Written Story Galar Teen Mon Darkest Day

[bhelryss]

or: how fairytales might be real

Hey folks! After I finished up Shield and finished my living dex I was struck with the urge to do a Nuzlocke! I did a pre-trial and got wrecked in the Wild Area and lost right away so I figure that's a good sign of things to come.

Beast for Best Teammate in a Written Run (2021)

Spoiler: Here's the rules I'll be running with

1) If a pokemon faints, it will be considered dead/retired (depending on the case), and will no longer be usable for the remainder of the run.
2) Only 1 pokemon per route, with each distinct area of the Wild Area counting as a "new route"
2B) Overworld pokemon do not count as encounters, so this will alter the pokemon pool I have to choose from
2C) Dupes clause is on
3) Because I'm interested in telling a complete story, if I wipe in a battle and have pokemon in the PC I am allowed to keep playing, but with a total scrap of the pokemon who fainted
3B) If I wipe in a battle and have no pokemon left in the box, I will pick up as Gloria in the same route as where my actual protagonist (Shield) lost the run with a different selection of pokemon due to the dupes clause.
3C) If i wipe again the run is over and I'll make a follow-up with how the story was supposed to go. (my tweaks are not significantly different to the main game, but it's still a good idea i think to wrap things up)

Spoiler: Meet the Cast (updated as folks are introduced)

- Shield, Gloria's twin brother, Hop's best friend and unconfident trainer. Not super excited for the gym challenge, but refuses to be left behind by Gloria and Hop as they chase after Leon's shadow. Likes grass and water type pokemon, thinks being a picture book author would be fun, recently had a collaboration between himself and an aspiring artist peer published in a youth's literary magazine.

- Gloria, Shield's twin sister, Hop's primary rival and aspiring champion. Ecstatic about the gym challenge, and unafraid to push her brother past his usual comfort zone when it comes to pokemon battles. Adores fire and psychic type pokemon, and wants to be the longest reigning and undefeated champion of all history. Pen Pals with Dawn, the youngest Sinnoh champion in recent history.

- Hop, Leon's younger brother, Shield's best friend and unabashed nerd. Spends a lot of time analyzing televised fights (current and historical) and sometimes treats Shield to lectures about the successful strategies of Blue and Red from the heights of their careers and how it compares to Leon and Raihan's. Likes all pokemon types, wants to face Leon as an equal and beat him.

- Sonia Magnolia, grandaughter to Professor Magnolia. Currently employed as the Wedgehurst Lab Supervisor, functioning as head librarian of all the accumulated knowledge there. After her gym challenge (tournament entrant! lost to Raihan) she was sucked into the family business of dynamax research despite her childhood dream of being a Wild Area Ranger. Extremely unhappy with her position in , she has left the lab in pursuit of field research. Favors electric types.

Spoiler: team comps & badge progresses! [spoilers for current update]

Hop: 0 badges, sponsored by Champion Leon
- Corey (wooloo)
- Marcus (sobble)
- Kiran (rookiedee)

Gloria: 0 badges, sponsored by Postwick & Wedgehurst Local Gym Association
- Mincy (scorbunny)
- Biggles (grubbin)

Shield: 0 badges, sponsored by Professor Magnolia
- Charming (grookey)
- [Prince's] Beast (blipbug)
- Hedley Kow (snover)

In Darkest Day, and brightest night,
One Evil has Escaped my Sight,
Let all who wonder --
Poem fragment attributed to Princess Aethelflaed of the royal line, circa 2700 years ago. Historians have speculated for decades, following the fragment’s discovery, about just how much ancient folklore might still be out there to discover about the darkest day.

Spoiler: Prologue

Gloria yells down the hall, “SHIELD, HOP’S HERE.”

Shield drops his head to the pages of his magazine, the pages still smelling fresh, and groans. “‘KAY,” and rolls off the bed to land heavily on his knees. The magazine he leaves behind, though he grimaces at the sound of the fan flipping the pages while his back is turned.

Goodbye, sweet placemark.

Oh well! It’s not like his mom’s old gardening ‘zines are so complex he can’t find his place again. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Shield nervously checks his hair in the mirror by the door. Okay, it’s probably fine to go out like this.

“You look stupid,” Gloria teases, blessedly quietly, and Shield can just see Hop and his wooloo in the mud room.

“Gloria,” Shield hisses, eyes flicking to Hop and back. She subsides with a cackle, and Shield gathers the shreds of his dignity around his elbows and tries not to turn a revealing shade of red when his smile at Hop gets a beaming one in return.

“Not watching the game?”

“It’s recording,” Hop says easily, before pumping his arms in place, smile growing, “we’re going to need to hurry! Leon’s going to be here soon and I want to be there when he shows up!”

“You looooove him,” Gloria sing-songs, from her place on the floor, gently rubbing circles onto the wooloo’s face to its obvious delight. “Don’t you wish we had that kind of relationship, little brother?”

With grace and the long experience of years, Shield ignores her. Hop laughs tho, and throws out a line about meeting at his, and jogs out with all his usual energy.

“I hate you,” Shield says to Gloria, as she makes gestures at him from the floor.

“Language, boy,” their mother calls, “And stop harassing your brother, girl.” A pause, and the sound of a pot hitting the stove. “Go on baby, your friend is waiting, but don’t forget your bag.”

Gloria shoves a series of clothing items into his arms, and watches like a hawk while he packs them with the stern order: “Get those signed, okay? Champion Leon never comes home when I’m available, this is the worst!!”

Suitably emburndened, Shield closes the door behind him and breathes in the air.

 

[Flop disc]

hell yeah I loved this bouncy, cheeky lil prologue! Calling the protag Shield is fun! though it does step around the inherent joy of having characters with the type of healthy self-regard to call their kids Victor and Gloria. anyhow, the vibe between these characters and your writing style are all fun, so I’m excited to see more!

 

[DistortionLocke]

Enjoying this so far! The character dynamics/interactions feel so natural!

 

[bhelryss]

Spoiler: replies!

@ flop disc; thank you!! honestly i totally couldn't remember the boy protag's name, and i just got lucky regarding how that might fit into the story

@ distortionlocke ty! i hate writing dialogue, so i'm glad that things seem pretty smooth

Back when the Weald spread across half the region, there was once a young man who had lived all his life on the outskirts of that great wood. He saw, every day, processions of pokemon bringing gifts balanced upon their heads and backs, and he wondered. What great kingdom laid within the woods to the north? Why had his village escaped the reign of that king? Curious, the young man ventured forth into the woods following a somber train of greedent emburdened with more berries than they could carry. Within he found a kingdom of pokemon, dancing to music played by a few human attendees. Atop a curved trunk sat a majestic creature crowned in green and astride a great beast. That creature’s gaze touched on the young man, and he hastily bent his back in a bow. He was bade to eat and drink, and dance as he would, and when the sun dawned the next day he had realized only too late how long he had been out. When he returned to the edge of the woods, he found that where his village had been laid only a small clearing, and the woods resumed on the other side.
- tale from the area of Postwick

Spoiler: part 2

“Hop,” Shield hisses, one step past the gate and several steps behind Hop. Gloria is still out with some of her mates from school, showing off her scorbunny (she still hasn’t shared the name with him yet, no he’s not curious). This is a bad idea. A very bad idea. They should wait for Lee- champion Leon. He’d know what to do!

Hop turns back a little, and holds out a hand for Shield to take. “Don’t you want to save the wooloo?”

Charming taps out a rhythm on Shield’s shoulders, and with a look to his pokemon, Shield steps forward to take that hand.

“This is such a bad idea,” Shield mutters, while the grookey chitters into his ear, but he follows Hop’s lead anyway. “We should at least go back for Gloria,” he comments to Charming, who pats Shield’s cheek.

“Yeah,” Hop agrees, “but the wooloo needs help, and we’re here!” A pause, as the forest closes behind them and the fog rolls in to swallow up all it can touch. “Lee and Sonia got lost in here once, but aside from some lost hours in the fog, and some weird sounds, and a slight case of poisoning -”

“Poisoning??!!!” Shield hisses, leaning back on his heels to drag the both of them to a stop. “Hop.”

“It was an abandoned weedle, it wasn’t anything weird or dangerous!”

That does not make him feel any better. “Is that supposed to-”

“Yeah, but uh, it didn’t. Um. Didn’t work, did it?” Shield squeezes Hop’s hand, an agreement. “Do you want to go back?”

Opening his mouth to say ‘yes,’ Shield fliches backward at the haunting call that pierces through the muffling fog. “Did you hear that?”

“The wooloo!” Hop yelps and then darts forward, ripping his hand from Shield’s and leaving his friend alone.

“Hop!”

They don’t find the wooloo. They find...something else. Piercing gold eyes, and scruffy fur not unlike a wild meowth, and when it howls at him Shield recognizes his name. It closes the distance, and while Charming tries his best to poke it away with his branch, a single breath from the unphased pokemon sends the little monkey flying into Shield’s knees. Keeping his head upright, Shield stands over an unconscious Hop and his sobbing sobble - please, please just be unconscious - and the creature opens its mouth, full of sharp teeth, to-
The hand on his forehead is small and hot, burning through the clinging nightmare of teeth and being unable to see anything through the fog. “Gloria?”

“There you are, you little shit,” Gloria soothes, and when Shield turns his head he can see Lee - Champion Leon kneeling by Hop, leaning down only to collide forehead first with his little brother when Hop jerks awake. Gloria chuckles at them, but it’s strained. “What were you thinking? There’s pokemon in there stronger than you or Charming. Even you and Charming and Hop and Marcus combined.”

“There was a wooloo? What, what happened to the-”

Gloria gestures to the very grumpy wooloo in a harness, limited to a 6 foot radius around one of the broken gate’s posts. “Oh, okay...that’s good.” A deep inhale, and an exhale. At least he didn’t get poisoned. “Did Lee see the pokemon that got us?”

“What pokemon. Oh god, Mum is going to murder us.” Her hands grip onto the fabric of his sleeves, dragging him a little closer. “You could have died.”

“I um, didn’t though? So it’s fine, right?” Shield turns his head away, and looks at the hedgerow instead of anybody else. “It’s just that, it called me by name.”

“Random strong pokemon in the Weald said your name? Really?” Her scoff is expected, but still smarts. “It said ‘Shield?’” At his hum, Gloria sighs. “Brother, I love you, but it was probably just its cry.”

Hop, later, after his mother has hugged every inch of him to try and make sure that her youngest was totally intact, simply adds to that discussion: “I dunno, it seems like that pokemon just said your name, right?”

Gloria, grouchy at her position as the singular doubter, turns her nose up. “I don’t believe you two!”

Hop fiddles with his rotom phone while Gloria tries to glare him down, and then Shield and Gloria’s phones chirp once about a new message.

bestie: weald pokemon said trans rights
shield: sdklghdsjkfl
sis: UGH

“You’re both horrible and I’m going home.”

“Aw, Gloriaaa,” Hop whines. “You have to help us convince Lee to give us sponsorships to the league challenge this year!!”

She sniffs, and scoops up her scorbunny into her arms. “I already have my sponsorship, and I don’t think you two are careful enough to earn one! The Weald!!!” Turning on her heel, Gloria stomps out.

Spoiler: shield's pokemon team

Charming

; Lax, Somewhat of a Clown

Spoiler: gloria's pokemon team

Mincy

Spoiler: hop's pokemon team

Corey

Marcus

 

[DistortionLocke]

Poor Shield; he didn’t ask for this nonsense.

 

[bhelryss]

Spoiler: replies!

@DistortionLocke he really didn't! poor guy

New species of corsola identified in Stow-on-Side fossil record accompanied by the discovery of new ghost pokemon! Ghost-type corsola astounds literature professors around the nation, validating Professor Tibideaux's theories upon the identity of the pokemon assistants in the fair tale "The Water-Nix," which has been the subject of ridicule for nearly 20 years! Contacted for a statement, Professor Tibideaux had this to say:
- excerpt from Motostoke Today!'s

Spoiler: part 3

“Lee wants strong trainers to take the challenge,” Hop mumbles to himself, as he paces back and forth. Marcus is supervising from a pie tin of water, while Charming tip-taps against the rim. “And we need an endorsement…”

“The Postwick and Wedgehurst Gyms Association already gave out their endorsements for the season,” Shield adds, frowning down at his hands. The scrapes there have been cleaned out, and his mom has hugged him and chastised him, but he still feels cold. Was that really in the Weald? Will he dream about the fog?

“Yeah...I forgot to apply in time...Lee was supposed to spot me though! I didn’t think that he wouldn’t have by now…”

“Mm…I didn’t...apply.” In time...or at all...Honestly Shield just isn’t interested in the gym challenge, or the championship tournament. Being a Trainer is a lot of work, a lot of potential heartbreak, a slim chance of even getting to the tournament, and camping! Ugh, so much camping. Better to stay home and play with Charming, and maybe have a chance at befriending the local wild pokemon. Talk to a rookiedee maybe! Make more friends.

Not get his new friends, not get Charming beat up on. Opening his arms, Shield clicks his tongue and waits for Charming to climb up onto his shoulders. Tickling under his chin gets Shield a coo and a gentle tap to the temple.

“That’s okay, mate, we can both get Lee to endorse us! We just have to prove we’re strong. And we can totally do that! We just need to talk Lee into refereeing, and go all out! And that’ll be done and done.”

With a groan, Hop throws his hands up towards the sky, and tumbles down into the grass. “But he’s so busy. The Gym Association’s got him out for lunch, and then Mum wants him to do,” and he flails his arms up in the air, “whatever she can get while he’s home from the circuit but. Well, but.” He sighs.

“I’ll come up with something, okay? Don’t worry, I’ll…I’ll ask Sonia, maybe.”

Hop sounds very unsure, a little lost maybe, and Shield has no idea how to fix that.

“Do you wanna help me figure out what the Weald pokemon was?” Maybe a distraction will help. “I was thinking about pulling out my dad’s manuscripts and looking for lore about the Weald.”

And, just as Shield hoped, Hop’s face lights up like a holiday tree. “I’m gonna run home and grab my notebook! I took some notes about what we remembered, and I think that’ll help us narrow down some legends for more concrete guesses.”

For a moment, Hop bounces in place, “We found something, mate! Now we just gotta figure out what!!”

With his friend gone for the moment, Shield tiptoes into his mom’s room and begins to root around inside her closet. Pushing clothes around until he can grope in the dark (don’t notice him, don’t notice!) until he can drag out a small, kind of heavy, very dusty filing cabinet. Charming jumps to the ground and chitters an all-clear.

With great care and skill and a little haste, heart beating faster in his chest, Shield drags the filing cabinet into his room and promptly covers it with a wool blanket dragged out of the airing cabinet and balances extra pillows against the side and stacks his own notebooks and private journals on top. There! Mom will never know.

Of course, that’s when Gloria passes by his door on her way to her room, and after a single glance goes, “What the fuck are you hiding, baby brother?”

So, Shield drags the whole set up away from the door and out of direct sight. Now mom will never know. Gloria doesn’t get her answer, but she rolls her eyes and goes about her business anyway.

Ready to crack open the cabinet with or without Hop, Shield leans his phone up against the wall and bids the rotom inside (nicknamed Ree) to bring up drumming videos for Charming to watch. “Three taps if Mom shows up, okay?”

Charming nods, and gently lays his little head on Shield’s knee before devoting his entire attention to the rock band instrumentals. “Cute,” Shield sighs happily.

Left almost alone, eager hands knock aside the pillows and shove up the blanket. Carefully, slowly, Shield eases open the bottommost drawer, and pulls out everything. Papers yellowed with age spill onto the rug, and Shield doesn’t recognize the handwriting that marks up typeset pages.

That should probably feel like a loss, but the man that careful, thin cursive belonged to is nothing but a stranger. Feeling oddly empty, Shield’s fingers trace the lines on the topmost page that reads “Reference Old Motostoke Library, Jeanine Trill’s Tall Books for Comparison.”

Footsteps in the hall, no shouting over the noise from Charming’s videos—!

Scrambling, Shield shoves all the papers back under the blanket, and practically throws himself onto some of the pillows. Casual, act casual. Wait, Ree is - oh man what to do with his hands.

Mind completely blank, Shield plants his palms over his eyes. Nailed it. Twisting a little, peering at the doorway through the curtain of his fingers, Shied tries to hide a full-body wince at the distinctive crinkle of paper. Did not nail it.

“Your mum said we have snacks whenever we’re ready,” Hop announces, while Shield goes limp to the chorus of more paper shifting. Rolling off the blanket and taking the pillows with him, Shield passed one to Hop before scooting the papers back out.

“Maybe later? I’m gonna need your help, my dad had a lot of uh,” Shield flaps a hand over the spread, “well. I dont think this stuff was actually part of a working manuscript. It’s…jumbled.”

Nodding, Hop and Shield work in near quiet, with Charming’s music practice as the only real break from the shuffling of pages and mumbled remarks. Sometimes Hop will jot stuff down in his journal, and Shield will set the inspiring pages off to the side for further scrutiny later. Mostly the stuff that catches Hop’s eyes are the things with clear references to known pokemon that seem to be about the dynamax phenomenon.

Not really what they set out to find, but Hop is excited. Just the sheer endurance of human creative pursuits under their fingers is a little staggering, and it would be so easy to assume it was all just a few decades old if Shield didn’t have a few pages in his hands that seemed to be tables of contents with chapter titles like “Thousand Year Old Tales and Survival Rates.” Maybe a little bit of a manuscript, then.

Eventually though, Shield admits defeat. Hop has his pages of dynamax tales, and Shield has...little choice but to crack open the next drawer if he hopes to find something. Nothing about Weald pokemon, and nothing about strange wolves, just...dynamax stories and an allegorical tale about the Rose of Wyndon and her fall from grace. It would be frustrating, if Shield didn’t already know that proper research can take...ages.

Gloria wouldn’t have had the patience, and Hop probably won’t either. The Weald pokemon is something people haven’t seen in living memory, and even before then. Maybe it’s new, or some rare creature released here from somewhere far away, or maybe it’s here because of the disappearance of the big forests from the south...or maybe it was like a princess, and slept for over a hundred years for a, a prince?

That’s so stupid, of course it’s not that.

“That’s enough sitting!” Hop says suddenly, and Charming squeaks in surprise. “Let’s go outside, okay? We should go train, okay? You and me! Man to man!! A practice battle!! If we get strong enough we can just go back into the Weald!

“No more paper shit! We’ve got to prepare!”

Spoiler: Shield's Team

Charming,

; lax, somewhat of a clown

Spoiler: Gloria's Team

Mincy,

Spoiler: Hop's Team

Corey

Marcus

 

[bhelryss]

Postwick and Wedgehurst Gym Association's endorsements for this season of the gym challenge are posted! This year's entrants:

• Gloria Hest, Postwick
• Seanan Dagger, Wedgehurst
• Penny Urland, Postwick
• Bea Cook, Wedgehurst

Good luck all! Represent us well!!
- Postwick and Wedgehurst Gym Association Press Release

Spoiler: gloria's aside

“You’re throwing the matches, Hop.” It’s such a fun thing, when she gets to call people on their bullshit. Especially Hop, because his eyes go wide, and his mouth opens up like he might deny it, but his “ole good-boy” heart keeps him from lying. She can watch him scramble for a cover, little wheel-cogs spinning, spinning, spinning.

Shield is feeding Charming victory oran slices, proud of his new confidence that is built on lies.

“I can wipe the floor with him, and I still have problems with you.” Gloria crosses her arms the other way, and tilts her head down in an approximation of her mother’s stern disciplinary expression. “You shouldn’t throw your matches, even if they’re just practice.”

Ducking his head to scratch at his neck, Hop dodges her eye contact. “He’s got no confidence, and I don’t want him to quit before we can even get endorsements!” Helplessly, Hop finally meet’s Gloria’s accusatory gaze, and his voice is soft. “I just want us to do this together.”

“You’re hopeless,” she grumbles after a moment. “He’s not going to be happy when he finds out you’re coddling him.” Hop finally looks uneasy, good. “He’s not. You need to think about what you’ve started. And quit praising him when he does something good, while you’re at it. Nobody else is going to, and you’re not his mentor, Hop. You can’t hold his hand forever.”

anyway. so, moving right along! maybe one day i'll write thing in advance, but that day is not today

 

[DistortionLocke]

So we get family lore and some of Gloria’s tough love she’s right and she should say it Nice two chapters!

 

[bhelryss]

Spoiler: replies!

@DistortionLocke yeah!! family lore and gloria, who is glorious great! i have some plans for more family lore later, but i want to maybe spend some time on mom a bit, before i get into more dad stuff

NEARLY FORGOT! THANK YOU @Flop disc for rec'ing me in the hidden gems thread! I am literally so flattered, oh my gosh
----

Construction company Green-Light Gurdurr to halt progress on the new power plant outside Spikemuth next week, much to the dismay of city
leaders. While working on foundations, Foreman Yancy and his crew of diggers discovered shards of human and unidentified pokemon bone in a cache being described as "tomb-like." As the site is being evaluated for historical significance, further construction is being put on indefinite hold. Word from the site suggests that not only are there more graves - or tombs! - dotted around the land designated for development, but remnants of an ancient village or fort! Spikemuth may not see the completion of this power plant for years, if the archaeological value of the finds continues to evolve.
- Motostoke Today!

Spoiler: beast's aside

Humans are easy to understand. They do all their talking with their mouths, sometimes their hands, and not at all in private asides through thoughts. It’s quite frustrating to be unable to reach out through thought though, because humans also have a hard time listening to anything outside of their own narrow dialects. If he’d had the option to speak to the larva and the adults (though the two were somewhat hard to tell apart...unlike most creatures like himself, there were no distinct stages of development to observe, they all looked remarkably alike), he would have taken it within his first season of life.

They speak so clearly, with singing words that can shatter, sink, or fly. It’s unlike the chatter of his clutchmates, and the peers who’ve yet to earn their pupa’s spots, or the flocks of young rookiedee that like to chirp out needling insults while they chase blipbug into the sides of sleeping wooloo. Sometimes he idles near the edges of the grass, waiting for one of the pupa running past to take a shine to his eyes. He would be happy to stay a dottler, giving up his adult form, if it meant he could listen to a human singing it’s words, and be able to respond in kind.

Most human’s don’t notice though. They are as unobservant as their words were beautiful. Most don’t notice, and the ones that do just take care not to step on him. The care is much appreciated, but the disappointment is strong.

Until one of the humans does. Brown hair, bright eyes, and a considering undercurrent to her words as she calls over another. Mirror images of each other, this one with shorter hair and a quieter tone of voice. “What about a blipbug? I have a grubbin, and you should have more than just Charming. You’re the only one of us without a second pokemon.”

“What if it doesn’t want to be my pokemon?”

He moves forward then, the scorbunny-grubbin human tenses up, and he stops at the feet of the grookey human and looks up. I want it...pick me. Take me with you. I will listen to you for the rest of our lives, pick me. Let me hear everything new with you. Help me learn how to speak with you, too.

“I think he’s making himself quite clear,” scorbunny-grubbin human says dryly.

The grookey, Charming, laughs, and climbs up to his human’s shoulders to peer down at him. “I dunno, Shield, he looks goofy.” It probably sounds just like chittering to the grookey human- Shield. Shield. He’ll need to get used to that. Shield smiles at Charming, and down to him. Names are a human thing, to help distinguish between individuals in their colonies because they can’t do it through smell, so he’ll need to remember if he’s going to be a good partner. “No offense, blippy.”

‘None taken, I assure you.’

“Polite, nice.” Shield fumbles a pokeball in their hands, and with clear unease holds it out. “Just don’t be the funny one, okay? That’s my job.” Charming winks, Shield taps the ball against his head, and then reality blinks.

“Hello, Beast,” Shield says shyly, once Beast is sent out from the pokeball. They’re inside now, a house full of books. “I’m looking for a couple books on the upper floors, but i thought you might like to come along?”

The house full of books smells like leppa-scented cleaner and is quiet except for the steps of someone further in and the noises Charming makes when he hits things with his branch. “I’m bored,” he complains loudly, to Shield’s immediate shush. “Dumb quiet places,” Charming mutters, flipping onto his back and sprawling out in a sunbeam slanting through the window.

Spoiler: Shield's Team

Charming

- lax, somewhat of a clown
Princ's Beast "Beast"

- gentle, alert to sounds

Spoiler: Gloria's Team

Mincy

Biggles

Spoiler: Hop's Team

Corey

Marcus

Fairy Tale for Beast: Three Princes and Their Beasts
(the naming scheme is mostly because fairy tales are fun and i love them)

 

[SayleeK]

Awww, bless, Best's perspective is really cute! Now they're all ready to get cracking on their journeys... I really love the wee asides from books and articles before each part. Finding a whole new archaeological site sounds so exciting, but I can imagine halting that development project isn't going to do wonders for Spikemuth...

 

[DistortionLocke]

Aww, Beast finally got his human! I chuckled at Charming’s complaint at the end. I can tell he’s gonna be fun.

 

[bhelryss]

@SayleeK yeah! they're ready and rarin to go, except if you ask shield he's ready and rarin for his friends to go while he doodles around in libraries fkjdf. what a relatable little man

@DistortionLocke i love charmin, he's a rambunctious little dude. gets real pouty about havin to use his "inside voice"

honestly i wasn't expecting to get anybody readin this, since it's sort of just a way for me to ease back into writing, and refind the joy of it since after october of '19 when things started to dry up, and then the pandemic hit and i couldn't find the energy or spark to make things anymore. it's a very rough and unpolished thing i'm doin it off the cuff as i go, and i'm tryin my damndest not to get ground down into the gears of constant picking at it

so, thanks yall, it's really touchin that folks is enjoyin it. it means a lot! i hope that it continues to be enjoyable for us all as thing keep truckin on c:

 

[bhelryss]

Prince Swordward and Prince Shieldbert have made waves lately as they've petitioned to revisit the role of the monarchy in Galar. Spectacular news for the monarchists, who have sent comments in droves pledging support for the last remaining vestiges of the old line. Said petition is of a length of fifty pages, and has the signatures of several celebrities included. I've included some quotes and have a link to the document in the footnotes, for the curious.

Parliament has not made a statement at this time.

- personal blog of Robert Cortez, evening news anchor for channel 10

Spoiler: part 4

The Wedgehurst lab seems to mostly be full of books with vocabulary he...doesn’t really understand. He’d need a dictionary and a couple of hours to even get past the first few pages. Being a writer is different than being a scientist, apparently. Or at least, different from being a scientific writer. “Hop might know what this is,” Shield mutters, tempted to tilt the book back and forth like that might clarify what he’s looking at.

Sonia is nice though, if a little listless. She splits her time between helping him with words and doing work towards the back. If anything, she reminds him a lot of the older teenager who runs one of the night shifts at the market stall in the Center. (He’s gone in for potions even before Charming, running errands for the Gym Association while Gloria squares off with a battle partner with a loaner rookiedee or chewtle.) Just a little bored, hemmed in by the counter - or by the bookshelves? He guesses? - and stuck with lots of empty silence between people coming in.

Charming has gone from sulking in the sunlight to bouncing around the lobby, kept away from anything fragile or sensitive by a stern warning from Sonia and the watchful eye of her yamper. Since Beast is quiet, Shield lets the bug stick to his shoulders while he flits from book to book trying to find...well...anything he might be able to understand.

Eventually, Sonia sighs, and takes the latest book from his hands. “You’re not finding nothing, huh?” She flips a couple pages, and then gives him a pitying look that warms his face with embarrassment. “This is about temperature differences in dynamax forms of regional variant pokemon.”

“Oh…”

“Go home, kid. You’re exhausting to watch.” She twirls her ponytail around one finger, and sighs. “If you’re looking for legends, you can try Gran’s bingo club. Lots of people there bandy about talk of unique pokemon since she’s listening.”

Beast buzzes comfortingly in his ear, and Shield nods with his whole upper body. “Thanks Miss Sonia! I’ll do that.” He should’ve thought about asking his elders before! Hop’s gran knows loads of trivia about Cresselia, and Darkrai, and if you catch her in a good mood, she’ll tell stories of how when she as a little girl, she caught a glimpse of the new moon pokemon during a lunar eclipse. The first sighting of Darkrai outside of Sinnoh’s outer islands in decades. Nobody believed her then, so she keeps the the story close to her chest for the most part.

Maybe he’s done something similar! Though the idea of being an old, wrinkled man is sort of weird. Man, would he look like his grandad? Weird!

Pushing that thought aside Shield shuffles out of the lab, collects his Charming, and goes home to leaf through the second drawer of his dad’s old papers. He’s only got so much time to do his research before Hop inevitably drags him out to the practice yard outside the big house. “Bleh,” he mutters quietly.

Hop wants to make Beast as strong as his name, but Shield’s quite happy with just his blipbug! A quiet companion for when he’s surrounded by papers, instead of a raucous partner who demands to be let outside, to be played with, to be battled with, to be paid attention. Starter pokemon have a lot of fight in them, and that’s great! It really is! But, he’s just...not really equipped to deal with that kinda need.

Maybe he should’ve refused Charming, when Lee offered.

“I...might not be ready to have pokemon, Beast.” Gloria’s been wanting this since they were small and were still dressed the same. Hop’s wanted this since he could crawl. “I don’t...I don’t know.” There’s something comforting though, conveyed through just the tilt of Beast’s little head. “Yeah, I guess...Well, I’ll just have to do my best, huh?”

No going back.

Gloria, when he gets home, is half packed up and dodging their mother’s attempts at helping. “Gloria-girl, do you have enough soap?” Their mom holds two bars of soap in one hand, and a set of towels in the other. “Did you pack your toothbrush? Floss?”

“Mum,” his sister whines, unhappy, as she hastily shoves a set of premier balls she’d won at the Gym Association’s yearly silent auction into her travel bag with her well-loved, discolored stuffed dunsparce. She’d hit him if he said anything about its inclusion, so he instead focuses on slipping past the living room and trying to avoid thinking. She’s leaving soon. The opening ceremony is in a little over a week, and Hop and Gloria want to hike through the Wild Area.

They’re both leaving soon. How is he supposed to deal with that? They want him to go too, but he doesn’t...really want to? If he goes...if he does…

“Ugh! MUM!!!”

From the escalating volume from down the hall, Gloria’s gone from inside-voice protests to you-are-not-listening, pay! more! attention! yelling. Tempted to roll under his bed to hide away from the future fast approaching, Shield sits down on his floor and releases Charming so that both of his pokemon are with him. “We,” Shield says, though the word gets wiggly when he extends it just a little too long, “need to have a talk.”

Beast, bless him, inclines his head and allows himself to be removed from Shield’s shoulder and placed on the floor. Charming, having done a quick lap of the room at his own release, chitters in annoyance and immediately leaps onto Shield’s head. Little fists grab and pull at his hair, and little legs push down on either side of his neck as he very obviously taunts Beast from his new perch, and Shield spends more than a minute trying to dislodge him. “Okay. Okay, no. Look, we, Charming! Ugh!! FINE.”

Charming laughs at him, but settles down a little into hugging the Back of Shield’s neck. His turn, apparently. “Look, we need to talk about the gym challenge. And um, if we’re going to do it.” With a deep breath breath for courage, Shield begins. “You could get hurt. You could die, if I’m...if I’m not good enough. Hop and Gloria are going to go, and they want me to go, but I don’t...I don’t know. There’s eight badges, and a tournament, and sometimes the tourney trainers try to um, intimidate each other out of the running. That gets...

“It could get bad, and we’ll be camping out sometimes too. It could get...it could get bad. We could be comfortable here, if we don’t go. We’d be safe.

“If you both want to try...we can do that. We’ll work with Hop to get Lee to endorse us, and we’ll leave in a couple days with Gloria and Hop to go hike to Motostoke. Only if you both want to go, okay?”

Speech through, Shield takes a deep breath and waits. Charming doesn’t even bother thinking, instead slapping the ground hard with his stick and yelling out in excitement. Beast at least thinks it over. While Charming leaps around with excited energy, the blipbug buzzes gently and seems to ponder. And then, with the same gravity that’s making Shield’s arms heavy with dread, Beast buzzes sharply, and nods. And that’s that, isn’t it?

They’re...they’re going to have to do it. “Okay,” Shield says, mostly to himself. “Okay.” Charming does flips and somersaults, knocking into and ricocheting off of Beast. “Okay. Let’s go find Hop, huh?” Scooping Beast into his arms, Shield follows Charming’s cackling lead out into the sunshine.

Blinking against the light, Shield draws in a stuttering breath, and heads towards the big house.

Spoiler: Shield's Team

Charming

- lax, somewhat of a clown
Princ's Beast "Beast"

- gentle, alert to sounds

Spoiler: Gloria's Team

Mincy

Biggles

Spoiler: Hop's Team

Corey

Marcus

 

[SayleeK]

Extremely minor and petty nitpick but British royalty don’t get numbers until they’re actually crowned, like Prince Charles isn’t Prince Charles III, he’s just Prince Charles, but if he actually outlives his mum and becomes king he’ll be King Charles III then. But also this is a fictional story based on fantasy Pokemon Britain so the rules are whatever you want em to be XD



Oooh, poor Shield’s anxiety is so palpable, poor boy… he just wants to be a softboy surrounded by books, but he’s willing to hit the challenge for his Pokemon, sweetheaaaaaaaaaart Q_Q<3

 

[bhelryss]

@SayleeK ughhhh monarchies have dumb rules! i was mostly goin off family experience down the paternal line, i think we’re up to quinton the 5th with one of my cousins. thanks for that tho! ill fix it a bit to reflect that i learned a new thing

 

[DistortionLocke]

Poor Shield; he just wants to chill. Why won’t anybody let him chill?

 

[Flop disc]

Congratulations @bhelryss on having the Feature Team's Featured Run for October 2021!

(And sorry that I haven't commented lately!! I've been thoroughly enjoying the run and I'm excited for your next chapter, whenever it is ready.)

 

[bhelryss]

Spoiler: reoplies

@DistortionLocke right? let the boy go at his own pace

also @Flop disc oh my gosh?! thank you so much, wow

"While the disappearance of the dragons of Truth and Ideals in Unova has brought up many, many questions about the nature of legends, I want to know: does Reshiram know when you lie? Do Unovans believe that if you break a deal Reshiram will burn you from the inside out? If I were Unovan, I could really do something with that.

They don't know what they're missing out on, those dumbasses. Wait, don't publish that part. Anyway, I just think we don't see enough horror playing on the whole "fire and brimstone" aspect of a legendary dragon. Those damn - again, cut that out - religious revivals loved it, and now they won't even use reality to craft their own horror. It's criminal."

- uncensored conversation between Ariel Lindsome (writer behind hit ghost story series: the rotom in the x) and Janet Jensson (podcast host of Mimikyin Your Home)

Spoiler: hop's aside

“So? How’d we do?” Hop feels brilliant, like his eyes are too big and his smile too big, and his chest too small to contain all of his excitement. “How’d we do, how’d we do, how’d we do!!!!” He squawks a little when Lee grinds his fist gently into his head. “Lee,” he whines. Shield coos to his little bird, grookey not in sight. Hop wants to ask about that, later. “Come on!! I gotta know!”

“You’re ready. Are you gonna go all the way, little bro? You gonna meet me in the finals?”

“You know it!!!” Practically vibrating, Hop turns nearly a full circle in a single jump, grin aching at the edges. “I’ve got to get through Shield and Gloria first, but I’m going to fight you at the last stage, and we’re gonna see who’s the next champion!!” And it’s gonna be me!!!

Lee’s frown cuts a little bit down on that bubbling, frothing feeling though. “Shield isn’t ready.”

Heels planted firmly in the dirt, Hop frowns back. “Of course he is. He won, you saw that.”

It’s uncomfortable, looking up into Lee’s face and seeing his absolutely ungiving face. No secret smile, no amusement in his eyes. “You saw it.” No agreement. No give. “That’s not fair.”

“He’s not ready, Hop.”

“That’s not right,” Hop counters, holding his shoulders stiff and his voice even. Shield can’t hear this. He’d do something terrible, like cry. No, not cry, but he’d be sad. Hop’s put so much into making him believe he could do this!! “That’s not fair, Lee. You can’t do that. He’s grown so much!”

“That’s true, but, Hop. Bud.”

“No.”

“Listen, Hop-”

“No! That’s not fair.”

“Hop! What are you going to do?” Lee whips his hat off, runs a hand through his hair. “Are you going to bury his pokemon for him if he makes an arse of it? If things go bad? Novices make poor choices, and even masters can’t predict what they’ll do; he’s going to get himself into situations that even our leaders can’t mitigate for him.

“Are you going to challenge the gyms for him, to make sure he wins? I saw you throw that match, Hop. I’m proud of you, you’ve learned to put people in front of your own wants, but that’s you. Not him. You’ve proven yourself, all he’s done is take advantage of a layup! I can’t endorse him, it’d be cruel. Don’t ask me to do that.”

“Lee-”
“No. Hop, stop. I said no.” Hop glares into the dirt between their feet. Scrunches his eyes closed as he contemplates the edges of each blade of grass, thinking about how Marcus could turn it to mud. Then he could kick it onto Lee’s stupid, fancy league shoes. “Can’t we,” Leon breathes in a little, “can’t we just be happy for you?”

Hop jerks his face away, rather than look Lee in the eye. Stupid, so stupid.

“Let’s, let’s go let your friend congratulate you, okay? I’m proud of you, Hop. Let’s...let’s go tell Shield-”

“I have to go. Don’t tell Shield anything. I’ll tell him.”

“Hop?”

“I’m going to be late to dinner.” There’s a scream building up at the back of his throat, itching so hard he almost pauses to cough. He coaxes it down with a checklist. He crossed off the exhibition match against Shield, and crosses off half of “get Shield and Me into the challenge.” What can he do.

What can he do.

“Hop?”

This time the smile is bitter, it tastes like “not fair” and like “it’s cruel.” “I have to go.”

And he goes. He goes and goes, and goes. All the way back to Wedgehurst. All the way back to the lab. He steps through the door, almost gasping. “Sonia! Sonia!!” The quiet halls don’t echo, the books lining the walls soaking up his cry. “Sonia!!!”

Her yamper, Yglr? Y something, finds him first. “Sonia! Hey!!”

She leans over the banister of the upstairs, looking down at him with her head a bit tilted to the side. “Hop?” She rests her chin on her crossed arms, like she has all the time in the world. “Let me guess: new pet project? I told you to find your reference material yourself after that-”

“I need a favor.”

She straightens up, and this time she looks him in the eye. “Oh?”

“I’ll trade for it.”

Spoiler: Shield's Team

Charming

- lax, somewhat of a clown
Princ's Beast "Beast"

- gentle, alert to sounds

Eglé

- quiet, quick to flee

Spoiler: Gloria's Team

Mincy

Biggles

Spoiler: Hop's Team

Corey

Marcus

Kiran

egle queen of serpents

 

[SprungGeoduck]

i LIVE for hop and leon content! i feel like there's so many ways you can take both of them, and i really like what you're doing here. keep it up!

 

[SayleeK]

Ahhhh, poor Hop... I get where Leon's coming from but oooft, Hop's just not ready for it >_< What is that boy scheming...?