Seaking and Remoraid

Seaking felt ready for the approaching season, the time to find a mate. His figure had plumped out, showing that he was resourceful and strong. His elegant fins showed no signs of rips or tears, showing that he could take good care of himself and whoever he wound up with. His bronze scales were brighter and more colorful than ever, showing that he knew how to get good food. When the time came, he was sure that he could beat out any rival and get the female of his choice.

There was just one problem with this. He couldn't find another Seaking. No females, no males. There was a school of Goldeen around, but they were too young. Despite his best efforts, it might all be a waste.

Although he felt upset over it, there was nothing he had done wrong. He lived in a public aquarium. And because it was publicly funded and quite large, the aquarium organization was low on resources this year. Part of that was because they had spent a lot of money acquiring a pair of Milotic and refitting an aquarium to fit their needs. One of the ways they raised money was selling off a few of their residents, including nearly all of the Seakings.

The lone remaining Seaking still went through with his showy dances, vainly hoping that some other Seaking would appear. Maybe one of the Goldeen would evolve in time, or maybe another Seaking would come out of hiding. He swam in graceful patterns, letting the water ruffle through his flowing fins. He turned in place in spots were the light would glitter off his scales and dazzle any who were watching. He even made some mock battles against imaginary rivals.

The aquarium visitors were enchanted by his mating displays, even the ones too young to know why he was doing this. The aquarium staff was glad for the increase in paying visitors. Among themselves, they talked about finding a female Seaking before the season passed. However, no one was certain how long it lasted and any new aquatic residents would have to wait in quarantine anyhow before being allowed into the tanks.

But there was one Pokemon in the aquariums who noticed the Seaking and watched him every day. She was a Remoraid, a rather different kind of Water type. While he was robust and round, she was slender and muscular. She had gray scales, rather like pewter and not nearly as dazzling as the Seaking's. Her fins were thin and small, typical for her kind as they were not showy at all. From day to day, very few visitors would stay and watch her, if they could even find her in the first place.

At first, Remoraid stayed along the rocks as she usually did. But after a few days, she came out and swam by him. He was rather annoyed at being interrupted, but then relented. At least he was getting attention from some female. Seaking went back to his dances and she swam around him. Remoraid had no instinctual behaviors for such dances, but that didn't keep her from trying.

A week later, she laid ten eggs. It caused something of a scandal, albeit on a small scale. Some claimed that there was no way that the pair of them could mate, but the eggs were fertile and she was the only Remoriad the aquarium had in the riverbed tanks. Others claimed that the aquarium shouldn't be encouraging cross-species breeding as it was 'against God's will', or something to that effect. To herself, the aquarium director believed that they were just lacking in major things to complain about.

In an attempt to quiet them down and keep the public aquarium going, the director invited Professor Elm to come observe the pair. He seemed quite enthusiastic to do so and was there in a couple of days. He watched videos of the pair of Pokemon meeting and dancing, then watched them in their tank along with a couple of his assistants.

A few interesting things came to light. For one, Elm noted that Remoraids weren't known for being aggressive about protecting nesting sites. In fact, most Remoraids in the wild would lay their eggs upstream, then swim back to the ocean. Seakings, however, were notorious for being aggressively protective, sometimes not eating for days in order to make sure the eggs were safe. In this case, Seaking was acting normally. He fought off any Pokemon or human that got too close and even drilled a hole in the rocks to act as a better nest.

On the other hand, Remoraid behaved against her kind's normal practices. She stayed around the nest area with Seaking. While she wasn't nearly as aggressive, she did hover close near the nest when he was sleeping and did fight off a few too curious Finneons. One afternoon, she felt that there were too many human visitors peering at them from above and used her strong muscles to fire a blast of water at a child leaning over the bars.

The child's parents were obviously upset over this and demanded a refund. Elm tried to help by explaining that the water shooting was a normal behavior for Remoraids in hunting flying insects. That didn't help any.

His final report helped as much as it hindered. Elm stated that it was perfectly natural for the two to mate, as they were genetically compatible and wildlife observers saw the same thing in Pokemon that had gotten separated from their own kind. Besides, all Pokemon came from eggs, so it wasn't as big of a deal as the religious folks were making of it. Most people accepted this.

But the extreme believers were the most vocal and were stating that either science was wrong or that the aquarium shouldn't have made these two Pokemon the only ones of their kinds in the facility. Either way, the extremists said that the whole thing was unethical and the public aquarium should be boycotted and unsupported. Oddly enough, the fuss they raised caused more people to come to the aquarium and got the aquarium more funding in their next charity drive. That drive featured the six Remoraids and four Goldeen that had been born of the unexpected pairing.

Many people believed that the successful charity drive was the end of this particular story of science and romance. But it wasn't. The real ending of this story occurred several months later.

The two Pokemon were shortly joined by others of their kind after the charity drive. However, they remained together, having settled on being a pair for life. They swam together, battled others together, ate together, and slept together. They could nearly always be found in the part of the river tank where they had met and first danced together.

Then Remoraid grew restless and left that part of the aquarium. Seaking followed her devotedly, chasing off others while she seemed distracted and generally in a bad mood. They swam along with the flow of the river ecosystem, encountering Finneons, Carvahnas, Magikarps, Feebas, Poliwags, and other river Pokemon. Due to the design of the river ecosystem tank, they wound up back in their usual spot after a day.

Not pleased with this discovery, Remoraid swam frantically all over, trying to find some hidden passage. Seaking tried to follow her and calm her down, but this was not part of his instinctual knowledge. The aquarium staff figured it out though. By the softening of her scales and shifting of her internal chemistry, they knew that she was close to evolution. Instinct was calling her to come to the salt waters, whether sea or ocean, before she do so. They had to move her out of the river tank.

This was not easy. They started with the usual procedure, of using a specially trained aquarium Tentacool to put her to sleep first. But Seaking was furious about the attack and fought the Tentacool with unexpected roughness. By the time they got the Tentacool out, they had to put it and Seaking into separate healing tanks. Remoraid woke up while they were taking him away, so then she tried to fight off the human diver. When they got her out finally, the staff was worried that she was too stressed out and wouldn't evolve.

The aquarium director called Professor Elm again and asked for his advice. Based on that, they put both Remoraid and Seaking in the temperate ocean ecosystem. Goldeens and Seakings could adapt to freshwater and saltwater environments. And if the two wanted to stay together, it was best if the aquarium allowed them to do so.

For the next couple of weeks, Remoraid and Seaking explored their new area. There were different Pokemon here: Clamperls, Wailmers, Relicanth, Chinchou, and Tentacools. Initially, they were hostile to the last set of Pokemon, but eventually started avoiding the jellyfish altogether.

Then, feeling settled down again, Remoraid found a spot to hide and evolve in. Seaking was confused, as he had evolved in open waters. But he decided on the same routine he used when protecting his nest. Keeping awake and alert, he paced around the spot she was hiding in and fought off anyone who tried to get near.

Remoraid emerged a couple of days later as an orange Octillery. It was a drastic change: she now had eight muscular limbs instead of a few slender gray fins. She resembled the Tentacools more than a regular fish like Seaking. She gave a soft happy cry at seeing her mate patrolling by her.

Seaking didn't recognize her. In fact, he was rather horrified that this strange creature had emerged from the hole Remoraid had hidden in. The only assumption he could make was that this Pokemon had eaten his mate. So he screamed in fury and attacked her.

Octillery was bewildered by this and didn't fight back; she nearly died that afternoon. Upset by this, the aquarium director ordered that Seaking be put back into the river ecosystem, so that he didn't try to attack the other Octillery in the tank. But even that effort didn't save them. The two Pokemon pined for each other and hid away from the crowds. Eventually, both died because of depression.

While this story of a Seaking and Remoraid in love with each other is often told to prove how adaptable wild Pokemon are in ensuring their continued survival, it also tells us that a clash of instincts can led to tragic consequences.

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Sapphire entry: Seaking is very protective of its eggs. The male and female will take turns patrolling around their nests and eggs. The guarding of eggs by these Pokemon goes on for over a month.

Emerald entry: A Remoraid uses its abdominal muscles to forcefully expel swallowed water, then shoot down flying prey. When evolution approaches, it travels down rivers.

Kind of going for a realistic consequences situation here. Plus, the Remoraid to Octillery evolution is unexpected.