A Fanfic based on Pokémon Black and White, but with a twist: it tells the story as seen from one of Black's Pokémon, a Glaceon named Boreas. It can be found here
and here.
Has a sequel called The Glaceon and the Shadow.
List of tropes appearing in The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova:
- Alliterative Title: the chapter titles do this occasionally: Dire Difficulties at the Daycare; Pursuit of Plasma; The Stolen Skull; Rolling Rocks; and Of Trapped Tails, Crazy Corvids, and Fencing Friends.
- An Ice Person: Boreas, obviously. I mean, he's a Glaceon.
- Anti-Hero: Boreas is a type 2.
- Anyone Can Die: After chapter 38...
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Seriously, the writer loves this trope...
- The opening line of Chapter 27: "Storms raged across Unova throughout November. Every single day fierce winds would howl through Nimbasa, tearing off roofs, uprooting trees, causing blackouts, and generally making the streets a place people didn't want to be."
- And later that chapter, Bianca gives us this: "There's a pokémon master in town, and he's a really great master of the fighting type, and he's challenging people at the stadium and he defeated a guy named Louis!"
- Octa in Chapter 33: "You, milady, are a cruel monstrosity and a barbarian, and do not deserve to have your name capitalised."
- The Big Guy: Lucius.
- Blow You Away: Apart from his icy powers, Boreas also has a certain amount of control over the wind.
- Breather Episode: Part seven (chapters 43-49) gives a very well-deserved break after the Darker and Edgier part six. Also Chapter 12, appropriately named "Repose", is about the characters taking a vacation of a month after the battling against Team Plasma during the chapters before it and some light romance.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Boreas, Aqua, and Black are this on occasion.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Selene the Murkrow. Burgh and N also count.
- Character Development: At the beginning of the flashback, Boreas is a very childish young Eevee with a big trauma due to his family's Death by Origin Story. By now, he has grown up a lot (though he occasionally has his lapses of childishness) and has had closure for his family's death.
- Combat Pragmatist: Boreas. He frequently used underhanded tactics, like throwing macaroni into his opponent's eyes or taking the enemy trainer hostage to force him to surrender. He also uses groin attacks against Diego on multiple occassions.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to the original games. The main characters occasionally battle the Seven Sages, who all seem to be around Ghetsis' power level and shoot to kill.
- Part six (chapters 36-42) compared to the rest of the fic.
- The final part counts as well.
- Deadpan Snarker: Octa, on many occasions. One of the best examples is from chapter 15: "You jumped off a boat on a river while having little to no swimming experience because you saw a lady? You have surpassed yourself, my dear fellow."
- Death by Origin Story: Boreas' family. Also, Aqua's boyfriend Lothario, who was killed by human hunters.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Boreas often has trouble concentrating when talking to Aqua.
- The Dragon: Diego, to Ghetsis. It's even pointed out by chapter 50's title "Day of the Dragons". Notice that dragons is plural, while the only literal dragon important to the chapter is Zekrom. But the chapter also features a big fight scene with Diego.
- Exact Words:
Boreas: You can't evolve into a Slowpoke!
Zephyrus: I can't; you can too!
- Eye Scream: In chapter 16 Boreas blinds an enemy Crawdaunt by digging his claws into its eyes.
- He later claws out one of Diego's eyes in a similar way
- The Fantastic Trope of Wondrous Titles
- Friend Versus Lover: Boreas and Toxica fight over Octa.
- Friendly Tickle Torture: Between Boreas and Aqua in chapter 24, leading to an Almost Kiss.
- Groin Attack: Boreas used this on Diego, N's Zoroark, during one of their battles.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Octa's main weapon is a 'leaf blade', which is essentially a rapier.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Capella, to save Boreas' life.
- Boreas attempts this at the end, though he survives.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Boreas and Octa. Lampshaded by Lucius on numerous occasions.
-
Hilarious in Hindsight: In Chapter 16, Octa remarks that he really hates ice types. Boreas later evolves into a Glaceon. Arguably not really hindsight, because this occurs in the flashback, while Boreas has already evolved by the beginning of the story. - Hurricane of Euphemisms: In chapter 29:
"I kissed her! She kissed me! We snogged, osculated, smooched, made out! Whatever you want to call it, the result is the same: we kissed."
- Improvised Weapon: Boreas' plans frequently use these. Among others, he's used macaroni, soup, stalactites, and shattered plastic tables.
- Octa, despite typically disapproving of underhanded tactics, topples a bookshelf on his opponent in Chapter 14.
- In Medias Res: The story begins roughly in the middle, and for 33 chapters, most of it is a flashback.
- Jerkass: Lucius.
- Kick the Dog: Diego, N's Zoroark, hangs Boreas by his tail from a metal scaffolding for a whole night when he defeats him.
- Killed Off for Real: Poor Capella...
- It turns out Zeph was dead all along...
- N and Black towards the end.
- Boreas himself in chapter 76... or not.
- The Lancer: Octa is this to Boreas, though Boreas has more of the traditional Lancer traits while Octa has more of the traditional Hero traits.
- Man on Fire: Boreas gets set on fire during chapter 11.
- Mistaken for Gay: Lucius often mistakes Boreas and Octa for gay. Or he's just being a Jerkass.
- The Mole: A major plot point beginning in Part 8 revolves around the presence of a mole, and discovering who it is. Turns out the mole is Zeph, who was actually Diego all along.
- Never Found the Body: Zeph.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Octa, whose full name is Octavianus.
- Only Mostly Dead: Zeph.
- Or not.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Octa. Only the monocle and top hat miss, and he actually wears those in the Pokémon musical.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Boreas and Octa. A slight subversion in that Boreas is the more intelligent of the two, though Octa is more knowledgeable and more sensible.
- Running Gag: Black not understanding what his Pokémon say and Lucius mistaking Octa and Boreas for gay.
- Before Boreas evolves, he's often mistaken for different species of Pokemon, including a Lillipup and a Vulpix.
- Boreas using groin attacks on Diego also seems to become one, which Boreas lampshades at one point by saying he "still hasn't learned to protect his vulnerable spots".
- The Nurses all have bizarre and negative names in a parody of Nurse Joy: Nurse Despair, Nurse Entropy, Nurse Torment, Nurse War, Nurse Hate, Nurse Armageddon, Nurse Death, Nurse Ebola, and Nurse Flatulence
- Sacrificial Lion: Capella. She gets a lot of character depth and her friendship with Boreas becomes very important to him before she is suddenly killed off.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Octa. Frequently Lampshaded.
- Boreas sometimes mimics this, such as in chapter 15, when first meeting Capella: "Others call me Boreas, for 'tis my name. My acquaintance here, a gentleman of great skill and ego, is named Octavianus, but he prefers others to say Octa when using the vocative, for Octavianus, though a glorious name to bear, is quite too polysyllabiccally sesquipedalian to use in conversation."
- Shout-Out: Chapter 7 has one to Homestar Runner.
- Villainous Friendship: The Dragon Diego regards The Big Bad Ghetsis as his friend. Whether it is mutual or Ghetsis is just acting isn't shown.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Toxica gives an EPIC one to Octa come Chapter 52.
- The Worf Effect: Lucius, established as the second strongest in the team after Octa, is still frequently beaten up. In universe, this is often Justified by him getting too cocky.
- A particularly egregious example of this is shown in Chapter 66, when the enemy Jellicent defeats Lucius, Octa and Aqua, the three strongest members of the team.
tropes appearing in The Glaceon and the Shadow:
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Larissa's preferred way of dealing with bad guys. She gets frustrated by Boreas' habit of monologuing to them instead several times.
- Ax-Crazy: Sofia eventually, stabbing several pokémon in blind rage, and even killing Lubyanka.
- Back from the Dead: Diego returns as the main villain.
- Badass Normal: Larissa. Discussed by Boreas:
- "She was just some girl from a little mountain town, she wouldn't have had much impact on anything if things had gone differently. But you decided to destroy her home, murder her parents, and now look at her. She's completely dedicated to stopping you; she's become strong and driven and will never stop fighting you."
- Big Damn Heroes: Boreas and Aqua both get re-introduced this way.
- Big Eater: Aqua. She's put on a bit of weight as a result.
- Blood Knight: Lubyanka delights in the work the Shadow has her do, and has gleefully wounded Sofia and planned to poke her eyes out.
- Brick Joke: In chapter 22, Sofia mentions she often finds things in her pockets she doesn't remember ever putting into them. In chapter 24, she isn't worried about the lights being off because she knows the place like the inside of her own pockets. She immediately trips over something.
- Claustrophobia: Boreas picks it up after he's buried alive.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Sofia. When preparing for an escape, she made a hat with a breathing tube out of a little wooden Ducklett, so she could hide underwater and pretend to be a duck. In the middle of a town, with the only water around the ocean at the bottom of the huge cliffs
- Cuddle Bug: Sofia. Towards Larissa and her great-grandfather especially, but she also hugs Boreas and Catarina several times.
- Cute and Psycho: Sofia quickly descends into this after Larissa dies.
- Cute Bookworm: Sofia. She loves to show off her knowledge, yet is somewhat shy and awkward about it, and tends to suddenly interrupt herself and worry the person she's talking to is bored by her.
- Darker and Edgier: The story changes strongly in tone after chapter 16.
- Death by Origin Story: The parents of both Larissa and Sofia die before the story starts. It's eventually lampshaded by Sofia when she's shocked the parents of Catarina and Pedro are still alive.
Well, to be honest, I haven't encountered anyone who has parents lately.
- Determinator: Larissa. The very first scene we see features her rescuing her little brothers from their burning house and trying to defend them against nine pokémon at once. She breaks her leg during this, and spends several chapters more or less ignoring it, and even running ahead to get help for the refugees. She manages to shrug off the Shadow's telepathic control later on.
- The Dragon: Lubyanka starts in this role, but gets imprisoned and demoted for her many failures.
- Everyone Can See It: After Larissa and Sofia hook up, everyone they tell it to has a 'what took you so long?' reaction.
- Fate Worse than Death: The Shadow tries to give one to Boreas by burying him alive.
- Insufferable Genius: Boreas has it in spades. Sofia has a lighter form. The former acts smugly to just about everyone he meets and has a hero complex, while the latter considers herself a 'brilliant tinkering Kirlia' and likes to show off her scientific knowledge.
- It's All About Me: Boreas' ego has inflated a lot during the Time Skip.
- I Work Alone: Boreas is dismissive of Larissa and Sofia for a big part of the story and doesn't want to take them along.
- Little Miss Badass: Larissa and Sofia both qualify. Larissa is young and has no combat experience, yet has no problem standing up to the nine pokémon threatening to kill her brothers in chapter 1. She attacks the much larger and stronger Lubyanka whenever they meet, and eventually defeats her.
- Meet Cute: Larissa tackles Sofia in the forest, thinking her a spy of Lubyanka, but realises the moment she actually sees her face she's not.
- Noodle Incident: Just what have Boreas and Aqua been up to between the two stories? We occasionally get a mention of things like pirate presidents and mad pokémon collectors.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Sofia has knowledge about just about every field, though she's technically an astrophysicist.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The Shadow, AKA Diego, AKA minister Tacito
- Queer Romance: A very sweet example between Larissa and Sofia.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Boreas (red) and Aqua (blue) have shades of this. Boreas is impatient and self-aggrandising, while Aqua is comparatively calm and wise.
- Sacrificial Lion: It's Larissa, this time. She gets so much attention and development, she could be considered a Decoy Protagonist, and is able to defeat the telepathic control Boreas wasn't. Unfortunately, this enrages Diego, who kills her rather brutally.
- Security Cling: Sofia does it to Larissa all the time, starting in chapter 4, about a day after they first meet.
- Ship Tease: Sofia and Larissa start immediately with their introduction, which features Larissa tackling Sofia to the ground and holding her there far longer than necessary, and Sofia actually being disappointed when Larissa lets her go and complimenting her strength. They spend the next bunch of chapters hugging, helping each other through trauma, complimenting each other, sleeping in the same room, holding hands, and teasing each other.
- Starter Villain: Lubyanka is the main antagonist for the first ten chapters, but Put on a Bus when Larissa and Sofia beat her on their own. From there on, the Shadow himself takes a more active role.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Boreas' favourite tactic. He often uses it as a distraction or to buy some time.
- The Atoner: Boreas has shades of this after the Shadow force-feeds him his character development. He blames himself for Larissa's death even as he recognises it's irrational to do so.
- That Came Out Wrong: While teasing each other about being vampires, Sofia tells Larissa that if she was a vampire, she'd have cleaned up the blood on her face with her tongue, to the embarrassment of both.
- Verbal Tic: Sofia stutters, especially on words starting with a B, and tends to repeat certain words. When Larissa isn't sure what to say, so always says 'um', which is Lampshaded at one point as pronouncing it like it's an actual word.
- Wrench Wench: Sofia carries a lot of tools with her and uses them to create all kinds of contraptions, ranging in fucntionality from useless (the Ducklett-hat) to brilliant (the flying machine).
