Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Fanfic / Playthings Series

Go To

Playthings Series is a name given to a set of four Pokémon fanfics written by Digital Skitty and Crukix. The first two stories in the series are written by Digital Skitty, with the latter two by Crukix. Word of God is that it wasn't planned this way, so retroactive changes and frequent uses of Shrug of God can be seen in attempts to make their universes compatible. The series itself can be seen as a Darker and Edgier take on Pokemon as a whole, with Character Death of both original characters and canon ones.

The timeline of the stories (so far) is:

  • Pedestal by Digtal Skitty. A story that starts out deceptively similar to other stories. A young trainer aspires To Be a Master, with great dreams of being the best, placing his hoped-for Pokemon on a pedestal. A year later than most trainers, he finally receives his starter... a Numel, called Pedestal. Hilarity Ensues, but not for long. The Darker and Edgier comes later, with prophecies, genre deconstructions, and the consequences of ignoring warnings. However, it still has moments of comedy. Referred to as NamNar, the main character is accident prone, idealistic and amazingly paranoid about double weaknesses.

  • Ree Major's Wonderful Journey, also by Digital Skitty. Following the story of Ree Majors, a video game nerd and her starter, Mister Snivy Whiplash, or Whippy for short and their goal: to get all the Unova badges within a time limit. As opposed to NamNar, Ree is hotheaded, rash, and prone to fighting her way out of situations with her favorite companion: Sophia.

  • Transgression by Crukix and interestingly, the second of his stories in the series. Transgression follows another nameless narrator, referred to originally by the author as Trainer. As opposed to the other stories, Trainer has already had her Pokemon for a year before the story starts and when we first meet her, she has no intention of becoming a trainer, hoping instead to go to school and study history. However, one day whilst playing on the beach with her best friend, they come across the dead body of a legendary Pokemon. As it turns out, the government isn't too keen on people coming into contact with legendary Pokemon, due to events of the previous games.

  • Regret also by Crukix, is his first contribution to the series and the last in chronological order so far. The main character is another nameless narrator, referred to as Soldier by the author. Soldier is wound back in time 80 years to stop the Bad Future from occurring, with little more than a few vague pointers as to what he needs to do.

Be sure to sort the tropes into their appropriate folders.

    open/close all folders 

     Playthings Series 

The series as a whole contains examples of:

     Pedestal 

This fanfic contains examples of:

  • Aborted Arc: What ever happened to that red jacket...?
  • Accidental Aiming Skills: The protagonist is pro at this - especially when trying to catch birds.
  • Accidental Misnaming:
    "NamNar, c'mere."
    "Uh, who?"
    "You, silly."
    "That's not my name. My name is—"
    "Ach! No, none of that yet."
  • Action Girl: Carlita.
    • Ultimately, Hanna. Her secret weapon lays waste to Nick's team, and she even beats Nick himself in a fistfight.
  • Action Survivor: It's a wonder that the protagonist is still alive at this point, especially after being mauled by Pokemon (and people!) so many times.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Both Hanna and Nick have one.
  • The All-Concealing "I": There are more than 150 chapters at this point and we still don't know the narrator's name.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Harlan has a massive crush on the moody feline that is Ike, to the point of choosing the go with the main character after Nick dies to stay close to him.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Carlita's tail gets chopped off during the battle with Nick.
  • Anti-Air: Ike was meant to be this, but Kostya and Alice are used, more often than not - mostly because the protagonist doesn't believe Ike can be trusted.
  • Anyone Can Die
  • Apathetic Citizens: Deconstructed.
  • Arc Words: You will face many trials. Do not let yourself become dark. Do not get sidetracked with the injustices of the world; do not become angry and bitter. And, when the time comes, let go.
    • However, the full text was interrupted; it first ran 'And, when the time comes, let go of h—'.
  • Artificial Limbs: Carlita is probably going to get one. But even with that, she still will never dance again.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Literally with Jude, though it's actually a shiny Pokemon. Still hilarious.
  • Back for the Finale: Jude makes an appearance for Oonu's funeral in the final chapter.
  • Battle Amongst the Flames: The main character has been involved in four so far: when he breaks out of the warehouse during The Tournament arc, when he faces Vaporeon in Sunyshore, the battle with Lola outside Stark Mountain and finally the battle with Nick inside Stark Mountain.
  • Battle Butler: Jacques, Cossette's loyal Gallade.
  • Because Destiny Says So: This makes up a large part of the plot.
  • Best Served Cold: Hanna seems to have spent an awful long time training up Molly to kill Nick.
    "Look, if you're worried about me, really. Don't. I've been preparing this for years."
  • Big Damn Heroes: Interestingly, two examples in The Tournament arc: inverted when NamNar busts out of the building to save people, and when the main antagonist, Nick, shows up and kills his own followers to stop the fighting and probably save them from a very bloody Curb-Stomp Battle.
    • Lucian at the very end of the Vaporeon Arc.
    • Sela and Vaikuntha tend to become this from time to time, most recently with the rest of the Gym leaders at Stark Mountain.
  • Big Sleep: Nick, when he's killed by Arceus
    Then, he shut his eyes tight and leaned against Chase, just as the white pokémon leaned down and pressed the tip of its snout against the dragon's forehead.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Cossette and her family speak French natively, and it's been implied that Jude speaks it, too.
  • Blood-Splattered Innocents: The main character, although how innocent he is at this point in the story is debatable. And more often than not, it's his own blood.
    • Cossette, very literally taken.
  • Butt-Monkey: The protagonist. Let's face it, life for him isn't exactly peachy.
  • The Cavalry: Played straight for both sides during the battle with Lola on Stark Mountain.
    Sela: "Looks like I'm playing cavalry again, huh?"
  • Cerebus Syndrome: It starts off as a cheerful, humorous story about a trainer starting his Pokemon journey, but soon there's more blood than Pokemon battles. It got worse from there.
  • Character Title
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Lola. First introduced way back in the beginning as a random goth trainer who got stranded in Snowpoint. Then pops up again during the tournament and gym race arc. Then is killed on national televison. However the latest chapters have revealed that, not only is she alive, she's responsible for worsening Nick's Sanity Slippage, she fixed the gym race slightly so the main character got a gym position, she organized the nightmare attack, she owns the Xatu that has been invading the main character's dreams lately, she goaded the main character into attacking Vaporeon by sending messages from Nick's number, she knows the truth about the prison break and helped to cover the main characters involvement in it, and finally she's 'the first' in the ghosts' prophecy...
  • Cliffhanger: There are some truly terrible ones, some coming right after an even worse one before it.
  • Climactic Battle Resurrection: A minor one happened during the battle against Vaporeon, where nearly everyone except for the main character and his group get killed. Also it seems that the entire battle on Stark Mountain is this, as everyone except the main character, Lola and Nick get taken out of action.
  • Coming of Age Story: The story starts off technically when the protagonist is ten. Five years so far have passed.
  • Conflicting Loyalty: The main character is torn between desperately believing that Nick can be saved and taking him out for the safety of the region.
  • Cosmic Plaything: Implied ever since Arceus had a cameo. More strongly implied with the "Starly dream".
    • More than implied now. It's just not the MC that's the plaything - it's Abigail and Nick.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Somewhat averted. In Stark Mountain characters wearing dark clothing are shown to be boiling and non fire pokemon have a hard time battling for long periods due to the heat. It can also easily kill and destroy things. However a rickety rope bridge can still stand without bursting into flames...
  • Creator Cameo: Chapter 94.
  • Curse Cut Short: Fairly often, although more and more in recent chapters due to the rating going up.
    • Chapter 121 starts off with a "Holy freaking sh—", the first time the protagonist has resorted to such language.
  • Cynicism Catalyst: A dead little brother was the catalyst for Nick's Freak Out.
  • Dance Battler: Carlita to a T. Not any more. Without her tail, the doctors aren't even sure she'll be able to manage a slow waltz.
  • Dark Is Evil: The dark-haired trainer turned out to be Nick, and we find that out just before his Freak Out. He has also been stated to wear dark clothes from then on out.
    • In Chapter 147, it is implied that the dark-haired monster might actually be Lola.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Rather, ghost types aren't evil. Mostly.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The protagonist, Lola, other characters on rarer occasions.
  • Death by Origin Story:
    • Benjamin's mother was executed for being in Team Galactic. His father is in prison for life.
    • Abigail, the first person to undergo Arceus's test, is the first person to fall victim to the rabid Abomasnow.
  • Deus ex Machina/Diabolus ex Machina: The entire Arceus scene in the chapter 154 could be seen as this.
  • Deconstruction: Of many Pokemon friendship fics.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: The mercenary's girlfriend, Zoe, dies this way after being shot by Vaporeon.
  • Disguised in Drag: The protagonist cross dresses as a girl in order to get past border control.
    • And to get out of the Sunyshore Gym, although he actually swapped places with a specific girl to get out.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Lola gets introduced way back when the main character and Hanna first visited Snowpoint City, and only pops up again during The Tournament arc. Also, the Electabuzz that the main character owned for all of 10 minutes comes back later with a more important role, as one of Lola's pokemon.
  • Enemy Mine: The protagonist teams up with the mercenary who attacked him early on in the story in order to infiltrate Vaporeon's hideout. He gets betrayed, as some of his friends suspected he would.
  • Even The Boys Want Him: Nick, the protagonist.
  • Eye Scream: Ike gets his eye slashed and is therefore blinded.
  • Expecting Someone Taller: Sela Schaffer states this when she realizes who the protagonist is during the Gym Race arc.
    • "Well, no, but—look at him! He's famous! And he's so tiny! I thought he'd be bigger. He looked bigger on the television."
  • Failure Is the Only Option: The only way for the story to end peacefully at this point is if Nick goes to jail or dies. Considering the protagonist's feelings towards him and the fact that he already bailed him out of prison once before...
    • He dies. Via Arceus.
  • Famed In-Story: Played straight with the protagonist, though it's an unfortunate thing as it could reveal his friendship with Nick.
    • Nick, even before his ''incident''.
    • Jude, played straight.
    • Vaporeon is a TV celebrity and Arianna seems to be pretty well known in fashion circles, if Hanna's reaction is anything to go by.
  • Fangirl: Implied with Hanna's remark in chapter 16. She has also been shown to root for the protagonist and Alicia's relationship, even going as far as to help him out.
  • Featureless Protagonist: The protagonist can be seen as this, sometimes. Not any more! Now we have his full name, gender and several pieces of art by the author to give us an idea of his appearance! So what if it took 150+ chapters?
  • Flat "What": Nick's reaction to hearing that Matthew is dead. Possibly deconstructed, given the circumstances and description of how flat the word was.
  • Four Is Death: There are four Pidgey chicks when the main character adopts them. Is it that surprising that not all of them make it? Poor Oonu and Woonu...
  • Freak Out: Nick suffers a HUGE one.
    • Most of Sunyshore and the remaining Gym race trainers suffer one during the media attack.
    • Benjamin has one after he kills someone for the first time.
      Lola: I hid some security tapes from a certain prison incident.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: The Tyranitar that Hanna uses against Nick is called Molly.
  • Full-Name Basis: At the point of her introduction, it was almost exclusively Sela Schaffer. More and more, it's Nick or Nicholas Sayre, too.
  • Grey-and-Gray Morality: The main villain only snapped and killed in revenge of his little brother's death because the government did absolutely nothing about it, even when it happened before (and to the main character!). Many characters have voiced sentiments agreeing with his basic ideals, even if he took things too far.
    "Not to mention the fact that when you get to be this high in the world, especially in today's training climate, we're all about five minutes from pulling a Nick Sayre."
    "No we're—"
    "I don't know where you were, but I was in Sunyshore fighting off trainers and Pokemon with my goddamn fists when that riot broke out. You were all fighting tooth and nail against each other. And judging on your Luxray's behavior, you're not a perfectly innocent trainer, either," she snapped, cold once more. I reeled back, caught off guard by the personality change. "The fact of the matter is that each and every one of us has the potential to turn just as bad, if not worse, than he is. All it takes is the proper trigger. For him, it was Matthew."
    • Although he now has followers who completely agree with him, possibly more than he himself agrees.
    • The 'good guys' also have done horrible things. The main character himself has killed a Pokemon, is more keen on stopping his ex-best friend instead of his fanatical followers, Shadow Sneaked an entire camera crew to who knows where and never bothered to care about where they potentially ended up, may or may not have been indirectly responsible for the deaths of at least eight Pokemon, and, of course, could very well be responsible for Nick becoming a monster and causing the rest of the tragedies, anyway.
  • Groin Attack: Hanna uses one during her fistfight with Nick.
  • Handicapped Badass: Ike and Carlita become this after the Stark Mountain fiasco.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: The main character, more and more as the story wears on.
    • Lampshaded by Arceus, of all things.
      "...even if some of its members can be slightly self-depreciating at times."
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Vai gets stabbed with one of Koel's feathers.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: Any time a real-world idiom that references an animal is used, the appropriate Pokemon is substituted.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: Arceus is more or less used as a willing weapon.
  • Hot-Blooded: Carlita, Des (when he gets mad, anyway).
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Several lines of ghosts, most notably the Duskull line, have been stated to eat humans as part of their diet. Dusclops can speak in human tongue specifically to lure children to them. Kostya just evolved, and he suddenly doesn't need his translator anymore.
  • I Can Still Fight!: Carlita quotes this as she desperately tries to stop the main character from recalling her. She really can't, as she's just had her tail chopped off and can barely walk without it.
    "I can still fight! I—I'm not bleeding anymore, see?"
  • Idiot Hair: The protagonist is shown to have one in pictures drawn by the author.
  • I Have Your Wife: Happens a lot. The cops keep Benjamin with them in order to draw out his parents, who were members of Team Galactic, after they started an armed siege when the organization fell. Vaporeon holds the mercenary's girlfriend hostage in order to ensure his loyalty. Lola does this to Alicia to get the the main character's side to withdraw their pokemon during a battle. Finally, Nick's family was held hostage to get him to hand himself in to the authorities.
  • Incompatible Orientation: Archie and Alicia, and their respective relationships with the protagonist.
  • Important Haircut: Cynthia cuts her hair short after the Champions Tragedy.
    • During the Gym race, Hanna cut her hair, too.
  • Improbable Weapon: Skarmory feathers have become an increasingly popular alternative to swords.
  • In the Back: Lola stabs Vai this way during the chaos of the Stark Mountain battle.
  • Innocent Blue Eyes: The protagonist has them. They play an essential part in convincing a delusional Nick that he's not his brother.
    Those big blue eyes, so wide, so trusting, so confused.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Nick is quite a bit older than the protagonist and even Hanna.
    • Somewhat the norm, though, considering Benjamin and Cossette are the only major characters who are younger than the protagonist, anyway. Most of his friends seem to be at least a year or two older.
  • Ironic Episode Title: "It Is Cruelty To Be Humane To Rebels" in the chapter where Stantler and Houndoom are murdered, "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This" for the nightmare chapter, "A Horizon To Catch Up To" for the protagonist's Moral Event Horizon, and many others.
  • Jade-Colored Glasses: Definitely in place on our protagonist, especially considering that most recently, he has been more worried about where to put the bodies and actively wished for Vaporeon's death.
  • Justified Title
  • Karma Houdini: Depending on whether or not you believe she was lying, Lola qualifies. If she was telling the truth, she masterminded at least most of the major plot points and was even behind several deaths, albeit indirectly. And while she dies, she wanted to die. She died happily, knowing she was able to get one last, great rise out of the protagonist. Aside from some mild injuries, she didn't suffer any sort of karma.
  • Karmic Twist Ending: Arguably, most of the ghosts' warning turns out to have this to some degree. The protagonist was effectively put on trial by the public during the Gym race arc, he purposely was out trying to become as dark as possible to avoid psychic locks, he's been nothing but sidetracked to the point that Arceus had to drop in on his dreams to try to set him back on track, his personality has become much more cynical and distant, and he still hasn't let go of Nick. The real kicker is that he is even aware of the last one, and simply is unable to. The only part of the prophecy that's been completely played straight so far is that they told him not to die - but it's unknown whether that was the ghosts' attempt at humor or honestly a part of the warning.
  • Living Shadow: Kostya and Pollyanna both fit this regularly - but subverted a bit in that that's not their real form.
  • Machete Mayhem: Vaikuntha could go this way.
    • Lola recently picked up the habit as well. With actual results.
    • The protagonist's efforts to jump and the bandwagon have so far fallen a bit flat.
      "Wow, that was... sort of pathetic," Nick called encouragingly. "Wanna try again?"
  • Madness Mantra: Nick has one when he's in jail.
    "…I want to be alone, I want to be alone…"
  • Mama Bear: Alice, most trainers if their teams are threatened.
  • Mind Screw: The nightmares.
    • Arguably, what the ghosts and even Arceus have been hinting at all along.
  • Misery Builds Character: Out-of-story, but the author loves this trope.
  • Mood Whiplash: Even lampshaded by a couple characters at various points.
  • Morality Pet: The Pidgey chicks and Cossette for the narrator. Zarek, too, although for a shorter time.
    • In a way, most Pokemon become this to their trainers, and even vice versa.
  • Motor Mouth: Alicia talks a lot, especially when nervous.
  • Not Me This Time: Turns out Nick wasn't the one who killed Byron. He was actually trying to save the guy!
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Des, short for Pedestal.
  • Outsourcing Fate/Humanity on Trial: Arceus tries to judge humanity based on the actions of the main characters.
  • Parents in Distress: Nick's parents were held hostage by an armed gunman who demanded that he hand himself in. Trying to rescue them is what got him caught.
  • Peaceful in Death: Nick and Chase.
    It was Nick Sayre and his Garchomp, laying side by side. Eyes closed and the ghost of a smile. Chase curled around him, protective and loyal even then. Both of them dead.
  • Played for Laughs: A lot of the violence is. Only to coincide with Mood Whiplash when the other characters/the readers realize that the injuries don't simply go away.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: In this 'verse, you can buy Pokemon translators that let you understand your Pokemon.
  • Properly Paranoid: Well, Des is weak against water...
    • Likewise, Vaikuntha won't let Koel fight fire Pokemon.
  • The Runaway: Cossette is implied to have run away from home after having an argument with her parents, shortly after the main character moves to Sunyshore, and is currently living with him in the gym.
  • Screw Destiny: Played straight, subverted, inverted, and all around just screwed around with to the point where even the cast isn't sure what would be screwing destiny and whether or not anything they've done counts as it.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Jude ditches the main character after his What the Hell, Hero? moment at the end of the Vaporeon arc. The main character does this when he quits being a gym leader after the events at Stark Mountain.
  • Selective Slaughter: Nick, Houndoom, Stantler. If you deserve your Pokemon, well then, you're okay in their books!
  • Sour Supporter: Ike would qualify.
    • Sometimes, even Des fills this trope when his trainer gets whiny or loses track of the right way.
  • Spoiled Brat: Hanna, though the fandom loves her for it.
    • Cossette and Zarek fit this, too, thanks to the main character.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: The main character bans Hanna and Cossette from coming with him to face Nick. This is justified though, as he thinks Hanna doesn't have any pokemon and Cossette has next to no battle experience and only has a crippled Gallade to rely on. This doesn't dissuade them in the least.
  • Stepford Smiler: Carlita shows signs of this when the main character tells her she can't dance.
    I couldn't decide whether or not she was forcing herself to be cheerful.
  • Stranger Safety: The Pokemon universe thrives off of this, and our hero is no exception.
  • Stunned Silence: Carlita, after the main character tells her that she can't dance any more.
    "Carlita, you won't be able to dance again."
    She was perfectly silent.
  • Talking Your Way Out: The main character orders his pokemon to do this in order to convert some hostile pokemon to their side. Probably would've worked better if they weren't in the middle of a raging battle at the time...
    Alice: "You want me to go and talk to a hostile Garchomp?"
  • Team Mom: The protagonist. It's even been lampshaded by a couple characters..
  • Theme Naming: Jude plays this straight, though some of it is a little... obscure and random.
    • The Eevee litter Isabella and Alexander came from all had four-syllable names that started with vowels.
  • Title Drop: The main character gives an epic one during his confrontation with Nick.
    "But I'm finally going to fix that, one way or another. I'm taking you down off of that pedestal, Nick. And if I have to kill you to do that, to keep Sinnoh safe from you, I will."
  • Tomato Surprise: The dark-haired trainer turning out to be Nick.
    • Not really. More like a [1] for the protagonist, and a sufficiently [2] reader already suspects that the dark-haried trainer might be Nick; after all he's one of the only characters we know who is dark-haired and we've seen him with a Snorunt...
    • The black hoodie-wearing trainer turning out to be Lola.
  • Touch of Death: Seems to be how Arceus kills Nick and Chase.
  • Trolling Creator: Played with in Chapter 94 which turns out to be an elaborate April Fools Chapter. The Creator does admit at the end that she does feel bad for screwing up one of the characters' lives.
  • Two Guys and a Girl: For a short time.
    • Mirrored in the Gym race arc, with the introductions of Vaikuntha and Alicia.
    • Possibly Des, Carlita, and Ike, and then later Kostya, Alice, and Zarek.
    • The Pidgey chicks were for awhile.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Chapter 148, told by Nick as his sanity starts slipping.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Vaporeon has shades of this.
    • NICK. He murdered Hanna's team to stop the protagonist from getting too involved with him.
  • We Named the Monkey "Jack":
    "Guys, no. I want to name them! And Des—Vai, really?"
    "No, Vi. It's said differently. And uses different letters," he replied smartly.
    "I still will get confused and I'm the one deciding what to name them!"
    Three guesses as to what they ended up being named.
  • We Used to Be Friends: Boy is this drilled home during the confrontation between the main character and Nick.
    NamNar: "I thought you were my friend. I thought you were still... Good, somewhere, in there."
  • Wham Episode: Chapter 57.
    • Chapter 132, as well.
  • Wham Line: Chapter 121: "Des. Kill it."
    • Chapter 147: "I've missed you so much, Matthew."
    • The meaning of these words: "Let go."
    • Chapter 156 is full of them. The most jarring would have to be "...A slow waltz, perhaps," and "...he won't be able to see again."
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Pedestal gives an absolutely epic one to the protagonist. It snaps him out of his mindset.
    • Again: "Des. Kill it."
    • And again: the protagonist DID just murder someone in relatively cold blood. And is then more or less rewarded for it, and at the very least, forgiven by most of the cast.
    • Jude also gives one the the main character, complete with a punch to the face, after his attempts to team up with the mercenary in the Vaporeon arc go pear shaped.
  • Whole Episode Flashback: Chapters 151 and 152.
  • Would Hit a Girl: The protagonist smacks Lola with a Skarmory feather to shut her up while confronting Nick.
    "What. I'm not afraid to hit a girl, and she's been infuriating and awful this entire night."
    • The protagonist also slaps Hanna. To be fair, she started it.
  • You Are Not Alone: Hanna lectures the main character about this after he tries to talk her down from killing Nick.
    "You do not have to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders, contrary to popular belief. I am here to help you."
  • You Can't Fight Fate: The protagonist doesn't realize what he's supposed to do until it's too late, failing to avert the horrible future

     Ree Major's Wonderful Journey 

This fanfic contains examples of:

  • Put on a Bus: Harry and Kev for a small period of time, though Harry does come back. Happens with all of Ree's travelling companions though.
  • Smitten Teenage Girl: Maya to almost any boy, possibly Harry to Ree.
  • The Reveal: In the first chapter no less! Ree is pregnant.
  • Wham Line: Chapter One: Ree had to earn the gym badges in well under a year, and she couldn't go home until she had, because she was pregnant.

     Transgression 

This fanfic contains examples of:

  • Fluffy the Terrible: Almost every Pokemon the main character imagines owning ends with like this - like a Haxorus named Sprinkles.
  • Groin Attack: The first battle the main character fights, she loses. When she's told to hand over money, this is her reaction to the other trainer.
  • Hidden Depths: Ali, a human training nothing but fighting Pokemon, is studying for a qualification in psychology. She also apparently loves Eevee and is overjoyed to find a store full of Eevee toys.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Ali is the same age as the main character's older brother
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Diz does this to Jerry, the main character's brother a few times. Needless to say, Trainer is not pleased.

     Regret 

This fanfic contains examples of:

  • Abusive Precursors: The Celebi. They were originally meant to help keep the world on the right track, but due to Immortality Immorality, they eventually decided to start reshaping history. Some of their changes, such as making humans more resilient, are genuinely beneficial. But in order to achieve this, they had to steal children near the time of birth, and raise them as Unwitting Pawns.
  • Achilles' Heel: Played straight in that every Pokemon has one or more weak spots. The Soldier's relatively untrained Sableye manages to get the upper hand on a wild, dangerous Nuzleaf by exploiting the sensitivity of its nose. The Soldier's training also involved being able to identify and recall these on a number of Pokemon.
  • Action Survivor: Arguably everyone, given the nature of the world they live in.
  • After the End: The story starts off this way, with people living in small camps, fighting each other and eating their own dead.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Somewhat. Generally it seems that the more power a person or Pokémon has, the more they abuse it. Case and point being the Sinnoh Elite Four member Aaron.
    • Played with in the case of the Gardevoir. They know of memories and feelings from fellow individuals and for them, raping others and skinning them alive is a perfectly natural fact, and a tradition that must be defended. And they will go after someone that has killed one of their numbers. It's unknown if Gallades think the same way, since the only one we know shrugs it off.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Chris', from her point of view.
  • Animal Talk: Aaron, who can commune with every form of insect, Pokemon or not. Too bad he was a bad guy.
  • Anti-Hero: The main character himself.
  • Anyone Can Die: People and Pokémon both. So far we have three of the main character's Pokémon, one of Adryan's, Jennifer, and a number of characters murdered by the main character himself.
    • We recently lost Mia and Xander, and very close together at that. Anyone really can die.
      • Adryan just died in Chapter 54, too.
  • Armor Is Useless: Averted. The Soldier bears many scars and bullet marks due to his previous lack of its usage.
  • Artificial Limbs: Chris, who has an artificial arm after an incident with a Parasect.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: The protagonist's general battle strategy, until it's pointed out to him how flawed that plan is.
  • Ax-Crazy: Lacey. She starts off by trying to murder the main character, kills random Pokémon whilst still with her trainer or goes off on her own to do so, and massacred most of her former clan. Scar also seems to be getting this way when battling, and Erra, since Fallarbor (justified in that she was affected by some sort of toxin that keeps her in a sort of adrenalin overdrive).
  • Battle Butler: Alistair, the character's Gallade. He finishes his sentences with honorifics like 'sir' and gives everyone little apt titles.
  • Because Destiny Says So: Pretty much the reason behind the whole story.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: You don't want to harm Adryan's Pokémon.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: Bug-type Pokemon, with emphasis on "creepy".
  • Big Damn Heroes: Averted. Every time something bad happens, the main character has to figure out how to escape on his own, with back up arriving just after the crisis, if at all.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The random Italian-speaking guy in Chapter 21.
  • Blessed with Suck: Humans can use Psychic Pokemon to see the future. It comes with the price of getting a terminal brain tumor, though.
    • Telepathy also counts. When the human first has a Pokemon speak to them telepathically, it causes intense migraines until they've adapted.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Each headshot is stated to end in an explosion of blood, bone and brain.
  • Chestburster: Erra, in Chapter 38. We later find out it's because the man was forced to swallow her Pokéball.
  • Cliffhanger: Every other chapter seems to end with one.
  • Cold Sniper: Arguably the main character starts off as this.
  • Crapsack World: The horrible future the main character is from, which apparently was conjured by the Celebi and the main character's imagination.
  • Dark Fic: Mostly all the time, though there are rare moments of happiness or laughter.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: As of the latest chapter, the colony of Shiftry, who are only acting because most of Celebi's plans end up ruining the world. Loki also qualifies - he can battle well, but his main interests are pranking others and playing around.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The Soldier, Alistair, Lacey when she's translated, Adryan and Chris.
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Chillingly deconstructed. There exists a spring that, if a Celebi's corpse is placed within it, it will be brought back to life. The amount of time this takes is equivalent to how long the Celebi had lived... the first time. The second time, it takes half of its total lifespan. The third time, it takes half of that. One of them even says that after enough deaths, it only takes a few minutes for them to come back. The downside to this is that while they're recovering, their spirit is still aware, having fun in the Afterlife. When they come back, they're not allowed to go back until they die again, which means every time they die, they spend less and less time at peace. Eventually, they decided to start killing their newborns, since that would save them the tragedy later on.
  • Deconstruction: Of a lot of friendship-based fics, in addition to a lot of other Pokemon-based fics. Also the depiction of some Pokémon, Gardevoir in particular - the author goes a long way to get away from the general stereotype used.
    • Same goes for Pokémon instincts - if a Gardevoir is on heat, it won't care what it captures as long as it can use the victim to sate its sexual desires.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: While capturing a Pokemon works with this in mind, it takes time to earn its trust and to train it up. After a capture, the protagonist often spends the next few chapters (or weeks in-universe) trying to bond with it.
  • Doesn't Like Guns: Averted. No one seems to have a problem with firearms, and the Soldier only feels truly protected with one at hand. Lacey has some interest in them, and even tried to learn shooting as a Nuzleaf - it didn't go well because of her fragile wrists, so she was promised to be taught as a Shiftry (so far, nothing on it was mentioned again).
  • Drugs Are Bad: And everyone knows it. The Soldier becomes addicted to a sort of serum that resembles heroine, and even knowing it's a very bad thing, he can't stop using it. Later on we find it is medicine for poison Pokémon, and a lethal concoction to anything else.
  • Earth Is a Battlefield: In the future, Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and possibly Unova are torn apart by war and a highly contagious Hate Plague.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Most of the wild Pokemon encountered so far are bloodthirsty monsters and only the trained ones seem capable of being relatively normal, depending on who their trainer is.
  • Expy: The author admits that he thinks of Hoenn to be like Australia, Sinnoh like Canada and it seems that the Sevii Isles hold an accent similar to old English.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: From the start we're told that the main character fails his mission.
  • Yaoi Fangirl: Drunken Mia, very much so.
  • Freak Out: The protagonist suffers one when he's told the theory that if he stops the Bad Future, he'll disappear.
  • Grey-and-Gray Morality: The main character plays this trope to a T: he's out to save the world (or himself) and if he has to kill people to do so, so be it.
  • Guns Are Worthless: Averted. Pokémon and people alike are killed quite effectively with guns.
  • Hand Cannon: The Soldier packs a .50 AE Desert Eagle, and he knows how to use it.
  • Healing Factor: Synthesis works like this, but it takes a few hours to work effectively.
  • Heroic BSoD: The protagonist, when he thinks that saving the world will kill him.
    • Before that, when he tells Adryan of his encounter with two Gardevoir. He sits and cries for hours, and his mind blanks out to the point that no one, be it human or Pokémon, can break him out of his stupor.
  • Humans Are Bastards/Humans Are Morons: Psychic-types say that all the time.
  • Living Shadow: Haunters are nothing but purple shadows with bright red eyes.
  • Morality Pet: Xander, to an extent. For a while, he's the only thing keeping the main character from becoming a sociopath.
  • Mythology Gag: Played with. A number of them are deconstructed and made fun of in text, such as warping to the nearest Pokemon center when all your Pokemon faint.
  • Mysterious Past: Everyone, even the main character and the Pokemon too. It doesn't help that the protagonist doesn't really care about his friends' pasts, which means that we don't get to know either.
  • Nailed to the Wagon: The Soldier gets forcibly addicted to a serum extracted from poison Pokémon, and can't go cold turkey by himself. Scar does the trick by breaking the syringe's needle and stabbing him in the arm with it. It works - the Soldier starts to mind his addiction after that, and seeks help to get rid of it.
  • Nameless Narrative: The protagonist, until the final chapters.
  • Ninja: Played with. Adryan's Electabuzz seems to think that she's one.
  • Never a Self-Made Woman: Averted with Chris, who builds up her own business with her own work.
  • Noodle Incident: A number. Quite often if Adryan and Chris are having a conversation. One of the best involves Adryan talking about his Rapidash.
    Adryan: There's nothing quite as bad as having your Pokémon urinating in public without a care in the world. Worse still if it happens to be over a small child.
  • No Name Given: To the point that even the supporting characters don't use a proper vocative. The most we've seen the main character being called is Soldier, as a joke.
    • Averted at the end. It's revealed in Chapter 58.
  • Parental Abandonment: We're told early on that Adryan's mother has wiped her hands of him, but never given a definitive reason. We later discover it's because he came out of the closet. Turns out she's a massive homophobe.
  • Pokémon Speak: Averted. Most psychics are capable of telepathy, but actual Pokemon are only ever referred to as 'speaking' in grunts, growls, snarls and other animalistic sounds like in the games.
  • Psychic Powers: The Psychic Pokemon. Given the mythology, one would expect Psychic-adapted humans to be similar.
  • Psycho Electro: Erra has become this as of late. See Ax-Crazy above for a good explanation.
  • Rape as Drama: Played straight with the protagonist, even if it's not consummated. Comes up again later with Mia.
  • Rival Turned Evil: Played with. Adryan flips out at one point and has a man kill himself because he thinks he murdered Adryan's Rapidash. The protagonist is understandably freaked out. Then we later find out why: it was actually one of the protagonist's Pokémon that killed the Rapidash.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Soldier in the Fallarbor gym. After being kidnapped, tortured and forcibly addicted, he massacres almost the entire staff, even those not responsible.
  • Sexy Secretary: Professor Birch's. The soldier even wonders if she was hired just because of her looks. Turns out she also had an affair with the Professor.
  • Straight Gay: Adryan. So much so. Also a massive case of Fridge Brilliance, in that every conversation where he's mentioned previous lovers is composed of gender-neutral terms. It knocks the soldier for six when he finds out.
  • Take That!: There's a number of small jibes at the Pokemon media in general.
  • Token Minority: Subverted - out of the Soldier's three human friends, one is a half black/half Asian woman and the other is later revealed to have always been a Straight Gay, as seen above. His final human friend is also a Yaoi-obsessed maniac at times.
  • Transformation Sequence: Averted. Pokémon evolution is stated to be a long, slow process, akin to real-life growth. When the Pokémon does finally reach the ultimate stage of evolution, it locks itself inside its Pokéball or hides away somewhere quiet.
  • When Trees Attack: Sort of, in that Shiftry are described as looking like twisted, knotted old trees.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Played straight in that when the soldier tries to get away from having to save the world, he ends up being dragged back into having to do so. However, we learn that his life is essentially planned, which makes this trope even more applicable.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top