seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Belarus
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from Poland
seen from United Kingdom
Warden swap
Is that Lord Avalugg or a regular avalugg? Or an alpha avalugg? I'd just like to know what position Emmet is in here.
Please excuse the ever changing, inconsistent size! I fully intended Emmet's Avalugg to be an Alpha and while big, is still smaller than Lord Avalugg ouo;
Alright Kings, Queens, and Monarchs of all kinds.
Time for more Noble's will Au stuff I thought up.
This will have a Official tag if anyone wants to check it out. Under "Noble's will AU"
Thanks to the wonderful mutual @creatingnonsense , more ideas were played out, so Im putting them here.
Once a Warden completes their trial, a mark from the noble would be added to their body, a testament to their will. It can be shown as scars or as markings. Its a way to show that the human have managed to complete this task and gained the grand title of Warden.
For scars, Melli has a healed lightning (litchenburg) scar across his face and back, Palina would have light burn scars on her feet and ankles.
For markings, Arezu would have a leaf-like tattoo on her left leg, and Sabi would have a marking of a feather on her hand.
Wardens also become like second parents/older siblings to the Noble's children, helping them raise the next generation. In some cases, Wardens would take up the mantle of raising the runts when the Noble are not able to do it themselves, especailly when the Noble is sick or hurt.
You can catch one of the wardens sometimes followed around by a tiny group of pokemon, like a mother duck being followed by their babies.
Example: "Mama" Melli being followed by a group of rambunctious voltorbs, or "Big brother" Lian helping young Scyther sharpen their blades with stones. "Papa" Iscan helps guide the Basculin upstream, and "little doe" Mai takes time to comb through Stantler fawn 's fur of barbs and thorns.
Paternal/ maternal instinct is activated whenever the noble does have their heirs, making sure to protect the litter like they would for human children. Which is why they were given their blessings in the first place.
Either from other pokemon, like Alphas, or humans that could harm or kill them, like hunters or poachers.
Example: Ingo once bit a poacher out of instinct from harming a Sneasel kit, and it was realized that this developed poison glands in his teeth and fingertips, similar to his noble. Or, Calaba causing a mudslide to bury some Toxicroak who got WAY too close to some Teddyursas she was watching over.
Heavily inspired from a fic called "To act and not wallow" by Jalowy on Ao3 , Noble pokemon have sacred "true names", given to them at birth from their parents' warden.. It holds a slight power of them, being able to soothe a distressed noble pokemon's heart during bad times or to bring it joy during times of joy.
The noble is able to hear their name being called no matter how far their warden is away from them, they will always come running.
Only the warden may know the Noble's true name. It is the first thing they know about the noble pokemon when their bond is first made, immediately waking from the soulspace with the name whispered to them. Other wardens and even the clan leaders know it, but they cannot say it, only the warden of that specific noble can speak their name truly.
Hence why when a Noble loses a warden, their heart "dies" because due to them unable to hear their name spoken once more to soothe their hurting heart.
I will be making a separate post listing the trials each warden has gone through, and the true name of the Noble Pokemon. I only got a few so far, so if you have ideas for a trial, please let me know so I can properly tag your idea.
Chapter 2 of Cryogenic is finished, which means the fic is complete! Can be read here or on AO3. Pokerus AU belongs to @monsoon-of-art.
“Cryonics is regarded with skepticism within the mainstream scientific community. It is generally viewed as a pseudoscience, and its practice has been characterized as quackery.”
Frigid air burned in Dawn’s lungs as she ran and desperately searched for the river, her only hope of escape from the massive glalie on the prowl. She kept a jittery paranoid watch out for the glaceon that could effortlessly vanish and reappear in the blizzard and listened for Gaeric’s far off caterwauling that seemed to come from all directions.
Everything looked the same through the snow storm with no familiar landmarks to indicate where she was and the ice lands were eerily devoid of pokémon. Dawn could barely see her paws in front of her face and it seemed miraculous her former friends hadn’t caught up to her.
They were sloppy hunters despite the hunger and madness that drove them to try to rip her apart. Irida had silently stalked her prey, practically invisible in the blizzard, the only giveaway having been her red headpiece.
The warning from the crimson crown had given Dawn only a moments notice to turn tail and run, with the former Pearl Clan leader barking and snapping at her heels as the dewott sprinted on all fours. It had only been a wet, chesty cough forcing Irida to slow down to periodically hack up a lung that prevented her from catching up to her quarry.
It was a well practiced routine for Dawn at this point, this run from the mad wardens and their leaders, but the Alabaster Icelands during a blizzard was one of the worst places to find herself being pursued. The vast white tundra left her with very few places to hide and there were no bodies of water to dive into for a quick escape, aside from Lake Acuity and the river near Heart’s Crag.
Dawn relied on these aquatic getaways for safe exploration and took care not to stray too far away from them during her expeditions. She hadn’t understood Iscan’s insistence on learning how to swim at the time, but she certainly appreciated his wisdom now.
It had only been a short distance upstream to the temple and despite knowing the two icy predators were in the area, she didn’t think she needed to call Lord Braviary, like an idiot.
Irida used the cover of the storm to slip between Dawn and the stream completely undetected. She had chased Dawn straight towards the glalie that had been waiting silently in ambush and preparing an icy blast, the sheer cold of which would have frozen her instantly. Starvation had evidently driven Gaeric to impatience because he had sprung the trap far too early, missing entirely and giving her the chance to run.
Dawn had gotten more lost and turned around as they hunted and harried her across the tundra, shrieking and howling like fools.
They seemed to have lost the trail for the time being, but her reprieve wouldn’t last long. As much as she wanted to sit down until the burning in her lungs stopped and ugly cry her eyes out, she was not out of danger yet and in far from ideal terrain to face them.
Howling winds tore at her flimsy head kerchief and flurries of snow stung her face. It was one of the few times she was grateful for her thick coat of fur, otherwise she would have frozen before Gaeric even reached her.
She had seen the remnants of glalie hunts during her research. The aftermath of the frigid ambush predators was an eerie sight; stumps of ice with leftover blood from the poor creature frozen in place and eaten alive.
That could have been all that was left of her, some blood and flesh stuck to the ice to be picked over by scavengers.
How did this happen? She had been there when Gaeric emerged from his chrysalis as a fully formed glalie, blinking dazedly in the afternoon sun with none of the gathered Pearl folk knowing what to say. His expression was one of bewilderment and grief mixed with embarrassment at being seen in such a state by his clan.
“I-I told you guys you didn’t need to worry about me!”
It was still the same Gaeric they all knew.
He had looked so sad to Dawn. Maybe she had been a little tactless, but she walked out of the crowd and hugged him, her tiny arms coming nowhere close to wrapping around his massive frame. He resisted at first, looking away abashedly. When she didn’t let up, he accepted and looked like he wanted to cry.
Now she couldn’t see any trace of humanity in the former warden. She had watched all of them gradually succumb to the strange disease and was forced to accept they weren’t really people anymore. But they weren’t pokémon either.
Dawn understood and loved pokémon; she spent her whole life growing up with and working alongside them. She couldn’t understand these mindless beasts hell-bent on eating her.
It was too painful for her to accept they were truly gone. She still held on to the hope that some part of their former selves remained, which was why she was in the Alabaster Icelands in the first place.
Dawn had set out for Snowpoint Temple at Volo’s request, the merchant believing there was likely a plate hidden away somewhere. He promised he would catch up with her, he had just wanted to check something out at the abandoned Pearl Clan settlement first.
When she failed to arrive at the temple, would he go looking for her?
Dawn stumbled and tripped face first into a snow drift, numbly realizing how little feeling she had in her freezing digits. She really needed to find the river before Irida and Gaeric caught up to her. It was her best bet and the water had always been her most reliable means of escape, just so long as Iscan wasn’t lurking beneath the surface.
The girl cried out as she was suddenly yanked out of the snow by her scarf and lifted into the air by a massive set of jaws. She frantically tugged at her neckwear, the end caught between flat teeth arranged into a permanent scowl with frosty breath emanating from behind it.
The glalie had materialized out of the storm without warning. One quick snap from such huge teeth and it would all be over, or he could deliver a frozen blast at point blank.
Dawn struggled to loosen her scarf with paws numb from the cold, dreading to see what he would choose. But most of all, she was tired and wanted to give up. Tired of constantly needing to run for her life and barely avoiding being eaten by people she cared about. Tired of searching for solutions in a wild goose chase all across Hisui and everyone expecting her to be able to solve their problems. The cold and exhaustion had sapped her will, dully noting how anticlimactic of an end this would be.
She faintly wondered if there was any part of the warden left to be horrified. Was he watching this unfold, helpless to do anything?
“Gaeric, please... It’s me!” she pleaded weakly.
She squeezed her eyes shut tight in preparation for the killing blow, hoping it would at least be over quickly. The end never came. She heard him whining and gritting his teeth as the red in his eyes faded.
“Dawn?” His voice was muffled through the fabric he still held between his teeth.
The warden looked down at the girl with a clarity she hadn’t seen in a long time, his mania lifted and mind clear.
It didn’t last long, however. Gaeric made a pained expression and started shaking his head and snarling, not thinking about the tiny dewott being swung carelessly side to side as he struggled to keep his thoughts straight.
Acting fast, she finally managed to loosen the scarf and was flung a few feet away into the snow. Dawn stumbled into a run with a renewed determination, pushing past the exhaustion and numbness in her limbs.
Gaeric and the others were still in there somewhere, waiting to be saved. She couldn’t give up here!
Dawn managed to put some distance between herself and Gaeric before she heard frustrated shrieking from the glalie, once again in the thrall of his madness. He had lost sight of his prey but knew it couldn’t have gone far, searching and howling loudly in a blind rage that never got any further away as she ran. Gaeric was not far behind and could easily catch up to her if she didn’t keep moving. She listened closely for the former warden drawing closer and kept a careful watch for any dark shapes in the blizzard or a telltale red crown.
Dawn would have very little warning if Irida attacked her again. She considered the sharpened shells tied securely in the knotted fur at her waist and wondered if she should grab them for defence. Her paw drifted down to one of the scallops. The girl turned dewott was never as fast on the draw as Riptide was, no matter how many times her own dewott tried to show her a proper stance and techniques. Dawn just couldn’t stand the thought of taking a blade to someone, slashing at a person’s face, neck or other vulnerable areas. The idea of causing severe and surprising enough pain to escape an assailant filled her with a sick, uneasy anxiety that she panicked and froze at.
She was the champion of Sinnoh, far from a stranger to intense battles, even ones with lives on the line. But even at their most severe, the participants never tried to tear each other to pieces and trainers would withdraw their pokémon if an opponent looked set to maim or kill.
There were no rules of engagement here.
She withdrew her hand and focused on running. It was a terrifying and long several minutes of trudging through snow that was starting to pile up past her waist before she eventually heard the sound of running water.
Yes, salvation!
While looking back over her shoulder, she failed to check what was in front of her and ran straight into an armoured forearm, the collision knocking her flat on her behind. Dawn scrambled back as glowering red eyes from a towering alpha stared down at her through the squall.
An alpha samurott stood tall and imposing before her with an impressive horn that could lance her through and sturdy claws that could crush her with ease. His helmet was adorned with numerous wicked spikes, like a briar thicket she’d need a pokémon with Cut to get through.
A second alpha stepped out from behind him to take a look at the newcomer, this one a female. The matriarch had unusually bright red markings for a samurott. Woven around the thorns on her helmet, it made Dawn think of a rose.
Both of them were heavily muscled and littered with nicks and scars like almost every alpha. They had two dewotts accompanying them that were likely their offspring, a brother and a sister.
Of course. I would run right into an outbreak.
The boy had a noticeably fluffy coat and a soft tuft of fur on the top of his head. An expression trying too hard to be serious looked comical on such a cute, round face.
His sister had thick, coarse fur and a hardened glint in her eye. The weathered look of her shells indicated she had a real chip on her shoulder.
Dawn sat there with her teeth chattering and tail tucked between her legs, unsure of her next course of action. The odds of escaping two alpha samurotts in the water or winning a fight against them were slim to none and there was nowhere else to run with Gaeric still after her.
The patriarch of the family walked towards her until he was hovering over the girl and fixed her with an intense look that could silence anyone. He stooped down until his face was level with hers, his eyes betraying no true emotion as he sniffed at the strange looking dewott.
Dawn wasn’t sure what he was hoping to find, her eyes nervously flickering between the shell like sheaths on his forearms and the gaps between the otter pokémon.
He raised his head back up to his full height, his investigation concluded.
“Are you lost?” he asked, surprisingly soft spoken.
“I haven’t seen you around before,” his mate added.
Dawn was momentarily at a loss for words.
“I-“
She never got a chance to finish that sentence; the interaction was cut short by banshee like wailing as Gaeric burst onto the scene.
The samurotts had barely any time to react to the sudden intrusion before an enraged Gaeric fired a beam of liquid ice from his mouth, directed at the new, bigger threat. The attack froze on contact, ice coating one of the scabbards on the male alpha’s arm and locking his sword in place.
The samurott family was shocked by the utter lunacy of the stranger’s assault. No pokémon would attack an entire horde with two alphas looking after their offspring, let alone a glalie after forgoing any attempt at an ambush. Not unless they were utterly desperate or had a death wish.
The otter pokémons’ surprise did not give Gaeric any meaningful advantage as the patriarch drew his free sword, undaunted by the assailant.
Twin roars rattled the permafrost, the thunderous sounds from right above made Dawn cover her ears. Like all alphas, they bellowed with a sheer power that would have knocked her down if she wasn’t already sitting. Dawn scrambled to get out of the way, lest she get trampled by powerful limbs as they charged at their foe.
The two of them ruthlessly slashed at any vulnerable point they could find through Gaeric’s icy exoskeleton, any spot left undefended by his sloppy and unfocused attacks. He thrashed about in a rage, mindlessly spewing ice they easily shrugged off and trying to bite at whichever one had most recently drawn his ire.
They seamlessly alternated between all-out assaults, dogging retaliatory attacks and baiting the fool into ignoring their partner, knowing what would best support the other without needing to speak in a well practiced dance.
The male was barely hindered by being limited to one blade, as ceaseless and brutal as his mate. He knew how long he could keep up a barrage of attacks and when to go on the defensive, leaping back or to the side far more nimbly than their bulk would suggest was possible.
To compensate for reduced offensive capacity, he leaned into making precise strikes during the openings provided by his partner, his shell blade’s jagged edge leaving painful splinters in the cracks and gouges that were starting to appear.
Dawn didn’t have the opportunity before now to observe how samurotts with quadruped builds used their swords and she watched the battle with curiosity befitting of a researcher. They sheathed and unsheathed faster than she could blink, their blades never out when it would impede movement.
A dip in their front paws let them place it flat on the ground over the swords’ hilts with ease, grasping the sword again every time they needed to charge or pivot, as second nature as breathing. Their blades were truly extensions of themselves.
Again and again it looked as though they would be lost in the chaos, but they always remained in their masters’ possession and Dawn marvelled at how effortlessly they wielded them.
The two alphas would lunge forward with a sword drawn to slash relentlessly or rear up on their hind legs for a heavy blow, the constant barrage tiring Gaeric out.
Their two dewotts didn’t stand idly by; they helped their parents wear down the assailant by squirting water from a distance or leaping up to slash with their shell blades whenever there was an opening. Far bolder than her brother, the girl took every chance to strike at their foe and put herself in the thick of the action.
Her brother’s more cautious approach proved to be more reasonable when she misjudged where Gaeric’s attention was focused and he turned quickly to lunge at her for her latest attack.
He opened his mouth and looked set to crunch the tiny dewott with huge jaws with no time for her to escape. Dawn watched in horror as she saw the battle turn disastrous for the poor dewott and her family in an instant. Or it would have, had her mother not gotten there first.
With an impressive burst of speed, she put herself between the glalie and her daughter, taking the attack. Massive teeth locked around the back of her helmet and upper shoulders and Gaeric twisted her back and forth to wrench something painfully. He ignored the meagre water shots from the now cautious dewott as he tried to bite through her mother’s thorny headpiece. The alpha female snarled as Gaeric forced her down into an awkward position with her arms splayed and pinned away from each other, preventing her from drawing her swords.
Her mate bellowed as he sprinted towards his partner’s assailant, bowling into him with a full body shoulder charge. Gaeric stubbornly held on and the male samurott slammed both front claws on top of his head, using the full weight of his body to push him to the ground.
The dark type drove his blade into a crack in Gaeric’s exterior and he hissed in pain as the samurott twisted the blade to pry the plates of his exoskeleton apart. He curled his claws into a fist and smashed his arm over Gaeric’s head like a hammer, shattering the ice that covered his scabbard.
The hefty blow to the head finally knocked him loose and forced him to release the female. Gaeric hovered backwards a short distance away from the samurott clan in a daze, reeling from the powerful strike.
Warning yowls that might have sounded a bit ridiculous if one didn’t know they could back up the threat arose from the dewotts as the group gave Gaeric the chance to flee. The patriarch pointed with his newly freed sword and gestured for the intruder to leave while his mate howled and stamped on the ground, making it clear it would not end well for him if he chose to keep fighting.
It was hard for Dawn to watch Gaeric’s ragged breathing with blood and drool seeping from his mouth, the bitter end result of rage and hunger driving him to fight far past the point of sanity. Looking at the cracked and scarred body of the glalie that was once a man, Gaeric had unquestionably lost. She silently willed him to run away but knew he wouldn’t.
The standoff was short lived; as soon as his eyes refocused he made a disgusting gurgling shriek and rushed at the smallest member of the group, the boy dewott. Gaeric fired a subzero blast at close range that encased the fluffy dewott in a solid block of ice, his face frozen in a look of shock.
His mother was completely silent as she slipped behind the ambush predator while her mate snarled and lunged at Gaeric with his head down. The former warden prepared another attack to meet the alpha head on, but was caught by surprise when the female reared up and slammed into him from behind before she wrestled him to the ground. She kept a solid hold on the thrashing glalie whose furious caterwauling turned alarmed at the alpha’s rapid approach.
There was a sickening crackling as Gaeric was skewered by the samurott’s horn, followed by him howling in agony from being stabbed with such force that it pierced through his hard exterior between his left eye and horn.
The samurotts had barely made any noise during the final confrontation with no need for a threat display at that point. Their daughter climbed on top of the ice block and sat down to start chipping away with her shell to free her brother as Gaeric weakly struggled under the samurotts’ hold. Blood dripped down the male’s horn as Gaeric’s struggling grew weaker and he slowly faded into unconsciousness.
It was over.
After making sure he was well and truly knocked out, the male pulled his horn out and they released their hold to check on their son. None of the otter pokémon expressed any particular horror at what had transpired, instead they were all rather nonchalant now that the danger had passed.
Dawn trepidly inched toward Gaeric to take a closer look as the alphas puzzled over how to free the trapped dewott.
His laboured breathing was concerning, though it reassured her the warden wasn’t dead. The gash in his head was a ragged wound, but not as deep as she feared. One of the branches of the alpha’s horn must have prevented it from going too far in, otherwise it could have killed him.
Pokémon were pretty hardy creatures and recovered from injuries quickly, even in the wild. If this were a proper trainer battle, a glalie in this state would have been recalled and kept safely in stasis until they could receive proper care and attention. Gaeric would have to make do with hiding until his wounds healed on their own.
When it was clear the PokéRus victims were a danger to those around them, keeping them in pokéballs was proposed as a safety measure until a solution could be found. But none of the infected could go into balls, no matter how hard anyone tried. It just bounced off of them like it would on a human or inanimate object. Professor Laventon learned that somewhat painfully when he volunteered to be the first test subject and got nothing to show for it except for some welts and bruises.
“I would keep my distance if I were you,” the male samurott said, startling Dawn out of her train of thought.
She was so wrapped up in her own concerns that she didn’t notice him approach. His mate had decided to sever the ice block at its base and she was now carrying it tucked under one forearm. The alpha kept advancing towards Gaeric and drew his sword.
Was he going to kill him?
“No!” Dawn shouted as she ran to stand between the samurott and Gaeric, her arms thrown out to the side in a feeble attempt to shield him.
“Stand aside please.”
“But you can’t just kill him! You’ve already won!” she protested.
“My dear, I’m afraid this glalie has gone quite mad. It would be the kindest thing to do,” the matriarch spoke up.
“When pokémon fall victim to diseases that cause such madness, there’s nothing else that can be done for them.” the male said, mindful of the fact he was speaking to a child, still ignorant to the harsh realities of the world.
“There are illnesses that make pokémon foam at the mouth and attack anyone with no provocation or self-preservation. They can never recover or have any quality of life.” He spoke as though he had given similar explanations several times before.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to watch,” his mate said, as if that was the issue.
Dawn stomped her foot in frustration. “He doesn’t have rabies! Look, you can see he’s not foaming at the mouth.”
The samurott narrowed his eyes, starting to get annoyed by her insolence.
“There’s many illnesses that cause pokémon to lose their minds. It’s best if he’s put out of his misery before it spreads to any others.”
“But it doesn’t spread from person to person! It’s caused by exposure to spacetime anomalies.” Dawn said.
He remained unimpressed.
“Truthfully, I don’t believe it matters what caused it. He’s danger to everyone around him. What’s important is us and our children.”
“Have you seen anyone with this disease make a recovery?” his mate asked pointedly.
“...No,” Dawn was forced to admit. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. The Nobles were driven mad, and they got better. They’re my friends and I’m going to find a cure for them!”
The alpha rolled his eyes in exasperation.
“Move out of the way.” He was done arguing.
“I won’t.” Her voice cracked embarrassingly under his steady, intent glare. “I-if you w-want to kill him, y-you’ll have to kill m-m-me too.”
She had made her ultimatum without truly considering the consequences, but seeing how coldly he regarded her, Dawn realized he might decide that her terms were acceptable.
His claws tightened around the hilt and he thrust the sword beside her then made a slow sweeping motion that pushed her to the side with the flat of the blade, toppling her over.
Dawn sputtered indignantly as the alpha walked past her and raised his sword to finish the deed. If she couldn’t say or do anything that would stay his hand, Gaeric would die.
“He’s under Lord Avalugg’s protection!”
That caught his attention. He turned away from his would-be victim and looked her straight in the eye, searching for any trace of deception. Dawn rose to her feet and forced herself not to look away.
“Is that so?”
“Y-yes. You can ask Avalugg yourself. They’re all under the Nobles’ protection. Him-“ she pointed at Gaeric. “-and all the others like him.”
The alpha reluctantly sheathed his sword. “Very well. I can’t say that I understand his reasoning for letting them run amok.”
His mate frowned and shook her head. “We’ll have to ask him about that.”
The patriarch turned to his partner and daughter. “We’re leaving.”
As the otter pokémon faded from view into the snow, Dawn allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. She looked up and the alpha was still standing tall above her, staring down at her with harsh red eyes. The girl barely dared to breathe as she silently panicked over what unfinished business he had with her.
“Take care getting home.”
With that, he walked away and the samurott clan disappeared into the squall.
Dawn was scarcely even aware of her journey back to the Pearl Clan settlement, spending the entire trip ruminating on her recent ordeals with practically one foot in the river.
A familiar togekiss with a golden sheen to its plumage and a large backpack was circling above the camp. The merchant was on the lookout and quickly spotted the dewott entering the abandoned settlement, swooping down to greet her.
“There’s my favourite customer! I was starting to think I’d have to go search for you out in this blizzard,” Volo exclaimed.
“Sorry Volo, I ran into some trouble on the way,” she said tiredly.
Dawn recounted to the merchant how she was ambushed and driven out into the icelands before having to save Gaeric from the samurott outbreak.
“It sounds like you’ve had quite a day so far, but it’s good to know our wayward wardens are safe in your capable hands,” Volo said, as upbeat as ever. “Let’s hope our expedition to Snowpoint Temple is less eventful.”
He still planned on having her explore the temple today? It was the reason they came out here, even if Dawn wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep for a week.
“Yeah, okay,” she reluctantly agreed.
“It’s no surprise you’re the star member of the Survey Corps with your work ethic. But don’t let Kamando work you too hard.” Volo cautioned, like she had any choice in the matter.
Kamando had always told her she had to work herself down to the bone to dispel any doubts people had about her. Dawn thought she had done that after quelling all the frenzied Nobles, but fate must have had it out for her because the PokéRus situation took a turn for the worst.
She was on extremely thin ice after she had earned the blessings of the lake trio and had been given the power to save three people from their fates. It was barely even a question, of course she chose the team of researchers that had always been in her corner: Rei, Laventon and Cyllene.
The faction leaders were shocked that none of them had been chosen and most of Hisui resented her for choosing to let them fall victim to the disease. Many people in Jubilife blamed her for all the recent crises, whispering about how the girl that fell from the sky brought nothing but bad luck and Kamando was a fool for letting her stay.
The spacetime rifts, the frenzied Nobles and everyone loosing their minds as they turned into pokémon; she had to be the one to fix this and find a permanent solution if she wanted a home at all.
Volo extended a wing and used it to guide her back to the camp’s entrance. Unbeknownst to her, his travel pack contained a lustrous, pearl like globe that glowed faintly with power.
-----------------------------------------------------------
“She speaks the truth. I don’t want any harm coming to that glalie or any others under the same mania.”
Lord Avalugg’s voice reverberated deeply as the samurotts stood before his dais for an audience with the Lord of the Tundra. The male stepped forward to speak.
“May I ask you why?”
“Do you recall the humans that would tend to us. Our wardens?”
“Vaguely, but I won’t pretend that I fully understand why they serve you or what they are to you.”
“The mad alphas used to be those humans.” The samurott pair exchanged surprised and concerned looks at the news. “Us Nobles were graced with power to serve them and we are duty bound to protect them.”
“A disease that makes humans turn into pokémon? I’ve never heard of such a thing,” the female said in disbelief.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ve witnessed it myself. Each Nobles’ warden was gradually changed into a different pokémon and lost their minds in the process.”
The male stared at the lord quizzically. “So you would let them run rampant and endanger human settlements as well as pokémon? It seems odd to me to go to such lengths for a chef and babysitter.”
Avalugg narrowed his eyes, but chose to ignore the dismissive way the alpha spoke of his warden.
“Every human in Hisui is succumbing to the same ailment. If we gave up on them and decided there was no solution but putting them down, there would be no humans left to protect,” the lord explained.
The girl dewott poked around Avalugg’s unused dais, already bored of the adults’ conversation.
“That’s quite concerning,” the matriarch said. “The pokémon under your watch won’t be pleased that you’re letting mad alphas rampage across Hisui. Do you have any plans in place for how they can protect themselves and their children?”
“The dewott you met earlier is the same human that freed me and the other Nobles from our frenzies. We have placed our faith in her to help our wardens and I have utmost confidence in her abilities,” Avalugg said.
Sensing they were not placated by such a vague promise, he added: “I truly am sorry about what happened to your son. We will do everything in our power to protect others from their destructive urges until the situation is resolved.”
Their son was still shivering after being freed from the ice by some helpful snorunts at Avalugg’s behest. His father fixed the lord with a pointed look before speaking.
“We passed through the coast lands on the way here and a good portion of the surrounding forests were reduced to ashes.”
That would have been caused by the warden to the newly appointed Lord of the Isles. The young Lord Arcanine stepped up to fill the position during very trying times and with no guidance from the previous Noble or warden to tend to him, he was going to have quite a challenging tenure.
“After the frenzy you and the other Nobles had, many pokémon are already questioning your judgment and leadership,” the male samurott continued. “Now you want them to put up with rampaging alphas destroying their homes and attacking everyone in sight. If they lost their respect for the Nobles, what would you do?”
Lord Avalugg had no answer.
The Nobles, though powerful, were not invincible and enough pokémon turning against them would undermine everything they worked to achieve.
Lord Avalugg was colossal, one of the only titanic avaluggs left, and dwarfed the otter pokémon that stood before him. They would stand no chance in a fight against him, but that balance of power could shift quickly.
The lord kept his gaze even while deciding if their words were a veiled threat or merely a warning borne of courtesy. The male samurott shrugged and looked away.
“We haven’t forgotten our place, but the pokémon of Hisui are going to want solutions. If putting the mad alphas to death is not an option to you, you’ll need some other plan.”
“The others will only let this continue for so long before they take matters into their own hands,” his mate added.
They were right, of course. Avalugg and most of the Nobles preferred not to pull rank or appeal to force as that tended to build resentment. They would rather earn the respect of their fellow pokémon through deeds and action, keeping violence minimal and strategic.
Attacking the humans under their protection or causing other sorts of trouble for the Nobles always carried an assumed risk, but if the dangers of doing nothing outweighed the risks of angering them, their decrees would mean nothing and the people of Hisui would fall apart under their watch.
There was nothing left for any of the gathered pokémon to say. The alpha samurott bowed and turned to leave.
“Thank you for your time, but we must be going now.”
“Take care and safe travels.”
Their meeting was adjourned and the samurott clan left, leaving Lord Avalugg with a bitter feeling at the impossible situation he was in.
Warden Gaeric - Master Sorcerer of the Pearl Clan - Warden to the Noble Familiar, Lord Avalugg
Master of ice and strength-enhancing spells. Tough but fair in personality, and lo-ves to spend his spare time working out. He teaches Akari a spell that helps her climb in the highlands easier (and scale the legacy, if she wanted… she doesn’t)
Pokerus AU 5 of 6
Wow, can believe we’re almost done with the first half of this series. As always this au belongs to @monsoon-of-art ! This part has to most dialogue and humor and I just love this. I am not sure if they can talk to pokemon during their transformations? But we’re doing it for the humor! Now we have Lord Avalugg and Warden Gaeric!
Noble Pokemon Rites and Trials HC(UPDATED!)
So I decided go ahead and post my ideas for the Rites and Trials I think every Noble heir has to complete in order to evolve and take on the mantle of Noble after their predecessor dies(in most cases). The only one mentioned and seen in game is Growlithe’s, and if you’ve read chapter 3 of my Ghosts fic it mentions Basculegion’s. I just wanted to get my ideas on paper, both for me and @kettouryuujin who is writing a Pokerus Noblity AU based off of my idea.
EDIT: I finally figured something out for Lord Electrode! There are 5 Trials and 5 Rites, and the name of each one has been given. Also added some changes made by @kettouryuujin that I liked.XD
Lord Wyrdeer- Known as the Trial of the Hills, with their Warden’s help the young Stantler must traverse all corners of Hisui, starting in the Obsidian Fieldlands and eventually returning to ascend to the peak of Deertrack Heights. The Stantler must then use Psyshield bash to destroy a tower of stone erected at the peak in order to evolve, and afterwards the Lord and his Warden must erect a new stone tower for the next Lord. This Trial is meant to prepare them for their duty as Lord of carrying the people of Hisui wherever they need to go.
Lord Kleavor- Known as the Trial of the Woods, Scyther’s Warden makes an amulet from the stone of the axe of the previous Lord Kleavor and places it around the heir’s neck. The Scyther must then ascend the Grandtree and slice off the topmost portion of the tree. (I thought of this because I heard somewhere the the tops of old trees are sometimes blown off, making them shorter)
Lord Ursaluna- Known as the Rite of the Moon, the Warden takes the Lord’s heir, who MUST have evolved into an Ursaring by then, to the Sludge Mound on the night of a full moon. Placed at the center of the Mound, the Ursaring is then painted with mud that came from the mud on the back of the previous Lord Ursaluna. Any design can be painted on the heir, but there MUST be a solid circle representing the full moon painted on the Ursaring’s forehead.
Lady Liligant- Known as the Rite or Dance of the Sun, and MUST be performed while the sun is visible. Upon the Brava Arena, the Warden must lead the young Petilil in a dance akin to a Liligant’s Victory Dance.
Lord Basculegion- Known as the Rite of the Waves, this ceremony cannot easily be attended by the Warden of the Lord of the Waves. Instead, the current Lord Basculegion takes his heir down to the Sunken Arena once night has fallen, and calls upon a school of Basculin spirits, as well as the spirit of the first Lady of the Waves. The school of Basculin then combine with the heir, then The Lady(who is not absorbed), and finally, the current Lord Basculegion must be absorbed in his entirety by his heir. As Basculegion can live for a very long time, this Rite is only done when the current Lord is ready to pass on.
Lord Arcanine- Known as the Trial of the Isles. As seen and mentioned in the game, the Growlithe heir must make their way across the water to reach Firespit Island and the Molten Arena. It is their Warden’s duty to train the young pup to brave the waves and make the swim, despite their disadvantage and weakness to water.
Lord Sneasler- Known as the Trial of the Cliffs, once their Warden has trained the Sneasel heir to the best of their ability, they are given an amulet made from the claw of the previous Lord Sneasler. They must start at the base of Mt Coronet and climb to the highest point in Hisui(either the top of the Temple of Sinnoh, or the peak above the Stone Portal if that is too sacred) and meet the rising sun.
Lord Electrode- Known as the Rite of the Hallow, the Warden takes inert seeds collected from the previous Lord Electrode during it’s life and scatters them in a ring in Moonview Arena. The Voltorb heir is then placed in the center of the ring and lets out an electrical attack to spark and recharge the electrical seeds, causing the electrical current to run through the ring and get amplified before surging back to supercharge the Voltorb. This surge of Amplified energy then causes the Lord to evolve.
Lord Braviary- Known as the Trial of the Skies, the young Rufflet must fly a course shown to them by their Warden, taking them from Avalugg’s Legacy to the southern peaks of the Alabaster Icelands, and finally up to the flat square Arena at the top of Snowpoint Temple.(Yes, this is basically the course Sabi makes the player run, but on the ground. Also, I thought the very very top of the Temple was perfectly arena shaped)
Lord Avalugg- Known as the Rite of the Tundra. Rarely happens since Avalugg can be INCREDIBLY long lived, some lasting centuries if nothing kills them. A Lord Avalugg death has only happened once since the Pearl Clan’s arrival(which I HC as being around 1000 years ago). When the previous Lord feels his life comming to an end, he travels to a spot in the Icelands to pass away, leaving behind a mountain of ice and rock, the body of the last Lord coming to be known as Avalugg’s Legacy. Ice and rock is then collected from it by the Warden and taken with the Lord’s heir to Icepeak Arena. The young Bergmite must then consume the ice and rock of the previous Lord in order to evolve.
And yeah, that’s about it. I like that most of these involve some carryover from the previous Lord or Lady, as a sort of passing on the torch to the next generation. Also, feel free to use or change any of these ideas as you see fit.
