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teenage champions
dragon trainer iris
team plasma is SO fucking annoyinnnnngggggggg
lee
they’re still around?
dragon trainer iris
i mean they’ve given up on eco-terrorism but there are definitely still advocates for releasing all pokemon from captivity/getting trainers to give up their pokemon
may!
i think my team would just refuse to leave tbh
like do they not think that pokemon are thinking living breathing beings who are choosing to stay with us??
they CAN make it very clear if they’re not happy! they’re not automatons!
blue
blue replied to dragon trainer iris
team plasma is SO fucking annoyinnnnngggggggg
what have they done now?
dragon trainer iris
public protests so bad that the only public transit working are the subway trains, and those only because ingo and emmet are def strong enough to come for my job if they wanted to
blue
it’s a yikes from me dude
lee
it’s still crazy to me that other regions (apart from alola) don’t have something like the corviknight taxi service
dragon trainer iris
who’s going to train up all the birds? galar only did it because people aren’t allowed to use their own pokemon as transit anyway
The second attempt at Mega Evolution goes better than the first, kind of. Blue has experience opening his mind up for Exeggutor and Alakazam, sure, but it’s not the same. Even when Alakazam or Exeggutor go as deep into Blue’s mind as they’re willing to go, Blue’s still aware that they’re two separate beings who are just taking a visit into his brain for affectionate reasons. That’s — not what he feels when Blastoise has Mega Evolved. Blastoise Mega Evolving feels like he’s taking himself, and taking Blue, and merging them into one being.
When Mega Blastoise hits the field, he stands straight, but Blue staggers. The weight of the third canon is new, he thinks dimly, or maybe it’s Blastoise thinking it. Blue plants his feet and opens his eyes, blinking away the odd sense of vertigo. Blue is nearly an entire foot taller than Blastoise, and they’re both seeing double for a second.
But at least Blue’s not sobbing. He’s not even crying. Blastoise, tentatively, takes a few steps away from where he landed. He’s going to the water. Blue would have known it even without the Mega Evolution, but now he feels what Blastoise does, the anticipation. He’d known this was coming — that’s why he put on his diving suit. If he gets shoved into the water, his clothes won’t weigh him down any.
Blastoise moves easily in the water, is the thing. Blue’s no slouch in the swimming department himself — he’s from Kanto, he had to have learned how to swim, and Gramps had been damn thorough about making sure Blue could stay afloat in even the harshest conditions, long enough at least to give him a chance for survival, and there’s a reason Blue had wanted the Water Type starter — but Blastoise is made for it, loves doing it, would probably spend his whole life in the water if it weren’t for, well. Being raised in captivity.
Blastoise stops dead in his tracks, so dead in fact that Blue goes stiff too. “Blastoise,” Blue says, cautiously, because it’s possible he’s not saying it at all and is just thinking it very hard in Blastoise’s direction, and Blastoise makes a sound like water crashing into itself. There’s so many things happening in Blastoise’s mind that Blue can barely understand it, a torrent of thought.
And then Blastoise turns, and he’s crossing the little distance between them, and Blue is bracing himself for a fall even as Blastoise — scoops him up, what the fuck, and there’s no reason for it except that Blastoise’s torrent of thought has turned to only one: there is no life in which Blastoise would be anywhere other than where Blue is.
And it’s a noble thought, sure, and probably true enough — the Mega Evolution alone is proof positive that Blastoise adores him — but, well, the baby Squirtles the Cerulean Gym looks after are nearly always adopted out by a trainer or a household, because they’re mostly not very good at hunting in the wild. If Blastoise had been —
Blastoise’s exasperation is so palpable that Blue is abruptly exasperated with himself. Blastoise knocks him in the sternum.
I love you very much. Please stop overthinking this. Blastoise — thinks at him, holy fucking shit — I just want to swim.
Blue blinks. Blinks again. “I love you too,” he says, so that’s the first thing he says out loud when he and Blastoise are able to have an untranslated conversation. “Somehow,” he adds, voice steadier than he thought it could be, “you sound exactly like I thought you would.”
It’s true, too. Blastoise’s mental voice sounds pretty much exactly like what Blue had imagined his starter would sound like — down to the fact that his accent is pretty much exactly Blue’s small-town Kantonian one.
You know me, Blastoise reminds him. Blue bends himself practically in fucking half — he’s so much taller than Blastoise it’s annoying, sometimes — to press his forehead to Blastoise’s. He has to be careful of the long cannon his starter gained upon his Mega Evolution, but it’s worth it.
“I do,” he agrees. Talking to his starter one on one, without the aid of a translation service, knocked him out of his overthinking spiral, and he’s sure he’ll be euphoric about it later. For now, though…He calls upon the feeling he got, second-hand, of Blastoise in the water, the cool wet sensation, the freedom of movement. Blue, in there with him, because he’s right there in his head. “Go. I’m right here.” Physically, yeah, but emotionally and mentally too. They’re still all wrapped up in each other.
Blastoise looks at him, searching, then basically hustles Blue right up to the edge of the water. He laughs. The diving suit, he thinks, was an excellent idea — right before Blastoise dives right the fuck in, and splashes him while he does it.
Blue, sputtering, laughing, takes in a deep breath and jumps before Blastoise can act on the half formed thought Blue catches about pulling him in. Gotta be faster than that, he thinks, while he’s still kicking up for air, and he catches Blastoise’s mental grin a bare second before he’s yanking Blue down. Blue's lucky he trained up his lung capacity so he can spend more time in the water.
That, his starter thinks at him, with an odd reflection of Blue's own cocky tone, sounded like a challenge, Blue.
He and Blastoise are both going to be so tired at the end of this, aren’t they.
You started it, Blastoise points out, and pulls Blue along Professor Birch’s absolutely ginormous lake. There’s no way they’re going to be able to catalogue it all in one go. Seeing the lake through Blastoise’s eyes is objectively cool as hell, because Blastoise’s eyes are made to see underwater in a way Blue’s just aren’t. The lake being man-made instead of naturally forming means that the segments meant for each different species of Pokémon are a bit too perfect. And, because all of the Pokémon have been captured, they’re all perfectly content to coexist in each other’s space.
We’re all getting fed when we’re part of a trainer’s team, Blastoise reminds him pointedly.
Alright, alright I get it, Blue responds. I’ll work harder on the maudlin thoughts. He has a suspicion his overthinking is tied to the fact that he and Blastoise are tied so closely together, sharing a brainspace. It’s going to be much worse, he realizes suddenly, when he’s tied to Alakazam, who’s already a very contemplative Pokémon. And here he’d thought the concept of having to get used to Pidgeot’s body composition in comparison to his would be the main struggle. He had really wanted Blastoise to be his first Mega Evolved Pokémon, though, and they're still not fully capable of doing things while they're like this.
Well. The only way out is through, or whatever the phrase is.
“Hey, there you are!” May greets when he’s emerged from the shower. Blastoise is in his Pokéball, having once again tired himself out enough to require a nap, though this time he’d stayed awake long enough to have lunch before he did. “I hope you’re not as tired this time.”
Which could just be a normal nice comment or it could mean ‘I expect you to drag yourself outside with me.’ Cautiously, Blue says, “Yeah. I was just going to write down my notes and then chill for a bit.”
“Sure, yeah. Hey, listen, can you and Blastoise take a break from practicing with Mega Evolution tomorrow? My family wants you to come over for dinner.”
Blue blinks. “Oh, sure, of course. What time? Should I bring anything?”
May waves a hand. “No, no, just yourself. Max will probably grill you about your team and Dad might ask to see Pidgeot, though.”
“Trust me, she won’t mind,” says Blue wryly. Pidgeot is a proud creature and loves to be admired.
FROM: Samuel Oak <[email protected]>
TO: Blue Oak <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: notes on mega evolution
My dear boy,
Given that this is a new field of study, I have no pearls of wisdom to offer you, only the same kinds of advice that I might give another academic in a separate field from my own. What I can tell you is that often, the notes that we write in the immediate aftermath of a thing turn into our greatest work. I am honored that you chose to share them with me.
I am sure Blastoise will grow used to the changes soon enough, as he has done twice before. Have you thought of writing to your friend Sonia’s grandmother? Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing, as I understand them, do not actually require a strong emotional bond with one’s Pokémon, but perhaps the advice on how to deal with a repeated but nevertheless temporary shift in mass will be helpful.
I actually think it may be more useful to simply ask Sonia to ask her grandmother to get in touch with you—Magnolia is worse than I am at checking my inbox!
In any case, I must repeat how honored I am that you chose to share your thoughts with me. You have made me proud, Blue, prouder than words can express. I look forward to seeing your own research published someday—I think we both know you are too much like me not to want to have your name in the academic record of the study of Mega Evolution.
Your grandfather,
Samuel Oak
blueoakokay reblogged from thefirststeampunkpals
4h ago
thefirststeampunkpals
10h ago
SOMEBODY GET ME BLUE OAK I KNOW HE’S ON THIS HELLSITE. Mr Oak sir I would like to ask you very politely how the fuck I’m meant to get in touch with your grandfather. I have sent him no less than seven (7) emails looking for his paper from 1998 about monogamy v nonmonogamy as a mating strategy for male Pidgeottos and Pidgeots and he hasn’t responded. I need it for my dissertation and I can’t find it in any of the academic databases
25,362 notes
blueoakokay reblogged this post and added:
yeah here you go: “Ethical” non Monogamy vs a True Family Structure - a Case Study of Male Pidgeottos and Pidgeots.pdf
#honestly i find it really hilarious that you resorted to this lmao #also everyone in the notes agreeing that gramps is hard to get ahold of is also so funny to me #you guys are revealing nepo baby privileges i didn’t even know i had (my grandfather responding in a timely manner to my emails)