Draco: Red, Gold, May, Dawn, Hilda, Nate, Serena, Selene, Elio, Gloria... Lunick, Kellyn, Summer... I haven't brought up the star photographer at L.E.N.S. because they don't have a canon name... and I'm not gonna be cocky enough to say Orre was my Eternal Colosseum fic, so Wes and Micheal. That's 8 male protagonists to 7 females. So I'm pretty much free to pick whoever I want for Hisui.
This is not my "one more addendum" I mentioned last time. There will still be one more, because I need to work Legends into my canon. But I'm still working on how to work Legends into my canon, and I'm not quite there yet. This is just a little something for the payoff, and to expand on my existing canon a little bit. I needed a break from Legends, so I went back to playing Snap for relaxation, and I decided to enjoy it. Haven't played it since the update came out, so I wiped my save data and did a fresh playthrough just out of curiosity for when the locations unlock.
...Okay, I've got a LITTLE bit of Hiusian canon in mind, but it's really more me coming up with a reason why Phione appear in Oblivia.
Pokémon and all related properties © Nintendo.
L.E.N.S. Research Lab, Lental
Thank you so much for sending her on her way
~Dawn ~Lucas
"Aw, come on, you guys," Rita insisted. "She was already on her way; I just let you know she was coming." A package had arrived at L.E.N.S. while Rita was out taking photos yesterday; by the time she'd gotten back, she was far too tired to open it up. Now she kind of wished she had; it had been a bouquet of preserved Gracidea flowers, and a photo from the Trainers in Sinnoh.
The two were standing outside an impressive-looking villa; Dawn and Lucas were both wearing Contest Show outfits, a Lucario and Riolu were flanking them, and Manaphy was being held between the two.
Rita admired the photo for a bit before furrowing her gaze at the swimming pool visible nearby. I hope she's not staying in there. She'd read the note in the Poké Ball that Manaphy had been carrying - a message from the people who had found her, offering advice to the people that the Sea Princess had been returning to. The last thing they wanted was for the Trainers to suffer the heartbreak of that parting again.
"Hey, Rita!"
Rita yelped, turning in surprise to find a familiar spiky head approaching her. "Oh, Phil," she sighed. "Jeez, don't scare me like that."
"Sorry," Phil chuckled. "Where you headed today?"
"Thinking I'll hit the Marciopia Reef again," Rita admitted. "How about you?"
"Me and Todd are monitoring," Phil sighed. "Can I be your spotter?"
+x+x+x+
The L.E.N.S. team tried not to have all of their photographers out at once. While the Illumina research was ongoing, Mirror had insisted on only having one man and one NEO-ONE in the field, and everyone else would monitor their progress from the lab; Mirror would be sure to witness whatever developments occurred, and in case of emergency, there would always be someone at the ready to go out for backup. But four people monitoring one photographer only did so much, and ever since the encounter with Xerneas gave him all he wanted to know about Illumina Pokémon, he'd been more willing to make use of the fact that they had two vehicles.
And thus was more likely to sleep.
Still, it was no excuse to forego the precautions; Mirror still mandated that if you went out into the field, you had to have someone monitoring, no exceptions. As Rita arrived at the Maricopia Reef, Phil's call came in. "Testing, testing."
"You know, Mirror doesn't test the line every time he's on monitor," Rita insisted.
"Yeah, he does," Phil argued. "As soon as we drop down, he always says something and waits for us to respond before he lets the NEO-ONE get going."
"That's not..." Rita fell quiet as she realized he had a point. "Huh. I guess he does test the line." The NEO-ONE started moving, and Rita readied her camera.
She wasn't much for Photodex completion; it took a much more focused mind than she had to take the sort of prolific, science-serving shot that Professor Mirror wanted. Photos with a Pokémon in the center of the frame, looking nice and big, preferably from the front, helped the professor understand how they behaved in nature - especially the sort of untamed nature that filled the Lental region, red in tooth and claw. But Rita wanted photos that were pleasant to look at. Mirror might've appreciated her camera's being focused on a Pidgeot diving straight towards the camera, but Rita would sooner shoot it from the side, with her pointer on the air between the Pidgeot and the Magikarp it was trying to snag in mid-leap. Mirror would give her praise if she zoomed in on a newly-awoken Aurorus, but Rita preferred to zoom out and include dancing troupe of Jynx that were doing the awakening.
Granted, if she had the freedom to do so, she would try to get a photo for Mirror and one for herself; a close-up of the Precious Jewel with her hands on a giant crystal, focused on her face to see if she needed to concentrate or was doing it casually, and then pull out and get a wide shot to catch the crystal as Diancie made it shine to please her Carbink subjects. But if she saw a Torterra trying to protect a Pichu and Scorbunny from an antagonistic Dodrio, she'd rather catch a wide shot of the Torterra rearing up to for intimidation than close in on the Dodrio's faces as it regretted its decision. Thus, when she saw a Sharpedo leap out of the water, trying to snap at a Wingull gliding overhead, she centered her camera between them and snapped as the Wingull arced out of the way, rather than focusing on Sharpedo and waiting to catch its glare as it fell back to the water.
As she approached the Wailord's breach site, she saw a blue figure out the corner of her eye. For a moment, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her - she had just gotten Dawn's photo yesterday, there was no way Manaphy had left them and come back to Lental already. But on closer inspection, she realized it wasn't Manaphy she was seeing - the Pokémon approaching had a similar, but distinct profile, its body coming to a point at the bottom rather than rounding gently. The red jewel-like shape on its chest stood alone, and a single blue circle was connected to each of its eyes, angled inward; rather than two round, hair-like antennae, a single flat tail extended from what seemed to be an inflated sac atop its head.
"Oh, hello there!" Rita greeted, raising her camera.
A scan drew the Phione's attention, and she snapped a photo as it looked up at her, getting a shot she figured Mirror would like. As the Sea Drifter cheered, the scan pinged something closer towards Wailord's head, and she turned her viewfinder to see a few more Sea Drifters approaching. "So that's what Summer was talking about." Rita quickly grabbed a fluffruit and hurled it towards the group; as three Phione approached it, she zoomed in, centered on the fluffruit, and snapped a photo of a trio surrounding it as the first one there tried to grab it and bopped it towards another one.
As the NEO-One carried her around the Wailord and out of view, she glanced at the photo she had taken and pursed her lips. I wonder...
+x+x+x+
She got back in plenty of daylight; Mirror was impressed by her new Photodex entry, and Rita chose to save the gathering for her personal album. Planning to make another trip out at sunset (mostly because the reef looked beautiful at sunset), she stepped up to the PC and maneuvered to Cynthia's private chatroom, starting a new topic and tagging Summer as she uploaded the photo.
Look what I found in Marciopia!
Summer responded in short order. Oooh, Sea Drifters! Nice shot!
Actually wanted to ask you about that, Rita wrote. Don't suppose you could share me your Browser entry on the Sea Drifter?
A couple others came online before the typing notification popped up. Browsers aren't really like Pokédexes, Summer admitted. Rangers aren't concerned about pedantic stuff like how they came about or where they come from; we're more focused on what they can do in a hurried moment.
Red sent an angry emoji, earning a giggle from Rita.
She was surprised by the next response she got - from May. If you want a Pokédex entry, I can hook you up!
Rita blinked. "Huh?"
I beg your what? Summer asked.
I ran into one of those guys at the Battle Resort last week, May replied. I was gonna take him into the Battle Frontier, but the receptionist was like 'no, we're not letting that guy in'.
Red's next emoji was confused.
Didn't Lucas mention he couldn't take Shaymin or Darkrai into the Battle Frontier in Sinnoh? Kellyn observed. Maybe they take issue with Legendary Pokémon or something.
Yeah, they must've thought he was Manaphy, May observed.
"Oh, no," Rita murmured, quickly writing her message. So, could you share the Pokédex entry with me?
Or maybe they're just doing all Legendary Pokémon the same justice, Summer retorted before she could send.
Rita breathed a sigh of relief when May sent her what seemed to be a Pokédex screenshot before she responded to Summer's question; the photographer quickly sent a thanks, opened the image in a new tab, and moved to that a separate topic on the chatroom to avoid possible the shouting match. It was definitely a Phione in the Pokédex when she moved to that tab, and she quickly zoomed in to get a better read on the entry.
When the water warms, they inflict the floatation sac on their heads and drift languidly on the sea in packs. Phione always returns to where it was born, no matter how far it may have drifted.
"Hmm..." Rita moved back to the chatroom, staying away from the last topic as she tagged Dawn this time. Thanks for the Gracideas! she greeted. Glad to see she found her way back!
Dawn didn't come online very quickly; Rita checked the time and got to her feet, deciding to move her body until it was dusk enough for her second trip on the Reef.
+x+x+x+
She didn't end up getting a response until the next day, while she was monitoring Phil in the Sweltering Sands. She had the chatroom in a separate window, small and to the side, out of the way of the NEO-ONE's feed and the sensory data, and so was quick to notice when Dawn responded. No, thank you for telling us.
You're giving me too much credit, Rita insisted. She was gonna get home whether we'd snapped her or not.
But we were there to greet her because you told us she was on the way, Dawn observed. If you hadn't, we might've kept missing each other.
You're not keeping her in the pool, are you? Rita asked.
Of course not, Dawn assured her. My Villa's in the Resort Area; it's, like, two minutes' walk from the beach. An image of a map was attached - the Battle Zone in Sinnoh, with a small community circled on one end of a water route.
Rita moved to respond, and quickly noticed something on Phil's feed. "Oooh, Flygon on your ten o'clock!"
"Huh?" Phil's enthusiastic use of burst mode came in handy as he swept the camera around, catching six or seven frames of a Flygon in flight. "Awesome!"
"Nice!" Rita praised.
Another message from Dawn appeared in the chatroom. Just saw, you were asking about Phione yesterday?
How much of Summer's rage did I miss? Rita asked.
Mostly a misunderstanding, Dawn assured her.Nice photo, by the way!
Rita smiled at the praise. Not gonna lie, when I saw the first one, I thought Manaphy had come back.
So it's not just me, then, Dawn observed.
You see it, too? Rita mused. I just wrote it off as a Chansey-and-Audino kind of thing when I was seeing them second-hand, but in person, there's too much of a resemblance to be a coincidence.
A howl from the NEO-ONE's feed preceded an enthusiastic cheer from Phil. "Do you see that?!"
Rita turned to the feed to see a Rockruff hiding behind a Lycanroc, who was howling at a circling Mandibuzz. "And that's why you don't threaten a baby Kangaskhan!" she scolded.
"That's not a Kangaskhan, that's a Rockruff!" Phil argued.
"It's a figure of speech," Rita scolded. "Did you get a photo?"
"You bet!"
Dawn's response came through as Phil approached the return point. Manaphy doesn't talk much about while she was gone, she admitted, but I'm gonna show her the photo and see what she has to say.
Don't pressure her if she's not comfortable, Rita warned. You know what that's like.
...Yeah, I do.
+x+x+x+
The update came while Todd was on a nighttime survey in Founja Jungle; Phil was on monitoring, so Rita had to wait until the trip was done. Manaphy said she's travelled with schools of Phione before.
What does she have to say about it? Rita asked.
Dawn's response surprised her. Kinship. She says she almost feels like she belongs when she's swimming with them.
Rita narrowed her gaze. Almost?
The way she talks about it, it sounds like a family reunion when the family is a little too big, Dawn admitted. Like, you feel the similarity, and you want to spend time with them, but you want to be careful or you come across more like an intruder. That's how she feels.
An uncertain hum emerged from Rita as she glanced at the photo again. After a moment, she searched through the chatroom topics, finding an archived conversation she'd had with Cynthia shortly after she'd first sent the photos.
She didn't want to accept it at first. She was scared of getting her hopes up. Said there had to be other Eggs out there, and someone else could've found one, hatched a prince or princess of their own.
I mean, she's kinda got a point, right? If she was an Egg when you first found her, it's probably not the only one. There's probably been Manaphy Eggs all up and down history, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them have been found by people and hatched.
But Legendary Pokémon don't breed like common Pokémon do.
I wouldn't be so sure. Todd says he found Eggs from the Kanto birds way back when. Maybe the Sea Princess is just the newest heir to a whole royal lineage.
"...And what do they call the children of royals," Rita murmured to herself, "when they're born to un-royal parents?" She tabbed back over to May's Pokédex entry.
Phione always returns to where it was born, no matter how far it may have drifted.
"But Eggs don't necessarily hatch where the parent was born, do they?" Rita mused. "If their Eggs were hatched away from home, the children would have an entirely different drift radius. It's not like Manaphy went back to Fiore when they first said goodbye."
She opened up her album, looking at her photo of the gathered Phione.
"Which princes did you guys descend from?"
Draco: I've kind of come to regret my whole "Manaphy is a princess, not a prince" attitude due to... realizing how insensitive it is to certain people. But the fact remains that this particular Manaphy is a princess.
Like Breath of the Wild did for the Legend of Zelda series, Legends: Arceus gives off an aura of revolution and/or swansong. It's so variant from how the series is normally, I can't help but feel that there's going to be more of this going forward. And honestly, I'm not complaining about this one. I hope Legends is a whole subseries.
Because this addendum is not about Hisui, I'm not going to drop my big ramble about LA like I did about BDSP in the previous addendum, or for New Snap in the first addendum. But I will say this much - I admire the lack of Pokémon Nursery/Day Care in Hisui for the same reason I admire the lack of Mega Evolution and Z-Power in Galar. A consistent canon is more important than satisfying the hardcores; reliable understanding of Pokémon breeding was not discovered until events in Johto, maybe the events in the Sevii Islands at the earliest.
