April Fools Chapter!

Hello Pokémon and Hamefura enthusiasts!

Today is April Fools Day and I decided to use it to share about what could've been and how I got to what is. This Chapter is dedicated to the Ascart Twins.

Sophia and Nicole Teams are the ones that I personally think have changed the most!

Sophia could've gotten a Pawmore, Delphox, Altaria, Kommo-o, Galarian Rapidash or Hisuian Zoroark.

Meanwhile, Nicole would've possibly attained a Hydreigon, Kommo-o, Kantonian Rapidash or Unovan Zoroark.

Now you may have asked a question, "Why'd you change it, oh great writer?" Well plebeian, I went through a mess of thoughts because HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA MENTAL CHAOS!

Or for a more sane answer: It has to do with Keith. To have his own April Fools Chapter be unique, I won't get into the delightfully juicy details, but only say that I had to abandon the idea of Keith getting a Hisuian Goodra.

Now I was willing to sacrifice Keith owning that Pokémon because the idea that replaced it, aka the final product, was way better. I was NOT willing to sacrifice the idea of a Hisuian Goodra being in the story as a major character, I had even made a pseudo design for it and didn't want a pathetically long amount of time wasted so I had to shove the Pokémon to someone else's team.

Now do note this: Onion, Katarina's Goomy, is going to have her own Harem with each dragon Pokémon belonging to Katarina's Friends being in the harem. Alan's Noivern gets a spot, but not Toxtricity, and Geordo's Tyrantrum gets a spot.

This means that Goodra had to replace the Dragon in whatever team it was sent to, so it had to be a better option than the alternative Dragon I'm replacing it with.

This is related to both siblings so just hold on. Now then, the Hisuian Goodra could go to: Geordo, Alan, Mary, Maria, Sophia or Nicole.

I didn't want to replace Geordo's Tyrantrum, its Pokédex Entry gave it a kingly vibe and it had more worldbuilding potential for the Stuart Royal Family than Hisuian Goodra due to Tyrantrum being a gift from the family, so I couldn't justify replacing it, especially when Alan's Dragon was just as irreplaceable and therefore couldn't be a Tyrantrum either.

Speaking of Alan. Alan's Noivern just matched his talent for music, the trading with Mary could be a nice shock moment and the Noivern matched Alan's Aesthetic because of the Pokemon's dark body and white neck fur matching Alan's black scarf and grey hair I MEAN COME ON I DESCRIBED A REVERSE IN THE DESIGNS, its like Lysandre and Pyroar, I can't take that away!

At the time, I was HOOKED on the idea of Mary being a Pokéracer, I'll explain it better in her own April Fools Chapter or comments. Anyways, the Hisuian Goodra was too slow to be a racing Pokémon.

Maria couldn't take the Goodra since, slime and cooking? No thanks.

Then that left Nicole and Sophia, I didn't have much planned for either of their teams beyond that Nicole needed to be strong, Sophia would be weaker and both had matched in some way. Sophia won out just because the white Goodra matched Sophia more, and it looked silly so Nicole that would've taken away his cool vibe, It also helps that Goodra was with both "Reincarnates". (Sophia's kind of a weird case of reincarnation, but still)

Damn that took a long time, good job paying attention!

Anyways, I also wanted the Symbolic Typing thing to be a part of the team building factors. Notice how Mary doesn't own any Ice Types currently while Geordo has a Symbolic Pokémon of his family. It's because the Symbolic Typings show a bit of the relationship a character has with their family and I wanted the Ascarts to be a clear example of this.

Talking about Maria right now would be spoilers at this stage, but just know she couldn't represent. Katarina doesn't care about families enough, Keith's talks to Flying Types so he prioritizes that, Alan focuses on Music and cares on a similar level to Katarina (very little), the Stuarts use Dragon Type which is Geordo already going to have for the academy and Mary actively has a bad relationship with some of her family so avoiding Ice makes sense.

So the Ascarts are the only ones that can show it, I never had a concrete Pokémon Type chosen and when I decided upon the Hisuian Goodra being Sophia's, which was Steel Type, I decided that Steel was going to be the typing of the Ascart Family and I built the rest of the teams around that.

Also! I wanted Keith's Door being partly broken down by Katarina's Goomy to be the reason he chose to copy that specific Pokémon in Katarina's team, however, I couldn't think of a way to have a similar scene with a Goomy in regards to Katarina complimenting Sophia. But luckily, the voices in my head told me to give a child trauma and Psychic Powers.

IN SHORT! I literally only made the entire plot of Sophia being afraid of Dragons, Nicole's entire team, The Ascart Family's Signature Type being Steel and all the personalities of both siblings' Pokémon because I didn't want to waste a design and piece of art that wasn't used and wasn't even that good. :D

…

ANYWAYS! Time for a Worldbuilding tidbit.

I originally never planned to even give any Pokémon a major personality, because their intelligence would be comparable to dogs. But then I made the original version of Chapter Four, the one where Katarina gets kidnapped by Drifloon and meets Durian.

In that original version, I had the Pokémon get a random section that was translated for the audience to understand the story and the section was called "Pokénese Translated" with the Pokémon speaking like Cavemen to show that they weren't intelligent, but had some kind of story.

I asked the readers on AO3 in the Author's Notes section what they thought about Pokénese, I was worried that Pokémon speaking would be uncomfortable to some fans and was ready to remove it.

But literally everyone responded positively so I decided to have Pokémon get bigger intelligence, their stories were still incredibly basic in the early stories, now I have them being full on Characters with arcs and somewhat complex relationships with human and other Pokémon Characters. I think the story really benefits from it, now I actually have something to offer than just "Hamefura, but magic gets replaced with Pokémon in a way that results in the same thing!" No! The Pokémon actually alter the entire story, Geordo fights for the throne, Sirius/Raphael and Nicole have a better chance in the Harem, the entire Finale alters significantly and Keith's rescue will be a bit different too.

And it is only because people chose to read and actually respond that it's like this, so thanks! Almost every change to Hamefura Story, like World Building or certain character traits, would have likely never existed without you and it's changed my perspective for how I'll write my fan fiction and especially crossover, "Change is good"

Damn that was a bit sappy, I mean I meant it, but it's April Fools so maybe not the best time? Whatever, MOVING ON!

—

As you know from reading the story, Nicole is a rival to Katarina when it comes to Pokémon Battling like Red and Blue, or I guess Hau and the Player since it's friendly, anyways, I also have Nicole be the only battling Rival to Katarina so why him?

Well, the reason Nicole is a rival is because… I feel that Nicole has the weakest relationship with Katarina. I'M SORRY! PLEASE LET ME EXPLAIN!

Sophia and Mary both have the shared hobby of books and plants respectively, and while I have seen Nicole state that he likes novels as well in some episode in season One, It doesn't look to be the same extent as Sophia and Katarina's (Maybe I'm wrong though)

Maria has sweets that she uses to get closer and Alan is somewhat able to keep up with Katarina through challenges considering the whole tree climbing, Nicole hasn't been shown feeding Katarina or using her interests to get more closer.

Geordo and Keith are very similar to Nicole, but Geordo is engaged while Kieth's her brother so they're both more directly connected to her than Nicole being a friend's sibling and while Nicole is stated to have been friends with Alan and Geordo as children pre-Katarina, I don't see that as being too different from Alan being the fiance of Mary and brother of Geordo. So the Rival Dynamic kinda builds his relationship with Katarina more.

I am NOT saying that Nicole is terrible or not a unique character, he is the only one who's smile makes Katarina blush that wildly and I'm not saying Nicole shouldn't be in love with Katarina. I'm just saying that the other harem members have more things going for them to be competitive so making him a rival gives him a common hobby with Katarina that doesn't seem to stray too far from his OG portrayal since I can give the excuse that Nicole wants to protect his sister so he wants to be strong.

Apologies to any Nicole Fans and you're free to disagree with me and defend in the comments, because I might've missed some things or have the wrong idea (I am not the best interpreter of media), and I'd love to hear an opposing viewpoint even if it's just insults.

Re-watching the Anime again also gave me a lot more to love for his character, the way he chooses self-sacrifice in his love for Katarina because she's engaged, and I like seeing Sophia constantly trying to be a wingman and scheming while Nicole is just like "Guess we're doing this now", think of the play or that one outing while shopping if you're confused. (I mean Nicole might've been told, but it's funnier to think he wasn't)

Ahem, the point is that I chose to make Nicole a rival as a sort of buff. Meanwhile, Sophia doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd be a trainer with her reading novels, I mean Acchan could've been into Pokémon, but I think she's more a romance than action person (kinda contradictory because of Katarina's portrayal, but shhhhhh). Also Sophia doesn't need the boost and the aesthetic of battler doesn't match

Lastly!

The reveal that the Pokémon that traumatized Sophia was originally not going to be a Garchomp, but actually a Salamence. I originally thought not to make it a Garchomp, since that'd make her hesitant to go to the Claes estate or be near Katarina's mother and I don't like angst as much as comedy, but I realised that a Garchomp would enhance the story by making Katarina's Parents jumping at the opportunity of the Claes having better relations with the Ascart Family be better and that being the reason for why they were so willing to break her grounding in chapter 8.

Hope that's enough! This Chapter was going to be full on half Worldbuilding and not a single tidbit, like scrapped plot points or even an explanation of all the stuff I was about to recon, but I'll leave that to my response in the comments and until next April! Also The 11th Chapter doesn't come out until a few more days.

Bye Pokémon and Hamefura enthusiasts!