Shuppet's very first memory was the fog. Sometimes it would be light enough for sunlight to pass through and other times it can be dense enough to make the day as dark as the night. But it is always there, a constant presence that she is comfortable with.
She lived in the fog with her brothers and sisters. The fog offered them protection from humans and other creatures (which she will know much later that those creatures, are called pokemon, similar to her). She grew up in the fog, playing with her fellow siblings, unaware that there is a world out there that is much, much bigger than the world she knew within the fog.
The first turning point in her life came when an elderly one-eyed ghost decided to live the rest of his life here in the fog like many other ghost types in the area. She, together with her siblings, were naturally curious of a fellow ghost who came from outside the fog, and would constantly seek him out to hear his stories.
The one-eyed ghost is a friendly and patient ghost, who didn't mind the noise and chaos that she and her siblings made, unlike some of their neighbours. He told them that he used to be from the fog as well, and left the fog with a human when he was very, very young.
That got their attention.
He told them of a vast world outside the fog, that the fog is a part of a mountain that they are currently living in. He told them the mountain is nothing but a small part of land in a region that the mountain is situated in. He told them that apart from this region, which the humans refer to as the "Hoenn" region, there are many other regions that are different, each unique in its own way. He himself has been to three other regions with the human, which he fondly refer to as his trainer and master. The ghost was part of a pokemon team, a team which is like a family to him. He mentioned that his master had given him a name, but he would never tell them what it is as he will only ever allow his deceased master to address him as such. He told them that humans had given names to them as a whole to name their species, and that she and her siblings are known to the humans as a species called "shuppet".
The elderly ghost enjoyed telling tales of his adventure, and each one is more exciting than the last. And when their adventure finally ended, they settled down in a human town not far away from the fog where he once came from.
Many moons passed and the ghost lived comfortably with his master. His master had built a family of his own, and they also loved and welcomed the elderly ghost as part of their family. However, all good things have to come to an end. Unlike him, his master, who is a human, have a much shorter lifespan. He witnessed how his master wilted away from old age, and it pained his heart. He tried to help to make his master's life easier and more bearable, but he can only do so much as a pokemon.
He was at his master's side up till the very end when he finally passed away in his sleep.
After the death of his master, the one-eyed ghost left the place which his master had called home, together with some of the surviving members of his master's pokemon team. Some of them stayed behind. His master's kin were sad to see them leave, but they understood that they cannot bear to continue living in a place filled with so many memories of their beloved master. After leaving his master's home, he and the other pokemon who left with him went their separate ways. He made his way back here to the fog, his time with his master had taught him enough on how to navigate through foreign land.
The elderly ghost told them tales and stories of their adventures. He told them stories of mountains that spit fire. He told them of human settlements that built structures so tall that they seem to touch the sky. He told them how green the grass outside the fog is, and how vast the oceans are.
Shuppet found herself wanting more and more to go on an adventure. Her siblings were interested in the stories, but none of them were too keen to go outside the fog.
The day came when there was an abrupt change to her life. She was resting in a small cave situated near the bottom of the mountain, just at the edge of the fog. It was her favourite getaway when her siblings' chattering were too much, even for her.
She did not expect a human to suddenly walk in and threw a contraption at her, sucking her in. She found out later that the contraption is called a pokeball, used for catching pokemon like her.
When her new trainer finally let her out of her pokeball, she found that she is out of the fog. She is scared, for she had never ventured out of the fog before. But she is also equally excited, for she can finally go for an adventure of her own. Her new trainer explained to her that she is part of his team now and that he would need her to compete in something called a gym circuit. She didn't really understand what a gym circuit is at first, but she did understand that her new trainer would need her to battle under his command. She didn't mind battling, she is no stranger to it. She had to battle regularly alongside her siblings for territory back at the fog and she enjoyed the thrill of the battles.
It did not take long for her to realise that her trainer is from a foreign region. None of the other pokemon of his team were from Hoenn. The elderly ghost had gave them a very avid description of what type and kind of pokemons that she and her siblings can realistically expect to see in the Hoenn region. None of her trainer's pokemon team fit any of the descriptions from the elderly ghost.
The very next day, she was thrust into the most grueling experience of her life, which her trainer referred to as "training". She knew that it was to let her grow stronger, and she didn't want to disappoint her trainer. She gritted her teeth and pushed through it, pushing herself past her limit and into exhaustion every single day.
Her experience with her new companions is very different from the one the elderly ghost had mentioned. For instance, it didn't feel like family, unlike what the elderly ghost said. None of them would give her the time of day and she had often had to spend her meager free time in loneliness, something which she is unused to. She missed the companionship of her siblings back at the fog. Her trainer also didn't give her a name, something which she was looking forward to, unlike what the elderly ghost's deceased master did for him, although the rest of her trainer's pokemon team had a name to call their own.
Her trainer also had unrealistic expectations of her. He would ask one of his other pokemon to show her a move not of her element, and expect her to learn it by the end of the day. How in Arceus's name is she supposed to do that? She is a ghost for goodness' sake. It is just not possible for her to learn the same move, that is not of her element, in just a day. But she kept her complaints to herself, and still tried her very best.
But her very best is just not enough, not for her trainer.
He would throw her into battles that are far out of her league and she would get crushed by her opposition every single time. He will ask her to storm her way through battles like the rest of his pokemon team. She is just not built for it. Her strength does not lie in power, at least, not for the time being. Her strength lies in trickery and deceit. It lies in the element of surprise she can bring forth to her opponents. She does not have enough raw power to meet her trainer's expectations yet, and would not have enough power for a long, long time until she gathers enough power within her to evolve. Something that would take more than a few moon cycles to achieve.
Her lackluster performance in both training and battles led to her trainer getting more and more disappointed and frustrated in her every passing day. She, on the other hand, got angrier. Her trainer just do not understand that she is different from the rest of his team, where none of them are ghosts like her. Her trainer does not understand that whatever might have worked for them might not necessarily apply to her. Yes, she did manage to learn a few tricks and moves. But most of it is due to her own hard work and less on her trainer's guidance. Her trainer does not know how to handle her.
Her trainer is not fit to be her trainer.
The vicious cycle of disappointment and anger continued, and it puts a heavy strain on their relationship. She would no longer take commands from him in battle, although she still takes part in their training. Her trainer had tried to talk to her to get her to understand things from his point of view. Her trainer's pokemon would give her the stink eye for dragging down their team's progress, and told her that she should just shut up and follow their lead.
None of them thought about what she thinks.
She didn't know how many more moons have passed. Her trainer arrived on an island one fine day and let her out. He told her that he cannot do this anymore, and she is free to go. He turned his back on her and left her floating there, mouth widened in shock.
Her trainer abandoned her.
She felt a mixture of relief and anger. She is relieved that she does not have to put up with him any longer. She felt anger because her trainer left her, just like that, in a foreign land and didn't even had the courtesy to at least bring her back to the fog where he snatched her from.
She did not know how to navigate back to the fog. She was kept mostly in her pokeball when her trainer is travelling. She could not leave the island, the winds outside the island were too strong for her to fly through it safely.
She is stuck on the island her trainer had left her in.
She found a humongous cave at the edge of the island. She is glad that there are ghosts like her who reside there. They are not overly friendly, and they are also part of the void, a typing and energy that ghosts disliked and hated. How these ghosts can stand being part ghost and part void she would never understand. But at least these ghosts are cordial enough to have a pleasant conversation with.
There are also other residents in the caves. The flying bats and rock munching creatures left her mostly to her own devices and basically ignored her.
The stupid human-like creatures, which she found out much later that the humans refer to as "makuhita", were just downright rude.
The cave is just not suitable for her to live in. So she set her sights elsewhere.
There is a building not far from where the cave is, and she can sense the huge amounts of negative emotions rolling off in waves from the building. As a shuppet, who feeds from negative energy, the place there is a literal food paradise for her. But then she remembered what the elderly ghost used to say, that if something is too good to be true, it is usually too good to be true. And so she resisted the temptation to go to the building.
Not like she could go there anyway. She later found out that the building is being guarded by both humans and pokemons alike, and all of the pokemon there is way stronger than her. She also found out from the local pokemon that the building is for containing humans who did bad, bad things to both humans and pokemon.
That would explain the huge amount of negative energy she felt.
She traveled to a human town nearby, where she spent a few days wandering and observing from the shadows. She needs a place to stay. And so she stayed in the shadows and observe. She is patient. After some observation, a building in the middle of the town caught her attention. It is a building where many humans and their pokemons visit on a daily basis. It looks like a good place to stay for her, maybe they will welcome her.
Her appearance in the building was a shock to the occupants. Apparently, she is the only one of her kind here. But the human-healers there were nice enough to let her stay there and provide her with food. There are some rules that she have to follow if she wanted to stay there. She does not mind. As long as there is food and shelter, she can make do with it. They even allow her to have her own fun there with her pranks, as long as it does not cause any trouble for the humans.
The large number of people who entered and exit the building everyday means that there would not be a boring day. She has been craving companionship ever since she left the fog, and the people she met in the building filled a little of the gaping hole that her previous trainer had left in her heart. The pranks she pulled (she made sure that they were harmless) filled her with a little joy that was missing since many moons ago. Life was not perfect, but it got a little better.
There were human trainers who attempted to catch her with that blasted contraption called the pokeball. Again. She was determined to not make the same mistake. Every single time a human tried to catch her she would wreck havoc and prank them so hard that they never appeared in the building again, much to the exasperation of the human-healers.
The local humans seem to enjoy the prank, there are some who even encouraged her.
The next turning point in her life came again when a young human trainer strolled through the doors of the building. She is definitely not from the island, for shuppet had committed the faces of the locals who visited the building regularly into her memory. The human was also tainted with the aura of death and chaos, which puzzled her to no end. She is sure that the human is very much alive, yet she feels so much like death. As those thoughts ran through her mind, the human trainer had deposited her pokeballs with the human-healers and disappeared into the restricted section of the building on the second floor.
Shuppet began to plan her next prank.
It was a very basic and easy prank. She knows by now that human trainers tend to collect their pokeballs from the human-healers at a specific spot within the building. Thus, when the death-tainted human trainer reappeared after some time to collect her pokeballs, she executed her prank.
The reaction of the death-tainted human was hilarious, and shuppet can't help but congratulate herself for a job well done.
Even better, the death-tainted human actually complimented on her prank.
Not a single human had complimented on her prank before when they were on the receiving end on it.
She chattered to the death-tainted human trying to communicate her thanks. She didn't expect the trainer to try and chatter back at her with a poor imitation of her language. Not like the human succeeded, but it is the thought that counts.
Shuppet decided there and then that she liked this death-tainted human and went up to snuggle with her. The aura around her felt so soothing and comfortable despite the taint of death (she did not mind the taint), and she does not mind if she stayed that way forever.
The death-tainted human recognised at once that she felt lonely, which surprised her. Was it that obvious? She had thought that she had hidden it pretty well.
What she did not expect, is that the death-tainted human asked her if she would like to come with her. For the first time in her life, there is someone who cares about her opinion.
The death-tainted human now had her full and undivided attention.
The death-tainted human explained to her that she too, is challenging the gym circuit (why are all human trainers obsessed with that?). What surprised her is that the death-tainted human does not require her to battle if she does not wish to. Well, that is not happening, shuppet loves her pranks but she loves the occassional battles even more. She said that she only had two other pokemons with her, which is a little surprising, since most trainers have at least six of them. She told her that her dream is to travel the world and the other regions and invited her to join her on the journey as well.
The death-tainted human shared the same dream as her.
The death-tainted trainer is also one of the most honest human she met. She does not sugarcoat her words. She explained clearly what is expected of her should she decide to join her on her journey. She explained that while she appreciates a good prank, she cannot pull them willy-nilly without a care in the world. Shuppet can understand her reasoning. It's not like she particularly enjoyed doing it. She is just bored and needed a good laugh while finding something to pass the time.
The death-tainted trainer does not attempt to make empty promises. She told her that she is not perfect (perfect is overrated anyways, in shuppet's opinion) and that the only promise she can give her is to try and be the best trainer for her.
That promise alone is good enough for her.
Shuppet floated away from the death-tainted trainer and thought about her offer really hard. She never cared for being the strongest ghost around or other materialistic wants. All she ever wanted is companionship with a bit of adventure. The fact that the death-tainted trainer shared the same dream as her is an added bonus.
Besides, the aura of the death-tainted trainer felt really, really comfortable.
She can also finally leave this island.
And so, after barking out a shout of approval she approached the pokeballs on the death-tainted trainer's belt. She can feel which ones are empty and which ones are not simply by feeling the emotions emitting from two of the pokeballs. She chose the empty pokeball she preferred most and took a short look at it.
She suddenly found herself not resenting the pokeball as much as she used to.
And so, with a quick bump of her head, she allowed herself to get sucked into the pokeball.
Her previous adventure was a bust, but she look forward to her next great adventure.
And the promise of occasional pranks from her new trainer, that is important too.
Shuppet found herself in a room with her new trainer when she was released from her pokeball.
She quickly realised that only a short time had passed, and the room she is in belongs to the restricted section of the building on the second floor. She only came here once before, and she knew that it has the space to accommodate four humans and several small pokemon. Currently, her trainer is the only occupant of the room.
Her trainer is sitting on a bed, waiting for shuppet to finish taking in the sights of her new surrounding.
Why humans have to sleep on something like beds, shuppet will never understand.
Shuppet floated closer to her trainer, who had began to talk softly to her. The most important information she learned in the conversation is that the name of her new trainer is called "Velda".
She will commit that name to memory for the rest of her (immortal) life.
She introduced her to the other pokemons on her team. A four-legged fish and a fire-horse. After a short introduction by Velda, the two greeted her enthusiastically and she returned the greeting happily. They seemed friendly, and shuppet cannot wait to know more about them.
It was late at night, and Velda and her two other new friends were tired. The four-legged fish jumped onto the bed with her trainer and curled up on one side of the bed while the fire-horse just lay down on the floor at the side of Velda's bed.
Despite her exhaustion, Velda is adamant on choosing a name for shuppet before sleeping. And shuppet is very, very excited at the thought of finally having her own name.
She even allowed -wanted- shuppet to choose her own name.
They spent a long time deciding on her name. While all of them are good, none of them felt right.
It wasn't until Velda suggested the name of Dolly, since shuppet did look like some sort of doll that the young humans like to play with, especially so when she evolve in the future. She also showed shuppet a picture of her evolved form using some sort of device. She finally saw for the first time, what she could be. A banette.
Shuppet decided that she liked to be called Dolly.
Training the next day was a nervous affair for Dolly, considering her past experience. Velda obviously had little experience in training ghosts as well, but she tried to make training plans that is best suited for her.
Dolly didn't have that privilege from her previous trainer.
Unlike her previous trainer, Velda taught Dolly how to use her powers according to her strength, much to Dolly's delight. She ducked and weaved through attacks and hide in the shadows during the mock battle with the four-legged fish and the fire-horse. She won and lost some of their battles, her new pokemon friends are no slouches themselves. But Dolly did not have so much fun in a long time and so she did not mind at all.
She also participated in trainer battles with Velda on the island. She used her trickery and deceit to confuse and bring down her opponents with Velda's guidance.
She won her first ever trainer battle together with Velda. It is not an easy battle, but they won. They also won the next battle, and the one after that, and more. She lost a few of them, but it was all in good fun so she did not mind. She tried her best and both Velda and Dolly know it. Velda did not blame Dolly for their loss, and only encouraged her to do better while pointing out several stuffs that she could do better in in their next battle.
All of these are a new experience to Dolly.
Dolly did not know how many days had passed when Velda decided that they are ready enough to try and take on the Dewford gym. Time does not really matter to an immortal ghost like her. The four-legged fish had successfully evolved into a two-legged fish with hand-like flippers quite some time back and could not stop gushing over its new body. The fire-horse just snorted and pointedly ignored the two-legged fish.
They walked together out of the building where she first met Velda, and slowly made their way over to the gym, a building that she had always been afraid to explore before she became Dolly due to the number of strong pokemon there. They won't scare her now, not this time. She had Velda on her side now. Simply for the companionship that Velda gave her, a companionship that Dolly had craved for so long, Dolly will be Velda's Dolly for Velda. Dolly will follow her until the end of time itself. She will battle for Velda, and they will explore the world together.
But for now, they had opponents to fight and defeat, and she planned to bring victory to Velda.
I never expected to catch my first wild pokemon by using the talk-no-jutsu, and I never thought that the first pokemon I caught would be a ghost type pokemon.
Dolly is surprisingly docile, just easily excitable, when she is not pulling pranks. She pulled a few harmless pranks on Bigblue and Flamel but they both take it in good fun.
I really love my pokemon.
We might also have started a tradition among the four of us to prank the pokemons that would join our team in the future as an initiation program.
I realised that Dolly also love hugs and cuddles, and would often cuddle up to me outside of training and battles. She was probably very lonely being the only shuppet on Dewford.
Which begs the question on how she found her way here in the first place.
In Hoenn, shuppets are mostly found on Mt Pyre, or in the area around it. Mt Pyre is situated at the other end of Hoenn from where Dewford is. The winds around the island is too strong for her to make her way to Dewford by her lonesome.
I had a sneaking suspicion on the how after my first day of training with her.
Scanning Dolly with my Pokedex had revealed that Dolly have a very bizarre range of moves in her arsenal. Some of them are within the realms of possibility, like Dark Pulse, for example, although it is a pretty advanced move for a shuppet. Moves like Will-O-Wisp, which some ghost types are capable of using and learning on their own, are rare for their species but also within the realm of possibility. Most of the pokemon in the Mind Arts Trio (Ghost, Psychic and Dark) can learn moves naturally from within the Trio despite the typing difference. Still, I have no idea on how Dolly knew moves like, Thunderbolt, Charge Beam, Toxic, Dazzling Gleam even (goodness, how does she learn it?) when these moves cannot be learnt by a shuppet unless they were taught specifically to her. Her usage of these moves are also rather crude, all power and no finesse. Furthermore, from her battles, I observed that Dolly moved in a calculating manner and performed maneuvers that are only seen from trained pokemon.
I am almost certain that Dolly used to belong to a trainer, and the trainer abandoned her.
It would explain a lot of things. Like how Dolly got here, and her constant need of contact with me. Her abandonment by her trainer would have hurt her enough to cause her to act that way.
I do not know who the trainer is, but I know enough to tell that he is a big jerk. Dolly is a good pokemon. Not the strongest pokemon there is, but her strength does not lie in raw power. Flamel and Bigblue can handle that part for now. Her strength lies in her trickery, the ability to sow confusion and create mayhem on the battlefield.
I can only conclude that Dolly's previous trainer really do not know how to handle ghost type pokemon. It is his loss for abandoning Dolly.
Luckily, I do have some experience with handling ghost type pokemon since I grew up with Macky. Ghost type pokemon were near impossible to breed in pokemon breeding farms, even for one as accomplished as my family's. No one have any idea on how they even come into existence, and they will simply phase through the fences of our farms. There is no point in keeping them in one place because there is nothing that can hold them except for something similar to a pokeball. The most widely supported theory of ghost pokemon, proposed by Professor Birch, is that ghost type pokemon are actually other-worldly travelers from another dimension. The supporting evidence for this is the existence of a small, temporary time-space distortion around the area when new ghost type pokemon are being born (although no one has yet to see the process). They also cannot realistically die from old age and are practically immortal unless they are killed in battle. Ghost type pokemon are also widely known to be vicious and any battle that they take part in often leads to a fight to the death in the wild, which is a reason why ghost type pokemon did not manage to overpopulate the world with their immortality since many of the weaker ghosts tend to overestimate themselves and got themselves killed in battle. The nature of ghost type pokemon is also the reason why people respect and fear trainers who managed to tame and command these other-worldly creatures. Ghost type pokemon are arguably on the same level, if not harder to tame than dragon type pokemon in certain aspects. This is why, Agatha, who is a previous member of the Indigo's Elite Four and a Ghost Master, is highly respected in the PWL and across the world.
Word has it that the bat-shit insane old hag has decided to travel to Orre after her retirement to have a holiday there.
I had asked for advice from Vance on how to train Dolly first thing in the morning on the very next day after catching her, considering his success with Macky. His advice proved to be helpful in training Dolly. I had to constantly correct some of her bad habits that she displayed in battling, and ultimately decided to tell her to put off honing the bizarre range of moves that she learnt from her previous trainer, and to focus on the ghost type techniques that she is more familiar with. She would not be able to handle and properly use those moves until she evolves into a banette anyway. I am surprised that she managed to even learn them in the first place. The only extra move that I wanted her to try and focus on is Toxic, as I have a good feeling that we may need it for our gym battle. I wanted a backup plan if it turns out to be a battle of attrition, something that I do not want to face against a gym leader. I also decided to buy a reusable TM for the move Protect, and taught it to all three of my pokemon. I need them to be masters in using the move. Protect is too useful not to learn, especially when there is no stupid four move limit per pokemon in this world.
After two weeks of training, Bigblue finally evolved into a marshtomp. We spent another week training for Bigblue to familiarise himself in his new body and another extra week to go through various drills for the different scenarios that we may encounter in the gym battle. I spent a lot of time in Dewford training because we probably would not have the time when we finally leave Dewford to go to Slateport city. Most of our time then would probably be spent traveling and battling the trainers we meet along the way from Slateport to Mauville.
So I decided to get as much training in as possible to prepare ourselves not only for the Dewford gym challenge, but also for the Mauville gym challenge as well.
Like the Rustboro gym, the interior of the Dewford gym is a maze as well. The only difference is that we are trapped in the maze with minimal light. The light around us shone brighter whenever we defeated a gym trainer so that it will be easier to navigate through the maze. I stopped fighting the gym trainers after I finished pummeling the second one I encountered.
The gym trainers in Dewford are really fucking obnoxious. I could tell that Flamel had the same sentiments as me and he had a great time burning his opponents into a crisp with gusto.
I'm not sure if it is only the two gym trainers that I met that are so obnoxious, or if the entire gym is that way. But after defeating the second gym trainer (good riddance), I decided not to take my chances and just complete the maze with as little interaction with the gym trainers as possible. The way the maze is set up is to encourage challengers to find and defeat gym trainers so that they will have eventually have enough light to navigate through the maze, something that I originally planned on doing just for fun.
The joke's on them. I have Flamel who is a walking torch with his flames, and Bigblue, who has a built-in radar with his head fin. Anything that the two of them missed out, Dolly can phase through walls to check for any signs of danger without being seen. I can pick off the gym trainers one by one if I wished, or I can avoid them entirely.
Naturally, we made out of the maze unscathed. I recalled both Bigblue and Dolly just right before we exited the maze and healed Flamel with potions, who was the only one that battled thus far. I do not want to give Brawly the advantage of knowing what pokemons I planned to use, the gym challenge is hard enough as it is.
He greeted and faced me with an unreadable expression on his face and we started our battle without much fanfare after the pre-battle registration, with a maximum of three pokemon on each side.
I started off with Flamel, as planned. He had no problems taking on Brawly's machop and knocked it out with a well-placed Stomp to its head.
The meditite, however, is an annoying pain in the ass. It is really agile and hits hard. Any move that it cannot dodge will be countered with a Detect. The only thing I could do is to command Flamel to bathe the arena in flames with a combination of Fire Spin and Flamethrower. It did a bit of damage, but not enough. Meditite knocked Flamel out with a High Jump Kick to his face.
I sent out Bigblue next, who did pretty well in facing off Meditite. After evolving into a marshtomp, Bigblue gained a few more moves that were helpful in fighting Meditite. He managed to learn Rock Tomb from the TM Roxanne gave me, and also managed to learn Rock Slide on his own after seeing it in action once in a trainer battle. He turned his mastery of his rock techniques into an art form, dropping rocks accurately on where he wanted it to be while shooting off barrages of water and mud at Meditite. Bigblue, I realised, has a knack for changing the terrain to his liking. Before long, meditite is trapped in a make-shift swamp with all of his escape routes blocked off by rocks. Bigblue simply knocked him out with a blast of pressurised water with Water Gun.
If I thought meditite is a pain in the ass, it has nothing on Brawly's makuhita. Every attack Bigblue throws at him is countered with ease or simply bounce off due to its layer of fat. Even Whirlpool did not faze him. Bigblue's water and mud attacks does not have enough power yet to do damage to makuhita. This forces Bigblue to get up close and personal with makuhita, which is makuhita's domain. Bigblue did manage to get a few good shots in and also pulled off a Counter which dealt a great deal of damage to makuhita. But it was not enough for him to stop makuhita to take him out with a well-placed Force Palm.
Things ended rather anti-climatically when I sent out Dolly.
None of the attacks that makuhita knew are able to affect Dolly due to the typing advantage Dolly possess as a ghost type pokemon. The only attack that makuhita knew that can possibly damage Dolly is Knock Off, which is easily avoidable if Dolly kept her distance. Makuhita also tried to use Whirlwind to throw Dolly off-balance. Dolly simply duck into the shadows whenever Whirlwind came up and stayed out of makuhita's reach when he used Knock Off.
Dolly ended the battle with a Shadow Ball in makuhita's face.
I don't think Brawly is very happy with the fact that I used a ghost type pokemon in his gym, a pokemon type that no novice trainer usually possess, if the uncontrollable twitching at the edge of his mouth is any indication. I could probably take on all 3 of his pokemon and win with Dolly alone using the type advantage, but I wanted Bigblue and Flamel to have the experience of fighting against pokemon trained by a gym leader. The moment I saw how Bigblue fought with meditite, no matter the outcome of Bigblue's fight, I knew I would win the gym challenge, since I have Dolly on my side. It is kind of cheating to use a ghost type pokemon in a gym specialised in fighting type pokemon. But hey, life isn't fair. I didn't ask for a sickly body either and you don't see me complaining.
The "don't think Brawly is very happy with me" changed to "I'm pretty sure Brawly is not happy with me" fairly quickly when he just dumped me with the Knuckle Badge, a reusable TM containing Bulk Up, saying that the prize money would be credited to my bank account within the week, and shooed me out of his gym.
I don't care if he is bitter about the fact that I have the type advantage with Dolly. He is a gym leader. If he is narrow-minded enough to have a grudge against an eleven years old he can just go and suck it up for all I care.
Like I said, life isn't fair. Life isn't fair to me and Dolly and you don't see us complaining about it. Brawly needs to grow up. He could learn a thing or two from Roxanne on how to be gracious in defeat. I learnt a lot from Roxanne myself.
Speaking of Roxanne, I need to call her soon. I promised that I would call her the moment I earned the Knuckle Badge.
Brawly prided himself as the leader and protector of Dewford Town.
Dewford Town is situated on Dewford Island, an island located southwest of mainland Hoenn, and is also the place where the most dangerous and notorious of criminals Hoenn ever had the unfortunate chance to see are locked up. As Dewford's gym leader, it is his duty and responsibility to oversee the prison that housed these criminals, and he worked hand-in-hand with the local LSDF forces stationed at Dewford to ensure that these scums stay where they are in their rightful place in the prison.
Brawly was raised single-handedly by his mother. He never saw his father because his father was murdered by a criminal for the sake of money before he had a chance to meet him. He had every reason in the world to justify his hatred for criminals.
It was the knowledge of his father's death that he aimed to be the very best combat specialist, so that he have the power to protect his mother, himself, and his loved ones. He will not allow himself to be powerless.
And that is also why he admired his predecessor, Kent Armstrong, one of the best hand-to-hand combat specialist Hoenn has ever produced, and a Fighting Specialist.
Kent Armstrong was the one who inspired Brawly to be a Fighting Specialist, back when Brawly first received his starter, Max, a makuhita back then, from his gym. He would forever remember the moment when he first stepped into the gym, and witnessed Kent training alongside his fighting type pokemon in combat.
He was thus ecstatic when he received a fighting type pokemon as his starter, and was even happier when Kent acknowledged his strength when he returned to Dewford and earned his second gym badge from Kent.
After he ended up as the runner-up in the first Ever Grande Conference he participated, Brawly joined the LSDF. He got his wish granted and was stationed at Dewford's prison where he watched the criminals with a keen eye. He was also often called on by the LSDF to other parts of Hoenn to apprehend criminals.
His efficiency in apprehending criminals was soon recognised by the LSDF, and his tendency to knock out his targets with only one hit earned him the nickname of "K.O. Brawly" during his time there.
He rose through the ranks of LSDF quickly, but soon felt that his skills as a trainer had started to stagnate. He knew that he could breakthrough and get stronger, but he did not know how.
He realised that he needed help.
He applied for a long, unpaid leave of absence from the LSDF and journeyed to Kanto. He wanted to try and convince Elite Four Bruno, one of the most recognised Fighting Specialist in the world, to teach him.
Bruno's skills as a Fighting Specialist should have allowed him to earn the title of Fighting Master a long time ago. But for some reason, he never applied for that title despite the encouragement from his fellow Elite Four members. In an interview with the media, he cited his reasons as "Titles are superficial, I do not need titles to justify my skills. My skills as a trainer speaks for itself. Having fancy titles would just get in my way of learning the ways of combat."
Brawly could see the point Bruno is trying to drive at, and his respect for Bruno rose even higher. It is public knowledge that Bruno would not have taken the position as an Elite Four member if it wasn't for his immense respect for Lance. Lance had personally requested Bruno to aid him in protecting the ideals of the Indigo League by taking on the position of an Elite Four member.
It took 3 months for him to locate Bruno, for he is rarely present in the Indigo League. Bruno prefers to travel across both Kanto and Johto regions to help the Indigo League solve their problems, leaving the rest of his colleagues to do the office work. The rest of his time is spent in seclusion, training and honing his skills.
Brawly would not have found Bruno if not for an irate Agatha, who had just retired from the Indigo League as an Elite Four member. She found him extremely annoying when he keeps appearing at the Indigo Plateau asking for Bruno's location. She borrowed a trained psychic pokemon from the Indigo League, and promptly teleported him to Bruno's location without warning.
Brawly found Bruno at the foot of Mt Silver where he is training with his pokemon. He quickly approached Bruno and asked him to take him on as an apprentice, explaining to him that he needs help in getting past the stagnation that he is currently facing.
To his surprise, Bruno accepted his request to train him, but refused to take him on as an apprentice. When asked why, Bruno stated that in the unending road of learning the ways of combat, they are all fellow disciples.
In Bruno's opinion, there is no master in the art of combat. Hence, he did not apply to be a Fighting Master for no one could claim to be one.
Brawly's respect for Bruno grew even more.
Brawly spent the next entire year training with Bruno, learning the ways of combat. It is even more relentless, more brutal, and harsher than anything he has ever faced. He traveled with him across Kanto and Johto in uncharted and unmapped territory. They shared their secrets and experience. Brawly and his team improved in leaps and bounds under Bruno's tutelage.
After Bruno acknowledged Brawly skills as a combat and Fighting Specialist to be "passable" with a silent nod of his head, Bruno left Brawly the next day. He left Brawly with only a note stating that Brawly have his own way of combat to pursue now, a road that Bruno can no longer accompany him on.
Brawly returned to Hoenn shortly after.
He resumed his duties as a LSDF member, and spent his free time as a freelance gym trainer under Kent, who is now his friend and mentor. Life continued in this manner for another period of time, until the next big event hit Dewford.
Although Kent is only in his fifties, his health has been suffering from injuries that he had sustained when he was young. Thankfully, his life is in no immediate danger. But his body is no longer fit enough for him to fulfill his duties as a gym leader safely.
Kent is nothing but stubborn, and proclaimed that he will continue to do his job as Dewford's gym leader and protector no matter what the Hoenn League says. The Hoenn League had to forcefully order his resignation for the sake of his health, and to also submit a list of recommended trainers who he thinks are possible candidates to take over the Dewford gym.
Kent recommended only one trainer: Brawly.
Under Kent's recommendation, Brawly is put through a series of tests, interviews and pokemon battles. He passed them with flying colours. Kent then put in a request of his own to the Hoenn League, requesting permission from the Hoenn League to administer Brawly one final test of his own liking.
Kent challenged Brawly to a trainer battle, with six pokemon each. What was special about the battle is that all six pokemon from each side would be battling at the same time.
Kent and Brawly would also be fighting alongside their pokemon, in the literal sense, against each other in hand-to-hand combat at the same time.
Chaos is the only suitable word to describe their fight. Both Brawly and Kent did not have the time and energy to spare to command their pokemons as they both engage other in hand-to-hand combat. They exchanged a series of punches, kicks, blocks, jabs and fought with anything and everything they had learnt and knew.
His starter, Max, now a hariyama, was the only one left standing beside him as they stood over a beaten and battered Kent.
Brawly had surpassed his idol who had inspired him to be a Fighting Specialist.
Being a gym leader is a full-time job and he had to resign from the LSDF. He still maintain close contact with the LSDF personnel stationed at Dewford's Prison out of a sense of responsibility as a gym leader, and also partly because it was where he grew up from a boy into a man.
He met the love of his life two years later when he was called in by the Hoenn League to help assess a possible candidate to assume the position of the next gym leader of Rustboro city. He stood by the stands in the spectator's block as he spectated her battles. He saw no faults in Noel's recommendation and sent in his approval.
Roxanne is everything Brawly is not, while Brawly is the polar opposite of Roxanne. Both of them did not expect to be romantically attached to each other. There was a major change of gym leaders during that period when Brawly and Roxanne were appointed as one themselves. Brawly was the first to be appointed, shortly before Norman, an ex ACE operative who had then recently retired from ACE immediately after he married his wife. He applied for the position of gym leader of Petalburg city after his predecessor chose to retire due to old age. Two years later, Roxanne and Flannery both became gym leaders at the same date when Noel and Flannery's grandfather stepped down from their positions due to old age. Tate and Liza became gym leaders of Mossdeep city right after Roxanne and Flannery a month later.
Despite the fact that all of them are newly appointed gym leaders, Norman does not converse and interact much with the other newly appointed gym leaders. He does not interact much with anyone at all. At the time of his appointment, Norman is in his late twenties going on thirty while Brawly, Roxanne and Flannery are all around the same age in their early twenties. Tate and Liza are still just kids despite their maturity and prowess in battle. Brawly feels that Norman's lack of interaction with the other gym leaders is partly because of the age difference and also partly because Norman himself is a man of few words. Coupled with the fact that his wife is recently pregnant with their first child, he probably has too many important things to do than to make small talk with the other gym leaders.
Flannery had her grandfather to show her the ropes and to help her adjust to gym leader duties. Steven, who had just defeated Wallace back then, volunteered to help guide Tate and Liza to ease them into their positions. Steven had decided to stay in Mossdeep so that he can not only help Tate and Liza, but also because it is a lot nearer to his workplace at Ever Grande compared to his old home at Rustboro. Norman is an ex ACE operative and is more than qualified to run his gym unsupervised.
Roxanne and Brawly didn't have that luxury.
Noel and Kent were offered an office job at Ever Grande, which they accepted, and hence any help that they could give their successors were pretty limited due to geographical issues. Both Rustboro and Dewford were located at the edge of Hoenn and the other more experienced gym leaders could not possibly come down and help guide them personally. The nearest gym leader in their vicinity, Norman, is too busy between fulfilling his own duties as a gym leader and starting a family.
Brawly had already been running his gym for two years and things were starting to pick up. Roxanne often called him to ask for advice when she just joined in their ranks as a fellow gym leader. Roxanne later secretly admitted to him that she did not call Norman because she is afraid of him. According to her, he always wore a scary look on his face. Flannery is too energetic for Roxanne's taste and their conversation will always somehow derail from the main point of discussion. Calling Tate and Liza were out of the question for obvious reasons, not that she has anything against them. But if a 20 year old like Roxanne had only a vague idea on how to be a gym leader, asking Tate and Liza, who are many years younger, for advice would not have been much help. The other gym leaders are too far away geographically to be of any realistic help.
Hence, Brawly is her best candidate to ask for advice.
After many calls from Roxanne and several visits from Brawly to Rustboro gym, one thing led to another and they found themselves madly in love shortly after. It is a new experience for the both of them. They have no common interests other than their love for pokemon battles and their hobbies are completely different. They are all busy people, saddled with duties and responsibilities to their cities and it sounds like a crazy idea trying to date each other across the ocean.
Fortunately, they both share a trait of being stupidly stubborn for the things they love.
It was hard at first, trying to maintain a long-distance romantic relationship away from prying eyes, but it did not make their love for each other any less. They made an effort to call each other every night if possible and would talk about their day.
Brawly learnt new things about Roxanne everyday.
He learnt about the type of books she liked to read. He learnt why the lily flower is her favourite flower. He learnt about how passionate she is in teaching.
He also learnt that she does not give praise to anyone easily, not even to him, her boyfriend.
Thus, he feels that he is entitled to be surprised when Roxanne called him excitedly on a moonless night and told him about how a novice trainer actually defeated her with only two pokemon on her team for her entire gym challenge. She practically heaped praises about the novice trainer and went on and on about how impressed she is with Velda Vera and even offered to apprentice her.
Roxanne had only praised him once since they started dating, and that is for being punctual to their dates.
Brawly suddenly felt very, very jealous of this trainer named Velda Vera.
But at the same time, he can feel his blood surging and he is actually eager to face the trainer that had managed to not only complete a gym challenge, but defeated Roxanne in a gym battle.
Ever since that call, he spent his time waiting and training for the arrival of Velda Vera. There had not been any worthy challengers of note recently. Sure, he gave out some of his badges, but they certainly did not impress him enough for him to give out his Bulk Up TM or for him to remember their names. He found himself looking forward to battling Roxanne's could-have-been apprentice, and envisioning the battle that they will have, their pokemon matching blows, fist for fist, slugging it out, until one remain standing.
After slightly more than a month, he found himself face to face with Velda Vera, with a ponyta at her side.
Roxanne had not told him the pokemon that Velda used in her gym challenge in Rustboro, saying that it would too much of a disadvantage for her if Brawly knew of it beforehand, which is perfectly ok with him.
Brawly's first impression of Velda is that she is small, and he would have trouble believing she is at least 11 years old if not for the fact that the laws of the Hoenn League mandated that children have to be at least 11 years of age before they start their pokemon journey (Tate and Liza are a special case, but that is besides the point). She is one of the prettiest child he had ever seen, although her skin is a little too pale for his liking. Under the dim lights of his gym, her skin glowed white like the sands at Dewford's beach during nighttime under the full moon. Brawly also thought that Velda looked a little sickly, there is too little muscle in her body and that she definitely lack exercise or any form of outdoor activity. But it also could have been the lack of light in his gym playing tricks on his eyes.
The initial part of their battle did not disappoint him. It was even more exciting than he had envisioned and his blood is screaming with delight. Her ponyta is definitely well-trained and is probably her starter, after he saw how well they coordinated with each other despite a lack of communication.
The battle with her marshtomp is even more exciting. He can see how Velda managed to triumph Roxanne's nosepass when he saw how proficient marshtomp is in changing the entire environment of the arena and trapping his meditite with rock type techniques. Roxanne had a hand in this one way or another, no doubt.
Brawly was so excited that he decided to send in one of his pokemon that he usually would not use against novice trainers.
The makuhita he sent in is on the brink of evolution, almost on the level of power expected from the teams of intermediate trainers. Makuhita's natural defense together with its training in countering ranged attacks had forced marshtomp to get into a close combat battle if it ever wanted to deal significant damage to makuhita. What followed is an exhilarating battle that he had not experienced in months, and makuhita brought marshtomp down despite receiving a nasty Counter from marshtomp.
The pokemon that Velda sent out next killed off all the excitement he had felt thus far.
A shuppet. A ghost type pokemon that none of his pokemon in the novice or intermediate level is capable of taking on simply due to the type disadvantage and the lack of moves to bring it down properly. A typing disadvantage would not be a problem for any pokemon on his main team, but this battle is only on a level of novice trainers.
It might be possible to take down shuppet if machop was not taken down prior to this, his Foresight would have been very useful. Brawly had to admit that a lack of counters to ghost type pokemon in the novice level battles is an oversight of his part in designing his gym challenges. In his defense, no normal novice trainer should have the ability to capture and command a ghost type pokemon at this stage of their journey.
Velda Vera is definitely not normal considering how happy her shuppet is in following her commands.
That still brings the question of how a novice trainer came into the possession of a ghost type pokemon only about a month into her journey. Can she really command it properly? Ghost type pokemons are known to be extremely vicious and will hurt inexperienced trainers if not handled well. And where does she even-
Oh. The pokemon center. It has to be the pokemon center.
The nurses there have informed him a few months ago that a wild shuppet have appeared in the pokemon center and made its home there. How it made its way here is a big question mark for everyone, assuming its birthplace is at Mt Pyre. They suspected it is a case of pokemon abandonment, an issue that the PWL takes very seriously, but there are no leads to follow on. Brawly had offered to personally remove the shuppet from the pokemon center if necessary, but the nurses assured him that it is a very well-mannered pokemon despite its tendency to pull harmless pranks on the locals. After being convinced that the shuppet would not be a troublemaker, Brawly left the case to the Rangers and LSDF, and filed the issue away at the back of his mind.
To his knowledge, that shuppet has thwarted every attempts of capture, which are all attempted by novice trainers (novice trainers can do pretty stupid things). Shuppet's pranks on them had made sure that they stay far away from the pokemon center, much to the local's amusement.
He did not know that it had finally been captured.
What happened next is the most one-sided battle he had ever faced. Any excitement he felt earlier had been forcefully torn away from him the moment shuppet appeared for battle. Makuhita's can only attempt to use Knock Off and possibly Whirlwind (he doubted Whirlwind would be of much use).
Shuppet just simply stay out of reach throughout the battle and finally ended it with a Shadow Ball.
Brawly inwardly groaned. He had been looking forward to pit himself against Velda and crush her team. He is fine with losing if it was any other pokemon other than a pesky ghost type (he really hated facing one in battle), but to lose in such a one-sided battle simply because of a type advantage leaves a very bad taste in his mouth.
He idly noted that Velda could have simply wiped out all three of his pokemon with only a shuppet if she wished to.
And Roxanne would not stop heaping praises on her little could-have-been apprentice again. Brawly suddenly finds himself very, very jealous once more.
It was only after Velda walked out of his gym's doors that he realised he had been a little immature and rude in handling his defeat. He should apologise. But he had no idea where Velda went, and it is a little embarrassing for a grown man like him, who is also a gym leader, to run after a little girl to apologise to her, even if the apology is well-deserved.
Ah well, he would just have to apologise to her when he sees her again and remind himself to not make this mistake again.
He got a violent surprise when he got a call from Roxanne right after he closed his gym that day in the evening.
"Brawly Bluewave! Explain yourself!"
"Wha-Roxanne? What did I do this time?" Brawly stuttered, pulling his phone away from his ear from Roxanne's booming voice. He did a quick mental check. Roxanne's birthday had passed, and their anniversary is not due anytime soon. Just what did he miss? Did they schedule a date that he had somehow forgotten? Was it today?
"You had the nerve to ask me what happened?! Your treatment in handling your defeat to Velda is what happened, you moron! What you did is extremely rude!"
Oh crap. How did she find this out even before he managed to gently break the news to Roxanne? Did Velda somehow have Roxanne's number? It seemed like the most likely explanation.
Arceus, if Roxanne knows, it means that his mother would know of this soon given how close the two of them are. His mother would definitely chew him out the moment she hears about this.
Roxanne even used the word "moron". His sweet, always polite Roxanne used the word "moron". Just how angry is Roxanne now? Arceus save him.
"I know you are not usually like this, Brawly." Roxanne's voice had lowered back to her normal volume, "I know you are better than this. That's why I am giving you one chance to explain yourself and I want you to be perfectly honest with me. Explain now."
"I-I'm just jealous, ok?" Brawly admitted, swiftly running his fingers through his hair. "Hear me out first." He cut Roxanne off before she could say anything. He took a deep breath, before continuing. "You know how much I look forward to exciting battles, and that I can get carried away. After what I heard from you about Velda for one entire month, I was just really, really excited. But you also keep giving praises about Velda non-stop for one month and I just got jealous that I only got a single compliment from my girlfriend ever since we started dating. I know it's immature of me, but I just can't help it, you know? She defeated me fair and square with a ghost type, and you know how much I hate facing one of those. I think I just got even more jealous that you will start praising her again and at that point in time, I just can't help feeling extremely jealous that some child managed to get my girlfriend's attention so easily and so I...acted inappropriately." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Roxanne, I really am."
There was a short silence on the other end of the line before he heard Roxanne's voice again. "No, I should apologise. I had no idea you felt this way, Brawly. I'm sorry that I neglected you."
"No, it's my fault. I'm a grown man and a gym leader, we have a reputation and image to uphold. What I did can possibly destroy our people's faith in us. No matter what, I should not have acted out against a child. I wanted to apologise to her the moment I cooled down, trust me, I really did. But I have no idea where she went." He paused. "To be honest, it is a little embarrassing to chase after a child like that, even if the apology is well-deserved." He gave another short pause. "I'm sorry, Roxanne, will you forgive me?"
"I do. I'm sorry too, Brawly, will you forgive me as well?"
"You have nothing to apologise for. But if it makes you feel better, yea, you are forgiven."
"You never fail to admit your mistakes, I've always liked that about you."
"Oh? Is that a compliment I hear?" Brawly teased, the edge of his mouth turning up into a small smile.
"Take it or leave it, Mr I-want-to-fight-everything-with-my-fists." Roxanne retorted. "Tell you what, I will send Velda's number over and you will apologise to her personally over the phone later. She is a reasonable person so it shouldn't be an issue." There was a short silence before Roxanne continued. "How did the battle go anyway?"
"It was a 3 on 3 battle. She took out my machop easily with her ponyta. It's very well trained. But her marshtomp is really impressive. I'm guessing she used it to earn your Stone Badge?" He heard a confirmation on the other side of the phone."I'm not sure what her marshtomp- or was it a mudkip at that time? - did in her gym battle against you, but it changed the entire area into a swamp and trapped meditite with a clever application of rock type attacks. Meditite didn't stand a chance after that. I saw her records when we were doing the pre-battle registration. Only slightly more than a month in her journey and she already earned two badges, and she did it by defeating both of us. She could possibly beat the circuit within a year if she keeps going at the rate she is at now."
"That's what I told her as well. At the moment when her mudkip delivered the finishing blow to my nosepass, I thought I was seeing the next Steven Stone."
"I still think that it is a low move to use a ghost type against me. None of my pokemon at the novice or intermediate level is properly trained to fight against a ghost type. On hindsight, it is probably an oversight that I have to fix later. I certainly did not expect novice trainers to be able to capture, much less properly command a ghost type in battle."
"It probably runs in her family. I remember Velda mentioning that her brother's starter is a gastly, although I feel that her brother is a unique case since he befriended it when the gastly is still very young. That brings me to the point I have been wanting to ask you, why is there a wild shuppet in Dewford? I can understand if she managed to catch a sableye in Granite Cave, but a shuppet? This is highly unusual."
Brawly's voice turned serious and his gaze sharpened. "I only knew about the shuppet a few months ago, it was staying at the pokemon center. I wanted to capture it and hand it over to the Hoenn League to deal with the shuppet, but the nurses convinced me that it is basically harmless unless you attempt to capture it. The shuppet pull pranks on people occasionally but did not cause any form of trouble. So I submitted this case up to both the Rangers and LSDF for investigation and left it alone. We think it is a case of pokemon abandonment, but we do not have any leads to follow up on."
The line on Roxanne's end remained silent, and Brawly thinks Roxanne is probably reeling in from shock from a possible case of pokemon abandonment. Situations of pokemon being released due to the death of their trainer aside, cases of pokemon abandonment are treated very seriously by the PWL. There are regulations in place on how to properly release pokemon back into the wild. Most of the time though, trainers usually traded pokemon that they did not wish to keep among themselves instead of releasing them into the wild. Improper release of pokemon can often cause major disruption to the ecosystem in the area where it is being released. A pokemon which is released into an environment not suited for it can possibly take out its fear and stress of being in an unknown environment by destroying the immediate vicinity. It is even more dangerous if there are human cities nearby. It would be highly inappropriate, for example, to release a fully-grown charizard from Kanto into Littleroot town. Most likely, the charizard will simply raze the town to make its nest there due to a lack of natural predators or competition. That is why cases of improper release or pokemon abandonment are taken very seriously. Brawly had no idea why shuppet's previous trainer thought that it would be a good idea to release a ghost type pokemon near a human town. There is a damn good reason why humans in the early ages built their homes far away from congregations of ghost type pokemon. Even for towns and cities known to house ghost type pokemon, they have built a building specifically to house them. Just look at the Pokemon Tower situated at Lavender town in Kanto, or Ecruteak city's Burned Tower.
Dewford town is extremely lucky that shuppet is a very tame ghost type pokemon. If it was any other ghost type pokemon, he would not be surprised if the ghost decided to kill the townsfolks in their sleep in a fit of rage and stress.
"I will see what I can dig up on my end. Abandoning pokemon, especially a ghost type, is simply a very bad idea."
"My thoughts exactly." Brawly grumbled. "Thankfully, that shuppet seems happy with Velda. We may need to keep an eye out on her just in case, but I don't think Velda has any problems in handling shuppet from what I see in our battles. That little ghost adores her."
They continued talking for a while before hanging up. As previously discussed, Brawly received Velda's number from Roxanne shortly after the call with a short, but sweet 'I love you' text message attached to it, reminding Brawly that everything is fine between the two of them.
Brawly picked up his phone again and keyed in Velda's number, he have another call to make.
AN: I have always wanted to write from a pokemon's pov, and I wrote it from Dolly's perspective as it seems to be the perfect perspective to write at this stage of the story. I will probably write another story from Flamel's and Bigblue's perspective at the later stages of the story, since they are her first companions.
I didn't initially plan for Dolly to be an abandoned pokemon. I had planned right at the conception of IJWTTTW that Velda would meet a ghost type at Dewford. I initially wanted her to get a sableye, since it can be found in Granite Cave, but I found myself attracted to the idea of her owning a shuppet. I then need a reasonable explanation on why a shuppet is at Dewford, and I really wanted Velda to have a shuppet. Then I had the idea of pokemon abandonment and I just winged it from there.
In fact, most of the contents in this chapter is written impromptu, especially the conversation between Roxanne and Brawly. It was supposed to be about Dolly, and Dolly alone. This whole chapter was supposed to end at around 8,000 to 9,000 words but I ended up writing more than 12,000 words.
I wanted Velda to be a skilled trainer in this story, not the strongest, but skilled enough to be recognised. I didn't want her skills as a trainer to be recognised simply by using OP pokemon. I will probably give her one or two OP pokemon much later in the story, when she has more than six pokemon in her team, but I wanted my oc to use pokemon that are usually not preferred, or used, by the majority.
Character and Pokemon List:
Velda Vera, Age: 11, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Reincarnated Soul (to be kept a secret until the day she dies again)
Pokemon on hand:
1) Ponyta (Flamel), male
2) Marshtomp (Bigblue), male
3) Shuppet (Dolly), female
Brawly Bluewave, Age: 23, Male, Dewford Town Gym Leader
1) Hariyama (Max)
2) Machop
3) Meditite
4) Makuhita