#pdtl

“Shine on!”

Allie from @pkmn-downtheline in a Raspberry Ripple ice cream palette!

But Ash isn’t always home, in fact in Skye’s profile it says that Skye lashed out as a kid specifically for attention since her parents were often busy with their training. As the Champion, Ash would sometimes leave home to train and help others (and even Misty would go off to train at times, so Skye would be under Delia in these cases). They still try to be there for Skye as much as possible, and Skye knows they’re only doing good for the nation, but as a child, sometimes she wishes she had their attention a bit more (I’d go into more detail about this but Caroline’s actually writing a ficlet about this very topic of Skye).

And Paul doesn’t never see his wife and daughter, and Paul and Dawn’s marriage is happy. Paul and Dawn love each other, and Paul loves his family and Lizzie especially dearly, which is why he trains so hard so he can have the power to protect them. He’s just not a very verbal person, so he shows he cares in non-verbal ways. He does come home, and he does spend time with Lizzie when he’s home (he always brings Lizzie books since he knows she likes to read, and has taken Lizzie out with him on training for occasion). We even have a whole fanfiction (Lock and Key) dedicated to showing a developing relationship between Paul and Dawn and how they fell in love and how his love for her and his family helped fuel him to want to become Champion and to do good and protect the region that the ones he loves live in.

Lizzie and Paul’s relationship is only so strained because of Austin’s death. Paul couldn’t comfort Lizzie after his death because he isn’t stable, because he blames himself more than Lizzie blames him (and Lizzie only blames him because she needs a desperate reason to not admit that Austin’s death was just an accident and no one’s fault). Lizzie’s image of the Champion is shattered, but Paul keeps training because he doesn’t want anything like that to happen again, and because he still wants to be able to protect people like Lizzie. Paul still cares for Lizzie dearly, and even went out of his way to see her off on her first day as a trainer to give her a blank journal to write in.

Following her talk with Dawn, Lizzie begins to feel a lot better about Paul being away so often. She does miss him when he's gone, and she does wish that she could spend more time with him, but she knows that he's out there doing good and training to become stronger so that he can protect the region when they need him. Remembering what Dawn said about cheering for and supporting Paul, Lizzie decides to support him in her own way. She then proceeds to spend the rest of the day scribbling things down on a piece of paper. Whenever Dawn attempted to peek over her shoulder or ask what she was doing, Lizzie would quickly become flustered and cover the paper, saying she couldn't see it. With that, Dawn would leave Lizzie be to continue her work.

On the night that Paul finally comes home, exhausted from his training and traveling, he makes his way into the kitchen for a drink before going to bed. Upon turning on the light, Paul notices a small stack of papers that had been placed carefully on top of the table. Curious as to what they might be, Paul picks up the stack and immediately recognizes Lizzie's handwriting. At first, he wonders if it's just a homework assignment, but soon realizes that it's a small story she wrote. The story is about Paul and Torterra protecting a small town of people and Pokemon from a rock slide. In the end, they're able to save the town and are praised as being brave heroes. On the final piece of paper is a note left from Lizzie, saying, "Keep fighting, Dad! You're Sinnoh's hero! Do your best! Love, Lizzie". Paul stares at the note for a while before gripping it in his hand--a small smile curving on the edge of his mouth. Before he goes to bed that night, he stops in Lizzie's room to find her sleeping soundly. Deciding not to wake her, he gentle puts a hand to her head before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

Years later, Lizzie and Paul rarely speak after she has left on her Pokemon journey. With the weight of Austin's death still hanging over her, Lizzie's perception of Paul as any kind of hero has shattered. She sees Paul as being nothing more than a powerful trainer who has made his way up into a celebrity-status throne. She feels lied to and betrayed. Paul is aware of what she is feeling, and knows that there is nothing he can do right now to help her. The two become distanced from each other, their relationship heavily strained. Paul completely absorbs himself in his training, doing everything he can to become stronger, as he never wants to fail again. However, there are many times where he finds himself spiraling into a depressive state. He feels like a failure, and often wonders why he's even Champion at all. There are certainly people far more suited for the position--people who would never fail in the way that he had. Whenever Paul finds himself struggling with this state of mind, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper. Looking down at it always reminds him why he has to keep pushing himself to become stronger--why he can't give up on being the Champion so easily. Setting his eyes forward, he becomes firm.

"Keep fighting, Dad!"

Yeah, sure!

It’s all still very much in development, but the main plot line that our fankids are going to follow involves taking down Team Rocket. Ash and the G-Men had taken down Team Rocket years ago, just before Skye was born. Giovanni was arrested, along with many of his supporters (including Ash’s father, who worked closely as a right-hand to Giovanni). But many members got away and were never found. The most prominent of these members are the Team Rocket executives that we all know: Ariana, Archer, Proton and Petrel. The four of them work together to begin slowly building up a new Team Rocket, with Ariana as the leader.

The process is very slow, and they lay low for a long time. Most people think that they’ve completely died out. But they’re still very much alive and slowly growing. They start out as an underground market, selling and exploiting Pokemon for profit so that they can make the money to start building up their organization again. It isn’t until around the time Skye starts her Pokemon journey that they begin taking heavy action once more. There are characters, like Julia, who have been directly affected by Team Rocket--but people brush her off, claiming that Team Rocket has been long gone for years. But Team Rocket eventually exposes themselves to the public a few years later, letting the world know that they’ve returned and are even stronger than before.

Skye and her friends end up becoming directly involved in all of it. I’m gonna lay low on the details for now because there’s still a lot to figure out, but Skye ends up at the center of it all and they decide to go after her. Because Skye has an effect on so many people and Pokemon, each fankid somehow gets roped in, even if just a little. There are some who get more roped in than others. For example, Team Rocket finds that they can exploit Allie’s Dimensional Scream ability, so she gets really involved. Of course, Briar and Kierra become very involved because they’re traveling with Skye. Lizzie and Amber become personally invested in the matter as well because of their love for their friends and Pokemon.

Like I said, it’s all still very much a work in progress, but it’s coming along slowly. Once we know more, we’ll definitely post about it! But for now, I can say that it’s all of these kids working together to fight a greater evil.

I’m glad you think so!! ; w;

It kind of depends on the Pokemon. Much like people, Pokemon all have different personalities--so depending on that, they interact with other Pokemon differently. I didn’t emphasize it too much in the post, but Typhlosion actually has an incredibly bad and violent temper. He lashes out a lot, and it doesn’t help that Skye has a really bad temper too--it can cause them to butt heads (Typhlosion has actually injured Skye before because she got angry and couldn’t control his temper).

As a Cyndaquil and Quilava (even as a Typhlosion, at times), he was incredibly distrusting of Skye. So whenever she would try to play with him like she would her other Pokemon, his first instinct was to attack her. Skye understands that he only does it because he’s afraid and isn’t used to that type of behavior–so she decides to respect that until he’s more comfortable with her. Most of the time, when Skye is off playing with her other Pokemon, Cyndaquil/Quilava will sit away from them and watch on from afar. Skye always feels bad seeing him on his own, but she wants to respect his space too.

Eventually, Quilava starts to feel more comfortable around Skye–but he’s still cautious and doesn’t totally get how to go about playing with her. Skye starts teaching him how to do things like play tug-of-war–a game where he won’t have to feel like Skye is trying to hurt or attack him. He ends up liking tug-of-war, seeing it as a fun test of strength. The more Quilava plays with Skye, the more he starts to trust her and the happier he seems to become. Eventually, he becomes more comfortable playing other games with her–like wrestling.

It’s simple enough when he’s still small–but once he evolves into Typhlosion it becomes harder. He’s bigger than Skye and isn’t always aware of his strength and power. Because of this, Skye ends up with a lot of injuries, especially bruises and burns. Typhlosion always feels bad when this happens–Skye tries hard not to hurt or scare him when they play, but he somehow always manages to hurt her. Skye tells Typhlosion that it’s really not a big deal–what’s fun without a little fire? She’s is just happy that Typhlosion finally feels comfortable enough to play with her like that–it means he isn’t afraid anymore.

Even still, Typhlosion feels bad and watches on apologetically as Briar bandages Skye’s arm.

“Geeze, Skye,” Briar sighs in frustration as he puts the first-aid kid back into his bag. “You’ve gotta be more careful with Typhlosion so you don’t get hurt like this.”

Read Chapter 7, Spiraled Path, here!