Draco: Okay, so, I've been playing New Snap recently, and holy Distortion this game is amazing. I got the Virtual Console release of the original Pokémon Snap, and I enjoyed it, but the game shows its age and takes way too much influence from the anime. That said, because I enjoyed it, I figured I should at least give the new one a test run. Worst-case scenario, I'll have a fun little distraction because good Alpha I've had trouble getting into a Pokémon mood recently.

This one is better in every possible aspect. Smoother gameplay, better graphics, and actual characters with actual personalities. Yes, they're kind of under-shown, but it feels more like you're all working independently towards this research instead of just being on a one-man job. Snap 64 just had your #FirstPersonGhost and Professor Oak.
No anime-style #PokémonSpeak (except Pikachu, but I can let that slide), a region with an actual name (fair, Pokémon Island was basically a nature reserve, but still), and the perfect amount of voice acting so that they're not doing cringeworthy dancearounds for the player-inputted name (not gonna lie, Pokkén suffered from that). Plus, because this came out in Generation VIII, there is a much more welcome variety of Pokémon.

New Snap feels... almost like a Ranger game. And that's probably the highest praise that I can bestow upon a spin-off. Yes, I wrote a novelization of Conquest and then #OvertookTheSeries, and yes I'll go back and play that fricker on the faintest of whims. But the Ranger series is much more... immersive. You're not just battling with increasingly-fewer non-battle means to have fun; you're making an effort to protect the environment around you. New Snap is the same way. The whole #FirstPersonSnapshooter aspect is because you're trying to observe Pokémon in their natural habitat, when there aren't Trainers fighting and running and villains causing trouble. And it doesn't suffer from having been influenced so much by the anime like the original Snap did.

I'm rambling, aren't I? I haven't enjoyed a game this much in a good long while. I love the game, I love the Pokémon, and I love the characters.

But Professor Mirror is such a frickin' ditz, I can't pass up the opportunity to make fun of him.

...And a certain someone who is very close to my heart appeared in Lental, so I'll be damned if I let that pass without comment.

So, this is the first - and hopefully not the last - in a series of "addenda" which I will be adding to this... whenever I'm in the mood. Basically, this is going to give a little more story to what was originally supposed to be an in-universe book for a fanfic that never ended up being written. I need to write about Trainers more often, anyways.

Pokémon and all related properties © Nintendo.


Celestic Town, Sinnoh

"I can't believe this guy."

Dawn and Lucas stepped into Cynthia's home to find the Champion grabbing at her hair - or, rather, her Lucarian hair-decs. She was sitting at a desktop in the corner of the living room (surrounded by screens to be easily obscured); on the monitor was an open window for what looked like a video chat, over a file folder full of images. "I knew Pokémon Professors could be dense sometimes, but good Alpha."

Lucas tactfully decided not to say anything as Cynthia's sister stepped up to her. "Calm down, Cyn. That's why you're not in professional research." Then, as Cynthia released her faux-sensors with a puff at her hair; "Your guests are here."

Cynthia turned towards the door and quickly got to her feet. "Oh, hey! Glad you two could make it."

"Hey, Cynthia," Dawn greeted. "What was that all about?"

"I just got off the phone with Professor Mirror of the Lental region," Cynthia replied.

"Lental?" Lucas echoed. "Never heard of it."

"Well, I'm not surprised," Cynthia admitted. "Think of the regions where we got Ranger perspectives, and then crank it up to eleven. It's already a no-Trainer zone, but there's next to no one living anywhere on the region. Least not in hundreds of years. It's a scattering of islands, kind of like Oblivia or Alola. It's basically a region-wide nature reserve in all but official status. The only people around there these days are the Professor and his photographers at the research lab on Florio."

Lucas blinked. "...Photographers." His disbelief was obvious.

Cynthia gave him a look. "Hey, don't talk Mulch about nature photographers," she retorted. "It's important to understand how Pokémon interact with each other in the wild. They've got a lot of specialized equipment to make sure they can observe and snap wild Pokémon without intruding on them too much."

"So that's why you were making contact," Dawn replied. "If they've seen legendary Pokémon on Lental, then that's a new personal experience - it might provide a new perspective how they interact."

"Yes," Cynthia confirmed. "Actually, one of the researchers there apparently owns a VIIth Edition copy of the collection. Seems like she decided to make contact after she had enough experiences to decide to contribute."

Dawn frowned. "Well, that's awfully self-depreciating of her."

"Right?" Cynthia agreed. "I let her know that anything is worth sharing, no matter how small. Remember May's experience with the Wishmaker?"

"You sure that wasn't just because no one else had seen the Wishmaker?" Dawn retorted.

Lucas glanced at the computer. "So, wait, then why were you talking to the Professor if his underlings were the ones who had the experiences?"

Cynthia sighed. "The researchers are compiling a sort of photographer's Pokédex that they call a 'Photodex'." Lucas and Dawn both groaned, though Dawn had a smile on her face. "Right? Anyways, Rita apparently had to get Mirror's permission to share photos with people outside of Lental. The last thing they want is a tourism boom. Once I told him what the situation is, he agreed to set up communications."

"And the 'dense' comment?" Dawn asked.

"Well, the Lental region has this... thing," Cynthia explained; she beckoned for them to follow her as she approached the computer again. "Mirror calls it the 'Illumina phenomenon'. Basically, there's the energy in Lental that causes wild Pokémon and these flowers called crystablooms to... glow. Like, it's not a Volbeat/Illumise thing; an affected Pokémon's whole body glows. And there are certain 'Illumina Pokémon' that are doing that perpetually, and when they're affected by what normally causes the Illumina effect, they're covered in glowing patterns."

She clicked on one of the photos; it was a Milotic swimming in what seemed to be a forest lake, her body covered in light.

"That's incredible," Dawn observed.

"It is incredible," Cynthia agreed. "It's stunning and amazing and breathtaking, and that's just in the photos. I can't even imagine what it must be like to see it in person." She sighed. "The thing is, though, Illumina phenomenon is the entire field of Mirror's research. Crystablooms, Pokémon under the effects, these are the things he's got his photographers going out there looking for. They come back with a photo of an Illumina Pokémon, they've opened up the Hall of Origin."

She closed the photo and brought up another one. "They come back with a photo of an Agent of Gratitude, that's a footnote."

"What?!"

"That's what I said!" Cynthia concurred. "And then I was like, 'Well, that's a huge flower field, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Gracidea glade in the vicinity. Maybe there's a whole Agency on Lental.' No, there's just the one. Looks like he's friends with a Pichu on Florio. And Mirror doesn't care. You snap a photo of a frickin' Shaymin, well, that's a new Photodex entry, good on you."

"You've gotta be kidding," Lucas muttered.

"It's not just Gratitude," Cynthia insisted. "The Wanderer, the Northwind Beast, the Precious Jewel. They found a tree that holds Flowing Life, and Mirror's more focused on the fact that Xerneas is an Illumina Pokémon. Their star photographer got a photo of the Time Traveller meeting up in the forest, and he's like 'well, that's interesting behaviour'. He doesn't even react to the Crystal Wishmaker! The most fleeting of all!"

Dawn sighed. "...You're right, that's out there even by Professor standards."

Lucas chuckled. "Well, Pokémon Professors being idiots aside, I'm going to assume you didn't ask us to come here so you had someone to rant to."

Cynthia's demeanour changed - her frustration evaporated, and she became focused. "Right. Yes. I mean, no, that's not why." She sat down properly before the desktop, closing the photo of Shaymin. "Rita and her friends got some shots on the Maricopia island chain. Shots that I think you'll want to see." After a moment, she found what she was looking for, highlighting a group of photos and opening them as an album.

Lucas started.

Dawn's breath hitched.

A blue figure was front-and-center in the photo - a small blue Pokémon with yellow dots above her eyes, and below a red jewel-like shape set into her torso. Two antennae extended from the top of her head, and her arms ended without hands at longer than her body; she was swimming between two Lapras who seemed to be conversing, or maybe singing, and was looking at the camera in curiosity.

Silence fell amidst the three of them, save for the hum of the desktop tower's cooling fan. Lucas struggled to find his voice for a moment, and even then, he only got out two words.

"...It's her."

Dawn took a small step back. "No."

Cynthia turned to her. "Dawn-"

"No," Dawn denied. "It can't be her. It can't be."

Lucas turned to her. "Dawn, why are you-"

"An Egg," Dawn forced out. "She was an Egg when the Rangers found her. There... there must be others. There must have been other Eggs, elsewhere."

"You're right," Cynthia admitted. "I don't disagree. But look."

She clicked to the next photo; there was a Machamp standing on a rock protruding out of the water, and several Wailord were visible in the background. The blue Pokémon was on the Machamp's shoulder, and at the sight, Lucas reached for his own shoulder.

"She's used to spending time out of the water," Cynthia pointed out. "On land, with people and Pokémon better suited to such travel."

"That... doesn't mean anything," Dawn muttered. "If another Trainer found one of the Eggs-"

"Now look at this," Cynthia interrupted, clicking to the next. "These photos were taken in a burst, nine in two seconds." The blue Pokémon was on an expansive rock formation that the reef seemed to be growing out of; it almost looked like a stage, and as she clicked through them, the blue Pokémon was moving in a pattern that they recognized.

Lucas' foot moved idly as he saw her. "Why is she...?"

"The photographers have a sort of portable music player," Cynthia replied, stopping on the ninth image. "They play a Poké Flute tune when they want to get peaceable reactions out of the Pokémon around them."

"She's dancing to it," Lucas realized.

Dawn noticed something. "What is that... around her neck?"

Cynthia clicked to the next image; it was a much closer shot of the blue Pokémon, and the object was visible - a Poké Ball that seemed to be threaded with a string. "Rita wrote about this. She saw the Poké Ball around her neck and thought it was a Trainer's Pokémon. But the Poké Ball wasn't used to contain a Pokémon - it was carrying something. A letter."

She turned to Dawn. "Addressed to 'Trainers of the region divided by mountain' - in the hopes that she was meeting up with someone she knew."

Tears were starting to well in Dawn's eyes. "...It is her."

"She ended up in Lental," Cynthia pointed out. "Alpha knows why or how. But Rita said she seemed reluctant to spend too much time - as though she was just passing through."

Lucas set a hand on Dawn's shoulder. "She's coming home."

"...Manaphy..."


Draco: My darling Princess of the Sea. My heart melted when I saw her at the Reef at sunset, popping in on a chorus of Lapras. And I got a photo. I can die without regrets now.

You're gonna see a couple new entries in the previous chapters. I am inducting New Snap into my canon for this fic. And I guess the original Snap, as well, but we're gonna give that one the #BroadStrokes treatment. Your player character doesn't have a neutral name like other protagonists throughout the series, though... but Rita, Phil, and Todd are indicated to be snapping shots of just about everything that you confirm exists, so let's have Rita speaking to Celestic Town because she's the most likeable character at L.E.N.S.

[quote]Can you use the term 'is canon' when referring to game elements present in a fanfic?[/quotes] {laughs} Come on guys, tell me you saw that coming.