Turning over a New Leaf
is a Pokémon fanfic by lil' white Raven who also goes by the name Faislittlewhiteraven here and elsewhere on the web.
Using the reincarnation mechanics popularised by srgeman's fanfic A Little Night Music, and AU versions of Pokémon Adventures characters, the story follows Skye Royall, a 16 year old girl who was murdered one evening in her home town of Newbark Town. She is soon reborn as Chikorita through the help of rather unusual Mew and Celebi and after living a few months in the wild captured by a talented young trainer named Silver. Things are looking up but the newly nicknamed Chi has failed to take into account two very important things: Her murderer might still be on the loose, and not everyone is content to leave matters up to the police...
Though the fic itself hasn't been updated past chapter 8 since 2010, the author still regularly churns out fanart and design sheets of the characters, all of which can be found in her DeviantART gallery. There's also the first two pages of a Doujinshi the author is trying to draw for the series, but given her track record... A full chapter might take a while.
Turning over a New Leaf provides examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: Pretty much guaranteed when all but six members of the planned 25+ cast were donated by people online.
- Animal Talk: A Level 5 example.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Chi is a fairly mild example but practically every piece of conversation (and narration) gets derailed at some point before she remembers she's supposed to be telling the story.
- Author Avatar: Word Of God says Chi is one but hopes her writing is good enough to keep it from becoming an issue.
- Bishonen: In-universe: The Nurse Joy with the nose bleed finds Silver rather attractive.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Scarlet views the entire world like this, though in her case 'Good' is replaced by 'Anything that does not harm, threaten or upset Silver in anyway' and 'Evil' with 'Everything else'.
- Internalized Categorism: Scarlet also applies those rules to herself.
- Broken Bird: Scarlet, far, far more than you'd believe.
- Category Traitor: Pokémon new to Silver's team often have to deal with Scarlet accusing them of this.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Scarlet is a platonic version, though due to the language barrier Silver doesn't notice it at all.
- Crush Blush: Quite common once Raven is introduced.
- Dark Fic: Not as dark as some fics but has its moments. A good example would be the flashback of Wolf's death in chapter 7
- Dark and Troubled Past: Silver and Scarlet have plenty of experience with trauma.
- Does Not Like Spam:
- Teal, though it's more 'Loves Sea Creatures So Much That screaming Results If They Are Eaten In Front Of Her'.
- Likewise Scarlet will NEVER eat an egg laid by a Pokémon.
- Guilt Complex: Chi's guilt trips are rarely serious, generally don't last long due Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! and lampshades how often she gets them herself, but they are a consistent part of her personality and Word Of God warns that they might get worse later on.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Given how Scarlet interprets good and evil...
- Hates Being Alone: Chi big time.
- Hates Being Touched: Silver, though being touched by his own Pokémon doesn't seem to count.
- Honor Before Reason: If it doesn't interfere with protecting Silver, Scarlet has this bad.
- Indy Ploy:
- Pretty much everything Gold does to find Skye's killer is him grasping at straws. Which is why the Newbark town cops were ok which sending him out to look for clues on their behalf; they honestly didn't think he'd find anything.
- Chi also tends to use these but unlike Gold, hers don't usually work so well.
- Inner Monologue Conversation: Even not counting the entire narration, Chi still has many moments of inner monologue. Silver also gets his turn in chapter 8.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to other reborn fics, Turning over a New Leaf is far more optimistic and innocent in both tone and setting, though part of it may be due to the narrator constantly getting derailed by every little thing.
- Love Martyr / Love Makes You Crazy: A platonic variation, Scarlet towards Silver.
- Luminescent Blush: Silver tends to get these fairly often in the fan art but has only done it once or twice in the fic so far.
- Shrinking Violet: Yuko
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Wolf.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Silver, though so far he has only shown sugar towards Scarlet.
- The Ditherer: Chi usually only has trouble due to Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!, but can go from Wishy-washy to Empathic Fence sitting [[ if she actually stops to think about what she's doing]].
- The Madness Place: Chi goes here a LOT, though her trips tend to be short.
- The McCoy: Gold, Explotaro.
- The Prankster: Kouri
- Through a Face Full of Fur: Near constant in the author's illustrations.
- Troubled, but Cute: Pretty much Silver in a nutshell.
- Zany Scheme: Chi comes up with one in Chapter 7 that somehow involves emailing her own trainer.
