Fanfic / Monsters In Paradise

Ran: If I may inquire, why the different clothes? It's not like you to travel by... traditional methods.

Yukari: ...Let's just say that I want to pay a visit to an old friend.

—From the opening chapter

Monsters In Paradise is a Crossover Fan Fic between Pokémon: The Series and Touhou Project, written by Curtis Wildcat beginning in January 2013. The story is on hiatus as of November 2014.

Pokémon are inexplicably appearing in Gensokyo, something that Yukari Yakumo discovers one day when she wakes up and discovers a Delcatty sitting on her. Knowing that Pokémon should not exist in this world beyond the Outside's popular franchise and fearing what would happen if the Legendaries ran rampant there, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Her mission is twofold: to solve this problem at its source... and to revisit a world where some of the greatest memories of her life were made.

While Yukari's mission is the main plot, there are several subplots that have taken root around it. Gensokyo's residents try to adapt to their new tenants' presence as best as they can, to say nothing of the Pokémon's reactions. The characteristics of youkai and human alike are beginning to manifest themselves in their Pokémon-verse counterparts, and vice-versa... and somewhere behind these goings-on is a being with its own designs on both worlds.

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Monsters In Paradise contains examples of the following tropes:

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Flandre, after the discovery that Skarmory could and did tank her destructive power, falls to her knees and outright begs it for forgiveness. "Friendship trumps pride", and ultimately things work themselves out.
• Angrish: Seeing a Mawile taunt her and deliberately guzzle down her coffee is enough to reduce Luna Child to this temporarily.
• An Odd Place to Sleep: While Amber is having her inner monologue described farther down and mentally preparing herself for battle, Yukari... is standing half-asleep at the other end of the battlefield, dreaming of Mykonos.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: While Koishi Komeiji is briefly hospitalized in Hearthome City with her mind-reading powers reawakened, she picks up an analysis-in-progress from the nurse assigned to look after her. Amongst other things: the nurse's questions being answered before they were asked, the difficulties she had dealing with Koishi's external veins... and her pupils and irises being the same color.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Utsuho certainly thinks so when a Ditto turns into a male version of her...enough that apparently they had a one-night stand and she had eggs.
• Bathos: During one of Alice's Darkrai-induced dreams, she is reassured by who she believes to be Shinki, who states that she would always have a place in Makai regardless of her actions. This looks at first to be a setup to something heartwarming... before Alice discovers that she was being hugged not by her mother figure, but an incredibly amused Marisa.
• Beam-O-War: The Chapter Seven showdown between Marisa's "Magicannon: Final Master Spark" and The Terraformation. She's able to come out on top with some help, but the effort leaves her hands burnt and her energy thoroughly exhausted.
• Berserk Button:
  • Chen has no problem calling a Delcatty she didn't even own "Creampuff". However, calling her that same name is enough to enrage her into declaring an attack against the perpetrator. Not that it helped against Blastoise...
  • Patchouli hates being the subject of hysterical laughter, even if it's from her best friend.
  • Coffee theft is Luna Child's.
• Beyond the Impossible: Tobias's rationale for stocking his team with Legendaries at the Sinnoh tournament, as he feels that it's the person who can achieve the impossible that deserves to be the Champion. Whether he was referring to himself or to Ash's efforts against Darkrai and Latios is left unsaid.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: When Patchouli first sees the similarities between herself and Swadloon, she angrily states that anyone who thinks the situation is funny can suffer forever... and elsewhere in reality, a "fat guy in glasses and a Detroit Tigers T-shirt" feels an unexplained chill.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: As stated above, Marisa suffers from mana exhaustion and burnt hands as a result of punching out an emotion-draining superweapon, leaving her unable to use the bulk of her heavy-hitting attacks for the time being. She regrets none of it.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Rin's reaction to the confusion-laden conversation between Utsuho and Utsuho/Ditto in Chapter Six.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Silently lampshaded by Reimu as regards Genji. She notes that she hadn't seen him since before the Scarlet Mist incident, on account of her learning how to fly, and that she'd figured that he probably died of old age before the present time.
• Closet Geek: Patchouli, or at least as much as it would apply to her. Several of her library's bookcases are devoted entirely to stories that she enjoyed reading whenever she wasn't doing something magic-related, such as The Canterbury Tales, the works of Shakespeare... and Star Wars: Heir to the Empire.
• Curbstomp Battle: Yukari versus Mauville City's Violet Vigoroths gang. And note that we said Yukari, not her Ninetales; see 'No Sell' below.
  • Croagunk plus Cirno equals Half-Conscious Poisoned Ice Fairy.
• Cutting the Knot: An Eevee who is staying with Reisen at Eientei has its thoughts wander towards its impending evolution. Since it doesn't know Reisen very well and doesn't have a strong bond with her, it can't evolve into Umbreon, and its thoughts reveal that its parents weren't clear with it on that subject anyway. Eevee gets around this issue by deliberately biting Reisen while they're moongazing, jump-starting its evolution with Reisen's wave manipulation abilities.
• Delayed Reaction:
  • Reimu serves tea to who she believes to be Genji. It takes a conversation with Ran, followed shortly by the kitsune wondering who that was next to her, for her to realize that the turtle sitting next to her and drinking said tea was not who she thought it was.
  • Marisa actively takes part in a conversation at the Mansion's library, even non-chalantly accepting a request to help Patchouli figure out the secret of Skarmory's durability. It's only when everyone present starts to go about their business that they finally realize that Marisa wasn't supposed to be there.
• Drama Queen: Remilia. When on the receiving end of Patchouli's snark at one point, she behaves as if someone had tried to drive a stake through her heart. In most of the situations she's involved in, she tends to be very vocal.
• Dysfunctional Family: The Kirisames, for all that there's only two that we know of. Marisa ran away from home and eventually grew into the magic-happy Ordinary Magician that we're familiar with, as well as becoming a notorious thief and liar. Leonard has the personality of Groucho Marx, along with everything that implies, and freely insults everyone—-be they a powerful goddess, a family friend, or Marisa herself. If Leonard changing his family name at his marriage to reflect his unhappiness means anything, his as-yet unseen wife isn't a pargon of virtue either.
• Earth Drift: Subverted to an extent. Unlike the anime continuity, which drifted away as time went on, the Pokémon world in this universe does have regular animals. Amber had this to say when she noted Yukari's surprise at being served hot dogs:
  "That would imply that people couldn't tell the difference between a Miltank and your standard bovine. The markets are required by the League to make it known that no Pokémon were harmed, and kids are taught to differentiate between them and our food sources for their own safety." (pats her husband's arm) "You can't get this strong on a vegeterian diet alone, dears, and berries can only do so much."
• Flat "What": This has become the characters' stock response to anything absurd enough to break their thought processes, such as Skarmory's ability cancelling out Flandre's, or Utusho having eggs with a shapeshifted Ditto. Marisa eventually lampshades this:
  "Say it. You know you want to."
• Funny Background Event: In Chapter Six, Ninetales tries to squeeze into a seat next to Yukari while the youkai carries on a serious conversation with Amber, oblivious to it all.
• Fusion Dance: Early on, a naive Mismagius triggers a fusion with Marisa Kirisame completely by accident. The end result has Marisa's face, hat and hair, but Mismagius' dress-like body. Whether Marisa gained any powers from the fusion or not isn't brought up, though.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Yukari versus Amber Harrison. Both of them keep taunting and boasting at the other while their Pokémon keep waiting for orders, until an irritated Merril just yells at them to cut to the chase and actually start battling.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Hello-san, the story's Big Bad. When Koishi meets him in person for the first time, she is strangely unable to discern his appearance.
• The Hilarity of Hats: Pie, who is basically Harpo Marx in all but name, reenacts the hat-swapping skit from Duck Soup using Patchouli as his victim. He later snips the crescent moon off her cap when she isn't looking.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Flandre, who wants to be able to do things that everyone else could but can't due to her uncontrolled power, isn't happy about her seclusion in the Mansion's basement. Even the idea of helping Sakuya with her cleaning sounds better.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Again, Flandre. Until meeting Skarmory, she'd never met anyone outside the Mansion who could both withstand her power and wasn't afraid of her. When told that Skarmory wanted an apology for her unprovoked attack, she didn't hesitate to lay her pride on the line if it meant gaining its companionship.
• Inner Monologue: Amber has a serious one prior to her battle against Yukari, thinking about the latter's odd physical strength and wondering what secrets she is hiding.
• Intergenerational Friendship / Interspecies Friendship: Yukari, an age-old youkai, develops these with Kevin and Harmony, the middle-aged couple who took her in during her first visit to Hoenn. Yukari herself notes that they were the first genuine human friends she'd had in centuries,^* discounting her odd relationship with Reimu, and the realization that the dream she'd met them in actually took place was enough to bring her to tears.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: This exchange between Kanako and Suwako concerning the latter's choice of recreation:
  Kanako: You're the size of the village children, and you're behaving like a crazed aerobics instructor. If it weren't for the power you emit, no one would know that you were an elder goddess.
  Suwako: "Crazed aerobics instructor"? Take that back! I'm not crazed, just unusual!
• Just Smile and Nod: Yukari's response to Amber's explanation on where the hot dogs she was served came from.
• Laser-Guided Karma: How Patchouli views the above Fusion Dance: as retribution for Marisa stealing from her library.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Freddie's rock leitmotif seems to have followed him into Gensokyo, as Akyu swears on one occasion that she hears a guitar in the background when he appears.
• Love at First Sight: See "Attractive Bent Gender" above.
• Luminescent Blush: Um, Patchouli? Why are you... oh, it's Freddie. Never mind. In one omake, her blushing is enough to set Cirno on fire.
• Malaproper: Mismagius mishears "Magiccannon: Final Master Spark" as "Music Crayon: Final Mister Spock".
• Mama Bear: Amber Harrison. She has one child still living in Rustboro City instead of becoming a Pokémon trainer, and she trusts few people outside of herself with the child's welfare; if anyone so much as looks at the child funny, including Yukari Yakumo, she makes her thoughts known violently. This has gotten Amber in hot water in situations where her behavior wouldn't have been appropriate, however.
• Meaningful Rename: Marisa's father changed his family name to "Kirisame", meaning 'drizzle', to reflect his unhappy mood when he was married.
• Mind Screw: In connection with "Malaproper" above, Spock himself makes an audible cameo when the Terraformation is critically damaged by Marisa's Final Master Spark. Why this is never gets explained, simply taking place out of the blue.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever it was that enabled Leonard Kirisame to get D.F. employed at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, according to the fairy's profile.
• No-Sell: Flandre's ability to destroy anything at all finally meets its match in the form of Skarmory's Sturdy ability. Later testing by the Mansion's residents helps them determine the specifics of that durability.
  • Later, Yukari shrugs off a gang of delinquents' Pokémon without even being aware that she was attacked, taking down a Linoone and a Swalot simultaneously (mistaking their attacks for itches to be scratched), a Ninjask (thought it was a housefly), and two Vigoroths (their attacks feeling more like a cool breeze than anything else). And this was after her border manipulation ability was inaccessible.
• Oh, Crap!: Creampuff's understandable reaction when he realizes that nothing's keeping Blastoise from Hydro Pumping its way to victory.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted and played for laughs: both Patchouli's Swadloon and Remilia's head maid share the exact same name, much to Remilia's disbelief.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Played for laughs. Marisa, the setting's local Kleptomaniac Hero who never returns the things she "borrows", admits to returning a book and entering the Mansion with Meiling's permission. In response, Patchouli and Sakuya both decide who will inherit their belongings in the event of their deaths, while Koakuma tearfully denounces her prank-loving lifestyle. Since the situation wasn't all that serious, their comments annoy Marisa and nothing more.
• Parental Abandonment: Merril and Lindsey's parents were both killed during a crime spree in Mauville years before the present day, derailing Lindsey's plans to travel Hoenn and forcing her to raise Merril on her own.
• Power Limiter: For reasons as yet unknown, entering the Pokémon-verse completely negates Yukari's boundary manipulation. It does not effect her physical durability and strength, though, as the Violet Vigoroths discovered.
• Punny Name: The name of Reisen's Pokémon-verse analogue? Shayla Moon.
• Really Gets Around: Orin jokingly suggests this is the case with Ditto when Utsuho discovers that a male version of her is a little too easy on the eyes.

  Ditto: It's not my fault, I swear!

• Recursive Canon: In a canonical omake, Yukari admitted to buying drinks for a young man in Tokyo during the mid-1990s and telling him of Gensokyo's existence. At the time, she believed that telling an alcoholic about Gensokyo would have no serious repercussions. Her reaction when she finally discovers much later that her conversation spawned at least seventeen games, assorted supplementary materials, and a highly creative fanbase? Several minutes of stunned silence.
• Running Gag: From an in-universe perspective: yes, Sekibanki, we know you're tired of hearing "don't lose your head" jokes. The dialogue implies that she's been putting up with those for a while.
• Say My Name: Koishi screams her sister's name as Hello-san launches his attack against Gensokyo.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Skyward Scream:
  • Sanae, upon learning the hard way that Pokemon have indeed taken up residence in Gensokyo:
  "In the name of the entire Shinto pantheon, please tell me you're kidding!"
  • Yorihime delivers one of these after the Lunar Capital becomes populated with Clefairies.
  • This is Alice's response to the above-described Bathos.
• Smarter Than You Look: It's made clear early on that while there is a language barrier between Pokemon and the Gensokyo residents, the former are very much intelligent and capable of understanding the latter. Also, in contrast to the source material or the Pokémon Detective Pikachu film, the Ditto seen here is implied to be high-leveled and/or skilled enough to speak human tongues flawlessly; even Marisa's Mismagius, as young as it is, can form full sentences through telepathy.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Chen is able to understand and talk with the Delcatty she partners with, by virtue of her nature as a nekomata. This only extends to cats or cat-like creatures, though; when questioned about whether she can understand Blastoise, her response is that she "doesn't speak 'turtle'".
• Take That!: A mild one from Remilia early on, referencing the common "outsider in Gensokyo" plot.
• Telepathy: Both Lugia and Mismagius utilize this for the sake of communicating with those they meet in Gensokyo. It doesn't take long for Marisa to use the latter as an interpreter when she needs to understand what other Pokémon are saying.
• The Cameo: Yoda shows up as a youkai (or at least someone assumed to be a youkai) who tells Utsuho why Machoke and Yuugi are fighting.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Koishi gives a rather scathing one to Hello-san, in response to his claim that he is a god.
• Throw the Book at Them: Amber uses a paperback novel as a thrown projectile to wake up Yukari at one point.
• Tranquil Fury: Alice doesn't take being attacked and drained of energy in her own home very well, and she has to force herself to keep her temper under control as she tells off her assailant.
• Un Sound Effect: GRIMACE.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Aside from Marisa's usage of such, we also get "Water Sign: Newton's Wave Cannon". According to Patchouli, it's step one in creating a Last Word spellcard for herself.
  • Hello-san's Terraformation superweapon, which kills anything possessing emotions while leaving everything else around it unscathed.
• We Could Have Avoided All This: Meiling throws a fit when she finds out that her Blaziken opponent had no intention to antagonize the Mansion's residents, but had instead been interested in the bag of berries Sakuya had been carrying. Far as Meiling was concerned, if Blaziken had just made it known that it was hungry, having her siesta disturbed would not have been necessary.
• Wham Line:
  • One that Flandre certainly wasn't expecting, anyway:
    Sakuya: "Your teeth are no different from mine or those of my co-workers, young mistress. Your fangs... have shrunk."
  • And one that lets the readers know exactly who Hello-san really is:
    "One day soon, those who survive will awaken in a new world... a world without spirit."
• Worthy Opponent: Blaziken's opinion of Meiling, as well as Yuugi's implied view of Machoke.

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What.