andrewgaming pokemon teams!!! ill add a little (very large) explanation of each below the cut :3
art courtesy of the lovely @sheepishmoth !!
ill start with both andrew and chris, as theirs are slightly connected in a way. so- if we run with the assumption that andrew is supposed to be the same or similar age as ohster, then he wouldve been born around 2004/5, and the soonest main pokemon game to release after that was diamond and pearl. id like to think he got a gameboy and played it pretty early on in his life, choosing turtwig as his starter due to his love of plants (aka his obsession with farming in canon). he was super attached to it and refused to ever take it off of his team, so eventually it evolved all the way up to torterra. during the time he played, he probably caught a lot of the pokemon he first encountered, one of them being the regional bird, starly. another one he grew attached to and kept on his team that evolved fully. at some point he also finds an eevee, not knowing it was a bit rarer, and is immediately attached to it bc its adorable
at some point he grew out of it and started playing more "mature" games, like cod, where he met chris. when they grew closer, they agreed to play together- chris for the first time in his life. im not sure exactly when this would happen year-wise, but id imagine sun and moon was the latest release, so chris ended up with a litten as his starter. (imagine andrew kept his team from diamond and pearl dont think about it too hard ok shshs). andrew, having a deep nostalgic connection with gen 4, suggested they both get budews and raise them together!!! a totally normal platonic thing he wants to do yep mhm. dont ask him about it andrew will deny ever having the idea. would he take it back? no back off those are their kids
they play together for a few months on and off, prioritizing games like minecraft but playing long enough for both budews to evolve into roselias. but then andrew grows distant, chris' mental health plummets, and. well you know what happens.
but not only was chris trapped in andrews minecraft world, but also in his own pokemon save. he was able to travel between the two worlds through his network that we see in the episode Chris and his pokemon were able follow him because i say so. he reunited with litten and roselia, both trapped in their last evolution state because chris' death altered the code of the game. with his soul having transferred to his in-game character, he grew a connection with ghost types- specifically, yamask. they say yamask is the soul of a human that holds a mask of its previous face, and chris discovered that his soul holds a creeper head. at no specific point he also ends up befriending an espurr and a mimikyu, finding community in their similar stories and lives.
one day, during his time following andrew around in minecraft before he got discovered, he found that he was not alone in the shadows. sitting in a dark cave, far away from andrews home, he laid in his grief and sorrow until he felt a sudden presence appear in front of him. red eyes pierced through the blackness and he wondered if a wild wolf had mistaken him as a living player. but as the creature stepped closer, he saw impossible rounded shapes and the swirling of smoke-like appendages. it was at this moment he realized that the two worlds- that of minecraft and pokemon- had been bridged. by his hands, though not of his accord.
the mystery pokemon continued to approach until it placed a soothing paw on chris' knee. when he felt himself stop shaking, he realized the gentleness of the creature before him; the kindness and empathy it took for it to reach the suffering boy across worlds. he reached a dark hand out to pat its head, and the creature leaned in with a quiet purr.
marshadow, as he later learned, refused to leave his side after that moment.
back with andrew!
in his search for his missing best friend, he found himself going back to his old pokemon save. most of his time was spent rekindling his bonds with his pokemon- it was a game, sure, but sue him if he felt some sort of real connection with them. in the midst of training and leveling up his team, he stumbled across a wild poochyena. thinking of his minecraft dog chris, he decided to throw a spare pokeball its way just to see what would happen. he caught it before the ball wiggled once.
over time, his roselia powered up enough to evolve into a roserade. he thought back to chris' roselia and wept, but hed be damned if the only surviving kid wasnt given the love it deserved. that care bled through to his other pokemon, and one day his eevee evolved into an espeon as physical proof of it.
at some point he found himself entrusted with a pokemon egg on some kind of side quest, the kind he thought chris mightve enjoyed. the egg reminded him of his chickens back in minecraft, and eventually he found himself with a togepi he called 'goob'.
now smile was a bit of a different story. he never played pokemon when he was alive- minecraft was a unique case of being allowed to play video games. but when chris died and the worlds were bridged, he found himself placed inside a storyline that mirrored his own life. he discovered a house just like his own with a smokey spirit peeking out of what used to be- what still was?- barneys dog house. the greavard ran up into his arms, and its barks sounded like home.
as a ghost, he found himself surrounded by similar creatures. in the woods near the stone well, a phantump and chandelure floated amongst the trees and a frillish splashed in its water. when they saw his ghostly form, their ties to the structure cut and they bound to him instead.
he later explored the run-down building he once called his home, reminiscing on the times spent with his one and only friend, and before that, with his dear and loving mother. he entered her old room- no longer fearing that he wasnt allowed to- and discovered a small, helmeted creature sat upon her bed, crying. he was no longer the emotive type, yet something about the creatures pain felt... familiar. he gently crept up to the small being, and sensing his movement, it dove straight into his chest, hugging him tightly. he would later learn of their shared loss, but for now smile simply let the creature cry.
wishiwashi was an accidental find- in fact, it wasnt even him who discovered it. one of his Pieces that had been chasing andrew in the so-called "fishbowl" came upon it when the man had escaped. dutifully, it brought the creature to smile and the entity saw something desperate in its eyes and kept it as his own.
ok so heres really why i gave them each pokemon /silly
andrew: dude. i was at such a loss for him. i wanted him and chris to have some sort of matching pokemon, and roselia/roserade had their respective flowers and i just wanted to make it angsty. and my reasoning with the diamond and pearl does stand true with torterra and staraptor, and then poochyena is like chris dog + his anger issues so like that works but im not gonna lie to you. i have no idea why i went with the other two. please if you have better ideas let me know i was trying to come up with shit for THREE HOURS. its also important to note that i think, with him growing up with gen 4, he would be really put off from pokemon past like gen 5. the way hes so nostalgic about minecraft that hes barely receptive to new updates makes me think hed only have love for the older gens
chris: litten being his first starter is an excuse for me to give him a cat that can keep his cold wet body warm. its purely indulgent sue me. the roselia is the same as andrew, and the yamask is as i wrote above. espurr isnt a ghost type, rather a psychic type, but it has immense power that it cannot control and is limited by its lack of experience. it kinda reminds me of chris and how hes slowly been gaining power in the minecraft world, assuming he could theoretically have the power that smile does. mimikyu hides its body with a mask to make it more lovable and palatable for others, like chris wears a creeper mask to make easier for andrew to look at his void form. and marshadow is also similar to above- its a shy creature that traverses through the shadows, and i think its ability to learn the powers and feelings of those it comes into contact with is really reminiscent of chris' strong sense of empathy. also i lauve marshadow :3
smile: how could i not pick cubone. a pokemon that wears the skull of its deceased mother to protect itself from the world and hide its own emotions?? dude. and the phantump- the soul of children that get lost in the woods, thats also him. greavard is just his puppy, its pokedex entry states that its the soul of a dog that wasnt loved enough in its life. and yes, obviously everette loved that dog and was deeply affected by his death, but id imagine that, due to his rough home life, he wasnt always given the ability to care for barney as much as he should have. at least it meant they were able to meet in the afterlife. chandelure is a pokemon that follows those near to death, taking their souls as fuel for the fire in its flames. i like to think that it stuck with smile through death as it literally had a piece of his soul. frillish is a water/ghost type that wraps its tentacles around its victims, dragging them down deep in the water to drown them, just like The Call pulls people to drown in wells. and then wishiwashi is representative of him and the pieces! sad, mostly ineffective creatures on their own, but when threatened, they combine into one terrifying form to fight against enemies.
if you read all of that, wow good job /silly but thank you!!! this was kind of an exercise to get me back into writing and thinking about the characters because as you guys can tell its been. way too long. but i had a lot of fun!! if you have any opinions youd like to share or any pokemon you think would be a better fit please let me know :DD
