On a stormy day in Kochi, a pod of Quagsire waited at the mouth of the Shimanto River for the swiftly flowing current to carry them their prey. The typhoon warnings kept trainers at home that day, but these notoriously calm pokemon were not scared off by storm conditions; they are strong swimmers and if anything the weather meant more fish came their way.
Wooper, however, are small and awkward creatures on both land and water, and the Tornadus wind had lifted some of their number up and away into the sea. The Quagsire, broken from their typical reverie by their flailing and screams, hurried to rescue them; they were able to pick them up, but had swam out too far in the process, and were swept away with their brethren into the ocean.
The custom of carrying Wooper on one's back is most strongly associated with Clodsire, but it predates the split in the lineage of Wooper's evolutions. Quagsire have a shorter back and no blocking spikes, but this was the best they could do for their young against the fierce ocean currents.
Quagsire are admittedly freshwater pokemon, but they can tolerate salt water for limited periods of time. What prevents them from living in oceans is that the sea lacks the abundant and easily captured prey of rivers and swamps, and they must return to the land to lay eggs. Quagsire's geographic spread suggests that these incidents are very survivable, and the flow of ocean water is one reason why Kochi markets itself as the birthplace of Quagsire; it is easy enough for a pod originating there to wash up in Johto.
This particular pod would go on a far longer journey.
The next part of this journey was overlooked by Quagsire scholarship for a considerable time, as most scholars of these pokemon are based in Japanese-speaking regions, and the ship's log describing these events was written in Unovan.
A merchant vessel, the Basculin, had been sailing for Kanto when it stopped with a series of thuds. Its hull bumped against one pokemon, then another, but mercifully did not sink – only stalled while the crew made their repairs.
The account – the first written account of Quagsire at all in the Unovan language – describes the pokemon as "remarkably oblivious" and were puzzled by the way in which they neither attempted to avoid nor reacted to colliding with their ship. While waiting to resume their journey, many on board had been charmed by the blue Wooper standing on the backs and heads of Quagsire, and wanted to expose both creatures to Unovan science.
A few people sneaked the pokemon dried sardines from the ship's rations, and a single Quagsire cautiously stepped on board, likely hoping for more food; the Wooper, conversely, all climbed onto the ship's edge, their heads bobbing back and forth as they walked across a narrow ledge with remarkable balance.
But the ship's quartermaster had grown annoyed with both the delay and the feeding, and feared it would lead to them depleting their food supply before they reached shore; he proposed killing and eating the strange creatures. This was vetoed by the first mate, a man of Paldean origin who insisted that Wooper and its evolutions were far too toxic to be safe for human consumption.
Yet despite the language of the sailors differing from those of the humans they had previously encountered, despite the fact that they were flailing hungrily in an unknown sea, the quartermaster's hostility had scared them off. The Quagsire who had boarded jumped back into the ocean; and at his cry of "Quag!" the Wooper all fearlessly splashed down as if diving into a pool; other Quagsire waited at the center of each splash to pick them back up.
Nuvema Town's scientists would have to content themselves with sketches and descriptions from the surprisingly prolonged encounter.
By the time the delayed ship finished its trading and made its return voyage, other naturalists had already toured Johto and captured and described specimens; the description from the Basculin's sailors was filed away in a cabinet somewhere and forgotten for over a century.
The normal destination for a Quagsire pod from Kochi that was swept out to sea is Johto; a few, faced with particularly high winds, return to shore on the other side of the Tohjo Falls and wind up in Kanto. For one to go further, for all of recorded history, was unheard of; the waters north of Kanto are cold, the fish few, and even Kitakami's population is believed to have taken a land route to that region. The colony's survival must therefore be somehow related to the voyage of the Basculin; either the food obtained on board sustained them over an atypically long journey, or the boat itself turned them in a different, more favorable direction.
After several days, the pod of Wooper and Quagsire finally washed up in the Crimson Mirelands, the largest swamp in the entire Japanese Archipelago. In modern times, the arrival of a breeding population of wild pokemon from afar would be viewed as an invasive species, a threat to a fragile ecosystem, and Pokemon Rangers would do their best to capture and remove the new arrival before it can become established as local. Nothing like this was the case in the Early Sinnoh period; the colonists appreciated them as a reminder of their old homes, and the tribes were won over when Calaba herself captured a Quagsire and added it to her team; Irida was also said to have a special fondness for Wooper.
Wild pokemon were not bothered as one might expect by the arrival of a new predator; their dopey appearance and the lack of a red-eyed Alpha Pokemon led the locals to treat them more like a long-lost relative than a threat. An account from a naturalist of the time describes Toxicroak and Quagsire as croaking long into the night; we can only speculate as to whether they were negotiating or celebrating.
Fortunately, in the judgment of history, they were clearly correct to welcome these new amphibians; the marsh, despite shrinking to half its size before being named a wildlife preserve, has lost only one species from this period. Regarding that species, Goomy and Sliggoo were well known to form close friendships with Wooper and benefited mightily from their tendency to produce water and rain. It is humanity to blame for the Hisuian Sliggoo and Goodra's extinction, but to their credit, the people of Sinnoh were moved to action by that tragedy, and resolved to protect what remained of the Great Marsh from any further destruction.
The descendants of that Quagsire pod form Sinnoh's entire population of this pokemon, and have become a symbol of the Pastoria Great Marsh – which is today a Sinnoh-renowned wildlife preserve. The Quagsire population has adapted to the region's cold temperatures, growing a thin, soft layer of fluff to survive Sinnoh's harsh winters; Sinnoh natives who travel to Johto are often surprised to pet Quagsire there and find only wet and slippery skin.
Despite its recent origins and short genetic distance, the morphological variation is more than sufficient to consider Q. sinnoh a valid subspecies of the Quagsire line – if one which branched off considerably more recently than Clodisre. The descendants of this typhoon-swept pod are today the Great Marsh's most common and beloved pokemon; if one is in the area, it is very much worth the chance to witness Wooper and fluffy Quagsire in their new habitat!
This story is dedicated to my wife Vethica and her Fuwanuo plush.