Castelia City Times

hi I’m a Zoroark and I write actual slop like you should NOT read these

[unovanzoroark]

Nirvanna the Band Pokémon AU where Matt and Jay, two inexperienced trainers, repeatedly try to find a way to challenge the third gym leader before even trying either of the first two

[unovanzoroark]

Nirvanna the Band Pokémon AU (cont’d.)

Jay’s partner Pokémon is Chatot, but he’s also caught and evolved a Kricketune. Matt’s is Pansear!

There is a Kecleon that has taken up residence in their apartment. Neither Jay nor Matt have tried to catch him. They did, however, name him Jared. Jared follows them around through their day-to-day lives, but never really interferes in anything.

Jay is a fair bit more experienced in battling than Matt, and has on occasion considered taking on the region’s first and second gyms on his own. He ultimately decides against this each time for one reason or another. Matt doesn’t really know a lot about battling; He thinks there should be other ways to earn a Gym Badge than beating a Gym Leader.

The two have tried everything (with Jay often reluctantly going along) to get the third gym badge before any other. This is partly due to the fact that it’s close to their home. Their most recent plans include but are not limited to:

Coercing a trainer actually eligible to challenge the Gym to battle the Gym Leader three times in different costumes, so as to earn three badges and give two to them

Impersonating the region’s Champion to trick the Gym Leader into letting them take on the Gym

“Hacking” into the Gym to make it look like they’d already taken it on and won (neither of them had any idea how to do this)

[glass-conger]

Messing around both figuratively and literally

[unovanzoroark]

I love my baby Zorua so much, I will never let the world harm you sweet child

[unovanzoroark]

Nirvanna the Band Pokémon AU where Matt and Jay, two inexperienced trainers, repeatedly try to find a way to challenge the third gym leader before even trying either of the first two

[unovanzoroark]

I think N probably stayed behind on earth after everyone evacuated. I don’t think they could bring themselves to abandon the Pokémon that, for the longest time, were their only friends and only source of comfort in the world

[realspacejunk]

Devout Artisan

[unovanzoroark]

Pokopia is so interesting to me because it explains what’s happened enough for you (the player) to understand why the world is in the state that it’s in, but not what specifically happened in each place. For example, Rocky Ridges shows and tells us right off the bat that volcanic activity buried the area around Pewter City in ash, but how? Pewter city is flanked by two mountains: Mt. Silver to the west and Mt. Moon to the east. Which one erupted, and how?

And then, what happened in other regions? Is Hoenn also buried under volcanic ash, or is it underwater? What could’ve even happened in Sinnoh? I want to know!

[unovanzoroark]

I know some people that really don’t like how much they’ve been replacing stuff from past Pokémon games with Rotom technology (e.g. Having the Pokédex just be an app on the player’s Rotom Phone or having Rotom-powered PCs and bikes) but I think it makes up for what it lacks in creativity by giving the world a much-needed unifying… thing.

Before the Rotom Phone, each region had its own defining technology: Unova had the Xtransciever, Kalos had the Holocaster, etc. While each device had its own cool design and uses that fit the game they were in, from a worldbuilding perspective it was like saying Apple released the iPhone but only in California. The Rotom Phone fixed this! Suddenly everyone in the world of Pokémon was connected via this one (perhaps overly) convenient device. Was it an absolutely necessary change? Probably not; I’m sure people from different regions were contacting each other just fine somehow, but I can only imagine the consistency between regions on what kind of tech is used makes things a lot easier for everyone.

So is the diffusion of Rotom technology perfect, then? Of course not. While I think it gives a level of consistency to communications in-universe, I can’t help but agree with those people I know that it IS becoming a little overused as a concept. Phones are fine, but not EVERYTHING needs to be Rotom. An e-bike can be an e-bike without having to have a Pokémon powering it. After a certain point it kind of weakens the ties between the Pokémon world and the real world by making everything in the former seem reliant on the existence of Pokémon as well as lessens the intrigue of Rotom itself by making it a little too common. How many Rotom are there if there’s one powering every phone, bike and refrigerator in the world?

Furthermore, is every Rotom-powered device made by the same company? Is there a monopoly on Rotom? At that point it would just feel kind of… wrong. Maybe that’s a concept that needs to be explored in a future game.

(Side note: what’s with the use of Poryphones on Pasio? Is that like Pokémon’s version of using an Android phone, or is it a Pasio-exclusive thing? How much is Lear making off every trainer there using one? Follow the money…)

[oyasuuh]

lazy doodle

[unovanzoroark]

It’s 8:00 AM when the radio alarm clock on her windowsill blares to life. Same entertainment talk show as usual.

“—special surprise for you all today, folks! We’ve got Unova’s very own Christoph in the house!”

She yawns and practically smacks the off button. Celebrity gossip isn’t her thing, but it seems to be the only thing that wakes her up — well, aside from the sound of traffic and the occasional sidewalk battle outside her building. It’s another morning in Castelia City.

After giving herself a once-over in the mirror to make sure her work uniform is alright, she grabs her phone off the counter and heads out the door. It’s a quick elevator ride down to street level, and then half a block down Mode Street to work. The shift lead’s already there by the time she shows up.

“Another busy day, hope you’re ready!” The thirty-something in jeans and an orange button-down grins sarcastically as he counts cash at the register. She knows he’s kidding; He makes the same remark every morning. It’s been a week since they last met the daily target, and she doesn’t expect sales to pick up now. Ice cream isn’t very marketable in November, after all.

The day goes by slower than usual. At around noon, the two get front-row seats to a heated match between some punk and a salaryman who’d happened to round a corner into him. It’d turned out picking a fight with a businessman on a tight schedule wasn’t a good idea — the poor kid was getting his head handed to him until a beat cop broke up the action. The dust settles and it’s back to work, hour after never-ending hour.

3:00 PM hits and she’s ready to finally blow this literal pop stand. The last customer of her shift is a boy in a red visor with what she can only describe to herself as hair like a pinap berry.

“Hope you enjoy the cute appearance and the…” The trainer takes his pack of twelve (a number she doesn’t think is healthy for anyone to buy) cones and walks off mid-sentence, handing one down to a Riolu jogging along beside him.

“Naive flavor…” she groans.

Her shift ends. The rest of her day carries on as it usually does after work. A stop by the café to pick up a quick bite to eat on her daily walk down to the piers, and then back home to watch whatever’s on TV. Surprise! It’s Christoph again.

It’s 8:00 AM the next morning when her alarm blares again. This time around, the radio hosts are gabbing on and on about some “Rising Star Trainer” who’d managed to take down Elesa with only one member of his team. She tunes it out as she goes through her morning routine.

Heading up the street to work, she’s taken aback: customers. A LOT of customers. Too many, even. She hustles in, dropping her bag in the backroom and letting out a sigh as the shift lead drops his usual witty remark. It’s going to be another long day.