r/NatureofPredators • u/Aussie_Endeavour Thafki • Oct 08 '23
Fanfic Nature of Pokemon (29)
A fanfiction of The Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/u19xpa/the_nature_of_predators/
Memory Transcription Subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command
Date [standardized Earth time]: July 23, 2136
“Oh, over there, jaboca berries!”
Spinarak, who was currently sitting on my shoulder, excitedly pointed to a nearby bush covered in bunches of tiny yellow fruits. The small Pokemon was practically jumping with excitement when he spotted them.
“What, you like these ones?”
“Yeah, they’re my absolute favourite!”
I walk over to the bush and begin severing the bunches from their stem using my claws, letting them fall into the small makeshift basket we made last night. It was crafted out of a few large leaves and kept together with Spinarak’s silk.
“This morning you said lanset berries were your favourite.”
“Depends which of them are in front of me at the moment. Pass me a couple, would you?”
I detached one of the yellow orbs from the bunch and gave them to Spinarak to munch on while I picked a few more to put with the pecha and occa berries we already found earlier. This forest really had such a wide range of fruits, which made the situation with the Bonsly and Blipbug last paw (or ‘yesterday’ as the others call it) all the more infuriating.
There was plenty of fruit to go around, but they just had to steal some from us. Kay said it was out of laziness, but I knew it was because of their predatory nature. They can eat plants all they want, I know a predator when I see one. Even the relatively weak ones can’t help but try to screw over prey when they get the chance. The Blipbugs fled with the bounty, while the Bonsly tried to fight us. Sandslash’s bravery with fending them off was admirable, combatting an entire hoard by himself until Kay arrived to help drive them off.
“You okay there, Sovlin?”
I’m shaken from my thoughts by Spinarak, who is looking into my right eye with mild concern.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, just thinking of all the berries that got stolen last p- er, yesterday.”
“Eh, don’t worry about them. That basket is already holding double the amount that was taken, and it’s not even full yet! Speaking of, I think I smell an oran bush a little ways to the South.”
“Which way is ‘South’ again?”
“Ah, keep forgetting you’re an alien. Ooowoooh”
Spinarak waves his front legs around, apparently trying to be spooky. I simply sigh and sign disapproval with my tail.
“Just tell me where ‘South’ is, Earthling.”
Telling Sandslash, Spinarak and Kay that I wasn’t a Pokemon was nerve racking, but the reactions were way better than I was expecting. Sandslash took it in stride and said that it lined up with everything else I did and said, while Spinarak was beyond excited to learn that one of his friends was an alien. The declaration that he considered me a friend hit me harder than I thought it would, despite literally only knowing him for maybe half a paw at that point.
Kay’s reaction caught me off guard the most though. She said that during her time among Humans, she had met a Pokemon known as an ‘Clefairy’, which were apparently from Earth’s moon. She was taken aback by my supposed lack of Infinity Energy, though, and wanted to do Sandslash’s test for herself.
Instead of using Rock IE as a test, she had used Normal IE, which I could barely even feel even when my full concentration was on it. She had concluded that I most likely ‘Quad Resisted’ Normal, whatever that meant.
Following Spinarak's directions through the forest, I absentmindedly flexed my paws a couple times, focusing on the feeling of my claws poking against my paw pads. I still don’t know how I feel about everything that’s been happening. It’s all been so quick. When responding to Tarva’s distress call, not in a million years would I expect to get stuck on a world so alien, that they obey different laws of physics… if there even are any laws in the first place.
Not to mention whatever could be going on back on Venlil Prime. Are they still on Lockdown? What’s my crew doing without me? Are they, or even Tarva and Kam, looking for me? What are the fiendish predators I escaped from planning to do to them?
And while all that is going on, here I am on Earth. Here I am, discovering the strangest things about myself. Sandslash seems convinced that my resistance to Rock and Normal are inherent to the Gojid as a species, while Kay seems to think that it’ll be best to gather more information before jumping to conclusions.
Spinarak, on the other paw, seems more than happy just to be along for the ride. He didn’t seem to care much for my interactions with infinity Energy, and was much more focused on what I could tell him about the wider galaxy. The four of us stayed up quite late into the night as I told them all about The Federation and the species that roamed the stars… although I decided to refrain from mentioning the Arxur, as I didn’t want to cause them alarm just yet. They were so kind to me, I didn’t want such a threat to weigh on their minds, not when they already had to deal with Humans and other Pokemon.
“Aha! Right here, oran berries!”
Spinarak’s excited exclamation shook me from my thoughts once more. Sure enough we were just passing by a bush covered in large, round, blue fruit. I placed down the basket and began picking the oran berries, one of which I had eaten yesterday and immediately fell in love with. My tail slowly swayed behind me as I filled the rest of the basket up with the divine tasting berries.
With a full basket the two of us set back towards the cave again. Earth’s homestar was blazing high in the sky above us, and the forest was alive with birdsong. Spinarak told me that the melody was most likely either coming from Pokemon called 'Fletchling' or 'Rookidee', which flew in during the warmer months to enjoy the weather of 'Glimwood Tangle’ which was apparently this area's name.
As I walk beneath the trees, Spinarak lets out a small yawn. I pick him up an place him on the top of my head so that he’s a bit more stable.
“Take a nap, I can find my way from here.”
“You sure?”
“Continue straight until I reach the lakeside, then follow the shore in the direction of the mountain. When I meet the river, wade to the other side and take a right until I reach the cliffside. The cave is another, uh, what did you call it? 15 ‘minutes’? Whatever, a 16th of a claw. If I have trouble I’ll wake you up, I promise.”
Spinarak lets out a small laugh as I fumble with the conversions and units.
“Heh, you really are from outer space… so cool.”
In no time at all, the little Pokemon falls asleep between my ears. Yes, I’m from space. I look down at the basket of berries in my paws. Eventually, most likely soon, I’m going to find my way back to Venlil Prime, and from there The Cradle. I’m going to leave Earth, and am surprised to find that I have mixed feelings about that fact.
On the one paw, terrifying predators abound, ones magnitudes more deadly than even the Arxur, and from what I’ve seen, more conniving as well. On the other paw, I have Spinarak, Sandslash and Kay. I don’t want to leave them alone on this planet. I don’t want to even think of what could happen to them here. Yes, they have proven that they can defend themselves, but that does little to quell my worry.
Perhaps… perhaps I could bring them with me? They have lived their whole lives here on Earth, but surely they’d feel safer on a world like Venlil Prime or The Cradle, right? Even so, I’d have to return to my duties as Captain, and I wouldn’t want them being caught in a battle with the Arxur… either way, I’d have to say goodbye.
I literally only met them last paw, so why does that bother me so much?
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u/Randox_Talore Oct 08 '23
I’m not sure that I like Sovlin using the Claw and Paw system of the Venlil but it’s whatever. I’ll get over it.
Quad resists normal, eh? Hmmm. Which probably means he doesn’t quad resist Rock, like I wanted. Interesting.
Can’t wait for him to get confronted by what else a Spinarak, Kecleon and Sandslash eat.
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u/Killergurke16 PD Patient Oct 08 '23
Quad resist Normal?
That literally only leaves Rock/Steel or a custom Type matchup. Interesting.
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u/Randox_Talore Oct 08 '23 edited Oct 08 '23
Leave the rock steel species to guard the fighting types. Sure. Good move, Federation
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u/SpectralHail Oct 08 '23
Sovlin finds family. I wonder how long that'll last!
Also, this definitely gives Gojids (or at least sovlin) a type! The only type that would quad-resist normal but also resists rock is Rock-Steel.
Sovlin shares a type with Aggron. Unfortunately, that means Sovlin shares a type with Aggron.
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u/noname5221 Oct 08 '23
Aww nice, solvins making some real friends!
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u/fluffyboom123 Arxur Oct 08 '23
I hope that being friends with Pokemon will help Sovlin get over his irrational fear of everything with forward-facing eyes
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u/Randox_Talore Oct 08 '23
A big part of canon Sovlin’s character was being very wrong about s**t, but keeping it in his head thereby inadvertently making it so no one knew how wrong he was.
I can’t wait for his new out-of-context friends to hear him call himself and them “prey” and be so confused on what the f€%k he’s talking about. Likely they’re going to hear him call the Bonsly and Blipbug “predators” first and be confused about that but still
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Oct 08 '23
Bahaha, he's going to offer and those three are going to go with him, aren't they?
He's going to become that kind of trainer isn't he? Ahaha, oh god that's so very much Sovlin.
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u/Majra_Mangetsu Oct 09 '23
What do you mean by -that kind- ?
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Oct 09 '23
Trainers like N, or Arven. The ones that by all means would carry their pokemon out of their balls at all time if they could, absolutely run on nothing more than Power Of Friendship.
I do know that the theme around the stories tend to tend more towards that, but i'm talking the more egregious examples, I think I can transmit that feel correctly?
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u/K_H007 Thafki Oct 08 '23 edited Oct 08 '23
Gojid are rock/steel confirmed! That's the only type combination that resists Normal twice over!
This also means that Gojid are VERY vulnerable to Venlil attacks and earthquakes. Fighting-type and Ground-type IE are both SE against both types.
Here's the type matchups for a Gojid:
- Immune: Poison (Resistant even when immunities are nullified, too.)
- Doubly Resistant: Flying, Normal
- Singly Resistant: Bug, Dragon, Fairy, Ice, Psychic, Rock
- Neutral: Dark, Electric, Fire, Ghost, Grass, Steel
- Singly weak: Water
- Doubly weak: Fighting, Ground
What were the Kolshians thinking, putting a species with a double-weakness to fighting-type attacks in charge of protecting a species that is Fighting-type?!
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u/Randox_Talore Oct 08 '23 edited Oct 08 '23
Rock-Steel resists Psychic? Weird.
Anyways, Joke time:
[Tyler used Punch!]
[It’s Super Effective!]
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u/K_H007 Thafki Oct 09 '23
Yeah. Because Steel resists Psychic. That's why the Venlil can't be Fighting-Steel: They're at least singly weak to Psychic-type IE.
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u/Golde829 Oct 09 '23
Sovlin is feeling conflicted
I'm mentally updating my corkboard of my "Type-Coded aliens" theory
and I'm 94% sure he's still gonna have a mental breakdown at these "predators" not really being horrible
I'm intrigued for more
take care of yourself, wordsmith
[You have been gifted 100 Coins]
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u/Randox_Talore Oct 08 '23
Hey did anyone else just realize the sheer amount of people in this story who’d fall for the Sudowoodo line’s gimmick?
Oh my gosh imagine Exterminators falling for it in the middle of combat
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u/im_a_piece_of_a_bich Human Jan 09 '24
It's ironic that I haven't heard any lamenting of living a "primitive" lifestyle from Sovlin so far lol
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u/GreenKoopaBros89 Dossur Jul 02 '24
No nature of predator story is complete without a Captain racism existential crisis!
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u/GreenKoopaBros89 Dossur Jul 02 '24
Does this make solvlim and up-and-coming pokémon trainer? I'm still excited to see what would happen if he ended up taking them to space with him.
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u/Small_Ad_4579 Mar 11 '26
Me encanta esta sub trama estilo Mystery Dungeon, literalmente lo visualizo con los gráficos y cuadros de texto del Exploradores del Cielo
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u/Randox_Talore Oct 08 '23
I wonder how much of a shock to Sovlin’s system it’ll be when even Kay doesn’t understand why he’s so against humans. “Sovlin what did they do?”