Threads are not dead, if on the bumpable index they lie,
and with strange aeons, even old requests may receive reply.
To start things off, I'm looking for a good old original trainer story. I'd prefer one that's at least five chapters in and not featured
on TVTropes, since I'm familiar with those 'fics already.
How about
The Long Walk? It has charming worldbuilding, a relaxed plot that focuses on personal growth and relationships (although not entirely without drama), interesting battles, and unusually mature protagonists for something in the OT journeyfic genre. It hasn't updated in about a year, but I know that the author is still highly active on another forum, so I have reason to believe that the fic will eventually get active updates again.
Or, for something with a bit more of an edge to it, there's
Ripe And Ruin. It's about a teenager from lavender town, Geneva, who knows very little about training and lacks confidence in herself, but leaves on a journey to try to catch up with her long-time romantic interest, Pierce, who's focused on success and has no interest in being slowed down by her. It's dark in a way that feels natural given the world that's been developed, and has very realistic-feeling characters, a gastly starter, and a well-done Pokemon POV chapter.
I already have a long list of fics I've been meaning to read, but if you want to throw me some recs, I'm a sucker for a good friendship fic, including the Pokémon-human bond. I'm good with either pure happy fluff or heartwrenching tragedy (as in, for example,
The Ties That Bind is one of my favorite Pokémon-human bond fics, and fanfics in general
see what I did there with the sneaky extra rec), or anything in between.
For something on the 'pure happy fluff' end, I recommend
Eevee's Story. It's a cute and light story told from an Eevee's perspective, and focuses on their relationship with their trainer and several other trainer's Pokemon (actually more the latter than the former, funnily enough). As a bonus, it's fully complete, clocking in at 63,087 words.
On the 'heartwrenching tragedy' end, there's
Don't Say Uncle and
Futility, which are about game-verse Red and Blue's relationship. The former is a one-shot about the two being friends, while the latter is a very infrequently updated chapterfic told from Blue's perspective about how that friendship falls apart after Red is possessed by a mysterious force. (Don't Say Uncle isn't necessarily set in the same universe as Futility, but there's nothing to contradict the idea and Futility has more emotional impact if you consider it as being such).
To help with my own experiments with them I'm looking for fics starring canon characters or at least featuring them in prominent roles. Particular ones I'm looking for are N, AZ, Steven, Riley, Wallace, Cheryl, Sabrina, Cynthia, and Nando, but I will gladly read a good fic starring literally any human character from the games (including most spinoffs) or anime that isn't Ash or his Pikachu. Only real caveat is the fic shouldn't bash other canon characters because that's immature and stupid and always pisses me off.
I'm also really interested in fics about the Elite Four and Champions (preferably canon characters) from any region!
~Psychic
How about
The Long Road? It's a series of well-written vignettes taken from Steven Stone's journey to become the Pokemon Champion.
I'm looking for a well-written example of a Chosen One fic - on this site, FFN, anywhere. Preferably complete. Any suggestions?
Okay, I have to admit I've never actually finished reading this one myself, and I'm not strictly sure it counts as a 'Chosen One' story, but
Dear Diary on the nuzlocke forums is complete and well written! It's a nuzlocke fic very loosely based off of Black version told from the perspective of the trainer's Pokemon. Blair, the trainer, is a 'Chosen One' just like the Black/White protagonists in the game, but is also a really, really terrible person, and these elements are well-explored in the fic.
I'm looking for pokemon POV stories! What ones do you think are good? Either one-shots or longer works are fine, but nothing from
the contest we had here, please (although that's a good thread to check out for anyone interested in pokemon POV writing in general!). PMD 'fics do not count.
There's
I Became A Vulpix, which is technically from the perspective of a human who wakes up in the Pokemon world in the body of a severely-injured vulpix, but the protagonist has more of a Pokemon-like mentality than many Pokemon-from-birth characters. (Also, it's the 'human' Pokemon world, not the PMD pokemon world). She's adopted by a well-meaning but emotionally distant trainer from a wealthy family who's training to join the police force, a career which the protagonist is also roped into. A lot of the fic focuses on the relationship between the protagonist and the Ninetails also owned by the trainer's family, and there's a huge amount of detail and attention paid to the protagonist learning how exactly Pokemon powers work in this world and how to use them. There's also some very slow-burn mysteries going on in the background alongside the worldbuilding and character drama.
Also, you might like
Tyler's Search, about an Eevee who goes on a quest to find his parents after they were captured by humans. It has some dark elements but overall remains on the lighter side of its 'T' rating. Unlike a few other fics in the genre, it doesn't portray trainers as monolithically evil, but it also doesn't suggest that kidnapping sapient creatures from the wilderness is completely okay so long as an evil team isn't doing it. It's a completed fic, at 253,350 words.
Okay! For my recommendations, I'd be up for some humor-focused stories which
aren't parodies or comedic retellings of the games/anime! Nothing against those types of stories, but I feel like there's a largely untapped well of Pokemon comedy outside those bounds, and I'd be happy to see some examples of it.
Also, if anyone has any good Pokemon POV stories that haven't already been mentioned, I'd be glad to know about them! I'm probably already familiar with anything on the TV Tropes recommendation page or anything that's been published on this forum in the last two years, and I'm also familiar with
Trainerless and
Hyphen, to name two other random fics. I'd generally prefer non-PMD fics unless they have a strong focus on what it'd really be like to be a member of a different species or have other strong 'xenofiction-y' elements.
