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The Alola Pokedex

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Mandibuzz (Vullaby)

Overview

Mandibuzz are widely known as a female-only species take great pains to adorn themselves but never seem to attract a male to mate with. This is mostly propaganda. In the 1940s the United States introduced mandibuzz to Alola to bond with the existing braviary. The juxtaposition of brave warrior birds protecting stereotypically feminine “civilians” was used to motivate troops by reminding them of home.

Even at the time scientists largely knew that this image was partially false. Mandibuzz are hermaphrodites that lay and fertilize eggs. Their adornments are partially to attract mates but are also used for hunting and to satisfy their own vanity. The mates they attract are other female mandibuzz. While they are often portrayed as carnivores, mandibuzz are carrion birds with jaws too weak to pierce the skin of many pokémon. This misinformation was spread because their scavenging is far more reliable than braviary’s hit-or-miss approach of hunting large aquatic game. Sometimes the mandibuzz feed the braviary. This undercuts the image of brave soldier birds.

Mandibuzz are relatively intelligent and social birds. Many trainers are surprised to learn that in captivity they are actually very clean eaters and reliable groomers with the added bonus of being easily housebroken for a bird. While their bone decorations can be a little expensive, they need to be replaced infrequently enough that mandibuzz are not substantially costlier to care for than the average large bird.

It should be noted here that, like gumshoos, mandibuzz ownership carries political subtext. Specifically the vultures are very popular among LGBT trainers. A female trainer with a mandibuzz will probably be read as lesbian more often than not. Mandibuzz were used for decades as a small sign of self-expression and a means of identifying other lesbian trainers. This has only become common knowledge in the last few years as many, but not all, mandibuzz trainers have publicly revealed their sexual orientation. The intersex community also uses mandibuzz as a symbol. This has caused some public conflict between activists over which group has a better claim to the species.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as dual dark- and flying-types. This typing is uncontroversial.

Vullaby are small and plump birds. Most of their plumage is brown, black, or grey. Hatchlings have pure white down feathers. Aside from a small tuft on top of their head, vullaby have no feathers on their head or neck. Their wings are very small and vullaby are functionally flightless. A fluffy collar of soft feathers rings their neck. In addition to being flightless, vullaby are ungainly on land and must awkwardly waddle around.

Mandibuzz have long wings. The feathers at the tips of the wings are lighter than those towards the base. Vullaby’s collar has grown into a mess of long and fluffy feathers that extends onto the chest. Mandibuzz also gain a skirt of similar feathers to keep them and their chicks warm. Upon evolution a mandibuzz’s tail grows in length. Young mandibuzz retain a hair tuft; older birds have entirely bald necks and heads. Mandibuzz have powerful wing muscles to compensate for their own weight.

Mandibuzz reach a maximum wingspan of two meters. Unadorned mandibuzz typically weigh about ten kilograms but bone ornaments can raise this to twelve or even fifteen kilograms. Mandibuzz can live up to fifty years in captivity or thirty in the wild.

Behavior

Contrary to popular belief, mandibuzz are exclusively scavengers. In fact their beaks are so weak that they struggle to break the skin of many pokémon. This leads to symbiotic relationships between mandibuzz prides and other large birds. In Alola, Galar, and parts of North America this relationship is formed with braviary companies, but in other parts of their range the prides attach to birds such as harpyre, rherhea, or South Island decidueye.

Mandibuzz play a key role in the lives of Alola’s rufflet. While braviary are off hunting, some of the mandibuzz pride will stay back and keep an eye on the rufflet and vullaby. Others will fly over the land and use their keen sense of smell to find recently dead pokémon. The mandibuzz carries an older rufflet with them when they hunt. When a carcass is found the rufflet is dropped off on a tree branch. The mandibuzz will then carry the carcass up into the tree where the rufflet will cut it open. Both birds will share in the kill and the mandibuzz will pick out any bones she wants for herself or her vullaby. The pair will then return to the pride’s nesting grounds.

The adornment of vullaby is primarily for defensive purposes. The young birds are periodically given skulls or other bones to guard themselves with. The bones are held in place with the thick, sticky spit of their mothers. Dense bone plating guards all the most vulnerable areas of a vullaby.

Mandibuzz adorn themselves with bones partially for defense. Some bones are carefully hidden under their feathers to safeguard organs. Others are visible. These bones are believed to be used for similar purposes to jewelry in humans. They are partially used for attracting mates, partially as a sign of their ability to successfully provide for their pride, and partially for simple self-expression. When members of two prides meet they often trade ideas for adornment. Trendsetting mandibuzz can have their fashion innovations spread across their entire archipelago in a matter of weeks.

Mandibuzz occasionally kill cubone. They only do this when food is abundant and there is leisure time. A mated pair or an unmated female and one of her mothers will perch in cubone habitat. When a cubone is alone, one mandibuzz will swoop down in front of it and begin to act aggressively. The goal is to take the cubone’s club, but sufficient distraction will also work. When the cubone is open the other mandibuzz will fly in from behind, grab the cubone, and fly it into the air. After catching a thermal and rising as high as possible, the cubone will be dropped. If it survives the impact the process will be repeated as much as necessary. Cubone clubs are considered to be extremely valuable for ornamentation and their skulls, intact or cracked, are good for protection.

Prides tend to consist of five to eight mated pairs, a handful of unmated young adults, and their children. Young adults occasionally move between prides. While children are attached to their parents, childcare and almost all other tasks sans hunting and bone gathering are communal. Sick birds will be supported by other pride members.

Husbandry

Mandibuzz are relatively self-sufficient. They are easily housebroken and keep themselves clean. Mandibuzz and older vullaby will happily eat almost all forms of meat. Unlike most carnivorous birds, they will eat kibble on occasion. Raw or cooked meat is strongly preferred, though. In most areas it is legal to let mandibuzz scavenge on their own as they do not actively kill their prey. They will need to be accompanied by another pokémon capable of slicing skin open when prey is found. Some mandibuzz have learned how to use knives. This allows them to scavenge unsupervised. However, mandibuzz often see knives as very valuable bones and refuse to give them back under any circumstances.

Mandibuzz will often get their bones from their prey. Gifted bones will make them exceptionally happy. Cubone clubs and skulls are viewed as the highest quality bones of them all. A handful of specialty stores sell bones for mandibuzz. Vullaby will need proper skulls and feather-safe glue to secure them in place. If there is no mandibuzz around to do it, the trainer should either take lessons on bone crafting or have their armor custom made by a professional. Both options can be rather expensive.

Both mandibuzz and vullaby are very affectionate. While resting they prefer to cuddle with their trainer. They will often groom long-haired trainers whether or not it is wanted. Sometimes mandibuzz will present their trainer with interesting bones or shiny rocks or bits of metal as gifts. Wearing these will make the pokémon very happy. Many trainers are shocked to know that mandibuzz only communicate in growls and whistles. They do not have the ability to chirp or make many common bird sounds.

Vullaby will tolerate pokéballs for up to twelve hours a day. Pokéball tolerance varies by mandibuzz but most prefer to spend their day scavenging or socializing and their night near their trainer or teammates. The relative safety and comfort of pokéballs allow for neither and are therefore often rejected.

Mandibuzz are very caring Pokémon. They will look out for young teammates, children, and even their trainer. Several guides list mandibuzz as one of the best pokémon for households with young children as the birds will happily guard and play with infants, toddlers, and preteens. Teenagers hold less interest to mandibuzz, although teens going through goth, emo, or punk phases still manage to pique the bird’s attention due to the similarities between the fashion and their own plumage. Dark clothing, long (or no) hair, and many accessories are good ways to gain a mandibuzz or vullaby’s trust.

Illness

Between their powerful guts and obsessive grooming, mandibuzz almost never get sick. That does not mean that humans and other birds cannot get sick from them. Mandibuzz that scavenge naturally or eat raw meat tend to have a variety of illness-causing bacteria on their faces and in their droppings. Their waste should be handled with care and kept away from other birds. Cuddling and direct contact should only be done after a mandibuzz has had its face washed with warm water. Soap can irritate their skin and should be avoided.

Evolution

Vullaby grow in a series of growth spurts. Each can increase their weight by two to ten percent. These are very normal in vullaby and do not necessarily signal the approach of evolution. After large growth spurts mandibuzz (and trainers) must find the vullaby a new set of protective bone plating to wear. Around their fifth birthday vullaby begin to properly evolve. They will reject new sets of armor and gain thicker plumage over their entire body. Over the course of four to six months vullaby’s neck will grow much, much longer and their wings become stronger.

In the wild evolution grants a mandibuzz almost all rights and privileges of a member of the pride. A few move to a different pride at this time to preserve genetic diversity. Once courtship is completed and a mate is selected (see Breeding), mandibuzz lose their head tuft and become full adults.

Battle

Mandibuzz are bulky birds. Unfortunately for them, skarmory and corviknight are bulkier and have more offensive power through sharp beaks and wings. Mandibuzz have barely any power at all and are only really able to injure foes through toxic. While they are durable for birds, possessing relatively dense skeletons and external armor, they are still mid-sized birds relying on bone armor. On the competitive circuits most offensive pokémon will wear them down before succumbing to poison damage. In addition to the metallic birds, dragons, mantine, and gliscor all perform the same role with either better bulk or more offensive power to compensate.

On the island challenge mandibuzz are less restricted. For the first few islands they will have enough power to hurt their foes and at the end of the challenge they will still be bulky enough to use a combination of roost, protect, substitute, and toxic poisoning to stall out many opponents. Offensive moves such as dark pulse or heat wave can help wear down opponents. Pokémon that take no damage from most poisons can cause mandibuzz serious trouble.

Vullaby are quite capable of pulling off a similar strategy. What they lack in mobility is made up for by greater protection. Due to the need to move their body and a heavy external shell, when the shell is removed or chipped away they can move somewhat quickly and strike with more power than would be expected from a young bird. Nasty plot can help make vullaby either powerful bulky special attackers or relative glass cannons. Unfortunately, by the later islands vullaby will be too weak to do much damage to opponents even after a boost.

Acquisition

Mandibuzz prides are typically found near braviary companies along the coasts of Alola. Conversely to braviary, mandibuzz are fiercely protective of their offspring but often willing to accompany trainers themselves. Wild vullaby can only be obtained by humans who have been well accepted by a pride through frequent visits and occasional gifts of meat and bones. Mandibuzz have some understanding of human culture and will occasionally gift a chick to the child of a human they are very close to as the kid embarks on their journey.

For the most part mated mandibuzz are content to remain where they are. Unmated mandibuzz can sometimes be impressed by gifts of bones and displays of power and friendship with other birds, especially birds of prey such as braviary, noctowl, and talonflame. Trainers with interesting clothing or accessories also get more attention than those with boring style choices. Mandibuzz also have a fascination with transgender trainers (especially those who very recently started hormone replacement therapy), intersex trainers, and female presenting trainers in a relationship with another female-presenting person.

Vullaby eggs can be purchased from some breeders and specialty stores but they are often rather expensive. Both stages may be acquired with a Class III license.

Breeding

Mandibuzz courtship takes place over the course of months or years as a prospective pair spend increasingly more time around each other and give several gifts. Mutual grooming is common. When the relationship is consummated both birds lose their head crests. Mandibuzz are ground nesting birds in most of their range but tend to build slightly elevated nests in Alola to deal with rattata. Their nests can be up to three meters across and are at minimum big enough to hold several chicks and both adults. The nests are often decorated with bones and interesting looking and smelling artifacts and branches.

A pair usually produces one litter whenever all chicks have evolved. There is no set breeding season. In some pair one partner will always lay the eggs and the others will always fertilize them. Others switch between litters.

In captivity mandibuzz generally form their strongest bond with their trainer. This often entirely precludes proper pairing and mating unless both birds were raised by humans from before their evolution and come to view them as parents rather than mates. Because of this complication and the difficulty of obtaining wild vullaby, mandibuzz breeding is best left to professionals.

Subspecies

Mandibuzz are found across almost all of North and South America and have been introduced to Galar and Alola. Both regions have had the northeastern mandibuzz introduced as they are the only subspecies that naturally partners with braviary. Most subspecies are similar in appearance and ecological role to the northeastern mandibuzz even if they bond with other raptors.

The most visually distinct subspecies is the Amazonian mandibuzz. These birds have white feathers over almost all of their body except for a black fringe at the edge of their wings. They are best known for their colorful necks and faces. Blue, purple, red, yellow, green, and orange are found in some pattern on almost all Amazonian mandibuzz. Rather than bones, these birds primarily display and attract mates through their natural coloration. Due to their relationship with harpyre, Amazonian mandibuzz have fire resistant feathers and a remarkable tolerance for smoke inhalation. Their blood is full of toxic chemicals from the smoke and makes them even more dangerous to eat than most subspecies. The subspecies is currently the only one assigned a poison- and flying-typing.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Primeape (Mankey)

Overview

Despite being among the closest pokémon relatives to humans, primate pokémon are some of the hardest to train. This is because humans have similar anatomy but often radically different mindsets than most other primates. Simple human behaviors such as eye contact and smiling can convince primate pokémon that they are facing a challenger to their mates, food, or territory.

Primeape are the textbook example for these problems. Eye contact or bared teeth will instantly set them on the warpath against other primates, humans included. Even intrusion into their space or being near the pokémon’s typical feeding area can lead to fights. Because primape are strong enough to break steel in a few hits these are not fights the trainer can win.

Primeape are not recommended for beginners. Experienced pokémon trainers with an abundance of patience, a gentle presence, and at least one other pokémon strong enough to shut down challenges might be interested in training one.

Physiology

Both evolutionary stages are classified as pure fighting-types. The ruling is not controversial.

Mankey have very thick fur that hides the general shape of their body and makes them appear substantially larger than they are. The fur on their paws and at the tip of their tail tends to be slightly darker than that on the rest of their body. Mankey have long and powerful limbs. Both their hands and feet have long digits that can be moved independently of each other. Mankey’s long tails are prehensile. Like primeape, mankey have large and prominent ears and pink noses that extend out of their fur.

In most ways primeape resemble a larger mankey. There are even scientists who argue that they should be merged into a single evolutionary stage. However, primeape have two notable external differences. First, primeape have pads over their buttocks referred to as sex glands. These are typically filled with blood and appear to be red. When a females ovulate her pads swell to signal her willingness to mate. Second, primeape’s tails are proportionally much shorter than those of mankey.

Primeape are built to be flushed with adrenaline for long periods of time without serious damage. Their muscles repair themselves quickly, they have powerful hearts and lungs, and blood can be diverted from their brain towards their muscles without many consequences as a fight wears on. This allows primeape to continue fights or pursue intruders for far longer than any other primate pokémon species can. Primape’s brains are almost uniquely capable of operating with minimal blood flow for extended periods of time.

Contrary to popular depictions, primeape and mankey are usually quadrupedal unless climbing or trying to make themselves appear bigger to intimidate opponents.

Male primeape can grow up to 1.2 meters long from their nose to the end of their tail. They can weigh up to 25 kilograms. Females seldom reach fifteen kilograms. Both males and females typically live for about forty years in the wild or sixty in captivity.

Behavior

Primeape live in strictly patriarchal troops. One male holds absolute authority and sires almost all children. The other males and females are kept in line. Non-dominant males in the troop behave much like females and assist in the childrearing of the troop’s children (see Breeding).

Unsuccessful challengers to a troop’s dominant male end in the challenger’s death. Successful challengers leave the dominant male alive and do not kill his children to help maintain the loyalty of the new troop. Formerly dominant males also assist in defending the troop or in hunts. When a male primeape evolves they are kicked out. The newly evolved pokémon has a right of challenge, although failure ends in death. As such this option is seldom taken. Primeape who do not challenge their troop’s dominant male will head out to find a bachelor troop or, rarely, a human trainer, and train in hopes of future conquest.

Genetic diversity in troops is maintained by “raids.” These occur when all male primeape in a troop attack another troop at night and drag female mankey back to their camp. In a rare display of female social power these mankey have the right to visit their old troop so long as they return to their new one by sundown. Mankey approaching evolution will sometimes steal infants away for the day in mock raids. If the baby is killed or seriously injured during the course of the practice raid the offending male will be publicly executed by dismemberment.

Despite their aggressive reputation, primeape are almost entirely herbivorous. All troop members forage for grains, vegetables, and fruit during the day. While primape are omnivorous most of the flesh they consume is insects and small non-pokémon animals. These hunts appear to be more for sport than nutrition. In times of extreme scarcity the males may band together to hunt larger pokémon. Because food is abundant in Alola this has never been observed in the archipelago.

Unlike the other primates in Alola, ambipom, passimian, and oranguru, primeape do not make their homes in the trees. Instead they live on cliffs, either inland or by the coast, and use their long limbs and prehensile tails to climb up and down the rockworks. Because they do not eat eggs coastal birds usually leave them alone. Primeape are only preyed upon by the largest predators in Alola. Of those only salamence and metagross regularly attack a troop in their home.

Like most primates, primeape engage in social grooming to build bonds and maintain cleanliness.

Husbandry

The difficult process of bonding with a mankey or primeape is detailed in the Acquisition section. This section deals exclusively with caring for a pokémon that is already relatively docile.

In captivity mankey and primeape should be fed a mix of nuts, berries, tubers, vegetables, and grain. Fresh food is best but dried or canned food can work when on the trail for less than a week. Primate biscuits are relatively expensive but make for good treats. Peanut butter, honey, and commercially available cereals also make for good treats. Treats are best administered in puzzles, such as PVC pipe systems that must be manipulated in certain ways to get the treat out or by placing the treat in a frozen block of ice.

Both stages should be groomed at least once a day every day to keep them relatively docile. The pokémon will occasionally attempt to groom their trainer’s back and should be allowed to do so. Primeape are surprisingly fond of small cute pokémon and will frequently play with them. This also helps keep them calm. Mirrors and very durable toys can work as enrichment objects. Rubber and metal playsets can also work so long as the pokémon is monitored to keep them from trying to eat inedible components. Very friendly primeape and mankey can be played with using laser pointers. Curiously, wind chimes have a very strong calming effect on primape.

The biggest difficulty in caring for the line, and primeape in particular, is avoiding accidental displays of aggression. Primeape communicate friendly intentions through grunts and tongue clicking. These should be done often around primeape and mankey. Screams, barks, eyebrow raising, staring, eye contact, teeth baring, yawning while looking at the pokémon, and hitting the ground signal aggression. Because barking is an aggressive signal it is best to not raise primeape and particularly exciteable canines on the same team. More withdrawn canines such as ninetales (but not vulpix), umbreon, and manectric can work as partners. Pokémon with a penchant for staring, such as mime sr., are incompatible with primeape.

Primeape are relatively intelligent and considerate pokémon when in a healthy relationship with their trainer. They are easily housebroken and will sometimes attempt to help with housework. While they can be trusted to babysit children and young pokémon, other help should be politely declined as primeape have a tendency to accidentally break objects.

Illness

Sick primeape and mankey often show similar symptoms to sick humans. Mild respiratory illnesses are best treated through humidity and Vitamin C. Anything more severe should be handled by a veterinarian as sick primeape can be incredibly temperamental.

The alpine primeape’s population has been sharply reduced over the last thirty years by an infectious venereal disease. Any male primeape that becomes infected with the bacteria will at minimum become sterile and will typically die slowly and painfully over the course of the next month. The Japanese government has prohibited the exportation or capture of alpine primeape since 1995 and has culled or removed most lowland primeape in the area to prevent the illness from spreading. The quarantine procedures have been successful, if controversial, as of press time.

Evolution

Mankey typically evolve around their second birthday. Unlike most species frequent battle does not result in faster growth rates. The formal demarcation of evolution and the point where male primeape are kicked out of the troop and female primeape are eligible reproductive partners is the first swelling of the sex glands.

Battle

Primeape, and especially the Chinese primeape, are ferocious battlers with very strong attacks. Outside of China they are still relatively unpopular choices due to the difficulty in training them. Other fighting-types such as machamp and hariyama can hit even harder and tank more hits. Primeape’s agility is impressive, but hawlucha are stronger and faster than primeape and have the ability to take to the air. Furthermore, even well-trained primeape are known to ignore orders during the heat of battle.

Hawlucha are banned from most state-sanctioned tournaments in China. The ban, combined with the cultural significance of primeape (see Subspecies), has led to primeape being reasonably popular as a revenge killer and wallbreaker. Their ability to jump rather high in the air and strike birds with a thunder or ice energy-infused punch makes primeape relatively effective anti-air pokémon.

Any trainer who can command a primeape is unlikely to need it on the island challenge. In any case, primeape and mankey function best when they hit hard and fast and never give the opponent a moment to rest. More complicated strategies are generally inadvisable because primeape may ignore critical orders and doing anything other than attacking gives opponents a chance to exploit the pokémon’s relative frailty. Training should focus on power, jumping, and use of elemental moves.

Acquisition

Primeape are most commonly found on the coastal cliffs of Melemele and Poni. During the day they can be found in plains and forests near their home base. There are two approaches to capturing one. Recently evolved male primeape and male mankey close to evolution will sometimes challenge a nearby trainer to test their strength. If the trainer is successful, the pokémon will agree to come along with relatively little fuss. As male primeape are larger than females and this approach involves less resistance, it is the better path when possible. Unfortunately it requires relying on a primeape or mankey to make a given decision.

Proactive primeape hunting must target females. This approach, as well as the first, works better for male trainers. If a female primeape is found hunting alone she can be ambushed. After a few attacks land, capture can be attempted. This simulates a raid and makes the female more inclined to trust their trainer than they might otherwise be. However, if the trainer plans to frequently leave the primeape’s home range they will break the implicit promises that underpin raids in the wild. This will cause the female to become extremely rebellious for several months or even years.

Calming primeape down requires acting in a dominant role. Many trainers mistake dominance for cruelty, which it is not. Instead trainers should set clear boundaries and enforce them through mild punishments. A stronger pokémon than the primeape should be kept on hand for at least the first few weeks in order to quash challenges. Rewards and attempted bonding should be more common than punishments. Eventually the primeape will give in and start accepting treats and grooming. Many trainers are initially scared that this is only an act of deception but primeape seldom bother to hide their true intentions. Rejecting attempts at reconciliation will only drive the primeape further away.

Mankey can be captured with a Class IV license or adopted or purchased with a Class III. Primeape require a Class IV license to obtain.

Breeding

In the wild female primeape in heat will approach the dominant male and display her sex glands. Occasionally a formerly dominant male will elope with a female in secret. This is one of the few times that primeape engage in deceptive behavior.

Pregnancy typically lasts ten to twelve weeks at which point a single mankey will be born. All members of the troop collectively care for the children. Surprisingly even the males are very fond of infants and will let the baby crawl all over them. Zoo populations have been known to treat small pokémon that enter their enclosure as beloved pets. Trainer-owned primeape often help raise smaller or younger pokémon and are even competent at caring for human infants.

Captive breeding is not recommended outside of zoos. Males that lead a troop tend to behave very aggressively towards all humans, including formerly trusted trainers.

Subspecies

Buddhist monks brought lowland primeape to Alola in the early Nineteenth Century. These primeape are native to the central regions of Japan. Unlike the Alolan population they tend to live on the walls of canyons and in the rocky cliffs near glacial highlands.

Alpine primeape are native to the mountains of Sinnoh. They are well known for their fluffy white fur and fondness for bathing in hot springs. Far and away the calmest subspecies, alpine primeape routinely venture into small settlements on Mt. Tengan. They are a tourist attraction in Kannagi Town due to their fearlessness. Locals are very tolerant of the pokémon and they have historically protected each other from threats. The alpine primeape conservation program is formally based in Kannagi, although most of the employees work in the larger city of Tobari.

Chinese primeape are the largest and most famous subspecies due to their prominent role in Chinese folklore. Buddhist monks in particular have a long history of raising primeape. Managing to bond with creatures famous for their powerful rage was a sign of spiritual power. Conveniently, the primeape also made powerful allies in eras where Buddhism was disfavored.

Chinese primeape are classified as dual fighting- and fairy-types due to the variety of strange tricks they can wield, such as distorting the size of objects. Magic, while a nebulous concept in and of itself, is often associated with the Chinese primeape. They are said to have been the guardians of heaven and the peaks. Chinese primeape are one of the few pokémon known to practice agriculture and have selectively bred peaches for millennia.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Delibird

Overview

Delibird are known as compassionate healers, guides, and messengers. A variety of arctic peoples used tame delibird to communicate between tribes separated by inhospitable tundras or frozen seas. Their playful demeanor and colorful appearance led to them being adopted as messengers of The Northern Saint by the Church of Life. Although the Church has phased out delibird’s use as sacred messengers following recent discoveries the birds remain a worldwide symbol of winter, gift giving, and holiday celebrations.

The species is undeniably playful but their gregarious nature and relatively low power make them a poor choice for trainers on the island challenge.

Physiology

Delibird are classified as dual ice- and flying-type pokémon.

A thick coat of short red feathers covers most of delibird’s body. A “beard” of fluffy white feathers extends below delibird’s face. Two crests of very long white feathers extend above the eyes like eyebrows. Delibird’s beak is covered in white and red stripes. While not as big as toucannon, the beak of and adult is big enough to store at least two wishiwashi. The size and shape of the Alolan delibird’s beak is not seen in other subspecies and is believed to come from interbreeding with toucannon. Delibird have yellow webbed feet.

While their wings are proportionally small, delibird can control their descent and maintain altitude to a degree. Flight is primarily used to get down from their nest to the water or to make a particularly powerful jump when scaling cliffs. Alternatively, delibird can get airborne for mid-distance low altitude flights with a running start. Delibird are primarily aquatic and can dive up to one hundred meters.

Delibird are the only known bird with a prehensile tail. This is used to wrap up berries, fish, and interesting objects while exploring or returning to the nest. The tail of Alolan delibird is smaller than their arctic counterparts, but is still large enough to wrap up a wishiwashi or a few berries.

Adults are about one meter in height and typically weigh three kilograms. They have a life expectancy of six years in the wild or ten in captivity.

Behavior

Delibird are gregarious and live in carols of fifteen to fifty birds. However, they hunt alone. Most of delibird’s diet is made up of fish and invertebrates, including small water- and bug-type pokémon. They hunt by either flying just above the surface until they see prey or by diving and chasing prey underwater. Hunting takes up most of a delibird’s waking hours. The remainder is spent socializing with other birds and exploring their surroundings.

Even by bird standards, delibird are curious. They are prone to making and playing games with other delibird and even other species, going onto land to try new berries, and using seashells and stones as toys. Their curiosity or gregarious nature leads them to approach humans and pokémon and exchange gifts or attempt to play. When pokémon, including prey species, are starving delibird will occasionally share some of their catch with them. This habit combined with the relatively low nutritional value of delibird leads to the birds having almost no regular predators.

While Alolan delibird are not properly migratory, pairs and unpaired subadults sometimes move between carols on separate islands. Delibird can determine their location using Earth’s magnetic field and use this information to return to places they have been before.

Spending more than a few days away from cool water will lead to overheating.

Husbandry

Delibird captivity is best handled by well-resourced stationary individuals able to raise at least ten delibird at once. When held alone or in very small groups delibird grow stressed and begin to develop health problems. Climate control is also important to delibird and makes it very difficult to care for them while on the trails of Alola. Freeze balls help mitigate the problem but delibird dislike pokéballs and will not tolerate even freeze balls for more than an hour or two a day. When possible delibird should be kept in quarters that are sixty degrees or cooler. Cold baths in room temperature areas can also satisfy the bird.

If a trainer wants to raise a single delibird than it is recommended to keep other birds on the team. At least three hours a day should be spent either directly playing with the delibird or being present while other birds play with the pokémon. Enrichment objects should be purchased frequently enough that the pokémon never grows bored with all of their toys. The pokémon will almost always want to sleep in their trainer’s bed. Mirrors make for good enrichment items that also have a calming effect on delibird held as individuals. Ditto are the best teammates for alleviating social stress.

About 80% of delibird’s diet should be made up of fish. Most fish are preferred whole, but individual birds may prefer certain species cut down to smaller sizes. The remaining 20% should be made up of insect mixes, shrimp, crabs, or brine shrimp. Zooplankton mixes, while somewhat expensive, also work. Many large facilities keep zooplankton and crabs living in the diving pond for enrichment purposes. Berries make for good treats but should not be a routine part of the bird’s diet. Delibird should be offered a little bit more than they will eat. Only birds with a history of starvation will regularly overeat. Drinking water is unnecessary but occasionally used for either proper drinks or as a toy.

Climbing structures and water at least seven feet deep should be provided whenever possible. Most large pokémon centers have bunk beds and pools which can satisfy both needs. Delibird should be exposed to salt water at least once every two weeks to keep their salt glands functional. If this is not possible small amounts of salt should be added to their drinking water or baths.

Delibird can be housebroken, although the process usually takes several weeks. It is easier if another housebroken bird is already on the team. Toucannon tend to be bad influences on delibird and make housebreaking nearly impossible.

Captive delibird held in large carols are often used as messengers to deliver small packages and letters between cities and islands. In the winter they are often taken to malls. Their bright colors, curiosity, and relative comfort with humans make them popular with children. The best way to train a delibird to be a carrier is for another delibird to teach them. This is not recommended for traveling trainers as the stress of separation can cause negative health impacts on the removed pokémon.

Illness

Delibird are frequent carriers of avian influenza. While the disease is relatively benign in delibird it can spread and do serious damage to other teammates. Vaccination is strongly encouraged. Bumblefoot is a more common problem than avian influenza in stationary carols. The disease manifests as sores on the bottom of delibird’s feet. While not contagious, if one delibird in a carol has it most probably will develop it in time. The best remedy for bumblefoot is preventive management: slightly rough surfaces should replace very rough and very smooth ones. This better replicates their natural cliff homes.

Angel wing is the most common health problem among fledging delibird. Sometimes feathers come in before the wing has fully developed. The weight of the feathers can cause permanent damage to the delibird’s wing. Fledglings should be routinely inspected and slings should be provided as necessary.

Delibird generally do everything in their power to mask their injuries and keep acting as if nothing is wrong. By the time any symptoms, such as deviation in weight or weakness or pain in a given area, is visible to the trainer the problem is already serious and should be treated by a professional as soon as possible.

When a delibird living in a stationary carol develops a contagious disease or is about to be introduced to a carol or reintroduced after exposure to toher birds, they must be quarantined. The quarantine process is unpleasant for delibird as they must be alone for some time. Taking multiple delibird on trips can at least allow them to be quarantined together. Otherwise mirrors or exposures to live or recorded delibird sounds can help calm the isolated bird. Toys, climbing structures, and a pool deep enough to swim in should be in the quarantine room.

Evolution

N/A

Battle

In conspecific and interspecies aggression, delibird tend to rely on puffing up their feathers and making noise. If neither side backs down delibird employ bites, pecks, or weak ice attacks. While delibird have elemental wells they are not particularly deep. While delibird are technically a pokémon many baseline animals can beat them in a fight. As such only delibird deliberately trained to battle have any skill at all. Needless to say that outside of scripted holiday specials no ranked trainer has ever been seen using a delibird.

On the island challenge delibird isn’t useless. They make for decent arena controllers between spikes and icy wind. While their flight isn’t good enough to make them untouchable it can be used to dodge telegraphed attacks and hit a little bit harder than they otherwise could. By the time the second island ends delibird will start to become less useful. Trainers raising a delibird should do so in spite of its power and not because of it.

Acquisition

Delibird can be found in in the cool waters around Mt. Lanakila and Kala’e Bay. Due to recent declines in the Ula’Ula population capture is restricted to Melemele. Delibird can sometimes be found out at sea but capture is prohibited more than one hundred meters from land. Birds that do not wish to be caught will sometimes make a dash to the ocean when a trainer confronts them. Delibird can be captured or purchased with a Class II license.

The birds can be purchased from established carols on Melemele, Akala, and Ula’Ula. Adoption opportunities are rare as injured or abandoned delibird tend to be donated to privately owned carols.

Breeding

While once popular with the Church of Life, delibird have been quietly abandoned as an official symbol after research found that roughly half of delibird are accidentally gay. The only way to determine the sex of a delibird is through DNA testing or minor surgery. Apparently delibird cannot determine the sex of other birds. Several zoroark, primarina, and psychics have translated delibird as saying that this is not a problem as the information would be useless. The reason delibird give for the question’s irrelevance is that they do not know their own sex until they either lay an egg or fertilize one.

Delibird mate for life. Couples find a small tunnel in a cave or in a cliffface and set up their nest there. In anticipation of the summer breeding season all delibird undergo a full molt and are temporarily flightless and featherless. It is illegal to capture or otherwise disturb them during this time. Delibird’s summer plumage is more vibrant than their winter coloration, which is somewhat ironic given their cultural associations. The linkage of delibird and winter is because the Europeans only saw delibird when they migrated south to avoid the bitter cold.

Fertile couples lay a single egg every season. Infertile couples stay together even after realizing their mistake but tend to help fertile couples in guarding their eggs and gathering food. The eggs are viciously guarded from all interlopers. This season is when delibird are most aggressive to outsiders. Capture is legal but discouraged in early May. Trainers should only enter Seaward Cave and the coastal caves of Lanakila during these weeks if they are prepared to be swarmed by angry birds. Eggs take forty days to hatch and forty days to fledge. Babies are typically abandoned by their parents thirty to sixty days after hatching.

Captive delibird breeding requires the provision of at least 1, and ideally 1.5, nest boxes per pairs. If at all possible an even number of delibird should be owned. Unpaired birds tend to become very aggressive up to the point of sabotaging other nests and destroying eggs. Incubation of eggs and hand raising of chicks is possible and the resulting pokémon tend to acclimate well to private carols, but not the wild. Delibird reared by their parents do adjust well to the wild and these chicks play a major role in restoring the Ula’ula population.

Subspecies

Delibird subspecies can be sorted into four groups.

The Alolan delibird is the only tropical subspecies. It is not presently understood when and how delibird arrived on the islands. They were already present when Japanese settlers arrived and, according to Alolan folklore, they were present when the Seafolk arrived as well. Temperate delibird do not migrate far enough to reach Alola and polar delibird would die from overheating well before reaching the mid-Pacific.

Temperate delibird live year-round in the mid-latitudes of the North Atlantic. Typically a carol will be permanently based out of an area infused with ice-energy or directly cooled by other pokémon. While members will often swim away from the carol’s home to find food they typically return by sundown. Some temperate subspecies have barely functional salt glands due to swimming almost exclusively in glacial meltwater or underground rivers.

There are two subspecies of polar delibird, one in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic. The Atlantic population tends to overwinter in Iceland, Greenland, and other northern islands. They migrate as far south as Africa during the summer but are rarely seen near the coast. Both polar delibird subspecies spend almost all of their lives alone at sea, only returning to land and their mates for a few months every summer. The Pacific delibird are less migratory with summer breeding occurring in Kamatchka and Alaska and winter migration bringing birds to Japan and Oregon. Some interbreeding with temperate subspecies has been reported.

The Himalayan delibird is perhaps the strangest subspecies, in no small part because they only live hundreds of kilometers inland and are barely aquatic. They are the largest subspecies and have the most developed wings. Himalyan delibird take shelter on the steep cliffs of crevasses. While they do sometimes break into frozen or temporarily thawed lakes to fish, these delibird primarily eat small non-pokémon mammals, eggs, and plants. The pokémon are considered sacred wardens of the mountains and capture or export is strictly prohibited. The few captive specimens were injured or otherwise unable to survive in the wild. They are held in the Kathmandu Zoo on loan from the Nepalese government.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Hawlucha
Nantlimitl nantlimitl

Overview

For centuries Europeans were fascinated (and frequently defeated) by the hawlucha of the Aztec Triple Alliance and its successor states, including modern Anahuac. Despite the best efforts of American and European scientists no hawlucha ever survived for more than a month outside of Mesoamerica until 1987.

At the end of the Third Thanksgiving War the United States conditioned peace on the surrender of one thousand hawlucha and information on how to care for them. Emperor Necalli IV agreed. He was subsequently executed for treason by the captain of the eagle warriors. Twenty-two years of civil war followed.

North of the border captive care proved possible but the hawlucha never bred. In order to avoid another war the captain of the eagle warriors made a public trip to Washington where he gave more information on husbandry and breeding. The captain proceeded to execute himself for treason during a press conference on the White House lawn.

Alola is fortunate enough to host one of the hawlucha wards established and overseen by the United States military. While they can only be captured after the island challenge is completed, they make invaluable partners for any trainers planning to challenge the Elite Four or otherwise go pro.

Physiology

Hawlucha are classified as dual fighting- and flying-types. While barely capable of proper flight, hawlucha are skilled at channeling flying elemental energy to perform moves such as sky attack. The secondary typing, while controversial, was recently reaffirmed by the Department of Agriculture.

Many bird pokémon are carnivorous or insectivorous. The rest mostly eat nuts, fruit, or nectar. Despite their reputation as fierce warriors, hawlucha are one of very few species that primarily eat leaves. Most hawlucha live in the forests and mountains of southern Anahuac. The species is uniquely adapted to their habitat and diet.

Hawlucha’s crop, a pouch near their esophagus, is much larger than other birds. The enlarged crop combined with resident bacteria allow hawlucha to digest leaves. As a side effect of the bacteria and rumination process hawlucha almost always smell like cow manure. Unfortunately, the size of the crop means that the wing muscles must be smaller. The species compensates for their somewhat awkward flight with powerful leg muscles and claws at the end of their wings. They move through dense forests by climbing up and jumping between trees, with the occasional glide used to avoid a predator or cross a river. Hawlucha’s movements as closer to passimian than trumbeak.

The birds’ coloration has long confused scientists. Their flesh tastes unpleasant but is not outright toxic. Bright colors—white on the stomach and legs, blood red on the back of the wings, light green on the head, orange on the crest—may help signal this. Other features do not fit this theory. Like several insect species hawlucha have false faces that make them look larger than they are. A pink circle resembling an open mouth is located beneath the beak and their actual, small eyes are surrounded by rings of feathers designed to look like much larger eyes. These may be useful for scaring off rivals in territorial fights.

Hawlucha can reach weights of 2.4 kilograms and heights of 70 centimeters. Little is known about their wild lifespan at this time. Anahuac’s records placed their captive lifespan around seven years but this was in an environment of frequent battle. Hawlucha not used in warfare may live longer. However, hawlucha outside of Anahuac often die well before seven years of age in captivity.

Behavior

Wild hawlucha spend about half their day foraging for the specific mix of leaves and flowers they feed upon. Another third is spent sleeping. The remaining few hours are spent exploring the area, socializing with younger hawlucha, or engaging in intraspecies or interspecies showfights. Although they live in the dense forests of inland Melemele, hawlucha often enter Route 3 to challenge braviary and rufflet to practice matches. In the interior forests territorial and mating conflicts are resolved by battle. Neither fights with braviary nor other hawlucha tend to result in permanent injury. Hawlucha are known for their very precise movements and strikes that let them scar opponents with their claws yet do little more than superficial damage.

Beyond moving between trees hawlucha can also use their claws and jumps to navigate areas with many rocky outcroppings or even dense cityscapes. The Bittern Peak area of Route 3 is practically a playground to them.

Hawlucha are very vocal birds. They are likely to be heard—and smelled—well before they are seen. Along with their physical fights with rufflet and braviary, hawlucha sometimes engage in singing contests with trumbeak. At least one hawlucha has been observed interacting with a brionne choir. Another was sighted in Melemele Meadow mimicking oricorio dances.

After eating, hawlucha are temporarily much heavier and have difficulty moving, much less flying. They will perch in the tree they just ate from and sleep for several hours before either looking for more food, returning to their nest, or seeking out opportunities to play.

Husbandry

The main problem with hawlucha care is their diet. The birds will only eat the leaves of a handful of plants native to a small portion of Mesoamerica. While there are a few farms and military installations that have started growing the plants the slow growth rate of the trees means that most leaves still have to be imported. Hawlucha eat about one quarter of their body weight every day. Their trainer need to have a steady supply of expensive and somewhat bulky plants.

Leaves make up 90% of a hawlucha’s diet. Another 9% is made up of flowers, which hawlucha are much less picky about. The last 1% should be fruit. Fruit preferences vary from individual to individual. Water should be offered at least once a day even if the bird does not always accept it.

Hawlucha need time to rest after meals. As a rule they hate pokéballs so this will need to happen outside of the ball. On the trail they are perfectly content to nap on their trainer’s shoulder for a few hours, although they are deceptively heavy birds and not all trainers can handle the dead weight. Having a bird that smells like manure perched inches away from your nose can also be unpleasant.

Beyond their diet hawlucha require much in the way of enrichment accommodations. The best partners for hawlucha are willing to spar and fight without risk of serious injury. Disciplined fighting-types such as the machop and makuhita lines make good partners as hawlucha learn to hit relatively hard and avoid hits in return and their opponent learns how to strike a very fast target. Song or dance focused pokémon can also make for good partners. Lilligant, oricorio, trumbeak, and primarina are good at providing this type of enrichment. Finally, pokémon able to keep up with hawlucha in parkour chases can be useful partners. Passimian are a good choice but mankey can sometimes get too aggressive. Persian enjoy the game but hate having the scent around them, making them better at being occasional playmates than full-time partners. In general pokémon with keen senses of smell tend not to like hawlucha much. Snorlax is a notable exception and hawlucha sometimes enjoy using the bear’s stomach as a trampoline for acrobatics practice.

Hawlucha cannot be housebroken. They tend to defecate right before or after leaving their perch.

Illness

As carriers of avian influenza hawlucha will need to be routinely vaccinated. If their diet is not very close to the ideal hawlucha will at first become rather sluggish before eventually becoming extremely aggressive. Care should be taken to maintain the proper diet at all times.

Evolution

N/A

Battle

The eagle warriors of Anahuac have a rather unique fighting style that incorporates hawlucha. The pokémon jump off the large shields carried by the humans and make a strategic swipe at an enemy to break their wrist or ankle. The bird will then either jump on to another opponent or back to their trainer’s shield to get another assisted launch. The eagle warrior will practically run through the battlefield behind the hawlucha to finish wounding and tagging the humans left behind. The rapid pace of combat does leave the warriors at a disadvantage against extremely bulky pokémon. These were uncommon companions in the early colonial era but the mass produced pokéball and broader international trade networks allowed the empire’s enemies to make sure they had an adequate supply.

Anahuac has suffered several military defeats since 1876 and declined in influence in large part because hawlucha became less effective on the battlefield.

In competitive tournaments hawlucha are still very effective. They strike hard enough to break bones and sever tendons in all but the bulkiest of pokémon. Hawlucha are also incredibly agile and in arenas that are not entirely flat they can make good use of vertical space. Even on a flat battlefield hitting a hawlucha with anything but an area of effect or homing attack can be difficult. While solid walls do break hawlucha’s momentum this is less important in sports than war. Eventually hawlucha’s hits add up. So long as they are not hit in return hawlucha may even find opportunities to use bulk up or swords dance. If hawlucha has a type advantage, as with bulky steel, rock, normal, and fighting-type opponents, the match will probably end in their favor.

Unfortunately, hawlucha are saddled with two glaring weaknesses. The first is that hawlucha are rather frail. One or two good hits from a professional trainer’s pokémon can usually take them out. The second is that hawlucha rarely strike to kill in either wild showfights or on the field of battle. In Anahuac capturing an enemy soldier alive is seen as far more honorable than killing them. As a result when they start to gain an advantage hawlucha instinctively switch to trying to taunt and scare their opponent into surrender. This loss of momentum and momentary distraction can sometimes allow their opponent to get in a knockout blow.

Hawlucha excel in acrobatic and melee attacks. Supporting moves are generally not advised as hawlucha need to constantly be dodging or attacking and will seldom find a moment to pull them off. Protect is an exception as a way to block the rare hit that can’t be dodged. Boosting moves are also useful if hawlucha faces off with something weak or slow enough that there is no imminent danger of being knocked out.

Acquisition

Hawlucha can only be captured on Route 3 with a Class V license and all four island stamps. Adoption and purchase also require a Class V license. They adjust well to capture so long as a proper battle was performed beforehand.

While international laws are seldom worth mentioning, trainers with a desire to travel should know that owning a hawlucha without proper authorization is considered treason in Anahuac. The only punishment for treason is death.

Breeding

Wild hawlucha live in mated pairs. They do not usually mate for life but most pairings last at least two breeding seasons. Wild hawlucha are known to engage in elaborate performative copulation to mark their territory. Proper mating with the intent to breed is much more restrained and takes place in November. Hawlucha eggs hatch after a six week incubation period. Children are abandoned shortly after fledging around six weeks of age.

Captive breeding of hawlucha is extremely difficult and requires a near-perfect replica of their natural habitat. The Imperial Palace and Tenochtitlan’s Temple of Xōchipilli contain large greenhouses devoted to hawlucha care. Before the modern era the greenhouses were large indoor chambers with proper temperatures and humidity maintained by resident fire- and water- type pokémon. These two facilities, along with a similar one in the Nimbasa Zoo, are the only places hawlucha have ever bred in captivity. Trainers interested in breeding their hawlucha should contact the Nimbasa Zoo.

Relatives

Hawlucha are the only living members of their order. The last known relative died out over three million years ago. Hawlucha can be naturally found throughout the maximum territorial extent of Anahuac, stretching from the Rio Grande down to the isthmus of Panama. Small introduced populations can also be found in portions of the United States, Kalos, Galar, and other NATO nations.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Oricorio

Overview

Whatever else can be said about them, oricorio are extremely versatile pokémon. Every individual is capable of taking four different forms with varying personalities, typings, and battle styles. While some oricorio have a preference for one form or another most do not. This gives trainers four separate tries at connecting with their pokémon. Forms can also be changed for important battles.

Oricorio’s drawbacks are in acquisition and logistics. They are rare outside of nature preserves with somewhat strict annual catch quotas. Nectar is somewhat expensive and rather heavy. Most trainers also cannot meaningfully contribute to their oricorio’s training and fighting style.

Even with the species’ drawbacks, dancers and trainers looking for a versatile pokémon would do well to to learn the laws and set aside time to capture an oricorio.

Physiology

The four forms, or styles, of oricorio all have different typings. All four have a partial flying-typing. Pom-pom style oricorio are also classified as electric-types, pa’u as psychic-types, baile as fire-types, and sensu as ghost types.

All four forms are relatively small bird pokémon with a typical songbird build. All have relatively strong legs and solid balance. Baile style oricorio are the only form that is more comfortable in the air than on the ground, although sensu style oricorio can fly in a pinch. Pom-pom and pa’u oricorio can only jump and control their fall with air current manipulation.

Pom-pom oricorio have a build closer to hawlucha than a typical bird pokémon. They have short wings with bulky puffs of feathers at the ends. Electrical charges build up in these feathers between attacks and pom-pom oricorio can unleash powerful shocks at the start of battles. Between hits pom-pom oricorio can pull off impressive acrobatic feats. This style’s skeleton still has the same composition as the others, which limits its ability to take hits or deal powerful blows.

Pa’u style oricorio are almost entirely dependent upon their dances. Only six flight feathers—three at the end of each wing—survive the transformation into this form. The rest of their body is coated in soft pink feathers as well as ornamental skirts and head tufts of white feathers. Pa’u style oricorio are masters at channeling ambient psychic energy into telepathic, empathic, and telekinetic attacks. On balance they are slow walkers and weak jumpers.

Baile style oricorio have the most conventional avian body shape. While they sometimes do take bipedal stances their dances are mostly performed in flight. The style’s fireproof feathers are mostly red with occasional fringes of black feathers. Small white spiral patterns rest on the bird’s cheeks. Baile oricorio produce fire with every flap of their wings. They can control and shape the flames with their dances.

Sensu oricorio have a similar build to baile oricorio with a slightly more bipedal stance. Their feathers’ colors can vary wildly between individuals but usually include some mix of purple, pink, and blue. The sensu style’s powers are more similar to pa’u than the other forms; rather than creating ghost energy they manipulate ambient fields. Specifically, sensu oricorio channel the spirits and ghost energy of the area around them into curses, semi-tangible minions, and weak elemental attacks. They rival human channelers in communicating with the spirits of the dead. Mediums seldom employ the birds, however, because they are remarkably cruel beneath their elegant façade.

All four styles subsist entirely on nectar. Their digestive system has many similarities to crobat as a result of their liquid diet. Oricorio spend most of their day feeding with almost all of the rest spent sleeping. Perhaps an hour or two a day is spent dancing for passing humans and local pokémon. They were traditionally believed to be oracles of the tapus. Their dances were often imitated by the priests of pre-annexation Alola until they were banned, first by an Alolan king in 1834 and again by the provisional government after a brief period of legality in the latter years of the Kingdom. While many of the traditional dances have been lost to time and suppression there are attempts to relearn them from surviving documents and the dances of modern oricorio.

All styles grow to weighs of approximately 0.5 kilograms although their heights vary. Oricorio can live for fifteen years in the wild and captivity.

Behavior

No style of oricorio had many predators before contact with Japan and China. Invasive species such as gumshoos and raticate have dramatically changed this situation. Pom-pom and pa’u oricorio are also unable to take to the skies to avoid terrestrial predators. Raticate in particular wiped out the pa’u style oricorio before the remaining portions of Akala Meadow were barricaded off and oricorio from other islands were introduced.

Pom-pom oricorio dealt with the most predators in the past, mostly in the form of the large birds and dragons that roost near Melemele Meadow. Pom-pom style’s electricity and near flightlessness help them survive by hiding in the tall flowers of the meadow and shocking anything that does come too close. New predators have forced them to roost in the sparse trees of the meadow and rely on their electricity to deter flying pokémon. On the ground they are still vulnerable to raticate and gumshoos attacks.

The style’s high metabolism leads to a need to consume even more nectar than the other styles. On balance they sleep somewhat less.

Pa’u oricorio benefited from the nature of Akala Meadow. Powerful and intelligent psychics often met in the meadow as it was a good central location between the xatu of the south, the oranguru of the north, and the slowking of the coast. Tapu Lele was also a frequent visitor. The pa’u flowers that dominate the meadow absorb psychic energy and slowly radiate it out. All of the ambient energy allowed pa’u oricorio to channel it into devastating mind control and telekinetic attacks when needed. While incineroar were not deterred, torracat were. Pa’u oricorio took to killing any torracat that came near the meadow until incineroar started to reign in their children.

Raticate do not have a non-dark juvenile form. Even if they did the desperate hunger of the average rattata would probably make oricorio’s power a rather poor deterrent. Because pa’u oricorio traditionally sleep on the ground at night and rattata can navigate through even thick flowerbeds the oricorio were easily killed

Before the introduction of invasive species the dominant predators on Ula’Ula were ninetales, incineroar, metagross, and flygon. Metagross have always been comparatively rare and flygon seldom leave the Haina Valley. For their part incineroar shied away from the extremely rainy western Ula’Ula. Ninetales and vulpix were the only predators that often slunk down into the meadow to feed. The flames of the baile oricorio have several unique properties to deter ninetales and survive in their environment. The mystic nature of their flames allow them to burn through rain and ninetails-induced snowstorms. The bird’s feathers are largely waterproof and they do not seem to mind rain or snow much at all.

Baile flowers are remarkably fire resistant and brush fires were uncommon in the meadow. Trees fared less well with the frequent flames from dancing oricorio and there are rather few in the area. This has come to be a problem for baile oricorio who cannot easily retreat to higher ground despite being able to fly. Conservationists have helped by adding metal perches designed to be unclimbable by rattata and yungoos and too sturdy to be knocked over by raticate and gumshoos. The remaining threats on Ula’Ula—the ghosts and honchkrow—have always been reluctant to attack any form of oricorio.

Sensu oricorio have relatively little direct power to protect them in a fight. Yet nothing, not even rattata, dares to attack them. What makes sensu oricorio nigh-unassailable is their cruelty and intelligence. When stressed they resort to two basic defenses—curses and apparitions. Curses tend to cause long-term physical and mental health problems for the victim that, if they do not result in death, can make the victim wish that they did. While many ghosts (and ninetales) can cast curses, those of sensu oricorio are among the most psychologically brutal. It is believed that the spirits of the dead communicate with oricorio to inform the bird of personal vulnerabilities to exploit. Alternatively, oricorio can simply summon dead loved ones or enemies of their target. Oricorio can control the apparition and make it say things designed to thoroughly break the victim. Their mere presence is a large part of the reason why few souls have dared to live in the eastern half of Poni Island.

Husbandry

The biggest drawback of oricorio is their diet. They only consume nectar from one of four plants, all rare. Outside of their meadows oricorio’s food alone can cost up to $300 a month for a relatively small bird. Liquid diets also mean that oricorio constantly need to urinate and are borderline impossible to housebreak. Even brief periods without food can cause serious health problems.

There is also little literature on oricorio husbandry. Much of the traditional knowledge has been lost. It was never common in any case as priests preferred to simply live near the meadows and observe the oricorio in their natural habitat. Only curious birds interested in living with humans were ever held in captivity. They were usually kept within a short distance of the meadows. Widespread husbandry is still very new and mostly limited to a handful of zoos hoping to bolster wild populations with a captive breeding program.

What the literature does reveal is that oricorio’s mindset changes when they shift forms. The same basic preferences and attachments will remain filtered through a different personality. As most specimens come to prefer whatever form they are currently in, their trainer can mostly pick what sort of pokémon they want and even try again to start a productive relationship.

In general pom-pom oricorio are the most energetic and outgoing. While generally very friendly they do not shy away from making their displeasure known, mostly through small shocks and songs that somehow sound expletive-laden.

Pa’u oricorio are rather withdrawn. They tend not to notice the world around them and focus on their own inner life. Nice to their friends and mostly apathetic to their enemies, the biggest risk of dealing with pa’u style oricorio is that of accidentally being hypnotized into wasting the day away. These are good partners for relatively inactive and laidback trainers. Constant activity or very energetic conversations annoy them.

Baile oricorio have been described as incredibly dramatic. They approach everything with utmost sincerity and grow perhaps exaggeratedly angry over small setbacks. When the occasion calls for it they want extravagant celebrations. Interpersonal conflicts, even generally positive ones, are prone to grand gestures and dramatic spats that require a lot of emotional investment. If someone they love is hurting, baile oricorio will do everything they can to provide comfort and avenge the harm.

Sensu oricorio are ethereally graceful. Their movements often seem to be too perfect to be natural. The style seldom displays emotion and prefers that all relationships be distant, formal, and abundantly polite. In very close relationships they may behave a little more informally but will always immediately stiffen up and demand formality when anyone else draws close. Above all, sensu oricorio hate surprises or anything that can catch them off guard and ruin the illusion of perfection. Violators can be mercilessly punished. Most sensu oricorio trainers are afraid of their pokémon, even if they love it. Only trainers who have developed an extremely deep relationship with the oricorio in another style and have no serious mental health issues should attempt to train them. Unfortunately, the trainers who are very comfortable with the subdued behavior sensu oricorio require tend to be depressed.

Talented dancers, and to a lesser extend singers, acrobats, actors, and storytellers, are the best trainers for oricorio. Teaching the pokémon a dance style it does not already know is the best way to hold the bird’s attention and gain its respect.

Illness

As with most birds, powerful hits can easily lead to broken bones. Trainers should be very careful when picking matchups and be quick to surrender the round.

Oricorio’s liquid diet can cause health consequences. Overhydration in particular can lead to kidney problems. Sensu oricorio tend to drink exactly what is needed. Pom-pom oricorio are very fond of their nectar and need to be well-rationed. Baile oricorio’s desire for nectar varies wildly with their mood. When focused they will need to be forcefully reminded to drink and when melodramatic they will need to be cut off. Pa’u oricorio often forget to drink altogether.

Evolution

Oricorio take the form of the nectar they consume the most. After one day to a few weeks on another nectar, depending upon the pokémon’s preference for different styles, flash evolution will occur. Oricorio is one of the only species that can flash evolve many time in its life and even evolve between forms as an adult.

Battle

No oricorio is widely used on competitive circuits. While there is some speculation that pa’u oricorio could be very effective when paired with a psychic terrain setter or used on a monotype team this has never been tested at high levels. Sensu oricorio could theoretically force some forfeits from opponents who don’t want to deal with their nightmare apparitions but this is a cheap strategy that requires spending large amounts of time around a sensu oricorio. There is serious discussion of preemptively banning the sensu style from the U.S. and Alolan Leagues to prevent a potentially uncompetitive strategy.

All styles tend to use the same basic strategies. They open by distracting the opponent through the subtle emotional manipulation of their core dances. As this continues they slowly start to work in calm mind while maintaining enough of the oracle dance in their style to keep the opponent distracted. When that is done the oricorio shifts to unleashing powerful revelation dances and hurricanes. Weak hits can be blocked by substitute or shrugged off with roost.

Every style has their own variation on this formula. Pom-pom oricorio tends to rely more on dodging attacks than distracting opponents. Pa’u style can use powerful attacks right off the bat in some instances but can quickly deplete the ambient energy on the battlefield. Baile style have some difficulty using calm mind at all. Sensu style must be taught to boost before attacking and use powerful elemental attacks rather than psychological torture. It is debatable if such cruel tactics are even effective in the long term. To start with they are a good way to gain the ire of other trainers and lose access to professional events. Opponents may also be frustrated and less willing to hold back, a bad position to be in when battling with a bird. Without boosting sensu oricorio also lose most damage races, even against distracted opponents.

Acquisition

The easiest styles to start training with are baile and pom-pom.

Baile oricorio are somewhat rare but still present in Ula’Ula Meadow. A few wander towards Castleton or onto Route 17. One small troupe has been seen around an abandoned baile flower garden in Po Town. Pom-pom oricorio live almost exclusively in Melemele Meadow with a few vagrants in other parts of Route 3 and northern Route 2.

The easiest way to bond with an oricorio is to simply play a song and dance in a style similar to that of the pokémon. One may take notice join in with their own. This may need to be repeated for a few days before the pokémon begins to follow when their new trainer leaves the meadow. At this point they may be captured without a battle. Skilled dancers are advised to try their hand at capturing baile oricorio. Unskilled dancers or singers with enough enthusiasm may be able to draw the attention of a pom-pom oricorio despite their lack of talent.

Pa’u oricorio can be captured through a similar method but they are very rare outside of Akala Meadow Preserve, a wildlife park with a full capture ban and strict visitation rules. Royale Avenue has begun to introduce a few and allow them to free roam. Various pokémon are employed to kill any pests that enter the area and threaten their birds. Employees of the Royal Arena and Pokémon Center are allowed to capture pa’u oricorio that agree to join them. Capture rights can also be earned as a reward for performing shows or winning battle royales.

Sensu oricorio are not recommended as a starting form. Their capture is legal (within the annual quotas set by the National Park Service) and they can be found throughout Poni National Park, even away from the central meadow. Strangely enough, setting up a tea party with an empty chair with a cup of nectar can attract sensu oricorio. If very proper manners are observed and an interesting story is told with proper respect and minimal emotion the oricorio might consent to capture. Alternatively, trainers with ties to at least one god can sometimes get sensu oricorio to seek them out. It is not necessary to capture these birds after tea parties and they handle polite rejections shockingly well.

There is a relatively small population of oricorio available for sale or capture. They are rather expensive and can sometimes struggle to adjust to a new trainer.

All oricorio styles can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class III license.

Breeding

Oricorio tend to live in troupes of two to ten mated pairs and their young children. Mated pairs spend most of their day together with their children and then the troupe reassembles around dusk to sleep in the same general space. Little is understood of oricorio mate selection, mating, and childrearing due to the very dense meadows they inhabit.

Oricorio were first bred in captivity twenty-six years ago. The only successful births so far occurred in large greenhouses with thick flowerbeds and little human disturbance. Most of these were baile style oricorio. Pa’u style oricorio were bred for the first time two years ago in San Diego. Sensu and pom-pom style oricorio have yet to breed in captivity.

Subspecies

There may have been other oricorio styles in the past whose flowers went extinct. Several skeletons of a potentially undiscovered style have been unearthed in Northeastern Ula’Ula and on the slopes of Mt. Hokulani. Carbon dating has determined the skeletons are twelve to three thousand years old. It is possible that minior, claydol, metagross, or decidueye in the area may have firsthand knowledge of this style.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Ribombee (Cutiefly)
Chlamydeapis animavidens

Overview

Lucario are popular worldwide partially due to their associations with aura. Unfortunately, the species’ Alolan population is confined to Poni National Park, riolu are very selective about their trainers, and riolu eggs are expensive. Mienshao, often seen as a poor man’s lucario, suffer from many of the same problems.

Most trainers don’t know that ribombee also use aura. While their aura is used mainly for utility rather than offense or defense, the beeflies are empaths and rather good at predicting and dodging attacks. Combined with their naturally high speed they can be good sweepers on the island challenge. The species also requires relatively little dedicated training and is easy to obtain. On balance, feeding ribombee can sometimes be difficult and, while they are very cute, they lack the “coolness” that makes lucario (and mienshao) popular.

Physiology

Ribombee and cutiefly are classified as dual bug- and fairy-type pokémon. Their secondary fairy-typing is heavily disputed as ribombee lack most of the classic fairy-type traits (tricksters, lunar affiliation) but can read auras, a traditionally fighting-type attribute. Ribombee’s natural affinity for moonblast has been used to justify the current typing. The matter is being reviewed by the Department of Agriculture and a type change to either pure bug or bug-fighting is considered likely.

Cutiefly are very small insect pokémon. They are not considered to be true bees due to their lack of hives, swarming, honey production, or stingers. Genetic tests suggest that they are actually related to—and possibly descended from—vikavolt. Cuteifly have fuzzy yellow hair on the front of their body, an exposed white exoskeleton at the back, and a short and firm proboscis. Their wings resemble those of vikavolt and rest over the pokémon’s back when at rest. The wings often have patterns on them that vary by region and family. These patterns include eyes, bright colors that blend in with their feathers, or dark green or blue shades that make the pokémon resemble a small vikavolt at a glance. Four long black legs rest beneath the cutiefly’s body.

Ribombee have a build more like butterfree’s than vikavolt’s. Two antennae, a short proboscis, and large compound eyes adorn their head. A brown “scarf” of hair rests on the neck and boosts ribombee’s aura reading powers. Two arms are attached just below the scarf and the other two are located at the end of the body. Special joints allow ribombee to use their wings to either flutter like a proper butterfly or fly like a vikavolt when they need to move quickly.

The species subsists on a mix of honey and nectar. Ribombee use the honey to create waxy secretions that can bind together pollen and slightly change its inherent properties. This can cause the pollen to either be a disorienting toxic weapon or a very nutritious food source for cutiefly. Ribombee often leave a mix of toxic and nutritious puffs lying around. Only cutiefly seem to be able to tell the difference.

Ribombee grow to lengths of nine inches and weights up to ten ounces. They live for roughly one year in the wild and in captivity.

Behavior

Most pokémon can only exist because of other pokémon. Grass-types purifying the air and soil let forests grow fast enough to support large herbivores. Predators rely mostly on large pokémon for their food rather than killing dozens of relatively small and energy-light baseline animals. Ribombee are almost entirely separate from the pokémon-based ecology of Alola. Most of their interactions are with baseline insects.

Ribombee steal their honey from ordinary bees by using light attacks to disorient swarms and smash hives open. Their main competitors in pollination are baseline insects and hummingbirds. Most pokémon in the area don’t interact with ribombee at all due to their toxic pollens, annoying binding fluids, skittishness, and high speed. Even the main pokémon pollinator in Alola—butterfree—is not a direct competitor. Rain washes away the pollen ribombee have accumulated and the species goes to great lengths to avoid it. Butterfree are most active during these storms and help keep large flowers pollinated during the rainy season.

Cutiefly and ribombee do not use their aura to attack other pokémon. Instead it is used to identify the plants likely to have the best nectar and to sense the movements of predators and weather patterns. When faced with a potential threat both cutiefly and ribombee prefer to turn tail and use their high flight speeds and agility to run off into the forest and evade their pursuer.

Husbandry

Honey is cheap as far as pokémon food goes. Nectar, especially from ribombee and cutiefly’s preferred plants, is a fair bit more expensive. It is most commonly sold in bird specialty stores that stock it for oricorio. Relatively cheap butterfree nectar mixes can work in a pinch. Thankfully, ribombee can forage for their own nectar most of the time and seem to prefer doing so as it also lets them accumulate pollen. So long as there are flowers out and the weather is clear ribombee can be trusted to eat on their own and use their abilities to find their trainer when finished. Cutiefly have weaker aura reading and a handful of predators so they should be supervised when foraging.

Ribombee and, to a lesser extent, cutiefly are clever and easily taught new tricks. Both are also affectionate and enjoy contact with their trainer and teammates. Most ribombee enjoy perching on their trainer’s head or shoulder when outside of their ball and in clear weather. Both stages prefer to be outside of their ball whenever it is not raining. They despise rain and will ask to enter their ball when other shelter is not available. Net and nest balls are the best choices for them.

All Pokémon Centers and some individual shops ban ribombee from being out of their ball due to the sheer amount of pollen they carry on them.

Both stages are neither strictly diurnal nor nocturnal. Sleep schedules tend to be based around the rain and winds rather than the sun. Ribombee get upset if their preferred sleep schedule is disrupted. Thankfully, they will sleep in their pokéball with minimal fuss.

Illness

Ribombee are not built to last. A single hit from pokémon can kill it, their exoskeleton isn’t particularly durable, and their organs are prone to failure for no clear reason if they survive to the one-year mark. There is relatively little research on how to heal them. Any serious hit from a fully evolved pokémon has the potential to kill ribombee in one shot. Cutiefly have to be careful around even fairly weak pokémon. Be very cautious about using them in battle. Ideally, they should be limited to fighting grounded pokémon with no way of hitting back or for field control against another utility lead.

Evolution

Between six and eight weeks of age, cutiefly will form small cocoons for their evolution. Evolution itself only takes three to seven days. The cocoon should not be moved during this time period.

Battle

Despite their frailty ribombee have carved out a niche in professional battling. They are extremely fast and hit decently hard. More importantly, they naturally form a sticky pollen binding substance. While the quantity is normally limited by their small size a very well trained ribombee can learn to use elemental energy to coat the battlefield in webs. Their high speed and small size make them tricky to hit as they set up field control. Alternatively, they can spread status or boost midflight with quiver dance. Ribombee have extremely high mortality rates on the battlefield and are near deadweight outside of field control and the occasional revenge kill. Many trainers aren’t willing to give a team slot to a pokémon that will probably only fight in a few matches before dying of injury or old age.

Ribombee benefit from the relative frailty and inexperience of pokémon on the island challenge vis a vis the professional circuit. Many pokémon have no options at all for dealing with an aerial attacker. In the time it takes for the switch clock to run ribombee can either boost themselves up to terrifying speeds and fairly impressive power or coat the battlefield in webs and benefit future levitators or birds. Ribombee are still extremely frail pokémon and should use u-turn to switch out as soon as their role is fulfilled.

Cutiefly function best as weak but somewhat fast flying artillery. They really should not fight at all as within a fairy short period of time they will evolve on their own.

Acquisition

Ribombee and cutiefly are most common in Alola’s meadows but can also be found in many savannahs on the islands. Proving battles are both unnecessary and dangerous, but some sort of a trapper may be necessary to keep ribombee from fleeing or at least constantly evading thrown pokéballs. Many trainers have reported success at luring in ribombee by placing a cup of a very rare or foreign flower’s nectar out and sitting still nearby for as long as it takes for a pokémon to take the bait. If the nectar is good enough and the process is repeated a few times a teammate can often be obtained without a battle. Be advised that the beeflies will expect similar nectar to be provided fairly often.

Cutiefly can be obtained with a Class I license. Ribombee can be obtained with a Class II. No shelters take them in and there are no dedicated breeders so purchase and adoption are near impossible.

Breeding

Ribombee mating occurs towards the end of the rainy season when a male ambushes a female in midair and overpowers her in an acrobatic contest. Mating is done while flying at full speed in seemingly random directions until both partners abruptly separate and dash away from each other. The female ribombee will then search for burrowing bug-type pokémon or non-pokémon insect nests. She uses her antennae and sensors on the tips of her feet to glean information about the nest. If it is satisfactory she will extend a thin tube from her rear and deposit her eggs into the nest. The offspring will hatch after a few days and begin to feed upon the adults, juveniles, and eggs of the host species.

The species has never been bred in captivity due to the somewhat odd nature of their mating and parasitism. In any case they are not in danger of extinction in Alola.

Relatives

The Galarians introduced ribombee to the gardens of their home island and colonies. There is some dispute as to whether these populations should count as distinct subspecies or not.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Florges (Flabébé, Floette)

Overview

Around 1000 BCE a superweapon was fired in Kalos. A long, bloody war came to an end with the annihilation of both sides. In the end no party won, save perhaps the desperate king who resurrected his beloved companion only to be rejected and abandoned. In time almost everything in Kalos, human and pokémon, lost their cultural memory of the war.

Florges never did. The species is still attempting to process it three millennia later. They keep vast gardens to honor the dead, revive the scorched earth, and try to bring some meaning to the world after warfare. When they choose to fight they are very powerful pokémon.

While florges has human-comparable intelligence, the lower stages have maturity more comparable to toddlers and grade schoolers than adult humans. Raising a flabébé to adulthood is very much like raising a child. Florges do not need as much of a watchful eye. On balance they are haunted, fickle creatures who need heavy emotional support and a very understanding trainer. When they do find a solid partnership florges are likely to form a deep bond with their trainer. Even centuries later they can be heard murmuring maternal lamentations for their human companions as they wander the wastelands human wars have wrought.

Physiology

The florges line are currently classified as pure fairy-type pokémon. This is heavily disputed, most prominently by scholars arguing that as plant pokémon at least the first two stages should have a grass-typing. The general melancholy and possible channeling abilities of florges also support a potential ghost-typing. However, there is no definitive proof that florges can speak with the dead and, unlike most plant-based pokémon, florges are not primarily photosynthetic. Also unlike most grass-types florges aren’t seriously bothered by fire and fear death by water more than anything.

Flabébé are small fey creatures with a short stem-like tail, a round torso, and a head that dwarfs the rest of their body. Ear-like petals sprout from the sides of their head and a crown of yellow flowers rests on top. The bottom portion of flabébé is green and the top is white. Flabébé instinctively attach themselves to a flower they like. The color appears to dictate the powers they control later on in life (see Behavior). Any flower flabébé bonds with tends to grow even after being plucked and never wilts. It was long thought that flabébé somehow absorbed the energy of their flower to feed. Recent research shows that this is not the case and the entire line feed almost exclusively on ambient elemental energy and moonlight, with blood and sunlight being serviceable replacements in times of desperation.

Floette have much larger bodies than flabébé and retain their flower. Now they themselves are almost as large, with their green tail growing and developing fins at the end that let them swim through the air like a marine mammal. The crown is replaced with small buds around the ears and large green antennae. What the ears, crown, or antennae are used for is still not well understood.

Florges have been described as a girl in a hyacinth. Their tail splits into two long petals that can be used to entirely cover the main body. The tail itself grows tall enough to allow very large florges to look their trainer in the eye. The flower is fused with and becomes an elaborate wreath around the florges’ head. Despite being distantly related to other flower pokémon, florges have organ systems similar to some animals. They have a heart (that glows when exposed to air) but no lungs. A small brain rests behind their pearlescent eyes with nerve clusters throughout the body assisting it. It is possible that florges offload some of their mental functions to their garden itself.

The largest florges can reach heights of 1.7 meters and weights of 20 kilograms. Their lifespan is unknown; there may still be florges alive who witnessed the Kalosian wars three millennia ago.

Behavior

Flabébé are carefree spirits that spend their days wandering their mother’s garden in pursuit of the best possible flower. They sometimes observe or even prank the pokémon or people in the garden but never do any serious harm. In turn no one dares harm a baby under her mother’s watchful eye. Strong gusts of wind can blow flabébé away as they are not yet skilled fliers and are almost always carrying a comparatively large sail with them. They must take shelter by clinging to their mother during storms.

Floette leave their mothers and set off onto their own. In Kalos they often retreat uphill to live free in the mountains for a few years, tending to small meadows and flowerbeds in groups as they practice their budding powers. Some end up in cities or the suburbs where they tend to parks, backyard gardens, and flower beds. Disrupting a flower bed can earn the pokémon’s wrath, either immediately or after they evolve. While not yet as somber as florges, floette have complex emotional lives and are prone to fits of anger when dealing with feelings they don’t understand.

Florges often stay in one place and care for an increasingly large garden. The florges’ presence strengthens the plants within and even heals pokémon and humans, physically and perhaps emotionally. In turn they gain more and more influence over their gardens. The exact powers gained depend on their personality and flower color. Manipulations of light and darkness are common. One florges was fond of communicating with humans through heaps of broken images scattered amongst the flowers. Others raise shadows in the twilight and apparently talk to them. Florges that have learned the human language have claimed these shadows are the spirits of the dead. One particularly powerful florges in Iberia has been known to cast a violet glow over their garden for about an hour every night. Many visitors report seeing or hearing long-dead loved ones. Whether this is a psychic illusion or a channeling of actual spirits is not yet clear.

As a general rule purple and pink florges have spectral or psionic gifts, red and orange florges are low-grade biokinetics that actively change the beings in their garden, blue florges have minor weather altering abilities, yellow florges specialize in powders and debilitating effects, and green florges are particularly competent healers. Slight variations in shades and temperament can produce different effects.

White florges are the rarest by far. Rather than tending to gardens they tend to wander the world wrapped in long brown cloaks and veils. While this does deprive them of a garden to channel their powers, white florges have extremely powerful lunar energy that let them release some of the strongest known moonblasts, heal themselves almost completely in an instant with moonlight, and even restore others or gradually warp an environment. They are also extremely intelligent; one Kalosian king declared a white florges that spent time in his court to be the wisest woman in all of Europe.

All florges are wracked by their knowledge of devastation. Some of this is firsthand and comes from being empathetic beings with long, long lifespans. The rest is either from passed-down stories or potentially a communal memory. They are naturally wary of conflict and distrustful of humans, although they often are sought out by the broken for their calming gardens and relation to the dead. Florges will often allow corpses to be buried in their garden so that the deceased can at least create something beautiful in death, whatever they accomplished in life. Newly evolved florges are fond of settling down in the aftermaths of bloody battles, natural disasters, nuclear fallout, or legendary attacks and making lilacs grow from the dead earth. The flower pokémon are obsessed with meaning and try to bring some significance from even the most pointless of tragedies.

White florges are somewhat more active healers and peacemakers. They tend to move between monasteries, courts, universities, and other centers of human influence and learn and teach what they can. White florges are particularly fearsome advocates for peace. This does not make them inherently peaceful. All florges become violent when their garden is threatened. White florges consider the world to be their garden. Warmongers or profiteers often wind up being killed by a moonblast. One florges in Galar became particularly fond of murdering every noble involved in a war regardless of guilt to dissuade them from violence. Eventually the nobility banded together and killed the florges before burning down all florges gardens on the island and banning their importation. While another white florges did avenge her sister, no new gardens have formed there since.

Husbandry

All evolutionary stages feed primarily on moonlight and ambient elemental energy. Current and recent trial sites have an abundance of Z-Energy to feed on. Z-Crystals can also serve as a battery of sort. Florges and strong floette can safely bask at night. Flabébé will need a guardian on the trail; Pokémon Centers often have some sort of netting over their pools to protect weaker fish, making these great basking spots in cities. Only sick specimens produce waste.

Like most intelligent pokémon, members of the florges line require extensive enrichment and bonding activities. The exact nature of care required depends on the evolutionary stage.

As mentioned above, flabébé are young and relatively carefree. They require near constant protection to make sure they don’t blow away in the wind, fall victim to predators, or accidentally hurt themselves. Visits to parks and flower beds or shops make good enrichment. While they might come to understand a few words flabébé are unlikely to speak or develop a true understanding of the human language. Frequently talking to flabébé can teach them more words and help them understand the subtext of tone, inflection, and body language. While very lightweight toys such as origami birds can make for good enrichment flabébé will typically find ways to entertain themselves.

Floette are fairly comparable to human children. If raised from a young age they will start to fully understand the human language and even be able to form rudimentary sentences of their own. Unlike flabébé’s rather physical curiosity, floette enjoy trips to museums and interesting landmarks and appreciate explanations as to how things work. “Why” is often their favorite word and trainers should be prepared to patiently explain mundane aspects of the world many times. On balance, floette trainers often wind up learning a great deal about many subjects in the process. Teaching floette to read can help abate their curiosity. Strangely enough, floette get along far more with carnivorous pokémon than herbivores. The flowers instinctively defend other plants and beautiful scenery and can come into conflict with grazers. Careful explanation of the other pokémon’s diet may be needed to ease tensions. While they may form attachments to other pokémon they are likely to see them as competitors for their trainer’s time and affections.

Florges are more than capable of taking care of themselves. The biggest hurdle for florges trainers is convincing them they should stay. Owning a large plot of land to form a garden on helps but this still doesn’t benefit traveling trainers and, given the Alolan real estate market, is unobtainable for many island challengers. It is usually easiest to convince the florges that their trainer and teammates are their garden of sorts and they should care for the emotional needs of those they love. This requires forming a genuinely familial relationship. Extensive time spent together, genuine consideration of the florges’ advice, and shared interests help. Compatible political ideology and attendance at anti-war or pro-environment rallies also encourage the florges to stay, although the laws about pokémon at protest events should be reviewed in advance. Finally, traumatized trainers – especially refugees and veterans – instinctively trigger maternal feelings. Florges get along well with blissey who are also attracted to similar humans.

White florges tend not to care about forming gardens. They are also easier to bond with and often already know the human language. Unlike most pokémon, white florges have memories and duties. As long-lived creatures florges are often unwilling to attach themselves to a trainer who will die in mere decades. Conversely, sometimes they may agree to travel with a trainer who reminds them of an old companion. In the end white florges often see themselves as bound by duties to their species, humanity, and the world. Their plans may prove incompatible with their trainers (and often involve breaking a fair few laws).

Illness

Elemental withdrawal is the cause of most florges illnesses. Even serious physical wounds can be mended in time through hibernation and absorption of moonlight and energy. Withdrawal symptoms include wilting, wandering away from beloved places and people, extreme mood swings, and a refusal to use their powers. Florges that can speak will often lay out their problems. Thankfully almost all damage can be fixed with exposure to enough energy from evolutionary stones, Z- and mega-crystals, wishing stars, and particularly charged areas.

Drowning is the main cause of death in fully grown florges. They do require oxygen to breathe and are not particularly adept swimmers. While florges are usually smart enough to avoid this fate they can still be caught off-guard by shipwrecks, flash floods, and assassins.

Evolution

Flabébé gradually evolve to floette. In the wild the demarcation line is the new floette leaving the garden they were born in. In captivity a floette is a flabébé that has grown heavier than its flower. Size is the main physical difference between the two.

Florges evolve via flash evolution. Once a floette acquires enough wisdom, power, and courage it will seek out a place to grow a garden. The flowers will gradually gain elemental charges great enough to cause the floette’s evolution. Alternatively, white floette evolve upon absorbing enough moonlight in their lifetime. In captivity evolution can be triggered by frequent battle and a moon, dawn, leaf, or shiny stone.

Battle

Florges, even outside of their gardens, are very powerful combatants. Moonblasts are their strongest offensive attacks, but some are also capable of using psionic moves or grass-elemental attacks. More importantly they are very durable and can quickly recover from most hits while continuing to bombard the opponent. They also have a variety of tricks, including fear spores that can cause severe panic attacks.

The difficulty of training florges and their general aversion to violence makes them niche picks on the European and global circuits. When used they make for effective dragon checks and they can shut down many special attackers by shrugging off damage and retaliating in kind. Their odd hybrid plant-animal minds also make them difficult for alakazam to target.

White florges are the strongest in almost every way. They are extremely uncommon as they tend to be averse to fighting for the sake of fighting. A handful of European collectors have started to deliberately raise white flabébé in controlled environments to produce relatively complaint white florges. Results have been mixed and more than one such project was destroyed after a free florges found out about it.

On the island challenge florges function mostly as special tanks. Moonblasts and other attacks can wound opponents while the florges heals herself. anything that gets too close can be shown fear in a handful of dust and promptly hit with a point-blank attack for their trouble.

Floette and flabébé are much harder to battle with as neither are particularly fast, durable, or strong. They mostly rely upon powder attacks to stun an opponent before slowly whittling down the opponent. Ideally flabébé should not be battled with at all and floette should only be used against relatively weak opponents. Notably anything with wind manipulation can literally blow the pokémon away and should be avoided.

Acquisition

Florges were deliberately released into Alola in the 1970s to help preserve the island’s meadows. Their descendants still live on the archipelago. However, the government has bounties on white flabébé and floette and the importation of both is prohibited to prevent terrorism.

Flabébé can be found in the areas around large flower meadows. Their capture is prohibited on Akala but allowed on the other three tapu islands. Be forewarned that florges can grow defensive over flabébé capture in their garden and will seek out a battle against the trainer themselves followed by a long appraisal. Floette are easier to obtain as they are more widely distributed and not actively monitored by florges. In any case, flabébé can be purchased from some plant specialist breeders. Florges capture is prohibited to help preserve the meadows.

Flabébé can be obtained with a Class III license; floette and florges require a Class IV license to possess.

Breeding

Florges are capable of asexual reproduction. Alternatively they can cross-pollinate with another florges. All florges are hermaphrodites. Virtually all accept a female or female-adjacent gender identity. Very few male-identifying florges have been recorded.

After self- or cross-pollination the florges lowers herself into her tail leaves and seals herself in. After seven to ten days she will emerge with several crystalline seeds lining her body. She will carefully place these just beneath the surface. Two to four weeks later the new flabébé will emerge. The mother florges will watch her children closely for the first year of their life before slowly granting them more autonomy.

Breeding florges in captivity can be difficult. To start with taking seeds or flabébé away from a mother florges without her consent is almost guaranteed to lead to the death of the florges herself as well as anyone she can take with her along the way. Gaining consent requires convincing the mother that her children can be cared for by humans and giving them up would be good for the new flabébé or the world as a whole. There are a surprising number of breeders who have managed this with the prospects of new gardens or potentially influential children being introduced to the florges’ ideology.

Subspecies

While most flabébé end up taking a flower of the same color as their parents, if only because an abundance of such flowers typically live in the garden, they can adopt another one. As such florges do not have subspecies, even though there are multiple categories of individuals with combat and personality differences.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Lilligant (Petilil)
Tulp manie eiland

Overview

Most pokémon, and especially most popular pokémon, are essentially just animals with slightly odd biology and the ability to harness elemental powers. Many of the exceptions lack any carbon-based biology. Then there are pokémon that are essentially plants with odd biology and elemental energy wells. Lilligant is a fairly typical example with a very storied history. In the modern day they are mostly associated with celebrities, art collectors, and the top grass-type breeders. While maintaining the flower does require fairly expensive and time-consuming interventions, it is not necessary for the pokémon’s health to do so. Trainers who don’t care if the flower blooms can care for them more easily, although their need for very good soil does make them more difficult than many other grass-types.

Biology

Both stages of the evolutionary line are classified as pure grass-types. The ruling is not controversial.

Petilil have shallow light green roots, a large bulb, and two to five dark green leaves on their head. One side of the bulb is white and contains eye spots that can detect light and movement. Petilil’s leaves are very bitter but have traditionally been used as a form of medicine in Central Asia. Studies on their efficacy have had mixed results, but most show that boiling the leaves and drinking the liquid does slightly counteract or postpone old age health problems. The pokémon’s skin is mildly toxic and can cause rashes if handled without gloves. Petilil can move by pulling themselves out of the ground and shuffling to a new location. This is energy intensive, slow, and seldom done.

Lilligant’s roots remain about the same size as those of a petilil. Their lower bulb is larger and a white stalk with two arm-like leaves and a smaller white bulb with eye spots develop over it. A mixture of light and dark green leaves flow from the top bulb. Some captive lilligant have a vibrant red flower blooming year-round. Most develop it seasonally. As a consequence of their larger size and small root structures lilligant are almost entirely incapable of moving.

Even among grass-types the line is notable for their need for high-quality soils. This is an accidentally cultivated trait as the wild lilligant of Central Asia thrive in rugged montane lands and semideserts. Selective breeding for larger bulbs and more vibrant colors (as well as smaller roots to keep the precious flowers from running away) made for ever more demanding nutritional requirements. Now the only places they can naturally live long-term in the wild have either very good soil or an abundance of grass-elemental energy. Some cold weather (more than ninety days a year below ten degrees C / fifty degrees F) is usually required for survival. This initially confined Alolan lilligant to the mountains, although in recent decades several have successfully migrated down to the lowlands.

Lilligant can grow up to forty-five inches in height and weigh up to sixteen pounds. They can survive up to nine years in the wild or seven in captivity.

Behavior

Petilil and lilligant appear to do rather little. Once they have found a moist location with good soils and occasional sunlight they will dig themselves in and stay put. If their location is about to flood or burn down they will attempt to move. This disguises the constant battle for survival among plants where pheromones are transmitted, the environment is monitored, and defense mechanisms are prepared and deployed with no apparent external changes. Petilil are mildly venomous and generally foul-tasting so most large animals and pokémon leave them alone. Funguses and parasites are not so kind. Toxins can be prepared in advance to fend off invaders but constantly maintaining the toxins would consume many of the pokémon’s available resources. When one petilil or lilligant falls sick, it transmits information on the threat to all others in the gallery and within a week the entire group is resistant. This allows for the group to save on the energy put into fungicides at the cost of a few unlucky plants that are hit first.

Lilligant can be somewhat more proactive about larger threats. They can unleash dangerous spores or lash out with solar beam or magical leaf attacks. In Alola there is seldom a need for this as their forests and meadows are overseen by oranguru and florges, respectively. Large herbivores are kept in check or directed towards faster-growing non-pokémon plants

Husbandry

Many trainers find it difficult to bond with plant pokémon, especially one as non-expressive as lilligant or petilil. It is possible to communicate. Over time the pokémon can learn to recognize their caretaker’s voice. Basic word association needed for battle and commands can also be established by saying the word for whatever the pokémon is doing as it does it. Lilligant can communicate back through slight changes in posture or scent. On the bright side, the plants need relatively little emotional investment and are not physically affectionate. Very busy trainers often appreciate this.

The line are perfectly content to travel in pokéballs. When stationary they should be allowed to dig into soil. Petilil trainers and lilligant trainers unconcerned with flower quality can leave the plant outside or in a shallow pot of good soil. In order to maintain flower quality very specific soil blends at ideal temperatures and moistures are required, as well as occasional exposure to very specific scents. Under no circumstances should the lilligant be allowed to mate (see Breeding). Trainers particularly concerned with flower maintenance should consult the specialist literature.

It is safe to harvest petilil leaves for consumption at a rate of one leaf per ten days.

Illness

Lilligant flowers are prone to wither away or even rot. This is a natural part of their life cycle and is not a cause for concern. If any other area of a lilligant’s body starts to rot that is a sign of a late-stage parasitic or bacterial infection that must be treated as soon as possible. The same goes for white molds coating any part of the body or abrupt changes in color. Wilting of non-flower parts is usually a sign of dehydration. The lilligant should be moved to a wetter area or have their soil dampened, but not waterlogged.

Lilligant Fracturing Disease once defined the species in culture. The viral infection caused changes in pigmentation that led to beautiful patterns of red, blue, green, and yellow to appear on a lilligant or petilil’s body. The disease inspired a great deal of artwork and was deliberately spread. Unfortunately, the infection dramatically reduced fertility and lifespan and led to the demise of nearly all European and Middle Eastern lilligant within a few generations. Of the domesticated lilligant subspecies, only the Unovan population survived. Reintroduction efforts have subsequently introduced the species back to much of its former range, although parts of Europe have become too polluted to successfully support a wild population.

Evolution

Petilil begin to evolve in their second autumn of life. After a brief scouting period to find the best place to begin the process the pokémon partially buries itself and grows dormant. First the bulb begins to expand and the eyespots are subsumed under the new layers. Then a stalk and second bulb begin to bloom. Finally, the leaves on the lilligant’s head begin to develop. The entire process takes three to four weeks. At the end the new lilligant awakens and resumes its normal pattern of inactivity.

Botanists in Iberia have successfully evolved petilil at seven months of age through the use of a greenhouse that simulated an accelerated seasonal cycle. This is impractical for most trainers to replicate and no facility for doing so currently exists in Alola.

Battling

Lilligant suffer heavily from their lack of mobility. They also are not bulky enough to serve as immobile special tanks, although their solar beams and magical leaves are rather powerful. Pokémon such as venusaur, tropius, and tangrowth largely fill lilligant’s potential niche. Quiver dance is an effective setup move but even when boosted lilligant are slow. Lilligant also has very little ability to manipulate non-grass elements and can be shut down by any bulky pokémon that resist grass attacks.

Island challengers wishing to use lilligant should prioritize power training at first. Once solar beam and magical leaf are mastered defensive tactics can be learned. Ideally lilligant should be sent in against a special attacker it can overpower at range. Anything that tries to get close can be put to sleep. Unfortunately sleep powder does tend to set in after lilligant has taken critical amounts of damage. Lilligant can overpower many early opponents, and petill are durable enough to hold up on the first island, but eventually they will stop being able to pull their weight.

Acquisition

Petilil tend to live in places with large amounts of grass-type energy or great soil. On Alola this amounts to the oricorio meadows and the interior and northern forests of Akala. Petilil can be identified through their leaves with the help of a guidebook. Proving battles are unnecessary to gain compliance but useful for whittling down the pokémon’s health to allow for capture. Newly captured petilil tend to be apathetic towards their trainer and are unlikely to run away unless neglected.

Lilligant capture is currently prohibited. Florges are quite fond of lilligant and react poorly to attempts to remove them. They are far less defensive of petilil.

Petilil can be adopted, purchased, or captured with a Class II license. Lilligant may be purchased or adopted with a Class III license.

Breeding

Lilligant begin to bloom in the late winter. When two lilligant find each other, they will press their flowers together to exchange gametes before going back to their own ranges. All lilligant are hermaphrodites and have both male and female reproductive organs. Two to five days later they will bury seeds into the ground. Petilil will emerge shortly after the Vernal Equinox.

Maintaining a lilligant’s flower requires keeping the pokémon constantly in anticipation of mating. The scent of other lilligant flowers must be a constant presence but no actual exposure to another lilligant can occur. Sometimes the process requires keeping the lilligant in a cool, damp greenhouse for most of the year.

Trainers who intend to actually let their lilligant breed generally have an easy time doing so. Lilligant pairs do not raise their children together. For the most part the new parents take a very hands-off approach to child-rearing in general. Once the seeds are buried in a greenhouse or garden the parent will be quite willing to let its trainer take responsibility for the petilil.

Relatives

Alolan lilligant with their relatively high tolerance for hot temperatures are a subspecies of their own, branching off from the domestic lilligant that were introduced to the islands.

Wild lilligant (T. ruigrond) are native to high-altitude meadows in Central Asia. Compared to their domestic counterparts they are smaller, less colorful, and have much thicker and rougher epidermis. Their roots are comparatively larger, allowing wild lilligant to live in fairly poor soils and move with far more ease than any domestic variant.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Whimsicott (Cottonee)
Bombacio whitney

Overview

Whimsicott have been tied to many of the greatest triumphs and tragedies of the modern era. The first factories were made to process their fluff. The cottonee industry led to the mass produced pokéball, but also serious human and pokémon rights abuses. The fluff trade both stimulated global trade networks and led to coups, civil wars, and revolutions in Egypt, India, and the United States.

In recent years whimsicott have experienced a surge in popularity among casual and professional trainers. Their fluff and antics make them desirable for trainers interested in knitting and fine with harmless pranks. Whimsicott can also make for great pillows and are usually willing to play the part. On the professional circuits whimsicott have come to form the backbone of the quickstall teams.

Physiology

Cottonee and whimsicott are classified as dual grass- and fairy-type pokémon. Both have been disputed disputed. For most of European history scientists classified whimsicott as animals that resembled plants. As animals they could not have a grass-typing. Recent research and genetic sequencing has confirmed that whimsicott are, in fact, plants with several animal characteristics. The line’s fairy-typing is justified by a weakness to iron and an affinity for pranks. There are purists who argue that fairy-typing, if it exists, requires some connection to the moon. The Department of Agriculture has not shown an interest in reopening its review of whimsicott’s typing.

Cottonee are small plants with white outer membranes and a mass of white fibers growing out around the core body. A narrow fluffless band runs around their midsection and reveals their red eye spots. Two green flaps with photosynthetic capabilities extend from either side of their body. Cottonee get almost all of their food from photosynthesis and most of their water through their skin or by absorbing it from the ground or puddles through small prehensile roots beneath their fur. These roots can also be used to expel the fluff from their body and allow for movement. The leaves can also be moved to simulate flight. Even with these adaptations cottonee are still far slower than the average human.

Unlike cottonee, whimsicott have an apparently mammalian body. Instead of skin whimsicott have a thin layer of bark. They have functional mouths and a crude digestive system that lets them supplement photosynthesis with bugs, shrubs, and flowers. The nervous system of whimsicott is poorly understood. There are a few clusters of what appear to be nerves but nothing sophisticated enough to explain the species’ intelligence. The subject is of much interest in the fields of biology and computer science.

Whimsicott have a lot more fluff than their preevolution. They also are significantly more mobile, with limbs outside of their fluff allowing them to move freely without discarding most of their mass. Whimsicott’s roots are also much longer than cottonee’s, allowing for more versatile movements of the fluff. These tendrils also make whimsicott fluff relatively hard to harvest without the pokémon’s active participation. Machines struggle to keep up with the quickly moving tendrils and manual harvesters often struggle to remove one pokémon’s fluff without getting a hand full of thorns for their trouble.

It isn’t entirely clear why whimsicott evolved fluff in the first place. It makes them vulnerable to being blown away by wind or bogged down by rain on top of being a very noticeable target. The leading theory is that it lets cottonee (and, more rarely, whimsicott) band together to form a large fluffy mass that can weigh up to several tons. The sheer size of cottonee clouds scares off many would-be predators. These clouds have also been known to bury small towns they roll into. When whimsicott form clouds it appears to be for the sole purpose of burying towns or causing similar mischief. If one is caught alone during strong winds it can travel long distances, carrying its genetic material with it and allowing for genetic mixing between populations or the introduction of cottonee to new lands.

Whimsicott can grow up to thirteen inches tall and weigh up to four pounds, both measurements excluding fluff.

Behavior

Cottonee tend to live in factories of fifty to over one thousand individuals. On calm days the cottonee will disperse and spread their leaves in the sunlight. The species prefers to live at the edge of forests where the factory can anchor themselves near flat, sunny land. When the winds pick up or predators approach all members of the factory will bunch together, link roots, and form a giant cloud.

Whimsicott tend to be far more active and independent than their preevolutions. They also harbor a particular animus towards humanity, possibly a grudge formed in the last few centuries of large-scale cottonee agriculture. Whimsicott are known to break into homes. While not literally capable of going “anywhere the wind may flow” as one poet put it, whimsicott can still fit into any space their emolga-sized body can and then drag their fluff behind through clever use of control tendrils. Once inside a dwelling the pokémon are prone to scattering fluff everywhere, breaking and hiding objects, harassing any weak pokémon or non-pokémon pets, clogging drains and turning the faucets on, and various other pranks. Tobacco products are almost always stolen.

Serious crimes have been reported but never confirmed. One alleged murder became sensationalized before a group of teenage sleuths and their talking boltund revealed that a cottonee magnate had faked his own death and scattered fluff around the scene in order to justify the recapture of wild cottonee and escape his debts. He maintains to this day that he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for meddling kids.

In the wild whimsicott are known to pull pranks and steal food from other species. They are seldom retaliated against because they keep pranks relatively minor and are known to help out other species. When a young pokémon is sick or injured whimsicott often bring food to them and harass any predators that approach. Sometimes whimsicott donate fluff to be used as bedding. In fact whimsicott willingly donated fluff to humans to make clothing until just a few centuries ago. In some parts of the world they still do.

Husbandry

In the pre-industrial era cottonee farms tended to just be fields with good soil, irrigation trenches, and large poles erected in them at suitable distances. Cottonee would flock to the area on their own accord and rarely leave. Post-industrial facilities tended to keep cottonee chained to each other and the poles to prevent any escape. At harvest time the field was often flooded to limit the cottonee’s ability or desire to resist fluff removal, a task itself made easier with damp fluff. Removal was often brutal for workers and pokémon alike as the plants would sometimes lash out with their thorny roots. Most farm owners authorized root removal before harvesting or even the wholesale slaughter of the crop. The corpses would then be used to fertilize the earth before another factory of cottonee was brought in.

The introduction of the pokéball led to the phasing out of chain-based farming in favor of pokéball-based containment methods. This was done more for practical reasons than ethical ones. Until the late 19th Century it was widely believed that plant-based pokémon were incapable of feeling pain.

Nowadays many operations harvest fluff with either machines or steel-type pokémon with relatively dexterous appendages. Some still persist in the developing world that rely on cheap labor and lax laws for harvesting. In addition to their thorns, cottonee are capable of secreting a substance into their fluff that causes hives to break out on any exposed skin. These reactions can continue for weeks after the substance is washed off and even leave permanent discoloration or scarring.

Trainers not operating at an industrial level can treat cottonee much like any grass-type. They requires several hours a day of photosynthesis time and frequent access to either standing bodies of water or moist soils. Placing a cottonee directly in deep water might kill and will certainly irritate the pokémon. At night cottonee prefer to either be inside their pokéball or allowed to cling to something. Many trainers have reported their cottonee cuddling with available stuffed animals or pillows.

Fluff harvesting and contact is generally safe so long as the pokémon is not momentarily irritated or chronically stressed. Dangerous secretions are only released during battle or when assessing a potential threat. Cottonee are usually tolerant of being petted or hugged and whimsicott often initiate such contact. Harvesting fluff is somewhat risky and should only be done after consulting a specialist guide. Ideally a professional botanist or veterinarian will supervise the trainer the first few times. While harvesting is not necessary it is a good source of knitting materials. The so-called “ethical fluff” industry is also willing to pay for fluff harvested by traveling trainers.

Whimsicott typically loathe pokéballs of all sorts. Even luxury and solar balls are often rejected. While they are willing to tolerate pokéballs for a short period of time if a clear purpose is given or while injured, it is recommended that trainers use the ball very sparingly. Unlike virtually all plant pokémon whimsicott require a lot of enrichment. Puzzles, mazes, strange objects, and similarly intelligent playmates are all good options. If a whimsicott gets bored it will create their own entertainment, often at its trainer’s expense. Trainers looking for a cute and cuddly pet that does not require as much attention may want to look into emolga, dedenne, togedemaru, or komala instead.

Unlike cottonee, whimsicott require food beyond sunlight, water, and the occasional dip in good soils. Insect mixes, shoots, leaves, and flowers are all acceptable food sources. At first all four should be provided in abundance. Over time the whimsicott will settle on a steady diet and only their typical daily needs can be provided. Nuts and fruit can be sparingly used as treats.

Illness

Cottonee that live in areas with highly metallic soils often struggle to thrive and produce very thin fluff with clumps missing. This is easily rectified by moving them to an area with less metal in the soil. Iron content is usually inversely proportional to pH. Soil acidity is highly variable across Alola. Garden supply stores often sell soils with a high pH. Counterintuitively, cottonee can benefit from sharing a team with a steel-type so long as the partner actively consumes minerals in the soil. Alolan dugtrio is a great teammate because it tills the soil and removes excess iron.

Cottonee and whimsicott are very illness prone for plant pokémon. Many of these illnesses take the form of either a thin layer of mold or fungus spreading across the pokémon’s surface or discoloration, foul odors, and eventually rot in the core body. Both are usually carried by small parasites. Unfortunately centuries of selective breeding have greatly reduced the potency of cottonee’s repellant chemicals against parasites. The introduction of Aztec cottonee to most of the world and breeding for tamer and less colorful cottonee has also led to a dearth of genetic diversity that can leave populations highly vulnerable to viruses. At the first sign of trouble the pokémon should be taken to a veterinarian. Potentially sick individuals should be separated from conspecifics immediately.

Evolution

Modern cottonee seldom evolve. In the past enough sunlight, nutrients, and time would almost inevitably trigger an evolution. Industrial era owners did not appreciate whimsicott’s pranks and propensity for fleeing the farm. As such newly evolved whimsicott were almost always put down, often in brutal ways to “set an example.” The psychological effect was largely futile as evolution was far more akin to human puberty’s onset than a conscious choice. Now evolution requires luck and supplemental leaf and sun stones, as well as plenty of battle experience and sunlight. Trainers are recommended to keep their cottonee in photosynthesis rooms at night while staying in Pokémon Centers.

Whimsicott are flash evolvers. Due to cottonee’s ordinarily low activity levels and the uncertainties induced by selective breeding it is difficult to predict how close one is to evolving.

Battle

Hard stall is defined by the use of incredibly bulky pokémon that can repeatedly take hits, heal themselves or shrug off the damage, and then do a little damage back. Over long brutal battles of attrition the hard stall team may eventually prevail. At the opposite end of the strategy spectrum is hyper offense. These teams revolve around creating opportunities for fast sweepers to set up and either badly weaken their best check on the opposing team or take out multiple opponents. At some point one sweeper will finally set up with no good checks remaining and claim victory. Hyper offense pokémon are typically unable to take many hits and rely upon solid matchups, baton pass, or defensive screens to set up.

Quickstall is a strange fusion of the two. Battles are won by attrition but the pokémon cannot take many hits. Whimsicott is a great example of this playstyle. On the competitive circuits whimsicott do best when they come in on something that cannot seriously hurt them. Leech seed is used to put the opponent on a timer and start restoring the whimsicott’s health. Then the whimsicott relies on its natural speed to dodge attacks and throw up obstacles to keep their own health pristine. When possible attacks such as toxic, magical leaf, or moonblast can be used to accelerate the process. A well-trained whimsicott can nonetheless stay untouched and unharmed for over an hour in the right circumstances.

The strategy has a handful of hard counters. Most grass-types or plant-based pokémon can ignore leech seed entirely and aren’t seriously harmed by whimsicott’s grass attacks and plant-derived poisons. Whimsicott struggle to do damage to these opponents and without leech seed recovery will exhaust themselves sooner rather than later. Magic guard users and other pokémon capable of negating passive damage also hurt whimsicott and are quite capable of countering a quickstall team on their own. Finally pokémon that are faster than whimsicott can prevent successful setup. Particularly powerful heat wave and hurricane users are dangerous opponents capable of burning through or blowing away enough fluff to strike at the pokémon underneath it.

Thankfully the island challenge is short on extremely fast or powerful pokémon. Even totems without a type advantage can struggle to outpace a well-trained whimsicott. Leech seed is the most essential move to master. Then barriers such as substitute, cotton guard, and protect should be worked on. The rest of a whimsicott’s training at the casual level should be devoted to agility and evasion drills where the pokémon must dodge weak attacks from teammates. Some guides recommend teaching hurricane to whimsicott to bypass grass-types. However if a whimsicott is fighting other grass-types it will probably lose regardless of what weak attacks it knows.

Cottonee are not suited to quickstall. With leech seed and a grass- or fairy-type attack they can make passable walls or bulky pivots in low level competitions. Attempting to dodge anything is an exercise in futility. Like gyarados, golisopod, and milotic a prospective whimsicott trainer must suffer through a great deal of losing battles before finally getting a powerful ally.

Acquisition

Permanent whimsicott capture is prohibited to help bolster the wild population of naturally evolving cottonee. These whimsicott are not expected to stay on the archipelago where they are invasive. Instead wild-caught whimsicott can be handed over to the DNR for export to their native range in the mainland. The DNR is willing to pay bounties of $500 for naturally occurring whimsicott.

Cottonee are most common in the areas around the tapu meadows. The edges of forests are also good places to find them. Through drifting clouds cottonee have established themselves on all four tapu islands and several of the minor ones. While not as overabundant as raticate or gumshoos, it is not particularly hard to find cottonee. While some may be initially resistant to capture most quickly adjust to captivity so long as adequate sunbathing opportunities are provided.

Cottonee can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class II license. Whimsicott can be adopted or purchased with a Class III license.

Breeding

Unlike almost all pokémon, the final stage of the cottonee line is incapable of reproduction. Instead cottonee reproduce and then become sterile upon evolution. In the early Spring cottonee release huge clouds of spores. Some of these spores collide and bond with another. The pair then summons latent grass energy to form a seed. Once the cottonee drift on all local whimsicott come together to bury and look after the seeds. The new cottonee stay in place for roughly two months before becoming large and fluffy enough to venture out on their own. Some of the whimsicott will watch after them for another month before the new factory is finally left alone.

Captive breeding of cottonee is virtually impossible outside of large factories. Even with the sheer number of spores produced bonding can still be relatively unlikely. In any case the need to stay put for long periods of time is not helpful for many traveling trainers.

Relatives

The whimsicott found in Alola are the domesticated species, B. whitney. They have been introduced to plantations around the world. As in Alola, many of these places have since become home to feral populations.

The Indian cottonee (B. arboribus) are rather arboreal. In fact they are symbiotic with a tree species that lives on the subcontinent. The tree produces no leaves but makes many branches that grow out horizontally. Cottonee burrow into these branches and use them for protection from windstorms. In return the cottonee give some of their extra glucose to the tree so that it may survive. This species was rendered nearly extinct in the 18th and 19th centuries. The new large-scale farmers began clearing the trees and exterminating the cottonee to make room for new farms of Mesoamerican (and later domesticated) cottonee. While the population has begun to recover in recent decades less than 50,000 individuals remain.

Wild Mesoamerican cottonee (B. primitava) are also nearly extinct. The species is very similar to their domesticated counterpart, albeit with a smaller size, thicker and thornier tendrils, and more toxic fluff. The whimsicott of Mesoamerica had an established relationship with the local peoples, giving fluff in exchange for shelter. The Aztec Triple Alliance was the hub of a continent-wide trade in fluff and local artisans had become skilled at making it safe to touch. Many of these methods and customs were lost in the race to replace conventional harvesting with large-scale agriculture to keep up with production in other parts of the world. As in India wild populations were eliminated wholesale. Today the species is limited to national parks and other protected areas in Anahuac, Texas, and Orre.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Throughout the month of July voting will be open for a bonus entry of this story. The options are Alcremie, Charizard, Rotom, and Typhlosion. Where do you vote? Well... in this thread, sort of. Or the one for Broken Things. For every 100 words in reviews you give to any of my fics you'll earn one vote to cast in thread or via DM or discord. Whichever is winning at the end of the month will get the bonus entry. Let me know if you have any further questions.


Content Warning: Sexual Assault

Golduck (Psyduck)

Overview

Female golduck are relatively well adjusted and nurturing pokémon, albeit ones with an understandable misandrist streak. Male golduck are entirely unpleasant to each other and every species around them and can not be recommended under any circumstances. The males are still more common than females in captivity in large part because of the Kappa Order named and modeled after them. The last four governors, nine DNR heads, and three state supreme court justices have all been Kappa alums making the removal of golduck from the archipelago nigh-impossible. Until political realities change the people and psyduck of Alola must continue to suffer the wrath of golduck and their human imitators.

Physiology

Both golduck and psyduck are classified as pure water-types. Despite their appearances and name, golduck are not birds but rather monotreme mammals. This makes them poor candidates for a flying-type designation. While a psychic typing seems logical at first glance, golduck have rather weak psychic powers and psyduck only begin to display telepathic abilities when under extraordinary stress. This is common in the wild, especially among males (see Illness), but as it is not present in healthy juveniles and fades by adulthood a psychic typing has not been granted at this time. Golduck have mildly venomous claws, but not to the extent typical of poison-types.

Psyduck are stout bipeds with thick but short gold fur. A large bill extends from their head. The bill is lined with small jagged ridges that are useful for cutting vegetation. The pokémon have webbed feet and a short tail that is used as a rudder. A sparse tuft of black fur adorns the top of their head. Most of the time psyduck’s pupils are very small compared to the sheer size of their eyes. This is a sign of a headache (see Illness).

Golduck are much more slender and have blue fur instead of gold. Their toes and fingers are longer with webbing between them and the tail grows longer and more maneuverable as well. Four spines extend from the back of golduck’s head. These spines, as well as the claws at the ends of their fingers and toes, are mildly venomous. The venom can cause dizziness, nausea, short term memory loss, and impulsive behavior in humans. A small red bump rests between both eyes. This functions in a similar way to the lateral lines on sharks and lets golduck detect nearby organisms in the water.

Golduck can reach heights of 1.8 meters and typically weigh 30 to 45 kilograms. Males typically live for three to five years in the wild and captivity but can live up to fifteen. Females routinely live for ten to fifteen years.

Behavior

Golduck live in sex-segregated groups. Sororities of female golduck tend to be relatively calm arrangements with an elder in charge of a loose hierarchy. Psyduck are typically nurtured by all adult females. Adults spend most of their day in the water eating grasses and any fish unfortunate enough to swim too close. They also appear to swim for recreational purposes. As they grow older psyduck begin to enter the water and browse under the supervision of the golduck. Despite their reputation for peacefulness, any golduck that gets too fat or thin tends to be first mocked and later banished from the group. Psyduck whose fur isn’t blond enough for their mother’s tastes are often abandoned.

Fraternities are an entirely different story. Strict but fluctuating hierarchies are enforced by brutal acts of dominance including anal rape, physical violence, group harassment, and the force-feeding of cucumbers. Psyduck are exploited and bullied by adults. In fact, psyduck do most of the resource gathering for golduck instead of the other way around. Most juveniles end up sleep deprived and incredibly stressed to the point where they can barely think. While this altered state does awaken latent powers the psyduck are unable to focus well enough to control them. Any mistakes are socially, physically, or sexually punished by the entire fraternity. Hazing continues at least up to evolution, at which point the new golduck is eager to vent their frustrations on any unfortunate psyduck or golduck that is weaker than them.

Sororities often dig create crude dams a la bibarel or riverside tunnel systems for young to rest in. Alternatively they have been known to rest on cliff faces overlooking the water. Many Kappa Orders build large houses and give them to wild golduck fraterinities to reside in and eventually destroy. At this time another, typically better, house will be provided in short order. In 2013 then-Governor Griswold was recalled for using tax dollars to construct a lavish mansion for the wild golduck of North Hau’oli. The recount was later voided by the state Supreme Court in an opinion written by another Kappa Order member. The golduck mansion has a paid cleaning staff and even a chef to care for the pokémon. At least one maid broke her NDA after quitting to discuss the treatment shown to her by the people and pokémon at the site. The state supreme court subsequently upheld a defamation judgment of $7,000,000. She was subsequently arrested for pokémon abuse by a Kappa alum sheriff and tried by a Kappa alum judge. Even after the key witnesses admitted to perjury the state supreme court upheld her conviction.

Husbandry

Psyduck are one of the very few pokémon that are best obtained as an egg and then entirely raised by humans. Virtually all psyduck raised by golduck, male or female, have behavioral disorders that are only likely to worsen with time. Psyduck raised by humans are often playful, loyal, affectionate, and surprisingly intelligent pokémon. Even outside of Kappa Order families psyduck has gained some popularity as a starter Pokémon. Children are given the egg months before they would set off on their journey and then get to raise a pokémon under their parent’s watchful eye. By the time the journey comes around the psyduck is grown enough to battle and has a connection with their trainer.

Wild-born male psyduck typically need a period of recuperation where they are kept away from battles and given adequate food and plenty of time to rest. Any larger pokémon that might pick on the new team member should be kept in line or at least kept away from the psyduck.

Wild-caught female psyduck and golduck tend to have problems with their diet. The best diet for psyduck and golduck is primarily based on seaweed (or freshwater grasses if readily obtainable) with crustaceans and small fish thrown in as an occasional treat. Female psyduck and golduck often outright refuse to eat anything and can suffer health consequences as a result (see Illness). Female golduck are also well-known for their misandry. Male trainers will be ignored or outright attacked. Even female trainers can see their male pokémon, friends, or relatives harassed. This problem is seldom present in females raised by humans.

Wild- and Kappa Order-raised males are known for very different behavioral issues. In particular they are fond of shoving their hand into the anus of other pokémon and even humans. Females in particular are often targeted. They will do anything to access their beloved cucumbers and will throw tantrums if deprived. Giving in hardly makes the situation better as the newly emboldened pokémon will often break property or hurt itself or others. Males will often attempt to bully weaker pokémon on the team with occasionally lethal results. Again, these issues are seldom present in golduck raised by humans who do not emulate these behaviors.

Outside of their unique behavioral needs golduck have more standard care requirements. Golduck prefer to have regular access to freshwater to swim in. When possible golduck should be allowed to forage for their food underwater. Alternatively simple pokémon toys can be used for enrichment.

Female golduck naturally live in burrows. As such they like enclosed spaces and can learn to use closed-top litter boxes. Captive-raised psyduck of both sexes will happily do the same. Golduck-raised males will invariably trash any dwelling they are given and defecate wherever they wish. They are best held outside with a shed or doghouse for shelter from the elements. Be advised that the golduck will attempt to break into nearby homes out of spite. Additionally the DNR and most district attorneys are extremely sensitive to any complaints about golduck welfare.

Illness

Due to a strange blend of bacteria in their gut golduck can get drunk by eating cucumbers. Golduck-raised males prefer to be inebriated and will do everything in their power to obtain cucumbers. Wild females and hand-reared males still enjoy occasional access as a reward. There are no direct health concerns from feeding an adult golduck a cucumber every one to three weeks. Indirect health risks include injuries suffered on accident or as a result of dares from other golduck. Long-term perpetual intoxication can lead to organ failure and death.

Females often struggle with an unwillingness to eat. Many trainers unwittingly exacerbate the problem by providing a subpar diet or limiting food intake. Female golduck, unless chronically overweight, should be allowed to eat as much food as they want. Ideally foraging games will be provided to encourage eating. In dire situations an abundance of treat foods (eggs, cucumbers, crustaceans, fish) can be offered.

When under extreme stress psyduck can develop powerful migraines. These headaches are nearly incapacitating and make the pokémon avoid bright lights, loud noises, and most social interaction. In this state they can also use powerful telepathic attacks. The psyduck has little to no control over these powers and is prone to hurting itself just as much as its enemies. Migraines can easily be avoided by treating the pokémon with a modicum of decency.

Evolution

Psyduck flash evolve after enduring a certain amount of lifetime stress. Male psyduck raised by golduck typically evolve nine to fifteen months after hatching. Female psyduck and hand-raised males evolve twelve to twenty months after hatching. Later evolutions tend to produce larger and more emotionally stable golduck.

Battle

Golduck have a niche as a counter to weather teams. For reasons that are currently unknown some golduck can greatly weaken attack-summoned weather. In turn they resist the main attacks of hail, sun, and rain teams and can punish most sand setters and abusers. Unfortunately golduck are somewhat lacking in power or speed outside of the water and can be easily overpowered on the competitive circuits. Casual trainers do not frequently run weather teams. As such golduck are relegated to the role of a decent mixed attacker that can abuse pools of water. On the island challenge this is good enough to power through two or three islands.

Many trainers believe that psyduck are powerful telepathic attackers. This is false in captivity. In fact a psyduck that does develop these powers is likely to result in a pokémon welfare investigation if used in any official battle. Instead psyduck can be used as modestly powerful special attackers for their size and maturity. Water, ice, and psychic attacks can strike down relatively weak foes from a distance and desperate claw attacks can work up close. Psyduck are not built for the rigors of combat but can at least hold their own against other small pokémon until they evolve.

Acquisition

Golduck can be found in the wild in the freshwater streams and ponds of Melemele and Poni Islands. Psyduck can be captured with a Class III license. Fraternities will typically refuse to relinquish their psyduck. However, the individual psyduck will be quite happy to run away with a human if confronted alone. Proving battles are not only unnecessary but likely to convince the pokémon that his trainer is just another bully. Sororities typically do require proving battles to capture a psyduck. Be forewarned that male trainers will be rejected, perhaps violently so. It is a good idea to use a female pokémon in the proving battle.

Many “wild” psyduck and golduck are in fact owned by a Kappa Order chapter. Ordinarily it is not legal for private individuals to own pokémon that live exclusively in the wild on property not owned by the individual. There is an exception written into the law for golduck and psyduck. If a pokéball fails to catch a wild psyduck this is why.

Golduck can also be captured with a Class III license. This is generally only viable for recently evolved females. If a golduck wants to go with a trainer she will engage in a proving battle instead of a psyduck. Male golduck rarely wish to go with a human trainer. Those that do, typically newly evolved males that are disgusted with their fraternity, will privately seek out nearby humans.

As mentioned above it is best to raise golduck from an egg when possible. These eggs can be obtained directly from a Kappa Order chapter at a high price. Alternatively some local breeders sell eggs or hatchlings. Hand-reared hatchlings are typically more expensive than an egg but have often already gone through the most difficult stages of husbandry (see Breeding) and are already attached to humans. Psyduck can be purchased with a Class I license. Golduck require a Class II license to purchase. Neither can be adopted as all abandoned members of the line are given to the Kappa Order.

Breeding

Golduck fraternities are known to raid the territory of sororities at night. It is possible that two wild golduck have had consensual reproduction. It has never been observed. Typically the males will compensate for their smaller average size by taking advantage of the element of surprise or banding up with another fraternity to be able to overpower more females. In some parts of their range the females have begun setting up so-called “mixers” to make the process less painful. In these events some females will consume multiple cucumbers and then wander into fraternity territory. The fraternities, in exchange, are expected to stop raids on sororities. The process seems unpleasant for the females that do attend but spares psyduck and absolutely unwilling golduck from the trauma of a raid.

Pregnancy lasts for five months at which point eggs are laid. The eggs take another six weeks to hatch. Golduck lack mammary glands and young psyduck are immediately put onto a solid diet. Psyduck do not leave their burrow for the first three months of life and are not allowed to roam unsupervised for another three to four weeks.

Hand-raised golduck often mimic human relationship dynamics. They often form monogamous pairings, although they seldom mate for life. The male sometimes helps raise the children and the trainer is usually expected to help. For advice on egg incubation consult the specialist literature. After hatching the psyduck should be kept in a warm, enclosed space that both parents have access to. The psyduck can either be handfed or additional food can be given to the parents to distribute. Psyduck are not capable of swimming until they are three months old. Do not give a younger psyduck access to deep water.

Subspecies

Golduck are native to southern Japan but have since been distributed worldwide. Particularly large concentrations exist in the American Southeast, Australia, and Eastern Europe.

No subspecies are recognized.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Jynx (Smoochum)

Overview

Even by the standards of true psychics jynx are strange creatures. They possess a limited ability to temporarily discard or entirely reform their body from moisture in the air. Rather than feeding on emotions jynx feed on general brain activity of creatures they are linked to. Strangest of all jynx readily change their behaviors and even their appearance to match the human society around them.

While jynx do not require high PSY scores to wield they are unable to provide translation. Trainers who want a psychic-type for that purpose should look into another species. Musically inclined trainers, aspiring researchers, and rain specialists can still find jynx a strange but friendly and relatively low maintenance pokémon.

Physiology

Jynx and smoochum are classified as dual psychic- and ice-type pokémon. Their nature as true psychics necessitates the first typing. While technically jynx exhibit a form of hydrokinesis rather than proper cryokinesis their very low body temperature and propensity for ice-type attacks suggests a secondary ice typing is suitable.

Jynx is notable for changing the appearance of all individuals worldwide within a generation. It is widely believed that jynx’s skin was previously pitch black. This is inaccurate: jynx had no skin. A shadowy form held up a set of clothing and hair made of slightly impure ice crystals. When frightened jynx would fade into the shadows around them and abandon their physical trappings.

In the 1960s jynx began to grow skin. The trend started in North America where changing attitudes around proper conduct led to a backlash against blackface. Jynx shows were caught up in the backlash and often cancelled as a result. Within five years most of the jynx around Unova had developed a physical form with dark purple skin. This body is not properly organic but is instead made of ice crystals. Despite this there are layers of different densities and structures that seem to function as organs. Whether or not they serve a purpose or are merely ornamental is unknown. From Unova the trend of making physical bodies to inhabit spread worldwide until by 1985 every population of jynx in the world, even the remote wild populations, had adopted it.

Smoochum were first sighted in 1999. They, too, have spread across almost every jynx population. They are roughly humanoid with slightly exaggerated feminine proportions. Most populations have blonde hair and a mix of purple and light brown skin. As with jynx multiple hair colors have been detected. As jynx bodies are purely ornamental the pokémon can presumably have whatever hair color she wants.

Smoochum appear to be biological organisms in a way that jynx simply are not. To start with they regularly eat food, drink water, and excrete waste. Their lips also seem functional and highly sensitive as smoochum insist on pressing them against any new surface they encounter. Furthermore damage short of the total destruction of their physical body can result in death (see Illness).

The largest jynx can reach heights of 1.7 meters and weigh up to 46 kilograms. Increasing size is usually a sign of power and comfort as more mass requires more psychic energy to maintain. Like most true psychics jynx have an average lifespan equivalent to the nearby human population.

Behavior

Jynx appear to have a very complex language system that sounds nearly human. Across the world jynx language shifts to mirror the sounds of the local human tongues. These languages are entirely incomprehensible. Linguists have spent their entire lives trying to decipher jynx languages and failed. Even telepathic humans and pokémon have never been able to receive an understandable response from a jynx. Mind links can even be painful and result in a long bouts of vertigo and/or aphasia. Recent lab studies suggest that jynx communicate with each other through telepathic signals and that their language is purely for show.

Unlike most true psychics jynx do not feed on emotions. Instead they seem to absorb either kinetic or mental energy through their dances. When jynx begin to dance and sing it creates a signal sent out to all humanoid organisms in the area. Eventually their nervous systems are coopted and they begin to join in the movements. The process is harmless aside from potential damage from being made to perform maneuvers the body may not be fit enough to comfortably handle. In the worst case scenario people with some control over their legs but very low leg strength can involuntarily get up and collapse after a few seconds or minutes. Jynx do seem apologetic when this happens and immediately stop dancing.

Most jynx have voluntarily moved into captivity, especially after the invention of air conditioning. They perform in dance halls or, increasingly, yoga studios. Some have private trainers that feed them and, in turn, ask them to dance, battle, or sing. Jynx do have beautiful, surprisingly deep voices even if they cannot perform conventional lyrics. In return the jynx are showered with attention and allowed to regularly feed in a safe environment. While all of the attention can lead to jynx becoming spoiled narcissists this somehow only adds to the appeal of their dance halls. In recent years several jynx have begun social media accounts where they post pictures with nonsensical captions or vlogs of a jynx complaining or singing to a camera in their own language. These behaviors do not seem to be a form of feeding. In any case several jynx have millions of followers on Snap, Trozei, Play It!, Shuffle, and the Pokémon Channel.

Small wild populations exist. Their behaviors, including the methods they use to feed, are poorly understood.

Smoochum mostly stay close to their mothers and explore their environment. They have a lot of attitude for their apparent stage of human development and are known to be more demanding than even the most narcissistic of jynx. Near constant attention from one of her mothers or a human is required to satisfy their emotional needs and ward off tantrums and to make sure that the smoochum doesn’t accidentally hurt herself or eat something she shouldn’t. Preventing her from doing so is a surefire way to start a tantrum. Thankfully smoochum have short memories and quickly forget why they were angry in the first place.

Husbandry

A jynx requires cool environments and either moist air or frequent access to ice or cool water. Her environment should usually be kept below fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures as high as seventy-five Fahrenheit can be tolerated for periods of an hour or less. Glacier and Polar balls can work for transport through warmer climes. In general jynx do not make good companions for traveling trainers in Alola, although the presence of an aurorus, ninetales, vanilluxe, or other powerful cryokinetics can offset this. Humanoid pokémon also make good partners as they reduce the time jynx has to feed from any single source. Intelligent Pokémon, especially singers such as primarina, can properly shower jynx with attention. Oricorio can at least provide dancing partners.

Jynx feed through linked dancing with humanoids and humans in particular. Flexibility and cardiovascular exercises are recommended for jynx trainers to help them get through long feeding sessions. Even outside of dancing jynx are socially demanding and will need near-constant socialization or other enrichment. Thankfully jynx are willing to vent to mirrors from time to time.

A smoochum is generally best cared for by her mothers with occasional trainer assistance. Baby-sitting mostly consists of making sure that smoochum doesn’t kiss anything sharp, toxic, or attached to a potentially aggressive pokémon. Unlike most pokémon smoochum are curious enough about literally everything in their environment that they have little need for proper toys.

Illness

Prior to forming bodies jynx suffered illness typical of true psychics and phantoms. For the most part rates of these diseases have greatly decreased among the now-physical jynx. The only real maladies adult jynx suffer from are the occasional bout of exhaustion, vertigo, or discoloration from inadequate feeding. In particularly severe cases the jynx will not be able to dance, dooming it to starvation unless another jynx steps in and shares energy.

Their gains from reduced emotion sicknesses jynx and offset by new physical weaknesses. Previously jynx could only truly die of old age, although they might go comatose from starvation or particularly severe illnesses. Now the total annihilation of their body in an environment that is not very cool and moist can result in death. Even in ideal environments annihilation combined with dark- and ghost-type attacks can prevent reformation and be fatal as a result.

Smoochum can suffer from more conventional illnesses such as food poisoning and respiratory infections. Ensuring that the smoochum eats only soft foods for the first three months of life and only things edible to humans from then on until evolution can reduce rates of food poisoning. Keeping a clean home and, paradoxically, reducing the use of harsh chemical sanitizers can also reduce illness rates. Respiratory infections are best prevented by keeping the smoochum in a consistently cool and moist environment.

Evolution

Once a smoochum is around eight years old her parents will take her to an extremely cool and moist area nearby. The smoochum will meditate for two to six days before attempting to form a new body. A flurry of ice, snow, and cool water will coalesce into a proper jynx body. Upon the body’s completion the smoochum will keel over dead and begin her new life controlling the newly created jynx.

After evolution jynx continue to grow as long as they train and become more powerful.

Battle

Given enough ambient moisture, especially cool moisture, a jynx can reform her entire body in a matter of seconds. On rain and hail teams this can make jynx astonishingly durable. In addition to their durability jynx can also employ moves such as sweet and lovely kiss to disrupt enemy plans. Nasty plot and calm mind boosts can let jynx unleash powerful blizzards or psychic attacks.

Jynx’s second biggest advantage lies in their ability to freeze or otherwise disrupt the movements of humanoid pokémon. A handful of non-weather quickstall teams have used jynx to force humanoid pokémon such as machamp to stand stock still as passive effects drain their health. Alternatively jynx can force other pokémon to punch themselves. The jynx herself will hardly be damaged given her weak arm strength but fighting-types can be seriously hurt.

The main downside to using jynx is that outside of rain or hail they are extremely frail creatures. In very harsh sunlight jynx passively degrade. Fire-type attacks only speed the process up. Even in ideal weather conditions a few powerful ghost or dark hits can keep jynx from reforming all of the way.

Given the climate of Alola jynx are only useful with a partner pokémon or two capable of setting up rain or hail. Ninetales, aurorus, castform, politoed, or pelipper are the ideal partners. Vanilluxe are powerful hail setters but are strongly discouraged for the amateur trainer. Vanillite and vanillish are unfortunately far less effective at weather control than their adult form.

Smoochum are decently powerful ice- and psychic-attackers that can also pull off the occasional lovely or sweet kiss. They are also modestly more durable and less sensitive to adverse climes than jynx are. In low level matches smoochum can disrupt or overpower a handful of common pokémon such as non-pikipek birds. Still, smoochum’s long evolution time and reliance on her mothers makes her a subpar pick for new trainers.

Acquisition

Jynx are best acquired from breeders in Hau’oli and Malie. These organizations regularly import and breed jynx and are capable of providing specimens adjusted to close human contact and with a detailed record of likes, dislikes, and personality traits. Trainers seeking a wild jynx can find them near the entrances of Melemele caves, and the meadow entrances of Seaward Cave in particular. Wild jynx are often somewhat skittish around humans they are not actively controlling. Even if she bonds with a human a wild jynx will be initially confused and scared in cities and unused to prolonged exposure to high temperatures.

Smoochum capture remains legal due to relaxed capture rules around non-native species. It is not recommended for practical reasons as smoochum are reliant upon maternal supervision and do not typically adjust well to human care.

Smoochum can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class IV license. Jynx can be obtained with a Class III.

Breeding

Like most true psychics jynx reproduce through asexual partnered courtship. All jynx are automatically classified as female as they have no reproductive organs and typically perform feminine gender roles of the nearby human cultures. It is impossible to simply ask a jynx about questions of gender identity and receive a coherent answer.

Two jynx will bond through a dancing and singing competition, the details of which vary regionally. If both are satisfied with the other they will stay close for several months. Eventually one or both will create an egg from ice crystals. Through a process that is not well understood the ice egg will gradually begun to house organic life. A smoochum will hatch after four to six months. Some jynx couples have another child or two while raising their first to evolution. In any event once all children have evolved the couple will go their separate ways. If confined to the same space they will proceed to ignore each other and their newly evolved offspring.

Captive breeding of jynx is relatively easy in theaters or studios that own multiple jynx. Trainers with a single jynx will have to take her to an organized gathering of jynx to evaluate potential mates. One trainer will then need to take care of both jynx for several years. Once the last smoochum has evolved new homes will need to be found for one parent and the child or both parents. If enough food and space is available multiple jynx can tolerate each other with only the occasional fight. Trainers who cannot bear the thought of losing one or both of their jynx should plan to open or join a jynx-related business well in advance.

Subspecies

The dances, language, and mannerisms of jynx vary by culture. Eye and hair color frequencies also vary regionally. Jynx are originally from the Korean peninsula, Amur basin, and Japanese isles. Traders had spread them to Scandanavia by 800 CE, Tibet by 1100 CE, and New Zealand by 1400 CE. The Europeans subsequently spread them to much of the globe, including Alola in 1811.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Readers with a soft stomach may want to skip the illness section on this one. Nature can be viscerally upsetting.



Magikarp
(Gyarados)

Overview

Magikarp barely qualifies as a pokémon. It boasts one of the lowest energy potentials of any known pokémon and survives mostly on the basis of its prodigious spawn rate than its skill in combat. Of course, there are plenty of rare pokémon with extremely high fecundity but low adult numbers. Alomomola is one such example. What lets magikarp survive in large numbers without combat skill, then?

The answer is gyarados. Relatively few magikarp evolve but those that do become some of the strongest pokémon in the world. Gyarados do not reproduce. Instead they serve as protectors for magikarp’s habitat. If any predator species starts eating too many magikarp its numbers can be halved overnight. Environmental alterations, whether from humans or pokémon, can be undone with a single well-aimed hyper beam. Few species dare to subsist entirely or even primarily on magikarp and the fish pokémon thrives.

On the island challenge magikarp is not recommended due to its aquatic nature and general weakness. Gyarados is not recommended due to its uniquely unpleasant combination of a bad temper and city-breaking power. Gyarados is also far stronger than a pokémon needs to be to make it through the challenge. Powerful water-types such as primarina, araquanid, and golisopod are far better options. Even aspiring herpetologists and dragon masters are better off raising milotic, lapras, or even carracosta.

Physiology

Magikarp appear to be red or orange compressiform fish with the expected gills and fins. In reality magikarp are more closely related to aquatic reptiles such as lapras and blastoise than to actual fish. In addition to their gills magikarp also have lungs that allow them to breathe out of the water. Magikarp can cross short distances on land by flopping around and breathing air. Alternatively, they can use limited aerokinesis to make surprisingly high jumps out of the water and clear as much vertical or horizontal distance as possible.

Once they reach a body of water magikarp are almost always hardy enough to thrive there. Magikarp can tolerate salinities ranging from almost pure water to seawater to some parts of the dead sea. Pollution is seldom a problem for magikarp and the factories or pipelines that do cause problems are quickly destroyed by gyarados. Crude lateral lines allow magikarp to navigate in particularly murky waters.

Gyarados are long serpentine pseudodragons. A blue bone trident adorns their forehead and long whiskers extend below their fangs. Arrays of backward-facing scales form the appearance of multiple segments and guard against almost all attacks. These scales are typically counter-shaded with white or cream scales on the bottom and blue scales on top. Gyarados occasionally have red back scales. This may help disguise them in bloody waters or when the water’s surface is reflecting flames. Four dorsal fins and a tail fluke help the pokémon swim.

Gyarados have aerokinesis considerably more advanced than their preevolution. With a little effort gyarados can fly. As fights wear on and gyarados tap into more and more energy the pokémon can find itself surrounded by hurricane-speed winds. While gyarados has trouble directing the winds into attacks the summoner itself seems to be unbothered by them. If anything higher wind speeds lead to faster flight while grounding other fliers. In addition to their aerokinesis gyarados are adept at using water, fire, ice, and dragon energy. With training gyarados can use attacks of almost every type. Ordinarily this versatility would warrant a normal or dragon typing, but gyarados have much stronger aerokinesis and hydrokinesis than any other elemental affinity. As such a secondary dragon typing will only be added in the event that triple typings are allowed.

Magikarp are primarily aquatic and do not have aerokinesis powerful enough to warrant a flying-typing. As such they are classified as pure water-types.

Particularly large magikarp can reach lengths of over one meter and weigh over ten kilograms. They can live for three years in the wild or ten in captivity. Gyarados can reach ten meters in length and weigh over a metric ton. In the wild gyarados can live up to eighty years, although in captivity they seldom survive for more than thirty.

Behavior

In freshwater environments magikarp prefer to live in slow-moving areas at the bends of rivers. These small ponds are easy to swim in and new zooplankton, small fish, and crustaceans are constantly brought to them by the river. Bibarel ponds serve a similar purpose. When they must swim in fast-moving waters magikarp prefer to stick near the surface and move primarily by jumping through the air to avoid the current altogether.

In saltwater environments magikarp typically stick to lagoons, bays, and estuaries. Ponds in tidally influenced marshes are particularly good as they fill up with prey during high tide and are isolated from large predators during low tide.

Magikarp are not particularly social although they do tend to end up living around many other conspecifics. They seldom interact beyond occasional cooperation to figure out a way around a barrier or to trap and kill larger prey.

Gyarados are the defenders of magikarp populations and ecosystems. Ordinarily they stay still at the bottom of shallow lakes, bays, or slow-moving rivers and only move once every few days to ambush and kill a large pokémon in the area, look around the surface, and then submerge again. When disturbed by dredging, divers, or submarines gyarados tend to overreact and destroy not only the offender but almost everything in the area before calming down again.

When magikarp populations decline too much, breeding routes are interrupted, or the environment is threatened by pollution gyarados go on rampages. Sometimes these are surprisingly targeted against a single species or ship. Usually they are far more general. One or more gyarados team up to summon a massive storm before moving ashore and destroying a city with rogue waves, gale force winds, and dragonfire that is not put out by rain or seawater. Several ancient civilizations are believed to have collapsed after angering a gyarados. Even in the modern era where captive electric-types and even legendary pokémon are available to defend a city rampages can still kill thousands of people and cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The gyarados have also adapted and begun to send up to a half dozen individuals on rampages to account for better defenses.

In Alola the last large scale rampage was in 1951 following changes in fishing laws that depleted the magikarp population. Small rampages are common and increasingly aimed at ultra beasts such as guzzlord. Even these attacks are declining in frequency as milotic diplomacy increasingly gives warning of conditions that would lead to rampages.

Husbandry

Magikarp are best held in small fish ponds or dechlorinated swimming pools. Because magikarp eat mosquito larvae these pools are usually not breeding grounds for unwanted insects. One magikarp can comfortably be held for every two hundred gallons of space available, although some specialists insist on at least five hundred gallons per specimen. There should be sufficient room above the pond to jump and either soft or curved edges to prevent abrasive wounds. The water should have a filtration system capable of handling the waste produced. While magikarp can survive in somewhat murky water very high nitrite loads can still result in fish deaths.

In addition to insect larvae magikarp should be fed brine shrimp, live or frozen crustaceans, and live or frozen minnows equal to two to three percent of the body mass of the fish in the pond every day.

Occasional enrichment such as singing to the fish, making a game out of obtaining food, or wading into the pond and standing very still is useful for trainers wanting to evolve a magikarp. It is otherwise unnecessary as magikarp have very low stimulation needs.

Gyarados require either a several hundred gallon aquarium or a large pond or sea pen to be comfortably enclosed. If a gyarados is uncomfortably enclosed it will probably rampage and destroy, at minimum, the enclosure. The habitat should have a layer of soft substrate several feet deep at the bottom. Curved or soft edges are encouraged as gyarados can be wounded by rubbing against concrete too often. Wounds often lead to rampages. Glass is not recommended as a barrier as gyarados are prone to not noticing it, swimming into the wall, becoming enraged, and destroying it. Only constantly and powerfully shielded barriers can withstand a gyarados attack. Bubble curtains or geometric patterns on the glass can reduce collisions. The Monterey Bay Aquarium employed one way mirrors with some success while it had a gyarados in its collection.

In almost all cases two gyarados held in close quarters will lead to one living gyarados and a badly damaged habitat. The one exception is that gyarados that knew each other as magikarp and live in an environment with adequate space and food will sometimes tolerate or even enjoy the other’s company. Most gyarados will tolerate magikarp in their environment. For freshwater ponds the magikarp can provide pest control as well.

Magikarp can tolerate a wide range of salinities. Most aquariums use either seawater mixes or fresh water to house them. Newly evolved gyarados have similar tolerances, although older ones tend to prefer somewhat brackish water. Filtration systems are more important for gyarados care in aquariums than for magikarp. Gyarados will seldom die from nitrite loads but they may kill several humans before flying off to cleaner waters. Fully developed pond ecosystems typically have a robust nitrogen system and do not require external filtration.

Younger gyarados need to eat food just a little bit smaller across than the thinnest part of their body once every week. Older gyarados can comfortably go four to six weeks without eating, although they may begin to get cranky towards when hungry. Gyarados prefer live food but most will happily eat frozen fish, reptiles, invertebrates, or mammals. Public aquariums have had great difficulty keeping gyarados from eating tankmates out of boredom or hunger or coaxing the snake to eat frozen food instead of the live food all around it. A combination of danger to tankmates and exorbitant insurance costs have led to most aquariums that once held gyarados to phase them out, the Hau’oli Aquarium among them. The remaining captive gyarados are mostly owned by professional trainers and either held on the trainer’s personal property or loaned to a public aquarium when not in use. These specimens typically have enough discipline to follow basic orders.

Because they have crude lateral lines magikarp and gyarados enclosures should take care to insulate from currents in filtration systems or other nearby electronics. Most home aquaria stores sell insulation guides and equipment. Trainers and institutions with the money to build a non-pond enclosure for gyarados should also have the resources to consult professional architects and electrical engineers.

Any facility keeping a gyarados is strongly recommended to either have a full troupe of Mr. Mime on site or enough powerful electric-types to quickly knock the gyarados out (see Battling). Even calm gyarados should have these counter-measures available to reduce insurance costs.

Magikarp can live out of water for some time, especially with the help of dive balls. Even in the fairly wet environment of Alola they are not recommended for traveling trainers as they require daily feedings that are best done in the water. Gyarados make poor traveling companions as the constantly changing environments of the trail can be stress-inducing. A stressed gyarados is a dangerous gyarados. Additionally it can be difficult to properly feed a gyarados while traveling, although their infrequent feeding schedule does make them somewhat easier to feed than large carnivorous mammals.

Illness

One of the most common ailments for wild magikarp are parasites. These parasites, typically isopods, will enter magikarp through the gill area. They will then crawl into the mouth and proceed to eat the tongue. The isopod will then settle into the place the tongue formerly occupied and serve as the magikarp’s new tongue, taking a cut of the food ingested along the way. As parasites the isopod are incentivized not to kill their host and to make sure it continues to swim and eat: they are seldom a serious health threat to the magikarp and removing them can be fatal as the pokémon suddenly lacks a tongue or any replacement. Parasites are best prevented by occasional doses of fish-friendly pesticides into the water. Unfortunately this does remove insect larvae that the magikarp would otherwise feed on.

Isopods are no real threat to gyarados due to the sheer size of their tongue. If something were to begin nibbling away the gyarados would simply surface and begin unleashing powerful attacks through their mouth such as hydro pump, hyper beam, or ice fang until the disturbance was killed or removed. Tongue-less magikarp rarely evolve and, if they do, seldom survive for long. One researcher experimented with using a wimpod as a tongue-replacement. The gyarados survived for a little over six months before dying.

The main captive health problem in magikarp and gyarados is abrasion. Repeatedly swimming into concrete or other rough surfaces can wear away at scales and leave open wounds that can become infected. While they are capable of killing large parasites even gyarados cannot easily defend against bacteria. The best way to prevent these injuries is to design a habitat with soft or rounded edges and minimal glass to bump into. Thick substrate beds can prevent injuries from rubbing against the bottom of the tank. Wounded magikarp can be treated by most veterinarians. Gyarados typically require dragon or herptile specialists and/or the assistance of a blissey. Sedating a fully grown gyarados is difficult (see Battle) but useful.

Evolution

When population numbers rapidly decline, magikarp are unable to complete migrations (see Breeding), or pollutant levels tick up magikarp begin to release chemical signals. When the water becomes sufficiently saturated the most healthy magikarp in the area evolves in a flash evolution. Newly evolved gyarados are typically about five meters long and grow throughout the course of their life. Despite their relatively small size newly evolved gyarados are overflowing with elemental energy and more dangerous than all but the most powerful and well-trained of adults.

In captivity evolution can be triggered by dosing a magikarp habitat with distress chemicals. Containment measures should remain on hand until evolution happens as a rampage is almost inevitable. Deliberately evolving a magikarp without a Class V license is a crime.

Battle

The real reason anyone takes the financial and safety risks involved in raising a gyarados is the sheer power they can bring to bear on the battlefield. Between their storms, physical power, and elemental attacks gyarados are one of the strongest pokémon in the world.

Most professional trainers play gyarados defensively at the start of the match using tactics such as protect, rest and sleep talk, substitute, and taunt to set up opportunities to build a storm and boost through dragon dance. With gale force winds and a few minutes of dragon dancing on its side a gyarados are almost impossible to wall.

In turn gyarados are difficult to knock out. Electrical attacks are the easiest means of doing so. These attacks deal decent physical damage and cause severe disorientation and pain by overloading the snake’s lateral lines. Hurting a gyarados has the unfortunate side effect of enraging the gyarados. On the bright side, the pokémon becomes increasingly less likely to obey orders and follow the multistage strategies that make gyarados so dominant. Conversely an angry gyarados boosts its storm much faster and attacks with more savagery than a calm one. It may be easier to win the match but a loss has a much higher chance of being lethal and, given the known risks of enraging a gyarados, referees are unlikely to award excessive force penalties.

The best hard counters to gyarados are capable of negating powerful winds or changing the weather. Salamence, especially in leagues where mega evolution is allowed, routinely uses its own raw power to knock out its opponent before reverse sweeping with the winds coopted.

Without a hard counter or electric-type powerful enough to knock out gyarados within a minute the best strategy to dealing with gyarados is to put offensive pressure on it early in the round to minimize the energy it can put into setting up winds and dragon dances.

Magikarp, while not entirely unable to battle, will seldom win a matchup on land. Their options are limited to flailing around with enough force to hopefully injure something else and, with sufficient training, slinging weak water attacks. In the water magikarp are at least capable of decent tackles.

Acquisition

Magikarp are found in most estuaries, bays, shallow ponds, and river bends in Alola. They are easily captured without a fight. So long as their new habitat is adequate the magikarp will seldom make a fuss. Alternatively many fish and landscaping stores sell magikarp. Magikarp can be caught or purchased with a Class I license. Few shelters will adopt magikarp and they can be easily released to the wild with no ecological problems.

Gyarados that begin to rampage are either put down or captured. The Ranger’s Union has a waiting list to obtain a gyarados. If the trainer did not attend the battle themselves a proving battle or two will be necessary to get the gyarados to obey their new trainer. Alternatively some private trainers may be willing to sell a trained gyarados. Gyarados can only be possessed with a Class V license.

Breeding

To breed magikarp return to the place they were born en mass. Magikarp are surprisingly adept at moving through obstacles such as rapids. Some even cross entire mountain ranges. Once enough magikarp have arrived a mass spawning event begins. All magikarp subsequently die so that their corpses can help feed the hatchlings.

Gyarados are incapable of reproduction.

Magikarp have never bred in captivity. Some institutions do take fingerlings from spawning areas and raise them in captivity. This does lead to a very high survival rate but has no conservation purpose given the abundance of wild magikarp.

Subspecies

Subtle variations, in length, body shape, mass, and coloration can be observed between populations.

Magikarp inhabit most coastal waters and near-coastal river systems in the Old World. The population in Alola was introduced from Japan. Gyarados have reduced the populations of some large fish species such as alomomola, bruxish, and sharpedo. In turn their ferocious protection of habitats has let smaller fish species thrive despite competition from magikarp.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Whiscash (Barboach)

Overview

Whiscash are one of the most prolific pokémon worldwide, boasting over scores of subspecies on six continents. They are an important food fish in some parts of the world. Several species are valued in the aquarium trade. But, like most wholly aquatic fish, they are not often sought out by traveling trainers.

Alola boasts three fascinating subspecies of whiscash. The Mississippian, or farm, whiscash is the most commonly raised whiscash subspecies and one of the most commonly farmed fishes in the United States. It can often be found in farm ponds on Akala. The Melemele whiscash is a blind cave-dwelling subspecies that lives in the cold subterranean rivers in the north and eastern parts of the island. Finally the Poni whiscash is a semi-troglomorphic subspecies that spends the day in the caves and aquifers of the island before coming up to surface waters to feed every night.

Aspiring farmers and aquaculturists may wish to try their hand at caring for a tank of farm barboach or a pond of whiscash. Scientifically minded aquarists may be interested in the other two subspecies.

Physiology

Barboach is a serpentine pokémon with two pectoral fins, a dorsal fin, and a rounded tailfin. Large barbels are used for sensing tiny seismic vibrations and water currents. Additionally most of barboach’s face is covered in taste buds to help differentiate between food and other objects in murky waters. Barboach is coated in a layer of bacteria-heavy slime to deter predators, slip away from tight spots, and keep itself moist for very short periods out of the water.

Farm barboach are dark grey on top and pale blue on the bottom. A wavy black stripe runs along the sides and separates the two colors. They are the largest of the three barboach subspecies in Alola and have by far the strongest vision and, proportionally, the shortest barbels.

Melemele barboach are albino and thus entirely devoid of pigment. Shortly after birth skin grows to recover their eyes. The barbels grow longer to compensate. Melemele barboach have extremely low metabolisms.

Poni barboach are somewhat larger than their Melemele counterparts but much smaller than farm barboach. This subspecies are mottled gray all around with only a slightly lighter bottom coloration than top. The eyes remain functional but weak. Poni barboach tend to flee at the first sign of light while Melemele barboach are entirely oblivious to it.

Whiscash tend to be twice as long and far broader than the serpentine barboach. Their tail turns into a proper dorsal fin and the barbels grow wider. The old lower fins are replaced by a set of pectoral fins and a set of belly fins. In addition to barboach’s ability to sense vibrations and currents whiscash can predict and cause low level seismic shifts with their terrakinesis. This ability is often used at very low levels to move mud and detritus around to root through it or bury into it.

The Alolan whiscash subspecies mostly retain the color schemes and other notable attributes of the barboach stage.

Farm whiscash can grow up to two meters in length and weigh up to forty kilograms. On average they live for six years in the wild and eight in captivity.

Melemele whiscash reach lengths of thirty centimeters and usually weigh around one kilogram. Their wild lifespan is unknown. Most specimens live thirty years or more in captivity.

Poni whiscash reach lengths of fifty centimeters and often weigh up to three kilograms. As with the Melemele whiscash their wild lifespan is not known. Captive specimens have only recently begun to survive for more than five years in captivity, but the wild lifespan is almost assuredly higher.

Behavior

Mississippian barboach prefer to rest in shallow waters filled with plants. Their tail is wrapped around a plant to provide an anchor outside of hunting times. A large part of Mississippian barboach’s diet comes from worms and other insects discovered by rooting through the detritus at the bottom of the water. The rest comes from slow-moving fish that swim nearby or particularly unlucky insects or amphibians that come near and rest. In turn barboach fall prey to anything with a strong enough stomach to handle the bacteria in their slime. A variety of poison-types and amphibians subsist primarily upon barboach. Snorlax have also been known to fish for barboach and whiscash when food is particularly scarce, sometimes by belly flopping into the water in the hopes of knocking prey onto land.

Farm whiscash are ambush predators that submerge themselves almost entirely in mud and detritus at the bottom of the pond. When something comes close the whiscash will bolt towards it and give chase for a few seconds if the initial lunge does not capture the prey. When food has been scarce they may also root around in the substrate for worms, arthropods, and other burying pokémon.

Melemele barboach and whiscash live in the cool, slow-moving subterranean streams under Melemele. They have few predators but limited prey options. While magikarp sometimes swim into their territory all but the youngest or smallest are too small to fall prey to the small whiscash subspecies. Instead barboach and whiscash mostly subsist on insects, guano, and the occasional bat corpse that falls into the water. Their slow metabolisms allow them to go weeks between feedings to compensate for the rarity of food in their environment.

In contrast to the relatively stationary Mississippian and Melemele barboach, the Poni barboach and whiscash are highly migratory. Around dusk the pokémon rise from the caves and aquifers of Poni Island and swim or dig their way to the surface. Once their they feed upon any drowsy, slow, or small creatures they can find in the ponds and rivers. Before dusk they make their way back down to the relative safety of the deep and dark. Their primary predators are dragonair as the dragon-types are quite capable of diving down into whiscash’s hiding place and eating barboach or young whiscash. Dragonair often drag the corpse up to the surface to roll around in, transferring some of the prey’s slime to their own body and making themself unsafe to eat in the process.

Husbandry

Traveling trainers who insist on caring for a whiscash are best off sticking close to Pokémon Centers and lakes. Oddly enough the Melemele barboach fares best on the trail as it can stay in a dive ball for days on end without needing to feed due to the subspecies’ naturally low metabolism. In any case it is not recommended due to the difficulty in using the pokémon in battle on the island challenge and the lack of good opportunities to care for a burrowing freshwater fish.

Farm barboach are typically raised in large tanks from hatching until evolution. They prefer fresh or slightly brackish water, a thick layer of substrate, and lots of plants in their tank. A stocking rate of thirty to forty gallons per barboach is recommended for near-evolution barboach. Hatchlings can live in much higher densities due to their small size. Farm barboach prefer a worm and arthropod based diet with some mollusk and fish meat mixed in. Many commercial suppliers mix grain into their food to save on money, although this is usually phased out for whiscash to avoid off-flavor (see Illness). They seldom fight other barboach so long as food and space are adequately provided.

Mississippian whiscash are impossible to raise profitably in tanks and shallow ponds are preferred. Each whiscash requires at least twenty square meters of space to itself. Otherwise they will become aggressive with each other even with adequate food. Speaking of, food should be distributed in such away that roughly equal amounts fall into each fish’s territory. High water quality is important both for monitoring the pokémon and preventing off-flavor. Many whiscash ponds are artificial with hard bottoms and an attached filtration system. Ariel predators typically do not prey upon whiscash but particularly concerned farmers or those living near braviary may wish to invest in guard pokémon such as manectric.

Melemele whiscash are surprisingly easy to care for. They prefer cool waters (10 to 25 degrees Celsius) with a pH between 6 and 7.5 and moderate hardness. Light is optional as it does not seem to bother the fish but is not required for navigation. Hiding places are good for preventing stress. Many aquarists prefer to have rocky decorations such as hollow columns and stone floors with small caves built in. melemele whiscash are surprisingly tolerant of conspecifics. One barboach typically requires twenty liters and each whiscash requires roughly one hundred liters. Vibrations in the area should be kept to a minimum to avoid disturbing the fish.

Poni whiscash were not successfully raised in captivity until 2013. In recent years the Hau’oli Aquarium has had great success raising and even breeding the species through innovative exhibit design. A layer of substrate at the bottom of the Local Waters tank blocks a tunnel that leads down to another, quieter tank two floors down. During the day the whiscash burrow through the substrate into the tunnel and down to a quiet, isolated tank in a dark gallery. At night they tunnel back up into the main tank to feed before retreating around the time the aquarium opens to the public. Private aquarists have managed to replicate the setup with a night and day tank, both kept in dark rooms with a slight elevation disparity and a tunnel between them.

They can tolerate slightly warmer waters and higher currents than Melemele whiscash and are strongly averse to light. Tank specifications are otherwise similar. Poni whiscash generally require about 50% more space than Melemele whiscash, although this can be split between their two tanks.

Illness

The main “health” problem for whiscash farmers is off-flavor, and the related issue of off-odor. These do not seem to affect the pokémon during life. Rather they affect the resulting flavor or odor at death. Sometimes an entire pond of whiscash will come out foul-tasting or smelling. The reasons behind this are not presently understood. In general it is tied to water and diet quality. As such farm whiscash are actually some of the cleanest and healthiest of any food fish, despite their reputation. Farmers will start the harvesting season by catching and preparing one whiscash. If the flavor is good the rest will be harvested and sent to a processor. If it is not the fish are left to spend another year in the pond, this time with even more attention paid to water and diet quality. Most farmers keep a second pond available in case one year’s batch cannot be harvested. It provides a place for the newly evolved whiscash to go when they outgrow their tank.

Evolution

Around the time they reach full size (varies depending upon the subspecies) barboach begin to seek out much more food to eat. For Melemele barboach where food is always limited their already low metabolism plunges even farther for several months to allow for weight gain. Over the course of three to six weeks (farm whiscash) to an entire year (Melemele whiscash in the wild) growth gradually occurs. New fins slowly grow in and the tail fin first fades before eventually becoming a dorsal fin. The pokémon mostly grows wider with some slight length gains during evolution.

Battle

In the wild whiscash primarily hunt prey through ambush attacks and powerful bites and gulps. Their defenses mostly come from their foul-tasting and bacteria-laden slime. While they can summon moderately powerful seismic attacks to scare off would-be attackers and make the waters temporarily murkier this is not something that whiscash often do in the wild. The reason they abstain from their most powerful defensive strategy is not well understood. At present the leading theory is either fear of retaliation from gyarados, milotic, or another keystone species or social pressure from conspecifics not to create powerful and annoying vibrations unless absolutely necessary.

The largest whiscash subspecies have seen some use in circuits that guarantee freshwater pools at either trainer’s request due to their massive bulk and potent venom or seismic attacks that makes them difficult to remove from the water and hard to harm inside of it. The venomous species in particular can hide in deep water and stall out land threats. Unfortunately several of these species (Javan, Indian, Caspian) are now endangered or critically endangered and difficult to obtain.

Mwasaa binti Musa, reigning champion of the Pan-African Conference and world-renowned water-type expert, famously uses a massive Nile whiscash that is almost four meters long. Miguel Cabrera, champion of the Amazonian Federation and fifth-highest ranked trainer in the world, occasionally uses an electric whiscash.

The farm whiscash is large enough to be decent in battle, provided that there is fresh or brackish water available. Brackish water tolerance must be built up over time before battling in it. Whiscash rely mainly on staying submerged in the water while unleashing seismic attacks to slowly whittle down opponents. Dragon dance can be taught with some effort or considerable funds. The effects of dragon dance allow whiscash to temporarily leave the water, although they are often slow and unwieldy in the air.

Barboach are essentially limited to spraying weak water guns and unleashing slightly stronger seismic attacks. In the water itself barboach can use their knowledge of and ability to create vibrations to throw off other fish. Very few trials and no grand trials have water pools available, making barboach difficult to justify on the island challenge.

Acquisition

Farm whiscash and barboach can be found in and caught in the Brooklet Hill watershed. As a reward for bringing in one of these invasive pokémon some local restaurants will fry any farm barboach or whiscash brought to them. Alternatively they can be purchased directly from farmers or through many aquarium or farm supply stars.

Poni and Melemele barboach and whiscash have rather strict annual quotas. Trainers wishing to capture one should consult with the local Pokémon Center before doing so. Melemele Barboach are best found by following the streams in Seaward Cave, either from the Kala’e Bay or Melemele Meadow entrances. Do careful research and extensive preparations before heading off path in the cave; more than one spelunker has set out into the cold, slippery tunnels in search of barboach and never returned. Trainers who wish to avoid the quotas and danger can also purchase Melemele barboach through specialty aquarium stores.

Poni whiscash and barboach can thankfully be caught at the surface. Ponds in the area of Poni Meadow and Vast Poni Canyon are frequent feeding sites for the pokémon. Trainers with night vision goggles can watch them as they surface and feed. Any light at all can scare off the nocturnal pokémon. Barboach can be caught by insect and worm based bait a few meters below the surface. Whiscash feed near the bottom and are more likely to bite lines with fish, especially live ones. Barboach are too small and slippery for net fishing but some whiscash can be caught that way in shallower waters. Scuba divers with another water-type can also try their hand at the traditional battle and capture fishing.

Farm and Melemele barboach can be obtained with a Class I license. Those subspecies of whiscash require a Class II to capture, adopt or purchase. Poni barboach and whiscash require a Class III license to possess.

Breeding

Whiscash mate with a nearby partner of the opposite sex. Eggs are laid three days later and hatch after another two. Newly hatched barboach are less than one tenth the length of their maximum pre-evolution size. Cannibalism from older barboach and whiscash is common.

In captivity a pair must be isolated from other whiscash before they will breed. Once eggs are laid the adults should immediately be withdrawn and moved back to their normal enclosure before they can eat their progeny. Once the barboach hatch they should be moved to a shallow tank with very gentle currents and no larger Pokémon. As they grow up the barboach can be introduced into successively larger tanks. Barboach that have reached about half their maximum pre-evolution size can introduced to a tank or pond with whiscash. Most farmers never mix barboach and whiscash to avoid any potential aggression and keep track of the populations.

Subspecies

There are dozens if not hundreds of whiscash subspecies. In general temperate whiscash, and especially cave whiscash, are smaller than tropical whiscash. Most temperate or subtropical swamp-dwelling species are similar to the Mississippi whiscash, albeit a little bit smaller.

Tropical rainforest and swamp dwelling whiscash can grow to be massive. The Indochinese whiscash, the largest subspecies, can grow to lengths of nearly six meters and weigh over a ton. On top of their sheer size the Indochinese whiscash, along with its close relatives in Java and the Sundurbans, have a venom that breaks down plant matter. They mainly hunt by staying near the surface and unleashing seismic attacks when primates, large bug-types, or other pokémon try to cross through the canopy over them. the resulting shockwaves often knock prey into the water and let the whiscash feed. They can also unleash venom near tree roots to break down the foilage and expose the prey underneath. Grass-types with a mix of plant and animal traits also often fall prey to the Indochinese whiscash as they attempt to drink or ford the river. Unfortunately deforestation, dam construction, and increasing water diversion for agriculture have made the Indochinese whiscash critically endangered. There are now more captive specimens than wild ones. Similar forces are pressuring the Javan and Indian whiscash.

The Nile whiscash is another tropical subspecies with a somewhat different hunting strategy. The Nile whiscash prefers burrow into the side of the river or pond in areas where land pokémon frequently come to get water. Several whiscash can burrow at once. Once a very large individual or a herd of pokémon approach the water to drink the whiscash unleash seismic waves and literally collapse the ground over them where the prey are standing. As water rushes in the whiscash work together to fatally bite or drown their quarries before they escape. The spoils are shared equally by all whiscash with the barboach getting any remainder.

Across the Atlantic the Amazonian, or electric, whiscash is one of the top predators in the Amazon River. The Amazonian whiscash is unusually fast and somewhat poisonous, although it is not venomous. Its bright red tail and streaks of yellow scales make it one of the most colorful subspecies. The electric whiscash traded its ability to generate seismic waves for an unusual talent at creating and withstanding electrical currents. The Amazonian whiscash most commonly hunts by either hiding in the substrate or darting into a school of fish and then unleashing an electric pulse. Smaller fish are instantly killed the whiscash feasts upon them. Larger fish can usually resist the comparatively weak hunting pulses but will be killed by stronger defensive attacks if they stay in the area or try to steal the whiscash’s food.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Dewgong (Seel)

Overview

Dewgong is one of the few ice-types in Alola, and one of even fewer that does not primarily live in the area around Mt. Lanakila. They are still not a recommended choice on the island challenge. To start with, the Alolan dewgong is critically endangered. Some orphans unable to return to the wild are distributed conservation facilities on a case-by-case basis. No wild take is allowed. Even if a trainer does obtain one, seel come with most of the challenges inherent in raising aquatic species. In truth, dewgong are much better home companions or aquarium animals than they are battling pokémon for a traveling trainer. Water- and ice-type specialists, as well as coordinators who want a rarer alternative to primarina, may still find reason to seek out a seel to raise.

Physiology

Seel and dewgong are classified as water- and ice-types. They are primarily aquatic and have moderately potent hydrokinesis. Unusually for Alolan species, both stages quickly grow uncomfortable in warm weather and must either seek out cooler climes or chill the air themselves. There are those who maintain that dewgong’s lack of a fully aquatic lifestyle or unusually aqueous body precludes a water-typing. This is a minority view and has been rejected by the United States Department of Agriculture and every league that has considered the issue.

Seel are born are hairless with black skin. A coat of fur, dark grey on top and light a lighter brown on the bottom, grows in as they age. The skin itself gradually lightens with age. A seel’s body is smooth and hydrodynamic. Powerful front flippers and somewhat smaller back flippers are used to navigate in the water. On land the flippers can be used for scooting and sliding. Alolan seel possess tusks and a small horn for defense.

Dewgong look much the same as a very large seel. There are a few key differences. The back limbs fuse and end in a large, frilly fluke. The front flippers also grow frillier and proportionally larger. Frills may seem impractical, but they can spread out to create more surface area for losing heat. It is also likely that a predator will nip a useless part of the fin rather than muscle or bone, giving dewgong a chance to counterattack or escape. Upon evolution, dewgong shed their tusks. The horn remains.

Underwater, dewgong possess very sensitive hearing. It is less potent on land. The opposite is true for smell: dewgong cannot smell underwater, but they have a nose comparable in strength to a canine’s when beached. The species’ vision is weak and mostly limited to black-and-white images, although recent studies have provided evidence for some blue-green vision. Dewgong and seel also possess very sensitive whiskers that can help them navigate in the water.

Dewgong can grow to be 2.3 meters long and weigh over 200 kilograms. They can live up to thirty years in captivity, although ten to twenty years is more common in the wild.

Behavior

Seel have difficulty cooling themselves off in Alola. Dewgong are much better at cooling the air around them than seel are, making it important for thermoregulation for children to keep close to mother. During deeper dives, the mother will leave her offspring with another female or in the cool waters around Kala’e Bay and Mt. Lanakila. As they grow older, seel will begin to hunt on their owl in cool, shallow waters. In addition to the aforementioned areas, cave systems that connect to the ocean are also common hunting and hiding grounds for seel.

Dewgong prefer to hunt in the open ocean. Two hundred meters below the surface, water temperature begins to rapidly decline. In these cold waters, dewgong can satisfy their temperature needs and hunt for fish. Unusually for a mammal, dewgong only sleep with one brain hemisphere at a time. The other is used to control diving and breathing. During the day, dewgong spend almost all their time asleep. They will surface, take a deep breath, and dive back down to spend up to thirty minutes at rest beneath the thermocline. Then they will surface again, breathe, and dive back down. This is all done while asleep. At night dewgong typically hunt or haul themselves onto a secluded beach to spread their fins and enter into a deeper, bihemispheral sleep.

Outside of the rare deep sleep or pup care, dewgong only beach themselves to molt. Once a year, usually in September, every dewgong in Alola comes to land to molt. All hair is shed and regrown over the course of two weeks. Most mating also occurs during this period. Outside of molting season and mothers with pups, dewgong are solitary pokémon.

Fully grown dewgong have few predators. Dragons and large birds fear ice attacks. Most aquatic predators are too small to actually penetrate their thick blubber and score a kill. Only gyarados and sharpedo regularly prey on dewgong. The horn mostly deters direct attacks on the head. Dewgong’s real defense is the threat of abruptly freezing the water around them and inducing cold shock in the cold-blooded predators.

In recent years dewgong populations have declined not due to an abundance of predators, but due to shortages of habitats and prey. Increased tourism in Kala’e Bay has discouraged dewgong from visiting to hunt or raise pups. Development and fishing in the minor outlying islands has dramatically reduced the population of Alolan dewgong there. The Tapu Islands contain introduced rodent, feline, and canine pokémon that often harass or kill seel. Strict conservation laws have led to a slight resurgence in recent years, but there remains a real possibility that the Alolan dewgong will be extinct in the wild within fifty years.

Husbandry

Dewgong are obligate carnivores. They are fed raw fish in captivity. Fresh fish is best, but frozen fish can also work after being thawed. A mixture of at least three different type of fish and one or two aquatic invertebrates is required to ensure a nutritionally balanced diet. While dewgong have a poor sense of taste, some individuals still develop preferences for different types of fish. Basculin, wishiwashi, remoraid, and barboach are all good choices for dewgong. Non-pokémon fish can also be used, although they tend to be less dense in calories and nutrients. Non-pokémon squid are the best invertebrates for dewgong and seel. Young seel can eat up to 10% of their bodyweight; older seel and dewgong typically only need 4% unless pregnant or nursing. Neither stage regularly drinks salt or freshwater.

Both stages are very food motivated. Giving fish as a reward for obeying commands is the most effective way to train the species. Outside of hand-fed fish, good rewards include fish frozen into a block, bloodsicles, or dog toys with bits of fish or squid in them. Kelp, rope, and sprinklers are also popular enrichment items with captive dewgong and seel.

Seel and dewgong fare poorly, physically and mentally, when kept without access to water. A cool saltwater pool should be provided when outside of their pokéball. The pool bottom should have dark coloration to regulate temperature and prevent glare. Land should be accessible from a ramp beginning beneath the water level, especially for seel. Freshwater can be tolerated in the short term but causes deleterious health effects such as blindness in the long run. Pools should ideally be at least five meters deep. Open ocean access is an acceptable substitute, but supervision should be maintained to prevent gyarados or sharpedo attacks. Fenced off coves cannot stop a gyarados, but they do a good job of keeping dewgong happy and deterring sharpedo.

One problem that coordinators regularly have with dewgong is that their bladder is very small. As such they are impossible to truly housebreak. As a saltwater species, dewgong urine tends to be highly concentrated. It carries an unpleasant odor. If dewgong are taken somewhere out of their ball, it must be somewhere where the trainer is prepared to clean up a mess.

Seel will often want to cuddle their mother or surrogate mother. Dewgong are not physically affectionate. Even if the pokémon wants physical contact, their trainer should never touch the sensitive whiskers. Better petting methods involve scratching the area around the base of the horn or running a hand through their fur from front to back. Seel, and even many dewgong, enjoy having their nose poked while playing. Putting a hand near a less playful dewgong’s mouth is not recommended.

Canines and felines make poor teammates due to potential health problems. Smaller fish and aquatic or amphibious pokémon can also be mistaken for prey. Dewgong seldom become fond of their teammates, including conspecifics. Keeping two or more males with a single female can also be dangerous (see Breeding). Primarina can make suitable partners in an enclosure so long as both pokémon have their own spaces to retreat to. If both are kept together, it may be best to have two separate pools connected by a land area. This ensures that primarina can retreat to warm water and dewgong to cold temperatures.

Primarina themselves look down upon dewgong due to the latter’s lesser intelligence and mobility, but sometimes enjoy their fellow pinniped’s company in the same way a human can appreciate a bumbling pet.

Illness

Dewgong’s main health problems in the wild and captivity stem from exposure to other pokémon or animals. Specifically, cats and dogs. Toxoplasmosis, a pathogen carried in cat urine, can cause swelling of the heart or lungs. Untreated, these conditions can easily be fatal. They sometimes will be anyway with the best treatment available. Dewgong are also susceptible to canine heartworms. Thankfully, most veterinarians are well-trained on handling that parasite. The best treatment for both is prevention. Keeping a dewgong on the same team as cats or dogs is not recommended, and when done both pokémon must constantly be monitored for potentially communicable disease.

As ice-types, dewgong are also susceptible to hyperthermia. The presence of fans in the habitat, regular access to cool or cold water, ice-based enrichment items, hail-setting teammates (sans ninetales), and air-conditioned spaces can all help. Just having the option to spread their fins out and rest with a nice breeze running over them is often enough treatment.

Seel are also vulnerable to hypothermia. Symptoms include sluggishness, loss of appetite, unusual amounts of vocalizations while on land (seel are usually only talkative in the water), and aggression can all be possible symptoms. If hypothermia is suspected the water temperature should be raised and the seel should be monitored on land for some time. If a climate-controlled simulation ball is being used, the suspected hypothermic pokémon should not be withdrawn into it until symptoms subside or a veterinarian has ruled out hypothermia.

Both stages enjoy scooting and sliding around on land. Rough surfaces can lead to lost hair and even torn skin. Care should be taken when selecting the locations where dewgong are released and the materials used in building a more permanent enclosure for them.

Evolution

Seel typically evolve around their fourth birthday when their tusks fall out and their back flippers start to fuse. With enough food and battle, seel can evolve as early as their second birthday. As soon as the flipper fusion is finished, the mother will start ignoring her child. If the new dewgong insists on sticking around, aggressive posturing and even violence can occur.

Battle

Dewgong are in an unfortunate position between walrein and primarina. Walrein larger, stronger, and have more powerful tusks. Primarina are faster in both land and water, have useful combat arias, and are generally intelligent enough to think on their feet. The titan dewgong of the southern hemisphere do see some use in local circuits where walrein are banned, but otherwise dewgong are simply not used in competitive battling.

On the island challenge dewgong can be used as a utility-laden tank. Opponent’s weaker attacks seldom pierce the blubber. In the meantime, dewgong can fire off whirlpool and perish song to trap and defeat enemies. Dewgong can also combine water and rest to heal off all but the most severe of puncture and slash wounds. Very powerful attacks can still knock out dewgong in one hit. Low land mobility severely limits the pokémon’s ability to dodge even heavily telegraphed charge attacks.

Seel are more offensive and can harm opponents with tusk or horn strikes. Unfortunately, seel are rather slow on land and can struggle to close the distance with opponents to land a strike.

Both stages are also sensitive to even very weak electrical currents, even to a greater extent than most water types. Electrical fences cannot be used in dewgong enclosures and all electrical equipment in the filtration and cooling systems must be well insulated. Actual electric attacks will break concentration at a minimum and either score a knock out or shatter the will to fight with enough power.

Lapras is generally a better choice on the island challenge, as they are more intelligent, possess a wider movepool, and can still tank plenty of hits with their shell. It is also easier to obtain one and they remain good pets and partners that can look after themselves in coastal areas.

Acquisition

Male dewgong are most often found on the minor outlying islands. Females are often sighted in Kala’e Bay and Route 15. Wild capture is prohibited.

Orphaned dewgong seldom survive for long. Several agencies in Alola and on the mainland care for orphans until they are old enough to go on display at a zoo or aquarium or be given to a traveling trainer. This reduces the incentive for poaching. Adopting a seel requires a Class IV license, a course on seel care, and the approval of the facility’s director. The number of pups available in a given year varies depending upon local fish numbers and the El Niño / La Niña cycle.

Breeding

Dewgong mate in the water. If all goes well, the female will surface after a five-month pregnancy to give birth to one to two pups. The pups are only nursed for four to six days before being weened. During this time the mother stays on land with her pup. The pup will stay with the mother until it involves.

Unfortunately, dewgong mating often goes wrong. More males are born than females, so during mating season females are often mobbed by multiple males wanting to mate. The female often dies of either drowning or repeated lacerations if mobbed. This leads to the gender ratio growing even worse and more female dewgong being mobbed the next year. Captive breeding programs can relieve some of the stress and are increasingly being turned to for the species’ survival.

Orphaned pups are usually hand-raised by humans. Baby seel do not have an instinctive ability to eat whole fish and must be taught, either by their mother or a human. Rewarding interest in live fish with toys, embraces, or more milk can help reinforce this behavior.

Captive breeding is best handled by specialists who have devoted their lives to dewgong care. Trainers with a dewgong can contact the Hau’oli Aquarium to discuss using the pokémon in a breeding program.

Subspecies

The Alolan dewgong is the last relict of almost a dozen subspecies that once inhabited the archipelagos of the tropical Pacific. Most subspecies live in much colder climes.

The most numerous subspecies lives in the Arctic Ocean. Other populations live on the coast of Asia as far south as Japan and Manchuria in Asia and Cascadia and Unova in North America. The arctic subspecies has much thicker fur and longer horns. The fur is useful for staying warm in very cold environments while the horn can be used to dig a hole through an ice floe and find a place to rest.

A population used to live in much of Europe, but they were hunted to extinction due to their blubber and local folklore. Celtic mythology held that dewgong were simply wetsuits for a type of fey. They would come to shore, seduce men, and then haul them into the water to drown. One of the last Galarian kings to reject the church of life was found dead off the coast from his summer home. The court used this as pretext to declare war on the old gods and their servants, killing every dewgong around the island in the process. Superstitious sailors brought the legend to other country’s ports and the killings continued around the continent.

The other northern subspecies is the freshwater or lake dewgong. The smallest subspecies, lake dewgong seldom grow more than 1.5 meters in length. They live in the Great Lakes of North America and hunt for fish in the deep, cool waters. They haul out on the beaches and small islands of the lakes to rest. Pollution in the area has led to the death of many formerly common prey species and widespread illness among dewgong. The remaining wild populations are mostly found on and around protected island parks with large no fishing zones around them. More lake dewgong can be found in captivity than in the wild.

The Antarctic dewgong is much sleaker and longer than its Alolan counterpart. These dewgong primarily hunt seabirds around Antarctica, sometimes even by charging out of the water onto land and snatching one up near the shore. High speeds and maneuverability help them outpace their prey in the water; sharp teeth help hold and kill it. Unlike the other subspecies, Antarctic dewgong have no tusks and only a small knob of a horn. There are very few predators that would attack and Antarctic dewgong and a horn would not help against any of them. Ice floes are not as all-encompassing in the sub-Antarctic waters as they are in the polar ones, making the horn less necessary.

Titan dewgong are by far the largest subspecies. Males can be up to six meters in length and weigh several metric tons. Titan dewgong hunt much like Alolan dewgong do, by diving deep underwater and snatching p fish and squid there. Titan dewgong are even better divers, capable of diving over 1000 meters and holding their breath for over an hour at a time. While they hunt alone, titan dewgong beach in harems of one or two powerful males and all of the females in the area. The other males are forced to live at the outskirts and rely on stealth and distractions to mate without the dominant male noticing and lashing out with incredible strength and long tusks.

Curiously, the Alolan dewgong is the most potent cryokinetic of the living subspecies. They must cool their own environments on and near the surface, unlike the other subspecies that ordinarily live in cold waters. This is similar to the abilities the Alolan ninetales have adopted to survive as ice-types in a tropical climate.
 

Rediamond

Middle of nowhere
Feraligatr (Totodile, Crocodile)
Rostraserrantia thomsoni

Overview

The first records of something akin to an island challenge or gym quest come from the Persian Empire. Children who showed great promise were sent to the various satraps of the empire to learn from different political, religious, and military leaders and learn about the local culture. Those who gained the approval of six mentors were recognized by the emperor and placed into positions of influence. Hellenistic generals and traders would spread the concept west to Europe and the Imperium and east to India and later China, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

The Han dynasty would further codify their journey into one of eight steps – those of the warrior, sailor, merchant, scholar, priest, bureaucrat, mason, farmer, and miner. Those who proved themselves under a mentor in all eight fields would gain a noble title and seat in the imperial court. Many were allowed to marry into the imperial family. To even the gap between nobles and commoners everyone who wished to embark upon the quest and gained the approval of a local priest or judge was given a choice of five pokémon, one corresponding to each of the core elements. Journeyers could only use this pokémon and any befriended along their travels.

Totodile was the water starter. By some accounts it was the most popular due to its mix of ferocity in battle and tranquility outside of it. Totodile are a good introduction to learning to care for reptiles, carnivores, and water-types. They are also quite friendly and can form close bonds with their trainer.

When Chinese immigrants came to Alola they brought totodile with them. The Alolan and United States government have had a contentious relationship with the pokémon, sometimes banning it out of fear of revolt from the often poorly treated immigrant population and sometimes to protect the ecosystem of the islands. Banning its possession often led to captive specimens being released into the waters of the island. Hunting the wild population led to specimens retreating into caves during the day. This eventually led to the Alolan feraligatr becoming a separate species with far more tolerance of cold and darkness than its Chinese counterpart. In the 1980s a DNR survey showed that the Alolan feraligatr and croconaw preyed primarily upon rattata and yungoos. Feraligatr were subsequently listed as a low-threat invasive and ownership was legalized.

Today totodile is a popular alternative starter, especially in Chinese and Japanese communities. Trainers who do not get one as a starter can still capture one from Alola’s rivers and ponds.

Physiology

All three stages are traditionally classified as pure water-types. There is some dispute as to whether feraligatr and/or its preevolutions should be classified as ice or fire types. All three stages have much greater cold tolerance than is typical than a reptile. They also have a strong affinity for ice attacks, although this is common for water-types in general. Alolan feraligatr are particularly adept at using scald, heat wave, and other methods of warming the air and water around them. This is part of what allows them to hunt or sleep in Alola’s caves.

Totodile are often depicted as bipedal crocodilians. While they can stand on their hind legs, they rarely do so on land except for intimidation. Totodile have dark blue dorsal scales. Brown or dark red bony plates extend from the pokémon’s back. Their ventral scales are pale blue. A yellow stripe runs along the entire pokémon to break up sight lines when on land. Totodile’s long tail lets them propel themselves through the water. Abdominal muscles near the lungs let them shift their center of buoyancy to rise, sink, or stay in place in the water column. Out of the water totodile’s legs let them keep their stomach off the ground at all times while walking.

Totodile have a narrow snout full of needle-like teeth. Their evolutions gain progressively broader snouts with broader serrated teeth. This reflects a shift in diet. Totodile often hunt bug-types and fish. Needle-like teeth are useful for piercing armor and holding small prey in place. Wider snouts and teeth are useful for grabbing onto larger prey and ripping out chunks of flesh. No stage has teeth that let them masticate their food. Totodile swallow prey whole. Croconaw and feraligatr swallow individual bites without chewing. Their food is masticated in the gizzard instead of the mouth.

Croconaw are larger than totodile and have broader snouts. Their yellow markings have expanded to cover much of their body. This helps them camouflage themselves on land by breaking up sight lines. The remaining blue scales are darker than they were as a totodile to help them blend in on land. The bony scales on the back are also proportionally larger.

Feraligatr are broader than croconaw. Their protruding plates are much larger. Additionally there are several bony ridges across their back and joints to provide protection. Feraligatr have black dorsal scales and pale yellow ventral scales.

The bite force of feraligatr is some of the strongest of any pokémon. They can bite with nearly 5,000 pounds of force. However, the muscles for opening their jaws are rather weak. Feraligatr can easily have their jaws taped shut by duct tape. This will annoy the pokémon but is necessary for some invasive medical procedures with a high risk of lashing out.

Some crocodilians have buccal salt glands that let them swim in saltwater for long periods of time. Feraligatr do not. They are limited to large rivers, lakes, and ponds. On occasion they will venture into estuarine habitats such as Brooklet Hill, but for the most part they live further inland.

Feraligatr can swim at speeds of up to twenty miles an hour in short bursts. They can sprint on land at speeds of up to thirty miles per hour. But feraligatr’s most formidable trick can only be performed in the water. The crocodilian death roll begins with the pokémon clamping down on the limb of a larger opponent. They then roll over in the water, never letting go of their target. This results in the limb being ripped off, often taking large portions of the surrounding musculature with it. The brutality is very effective for killing larger prey that crosses the rivers they live in but has resulted in the technique being banned in almost every competitive circuit.

Feraligatr continue to grow throughout their lives. The largest feraligatr are the oldest males. Females are slightly smaller. Males usually grow to be fourteen feet from the snout to the end of the tail. They weigh 700 pounds on average. The largest recorded specimen was eighteen feet long and weighed 2,000 pounds.

Behavior

During the period of DNR bounties feraligatr often retreated to the cave systems of Alola using surface level or underwater entrances. They would spend their days passively heating the cave’s water as they rested in it. At dawn and dusk they would come out to bask in the sunlight before hunting at night.

Wild feraligatr noticed that the DNR bounties had ended within a year of their revocation. Today they rarely enter to the caves except to hunt. Feraligatr spend most of their day sprawled out in the sunlight as they bask. They are cold-blooded and heat themselves by soaking in sunlight or resting in hot water. In Alola feraligatr are not particularly territorial. During the day they can be found in congregations of up to fifteen adults and many croconaw and totodile, even those that are children of different feraligatr. The juveniles prefer to bask near feraligatr for protection and the adults don’t mind crowded basking places.

All stages hunt at night. Totodile are primarily aquatic hunters that lie still on the bottom of the water for as long as they can, only surfacing for air. They can go up to forty minutes between breaths. Totodile wait for a fish or invertebrate to come near them. Then they pounce. They use their back legs to push off from the river bottom. Their jaws grab the prey. It is eaten whole.

Croconaw’s diet primarily consists of rattata. At night they lower themselves into bushes or other visually barriers to hide. When a rattata walks by the croconaw will lunge. Even if the initial lunge does not catch the rattata they can probably chase down their prey. Croconaw prefer to use their front claws to kill the rattata before eating it to avoid a bite to the throat. If there are no rattata croconaw can also hunt on land or in the water.

Feraligatr can eat almost anything in their range. They have been documented killing sharpedo, lapras, araquanid, stoutland, houndoom, torterra, rhyhorn, bewear, and even braviary, drampa, and milotic. If it lives in the water or comes to the water to cross or drink then a big enough feraligatr can probably kill it with some luck. These are not the core of their diet. Feraligatr hunt some basculin, magikarp, and feebas that get too close to them in the water. They prefer to hunt small to mid-size mammals. Gumshoos and raticate seem to be their favorite foods.

Feraligatr will sometimes hunt yungoos during the day through similar methods croconaw use for rattata. It is more common that they will band together with two other feraligatr to seek out a gumshoos squadron’s burrow at night. One will use hydro pump to begin flooding the burrow and drive the residents out. Another will sit behind the burrow and kill the gumshoos that emerge with powerful bites and slashes. The third will guard the first and kill any that get past the second feraligatr. Even some of the most tenacious pokémon in Alola can be killed by multiple massive predators working together while the gumshoos would rather be asleep.

Raticate are much easier prey. When threatened rattata tend to go back towards their nest. The feraligatr will intimidate one and follow it to the nearest raticate. Some will use this opportunity to slowly set up with a dragon dance. The rattata that remain in the nest at night can easily be scared away with a roar or bellow. Raticate, while formidable, are no match for a feraligatr.

Alternatively, feraligatr may hunt with ambush tactics by hiding in brush and waiting for something to pass by. They can also rest underwater near the river’s edge and wait for something to come to drink. Then they will lunge out propelled by their backlegs and massive tail to grab their prey, bring it back into the water, and kill it by a death roll, drowning, or a bite to the neck. Feraligatr have also been documented grabbing sticks and holding them in their mouths. They lower themselves down beneath the surface and hold the stick above the water. When a bird comes to take it for their nest the feraligatr lunges out and eats the bird. This tactic has made feraligatr revered as gods of trickery and mischief in parts of their range. It has also given rise to the term “feraligatr gifts,” which means something seemingly free that turns out to cause a lot of trouble.

Husbandry

The feraligatr line are social, but not excessively so. This makes them good partners as they actively seek affection and companionship from their trainer but do not need constant attention or the presence of conspecifics to be satisfied. All stages, but especially the younger ones, enjoy cuddling. This meets social needs and provides body heat. Even feraligatr don’t mind sprawling out on blanket in the sun with their trainer next to them.

Totodile are easily trained, both in battle and in smaller quality-of-life habits such as walking on a leash. A leashed totodile can safely walk the neighborhood. Croconaw can be leashed but could easily pull away from their trainer if they wanted to. Feraligatr will tolerate the leash, but this does not mean any real physical control exists. All control must come from training and mutual trust. This makes it difficult to rehome feraligatr or acclimate wild-caught specimens to captivity.

All stages will need an opportunity to bask during the day, especially during the dry season. Basking is not necessary on rainy days, but the pokémon will be more sluggish if it has not had recent basking opportunities. Even an hour around dusk and dawn is better than nothing. They will also need occasional access to a place to swim. Pokémon Centers rarely allow feraligatr or even totodile in their community pools. Instead feraligatr trainers should seek out streams and ponds. Traveling along the ocean, while good for many water-types, does nothing to help meet this line’s desire to swim. Trainers should instead look for paths that stay near freshwater rivers and ponds.

The main problems with feraligatr are three-fold: they are carnivores, they grow to be quite large, and they are nocturnal.

Carnivores are almost always more expensive to feed than herbivores. This is especially true for larger species. A totodile can be fed pre-prepared insect mixes and canned tuna on the trail while receiving fresher fish when in the city. Croconaw and feraligatr diets become harder to meet. They can hunt for wild rattata, but this is not a particularly reliable way of feeding them. It also requires the trainer to stay up all night to supervise and make sure that no protected species is targeted instead. Croconaw generally need to eat at least a third of their weight in food every week. Feraligatr need a quarter. They can tolerate less, but it will dramatically slow down their metabolism. Many trainers rely on pack pokémon to carry salted meat or other preserved protein with them. Impatient feraligatr may attempt to eat it early. Finally, all stages will accept fruit. Some seem to enjoy it as a reward. It should not form a core part of their diet, but it makes for a good snack on occasion.

Despite being large carnivores, feraligatr and croconaw are rarely a danger to humans. Even wild specimens almost never attack unprovoked. Captive-born specimens can tolerate a lot of abuse before killing their trainer. Even a starving feraligatr would prefer to eat a pokémon over a human. Totodile, on the other hand, will often bite their trainer. This is not done out of malice but misunderstanding – a mother feraligatr can easily take a totodile’s play bites and evaluate the strength of her child’s jaws. A human may be hospitalized by a bite to the wrong area. It’s best to discourage biting humans from birth or, failing that, at least from the time of capture or acquisition. Protective armor may not stop bites entirely, but it can help in training. Having another pokémon stay vigilant and ward off bites can also help.

Feraligatr’s size makes it somewhat difficult to build a permanent enclosure for them once the island challenge ends. They are not easily rehomed and wild release is currently heavily restricted. Their outdoor enclosure should be at least five hundred feet. A third should be water, including water deep enough to swim in, and two-thirds should be land. The land section will require a basking rock and some form of shelter from the elements. Feraligatr will often dig burrows in their enclosure. They will seldom make an attempt to escape as long as they remain satisfied with their trainer. Some local governments will still require electrified and/or reinforced fencing.

Totodile can be housebroken. Standard litter boxes will not work for feraligatr but litter mats can. Even feraligatr can be invited into the house if well-trained. They may even prefer to be inside as long as the air conditioning is not set below sixty-five degrees. Temperatures below sixty-five will cause sluggishness. Water features should be heated to at least seventy degrees.

All three stages are nocturnal. They may become active during the day to swim or investigate their surroundings, but for the most part they will find a place to bask and sleep. This makes it somewhat difficult for trainers to be active when their pokémon is. For feraligatr this can be a major problem: leaving a feraligatr unsupervised for hours can end badly. They will tolerate pokéballs for a few hours at a time during the day and night, but there is a point where they will start to become unruly.

Nocturnal teammates can help alleviate the problem. Captive-born todotile can learn not to attack the rest of their trainer’s team. This allows them to peacefully coexist with everything but the raticate and gumshoos lines, which are simply too tasty not to eat. They relate better to predators than prey, but any sufficiently intelligent and playful nocturnal pokémon can make a good companion. Feraligatr in particular get along very well with dragons. Some dragon specialists have even added one to their teams, either in reserve or as a core battler (see Battling).

The two best enrichment items for feraligatr are balls and fountains. Balls should be large enough that they cannot be swallowed and durable enough that they cannot be easily popped or shredded. The pokémon will love wrestling with the ball, especially in the water. Spray fountains in the water or on land are also appreciated. Cool mist fountains can also help the pokémon regulate temperature if on land.

Illness

Feraligatr are fairly hardy pokémon. So long as their environment is sanitary, temperatures are maintained at a proper level, and enough food of the right kind is given there should not be major health problems. They are also quick to heal from most injuries.

There are a few diseases they can suffer from. Thankfully the most dangerous, West Nile Virus, has yet to be introduced to Alola. It can be fatal to even adult feraligatr within three days of the onset of symptoms. Check for more information before taking your pokémon out of the Commonwealth. As a known carrier of the virus all totodile, croconaw, and feraligatr brought back into Alola are subject to a mandatory one-week quarantine.

Croc pox and hepatitis can cause sores to appear on the pokémon’s skin, especially in and around the mouth. These should be brought to a veterinarian’s attention as soon as possible. Neither will cause long-term health problems if quickly treated, but when left untreated they can cause serious weight loss or blindness.

Mycobacteria are very small cells that can cause infections in feraligatr. These can take two forms. The most common is a type of pneumonia. The first symptoms are usually lethargy and anorexia. This can escalate into discharge of light-yellow fluid from the mouth or noise and/or labored breathing. Some specimens have instead developed a form of arthritis that makes it difficult to move. Treatment of both variants is difficult, especially in younger pokémon. Prevention is far easier. Diluted bleach mixtures can disinfect the places the pokémon spends the most time without risk to its health.

Evolution

Wild totodile evolve between their first and third birthday, depending on their success in hunting. Captive evolutions typically occur closer to the first birthday than the third. The formal demarcation line is the spread of yellow markings to the hind legs.

Only the strongest croconaw evolve into feraligatr. This usually occurs around the fifth to seventh birthday in the wild. Captive specimens can evolve much early, potentially as soon as six months after evolving if they are very successful in battle. This will require a massive food intake during the growth period and the resulting feraligatr will still be rather small for the first few years after evolution. The formal demarcation line between croconaw and feraligatr is the development of armored ridges on the back and joints.

Battle

Feraligatr are not the absolute strongest of pokémon. Many dragons are stronger and feraligatr’s hydrokinesis is far weaker than other water-types. They still have an enduring popularity on the competitive battling circuits that allow them, even up to the highest levels.

When deciding to add a pokémon to their team, professionals must consider its ease of care along with its power and synergy with the rest of the roster. Feraligatr are fairly easy to care for as far as large reptiles go and they typically see humans as potential friends rather than as a nuisance or prey. Even the top trainers with hired assistants don’t want teams consisting entirely of pokémon that require constant attention to keep happy, healthy, and obedient. Several top tier trainers, including at least three ranked ones, are known to be close with their feraligatr. Two ranked trainers keep it on their main roster.

Feraligatr, while lagging behind the likes of salamence and gyarados, are still not weak. They can lift up to five hundred pounds, bite through steel plating, run up to thirty miles an hour on land, and take one or two strong attacks or many weak ones before going down. Their power and speed can further be boosted by swords dance or dragon dance. Even if they are unable to close the distance with an opponent they can unleash reasonably powerful surfs or ice beams to strike speedsters or fliers, respectively.

As water elemental users feraligatr are weak to grass and electric charged moves. Their best counters are vikavolt and magnezone as they can stay out of range of physical attacks and strike back with powerful thunderbolts. Very strong or durable grass types can also go toe to toe with feraligatr.

Aside from airborne electric-types, feraligatr struggle with three of the most common threats on the competitive circuits: ghosts, psychics, and dragons. Ghosts usually don’t care much about physical damage. An elementally charged crunch might be a problem, but they’re often able to outspeed feraligatr or float above an attack. In turn they can inflict burns, confusion, and other afflictions to steadily wear down their opponent. Feraligatr have no special resistance to telepathic attacks and alakazam can simply teleport away from their charges and set up protective barriers to deal with surfs and hydro pumps. Dragons can usually overpower feraligatr, even if they have to be somewhat wary of an ice fang. Alolan feraligatr have not yet been used by a ranked trainer but they’re more powerful ice attacks might make them better against dragons than the slightly larger Chinese feraligatr.

On the island challenge feraligatr are fast and strong enough to keep up with even the final trials. Knowing a few coverage moves can help tip the scales, but a feraligatr can succeed on the island challenge without them.

Croconaw are ambush predators without the sheer durability or speed that their evolved form has. This makes them substantially weaker. They’re often best hanging back and waiting for opponents to come to them. Ranged attackers can give them a great deal of trouble if they have not been specially trained in ranged attacks of their own.

Totodile are quite strong for their age. Their piercing teeth make them able to do serious damage to weaker pokémon, especially bugs. Many babies are reluctant battlers until they’ve learned the ropes, but totodile will be willing to run into fights right from the start. Their enthusiasm, jaws, and teeth alone can help them persevere through the first island. If they do not evolve they will start to run into problems on the second.

Acquisition

Feraligatr can be found around inland ponds and streams, especially those near caves. A sizable population also lives around Brooklet Hill and its estuary. They can often be found basking on the side of the water during the day.

Because feraligatr and croconaw are major predators of rattata and yungoos their capture is currently prohibited. Only totodile may be captured from the wild. This is difficult as mother feraligatr watch over their offspring until they evolve (see Breeding). They are protective enough mothers that trying to steal one of their babies is likely to end badly for everyone involved except the feraligatr.

Wild capture is still possible. Doing so involves appearing the trainer appearing before the mother and making it clear that they are a trainer asking for the chance to take one of her totodile with them. She may indulge them with a practice battle, either with herself or one of her children. If the battle is against the mother she will almost never fight at full strength. It’s simply an opportunity for her and her children to evaluate the strength and tactics of the trainer. If the battle is with the totodile then be gentle and try to rely more on tactics than brute force. At the end of the battle a totodile may decide to go with the trainer, whether they won or lost. The mother will accept this and let her child leave.

In any case, it is easier to simply buy a totodile from a licensed breeder. There are at least two on Akala and one on Ula’Ula. A well-trained totodile is not cheap, but some families find it to be worth the investment as a starter pokémon. Croconaw and feraligatr can occasionally be purchased from a breeder. Specimens are sometimes available for adoption in Hau’oli and Malie, but they are usually turned over to a breeder, released to the wild, or euthanized before long due to the space required to hold them at a shelter.

Totodile require a Class III license to capture or a Class I to adopt or purchase. This is because most totodile up for adoption have been trained not to bite. Croconaw require a Class I license to purchase or adopt; feraligatr require a Class III.

Breeding

Mating begins with the female swimming into the water and making an infrasonic bellow. Humans cannot hear feraligatr’s mating calls, but they can sometimes feel the vibrations if they are close enough. One or more males may respond to the male’s call. On occasion a female may show up as well to observe.

The males will engage in elaborate swimming techniques known as “water dances.” The female may join in as well. If she selects a mate the dance will end with both crawling onto land to engage in a session of snout and neck rubbing. The purpose of the rubbing is unknown. Some scholars have speculated it is done entirely for pleasure. The theory is bolstered by rare sightings of females engaging in the same behavior. Captive specimens also enjoy having their back and net petted. Only brave or trusting trainers pet the snout.

Twelve days after copulation the female will lay a clutch of twenty-five to fifty eggs. She will then cover them in vegetation such as leaves and grasses. The vegetation will release heat as it decays, keeping the eggs warm. Higher temperatures will produce all males. Low temperatures will produce all females. Incubation temperatures in the middle will produce a mix of both sexes.

The male is not allowed to have any part in supervising incubation or raising the young. After her nest is built the female will spend most of her time near it, only leaving to hunt. The eggs hatch after roughly thirty days. The hatchlings make high pitched-squeaking sounds to alert their mother. She will then carefully dig them out. Wild feraligatr look after their totodile until they evolve, at which point she will steadily become more aggressive towards them until they leave. Until this point they are doting mothers that will allow their children to crawl all over them.

Captive mating is easy enough. A female that spends a lot of time in the water producing mating calls wants to mate. Mating calls, while not ordinarily audible, can be detected by special monitors. If a male is introduced the mating rituals and act will continue as they would in the wild. Specimens held in mixed sex holding pens can take care of mating, from the call to copulation, themselves.

The most difficult part is actually telling the sex of the feraligatr in advance. Unless the specimen is particularly large there is no way to reliably tell if it is male or female from the exterior. The cloaca must be held open and the reproductive organs examined to be sure. Feraligatr, understandably, do not like this. Newly hatched totodile do not, either, but have only a minimal ability to resist it. As long as the examiner is trained and the mother is nowhere near the procedure it will be safe for everyone involved.

There is some debate over whether feraligatr should be allowed to incubate their own eggs. The mother is much happier when she is allowed to, but the natural hatch rate of eggs is only around 70%. Lab incubation can lead to 90% of the eggs hatching. For better or worse, the mother may reject hatchlings given to her after being incubated in a lab. This allows for the pokémon to be raised by humans from birth but does limit the amount of training it can receive from its mother.

Breeding facilities typically withdraw the mother and take most of her eggs for incubation. These pokémon will eventually be given to trainers. The totodile that are raised by their mother are used as future breeding stock.

Relatives

The Alolan feraligatr is a feral population descended from the Chinese feraligatr (R. lánsèlínpiàn) sometimes also known as the blue feraligatr or simply as feraligatr. The Chinese feraligatr lives on the border of the tropical and temperate portions of China. Their population can be found from river deltas to mountain streams. Populations that live in areas that occasionally freeze enter brumation where their metabolism drops and they stick their snout above the surface of the water. They can survive under a frozen lake for months like this.

China’s influence on neighboring regions led to feraligatr being adopted as a common starter or companion in these areas, too. Some portions of Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines still use totodile as a default starter. It is a popular alternative starter in much of Eastern and Southeastern Asia, as well as anywhere with a substantial population of Chinese descent. Most of these areas have breeders whose populations have steadily drifted from the Chinese feraligatr. The most notable of these are the Philippine’s feraligatr (R. l. gigas) which are the largest in the world.

 
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