New Game +: Chapter 8, Human
Masterlist for New Game + available here.
Title: Human
Song Link: Human, behave yourself.
Characters: Silver, N, Black, Juniper, Black's Mother
Word Count: 1880
( Chapter Eight. )
Title: Human
Song Link: Human, behave yourself.
Characters: Silver, N, Black, Juniper, Black's Mother
Word Count: 1880
( Chapter Eight. )
I love Green. Watching him die was a bit heart-wrenching. At the same time, I realize that this was necessary. But damn, you are definitely bold to kill off so many characters at once. It cemented the severity of the situation and tempered the humor with seriousness. It was necessary, and you made your point with a devastating bang (no pun intended).
There were so many things I loved about this piece... though first and foremost has to be the inclusion of the cloning trick. I still look back fondly on how I used to exploit that trick again and again and again with my legendaries so that I could trade with my friends for other ones, but you just reversed my opinion of that trick. The fact that you included it was pretty awesome, mostly because I haven't read anything that deals with its potential consequences. You've done this in spades, and I'm kind of in shock at how someone like Giovanni or Ghetsis could exploit the situation... (and it fits, too, given Giovanni's history with cloning)
Um. Julie? She's definitely one of my favorites. She's funny and snarky at the right times (love her response to Professor Juniper's asinine question; also, the fact that you included that just makes this fic all the more special), but still keeps enough of that naïve personality we saw from N in Black and White. I wasn't too sure how I felt about the idea of N being a male-to-female transgendered person. I'd seen the idea pitched and requested on places like pokanon but had never seen something done about it. You executed it rather well and have made me a believer.
I also really enjoyed how you took into account that time had passed and the characters were developed. At first it was a bit off-putting to see Silver be more open about his emotions, but when I took into account that this was set in the future, it certainly made a lot of sense. Kotone's insistence that Silver is shy and your portrayal of him as insecure really strikes a chord in me, mostly since insecure!Silver is definitely a staple in my headcanon. You wrote him beautifully, I think, though I would have excepted him to be a lot angrier after what Giovanni did to Kotone.
I'm kind of distressed that it ends here. I can't wait for the continuation. I want to see what happens and how you develop Black (I understand that the time constraints didn't allow you to characterize him as you would have liked, so I'll forgive him for his insensitivity) and what happens between Silver and Julie and Cynthia, oh god, I really enjoy your Cynthia. She gives a whole new meaning to the term cougar (I'm assuming that she's been aged up as well; your mention of her wrinkles seemed to imply this).
All in all, I really enjoyed this and can't wait for your continuation!
Reply
Reply
I'm really surprised that no one has ever taken on Pokémon cloning or hacking before. I mean, you can digitize living beings and then get them out the other end. What's to say you couldn't make copies and screw with their stats and do who knows what to them? And Giovanni would be all over that. And so I had to try it. I'm glad you think I did it well!
I don't think trans is the only way to handle how N doesn't fit into Unovan gender roles, but it works, and Pokémon doesn't have any canonically trans characters I can think of. I hadn't actually realized this was a thing other people thought, I just... it made sense to me? I am glad that it worked for you.
Handling Silver's anger was really hard and I am still not sure I got it quite right. He's furious, he's livid, but he's also spent the last fifteen years with Kotone learning not to let his anger overtake him, learning to respond by bending instead of breaking, and now when it's almost appropriate to break he is just curling up into a ball instead. But still trying, because for all that he is insecure and terrified, he wants to do right. To me the most important part of this story and the reason I felt like I could end it here was that Silver got from being in complete shock to choosing a path forward --- not having it pushed on him by Looker, not running away from Cynthia, not blindly following his father. And Julie, for all that she's also damaged, is a huge catalyst for that.
I love Cynthia so much. Cynthia is my favorite everything. :) I am glad you do too!
Thanks so much for reading and for your comments! I am really glad you enjoyed this story and hope that you enjoy any continuation I do as well.
Reply
Leave a comment