shot of us for our page? Really, what’s the point of them taking these single profiles too?”

“Please stop talking, Miss Waterflower. You’ll make my job much easier!”

Misty’s brow twitched in response to this pleading command and she stilled her loftily bobbing leg. Still, she’d rather just get this over with, she thought, and so she slowly exhaled her last breath, counting down the seconds, until her breeching temper had waned back.

“I wanna know what’s going on.”

“Switch pose please! Miss Waterflower, try stretching back against the chair, lift your arms and arch as lean as you can, intertwine your fingers above your head and give us just a hint of a smile! We want you to look relaxed but untouchable! We’re going for welcoming, intimate, yet unattainable!”

“Fine,” the redhead hissed through gritted teeth, and did as suggested. “But I swear someone better tell me something!”

The camera began clicking madly. She could make out the flashes of light from behind her eyelids. Nobody was engaging with her anymore.

“Hello…?” she tried again, “Can I get any sort of answer?”

But nothing. The camera was still going, bright lights flashing and she could assume reflecting off the pool water somewhat unpleasantly. Though perhaps things were finally coming to an end, because it seemed like there were farther and fewer shots being taken.

“A - are we done? Please say we’re done,” she groaned hopefully from where she sat, tempted to leap up but the actress in her unwilling to break the character she’d been told to utilize for her shoot.

“Uuh… anybody?” she asked awkwardly a few seconds later, for the sounds of the camera and look of the lights had completely died away to stark silence.

“Misty, what the heck are ya doin’ here?”

What little color she had there drained readily from her face and her jaw locked up in humiliation. She gingerly peaked open one eye just to confirm the horrendous true identity behind her newly wandered in guest.

He stood before her, towering over her from where she sat in all fairness, still very tan, somewhat lankier than she remembered, but sporting a very familiar cheeky grin on his not-quite-the-same-amount-of-boyish-as-she-remembered face. And, though she wasn’t quite ready to confront it for what it may have meant, a splash of appreciative pink stretched across the bridge of his nose and over the somewhat chiseled round of both cheeks as he looked her over.

“Ash Ketchum,” she was compelled to greet him with bated breath.

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - UB-01 Symbiont - Nihilego

793: Nihilego

Only a few months after Sun and Moon's hype cycle had begun, Gamefreak went and threw an at-the-time hardball at us. Introducing a new brand of creature that they weren't even going to call a Pokemon. But rather, have it be called an Ultra Beast with only a codename to refer to it at the time. For a while, its name was mysteriously blurred out, only reading as “UB-01 ???”. This is yet another bit that had theory-crafters raving, but it's understandable that they'd want to keep its fake name secret until the game was out because that would've almost surely given away its importance in the plot.

UB-01 “Symbiont” is a mostly featureless jellyfish creature with not even a face; or even anything resembling a face. Just a glassy jelly with a floral pattern and something of a motif what gives it the appearance of a hat with dangling hair for tentacles. The tiniest of implications that this thing is actually Pokemon's version of a head-leech much like your Metroids or Facehuggers. Which is amazing that such a concept has made it into Pokemon in the first place, let alone have it be played full-force in such a creepy way.

Nihilego's plot-relevance lies in how it relates to the game's main antagonist, Lusamine, who has an unhealthy obsession with UB-01 here. Said obsession starting with the disappearance of her husband through the Ultra Wormholes that the UB-01, and indeed other Ultra Beasts, emerge from. This obsession with the Ultra Beasts and Nihilego in particular has lead to her being a particularly controlling woman.

Enter Lillie, Lusamine's daughter. She's about the spitting image of Nihilego up there, isn't she? Not too long after you befriend her ingame, she mentions how her mother always decided on how Lillie dresses herself. Only further getting the point across that Lusamine is totally enraptured with these interdimensional space jellyfish. What's up with that?

Nihilego hosts a typing that's bizarre when you first look at it, being a Rock/Poison type. Seems like an odd typing for a jelly, right? But actually, its body is described as being transparent and glass-like, hence the Rock typing. A bit easier to figure is the poison half of its typing, given jellyfish are known for being rather venomous.

Nihilego in particular though, when attaching itself to a host, injects a neurotoxin that affects the way its host acts. Said to make its host feel an intense sense of excitement and loss of mental inhibitions. Making them much more prone to outbursts of violence and anger. Which brings us to this monstrosity.

In a fit of rage, Lusamine subjects herself to a Nihilego and transforms into this thing. A big hulking and intimidating human jellyfish that... then throws out a Pokeball and initiates a regular trainer battle. Dang, they were real close to having a non-Pokemon “final boss” there. But whatever the end result in the game may be, this was all to put into scope the sort of thing Nihilego is capable of, providing one of the coolest designs in the whole series's history from, of all things, being fused to a human. With the creepy eye motifs and making Lusamine herself appear as sludge-y as you'd figure she'd be.

In the aftermath of all this, you get equipped with a new type of Pokeball called Beast Balls (Funnily enough, in Japan they’re just called Ultra Balls because the Japanese name for Ultra Balls is Hyper Balls. Ergo, Localization screwed themselves 20 years into the future and now we’re stuck with the rather silly named Beast Balls.) that you get to use to catch the Ultra Beasts like they were any other Pocket Monsters. Disappointing? A little bit. At least, for a while I thought it was interesting that they were bringing in these Ultra Beasts as essentially non-Pokemon boss monsters to fight, but in the end you only fight Nihilego the one time in the middle of the game.

But I can't deny that it is nice to be able to capture these weirdos. The Ultra Beasts as a whole are some of the series's most creatively abstract designs, and it'd be at least a bit of a shame if you couldn't use them yourself in the end.

Not to mention Nihilego is creative in the way it represent head-latching parasites in a uniquely Pokemon way. With the way it attaches itself to its hosts making it look like it's wearing the Nihilego as a “hat” with its drooping tentacles posing as “hair.” I can appreciate the hell out of anything that's neat but also terrifying.

What we also get to see for this initial batch of Ultra Beasts is the different dimensions they live in. The only one present in the original versions of the game is the Ultra Deep Sea, which is an odd thing to call a place with no obvious water in sight. Clearly, it's called this because supposedly all that lives in this area are deep sea creatures that merely float around like Nihilego does. But it's at least a bit disappointing to hear these Ultra Beasts don't all live in the same dimension.

The Ultra Deep Sea itself is really pretty in a creepy, dark sort of way. Mysterious and everything. It’s just a shame for all these different dimensions we’re left to believe their only inhabitant each is just The One Species of UB that happens to live there.

Personal Score: 9/10

We're in for a good end-of-the-Pokedex this time!

[Archive]

[mmy117-blog]

Will augmented reality make people indulge in the virtual world? ——several problems of AR

Nowadays, people have designed a lot of applications of AR in different areas. The Pokémon Go is one of the most famous AR games which is also a very successful application of AR in real life. And we can say that AR is going to play an important role in the future. Under this circumstance, many people expect that the AR technology can bring us many improvements in our daily life. And along with the improvement of AI technology, more and more people believe the game company can use AI as a heart and then create many amazing and playful games in the near future. Until now, the AR can only connect with the physical environment by cameras in the daily life. And with AI, game designers can come up with more ways for people to link the virtual world to the real-life.

However, the combination of AI and AR technology can also make a lot of negative effects to people. Sometimes the AR technology may lead to addition  because some people can’t distinguish between the real world and the virtual reality. If that really happens, then less people will be willing to work hard. As a result, the productivity of the whole society may decrease. But before we show you the negative side of that technology, maybe we can know the specific meaning of the AR.

What’s is AR? 

Augmented reality (AR) is an “interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory.” - From Wikipedia.

Will you live in a virtual world?

Pokémon go AR is one of the most popular games around the world. You can use your phone’s camera to show a Pokémon in real world, trapping them to get their attention and make them pose accordingly.

Let’s imagine one day the AR is everywhere in our life---- You wear a AR glasses, it will show you the famous TV shows to you. Then, you need to attend a meeting, AR glasses make a virtual meeting room and your colleagues are all sit here. After that, you want to go to a restaurant and have a meal. You see a map on your AR glasses and you just need to follow the instructions. You can do everything you can image by AR. In that case, will you live without AR?    

You might think it is really a wonderful thing. However, spending more time in virtual life means less time in real life. There is a  research shows the mobile phone makes people feel less connected. The experience shows more than 500000 of people don’t get out of their house for half of a year. 

These people don’t have many friends, they rarely have communication with people. And they have bad health. That’s all because they are indulge in the virtual world. So how can we avoid to addicted to virtual world? Many psychologists believe that people should have more communications with others and do more sports. Don’t forget you are living in the real world.

And there are some other social problems which caused by the AR by NOW. For example, sometimes people may get injured while playing the Pokémon game since they may be too excited to run to the Pokémon but ignore the latent dangers on the streets and roads. According to the report of Screenrant news, a Pokémon player fell into a ditch while searching for a Pokémon and one of the bones in her foot was broken and she needs 6-8 weeks to recover from her injury. Moreover, some people even use their phone to try to capture the Pokémon even if they are driving! That behavior can easily lead to car accidents, cause huge property lost and casualties. To avoid that problem, the government may need to enhance the effects of these laws which prohibit people from using their phones when they are driving cars and in the meantime the game company should remind their customers to be careful while they are looking for the Pokémon to capture in some downtown areas or dangerous places which means there are many roads and the traffic condition is always busy there. 

Another Obstacle

As the developing of AR, a big problem comes out, hacking. Although this problem has existed for decades, it seems more destructive in AR’s world. When we are building a new reality in a more digital way, we need to care about out digital property, too. No matter you believe or not, augmented reality is adding your risk of losing your privacy.

As a fan of Pokémon Go, I will go crazy if someone else steal my pokémons by hacking into your smartphone. People’s privacy in the digital world is not only about money but also about the time costs in the game. If you spend a hundred hours catching and cultivating your pokémons, your account should not be worthless just because you have not pay to the game. Otherwise, it should be valuable since you can exchange money with this account. In the future, AR will keep developing and foreseeable, it will create a digital world based on the physical reality. When more and more people spending more money in AR world, the government most pay attention on it because it may become a big part of the national economy.

Nowadays, the market for “intangible personal property” (in-game items) in the gaming world already commands billions of U.S. dollars and continues to grow substantially every year. People pay for in-game goods with real cash, but generally whoever owns the intellectual property rights to the game itself actually owns the property. Different from today’s digital game, AR is easier to confuse reality because it’s built on the physical world. This means it’s very likely to attract more cash than traditional digital games.

If the government doesn’t do something like making laws and setting a fine to prevent hacking to these properties, more and more conflicts will arise  In order to solve this problem, it’s important to call on  people to think about the legal issues at stake AR virtual world.

Conclusion

Although AR already shows us a fascinating future, there are a lot of new problems come out and need to be solved. Treating them sensibly and logically, believing the potential of human, we can build an unbelievable world with AR.

References:  [1] the explanation of Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR [2] data from sino caijing (Sina Caijing 2017, https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2017-01-14/doc-ifxzqhka3024216.shtml ) [3] the accident is reported by Screenrant, https://screenrant.com/pokemon-go-dangers/ [4] Do you own your virtual property? | Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law, http://www.jetlaw.org/2018/11/03/do-you-own-your-virtual-property/

[5] HYPER-REALITY - YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs

[6] Minecraft Earth: Apple WWDC Gameplay Reveal - YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNo38kNy_EU

Written by: Avan, Andy, Mike