#maybe even celestica ruins

[critterbitter]

A trip down memory lane! Though the tower seems to have changed…

Celestial tower! Built during the direct aftermath of the Founding Unovan Civil War, it remains a cultural landmark in memory of those lost in the fire and storm.

Time has dulled the scars left behind by the twin dragons. Today, the tower is primarily used as a mausoleum (the preferred method of burial are urns) and, well, a tourism site. Legend says if you climb to the top of the tower and ring the bell, you can lay your ghosts to rest. But mostly? You can ring a GIANT bell.

Course, you gotta GET to that bell first.

Masterpost for more pokemon shenanigans here!

#my love of old backrooms esque buildings once again crawls into the forefront #celestial tower #now that’s a fun name! #sounds similar to… say… celestica #maybe even celestica ruins #but bah! lets talk about the funny patrat kids forgetting to explain to their pachirisu friend just where they’re scurrying to #elesa really just said: weird architecture! seems familiar! #meanwhile ingo and litwick are verbally sparring and emmet’s desperately trying to make sure they dont get lost #(spoilers they get lost) #pokemon #art #sketchbook #myart #submas #fanart #pokemon ingo #subway boss ingo #subway boss emmet #pokemon emmet #gym leader elesa #pokemon elesa #litwick #tynamo #blitzle #nimbasa trio #anyways stairs are nightmarish all my homies hate stairs

[volostogekiss]

rightfully, you may own my heart (one-shot)

Warnings: Mention of death. Some kissing at the end :) (Volo is a biter.)

(OKAY not me getting invested in reader not being the protag again lol. GN!Reader, who's a member of the Ginkgo Guild, and the one who’s always covered for Volo’s missing quota. They’re friends, somehow, bonding over ruins and the like. A bit of unrequited love on reader’s side, though that’s probably not quite true anymore..)

Summary: He always says that he’s a simple merchant, but really, you are more so than he is—dedicated to your work, punctual, and picking up his slack without any complaints. But even after all the years you’d stayed by his side, though never quite close enough to reach his heart, you’re surprised to find that he knows you’ve always been there.

Volo just needs a moment to realize it.

—In which the Hero of Hisui has kept their silence about what Volo has done, and with the help of Cogita, they’ve been assisting him through the steps of his redemption. It’s how he learns that he’s not quite as alone as he’s once been.

Not when he remembers you.

           You’d always wondered when he’d find out about you, about your feelings for him, and when he’d finally put them to rest, with the rejection you’re certain has always been coming.

           Never a matter of “if,” and always one of “when.”

           And so, you’d been content with just being allowed to stay close.

           Even though you’d worked alongside him for years in the Ginkgo Guild, and even as your affection for the man had blossomed, you’ve never said a word of it to him. You weren’t sure when exactly you’d started growing too fond of him; perhaps it was when you’d decided to cover for him for the very first time. You hadn’t known why you’d agreed to supply his missing quota. Maybe out of sympathy? Boredom? The inkling of interest you’d taken in him? You’d done it without even thinking about interrogating him for why his contribution to the Diamond Clan’s Tumblestone delivery had been nonexistent. The orange ore was always easier to harvest than its tougher onyx form, so there really should’ve been no reason for him to fall behind.

           True, but all sincerely forgotten when he’d sought you out in your quarters, and you could do nothing more than let him in.

           He’d been directed to thank you by Tuli; of course, she would’ve given him an earful upon his return. It hadn’t been of his own volition to visit you, then, though it probably had been to do so at night, even as you’d been preparing to turn in for your much needed rest.

           Clearly, Volo didn’t think much about that.

           To be fair, you had played a part in the other half of it, when you noticed that he was breathless, but radiating an excitement that was difficult to ignore. You could’ve turned him away. But it was that enthusiasm in his eye, something you’d never before seen from him, that made it so you couldn’t keep your curiosity in check.

           You were the first person who asked him what he’d found, even if you hadn’t necessarily meant that to be the target of your conversation. No, you’d originally only wanted a reason for his tardiness, and to put your foot down—that once was probably good enough for the both of you.

           That didn’t exactly go as you’d wanted, either.

           Volo had started and hadn’t stopped, and you’d been shockingly overwhelmed by his rush of words. That he’d pieced together something about the broken statue up in the highlands, near the Celestica Ruins. That he’d also found exactly what he’d needed to make the connection to some of the ancient Pokémon depicted at the Shrouded Ruins, and then you’d been too lost in the flood.

           “Ah, you really should take a look at the ruins yourself! They’re fascinating. See here? I’ve finally deciphered the final piece of text along the walls of the Solaceon Ruins—”

           Too lost to really comprehend what he’d been saying, but not too lost to know that he’d been all over Hisui in just the past few weeks.

           That, and you hadn’t been too lost to see that he’d truly enjoyed chasing such knowledge.

           It was that look upon his face, vibrant and shining, yet so wistful and yearning, that made you think twice about never again helping him with his quota.

           Somehow, then, throughout your regular supply runs, you found yourself drifting toward any ruins, even if they weren’t exactly along your route. What could be so interesting that captured Volo so completely? At the start, your Staraptor had always given you a particularly disapproving look, but after your initial couple of detours, even he wanted to know what you might stumble upon during your next outing.

           Pages and pages of detailed notes—nothing you could particularly understand, but still something too provocative to ignore—had been bound in a notebook, taken with you wherever you went, even if you were only revisiting a site. You hadn’t been sure what you’d been doing with it, although you never missed a chance to add more to your findings. Findings about what, you hadn’t been sure about either, but you thought it fun to tackle such a project on the side.

           Perhaps, it’d be of some use to him one day, you’d thought.

           You put that thought into action when you’d finally crossed his path, months later, after he’d surprisingly met his quota, for once. After meandering around town, free of your uniform for the night, you’d spotted Volo reporting to Ginter, and the moment he turned away, you hurried over to him. A confidence you’d never known had washed over you then, and you stopped him before he could get too far.

           He wasn’t sure what to make of your announcement, and then your presentation of the drawings and texts you’d compiled over the weeks.

           Along with it was your confession that you’d taken an interest in the ruins scattered across Hisui because of him, because of that night he’d visited you. They were more than just picturesque sites to you now, and instead places to partake in more of the ancient lore that laid so plainly for you to see.

           He pushed aside his skepticism, however, when he noticed the earnestness upon your face, and the care evident in your detailed, clean notes. What had been going through his mind, you probably would never know, and he would probably never disclose to you.

           But, somehow, that didn’t matter to you.

           It became routine for you to share with him your meticulous rubbings and sketches of intricate runes etched into crumbling architecture or pressed into the curve of a cave. You found your own knowledge of the ancient sites and language flourishing under Volo’s direction and observation. Even you could pick up on the familiar characters after a few months, and it was wonderful to appreciate what you couldn’t before, for the first time. But most of all, you always found it worth it, when he’d explain to you what exactly you’d written down, or what a certain rune meant. His eye would always glow with a brilliance that you knew he hardly shared with anyone else. You always found it worth it, when after showing him everything you’d collected, he looked to you with thanks and a bright smile—one that you knew was more genuine than anything he’d shown to his customers.

           Pitifully enough, it made you feel… special.

           Then you were friends with Volo, in some way, compared to everyone else—or at least, that’d been what you’d convinced yourself of, when he looked at you with that smile.

           Had you really been wrong, though?

           He started going out of his way to find you, to tell you about the latest ruins he’d spent his last few weeks at—not without a subtle jab from you about his quota, but something you both laughed off. First, it was as you’d seen one another during guild meetings, and then it had become more common for him to find you in your quarters. Hours were dedicated to poring over your combined notes, and you found you enjoyed how he defined the leisure that you’d typically spent alone.

           What you’d really wished, however, was to one day explore the ruins with him.

           And perhaps, then, was when you’d really fallen for him.

           But even as you’d thought you’d kept your feelings closely locked in your heart, you had a feeling that he somehow already knew.

           Of course, Volo would.

           After all, you were the closest to him in the guild. That much was obvious.

           And whenever you’d think of it, your heart would ache just a little more.

           Last you’d heard, Volo had been tasked with gathering Doppel Bonnets up in the highlands. But at the same time, he had offered his help to the Hero of Hisui, who had been collecting artifacts related to Almighty Sinnoh. No doubt, they too were tied to his zealous research. Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have followed after them. Understandably, you thought that his subsequent, protracted absence was a typical case of shirking his work in favor of aiding the hero. But months had passed since the date he’d been due back in Jubilife, and even though you were acquainted with his frequent disappearances, this one had dragged on long enough.

           Volo is gone now, and he hadn’t told you a thing.

           You stare blankly at the pages beneath your hands, scrunching into fists.

           Not that you’re angry with him, for he’s allowed to go as he pleases, but it would’ve been nice to say goodbye. Or he could be dead, for all you know, and how could you feel angry if that were the case? Your throat feels dry, suddenly. You still would’ve liked to say goodbye, somehow. To feel a bit close to him, as you should, what with your friendship means to you.

           You didn’t even get to tell him everything that you’d wanted to.

           You would’ve even faced rejection from him with a smile.

           Perhaps, now, it really is a matter of “if,” rather than that of “when.”

           You’ve resigned yourself to that as your truth, for the near half a year that he’s been gone.

           …So it’s beyond surprising when you find the Hero of Hisui at your door, after a long trek back from the mirelands.

           And what they tell you has you more readily awake than you’ve been in a while.

           Once you’ve both settled down, pleasantries ferried out of the way and with your teacups and a dish of dried berries at your side, they finally speak of what’s weighing on their mind.

           And why they’ve come to you, and not anyone else.

           It’s not as if the two of you aren’t friends; you’ve been open-minded and generous to them since your first day of meeting, and they’ve reciprocated all the same. So you’ve seen your fair share of the Hero of Hisui, infrequently spotted in town and usually out surveying. You’ve heard plenty about them as well, from the villagers, from a few of your colleagues, and even from Volo.

           He’d spoken of their curiosity about various ruins as well, but every time he’d mentioned them, there had clearly been something else on his mind too. A different kind of fascination. While you’d known that the hero’s presence was something that everyone in Hisui found interesting, to some degree at least, you couldn’t attribute the expression upon his face to just that.

           Not that you would ever question Volo about his veiled attention paid to the hero, though.

           And you could hold nothing against them either, for you doubted that they knew a thing of that at all.

           Apparently, you were wrong about that, too.

           “What do you think of Volo?”

           Hearing that name after such a long time, you can’t help blinking in surprise. You hardly have a second to hide it, as your heart is thudding in your chest, and you’re almost certain that they can hear it. They’ve definitely cut to the chase with such a question.

           Patiently, however, they await your answer.

           “We’ve been in the guild for a long time together,” you say quietly, examining their face for any signs that would give something away to you. “I suppose we’re friends, but I don’t know what he would think about that.”

           You chuckle, although it’s a sad noise. Then, you risk the question you know that they’re waiting for you to ask.

           “You’ve seen him then? He’s all right?”

           They nod.

           You set your chopsticks down.

           He’s… alive.

           Your heart clenches.

           The hero doesn’t miss how your eyes light up, or how your fingers twitch toward the little notebook perched upon the table between you. They give you a soft, knowing smile.

           “Yes. He’s a bit… worse off than when you’d seen him last, but he’s still assuredly Volo,” they answer with a quiet laugh. It seems strained, but even as you notice so, you don’t have it in you to ask why.

           You’re too busy thinking that he’s alive. Alive, somehow, after who knows what had even happened to him.

           And then, again, you realize that your guest is still waiting for your response.

           “That’s—that’s good, I guess,” you murmur briefly, your trembling hands sliding into your lap. “He normally doesn’t come back for weeks, and it’s been much longer, so, against my better judgement, I started worrying about him.”

           Your own unsteady laugh wavers through the air, and you know that the hero is looking at you with that same compassion that they’ve always had.

           For some reason, you’re continuing on, your eyes wandering over the worn papers spread out in front of you. “I’m sure you’ve heard, but people have been wondering where he’s gone—so much so that they’ve come up with the idea that the black shadow upon Mount Coronet, from all those months ago, may have taken him.”

           You don’t miss how the hero stiffens, just in your periphery, when they hear what you’d said.

           “Well, maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but,” they start hesitantly, and you raise your head to try and meet their shifting eyes, “that isn’t exactly too far from the truth.”

           “What do you mean?”

           Subconsciously, you lean over the table toward them.

           They sigh in defeat, knowing they’ve said too much.

           “Volo had something to do with it, but he’s safe. There’s no threat of the shadow anymore. I’ve made sure of that.” They run a hand along their neck, as though easing a crick out of it. “He’s been staying with Cogita since then, but I’ve been visiting him to see how he’s been doing.”

           “Then he really is all right, under your and Cogita’s care,” you breathe out in relief, your lips tilting into a tired smile.

           “I suppose so.” They laugh offhandedly, but you see a flash of pain dart through their eyes.

           There’s a short pause, and then, you breathe in deeply, before deciding to get straight to the point.

           “Why are you telling me this, though? There’s a reason why he hasn’t returned to the village or even sent word to Ginter of his whereabouts. And since the secret is well-guarded with you and Cogita, I don’t think there’s any point to speaking to me about this.”

           The hero immediately shakes their head.

           “…I’ve seen the way you look at Volo, you know.”

           Your jaw nearly goes slack.

           “That’s nothing you should worry about!” you tell them hurriedly instead, waving a hand in some poor attempt to steer them to a different conclusion.

           You swear that your cheeks are tinted a shade darker.

           Sympathetically, they reach across the table, the gesture meant to reassure you, as they say your name gently.

           “It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone.” They look to you with a tight smile, but there’s a staunch determination steeled behind their eyes. “I just wanted you to know that Volo is okay. It only seemed right to tell you. You’ve known him a long time.”

           “Thank you. Though, I’m not sure that means much to him.”

           Suddenly, their defiant eyes are searching yours, and then they say firmly, “I think it does. He’s changed, in these past months.”

           You spend a moment scrutinizing the finality in their expression. What do they mean that he’s “changed”? You should be happy that he’s still in Hisui, but you find that you’re only feeling inexplicably nervous.

           And then you sigh, giving in to whatever it is that they’re implying.

           Hopefully, he hasn’t changed beyond what you know. But what do I really know? The thought is hastily shoved aside; you really have come to love that whimsical air about him, the pretty smile he would flash your way, and the excitement he reserved for the ruins. Your lips turn upward. And even how he’d tease you, as insufferable as he could be.

           “He mentions you sometimes, and he’s never done that before. Not frequently in the time I’ve known him, until recently.”

           You’re brought back to reality when you hear what the hero says, and then you try to control the frantic beating of your heart. “…That’s surprising. Volo has never been the type to say much about anyone else, really, or himself. But if he spoke about me, it must’ve only been concerning the guild.”

           “Like I said,” they repeat, although their words are soft, “he’s… changed. It wasn’t about the guild. It was about how you’d seemed to like the ruins almost as much as he did.”

           “He spoke of you and your interest in the ruins as well,” you attempt to counter, fiddling with the empty ink stone near your brush.

           Again, they shake their head. “That was a given, considering everything that brought me here. It’s different, with you. You’re the first person he’s spoken of since—”

           Their chopsticks halt halfway to the plate of fruit, and then they continue on, as if they hadn’t paused at all.

           “Since he decided not to return to the village.”

           Why?

           “What happened to him?”

           The question is out before you can stop yourself, and the hero casts their eyes downward, another weary breath escaping their lips.

           “He has a lot on his mind. Many things have happened, and I—I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you more.”

           “No, no, I understand,” you respond quickly, hoping that they won’t blame themselves for whatever it is that they can’t say. “It’s already enough that you’ve told me all of this. Thank you.”

           They’ve returned to picking at the dried berries again; it’s an obviously subconscious action, meant to distract more than anything else. “With how he’s changed, I think he’ll tell you himself, one day. You’ll see him, I’m sure of it.”

           And then, you can’t find anything to say. What could have possibly happened to him? You’ve known him for years, and yet, you still don’t really know his true self. It’s hard for you to think of anything that could rattle him so much—so much that he wouldn’t want to come back at all.

           But you remain silent, and instead, your hands drift to your notebook.

           You don’t know how Volo has changed, but you can only hope that he should still find love for what drew you to him in the first place.

           “If you see him again, then,” you begin, as you tuck the last of your pages into the notebook, “please, give him this.”

           The Hero of Hisui nods, and then their eyes are fixed on you. There’s an unflinching resolution burning behind their eyes, and suddenly, you find another reason for how fitting their title truly is.

           “I will.”

           You don’t see them again for a while, after that. It’s back to surveying for them, most likely, and for you, it’s back to jogging about Hisui and camping out in the wilderness for days on end.

           Even with the new knowledge you’ve gained about Volo, you don’t find anything really changes for you, from day to day. Weeks turn into months, and of course, you still think of him, but it’s not as if you can do more than just that. It wouldn’t be right for you to visit him; Cogita has no real idea of who you are either, and barging into her retreat without warning would be beyond rude.

           Then as always, you’re content to just know that he’s alive and well.

           That’s what you tell yourself, anyway.

           From your side, as you both sit by the campfire, Staraptor warbles, the melodic sound meant to comfort you.

           “Thank you.” Your fingers dig into his fluffy feathers, and he snuggles against your cheek.

           You don’t know how long you sit together like that; it’s a pleasant moment you spend with your Pokémon whenever you’re traveling, and easy for you to lose track of time. Against the wiser side of your mind, you usually doze off, the gentle ambience of a welcoming fire too hard to ignore. Staraptor would always warn you whenever something would approach, anyway—

           He freezes against you, and then you feel more than hear his low, rolling growl. Instantly alert, you crouch forward while Staraptor puffs out his wings and adopts a similar, aggressive stance.

           “Who’s there?”

           Snap!

           You hear the snapping of a twig underfoot, and then there’s the too noisy rustling of leaves for something to be attempting a sneak attack. It’s as if they want to be found out. Besides that, Staraptor’s gaze is pinned on a shadow moving directly in front of you, and you sense no malicious intent from whatever is approaching you.

           Another shuffling of dead underbrush, and then…

           “No need to be so hostile! Surely, I’m a friendly face?”

           It can’t be.

           The Hero of Hisui was right. You really would see him again.

           Staraptor chirps an amicable greeting, and you wish that you could so easily do the same.

           But when you see that same blond hair, when you hear the way he says your name, when you finally see him standing just behind the fire, the flickering light defining every part of him that you can now fully acknowledge you’d missed—

           It really is Volo.

           He doesn’t look much different, save for the fact that his clothes—kimono top, everyday pants, boots, and an appropriate jacket for the chilly weather—are typical for the people of Jubilife Village. His hair is still tied back into a bun, and his bangs still sweep over his eye. The basics of his appearance seem so unchanged, and yet, you recognize what the hero had meant.

           He is different.

           He’s… changed.

           It’s in his demeanor—that although friendly and warm like you’d known it to be, it’s become somewhat subdued, and more serious.

           It’s in the way his face seems hardened, as if he’d fought through some trial you would never understand. It’s in the way his eye, still gleaming with a familiarity that you should be grateful to see, hides something more solemn behind its ashen gray.

           What happened to you, Volo?

           That’s not at all what you say to him, however.

           You can’t.

           “Volo. You’ve always had an impeccable talent for showing up unannounced, and being unnoticed while doing so.”

           His lips slant into a perceptive smile.

           “Did I?”

           You laugh shortly, withdrawing Staraptor into his Poké ball for the night. “The way you’d arrived here wouldn’t exactly prove otherwise.”

           “A fair point.”

           Then, it’s quiet between you two. It’s not an awkward reunion, though you do feel that there’s something missing—or something new?—between you both. It’s been months, and maybe that’s just it. You can’t quite tell. Only the cackling fire and murmuring wind are speaking now, but then, feeling that you’ve waited long enough, you finally invite him to sit down, albeit upon the rickety, but hardy, wooden folding stool you’ve touted along on each of your trips.

           Somehow, Volo still smiles when the stool creaks beneath his weight, but refuses to buckle.

           He looks somewhat comical—such a broad figure hunched over such a tiny thing. You can’t quite laugh about it, however, when you find there’s a more austere topic occupying your mind.        

           “How did you find me here?”

           Volo’s smile widens, and your heart flutters, just as it always had when you’d see that full smile.

           “You told me you always enjoyed traveling during autumn,” he reminds you with a quiet chuckle, and your heart unfortunately lurches at the pleasant sound, “and especially along the trails at the foot of Mount Coronet.”

           You’re surprised that he remembers such a supposedly trivial thing.

           It must show on your face, because Volo then leans forward, his elbows propping up on his knees, as he gazes at you from across the fire. You try to ignore the fact that he’s so fixated on you in this moment, but it’s difficult when you can feel the heat spreading across your cheeks.

           This hasn’t changed, it looks like.

           He still seems to enjoy seeing you like this as well, and perhaps that’s why he’s continuing to reminisce.

           “Most others in the guild thought you strange for wanting to fight your way up to the highlands, especially when the seasonal chill was just beginning to set in.”

           “It’s always been quiet, and the scenery’s peaceful.”

           With a nod as if confirming your words just as he’d remembered them, Volo smiles.

           And then, everything is right, for just a moment.

           “What are you doing here, though, Volo?”

           You don’t mean to offend, and although you’re happy to see him, you don’t understand why he’s here.

           Why you, why now—just why?

           His lips twitch upward. “I can’t visit the only one who made my time with the guild worthwhile?”

           “While I’m glad to see you, it would’ve been easier to visit me back in my quarters, and not out here,” you point out, neglecting to comment on his rather endearing reference to you.

           You wonder how you’ve kept your words so even throughout this all.

           Chuckling, although the sound is tinged with a heavier note than anticipated, Volo regards you calmly, his expression turning neutral.

           “I see there’s no room to humor you here.”

           You don’t repeat your question, but the stare you give him from over the fire informs him enough about the levels of your patience for his roundabout speech.

           He sighs, and then braces his hands over his knees.

           “I will be leaving Hisui to travel across the other regions,” Volo declares firmly, his eye training on you, as though evaluating what you’ll probably say. “I’ve learned there are many places that have much knowledge to offer, and I don’t think I can idly sit by, after discovering so.”

           Volo, leaving Hisui?

           With his nature, with his constant quest to learn more, you figure that it really is inevitable.

           But still, that doesn’t stop you from wondering why it has to be so.

           And so suddenly, when you’ve only just found him again.

           “So this time…” Your heartbeat drums in your ears. “You’re telling me that you’re leaving, unlike months before, when you’d disappeared without saying anything.”

           Obviously detecting the disapproval in your tone, he shakes his head. “I apologize for that. But I don’t intend to only tell you this for mere formalities’ sake. Not as a former guildmate.”

           Your fingers grip at the edges of your sweater, and you’re practically holding your breath.

           …What?

           “Will you come with me, when the time arrives?”

           You nearly recoil in absolute shock.

           “Me? Why?”

           You must’ve heard him incorrectly.

           “I’ve done some… reflecting,” pronounces Volo deliberately, and you know he’s referring to his time with the Hero of Hisui and Cogita, “and I remembered you.”

           You suddenly recall the Hero of Hisui’s words about your worry that your years beside him mean nothing in particular to him.

           “I think it does.”  

           Could they be right, again?

           “I thought about you more, every day after I received your notes.” His voice is hushed, a faraway look painting over his features. “They kept me grounded, in a way, reminding me that you would still be here, even after all I’ve done.”

           There’s too much going on for you to understand it all in the moment. What does he mean? After all he’s done? What exactly did he do?

           “You—”

           But then he’s suddenly here. He’s somehow seated before you, and his fingers are caressing your chin, with a featherlight touch that you would’ve missed had you not been so focused on him.

           Your breath hitches in your throat.

           “Breathe,” he whispers softly, his words almost spoken against your lips.

           That doesn’t do much to help you, but somehow, you manage to stiffly exhale through your nose, and Volo chuckles at your reaction.

           “You’ve always been so amusing.” His eye is half-lidded as he regards you fondly, something akin to reverence coloring his tone. “So amusing to want to stay by my side, unlike anyone else—that you were always so willing to right my mistakes with the guild, and that you wanted to share my passion for knowledge.”

           How can he switch to being like this, now? With everything he’s just told you?

           “And that’s…” You swallow thickly, and you swear that his eye tracks downward, following the motion along your neck. “That’s why you remembered me?”

           Gently, Volo glides a thumb across your lips, and you do your best to withhold a shiver. At his warmth, at his closeness, you can just barely make out the mischief flashing in his eye before he prompts,

           “I think I may be able to show you why, if I may?”

           Oh. Of course, they’re right.

           But you really can’t think now, not with how his hands have moved to frame your face, and how he’s leaning into you, so close that realize you’re huddled just between his legs.

           You’re nodding before you even notice it; you vaguely hear him hum in approval as he shifts in his seat.

           And then, you forget everything else, when his lips brush against yours.

           It’s a simple, gentle kiss, like nothing you’ve ever imagined—nothing you could think of would amount to the feeling of his lips upon yours. They’re soft, and he’s surprisingly slow in how he treats you, a tenderness behind his kiss that has you abruptly thinking that you never want to let him go. You always want to be surrounded by his warmth, and it couldn’t be selfish of you to want it to be so. How could it be? How could it be, when Volo is here with you now, cradling your cheeks so delicately and kissing you so sweetly that you can only think of him?

           Just one kiss can inhibit you so, and you assume that that’s all, when he lazily breaks away, for you don’t even know what exactly this kiss means, and that it’s more than you can take.

           But you’re proven wrong, once again.

           Emboldened suddenly, as if bestowed a burst of confidence by how your fingers refuse to let go of his jacket, Volo dips his head toward you again. You’re not even aware you’re clutching his clothes so tightly, but he is. And he seizes the moment—nuzzling into your neck as his lips ghost along your skin.

            He’s rewarded with a startled squeak when he nips at you, and he can’t help laughing lightly, warm breath puffing against your neck. It doesn’t aid in bringing your rising temperature down any, forcing the opposite instead, and you glare at him halfheartedly.

           “H-hey—”

           You start to protest, but whatever thought you’d had is swiftly abandoned when his teeth graze over your skin.

           He drops a kiss to the column of your neck, but it’s unlike the one he’d pressed to your lips. A surging heat, as if fueled by the flame of some repressed desire, curls against your skin, and you’ve never known anything like it. But I want more of it, some hazy cloud of your mind supplies, and you’re strangely hot and annoyed all the same, that he knows as well, especially when you can feel his tongue trace along your pulse. It shouldn’t surprise you that he’s a tease even at a time like this, but it’s rightfully unfair that he should somehow know exactly how to set you off.

           “Stop—stop teasing!” you gasp out unexpectedly, although your words are breathier and much higher pitched than you’d liked to actually threaten him at all.

           As if challenging you to say more, Volo stops, his breath fanning against you still, and then angles his head toward you. Glinting in the dancing firelight, his eye meets yours with a scorching gaze, and you suddenly can say nothing more. There’s a playful smile on his lips, but something absolutely carnal is lurking behind that deceptively innocent expression.

           His voice delves low, into something rough, something dangerous.

           “Who’s teasing?”

           And then, without allowing you a moment to rest, he steals your breath away once more.

           …Perhaps you’ll be giving him your answer quite soon, and it’ll be the one that he wants to hear.

           And the one you’ve wished for all along.

— — —

[end].

I’ll leave it up to you if Volo actually really likes you in a healthy way or not and if you go along with him. :p I’d like to think yes and yes, because Cogita + hero teaching Volo some things during his Redemption™ would most definitely be about that there are people who are supporting you, and you should try to value them a little.

And I guess this is how Volo shows you he values you :)

#volo x reader #i think i'm free every week but then i get pulled right back into volo degeneracy #lowkey tempted to continue this too but IDK

[a-tale-of-legends]

Oooooh. Hm. Hmmmm.

If the Spooky Plate is what ultimately got Volo to come into contact with Giratina, I can't help but wonder what this means for Zero. His clan used to worship Giratina, maybe the spooky plate was originally under their protection? Or rather under the protection of the first clan leader. And then years upon years later, Volo found it. A small piece of the platinum clan history, within his hands. No, for me, I don't think he even knew until Cogita told him stories of the platinum clan long ago ( something she isn't too familiar with given she was part of the Celestica Clan, who her accounts aren't exactly spot on). When she tells him of the clan, his mind immediately goes to Zero. He is holding a piece of Zero's history.

There's two ways I can go about this.

Option 1: He doesn't tell Zero. Or anyone for that fact, but definitely not Zero. What he and Giratina plans for....would honestly hurt Zero's soul. Heck, at first, he wasn't even bothering with the plates since he thought the space time distortions would be enough to bring Arceus down. So his plan with the plates don't even come until he realizes his initial plan isn't working. But even so, it's an asshole thing to do to keep this information from Zero, knowing that Zero has been so conflicted with his history and his connection to his long forgotten. So that's why there Option 2!

Option 2: Volo does tell Zero about the spooky stone. Only Zero, I don't even think Cogita knee about it.....and if she did, she probably didn't think Volo would do much with it(again, she did not know much about the platinum clan, so she didn't exactly know the power of the spooky plate). Honestly the more I think about option 1 the more I think how cruel it would have been for Volo to do this, when the basis of his and Zero's love is that they both don't fully know of their past and don't know their place in the world. Volo is always still searching, but he at least has Cogita and ruins to give him some insight to that past. Zero does not. So of course, he would show Zero the spooky plate. Even if it isn't much, it's something that is connected to his lost clan. The only lie that he would tell is that he has felt nothing from the spooky plate: as in he has not gotten into contact with Giratina. I think that's the only lie that Volo would tell in this scenario, and honestly it's reasonable enough that he would do so. The real question is how Zero reacts to the plate. Or how the plate reacts to him. I have a few ideas but I won't go into them here.

Both options have potential for good drama, but I think option 2 is the one that better reflects Zero and Volo's relationship: trust, love, understanding, and a little lie that grows out of control. So I'm probably going to go with it.

#r rambles #legendverse #oc: zero yamamoto

[floaroanemoia]

“Either I’m embellishing a story for shocking effect, or I’m the only one telling the truth in a room full of liars.“ hi jess hows the weather

     A room full of liars.

     That is always what they have been—or, at least, those who played a hand in the young one’s banishment. Liars and thieves, who stumbled in upon the morning shore and in lieu of listening to the water and foam lapping at their feet, trying to usher them back into the sea, they tore themselves from it. When met with the vast land of Hisui, when their eyes fell upon the sight of fellow human beings who long knew the innerworkings of the region, they had claimed it theirs for the taking. A fresh canvas to build upon, even if it meant unknowingly using the foundations built by people millennia back. A dangerous, unviable place, that man had described it as, and the pokemon  even more so. The campsites among toppled and crumbling ruins vital, even if they could serve the same purpose away from what was once towns or temples to honour the stars, the unknowable, but was still home to the surviving few.

     From day one, the very premise that village had been built upon was a lie, perpetuated by the loyal, the persecuted and the lost.

      Sarana’s brow furrows, lips drawing into a line for what feels to be the umpteenth time within the span of a few minutes. Heart strings are tugged and pulled, scraping along the depths of her chest. This has gone too far now. The Nobles falling victim to frenzy, the sky taking upon itself both patterns and colours described only in tales told to the medium when she was a little girl. And now, the hero—the child—who sought to stop it all has been cast out. Banished by that same, lost liar. Left to die over nothing more than ill-placed suspicion.

     And in the name of their people, no less. The Celestica.

    Perhaps it would be easier, to simply accuse Volo of lying. Point the fingers at him to give her mind one more chance to refuse the reality placed before her—of that brave, young soul being left to fend on their own, and maybe already no longer of this world. He is a man with the tendency to embellish, that is true. A theatrical heart when it comes to tales that must be made taller for a certain response, or to heighten the value of an item no rarer than the dirt beneath their feet. But that is simply it—for stories. For sales. And she knows the tones, the inflections, the dramatic gestures and expressions which accompany them.

     He wears neither. From a glance up, stare as piercing as it had been before—sharpened, and yet terribly guarded; like a cornered creature ready to strike out at the slightest provocation—, the woman can tell that much. And what reason would have Volo to lie about this? No, in fact, the hushed voice, the shifting nature of his gaze, it resembles more of those rarer times. When his own smile had faded with the sunlight, and solemn words followed suit. Even if the version he has told her sounds far direr, and infinitely more unfair on the child, Sarana cannot see him lying about this. Far more likely would it be that those of the village have downplayed the situation, either to preserve their own morality, to give Kamado the benefit of the doubt, or to reassure themselves that the one who fell from the sky would be just fine on their own.

    Out there. In the cold climate of Hisui. With a couple of days to learn what she had been taught for over a decade, just to have the faintest chance of surviving more than a week.

          “…Very well, I believe you,”

     Fingers unlace themselves from beneath the medium’s chin, and with a swift movement, she falls back into the chair, a huff of air escaping from her form. Her head turns, and eyes shift to that accursed building’s side, inwardly cursing how it dares to take its colours from the sunrise. She must find them—before something else does. Something dangerous, or someone willing to prey on vulnerabilities. With the sun setting, and hours slipping by, there would be no time to assemble the others for a search party. They are too far; too spread out around the land. Sophora should be fast enough—her Ninetales and Zoroark proficient enough to track their scent. But perhaps, with this much knowledge on their situation, he might have heard the faintest hint of a last known location.

          “Volo. Where were they left? Do you know anything about where they might be?”

#long post #❁⊱⦃ ⏤ {ic.} ⦄⊰❁ #❁⊱⦃ ⏤ {ask.} ⦄⊰❁ #volot #{Volo.} #[hi lucian :) idk hows the weather for you :)) } #{but i Am shaking the train wifi please i am begging you post this} #{moments sarana will kick herself for later post-pla no. 6564} #{not pictured: her probably pacing around the room so fast she'd probably be digging tracks into the floorboards moments before}

[theviolenttomboy]

How would you like Pokespe to handle PLA?

I did say it a lot before, and I still stand by it: a PokeSpe PLA adaption has to be Doomed by Canon and end in tragedy.

So the following is a rough outline of a theoretical fanfic I’d write if I had the time/energy/motivation to do so (full disclosure, I don’t have any of those three things):

The event that led to Arceus officially noping out of Hisui was also what caused the destruction of the Celestica civilization; there was either a civil war or an invasion. Most of the people died and the survivors left. Some of the survivors ended up in Johto where they built the Sinjoh Ruins, in hopes that one day Arceus would return. They brought the Plates with them, but something caused the Plates to be scattered across Johto.

The Diamond and Pearl Clans eventually settled in and appropriated the Celestica culture without getting the full picture. They warred over their incorrect beliefs of Almighty Sinnoh, until Kamado and the Galaxy Team essentially forced them into a peace treaty. Tensions remained high, leading all three unable to work together when shit goes down.

Arceus never sent a human back in time. Ingo's still there and suffering because he fell in a rift (or maybe even through the Cave of Being).

We got Rei (representing emotion) and Akari (representing knowledge) (hey, the Rangers got to keep their canon names) paralleling their descendants, Diamond and Platinum. Unfortunately, in a cruel call-forward, Pearl's ancestor (representing willpower) isn't here, so the human spirit is incomplete, foreshadowing their future failure.

Most of the gameplay is dedicated to catching Pokemon, gathering resources, and throwing bags of food. That’d be tedious to go into detail in manga form and I’m assuming we’d work with less than 3 volumes of content. I’m kicking the frenzied Noble plot out entirely. The Plates also don’t factor in because they’re in Johto. Instead most of the time is dedicated to Akari exploring ruins with Volo while doing her fieldwork. She’s as hungry for knowledge as her descendant, and Volo has managed to convince her that if they find out the truth of Almighty Sinnoh, the Diamond and Pearl Clans will stop feuding and things will be more peaceful.

To mush the main game and post game plots into one, Volo's plan here is to create/find the Red Chain as to force Dialga and Palkia to fight, so that a space-time rift for Giratina to come through will be formed. He figures Giratina appearing will compel Arceus to come back to Hisui.

After some adventures and trials, Akari gets the Red Chain, only for Volo to knock her out, steal the Chain, and head up to the Temple of Sinnoh by himself.

The ensuing space-time distortions caused by the fight threaten to destroy all of Hisui. Some people nearby manage to get a glimpse of the battle, which gets them to building the Eterna Statue years later.

Rei and Akari try to battle Volo to get past him, but they’re not strong enough to beat him.

Dialga and Palkia break free of Volo’s control due to him having only one chain, but not before Giratina shows up. They all duke it out and kill each other, stopping the distortions...and Arceus still doesn't come down. Volo realizes despite everything he's done, all he’s suffered, it was all for naught. And his spirit breaks.

Shit, not even the bad guy gets out of having a bad ending here.

Cue epilogue, with everyone being miserable and traumatized. The Diamond and Pearl clans know about Dialga and Palkia now but they’re dead, Volo is wandering alone aimlessly, leaving things open ended enough for him to come back/have kids but it’s clear how broken he is, Akari is still shaken up by Volo’s betrayal, and Cyllene vows to be more proactive in protecting Hisui, which unfortunately leads to a cycle of abuse in her descendants that eventually ends in Cyrus’ myriad of issues.

The only things stopping this from being a full blown angst-fest (for the readers) is the knowledge that by present day, Arceus eventually did get its heart healed and the Creation Trio gets revived.

The Sinnoh Trio, in modern day, read all/most of this in old diaries/records that they find in the Berlitz personal library. Moon's there too.

#ask tvt #i had this in my drafts for awhile #eh heh #pokespe #pokemon special

[inkinary]

Sooo 2 Volo questions >:3c

1) whats ur headcanon for what happened to the celestica? A lot of theories go full indig. genocide but its so dark.... i wrote them as becoming diasporic in my only longfic handling the idea

2) haaaave you joined the discords :333

OH BOY.

HERE WE GO.

So I HC that Volo IS a Celestican, and originates from the now ruins up in the Coronet Highlands. My personal ideas for the Celesticans is that Volo (at the time young, about teenaged) being the only one of his people that had never communicated with Arceus (Even his little brother Davi), tried everything he could to get the Legend's attention. Lots of people thought he was cursed, even his grandparents.... and he started to believe it.

Years of doing exactly what the elders suggested but still he was never able to summon the Alpha Pokémon with the Azure flute like all his family had before him. Having a penchant for history and learning, he begins to collect old legends and folklore from every manuscript and book the Celestican people had, and even a few that he found himself. He learned of the legends of the origin trio, and how the master of dimensions, Giratina, had been cast to the mirror realm to (supposedly) Protect the common realm from his wrath. knowing this information, he gets (The VERY STUPID and VERY SHORT SIGHTED) idea to break the creature free, hoping that such an action would gain the attention of Arceus.

Well...

It didn't.

Instead, he broke the space-time-dimensions continuum as Giratina was forced into the realm of reality. The surrounding areas were as if Thanos-snapped out of existence in a vacuum of darkness and terror. All his people, all his culture, his family... it was like it never had existed at all. Only a few broken pieces of what once was the unbreaking city remained, along with a broken statue of the creature he had summoned with an inscription in Celeste below it.

"Woe to those who forget my name,

And woe to those who remember.

One thinks of me as but a game,

And the other is torn assunder."

He lost everything in one day... it was all his fault... and he would do ANYTHING to fix it.

So yeah... Mine's a bit full on extinction by a boy who was just trying to do what he THOUGHT was the right thing. It was the only thing that made sense to me at the time of me writing the ideas down. I actually go into this (A modified version of it anyway) in the future chapters of my book 'Fractured Sky'... but it will be a bit bofore i get to THOSE chapters hehehehehe....

DISCORD!? I don't think I have? Maybe DM me the link or sumthin?

#InklingAsks #pokemon #volo #HeadcannonCentral #I make my own lore when they dont give me any #asks

[esprei]

Lil theory of mine is that Volo could've helped build the Sinjoh ruins, it's got elements from from Spear Pillar, as what it became instead of the Temple of Sinnoh, could be people from the future who've only ever seen it like that, could be Volo whose literally responsible for why it's like that. The wiki said two groups of people built it, one from Johto and one from Sinnoh and he's part of the Celestica People, so maybe? Maybe even with our old friends from Hisui, redemption arc idk.

OOOOHH THIS IS REALLY INTERESTING i haven't thought much around the Sinjoh Ruins let alone a possibility that Volo had a hand in building it... i'm gonna look into this more 👀 thank you for bringing this to my attention anon 💖

#anonymous #asks #i still have much actual pokemon lore to learn #i've never been as invested in it as i am now thanks to pla #especially things relating to the twins or volo #also the manga OMG the manga has helped me with some things lately that i want to write for and like #i've learned some crazy things

[midnightbrushandquill]

Linear Alternator: Prologue - Voicemails

Chapter Summary:  Five voicemails Elesa receives, and one she doesn't

Tags: non-graphic injury, PLA protagonist is not DPPt protagonist, Gaslighting, its not done on purpose (except maybe volo) but it does happen, Tags to be updated as we go

Summary: When Ingo disappeared, Emmet lost his spark. Elesa was doing her best, but it wasn't enough. Even as close as they were, she wasn't his brother, and Emmet needed his brother. So she was going to get him back, no matter what. 

With the rift closed, Rei really thought things were starting to get better. He hadn't seen Ingo for three weeks now, which shouldn't have been abnormal, given the circumstances, but then, normal circumstances didn't include everyone seemingly having forgotten his existence, did they? And if Ingo had never existed in Hisui, then who is the real warden of Sneasler, and how come Rei is the only one who cant remember her?

Next

On AO3

Prologue for a multi-chapter fic I’ve been working on that I’m calling the Volt Switch AU.  I’ve got the first proper chapter already done, so it should be up later.

Hi, you’ve reached Elesa! I can’t pick up right now, so leave a message!

*Beep*

Hi bestie! It’s Skyla! I got your text that your flight made it safely! You’re probably still sleeping off the jetlag, but I hope you enjoy your time in Sinnoh! It’s been so long since you took a proper vacation like this. I want you to focus on having fun, so don’t worry too much about calling me lots, but text me! And I want to see tons of pictures when you get back! Ok, bye! Have fun!

I…. really Elesa. You deserve a proper break after everything. Take care of yourself, okay?

                                                         ⭒─⭑─⭒

Hi, Elesa? This is Roark. The Oreburgh gym leader? Sorry I missed your call earlier, the signal in the Underground isn’t great. ha. I- uh. You said in your message you were interested in the kind of stuff people dig up down there? I have to say, it’s not a conversation I was expecting to have with someone of your reputation, but if you’re able to stop by the gym while you’re in town, I’d be more than happy to have it! Most of my interest lies in the fossils, but, uh, hey, I’ll send you my grandfather’s address in Eterna City. If you really want to dig down on it, he knows anything you could want to know about those tunnels!

Anyways, let me know!

                                                        ⭒─⭑─⭒

Hello, this is Lenora calling. Apologies if it's late where you are. I got your email about the potential artefacts you found in Sinnoh’s underground? I’ll follow up in writing, but I have particular interest in those plates. Similar artefacts have been found in Kalos and Alola, as well as here, in the Abyssal Ruins. May I forward your pictures to Cynthia? You didn’t include her originally; I know she has been very busy, but we have discussed potential theories on these plates before, as well as their connection in some stories to the Celestica Flutes of the original clans. She will be interested, I think, in this discovery. She is a leading expert in the history of Sinnoh after all. I hope your trip has been wonderful so far.

                                                       ⭒─⭑─⭒

Hi Miss Elesa. My name is Lucas. I work with Professor Rowan. You don’t know me but…. I. I overheard your conversation with Cynthia, and… I think- no, I know what you’re looking for.  I want to help. Cynthia, my friends, the Professor, they… they wouldn’t get it, OK, but I do. I know- I.

I know exactly what it’s like to lose someone without closure, and to feel like you’d do anything to find them, or even just for answers. I- I’ve- I want to help.

Cynthia may be the mythology expert, but I have family history here, and I promise. I know more than you’d think. Please, call me back.

                                                       ⭒─⭑─⭒

Elesa? Elesa pick up, please. I thought you were on vacation, not- I am worried about you. Verrrry worried. Please. I did not understand your last message. It sounded like- Elesa. You are not doing something foolish? Do not do anything foolish.  Please. Answer my calls Elesa. I didn’t- If I- Elesa, I don’t want to lose you. I cannot lose you too. Elesa, talk to me.

I am Emmet, and I am verrrry sorry. Please call.

*Click*

                                             ⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

Thank you for calling the Nimbasa Gym. The person at this extension is not available. Please leave a short message after the tone. To leave a callback number, please press 1 now.

*Beep*

Hey boss, it's Ampère. You uh, are really never going to update from the default voicemail message huh? You’ve only been the gym leader for how long now? Anyways, I was just calling to update, since I know you’re checking your work phone, even if you’re supposed to be on vacay: my ratio of gym losses is only slightly worse than yours. If you don’t hurry up and come back, I’m going to surpass you!

I’m joking of course. Enjoy your vacation Ingo. Do not call me back before it’s over.

*Click*

#pokemon #pla #pokemon legends arceus #elesa #ingo #submas #writing #fanfic #blankshippers dni #midnightquill #volt switch au

[yama951]

Pastoria Settlement, Crimson Mirelands, Hisui Region, 1804 AC

The Diamond Clan was very friendly, in Dawn’s opinion, then again they were so sure that she came from the future and really wanted to know about it. She did try to make excuses, from being busy with her actual work for the Galaxy Team to the fact that written records lasted longer, stayed more accurate and easily spread around so there won’t be a lot of Diamond Clan records of who married who or where hidden riches were to be found to telling them that she’s not a native of Pastoria to the fears of time paradoxes and future shock, which they surprisingly already thought of and understood as an idea, which in hindsight made sense for the worshippers of time to try to understand how it all works.

Luckily the Miyamizu family let her stay with them while she was in the Mirelands. Unlike the rest of the nosy Diamond Clan members, the Miyamizus didn’t ask her about the future. Futaba wasn’t interested in knowing who she’ll marry, wanting to keep it a surprise. Hitoha, on her part, was of the opinion that learning of the future would either prevent it from happening or forcing it to happen and she didn’t want to risk either situation. Better to live in the present than some future that may or may not happen.

Rei visited a few times in the weeks she stayed at the Mirelands, helping out the Galaxy Team set up the base camps.

It was during one of his visits when they were exploring the future Great Marsh that they met Calaba, who was in a grouchier mood given the robbery of a large chunk of the ancient mural she cleaned and maintained in her free time.

Volo joined them when he heard that an ancient Celestica ruin was robbed. He was honestly pissed off, almost brimming with murderous intent in her opinion.

The four soon found the bandits responsible and managed to chase them off after defeating their pokemon. They then carried the large mural chunk slowly and carefully together.

“Ugh, how did the Miss Fortune sisters manage to get this all the way to their camp?” Rei muttered.

“Are you sure we can’t use our pokemon to carry it?” Dawn asked.

“And damage it even further? This is a thousand, maybe even two thousand, year old history you are holding and I swear to Almighty Sinnoh if the mural becomes unreadable because of negligence.”

“Warden Calaba, please, I have a machoke. I’m sure he’ll be extra careful.” Dawn begged, her arms getting numb from all the group lifting. Calaba just snorted at that.

“Fine, fine, even I have to watch my health at my age.” she said as Dawn called out her machoke and he easily lifted it up. Everyone else sighed in relief. “Honestly, that Coin, when did she turn bandit and abandon the Pearl Clan…” she muttered to herself. She then glanced at the machoke, giving a stern glare at the pokemon. The machoke became nervous, standing up even straighter. “If you drop or damage the mural, I will use you as a naginata training dummy, you hear.”

“M-ma machoke!”

Calaba simply huffed and led the way back to the ruin as the sun slowly set and guided the machoke to where to put back the missing chunk of the mural on the stone wall.

The machoke sighed in relief as nothing bad happened while Dawn patted his back.

“I wonder what the mural says.” Rei asked as the four glanced at the restored ancient mural.

“I have some knowledge of ancient writing.” Volo suggested with a finger waggle.

“Oh sure, ignore the old woman who spent her life maintaining the mural and worked as the warden of Ursaluna. I’m sure she has no idea what it says and just likes the pretty shapes on the wall.” Calaba sarcastically said.

“Well, I’m sure you have a much more accurate translation of the ancient writing, honored elder.” Volo said with a smile and a slight bow to Calaba.

“... you need to work on your back sass if you want to give an underhanded insult without people noticing. I’m sure you’ll have more time to train on customers.”

Volo’s grin turned strained.

“R-right. Thank you for the advice.”

“Anyway, the words of the mural is this. ‘All lives touch other lives to create something anew and alive’. I’ve read this passage many, many times, and I thought I understood the fullness of its meaning.” Calaba’s face turned softer as she glanced at Rei, Dawn, Volo, and even Dawn’s machoke still kneeling on the ground. “I thought it only applied to within the Pearl Clan, our partner pokemon and the Celestica people, and perhaps out towards the Diamond Clan, but perhaps the true meaning of the words is much more vast and inclusive than that.” she then sighed. “Now come on, all of you,” she faced the machoke, “Yes, you too. I should reward you all with something, and I’m sure my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter would be delighted for a surprise visit under my volition this time. Maybe my son Wabisuke came back from Jubilife Village today with all those foreign toys he loves to tinker with.” she said as she made everyone head back to the Pastoria settlement before it became dark.

“Hey, wait, isn’t this the Miyamizu yurt?” Dawn pointed out as the door opened.

“Granny? Now this is a surprise.” Futaba said.

“Hello there Futaba. Is your mother around?” Calaba said as she entered the yurt. “We’re here to celebrate with a hearty meal. Some bandits try to make off with a fragment of the mural I kept clean all these years but we all managed to chase them off and get it back. And so I’m treating them all with dinner and hospitality for the night.”

Futaba chuckled at that.

“Come in, come in.” she said to Rei, Volo, and Dawn’s machoke. “Mother’s weaving a linking cord at the moment but please, stay for dinner at least.”

“Well, one can’t say no to free food.” Volo said with a grin as they entered the yurt and had dinner. They even called out their pokemon to help with the cooking and join in eating.

It was all quite soft and cozy, in Dawn’s opinion, as they all ate together and eventually had fun after eating. She even watched Futaba and Calaba play some rounds of koi-koi before she walked around to find Hitoha finishing off a linking cord.

“I see you’re having fun.” she said with a grin as Dawn became rather interested at the cords and the many colored threads in making them. “First time you saw a linking cord, Dawn?”

“Yeah, well, they’re still being made in my time but they never really do what the stories said they do.”

“And what would that be? Connecting one’s true love perhaps? I don’t know when that started but somehow a plain red linking cord became a symbol of true love, beyond the span of time, or space as the Pearl Clan would say. Yellow cords for friendship, blue for family ties…”

“I… I should write that down. It’s the first time I've heard of that for colors other than red. I mean the stories that it evolve certain pokemon.”

“Oh? But they do. As long as you put your heart and soul into the cord when you give it to your pokemon, they will evolve. As my mother-in-law would say, ‘all lives touch other lives to create something anew and alive’, the linking cord is the manifestation of that. As long as the meaning of the cords is remembered, then it would work in evolving those four pokemon, machoke, kadabra, graveler, and haunter. Many wise men and women wondered why these four evolved by such an act. Some say they represent the body, mind, will, and spirit, respectively. Others say that they evolve by the act of forming strong bonds with one another. One story said that a couple’s shared kadabra evolved into an alakazam after bringing enough letters back and forth between them despite the vast distances separating them. Do you want one for your machoke? It might be a bit intensive but I think it’s better to make them by hand than to just buy it off and hope that it works.”

“I do want one. I need to fill out the pokedex somehow. But yeah, linking cords doesn’t work in my time. It’s something that mostly happens when they get traded through specialized machines. I wonder if it’s due to the Marsh Plague making the old stories disappear.” Dawn said before she covered her mouth. “P-please don’t tell anyone in the clan.”

“I won’t. Change is something we all must accept after all. I won’t be surprised if the whole settlement decides to move from our current spot. It tends to happen every generation or so.”

“Well, the Pastoria City I know was settled south from here, south of the marsh, since the area has the ingredients necessary to cure the Marsh Plague, ironically. They would use the same ingredients in curing an even worse plague that went global some years later.” Dawn said, though Hitoha made no comment on that.

“You can pick the colors if you want.” she said, letting Dawn pick among the various threads.

“Hmm, gray, black, red, and, hmm, yellow or brown… let’s go with yellow.”

“Now, sit in front of the spare loom and repeat after me.” Hitoha said as the two then started weaving their linking cords.

“I’m sure that if you put your spirit through the cord as you make it, it will help your machoke evolve. It’s not the only legend attributed to the linking cord. Among the Diamond Clan, a linking cord is said to tie together moments of time, to help remember old memories, usually happy times. Both clans use it for marriage ceremonies, though the meaning behind them is different. While to the Diamond Clan, it’s to remember the joy and vows made, for the Pearl Clan, it’s to keep the bond of the married couple strong no matter how far separated they become. My wedding was an eclectic mix of both clan traditions.” she said with a grin. She then sighed.

“It is sad to hear that the meaning behind the linking cord gets lost in due time. It will happen eventually but still, to hear the proof of it is different from having an idea of it in one’s mind. But at least the meaning survives in a different form. Maybe the same could be said of the Diamond Clan, if this Marsh Plague were to hit us that badly…”

“I… I don’t know. The Marsh Plague struck the Diamond Clan, the Great Blizzard struck the Pearl Clan, the Great Jubilife Fire destroyed most of the Galaxy Team’s written records… a lot of stuff gets lost. Though Captain Cyllene did make her own records and passed them down. I mean, will do it. She hasn’t written anything down yet.”

“Well, did anything happen to holy Michina? They have their own records.”

“The records are extensive but I don’t recall anything happening to Michina Town…” Dawn then paused and tilted her head down in realization. “We could have put a separate set of records in Michina Town…”

“I don’t want to give your hopes up, especially given how far back the Michina records are and how there’s not many people there to keep track of everything and prevent time from damaging them.”

Dawn sighed as she returned to her weaving.

“You got a point there, but it still doesn’t hurt to try.”

Hitoha simply nodded in agreement as the two weaved.

A few days later, Dawn and Rei were doing their survey work when a space-time distortion struck nearby. It was a surreal sight as a bubble of warped space-time appeared.

The duo entered the distortion and explored.

“What sort of pokemon is that?” Rei muttered as they saw what looked like pink and blue shapes.

“Those are porygon. But, they weren’t even created yet.” Dawn muttered out in shock.

“Space-time distortion.”

“Right, right, should we catch it? I mean, they’re not from this time period.”

“True, but you said you were tasked to catch all pokemon in Hisui. I don’t think there’s an exception to it, right?”

Dawn sighed.

“You got a point there. I still say this is going to be a headache for the future though.” Dawn said as she then went to catch the various porygon.

As they headed out with their satchels full of various stuff and newly caught porygon, they found an interesting device within the distortion.

“Wait, is that a vending machine?” Dawn muttered at the sight. “You know what,” she muttered as she called out her machoke. “Machoke, pick that up and let’s head out.”

They soon got out of the distortion before it vanished. Rei looked at Dawn and the strange box-like machine. It looked odd, a strange blend of natural and unnatural. It has a wooden appearance mixed with odd black and white materials with a covered indent near the bottom side and a glowing white rectangular area that covers most of the area above the hole.

“So, why did you decide to pick up… whatever that’s supposed to be?”

“It’s a vending machine, I think. It’s basically a device that sells snacks, well, usually snacks. You pay for what you want and you get the snack out of it from the bottom flap area.” Dawn said as she looked at it closer. “Though, it doesn’t look like a vending machine I know.” she then touched the glowing rectangle and images and letters appeared on it.

Aniseed City Public Autocook, ready for use

Dawn looked at it in shock as they saw various food stuff, a few known and most unknown, being shown on the screen.

“Uh, put it down. I want to test this.” Dawn said as her machoke put it down, curious as well. Looking around, Dawn began pressing on the keyboard on the screen.

POTATO MOCHI

She then pressed enter and they watched as a paper plate full of cooked potato mochi with wooden chopsticks was seemingly printed out from the bottom indent in what looked like a silvery cloud that vanished once it finished making the meal. The translucent flap then slid up and the three looked at the potato mochi in silence.

“It’s a replicator… a food replicator… this is… this is wow… Of all the things it could be, it’s a highly advanced food replicator. It’s like something from Barry’s sci-fi shows.”

“Dawn… you’re starting to freak me out here. Is it bad or is it good?” Rei asked, not wanting to pull the plate of potato mochi out.

“Well, it’s good in the sense that with this, hunger and starvation is now nonexistent. It can literally make whatever food it could give, with enough material and I think this accepts organic trash in making it. It’s bad since it’ll destroy any need for farming and cooking until it breaks…” Dawn said as she pulled out the plate and took a bite of the potato mochi. “It’s good! Try it.” Rei and her machoke ended up eating one and a look of awe graced their faces.

“H-how does it taste this good? This is amazing!”

“I know! This is something from the future, even ahead of my time!”

The two soon called out their pokemon and camped out, trying out more food from the replicator for everyone to enjoy.

Soon, Rei dropped the paper plates, cups, and utensils down the trash chute on the replicator’s side. A familiar buzzing was heard for a moment or two.

“It could cook steaming hot noodles and cold ice cream from nothing… you weren’t kidding this would put Beni out of business.”

Dawn sighed as she carried her starter, rowlet, who was cooing happily at a big meal.

“Now the only question is what to do with it. We can’t have Jubilife Village have it, as much as I want to bring it in my house. It’ll disrupt everything and it��ll only cause trouble if it breaks down and no one knows how to cook or farm at that point.”

“We can’t give it to the clans either. It’ll mess with the balance of power between them.” Rei added.

“And having machoke carrying it around would just cause questions.”

“Hmmm, how about Volo? Doesn’t he have a wagon we could use to store it?”

“Well, as long as the Gingko Guild doesn’t question it perhaps. We could say it’s mine but Ginter might bring it to my house… wait, is Ginter selling other Rotomtech appliances?”

“Uh, I think so. Before I headed here, I heard he was selling a mechanical box…”

“Excellent. I bet the entire set ended up here, so it won’t be too weird that I decided to buy something Volo found from a distortion? I’ll probably have to pay him to help cover it up. Hopefully he’ll agree to it. We just need to bring this to the wagon… at the Diamond Clan settlement…”

“I could go ahead and have him go here.” Rei suggested.

“That’s good. Luckily we’re far off from the marsh so the wagon won’t get stuck, hopefully. I’ll wait right here then.”

Rei soon headed off and Volo soon arrived with the wagon come nightfall. Of course, he too ended up trying out the prospect of free food, even printing out some Galaran curries for him and his pokemon.

“No offense to Beni but he needs to expand his dish selection.” Volo said as he ate up his steaming plate of spicy plenty-of-potato curry, which he then chugged down on some ice cold moomoo milk. “And this is available for anyone to use in the future?”

“It called itself a public autocook, so it’s likely to be accessed by anyone. Though it’s ahead of even my time. I never heard of Aniseed City, so it likely hasn’t even been founded in my time. Instead of starvation, I guess the bigger problem in the future would be being overweight.” Dawn said with a chuckle as they rested by a campfire.

Volo glanced at the food replicator, looking oddly wistful.

“I’ll put it in my wagon, for free if possible. If someone were to ask, I’ll say that you bought something I found and asked me to carry it around for you.”

“You’re just saying that to get free food on the trip.”

Volo chuckled, not denying it.

“Better me than Ginter, that's for sure.”

“Or Beni. If Beni hears of this, he’ll probably try to stab it and break it, and I don’t want to know what happens if it gets ripped open. Worst case scenario, Hisui gets melted down into silvery paste before it spreads to the rest of the planet, gray goo scenario.”

“You make it sound like there’s a legendary pokemon in the box.” Rei commented as he sat down with a plate of chocolates he printed from the autocook.

“It’s really advanced technology and things tend to go wrong if you mess with them. Though I do fear that breaking it would release nanites, uh, the silvery cloud that makes the food in the slot.”

“You seem to know how it works despite it being in your future.” Volo pointed out.

“The idea was around, though usually in shows rather than an actual thing.”

“You should watch those futurism videos on Dawn’s phone. The ideas there are insane. Like, breaking down the sun for enough fuel and resources for civilization to live beyond the sun’s normal lifespan.”

“... the sun has a lifespan?” Volo asked, eyes wide in a dumbfounded expression.

“Yeah, I feel like I messed up Rei’s head by showing him that channel on Vidtube…”

“Oh come on. It’s an opportunity to learn about the world no one else could get.”

“Now you’re making me curious.”

“Do you want all the answers given to you on your lap or do you want to go out there and find it for yourself?” Dawn asked Volo, which he found to be surprisingly difficult to answer.

“On one hand, practically all the answers that I want to know. On the other hand, where’s the fun and challenge in that?”

“On the third hand, you’ll probably learn more about your descendant given that she studies the ancient Celestica civilization.” Dawn added.

“And on the fourth hand, that means I would be plagiarizing from my wonderful great-something-granddaughter.”

Rei snickered at that.

“Yeah, I would suggest not messing around with your descendants. I’m fifteen yet learning that I’ll have a descendant, meaning that I’ll get married and be a father at some point in the future? That’s still very mind boggling.”

Dawn couldn’t help but cover her face in embarrassment.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize how that would have looked for you!”

“Nah, nah, don’t be. Besides, you did say that the Great Fire destroyed the records so I still don’t know who I’ll marry in the future anyway, so that’ll be a nice surprise.”

“I have to agree at how mind boggling it is wrapping around the fact that I’ll eventually get married and settle down to have a family.” Volo said with a wistful look as he glanced down on his plate. “It’s the last thing I expected I would do, given my plans and all.” he then glanced at the autocook. “Still, the fact that hunger and starvation itself would be solved in the coming centuries does give one hope…”

“Yeah, things tend to get better in the future, despite the bumpy road. As long as we strive for it, a better future will come eventually. We just need to work together rather than let someone with a great man complex mess it all up with their insane plans.”

“Like Cyrus and his discount Galaxy Team?” Rei added.

“Discount Galaxy Team?” Volo asked. Dawn just shrugged.

“I wasn’t there when it happened. I was off looking for human ghosts in a haunted mansion in the woods for a week.”

“I wonder if the lack of a self-preservation instinct is in the blood given that Akari loves to ride on pokemon and your mom apparently races on a rhyhorn.” Rei interjected.

“Shush. Now, Cyrus was a smart and rich guy. He built various machines and cofounded Rotomtech, the various mechanical devices in that glarish red color Ginter found is their products. He then founded Team Galactic, probably based on his ancestor Cyllene’s records of the Galaxy Team. At first it was all about space exploration, but I guess he lost sight of the human element. When my friends and I started on our pokemon journey when we were ten, my friends ended up fighting against Team Galactic in their plans of taking control over Palkia and Dialga, the legendary pokemon of space and time respectively, and using them to remake reality so that emotion doesn’t exist. From what Lucas and Barry told me, they actually ran out of time. A hole appeared over Mount Coronet and the sky turned red. Cyrus managed to succeed in opening up his new world. But then Giratina popped out and stopped him, freeing Palkia and Dialga from the red chains and dragged him into the Distortion World. Cynthia chased after him through and she came back with Giratina. No one knew what happened to Cyrus after that. Team Galactic got disbanded, their members arrested, a lot of unethical experiments were discovered, which is very interesting in horrific and gruesome ways,” Dawn said with an excited grin, “Like, various indoctrination and mind control stuff, even attempts at a human hive mind, so the whole eliminate emotion thing wasn’t something Cyrus did for funsies. I went on a buneary hole reading up on all the stories and I lost sleep over the resulting nightmares of being subjected to an experimental nerve stapling for a week or two.”

Rei and Volo turned pale at that.

“It did make me wonder if they expanded on the experiments to the metaphysical, like soul manipulation but the good news is that they never used ghost types or magic rituals on their grunts so, yeah.”

“Well, that ruined my appetite.” Volo said as he went to give his remaining curry to one of his pokemon.

Dawn awkwardly chuckled.

“Too much information?”

“Way too much.” Rei agreed.

In the end, Volo agreed to keep the food fabricator in his wagon. The fact that it appeared to be solar powered helped in a way.

Dawn and Rei then continued their field work when Calaba asked Dawn for help. Lord Ursaluna seemed to have been angered recently and she feared that he was frenzied like Lord Kleavor.

Dawn wanted to do it herself but Rei pushed against it, wanting to be a part of battle this time.

“He’s not frenzied like Lord Kleavor.” Dawn commented. “He’s not glowing gold.”

“So, easier to stop?” Rei added as they hid behind the bushes.

“Well, there’s no league rules to stop us…” Dawn added before she sighed. “Fine, we’ll do this together. I’ll take the front, you’ll go from behind.”

“Right.”

And the duo managed to stop Lord Ursaluna, only to find that the reason for his raging was a rather strong pollen allergy.

“I don’t understand…” Calaba said as she petted Lore Ursaluna once he was given some medicine. “It’s not spring. Where would such strong pollen come from?”

“A grass type pokemon perhaps?”

“Hmm, Lady Lilligant is a grass type…”

“We should check on her next. Who and where’s the warden for her?” Dawn asked.

“That would be Arezu. Last I heard, she went to Jubilife Village to learn from the hairdresser. She might have come back recently. Might need to check on that.”

Returning to the Pastoria settlement to ask about Arezu, they learned that she went into the marsh and hasn’t returned. The trio then headed out, worried, with lanterns ready.

Dawn found her, unconscious near an alpha parasect.

Fortunately, Rei helped her in fighting the alpha pokemon and Warden Calaba carried Arezu out to safety on Lord Ursaluna.

“What were you thinking, Arezu? Right into an alpha parasect’s territory like that?” Calaba nearly shouted as Rei applied some first aid on Arezu’s leg.

“We need to bring her to the village. I think her leg got fractured from the alpha parasect. Captain Preselle would know what to do.”

“No, please-” Arezu muttered out through the pain from her leg.

“You’re lucky your leg didn’t break and we found you in time.” Calaba said as they rode on Lord Ursaluna to the Pastoria settlement.

“Please understand, I needed to make the balms for Lady Lilligant! She got struck by lightning and I heard of what the Galaxy Team did to quell Lord Kleavor, so I thought I could quell my lady’s frenzy by myself.”

“Don’t worry, Warden Arezu.” Dawn began. “We’ll do it. You need to get better.” Dawn said with a smile as Volo soon drove the wagon with Arezu on it to Jubilife Village.

Adaman decided to join in helping with the balms for Lady Lilligant.

“I know that look.” Rei began. “You were going to do it all by yourself.”

“Please Rei. I don’t want to see you die. The phone reversed time twice but it only did so when I was going to die.”

“I’m sorry, did you say your device reversed time!?” Adaman nearly shouted as he was carrying the basket of balms as they headed to the Brava Arena. Dawn sighed.

“Yeah, it happened twice with Lord Kleavor. It won’t accept me from failing, or at least dying. The second attempt… had Rei get slashed through his waist before I died. It’s the reason why I wanted to do this by myself-” Dawn said before Adaman placed his hand on Dawn’s shoulder.

“Dawn. Even though you have been blessed by Almighty Sinnoh to be an exception to Time’s relentless march forward, to face death again and again isn’t healthy. The will of mortals is different from the will of the gods, and mortal wills break more easily.”

“Don’t worry. It’s been a month and a half since Lord Kleavor got frenzied and I was made to do some mandatory rest afterwards.”

“Even still…”

“Adaman, Rei, I know you’re worried, but I don’t want you to get hurt alright. If you’ll stay away, you’ll stay safe.”

“Do not let your mind fall into the question of what could be, for you will only spiral into fear and madness. Even if you do experience us being hurt, you would end up reverting back in time to before we started. In that case, those timelines of failures were undone. The Adaman and the Rei in those times of failure do not matter in the end. It’s better if we were with you in the times of success than in the times of failure. And I won’t take no for an answer.”

“I won’t take no either, Dawn. You need someone to help you.” Rei said.

In the end, it took four tries.

In the first, Lady Lilligant went for Dawn’s throat.

In the second, Rei was thrown sideways to a tree and couldn’t move his legs, likely due to a broken spine, and Dawn jumped to protect him from Lady Lilligant’s kick.

In the third, Adaman lost an arm by her grass blades and Dawn had to tackle the frenzied noble despite the resulting thousand cuts.

In the fourth, all three managed to dodge the attacks and throw enough balms to quell the frenzied noble. Golden light bursted out and floated up into the smaller grayish dark teal crack in the sky above the arena before it vanished.

Dawn couldn’t help but hug Adaman and Rei both, crying despite their words of comfort.

When Dawn retold the three failed attempts on the way back, Adaman, as the leader of the Diamond Clan, told Dawn to rest for a week and that he would send a message to Commander Kamado of what happened and his decision to make her rest after the traumatic period, house arrest at the Miyamizu yurt if it was necessary.

“Don’t forget that I went back in time and moved in space.” Dawn pointed out in realization at Adaman as she rested at the Miyamizu yurt, using the time to finish her linking cord.

“Oh, of course I would tell Irida that Almighty Sinnoh gave their blessing to their champion by reversing time for them to try again.”

“And moving me back to the entrance of the arena each time.”

“Details.” Adaman said with a grin before he left.

Rei then arrived.

“Well, the commander agreed to you having at most a week off from field work. Personally, I think it’s a headache to deal with the fact that I technically died twice now, or would have died.” he said as he pulled out a journal. “Well, since you’re here to recuperate from what happened, I did some flower pressing. There was a distortion nearby and I found odd foods in this fake metal wrapping and I want you to tell me if it’s alright to eat.” he said as he pulled out some chocolate bars and some chips.

“These are snacks. The ones I was hoping for from the vending machine that wasn’t a vending machine.” Dawn said as she gave an oranguru bar to him. “You can have this one. I’m not much of a fan of raisins.” she said as she opened up a bag of potato chips. “Hmm, it’s been way too long since I had these. They’re not healthy to eat a lot of but still, comfort food. Try some potato chips, it’s barbecue flavored.”

“Oh, wow, those are some flavors, and these are really thin slices of potatoes.”

“Yeah, if memory serves, some time in the 1850’s at Unova, someone would go to an inn and annoyed the cook that the potato slices weren’t sliced thin enough and kept returning them until the cook sliced them very thin and fried them before serving it to the guy. And that’s how potato chips came to be.”

“So many ways to cook a potato.”

“Yup, mash them, boil them, stick them in a stew.” Dawn sang a bit, much to Rei’s amusement.

“Don’t tell me there’s a song about how many ways one could cook potatoes.”

“Nah, that’s from a show about the intrigues of the Unovan monarchy. There’s been a lot of shows about it though, so I couldn’t recall the exact one. Game of Stones? The Houses of the Dragon? The Tale of Two Kings?”

“Uh, Dawn?” Rei asked as he pulled out a golden ticket from his oranguru bar. “What’s this?” Dawn blinked at the sight, recalling something about an old candy contest in Alola that made the historical community riot. She didn’t read why there was a sudden fight among historians about a candy wrapper. She’d been meaning to read the article but kept putting it off. And then she was sent to the past so that was a moot point.

“Looks like you won something, if you manage to have that for a century or two.”

Rei snorted at that.

“I’ll glue it on my journal. Maybe my descendant would enjoy whatever it is that I won.”

That night, far off in the distance, an off pair of twins with grayish dark teal bowl cut hair wearing a pair of opposite colored baneful fox masks chuckled at each other.

They glanced down at the Brava Arena as the empty place began to crack in grayish dark teal light. The cracks in reality became ghostly smudges, revealing pruned timelines. Adaman missing an arm, Rei crashing at a tree and falling with a broken spine, Dawn choking on her shattered throat. The echoes of failed timelines then flowed towards the twins, empowering them.

“More power for the master.”

“Which one?”

“Heh, not Euthymia’s Fool, that's for sure.”

The twins chuckled at each other as they, the ghostly smudges, and the grayish dark teal cracks in reality vanished in fading balls of light, as if it never were.

#lucid twin dragons au #fanfic #world building #worldbuilding #pokemon fanfic #pokemon legends arceus #fanfiction #my writing #submas #submas au #pokemon rei #pokemon calaba #pokemon volo #pokemon arezu

[jade-nargacuga]

Hisui Timeline Theory

(copied from a comment I just made on the Reddit)

I personally split Ancient Hisui ruins into 3 categories: Recent, Ancient, and Super Ancient. The most recent time period and the most intact structure is the Snowpoint Temple, which I believe was built by the Diamond and Pearl Clans before they split up. They might have arrived to Hisui together for the express purpose of sealing away Regigigas, which is why it is still watched over by members of both clans to this day. 

The Ancient time period is that of the Ancient Hero and includes structures like the Ancient Quarry, the Temple of Sinnoh, the Arenas and offering pedestals, and the ancient murals found in each area. The Ancient Celestica ruins also fall into this category, as do all of the ruins we see around the maps, as they all have a similar style to the Temple, if a bit more ruined, probably due to less care by the Clans that arrived later. 

The third Super Ancient group has almost nothing left behind to show physically. In maybe one or two of the Ancient verses, Cogita(who is implied to be the writer) mentions her people as being the Celestica people, and coming to Hisui from Sinjoh. In a blink and you'll miss it line, she mentions an Ancient Sinnoh people as well. We know the land will eventually be called Sinnoh, making them ancient Sinnoh people, but she refers to them as being even older than her group, which was the Celestica People. Not only that, but if you know about the Sinjoh Ruins, you'll know that it was a place made by the people of both Johto AND Sinnoh, so for it to already be called Sinjoh at the time further implies there was a 'Sinnoh' people that existed before the Celestica people that traveled there and perhaps became their ancestors. This means that Hisui was inhabited no less than 3 times by 3 different groups of people that each descended from each other.

[cconsultingdetective]

Damnatio memoriae

One of the things I appreciated the most about Pokémon Legends Arceus is that it made everything make sense now, and I'm especially talking about Pokémon Platinum. At least that's where my theories led me! They can obviously be completely wrong but I want to share them! There will be spoilers of the game

Up until BDSP all we knew about Giratina was that it was banished in the Distortion World due to its raging and rebellious nature but there isn't a single book or story talking about it in Canalave's library, therefore no one knows about Giratina. The million dollar question was: why is that? What happened? And a simple answer was that nobody ever got the chance to meet Giratina since it was banished not much after Arceus' creation of everything and never got the chance to show itself to the humankind other than a lucky 10 year old stepping in a place where the two opposite worlds collide.

However. There always has been a big but: what we know about Giratina is told to us by Cynthia in Pokémon Platinum, how does she know about its existence then? How is she able to guide us in the Distortion World? No doubt that she's a very committed archeologist but at that time it was such a mystery how she got this kind of information. You know where I'm getting at but before talking about our dear completely harmless merchant I wanted to point out the fact that Pokémon Legends Arceus tells us a story: Celestica.

It is now confirmed that Giratina actually made contact with humans long ago, and the Celestica Ruins are proof of that: there's a statue of each one of Arceus' children to which Celestica people prayed, they knew exactly how they looked like and what's more is that Giratina's statue is located in an apical spot, meaning that they loved it even more than the other two! It's pretty normal for them to do so since it actually was Giratina the one who gifted the 10 original Noble Pokémons to the humans (Zap Plate), saving them from a most certain extinction considering how weak people were compared to Pokémons.

But why is this statue broken now and nobody ever considered repairing it? Well, I think it was intentional, people chose to forget about Giratina because it can only bring nothing but destruction. Celestica one day simply disappeared, both people, name and constructions (Old Verse 5), how could this be? No population can be wiped out this fast normally, right? What I think is that Celestica people decided to play with fire a bit too much and probably completely misunderstood Giratina's intentions. It "gifted" humans with Pokémons not out of kindness or whatever, we know Giratina is extremely envious of the normal world where balance and peace reigns and it can only blame its father for that, Giratina used humans to get to fight its father (mmmh, this reminds me of a certain someone who uses the main character to get to Arceus👀 what a great parallelism) but still didn't want anything to do with them at all and the day they got a bit too close it just made them disappear, maybe with a space-time rift. We also know that someone survived this disaster *cough* *cough* Cogita *cough* *cough* and maybe others, and probably these survivors were the ones to destroy that infamous Giratina's statue, because such a disaster could never repeat itself again and not letting anyone know about its existence was the safest thing to do.

Giratina was a victim of damnatio memoriae (in case you don't know what that means it's a Latin phrase meaning "condemnation of memory" and it was a practice used since the Ancient Era and especially by ancient romans in which every document, inscription, whatever written proof of someone's existence was completely destroyed.)

But one day in Hisui a certain person, a descendant of Celestica people, with such an immense passion for archeology and myths to the point of dedicating his entire life to find the creator of everything to create a better world, did the homework so good to find out about Giratina and opened a new space-time rift: of course, I'm talking about Volo.

After the final battle Volo tells the main character that he's not willing to give up on his dream, whether it takes him years, decades or centuries, so I'm pretty sure he wrote down his studies for his descendants to have and that gets me to the starting point: Cynthia. That's the reason she knows about Giratina in a world where no one else knows about its existence! And as ironic as it sounds, Volo is technically the reason the main character is able to stop Cyrus, the man with almost his same plan, and save the world in Pokémon Platinum since it's thanks to Cynthia MC is able to safely get through the Distortion World.

So yes, everything makes sense now and I'll never stop saying how good the lore was in this game, please keep it up for the next games as well dear Game Freak🙏🏻

#pokemon legends arceus #pla spoilers #giratina

[zorollade]

bold decisions im making:

cynthia seems to be related in some way to the celestica people, the slightest reason being that shes from Celestic Town. that gives reason to believe that Volo is also related to them. theres also some implications made throughout the story that Volo may be one of the last living descendants of the celestica people, like his extensive knowledge of Arceus and Hisui, and the vague tragedies he alludes to shortly before his boss fight

does anyone remember the Arceus Movie. where a blonde woman and her ancestor, who were also connected to Arceus, demonstrated the ability to connect with the hearts of Pokemon, and understand them,

now im not saying that Cynthia or Volo can do that, but what i am saying is that maybe they are also Celestica or at least related in some way; a branching bloodline, where one side kept the ability, and the other didn't. i think that would make both Cynthia and Volo having a Lucario, The Aura Pokemon, make sudden sense beyond its strength in battle. that would also give another connection between Volo and Arceus- if his ancestors or possibly even closer family had been able to use this power, if they'd known that their ancestor had saved Arceus and known it personally,,

what im saying is we dont know where Michina is in Sinnoh but we dont know for sure that that ISNT the place the celestic ruins used to be and we dont know for sure that cynthia ISNT sheenas distant, distant cousin

#ok coming back to edit bc i misremembered and sheena is not blonde she has brown hair #but still. come on. brown hair is more common than blonde that doesnt mean theyre not related

[volot]

PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE.

member of the ginkgo guild and has been for quite sometime, even since his mid-to-late teenage years. a well-known salesman, often noted for his chipper attitude and willingness to slide things under the table either with a reduced price or free of charge, if he sees a reason to. known equally to do deliveries for the clans and others outside jubilife, most notably gaeric of the pearl clan.

an avid buff of mythology and history. generally the person you would go to around jubilife if you have a question, seeing as he considers himself ‘[your] man to go to’ for that sort of thing. will talk your ear off about it if you get him started. known to lurk about ruins, and if someone can’t find him, they’re generally advised to look for him there.

he has a togepi and a gibble at some point. they are generally the pokemon one might see him the most around with and associate with him strongly.

in regards to the former, he’s known as a battle fanatic and generally someone who knows quite a lot about them, mentioning stories of both seeing plenty and engaging actively in them across various lands in which the guild has traveled. anyone who doesn’t know his full team is left to wonder how he does it with a togepi and a gibble, of all things, but... hey. huge, if true.

not the biggest fan of sweets. he won’t say no usually if you give him some, but he prefers other flavors of foods before them.

publicly perceived as someone who is lazy, off-beat, and carefree.

knows his way around hisui like the back of his hand, as is expected from guild merchants. keeps a map and compass on his person, so travelers will ask him for directions, as they’re familiar with the symbol and colors of his uniform.

hell of a throwing arm. good with kids and younger people, if i’m listing idle facts.

..... known as the curator of the Great Hisuian Coffee Lore, as my siliness of this blog has so decreed. you want beans? he’s your man.

SEMI-PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE.

he has a full team. your average joe might not know this, but anyone who he’s felt the need to go toe-to-toe with fully will. he usually rounds off fights to just two or three, maybe four pokemon, but there are general ideas of the pokemon he keeps based off bits and pieces and rumors. he doesn’t always show his full-hand, and if he shows certain pokemon outside of battle, it’s usually situational. one he keeps more hush-hush, however, is spiritomb. not completely so, but it’s the one he’ll bring out least / his “ace” in a fight, if he brings all six. this is done typically to throw his opponent off-guard, as is the same reason for sometimes keeping his team a mystery.

the creator of the backstrike technique. it’s a technique that is acknowledged, and something he has passed along to idle members of the galaxy team - including the protagonist - but not everyone knows it roots back to him.

he can read ancient languages usually found in old murals. this is only really known in a chance he’s been encountered in the ruins or if someone brings up that they’ve trouble deciphering something of old, and if asked about it, he laughs about how he was a very studious child, and late nights with the guild gave him plentiful time to read.

there’s a rumor that ginter and volo are related, as volo will idly tag on ginter’s surname as his own sometimes if asked. they are not. volo doesn’t feel any familial attachment to ginter ( once again It’s Complicated ), but it’s so that ginter is left with the responsibility of cleaning up his messes. cheeky asshole.

PRIVATE KNOWLEDGE.

he is the last few remaining celestica across hisui. the only ones who know this canonically are the protagonist post-post-game, and cogita. it isn’t something he’ll just bring up.

his lifespan runs longer than the average human’s, as is a trait of the celestica.

pre-to-mid-game, that he is closely in cahoots with giratina and manipulated them / commands them, but also that he is the one who used it to tear open the rifts in the sky to draw out arceus. as of post-post-game, only the protagonist, laventon and cogita, if vaguely, has an idea of it. though cogita has said she’s “heard of it”, it’s unsure if this spread via the ranks in the galaxy team via laventon, or through public word of mouth, or even if volo had some hand in mentioning it to her. i generally roll with the idea that post-his leave of jubilife after his defeat, volo in some capacity is known to have stirred up some kind of trouble involving what happened that fateful day on mt. coronet, and is regarded foully because of it. how heavily the details depends on your muse and a number of factors, but jubilife is a small village where word spreads quick, and rumors tend to flood out. anyone outside of it or in a different region entirely might be less likely, though. i’m generally up for discussing this, if you ever need!

given his immortality he seeks post-defeat, his findings in hisuain-sinnohan mythology and history go uncredited as the years roll by. he knows he discovered them, but his name is lost to time and erased, as is that of his people. his bloodline carries it on though.

the modern town of celestic town was founded by some of his descendants.

as of the future, modern verse... much, if nothing at all, is known about him other than he’s a traveling man who has seen the world and chases myths. some don’t even know his name by this point. but he sure acts the same.

KNOWLEDGE THAT HE ISN’T EVEN AWARE OF.

he is, or was, one of arceus’s chosen. he believes this with all of this delusions, though, wholeheartedly.

the fates play some part in why his Everything is so extreme.

he is doomed, no matter what, to fail.

the aura he emits, to those who can read it, is very intense.

#i said i wold when i was around so here take this #hc. #study. #ooc. #long post #i generally had to wrack my brain a litle for this it was fun

[a-tale-of-legends]

Zero is in a really peculiar place when it comes to Adaman and Irida and their respective clans. He knows he's the last of a clan that's long forgotten, even more than the Celestica people. He only knows what his parents told him " against them. They took everything from. Everything". He knows that the diamond and pearl clans weren't originally from Hisui. Definitely was around waaaay longer than galaxy team, but not originally from there.

So,tldr, Zero is a sole descendant of a lost culture that is surrounded by people who took whatever was left of it and made it their own. Maybe the diamond and pearl clan were also descendants of the celestica people, or the rare few platinum clan members that somehow lived on. Maybe not. But Zero stands there, alone, having to watch them squabble.

He does not know how to feel about it. Genuinely, he does not. As he grew older, the "us vs them" narrative just didn't sit well with Zero. He doesn't want to live that way. Seeing the diamond and pearl clan just pushes that further. He also is kinda. Fed up, with them? It's weird because he doesn't know his history, so what right does he have to judge? But it's still frustrating. They don't know. He doesn't know. No one knows anything outside of stories that may or may not be true, and it's just so frustrating. So lonely. Even with Volo, who definitely helps with the loneliness, the weight of being the last one is just too much for him sometimes. He misses his parents. They were not good people,he knows that, but he misses them all the same. He wishes that he could learn about his past. Volo at least has old ruins and Cogita ( when she isn't being cryptic and vague) to tell him the stories of the past. He wishes he could look at the diamond and pearl clan and not feel this frustration and the bottom of his stomach.

" That took everything from us. Everything,".

It scares Zero to how much he's starting to believe it. It scares him how much he's beginning to think it's true.

#oc: zero yamamoto #legendverse

[floaroanemoia]

{ ooc. I was thinking about Sarana’s search around Hisui, which took place when she was 16-20

And I Think(tm) this is the general gist of where I’ve decided she went, with the white diamond being roughly where the Floaro area would be, and where she obviously started

And the final location in red being where the island housing the tablet to summon the Seabreak Path is

I think it’d make the most sense for her to have gone through the Floaro Gardens and to the Celestica Ruins in an attempt to find any surviving accounts of myths regarding where Shaymin could have gone

And then, upon finding nothing, to each of the lakes and the shrouded ruins in a desperate attempt to find anything at all

And it all ends in failure, hence why she just kind of wanders around between those locations and has been for 7 years, since i hc her to be 27 when the events of pla happens }

#❁⊱⦃ ⏤ {ooc.} ⦄⊰❁ #❁⊱⦃ ⏤ {headcanon.} ⦄⊰❁ #{temporary hc tag until i write this up properly} #{tbh even if there was something in the celestica ruins going by their runes... they only ever depict shaymin in sky forme} #{so maybe the land form has been lost to time thanks to them no longer being around}

[fairymiint]

Ship Bias for Felix and Samus.

Samus:

1: Girls, women, chicks, gals----- she is a simple woman;;;; Like, I can see her taking her time cause she is not the most. verbose. and there is a concern about jeopardizing their safety.

but, also, counterpoint: Girls. 2: There might be a better chance of so, tho, if the Woman in question can fight. I'm not gonna be an asshole and say 'haha no ships if she can't defend herself' cause that sounds stupid, but it may affect ship speed?

Felix Fae:

1. N feels. lord oh lord the N feels. He searched two years for the man all over Unova???? 2. 90% of Felix's relationships with pkmn chars, tbh, is gonna be Platonic Just Dickin Around. Just glancing at the gym leaders and rivals, I feel like he just doesn't take anybody....seriously;; I know that we do a lot of crack in this fandom, but his personality, especially from X on, is the closest you'll get to that crack while still being IC. He's silly. But maybe, if a guy finds him funny??? idk Needs More Threads. 3. Felix's relationship with Lysandre, whatever it is, is toxic, just straight up. Whatever motivation is at the core of that, note that Lysandre is amicable and offers the player a chance at that immortality, and amicable moments several times. This is either some kinda hateship, or ridiculous broken found family ass attempt shit. He's practically begging you to be on his side. And then still tries to (and in this case succeeds) zap you going 'ok actually suffer with me like this is a bad thing' but like??? it's still him forcing what he wanted for you the whole game, in X. Given his obsession with 'beauty', it always gave me a sick sort of paper doll feel. That kinda Man Audacity right there brings out his feral side, which might have been dysphoric in hindsight. 4: Adaman my beloved.... He's fucking cute okay. I'm not picky but what little shred of hope in Felix muse's heart is probably lookin at him. A silly guy man. I will not force ship but i will admire the diamond man and his deity the diamond time dragon. 5. Good lord Volo. i have big Volo brainrot right now. it's part two of 'he's fucking cute okay' and 'oh no'- He's just? An extremely similar character to Felix? mostly, in the way that his dialogue bounces and bubbles. Occasionally, even the attempts to create a little distance in his words, despite buttering you up sometimes; Felix does that too, but it's out of respect. The curiosity, the ambition, and....well, the desire to make things right in the world, even if the methodology is...different, in the end. Besides the starter, they even have signature pokémon of the same species in this game, Togekiss, Somehow. I cannot sit here and pretend that at the very least, Felix didn't develop a crush on him, especially at the last second, notably at Ancient Retreat, and then Celestica Ruins.

Where that goes is entirely up to the other Mun, I guess. How Volo would feel, in whole, about Felix, what he'd do, all that. I can see plotlines or endings spinning in my head;;;; I see turbulence, and I don't see easy anything. But like, good endings, bad endings, win or lose, or whatever. Felix might be disappointed or angery, but he doesn't want to give up on Volo.

#ask. #Anonymous #XY Spoilers; #pla spoilers. #toxic relationship; #i go super general on some of these pkmn ones so??? i can try again w/ these easily idk #*throws 5000 hcs in hope they stick to the wall like spaghetti*