Cover art
Pocketville: Twilight
is a Puppy in My Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville fanfiction by Corgipon. It is also part of an AU of the show, known as Nihonverse Pocketville.
Three decades after Ava was officially crowned Queen of Onmyou, the said country has flourished like never before. But after the prophecy of the three stars was heard, an anthropomorphic corgi girl by the name of Malorie, as well as her Keeper friend Tia, made an unexpected visit.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: Unlike the canon show, this fanfiction has a lot of fanmade lore that close the plot holes. Canon characters now have known (but fanmade) backstories and there are a lot more secondary characters.
- Adaptation Name Change: Several locations across Pocketville have gotten new and improved names in this fanfiction.
- The Bear Inn is known as "Hibachi Suzuki" in this fanfiction.
- The Pocketville Castle has been renamed to Omori Palace.
- Pocketville’s “Christmas shop” is known as the “Pocketville Gift Shop”.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: The Pocketville characters are rather designed a lot more pleasing to the eye with their much more animalistic characteristics.
- Adaptational Badass: Queen Ava sure has changed a lot from the canon incarnation, being more frisky even though she is an elderly cat in this fanfiction. The Royal Guards have even been redesigned to have ninja-like garb such as a hachimaki and wield Japanese weapons such as katanas.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Eva has turned from a flat, devious, and hateful antagonist to an insecure, but very clever supporting character.
- Aerith and Bob: Some characters have names of Japanese origin while others have the usual western given names.
- Alternate Calendar: The Pocketers have their original calendar, which has the name of a fruit/vegetable harvest in each month (that harvest generally begins somewhere in the period of the month it names). The years depend on the reign of the monarch.
- Also, Onmyoujin use "moons" in place of months, and measure their ages in moons instead of years.
- Alternate Universe Fic: This fanfiction has noticeable differences from the canon incarnation, such as having Pocketville resemble an old Japanese city (like real-life Kyoto).
- Animal Talk: All the Onmyou inhabitants have the ability to talk, but the restrictions of person-to-animal communication have been changed ever since the “barriers have softened up”.
- Anthropomorphic Transformation: The Pocketville denizens are known to have shapeshifting abilities, and are able to shapeshift into an anthropomorphic form.
- Art Evolution: The art of the characters (which are obviously drawn by the author herself) featured in this fan fiction have Animesque, more realistic, and stylistic features than some of their canon designs aside from the author’s original characters.
- Bakeneko and Nekomata: Hairo and Sakuya are, respectively, a bakeneko and a nekomata tainted by miasma.
- Bamboo Technology: Subverted. The Pocket Kingdom isn't too advanced, and works more like a feudal-era kingdom, but there are some strange gadgets Onmyoujin use that are made out of natural materials.
- Break the Cutie:
- Ayaka, a young red kitsune, is chosen to be sent through the Shinnui Ceremony but was absolutely terrified of the fact. She is successfully sent, though turns out the ties to the kingdom she still took with her caused a series of events to happen in Onmyou.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Since Danny has been given a redesign to where he would resemble a more realistic, large, and burly English Mastiff, this trope has been applied to him in the story, since he retains his slightly insecure personality.
- Cats Are Mean: Played straight with Noroi, Hairo, and Sakuya.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Raynie. She’s known to be incredibly over-the-top, hyper, and slow in the head at times.
- Crossover: Between Adventures in Pocketville and the author’s cancelled series, Britsune Garden.
- Cultural Translation: Subverted. The author added elements of Japanese culture in this fanfiction (and her AU as a whole) despite the canon show having more western themes, despite not intending to attract just Japanese readers.
- Cute Kitten: Played straight for the majority of the feline characters with the exception of some of the antagonists. Even the old Queen Ava cannot help but be adorable at times!
- Dark Fic / Darker and Edgier: It’s blatantly obvious. This fanfiction is a darker fanmade incarnation of its respective show.
- The Dark Side: An onryō makes an appearance in this fanfiction, and ir is said to be the one who took control of Eva’s body during what would be the events of the canon show.
- Expanded Universe: The Britsune Garden universe is connected to the Pocketville universe in this fanfiction, other cities of the Pocket Kingdom are mentioned, and there are new, fanmade Pocketville characters created by the author.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Pocket Kingdom has a lot of Japanese elements to its culture, from the architecture to the traditiona.
- Feather Fingers: Averted. Unlike in the canon show, the bird characters of this fanfiction grab items with either their beaks or talons instead.
- Female Feline, Male Mutt: The four Senior Royal Guards. Balloon and Mela are female cats while William and Danny are male dogs.
- Feudal Japan: Unlike the canon incarnation, this fanfiction has Pocketville’s infrastructure and lifestyle inspired by feudal Japan.
- Foreshadowing: The prophecy of the three stars is connected to three inter-dimensional saviors, Malorie, Tia (Actually, Hana), and the mystery third savior, Lilie.
- Furry Reminder: Although the Pocket Kingdom denizens act very much human-like, they still retain a lot of their animalistic behavior such as making animal noises (barking, hissing, etc), body language, etc.
- Fun Size: The Pocketville characters have been redesigned specifically to avoid this trope.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The sinister Hairo and Sakuya are described as having glowing, lifeless eyes.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Even though this fanfiction has been rated PG-13, it does not have swearing whatsoever. Instead, various clever substitutions and euphemisms are used.
- Grimmification: This fanfiction is noticeably darker than its canon show, having themes of mild-to-moderate violence and characters in situations of distress.
- Madness Mantra:
- "I'm not here. I'm not here", which is said by Eva in her head as the ghost of Queen Masuyo hunts her down in a nightmare.
- "If only she knew. If only she knew. If only she knew. If only she knew…" as shown in the very last entry of Masuyo's diary in Chapter 36.
- Magic Mirror: A magical handheld mirror was used by Ava in order to communicate with Malorie’s grandmother Queen Lilie. Same goes for Lilie.
- Mama Bear / Never Mess with Granny:
- Ava is this to her granddaughter Megumi, as shown in Chapter 9. Lay a paw on her firstborn daughter’s little one and Her Majesty will tear you to shreds.
- Even Lilie is Malorie's Grandmama Bear. She even had to kill Hairo, whom he and Shiranui were messing with her granddaughter during a skirmish in the Kinyuri Field.
- Mood Whiplash: Chapter 13 is a flashback scene where Eva goes through a folk Japanese-style exorcism and an onryo is involved, and the chapter after it cuts back to the present events where Malorie cuddles with her grandmother Lilie.
- Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Unlike in the canon show, where the Pocketville characters use mostly their paws when grabbing something (somehow they have thumbs), the characters in this fanfiction is said to use their teeth when grabbing items. Or they could always shapeshift into an anthropomorphic form to grab things with their fore paws.
- Oh, My Gods!: "Kami" is used in place of "God".
- Partial Transformation: In Chapter 13, Ava grows butterfly wings to give her the power to fly.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Ava is an extroverted, social, and outspoken cat while her sister Eva is an introverted, timid, and insecure cat.
- Posthumous Character: Evershell, who passed away one moon before the events of the story.
- Precious Puppies: Played straight for the majority of the Inugami characters.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Let. Go. Of. My. Grandkitten!" ~Queen Ava, Chapter 9
- Religion is Magic: Shizukato involves both mythology and magic spells.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Both the Reiwa-Windsors and the Nekoyuri family. Literally after Princess Olivia was snatched by a pesky demon, Queen Ava’s (who is part of the Nekoyuri dynasty) instincts immediately kicked in and she chased the kidnapper off. Eventually she got into a fight with the shade while Malorie (a member of the House of Reiwa-Windsor) tries to save Olivia from the city’s well. Both were praised by the Pocketers for their bravery.
- Shout-Out: The AU from which this fanfiction comes from is inspired by the Fatal Frame series. This AU is Japanese-themed and is much darker than the canon show, though it's less gruesome than Fatal Frame. Not to mention that Sakuya is named after the main antagonist of Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Unlike in the canon incarnation, Ava is more likely to fight off foes instead of fleeing from them.
- Sugar Apocalypse: Since the canon show is described as being saccharine, this fanfiction’s events make up a good example of what would be its Sugar Apocalypse.
- Sugar Bowl: Unlike the canon show, this is averted for this fanfiction. The saccharine setting of Pocketville has converted into a much darker place thanks to the author.
- Supreme Chef: Lilie, as shown in Chapter 14. She cooks up stews for Malorie and Tia to eat for breakfast and they're described as having fresh, local ingredients and with so much flavor.
- Talking Animal: All the Pocketville residents are capable of talking.
- Translation Convention: It has been revealed by the author that the Pocketers in her AU actually speak a unique language called "Onmyougo", which is very similar to Japanese, and whenever an Otherworlder visits Onmyou, a unique sort of auditory phenomenon causes them to hear the Onmyoujin speak in their native language instead (in Malorie's case, she hears the Onmyoujin speak English), though they still retain a few words of Onmyougo. This also makes the Onmyoujin hear the Otherworlder speak in their language.
- Unconventional Wedding Dress: Since the author always tries to avoid the fairytale wedding cliche, this has been applied to this fanfiction.
- Vague Age: Only Malorie and Queen Lilie's ages are confirmed, and they aren't even Pocketville characters. The other characters' ages are only implied or estimated.
- Malorie is 14.
- Queen Lilie is 71, despite her Silver Fox appearance.
- Queen Ava is implied to be in her mid-to-late-50s, since the Pocketville denizens age in a similar manner to the gijinka.
- The Senior Royal Guards are all middle-aged.
- Princess Megumi is around 10 years old.
- Weird Moon: Solsticia, the earth-like planet the Pocket Kingdom is on, has two moons.
- Would Hurt a Child: Hairo and Sakuya, who chase Malorie down to get the Star Primrose and eventually grab her to take her away from it. Fortunately, they failed.
- Youkai: All the Onmyoujin are this.
