I will open by formally apologizing to the folks on the bus with me this morning who were startled by me yelling "TWO???" excitedly when the AO3 email arrived. Worth it lmao.
Yknow, now that I'm not pokemon-protag age, I apreciate Ash a lot more. It's nice to see him being written well.
> "Aw, you never liked me this much," ... That said, Ash's Charizard being a big tsun is still funny.
I love Bulbapedia just straight-up existing.
> "What matters is how cool Paldea is, Red!”
Red frowned. He asked Pikachu, “Is this magic?”
“Who cares?!” Pikachu cried excitedly, “Paldea is cool, Red!”
Like trainer, like zaprat. So cute.
> Maybe it was magic behind Ash and Pikachu’s hivemind. That magic is just love, Red.
> his overly stylish teacher look made Red sure someday the man would ask him what ‘poggers’ meant. Like, you're right, but you didn't have to kill him like that in his first paragraph
"Oh red's mom is from sinnoh and an archeologist, must be a relative of cynthia's from celestic town-- no wait it's just straight-up cynthia, damn" - me while reading ch1. Would Red inherit her piano theme?
> The bulbasaur bit Ash. I, too, would have been bitten. And also worth it.
Oh, Delia. It's always more tragic when you undersrand entirely why someone fucked everything up, and boy did she fuck everything up here with Red.
> Dia’s dark grey eye peered through the gap between seats at Green. He asked in a tone full of concern, “You can’t read?” Lmaaaao bro killed him without even trying
> He seemed really caught up on the idea of pokémon swearing like it was a novelty. Maybe his sister hadn’t told him how common it was? No, it's bc he's a child and they're all obsessed with it. I remember being that age, and as one of two kids who knew a foreign language (english), constantly hounded by my peers to teach them swears.
And 10d6 psychic damage for me because I forgot N's name was actually that and was expecting to just see Clavell say "N Harmonia"
> Does your dad not let you sleep inside?” Florian frowned. N nodded with confusion, and Florian muttered more to himself, “Should I be telling this to Clavell? Is this a police matter?” You should tell Clavell anyway.
Ash should really meet N, if only to inflict on him the same psychic damage of "gap between what i imagined and reality" N inflicted on Red
Rip Green, no proper name because he's illiterate, damn.
Sorry people on the bus it was for a good reason (i wrote 20k before remembering chapters exist)
"Yknow, now that I'm not pokemon-protag age, I apreciate Ash a lot more" is my sentiment exactly! I thought he was so annoying then i watched a bunch of episodes as background for this fic and nah he's just a sweet dumb guy!!! A clueless dummy who loves his friends so much. But even he can read, Green :/
We'll of course learn more about Cynthia, and Red's other mum (also a canon character), and the whole obviously tense thing with Delia, as things go on. But yeah that piano theme is 100% genetic
Green can have kanji when he EARNS IT and they'd be 'big tree path' because he's not beating the 'dude your name just means green tree' allegation!!!!!
Thank you for jumping on this one so quick!!! I'm really happy to see you here again and having fun with it. I'm so stoked to share it I've been babbling about this fic at every possible opportunity. it's gonna be a long one but so fun
Tbh it's probably a good thing you took a while to break it into chapters, if the AO3 email said "Solar Red and 2 more" instead of 1 there was a real risk the driver might've had to stop the bus to see what was making noise /half-jk
Tho I gotta say Ash's position in this fic is making me struggle. I can barely picture him in his mid-teens, much less a full adult. My head is screaming to just picture him as always and say "oh, he has a babyface", which does happen but like. I can do better. (Gary too but he probably won't be as relevant going forward)
I'm sure there's readers who can reasonably guess Red's other mom based on info in this chapter, but I am not one of them, so until the story itself gets to it, his mom is Sally to me.
(Yknow how they saved a png to a bird? If you look at Cynthia's DNA, you get the piano score for her battle theme.)
Green doesn't know yet that even when he earns a name, the price for being a main chara with cool powers is that it's gonna be kinda silly. (Let's not tell him.)
And thank you for writing all this! It's always such a good vibe when the AO3 notif that you posted something goes off! I'm stoked to be along for the ride, however long it takes!!
LOLLLL not me leaving Ash's description vague cos how am i supposed to decide how tall he is!!!! or what he looks like!!!! hopefully it gets easier for us both
honestly i'd be happy if people don't figure out who red's other mum is until he says it :) functionally you're correct tho Sally raised that baby himself!!!! he's red's mum!!!! nobody else gets the credit!!!!
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hikarimew on Chapter 2 Thu 31 Jul 2025 12:06PM UTC
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dainobones on Chapter 2 Thu 31 Jul 2025 08:48PM UTC
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hikarimew on Chapter 2 Fri 01 Aug 2025 12:36AM UTC
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dainobones on Chapter 2 Fri 01 Aug 2025 10:13AM UTC
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