#gladmoonday2022

Day 7: Free day

I first drafted this piece two whole years ago... for the last day of Lonaweek then. I ended up not finishing on time, and ever since then, I’ve been working on it on and off, before deciding that I have to grit my teeth and finish it this year.

The problem is.... Two years have passed, and I realised that there were so many problems with the piece that I wasn’t happy about ^^; I couldn’t fix the anatomy too much without redrawing the whole thing, and I was running out of time. I’d also not considered the composition enough back then, so there were focal point issues and empty holes. I really considered just abandoning this and redoing the whole thing from scratch.  

In the end, I decided that I wanted to complete this, and save what I could by adding 14 more pokemon in a few days (yes I’m mad). 

Took inspiration from traditional Hawaiian weddings. They’re boarding a double hulled canoe, and Lillie is holding the bottle from their sand ceremony. Location is set on the beach outside Kukui’s house, with Ten Carat Hill in the distance. 

Yeah I know that this is almost like 4 months late but hey here we are 😎Anyways these are just sketches but I tried my best 🤩

Hope you like em!!

[...]

They wear sparkles, wear short skirts and shining white skates with silver blades. They wear glitter on their cheeks and golden eyeshadow to match the clip tangled in their hair.

They have to wear it all so that people don’t see them bleed.

- chapter 1

Moon is seventeen years old. Moon has everything she’s ever supposed to want - a World Championship gold medal, the role of the favorite going into an Olympic season.

Moon feels like she has everything and nothing at the exact same time. Nothing to gain and everything to lose.

Ice is fragile. And she’s afraid of falling down, down, down.

She's not the only one.

(on ao3 here!)

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lonashipping figure skating au, angst with a happy ending. multiple povs, 26 chapters. moon, gladion, lillie, lusamine, dawn/hikari, akari/yunseul, kahili, background/cameo characters.

Three more screws fall, and Gladion thinks that it must be the work of some cheap Silph Co. Multitool. To think, Aether Paradise is a top-of-the-line starship meant to sustain life in even the midst of a supernova, and yet it can be dismantled with one of the oldest tools in the galaxy. With all four screws off, it’s clear that the grate is stuck, and it’s a wonder Lusamine can’t hear the heaving effort whoever is up in the vent is putting into slamming it open. Come to think of it, he should be more worried about this, shouldn’t he? “–not even listening.” His mother’s sneer is in view, and Gladion blinks, too used to her vitriol to flinch as she nearly screams, “When are you ever going to grow up and realize that the universe is not going to drop someone in to save you?” Someone drops from the vent.

It’s that time of year again, and we’re celebrating the whole week (from 23rd March to 29th March) by making lonashipping content!

For inspiration, we’ve prepared a prompt list based on priority attacks:

Day 1: King's Shield - Bodyguard/Assassin/Target

Day 2: Helping Hand - Helping hand/Assist

Day 3: Bide - Slowburn/Anticipation

Day 4: Feint - Secret/Fake

Day 5: Revenge - Vengeance/Counter

Day 6: Follow Me - Follow Me/Side by side

Day 7: Free day

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Day 2: Helping Hand - Helping hand/Assist

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Wela Volcano had been dormant for many years. Shrubs, gorse bushes and yellow grass grew all over the mountain, here and there, except the parts where sharp, black lava rock covered the surface.

The rocky, sandy terrain was difficult to hike through. Goldie and Star were fine, but Manu refused to walk, choosing instead to fly ahead and wait for them at intervals. Silvally, too, hated feeling the sharp, hot rocks beneath his feet. Gladion eventually tore strips off his scarf to wrap around them.

Progress was slow. Every now and then, a salandit would leap out of the sparsely grown gorse and attack. The noise from the grit and sand, the smell of sulphur, and Silvally's distressed growls made it difficult for the other pokemon to sense an ambush, so Moon was constantly looking around them, watching carefully for unusual signs of activity.

She led them over sharp rocks and sandy dunes. They clambered around boulders, struggled through bushes, and leapt over deep cracks in the ground. They came to a stop just before a small peak.

"What now?" Gladion said, glancing around them.

Moon pointed to a patch of wild grass growing along the side of the mountain.

"There's a way down through that," she said. "Just along the side of the mountain."

Gladion's eyes widened. "Along the... Moon. Do you realise how dangerous that is?"

It was a wide enough path, about twelve feet across at its thinnest sections. Even Silvally, the biggest of them, would fit perfectly fine with space to spare.

"It'll be fine, I've walked that path dozens of times before," Moon assured him cheerfully.

Actually, she'd only done it twice, but he didn't need to know that.

Moon's newest job sounds simple. Escort a human and a rare pokemon to the Altar of the Sunne, protecting them from hunters and assassins.

So why is she beginning to feel like she has absolutely no idea what's going on?

--- Day 1: King’s Shield - Bodyguard/Assassin/Target ---

As far as job requests went, this was definitely one of the most dangerous ones Moon had ever taken.

Normally, she was assigned to deal with wild pokemon, or handle deliveries. Occasionally, she was sent on rescue missions. Once in a while, she had to threaten and subdue bandits and robbers.

This time, however, Moon was beginning to wonder if she should ask for extra danger money. Within a single day, she had already fought three battles with armed hunters intent on capturing her client.

This was the fourth.

Manu, her decidueye, crashed to the ground as the lurantis struck him with another charged leaf blade. To the left, the castform tried to spew fire at him. Goldie grabbed it by the head and smashed it into a tree. The castform screeched, then fell still.

Now it was just the lurantis, Goldie, and Star.

"Goldie, stop it moving! Star, get ready!"

Obediently, her kommo-o sprang towards the lurantis. Behind him, her toxapex raised her front two arms threateningly.

"Leaf blade! Leaf blade!" shrieked the other trainer. She tried to rush towards her fainted castform, fumbling with her bag. In a flash, Moon blocked her path.

"I'm not letting you heal it," she said, pointing a razor-sharp dagger at her face. "Drop the bag."

As expected, the dark-haired woman had no combat skills herself, and could only glare helplessly as she obeyed. Moon lifted the bag with one hand, keeping the dagger trained on her target.

She smirked. There were a variety of healing potions, but no antidotes or full heals.

Amateur.

Read more on AO3