Hello everybody, sorry for the late update but not only is writer's block a complete and utter bitch, but procrastination is a terrible habit of mine, as is the bad sleeping habit I recently picked up that I mentioned in the previous chapter. Also, do any of you know that feeling where you are on a time limit and panic over not finishing whatever you're doing by that time limit, and then afterwards, you still don't finish doing it because you're already late so what's another few days right? That feeling plus being way too tired to deal with shit has basically been my state for the past two to three months. So I am very sorry.

That and I have really gotten into Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town. While I don't have the game myself yet, I love watching all of the different youtube videos regarding it and that has taken up a lot of my time. I just really like the look of the game okay? On the 3DS, between all of my games, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning was my favourite game and I loved playing it. Seeing a new and similar game for the Nintendo Switch has gotten my attention, and I don't count the other games in the franchise for Nintendo Switch because 1) I only got a switch in December 2020, and 2) I'm not a particular fan of games where the characters look as if they are chibis, I just prefer full-scale characters.

Moving on, I'm pretty sure I have already mentioned this, but I am a casual pokemon fan, and I am not the biggest fan of the anime, by which I mean apart from glimpses I saw when my little brother used to watch it and random snippets, I don't watch it at all.

Because of this, while I am writing this fic, it isn't going to be my top priority and I am going to probably have lots of hiatuses and late updates while I dredge up the motivation to write it. I hope people are enjoying this story but I am warning you all now, it is going to be a long time before this story reaches its end if ever. Especially now that I need to focus more on getting a job and making some money, real-life priorities.

IMPORTANT: I am planning on involving some things from the movies with Zeraora, Ho-Oh, Zarude, and Ryme city in the future. Because of this, I am currently facing a conundrum.

While we all know Ho-Oh is from Johto, the regions the other pokemon are from is less than clear. As the city in the Zeraora movie and Ryme city are based in America, I was planning on having them in Unova, but in the movies, there is a lot of pokemon that are not from the Unova region.

Therefore, my question is this, do you think I should set the areas based on where the pokemon from the movie are found natively or in the region that shares a common trait with them being based on the same real-life country.

So Zeraora and Ryme city can be based in either Unova or Kalos, and Zarude can be based in either Kalos or Galar. PLEASE, COMMENT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU ALL THINK because this is probably going to keep bugging me and as I write my chapters after I create a basic plot on my timeline that I made specifically for this fic, I need the information to plan where and when certain events are going to occur.

IMPORTANT INFO FOR THE FIC

First off, in the future, I am planning on having chapters similar to this where instead of an actual chapter, I give some lengthy and in-depth answers as to why I have written some things the way I have, such as my way of writing some of the characters and story in the fic. I will also be listing some of my inspirations, and give some answers to questions that you may have.

Speaking of questions, a commenter asked me five questions a few months ago that I will be trying my best to answer here for them if they are reading.

WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO THE PLOT, BESIDES WHAT WAS SAID IN THE SUMMARY? A good question. The main focus of the story is on Ash and her adventures, similar to the focus on Satoshi's adventures in the anime, but I will also be trying to emphasise the stress that Ash is under from her position, the struggles that she has to go through, as well as to do some world-building. I will also be including some of my headcanons/ideas on things like aura, mega stones, z-moves, or gigantamaxing.

Ash will be, eventually, delving into more development with the aura guardians, rangers, g-men, international police, etc… Basically, I will try to write my version of the pokemon world and convey the wonders of that world to the readers. Make sense? If it doesn't, I'm sorry, I tried.

I am also planning to make friendships and family a big part of the story, healthy relationships, and support systems for characters, no more unresolved trauma. Hopefully.

WHAT LOCATIONS ARE BEING USED IN THE FIC? The eight regions leading up to and including Galar, plus the Orange Isles. I will be trying to fit in some extra cities in some regions as I mentioned near the start of the chapter, but the locations used are essentially the same as the places that Satoshi went to.

WHEN DOES IT TAKE PLACE? I have created my own timeline for the story, which I may or may not have put too much effort into, but I think that it was worth it. Anyways, I set the timeline so that Ash was born in 1998, can't remember why but I did.

Fun fact, I based the majority of my timeline on the two-part video series 'How old is Ash Ketchum?' by Game Theory on youtube, so if you want a better idea of how my Ash is going to age, you should go and watch those videos. I also made my timeline with a lot of help from Bulbapedia's episode list and official timeline. It's not the same, but I based a lot of my timeline, off of the three previously mentioned items.

WHO IS IN THE FANFIC? So, characters from the anime, maybe some characters from the movies, some original characters, all up to the newest pokemon anime that should have been set in Galar. So many random characters and interactions that I probably won't even properly write (sigh).

HOW OLD IS EVERYONE IN THE FIC? Refer to my previous answer regarding what time I have set this in, and my comments on how I have made my timeline, and it's essentially that. I might post the timeline I have made in the far future, but it wouldn't be a whole line until the end. I split up the timeline into several parts separated by region. So I will probably post my split-up regional-specific timeline outlay at the end of every regional journey. Thoughts for the future.

So, with those questions answered, I guess that's it for this chapter-not-a-chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it and had your questions answered. With all that said, I will see you all in the next chapter sometime in the future… who the heck knows when.