#I’m just surprised we’re getting Kalos instead of Unova? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crystalelemental · 2 years

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And now, my ranking of the Pokemon Evolutions episodes from worst to best. I’ll just be naming them by region, I can’t remember the actual titles.

8) Alola. Honest to god, all this did was remind me what a trainwreck USUM was. Like okay, you’re showing us the evil Lusamine, and then whoops she’s all worried after being spit back out. Lillie has her big moment with Nebby evolving, but oh whoops we’re gonna completely reverse that and just make Necrozma absorb them, remove Lillie from this narrative entirely, and have Selene 2.0 take care of it. It does nothing particularly interesting and is the worst story to adapt, so yeah, this one did nothing for me.

7) Sinnoh. It’s relatively inoffensive, but it left me super disappointed, because a story concept around Barry sounds great. Like we get to explore a bit more of what he’s doing between events maybe, and see some more of that struggle over not being able to protect Uxie, and the purpose of his search for strength. But they don’t...do that. Instead it’s just...here’s his turnaround from a defeat to his victory, and leading up to him confronting his dad to beat him. It just doesn’t add anything all that interesting or engaging for anyone involved, and kinda focuses on the wrong thing.

6) Kanto. Inoffensive enough, but man, I hate Let’s Go. I don’t want to look at the Let’s Go protagonists, they bug me. Green’s engaging, but that’s just Leaf, and if I have to hear one more person insist that Generations canonized Green so Green is now able to show up in Masters I’m gonna scream. The story itself isn’t really doing much either, but Green is at least more engaging here than Barry was in his episode.

5) Hoenn. It’s okay, but again not my favorite. Probably because I don’t especially like Zinnia either. But it is fairly interesting that they set her up in this kind of light. It’s been ages since I played the Delta Episode, but I don’t remember her handing off responsibility to May being as emotional as this, so points there. I just also feel like it’s...not the most powerful of stories? It didn’t make me feel too much overall.

4) Unova. The Unova episode was super good. It’s basically the recap of N’s life, but told through Ghetsis’ perspective, up to the leadup for the final confrontation. It’s...really good. Ghetsis’ VA does some fantastic work. And the portrayal of N and his expressions really does a lot to sell that this is something he’s worked toward, but he’s not happy about it, all while Ghetsis is monologuing about what this does for him. It hits all the right notes and is just a really solid episode portraying what we essentially already know in a pretty unique way.

3) Kalos. Lysandre remains as confusing as ever, but if there’s one thing I’ll seriously give this episode, it’s making me feel an awful lot of things with that conclusion. After he’s defeated and the announcement goes out, they play that clip of Lysandre as he used to be, and his speech is great and you can definitely see how people are interpreting it as a positive and how optimistic he’s being, but knowing the guy it also kinda rings like...this wasn’t new or a surprise. He’s always had this kind of mentality. And seeing the reactions of some of the others, like Sycamore, was great. I appreciated that we got a little bit of Sycamore actually pushing back on Lysandre’s ideals, and expressing the thematic idea Masters did more playing with that the future isn’t guaranteed and you have to be willing to adapt. It wasn’t the most intense or engaging, but goddamn did I leave feeling some stuff.

2) Johto. Man I would never have guessed Johto would be this high up, but goddamn do I love this episode. I think this is the first one where my praise is the visuals, but moreover the concept of this being a theatrical production. Zinnia’s episode didn’t really make sense in why things would seem to pop to life and have a visible effect on the world, but here it’s clearly set up that these are visual effects produced by the Pokemon involved in the production, and it’s so cool! It’s great to see the Kimono Girls with all their Eeveelutions, giving the Eeveelutions a role that really sells the story they’re trying to convey. And there’s a moment that is legitimately hilarious, and really cute. This one just feels great to watch. It feels organic and natural, like a thing that happens in day to day life. It looks fantastic and is really interesting to me in terms of what it sets up about this fairly minor detail of the Kimono Girls as actors, which is what I think these episodes should aspire to. The basic recaps don’t really do it for me, they’re fairly boring. But the ones that went in a new direction with something small, or dug a little deeper, felt really strong, because it’s new and engaging.

1) Galar. Which is how Galar, somehow, won this. Despite my general dislike of Galar as a region, this episode was really good. Like it’s kind of a shame this one went first, considering how lackluster the very next episode was, and how almost none of the others really compete with it in terms of impact. While Johto was about exploring a different aspect of things than we’d previously seen, Galar digs deep into Leon as a character, and what it presents is the best I’ve seen of the guy. The episode focuses on the leadup to his match with the protagonist (Victor, in this case), and the impact that the Eternatus fight had on him. We get to see a Leon who’s visibly shaken, his confidence wavering, as he grapples with the fact that when things got serious, he wasn’t able to stop it. The unbeatable champion got beat, and it’s weighing on him before his biggest showdown with the person who did save the region. And it’s these kinds of things I wish were explored more with Leon. The idea that he’s been doing this for years, built up as this idol as the unbeatable champion, and is constantly aspiring to be that kind of symbol for the region. So when he can’t uphold that expectation, it’s a big blow, and his usually cheerful demeanor fades. We get this heavy emotion from a character who...barely speaks. The entire story is told through memory, interspersed with the announcer describing the upcoming match and what happened the day before, and as a result, there’s not a clear cut explanation on exactly what Leon may be thinking or feeling, only the visual presentation that it’s something heavy that he’s grappling with. And I fucking love it. It’s so effective at portraying depth to the character, while leaving it open enough to individual interpretation as to what specifically eats at him that makes it work so well. Honestly, if this episode wasn’t as strong as it was, I don’t know if I would’ve even kept up with these. I usually don’t. But goddamn it hit so hard that I had to see what the rest of it produced. And...it did not hold to this quality, but we at least had a few that had some impact.

#pokemon evolutions

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tokiro07 · 3 years

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I think I was looking at it the wrong way

I don’t think I should have been looking at it as the legends surrounding the Pokemon individually, but rather I should have been looking at it as the legends of the Pokemon world

Like @thestuffed-alligator said, Johto’s would likely be the legend of the burning of the Bell Tower, which happens to encompass Ho-Oh, the death and rebirth of the Legendary Beasts, and the departure of Lugia. By extension from Lugia, a Johto Legends game could also include the Legendary Birds, since their relationship to Lugia has thus far been pretty loosely established. In this scenario, this may mean this game includes Kanto too if they want to combine them into one game. Kanto or no, I maintain that this game could be framed as using Celebi to travel through time, and would also give us a chance to examine Celebi’s legend a bit more. Therefore, the Johto(/Kanto) game could be called PL: Celebi or Ho-Oh depending on which they want to focus on

@amiiboacid pointed out that Unova would probably cover the conflict between the Twin Heroes that split the Tao Dragon into Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem. Since the story of the Swords of Justice involves a civil war, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out the two events were related, so it’d be easy enough to incorporate them into the story. Meloetta could also be brought in, but I imagine she’d be more of a sidequest. Unova’s game would either be PL: Kyurem or would be named after the original dragon

@golurkart made a design for Serena/Y in a hypothetical Kalos Legends game, which made me realize that it would almost definitely detail the events of the Kalos War. Other than Floette, there isn’t really a Pokemon that explicitly symbolizes this event, so I think this might set a precedent that the games don’t need to be named after a Pokemon and may instead be PL: AZ. If this is too grim, since it would pretty much definitely be depicting the deaths of countless Pokemon, this would definitely be the time to finally delve into Zygarde

Sinnoh is obviously focusing on Arceus, but definitely not from the perspective of seeing the literal creation of the world given that we’re playing in a human civilization. If I had to guess, we’ll probably more be getting into how the myth that Arceus created the world came about. We might also be seeing the conflict between Giratina and Arceus and the creation of the Distortion World, but that might be a bit much. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw sidequests involving the Lake Trio, Shaymin and Darkrai. We could also see something involving Manaphy/Phione or even Regigigas moving the continents, but I’m not expecting that

Hoenn’s a bit difficult, honestly, since we’ve basically already seen everything of importance with the Weather Trio conflict. Maybe we’ll see something involving Jirachi or Latios/Latias, but I’m personally more interested in the circumstances that led to Deoxys’ creation. I don’t know if that would be enough to make a whole game out of, but it’d be neat. Maybe this one would have a completely different gameplay style and would involve a lone astronaut in space caring for their single partner Pokemon, but maybe it’d be a bit much asking for that to be stretched into a full game. That would definitely be PL: Deoxys, though

I think it goes without saying that Alola’s would focus on Ultra Space, since htat was the biggest lore addition in Sun and Moon. I would prefer it take place from the perspective of Ultra Space, expanding on the Ultra Beast roster and Ultra Space culture. Regardless of whether we start in Ultra Space or Alola proper, we’d likely be seeing the events that led to and follow Necrozma’s body fragmenting, the creation of the Z-Crystals, and the conflict between Necrozma, the Tapus and Solgaleo/Lunala. I imagine this would be PL: Necrozma, but it could also be PL: Ultra Space

Galar would probably focus on the Darkest Day, but similar to the Weather Trio battle, I feel like it’s been covered well enough. If this were the case, it’d be PL: Eternatus

What I really want, though, more than anything, is PL: Mew. I want a Pokemon game that takes place as early in Pokemon society as possible, before Pokeballs have even been imagined, maybe even where the “line between human and Pokemon” is still vague (I’d just really like to know what that means). I imagine this would have an abundance of Fossil Pokemon, possibly with different, non-Rock type combinations to reflect that they aren’t actually fossilized yet, possibly revealing the correct designs for the mismatched Galar Fossils. As I said earlier, I’d really like to see the original form of Genesect, and this would probably be the best time

I feel like I’m still only scraping the surface of the possibilities here, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how this develops as a series. Fingers crossed that I haven’t overthought it and they’ll do something even remotely close to what I’ve envisioned here

#pokemon #pokemon legends

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sage-nebula · 5 years

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Okay, now that I finally have a minute, I can finally talk about the biggest event of the day:

GEN! 8! REVEAL! FAM!!

In a way, this was not surprising at all. The official Pokémon YouTube channel had been posting promotional videos of all the main regions for the week leading up to today (Pokémon Day), and once a Direct was announced we knew that they would not use that Direct for anything less than Gen VIII. Nintendo and Game Freak have made some questionable decisions in the past, but even they would not be so foolish as to dedicate a Direct to anything but a new set of games, particularly since they’d already promised us Gen VIII would be coming out this year. (Which is why those who are angry that this announcement wasn’t for Sinnoh remakes don’t really make a lot of sense. We were promised brand new core titles for a 2019 release. This couldn’t have been anything but that.) Even so, I am still thrilled by what I saw in the trailer, and I still want to talk about it because I’m so excited.

So:

Pros:

The Region: Some leaks that had come out ages ago suggested that the region could be based off the UK, and I’m so happy to see that was true. (Very little else in the leaks came true, but I’m okay with that, too; Sword and Shield are much better version names than Crown and Scepter.) The region itself looks like it’s going to be beautiful, both in terms of its countryside areas and its urban areas. It reminds me a bit of Unova in that way, how there’s a bit of a divide there, and with that divide emphasized in this reveal trailer, I wonder if that’s going to affect the plot. Either way, I’m truly excited about the region itself, particularly with some of the shots of it that we saw (both interior and exterior) in the trailer.

The Graphics: On that note, the graphics are so nice! There’s so much detail everywhere! In particular I can’t help but think of shots like the library the female trainer was standing in near the end, or the various towns the characters ran through . . . I know some people were hoping for hyper realistic graphics, but that’s never been Pokémon’s style. I’m just glad that these games are so, so much prettier than Let’s Go. I’m so glad all the models and the environment was fixed.

Random Battles are Back In: Speaking of things that were fixed, we can actually train our pokémon again! I was very relieved when I saw that, haha.

Gyms: We’re also back to the Gym system, which is also something of a relief. Honestly, I don’t mind the concept of the Island Trials, but I don’t feel that it was implemented well at all. The Trials themselves were basic and empty, and in many ways felt like watered down Gyms. In USUM it was even worse since you weren’t even allowed to explore during them (and instead had the Captain walking you through the Trials, such as in Mallow’s). Since they weren’t going to get creative with the Trials, I’m glad they’ve scrapped them to go back to the Gym system. Hopefully we’ll get a dark-type Gym this time around.

The Starters: The starters are all so cute! My favorite is Scorbunny (whom I keep calling Scorbunny-bun, haha), but I like Sobble and Grookey as well. Which one I pick will depend on the final evolutions (since I can’t just not look, although I will say I do miss the days of my youth when final evolutions were a surprise and you picked your starter based on first impression), just like which version I get will depend on version differences, but at the moment, if I had to just pick today? It would be Scorbunny. Little soccer bunbun is so cute, I love him. (Sobble would be my second choice, and Grookey my third.)

The Trainers: I LOVE BOTH OF THE TRAINER DESIGNS SO MUCH!! I actually feel like trainer customization might not be back in (more on that in the next section) because we didn’t see any customization in the trailer, and both of the designs are more detailed this time around (whereas the boy design at the least is usually generic in customizable games). But even if we don’t, I’m fine with that. I love both of the designs. I do wish the girl was able to wear pants for the snowy areas, but I love her sweater and her haircut, and the boy’s hat is cute. Really, they’re both fashionable and cute kids. I love them.

The Box Mascots: Of course we know nothing of the legendaries (legendary?) yet, but they look very lupine and I’m excited about that. GIVE ME MY SWORD WOLF, GAME FREAK!!

The Cons:

No Trainer Customization?: We might get a surprise here and that might be back in after all, but right now it looks like it might not be, so that’s a potential con for me.

No Following Pokémon?: Most of the shots that we saw of the gameplay looked empty (for instance, no other NPCs in town shots), so maybe we will get following pokémon and they’re just not able to show that yet. Bu tif we don’t, that’s also something that will make me sad, albeit it’s also something I can live with, haha.

No Pokémon in Overworld: While I am THRILLED that wild battles are back because that’s a deal breaker for me, one thing I actually did like about Let’s Go is that you could see pokémon on the overworld, and I do wish they had implemented that here. But again, I can live with it not being implemented, haha. I’m fine with wild battles, too.

The Miscellaneous:

Professor?: The leaks I talked about earlier mentioned that these games have no professor, and that we instead receive our starters from a princess. No idea if that’s true or not yet, obviously, but if it’s not and we do still have a professor, I want them to be either Poké David Attenborough or Poké Jane Goodall. (And on a related note, if the monarchy is in this game, let me throw down with the queen pls.)

Give Us the Great Galaran Bake Off: You know how each gen has a little side gimmick? Like we had Contests in Gen III, Super Contests in IV, PokéStar Studios in V, and so on? Give us Bake Off in Gen VIII. The Great British Bake Off has popularity that transcends its borders and it would be so great to implement that into these games. The bonus is that when the Galar anime starts up, there can be an episode where Ash somehow makes his way into the tent as a baker (and I say somehow, because you have to audition and everything and prove yourself worthy of being there irl and Ash cannot cook or bake for anything) and then is the first person eliminated because his pastries have soggy bottoms and are not crisp, and also his cakes have overbaked sponges and you cannot see the layers in there at all. (I hope the anime gives us that episode even if we don’t have the gimmick in the games. Come on, PokéAni. Show us the forbidden Poké Mary Berry and Poké Paul Hollywood, along with Poké Mel and Sue.)

Anime’s English Dub: On that note, I both am and am not looking forward to TPCi hiring garbage actors who will absolutely brutalize every single British* accent they have in their cast. If it was 4Kids, I would trust them to hire actors who know what they’re doing. But TPCi? I remember what they did to Alan. I’ll never forget nor will I ever forgive what they did to Alan. They hired a no-name rando off the street who had no talent whatsoever to voice Alan. If they do try to make the Galaran characters British, there is no way those accents will be passable. It will be a travesty. That said, if the PokéAni actually had a good job with a talented cast, I would pay them actual money to make Ash’s female companion have a Cockney or south London accent. I LOVE those accents and I would love to have a character with one on the main cast. They could also give Ash’s male companion (should he have one) a Scottish accent to just complete the whole dynamic and it’d be incredible. Like I know they’d probably go for standard pronunciation, but god what I wouldn’t give for regional accents for an English dub of the Galaran anime. It would be incredible. (*I said British instead of English here because not all British accents are English. Scotland is part of Britain, and therefore a Scottish accent is a British accent, for example. So believe me, I wasn’t conflating British and English; I know the difference, and I was incorporating all of them.)

Unova vs. Galar Rivalry: I want to see some (friendly) rivalry between Unova and Galar, just like those posts from Ye Olde Tumblr where Americans and Brits would get into “fights” over things. Obviously Unova is not the only United States region (Alola and Orre also exist), but it’s the one up in New England, and the one most blatantly American, I feel. It’d be neat to see that in the game. (And on an unrelated note, was Galar the region that warred with Kalos 3,000 years ago? Hmm . . .)

All in all, I’m super excited and I just can’t wait for these games. November can’t come fast enough (and neither can more info, haha)!

#pokemon #feel free to send me asks and stuff about this too guys #i love Pokémon so much I could talk about it all day

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violetinkclouds · 3 years

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You know where I want a Pokémon Region to be based out of? Africa. Give us a core game with an African based region. With POC Gym Leaders based on varying countries and cultures of their own. Please.

We’ve already have Japan (obviously) represented in Kanto through Sinnoh; United States appears in Unova and Alola; France styling out for Kalos and the UK popping in for Galar. They’ve all been done beautifully and honed in on great cultural aspects for amazing adaptations. And yet...

Look. Maybe Alola started to spoil me with the depth of it’s beauty and charm, the trials instead of gym battles, the friend/rival characters with more of a backstory, the surprise and excitement of the dimensional shenanigans, the overall spectacular vibes of the whole entire region.

Then came Galar, which almost took it back a step, before jumping forward in giving us an interesting new way of Gym challenges, a vast and amazing range of early opportunities in the Wild Area and two enchanting expansion passes full of wonder.

Admittedly? I’m needy, probably so much it flows into greedy, and I have a massive yearning of something more. Something that has that special feeling of wow and whiplash, a sort of magic that hits you when you finally get snips and scraps and then grabs you when you have the game in your hand, not knowing what you’re getting into and yet knowing just enough...!

Something that just seemed different in a special way, and I think that an African based Region could give us that. The sheer depth in the differences of cultures that make up the continent, the art and cuisine, the music, the enthralling local stories/folk tales that could all be adapted into the Pokémon World — the sheer tip of the mere idea of it has me so excited!

Imagine the regional variants of Pokémon we already have! Girafarig that are hella tall like actual giraffes on the Serengeti in the same way the Alolan Exeggcutor looks more like the tall trees than the cute landscaping ones. Blitzle and Zebstrika variants could be an Electric/Fire Typing (a combo we don’t yet have!) with the Shinx, Purrloin and Litleo in at least alternative colourings and perhaps physical features, if not new typing. Maybe the Shinx line could be Electric/Grass, Purrloin line a Fairy/Grass or Fire and the Litleo line could be another combination of Electric/Fire or even Fire/Fairy!

Imagine implementing more interactions and involvement with Pokémon Breeding in adapted relations to the IRL Conservation Acts! The region could have its own Wild Areas, like in Galar, because I’m doubting the associations made with a “Safari Zone” in this setting would be completely appropriate.

What about Legendaries with importance to an adaption of the Seven Wonders of Africa? An Anansi inspired Legendary, perhaps? We could use another Bug Type Legendary. We’re severely lacking those. What of a Ground Type Eeveelution made possible within the Sahara Desert? Kilimanjaro making way to a Flying Type Eeveelution? A Bug Type... made possible almost anywhere, tbh. There’s just a lot of possible spots, ngl.

The ancient, mythical and fossil Pokémon potential!!! Extinct Pokémon making a showing, adapted from the many IRL extinct species!

Plus... Think of how people would look up what’s what in reference to actual things concerning Africa and of the fictional region adaptations. Think of the awe in what’s learned and the respect that could be given for all the magnificence the country can hold.

Just. Imagine. (And feel free to offer up discussions on this.)

☁︎

#pokémon #what ifs #africa #pokémon regions #eeveelutions #video games #pokémon breeding #pokémon eggs #fandom hell #violet haze for violet days

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kyogre-blue · 7 years

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Pokemon drabble - Champion

Summary: Do not become Champion just to spite your father. This is a terrible decision, and May should have never listened to Steven about it.

~.~.~

Steven returned home in the middle of the night, long after most of Mossdeep had gone dark and silent. He stumbled, tripping over the ledge in the entryway — it had been too long and he had misjudged the distance in the dark, too tired to turn on the lights — but managed to catch himself without making too much noise.

Floating in behind him, his new Klefki jiggled quietly as it resettled the house key on its arms. That had taken him by surprise — he didn’t remember locking the front door before leaving, most people in Mossdeep didn’t. There was no telling how long he would have been fumbling for the right key without Klefki’s help.

“Thanks. Now, return,” he ordered it under his breath, while simultaneously trying to toe off his shoes. Even the faint red light of it returning to its Poke Ball left him blinking spots out of his eyes.

Leaving his bags by the door, Steven started to pull of his jacket as he headed toward the bed in the far corner. It was probably musty and even dusty — he’d been gone for weeks — but Steven had slept in the actual dirt more than once. He paused only to leave his jacket, vest and the contents of his pockets on the table nearby before dropping onto the bed and stretching out.

Without even bothering to slide under the covers, he let himself drop off to sleep.

...The small lump on the far side of the bed stirred and then settled back in — until morning.

~.~.~

“KYAAAAAH!!”

Steven woke up to a scream, and then a sharp kick that sent him flying out of bed and onto the floor. Squinting against the sunlight, he started at the source of both.

“May?”

“What are you doing in my bed?!” May demanded, completely pointlessly holding the blanket up to her (covered) chest.

“I believe,” Steven said slowly, still groggy, “that this bed belongs to me.”

A silent stare off, and then— “I was in it first,” May shot back.

Steven paused and considered that. He... supposed that was possible. Slightly more possible than her sneaking in, pajamas and all, later. All the same, she didn’t have to scream and kick him first thing in the morning. That was just rude.

“I see,” he settled on. “May I enquire why?”

It was still his house, after all. He’d expected May to drop by at least once, that was why he’d left the Beldum for her to find, but sleeping in his bed was a little weird.

“...stay,” May muttered, too quietly to make out. She refused to meet his gaze.

“Pardon?”

“I didn’t have a place to stay,” she repeated more loudly through gritted teeth. “I got into a fight with my dad and didn’t want to go home, okay? If I stay at a Pokemon Center, it’s always a circus, someone challenging me or looking for an interview, or whatever. And then it started raining all the time, and I couldn't camp either, so... It’s not like you were using it!”

He’d been gone for two months, tops, and someone started squatting in his house, in other words.

“I... see,” Steven said, for lack of anything else.

“If you try to make me leave, I’m telling your dad!” May snapped, jabbing a finger at him.

‘Tell him what?’ Steven almost asked, before the situation finally began to sink in. Yes... based on normal social standards, it sounded rather unfortunate, didn’t it? The getting into bed with her part. It’s not like he noticed her there! And it was his bed! But he could already imagine his father’s disapproving look.

Wincing, Steven held up a hand. “Alright, alright,” he conceded. “Stay as long as you like.”

“Good!” May huffed. There was an awkward moment of silence. “I’m sorry for kicking you,” she mumbled, glancing away. “I got groceries...?”

~.~.~

Neither of them was much good at cooking, it turned out, but they could manage a basic breakfast between them.

“I want to go to another region, that’s why Dad and I fought,” May explained quietly, looking determinedly down at the stove. “Not Johto or Kanto, but somewhere far away, like Kalos or Unova. He said I’m too young to be traveling so far by myself.”

Not knowing what to say to that, Steven didn’t say anything, only passed her the Eggant berries he’d chopped up.

“I beat an entire crazy team and a super-ancient Pokemon! I beat the Hoenn League! And him too! When exactly am I going to be ready to do what I want?” she went on, her tirade growing more heated. “It’s not like I’m asking something crazy! And even if I was, it’s my choice!”

Nodding even if she wasn’t looking at him, Steven handed her a plate.

“It’s not fair, he always treats me like a kid,” May grumbled. Shoveling half the omelet onto the plate, she handed it back to Steven in exchange for an empty one. “If I let him, he’ll still be at it when I’m twenty. That’s why I gotta put my foot down, you know? I’m gonna make him admit I can make my own decisions.”

By... running away from home and taking over someone else’s house, via blackmail.

“May, you’re aware that... you can file for an international license on your own,” Steven said slowly as they settled at the table, “right? You don’t need your parents’ permission, once you’re registered as a trainer locally.”

The more prohibitive part of traveling across regions and even moreso internationally was how expensive it was. Young trainers simply wouldn’t be able to scrape together the money for a bullet train or ferry pass out of their region, much less for an international flight.

Taking a bite of the omelet, May chewed slowly, deep in thought. “I know,” she muttered finally. “But it wouldn’t... feel right, you know? He’s still my dad. I want him to understand. Plus, I think he might chase after me if I just took off.”

Steven supposed he understood. He’d never just explicitly gone against something his father told him, even if they’d had their share of arguments — including about his decisions and his future.

“Do you have any plan to convince him?”

“No,” May said shortly and took another angry bite. “What else can I even do to prove that I can take care of myself? Find another legendary Pokemon to battle?”

“I don’t think it’s your Pokemon training skill that your father is concerned about,” Steven said, internally wincing as the atmosphere around May darkened. “It may seem prosaic to you, but perhaps he would feel better if he knew that you can manage the more mundane aspects of your life. For example... obtaining and paying for housing.”

She was definitely glaring now. Steven wasn’t exactly sorry — she was squatting in his house and blackmailing him to allow it — but he really hoped she wouldn’t throw the salt shaker at him.

Surprisingly, May looked away first. “Houses are expensive,” she muttered. “I thought about renting something, I’m not totally crazy. But... it feels weird battling people now. We’re so much stronger than everyone except the Elite Four and maybe the gym leaders. So...”

So she wasn’t battling regularly, and that meant she wasn’t earning prize money regularly. There was a reason why even many gym leaders had a second job. Only the most elite, professional trainers could afford to do nothing else.

If all you wanted to do was continue on your journey, it was possible. Pokemon Centers provided free healing, free lodging, and even free food to trainers. But for something like renting a place of your own...

Steven couldn’t help smiling ruefully. ‘I guess there’s some things even May has trouble with,’ he thought. ‘She’s still young, after all.’

“May, have you thought about what you want to do in the future?” he asked.

She eyed him for a moment, suspicious of the subject change. “I want to train Pokemon,” she said slowly. “I know every kid ever says that. Pokemon battling is cool, so it’s everyone’s dream. But I... I really love Pokemon. And I think I’m pretty good at training them. I want to see how far we can go.”

Steven nodded, smiling. That was what he’d expected — and it made perfect sense. It was true that training Pokemon was not an easy path to take, professionally, but May was more than “pretty good.”

“If you want to prove to your father that you are a capable, self-sufficient adult, I can think of a few options,” he said, returning to the original topic. “You could get an internship at Devon or the Weather Institute, for example. My dad or the institute would be happy to have your help with their research, and I’m certain they would find a way to put your skills to use...”

May’s expression — the frustrated way her brows furrowed, the way her lips pursed in a pout — gave away what she thought of that, but she didn’t protest. She could see the logic in it, even if she was less than enthused about either idea.

“However,” Steven went on, “I feel it would be a waste of your abilities. Instead, May... have you thought about becoming the Hoenn League Champion?”

“...But I already beat you,” May blurted out without thinking.

It made Steven’s smile widen a little, especially when she quickly cleared her throat in embarrassment.

“You gave up the title afterwards,” he reminded her. “So despite what Zinnia and my dad might say, I’m still the Hoenn Champion. But I’ve been planning to step down. I was going to ask Wallace to take my place, but I know that you are more than capable. The only question is if you’re willing.”

“Champion...” May repeated, chewing her lip in thought.

She had originally given up the title because she thought it would be too restrictive. There had been so much she still wanted to see of Hoenn, so many places to go. Her journey hadn’t felt anywhere near over, and taking the title had sounded like an ending — she would become someone who just sat and waited for challengers to come to her, without any of the joy of discovery that traveling gave her.

Which was still a fair concern.

May’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you want to give up the title?” she asked warily.

There were a number of reasons, and Steven had to think for a moment to pick one. If he had to say which was foremost, it would be... “There’s no reception in caves,” he said. “So I was always missing calls from the League.”

“Pffft!” May tried to smother a laugh. “Haha, that sounds like you, alright!”

Steven sighed quietly. “A champion’s duties are not as extensive as you might expect. All administrative tasks are handled by the League itself, so the most important part is simply being present when a qualified trainer requests a challenge, even if most of them don’t make it through the Elite Four. And...” he smiled, “representing your region in the Pokemon World Tournament.”

“World Tournament?” May exclaimed, leaning forward as all her previous worries were swiftly swept aside.

Hook, line, and sinker.

~.~.~

#pokemon #my writing #oneshot

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