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Better Be Good To Me

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Better Be Good to Me is a Pokémon OC fic written by candy__clouds, first published in 2025.

It is about Robin (the author's primary OC), navigating through Paldea, striking up a particularly close friendship with Arven.

It can be found on Archive of Our Own here.


Better Be Good to Me contains examples of:

  • The Ace: Robin wins nearly every battle she's in, only losing to the Quaking Earth Titan. This is played for comedy, as Robin starts her journey with a grossly overlevelled pet Munna and thus faces little difficulty for most of her journey.
  • Action Girl: Robin and Nemona both count. Nemona is an excellent battler, and Robin is no stranger to physical altercations. She too is a strong Trainer, even tanks a Wild Charge from the aggressive Miraidon to the gut and walks away mostly unscathed.
  • Action Mom: Chrys, despite being a middle aged woman and a bit out of shape, goes into Area Zero alone to chase her daughter, and absolutely tears through it.
  • Adaptational Gender Identity: In canon, Penny is ostensibly a cisgender woman. She is a trans woman in this fanfiction.
  • Aging Pet Angst: Arven, borrowed from the source material.
  • Anti-Hero: Robin is generally a bad friend to Nemona, and absolutely vicious to Penny when she confronts her for blackmailing her. Though Nemona and Robin work out their issues, Robin is still cruel to Penny long after Penny apologizes to her. She only begrudgingly takes on the task of Operation Starfall after Cassiopeia threatens to out her as transgender if she doesn't, and only helps Arven with the Herba Mystica because she finds him attractive. Robin herself acknowledges that she is not nearly as kind as Arven, and while she often exaggerates how mean she is, she isn't a particularly nice person.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: When Robin and Arven challenge the Quaking Earth Titan, Robin refuses to give up even after Arven's Scovillain and her Staryu are swiftly defeated without even fazing the Titan. It takes her Gardevoir getting one-shot KO'd, nearly getting impaled by the Titan's tusks and Arven dragging her away on Miraidon for her to give up.
  • The Beautiful Elite: Robin. She's rich on both sides of her family, related to Caitlin of the Unova Elite Four, and she's beautiful. Also applies to Arven and Nemona, who are both well-off and attractive, though they're considerably less affluent than Robin.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Robin is by far the worst offender for this, but Arven is pretty bad for this as well. They both obviously have feelings for the other, but both of them believe the other would never like them for one reason or another. Their dithering gets so bad that even Mela, a very loose acquaintance of theirs, notices it and tries her best to get them to sort things out, but her efforts fail.
  • Captain Obvious: Nemona. She often points out events that have just happened, earning her the nickname 'Brigadier General Obvious'.
  • Cats Are Lazy: Chrys' Espeon is very lazy, to the point that both she and Robin call it fat constantly. Chrys lends it to Robin so it can get some exercise battling.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Robin. She mostly plays it up for laughs, but she is quite possessive of Arven and does not like it when other women get too close to him. This behavior has also spread to Robin's Musharna, as she throws Arven into the sea because he was getting too friendly with her Trainer.
  • Dance of Romance: Arven and Robin slow-dance in Robin's mother's driveway when they're leaving.
  • Disneyland Dad: Robin blatantly calls Oskar one, though it's unclear how accurate she is.
  • The Ex's New Jerkass: Corinne. She's nasty to Robin, and she knowingly had an affair with Oskar while he was still married to Chrys.
  • Fashion Hurts: Played for laughs with Robin. She wears exclusively high heels. Even when walking into mortal danger in Area Zero, she's wearing at least two inches. Sometimes others point it out, but to her, it's mundane.
  • The Fashionista: Robin. Her outfits are often described in great detail, and she meticulously curates her image.
  • Forgets to Eat: Most prominently Robin, but also Penny. Arven often scolds Robin for her eating habits, and makes her food just to make sure she had something to eat.
  • Fully-Clothed Nudity: Arven thinks Robin is scantily clad in her lace bodysuit and corset, but Robin informs him she's also wearing two pairs of tights and about a cubic foot of foam on her rear.
  • Girly Girl: Robin. She's hyperfeminine, often outrageously so, and is willing to tolerate all sorts of physical discomfort for her image.
  • Glory Days: Robin used to be a musical theatre actress and singer, but stopped after being bullied for many years. She doesn't want to perform if no one wants her on the stage, but she certainly does miss it.
  • Head-Turning Beauty: Several characters comment on Robin's beauty. Most are neutrally observing it, but Arven is attracted to her and Penny is quite jealous of her.
  • Hereditary Curse: Robin has telekinesis from her mother's side. Unfortunately, it is mostly uncontrollable, and activates only on emotion. Often, Robin will break glass with her mind when she's angry.
  • His Own Worst Enemy: Robin wants companionship desperately, yet keeps others at arm's length because she's scared that they won't accept her because of her transgender identity. Her own mother calls her pity party about how she'll never get a boyfriend a 'self-fulfilling prophecy', because she's too scared to confess her feelings to Arven.
  • Hopeless Suitor: Penny has a bit of a crush on Robin, but Robin is head over heels for Arven. Penny is rudely informed she has no chance when Robin slaps her across the face and screams at her for blackmailing her. Also, Robin's straight.
  • I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Robin and Arven. Robin doesn't believe a cisgender, seemingly heterosexual man like Arven would like her, a trans woman, and Arven doesn't believe someone he believes to be flawless would like someone as boring and homely as he thinks he is.
  • I Don't Want To Ruin Our Friendship: Robin and Arven start out as friends, and both of them are scared of losing the other to awkwardness if the confession goes awry.
  • I Want Grandkids: Chrys makes it very clear to Robin that she wants grandkids. Played for laughs, because Chrys is saying it mostly to encourage Robin to make her and Arven's relationship official.
  • Jealous Pet: Robin's Musharna is very jealous. She is known to attack other Pokemon should they get too friendly with Robin, and she even uses Psychic to toss Arven into the ocean when she catches him with his hand on Robin's cheek.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Arven. He's very snappy and cranky with characters like Nemona and Penny, but he softens entirely with Robin. Robin also qualifies.
  • Lonely Together: Arven and Robin both had no friends when they met each other. They're both antisocial people, but they made an exception for each other.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Arven. Robin loves touching his hair for that reason.
  • Long Hair Is Feminine: Robin's hair is outrageously long and unwieldy, to the point her Munna can hide in it. She says she's never liked getting her hair cut, which was, to her, a sign that she was transgender that she thinks she really should've picked up on sooner. Her hair is very important to her.
  • Love Theme: So there's this 1984 Tina Turner song the fic is named after...
  • Loving Details: Arven is a pro at this. He remembers what Robin takes from the hotel breakfast buffet so he can make it for her again when she sleeps over. He even remembers a passing nickname she gave him weeks prior.
  • Misery Trigger: Robin does not like talking about her transgender identity. After Corinne outs her to Arven, she's very hostile and snappy while explaining it to him.
  • Mutual Pining: The heart and soul of this fic.
  • Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: Done twice with Arven's Mabosstiff. First, Arven cries over the third Herba Mystica doing very little to heal Mabosstiff, only for him to scold Mabosstiff for barking out of turn. Then, upon feeding Mabosstiff the final Herba Mystica, he cries again when it looks like Mabosstiff is not healed and will likely still die, only for him to scold Mabosstiff for climbing on him while he's busy crying.
  • Not Under The Parent's Roof: Chrys is not happy to find out Arven and Robin slept in the same bed in the hotel she's paying for. Admittedly, she's not actually paying for the hotel, her ex-husband is, but you get her point. Robin and Arven didn't even have sex, and she does eventually believe Robin when she says so, but she still doesn't like it.
  • Oblivious to Love: Both Arven and Robin. Arven kisses Robin on the mouth, and she still thinks he only wants to be friends. Arven interprets her confused reaction as rejection, leaving both of them convinced that the other one isn't attracted to them, and that they're hopelessly pining for the other.
  • Parrot Pet Position: Robin's Munna hides in her hair, but becomes much too large upon evolving into Musharna.
  • Pink Means Feminine: Robin embodies this trope. Her hair is partially pink, a lot of her clothes are pink and a good chunk of her Pokemon are also pink.
  • The Protagonist: While the fic is written in third-person, it mostly follows Robin. She also fills the role of the player character in the Scarlet/Violet main story.
  • Proud Beauty: Robin is well aware she's beautiful, to the point she dons a skintight lace catsuit just to tease Arven.
  • Psychic Powers: Robin, as well as her mother Chrys and her aunt Caitlin, all have latent telekinetic powers that are activated by strong emotions.
  • Rejection Projection: Robin. She pushes people away out of fear they'll reject her for her transness, then wonders why she doesn't have any friends.
  • Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: While attempting to trail Robin through Area Zero, Chrys finds many sites in the crater that suggest that Robin, Arven and Nemona were killed. They were completely fine, as Penny eventually tells her.
  • Sheltered Aristocrat: Robin. She stays in hotels on her journey rather than camping like a normal Trainer, and views four-star hotels as rather drab. She's at least aware she's morbidly out of touch, but she has trouble grasping what kind of finances those below her social class have.
  • Shipper on Deck: Chrys, Nemona, Mela, even Penny... They're all pulling for Robin and Arven to get together. Chrys especially wants grandchildren.
  • Sir Swears-A-Lot: Robin. She has a severe potty-mouth, which she does not control around authority figures. She calls Director Clavell 'dipshit' and tells the Top Champion Geeta to 'put a sock in it'.
  • Sleeps in the Nude: Arven. He generally refrains from doing so when Robin's around, but she finds out the hard way in Area Zero, when she goes to wake him up when he's sleeping in his own room.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Penny. After Robin slaps her silly and berates her harshly, then assaults her pets, Penny still wants to be her friend, and has a bit of a crush on her. She shows up when Robin beats the Elite Four to ingratiate herself among Robin's friends, but runs away before Robin can curse her out. She taps Robin's phone to find out about her plans to go to Area Zero, then shows up once more at the Zero Gate... and gets slapped silly once again.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Robin is a slight inversion of this. She comes off goofier and looser earlier on in the story, but once she reveals she is transgender after Corinne outs her to Arven, she becomes much more reserved and angsty. However, she is still much sweeter with Arven than with anyone else. Arven is played much straighter.
  • Think Unsexy Thoughts: Arven is forced to do this when he rides backseat on Robin's Miraidon in Chapter Six. Fortunately, she couldn't feel a thing through the padding she put on her rear.
  • Trans Tribulations: Both Robin and Penny. Both of them have been bullied growing up for being transgender, and their insecurities cause them both severe problems in their current relationships.
  • The Unapologetic: Robin. She does not apologize to Penny for slapping the snot out of her twice. To her, it's justified because Penny had been blackmailing her.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Most prominently Robin, but Arven as well. When Robin confronts Penny about blackmailing her, she slaps Penny so hard her glasses fall off her face, and has her Starmie freeze her feet to the ground. She has all kinds of colorful insults for Penny, and implies that Penny does not pass as a woman. Later on when Penny reappears for Area Zero, Robin slaps and berates her again for seemingly stalking her. Arven has a short temper, and does not take kindly to people being nosy about his relationship with Robin.
  • Villainous Widow's Peak: Robin has a widow's peak, and can sometimes be rather cruel.
  • Visit by Divorced Dad: Robin's father Oskar, shows up in one chapter with his fiancée. It is a disaster.
  • Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Oskar never says it himself, but Robin seems to think he resents Robin for never being the traditionally masculine son he wanted, and especially for transitioning.
  • Weight Woe: Robin. She's heavily implied to have an eating disorder, and Arven often notes that she can't be trusted to feed herself.
  • Wicked Stepmother: Corinne. She has a severe vendetta against Robin for exposing her and Oskar's affair to her mother, and tries to humiliate Robin as Robin humiliated her.
  • You Need to Get Laid: Arven. He's very cranky around anyone not named Robin. Nemona even notes that she never knew Arven could be nice until he met Robin.

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