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teshamerkel · 1 year

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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

[Chapter 47]

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After discovering Asra the crobat's fate, Tobias and Nia head east to seek out Edme. Along the way, memories are shared.

Tobias is vaguely aware of Nia leading them back to the road. She coaxes him into sitting against a rock on the side of the dirt path, and while she keeps an eye out for a ride he stares blankly out at the desert as night falls. His emotions and thoughts ebb away along with the desert’s heat.

Eventually, she manages to stop a cart pulled by a pair of tauros, and tugs Tobias up into the back of the cart with her. Her paws on his arm are freezing, and that’s the thing that reels Tobias back, just a bit. He sits against the side of the cart and doesn’t say anything when Nia presses her cold fur against his side.

The ride is silent, for a while. Nothing but the steady clomping of the tauros’ hooves and the gentle creaking of the cart. The occasional howl of wind. Nia’s chattering teeth slowly fall quiet as she warms up.

Tobias stares at the goods in front of him. They’re stacked in bags and crates in dark, ambiguous lumps, lit faintly by the moon and his own small tail flame. He’s holding their satchel in his lap, absently kneading it with his claws.

Distantly, he notes Nia sending him worried, probing glances. He doesn’t meet her eyes. He doesn’t want to talk right now. He doesn’t want to think, either. He doesn’t feel the raging fury or the devastating grief from earlier, but all that’s left in their wake is a sort of numbness. He feels tired. Empty.

The night rolls by, calm and quiet. Tobias should probably be grateful that they don’t have to fight off any bandits. That would give him something to do, but right now he can’t guarantee that he wouldn’t space out mid-battle and make a stupid mistake.

Nia clears her throat. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Tobias stares at her without really seeing. He feels irritation spike in him before snuffing out just as fast. He shrugs and plants his chin down in his arms.

Nia takes her time responding. Hours worth of time, if the slow lift of the moon into the sky is anything to gauge by. Tobias thinks he dozes off a few times, since the stars seem to tick by in leaps rather than at a crawl. Or maybe he’s just spacing out.

Throughout the night, Nia shifts restlessly. She opens her mouth countless times before closing it again. Tobias ignores her, lost in a tired haze. Maybe he should just go back to sleep for now. He still feels exhausted from his earlier blow-up.

It’s near midnight when Nia finally speaks, voice soft. “Would it help if I talked about something?”

Tobias shrugs again. He doesn’t particularly care either way.

Nia eyes him, deep in thought. “I…if you don’t want to hear about this, then tell me and I’ll stop. But I know you were wondering before and, well—“

Tobias grunts an impatient sound.

A pause. “I know it’s not—not anywhere near the same, but when I miss my family, it helps for me to think about them. I-I mean, it hurts too, but…I didn’t ever tell you about them, did I?”

Tobias finally looks at Nia, curious despite himself. He’s kind of surprised she brought this up now, instead of avoiding the topic like a pitfall, but it’s the first thing drudging up a sense of anything from the numbness that has settled over him. Even if that something feels sharp and painful.

“Would…you like me to? Tell you about what I remembered about my family? I-I don’t have to. I know after, uh, everything, you probably don’t want to have to think about—“

Tobias tunes Nia’s nervous rambling out. The thought of hearing about Nia’s family makes the terrible ache in his chest threaten to return, and he isn’t sure it won’t spiral from there. But…he does want to know. And maybe she can distract him from the bad thoughts he logically knows he’s keeping at bay across a moat of static and empty thoughts. No telling when those will break through.

“Whatever,” he mumbles, moving his gaze back across the cart and past it, to the moonlit expanse of the desert.

Nia still hesitates. Then, she takes a deep breath and says, “I had…dreams about them. When I was sick. More like memories, but…it was like I was there with them. My mom and my brother. Toni.”

Tobias blinks. “Toni?”

Nia smiles wistfully, relaxing a bit. “Yeah. I guess she’s not my family by blood, but she’s my best friend.” After a beat she hastily adds, “In the human world.”

Tobias doesn’t respond.

“She’s always been the brave one between us. But she made me feel braver too. Pushed me out of my comfort zone, helped me try new things. Although she does get us into trouble sometimes. Her mouth moves quicker than her head when she’s upset.”

Tobias snorts, though it’s weak. “Sounds like an annoying rookidee I know.”

“Oh. Oh wow, yeah, her and Junie would get along like a house on fire.”

“They’re never allowed to meet.”

That startles a laugh out of Nia. Tobias’ mouth twitches. “My mom loves her. Toni’s basically her second daughter.”

Tobias’ throat closes up as he thinks of his own mom. Of soft humming and a toothy grin and bright blue eyes, a mirror image to his own.

“Your mom?” Tobias rasps, a desperate sort of prompt.

Nia casts him a worried look, hesitating, but something about his expression must urge her on. “My mom is…really sweet. She’s a lot like Maggie, actually! Funny too, but she had to be stricter with us than she would’ve liked since she had to raise us on her own.”

Tobias’ brow furrows. What about her father? He doesn’t want to ask in case he’s gone but—

Nia must see the question on his face. She shrugs with a wry little smile. “He died when I was an infant, so I never really got to meet him. I could tell Mom and Clay missed him, but I never really knew him to miss him.”

Tobias isn’t sure if he should apologize or…what the proper response would be for that.

Luckily, Nia keeps talking, tipping her head back to look up at the stars. “I guess I always missed the chance to have a dad? And the person I was told he was. But that’s about it. Although Clay was definitely more protective of me because our dad was gone.”

“Clay?”

“Oh.” Nia glances at him, almost nervously, before focusing again on the sky. “Yeah, he’s…he’s my brother.”

Tobias’ breath catches, surprise warring with a sudden pang in his chest. “You had—you have a brother?”

“…Yeah. I think you two would get along really well, actually. Once I remembered Clay, it made a lot more sense why I latched onto Xander so quickly—“

Tobias makes a weak attempt at a scoff. “If he’s like Xander then we would not get along.”

Nia laughs, shaking her head. “No, they’re really different. I think it was just the protective big brother instincts that felt familiar to me. Clay is more chill. A bit of a jokester, actually. Like Ezra or Junie.”

Tobias gives her a dry look, hoping to convey that he’s even less convinced they would get along.

Nia laughs again. “Okay, he’s not exactly like either of them. You remind me a lot of him too! I just…see bits and pieces of him in different people, y’know?”

Tobias thinks of the shinx kids and orange scales and big eyes full of childish joy, gold then green, and his heart twinges. “…Yeah.”

“Other than Toni, Clay is my best friend,” Nia whispers. “I miss him. He always makes stupid jokes and distracts me if I’m sad.”

Tobias doesn’t answer, swallowing against a lump in his throat. He’d distract Vivi when she was upset, too. They’d paint the cave walls with homemade berry paint, or go out on mountain trails to explore. He couldn’t resist her teary eyes and she knew it.

Nia chuckles. Tobias sends her a questioning look.

“Sorry, I just remembered when Clay hid wasabi in my toast. He liked to mess with me, too. One second he’d be a protective brother bear and the next he’d make me spit out my breakfast.”

Tobias doesn’t know what wasabi is, but he gets the gist. He snorts. “It’s part of the big brother code. Occasionally you just have to lie about stupid stuff to mess with your younger sibling.”

“You would take his side! I bet your sister was—oh. Um."

Nia snaps her mouth shut with a click. Her ears pin back as she looks to Tobias with wide eyes. As if knowing that she’s crossing a line by mentioning his sister out loud.

For a moment, Tobias isn’t sure how he feels. He feels like he should be angry, territorial of Nia even mentioning Vivi. That’s forbidden ground, not meant to be thought of and certainly not meant to be mentioned.

But…Tobias is thinking of Vivi now as he did when she was alive, instead of the usual haunting image of her lifeless body. He’s thinking of her not with the usual crushing guilt, but instead with the fond annoyance he held for her when they were kids and he was just her older brother. Protective, sure, but not the literal barrier between life and death.

Strangely, it feels…nice.

Tobias swallows. “Vivi was…I would get so annoyed by her sometimes. When she wouldn’t leave me alone.”

Saying it feels like a confession of some horrible sin. Like he doesn’t deserve to say anything bad about her, when he let her die. But some part of him feels lighter, too, and Nia doesn’t look disgusted with him. If anything, she looks a little awed, eagerly drinking in his words.

Tobias looks down at his fists, consciously relaxing them. He takes a shuddering breath. “But she was my best friend, too. Not much to do on an isolated mountain aside from get into trouble together.”

“You lived on a mountain?” Nia whispers, spellbound.

Tobias nods. “Way up, where the air was thin and the clouds were below us sometimes. One day Vivi wouldn’t shut up so I convinced her that they were actually really big Pokemon who would attack us if she didn’t quiet down.”

Nia barks a laugh. “Clay did the same thing with me! Well, he told me clouds were made of cotton candy. I was so upset when I found out he lied that I cried for an hour. Mom went out and bought actual cotton candy from the nearest gas station just to calm me down. To be fair, I was two.”

Tobias smiles. He doesn’t really know what Nia looked like as a human—let alone a little human—so he pictures a tiny riolu pup instead, pouting with big ruby eyes.

“Told you, it’s the rule. Older siblings have to mess with their younger siblings at least a little.”

“I bet Xander never does,” Nia counters.

“Xander is literally the least fun Pokemon I’ve ever met.”

Nia pushes him with a scolding, “Tobias! Be nice!” The rebuke is ruined by her laughter, though.

Tobias grins at her, not the slightest bit remorseful. “He’s a good brother, but as company? A rock could do better. Not a geodude, but an actual, lifeless rock.”

Nia laughs harder. “Be nice! He has three little hellions to watch over!”

Tobias scoffs. “Please. Vivi got into three times the trouble with a third of the body weight.”

“Oh?” Nia asks, trying to catch her breath.

Tobias nods, trying to remember the worst offenses. He’s purposefully avoided thinking about this kind of stuff, about Vivi and his parents, for years. But it’s surprisingly easy to filter through his memories, and his chest only hurts a little as he thinks.

“Okay, so listen to this one. Every week or so our parents flew us down to one of the towns at the foot of the mountain range, right?” Tobias says. “To pick up food and supplies and let us play with other kids.”

Nia nods, leaning in closer to listen.

“Mom was a mail ‘mon,” Tobias says, clearing his throat when his voice catches. “So she knew everyone. But we had to stop by someone’s house to drop off an instrument my dad had made for them. Some kind of flute or something.”

Tobias shifts in place, feeling as if he’s dusting off his own brain. A strange mixture of mirth and heartache mixes in his chest. He doesn’t know if he should laugh or cry, so he makes a sound somewhere in the middle.

“Our dad was kind of a quiet guy, and he never complained. But this customer? He complained about him. About how much of a jerk he was and how he always had something to critique just because he didn’t like Dad. But he was rich and always paid up, so Dad must’ve figured he’d deal with the bad attitude.”

Nia nods.

“So Dad makes the guy his flute. What I didn’t know—what no one but Vivi knew—was that earlier that day Vivi had tried playing the shiny new instrument herself when Dad and I took a nap after lunch.”

“Oh no,” Nia whispers.

“Yup. And she also tried playing it when she had hiccups,” Tobias continues, giving Nia a dry look. “You can imagine what happens when a fire type gets the hiccups.”

Nia’s mouth drops. “No!”

Tobias bites back a laugh. “Yeah, she hiccupped and caught the thing on fire. Put it out, panicked, and stashed the piece of kindling back in its box like it was still good as new.”

Nia’s giggling now, and Tobias can’t help grinning with her. “No! Wait, so your dad—?”

“As far as he knew, it was in perfect condition when he put it in its box that morning! I thought Vivi seemed quiet on the trip down, but it wasn’t until the client pulled out the flute that we realized something was wrong.”

“What happened?!”

Tobias leans forward, grinning. “Okay, so this snooty gumshoos pulls out the flute, right? And the thing is charred. It is crumbling to pieces in his paws.”

Nia snorts, paws moving up over her snout.

“And this gumshoos, he looks at my dad and says—” Here Tobias straightens up and adopts a snooty expression. “‘How do you expect me to play this?! I knew you were far from an expert but this is nothing more than garbage, blah blah blah.’ And Vivi, Vivi takes one look at me and Dad and realizes that she’s definitely getting in trouble for this, and after he’s badmouthing Dad we all kind of hate him, so she might as well make this disaster funny.”

“No!” Nia shrieks, delighted.

“So Vivi steps forward, half this guy’s height, grabs the flute, and chipper as can be says, ‘You play it like this, mister!’ And she tweets the loudest, most ear-screeching note I’ve ever heard, and the flute just. Disintegrates. Just falls apart right there on this guy’s fancy rug.”

Nia cackles, loud in the night air.

Tobias laughs along with her. “A-And at this point it is dead silent in the house. And Vivi, this little brat, she turns around with the most serious expression I’ve ever seen and says, ‘I think it might need a tune-up.’”

Nia’s almost crying she’s laughing so hard, wiping at her eyes. “She didn’t.”

“She did!” Tobias stresses, laughing too. Laughing harder than he can remember doing so in…a while. “She got us kicked out of there so fast. If you think I’m bold, Vivi was a whole other story! I could tell even Dad thought it was hilarious despite losing a customer—and Mom even more so, she lost it, she always said how it wasn’t worth working for that guy—but they still had to punish Vivi somehow, so she was grounded. No flying for a whole week.”

Nia howls with laughter. “Literally grounded!”

Tobias snorts, wiping at his eyes. “Well, duh. What else would ‘grounded’ mean?”

Nia only laughs harder, trying to catch her breath in little bursts of giggles.

“C-Clay would’ve loved that,” Nia says. “He was always getting into trouble. Usually he’d drag me along and then we’d both have to face the music. I started forming a natural defense of, ‘I don’t know what’s happening here and I don’t want to know,’ but he’d just drag me along anyways and promised that I’d love it.”

Tobias raises an eyebrow. “Did you?”

“Literally not a single time. And half the time he’d try to pin it on me! One weekend him and his friends made this terrible ramp out of metal and plywood and cardboard so he could launch himself and his bike into the lake. Insisted I be there for it, like, ‘C’mon, you’ve gotta see it!’ No, that just means I’m complicit when Mom interrogates you about your missing bike!”

Tobias snorts. “Did he get in trouble for it?”

“Oh, big time. He had to use my pink tricycle with rainbow streamers when he wanted to go riding with his friends, since Mom refused to buy him a new bike. His knees hit the handlebars.”

Tobias looks up, thoughtful. “I guess I pinned a few things on Vivi, especially when she was little and I didn’t really like her yet. One time I swore she was the one who climbed on top of the storage cabinets and ate all the coal cookies.”

“Oh?”

“Would’ve been a better defense if she was old enough to crawl.”

Nia grins. “That sounds like one of my plans. Okay, so this one time, we wanted to look like a couple of cartoon characters for a game we were playing, right? So we decided we’d use markers to make these giant rainbow stripes on our faces and arms and legs. I suggested we use permanent markers so they’d stay on longer, and I mean, I wasn’t wrong. But Mom didn’t appreciate that when she was trying to scrub ink off our arms and we looked like we had a disease.”

“We did the same thing with berry paint!” Tobias laughs. “We wanted to make ourselves into ‘shinies’ and stained our scales purple for days. Do you know how hard it is to stain your skin so much even a fire bath won’t burn the color away?”

The last of their laughter dies down. Nia’s smile slowly fades into something a bit more downcast. Bittersweet. She lifts her chin to look up at the moon.

“I miss him,” Nia murmurs.

Tobias hums, the familiar pain in his chest resurfacing. He tips his head back to follow her gaze, looking up at the stars. He thinks of Vivi’s berry-stained face, framing bright green eyes and a toothy little grin. “Yeah.”

It’s quiet again.

This is the first time Tobias can remember really talking about his family since the incident, and a part of his heart feels like it’s being lanced through with sharp claws. But somehow, despite the pain, he also feels leagues better than when they’d boarded the cart. After talking, it feels like he can breathe again. At least a little.

He hasn’t thought of Vivi or his parents like that in years. Happy and smiling. Alive.

“Thanks,” Tobias murmurs.

“‘Course. Thanks for telling me. And letting me talk.”

The two of them fall silent again, and Tobias closes his eyes. He listens to the sounds around them, the creak of the wheels and the heavy steps of the tauros.

“Sooo…”

Tobias knows that tone. He rolls his head to raise a brow at Nia. “What.”

“I was just thinking. It sounds like you’ve got music in your blood, if your dad made instruments. And you can’t let Vivi show you up, so…am I going to get to hear you play that guitar you got from Granite, or..?”

The words are lighthearted, but gentle. As if Nia can sense that music is a touchy subject for him so she’s giving him an out. Tobias appreciates it.

“It wouldn’t be good. I haven’t played anything in…years. And it isn’t even the same instrument I was learning.”

Nia hums. “It’s not like I’d be any better. Pretty sure I was tone-deaf in the human world. I just…I’d like to hear it, if you ever want to try.”

Tobias doesn’t answer, stopping himself for all of ten seconds before hesitantly opening the satchel in his lap. He stares down at the sleek neck of the little guitar, its strings shining in the moonlight. His fingers twitch, itching to hold it.

Nia studiously keeps her head tipped back and her eyes closed, but Tobias can tell she’s listening. Waiting to see what he’ll do. In the end, it’s her easy acceptance of whatever decision he makes that pushes him to act.

Tobias pulls out the little guitar, setting it across his lap. Something about the sensation of sleek wood against his skin, of the shape settling against him, immediately brings to mind a flash of the past. Being held by his father, feeling the low rumble of his voice as he guided Tobias’ claws and showed him which strings to pluck. The memory hurts, but it’s warm too. Like a too-hot sip of delicious soup.

Tobias gently strums his claws across the strings, and Nia winces. The instrument, predictably, is horribly out of tune. He hesitantly gets to work putting the guitar back in order, hoping he’s remembering the basics of the process right. He needs to see if the guild has a guide he can reference when they eventually head back.

Still, even with his halfhearted attempts, Tobias gets the instrument into semi-working order. He takes another experimental strum and is satisfied when Nia doesn’t flinch away from the sound this time. Tobias tries plucking a few cords, long-buried memories rising to mind of learning scales and nursery rhymes. After a few clunky starts and stops, he starts to recall the right order and rhythm of the basic movements.

His fingers almost seem to move of their own accord, slowly building up a different tune, something gentle and sweet. It takes him a few minutes to realize what melody it is: a lullaby, once so familiar but now dancing at the edge of his mind like whispers in the wind. He blinks back a sudden rush of hot tears, trying to follow the notes of his patchy memory. There are too many moments where he has to pause, entire chunks of the song forgotten, and jump ahead to a different line. But it’s there, in bits and pieces.

When his fingers still, stinging from pulling at the wire without any callouses built up, Nia finally looks at him. She’s beaming. “I loved that!”

Tobias snorts. “It was terrible.”

“Doesn’t mean I didn’t love it.”

He flicks her leg with his tail and gets back to work adjusting the strings and testing out the cords again. “I was trying to play an old lullaby my mom would sing. Can’t remember all the notes, though.”

“Oh. Well…you can fill in the gaps, right?”

Tobias hesitates. He…supposes he can. Some part of him feels like that’s wrong, like it’s desecrating his mom’s memory. But…what else can he do? Leave gaping blank spaces throughout the melody? He doesn’t know where he would find the original song, so wouldn’t it be better to fill it up with something new until it’s whole again?

Tobias stretches out his hand before going back to his music.

It’s not until later, when Nia has started humming along to the melody he’s trying to solidify, that he remembers something he wanted to bring up.

“Hey. Before, back in Asra. After the mission.”

Nia sits up and tilts her head at him, expression curious and open.

“You…wanted to invite Samir to join our team. Right?”

Nia cringes. “Yeah. I’m sorry for springing that on you so suddenly. I realized right after I suggested it that it was probably a pretty big decision we’d need to decide together. Was what I said okay? About Samir coming to the Lexym Guild?”

Tobias nods. “Yeah. Arceus knows Samir deserves a better situation than whatever they’ve got going on out here. And August would make sure they got that.”

There’s a moment of hesitation as Nia looks at him. “So…how would you feel? About Samir possibly joining our team in the future?”

Tobias’ immediate impulse is a no. But the guitar under his fingers gives him something do while he thinks. He strums idly at it, trying to slow down his thought process and question why his immediate reaction is so vehement.

“Samir worked well with us,” Tobias agrees, slowly. Grudgingly. “I think they round out our team well.”

“Me too!” Nia agrees, eyes sparkling. “But..?”

Tobias takes a moment longer to stall. Because he knows why he’s hesitating and it’s, quite frankly, embarrassing. Sure, he’d be hesitating anyways just because it’s a big deal basically signing on to be life partners with someone. But he knows the main reason.

His gaze drifts up to meet Nia’s. She’s watching him patiently with ruby red eyes. He flushes and looks away. How can he say that he doesn’t want it to be anyone else but the two of them without it sounding horribly desperate?

“I’d just be worried,” Tobias eventually says, awkward and stilted. “About the team dynamic changing.”

Nia’s expression softens. “That’s understandable. I thought maybe you just didn’t like them or something.”

Tobias snorts. “Oh, they’re annoying all right. But most Pokemon are.”

Nia laughs, sitting back to look out at the passing scenery. Everything is bathed in silver moonlight. “You know, I don’t think you’d have to worry too much about what we’ve got here changing.”

Tobias gives Nia a prompting look.

“I mean…we’re around a lot of different people every day, right?” Nia says. She looks back to him with a warm smile. “But that’s never stopped us from getting along. It’s still always me and you at the end of the day, right? We’re partners. That wouldn’t change.”

Tobias’ fingers stumble over the cords as he stares back, feeling his face heat even as something anxious in his chest settles.

What does he say to something like that?

Luckily, Nia seems equally embarrassed after her words register. She hurriedly looks away. “I’m just saying, you know? It’d still be us. Just…with more friends along for the ride. More people watching our backs.”

Tobias swallows and rips his gaze away, back to the guitar as he tries to find his place. He still feels jittery and embarrassed, but in a pleased sort of way.

“Right. I…guess I wouldn’t be against it. If Samir wants to.”

Nia is clearly thrilled at that, tail thudding happily against the wood of the cart. She smiles and looks back out at the desert.

Tobias could see it, actually. Vaguely. Him and Nia and Samir, maybe a fourth ‘mon. Catching the pangoro and arcanine and continuing on to become top-tier Seekers. The world will need them more than ever, with the slow increase in mystery dungeons and other phenomena cropping up. And Nia—

Nia…isn’t planning on staying, once she finds a way home.

Tobias’ hand falters. Nia’s ears twitch at the jarring sound, and she glances at him. Something on his face makes her sit up.

“You’re going back to the human world, once you find a way home,” Tobias whispers. He doesn’t like how his voice shakes.

There’s a loaded silence left in the wake of his words. Nia’s mouth opens and closes as she blinks at him with wide, off-guard eyes. Tobias regrets bringing it up. Wishes he’d just kept his mouth shut and not ruined the peace that had fallen over them.

“Hey,” Nia finally says, voice tentative. She puts a paw on his arm until he looks up at her, then continues with a strained smile. “You never know. Maybe we’ll find a way to go back and forth or something! So that way I can come back here and visit, but still live with my family in the human world.”

Something in Tobias’ chest clenches. Because even Nia, ever the optimist, doesn’t sound very hopeful about such an easy answer. And because the selfish part of Tobias doesn’t want Nia to leave, at all. Even temporarily. He wants his partner here, with him.

Is that why she’s pushing to bring Samir on? So he isn’t left a pathetic, lonely mess all on his own when she leaves? Hah. Like he’d stay on a team with just him and Samir. Tobias doesn’t want to be a Seeker at all if Nia isn’t his teammate.

Tobias shoves the ugly thoughts and the grief already boiling under his skin further down. Bottle it up, Tobias. You’ve had enough meltdowns for today.

In the end, all he says is a quiet, much less convincing, “Maybe.”

He dives back into his music, but can’t help thinking that the notes sound colder now, somehow. Sharper. Nia must be able to tell he doesn’t want to talk anymore—or maybe she doesn’t want to talk about it, either—because she sighs but falls silent.

One moment. Two.

Nia scoots closer. Then, she leans heavily against him and plops her head onto his shoulder.

Tobias tenses. “What—“

“Could you just…play some more?” Nia asks, quiet. “Music calms me down.”

Tobias pauses. He has a feeling she actually wants him to play to make himself feel better, but it would probably work. So Tobias grumbles quietly, comforted despite himself by the warm, soft weight leaning against him. He goes back to playing, and readjusts the instrument to accommodate Nia on his shoulder and in his elbow space. She taps her fingers along to the melody, likely as lost in thought as he is.

The moon sinks overhead as the hours pass.

Tobias must fall asleep eventually, because he finds himself back in his family’s cave, beneath the warm tent of his Papa’s wing with Vivi asleep at his side. A melody is still being hummed somewhere nearby, near the front entrance of their home, the voice a bit off-key but familiar enough to be soothing.

This time around, Toby recognizes the old lullaby for what it is, even when the song skips over the parts he doesn’t recall.

Toby shifts, trying to get comfortable. Vivi snuffles in her sleep, pushing her head into the crook of his neck. Normally, Toby would push her away. This time, for some reason, he lets her be. Her soft breaths puff warm and soothing against his skin.

Papa shifts, getting more comfortable in his own nest, and Toby can tell by the quiet way he moves that he’s still awake.

“Papa?” Toby whispers.

Papa stills, then rumbles a quiet, questioning noise that Tobias can feel in his chest.

“Did the clouds go away? Are the stars out yet?” Maybe if they are, Toby can go and sit with Mama until he gets sleepy again.

Papa doesn’t answer, but he does turn to duck his head under his own wing. In the warm, dim light cast by Toby and Vivi’s tails, Papa’s face comes into view. Somehow, it feels like Toby hasn’t seen him in forever, and he’s transfixed by the crystal-clear clarity of his features. Bright green eyes that he passed on to Vivi. Sleek but powerful edges to his jaw and horns. His mouth is curled into a warm, sleepy smile, his lower fangs peeking out.

For some reason, the sight makes Toby’s chest ache. His breath hitches.

“You’re all right,” Papa says, nuzzling him.

“I don’t know why I’m sad,” Toby murmurs, feeling tears well up in his eyes.

“That’s all right. Sometimes we don’t know. It will pass.”

Tobias wakes with a start, throat tight and eyes wet. He blinks rapidly against a cloudy pre-dawn sky and sits up, trying to figure out where he is. The warm weight that was on his shoulder whines as it’s displaced, and Tobias looks down to see a sleepy Nia curl up against the side of the cart with a disgruntled expression.

“Oi! You awake back there? We’re taking you north with us if you don’t get up. Storm’s rolling in.”

Tobias jumps, realizing now that the loud voice must have been what woke him. It takes a moment for him to place where he is and who the voice must belong to, coming from the front of the cart. They’ve stopped moving.

“We’re up,” Tobias calls back, clearing his throat. “Where are we?”

“Near the Lilycap River. The riolu said you needed to get to the swamps around Eastern Metreja. The river is the best way to do that.”

Tobias had completely forgotten that they didn’t even have their specific destination figured out. Great. Well, hopefully someone can help them find Edme, or at least the Hollowberry Inn Nia had connected to the mysterious Pokemon.

Tobias takes a moment to scrub at his face and shake off the dregs of sleep. Then he looks at his partner and sighs. Nia is hard to wake on the best of mornings, let alone after an emotionally draining day and a long night spent awake. But they need to get going now if the tauros’ impatient tone is anything to gauge by.

Tobias shakes the riolu, ignoring her sleepy whines of protest. “C’mon, Nia. We gotta go.”

Nia growls and buries her face against a sack of rice. Tobias rolls his eyes and shakes her harder, until she cracks open her eyes, clearly irritated.

“What?”

“We gotta go. We’re here and the tauros wanna keep moving.”

Nia groans but must know that Tobias will only wake her again if she tries to go back to sleep. Slowly, she drags herself into a sitting position, rubbing at her eyes and yawning big enough to show off sharp teeth. Tobias nudges her until she groans and stumbles to her feet.

Tobias gathers their satchel and the guitar. Then, he drags himself over the side of the cart and to the ground. Nia stumbles down after him, following him to the front of the cart where the two tauros are waiting impatiently, tails lashing.

“Thank you for the ride,” Nia yawns. The normal types look a bit soothed by the thanks.

“D’you know which way to go from here to get to the river?” Tobias asks, squinting into the pre-dawn darkness. He thinks he can see a smaller footpath and hear a low, constant noise in the distance.

The nearest tauros tosses his head over his shoulder. “Quickest way is a mile or so down that path. If you’re lucky, the ferry will be there. They’ve had issues with flooding the past few months—weather going out of whack and all. But if the boat’s running it should be able to take you where you need to go.”

Tobias slumps. He knew traveling on the river likely meant they’d have to board a boat, but as a fire type that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it. Plus, big bodies of water means reflections, which means Giratina. Even with what Nia said about Giratina helping down in the mines, Tobias would rather not test that tentative trust until they get some answers from Edme.

After Nia thanks them again, the tauros pull away, taking their cart down the dirt road. The ground here is tacky and cool, as if it rained recently, and tire tracks are left in their wake. Tobias and Nia watch them go. A quiet roll of thunder sounds in the distance.

Nia takes a deep breath, sniffing at the rain on the breeze and eyeing the sky. Her ears twitch, angled down the path. “I guess we just follow the path and…hope for the best?”

“I can’t believe we have to take a boat of all things,” Tobias grumbles, leading the riolu off the well-worn road and onto a much smaller footpath through the weeds. They’re heading for a forest, though the foliage looks different from the Haven’s even at a distance. Slightly more tropical. It’s still lush and green despite it being fall, and the air is a bit warmer, too, which is nice at least.

Nia gives Tobias an amused look as she starts to wake up. “I guess it makes sense you wouldn’t be a fan of boats. I mean, we can walk if you really want, but…”

“How sure are you that Giratina isn’t going to immediately yank us into the Distortion World when we board the ferry?”

“I’m like…80% sure he won’t. Probably.”

Tobias glares at her. “Only 80%?”

“85%?” Nia offers, grimacing.

Tobias groans. “We’re dead.“

“Hey, look on the bright side! I’ve thought that many, many times since coming to the Pokemon world, and I’m still alive!”

“I am not awake enough for this,” Tobias mutters. Nia snickers, apparently awake enough to tease him.

The path gets even less defined as they travel into the forest, tangled with lush foliage and weeds growing in from either side. A wooden sign sits crookedly in the soft ground, pointing ahead and saying nothing more than “FERRY.” Tobias crinkles his nose as water drips from the leaves above to sting his skin.

“They really have been getting a lot of rain here,” Nia says, stepping around a muddy puddle taking up most of the road.

Tobias pulls his poncho out from their satchel and yanks it over his head. “It must be pretty bad if the river is flooding. Usually there are systems put into place to avoid that in major waterways.”

Nia makes a troubled noise in her throat. Tobias, not eager to misstep, keeps his eyes on his feet. In the puddles they pass, he can see the gray light of dawn against the stark black outline of the treetops overhead, and he nervously eyes the flickering shapes cast by his tail flame for a hint of Giratina. He doesn’t know if it makes him more or less nervous to not see any sign of the titan.

They follow the distant, muffled sound of what Tobias now recognizes as the river. Dawn struggles to lighten the land under a heavy cover of clouds. The ground gets even sloppier and rife with water the closer they get. By time they see the trees clearing out and hear the loud rush of water right ahead, Tobias’ legs are muddied and cold.

Nia stops in her tracks. Her voice is almost drowned out by the dull roar of the river when she says a quiet, simple, “Oh.”

Tobias looks up from his careful steps to see what caused that reaction.

When the tauros mentioned the river flooding, Tobias didn’t realize how much the normal types were underselling it. The river is not just flooded but swollen to a dangerously high level, the muddied brown water stretching wide in a swift, frothy current. It swallows up the bottom halves of trees and Tobias can’t even see the dock and other structures he would expect to find, everything apparently long since swallowed by the current.

Still, a ferry is indeed present, nudged up close to the steep, muddy area serving as the river’s bank and tied to two sturdier-looking trees since there is no longer a dock in sight. The boat is fairly large, with at least two levels to it and a railed-in upper deck open to the air. A large wheel-like structure sits at the back of the boat, dipping deeper into the water every time it sways in the current. The ferry’s chipped white and orange paint is dull and muddied near its hull, but a deep blue AQUA JET is painted on its side in bold letters.

There’s a laid-back flurry of activity surrounding the ship. A croconaw wearing a coral-colored scarf is standing at the edge of the riverbank, pointing downstream and calling out directions. She’s speaking to a Pokemon who is bobbing in the river, somehow managing to stay in one place despite the powerful current. After a moment, Tobias recognizes the Pokemon’s bright orange coloring and sharp facial markings—a floatzel. A moment later, another Pokemon surfaces at his side, her sleek blue feathers bright against the muddy water. A golduck, her eyes sharp as she quietly takes in the croconaw’s words.

A call comes from the upper deck of the boat itself, and Tobias is surprised to look up and find a torkoal peering out from the railing. Tobias follows his gaze towards the trees, where a small quaxly is struggling to untie the ropes keeping the ferry ashore, pulling at the knots with his beak and flapping his little wings wildly.

The crew seems busy but at ease, calmly dealing with the conditions even as thunder rumbles in the distance. The floatzel calls out a cheery affirmative before diving under the river’s rough surface, the golduck following. The croconaw turns and heads to the quaxly’s side to help. It’s the torkoal who spots Tobias and Nia, yelling something to his crewmates.

The croconaw glances over at Tobias and Nia, clearly surprised. She finishes untying the first knot and heads over to them. “Hey! You folks wanting a ride?”

Nia tears her eyes away from where the golduck and floatzel are doing…something near the base of the boat. Clearing away debris? “Oh! Yes, please. You’re the ferry, right?”

The croconaw laughs. “One of ‘em! We’re the only one still running in this mess. Name’s Cordelia. Welcome to the Aqua Jet.”

Tobias eyes the ferry nervously. “You’re the only boat still operating?”

Cordelia grins, showing off her maw of sharp teeth, but the gesture feels more aggressive than friendly. “Someone has to. Even if it’s rare to see anyone wanting a ride nowadays, Pokemon don’t stop needing supplies just because the weather’s throwing a hissy fit.”

“Oh.” Nia looks back at the boat, clearly nervous herself now. “I-Is it, um…safe?”

Cordelia laughs again. “Any captain worth her salt would tell you that boating in a flood is never safe. But with my crew, it’s as safe as you’re going to get on the water right now. So it’s either take the long way and walk, or get on board.”

Tobias glares at Cordelia, already not a fan of the water type. He knows that walking isn’t an option—not only would it take ten times as long, but they’d likely get lost and run out of energy and provisions long before then. Not to mention having to navigate the swampy terrain and find a way to cross the treacherous river.

Nia answers for them. “We’d like a ride, if possible. S-Sorry, we’re just nervous. Not, uh, used to boating. Even in normal conditions.”

Cordelia nods. “Gotcha. Well, we’ve stayed on the water the past few months despite all this mess. We’ve got a pretty good system going. While I can’t guarantee anything 100%, we’ll try our best to get you where you need to go. Where y’all wanting to head anyways?”

Nia glances at Tobias, looking unsure.

Tobias sighs. “We’re looking for a Pokemon named Edme. All we’ve got is that they probably live in close proximity to someplace called the Hollowberry Inn and they’re somewhere in the swamps.”

“Hollowberry?” A new voice pipes up. It’s surprisingly young, and Tobias and Nia look over to see the quaxly waddling up to Cordelia’s side. He can’t be older than 10 or 11. “We go right by Hollowberry!”

Cordelia gives the little water type a proud grin, ruffling the feathers atop his head. “Hey now, little navigator, don’t go taking my job just yet!”

The quaxly preens and puffs up his little chest, flicking back the feathers atop his head.

“Cas is right,” Cordelia says, looking back to Nia and Tobias and planting her hands on her hips. “Don’t know this Edme character, but Hollowberry Inn is in a town just off the riverfront, in Shivergleam. We were heading south towards the sea anyways for our next shipment. Can’t guarantee this Edme ‘mon hasn’t left the area with all the floods, but we can get you there by tomorrow, if Suicune blesses our currents.”

“Fine,” Tobias sighs. “What’s your price?”

Surprisingly, Cordelia doesn’t charge them an arm and a leg, though it’s still a decent chunk of their remaining cash. As Tobias digs out the coins to pay, the floatzel and golduck pull themselves out of the muddy river, the former shaking his pelt free of water. The golduck rolls her eyes, but wordlessly heads over to the trees to continue untying the ropes.

The floatzel comes to their side, smiling amiably. His voice is deeper than Tobias expects as he says, “Do we actually have some customers today, Delia?”

Cordelia snorts and hands their payment to Cas. The quaxly barely manages to hold all the coins in his little wings before scurrying off and boarding the ferry. The torkoal picks himself up from the upper deck and moves out of view, presumably inside the boat to meet the little water type.

“It’s nice to see some fresh faces,” the floatzel continues, voice light. He’s older than Tobias thought at first glance, too—he’d expected the water type to be on the younger side with how easily he moved through the powerful current, but the floatzel’s fur is graying and sagging a bit with age. “I’ve missed talking to folks other than our little crew. I’m Beck.”

The water type holds out a paw, and before Tobias can try to figure out what to do with it, Nia perks up and gives it a shake. She’s clearly thrilled to meet another conversationalist. “Nia! Nice to meet you.”

From there, the little crew finishes unmooring the boat and prepping it for travel downstream. Cordelia goes to help the golduck, so Beck leads Tobias and Nia up the ramp and onto the ferry. It rocks and sways underfoot, making Tobias feel like he got hit by a confuse ray. He immediately hates it. He grabs onto the railing with a white-knuckled grip.

Beck shifts naturally with the motions of the boat, clearly used to it. He gives Tobias a sympathetic smile and says that as long as they’re careful, they’re welcome to stay outside on the upper deck as long as it doesn’t start raining or the ferry doesn’t run into any unexpected trouble.

Tobias doesn’t respond. He’s too busy trying to keep his nauseous stomach from throwing up his last meal.

“And if anything does happen,” Beck says, catching Tobias’ eye. “Nori and I will be keeping an eye out while we clear debris. We’re pretty experienced rescue ‘mon in the water.”

Tobias isn’t sure whether to feel reassured or offended that he was singled out for that statement. He should probably go inside, but he hasn’t worked up the strength in his jelly-like legs to make the five steps to the door.

Beck dives off the side of the boat and disappears into the frothy, muddy current, streaming through the water effortlessly. The golduck, Nori, glides past to the other side of the boat. Cordelia passes by Tobias and Nia to head to the front of the boat, while Cas runs around making sure everything is tied down before departure. The torkoal is nowhere to be seen. Maybe the ‘mon in charge of the steam system?

Finally, the boat starts to move. Tobias clings to the railing and stares down at the river, heart pounding. He isn’t sure if he would even notice Giratina appearing in the broken reflections right now, tense as he is.

Nia comes to his side, lightly holding the railing and looking out excitedly at the forest and water as they start to move. She glances at him, happiness faltering into something sympathetic.

“You wanna head inside?” She asks.

Tobias glares at her. She doesn’t have to use that tone of voice. He isn’t a lost child in a dungeon. He wants to snap at her but he doesn’t think he can without stuttering.

Nia, pathetically, must see right through him. Her mouth twitches with a smile. She wordlessly pries his fingers off the railing, thankfully ignoring the way he grabs her paws in a vice grip, and tugs his stumbling feet after her to the door. He isn’t too proud once inside the cabin to collapse against the first seat he sees, claws digging into the tough material. The rocking is still making Tobias’ stomach turn uncomfortably, but at least in here he can pretend they aren’t floating downstream on a death-trap of a river.

Nia bites back another smile but doesn’t say a word, turning to the open window to watch the trees go by.

#pokemon mystery dungeon #pmd #pokemon #charmander #riolu #pmd seekers of soul #tesha draws #tesha writes

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ifbench · 2 months

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Pokemon Emerald Retrospective, from the perspective of a first-time mainline Pokemon player

To preface this, before playing Emerald, I had very, very scarcely played mainline Pokemon. I played about 40 minutes of Soulsilver back in 2013, and played Legends Arceus and Violet to the credits in 2022, but not much else.

My passion lies with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. I played Rescue Team DX, Explorers of Sky, Gates to Infinity, and Super all in a row back in late 2020, and I've been obsessed with them ever since. You can find my retrospectives on those if you look back on my blog.

So why play mainline?

To put it simply, some of my friends were doing it, and I wanted to do it.

A friend of mine boldly proclaimed that they would play every single mainline Pokemon game without reusing any Pokemon species. I decided to challenge myself to do a less strenuous challenge: play one mainline game for every mainline Pokemon region, but I can't use a guide. If I get stuck, I have to ask my friends for advice.

And so, I started Emerald. Why start with Emerald and not Firered? I don't quite remember. But it's where I started.

My first impressions were...rough.

It was slow, clunky, and a lot of stuff I was accustomed to through PMD, Legends Arceus, and Violet, simply weren't there.

Then I got the running shoes, and stuff began to pick up.

I picked Treecko, and named him Apoyime after my PMD Explorers protagonist. With his help, I was able to defeat Roxanne in one fell swoop, thanks to rock's grass weakness.

I caught two more Pokemon on the way there, a Zigzagoon I named Mavy, after the character from Quenched Torch, written by my best friend Sudmensch, and a Tailow I named Tilio.

With them, I made it through Granite Cave, and managed to do it without Flash! I also caught an Aron and named her Serald.

Brawly was more difficult than Roxanne, but thanks to Tilio, I managed to defeat him too.

Then there was Wattson.

Wattson was brutally difficult. I could often get to his Magneton, but every time I did, my team got curbstomped.

It was here that I started seeing the cracks in Emerald again.

You see, Emerald's EXP Share is extremely easy to miss, and doesn't apply EXP to the whole party. Instead, it just splits it between the Pokemon that participated...and one, single other Pokemon, that has to have the EXP Share as a held item.

I really, really hate grinding in games.

So, I visited the Game Corner, and tried to gamble my way to a Flamethrower TM for Mavy.

Even with using savestates for this specific occasion, though, it was a bust. The roulette tables were far too slow, and the slot machines were rigged.

So, I sighed, and decided to ride back and forth on my bike in front of the daycare in order to make number go up.

After hours of this, I managed to get my team up to a large enough level that I could finally, finally beat Wattson.

I decided to take a break for a few months after that ordeal, and resumed my playthrough in January.

And then, there were the HMs.

Before this, I didn't understand why everyone hates HMs so much. Now, I very much do understand why.

HMs force you to reserve either a party member slot for a Pokemon exclusively dedicated to HMs, or to use up move slots on your Pokemon on these moves that are often completely useless in battle.

I sighed, caught a Poochyena for Rock Smash, and named her Hiova.

I pressed onwards, fighting Team Magma atop Mount Chimney, then fighting Flannery in Lavaridge.

Flannery was also very difficult. I had to grind a bit more in order to defeat her, and at this point my patience was wearing thin. I was considering abandoning the marathon at this point.

Not helping this was the fact that the game was very unclear about where to go next. I thought I had to travel through the Route 111, but it was a dead end with nothing but the Mirage Tower.

I did catch a Trapinch here, though, and named her Raga after the Flygon from Tetra's fic Home is Where the Hoenn Is.

Eventually, a friend informed me that I should head back to Petalburg to face Norman, but that he'd be the biggest difficulty spike yet.

And so, I gave up. I turned on a cheat that gave me infinite rare candies, and leveled up my Pokemon that were lagging behind Apoyime.

And so, I took on Norman. It took two tries, but I managed to win!

I had already taught Strength and Shock Wave to Mavy, and decided to teach him Surf as well, making him the jack of all trades of my team.

Thinking it was the next objective, I explored the Abandoned Ship. It was fun, but I got little out of it.

I then saw Wattson wandering around in Mauville, and decided to talk to him, which granted me access to New Mauville.

Gotta say, it's a lot different in the game than it was in the Adventures manga, but it was still cool and fun, and the music gave me lots of inspiration.

Next up, I made my way to Fortree, and was stumped by the invisible blockade in front of the gym until a friend told me to go further, into Route 120.

After giggling a bit and making a bunch of PMD references from the invisible blockades being Kecleons, with the Devon Scope in hand, I returned to Fortree and took down Winona.

Next was Route 120 proper, which was a surreal experience. I had researched it a bit for my fic In Tandem, but playing through it was something else entirely. It was like childhood wonder.

Mount Pyre was really neat. Same music as New Mauville on the inside, which paired with the graves created a very eerie atmosphere.

But outside, there was a fast-paced track that got me feeling ready to take on both Team Aqua and Team Magma.

Then I made my way to Lilycove, where I decided to try a contest with Apoyime.

I failed miserably, getting last place.

And then Emerald stumped me with the most baffling detour yet.

The Aqua hideout was blocked, the ocean routes were blocked, it seemed like I had nowhere to go.

I wandered around for quite a while, until a friend told me that I had to go back to Mount Chimney of all places, and examine a random rock, now that I had the Magma emblem.

This was probably the point where I was angriest with Emerald. More than Wattson's difficulty spike. More than HMs. More than the lackluster EXP Share. More than having to grind.

But I took a deep breath, and pressed onwards.

The Magma Hideout was nothing special, but it got the plotline rolling! Seeing Groudon become active was so cool to see.

And from there, it was a straightforward trip back to Lilycove to infiltrate the Team Aqua hideout.

The Aqua hideout was some of the most fun I had in the game so far. The maze of warp tiles, combined with the great music, and even being able to find a master ball tucked away past a tricky set of warp panels, it all came together to form something very fun!

Then it was a simple surf to Mossdeep, and I battled the Magma grunts there.

After the battle alongside Steven, though, tragedy struck: Hiova turned into a Bad Egg, and I saved before I noticed.

I have no idea why this happened, but Hiova was gone.

After taking a moment of silence to both calm down and to grieve, I looked up what to do in the case of a bad egg.

I deposited the bad egg into the PC, turned off the infinite rare candy code, and went to Route 120 to fetch a new HM buddy, a Marill.

After that, I went back to Mossdeep, and defeated Tate and Liza.

Next up, I began searching for the Deepsea Cave. It was a difficult search, and I managed to find Sootopolis City first, but eventually, I made it inside, and faced off against the evil teams of Hoenn one last time.

With Groudon and Kyogre both awake and both fighting, and after consulting Wallace, I made my way to Sky Pillar.

And...Rayquaza flew out without me fighting it at all. I was honestly kinda disappointed.

After making my way back to Sootopolis, Rayquaza stopped Kyogre and Groudon's warring in a really cool cutscene, and the main plot of the game was over.

But mainline Pokemon is weird. Unlike PMD, the game doesn't end when the plot ends. Instead, there's still the gym, Elite Four, and champion to go.

And so, I battled Juan, and won.

Next up was Ever Grande City, which, side note, really didn't live up to expectations. I was expecting a city as grand as the name implied, but all it was was a Pokemon Center, Victory Road, and the Pokemon League.

Speaking of Victory Road, it was a nightmare to navigate, especially with no Flash and no guide. It took me quite a while to get through it, but eventually, I made it to the Pokemon League.

It felt so tense going inside. I was about to face a gauntlet of the five toughest trainers in the main game, with no Pokemon Centers in between. This was it, my sea of time in Hoenn.

Sidney was relatively easy, but that relatively is doing a lot of work. He still nearly took down Raga and Serald, but I managed.

Phoebe was tough. Her Banette's Curse took down Raga, and she left most of the rest of my team with low health, but I won. Using a revive on Raga, and restoring everyone's HP, I pressed on.

Glacia was easier, about the same level as Sidney, but still nearly took down Serald, and dealt a hefty blow to Mavy as well. But I won.

I just had two trainers left, and this would be my toughest challenge yet.

Drake was brutal, as much as Wattson was. But I had come a long way since then. I just barely scraped by, with Mavy and Apoyime being the only members of my team not fainted when I took him down.

And then, after healing up my team, it was time for my final challenge.

Wallace was very difficult. Almost all his Pokemon were of higher level than most of mine, with his Milotic matching Apoyime's level. And with the move Recover? That Milotic was very, very difficult to defeat.

But I pulled through. I won. I made it into the Hall of Fame.

I consider that one of my greatest accomplishments I've ever done in a video game, up there with beating Champion's Road from Super Mario 3D World solo.

It was tricky. It was brutal. But I did it.

Maybe I'm just bad at mainline Pokemon, but I'm proud.

Emerald, while not my favorite, was mostly a great experience to play through for the first time.

However, it had its flaws. HMs, lack of directions, and grinding made some parts of it a slog.

Overall, though, I enjoyed it, and it was a fantastic start to my mainline Pokemon marathon.

Hoenn is now one of my favorite Pokemon regions.

#pokemon #retrospective #hoenn #pokemon emerald #pokemon retrospective

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hatchetsfield · 28 days

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name: sydney

height: 4’11 and a half …. aND A HAL—

nickname / s: syd, pidge, beans, scout, roo, miss day, girl abed ( & grace, which is used sarcastically 💀 )

nationality: american

favourite fruit: bananas

favourite season: 🍁🍂🎃✨fall✨🎃🍂🍁 same as what my disabilities love making me do oop—

favourite scents: fresh laundry, campfire, old books, pumpkin+cinnamon , watermelon, toasted marshmallows, pine

favourite animals: PIGEONS, cats (ESP black cats), crows, rats, mourning doves & manatees!

tea, coffee, hot cocoa: hot choccy all the way

average hours of sleep: honestly there is no average it varies WILDY, like 5-11 depending on the day being chronically ill is fun

when my blog was created: beware the ides of march

# of followers: 102

random fact: i am a contralto profundo, meaning i have the same vocal range as a male tenor!!! it’s also one of the rarest voice types in the world!

favourite food: mozzarella sticks

favourite t.v. shows: this doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface but the tops are — the nanny, bob’s burgers, schitt’s creek, cunk on earth, fleabag, wynonna earp, dead to me & hot in cleveland!

favourite movie: scream (i was named after sidney prescott, it can’t not be my favorite movie)

sexuality: i like the wine not the label (aka: pansexual)

pronouns : she / her though i maaay or may not be considering going by she / they / he

favourite book series: once a warrior cats kid always a warrior cats kid 🙃

favourite video game/s: ACNH, nintendogs, FNAF, pokemon brilliant diamond & mystery dungeon, deltarune

favourite subject: i can’t pick just one so theatre, english, history & psychology!

guys or girls: gals (& bears)

last time I cried: like a day or two ago haha oops schwoopsie

what I should be doing: writing, sorting out doc appointments, learning more music theory & working in blender3D and resting

favourite fandoms: i gotta be honest fandoms shiver my timbers

tagged: kels!!! <3

tagging: @honeyedxhearts , @shadowedvales , @wwgcd , @witchwings , @nuks , @aur0ras , @daemondaes & you!!

#🪓 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 🎶 𝒔𝒉𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒌 𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒑 🎶・❥✐ ᵒᵒᶜ.

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rainy-painter · 6 months

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Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Extended Character Sheet (Gen 9)

Pokémon Fans of Tumblr: After a joke gone awry I have spent more than five hours working on extending the PMD roster to be up to current date with Pokémon (gen 9). And to not feel like my time has totally been wasted on a nerdy thing, I present to you my results.

(Keep in mind this is not official at all and just my personal pickings.)

I will put thoughts and other boring stuff under the cut, should you be interested to read about all the thoughts and decisions I made.

We good? Okay, you asked for it! So;

As mentioned before this all started with a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon joke with pointing out a few innocent behaviors and going: "You seem to be the-"

And then it hit me- The nature-to-pokemon roster of PMD hasn't really been updated since Explorers of Sky, which only went up to generation four.

And from there it went down hill:

"Wait! The list doesn't even include all available natures!"

"Okay, so there are 25 natures in all, but the number of starter pokemon alone are 29 so... I guess I'll make up some natures?"

"I need enough natures to also include some classic Pokémon protagonist options such as Pikachu... And oh no, just HOW many options were there from Gen 1?"

"-And there are barely any extra options from the other generations?"

"WHAT THE [Redacted] HAPPENED TO THE ROSTER IN GATES OF INFINITY?!"

For this project I had to lay down a few rules:

The list had to include all starter Pokémon.

Include at least two additional Pokémon from each generation.

Try to balance out Pokemon Types as much as possible, as well as making them decent starter pokemon.

No gender exclusive Pokémon.

Trans males are male and trans females are female.

Added Non-binary option for the quiz.

Extra added things to note:

The list is mostly based off the one from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky.

Missing Natures from the original list are grayed out for convenience.

New natures, added out of necessity, has its own list.

I also have a list of honorable mentions and cut Pokémon.

Note: Pokemon greyed out on the list above is to indicate generation changes.

My thoughts on the cut pokemon:

Obviously there are way too many Pokémon from gen 1 for them all to make it to the list. Pokémon such as Cubone and Phanpy could have made the list more diverse, adding the ground type to the options. Togepi and Sneasel were chosen over Phanpy for their less common Typings. However after cutting Cubone and adding Ralts to the roster it could be argued Phanpy should have been added back instead of Togepi.

What am I? The Officer Jenny? If you feel Phanpy or, hack, any other pokemon fit the roster more than my pickings, feel free to edit or make your own roster! :) /Genuine /Positive

I really like Vulpix, however there were already a lot of fire types. The reason why Charcadet is on the list is because I felt like I didn't have enough options from Gen 9 that I felt would fit as a main character, be strong enough or not too strong for the theorized adventure.

Most Nominee were chosen for being decent base form Pokémon and being dexterous enough for a human turned Pokémon to not feel completely claustrophobic in their body: I figured a bipedal or quadrupedal Pokémon would feel more natural than pokemon like Bronzor or Ekans.

(Looks at Snom) I said most nominees. Snom was chosen for their special typing and cute appearance. However stats and weakness wise I found it hard to defend it.

For my final thoughts on this list:

I doubt by far I'm the first to make an extended list for the PMD franchise, but I haven't seen many lists on this website and I did the work anyway, so why not post it?

You are more than welcome to comment on it or make your own! ^^ I welcome creativity and I would be more than excited to see the thoughts other people would put into a list like this!

A lot of thought has been put into the list, especially nature to Pokémon wise. If it wasn't on the official PMDE list, the Pokémon placements have a 80% chance to have a sort of reference from the anime or in game ability, or just how I could see them. (As well as other obscure trivia. Like how Chikorita is on the Lonely category for being perhaps the least picked starter Pokémon.)

And hey- If you feel like your Pokémon self isn't on the list, then that's completely fine! ^^ The list is more of a guideline than actual rules- Hack it's meant only for fun! And I'm glad you know what Pokémon you'd be!

I didn't include Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Keep Going! Blazing Adventure Squad, Let's Go! Stormy Adventure Squad and Go For It! Light Adventure Squad in my research because it wasn't released outside of Japan (To my knowledge.) It also featured a very specific art style, so I considered them kind of their own spinoff franchise at that point.

No, I'm not going to make a quiz to fit the extended list. c': Anyone wanting to make a quiz based off this list is more than welcome though!

I am currently making lists for specific pronouns such as Necrom (With Ghost/Dark/Poison type or death themed Pokémon) and Fae (Fairy/Normal/Psychic type or fairy themed Pokémon). Unlike the Gender themes these will contain pokémon outside of the normal roster. So in a way I kind of walked back on the "no gender exclusive" rule, but hey it's all in good fun!

I'd love it if you guys have any other pronouns you'd like me to work on! ^^

I also worked on an "it" pronoun with genderless Pokémon, however even when the list included Steel/Rock/Ground types and object Pokémon I had a hard time making it work. I'm open to any suggestions on how to expand the list and still keep it in theme. c':

And lastly: No, I never did get back to my friend about what nature xey'd be. c':

#Pokémon #Pokemon #pokemon mystery dungeon #PMD #Nature Sheet #Pokemon Personality #Personality Sheet #rainy painter #PMD Extended Character Sheet #Please I spent like over five hours on this #A like would be appreciated c':#And a share would be extremely lovely!#That said I don't believe this post will get far with how rare I upload anything.#Oh well.

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miscellaneoussmp · 2 months

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*bounces back* hi hello so! mystery dungeon au. You're my notes document apparently. This is just like. So much angsty hours for the Brazilian mystery dungeon pokemon guys. There was supposed to be fluff in here somewhere but nah. The redeeming feature is that this is multiple years before actual plot happens (well bar the glowy Pac thing, that's still the case), and literally everyone involved is in much better places in their lives now.

Firstly. Shinx glow when stressed? Pac is just constantly glowing. People who don't understand shinx think when he stops glowing he's sick, but then they comment and he gets stressed again. No, no the glowing isn't a normal state of things, it's constant muscle tension from anxiety and trauma he's pretending he doesn't have making excess electricity. If on the occassional times he manages to get peaceful enough sleep to stop glowing (or otherwise gets a break) and you wake him up, Mike will just scratch you to death. He gets less glowy (more lower intensity than less often but hey still progress) when hanging out with Fit, so its allowed. (Mike does not know just how bright - to the point he can't hide it even in the sunshine - Pac gets when he's missing, as he's not there to see it).

The following is um kinda angsty even by above but I've been infodumping it a friend but he's busy now so you get it too! Backstory!!! Fit's the MC but brain not there rn also he doesn't have as much backstory what with amnesia and all.

Bagi is incharge of bounties for collecting criminals (she did used to be a cop in canon), but there's a much lower focus on prison and higher focus on rehabilitation and like. Actually helping. Most people still move into the city where her bosses are and better resources, but sometimes people who were arrested stick around. This is kinda how the Brazilian exploration team happened? After they were arrested and had healed Bagi arranged for Pac, Mike, and Cellbit to join the exploration guild, where they ended up teaming up with Felps. Shared language and also history between them.

Prior to getting arrested! Pac was abandoned as a kid in a dungeon, Mike hatched there without parents, Cellbit was kidnapped as a kid and put in an illegal pokemon fighting ring (please remember the characters are all pokemon, but humans do exist and are talked about) which he escaped. The three were part of the same gang causing minor level trouble in a dungeon, living outside of society (well, societies - most settlements are autonomous and have all their own rules and all). However one really harsh winter the rest of the gang ditched them. Mostly they had stuck to their territory so people just avoided them, but when things got hard and they needed to steal food and resources often violently that's when bounties were put on their heads.

Mike was fine. As a sableye he could eat the rocks. Pac the shinx and Cellbit the cubone though? Not so fine.

Things happen, Pac passes out, probably combo of injury and getting sick and hunger. And Cellbit... Cellbit is really *really* hungry. You don't get just quite how hungry - they were already doing survival theft before this and barely not starving, now they're 2 months into a snowstorm.

And well... You know how canon goes. This is so, so much more desperation and starvation than canon was. But Mike comes back from in on Pac getting a bit chewed on. As the only one who has eaten properly in the last 2 months he manages to get Cellbit off him, and just. Leaves Cellbit dazes on the floor as he decides getting arrested is better than Pac dying (while Bagi and her organisation are on the lets actually try help people build lives side of policing, a lot of towns its really, really not like that at all. And being random teens from a gang? Horror stories of bad places kept them in line). He can stop the blood, but its bad injury. Plus, yk, all the other problems rn.

So he ends up dragging Pac and trying to find a town to hand themselves in.

Meanwhile, Felps is a young adventurer, who has taken out the bounty on Pac, Mike, and Cellbit mostly because Guildmaster Foolish is looking at him like a tasty snack for having not done any jobs recently. Foolish gets to be lazy, the others don't. It's rated as a pretty simple job because, like, the rest of the gang were caught and taken to one of the cities, and three teenagers who have been starving for months. Honestly Bagi posted the bounty herself and with her money because she worked out her brother was involved, but that's besides the point.

Felps ends up finding Pac and Mike at the midpoint of the dungeon, and kinda. That's someone covered in blood. So abandons looking for all three to just teleport them out and to whomever does healing here. Not worked that out yet. Mike is... extremely confused to be just. Left with the healer while Felps teleports off again to get Bagi, and even moreso when Bagi is far more worried about her brother left behind and *eating people* than the two criminals right there. She is also very appreciative that Felps took them to the clinic then came to get her. She doesn't want dead suspects, she wants people to actually get fairly judged and get the help they need as opposed to just throwing them in a cell.

Mostly because she knows some of the crimes her brother has done and wants to believe her brother can still have a life but you know. If she believes there's hope for him, she can believe if about a lot of people.

Unfortunately, Cellbit eating people means she does have to increase the pay and danger level of the bounty, meaning Felps is no longer qualified to finish it. Another team take it, Felps gets to take some time off but does visit those two as curious. And like they stole stuff. They stole a lot of stuff. But also. They're kinda interesting. And they're curious about what he does too. Especially the the guild just gives him a room and pays for all his food yes even with weird diets like Mike has to eat gemstones.

Double unfortunately, the people who pick up Cellbit's bounty... Look. He's horrified at probably killing Pac and Mike (he's killed before, but these two kinda liked him, but he ate Pac and drove Mike out into the snow with what was probably a corpse and was absolutely a corpse in his memory), he's also sick, and starving, and sure he's kinda feral and absolutely resorts to violence first, but if you scruffed him you could probably drag him to town like a naughty puppy.

The team... Do not do that.

They don't even ask for him to surrender before beating him to within an inch of his already tenuous life. And then drag him back to town. And dump him on Bagi's office floor. Rather than, yk, taking the now seriously injured, starving, teenage cubone to the clinic (Bagi is also young, but... it's a small town, she trained apprenticeship style most of her teens, and as the explorer's guild is there if there are problems help is right at hand). Bagi is *not* impressed. Their pay gets docked, and she takes her brother to get help. And wrangles a lot of paperwork to be able to keep him in the village rather than sending him to her superiors in the city who... Have much better resources to help.

But.

Bagi wants her brother, and she's not giving him up.

Recovery from those sorts of injuries is a lot, and also gives all three time to come around to the idea of maybe trying something other than crime. And therapy. Therapy takes some convincing. Honestly having stability in their lives is a lot of a start, though takes a lot of getting used to.

Given time and help getting lives together and all that, the three of them end up at the Guild, because, well, they were interested, and Foolish was willing. And all guild members get bed and board whenever needed (though more senior crews tend to get their own houses with time).

As of Fit showing up they've been with the guild for a few years, and mostly settled in now, and people around town have mostly forgotten the somewhat harrowing nature of them arriving. The scars physically and mentally are still there, but newcomers tend to assume its because exploration work is dangerous, not... yk. Horrific backstory.

They also teamed up with Felps, because he kidna did need a team, and language shared, and Mike liked him and Mike and Cellbit at the time they were teaming were on unstable enough footing Cellbit had to say yes. These days its Cellbit and Felps are besties, though, once Cellbit warmed up to the idea of having friends.

The four of them mostly work in item finding. Pac and Mike were like what do you *mean* we can get paid to legally steal shit from dungeons for people? They get a roof, and food, and no problems with cops, and get to steal shit?! This is like. A dream. And all dungeon explorations involve some fighting, just because of how dungeons go, so Cellbit has somewhere to work out stabby tendencies. They do also do rescue missions (people trapped in dungeons) when needed, but do *not* do bounties on criminals. Its a bit... traumatic for 3/4 of them. Honestly likely 4/4 of them as Felps took one and ended up with some guy a year or two younger than him nearly bleeding to death during the teleport to safety. Just. Different trauma flavours.

Also!!! After searching egg groups, Bagi is a Nidorana (Nidoran both genders matches to Cubone, even if Nidorana can't egg group breed)! It's... Okay yes Cubones do evolve at a higher level than Nidoran, but it is notable she is evolved while Cellbit isn't, despite both being a fair bit into adulthood now. Same with Pac being a Shinx (Felps is mostly just still an Abra as he doesn't see any pressing need to evolve and is just vibing. Some people naturally just chill as their pokemon and this is fine. Someday he'll get around to it, but he doesn't *want* to be bigger and stronger and more able to protect himself and his like Cellbit and Pac). Cellbit did not get the same opportunities as Bagi in life, and so it is taking him longer to get there. Also. Bagi did everything she could to force herself to grow early, to prove her maturity so people would give her what she needed to find her twin.

~Factorial

Factorial, you're really out here writing a novel in my inbox /pos!!

God, they hurt my heart physically in every universe!!!!! There's so much wrong with them. They all need a nap and a hug, I think.

#asks #qsmp #qsmp pac #qsmp mike #qsmp cellbit #qsmp bagi #sorry for not responding to anything in particular factorial </3 #i just- they make my heart so much #factorial's mystery dungeon au

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electrivolt · 1 year

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poke.mon Favourites!

FIRST GAME: yellow, it was my first console as well getting the gameboy color! fun fact i had a pikachu limited edition one that for the life of me i haven’t been able to find anywhere, it had pikachu and pichu on the sides and one of pikachu’s cheeks was overlapping with the on/off light of the gameboy, and it was semi transparent. it was cool as fuck i miss that gameboy :(

FAVOURITE SPINOFF GAME: mystery dungeons and rangers, to be even more exact explorers of sky and shadows of almia/guardian signs. mystery dungeons was my silly childhood dream of getting to play exclusively as a ‘mon and when i first played rangers it blew my mind how different it was and yet how cool it all was, both gameplay, story and the setting itself because getting to be a ranger was one of the coolest things i could think of. i still think a lot about those games they were just so good.

FAVOURITE EVIL TEAM: team galactic, always team galactic, they still seem like one of the best teams to me to this day. they feel like one of the most actually dangerous teams of the games i’ve played that actually shows it, the lake bombing still sticks in my mind with how memorable that was not to mention spear pillar!! great team 10/10 nothing will top it for me

FAVOURITE TEAM LEADER: painfully obvious but cyrus, i could go on a 1 hour yt video essay on why he’s in my humble opinion the best team leader out there. i just think he’s neat and his ideals are smth wild and yummy to explore

FAVOURITE STARTER: rowlet because i love decidueye and ghosts are some of my favorites all around, but like. i could pick one for most gens. i love totodile i love turtwig i love snivy. help.

FAVOURITE BOX LEGENDARY: giratina. that’s my favorite legendary all around it’s never gonna be topped really

FAVOURITE POKEMON: can’t pick just one and go but i can narrow it down to very few ones actually excluding legendaries- luxray for sure, the whole line really but like. i love lux isn’t that obvious. big electric cat my beloved. mimikyu is another BIG one, i love mimikyu to death it’s just a lil guy that wants to be loved just a cute lil ghost that did nothing wrong AND THEN there’s gengar i love that mf it was actually my fave ghost type before mimikyu came along. espeon particularly is also a big fave though i don’t? really know why somehow?? but it’s my favorite eevolution all around. AND hisuian form zoroark i love that bastard ( to volkner’s dismey :) ) it’s such a cool regional variant concept ok-

if i had to mention legendaries ( other than gira ) there’s the obvious zappy bird and i’ll admit the galarian version is also p cool, the dogs are also pretty cool and lugia is one of my big favorites as well. there’s probably a few more but between technicalities of legendary vs mythical and all i can’t just sit here naming everyone

FAVOURITE PROFESSOR: admittedly i don’t really pay too much attention to the professors usually, but i think it’s rowan, i’d like him to be my grandpa

FAVOURITE RIVAL: barry my dear adhd crackhead child. i do remember using to like hugh a whole lot too as a kid when i first played bw2 but i cannot for the life of me remember why. i have to replay those games

FAVOURITE CHAMPION: cynthia! she’s always been great and so memorable, i just can’t help but be attached to her especially as my first “real” elite 4 challenge. steven is pretty close too for being weird

FAVOURITE CHARACTER (if not already covered): for obvious reasons it’s volk here but roark is neat too :) ( also for obvious reasons ). grusha and allister too though i got attached to these weird lil guys and i rlly want to go back to writing them if the mental illness allows me

FAVOURITE STORY: MMMMH WELL. i love the original dppt a whole lot, bw is also something i’m attached to a lot for many reasons, so i’d say those two are tied. i do have to add legends though because that fucked so hard

FAVOURITE MUSIC: i don’t. really pay attention a lot to the music but i guess the gym leader theme in galar is neat. some other stuff like the poke.mas remix kinda count too honestly and i really like some of the stuff in the og gen4

FAVOURITE REGION OVERALL: sinnoh all around. by extention hisui as well, like sinnoh already held a special place for me because it felt so alive and special with that care put into what is its own culture and the dedication to legendaries, and i love to have gotten hisui and to get to see the origins of so much of current sinnoh. unova is also a big favorite nearly as close to sinnoh with how much character it has and i have a lot of good memories of those games

#〔 ooc . 〕 ϟ power off .#// i robbed this from the dash. forgot about it #saw it again and it was half done so i might as wel finish

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girlbob-boypants · 2 years

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Top 5 types of fish, top 5 viddie games uwu

Top 5 fish

1. Corydoras. Literally any kind but especially panda cories like unironically best fish they're babies. Get as many as your tank can fit and watch them snorfle the entire bottom of the tank when food arrives.

2. Betta fish. The colors! The personality! The attitude! The desire to fight their own reflection. (Buy from responsible pet stores instead of chains if you can. Better personality and longer lifespan that way)

3. Ember tetras. So small. So red. Their size means more fish per gallon which means more schooling behavior.

4. Congo tetras. Never had them but the fins are so pretty. I'd love a tank for them someday.

5. Goldfish. Genuinely. They're hardy, they're pretty, they can handle cold water. Only real problem with them is they'll eat sand until it kills them cause fish are not smart.

Top 5 video games

1. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Space/Darkness. Listen if this game wasn't a side game in a big title ment for children, it'd be everyone's favorite. Unironically. But it's still my number 1 because I cry whenever Don't Ever Forget comes on. Also can be played on an emulator to make Nintendo mad.

2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords. Everything people claim the first one is, but better cause no bioware involved! The restored content mod is a must, as is a plan to hunt down and murder Chris Avellone once you see how the Handmaiden is treated.

3. Guild Wars 2. But only through season 4. Icebrood Saga was trash (minus Bound By Blood which was the greatest setup ever) and i don't plan on playing end of dragons so no opinions there. But damn. Good gameplay, good story, customizable character, a decent default personality that doesn't leave you feeling devoid while not being overbearing.

4. There are so many games I wanna put in this spot. I'm gonna take the easy option and put Shadowbringers here. Points off for shunting you into a new universe to save your friends and then immediately forgetting about that to have you tour the city for 2 hours at the behest of your kidnapper. And also Vauthry's design.

5. Okami. Only reason this doesn't get a higher spot is cause it's uhhhh. Early 2000s misogyny jokes kind of blasted me when I played it last. Did Not age well. But the animation and art are gorgeous. To the point where it's still brought up in classes about unique animation to this day. And the game play is phenomenal. Also miss Ammy is a lesbian that's all bye

#girlbob.txt #arcann #hi ares thank u ares love u #'gee sasha can you just give us a list without rambling' no

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a-very-small-bluejay · 1 year

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Four hours is a lot for me 😅😂

That's a sad thing 🥲

I still have my Y and some other for 3DS but my Yellow, Blue, Silver, Crystal, Sapphire, Fire Red and Emerald were stolen. 🥲

I have Violet like your friend 👌😁 But only because I don't look as bad in cold colours than in warm colours 😂 And I picked our lovely duck as starter 🦆

Jirachi would also be the best Pokémon to wish for if I could wish for one 😉

Nawwww 🥺 Such a cute story with the Cyndaquil ❤️

I didn't move once, but some things somehow vanished into thin air in my home 😅

It very much sucks that you had so many games get stolen, I had something similar happen with my collection of movies. I had all the movies up to I think 2012, plus a couple full collections of the anime (I think it was battle dimension and diamond and pearl) and they got stolen way back when. My movie collection is still ever so slowly recovering

Quaxly is adorable, a worthy choice of starter. I liked all the starters for this gen, I feel like they had so much personality which is a lot of fun

Moving around a lot sucked, I'm honestly surprised I didn't lose any games sooner. I have Red, Yellow, Silver, Crystal, Leaf Green, Ruby, Emerald (2 copies), Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heart Gold (but not Soul Silver, the only gen 4 game I'm missing), Black, White 2, Moon, Shield, and Scarlet currently. I also have Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team (somewhere, I think it's packed rn), Explorers of Darkness, Gates to Infinity, and Rescue Team DX. I also have Pokemon Puzzle Challenge and two Pokemon ranger games (the original and Shadows of Almia I believe)

Pokemon has been my special interest as far back as I can remember 😅

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lilylovesundertale · 2 years

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Chapter 17: the finale

Crystal attack first surrounding the monster with Crystal shards*

Dargo: Wubba dubba dub dub

Crystal looked at dargo confused and so did the monster*

Dargo: okay to be fair I have no idea what I said I just heard it somewhere*flies towards the monster and uses dragon ability*

Crystal and dargo got knocked back by a giant fireball*

Crystal force herself to stand back up* I'm not giving up I REFUSE TO GIVE UP I HAVE TO KEEP ON GOING FOR THEM FOR ME FOR EVERYONE*continue to attack with psychic ability*

The god of destruction: that's the best you can do face it you're too late you cannot defeat me now I'm all powerful

Crystal: YOU THINK YOU'RE SPECIAL HUH MY MOM DEFEATED A GOD TOO TWICE DARKO AND NIGHT I CAN DEFEAT YOU I HAVE TO

the god of destruction: my siblings were weak

Crystal: NO THEY WERE NOT THEY'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THEY'RE NOT REACHING THE TOP

*it's showed sunny fighting*

Crystal: EVERYONE'S TRYING THEIR BEST RIGHT NOW!

*it showed leaf and aquo fighting*

Crystal: IF THEY'RE TRYING THEIR HARDEST TO SURVIVE I HAVE TO DO TOO COME AT ME COME AT ME WITH ALL YOU GOT

It showed echo and star fighting*

Crystal: I DON'T CARE IF YOU KILL ME GO AHEAD TRY IT

It showed lily and Nora fighting*

Crystal: I STILL WON'T GIVE UP

*it showed Delto and stitches fighting*

*Crystal attack with all of her might*

Drago:*force himself to stand back up ignoring the fact he lost a wing* hey leave some for me too*attack too

God of destruction: NO STOP I CANNOT LOSE TO MORTALS WHY AM I TAKING DAMAGE

*they kept attacking but for some reason the god couldn't attack back*

God of destruction: WHY CAN'T I ATTACK BACK

*the god of destruction collapse and the tower began collapsing too Crystal began attempting to pick up Aziz to bring him to safety she succeeded and began running down the steps every one else following*

Sunny: well I guess you guys have to go now I'm afraid we have to stay here forever... No I'm just kidding this is not Pokemon mystery dungeon

Crystal: DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!

*leaf began laughing*

Aquo: despite everything it was still us huh

Drago: ya

Leo: big brother I defeated a bunch of monsters I mean Crystal did but I helped

Drago: you know I'll actually miss that kid it's kind of sad how I can't follow them

Star: but we have a little situation... We have to go to the hospital

Zap: wait what

At the hospital*

*drago actually could follow them thanks to Sunny and it's getting a new wing stitched on*

Aquo: why is that demon attempting to break down the door?

Echo is attempting to hold back Nora*

Echo: Nora your demon activity is acting up again

*Nora stared at her angry*

Echo: you need to calm down

Zap: I wonder what it will be

Crystal: how about a female don't we can name her Delta that way you two can match

Delto: ....

Crystal: bro?

A hour later*

Crystal: aww it's so cute

Lily: she got your eyes Nora

Nora: smiling*

Crystal began to pass out because she's tired*

Nora:*catch Crystal before teleporting her to bed*

Thank you for reading this I know many people don't like my au but I don't seem to mind I just like working hard and showing my inspiration

#lily aquado au #my au #psychonauts 2 #lily aquado future #the final chapter #except not really because I'm still planning to keep on going because I still have ideas for this #Rick and Morty reference #undertale reference

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mxdotpng · 2 years

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the only 2 songs to ever to make me feel unending despair are don't ever forget pmd and the song serena plays on her harp

#.text #no weight of the world does NOT make me feel despair i just really really really like the song alright #stand by me used to make me feel fucking awful but after listening to it over 1000 times im fine now #just those 2. just those #i wonder what the connection is #next thing i know dq ends with time travel and a sad goodbye. wouldnt that be fuckin awful #mean to me specifically #sigh. i wanna play explorers of sky again...#but temporal tower.......... 😐#im playing blue rescue team rn anyway #explorers of sky next. and then ill replay pokemon mystery dungeon for the 3ds #and figure out how to play gates to infinity #i want to. hack my 3ds. but its a pokemon themed 3ds so i dont know how the sd card might work...#and i have yet to find any emulators that allow 3ds games for pc...#i got a wii one though. i started playing twilight princess :)#anyway #ive been listening to serenas harp for like 5 hours now. help me #i miss veronica......

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browniefox · 2 years

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Brownie’s thoughts on Pokémon Legends Arceus

Admittedly, this is just what I’ve thought of while waiting for/on a train, but I just recently beat the final boss of the post game content, so I figure nows as good a time as any to give my opinion, if anyone cares. We have The Good, The Bad, and The Pokemon.

The Good

I’ve always enjoyed Pokémon games that break the mold - which is to say, I really enjoyed Mystery Dungeon and Ranger. I know Legends doesn't break the mold in the same way, but it's still a step out of the usual comfort zone of pokemon games, so that was extremely nice! I have to say, I absolutely adore and love just catching pokemon without fighting them. I was kind of worried it'd be a bit boring, but getting to sneak about, toss some oran berries out ther, and then throw your pokeballs, always feels very satisfying when you manage to catch an Alpha without doing any damage to it.

I like that 'bosses' weren't just 'battle the pokemon' - in fact, technically that part wasn't necessarily for quelling the Nobles! I do think that the tabbles themselves could've used a bit of variation, but over all I enjoyed them. I even died a couple times! And a little challenge is always nice :)

I thought all of the characters were a lot of fun, even if I do question some of the design choices (cough*Irida's Clothes*cough). I also found the arguments of 'space vs time' extremely annoying, but this is the good! And I thought the various relationships between the different wardens was good! Each one felt distinctive. I also really liked how many of the wardens were like 'i mean, maybe the frenzies is from Sinnoh :/ isn't more power good?' I wish the plot point was maybe covered in a bit more detail, but the fact it was there at all was a treat!

I thought a lot of the scenery was nice - especially the night sky! It was maye a little repetitive - as was BotW - but it is distinct enough landmarks that you can eventually get a feel for the terrain of an area.

The pokedex is great, I love all the things you need to do to fill it out. I dont' think I've completed a single entry fully yet.

The Bad

They had a reduced number of pokemon in this game - and this isn't the argument you think it is! I have no problem with a good having less pokemon in it! But I do kind of wish that when they have less pokemon, they'd take the time to give the pokemon new models. I know it's probably askign a lot, but like, across the last like five games the pokemon all look the same and it makes me miss sprites all the more.

On to bigger gripes!

The ending of the main tory feels very rushed and weird. I feel like you should've been able to join like one of the clans or the ginkgo guild or something. Like, have more choices, and those choices effecting the game more. I also feel like it swas 99% cutscenes or dialogue, which isn't as fun. And being outcast seems like it should've lasted a bit longer to feel more impactful.

I'm fine with the game not being open world, but the way it tells you you've hit an edge isn't great. More than anything, it's most annoying in the alabaster icelands. I can't say they designed this are last, but it definitely feels like it considering how boring it (and mount coronet tbh) feel compared to the other areas. Alabaster Icelands is particualry aggregious because the out of bounds aren't just the edges of the map, but the top of tall mountains - when you have a pokemon that can climb and one can fly. They couldn't have modeled the top of those? Even if they held nothing? It breaks flow so sharply I hate it.

The tutorial was grueling to endure. You spend hours with Rei telling you what to do and where to go. I feel like the game should've let you explore more in the beginning, and then you could ask Rei if you needed help or something.

The textures on the fields are kind of laxy and the repeating in some cutscenes is so glaringly obvious. Or like, the emblems on clothes are really low resolution? For some reason? Just all pixelated and ugly.

I like how many outfit options there are, and cutomization, but of course I wish there were more. i just like clothes and hair cuts :) (also not really my place, but as far as I'm aware there's only one textured hair design and it's braids? That's probably 'normal' for customization but I noticed it and it kind of bugged me)

The Pokemon

What does that mean? Uh just that I'll say whatever I want about pokemon from the game here lol. I've seen designs for like ancient pokemon that fans drew before this, and seeing what they went with was a bit of a let down. Not to say I don't like them, bt it was kind of ':/ I've seen better'. Like the fan renditions of Hisui Arcanine slapped. Also while Sneasler has grown on me a bit, I do think it could've been better. I also think it's weird how many Unova pokemon there were? Mostly because like, I'm pretty sure in pokemon canon Unova is - like America and Japan - on the other side of the world, so what are these pokemon doing here?

I wish you could walk with them, or some form of like petting them. I do like how much their sizes could vary tho! Some of it is kind of ridiculous - seeing an alpha sneasel, for instance, and you immediately go 'oh okay yeah this isn't real'. Like, even in the fiction of pokemon, I love her but she looks so dumb that big. Alphas as a concept tho are very neat and cool!

To wrap up this section, I guess I'd say that I wish there were more pokemon, but that's no surprise, and I wish there were more variations, but again no surprise, I'm just insatiable.

(also i have this conspiracy theory that there was supposed to be a third wurmple evolution in this game the beauregard wurmple would turn into it)

Final Thoughts

Do I recommend this game? Yeah, I'd say I would, I really enjoyed it, but with the words 'well, pokemon games kind of cut corners' followed right after my recommendation. It's just athing with pokemon for a while now, where their games just feel kind of lacking or incomplete, like they needed another year or two. I'm sure anybody who's played a recent pokemon game gets me. I hope they make another game in this style, and I hope it's not a mainline game, but takes place in the past like this one. I love the untapped potential of exploring the same regions but from a new perspective and different point in history. It adds a lot ot it and I can't wait to see where they go with it.

#browniefox speaks #pokemon #pkmn #pla #pokemon legends arceus #opinion

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teshamerkel · 3 years

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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

Chapter 12 (17 Pages)

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Tension grows between Tobias and Nia as they try to rescue a lost tropius calf from a mystery dungeon.

“H-How about this one?”

Tobias looks over to where Nia is pointing at one of the notes on the mission board. He skims over the mission’s details, snorting. “No way.”

“But it’s close to Afon’s Cap, right?”

“Yeah, but there’s only one mission and it’s not even worth that many points. The rewards suck.”

Nia’s ears pin back, but she only keeps her disappointed expression for a heartbeat. Then her brow furrows and her lip twitches, as if she’s itching to snarl at him. “Fine, you pick then,” she mumbles, stalking a few feet away to rummage through the supplies bag slung over her shoulder.

Really? She's pouting just because he doesn't want to waste their time going all the way to Afon's Cap?

Tobias huffs, snatching a low-level mystery dungeon mission off the board and marching right past the riolu, not bothering to say what he’d chosen. It’s a fairly close location, with a few floors of dungeon-crawling necessary. Tobias needs to beat up some ferals to vent. Nia’s been acting weird for days now, and it’s really starting to tick him off.

Once he reaches the quieter seclusion of the tunnels, Tobias can hear Nia’s soft footsteps following him from a few lengths back. They silently make the journey through the underground and up into the forest itself, trekking through the foliage and deeper into the forest. At one point Nia stops to grab a fallen branch, as she usually does for missions that require combat. He doesn’t know why she insists on fighting with it—she’d be stronger if she just used her moves—but he’s going to bring it up eventually if she doesn’t fix the habit herself. They continue until they reach a wide, open field of tall, yellowed grass. The whole walk takes maybe a half hour or so, really not that far, but Tobias finds that without Nia’s questions and frequent comments it’s weirdly uncomfortable.

He glances back at her. Nia’s looking around, clearly enjoying the sunshine on her fur, holding the branch like a walking staff. However, whenever she notices him watching her, she quickly averts her eyes with an uneasy expression. Tobias feels a jab of anger and curls his hands into fists. Fine. She doesn’t want to talk? That’s just fine by him.

Tobias freezes, anger forgotten, as an increasingly familiar sensation suddenly weighs down on him, tingly and dangerous. This is a dungeon zone. He carefully scans the grass ahead, frowning when he just barely manages to spot an inconspicuous hole in the ground, around his size. An…underground dungeon? Great. That probably means ground types.

Tobias cautiously approaches the pit, pausing at the lip of the tunnel and feeling himself tense when he sees the stone stairs leading down into darkness. It looks pitch black down there. At least he has his tail to light the way, but...

Nia doesn’t comment on the dungeon’s appearance, so Tobias puts on a brave face and ducks into the entrance. Immediately, the terrain changes and flips, Tobias’ stomach along with it. When the ground finally settles, the charmander looks around, wary. Even with his sharp eyes it’s impossible to see their surroundings, save for the halo of light from his tail flame. Thank Entei for that. The walls seem to be solid and rocky, the air cool and damp.

“I-Is it normal for a dungeon to be this dark?” Nia whispers.

Tobias considers not answering, just to be petty, but then sighs and shakes his head. They have a mission to do. “Not usually, but it’s not unheard of for underground dungeons. We should be fine with my flame.”

Nia nods, clearly waiting for him to take the lead, and he does, swinging his tail around and holding it near the tip to light the way like a torch.

“W-What floor is our objective?” Nia whispers.

“Fifth. We have to rescue a lost tropius calf.” Before Nia can ask, he drawls, “Grass and flying type, brown and green. Kind of shaped like Maggie—long neck, four legs.”

There’s a moment of quiet save for their steps and a few distant sounds among the caves, echoes of growls and the clatter of pebbles. Then Nia murmurs, “It must be so scared, especially as a flying type. They hate being underground, right?”

Tobias doesn’t like to think about it, honestly. The Pokémon is just a kid, after all. “Yeah. The quicker we find the calf, the better.”

From there they return to silence as they search for the stairs. Aside from the frequent tripping they do over larger rocks or holes, the dungeon proves to be especially annoying because it’s hard to see the entirety of some of the bigger rooms with their one small light, so they end up having to walk more to be sure they don’t miss a staircase.

Plus there’s the unnerving echoes of the ferals around them, hiding just out of sight in the shadows. Right on cue, something screeches in the darkness, a leathery fluttering following, and the Pokemon swoops at Tobias’ face from the darkness of the ceiling. He dodges, seeing Nia duck under the Pokémon with a yelp. More flapping, and then it dives again. Tobias growls and shoots a cloud of embers at it, rolling away when the thing doesn’t go down even after a nasty burn. A zubat, maybe?

It swoops in again, and Tobias times his leap perfectly, swiping the Pokémon out of the air with a metal claw and flinging it to the ground. Nia hesitates before jumping in, knocking it out with an overhead swing of her branch. Even with the makeshift weapon she looks incredibly uncomfortable with combat, but the hit does its job.

Now that it’s still, Tobias can see that their attacker is actually a swoobat. Psychic type. Great. Nia better not get cornered by one of these things. He should probably warn her, but when he looks up at her she stares back at him without a word, ears flicking nervously and not even asking him what kind of Pokemon it is. He frowns and turns to continue their exploration.

They stumble across an apple and a pecha berry that they gratefully pocket before finally finding the staircase leading deeper underground. The two of them take it, and Tobias can’t help feeling irritated that the lower floors are equally as dark.

A yip and a snarl is their only warning before a fluffy four-legged Pokémon, low to the ground, charges at them. Tobias jumps over it, shooting an ember attack the direction it went and growling when it hits nothing. Even worse, his fire seems weaker than usual. Is it because it’s so damp? Or is it an effect of being underground?

Before he can get an answer, the Pokémon charges them again, managing to slam into Tobias’ side before Nia catches it with a powerful swing of her branch. The Pokémon yelps and rolls into the dirt. Tobias takes his chance and leaps on it, giving it an ember attack to finish it off.

When it’s unconscious, Tobias swings his tail around to get a better look. Furry tan body and floppy ears, and a collar of stones around its neck. A rockruff. Tobias takes a moment to make sure it’s out cold before they move on.

The next two floors are relatively uneventful. More darkness, more annoyingly wet cave air, more attacks from ferals who thankfully aren’t that difficult to defeat. And more frigid silence between the two of them.

Seriously, what is with Nia lately? Tobias almost prefers the previous week’s annoying chatter to this stony silence. She’s clearly upset with him today for rejecting her Afon’s Cap mission (There’s no point! The mission rewards are awful!), but there’s no way he’s apologizing to her for it. At least they’re on the fourth floor and should be out of here soon. Hopefully she’ll be over her mood by tomorrow.

Tobias is broken out of his mulling by a quiet noise ahead of him, and he tenses up, falling into a battle stance.

Silence.

The sound stopped. So what—

The ground under Tobias’ feet bulges and cracks. He throws himself forward to dodge, rolling around in time to see a sandshrew burst out of the ground, claws bared. Nia stumbles back and out of the halo of light with a surprised yelp.

The sandshrew whips around to look at Tobias, eyes narrowing to pained slits. His tail flame must hurt its sensitive vision. Good.

Tobias springs to his feet and sucks in a breath, spewing out an extra hot cloud of embers at the ground type. The sandshrew squeals and immediately digs into the earth, away from the light. For a moment it’s quiet, and Tobias thinks that it’s ran off.

But then the earth once again explodes from underneath his feet, and the sandshrew manages to score its claws up his leg. He sucks in another breath to spit out embers, only for the sandshrew to immediately dive back into the ground, away from the light.

Ambush attacks? That’s unusually clever for a feral. And annoying. A moment later, the sandshrew leaps out at him from the left in a shower of rubble, and Tobias spins to meet it, just a tad too slow. His metal claw deflects most of its slash attack, but it gets in a scratch on his side. Tobias snarls, feeling his anger start to rise as he spins, looking around for the sandshrew. It must’ve vanished into the ground again.

“Come out and fight me!” He yells.

The sandshrew erupts from the dirt behind him, tackling him down to the ground. Before it can do any real damage, Tobias hears the patter of footsteps. The sandshrew squeals as Nia slams into it with a full-body tackle, and the weight leaves his back as the two go rolling. Tobias staggers to his feet and tries to jump in, but as soon as he gets close the sandshrew burrows out of sight again.

“For Moltres’ sake!” He growls, frustrated, wiping away the blood dripping from his nose. Darn thing slammed his face into the ground when it tackled him.

“It seems to be going after you,” Nia says, stepping close to him so they stand almost back to back. “I think the light hurts its eyes.”

“Then it should just leave us alone!” Tobias snarls, loudly, hoping the sandshrew will hear him and understand somehow. They both wait, panting. Just as Tobias thinks that it’s gone, the familiar sound of digging reaches his ears.

Nia swallows, loud in the cavernous space. “M-Maybe we should just run?”

“And risk running into more ferals to deal with alongside this guy? No way.”

“B-But if we can’t see it then how can we—oh!“ Nia cuts herself off, eyes going wide. Before Tobias can question her, she closes her eyes and crouches to press her palms to the dirt, frowning in concentration.

“What’re you—“

“Shh!” Nia waves him off, frowning harder. A second later, she begins to glow blue, ever-so-slightly. The teardrops on her head lift and quiver as she concentrates. The riolu’s ears prick, and she turns her head to the right, and then to the left, eyes closed but clearly searching.

“Oh come on! You’ve had two days of aura training and you need contact for it to work! You aren’t gonna be able to track it like that!”

Nia pauses, distracted from her task, but then goes back to frantically “looking” around with closed eyes. There’s anger in her tone when she snaps, “Would you just let me try? Maybe I can at least get a sense of where it is—“

“You didn’t even know how to access your aura powers! Why should I trust you know how to use them all of a sudden?!”

Nia’s eyes snap open, and she turns on him, throwing her arms out. “Because I’m your partner! At least let me try!”

Before Tobias can reply, the ground between them bulges and crumbles. Tobias stumbles back on instinct, and a heartbeat later the sandshrew erupts from the ground. Tobias trips and falls, almost missing Nia’s pained yelp with how loudly the blood is roaring in his ears.

When he shakes his head and blinks his eyes open, he sees the sandshrew burrowing away again. Nia’s on the ground, curled around herself with her paws pressed against her side--

Oh.

Despite their argument, something in his gut flips as he reads her body language and realizes she must be hurt. Tobias is up and running to her side before he can think about it, skidding to his knees and coercing her to uncurl and lay on her back. He winces at the slick shine of blood on the black of her belly fur. Hopefully it’s not deep, but he’s sure the gash hurts. Nia whimpers between clenched teeth.

Now what? Nia’s down and the sandshrew won’t leave them alone. He can’t risk staying here to fight the sandshrew and Nia passing out completely, but he refuses to use the rescue badges unless things really start looking dire. Can he manage to carry her to the stairs for them to recuperate on the next floor?

Before he can fully decide, he hears the sandshrew digging again. Tobias snarls, stumbling to his feet and moving away from Nia. The last thing he needs right now is her getting attacked again. Sure enough, the sandshrew comes busting out the ground, aiming for Tobias. The charmander ducks under it, barely avoiding its claws.

Then in one quick movement he darts over to Nia, yanks her up to lean heavily on his side, and pulls her along with staggering steps as he takes off in a random direction. Why does she have to be the same size as him? If he could just carry her this would be a lot easier. Nia trips, and Tobias grunts, just barely managing to pull her back to her feet and continue on, praying for a staircase. In the next room a zubat dives at them, and he stumbles around the Pokémon to continue, breathing hard and desperately searching for the—

Stairs! Tobias would shout with joy if he didn’t feel like his lungs were about to explode. Tightening his hold on Nia’s arm, he sprints to the stairs, the two of them nearly diving into the hole and onto the next floor.

When they tumble out onto solid, rocky ground, Tobias takes a moment to catch his breath, staring up at the darkness of the ceiling above. Nia whimpers quietly somewhere off to his side. He struggles to his feet and goes to Nia, rolling her onto her back before digging into the supplies pouch still strapped around her torso. C’mon, c’mon, he knows they packed some...

There! He grabs an Oran berry and lifts it to Nia’s mouth, patting her cheek to get her to open her eyes. “Hey, c’mon. Wake up.”

The riolu’s eyes crack open, glassy with tears.

“Eat this. It’ll help,” he says, tapping into his medical training to try and sound calm and reassuring.

Nia whines again, but then opens her mouth and accepts the berry, slowly chewing it up and swallowing. Her head flops back onto the dirt, but she makes a grateful sound.

Tobias pulls his tail around to peer at the gash on the riolu’s torso. It wasn’t deep, thankfully, just looked worse than it was, but he still combs aside bloody, sticky fur to see the skin beginning to stitch back together all the same. Good, it’s working.

Tobias heaves a relieved sigh. Just because he doesn’t like Nia doesn’t mean he wants her to get seriously hurt or anything. The charmander plops down beside the riolu, trying to stay vigilant as her body heals itself.

Within a few minutes, Nia lifts her head, mumbling, “Ugh...That was fun.” She moves to get up, but winces.

“Take it slow. You lost some blood.”

Nia nods, carefully sitting up. Tobias hands her the second oran berry. At her questioning look, he rolls his eyes. “You need it a lot more than me right now. Just eat it.”

The riolu frowns, but does as told. Almost immediately, some of the tension in her body visibly melts away. As she comes back to herself, she blinks, then looks at him with something like surprise.

“What?” He growls.

“You…You didn’t leave me.”

Tobias bristles, baring his teeth. He’s a jerk, not evil. “What, you wanted me to let you bleed out?”

Nia shakes her head, but doesn’t look properly intimidated by his tone. If anything, she just looks…thoughtful. Ugh. That look means talking.

“Can you walk on your own?” He asks, hoping to deter her. “We’re on the fifth floor, so we should be close to the tropius.”

Nia opens her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a distant sound, loud enough to echo throughout the tunnels. It sounds like a roar, or...a wail? Regardless, it sends chills up Tobias’ spine. He exchanges a nervous glance with Nia.

“W-What was that?” She whispers.

“After that sandshrew, I say we avoid it. Hopefully the tropius does too.”

Nia nods, and the two rise to their feet. Nia sways on her paws, holding out her arms to balance herself. She’s probably unsteady from using her aura powers and going through that rapid healing. When she’s steady, the two quietly creep away in the opposite direction of the roaring sound.

They take their search of the fifth floor slowly, more wary of dangerous Pokemon now that they’ve used up their oran berry stock. The ferals are oddly silent, hiding away in cracks in the cave walls, so while they don’t have to worry about as many fights, that’s only more reason to stay far away from whatever giant creature is making that horrible noise.

Tobias can tell the distant wails are putting Nia on edge too, and they give each room a quick, cursory sweep before moving on. Soon enough, they’ve been through every hall and every cavern they can find, aside from the tunnel leading to the loud howls that they’re avoiding. And yet, no tropius.

“C-Could the calf have moved on? Found the staircase and gone down a floor?” Nia asks. “Surely we didn’t miss it, right?”

“No, it should be a pretty big Pokémon, even as a kid,” Tobias mumbles. He takes a moment to dig through their bag and find one of their badges, clicking it on and checking their current assignment. Nope, still says floor five. “This should be the right place.”

“Oh no,” Nia suddenly says, looking stricken. “W-What if the baby is in that room? With whatever is making that sound?”

“That would be just our luck,” Tobias grumbles, replacing the badge. He glances in the direction of the wailing, shifting uncomfortably. He would really rather not go that way after they used up all their healing items, but...

“If the calf’s in there, th-then we have to help it,” Nia whispers, resolute. Still, when Tobias looks at her, he sees that her paws are shaking.

“Yeah, I know.” He cracks his knuckles and marches ahead. “C’mon, then. Duty calls.”

Nia follows him, and the pair carefully make their way closer and closer to the loud wailing. By time they reach the cavern it’s coming from, ducking just around the corner, it’s almost loud enough to hurt. Judging by Nia’s expression and pinned-back ears, it’s already painful for her sensitive hearing.

“How should we do this?” Nia asks, almost talking at normal volume to be heard. “It’ll see you right away with your tail flame, but...”

“At least we’ll get to see what it is too, and if the tropius is in there with it.”

Nia thinks that information over, then reluctantly nods. “A-Are we just going for it, then?”

“Sounds like it.”

The two of them creep closer, and when Tobias darts into the room, flaring his tail flame to give them more light, he and Nia slide to a stop. Half-hidden in the shadowy light and rearing up in fear at their sudden appearance is the tropius calf. It’s huge, at least five or six times Tobias and Nia’s size, and it releases another panicked wail, scrambling back from the light.

Nia falls into a battle stance, and Tobias says, “Whoa, whoa, wait! That’s the tropius!”

Nia blinks at him, disbelief on her face. “That’s the baby?!”

Before he can answer the tropius cries out again, its roars pitching high and scared. The sound of something slicing through air is their only warning before razor sharp leaves fly by, nicking their skin. Nia yelps and hides behind a rock, and Tobias does the same. The tropius backs itself into a corner and starts frantically flapping its leafy wings. Huge gusts of wind blast by and down the tunnels.

“What do we do now?!” Nia shouts over the noise.

Tobias frowns. They have to get to the tropius somehow, but with it attacking like this... “Knocking it out would be the easiest option, but—"

“What?!” Nia’s voice is shrill. “No! You said it’s a baby! No way am I hurting that poor thing!”

“I said it’s the easiest option, not what we should do! Even I don’t go around smacking babies! Arceus.”

“What are you suggesting, then?”

Tobias stops to think. Even if they can’t hurt it, they still need to get the tropius under control before they can do anything. “We need to pin its wings so we can get close enough to warp it back to the guild.”

Nia shoots him a pained look. “That’ll scare it. Can’t we do something else? Calm it down or something?”

The tropius wails again, and Tobias winces, the terrified noise grating on him, making him itch to act. “You figure out the magic solution, then. I’m gonna get closer.”

“Wait, Tobias—!“

But he’s already gone, darting from rock to rock to avoid the tropius’ gusts of wind. It’s too bad it can easily track him by his tail flame in the darkness; it would be so much easier to sneak closer otherwise.

Tobias dodges another razor leaf attack by throwing himself onto his belly, and then ducks behind a cleft in the wall to avoid a flurry of wind. He waits a few moments, thinking. He doesn’t want to attack the calf, but he’s not sure how he’s going to restrain its powerful neck and wings otherwise. Maybe he could jump on its back, then warp them out right away before it has a chance to get its bearings?

Well. He’ll figure it out at he goes. Tobias sprints out and along the cave wall, lessening the wind resistance. The tropius sees him coming and cries out, blasting a powerful razor leaf at him that he just barely rolls under. He’s so close, just a bit more—

The tropius spins, clumsy in its youth but still incredibly powerful. Its tail swings around, scooping Tobias up and flinging him halfway across the cavern. He hits the ground with a pained, “Oof!” and stays there, trying to catch his breath. This is a disaster.

Just as Tobias lifts his head, looking back to the tropius, Nia’s voice rings out in the cavern. “H-Hey!”

Tobias stares as the riolu steps out from behind the rocks, body glowing ever-so-faintly with aura so the tropius‘ attention is immediately drawn to her. Before it has a chance to blast her with wind, eyes wild in the low light, Nia makes a sound like a sob.

…What?

The riolu starts crying—well, pretending to cry—with all the theatrical subtlety of a boulder to the head. She wails a pitiful sound, curling into a ball on the ground and hiding her face in her knees. She throws in a few pathetic sniffles, too, definitely too overdone to be real. It takes a moment, but Tobias realizes what she’s doing. Nothing throws a kid off more than their tantrum being countered by someone else’s. But no, there’s no way something so dumb and so simple will work, right? This is a mission, not babysitting duty in the nursery!

Yet, despite it all, the tropius has yet to blast the riolu into a wall. Instead, it’s watching Nia with wide, teary eyes, wings still and the raging wind died down into an oppressive silence. The tropius keens, sad and confused, and hesitantly steps forward from its spot in the corner of the room.

Nia continues to cry, throwing in a few literal “boo-hoos” while she’s at it. It’s overdramatic and ridiculous, and the tropius eats it right up, walking closer to Nia. It hesitates a few steps away from her, gaze flicking over to where Tobias is still lying on the ground across the room, before finally reaching Nia’s side. The baby tropius whines, nudging gently at the riolu with its snout.

Nia peeks up at the tropius, a giggle escaping her throat. The tropius coos, suddenly playful, in return. Nia sits up and reaches out a hand to pet feather-light at the tropius’ nose. The grass type rumbles a happy noise, stepping closer before sinking to the ground. Nia continues to stroke soothingly at the calf’s cheeks, murmuring words in a calming, almost motherly tone.

Tobias doesn’t dare get up and freak out the tropius all over again. Instead, he lies on the ground and watches in disbelief as Nia calms the giant Pokémon down from a monstrous frenzy to a rumbling, contented puddle of leaves and brown scales. He can’t believe that worked. He’d be furious that it worked if he wasn’t so shocked.

Another few moments to catch his breath, and then Tobias rises to his feet and carefully steps closer. The tropius slits open an eye at the approaching light, but then decides to ignore him, giving all its attention to Nia’s touch.

“I cannot believe that worked,” He says flatly.

Nia looks at him, quirking a smug smile. “I can have good ideas too, y’know.”

Tobias bristles at the condescending tone. He could’ve just as easily come up with that strategy! She doesn’t have to sound so superior about it. He growls and jams his hand into their bag to pull out their rescue badges. He nearly throws Nia’s when handing it over, and together the two of them call for a pick-up, waiting only a few moments before being teleported away, tropius in tow.

After the millisecond of nausea, Tobias finds himself, Nia, and the baby tropius in one of the psychic assistance offices. The tropius lets out a distressed noise at the sudden change of location, but before Nia can soothe it a voice thick with tears sobs, “Mirri!”

Tobias and Nia jump and step out of the way just in time for a fully-grown tropius, staggeringly huge and shaking the ground with its steps, to barrel towards the baby. The calf cries out in clear delight, and the two tropius reunite, nuzzling against one another.

Something about the loving gesture between what Tobias can only assume is the calf and their parent makes something in his chest clench and his eyes sting. He remembers being nuzzled like that, warm wings surrounding him, the scent of sunbaked stone and a comforting voice—

Tobias draws in a shuddering breath and tears his eyes away, stuffing the memories down. Nia looks like she might cry herself.

After a few more moments, the elder tropius turns to the two of them, tears still in her eyes. “Thank you so so much for finding my baby,” she says, bowing her long, graceful neck. “I’ve given the abra your rewards. May I know your names, before we leave?”

“O-Oh! I’m Nia.”

“Tobias. We’re Team Scarlet.”

The tropius smiles, still overwhelmed with emotion. “Thank you, you two. This is my son Mirri, and my name is Aari. If you ever need anything, please do let us know.”

Tobias and Nia nod and wave their goodbyes to the pair as they turn to leave, the older tropius barely squeezing her wide, leafy wings into the hall.

“They’re really beautiful, when they’re not trying to kill us,” Nia says, gaze lingering on the doorway.

Tobias snorts a quiet laugh. “Most things look better when they’re not trying to kill you.”

The charmander steps up to the desk of the abra in charge of their case, and she in turn hands him a small parcel, nodding her thanks. Nia and Tobias move into the hall, Nia already busy updating their Seeker badges and showing the screen to him when their points rise. Tobias nods, satisfied, and undoes the knot of their parcel. Inside, there’s a couple hundred poke that they’ll have to split with the guild, along with a few sleep seeds, and a medley of five or six berries. Nice haul. Tobias wraps the parcel up again and moves to head to the cafeteria for supper. Nia grabs his arm, stopping him.

“What?” He asks, a little sharply. He just wants some food and a nap, and he’s still tingling with leftover embarrassment for not coming up with Nia’s strategy himself. He wouldn’t have hurt the tropius calf, but the riolu’s plan clearly worked better than whatever he was trying to do. He should’ve thought of it first.

Nia meets his eyes, taking a deep breath and looking unusually determined. “I‘m going to Afon’s Cap tomorrow.”

Tobias blinks at her, surprised, then growls. “What? No you’re not, tomorrow’s not even our day off!”

Nia’s ears flick back, but her expression hardens. “I-I’m going, whether you come with me or not. If you come along we can get supplies or something, but I’m going either way.”

Tobias narrows his eyes, not liking the authoritative tone in her voice. Especially since things have been so tense between them lately. One good plan that wasn’t even really a plan, and she thinks she can boss him around? The only positive of going would be that Nia would finally stop badgering him about it.

…Huh.

This could get her off his back, at least. He would stay behind and let her go on her own, but he knows the sort of scolding he’d get from Maggie for that. It would not be a fun day at the guild. Maybe he just needs to grit his teeth and get it over with so they can move on with their lives.

“Why do you get to make that decision?” He finally asks, still hoping she’ll back down.

There’s a quick flash of anger in her eyes. “I’m part of this team too, a-and I figured out how to complete our mission today. Why shouldn’t I get to make a decision every once in a while?”

Tobias isn’t sure whether to be angry or impressed at the riolu’s sudden show of spine. All he knows is that he’s tired of hearing her whine about Afon’s Cap and stupid Hazel.

“Fine,” he says, still reluctant. “But I get to decide where we eat.”

Nia immediately perks up, beaming at him and clasping her paws together in a complete 180 of emotion. “Really?!”

“Yeah, whatever. Now c’mon, let’s get some food before I change my mind.”

Nia makes an excited little whoop, skipping ahead as they start their walk down the hall. Tobias groans and tells her to slow down, tucking the parcel under his arm and resigning himself to his fate.

At least he’ll get a good meal out of the trip.

#pmd #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon #tropius #charmander #riolu #pmd seekers of soul #tesha draws #tesha writes

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