The All-Purpose PokéMeme!

[islandshore]

THE ALL PURPOSE POKéMEME

We've had plenty of memes about our characters in the past, so why not something a little different? After all, Pokémon is a huge part of what makes Route so special.

Feel free to use this meme to:

- Talk about your characters' teams!
- Plot for Pokémon CR
- Discuss any headcanon you have about certain species or Pokémon in general
- Discuss ideas for Pokémon related shenanigans
- Take suggestions if you're struggling with a Pokémon's personality, what Pokémon to get your character, or anything else!

The sky's the limit, folks, so have at it!

Comments

[islandshore]

General Info + Ploting?

So, to start this off, Riku's team is basically... a madhouse half the time. Since he's got forty-eight Pokémon of his own that he generally keeps at his business, the Training Center tends to be very lively to say the least. Some of 'em behave as to be expected, with his Haunter being a ridiculous prankster, his Garchomp a gruff bully, and so on. Most of the info on 'em can be found here because it'd take way too long to go over each one. Currently, I'm trying to figure out personalities for his Bagon, Druddigon, and Swinub and also some general team dynamics since the roster's so huge. If anyone has pointers for handling big rosters while still making each member distinct, I'd be happy to hear 'em!

I really want a chance to play with these guys more, though, so if anyone would like some Pokémon CR, I'd be all for it! Especially since playing with them might help me flesh out their 'voices' and personalities. This could be anything from friendships to rivalries to maybe something romantic. Poké romances are cute, after all.

I would especially love to have Riku's team interact with their offspring, though, so if you've purchased eggs from him before, maybe we could work something out? :]

Dynamics with Riku: Most of his team is at least willing to cooperate with him. The only major exceptions are Quake and Terror, the former of which works with the team but HATES EVERYTHING while the latter... just wants to eat and kill and maim everything in existence. They've been trained to work without commands, using their best judgment and paying attention to their surroundings that way, if Riku slips up, they at least have a fallback. Some of his team needed a bigger push than others; Jaws is kind of dense, so Riku sometimes has to use gestures and finger snaps to keep him in line.

Generally, he spars with them in addition to standard battles in part because it's fun and in part because there are dangerous humans out there. They should not be afraid to turn their attacks on people. Some, of course, have no issue harming humans. Terror, Deathclaw, Phantom, and Draco would do it without a second thought.

Flare's basically Riku's partner in crime and has surpassed his starter as a mainstay. He goes wherever Riku goes, acting as a peacemaker for the team and... making sure Riku doesn't do anything stupid. He tends to do that. Also, Riku basically lets his active team wander outside of their balls all the time and allows them to train on their own (usually off of each other). Those in Celadon may find big dinosaur and dragon beasts wandering around town on a daily basis.

Headcanon: I tend to rely more on the Pokédex entries from the games than the anime (so like, his Scizor never hated red, even as a Scyther, but she can't actually fly now that she's evolved). There are exceptions, though. I actually find it fun to go against the grain at times, so his Hydreigon is ridiculously timid, while his Dragonite's the big, reckless asshole dragon.

For stuff like intelligence, I admit that I usually treat 'em all as largely sapient, with some smarter than others. Most can read perfectly well and write... provided they have the limbs for that. I figure that some species posses higher intelligence. Like, a Lucario would be smarter than a Raichu, which would be smarter than a Feraligatr. I'm really curious as to how you guys work out their smarts, though, since I know it varies from player to player.

His Aerodactyl's probably one of the odder cases because I treat her as... well, a dinosaur. She can't understand human speech or Pokémon speech well, if at all, and she reads body language better. This is because I figure that a prehistoric creature would have a less developed brain and would communicate more with movements and primal emotions than complex sentences.

I also tend to avoid name-speak with Riku and Bowser's teams. All of their beasties tend to make grunts, growls, yips, hisses, etc... unless they're using telepathy. It's not a major detail, and I assume they're still speaking the same language just with a different dialect. They also tend to use their sounds in conjunction with body language to convey their thoughts and feelings. Like, Flare beating his wings as a sign of anger, Burst wiggling his butt and hopping as a sign that he wants to play.

[timelymaid]

I'm up to having interactions with offspring once Millisande hatches! Also, as for dealing with rosters, atm I just add in a personality as they come and then see how they might fit into the general roster by splitting them off into cliques. These pokemon hang out with those pokemon, etc.

...That's...not as helpful as it could sound. :|a I'm not sure how to explain it.

I'm also up for poke-interactions, and Aradia's roster is smaller and all written up here and I can probably come back through and give detailed thoughts on how all of hers would deal with yours later if you like although rn I am not able to do so because thoughtpower.

[islandshore]

Since Riku's roster post is insanely long, I might as well write some blurbs about some of his gang. Plus, I'm kinda bored.

Zen the Blastoise: Is a brash, thrill seeking water tortoise who wears a pair of shades under all circumstances. Nobody touches the shades unless they want a face full of water.

She's incredibly loud and enjoys making a big, dramatic entrance. She addresses everyone as "Bro," male or female, human or Pokémon. ...Not that humans can understand her roars, of course. Zen also has a habit of nudging, slugging, and shoving people playfully. And despite her name, which she picked herself, she is the exact opposite of zen, teeming with energy and enthusiasm.

She and Flare tend to bicker a lot and occasionally get into Sunny Day vs Rain Dance wars. Her current goal is to teach Flare to ride on her back while Surfing, since Spitfire the crazy Charmeleon totally pulled it off.

Slash: Riku's stubborn Weavile who longs to be treated as a member of society! Has a penchant for reading macabre Pokéfiction and is currently teaching himself to speak the human language with... mixed results. He's very relaxed, speaks quite formally, and is one of Riku's smarter team members. Of course, despite his attempts to look highly intellectual, he's not above a little competion; he and Ace are currently competing to see who can master speech first.

Jaws the Feraligatr: Is a big derp. He's one of Riku's least intelligent Pokémon and would rather play than fight. Despite being one of the older Pokémon on board, he mentally hasn't matured much over the years and retains a blissful ignorance about the world. Can't really read and can't really write, but he does like to draw really crude images and show them to the rest of the team.

Refers to Riku as his Master and has a dorky crush on Zen.

Crush the Hydreigon: Is a timid beast with a low self-esteem. This is partially due to Draco harassing him as a baby. When the two were still small, Draco often wrapped himself around Crush's neck just to assert himself as the superior dragon. Now that he's evolved, Crush has become a serious threat, and so Draco continues to give him physical an verbal beatdowns.

It's left Crush as a bit of a coward who thinks very little of himself. He also clings like crazy to those around him. In battles, he does try to stay firm and give his best effort, and encouragement from Riku, Cleaver, Tiamat, and Flare has at least helped to some degree.

Blade the Scizor: Is essentially Riku's biggest fangirl. She constantly boasts about how amazing he is and gets very angry if anyone dares say otherwise. Usually accompanied by shaking her pincers. She's energetic, loud, and kind of obnoxious, not to mention overly friendly on occasion. Her current goal is to get Riku's new bugs (Solar and Toxin) to cheer up and make some friends!

...pretty much no one takes her seriously, except maybe Ace.

Highwind the Pidgeot: He hasn't seen any use in a while, but he's essentially the most pompous windbag of a Pidgeot... and also kinda racist, in that he thinks any Pokémon that doesn't evolve is highly idiotic and stupid. He often goes on about how evolution is key to survival and that, if a Pokémon wished to remain unevolved in the wild, they'd be prey for large predators. Basically, he's pretentious as hell, temperamental, and holds everyone at a high standard.

It's this attitude that's prompted Riku to use him less frequently. At least Flare's humble about his strengths.

[paladinlost]

Would your interest in interacting with your Pokémon's kids go both ways? Because Cecil has both of Jo's parents, and while Kayne wouldn't care much Mist has plenty of haughty bitching motherly advice to offer.

Bowser and his minions!

[kingbowser]

Bowser's team is crazy and you should all be afraid.

He's got a Shelgon that giddily attacks foes thinking it's a game, a sadistic Machoke, a seven foot Haunter, and a Weezing that likes to spew gas around his enemies before lighting said gas on fire.

In all seriousness, I'd love to do some more with these guys. One thing in particular that may lead to some amusing threads is Bowser's current Pokémon theft technique... which involves using Fish Food as a club to the head so he can snag their stuff. I feel like this may give him some psychological issues later on because ouch, that hurts. I may have a post with him asking the network if that kind of thing is okay. It confuses him. 8[

I'd really love to see Blargg get a fated rival in awesomeness because she currently thinks she is better than everyone and demands others humor her coolness.

Somebody to explain how to raise baby Pokémon would be rad, too, because Bowser is basically clueless in that regard, and all his hatchlings get treated like new recruits in an army rather than kiddos.

whatever i'll be first to both of your comments dwi

[timelymaid]

It is now my dearest wish that Fish Food does a post so Aradia can talk to him. IDEK how it would go I JUST WANT TO SEE HIM TALK TO PEOPLE.

Meanwhile Aradia's starter is a gastly - going to be a haunter sometime this week! - so maybe there can be haunter size times or something, man.

I don't think I can have a Blargg rival because all too weak for her. But on the other hand Aradia could give him baby tips since she has been doing a lot of that recently and seems perfectly fine with chatting to him, vague world domination vibes aside?

Aradia & her clan

[timelymaid]

Okay, info-wise my info write-ups have personalities listed for each and every pokemon who is not currently an egg! They only get personalities once they are no longer eggs. I discriminate like that. In general Aradia will have two pokemon out and about at most - Indy the gastly-soon-to-be-haunter is generally chief among them because starter, and the other varies but is generally one of the smaller pokemon - so it's possible that anyone would come across any of them, really.

Thinking about it I actually don't have much planned or desired, since I sort of take whatever comes as it comes, but if anyone needs pokemon cr I'm up for it. 8)b I know that a few of Aradia's pokemon will have Jake pokemon feels (pichu sisters! Mellisande and Tweety!) but that's because they're in the same area and he said she could use his roster for breeding so she sets up romantic pokedates for breeder approved pairs.

I have nothing else to contribute I should go now.

[doitrockapella]

A+ for Haunters named Indy, even if Carmen's isn't technically a reference to Indiana Jones.

[doitrockapella]

This right here is Carmen's roster, most of whom have blurbs detailing their personalities or at least how she acquired them. And I have a habit of coming up with stupid ridiculous backstories or headcanon for...pretty much every one of them, so feel free to ask if you'd like to hear a Tale Of Shenanigans about any one in particular, and I will be happy to oblige.

Her most visible and probably best-known Pokemon is Zack the Porygon2, whom I love and adore; he started out as a plot device and sort of evolved into a hilarious supporting character in his own right, with a story arc and everything. Over the course of playing him he's made tons of friends, acquired a crush on a Pokemon not in his egg group (ROMANTIC TRAGEDY), developed a penchant for music and mixmastering (as DJ Zack Attack), and at least once committed identity fraud by "borrowing" Carmen's credit card to make some online purchases at the department store (WHOOPS).

The other ones who have the relatively highest amount of headcanon are Chief the Kadabra, Macavity the Liepard, Abbie the Deino, René the Smeargle, and Cliff the Metagross — though like I said, every one of them's got a story, and I always like making up new shenanigans for them, too.

[islandshore]

I have to say, reading Carmen's Pokémon blurbs is always fascinating! I love the effort you put into giving them all their own personal stories, and Zack's definitely fun to see in action.

I'd definitely love to hear about Abbie, René, and Cliff. Especially the Smeargle, since I think Carmen's one of the only characters in the game to own one, and they're really neat little guys.

[grapecape]

woop woop team stuff woop. team is here, though I've been lagging on getting descriptions put up for the newer members.

Olivia the Xatu is learning how to read, and her vocabulary has grown a lot since she and Ondorus started this journey. He treats her like an equal, so the two of them talk a lot and she's not shy about brainchatting with Trainers that they meet. I'm thinking of having her do some network posts occasionally...basically the same kind of discussion-board posts that you see sometimes, but mainly for the Pokemon to share their thoughts.

Sanja the Munna...is a huge gossip and snoop. She uses the PokeGear more than Ondorus himself does, listening in on all kinds of things (though how accurately she remembers things is debatable.) She also nibbles at people's dreams uninvited when she has the chance. Ondorus hasn't caught on yet. She's quite the little rumor stockpile.

...should be interesting if/when she evolves and gets Dream Mist broadcasting abilities.

Henry (Butterfree) and Konoha (Sewaddle) stick to each other like glue but don't care about much else.
Gunther (Luxray) and Theo (Absol) have a similar bond but are open to making friends - Ondorus and team are in the Goldenrod area right now, and the carnivore brothers spend a lot of time out of their Pokeballs with their trainer or just goofing around in open areas.
Meredith (Lapras) is pretty reclusive for now, still getting used to traveling and having a trainer and stuff.

I need to get Ondorus a healing Pokemon, probably an Audino. Other than that, his team is fine for now - he's going to end up taking care of Pokemon than he knows what to do with pretty soon.

...also, I have a possible stalkermon in reserve for him, if/when he goes back to Violet.

[grapecape]

Headcanony stuff!

I...probably assign more intelligence to the Pokemon than I should: I used to play a lot of PMD characters and Legendaries and sometimes forget that a lot of Pokemon are supposed to have animal-level intelligence.

....On the other hand, they can understand language for the most part, so...yeah I don't really know. Hard to figure.

Playing Ondorus does mean that I get to play with the idea of Pokemon status relative to humans - Ondorus is a JRPG monster, and is more inclined to treat his team as equals (or as children if he's raised them from eggs).
I've tried to cover a few different results of that in his team - Olivia being inclined to address other humans directly and count herself as a member of a group involving humans, for example, and the Sandslash's dissatisfaction at expecting a human trainer that would push her to be stronger and getting something that she did not sign up for.

I think I'll be running with this theme for the time being. It's an interesting one.

[hoperaider]

Jake's roster! Haven't figured out personalities for some of 'em, but I will soon enough.

Generally, his Pokemon love him (so far), but they might show it in odd ways. Like his Feraligatr biting him or his Buneary stealing his glasses. I use a mix of Pokedex entries, Poke Park 2, and my own headcanon to come up with their personalities. I also try to base them on the character they're named after in some way. For example, Robin Williams the Emolga is mostly based off of Genie from Aladdin, and so I exaggerate his friendliness 'cause of the whole "Never Had a Friend Like Me" number.

Pokemance-wise, Tate and Susan are going to eventually be Pokemarried (Herc/Meg all the way?). Kathleen will have the biggest crush on Sebby. Halley is...Halley, and probably won't look for romance until it bites him in his furry quarters. And Keira and Noah might have the strangest romance.

so yes hit me up with yo' best shot man

[timelymaid]

wait are they going to have a hercules I won't say I'm in love song is that what you're saying here

[decrees]

Logan's full roster can be found here, but since he has so few Pokémon, I can go into detail with them.

Logan himself is a failure of a trainer (and Team Rocket member). He can't get Pokémon eggs to hatch (see: that Dratini egg that he's had since he arrived five months ago) and his Pokémon pretty much all evolved at the last minute. Worst trainer in Johto, tbh.

Prince the Serperior was once a Snivy who refused to evolve due to being a massive troll, also he wanted to be small and cute forever. He evolved at level 99 and 100, just to spite Logan. He's definitely in charge of Logan's Pokémon and now that he's evolved, he even bosses his trainer around a bit. Well, as much as he can since he can't speak. :|

Ruby the Ninetails is ridiculously calm and collected, facing everything with elegance and composure and rarely losing her cool. She's completely infatuated with Dorian, Kimblee's Ninetails. They've had a few eggs together that contain terrifying bb!Vulpixes with far too many egg moves. Logan has (unsurprisingly) not been able to hatch any of the eggs.

Garnet the Blaziken used to be scared of evolving because of how much pressure Logan would put on her to fight and win. She was a Torchic until the tournament, where she watched numerous other Pokémon show off and then promptly evolved when Logan went back to training. She's much more confident now and likes to show off what she's learned. Logan occasionally spars with her, though she has to go easy on him since he's not really used to fighting without a blade.

Quartz the Staraptor is the mama bird of the team. She looks after the Dratini egg when they're travelling and takes care of the other Pokémon. She was the first Pokémon of Logan's to evolve and is still quite strong. She's not very fond of fighting, however.

Jade the Flygon was a gift from Kimblee (he hatched her as well). As a Trapinch she just wanted to be friends with everyone - which really meant biting them. Unsurprisingly, Logan wasn't very fond of her until she evolved and calmed down. She's a wild thing who loves fighting and is pretty fearless.

Benjamina the Venipede belonged to Barry before he left Johto. She's named after Reaver's fangirl and takes after her namesake. She loves Reaver but can't stand her current trainer. She's a very sullen little thing who can't be bothered with evolution.

Sapphire the Mantyke is the newest addition to Logan's team, obtained during Fourth Wall. She's very friendly and just wants all the affection ever! Shame she has Logan for a trainer. She seems to have decided that Quartz is her mother. The chances of her ever evolving are slim to none, but at least Logan has some Pokémon that can defend him now! ...orz

I have no idea what else to add to Logan's roster, but clearly he needs more ladymons. Logan is terrified of Ghost- and Psychic-types and he's not very fond of Dark-types, but otherwise he's pretty open to anything. Though he does seem to have a fondness for Flying- and Dragon-types. :|

[combat_butler]

Hayate's team is over here.

I tend to put a decentish amount of thought into every 'mons personality, which is kind of funny, since I rarely thread out Pokemon stuff outside of Hina, Hime, Miya or Overfiend.

Some quick things of note:
- Hayate has a Eeveelution family, he originally just owned the mom, Ayu, but the other two are from two of his friends who left.
- Originally Hayate's only male Pokemon were water types and aside from his Shinies and the Pokémon he's received from people who left, I've stuck to that trend.
- Both of Hayate's Ninetales are from friends who left. (Though he'll give Rika's back soon)
- Miya can read minds and use telepathy and even say a few select words aside from her name, but since Hayate would freak out if he knew about it she doesn't ever do it. She learned how to talk from watching TV in Hayate's rooms at hotels.
- All of his ghosts get along really well and could easily traumatize a small child with their pranks.
- As I've shown before in a post, a lot of his team is possessive of him and clingy and demanding of his attention. Having certain ones out all at once is really dangerous to his health.
- Yes, Overfiend's name is actually red. Don't question it.

[grapecape]

................overfiend

i

[determinator]

I haven't updated Archer's Pokémon in forever, but they're here to get the basic idea. He's missing a Deino and a Gligar, but I think those are the only two I need to add.

Archer has forty-six Pokémon, so I'm definitely not going to go into all of their personalities. I'll just cover the ones he mainly uses.

Alekhine the Alakazam is Archer's ridiculously immature go-to Pokémon. When he's not trying to be threatening, he's slacking off and playing hide-and-seek with his trainer. That said, he isn't stupid; he does have the 5,000 IQ of all Alakazams after all. He's just really, really immature. He's in a relationship with Queen, Archer's Bisharp, but he also happens to like Emmy's Alakazam.

Kimblee and Kimbley the Glameow and Persian are Archer's pets, two cats that actually get along pretty well and get horribly confused when he calls them by name. He clearly has a morbid sense of humor, naming cats after his bffs. :|

Kann the Venipede is Archer's... pet. He tends to collect a lot of pets, but that roach is legitimately adorable, shut up Kimblee. He's very possessive and doesn't like the idea of Archer liking anyone more than him. Unfortunately, he'll always have to compete with Kimblee. Guess who's winning.

Nubs the Skitty was accidentally nicknamed by Kimblee because he... has nubs instead of feet. He's kind of the most pathetic little Skitty to ever exist and he will never evolve, since Archer likes to keep his cat Pokémon unevolved for the most part. At least this one isn't named after Kimbley/Kimblee.

Tyrant the Tynamo is a vicious little eel who wants nothing more than to hurt Archer. Why? Who knows? She's just mean-spirited and plans on making her trainer's life a living hell once she evolves.

Archer isn't looking for any more Pokémon, and once he learns about the limit to the number of Pokémon you can have, he's definitely going to be giving some away (most likely to Team Rocket). He just likes training. :| A lot of his Pokémon don't have very developed personalities, so I'm still working on that.

[usedlaserbeam]

Yagyuu's roster is so huge, it's ended up needing to be broken down into three separate pieces; there's his MAIN ROSTER, which consists of the Pokemon he's caught or hatched himself, his INHERITED ROSTER, which people have left him upon departing Johto, and then there's THE GRANDKIDS, which is his Eeveepocalypse. God help him, he has 20+ Eeveelutions now, everything is terrible forever.

The Main Roster is the one that contains most of the really good stories, but the Grandkids have their own narrative and most of the ones on the Inherited Roster were picked because of some connection Yagyuu had to them, so. ASK ME THINGS.

His favorite of the entire roster is Lady the Espeon, with Masako the Vulpix in close second. And probably my favorite member of his roster is "That" the Octillery, because it's not just a dorkoctopus but one big canon joke, too.

[worktodo]

It was my goal, upon apping Albert, to give him the most objectively terrible roster in all of Johto. This is aided in the fact that Albert is a pacifist who will never fight a Pokemon battle or earn a badge, and also hates everything about Pokemon ever.

His starter Gandhina the Poochyena is a pacifist dog who will never exceed level 5, making her the second-weakest member of the entire roster despite being his starter. The forever weakest is Egghead/"Ham" the Togetic, because I thought it'd be funny as hell for Albert to have a Level 2 Togekiss someday and have a fully-evolved yet weak-as-shit owlbird on his roster. Also, Thing/"Coffee" the Paras has had its mushrooms surgically removed so it's down half its attacks because it can't use any of the mushroom-produced spore things anymore, so basically he's just a petrified crab (with the world's most hilariously tragic backstory) who can only defend himself by scratching on occasion. But someday soon I intend to do a heartfelt reunion post where his wife Mrs. Thing finally catches up with him and then there are Happy Paras Sweetheart Times all over the place, which naturally will continue to piss off Albert.

Suffice to say, every single one of them has been chosen for a ridiculous reason; there is literally not a single member of his roster that I acquired for a serious training and/or battling related reason. THEY ARE ALL TERRIBLE.

And so is Albert's life.

The end.

[foolishwren]

I am WOEFULLY behind on... keeping up with ANY of Heather's roster, but TL;DR about them? THAT I CAN DO.

In general, she gets along well with her Pokemon, even if she's not always in-tune with what's actually going on inside their heads. She's not the most well-read of trainers and to be honest flies by the seat of her pants half the time when it comes to training and dealing with them. But it works out, one way or another-- usually they understand a lot more about HER than she does about them, and than she realizes.

GENERAL INFO AND PLOTTING!
I would LOVE to do more with them, and often feel like I don't do enough! If anyone would like some awesome plot tiems with any of Heather's Pokemon, let me know! I love writing these guys, I just don't do it enough. I'll include any relevant info inside their own blurbs.

Headcanon:
When it comes to how I imagine the Pokemon in general, I go by a mish-mash of the games, the show, and just my own general musings on what 'real-life' Pokemon would probably be like. I tend to characterize them as being very intelligent animals. Or... well, animals with varying levels of intelligence, anyway. As a general rule, I don't use the name-speak unless it sort of works as a good onomatopoeia of sounds that particular Pokemon would probably actually make (ie, "QUAAAAAA" sounding more or less like a realistic squawk from something like a Quagsire).


Blurbs about the Pokemon themselves will be written up in another comment!

[foolishwren]

FIRST OFF:

Cujo the Growlithe

This guy is Heather's starter, and he is the quintessential Big Dumb Friendly Dog that people tend to either love or hate. He's enormous, stupid as a box of hammers, and loves everyone.

Background: Heather's relationship with him went through several phases, beginning with venomous hate (considering she has a phobia of both dogs and fire, Cujo was pretty much like an overlapping circle graph containing everything she hates. The nickname 'Cujo' began purely as a pejorative; eventually it just stuck as his actual name because he started answering to it) and poorly-disguised fear, which became empathy during a particularly nightmarish event during which she beat the crud out of him, thinking he was a monster from back home. When he stayed by her side to protect her anyway, she came to start caring about him, and ever since then has slowly been working towards coping with her phobia.

Current Relationship: At this point, she is almost completely comfortable with Cujo, even playfighting with him and Not Having Terrible Panic Attacks when she wakes up to him jumping all over her. Although she continues to call him all the same insulting names she did when she first got him, it's out of affection now (even though he's not really smart enough to know the difference) and she genuinely loves her big dumb mutt. That said, despite having had a Firestone carefully wrapped up in her bag for YEARS now, Heather is extremely reluctant to evolve him. Despite the fact that she has become incredibly close to and comfortable with him, she's seen what an Arcanine looks like and is secretly a little afraid that if he becomes that big, she'll start being scared of him again.

Noticeable Traits: For one, Cujo is enormous. Part of it is overfeeding (Heather is a terrible owner and shares scraps with him constantly, and he is also a champion beggar so he gets scraps from everybody else too), part of it is a ridiculously shaggy coat, and part of it is just that he happens to be a particularly large sample of his species. Being about the size of a St. Bernard (although a bit... stumpier), he has occasionally been mistaken for a very tiny Arcanine.

Plots and Ideas: Well, at some point I would like Heather to evolve him, but since that's something of a big deal with her, I've been waiting for some seriously dire circumstances for it to happen. Chances are she wouldn't do it willingly unless it was out of desperation, either for someone else's safety or her own. Maybe someone would be interested in plotting out something with the aim of that happening?

[useddragonrush]

Despite being here before Halloween, Chris hasn't had a great deal of Pokemon currently. But first the ones he has are:

Maya the Pawniard is his starter though she's a long way off until she evolves. She's very much like the Pokemon version of his friend Maya: quiet and unasuming with a lsight dash of loneliess. Since being paired with Chris, she is slowly edging out of her lonely nature and becoming the leader of Chris' Pokemon. Much to Daniel's annoyance.

Rain the Squirtle is not completely aware that biting everything that he can get his teeth on is not a good thing. (His dad's a Feraligatr, okay?) He's actually good-natured if very bold and willing to take risks despite the fact he's very young. He's also a bit of a powerhouse. Loves Daniel to bits. The feeling isn't mutual, sadly.

Daniel the Houndour is very much like his namesake: hasty, very irratible and loathes most of the Pokemon in Chris' party. He's not a people person and all that concerns him is getting stronger. He doesn't like Rain and Shad at all. He does have a very tiny margin of respect for Maya however, mostly because she's a fellow Dark type.

Shad the Duskull is very much a relaxed Ghost type. She's not one to be easily disturbed and doesn't scare easily. She doesn't follow anyone and was the leader of the group of Duskull that scared Chris during the Halloween Event of 2012. Despite this setback of being caught, Shad doesn't mind being part of Chris' team, and will try to keep Daniel under control at times.

I do have plans for Chris in Violet City. I want him to have a combination of these Pokemon: Skorupi, Pineco, Yanma. I would like one of these Pokemon to be following Chris after a while of traveling through Johto. I also have plans for Chris to get a Grass type whenever he gets to Ilex Forest, maybe a Treecko or Snivy.

[likewatson]

So Harry's only known his starter for about a week and his second 'mon for a few days less than that, but he already has a pretty good idea of their personalities, and these are the conclusions he's drawn: Waldo the Starly is bleeping crazy (SEE ICON), and Henry the Sentret is not. Harry very well may just place all future Pokémon into one of two categories: Crazy and Not Crazy.

I chose Starly for him during the 4th wall because I thought their personalities would mesh well: Cool and calm at nearly all times, they are also very sociable creatures, although they may bicker if their group becomes too big. Starly's calls are known to be very strident. And it was great! I was like, yes. Starly. Perfect fit for this guy. So when I wound up apping I decided I'd go with Starly for his actual starter, but then I realized I wanted him to wind up with a bird he'd have to really, really work with if he wanted it to cooperate. Then I threw in a dash of crazy for funsies, and thus Waldo came into being. He's prone to freaking out over nothing (this is what Harry's observed so far, anyway—he can't tell what sets Waldo off, but he's trying) and attacking his poor trainer as a result of his fear/anger/other strong emotion. Luckily, Waldo can't fly (he waddles! IT'S ADORABLE!), so Harry doesn't really have to worry about anything above his knees getting injured unless he is, for some reason, on the ground.

When something is entrusted into Harry's care, he takes that responsibility very seriously. For that reason, he may think Waldo is a few nuts short of a fruitcake, but he loves the little bird already. With some training, Waldo should start to calm down and his personality should start to stabilize. Right now, he's a bit all over the place. His most notable moment thus far was that time he bird-cursed out Carmen Sandiego. Yup.

And then there's Henry, whom Harry caught because he Felt Bad. He wanted to see what battling was like, so of course Waldo decided to focus for once and totally kicked some poor Sentret's behind. After it fainted, Harry kind of stood there like... crap. And out came the pokéball.

Henry is pretty much the opposite of Waldo, as far as Harry can tell. He's calm, has a fairly serious disposition, would rather cuddle Harry's leg than peck it to the point of bleeding, and doesn't much seem to care for battling. Harry is totally fine with all of this.

Cheria just gave Harry a Cleffa egg, which should hatch in a few days. Her name is going to be Clara and she is going to be the most adorable thing ever and he is going to shove her in EVERYONE'S FACE BECAUSE LOOK AT HIS BABY, SHE IS SO GODDAMN CUTE.

In conclusion: tl;dr harry still doesn't understand these things but whatever, he's dealing.

[worktodo]

why are you bringing an alien into his house harry.

we have rules about aliens harry.

[leftinbasketforfbi]

Reid has this monster of a roster. And he's soon going to have an Aerodactyle because getting a massive baby dinosaur is totes a good idea.

Yang the Absol is a very serious, no-nonsense kind of guy who can be occasionally talked into playing a few harmless games with the other Pokemon. He's the reason Reid's roster has leveled-up so much, because he is constantly feeling disaster radiate from his trainer and thus turns into a massive drill sergeant.

Flora the Munna while not being that young by Munna standards, still acts like a baby sometimes because she likes attention and will cling to Reid or Mio like static. She's a sweet girl who snacks on her Trainer's bad dreams sometimes, but she's been completely spoiled.

Nathan the Lampent is pretty mischievous and messes around, but he never means any harm, and he usually listens to Missy and Reid pretty well. At the moment, he's got a massive ego from evolving, and he wants to become a Chandelure soon so he can lord the fact he's fully evolved over everyone.

Missy the Misdreavus is a trouble-maker and tends to be more dominating than Nathan--and tends to be a touch more mean-spirited than Nathan, too, with a sense of humor based around Schadenfreude--but she listens very well to Reid after hearing that she was named after a girl Reid saved from being murdered. She has a lot of respect for her Trainer, and is thus, along with Yang and Elle, one of the primary Pokemon who will work to snap anyone in the roster in line if they're making Reid's life harder.

Elle the Vulpix is a spirited girl who fought tooth and nail to keep from being caught because of how fiercely independent she is. Reid insisted on doing it, though, since he found her with a badly twisted paw that would have led to her death in the wilderness, and so when he finally caught her, he just brought her to the PokeCenter and then tried to let her go. She recognized his benevolence by then, so she decided that to reward him, she would fight against anyone who dared challenge him in battle. Of course, she made this clear by following him home and nipping his ankles if he tried to make her go back to the forest.

Amanda the Yamask IS SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY GUYS YOU HAVE NO IDEA. She is the soul of a rebellious teenager who was out alone in the woods and slipped on leaves, leading to her hitting her head on a rock, leading to a fractured skull and intracranial hemorrhage. She could have been saved, but her parents assumed that she was just out being crazy again (they ignored her antics completely, figuring correctly that they were things she did for attention), and no one looked for her until she was nearly dead. The last thing she remembers from life is being wheeled into the Center and seeing Nurse Joy take one look at her, shake her head, and move onto another patient. Thus, she hates hospitals and doesn't like Nurse Joy one bit.

She was basically moping around and drifting across Johto aimlessly when the Halloween event happened and a Haunter stole her mask, slapping it onto some random dude who turned out to be Reid. Amanda, not knowing she wasn't in her own body, ended up giving Reid a cigarette burn, bronchitis, and a tattoo he's still too embarrassed to reveal to anyone. And she developed a lasting animosity with Albert, because Albert's an asshole. After she became a Yamask again and realized what she had done, she felt extremely guilty and was desperate to make it up to Reid somehow, since despite being unpleasant and downright mean, she's never set out to seriously hurt anyone but herself. He put her in a ball while he tried to figure out what happened, and she realized that this was the first time since before she died that she felt like she had some kind of purpose. Now she refuses to leave Reid's roster, saying that she's just there to make things up to him when they both know that she just really needs someone while she copes with her own death. Slowly, the rest of the roster (sans Ellie, Sarah Jean, and Riley, who have no problems with her) has started warming up to her, but she and Elle still have issues that they occasionally work out by tussling outside.

Sarah Jean the Lapras is a kind, motherly creature who is the only one who can reliably get Reid asleep with her song. She's quiet and yearns for babies of her own, but she contents herself with being the one other Pokemon go to with their problems, despite the fact she's one of the youngest in the roster. She has absolutely no problem with people climbing all over her, and is slowly teaching Reid the art of sleeping on her shell.

Riley the Dratini is a sweet little kid who just wants snuggles and fun. And he's learning bad habits from Nathan and Missy, who want him to be a prankster. He's young and likes to wrap himself around people's necks because they're warm, and due to physics lessons from Reid, he's learned how to turn himself into a rocket noodle. ROCKET NOODLE.

And the first thing Ellie the Eevee did upon hatching was tackle Nathan and start trying to pin him, despite the fact he was dozens of levels higher and burned her to the touch. Even after being smacked around for it, she continually tackled him. Thus she's considered the bull-headed doofus of the family and Reid has to keep her from attacking things unnecessarily. She likes to strut around and brag about how powerful she is, but she's really not all that strong yet. She's still a baby Eevee.

So there you have it! I'd like to do something with any one of them, especially Amanda. Any ideas?

[doitrockapella]

So if Carmen finds out Reid has an Aerodactyl egg she will probably have personal flashbacks to back when she got her Aerodactyl egg, which summarily resulted in the incredibly mature reaction of DINOSAUR DINOSAUR DINOSAUR DINOSAUR MY VERY OWN DINOSAUR AAAAAAAAAA DINOSAUR.

She may relive the experience vicariously through him.

I am just warning you.

[faketime]

Since Dimitri has so few Pokemon and I need to flesh them out anyway, I'll start with his team. Basic starts are here.

Tabitha the Shuppet is Dimitri's starter. She's what you'd expect from a ghost Pokemon: mischievous as all hell. She absolutely loves hanging around Dimitri because he seems to be full of negative emotions 90% of the time (he's a very stressed out guy). She also likes to get in his way when he's trying to work. If you're with Dimitri and stuff starts moving around on its own, it's probably Tabitha being a brat. Despite her attempts to annoy Dimitri, it actually doesn't work very well so now she spends most of her time just trying to get his attention.

Crow the Murkrow is pretty much the exact opposite of Tabitha. He likes to do his own thing while Dimitri's preoccupied. He thinks Dimitri is kind of boring and wishes he took the team out to battle more often...or at least do something exciting. Researching all the time is so boooring! Dimitri kind of caught on to Crow's desires, so he lets the Murkrow wander around outside while he's working. Little does Dimitri know of all the trouble Crow gets into when he's not watching.

Scarlette the Ponyta is Dimitri's first non-starter and to be honest, he sort of doesn't know what to do with her. He received her as an egg for the newbie deal at the breeding center, and he figured a pony-like Pokemon would be a good choice for traveling on. He tried not to question why a horse hatches from an egg in this world, and simply helped her learn how to walk when she hatched. However, he was not expecting the mane of fire to grow out of her an hour or so later. That kinda threw him for a loop. Even though Scarlette is very docile and will probably never burn him, he's still hesitant to touch the mane for the time being.

Here is a list of Pokemon I have planned for him to get at some point. He's going to have his own little gang of typical thug-like Pokemon with Crow (to be renamed Boss when he evolves) at the helm because mafia shenanigans.

As for plot ideas...idk. If anyone in Goldenrod wants to do something with Crow stealing their items and Dimitri scolding him for it, we could go that route. Or maybe someone can convince Dimitri that he's not going to die horribly for trying to ride Scarlette when she's big enough?

[exeggutorhead]

Envy's zoo and all of their blurbs can be found here, but since there's 21 of them I'll just go into a couple. Every one of them has large amounts of shenanigans and inter-team interactions headcanon, if anyone is curious! I would also love to plot things for any of them.

Chimera the Tyranitar was Envy's starter, and is still his favorite by a long shot. I pretty much designed his personality to be the exact opposite of Envy: he's friendly, gentle, steadfast, and refuses to hurt anything outside a battle (and even in battle he'll hold back a lot against a weaker opponent). He loves Envy so much you have no idea, honestly Return is probably his most formidable attack, but if he sees that Envy's doing something that might harm himself or others he'll try to put a stop to it. Especially fighting where it looks like Envy might be in danger; he was mildly traumatized as a Larvitar by seeing Greed beat the hell out of Envy in a fight and being unable to do anything about it, so now that he's big enough he will get in between anything like that immediately. Envy sees Chimera mostly as an equal partner at this point. Also he's been BFFs with Tulio's Yanmega since he was a little baby Larvitar, and his reflexes are a lot faster as a result of many games of tag.

Izumi the Tropius is the most aggressive bananasaur you ever did see. She loves battling and picking fights with other Pokemon, and she doesn't take commands from Envy at all. The most he can do with her is try to talk her into things. She does get along with some of the other team members, though, especially Samus the Lucario and Carl the Aerodactyl (who she had to teach to fly when he was younger), and Chimera because everyone gets along with Chimera. She's got a big ol' scar on the top of her head because she was a very reckless baby dinosaur who ran off to fight stronger Pokemon and got lost for three days.

Carl the Aerodactyl was adopted when he hatched by Juliet the Vaporeon, and he was convinced he was a Vaporeon himself for a little while. He'd be a lot more of a troublemaker if it weren't for her keeping him in line, and he's always on his very best behavior when she's around because he is a mama's boy. Juliet is serious and no-nonsense most of the time, thus why Envy named her after the Sloth the most serious homunculus, but she has a big soft spot for her dino baby.

Edmund the Yamask is actually the only ghost-type Envy has met on his Pokemon adventure that he actually likes having around, despite the fact that Edmund possessed him (by accident). Edmund is a total sweetheart, and extremely shy of strangers. He was a librarian in his past life, who was very devoted to his family and his job. Unfortunately, their home was broken into one night, and he was killed while trying to protect his family. As a Yamask, he can't stand battling, but he'll protect his new family too if he ever needed to. He also still loves reading, and likes to get Envy to take him to the library whenever there's one around. I'm thinking of doing a little plot with him soon involving him trying to find out whatever happened to his past life's family after he died, for closure.

General headcanon things: For the most part, I treat Envy's team as sapient, with animal behaviors. I do have them using the name-speak, but I've also got them barking and roaring and such. A lot of them are also cuddlers and/or perchers, so depending on who he's got out, Envy is liable to have at least one Pokemon sitting on him (or following very closely, depending on size) at any given time. He gave up and stopped minding it a long time ago.

[paladinlost]

Oh boy, Cecil's team. It's pretty large, and between Miyuki's Froslass and that Zorua egg he's going to buy from Riku, it's going to get even larger! (And now we all know why Cecil has to work so many hours. Food bills are scaaaaary.) An alarming number of them of them come from other trainers, and an equally alarming number are named after people he misses too much. (The only exception being Warrior of Lightning, who still has half her namesake here. Cecil prays to all the gods he knows that said namesake will never find out.)

The closest thing he'd have to a wishlist would be Pokémon he could name after Zidane and Cloud to complete the Cosmos team he knows. That means a monkey and another Swablu. But which monkey, and what father for the Swablu? ...Probably Kayne, just for those egg moves.

I do my best to give them all individual personalities and take note of how their previous owners played them, but I have to admit that I wish I could do more with that. Having a whole post of Dora being her mean bitchy self was surprisingly fun, and there are plenty of other Pokémon I'd like to try that with. Especially Fu the Dumb Shonen Hero. Or Tellah the Worst Santa Ever, with Christmas approaching.

...I also want an awesome tea party for female Pokémon. My girls would totally have one and invite everyone. Anyone interested?

[friendyousohard]

Twilight's Team (Overview): Twilight's philosophy that she used to gather her Pokemon can basically be summed up in one sentence.

Preparation through specialization.

Each of her Pokemon has one thing it is very, very good at, like taking blows without even noticing (Sapphire), special based offense (Starswirl, Tesla), physical based offense (Megasoma), and status infliction (Aristo). Almost all of them can do other things as well (except Megasoma, who is all physical might, no surprises unless you count some attack types) but each of them has their specialty and usually when Twilight sends them out they're primed for that role.

The exceptions to the above rule are Spike, Apus, and Echo. Spike escaped Twilight's pigeonholing by being her all-arounder, her jack of all trades. Apus was a parting gift from Celestia, and she still hasn't been able to make a real spot in her team for the poor Sigilyph. And Echo... Capturing Echo was kind of an accident, and while she does have quite a bit of promise as a harrier and speed demon, Twilight's still a bit wary of bats, so she hasn't really gotten anywhere yet.

In short, Twilight's team is based on having the exact right answer to any given situation, each in a different Pokemon. Enemy has a powerful attacker who's weakness is physical blows? Time for Megasoma! Need to hold back the enemy for a while to prep her strategy? It's Sapphire's turn! Etc. It's not exactly foolproof, but with Spike waiting in the wings to take over when one of the others can't do its job right (Sapphire trying to tank a fighting type, for instance) and a couple of newbies just waiting to find their place in her team, it can't be denied that she's got an answer for most things Johto can throw at her.

Interactions with Twi: There's not a single one of Twilight's roster that isn't affectionate towards her. And it's no surprise, given the friendly, caring way she treats them. Most are also rather protective of their physically frail, scrawny little trainer, but the ones who understand how intelligent she is can't help but admire it (particularly Starswirl). In turn, Twilight tends to impress upon her team the importance of strategy, and knowing where their strengths lie and what to do if they get over their heads. She also does her best to teach them the importance of friendship and working together, natch. Some of them take better to her lessons than others, but more on that further down.

Headcanon: I base most of my assumptions on the games, some on stuff I really liked in the anime and movies, and a lot else on "hey, wouldn't it be cool if..."

Twilight's Pokemon are varying levels of intelligent, with Starswirl being a super-genius because, well, Kadabra, Tesla being quite intelligent but not able to communicate it well, Spike and Apus being relatively smart, Megasoma being at about the level of a college fratboy, and the others being more animalistic, though they can all recognize emotions and usually understand what's being said to them, though only the more intellectual ones can usually follow a conversation going on without them being directly involved. Even Sapphire the Snorlax, who evolved when she accidentally fell on a poor Treeko and smothered it into unconsciousness (Fluttershy was horrified) can usually tell when she's being addressed or someone's upset with her.

I don't really go for name-speak either. Usually I just have them make the sort of noises I imagine animals of their type making.

Individual personalities

[friendyousohard]

Spike the Dragonite: The chillest of chill. The broest of bros. The most laid-back, no-worries dragon you'll ever meet. Spike will almost never display any amount of anger or unhappiness, and can often be found just sitting back or curled up while Twilight's and Fluttershy's other Pokemon run around. He's also more or less the heart of the team, eager to lend a hand (or... claw) whenever the situation calls. If anyone needs help, he's got it, whether it be fetching wood for the campsite or standing guard while the others sleep. If someone were to actually talk to him, which doesn't really happen since he doesn't tend to say much, he'd usually sound like he was perpetually stoned.

Until Twilight orders him to move, or one of the others is placed in danger, at which point the concept of inertia suddenly comes into play... with a vengeance. A Spike at rest tends to stay at rest, but a Spike in motion tends to rip you several new ones. There's a reason the bulky dragon is still Twilight's right hand Pokemon, and anyone who underestimates him because of his out of battle attitude is in for a rude awakening. Of course, he also doesn't tend to fight unless he absolutely has to, since the little ones need their exercise and all, but despite appearances, he's always ready to jump in if needed.

Starswirl the Mustachioed Kadabra: If Spike is the heart of Twilight's team, and her right hand, then Starswirl is her left hand, and the brains. Outside of battle, he's Twi's assistant, keeping her reading binges and the notes she takes organized, as well as acting as a sounding board for her ideas. Though he's respectful of his trainer and generally modest about his own abilities, Starswirl also has very high standards for the other Pokemon and does not suffer fools well. He's as prickly as Spike is laid back, and often the big dragon has to calm him down if one of the other members of the team has done something phenomenally stupid (or just irritating).

In battle, Starswirl is very much a thinking fighter, always planning out battles like chess matches, and sometimes thinking several moves in advance. This, naturally, goes perfectly with Twilight's own battle style, so the two tend to make a very great team. He doesn't always deal with changing situations well, but as long as things are going more or less according to plan, he can iron out a few wrinkles here and there.

Megasoma the Heracross: The muscle of the team, Megasoma is a brash, tough-talking, big-egoed bug who has no qualms about showing off what he thinks is the most manly display of awesomeness ever achieved, himself. While not stupid, he tends to think with his instincts, and will gleefully charge into battle even if the odds are completely against him, certain that he can take on anything. He even tries to goad the other members of the team into fighting him sometimes, though when he gets too bad about that Spike tends to set him straight with a good walloping.

In battle, Megasoma has just one mode. Attack! Attack! Attack! He will keep barreling forward with the strongest moves in his arsenal (or whichever ones Twilight told him to use) until either the enemy goes down or he does. And with the sheer raw physical strength he's got, it's been the enemy more often than not, which of course just strengthens his ego. After combat, he tends to become borderline insufferable to the point where Starswirl sometimes has to be ordered to not Psychic him into unconsciousness.

He's in a relationship with Fluttershy's Butterfree, Scoots, which basically amounts to Scoots believing he's every awesome thing he's said he is and wanting to be just like him, and him believing she actually can be just like him, which is obviously the best thing in the world to be. Obviously.

Tesla the Future Starship Enterprise Magneton: Tesla is... strange. It obeys Twilight just like the others, in and out of battle, but it almost never seems to associate with the other Pokemon, it seems to have no interest in things outside of battle and staring at books and computer screen with text on them, and no one, not even Starswirl, can understand what it says when it deigns to speak. The result is kind of creepy, and most of the Pokemon give Tesla a wide berth, which seems to depress it. It's hard to tell for sure though.

Tesla is utterly merciless in combat, going all out even against much weaker enemies. This callousness only makes the other Pokemon even more unnerved, though Tesla's never attacked anything but opponents. The fact that it's fond of using Thunder Wave to paralyze them before shocking and blasting them into submission probably doesn't help.

Fortunately, Twilight herself quite likes Tesla, and tends to dote on the floating magnet collection whenever it deigns to be out of its ball. As a result, it tends to stick to her like glue. She keeps it away from the Pokegear though, for safety reasons.

[tearsofademon]

First, the way I pull general species headcanon is more or less "what does Bulbapedia have, and I'll build from there". Anime, games, it's all good. Also, I tend to treat all of the Pokémon as intelligent, mostly because I have never in my life met an unintelligent animal.

So more detailed notes about Ryner's team can be found over here, but that's certainly not all I could say about them. Of course, some are certainly far more developed than others, but still. So I'll just list some trivia about all of the members of Ryner's menagerie who were originally his (but not the inheriteds because they're harder).

Rose (the Clefairy)'s original concept was pretty much, Ryner needs a starter who can and will smack him into actually doing things, because he is a lazy butt and won't do anything otherwise. Hence why she has some similar qualities to the Eris sisters (including love of dango, though that's Ryner's fault for being homesick for his friends early on and introducing her to it). I'm not sure when it was that I decided that she always refers to Ryner as her 'dear partner', but she almost never refers to him by name, not that anyone who doesn't speak pokéspeak would know. (In pokéspeak, she always says "Fairy" when referring to Ryner, in kind of the same vein as Ash's Pikachu calling him "Pikapi".) I have a little bit of backstory for her in the back of my head where the reason she doesn't want to go back in her ball is because the very first thing she remembers is waking up inside it completely alone and not liking it, wanting someone to be with. I think it's fitting, personally...

Gail (the Noctowl) will never make eggs with Elfy. This is mostly because he finds the concept of making eggs with anyone other than another actual bird creepy, though he won't admit this aloud.

Elfy (the Ditto) is based partially on the prince from a dumb play I wrote for a 24-hour theater production back in high school. He was kind of a ditz and was obsessed with cloth, reflected in Elfy's attitude and love of Ryner's clothing. The play itself was about a princess who had to get help from a peacock and a tree in order to rescue her brother (the aforementioned prince) from a dragon. (It was weird, and that was the point.)

Pino (the Granbull) has appeared on the network a grand total of twice, once as a pink flash running past the video, and once vocally only. Also, she was named by my sisters at the dinner table, though the IC source, like several others on this list, is that Ryner stuck two syllables that sounded decent together, together.

Jehra (the Absol) probably would have been Ryner's starter if Absols had been available at the time when I apped him, though as it stands, Rose was probably the better choice. He's based somewhat on the sheltie I grew up with, though he was a lot less stoic than Jehra is.

Ren (the Typhlosion) hatched from the only egg that Ryner has ever bought for himself, and he only bought it because Rose insisted, and she wanted a fire type around because she was cold. He is the team campfire and has zero problem with this. Also, Ryner still has the slightest traces of a scar on his hand where Ren accidentally burned him when he was first hatched, but you really have to know where to look.

Aran (the Paras) exists because I found the nightmare fuel for Paras to be fascinating and canonically appropriate (Sion I'm looking at you). Someday, I hope to give his character arc a bittersweet end where he decides that there's something that's more important than his own self so that he throws away his Everstone and evolves for the extra stat boost he needs to protect what's worth protecting. (...It could even be a good end, depending on whether he manages to make the mushrooms submit to him. Which could happen.)

Jiji (the Umbreon) and Kaile (the Wigglytuff)'s friendship is sort of partially inspired by Claugh and Luke, partially by Zohra and Peria, and partially by the sheltie I grew up with and the little baby bunnies he protected in the back yard one spring, though substituting in my family's current poodle's rambunctious personality for Jiji instead of the sheltie's. Though, the poodle I suppose is less battle-eager and more doesn't know his own strength...

Rey (the Yanma) is one of the bugs from Tarantulas' experiments (remember that?), and she's still suffering from that. Sadly, Ryner's doing his best, but he's not a therapist by any means, and the fact that he can sort of empathize doesn't really help in this case... She has been getting better, though, and at this point will willingly come out for a few minutes to eat dinner with everyone outside of her little hiding place, though only if they're in an inn room. So, you know, progress. Someday, where I hope to go with her character arc is that she decides that she's tired of being afraid of her own strength and that she wants to help everyone, and she finally evolves in a blaze of glory. Also, Rey lives in the only Pokéball Ryner has ever thrown.

These days, if you buy an egg from one of Ryner's semiannual sales, it's probably Lori (the Xatu) who will be delivering it to you. Gail contributes too, but Lori just so loves soaring through the sky and playing delivery bird. She does so love seeing new places, and even old places that she hasn't seen in some time.

Glen (the Joltik) is slightly based on the spider that lived in Ryner's cell when he was in prison for two years, and he was designed to be everything that his Alpha Stigma isn't. Cute, artistic, friendly, a creator. Even if he can't help being a little unnerving to some, what with being a tiny!spider and all.

Ellie (the Sawsbuck) was based on the classic Disney Princess cliché. This might be possibly more appropriate than originally intended, seeing as how Bambi was a Disney movie.

Lafra (the Munna) is the only member of his menagerie who was specifically and completely named after someone in particular. He doesn't usually do it that blatantly because he doesn't want to guess at what the namesake would think, but, well, Lafra's namesake was gentle enough that he probably would actually think that naming a Munna, which has similar abilities, after him was appropriate. ...Also the namesake is dead, but.

Arius (the Staryu) was pretty blatantly based on Ryner's Alpha Stigma, on purpose because starfish with a jewel in the middle that glows red. The only way it could be more appropriate would be if said jewel (while still glowing red) was green, though really, that would just get morbid. The stick up his rear is that he's jealous of other water-types that can evolve just by level-up. But someday (after a canon update because symbolism), there will be a water stone, and the star will evolve through the power of teardrops (because more symbolism)...

Jiru (the Espeon) came about because I wanted Ryner to be able to breed Eevees with different egg moves. Also, that theme of Jiji and Jiru? They're both named starting with Ji for a reason, namely derived from Fuji, who gave him Jiji's egg. Sion's Glaceon Jina also has the theme, though I'm not sure if he ICly knows the significance...?

Marian (the Yamask) is so much fun oh dear fishsticks, even if Ryner will never ever ever ever ever talk about the circumstances where they met ever. When she was alive, she went to cooking school in Unova. How she died was, she was coming home on break when she accidentally angered a swarm of Beedrill and tripped and fell down Slowpoke Well and broke her neck in the fall. (Cobra might appreciate the irony here.) Her mask accidentally got swept up in an argument between a gang of Duskulls and the Shuppetalian Mafia, and psychic tug of war gone wrong is what flung it to... well, you know. (Incidentally, the Mobster Shuppet might reappear someday, though he's not a member of Ryner's team at this time. He's based on what I remember of Fat Tony and his underlings from The Simpsons, so.) At this point, she is the team cook and has zero problem with this.

Senna (the Larvesta) is new and therefore has very little development yet, but her love of falling off the wall to make people jump comes from my own personal... mild... fear of moths and one that DID THAT once.

In the future, I'm still hoping to get Ryner a Cottonee, a Mime Jr., and a Togepi at the very least. Not necessarily in that order. But outside of that, my goal is to get him all the cool bugs (coolness dependent on my own opinion) and all the cute normal-type fairies.

Also, completely separate from his own team, Ryner's favorite species is Magikarp.

...I'll stop TL;DRing now. ...and editing, I swear. ._.;;

[whateveryoueatliveitspart]

This makes me realize how little I've been using Apollo's Pokémon lately. I really need to do something about that.

Apollo's been able to communicate with plants and animals his whole life, so he has a different view of them than most people. His relationship with his Pokémon is that of a group of friends who travel and live together; he always refers to them as "the Pokémon with me" or "the Pokémon who travel with me" and never "my Pokémon" or "my team", because after all they're his equals, not his possessions. He constantly has a psychic link formed with all the ones who are out at the time - which is all of them at all times except for Golurk and Yamask - so he's very aware of everyone's moods at all times, and they're aware of his. He never orders them around and does little to change their behaviour, other than to try and get them to avoid unnecessary fighting. He's let up on that somewhat after asking literally every random encounter if they really wanted to fight, making sure that all of his Pokémon ask whoever they're battling if they really want to fight, and having almost all of his team hound him for a few days to challenge a few of the gyms. He's still not in love with the idea of battling, but the fact that Pokémon generally enjoy it and his desire to make the ones with him happy has made him retreat to just not encouraging it. Generally, if his Pokémon want to battle they have to go out and look for other Pokémon themselves, which they do. As you might have gathered he doesn't have any real control over his team and if they decided to do something he disagreed with he wouldn't be able to stop them. It's not likely to happen though, since all of his Pokémon really like him and most of them have maximum Happiness. They trust him completely, though it's definitely a "trust him to be himself" thing at times, like with the whole battling issue. It's worth noting that part of their trust comes from the fact that none of them have ever fainted while they've been with him. Ever. Apollo goes to great effort to keep that from happening, even to the point of making them upset by forcibly recalling them to their ball if they're about to faint. They may not like it at the time and it may get on their nerves at times, but they can only respect his commitment to their safety.

Apollo's method of dealing with the six-Pokémon limit while living at the Lake of Rage is to, every morning, walk over to the resort, pull everyone out of the PC, and let them decide who will be in his party that day. After that's decided he walks back to his cave to do his normal things. Since he doesn't consider his Pokémon as "his" he makes sure that they all know that if they ever want to leave they can and he won't stop them. It hasn't happened yet, but he doesn't want any of them to feel obligated to be with him.

His current roster is here, though I need to beef up some of the personality sections. I usually follow the notes and PokéDex entries on Bulbapedia, and I tend to consider Pokémon as being fairly intelligent, definitely able to understand human language. I use name-speak, but I'll try to make it sound like actual animal noises at the same time. For example, Fearow going "Feeeeeeaaaaar" is a screeching cry and Zangoose going "Zaaaaaaan" is a sort of hiss. I do confess to getting far too much enjoyment out of holding Pokémon-human conversations where the Pokémon is giving long-winded explanations entirely in name-speak and the human has no idea what's going on.

Since Apollo never tries to catch Pokémon - even at the Bug-Catching Contest he just asked if any of them would like to come with him temporarily just until the contest was over - his team is all chosen for OOC reasons, usually because a Pokémon fits him or is a canon reference in some way.

Fearow: His starter, who wants to be strong and admired for his coolness and strength. Likes battling and uses his Keen Eye ability to seek out battles instead of avoid them. Hotheaded and rushes into things without thinking about them first. Is noticeably larger than an average Fearow, and seeing him descending towards you, or even worse, hearing his screaming cry, is potentially nighmare-inducing. Absolutely refuses to go into a pokéball or the PC. OOCly, he references wings since Apollo was an angel in his past life, Vector Sol, the fighter that Apollo will end up piloting in his canon (which is why he's larger, because planes are bigger than birds), and the hawk that proved to the other characters that Apollo could talk to animals. His personality is the way it is so I would have a way to force Apollo to battle.

Furret: Attacked Apollo on Route 29 while Fearow (then Spearow) was away battling something else. Apollo threw one of the strange red-and-white balls from his bag at her to stun her so he could leave without further hurting her (having already discovered that he couldn't eat Pokémon), resulting in her being captured. He tried to let her go, but she decided to stay with him. She was that Sentret that you run into after you've already caught one and are just trying to level your team for the first gym, which made her distrustful of humans. She's gotten better about that alongside Apollo, and it isn't obvious when the human is on the other end of the gear instead of there in person, but she's still overly-cautious. She doesn't really like battling, but she likes winning, and her extreme caution about going into battles resulted in her leveling up slower than everyone else, which she's trying to fix now after being pretty much useless in the gym battles. She has a bit of an obsession with learning new moves, and gets Fearow to keep an eye out for move tutors and tries to get Apollo to buy her lots of TMs. Because of this she has a very wide variety of moves at her disposal, which would be incredibly useful if she were at a level closer to the others, a problem she's trying to fix. She's very motherly and protective towards her own children, but when it comes to the antics of other Pokémon she tries to keep off to the side. Out of all of Apollo's Pokémon she has the strongest bond with him and stays close by, usually acting as his translator when he needs to talk to a Pokémon over the gear, since telepathy doesn't work over the phone. OOCly, she's a reference to the squirrel (which Sentret kind of look like) that Apollo played with in canon. Said squirrel liked humans a lot, but was shot by a poacher. When Apollo found it wounded he couldn't bear seeing it in that much pain and put it out of its misery himself. Apollo talking about the injuries to plants and animals that humans caused usually has a strong undertone of anger, but talking about the squirrel is the one time he really seems to find the memory painful as well as rage-inducing. Furret's obsession with moves is because she's the main breeder for Apollo's Field-group Pokémon, and having all those moves means that the babies are more likely to have good egg moves.

Sawsbuck: Got trampled by a herd of Blitzle during a swarm and forced his way into one of Apollo's pokéballs after Apollo healed him. Energetic, overly-friendly, no sense of personal space, and incredibly stubborn. Swings between periods of really wanting to train and periods of not wanting to do much. A solid fighter for Apollo, with both high Attack and high Speed. Is rather interested in making eggs, but has insultingly little interest in the resulting babies. OOCly he's here because a deer just seemed fitting for Apollo and it's one of the animals that Apollo's eaten before. His stubbornness was just to explain how Apollo ended up with him.

Golurk: A "leftover" egg from John Egbert that Apollo agreed to look after without knowing what it would hatch into. Even for a Golurk this one is a giant, in the 12-13' range at least, compared to the normal 9'2". It's also very shy, which is why it almost never shows up on the gear. It's mostly okay with being out of its ball now, at least around the rest of the team, but not so much around strangers and it needs time to get used to new additions to the team. Overall it still prefers to stay in its ball and only be brought out for battles and meals. It almost never talks and isn't particularly intelligent or creative. In battles it just stands in place and punches things, which it kind of enjoys doing. If more strategy is needed Apollo has to suck it up and give actual orders (though they come off more as strongly-worded requests). In terms of stats it has the highest attack stat by far of any of Apollo's Pokémon, but a terrible speed stat, which Apollo has started trying to figure out how to train up after seeing its slowness become an issue for it during the battle with Cobra. OOCly it's here because Apollo's from a giant robot show, so a giant robot was needed, which is also why it's so big. It being shy was just me thinking that it would be funny to have a shy giant robot.

Combee: Apollo asked Combee if he wanted to be captured during the Bug-Catching contest and he agreed, netting Apollo third place due to him having absurdly good stats across the board. Unfortunately, those stats are on a male Combee, making him pretty much useless in a battle. He tries, he really does, and does a surprisingly good job, but he's not a fighter by any means. Personality-wise he's an extreme doormat who will follow any suggestion, no matter how weakly worded, and gives the answers that he thinks the asker wants to hear. He's not particularly intelligent and is kind of clingy with Apollo and Vespiquen. He's getting tired of traveling and wants to settle down somewhere, preferably somewhere where he won't need to battle, but thinks that Apollo wouldn't be happy to hear that and so says nothing. He's also an incredible honey factory, and has loaded Apollo down with far too many jars of honey, more than the team can or would eat, and Apollo isn't sure what to do with it all at this point. OOCly he's here as part of a breeding pair for my future plans with Apollo (see Vespiquen). His personality is to enable his use in that plan.

Vespiquen: Caught under the same circumstances as Combee, only she didn't win Apollo any prizes because her stats are honestly rather terrible. She's bossy to the point that even Apollo won't humor all of her requests, and Combee especially is like her servant, though she does find him endearing on a personal level. She's with Apollo to get his help in setting up a hive for her to be queen of, and only helps with battling and such to stay in his good graces. The rest of the team finds her really annoying and want as little to do with her as possible, using Combee as an intermediary if they need to say something to her. OOCly she's here for my plan to have Apollo start a hive and sell the extra honey. Over the winter Vespiquen and Combee will be pumping out eggs, and come spring they'll be leaving Apollo's team with their babies to start their new hive, which Apollo will help set up and plant some nice flowers near for them. Her personality is just the first royalty-type personality I thought of.

Firaga: Formerly Lea's Pokémon, which is why it has a nickname. Extremely energetic and treats battles like playtime. I don't feel right trying to expand his personality too much since he was someone else's Pokémon originally, same as how I don't feel right evolving him. I do know that while he misses Lea and would return to him if a new Lea ever came in, he does like Apollo as much as the others, even if the lack of battling kind of disappoints him. OOCly he still kind of fits Apollo, but he would fit the TV series Apollo better because I desperately consider Aquarion EVOL and it's terrible retcon to not be in any way a sequel to the OVAs.

Terror Watcher: Formerly Nico Robin's Pokémon, who was originally given to her as an egg by Apollo, and the victim of Robin's bizarre naming style. The Sentret son of Furret and Sawsbuck. Furret keeps him close at all times and his leveling is mainly through watching and sucking xp off of the battlers. He's active, has a short attention span, and is insatiably curious, making Furret worry about his safety. He sticks close to Apollo more than Furret if he can help it. Like with Firaga, I don't feel right expanding on his personality too much or evolving him right away. OOCly he fits just like Furret does, but I'd rather avoid duplication of Pokémon with Apollo, so at some point I'd like to send him off to a trainer who travels more than Apollo does.

[whateveryoueatliveitspart]

Yamask: The source of Apollo being a punk for the possession event, and a walking floating bunch of Issues. I haven't decided on his human name yet, but Apollo has no way of knowing it at this point anyways. Was a 17-year-old punk who wanted to see Johto as an anarchist society and liked to have a good fistfight. Died when someone brought a baseball bat to one of those fistfights. As a Yamask he forgot his human existence, only remembering it when his mask somehow ended up on Apollo (a Haunter, probably). With his goal being so big, it was inevitable that he couldn't fulfill it during his time in control of Apollo's body. When the possession ended and he got his mask back, he remembered his human life, as well as the fact that he was dead, had failed in his goals, and had taken away an innocent bystander's personal autonomy, which is the thing he most wants people to have. Terrified at forgetting his life again, depressed and loathing himself for what he had done (or failed to do) during his brief time in Apollo's body, he captured himself in one of Apollo's pokéballs and ended up in the PC. He heard a rumor during his life that Pokémon in the PC don't age and never die, and, true or not, refuses to come out, terrified of death and of forgetting his life again. Apollo has no clue about any of this and is confused about why a Pokémon would want to stay in the PC constantly. Apollo's not even angry with Yamask for the possession event (a little annoyed, maybe, but not angry). Personality-wise, Yamask is friendly, passionate, reckless, kind of fails at women, and wants people to have (what he sees as) a better life. He also really likes fistfights, and if he ever battled would only use Physical moves (which is exactly to wrong way to use a Yamask in battle but oh well). I don't see him ever wanting to evolve. OOCly, I wanted to get Apollo involved with the possession plot and started toying with the idea of him ending up with the Yamask afterward. Yamask kind of fit Apollo, since he's a reincarnation and Yamask are kind of a reincarnation as well, but I decided that the best fit would be if the Yamask was some kind of hero, especially one that not everyone would think of as such (again, it's a canon reference). Eventually I decided that I wanted an excuse to use that song somewhere (Architects by Rise Against) and went for a stereotypical punk, then twisted it so that he wasn't just calling for anarchy because it's what's cool, but because he'd reasoned it out and decided that he believed in the idea. He's entertaining to write, but writing him argue for a position that makes me want to shake him and yell "you aren't seeing the problems with this idea" gets old after a while. He's a long-term project for Apollo, and if Apollo ever gets involved with the PGC Yamask will probably be all over that, or possibly be given to one of their members.

Zangoose: Apollo met her during 4th wall when Ho-Oh was giving him and a gang of Zangoose a ride. Yes really. Aside: Ho-Oh is in my opinion the Pokémon that fits Apollo best. They happened across Cobra Commander and the Zangoose attacked him because he's a snake-themed villain and they don't like snakes. How she ended up with Apollo afterwards is a mystery to both of them (and me), but she doesn't have any objections to sticking around. She usually just kicks back and relaxes, but the possibility of a good fight or the existence of anything snake-related will rouse her to action. She doesn't take crap from anyone, and if you don't like that you can talk to her fist. She's constantly chewing on a twig. She's kind of a banchou-type character (technically it should be "sukeban", but I see her as very masculine). Has a good throwing arm. OOCly, she's here because I made a throwaway joke to Cobra-mun about how all of his enemies should have a Zangoose, and I finally gave in. Note that she's a she and thus can create all of those Zangoose for everyone. Her personality is from looking at the picture of Zangoose and thinking "tough guy". The twig-chewing was just an impulsive thing to distinguish her from the rest of the Zangoose.

Solrock: The other Pokémon Apollo got during 4th wall. Met Apollo when the giant robot from his canon showed up and beamed the three nearest psychics on board (the other one was a Lunatone). Neither of them remember meeting each other or anything that happened (and Captain Ash might wish that he didn't), but Solrock sees no reason to leave Apollo now that it's here. Personality-wise, Solrock is... um... well like all Solrock it's solar powered and seemingly emotionless. When it's sunny out it floats around, sometimes upside-down or on its side, and just watches the world around it. When it's not sunny out or during the night it just floats a few inches off of the ground and doesn't move, though someone can push it around like a shopping cart and it won't do anything to stop it. That's about it, really. It gives no shits about anything and rarely talks. It just watches you silently. And watches battles and sucks xp off of the ones doing the actual work. And silently follows people around and watches them. It's kind of creepy, even to Apollo. Apollo likes being able to hold a conversation with it using actual words, and he's tried to get it to be a translator for talking with Pokémon over the gear, but it gets bored easily and wanders off after a while. Definitely Apollo's least reliable Pokémon (and that includes the Yamask that never leaves the PC). OOCly it's here because Apollo, god of the sun, pilots Vector Sol, is the head Element for Solar Aquarion, symbolized by the sun, is a psychic, yeah it's a cheap reference and was kind of an impulse thing on my part. Maybe if it meets a nice Lunatone it will become more useful, but I have no particular plans for that right now.

[usedconfusion]

Ron's team is actually a fairly well balanced group so far, with the exception of the direction North is headed in, but that'll probably change as he accumalates more Pokemon. Mostly just blurbs for now, since he's only been around a couple of weeks so far.

Frederick: This Chimchar is basically the Jason Marsden character to Ron's Will Friedle. (By which I mean they're actually pretty good buds, but Frederick has a tendency to mock Ron's more ridiculous traits) He's also just kind of snarky in general. And he'll actually develop into a pretty formidable combatant once Ron gets around to teaching him Monkey Kung Fu.

Mia: This Shinx is Action Girl personified. While it hasn't come up yet, as soon as she gets a whiff of real adventure beyond just travel, she'll be up for pushing the team onward.

North: Considering his attack pool, and the weirdness of some of the options, this Sentret will end up being convinced he's some kind of superhero. (Specifically Silver Age Batman)

Dinah: Audino and Team Mom.

Daisy: Like most Togepi, is the baby of the group. Thinks Ron is her dad, and will probably grow up to emulate Mia.