⚡ do the jitterbug! ⚡

---

Rei reached the summit about half an hour before sunrise.

Lord Braviary had taken him most of the way, up to the base of the Stone Portal. Even though there was now a Galaxy Team camp near Moonview Arena, at this hour, there would be no Security Corps to escort him. The peak was shrouded in fog, leaving him to fumble in the dark with the meagre light of the Arc Phone. 

But after climbing through the tunnel, he found that he'd emerged above the main layer of cloud, into a vast purple sky. Higher layers of cloud drifted overhead, both overwhelmingly near and impossibly far.

The Temple, or what was left of it, was hushed and reverent in this twilight. A sacred place, destroyed as it was. His footfalls echoed off crumbling pillars, the wind whistling through the ghosts of arches and passageways. It was starkly different from the clamour and frenzy of only a few days ago. 

He'd never gotten the chance to properly appreciate the Temple, though he'd always seen it from afar, perched atop the mountain, silhouetted by the storm of the rift. By the time he'd had clearance to reach it, he'd had far more on his mind. There were glimpses of the grandeur it had carried, in the gilding of the pillar bases, the polished gleam of marble, the monumental scale of it all. Even in ruins, that gravitas remained.

Rei turned towards the lightening orange glow of the horizon, and found it perfectly aligned with the main thoroughfare of the Temple. He exhaled, the breath coming out as white puffs in the mountain air, and sent out Togetic.

The little Pokemon chirped as he was released, doing a little loop in the air. Then a cold gust blew, which blew him backwards just a bit, making him shiver and huddle up next to Rei. Despite the chill, the sight made the small tension Rei had felt from being up here dissolve into warmth.

“Look who's excited,” he said, holding out a hand for Togetic to perch on. Togetic landed, wings flapping softly. Together, they turned to look down the entrance of the Temple, past the stairs and the ridge of the mountain. They were alone, above the rest of the world, suspended in a sea of clouds beginning to glow golden from within.

With his free hand, Rei dug through his satchel, and found the object he’d carefully wrapped in cloth. Togetic took to the air once more, letting him uncover what lay within: a gleaming green-and-yellow stone, which sparkled as it caught the first rays of light piercing through the clouds.

Togetic had previously shown some interest in this stone, when Rei had brought it back from a space-time distortion. Based on the other stone-based evolutions they’d studied, Professor Laventon hypothesised that it would catalyse evolution into a rare Pokemon hardly ever seen in the wild, Togekiss. But beyond mild curiosity, Togetic had never shown any desire to evolve, and Rei had let his Pokemon be.

That was, until a few days ago, the morning after calming Palkia’s frenzy. Togetic had led him to his storage box, chirping, insistent, until Rei had found the stone once more.

But Rei hadn’t wanted to use the stone right at that moment. Evolution was something special, a once-or-twice in a lifetime moment for any Pokemon. He hadn’t wanted to do it in the mundane surroundings of his home. Nor had he wanted to do it under observation, as exciting that would’ve been for the Professor. This was just for the two of them, back at the place where everything had ended, and begun anew. 

Togetic drifted towards the stone in Rei’s hands, and looked up at him with those same wide eyes that he’d had as a baby Togepi. Rei was struck, then, by love and fondness so overwhelming that he felt it would burst from his chest. Though Togetic had changed—had grown—he was still the same, at heart. And, he would continue to be.

“Go on, then,” Rei managed, the words coming out with a faint wobble. Togetic floated up, nuzzling at Rei’s face one last time, then dropped down to touch the stone with two small hands, joined, for a moment, with Rei’s.

The glow of it was like the sun. Rei never looked away.

Blinking away the afterimages, the changes came into focus. His Pokemon was much larger, far too large to perch lightly on Rei as he had before. His wings had elongated, golden light shining through the outstretched feathers. Togetic—Togekiss looked back at him, and let out a musical trill. 

The sound was more melodic, and resonant, warmer in tone than it had been before, but he could hear his Pokemon, all the same. 

Rei found himself with his hands buried in Togekiss’ soft down, choking back a wave of emotion. He was beautiful. He was all grown up, now.

With the sky brilliantly aflame, and the Temple now bathed in the rays of the rising sun, it was as if Togekiss’ evolution had brought light to the whole world. 

---

“Not so long ago, scant few had ever sighted this Pokémon. But times have been changing. I am certain that Togekiss finally chose to reveal itself, because peace now once more reigns over the land.”

- Professor Laventon’s Hisuian Pokédex

---

Yes, I did in fact evolve Togetic to Togekiss atop the Temple of Sinnoh on my playthrough, after the end credits rolled. I had already planned to make Togetic’s evolution thematic, and it all came together beautifully in-game.

It was a joy to finally come back to this scene with this prompt and do it justice. Rei and his most special beloved bird… 

And some of the original screenshots from that occasion <3

My first and simplest design uses this tall eye as a base, stretched vertically. It's used on Akari, Rei, Hilda, Hilbert, Barry, Bianca... with slight variations in things like eyelash placement and extra decorative lines.

Akari and Rei's headwear are drawn on with facepaint, though I'm eying a particular red cap for Rei once I get it in my store.

A bit more complicated! Here you see me drawing extra hair elements with facepaint to extend existing hairstyles. I usually try to get a close match for most of the shapes with a real hairstyle, leaving smaller decorative bits to be drawn.

Some tips: the shading for facepaint when the Miis are outside of this menu screen is actually a little different. Note how Bianca's hair extensions look too dark here - but in the group photo up above, that's actually the correct hair. Usually you need the palette shade of the hair + a bit darker and a bit more saturated. You can always go out, save your Mii and go back to change it with the fill bucket if it's not quite right.

To match the shader used on the hair, I outline top / outer surfaces with light, and sometimes draw in shadows on the bottom where the hair meets the face.

Laventon uses a more complicated compound eye design. I start with a base that has one big curved line (stretched vertically), then refine the shape by moving around the extra lines we get. Notably, the little hook shape on the inner side of his eye is actually made from an "eyelash". Also, the middle part of his beard is drawn with face paint. The hat is done as custom clothing.

Irida and Sabi use an eye technique with the single floating eye as the base. Here's a tip - some of the eye bases actually have parts that can be toggled or moved, like the "lash" on the base Sabi is using. Their top eye lines are actually a combination of the bottom and top line to get the right curve. You can choose to put white eyeshadow or blush behind the eyes to make "whites" -- however this will still show when they blink. I have a faint white eyeshadow on Sabi, but not on Irida. Here also you see some minimal face paint to complete the hairstyles; note that to match Sabi's correct hair colour outside, it looks a bit dark here in the editor / menu.

Adaman and Melli use a different compound eye design that uses the triangle lash and this almond (?) shaped eye. The extra line on the base eye is actually a moveable / changeable top line.

Some tips for doing complex hair like Adaman's. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to do extensive hair paint, I suggest finding the closest match for the back hair, and the thinnest hairline you can get (so it doesn't poke through). You can rough out your design with flat colours and draft shapes, and go in and out of the face paint view to test it, rotate it, etc. You can change up and refine the other details while you're doing the face paint too - you can see here in this WIP screenshot that I actually changed my mind about his base hair.

Convert tall shapes like his ponytail into the shortest readable form, since your main constraint is often vertical space. Once you're happy with the shapes and base colours, you can refine + add details like shadows and highlights!

Arceus is fully drawn besides the eyes, haha. He can blink and emote! Admittedly, I have a stylus pen. But my tip for doing drawings like this - I had a placeholder nose to help me get the centreline. The rough shapes were blocked out with solid colour, and you can also use a trick to mirror it perfectly symmetrically, though I didn't use that. (It involves selecting + duplicating + flipping the duplicate). I used different sizes of soft brush for the shading, and eyeballed it from a reference 👍 I mostly picked my own colours but the blending modes can be useful as well. When shading the edges, Alpha Lock is your friend!