Arc 2 Epilogue - Rise!
What a journey it has been to get here.
Thank you.
There will be a big, looong, authors note in normal text at the bottom, like with Arc 1.
"You know, that was why legendary pokémon hide," Saniya said, sipping at something hot and soothing. "Seven pokémon. Two of them, a meowth and dusknoir, took out Cresselia. We're not all-powerful, never were, but it's even less here and now. Palkia died to three pokémon. It's just… curious, is all."
"It's kinda sad," Scout said, almost mummified in bandages. "But… don't go nuts and try to kill everyone?"
"Noted."
Treasure Town was a formidable place. It lived just as much as a pokémon did and was just as hardy. With The Dream destroyed, the pokémon that had been put to sleep had all woken up, and Treasure Town was thriving again.
Pokémon ran back and forth, bringing construction, food and water, or just more bodies and helpers to where it needed to be. Plenty of pokémon had spread out further, seeking to give aid to places not as prosperous as Treasure Town.
It would have been a wonderful thing to say that no one had died, but that'd be a lie. Ferals had exited dungeons in frightening numbers, and while they weren't immune to The Dream themselves, there had been towns that had been attacked, most or all of their population asleep.
The most recent attack on Treasure Town brought many graves. Majority for the ferals, but not all.
Sunflora said something at every ceremony, fighting tears but none being allowed to drop. She knew everyone in Treasure Town. Everyone. So, she had something to say or a story to tell for everyone.
The town had rallied around the guild, as always. Torkoal had survived and had woken up as well, but he wasn't in a good state. Ponyta didn't wait anxiously at his bed, he was about with Team Flame, helping carry what needed to be carried.
Thoughtlight hadn't stuck around for long. He'd been very quiet after they returned and after spending a night in Treasure Town, as per Chimecho's demands, he set off in the morning. He said he wanted to see his companions again, to make sure they were alright.
Team Ion and Team Sunrise were only ordered to rest. The Spacial Rift and battles were not kind on anyone, and Chimecho tutted when she saw Scout's state.
"Why is it always you?" she had asked before getting to work.
Guardian, Rai and Mane sat with him as Chimecho zoomed over, spreading sparkles and levitating bandages.
"Scout?" Guardian spoke, lowly. "Your injury… what happened?"
The wound was there, but it was a relatively deep cut rather than the near-disembowelment that it had looked like.
"I think… that place was the very centre of The Dream since Saniya was able to be there twice. She meant to cut me worse, but it was… a dream? I don't know, it felt like she was slicing me in half." He spoke with considerable zen considering the circumstances, wincing when Chimecho bandaged him with sitrus-soaked fabrics.
"We're just glad you're, you know, in one piece," Mane said, nuzzling him.
Guardian relearned that petting cats was a relaxing thing for them and him and he found himself petting Rai and Mane to an uneasy rest as Scout was dropped with a sleep seed.
Scout expression remained a little topsy-turvy and eventually he said. "I do feel a little... something about Cresselia."
Guardian looked up. "There's no need to," he said, understanding what Scout was saying. "I killed her. Not you."
"We both did," Scout returned, he put on a small cheeky smile. "You can't take all the credit for that."
"I can take all the credit for destroying The Dream though!" Mane announced, nuzzling closer to what part of Scout wasn't covered in bandage. "Worship me."
"Later."
Guardian shook his head, a little disturbed, but turned back to Scout. "It was a mercy, in the end. To know oblivion like that."
"I know," Scout said, smiling when Rai also pressed against him. "It's just a bit strange." To know he'd killed someone.
He'd contextualise it in his head in time.
Saniya also needed a bit of care, having had her controlled-body beaten black and blue on top of no food or water in the days she'd been asleep. A vast majority of town felt that. The Dream and Sunflora's Grassy Terrain helped a lot, but it was no replacement and getting the children fed was a swift priority.
To no one's surprise, Banette was the first to be caring for them, before even Chansey, and made absolutely certain that every child was alright.
They strung her up and beat her until the candy came out, laughing and giggling as she swore at them, rather than sobbing and shaking from hunger and terror.
Mawile, Ampharos, and Jirachi stuck around for a few days to help but decided to go off together to rendezvous with the Shaymin Village to determine what places could benefit from help. There were many places in poor locations that a strong team would have to enter, they called themselves Team Expedition.
The town would survive.
Scars would heal.
Pain would dull.
Life moves on.
A roserade had been the first to attack him for what he was. He sent her to the realm of nightmares.
The kirlia tried to banish him with the burning light of fairies. He gave her the same gift of perpetual sleep.
A blasted luxray dashed back, avoiding his strike, and unleashed lightning. Was it always that species to vex him so?
This was not the same one, however. A void of pink and black left his hands and the luxray was too slow to dodge, dropping it into the darkness as well.
A voice he was not expecting, having followed after the sound of rushing feet, sent shivers through him. "Luxray?" it had said, appalled.
It was something small, bipedal but not like the roserade, more like a kirlia. Gowned in fabrics unlike a leavanny's craft, he didn't know at first. An ancient memory stirred, a kind face flashed through his mind (Pelleas), and a word, human, reached the forefront of his mind.
He wanted to flee, he wanted to drown her in everlasting darkness, but…
He couldn't. He was just so very tired. Shaking and bobbing in the air, he couldn't keep floating, and he collapsed in the shade of the tree, squeezing his eyes shut as the steps of the human approached.
He shook against the tree, trying to gather the strength, trying to tap into the Power and fighting the urge. It was different here, so different. He wanted nothing more than to plunge his whole self into it and take it for his own.
And there was nothing he wanted less, for it was unspoiled by him and if he did entered it… it would be corrupted with the taint that he was.
Shaking in the duality of this, he opened his eyes, lifting a trembling hand to blast the human to dust before it could strike him down.
It reached down first, aiming to crush his neck. He flinched and gasped as instead of a brutal strike, it was a soft, gentle, touch laid on his growth. She flinched from touching him.
"Oh," she said, for it had to be a female, or at least a child, with that pitch of voice. She smiled at him, not out of joy for his state ,or a mocking smirk, it was a smile of kindness and understanding.
He squinted his eyes, searching for deception, or to shield his eyes from the kindness and see anything else. Nothing and no one smiled at him like that.
The garden he had been accepted in hit his mind like a brick, and he banished it away with cries of denial.
"Are you hurt?" she asked, her eyes glinting just slightly. This magical creature before her, this pokémon, was ravaged, and it got worse the longer eyes were upon him, spotting injuries that were uncovered by examination.
He was missing an arm. His body was torn and bleeding. His gaze was tired and drooping. "Are you… in pain?" It was a silly thing to ask, but this human was so small, so young. "Oh. You are."
The wretch tried to get up, pushing her back with his arm, but couldn't float, couldn't push himself away from that awful creature. He groaned in pain, cutting it off with a vengeance but what came out was a choked sob.
She had withdrawn her hand when it pushed her away but slowly extended it back, touching the rippling darkness. It stung her hand, she could feel actual stinging shooting up her arm, and he whimpered. "I'll help you." She smiled, eyes watering. "Alicia make you well."
"I…," he said, accidentally speaking. "I can't stay here." Around him, pokémon laid in terrible nightmares. They would awaken eventually and would tear his body apart.
A laughable prospect, he could feel his consciousness slipping. He had lost so much blood.
"You don't have to leave," she said, kindness unknown as to why she offered it. "You can stay here."
His eyes cracked open, widening just slightly as ripples of darkest blackness swam within them. "Do… you… mean… that?"
"Of course." She nodded with the certainty of a child, but a tear still dropped. Pain. Fear. Anything but empathy. "You can stay here for as long as you like. This is everyone's garden."
His own eyes must be bleeding as well, although it didn't sting as much as he thought it should. Something was pooling. Her hand was still on him, he couldn't remember how to stand.
He could see it in her eyes, the twitching of her expression, he was a monster.
Her hand didn't move off him, even as welts appeared and broke. He could feel it. The hunger desperately surging up, up, and even further up like it'd escape out of his mouth and consume everything. He held it back, no one else should hunger like he. It was squeezing his veins, attacking his nerves. It hurt so much when it tore through him like this, seeking to hurt, kill, consume.
She pressed a leaf to her lips, he didn't see her get it. His vision was swimming in and out. She began to blow on it and….
Darkrai gasped as Oracion soothed his soul, eyes clearing for a moment… then a moment longer. The Shadow within him hissed, recoiled, it hated the sound and so did he. But he didn't.
Alicia continued to play it, even as he began to shake under her hand, even as her hand burned from whatever it was within him. He was hurt, he was broken, she didn't want him to be alone, scared, and in pain.
She'd take the pain for both of them.
And It came. With savagery. With blisters and blood. Came with a shriek she could hear, as Darkrai finally, finally, was freed from an empty nothingness.
Darkrai felt his cheeks growing wet with something other than blood, and it took him a long moment to realise he was crying. Crying from the simplicity of gentleness. Of the mercy of finally being free of a punishment he never deserved, all he wanted was to protect a Time Gear. That had been all.
The tears kept coming as Darkrai remembered how to feel. Empathy. Revelation of what he had done. It all hit him at once, but he was so tired, so exhausted, that he couldn't parse it.
As the song wound to a close, the other pokémon he had surrendered to nightmares now sleeping peacefully, he spoke again. "What… did you say your name was?"
She lowered the leaf and smiled again at him. "Alicia."
"Alicia..." Things were growing hazy again. He wanted to close his eyes. "Will you… stay with me?"
Alicia's cheeks were also wet, and Darkrai wondered why. Why she would cry for him. Did she not know? She had to know, she had felt it when it left him, heard its final cry, felt the hatred that had been him for so long.
Alicia nodded and raised the leaf back to her lips. It no longer hurt her to hold the creature in front of him, but hurt or not, it didn't matter.
She held Darkrai as his eyes slipped closed and he breathed a final breath.
Rhythm sighed tiredly, reclining back in his big, comfortable, throne. It had taken a bit of exposure damage the past week, but he didn't really mind.
It hadn't rained, thankfully with all the construction and running around going on. But very sunny, and a bit windy, with some frosty mornings.
He didn't mind because he wouldn't have been resting in the chair anyway, not with work to do. It was a memento at this stage, a landmark. Where the big wigglytuff head looming over town was gone, the throne remained and so did he.
He ran his hands along the arms of the fancy chair. He was careful, he didn't need splinters or anything. Armaldo would be very upset if he can crying to him about another splinter.
At least that would be in his paw and not… elsewhere.
Banishing that thought, Rhythm slipped his paws off the arms just in case. Something crinkled when he shifted his paws down, and he glanced to the left.
Smushed so deep within that only the top of it could be seen, was something made of parchment. He pulled it out, expecting some old list or forgotten request that wound up lost in his chair.
And then his heart skipped a beat when he turned it over.
Rhythm
He froze. There were only a few pokémon in the world that knew him well enough to address him by his name, and that number reduced dramatically when accounting for how it was written too.
Those weren't footprint runes. That was unown script. Sloppy, rough, unsteady unown script but unown script all the same. He recognised the loopy y and the writing in general.
This was Soothe's writing.
Soothe had written this.
Rhythm's mouth was dry, his paws were shaking, he was taken over by a multitude of crashing thoughts and feelings, hitting him all at once.
Confusion, joy, fear, elation, wariness, eagerness, hope, dread.
He could almost look at it for years, wondering what was written within. The parchment was a simple piece folded over in half, there was his name on one half, and when he opened it up, he saw five simple words.
Kabutops was a Shadow Pokémon.
He wanted to laugh. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. He wanted….
Rhythm eyes turned to a broken cliff, where an empty grave had been remade.
Authors Note:
I think… it's pretty obvious at this point that Warped Skies is not finished.
ARC THREE is coming! Plenty of you already knew, because of Discord, or had figured it out from things I've said or responses I've made. But yes! The story is not yet done, not by a long shot!
And like with Arc 1 to 2, I'll be taking a break to rest, recover, write other things, and plot out Arc 3 in greater detail! I've got countless ideas already, just need to put them in the right order….
What a funhouse carnival ride Arc 2 has been though! I've got several things to talk about in no real particular order.
I suppose the first thing I'll talk about is Everything Darkrai.
First off. That middle scene with him. Very, very, loosely implied in how the previous chapter ended with the town and towers (although at least one person figured it out, good job EloquentOrNot!), but yes. That's Alamos Town (obviously, now). When he ripped open the Dimensional Hole to try and flee through time in the end, well….
Time Travel doesn't work in Warped Skies anymore, but this was in a dimension Darkrai was controlling, so he FORCED it to work, causing it to take another option. Time Travel doesn't work in Warped Skies… but that's not the only world, is it?
It's already been established with talks with Keira that she's from the anime world, Sean too, their own version at least. So we know these two worlds are there, the PMD world being the result of AZ killing humanity in one timeline and having a last-moment change-of-heart in another.
So, Darkrai breeched dimensions and time travelled in a world where it was still possible. Leading him to Alamos Town as time travel also, often, seems to deposit you in a different place too. I suppose it is called Dimensional Hole, and it's also moving through space rather than JUST time.
I had the idea of him BEING the Alamos Town Darkrai (not quite though) for ages now. Because I love that movie and ALSO the Darkrai in that movie was strangely… perceptive of Palkia AND was able to hold off Dialga and Palkia at once for at least a short time. So, I mixed that in with a bit of head cannon that he has… experience in doing so ;) and there we have it.
He DID die, however. Alicia and Oracion purged him of the shadow. They purified him, and he died, freed of the taint at last which stops The Shadow corruption from fully infecting the Darkrai Power and ruining all darkrai in the Warped Skies anime world version.
This is the other side of the head cannon since the darkrai in that movie didn't seem to realise Alice wasn't Alicia until she told it so I reason that after Darkrai died and a new one popped out because legendaries reincarnate it just took a while for it to return to Alamos Town with those second-hand memories.
Okay? Okay. Darkrai is gone. He, ultimately, was a tragic villain because he did not have a choice in being evil. But death was the only way in the end….
Next thing I want to mention about Darkrai IS that evil in question. Originally he was going to be supreme terrible bad guy bad with no redeeming traits beyond maybe some seductive traits (he got a LOT of you into thinking he might not be so bad :P) I was actually going to write him a little like Dragon Ball Z Abridged Imperfect Cell (which is why he sang Mr. Sandman in his entry), but it didn't quite work so I went a different direction.
But yeah. He was meant to be a lot worse, but I have a bad habit of making my villains a little bit tragic :P (I promise that won't be the case for the next one though ;P).
Cresselia ended up being the eviller one. Being super psycho kill-everyone (but even she was just super-duper crazy from being able to remember being frozen in time, which is basically mental oblivion. It's a testament to her mental strength that she was cognizant at all).
Now. The BIG thing about Darkrai I've wanted to talk about for quite a while now. Remember Chapter 40? Where he revived Scout and things were all great, and Scout remembered?
Yeah… originally that wasn't the case.
See I had a plan. It was a genius plan, genius I tells you! I had a cunning plot to create a huge amount of tension and dawning fear in the readers.
Originally, Darkrai WAS going to take Scout's memory of their meetings and Scout would just think he got randomly respawned by Arceus going. "Oops, missed one." And that'd be that. The readers, you guys, would know that Darkrai had done it and would be all panicked, thinking. "Oh, no! What exactly did he DO? What's going to happen later? AH! Scout is walking into so many traps again, noooo!"
And I even got as far as writing the revival and reaching the reunion and chat with Keira. She asked Scout how he came back, and then it hit me.
There's no reason (no good one at least) that Darkrai would do this.
Because Darkrai spent multiple chapters and numerous talks with Scout to get him to trust him. If Scout hadn't played his suspicion too hard if he hadn't been all. "I KNOW you're the bad guy and what you did!" Darkrai still probably would have done it (Assuming he could with how it went in canon).
Because Darkrai knew Scout knew but didn't know HOW Scout knew, he had to go a different direction. He needed Scout to be revived, so space would be distorted enough for him to create The Dream. He also knew that if he took his memories (which could only be of these recent meetings, not overall stuff), then Scout would think he's the bad guy and plan accordingly.
So, he got Scout to trust him just enough to revive him. Ultimately, this kinda backfired on Darkrai as Scout knew he did a BAD and immediately decided to just tell everyone everything, but even then Darkrai was able to turn that against them since Palkia was NOT something anyone saw coming.
And this was a much better change as originally Scout was going to CONTINUE to lie until what turned out to be Chapter 57 (the one where Cresselia is revealed to be evil and Darkrai drops the town into a nightmare and Soothe turns up to fuck him up). Obviously, that'd be painfully frustrating for everyone, and the change was infinitely better.
I mean, it might have come out in part before that (I had a big plan involving Scout counteracting a Darkrai play to make his friends turn against him by already having revealed the truth to Rai and Mane, but this wouldn't have been revealed on screen, until the final showdown when Scout would flip the script on Darkrai and they'd take advantage of his WTF to land some big hits).
But yeah. I had a big plan for Arc 2 that suddenly realised didn't make sense, which changed the whole format for the later half of it and caused so many things to get shifted around. I get serious tunnel vision with ideas, I'm just relieved I figured it out JUST in time rather than a few chapters after Scout returned. Because that'd be just No Good.
That's about it that I had to say about Darkrai specifically. Eh, here's some more.
He was a very fun villain to write. I've read out his dialogue with Scout many times and will be recording and posting all/most of his conversations with Scout to Warped Times and Darkness at some point (I wanted to wait until I had all the dialogue down, so I didn't have to update it. I do now). I can do a pretty good Darkrai voice, I think. You may have heard me singing his version of Mr. Sandman if you read the A03 version where I can add that stuff in!
But yes, very fun. Similar to Guardian in some way, but vastly different in others. I consider Guardian the actual antagonist for Arc 1 (Dialga is technically the final boss/bad guy, but Guardian does most of the heavy lifting). Both are very smart, spooky-looking, pokémon. But where Guardian used his charisma and popularity to befriend and get information, Darkrai was a planner.
An over-planner for sure. He planned for everything he could think of, backup plans on top of backup plans. And Darkrai was not the kind to act unless it was entirely safe to do so, or the benefits were massive.
Saniya said it at the start of this chapter. Legendary pokémon just aren't as powerful here. They are still very strong, have unique powers, immortal and all that. But they are defeatable to a much wider degree than they are in the world Keira and Sean are from. Darkrai also revealed why, the legends giving up a huge portion of their Power to guard against The Shadow in the wake of humanity.
Because of this, he's not much of a fighter. Heck, even for a legendary he's not much of a fighter. Cresselia was the main danger in the final fight, SHE can fight.
Originally Soothe wasn't even going to intervene, and Scout was going to take Darkrai's arm and drive him off ALONE. That was going to demonstrate Scout's improved capability and Darkrai's lack of battle skills, but I still got that with just how seriously Soothe trounced him.
Is he more powerful than them? Oh my, yes. But power isn't everything in a fight….
He'd be more powerful than Guardian too, although much LESS powerful than Dialga. But in terms of battle threat, Guardian outplays him there.
So, defeating Darkrai was less taking him out in battle, and more pinning him in place that he couldn't escape. In a sense, the climax of Arc 2 was Chapter 57 with that battle in Treasure Town, and the rest of it was something of a wind-down. Scout and Soothe nearly killed him, he lost a lot of blood, went into shock, Cresselia had to save his life, and he retreated into The Dream with a pair of guards.
Once they were able to find him and get to him? Cresselia was basically the last of his hopes, as his actual body was still in a sorry state, considering that he died not long after landing in Alamos Town.
Fun Fact! It wasn't exactly spelled out or anything, but Darkrai DID save Striker in that battle there at the end. The whole staring thing before blasting him away was blasting him to safety. He decided he could do one good thing in life at least. Then tried to drag Scout down with him. You can tell which team Darkrai is on! Must be Striker's voice, everyone goes for that.
Okay, that's Darkrai. Let's talk, less, on Cresselia.
I knew she was evil from… I don't remember exactly when I made that decision, but it was pretty early on in Arc 2 I think.
Funnily enough, the twist of Cresselia being evil was SO OBVIOUS that I almost wish I played it straight (maybe even made her, gasp, USEFUL) and made her an ally. It felt like everyone saw that one coming, heh. My own tendency to put a twist on everything caught up with me there, but I still hold true to the fact that no one guessed that Darkrai and Cresselia were working together. That still acted as a surprise to a few!
I made her a villain partially out of the joke that in that final dungeon she's basically a third imposter in a game of 2-imposter Among Us. Flying over lava, being weak to so much including Darkrai himself, and you HAVE to get her through. It's a clever mechanic, I think, to make the final boss a genuine challenge, but still. Dammit, Cresselia!
I played that a little in that chapter, having her intentionally hurt herself to bleed their resources. She's a psycho one, not rational in the least. Might have just been able to toss them into lava during the dungeon, but… well, they were still ready for anything at that point.
Probably wouldn't have worked. A stalactite would have hit her or something.
Moving on….
Team Sunrise.
Oh, Team Sunrise.
What did people think of that? In one sense, Arc 2 has two protagonists:: Team Ion and Team Sunrise.
And in another, it has seven: Scout, Rai, Mane, Sean, Striker, Saniya, Guardian.
I plotted out Arc two to have spotlights on both teams as well as two other elements, the first act of Arc 2 at least. The Hunt for Pyroar.
We had exploration as a theme. Both of the wider world, with Team Ion, and Treasure Town, with Team Sunrise, exploring was the idea. Delving into new places, as well as going into better detail in Treasure Town.
I feel like I did not achieve my goals there. I had bigger plans, better stuff. My beta talked me out of a few things I had planned on the Hunt for Pyroar, which was for the best as it would really have just been filler (I was going to have a spotlight on various towns as they get information to lead further in, delving into quests and such. But it may have been like the infamous Reaper Cloth quest in that one chapter that no one liked :P)
And with Team Sunrise, I wanted to delve into the team getting to know some townsfolk really well in some regards, helping them out with private things. I did it a little with Vigoroth, but that was about it really. Arc 3, however, may see a second try at some of these ideas, as there are still stories to tell….
We'll get to that (or not, Arc 3 isn't going to be talked about a lot because spoilers).
But yes. I really quite enjoyed writing Team Sunrise and will continue to do so. I'm sure many of you prefer them over Team Ion, and I'm sure some prefer Team Ion over them. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue feeding everyone.
They've made some progress, as has Team Ion, but a big part of why I'm doing a third arc is there are still things they have to grow on, and things about themselves they still have to face.
But again, I won't go into detail there. One thing I WILL mention, however, is that I intend on reducing the filler. Arc 2 was pretty heavy on the filler, all things considered. It wasn't meant that way, I didn't mean to pad the story or anything. I really did think I had an idea in mind for it all! But it ended up not going anywhere (yet), and so a lot of Team Sunrise's stuff was filler. I recognise that, and I will do my best to do better!
Next is something I meant to mention during the Arc 1 author note, and briefly touched on it in the lightest terms, is Croagunk.
Croagunk? You ask. What about him?
Well, and this is something I should have talked about back then, Croagunk was originally intended to have more focus. Namely, he and Chatot were going to be the main Guildmembers who were relatively important. I started this by having Croagunk figure out Scout was 'human' alllll the way back with Fogbound Lake and then… didn't do anything with it.
Besides some really light protective stuff, like Croagunk standing between Scout and Guardian during a thing when Guardian freaked Scout out, there was nothing. Ultimately, Croagunk is too chill. His only real goal is his Swap Cauldron, and he got that fixed. I meant to have him gift Team Ion with a/several of their species exclusive items, but… we'll see.
The guild itself. What a thing it is. Of the whole canon guild, only two of them haven't really had any focus at all. Croagunk and Loudred. They've certainly been there, but…
Chatot was a borderline protagonist.
Wigglytuff has been doing a bunch of stuff now.
Sunflora is a badass.
Bidoof has his thing with 'Bell', heh, I'll talk a little on that next.
Diglett and especially Dugtrio with the dungeon with Keira and Cara.
Chimecho being a Boss.
Even Corphish with his brief moment of glory alllll the way back with Chapter 6.
But Loudred and Croagunk? Not really anything. Even Armaldo has had more relevance, although Marill, Paras, and Flaaffy are in the same boat, besides being on Bidoof's team. That may change, I plan to, but my plans can and do go awry.
Still, I like the guild. I like the expedition society too, and when I had the idea of introducing Jirachi eventually I remembered having Mawile and Ampharos meet up and thought to myself: "Wouldn't it be cheeky if this is how they met?" So, I did. It was fun.
Team Expedition, heh.
Uh, okay, I meant to mention Soothe and Timber. I can't remember exactly when I had the idea. But when I did, all the way back in Arc 1, I edited some earlier stuff to have Bidoof tell some knock-knock jokes. Some of you would not know a time where he didn't speak them, you live in a kinder time.
I also don't quite remember why I had the idea. But I did. Soothe, just a hairsbreadth from the guild, telling jokes behind a closed door.
Timber… he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. He sees nothing wrong with telling his agoraphobic friend about the goings-on in the guild and town. He privately hopes he can convince her to join the guild, so he focuses on the cool stuff the guild does rather than the more boring stuff, but she likes to hear about everything so what's he to complain? And even if she doesn't, he's just happy to have a friend. He definitely has a little crush, but only a little one.
He has no idea. He thinks she's a mimikyu or something.
Would you all believe it, however, that Soothe Bell is a coincidence? I gave the name Bell fairly impulsively. I just tried to think of something soothing, and a small bell can be quite pleasant. So, well. Soothe Bell being a hint, was entirely accidental. When the ACTUAL hint I did was in Chapter 33, A Soothing Rhythmic Trill when she introduces herself to Chatot with a knock-knock joke.
But hey? It worked out.
Small Fun Fact about the design of Arc 2 (and 1). It had a bigger focus on Mane's stuff, in a very loose way. Arc 1 had Amp Plains and Rai's backstory. And Arc 2 had Pyroar and Morpeko, and Mane's backstory. What does this mean for Arc 3? =3
Mane's life has been quite rough. And we'll see it in clearer detail soon! That's right! I'm not leaving you all high and dry while I plan out Arc 3, I have several things in store!
First off, I have THREE Bonus Chapters planned—Rai's backstory, Mane's backstory, and… something else. We'll be seeing stuff from their early life, Rai's family and being raised in Treasure Town, and Mane's family and all that 'fun' stuff. The third one is a surprise, though.
Secondly, I will start posting chapters for my trainer fic… soon. I wanted to get Arc 2 finished before I thought about that, and now it's finished so I'm thinking about that. Which is a perfect segway into talking about Keira.
Ah, Keira. The Legendary Lucario. I handled her… good and bad.
She's such an integral part of the world's development, at least in the last couple hundred years, and yet she's barely mentioned at all until she shows up! This is a classic example of me having a huge idea I just HAD to use way into the thing that just tosses everything into a tizzy. I can excuse that a bit by the fact that Americans don't discuss the founding fathers every day and factor them into everyday life? Australians don't discuss Captain Cook and such.
(Considering that Keira is still alive, that is a bit wobblier, but whatever).
It's something that should have had more relation to worldbuilding earlier on, but I'm still doing worldbuilding 60 chapters into things :P It's simply my weird, wacky, way.
The best thing I think about Keira was that she was bloody fun to write! I love her so much, she's a character from YEARS before Warped Skies, and I've never been able to write her in this capacity before. She was very fun, and at first, most people agreed. She was a bit crass and raunchy, but that was excused because she's tired of all the putz's around her.
But then… she overstayed a bit of her welcome. I gave her too much attention, favouring her and it showed. Plus Keira is, and I knew this going into it, a bitch. An absolute cunt of a person and she knows it and embraces it. She's old, she's tired, she's so… many things.
And while that can be entertaining to a degree, she crossed the line. I don't normally ever retcon stuff (the only other real retcon was the very first chapter, changing Scout's awakening to Sharpedo Bluff and 'different' from the games as the first hint that he wasn't who he thought he was). It wasn't the reaction to it that caused me to do it. Even ignoring that, she caused a bit of filler and focus shift as well which just wasn't very good overall. I don't regret writing her in, but I could have done it better.
The reaction to it helped me remember, oh, wait. She's not meant to do it THEN idiot. But I didn't change it because it was universally disliked, as it should have been. She's a dick, but she's not normally THAT bad, especially to some pokémon she actually kinda doesn't mind.
Ah… but yes. Keira was only ever meant to appear in Chapter 40. She was basically going to be a cameo from my Trainer Fic (while still playing a big part in Warped Skies' worlds' history) and be done with it. But she was so damn fun to write. So, suddenly that caused a change that affected a bunch of the chapters yet to happen.
Which changed something down the track. Palkia.
Originally we were going to have just Wigglytuff and Armaldo taking on Palkia. Dugtrio was still going to die, I planned that out a fair bit in advance, but Diglett was actually going to help in that fight and collapse some ground under Palkia's foot, allowing Wigglytuff and Armaldo to break that leg. The pain of it was going to allow Darkrai to hit it with a nightmare.
Near-Primal Palkia (As it was inches from going Primal Dialga on the place) wasn't actually meant to die. But when Keira was set to return, thanks to Scizor, I realised it'd make sense for her to fight as well and I could show her real power.
I wasn't going to do it at first. Which was also why she was only going to appear in one chapter for a talking role and nothing else. Because she is absurdly powerful and someone that strong with Darkrai around, as she'd 100% be told about him, risked how much tension Darkrai could build if someone was around that could just curb stomp him.
So, I made the Palkia fight a barely winnable fight, (she definitely could NOT have won it on her own. At least not without dying as well) Wigglytuff drops her to sleep as we do NOT need to see what a rampaging mega Keira would do, and Darkrai, taking an advantage even at risk to himself because it's that BIG, getting her with Nightmare.
Keira was out of it, for the most part. And with Palkia dead, Darkrai could even affect the Spacial Rift even MORE! (I considered using a little Palkia in the Darkrai fight but it didn't really fit)
She's definitely the most powerful 'normal' pokémon in the world, but she's not unbeatable. She's as strong as she due to an unnatural peak lifespan (besides her legs), another element of her personal Power, and the fact that any ACTUAL threat to her…
Well, Keira would be the first to say that it's often easier to kill an opponent than it is to defeat them. Against a Shadow Pokémon, against every Shadow Pokémon she's killed, she just goes right for a Bone Rush through the heart. Pokémon are hellishly durable, but THAT tends to kill you either way. There have been fights she's 'won' by killing her opponent that she wouldn't have won if it was just to unconsciousness.
But even then, she's absurdly strong. She's not the kind to stick around for long, however. She's got stuff to do elsewhere.
Anyway. I think that about wraps up what I wanted to talk about here? I guess I'll leave you all with four questions if you want to answer or not.
What has been your favourite moment(s) of Arc 2?
What has been your least favourite moment(s) of Arc 2?
What would you like to see in Arc 3?
Any questions you want me to answer you directly? I can't promise I will, but I'll try.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you for coming this far, and I hope you'll stick with me until the end. There are still questions that haven't been answered but rest assured. Arc 3 will bring them.
Arc 2 is done. Took a little longer than Arc 1, about a month longer, but it's also about 100,000 words longer so I think I get a pass :P less chapters, technically 32 to 30, but if you count Bonus Chapters, then it'll be 34 to 33, which is just one. And what felt like more filler, because Arc 1 was regimented into the plot of Sky and it is a fairly well paced game. Arc 2 was far more original, so it was a unique challenge that I've learned from!
Even nearly two years into this, I still feel so excited when I post a new chapter. That edge of nervousness. "Will, my readers like it?" Crosses my mind. I'm very pleased/relieved Darkrai's reveal of The Shadow came down so well, as well as so much other stuff, reveals or not.
I could not even imagine what it would be like to write something that so many people have loved. It was always a dream, of course, but to actually do it? Yes, yes, we've all heard of the imposter syndrome in people achieving something, and I definitely face it too at times. But still, thank you so much for this chance. It means the world to me.
Until I see you again with Rai's Bonus Backstory Chapter.
Ah, but one last thing, actual last thing, I want to mention before I finish this. I've reconsidered the whole Discord thing. It was brought up before, and I decided not to do it (it being a server for Warped Skies) because of... reasons. The main one being it felt a little... off to make a whole server dedicated to one story. You can tell I'm not too versed in Discord, I'm only in four and only particularly active in one.
But I've reconsidered for a couple reasons. First off: I have more than just Warped Skies. So, it wouldn't be a server for one story just... one author. Which is still something hmmmm but I can live with it. I've done good, right? I can accept a little bit of pride in my accomplishments. I have the trainer fic that you'll be getting some word on soon as well as other stuff in development. Warped Skies is my main priority at the moment, but it won't go forever, and I'll continue writing even after it's finished!
(Plus my beta and I were talking about things we could do with it and it was exciting :P)
If people are interested, I think I will go for it!
The other part of it is that just because it'll be a server about my stories doesn't mean that will be the ONLY thing about it. It'll have a general chat and that kind of stuff as well! I think it could work. Let me know if you'd like that.
With that... I think I'm done yammering on now. Farewell, let's leave 2020 behind us (assuming I don't post the first Bonus Chapter before then ;P).
Take care.