Pokémon kladde (anthology)
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The throat of Mt. Chimney is crawling with them—sniffing the sheer walls dutifully, prying out treasured clutches of ore to crunch. Aron are not careful because they know the magma below can't hurt them. It disperses harmlessly off their gleaming armor, like a nice red bath.
The magma isn't the danger. If an aron is lucky, it might return to the wall before it's hurt. But, oblivious to the lurking threat, they rarely do.
Great bone-white jaws burst from the hot sea, leviathanic, and a skeledirge drags a lagging aron into its depths.
Aron aren't named until they evolve.
Oasis
It could only be God's grace—throat like gravel, limbs like fire, I happened upon an oasis in the deep desert. As I advanced, I imagined the feeling of cool water on my lips a thousand times.
Finally I fell to my knees and scooped water with my hands—but they came back dry.
"It isn't your imagination; you'll die sane. Does that comfort you?"
I whirled on the creature behind me—zoroark, tawny fur like sand. Angel of death.
Abruptly the water was gone. There were only bleached bones.
"Sorry. Even a desert fox has to eat."
Creatures of the City
Four joltik nibble at the wire in sync, chittering with glee. But it won't last. The wall groans as massive fingers pull it back—an eye like the sun squints at them suspiciously.
Terror. Frantic skittering, screeching. The stench of fear pheromones wafts heavy.
"Wait, wait!" booms the titan. "Don't run. Just... Here."
It pushes something through—a capsule the size of three joltik, shining and metal.
"It's a battery. Give it a suck."
The joltik are cautious—but one eventually suckles and the others follow. Sure enough, the juice comes sweet and gentle.
"See? Just leave the wires alone, yeah?"
Fair enough.
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Venia Silente
For your ills, I prescribe a cat.
Ooooooh boy IT IS TIME.
Back in the day I had originally intended to catch this one for TR5A, but life happened so I kept it in my bookmarks until a new event was up. And here it is! Had ever since wondering "where would these stories go?". I eyed them (like, I literally gave them the
emoji :p) and kept them in cold storage until the proper time, like a good Evil Overlord would.And now... it begins.
Inside a Volcano
Am gonna say, boy am I glad I longed for this one. The Monster Hunter vibes are really good (also 3rd Gen best gen). Let's take a look into it.
Caldera!
Pokémon 3rd Gen and Monster Hunter 3rd Gen make a pretty good match! they even both have the 8.8 Too Much Water component, but here, ooooh here the floor is lava!
A pretty good work on establishing how the Aron go out to fetch their minerals and they do it without much care in the world. It's easy to give a mental image with how cute Aron in general are.
The seethe over fulcium ore mining is real. Here's wishing good RNG to the Arons!
I can't imagine getting a mouthful of lava on your eyes is nice tho. And Steel is weak to Ground, of which lava is the hot version of in a non-shipping way. But it's true these Pokémon would fare far better than... well, just about 3/4ths of the Pokédex in an intra-volcanic environment.
It never is, in a nature documentary, isn't it ;_;
Oooooh boy is it them the local apex for this biome?
Also: NOOOO!!!!! ARON!!!!!!
See? This is Poké Monster Hunter! I was already reading this in David Attenborough's voice.
That was a quick KO. Hopefully painless. Helps a lot when you don't have to follow the rules.
NOOOO!!!! ARON!!!!!
I'll name you Strips and treasure you in my memory.
Oasis
G1 desert map? Because the only oasis I can remember in the Sandy Plains is a subterranean one. And I feel like I already know where this one is going lol.
Our protagonist remains nondescript for the duration of this snippet. In first person. At most we know they have knees and hands, so maybe a primate-like mon living in the desert. But one who could actually be killed by this kind of situation, as it's unlikely a local would not know where to find an actual oasis.
I mean, I'm assuming the oasis is fake. This is Poké Monster Hunter.
gg. F in the chat. Big L. Also cuts somehwat our list of candidates, as it had to be a Pokémon who couldn't sense through the mirage.
Turns around to meet a desert Zoroark speciation. Cute fur. Deadly existence tho. At least MC is gonna die sane.
Ooooooor, MC could kill this critter and see what water can be extracted from it, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to be. Low HP / low word count noises.
Yup. Nature's gonna Nature, whether you're sapient or not.
Oh well our unnamed POV character had a good go for as little it lasted, I'm guessing they were already doomed even before this snippet had begun.
A pretty good work: the bad end of a sunshine.
Creatures of the City
City life with Pokémon always brings interesting perspectives in the fandom. Let's see what's in here!
NOOO!!! Leave the Joltik alone!
The little creatures suck this electrifying life energy. But the monsters from the outside world, the titans from beyond the walls of your reality, break in, break through, and deprive the little Joltik from their food.
Fear. Chaos. Spongebob brain-office on fire meme. Maybe life being unfair. How would they fight something this big? If only they had a protector, a huge ass-wolf with a mane electric who could host them, nurture them.
(See? P3rd gen best gen)
But hey, maybe it's not necessary?
For the titan brings life to this corner of the world. As (in our post-leaks world) other Titans had eventually done.
The titan from the outside leaves the Joltik with an offering. Biggy, too, but something they can handle. Food is always the most valuable offering: it's a sacrifice. Parting bread once birthed civilizations.
All hail the Spark Giver, the Provider of Amperes. Comes and goes from beyond the darkness, packaging the power of the Sun and the Land. Double A form factor, every Wednesday. See? Reminds me much of the watch scene in Men in Black 2.
The Joltik continue their feast, they are content with this development and so am I.
Three concise stories, with lots of room for imagination, and quite well focused on the message at hand. Pretty good Monster Hunter vibe content for the first two. Nice and deadly cozy general Pokémon stories for the three. None of the Joltik have names. But Strips does! For me. Really loved that one.