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itsyourimaginaryworld · 4 years

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Love Sick (Illinois x Reader)

Ship: Illinois x Gender Neutral!Reader Summary: You get sick during an adventure and accidentally spill a little secret. Warnings: minor injury Words: 2,593 Notes: You know that feel when you wanna write a quick drabble and end up with a book? Yeah, that’s what happened here.

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After you'd chased down Illinois upon discovering that there actually was valuable treasure hidden in the rock and the banana, the two of you had been inseperatable.

You didn't just want to keep the treasure for yourself (at least split half) because he did most of the work after all. You'll always remember how he at first thought you were coming back for him because you fell in love with him. You had laughed at that comment before showing him the valuables, and his eyes immediately lit up, meeting and locking with yours.

"Oh, so there is actual treasure hidden here!" he had said. "Well, since you found it... Wanna find some more?"

Ever since then you hadn't left his side much. The two of you collected more treasure until you were both exhausted, and he said something about heading home. Your home was far away and without any transportation, there was no way you'd get there. He invited you to stay with him and for some reason, you got stuck there. With Illinois selling his treasure to buy you everything you needed (mostly clothes, your own bed, and food), it was if you'd almost moved in without asking.

You'd barely known him for a month now, but looking back on it, Illinois was definitely your best friend. You'd learned a lot about him, too. At first he might seem like a cocky bastard who's somehow good at everything. But as you spent more time with him you discovered that he wasn't all that he seemed. He made small human mistakes, made horrible jokes (that you somehow always found yourself laughing to), and generally was just a kind, laid-back guy you could always rely on.

He still held the same nature as when you met though - him being all like "oh, you're so in love with me," and you always shaking your head, laughing "you'd wish!" His confidence sparked onto you sometimes and it was the best.

Now the two of you had found yourself exploring yet another seemingly endless tunnel. You two had already walked for miles, and if either of you were alone making this walk, you'd be miserable by now And to be fair, you were tired. But you kept each other's spirits up.

"Is this tunnel really worth the treasure?" You asked, your voice echoing off of the walls.

"What? You gettin' tired, slowpoke?" Illinois said with a smirk. You quickly shook your head, even though your body was definitely protesting walking any further.

"Now I know that you're in love with me," he stopped to chuckle at his own words. "But you can admit if you're tired, I'm fine with slowing down for you."

"For me? You wish!" You said, mirroring his smile. "I bet you're the one getting tired."

"Oh no, not me, I-" He stopped mid-sentence when you stepped closer to him, reached out, and snagged his hat off his head in just a few seconds.

"Hey!" You backed away so he couldn't grab it back as you put it on your head.

"It's me, the great Illinois," you said, mocking his accent. "World's most handsome adventurer and Conqueror of Evil Boulders."

"I mean, you're not wrong," he admitted with a shrug. "But only I get to be me!" Before you could react he had already snagged his hat back.

The both of you laughed and you continued walking. Not expecting any danger, you froze up as you heard a familair 'click'.

That usually meant 'hey Y/N, you done goofed.'

Illinois quickly leapt forward and grabbed both of your arms, pulling you against his chest while a giant axe swung behind you. Your heart skipped a beat upon realization; one millisecond later and you would've been dead.

"Be careful." His voice was soft and you felt your face grow warm as you looked up into his eyes. His strong arms were still pulling you to him tightly. Despite your near death experience, it felt safe, trusting, and comforting to stand there. "We're still in the woods."

He let go of you and you felt a sting of disappointment when he did. It felt empty around you now...

"Sorry if you liked cuddling with me." He winked at you. "You're just gonna need another excuse for that."

Shit, he noticed.

"No, thanks!" You stepped away but in reality you meant yes please. Did this mean you had feelings for him? Did it matter? He would never like you... he's married to the job!

"You still won't admit it, huh?" he said. "I mean, you do remember that you technically called me handsome just a few moments ago?"

You blushed again, this time with a drop of your stomach, and cursed your stupid body for it.

"Shut up, I'd rather cuddle with this axe." The axe's swing had come to a halt so you could easily sneak past it now, hopefully quickly enough before Illinois could make another comment.

He followed after you. "So, we're met the first trap," he said. "I don't want to say I'm happy with it, but I prefer it over walking endlessly. Not sure if that makes sense..."

"To me it does." You offered him a reassuring smile before looking at the way ahead. "This means we must be getting close!" You got excited and in the spur of the moment, you picked up your pace.

"Wait! Don't go too fast!" His eyes were suddenly filled with concern and he held out his hand, but you were too lost in your energy to notice.

"What's wrong, can't keep up?" You turned around, now walking backwards to meet his gaze.

"I said be careful!"

Click.

A stinging feeling pierced through your shoulder and as you looked to your left, you saw a tiny dart sticking out of it. When you realized what was going on you quickly stumbled away from the trap, panic rushing through your veins faster than the speed of light. Holy shit! Is that poisonous? Am I gonna die?

"Y/N!" Illinois' voice snapped you out of your thoughts and you looked at him with horror. "What did I say?!"

"I'm sorry!" You didn't mean for your voice to sound so panicked. He rushed to your aid. "You were right. I wasn't thinking. I should've- OW!"

"Sorry," he apologized in return, tossing the dart he had just ripped out aside. "If I had warned you, it would have hurt more."

"Was that... it's too late, isn't it?" You felt how you had to fight to hold back the tears. "It's too late. I'm gonna die. This is how it ends. I'm gonna die. I'm actually gonna-"

"You're not gonna die."

He grabbed both of your hands again, which comforted you a little bit, and looked right into your eyes.

"I've seen these traps before. These darts- they're not gonna kill you."

You paused and blinked at him twice. Was he being serious or trying to make you feel better?

"Look, they're designed to make you sick. So sick that you can't move anymore for... at least three days. They assume you're alone, that's why they're hidden so far in the cave. You'll get too sick to move. Then you'll die of dehydration because there's no one to help you."

"What?" You couldn't believe it. So you weren't gonna die?

"Not that I'm ungrateful but.. why don't they make them just kill you outright?"

Illinois shrugged. "I don't know. I don't talk to the builders of these traps on the daily, you know." You could tell he was trying to make you laugh, but sadly you couldn't manage to smile.

"My guess is they just want to have you suffer. To warn you. To punish you."

"I still feel fine, though..."

"We should start heading back, just in case."

You wanted to agree with him, but at the same time... Had the two of you really gotten this far only to get this far?

"Can't we continue?"

Illinois gave you a shocked look. "What?"

"I- I mean, if we turn back now, this all would have been for nothing..."

Illinois huffed. "Wow Y/N, sometimes I think you're even more of an adventurer than me," he said. "And that's not even possible!"

You shrugged with a slight smile, and continued onwards to the next death trapped. But with more caution this time.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Illinois rushed over to you and grabbed your wrist tightly. "That wasn't a yes. Y/N, I'm not joking. We're going back."

Well, so far he had made all of the smart decisions and saved you from death, so you didn't protest. The two of you walked back and you could somehow feel in the atmosphere how the happy spirit between the two of you had dropped now. You felt a headache slowly sinking in.

"I'm sorry for ruining the adventure, by the way..." you said, breaking the silence. Your voice sounded slightly different and your throat felt dry.

"No, it's okay," he said. "We still had fun. And I guess we both should've kept our guards up. The whole point of a trap is that you don't expect it."

"We still fell for it..." You said followed by a cough.

"Just like you fell for me," Illinois said and you actually managed to laugh despite how horrible you'd started to feel by the second. You didn't reply, feeling too weak to start another silly argument with him. You kind of expected he'd take advantage of that, but he stayed quiet when you did.

Time passed and you started to reach your limits. You tried to hide it at first, not wanting to show weakness to Illinois for some reason. But he could tell how your breathing was faster and you lagged behind him. He slowed down, but in the end that would only make this trip last longer.

"You sure you can still do this?" Illinois said, breaking another silence.

"Well... yes," but actually no. "It's not much further. Is it? It can't be...we've been walking for hours."

"It's only been ten minutes. It took us an hour to get to where we were, Y/N." You instantly felt how your body cried out for you to stop. Only ten minutes?! You still had so far to go...

You stopped in your tracks. "Please tell me-", you coughed a few times, "-that you're making a joke."

He stopped, too, and shook his head. "You ain't gonna make it. Listen, I can carry you if you'd like."

"No, I can't let you do that..." It was a long walk. Nevermind how long it would be if you had to carry a person.

"Don't worry about me, sweetheart." You would have butterflies in your stomach if it wasn't replaced by the sick feel of nausea. And dizzyness. And how blurry the world was suddenly becoming.

Next thing you knew his arms were around you, once again feeling warm and protective. He looked at you and grinned. "Wow, guess you finally found that excuse to cuddle me."

You smiled back in a daze. "Yeah, 'cause I love ya dork."

Not realizing what you'd just said, you were taken away by the fading darkness.

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You couldn't keep track of time or anything else for the following three days. At first everything had been blurry and you didn't do much but sleep and drink water. Everything else you tried was just asking for misery. Illinois tried to get you to eat but even soup tasted like nothing and despair. (But mostly nothing.)

The second day you still felt far away, your voice broken, but at least you could move your muscles now and stay awake. You didn't talk much but when you did, you cracked jokes (along with your voice), just to make Illinois laugh.

The third day you felt better, but still wanted to sleep the rest of the symptoms off. Illinois woke you up randomly, pressing a cup into your hands and telling you to drink it. You thought it was water, but when you tasted it you immediately spit it out.

"No, drink it," Illinois said. "I've been doing research. It's supposed to cure you."

So you did and went back to sleep.

When you woke up again you felt a lot better. Still not one-hundred percent, but you could actually stand up without feeling miserable all over now. Illinois was nowhere to be found, so you just jumped into the shower and got all the sweat off. You put on fresh clothes and took a glass of water, then went to sit on the porch outside the house.

It was a small wooden hut in a forest-like area, but still connected to a road. Illinois had a pick-up truck to take him to the city mostly for selling artefacts (although, only when he really needed the money. It was his only source of income but he was a big collector). You leaned against the wall with your back, folding your legs under you and took a sip before putting down the cup. The sun was rising, painting the sky orange and light blue. You breathed in the fresh air as you finally felt alive again.

Your thoughts wandered to Illinois. He had he laughed with you, saved your life, dragged you out of the cave and taken care of you. You knew you loved him and weren't going to deny it to yourself any longer. He was the best person you'd ever met and you were glad to have him in your life. You never could've imagined that he would go through all of that for you.

But he did. Maybe the bond you two had was stronger than you thought.

Although... you did feel kind of guilty. He did all of those things for you, and what had you done for him so far? Not much but screw up this adventure and cost him three days off of his job....

That realization hit you right in the chest. What if he was going to leave you now because you were too much of a burden?

"Hey!"

You flinched, startled at the sudden sound. Illinois was suddenly sitting next to you.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya," he said playfully but softly.

"That's fine..." You said, smiling.

"So, on a scale of one to me, how amazing do you feel?" You laughed and he joined in.

"I feel alive. Finally," you said. "Could still be a bit better but good thing Hell is over."

He smiled, then took off his hat and put it on your head. "There. Now you feel as amazing as me."

You laughed again. "I guess so."

"Speaking of me," he couldn't hide his grin. "I kind of remember you saying that you loved me...?"

You froze in place and your stomach dropped. You looked away. "I don't remem..."

"Yeah 'cause I love ya, dork."

Oh, fuck.

"See? It's impossible not to fall for me," he winked. You still stayed quiet, avoiding eye contact. You didn't know what to say or do anymore. Lying wasn't an option, besides, he could probably see right through you anyway...

"Hey, don't forget," he softly grabbed your cheek with his hand and made you look him in the eyes. "You owe me something."

Before you could do anything else he placed his lips on yours. Feeling him so close was amazing and your stomach was filled with butterflies. Your whole body had that funny, rushy feeling they call love.

When he pulled away, both of you couldn't stop smiling at the other person.

"I love you, Y/N."

#illinois x reader #ahwm #a heist with markiplier #markiplier #illinois #illinois ahwm #illinois x y/n #y/n x illinois

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darkpetal16 · 5 years

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Apologies if these are out of order! For the Anon with 5+ questions about Bleach!Lilly.

Anon your excitement really put a smile on my face and some of your ideas were pretty funny so I wanted to share.

To show my gratitude for your excitement, here’s some pieces of the Bleach story I am still working on:

Lilly’s zanpakuto:

I placed the sword in the white sand and took a seat in front of it. It was a black blade--it had darkened to this morbid color the moment I touched it--and it gleamed with an almost malicious aura.

This almost made me want to pout because I liked to think of myself as someone who was not morbid or malicious. Most of the lives I lived I was a relatively good guy!

Run the genocide route just a few times and you’re marked for life, I thought ruefully, shaking my head.

What else was there to do when cursed with immortality, though? It was bound to happen, I wasn’t that self-disciplined. I thought, perhaps, if I played the role of the villain that maybe my punishment--my karma--would be permanent death.

Nope.

The sinister looking sword remained stock still--not like I expected it to move, really--while I continued to give it a stink eye for its appearance.

I better not have an evil spirit inside, I thought. I’m a happy, bubbly, hero! Not a damn villain.

Only one way to find out, though.

I reached forward with my spiritual energy and forced my consciousness inside the spiritual energy that resided inside the sword.

“This is a really morbid mindscape,” I observed with narrowed eyes, walking through the black gunk. “Ugh… don’t give me villainous powers, please.”

Then red eyes gleamed beneath the sea of black, and a wicked smile stretched underneath it.

“Damn it,” I cursed, now realizing I did indeed have the evil sword.

Lilly requesting new minions.

“You’ll be happy to know I’ve picked out a new lieutenant,” I chirped, folding my hands together behind me.

Genryūsai looked up from his caligraphy, dark eyes assessing me. “It’s good to know a hundred years of nagging pays off.”

“I told you I was waiting,” I dismissively returned, taking a seat across from his floor table. “He won’t be with me for very long, though.”

“Hm?” Genryūsai’s attention returned to whatever he was writing. As always, my oldest student was pristine and meticulous in everything he did. His back was kept perfectly straight, and his captain sleeves were tied up to prevent them from dipping into the traditional ink slabs on his desk. He only ever sat on seat cushions—he hated chairs with backs, as he believed they were handicaps for those who couldn’t maintain a proper posture.

I pouted at this blatant show of disinterest. I knew I still had his attention—he’s been hounding on me to get more people in my squad for over a century since the last of my members switched to different divisions.

Not everyone had the stomach to work with me, apparently. Although Mayuri only left because he wanted to focus more on research, and not at all because I bothered him.

What a fun fella..

Genryūsai knew me better than most, though, and he knew the best way to get under my skin was to not give me the attention and reactions I so craved.

Cheeky trolling bastard.

I was so proud of him.

Some kind of showing of interest would be nice, I thought, reluctantly handing Genryūsai the file of my future lieutenant, and squad members.

Genryūsai silently accepted the folder, setting it in his lap as he opened it and began to peruse through my choices.

I finally got my anticlimactic reaction when he quirked an eyebrow at my choice of lieutenant. “Sōsuke Aizen? He graduates next month, but his grades aren’t particularly impressive.”

“I want him as my lieutenant,” I stubborn said. “He’s going to become the fifth division captain.”

“You’re third division,” Genryūsai idly pointed out. “You have no say over who rules over fifth division.”

“Shinji has been keeping an eye on Sōsuke for a while,” I said. “Shinji will try to take Sōsuke soon enough.”

Although Shinji’s watching Sōsuke because his instincts are tellin’ him that Sōsuke’s ba-a-ad news. He’s not wrong, but I’d be damned if I let this chance pass up.

Sōsuke Aizen was inevitably going to become a captain. Shinji’s division was the most likely one out of the bunch, since Shinji wants to keep an eye on Sōsuke and by consequences, he’ll get caught by Sōsuke’s trap.

Which sounded like a hell of a lot of fun.

For over a thousand years I was waiting for Sōsuke to hurry up and appear!

He tricks and outplays everyone, catching everyone by surprise.

For an old troll like myself I live for shocking people, and getting shocked. Sadly, very few have been able to get the drop on me since coming to Soul Society, though.

With Sōsuke as my lieutenant, though, I had a good chance of falling for one of his traps!

Super~!

“Not very nice of you to swoop in, then,” Genryūsai mused. “Certainly unorthodox to choose a lieutenant as a student instead of someone with proper experience.”

“I’m unorthodox.”

“Very true,” he agreed. “And these members of your squad… Gin Ichimaru, Kaname Tōsen, and Sajin Komamura. Komamura? Ah, are you taking him under your wing, then?”

Sajin Komamura was our resident werewolf. Genryūsai took a special interest in him when the two first met, and offered to sponsor him into the academy. Sajin, humbled and grateful for the opportunity, accepted it.

Unfortunately, the poor baby felt so horribly self conscious about his wolf-like appearance. He refused to go anywhere in public without wearing gloves, a helmet, and every inch of his fur covered.

Which was such a shame! He was our resident furry, after all, and with all that fur he easily ranked top three as Best Cuddler, and top five for Best Boi.

Poor pupp—er—poor fella.

Gin and Kaname were obvious choices. Sōsuke was already working hard at trying to recruit Kaname to his side, undoubtedly, and Gin wanted to stay close to Sōsuke to extract his Ultimate Revenge on Sōsuke for attacking his waifu, Rangiku.

Who unfortunately wasn’t graduating, yet, but I already put her in the file as wanting her the moment she did graduate.

Genryūsai hummed and tapped his fingers, needlessly drawing out verbalizing his decision to try and needle me.

To combat this obvious attempt to annoy me, I started to whistle.

Off-key.

“Fine,” Genryūsai immediately cut in. He knew if the whistling didn’t work I’d start belting out renditions of I Like Big Butts.

Quick as can be, he stamped his approval and I took my leave after blowing him a kiss.

Lilly monologuing and reflecting before meeting her minions.

The barracks for the fifth division was one of the prettiest, and most feminine.

This was because I literally made it with my own two hands and decided to practice my woodworking skills.

Hey, I had thousands of years to kill before the story finally rolled around. Picking up odd hobies were a necesssity to keep myself from starting wars out of sheer fucking boredom.

Unsurprisingly after a while I used my skills on my division barracks.

Every single post and wooden wall had some kind of woodworking design hammered into it. Most of it was flowers, or feminine-esque designs because it was so not want Genryūsai would want one of his bad ass military divisions to look like.

To this day, over a thousand years since I made the change, Genryūsai would still wrinkle his brow as he glared at the flowers every time he had to visit the barracks.

He even had the audacity to swap out all my pretty artwork for standard, uncultured, plain ol’ wood when I went out on a mission.

In retaliation, I gave the first division a fabulous hot-pink make over.

What followed next over the next century could only be described as an incredibly petty war between student and teacher.

It was hard to claim that I won just because I got my flowery barracks because my cunning student got me to promise not to decorate the other barracks without their captain’s permission.

So many wasted opportunities to make people misery went out the window because of that.

But I got my pretty barracks.

And inside my pretty barracks I eagerly awaited my new minions.

The barracks had a main greeting room where meetings were intended to be held. It was a decently sized room fashioned like a traditional japanese main room. The floorings were made up of tatami mats, the doors were shoji (room dividers). On its walls hung artwork I had collected over my many, many years in the Soul Society. Some painted by myself, others by friends. A few were prizes I had stolen off the corpses of our enemies, and a couple were actually bought legally. All of them centered around tranquil environments—snowy mountains with a red sunset behind them, a stormy ocean, a field of flowers, and so forth.

At the center of the room was a long rowan wood table—all the wood in the barracks were cut and carved from rowan trees—and some soft seat cushions. One seat cushion was placed on one side, and there were four opposite of it.

I prepared some ikebana, and a lovely tea party to greet my new squad members. The red tea was kindly provided by Unohana when she went out to forage for medicinal herbs, and I baked a rich chocolate pound cake, alongside orange scones, and lavender cookies.

As I took my seat at one side of the table, I hummed a merry little song to myself.

Soon, they would arrive.

While waiting for them to arrive I did another check over of myself. My captain’s jacket was kept neat—Genryūsai would throw such a temper tantrum (and not the funny kind) if it was anything less. I kept the sleeves cut off for better maneuverability, though. My pink hair was long, shiny, and well-groomed.

Not a speck of dirty was to be found on me, nor anything to give me a less than completely awesome first impression. Even my Evil™ sword looked spick and span in its black tabard.

Although it still gave off a rather malicious aura if someone looked at it long enough. Even though I tied a cute little pink ribbon around it and everything!

Stupid Evil™ sword.

Ah.

I felt their presence the moment they entered the barracks. One of them, likely Sajin, felt distinctly unsettled and nervous.

It didn’t come as any bit of surprise that Sōsuke took the lead in entering first, uttering a polite, “Excuse me.”

The shogi doors slid open and I finally got my first good look at the future captains.

Sōsuke Aizen, currently only in his fifties had the appearance of a young man in his early twenties. His scholarly chestnut brown hair was carefully styled to give the impression of soft and innocent. He had a pair of thick black rimmed glasses that helped convey the same tone. Even his expression went on to underline this!

What a smoother fucker. Honestly impressed. If I didn’t know better, I would have immediately categorized him in the moe-bishie section.

This only heightened my excitement at being tricked by him later on. What surprise would he have in store with my addition to the story? The fact that I couldn’t accurately predict what would come with his interference put a big smile in my heart.

It was that same feeling you get when you watch a fantastic movie and it reveals a plot twist you never expected, but made it all the better.

Next to Sōsuke came Gin, who was actively working on coming across as a little creepy and malicious. Or maybe not actively. Maybe he hated being next to Sōsuke so much a little bloodlust leaked out.

Gin had a strained—and very clearly fake—smile on his face.

Made me want to pinch his cheeks and stretch out his smile until it didn’t look so painful to look at.

Standing a bit further away from Gin and Sōsuke were Kaname and Sajin. Kaname instantly struck me as absurdly focused. He had an aura of: Don’t approach me, bitch. He definitely didn’t become a shinigami for the fun of it.

He was either going to hate me more than he has ever hated anyone in his life, or he was going to adapt to my insanity and relax. Dare I say it, he might even have fun if he did so.

Standing the furthest away was our fwuffy boy, Sajin. He was the tallest of the bunch, and bulkiest. Every inch of his appearance was covered in either cloth or armor, and he reflexively kept a glove hand on the hilt of his sword. His appearance and stature might have been intimidating to some, but his spiritual energy was twitching in a clearly nervous fashion.

I put a big grin on my face. “Welcome home, minions!”

Lilly training her new minions.

“Come on now, minions! Surely you guys can kill hollows faster than that,” I encouraged, sitting in the air as I watched the four of them struggle against a few dozen hollows.

To be fair, this was before any of them had reached bankai, and none of them had worked together before.

Which was why I (secretly) snuck them into Hueco Mundo for some good ol’ fashion hollow purging.

Not a lot of people knew I could open portals between the three (four if we count Riddlefucker’s palace) worlds. Genryūsai would prefer if I kept that information on the need-to-know basis. He would rather the research team found their own way into Los Noches without having to rely on me.

Apparently he said I was too fickle.

Me!

What a silly student I had.

Still, I tried not to get on his bad side too often, so I respected his request for the most part. Hence why I had to sneak these fellas here and lie to them about it being a random spot I found in the Soul Society.

Although I don’t think Sōsuke believed my lie, he didn’t question it (yet).

And now they were fighting off hordes of hollows with the teamwork of bickering teenagers. More than once they nearly bumped into one another, or another was accidentally caught in the crossfire. None of them were hot headed, so it didn’t lead to some hilarious shouting matches, but damn were they petty. Especially Sōsuke and Gin.

Poor fluffy boy accidentally used a hado on Sōsuke, and Sōsuke “accidentally” returned the favor.

I wish I had brought popcorn, I thought, watching Kaname accidentally(?) kick Gin and use him as a launching pad.

Oof.

Sajin, poor baby, coincidently leapt up as Kaname was leaping up and collided into him. Since Sajin used a lot more force in his life off, Kaname was sent flying into Sōsuke who then collided hard enough in the ground to leave a crater.

And—yep, that’s definitely a glare Sōsuke tossed the apologetic werewolf.

“I know I said that we’d only be here until it was time for dinner,” I casually put in, “but change of plans. We’re camping out here until ya’ll can fight for at least a five hours without killing each other.”

A moment of stunned disbelief flickered over their faces as they all turned to look at me. There was even a touch of resentment in Sōsuke’s eyes that made me want to cackle.

I folded my legs together and blew them a cheeky kiss. “Have fun, minions.”

Lilly meeting Orihime as a child.

“You see, Hime-chan, I have a ship,” I said.

“A ship?” the small girl repeatedly cutely, big eyes looking up at me in wonderment.

“Yes, dear. A ship I intend to make sure sets sail. And you, my dear, are on board this ship,” I went on. “Do you understand?”

“I’m going to help you sail a ship?” the child tried to guess.

“Yes,” I told her with a smile. “Yes, you are.”

Lilly advising how misbehaving captains should be punished.

“You know if you really wanted to punish these two boys you could just make them strip, and do a dance on a pole for their fans to see,” I wisely pointed out.

“Sensei,” he sighed. “No.”

#here and there #darkpetal16 #bleach #lilly #oc #riri #sosuke aizen #fanfiction #tosen #gin #ichimaru #orihime #crack #parody #evil sword

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pokemaniacal · 7 years

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Rowlet, Dartrix and Decidueye

Bloody hell, if I don’t hurry this up they’re going to announce another damn generation before I’m done with this one; we’re already expecting whatever this bull$#!t is supposed to be and I’ve got eighty whole Pokémon to evaluate in the next couple of months, as well as talking about Team Skull and the Aether Foundation, and Hau, and maybe Lillie too, and whoever I decide counts as the Champion, not to mention answering the neverending tide of ridiculous banal questions that keep pouring out of my goddamn inbox (obviously, gentle reader, I’m not talking about any questions you might have submitted, which are of course consistently insightful and thought provoking; it’s all those other bastards that are the problem).

I’M FINE

Let’s talk about Rowlet.

If you pay any attention whatsoever to this blog for any length of time, one of the first things you discover is that I like Grass-types. The Grass-type has been my go-to starter for my first playthrough (and most subsequent playthroughs) of every generation since the first. Rowlet’s fate was bound to mine by destiny long before I ever laid eyes on him. And I’m basically okay with this. Rowlet isn’t really in contention to unseat Bulbasaur and Turtwig as my favourite starter Pokémon, but he’s fine. He’s easy and fun to use in a playthrough, we’ve never had a birdlike Grass-type before, it doesn’t hurt that he’s just objectively adorable, and in abandoning his Flying-type Decidueye becomes the very first Ghost-type starter Pokémon ever, which is neat. Rowlet and Dartrix are clearly barn owls, with the barn owl’s distinctive pale heart-shaped face, whereas Decidueye is maybe more of a hawk owl, although I wouldn’t read too much into that. Comparisons to Hoothoot and Noctowl, who seem to be horned owls, are in order, as one of my usual criteria for evaluating new Pokémon is “is this actually new?” and I think the answer there is… probably??? Part of the problem there is that Hoothoot actually has a much more clearly-defined and interesting “personality” than Noctowl, with his heavily stylised cuckoo-clock aesthetic and metronome-like rocking from side to side (actually though, as long as we’re here, why doesn’t Hoothoot get Metronome? I mean, I get that Metronome was still super-exclusive when Hoothoot was introduced, but they gave it to Snubbull and Chansey as an egg move). Noctowl is kinda just a big owl that does owl things. Rowlet, Dartrix and Decidueye are a bit deeper than that, which I generally tend to think is good. Decidueye’s arrows and archery are an odd touch, but as with Talonflame, you can link birds and arrows conceptually via feathered fletching, so that makes sense. What might not immediately makes sense to some of us is the switch from Flying to Ghost when Dartrix evolves, and this gives me an excuse to begin one of my patented Bull$#!t Lore Digressions™, so let’s learn some more about owls.

Owls are associated with the spirit world in several different and unrelated cultures, and there are some pretty good reasons for this. Owls are night hunters, but more than that, they’re silent hunters – owls’ feathers are softer and smoother-edged than those of other birds, so the flapping of their wings is much more difficult to hear, giving them a ghostly, ethereal quality. Also, like many nocturnal animals, their eyes reflect light and seem to glow in the dark in a disconcertingly eerie manner. Not for nothing are owls omens of death in sub-Saharan Africa, of sickness and bad luck in the native cultures of the American southwest, or of catastrophe in ancient Rome. In ancient Greece, of course – mainly in Athens – owls had a more ambivalent role as the sacred birds of Athena and symbols of wisdom (an association that persists today and gives us Noctowl’s famous intellect and minor psychic abilities). Even there, though, the sinister scops owl was seen as a creature of the underworld, and the owl’s reputation for knowledge subsequently made it the familiar of witches and warlocks in mediaeval Europe. In New Zealand, where I come from, the small brown hawk owl known as the morepork or ruru is believed to be an oracle of the future in Maori culture, its different cries portending either good fortune or disaster. Finally, and perhaps most relevant for us today, on several of the islands of Hawai’i a species of short-eared owl called a pueo is one of the more common shapes known to be taken by ’aumākua, the spirits of a family’s honoured ancestors, who return to serve as guardians and as a link to the spirit world (sharks, lizards and turtles are also common; families must show respect and deference to all animals of a similar form to their ’aumākua). An owl Pokémon thus becomes an intermediary between this world and the next, a sort of warrior-shaman that protects its trainer from spiritual threats using powers of its own that are more than a little dark and sinister (we see a similar theme with Hoothoot in the anime, where he has the unique power to force hidden Ghost-types to reveal themselves with Foresight).

This “mystic guardian” aesthetic is conspicuously undercut by what Rowlet and Dartrix seem to be doing, because they have more of a “dapper gentleman” style in play – consider the Pokédex line that describes Dartrix as “a bit of a dandy” obsessed with keeping his wings groomed, or their leafy bow-ties (in Decidueye, that evolves into something more like a brooch or the clasp of a cloak, which has a more mediaeval-fantasy feel to it). It feels like a very odd fit for the direction that Decidueye moves in. If you had just given me Rowlet and Dartrix, and told me to come up with ideas for a final evolution, I might, after substantial umm-and-ahh-ing, have pitched a kind of James-Bond-esque super-spy-in-a-tuxedo concept. That seems like a more natural continuation, but easily could have turned out looking rather stupid without some very clever way of unifying the design elements (and if there’s anything this blog should teach us, it’s that I’m not quite that clever). The self-important “dandy” aesthetic, after a bit of thought, is oddly reminiscent to me of the vain, professorial Owl from Winnie-the-Pooh, genuinely wise (…relatively speaking) but perhaps just as much concerned with the appearance of wisdom as with wisdom itself, and eager to look the part of the sober, intellectual scholar of the arcane. Decidueye’s own description from the Pokédex tells us that this wise Pokémon is nonetheless easily startled and flustered (try slapping him awake in PokéRefresh and you’ll see what they’re getting at). It’s still incongruous with Decidueye as mystic archer and night hunter, but it is at least giving me a common aesthetic thread to follow through all three evolutionary stages, something that’s quite important for a starter Pokémon to maintain. Which is enough for the purposes of this review, I think.

Stats-wise, Decidueye seems to be built as a mixed attacker, with strong offensive skills, but isn’t very fast. That doesn’t bode particularly well, since he can’t really afford to not max his speed in training, leaving less to split between attack and special attack. There’s a passable physical movepool here, which includes Leaf Blade, Brave Bird, Sucker Punch, U-Turn, and… I guess Steel Wing if, like, you really hate Alolan Ninetales or something? There’s also Decidueye’s signature move, Spirit Shackle, which has several advantages. It’s a reliable Ghost-type physical attack, which a) is a rare sort of attack for anyone to have access to, and b) is something Decidueye clearly needs, c) it traps its target in play with Decidueye (unless the target is a Normal-type or Ghost-type, or has some escape mechanism), limiting your opponent’s options, and d) it fires a spiritual arrow that nails the target’s soul to the ground, which is super badass. This move is easily Decidueye’s biggest edge; you want to use him to set up critical moments where you can switch and your opponent can’t, then pressure their weak points with one of Decidueye’s teammates, or try to Swords Dance while they’re off balance. Leaf Blade and Spirit Shackle are actually a pretty solid combination; neither Grass nor Ghost gets a lot of super-effective hits, but Ghost has strong neutral coverage, so basically you’re resisted by all the Normal/Flying birds and a bunch of Dark dual-types. Sucker Punch is mostly redundant with Spirit Shackle in terms of type coverage, but it’s also Decidueye’s only priority move, and he’s fairly slow and doesn’t have any speed buffs, so at least considering it is sort of obligatory (just remember that it only works on targets preparing a direct attack, so be careful using it against support Pokémon). U-Turn is just generally a good move, because the free switch-out gives you a lot of flexibility in responding to your opponent’s actions (and especially switches), and it covers your ass against Dark-types, whom Decidueye tends to have trouble with. Trapping something with Spirit Shackle and then bouncing out with U-Turn is a decent little combo, if you like that sort of thing. Brave Bird adds a bit more of a sting than Decidueye’s other options, but lacks their utility. Some combination of four of these, or three plus Swords Dance, should probably be the default go-to. Decidueye’s kit lends itself to switching in and out a lot, and he doesn’t really have the speed to try and sweep a significant chunk of an enemy team, so I’d be more inclined to slap a Choice item on him than bank on Swords Dance, but to each their own.

Decidueye’s special attack stat is pretty solid, so in theory you can use that to mix things up a bit. Unfortunately, basically his only worthwhile special attacks are Shadow Ball and Energy Ball/Grass Knot, and if you cut Spirit Shackle for Shadow Ball then you’ve sort of forsaken one of the most compelling reasons to use Decidueye in the first place. That’s not quite the end of the story; you might be gunning specifically for some big chunky physical tank with a Grass weakness like Hippowdon, who gets stung much harder by Grass Knot than by Leaf Blade even with minimal special attack training on Decidueye’s part. Also, most human opponents are going to assume Decidueye is a physical attacker, so if you can grab him a free turn to set up with Nasty Plot (which he also learns), you might just be able to catch someone with their pants down. I’m not sure this is particularly a good plan, and again I’m not encouraged by the fact that he essentially has no third special attack, but the possibility theoretically exists. Decidueye does have a support movepool of sorts, but you can probably find better Pokémon for any conceivable support role he might try to fill. Like, Baton Pass is there as an egg move (via Togetic or Oricorio), and again, Decidueye does get both Swords Dance and Nasty Plot, so he has perfectly sound options for using it, but he just looks so unlike my idea of what a Baton Passer ought to be (poor speed, average defences) that my mind sort of recoils from the notion. Alternatively you could try to ply Roost and Light Screen with some HP training into some kind of weird tanky Decidueye – give up trying to outrun things, since he’s slow anyway, and focus on your defences. Just don’t tell anyone it was my idea.

As well as a signature move, Decidueye has a unique ability; it’s his hidden ability and isn’t currently obtainable, but I think we’ll probably get it eventually, so we ought to talk about it before we finish up. This ability is Long Reach, which lets Decidueye treat his “contact” attacks as ranged instead, bypassing enemy effects like Static, Rough Skin, Beak Blast’s retributive burn, and so on. This… ehhh, I’m not really sure what this is for. I mean, I understand conceptually why Decidueye has this: he’s an archer, so he should be able to make what would normally be close-range attacks from a distance. But that aspect of the design is already expressed by his signature move, and by the fact that he can use ranged special attacks effectively. Most contact effects aren’t that big a deal, most Pokémon that get them have better abilities to choose from, and even when they’re likely to turn up, Decidueye would often prefer Spirit Shackle to Leaf Blade anyway. I think Long Reach would probably give Decidueye an extra edge against… Wigglytuff, Electrode, Parasect, Bewear, Stunfisk, and (lord help us) Delcatty. Being able to one-shot Bewear with Brave Bird after a Swords Dance is not nothing, but I suspect the more general Grass-type damage bonus from Overgrow would probably still be more useful, even once Long Reach becomes available.

So, all in all, this is a decent start to generation VII. Rowlet, Dartrix and Decidueye are nothing amazing; they have a couple of conflicting ideas in their design, and other than Spirit Shackle there’s not a whole lot to be impressed by in their skillset. They’re still interesting, though; as fighters they are at the very least passable, with an interesting niche courtesy of that neat little signature move, and I cannot stress enough that pinning a foe in place by the shadow is a very cool gimmick. I got my cool new Grass-type starter, all is right with the world, and I can now review the rest of the seventh generation joyfully and optimistically, without a hint of malice or discontent in my heart.

…well, I mean, I can try, anyway.

#pokemon #alola #alola pokedex #rowlet #dartrix #decidueye #grasstypes #ghosttypes #flyingtypes #starters

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