Pokémon Inkedust's Drabble Collection

[Inkedust]

Heya! Inke here. Recently, I decided to have a look back on some of my old drabbles that I wrote for drabble bingo for the TR anniversary events. After having a read through all of them, I thought that it'd be cool to give them all a proper punching up while also making an effort to hit up the prompts I missed with the explicit goal of achieving a blackout on every card I have received.

I've decided to post each year's collection after I achieve a blackout on their respective cards but I will be posting each year's bingo card here so you can see both the cards I had been assigned and my progress in real time. Every drabble here is exactly 100 words and canonical to my fic, Pathways to Arcadia, but don't worry! Neither are required reading to each other! Think of these drabbles as either a small appetiser to my fic or a little bonus depending on whichever you decided to read first!

Here are my cards, with their year and theme listed at the top:
​

2021 – Day and Night​

The Darkest Day​	Sunyshore City​	No Sunrise Comes​
Love the Stars too Fondly​	High Noon​	Lycanroc​
Night Flower​	Daydream and Nightmare​	New Dawn​

9/9​

2022 – Aspects of Mystery Dungeons
​

Kangaskhan's Statue​	Meowth in Black​	A New Recruit​
Buried Ruin​	The Secret Bazaar​	The Deepest Floor​
A Sticky Trap!​	Something's Stirring…​	Growing Hunger​

9/9​

2023 – Mystery Dungeon Locales​

Pokémon Square​	Electric Wasteland​	Mysterious Geoglyph​
Jaws of the Abyss​	Luminous Spring​	Altar of Ice​
Monster House​	Lake of Mysterious Light​	Sea Shrine​

3/9​

2024 – Mystery Dungeon Items​

Pecha Scarf​	Blast Seed​	X-Ray Specs​
Wonder Gummi​	Decoy Orb​	Music Box​
Iron Thorn​	Amber Tear​	Teleport Gem​

3/9​

 

[Inkedust]

​

Spoiler: Plain Text

THE DARKEST DAY​

Throughout the ages, the moniker of “Darkest Day” meant many things.

To some, it was the day where a skeletal beast of a dragon awoke to ravage Ancient lands to eat a beam of ruinous light. To others, the name evoked the imagery of falling ash as one world ended and another began. Or, if those heroes could remember, the visage of a ruined future that never came to pass.

But, to an absol who’d witnessed all this, it was a day that screamed at her disaster sense.

An awakening of broken chains and blackened skies.

The end of everything.​

SUNYSHORE CITY​

At land’s edge, above cobalt seas, two star crossed lovers would meet on a glistening shore and herald the Sun’s rise.

From the fated place grew a thriving city, a beacon for the timeworn land. It was given the name Sunyshore and instilled new life in the earth and people. Many thought that the city was blessed as it remained well out of harm’s way, even as the world grew threatened.

Yet this blessing also instilled blindness and complacency within its denizens. They refused to march with time and so, with no progress, the city of ignorance could only stagnate.​

NO SUNRISE COMES​

Darkness. Only darkness.

He cradled his head to suppress his sobs, pulled his hair to distract his shattered heart with pain. Why? He was this close to freedom, this close to happiness. Could the universe not give him this? Could it not allow for his euphoria after it dared to give him hope?

He desperately wished that this was nothing more than a twisted nightmare. That the sun would rise and he would awaken in a world where none of this had happened. Where she wasn’t there, standing over him with hateful eyes.

But the nightmare persisted. Sunrise never came.​

LOVE THE STARS TOO FONDLY​

A long time ago, in an ageless forest, a child of the stars found a bright and beautiful light. At first, the two were wary. But as they played, and danced, and sang, they could not imagine living without one another.​

The light loved the child, and the child loved the light. So blinded by his love, the child gave his heart to the light and the two became entwined.

Confused, the light asked its beloved child why he would do such a thing.

The child whispered, “A terrible woman wants to hurt me. It will be safe with you.”

HIGH NOON​

As the sun reached the highest point in the sky, the dust of the Yellow Sand Labyrinth danced in the wind. The heat bore down on the plateau and onto the back of a flygon who pulled his wide-brimmed hat down over his eyes. Chewing on a straw stalk, he pressed his arm against a large rock and leaned, counting the minutes until his client chose to appear.

He felt anxious. It was bad luck to meet at high noon, as his ma always said, so why did he agree to it?

For once, he should have listened to superstition.​

LYCANROC​

Once, there lived two lycanroc who were like night and day. One was calm and poised, her eyes bluer than the midday sky. The other was wild and rugged, his mane styled into a crescent.

Then one day, by fate or chance, the two met by the sea and fell madly in love.

Yet many contested this courtship due to their differences. In secret, they copulated and bore a child with his mother’s demeanour and father’s intensity.

But despised and doomed to a lifetime of loneliness, the child fled to the edges of the earth, lost between day and night.​

NIGHT FLOWER​

In the depths of the polar night, a ninetales stood above a frigid cliffside. Basked in the light of an aurora that veiled the Moon and Stars she so closely worshipped, the acolyte waited for the fated dawn where the vision her ancestors passed down from parent to child would transpire.​

With her teeth she pulled a leaf from her headdress of sacred bamboo, allowing the bone chilling winds to carry it across frozen wastes. Where would it go? She did not know. Yet she knew of a wanderer who would find it and bloom like a flower beneath moonlight.

DAYDREAM AND NIGHTMARE​

The nightmare prowled at the edges of her daydreams. It watched and studied her every move, waited for her to fall asleep, like a predator stalking its prey.

She knew it wanted her. She knew it was furious and nothing good would come of it.

She managed to get away every time but that provided little comfort because all she could do in the aftermath was to indulge in every little “what if?”. Each one left her quivering in fear. She could not imagine what would happen if it got what it wanted. What would happen once it caught her.​

NEW DAWN​

It was over. The demon was sealed but at what cost?

Nothing but a red sky illuminated by falling ash remained. Cavalcades of dead bodies and orphaned weapons dotted the horizon and a mourning goddess whispered to an absol. With a nod, it ran towards the distant mountain with a new purpose.

The goddess looked to the skies, her horns beginning to glow with rainbow light, taking in the sight of the sun setting for the very last time over this world. The next time it rose, it would be over a new world where life could begin once more.​

 

[Inkedust]

​

Spoiler: Plain Text

KANGASKHAN’S STATUE​

There are many landmarks shaped into the visage of pokémon, and none are more famous than the kangaskhan statues. Many don’t know why but any good explorer knows that they exist to honour the first Great Explorer.

When the first dungeons began to form, Kangaskhan was the only pokémon selfless enough to brave the unknown and protect her home from the dangers within. To immortalise her feats, Kangaskhan’s descendants carved and chiseled nearby stones in her image.

So if you ever see a kangaskhan statue while you’re out dungeoneering, just know that Kangaskhan is giving you her protection and blessing.​

MEOWTH IN BLACK​

Sentret eyed one of the many odd posters that had been hung around Lively Town. He made sure to get a good look from every angle, from up on his tail to down on his paws. He turned to a lilligant who was passing by and asked, “Do you know what this might be?”

“Let’s see…” she replied. “The Stupendous Meowth Theater Proudly Presents: Meowth in Black— Oh! That’s what Meowth had been working on. It’s some sort of show!”

“A show?” Sentret repeated. “Now what kind of show might this be?”

Lilligant hummed, “We’d need tickets to answer that.”​

A NEW RECRUIT​

We hadn’t meant to recruit Zigzagoon.

She’d followed us out of Mt. Steel, interested in our supplies. We didn’t realise until later that night, when my partner caught her raiding our pantry.

At first, she was disruptive (as all wildlings are). We tried to shoo her off to no avail. Before long, she was sleeping in our team base.

The more she observed us, the more she learned. It wasn’t long before she spoke, asking us to come along to our expeditions. We agreed, handing her a badge.

These days, we couldn’t be happier to have Linoone on the team.​

BURIED RUIN​

Clink! Clink! Clink! echoed through the dark.

A sandslash tapped away at the sturdy cave wall with a claw, his work illuminated by a modest lantern he held in his other paw.

He had chased those rumours, big and small, all the way here. His confidence in them having grown with each passing second. He’d seen the evidence in this very cave: collapsed pillars, crumbled walls, faded but ornate carvings. It all beckoned his curiosity. Risks be damned! With a reward like this, he would brave any Mystery Dungeon that got in his way!

Those Ancient treasures would be his.​

THE SECRET BAZAAR​

“Are you sure that this is a good place to set up shop?” Mime Jr. asked Kirlia.

“Of course! This is a well-travelled path. We’ll be sure to get a bunch of customers,” Kirlia giggled, voice filled with whimsy.

“We’re in a Mystery Dungeon!” everyone, except Kirlia, roared in unison.

“Only a Class 2,” Kirlia rebuked. “Besides, isn’t helping travellers while making poké what we set out to do in the first place? We can easily adapt our services to help make travelling through any Dungeon a lot less of a pain.”

The only reply to Kirlia was nervous silence.​

THE DEEPEST FLOOR​

The depths of Silent Chasm stood indifferently above the shivering torracat. Just a simple dare, she thought when she disregarded all the elders’ warnings about the dungeon’s depths. She needed to prove to Nidorino that she was brave, that she could do this by herself.

She couldn’t.

Hanging like loose netting was the dungeon’s secret, rust coloured dust falling from the interweaving tethers like ash. The sight was repulsive on an instinctual level but that was nothing compared to the whispers. The words of the dark language were unnatural, forgotten for a reason.

And then… she saw them.

Torracat screamed.​

A STICKY TRAP!​

“Oh damn it all!” Altaria growled. She tried to shake out her fluffy wings which were now covered in ooze; a horrible combination of spinarak webs and gastrodon fluids.

The bird looked down, narrowing her eyes at the expended trap. Who even put these here? Probably some ne'er-do-well hatchlings if she had to guess. It wasn’t like this dungeon was hiding anything worthwhile!

She rummaged through her pack, getting more of that gunk all over her supplies, but she didn’t care. That’d be sorted, she just needed to find—

Altaria’s heart sank.

She had already used her last Cleanse Orb.​

SOMETHING’S STIRRING…
…Something’s stirring.​

The shadows leap and dance, all blurring

While an explorer swears the air got crisper.

In forgotten tongues, the winds, they whisper

Of ages past, of ancient kingdoms and priceless treasures

Surely an explorer’s greatest pleasures.

She tugs her scarf, uneasy

(This whole dungeon had left this explorer quite queasy)

But the promise of treasure had left her encroaching!
​

…Something’s approaching.​

Yet she felt, deep in her bones,

The dungeon shifts and groans

And down the back of her neck, the breath of her opposer
​

It’s getting closer.​

And in the corner of her eye…
​

It’s right nearby.

GROWING HUNGER​

Beware the dungeon that promises fame and fortune within its twisted walls. For there is nothing but endless, shifting halls.

Unyielding, it will bleed you dry. First of energy, and then supply.

Yet many an explorer had foolishly thought, “I’ll be the first! I’m a big shot!”

So they entered with stars in their eyes. And, at first, the dungeon passed them by.

“This is the point of no return?” they would say, unaware that they fell for the dungeon’s game.

They would continue until they realised they were in their final throes.

Deep within the dungeon, their hunger grows.​