Mike and Aria
"What happens when you find yourself thrown into a game you recognize well? You alter canon in your favor, of course. What happens when that canon is already altered? You improvise, naturally."
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Canon Breakage
is an in-progress Pokémon Mystery Dungeon fanfiction by ShmokeyDaBear, started on November 6 2017.
A guy named Mike wakes up one day as a Treecko, and soon realizes he is in the world of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers... except there are quite a few differences. But that's not going to stop Mike from trying to be the hero of the story, with the help of his Riolu partner Aria.
This story provides examples of:
- Adaptation Deviation: The entire story runs on this. Mike is forced to improvise his plans based on the changes he finds.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: In the games, Skuntank doesn't show up until he and his lackeys come to the guild. Here, he mugs Aria with them.
- Adaptational Name Change / Named by the Adaptation: Pokémon now have unique names as opposed to being referred to by their species names.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Lampshaded by Mike; because Aria is an Adaptational Badass, Mike can't fathom why she wouldn't be on an exploration team (aside from simply not wanting to). Fortunately, she has been considering it.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Before the beginning of the story, Mike wanted to be in Pokémon... unfortunately for him, he ends up as not a trainer, but a Treecko.
- Hell Is That Noise: A "wet crunch" is heard when Aria backhands Koffing, and Mike cringes at it.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: Aria clobbers Mike in their first battle against each other in Marowak Dojo.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Mike does this to Team Skull. The implied threat of violence is enough to intimidate them into answering everything, but Mike punches Zubat in the face anyway for knocking him out earlier.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Mike has this to himself.Mike: I need to find my way out of this mess. I need a game-plan. [...] That… sounded better in my head.
- Self-Deprecation: The second chapter is called Mandatory Exposition Dump.
- Suicide as Comedy: Mike when he looks at the positives of not being a Pokémon trainer:Mike: Then again, I'm sure I'd slit my wrist if a snot-nosed brat with a top percentage rattata [sic] jumped me for a fight, so that's a perk of not being a trainer.
- Waking Up Elsewhere: The story begins with Mike waking up in a forest as opposed to his bed. He is none too pleased about this.
