#foxfall meta

a fox window is a bit of japanese folk magic, specifically from child culture, dating at least to the edo period.

like european concepts such as adder stones (stones that have a hole bored into them by river currents), the idea is to look at something else through the hole, and you will be able to see through illusions that might disguise transformed yokai or other supernatural anomalies. there is a bit of etiquette that you should not point this at a person, because it is accepted that anything you see through a fox window can tell you've done it, and if something has gone far enough to hide their true forms, they might not react kindly to being caught in the act.

“Even if it was,” Ingo finally says, “you would still be my good friend Irida, who I love very much.”

The whole scene itself is just really, really good. But this dialog sticks out to me so much because I feel when tragedy strikes all you really have to carry you through is love.

WHAHAHA SORRY this is such a wall of text but!! Basically I like your fic and character dynamics very much!!! They're wonderful!!! Okay that's all. -SS Zubat

(second question first cus it's short) thundurus-tornadus is basically their word for a tsunami. a lot of weather events in this setting are basically considered acts of god.

(first question next because it's long) in foxfall, draconian gender operates on a trianary of which of the three tao dragons most represents their self-chosen role in life. things like trans/cisgender Do Not Exist in draconian culture because they do not factor for biological sex in how their society functions. that kind of information is considered taboo outside of lovers, doctors, or most immediate family. (hormone therapy and what we'd consider gender reassignment surgery exists, but they see it as matter of dysphoria intervention rather than a gender thing.)

sexuality also isn't something they define either. people marry or cohabitate with whoever, and it doesn't matter if that union produces children. draconians don't really care about the integrity of the bloodline, only if someone has been raised/taught in the draconian way.

(something like ingo and emmet, where they live together as a platonic civil partnership in all but name, is considered completely normal by draconian standards. it's much weirder that they're 30 years old and don't have any kids or apprentices.)

draconians as a whole will accept whatever pronouns they're assigned unless the individual finds it convenient, or even advantageous, to insist on a certain binary pronoun set when it exists in the area's language, but some dragonless choose to default to they/them for draconians out of respect to their gender privacy. precisely because they consider it private information, draconians take the genders/chosen presentation of the dragonless very seriously, since in their eyes knowing that kind of thing is an act of trust.

the setting as a whole thinks draconians are kind of mysterious. "there's this spiritual nomad culture that tames dragons, has genders we don't know about, and keeps huge parts of identities to their graves!" queer culture doesn't insist draconians are themselves a nonbinary/trans society because of the different circumstances, but draconians are considered cousins/friends of the queer community. in places where draconians are common, they're often a baby queer's first exposure to the concept of xenogenders and genderqueer individuals.

trianary semantics under the cut:

well, starting with the assumption that "pokemon" is basically the world's version of "animal", it would make less and less sense for humans to not simply be a one-stage pokemon. from there, it was a simple narrowing down of what a human's type would be and what would make them mechanically strange.

based on what humans can do in the games and show, psychic made the most sense, and normal- because why would the move type be "normal" if humans didn't see it as default somehow?

humans just As A Thing are very intelligent and highly adaptable in the real life with a high mimicry capacity, and it seems that humans have a largely unique ability to domesticate/cohabitate with literally any other pokemon. so it made sense (to me specifically), if humans had a level of psychic communion/compulsion and a really REALLY broad moveset, albeit one only unlocked by the power of friendship. to an extent, it's possible egg moves may also be real, since things like advanced psychic powers can run in families.

a side note- the reason you get four move options in pokemon battles, in-universe, is because humans can only hold on to four moves at a time, and so use it as a sporting standard. the actual pokemon themselves could know more moves for work, tricks, or their own use, but the rule of the sport is four.

beyond the sygna move they can aquire from their pokemon partners, the rest of their moveset is usually a normal type non-combat move or a support move. people who have a moveset full of attack moves or self-harming ones is a sign of something kind of being psychologically fucked. someone's inherent Ability also says something about them occupationally or psychologically. moves and abilities are acquired and changed over time- what does it say something about a person to have the moveset they do?

Said cut content isn't vanishing into the ether, though. We decided to simply move around the story timeline a bit so those events could happen after the end of epistolary, hence the upcoming short "Laventon's Stable Paradox", which should be a good deal more brief than Epistolary (said with hope).

We won't be jumping right back into the frenzies when Foxfall continues! We'll be focusing on character beats and allowing the situation to properly stew in relative peace for a good bit. Domino effects don't happen all at once, after all.

For those of you unfamiliar, or looking for a long-form fic to binge, now is a good time to start reading or catching up!

The series covers what happens to Ingo and Emmet through the events of PL:A, from when Ingo falls to Hisui and his eventual return. Although they are the load-bearing characters, the story isn't solely about the twins, and devotes time to let you get to know the people around them.

Volo summons Giratina because he's trying his best! Free-range uncle Mr. Warden Ingo Sir! Akari is a Zorua and Rei is a time traveler, and by god is Celebi doing her best to clean up after Arceus' well intentioned mistake. Humans know pokemon moves? Laventon is a wife guy. Emmet! Is! A! Good! Man!

It's about kids who shouldn't be heroes, it's about scared teenagers summoning Giratina because being a hero is all that's left. It's about cosmic accidents. It's about humans being kind. It's about people doing terrible things because they are kind. It's about the horror of a god who is all-loving but not all-knowing. It's about people and pokemon. It's about a Subway Boss who doesn't stop at a 150 year old photo of his brother because he likes winning more than anything else. It's about a brain damaged Warden who remembers and forgets and remembers again, and how that might just be enough to fling a light into the future. It's about losing family. It's about making family anyway. It is an intergenerational story where no one falls in love, but it is about love.

It's about twenty years, Hisuian. It's about four weeks, Unovan.