Pokémon Pokevillains Villaintine's Challenge drabbles!

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

This month I'll be following the Pokévillains discord's prompt list to write about a villain a day! If you want to join in, join the discord! https://discord.gg/kAeaJUCcf8





Day 1--Ace
​

The words resonated in his head.

"Cyrus is an ace at everything! He could do anything he wanted!."

Words spoken of a child, a prodigy, a bright light.

But it wasn't true. He knew that as the one immutable truth that he could not ignore.

That long-gone person, a remnant of the old world, was a fool like the rest of them.

An echo, only imagined, in the deep void of primal existence. There was no real sound, no real anything. Only Cyrus, only that faded light, remained.

He could have been anything but what he was. He had failed.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Day 2--World
​

The distant sunlight fading over the curve of the world was always a magnificent sight, but the observation deck wasn't nearly the best setting for it. No, only the Hikoukyuu's gallery could possibly host something so beautiful.

Soon, Lawrence thought, Lugia would join that gallery, and his collection would at last be as perfect as he always dreamed it would be. Shamouti lay across the ocean, but it seemed to be just over the horizon.

With all the world at his fingertips, the future of his collection would be assured. It was time to seek out the king at last.

 

[K_S]

Review for Blackjack villaintines challenge

Days 1 and 2

1) I have to admit when I imagined Cyrus and Ace as a prompt I wasn't imagining getting to see his relationship with perfectionism. Or how it is utterly past tense. He goes from child prodigy to hollow husk that views himself as a failure due to... well canon wasn't kind thats for sure.

2) I always found Jir' relationship with the world interesting. He is so cut off from it, but still enthrauled when its pretty enough. Him admiting the curviture and the light line... then going "yeah thats too goodfor outside i need that framed and plonked into a gallery" also pure Jir'.

I wonder if he ever learned an art himself as time went on...

So we are set right before the disaster of the film... fun times. I wonder how long he agonized over the aesthetic value of where he put the Legends, thier cages, ect when setting up that flying death trap of his.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Oh he probably did! I'll get there in Obsession eventually...

...eventually...

 

[K_S]

no rush, after all, great art shouldn't be and all that!

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Day 3--Devote​

What caused doubts in Rood's mind wasn't anything Ghetsis had said. Not the push for the legendary dragons, not the complex computer network styled to take down the Unovan storage system, not the insistence that the castle had to be hidden beneath the league building.

What had caused doubts was seeing the king's room for the first time.

N was the true monarch of Plasma. His kindness and wisdom were to lead them to liberation. And yet--

"My lord, why does the king favor such childish accoutrements?"

"Because," Ghetsis had smiled, "the innocence of a child is a powerful thing."

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Day 4--Passionate​

"This is..." Lysandre sighed before taking another deep inhalation, "the most wonderful cup of coffee I have ever tasted."

Across the table from him, Sycamore smiled at the man's blissful expression. "You're so passionate. It's charming."

"If one doesn't seek the best in what's around them, then what sort of world would we have?" Lysandre gestured to the café. "I hold all of my employees to the same standard I hold myself."

"That much is clear. I have to try this."

Lysandre, generous as always, slid the cup across the table.

Sycamore couldn't dare tell him he didn't like it.

 

[K_S]

Day 3 review

Poor Rood, having second thoughts well past the last second. Its interesting that he cottons onto N's mental state by his room. And the revulsion that that revelation triggers as well as all those concerns from before (admitedly insane Plasma actions) stop seeming so harmless...

And then Ghest's last barb/line, it sinks in about how he's such a groomer. And loyal Rood seems a bit squicked out at the revelation.

 

[Unova Leaf]

Day 3--Devote​

What caused doubts in Rood's mind wasn't anything Ghetsis had said. Not the push for the legendary dragons, not the complex computer network styled to take down the Unovan storage system, not the insistence that the castle had to be hidden beneath the league building.

What had caused doubts was seeing the king's room for the first time.

N was the true monarch of Plasma. His kindness and wisdom were to lead them to liberation. And yet--

"My lord, why does the king favor such childish accoutrements?"

"Because," Ghetsis had smiled, "the innocence of a child is a powerful thing."

I have headcanon that N is an autistic savant in addition to the canon that he's been abused by Ghetsis. This implies that the decor in the castle was Ghetsis's choice as part of his villainous plan for Unova, not just N being innocent because of his autism.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I have headcanon that N is an autistic savant in addition to the canon that he's been abused by Ghetsis. This implies that the decor in the castle was Ghetsis's choice as part of his villainous plan for Unova, not just N being innocent because of his autism.

Well yeah but being autistic doesn't make one innocent. N is innocent because he's been kept naive and isolated.

 

[Unova Leaf]

Autistic people can be innocent because of their autism (or co-occuring conditions like intellectual disability) but that's not true for N (who's innocent because Ghetsis's abuse kept him that way).

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Day Five--Fix
​

"Of course it's rigged," Petrel scoffed with a puff on his Coabanan cigar. "You think Rocket would run a casino if we weren't taking precautions?"

He gestured out at the grand floor. Pasio's first casino, a few hours away from being flooded with its first gamblers.

"But they don't care about that. You fill the place with enough glitz and glamor and people will empty their pockets of their own volition. So long as someone hits it big every now and then," another puff, "that keeps 'em full of dreams."

"And that Unovan? The elite?"

"Grimsley is banned on sight."

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Day Six--Moonlight
​

J013S, not her real name, had always loved the stars. From an early age she remembered standing on the balcony of her family's Hearthome apartment, observing what she could through the light pollution of the street below, and wondering what it would be like to join them.

But instead, she joined Team Galactic. Their science division was robust, their studies on Mount Coronet taking her far enough away from the city lights that she could see the sky at last, almost touch the whole universe with her bare hands.

But after everything, the sky felt farther away than ever before.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Day Seven--Vast
​

Lear was the creator of Pasio. Everything that existed there was by his command. Every building, every hill, every road, every forest, every trail and mountain and shoreline had sprouted from his imagination.

But he so rarely got a chance to enjoy it. When Rachel suggested he go for a hike, at first he rejected the notion. But somehow she had convinced him, and the view from the tallest peak showed how right she had been.

This was what he needed, he knew. To feel his true place in the world. To know, to care for, the world he made.

 

[K_S]

Day 4,

Of course, Ly' get the passion section. I mean it was his main defining trait, besides his less-than-stellar morals. He does have a bit of a caffeine/breakfast food kick, from what I remember. And Sycamore is hanging on his every word. Those two seem to forever be in that dance that seems part adoration, part respect. It'd be a sweet scene if you could divorce Lysandre from what he does later in canon, but as it is, even the small motion of sharing is... and pressure.... is a little ominous courtesy of foresight.

Day 5,

Yay, some Rocket action. On the fun fun subject of gamification. Wher the loser is everyone who plays. Nice. Having not played master's I have no clue if Pasio has a casino canonically or not, but it is such a Rocket thing to do. As is the rigging of the slots.

Out of curiosity, what's the beef with the "unovian", it seems like a bad blood thing but I feel like I missed a plot point/inside joke.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

"The Unovan", Grimsley, is a big time gambler but he's also broke off his ass, so letting him into a casino would be a mistake

 

[K_S]

Thanks for explaining

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Day 8--Delicious
​

Mistress Cogita was cold and standoffish and also Volo's only connection to the Celestica culture. If she said that her potato mochi, pounded out from sootfoot roots with a slight purple tint to their stalks, was the authentic recipe from those ancient times, he would value it above any other version.

As he watched her prepare them, he reflected how much he would have to remember for his new world. The knowledge of how to make a plant anew would have to be granted to him upon goodhood. But he doubted a god could make mochi as delicious as hers.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Day 9--Comfortable
​

Being given his own lab, especially at such a young age, was the greatest honor that Uva could bestow on a student like Turo, and he took to it so naturally.

The older scientists were wowed by his intellect, but it was the company of a peer that he responded to most.

Working with Sada felt good, and he found himself relaxing in her company. She was a rival in the best way, one that challenged him and pushed them both to do better.

She was a comfort, and he never felt quite right again after she left him behind.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Day 10--Understanding

​

Mars knew she'd heard the line before, but from where escaped her. "Down is good," she chastized Purugly, grunting to put the massive cat back on the floor. "Up," she continued, pointing at the couch, "is no."

Purugly meowed her discontent loudly before casually strutting back to the base of the couch and making her intention to jump back up quite clear.

"Up is no," Mars repeated with a jolted hand blocking the cat's way.

"Mrow!" It was a spiteful sound.

"Good, I'm glad we could come to an understanding," Mars muttered, thick with sarcasm, as Purugly scratched the carpet.