#harmonious black

[sparkylurkdragon]

Assorted Chargestone nonsense.

To explain:

The smitten thing is, as I understand it, a closer translation of what the Japanese was saying here. Grain of salt because I don't speak Japanese and this is based on a striking memory from when the game was new, but, eh, if nothing else it's a fandom injoke among N/Player Character shippers and probably made Player Character turn an interesting colour.

Mae is a Backpacker you can run into in BW2 who used to be in Plasma. She has a Sawsbuck.

Going from "N" to "Narinder" sometimes has screwy effects on the text. I had fixed this before but it must've snuck back in during all the Driftveil chaos. It's fixed again.

N's Krookodile (Yaku) is a minor fancharacter who is sticking around in this version of events. We will learn a bit more about him, along with Joltik and Klink, when Narinder pokes us after Mistralton Gym.

N can have little a growling, as a treat.

I mean, as much as I love N to pieces... this is a pretty reasonable thing to say from Bianca's perspective at this point in the game, you know?

Next up is a cutscene with Your Dad in Mistralton! He's a pilot, so that's why he's not around as much as he'd like to be, but he's still very much involved with your life and your mom and will wish you a happy belated birthday. Aww. :)

[lurkdragonstuff]

Guiding Harmonia headcanons for me, constructed when we only had Black/White 1 to go on, or, why I ignore BW2 re:the Harmonias in my own writing:

Concordia and Anthea are in the younger end of Ghetsis' generation. If he's the equivalent of a Boomer, they're either the equivalent of young Boomers or old Gen X.

N is Ghetsis and Concordia's biological son; Anthea's his aunt.

Yes, Connie married Ghetsis. No, it is not a healthy marriage.

N's real name is Narinder, which Ghetsis came up with. It means "lord of men" and is exactly the kind of overblown name Ghetsis would give someone with the purpose he had in mind.

N uses his initial as a nickname because Pokemon believe that you don't just share your real name with strangers, only friends and family. He'd have gone as Human if Ghetsis hadn't talked him down to a compromise that sounded a little less weird for Unovan human culture.

The Shadow Triad are the adopted ones. They're about the same age as N and think of Ghetsis as their lord first and father second. He rescued them from a house fire when they were seven. Did he have something to do with the fire happening in the first place? Probably, but they don't know/won't admit that.

N didn't spend any amount of time actually in the wild as a kid. He never left Castle Plasma until shortly before the game started; it's just that the castle had some (intentionally) overgrown grounds that he ran around in when he wasn't in his room.

AS YOU CAN IMAGINE some of the clarifications in BW2 didn't work well with me. They ranged from misunderstandings (Connie and Anthea look of ambiguous age in the BW1 intro and their overworld sprites aren't any help) to canon having explanations that clashed with my guesses (his real name if he had one would probably start with an N but it could have been anything. That said "Natural" is one no one would have guessed because it is so stupid) to canon apparently trying to soften the horror that is Ghetsis (see no he took in a feral child that he somehow found it's... not fine but that's a little less horrible isn't it?).

So like I often do when I bang headfirst into weird recons and clarifications that I don't like, I just consider BW2 persona non grata when it comes to the Harmonias. *shrugs* Good game, shit sequel. Many such cases.

[sparkylurkdragon]

The other half of the cutscene, where Ghetsis threatens the player with plausible deniability.

(Ignore the Hiker; he's there to set flags for me and will be moved elsewhere in the final patch.)

[sparkylurkdragon]

Dragonspiral Tower!

Plasma Grunts named and their teams adjusted. The miniboss rush of four grunts right before N has a pattern of four-three-two-one Pokemon.

N had a few tweaked and added lines.

The League tried to look into N but couldn't find much. Ghetsis made sure of it. (I have since corrected the spelling of "license" to American English. Consequence of my odd imprinting!)

[sparkylurkdragon]

*DERANGED CACKLING*

BEHOLD!! A CUTSCENE!!!

[sparkylurkdragon]

Narinder at Chargestone Cave's entrance. Makes it clear he's 18 and so are the Shadow Triad with a blithe statement that he doesn't realise is deeply messed up, talks around using the names of people he doesn't know, and refers back to Ghetsis totally not threatening you.

[sparkylurkdragon]

Concordia and Anthea's postgame stuff. Content warning for implied domestic abuse/mentions of Ghetsis being himself. Hat tip to my friend Ardil's fic Concordia's Scrapbook for solidifying a lot of this backstory.

Now… now I just need to add the proper codes to Looker… and I will be done with Driftveil at last… I can go on with the GAME… (If you're new to the hack/my Pokemon universe: Connie and Anthea are in Ghetsis' age cohort in this version of events, and N's real name is Narinder.)

[sparkylurkdragon]

Ah heck with it, I'm feeling generous. Here's the Concordia cutscene the plays after you find all the Sages. Anthea will have more to say inside. Content warning for implied domestic abuse/Ghetsis Harmonia is his own content warning.

If you're new to Harmonious Black/my general Pokemon fan universe:

1.) Concordia and Anthea are N's mother and aunt instead of his sisters, being in Ghetsis' age cohort in this version of events.

2.) N's real name is Narinder.