Draco: In every game I have ever played, there are small, insignificant changes I would make for the most stupid and petty of reasons. And I think Pokémon Legends: Arceus sets a new record for the stupidest, pettiest reason for a change. Namely, you get an Everyday Kimono and a matching pair of Everyday Trousers after you're officially part of the Survey Corps, and you do not get a matching pair of Geta Sandals. And you can't BUY a pair of Geta Sandals in nickel, either. I know the only difference in colour is the straps (and honestly, me as a person, I'd probably wear my modern-day sandals rather than a pair of geta because something between my toes always gets on my nerves), but it still irks me.

So, Generation IX is en route. And after a year of dodging every mote of information about BDSP and LA, I think I'm just gonna embrace the prerelease this time. See if Nintendo is better about Scarlet/Violet than Square Enix was about Dream Drop Distance.

That said, I do have a few more elements to inspire while I keep replaying in Hisui.

Pokémon and all related properties © Nintendo.


Undella Town, Unova

Knock...

No pattern of strikes on the door; no call inside to draw her attention. Just a singular knock, enough to rouse Caitlin from her slumber but not enough to sour her mood as it did. The blankets were pulled off of her as she rose, and the doors to her wardrobe opened as she got to her feet and stepped towards it; as she dressed herself, her mind reached outside, confirming her suspicions as to who was at the door. Once she was decent, she advanced to the door, pulling it open as she got near.

Darach offered a smile, bowing her head. "Good morning, Lady Caitlin."

Caitlin returned the smile. "It is good to see you again, Darach."

She beckoned for him to come inside, and Darach did so. Caitlin chose not to comment on the way he peered around the villa, silently assessing its state and how much cleaning needed to be done before they departed, only speaking when he turned to address her. "Shall I prepare breakfast for you before we go, milady?"

"Would you?" Caitlin asked, absently turning on her electric kettle as she did. "That would be lovely."

With a nod, Darach stepped towards the kitchen area, and Caitlin took a seat nearby as he spoke. "I must say, I was most surprised to hear you wished to come back to Sinnoh. I was under the impression that the Battle Frontier had left you with some rather unpleasant memories of the region."

Caitlin shook her head. "It was nothing more than the site where my weaknesses were made clear," she insisted. "The region itself is a wonderful place."

"Perhaps," Darach agreed, "but much the same could be said for Unova."

"Unova does have its resonance with Sinnoh, doesn't it," Caitlin admitted. "Mighty dragons, strange ruins, overly contemplative criminals... a rather showy Pokémon League, if I'm totally sincere." Darach stifled a giggle at that comment, and Caitlin threw up her hands - and her hair. "It's true! I would've been satisfied with a quiet room large enough to host both a battle and a bed. But Alder insisted on a grand void of a chamber to intimidate challengers with the prospect of facing a psychic."

Darach nodded. "I did always feel that Flint's battlefield being surrounded by flame seemed a bit needless," he agreed. "But then, why the sudden desire to return? Homesickness? Or has something new occurred?"

Caitlin's face fell. "It has," she confirmed. "One of the Subway Bosses has gone missing."

"...Missing, you say?" Darach asked.

"There was... an event, in the subway," Caitlin insisted. "There were repairs done, and they took the trains on test runs to ensure the line ran smoothly. Ingo departed on one train, and when it returned to the station, he was absent. Emmet found his Poké Balls lying on the tracks, and no sign of Ingo himself." She shook her head. "All the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four went looking for him. Lenora said that some sort of... warping happened under Nacrene City. Apparently someone's fossil vanished when it hit the ground, to much confusion. We followed the Battle Subway lines - aboveground and underground - but couldn't find anything."

The kettle clicked as the water came to a boil.

"And while I was in Castelia... someone else disappeared."

Darach turned to her. "What?"

"It was late at night," Caitlin insisted. "I felt some sort of... power manifest in the Medal Office building. When I asked around, a laboratory woman named Fennel told me that someone had shown up a few days prior, looking for lodging and willing to work for it. He wasn't exactly qualified to help with her research, but she was reluctant to send him away, so she tasked him with some menial work. He was gone when I arrived, with his things - as few as he had. Her assistant seemed rather pleased that he was gone."

"...I see." Darach had breakfast underway, and now made to approach Caitlin at the table. "Did she happen to give you the boy's name?"

Caitlin fell quiet. "...Not exactly."

"When missing persons are concerned, you can hardly be blamed for being a little unscrupulous," Darach assured her. Then, reaching into his pocket; "But perhaps I might assuage your fears about that one."

He drew out a book, whose cover Caitlin recognized even before Darach set it down before her - A Collection of Notes on Personal Experiences with Legendary Pokémon. "This is...?"

"The VIIIth Edition," Darach replied. "It was published the day before I left Sinnoh."

"Who all has newly contributed to this one?" Caitlin wondered, turning the book towards her. "The VIIth only had one new source, even if she did seem to be providing someone else's notes... on their... behalf..."

She trailed off as she saw the new names at the bottom of the list.

Gloria of Postwick
Rita of Florio Island
Rei of Jubilife Village

"Jubilife... Village?" Caitlin blinked. "Wait, Jubilife is a city. And a rather sizeable one, at that. How is...?"

She looked up to Darach to find him returning to the stove. "Seems you'll have some questions for Cynthia when we get back."

Caitlin glanced down at it. "...Seems I will."


Draco: There's a colour-coded map of the Battle Subway lines, and the Battle Trains are colour-coded. But they did not use a colourblind-friendly spectrum. I'm red-green colourblind, and I cannot tell which train takes which route on the east half of Unova.

So, here's the other perspective on Rei's "people in Hisui want me here" conversation from the... second Hisuian addendum. Why have I decided that Rei is Unovan?
-My reaction when I first saw Ingo make his conductor pose was to drop my controller and exclaim "Oh-my-gosh-you're-!" like Shantae. That doesn't work if Rei doesn't know who Ingo is, and him being Unovan would explain that.
-Water-type coverage early is a good idea, so Oshawott being familiar to Rei is a good motivation for him to pick the Water-type starter, and thus get that coverage early. (The team I have laid out is "one party member from each section of Hisui".)
-Unova has the most Pokémon who received Hisuian forms, with five. Reactions to a regional form of a familiar Pokémon are always good for a laugh, so the more common-form Pokémon Rei is familiar with, the better.
-The only new Pokémon in Hisui with no evolutionary relation to existing Pokémon is a new member of the Forces of Nature, who are Unovan legendary Pokémon, who are better-known in Unova than anywhere else.
-A lot of American media featuring older periods has them speaking in British accents. But Kamado and Laventon, and presumably several other people in Jubilife Village, are genuinely from Galar. In my unwanted ideas for a Legends: Arceus literation (novelization, whatever), I would have Rei reacting to being surrounded by Galarian accents and react with "this feels like something out of Pokéstar Studios". Which makes more sense coming out of someone from the region where Pokéstar Studios is located.

...Yeah, one of these reasons is not as good as the others.