hello, everyone, to another attempt to start pokemon of the rings!
there’ve been some developments since the last stream. thoughts. long story short: the trainer’s gonna be a formerly? human boy named mike emerald who only speaks 4-5 words at a time, like most pokemon game avatars do. mike, just as i have, has championed just about every region except sword & shield. he was amidst his galaran finals when something happened and now he’s here? something like that. basically, this story’s running on Rule of Funny and Rule of Cool + family drama. let’s just say, lord glorfy’s got baaaad memories of the last person in his care running off into the woods. storytelling over! let’s fucking go!
50 words, thirty minutes, we got this! piece of cake!
well, in the novels, glorfy bore bilbo to rivendell. here he shall bear mike and his six pokemon to rivendell! whoo!
TA 2500. Lord Glorfindel rode Asfaloth alone. His face was young, but his heart was old. The Third Age weighed upon his mind like a cave troll’s hammer. Winter had seen fit to arrive early this year, and with it too, so did Gildor and his people’s yearly roost in Rivendell. With them, they brought songs and other merriments, and teasing poor Lindir.
Wordlessly, Lord Glorfindel motioned for Asfaloth to turn around. The ground was hard beneath them, and soon, it would be dark. The elements may not have harried Elves so much, but they needled animals. Plus, he heard quite a few mares of the exiles had caught Asfaloth’s attention.
[foolishly pretending to know anything about horses. also, i guess asfaloth’s immortal or something? this is the horse glorfy rode in the hobbit… maybe it’s like: this one horse is immortal. like you get a partner pikachu / eevee! whatever. don’t think about it too hard!]
“Pick one, not the whole herd,” Lord Glorfindel tsked.
Asfaloth snorted.
“Such a greedy stallion I ride.”
Asfaloth whinnied without shame. Lord Glorfindel shook his head.
“Back we go, I suppose,” Lord Glorfindel said, final and decisive. “Back so you can go sire fine, white ponies; and I shall dine with my lord and our foul-weather guests.”
Asfaloth turned around, agreeable to that plan. If only they hadn’t heard something afoul in the distance.
“He’s dead!” it sounded like a child was crying. This child sounded especially young, like a pile of leaves being blown away in a storm.
The pair beat toward the child immediately.
“He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!” the child continued wailing, understandably so! Asfaloth’s hooves thundered o’er the earth.
“Then why’s his heart still beating?” another child asked. This one’s voice had an electrical lilt to it, like the spark of a match.
[oh lol nevermind guess the descriptions aren’t there XD. checking wavemaker.]
“His eyes are open!!!” the stormy child said.
Lord Glorfindel didn’t pause, but he breathed his relief. Perhaps the children had stumbled upon one of his folk? Still, no one should be out here in this weather… Where exactly were their parents? And if the “dead” person in question was one of Eru’s creations, why was the “dead” not waking in all this clamor?
What he found instead were not children, but animals! A little brown fox with pink flowers blooming on its tail, neck fluff, and ears; an orange mouse that walked on two feet, its tail ending in a thunderbolt; one was an armored crow the size of Lord Glorfindel himself; another was a foggy-furred fox that was roughly the size of an older child; one more was an orange rabbit that stood on two feet, with one eye white and another eye blue; and lastly was a fox with red-tipped black fur in a ponytail, also standing on two feet. All wearing red bandanas somewhere about their persons.
[alright we gotta design a green outfit that’ll kinda sorta work in middle-earth. ready, everybody?]
[congrats to everyone who survived the purge. for whatever reason, our internet’s been acting weird lately. but we’re back in action now thankfully!]
[let’s get back to pokemon of the rings.]
They were all hovering over a white-haired boy clad in green. His outfit was sleeveless, as if it was intended for spring. Lord Glorfindel dropped from Asfaloth immediately. His movements spooked all of the boy’s animals. The crow flapped its wings, the brown fox lowered its ears and stepped back, the black fox moved in front of the mouse, and the foggy-furred fox leapt forward.
“Who the hell are you!?” she growled, standing between Lord Glorfindel and the boy.
Lord Glorfindel held his hands out, attempting to assure them all of his character, “Do any of you know where you are right now?”
“…No!” the foggy-furred fox began crying. She sounded older than the other two he’d heard before, but Lord Glorfindel wouldn’t exactly place her as an adult. Not yet. “This is Mike. He’s our trainer or leader or whatever. It’s been two hours, and he hasn’t woken up!”
“He has Eevee ears now!” the brown fox said.
“Eevee ears?” Lord Glorfindel tried to understand.
“I’m an Eevee. Riley,” the brown fox said. “He used to have Growlithe ears, now he has Eevee ears. And now he sleeps with his eyes open! What is going on!?”
“Are you saying this child used to be human?” Lord Glorfindel asked, not moving any closer, less he frighten them more.
“What do you mean used to be!?” Riley asked before crying anew. “What else could he be!?!”
“I am Lord Glorfindel. Come with me, and I will bear your companion to Rivendell, the Last Homely House East of the Sea.”
alt path.
Lord Glorfindel.
why don’t i just have mike starting waking up in a weird place?
Mike woke to the smell of the ocean. He hadn’t smelled air this salty since his journey in Alola, yet it still didn’t bring Lilycove or Slateport to mind. He was on a bed that smothered him in softness. He was wearing robes. He hadn’t worn clothes so light since his first champion journey.
Most alarmingly, he didn’t see any of his Pokémon nearby!
“Riley!? Chu!?!” Even Shadow was nowhere to be found.
Mike tried to move, but he was exhausted. Even just sitting up made him want to lie back down again. But where were his friends? And where was he???
He held himself as tightly as he could, trying to anchor himself. These clothes and these blankets were too light. He felt like he was floating away. He buried himself in as many layers as he could find.
“You are in Imladris, child: the Last Homely House East of the Sea. More broadly, you are in Middle-Earth,” said a dark-haired man when next Mike woke. The man reminded him a bit of his father: grim and steely-eyed, yet wanting the best for him. He wore yellow-green robes, evoking springtime. Atop his withered and wizened head lay a circlet of silver. Had Ghetis made some friends??? “I am Lord Elrond: a healer, as well as the leader of this city.”
“Like a gym leader?” Mike asked. He’d never heard of anyone running a Pokémon gym, a Pokémon center, and a city all at once. Either it wasn’t busy at all in Imladris, or…
Lord Elrond chuckled, “Not that kind of leader. Your friends have been explaining how your world works compared to our own. For instance, you have been traveling on your own since you were eight years old?”
“I had my Pokémon,” Mike said.
It’d caused a bit of a scandal the first time he’d become a champion. Normally, people started at ten, but because he’d handled Professor Birch’s zigzagoon problem so well… His father was a gym leader, and he and his mother had just moved to town. Thomp was the first friend he’d ever made. She figured he’d be fine. And he was! He had six championships under his belt, with the Galaran championship just ahead of him… He’d even saved a Pokémon world without people in it!
“Journeys are much more hazardous here than they are in your world,” Lord Elrond said. “And our dark-type creatures most certainly will not be joining your rescue team.”
Mike was confused… and tired. And cold? His mind was muddled. It was strange to wake without a Pokémon in his arms.
“Where is everybody?”
“They are outside playing with my children,” Lord Elrond said. “They’ve been teaching everyone how to play soccer. Your creatures have quite a lot more magic at their disposal than we’re used to… I will not lie in this, your friend Pixxy may have saved my beloved’s life.”
“Really? How?” Mike had no doubt that Pixxy had been able to do it. But had his partner been dying or something?
“No. She brought a preventative measure. ‘TA 2509 is not a good year for silver-queens to go on journeys’. ‘Silver-queen’ is what my wife’s name translates to in Common, what you call English,” Lord Elrond said.
“That’s what that meant?” Mike asked to confirm. Xatu had told them that ages ago! He was always being cryptic and shit. Mike had always thought he was talking about a Pokémon or something, except for the year.
“Indeed,” Lord Elrond smiled, seemingly amused. Then he turned grim, or maybe that was just his neutral expression. Mike didn’t have enough data to tell. “Michael, there is something else you should know. What exactly are you?”
“I’m a Pokémon trainer,” Mike said proudly.
“No, I meant what lineage are you?”
“Human…?” Mike didn’t really understand.
The next look on Lord Elrond’s face grew grave.
“Not anymore,” Lord Elrond said. “In your friend Riley’s words, you have Zoroark ears now.”
Mike felt his ears, and sure enough, he found soft tips where there’d been none before. He jolted from the pain.
Lord Elrond took notice. “That usually brings comfort to the owner of the ears. But perhaps whatever transformed you acted too swiftly…? There is much we know not about your coming. However, you are a child. A child from another world, no less. Your parents may be content leaving your survival in your own hands, but I am not.”
Mike felt like he was going to get yet another Trainer’s School lesson. Arceus, if he had to sit through the Status Effects Lecture one more time…! At least add the minor status effects, those were important, too!
“If you are feeling well, there is another who wishes to hold responsibility over you,” said Lord Elrond, “the one who found you, Lord Glorfindel. He is one of our greatest warriors, in strength, stature, and morals. He is known as the Balrog-Slayer. Essentially, he slew a Moltres.”
Mike immediately grew alarmed.
“An evil Moltres.”
[how would you explain what a balrog is to a Pokémon trainer? let me know in the comments below!]
Admittedly, Mike was still upset. Maybe it’d just needed a better trainer! …But if what Lord Elrond had said about this word’s dark-type Pokémon was any indication, then Mike supposed there was going to be a lot to get used to here.
[okay, everyone, we’re gonna do this one last round of caroens and then we’re stopping! it’s late as hell. and i just want to. I finally have a start that I want to go with! Whoo! also, i’ll be right back. body break. everybody stretch!]
[six more horned leafy fishes to go! let’s go everybody!]
[oh by the way, i’m challenging myself to only write 4-5 word responses for all of Mike’s dialogue. Pokémon avatars aren’t super chatty. Mike has a Quiet nature, just like his very first Pokémon ever: Thomp.]
[eagle-moth.]
“Are you ailing, Michael?” Lord Elrond asked. Mike couldn’t even make it to the door before he started needing to lean against the wall. He was exhausted! This wasn’t at all like his transformation in the Pokémon world without people in it… “I suggest that you remain here then. Keep resting. I will have a meal brought to you.”
“Okay, thank you,” Mike said. “…Does Riley want cuddles?”
Lord Elrond’s brow rose. His gaze was steely, yet there was a quirk to his lips that implied knowledge. “I am certain that he will be amicable to cuddling, assuming I can wrestle him away from my daughter. He has taken quite kindly to her, and she to him. He seems to prefer the company of women over men.”
[“He had a bad trainer,” Mike said. It was amazing Riley trusted him half the time, when they first met.]
“That’s Riley for you,” Mike said. His little brothers; Lucky, Lockdown, and Kenken; were all like that, too. Their last trainer had been a doting old woman who wanted them to have a trainer who could keep up with them, someone who could get them out of the city. But she was highly insistent on all four of them staying together! Mike didn’t mind. The more Eevees, the better! “Sir, where’s my bag?”
Lord Elrond paused at the doorway, “I believe Chu has it at the moment. Either him or Shadow.”
Mike thanked him for the information. It was hard to move from the wall despite how much he wanted to move back to the bed.
“Michael, would you like my assistance?”
All Mike could do was nod.
When Mike next awoke, Riley was burrowing as snugly into his arms as he could: some normalcy amidst all the peculiarities of coming to another different world.
and that’s a wrap, everyone! let’s find someone to raid!
HFEproductions 