〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Tate
AGE: 26
JOURNAL: N/A
IM / EMAIL: troythetrekkie@gmail.com
PLURK: ACloudOfSnakes
RETURNING: No
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Jean-Yves (Calem is the default protagonist name, but the player can change it)
CHARACTER AGE: 14
SERIES: Pokemon Y
CHRONOLOGY: Post-Team Flare's defeat, pre-Championship
CLASS: Fairy-type Hero
HOUSING: Opt-in for roommates
BACKGROUND: The game opens like many Pokemon games do, with the protagonist (Jean-Yves) waking up, getting dressed and going out to get his first Pokemon. Before he can get to the driveway, he runs into Serena and Shauna, Trainers native to the region who are also getting their first Pokemon. Immediately, he hits it off with Shauna, mostly because there has yet to be a character in Pokemon that Shauna cannot befriend, but there’s some tension between him and Serena as she brings up the fact that Jean-Yves isn’t fully Kalosian. In fact, he just moved to the region/continent shortly before the start of the game, and while he speaks the language, a good chunk of his time throughout the first couple of hours of the game is spent being referred to as ‘son of the famous Rhyhorn rider, Grace’ or ‘the Trainer who just moved here’. When Shauna and Serena bring him to meet up with the other two Trainers that Professor Sycamore has decided to give Pokedexes to, he’s uncomfortable to find that all of them have discussed him in those terms before meeting him, even if he gets over it eventually for the sake of making friends.
From the time he and Serena meet, the narrative sets them up as rivals, but in a refreshing break from typical Pokemon formula, there’s some psychological cause for them to be competing as well as determined to take on the Pokemon League and strongest trainers in the land. Both of them have famous parents who were exemplary Trainers, and Serena’s friends hardly ever let her accomplishments happen without remarking she must only be that good because of her parents. She and Jean-Yves cease on the opportunities to form full Pokemon teams and travel with seriousness that’s frankly not present in the others. The others don’t have something to prove, after all. These similarities mean that as much as they regularly battle with each other, they are still friends, since they’ve got more in common than either one of them wants to acknowledge out loud.
Relatively early on, after meeting up with Professor Sycamore in Lumiose City so he could talk with the kids he’d given Pokedexes to before they went off on their journeys, Jean-Yves meets Lysandre. Lysandre is a friend and former student of Sycamore’s and it’s obvious that he has a rather sour view of the world from the first conversation. He thinks the world is becoming uglier and people more selfish; interesting, Jean-Yves doesn’t object to this once at any point in the game. He doesn’t ruminate on it much, but that’s because he’s distracted by the concept of Mega Evolution that the Professor had explained to him. This becomes both another thing for Serena and Jean-Yves to compete over and also a plot point, as to be able to Mega Evolve a Pokemon would require an empathetic yet powerful Trainer capable of syncing their ‘heart’ with that of their Pokemon in order to boost that Pokemon’s power, allowing it to temporarily transform into a more powerful version of themselves. The very idea has captured the imagination of many within the region. It’s clear that whoever taps into that power will be a legend in their own right if they can pull it off more than once – the tie-in manga clarifies that while flukes are still respected, they can’t exactly be scientifically studied – which sets Jean-Yves and Serena off after it in a hurry.
Unfortunately, they have the typical luck of most Pokemon protagonists to be undergoing their journey just as the big villains are rising. In a move that is not typical for the franchise, Jean-Yves is starting to realize that Lysandre is Team Flare’s leader by the time he’s done first fighting with them at Glittering Cave. The reasoning is simple: the only person who the Professor discussed Mega Evolution in detail with was Lysandre, and at the same spot the Professor said to go look for Mega Evolution stones, there’s Team Flare right when Serena and Jean-Yves arrive at Glittering Cave to look for Mega Stones. If he had any kind of clout, he’d probably make the accusation aloud to someone, but he’s new to the region while Lysandre’s had a few decades to build up his reputation, so there’s nothing that can be said, not right away, at least.
Meanwhile, despite Shauna being the friendliest of the five kids given a Pokedex, Jean-Yves and Serena find they make a pretty good team in Double Battles taking down Team Flare and chasing them out of Glittering Cave and Ambrette Town together. This bonding moment is followed up very shortly by their travels taking them to the Mega Evolution Guru in Shalour City, who flat-out tells them that there’s only one Mega Ring left that would enable someone with the right connection and a Mega Stone to evolve their Pokemon, so it’ll go to whoever’s strongest of the five kids selected by Sycamore. When it comes down to a fight between Serena and Jean-Yves, he always wins and it never fails to make her feel awful, but it’s apparent when he’s able to use the Mega Ring to Mega Evolve a Lucario that isn’t even his that he’s the correct choice.
By that point, Team Flare has moved on to another plan, which helps clarify their goals. In Glittering Cave they were looking for Mega Evolution stones, but had mentioned the energy said to be in the stones instead of the monetary value. When Jean-Yves encounters them on Route 13, they’ve taken over the Power Plant, mentioning siphoning off energy for some unknown purpose. Unfortunately they’ve cottoned on to the fact that the two Trainers who opposed them before might try it again, so they rig the Power Plant with enough excess goons and battles to take up enough of Jean-Yves’ time that the higher ups can leave with plenty of power en tow. With the power to the city of Lumiose restored, Jean-Yves progresses to the Gym there, where he wins and is on his way out of the city when Professor Sycamore asks him to come by since he’s in Lumiose and discuss Mega Evolution a bit. Jean-Yves notes the fact that there are Team Flare grunts hanging out in Lysandre’s café, where Lysandre insisted Professor Sycamore meet him and thus, by extension, Jean-Yves. It’s clear to Jean-Yves as well as the player that Lysandre is connected to what’s going on, but Sycamore can’t see any of his best friend’s character flaws, so nothing much can be done about it except continue on his journey through Kalos and hope for more concrete proof to connect Lysandre to what’s happening.
The next badge to earn is the one from Laverre City, which is also where the Poke Ball factory in Kalos is located. Meeting up with Shauna, Trevor, Tierno and Serena, some quality time is spent bonding at a haunted house and around town before Shauna suggests they go visit the Poke Ball factory. There, Team Flare grunts have had the masterfully bad timing to have started a takeover just as the heroes rolled into town, but to give credit where it’s due, they realized throwing lots of grunts and one scientist at Jean-Yves for him to battle last time only just barely slowed him down, so this time they have two scientists ready and waiting to battle him into submission. Serena, however, cares more about helping people than her rivalry with him, so she charges into the factory alongside him to confront them. They win against Team Flare, who have to cut their losses and run, and on a personal level, Jean-Yves and Serena have resolidified their friendship with one another in spite of their ongoing competition.
On the way to Anistar City to pursue the next badge, Jean-Yves makes a stop in Dendemille Town to resupply. There, Trevor, who had gone ahead to work on his Pokedex, informs Jean-Yves the road to Anistar, normally traversed via riding a service Mamoswine, isn’t available because the Mamoswine is gone. The two go to the nearby Frost Cavern to see if it went there, and find Team Flare trying to provoke an Abomasnow deep within the cavern to Mega Evolve. All they’ve succeeded at doing is terrifying it and causing the Mamoswine, who is friends with that particular Abomasnow, to roam the cavern in a panic. Trevor and Jean-Yves face off against the Team Flare members, and after winning, are able to move on to Anistar, where they attempt to get back to their normal lives of filling the Pokedex and battling respectively. For a while reports of Team Flare die down and it seems like everyone will get a breather, but then, as Jean-Yves exits the Anistar Gym after having won there, a message is sent out via Holo Caster to the entire population of Kalos: Lysandre proclaims he’s going to revive the mythical ‘ultimate weapon’, eliminate everyone who isn’t a member of Team Flare, and return the world to a more natural, beautiful state of being.
Jean-Yves immediately hops the next bird Pokemon over to Lumiose City, because for an egotist like Lysandre who loves decadence and grand gestures, the only logical place for his secret evil lair to be is in his gaudy café where all the Team Flare grunts were. Sure enough, he’s there, and he starts to compliment Jean-Yves in that affably evil manner he’s been doing all game, only for Jean-Yves to pull out a Poke Ball, silently challenging him to a battle. To Lysandre’s surprise, Jean-Yves wins, so Lysandre has to pull a strategic retreat to a locked elevator within his base. Jean-Yves, having no patience for the run-around, goes through and beats every single grunt in the building until someone gives him a key and follows Lysandre down, where he finds that Team Flare has locked up a three thousand year old man named AZ. Though the game had established that was a myth beforehand, as well as the legendary Pokemon who was a weapon of destruction as a myth, in that moment Jean-Yves gets to learn it’s all real. AZ himself confirms that once upon a time, he lost a Pokemon of his to a war, and built a machine powered by the legendary Pokemon Yveltal to bring it back. Lysandre, upon learning of that, went out searching for Yveltal, who was resting within a deep sleep before. All the energy gathered was to wake it up, not to revive anything, but to destroy everyone Lysandre thought was making the world a worse place. Lysandre’s head scientist, Xerosic, fights Jean-Yves to give the boss time to escape and remotely activates the ultimate weapon, which rips through most of Geosenge Town. It’s that huge, that destructive, and Jean-Yves rushes off to Geosenge to try to stop things from progressing any further.
Serena shows up as well, ready to follow her rival/friend into a fight they’re reasonably sure they might not escape, and Lysandre tries to make his case to them that the world is a broken, ugly, selfish place and he’s doing everyone a favor. Jean-Yves battles him, with the in-game acknowledge that doing so will only delay Lysandre slightly. The real goal after fighting him is rushing past him and deeper into the facility, to find Yveltal and either keep it from waking up or battle it into submission – an option that is so unlikely to work it’s practically a non-option. Jean-Yves and Serena do acknowledge to one another that Lysandre has a point that things are out of balance, but his methods are absolute overkill and not a sane solution. They battle their way past more security than in all other Team Flare encounters combined, and even with Shauna boldly breaking her way into the facility to help hack locks to get to the sleeping Yveltal and distract guards, everyone is running ragged by the time they get there.
They’re too late to keep Yveltal from awakening, and Jean-Yves’ Pokemon are in no shape to fight it until it calms down. That’s when he realizes something: he has a Master Ball from when the Poke Ball factory owner gave him and Serena one each as gifts of gratitude for saving him from Team Flare. So he takes a third option and captures the ‘ultimate weapon’ Pokemon, the legendary bringer of death, and that basically ruins Lysandre’s plan entirely. Lysandre, never one to know when to quit, barges into the room with a machine that gives his Pokemon enough energy to artificially Mega Evolve, as opposed to Mega Evolving the more natural way other Pokemon do, but Jean-Yves has had enough of Lysandre moving the goalposts and pulling out tricks in their fights, so he uses Yveltal to beat all of Lysandre’s team in about one move apiece. It’s humiliating for Lysandre and poetic justice for Yveltal, who, while not a Pokemon that can Mega Evolve, is similarly empathetic and trusts Jean-Yves while disliking Lysandre instinctively.
Shauna and Serena try to talk some sense into Lysandre – Jean-Yves doesn’t, he’s done with reasoning with the guy after having chased him across a continent and battled him three times in a day – but it doesn’t work, and Lysandre decides to try to use what power they were able to load into the weapon to kill everyone in the building, if only to spite those who thwarted him. The kids make a break for the stairs, and manage to clear the blast zone before the whole facility collapses in on itself.
PERSONALITY: Jean-Yves starts out unusually for a Pokemon protagonist, in that it’s established immediately that he’s new to the region, that he’s got a famous mother, and that these two traits are what other people see as his defining ones, with the exception of Shauna. His ability to take this in stride says a lot about both how much he’s gotten this before and how, much as it’s exasperating, he’s not going to respond to it. He’s not a confrontational person by nature. That may sound as if it flies in the face of his status as the hero that took down Team Flare, but no, really, he is remarkably chill about being singled out, challenged to battle, and compared to natives or his mother all the time. He takes everything in stride and that, in and of itself, diffuses the tension between him and not only Serena, but many other people who initially are reluctant to be friendly towards him. He’s patient with himself as well as others, as he steadfastly attempts to adapt to the new customs and ideas of the region he now calls home.
This seeming passivity means he’s a fairly good listener and rather observant person. He clearly recognizes that something is wrong with Lysandre from the get-go. This makes his interactions with him throughout the game more nuanced than they would be otherwise. He knows Lysandre is unhappy with the world, thinks the world is broken, even, and is the first to suspect that Lysandre might be behind Team Flare. But the thing about Jean-Yves’ continual calm, serious nature is that it doesn’t lend itself towards calling anyone out. He listens to what Lysandre has to say. He accepts the man’s praise for him without objection. More than anyone else, he tries to hear out the other side of things. That’s why when he finally puts his foot down and goes to fight Lysandre, it’s an exhaustive cross-continent series of fights: he has been as patient as he can be, and there is nothing so intense in this world as the fury of a patient person pushed past their limit.
Though it would be inaccurate to say that he doesn’t think of himself as a capable battler, he does not see his full capability as a Pokemon Trainer until after beating Lysandre three times. Up until then, everything he says, from denying his involvement in stopping lots of Team Flare trainers singlehandedly to immediately leaving after his friends compliment him on his skill in double battles suggests that he doesn’t know how to deal with praise. He doesn’t think of himself as anything special. When he fights Team Flare or Lysandre, it’s because doing so is the right thing to do, not because he thinks he’s a badass of some kind. His expression when he decides on the last resort plan of capturing Yveltal is practically a cringe, as if he’s bracing for impact, and when he successfully catches the Pokemon powering the super-weapon, he breathes out a visible sigh of relief rather than being smug or accomplished about what he did. The other leads in the Pokemon franchise up until him had, for the most part, had a sort of shounen genre typical confidence to them. Jean-Yves is never completely confident that he can do whatever he’s about to. What makes him try is the fact that someone needs to step in, and if he feels he can, then he feels he must. It’s in his nature to try to step in and intervene on other people’s behalf.
We only really get to see Jean-Yves angry towards the endgame, when he’s fighting Lysandre the second and third times, at his base in Geosenge. Serena wants to still try to talk things out with Lysandre, which is interesting given she’s the only other one that cottoned onto the fact that he was a bad guy beforehand. Contrarily, Jean-Yves, who’s been willing to hear everyone out and even lets a Team Flare member with regrets go back to their hometown to live in peace, who had the most interaction with the man, doesn’t hesitate to draw his Pokemon out for a fight. He may have thought Lysandre was in the wrong, but he believed him to be a man of at least some honor. Those traits existed in other criminals he’d fought, after all. When Lysandre had all of his Admins fight Jean-Yves back to back (to back to back), showed him the trapped AZ and thus how far he’d already gone, and topped it off with endangering the entire population of Geosenge needlessly, he finally found the breaking point for the young Trainer. An angry Jean-Yves is almost a total inversion of who he is normally – he’s not listening, he’s not trying to see the other side, he’s not taking care not to injure his opponent’s Pokemon. The two battles with Lysandre in Geosenge are the one time in the game that he uses Mega Evolution twice in the span of two battles, and on top of that, he swaps Yveltal onto his team and uses the Pokemon Lysandre had sought out as a power source to fight him, at a type disadvantage, and still wipes the floor with him.
He’s kind, he’s considerate, he offers people the benefit of the doubt, but he can do tranquil fury, he truly can. Like other times in the game his friends get together, he finds an excuse not to meet up with them afterwards. Unlike other times, it’s not because he got flustered by their compliments. Jean-Yves doesn’t want to be around people when he’s angry, doesn’t seem to know what to do when he runs into Professor Sycamore later and the topic of Lysandre comes up. He isn’t sorry or pleased that Lysandre’s dead, he’s lost on what to do with his feelings, so he simply doesn't process them. The good thing that comes out of it is a boost in confidence that was sorely needed as up until that point he hadn’t had much confidence in his abilities. While still not typical Pokemon protagonist levels of confident, having fought the upper echelons of a criminal organization, captured a mythical being and survived to tell the tale really helps him pull it together. He sets his sights on the Pokemon League again, as he had at the start of his journey. He and Serena have their relationship as friends worked out by the whole Lysandre disaster as well, as they both seem to realize that you can be good without needing to be the best, that there is value in being a Trainer even if there’s someone out there better than you. The important thing is to keep trying. And that's a message that he embodies, even if he lacks confidence at times and gets furious at other times.
What makes Jean-Yves notably different from the rest of the Pokemon leads is not solely his slow gaining of confidence, it’s his gentleness. Sylveon is a Pokemon that can only be obtained through tender love and care, for instance. He watches the fireworks with Shauna at the mansion of a man whose Pokemon they returned and is genuinely awed by the experience. He rolls with so many comments people direct at him out of a desire to fit in, to be a part of things, to not rock the boat. He’s passionate about battling, or he wouldn’t have worked so hard at it, yet that passion is not a toxic competitiveness or an all-consuming pursuit. He regularly checks in with Trevor to compare their Pokedex progress, is quick to accept Tierno’s nickname for him, and reassures Shauna when she doubts her worth as a member of their group. When he’s given the Mega Ring, he’s flabbergasted that he could get the thing to work, but absolutely no one else every expresses surprise that he could do it since the ability to work it comes from syncing up your feelings with that of your Pokemon, and he’s a very empathetic person.
Empathy is what drives him to stand up to Team Flare. Unlike Serena, who is a badass and knows it, his reasoning is that what these people are doing is hurting others, and that’s all he needs. Jean-Yves is at least somewhat aware of the fact that other people wouldn’t stop to help, as seen by his lack of disagreement when Lysandre says the world is getting worse repeatedly. Unlike Lysandre, he’s decided that the solution is to do what he can where he can and to acknowledge that people are capable of getting better. This ultimately is why he maintains sympathy for AZ where he didn’t for Lysandre. AZ regrets everything he did and has become a demonstrably better person. Lysandre remained completely unrepentant about everything to the very end. He’s forgiving, so long as there’s a reason to forgive someone. He will hold out that hope that things can get better as long as he’s able, while also not hesitating to defend people who need it. He can hold the mutual sentiments of ‘don’t make me fight you, I know you’re better than this’ and ‘I will fight you for the sake of others’ at the same time. And with one exception, he never truly seems to stop believing that people can get better, which is truly the essence of who he is as a person.
POWER: Pokemon: Jean-Yves is a Pokemon Trainer by profession, and can have six Pokemon on his team at any given time. As one of those is a Legendary, one is a pseudo-Legendary and one is his vastly overpowered starter, I will instead by bringing him in with his three other Pokemon. All moves for his Pokemon are taken directly from their move pools in X&Y so as to avoid continuity errors.
Carbink: A floating gray diamond-shape hunk of rock with adorable eyes and rock protrusion ‘ears’, Carbink is a foot tall and weighs about twelve pounds. Carbink has a quiet nature, lurking around near others, and is alert to sounds, watching the world through its’ blue eyes intently. Jean-Yves enjoys having a mellow Pokemon to help mitigate the stress of fighting Team Flare, and Carbink enjoys nuzzling up to him and having a human companion. While not the most aggressive battler, Carbink is relatively experienced in battling alongside Jean-Yves and is good at listening to his orders in Kantoan and Kalosian. Its’ ability is Clear Body, which makes it immune to being slowed, having its’ Attack/Special Attack or Defense/Special Defense lowered, and having its’ accuracy lowered in battle.
Its’ attacks are: Return, a Normal-type physical attack wherein Carbink rams someone that gets more powerful the more friendly its’ Trainer is to it and is therefore one of its’ better move
Power Gem: a Rock-type attack where it uses its’ mind powers to throw rocks at an opponent
Moonblast: a Fairy-type attack that draws energy from the moon before throwing a ball of moon-shaped energy at the opponent
Protect: a Normal-type move that blocks all damage for one turn (I will interpret this to mean ‘briefly protects Carbink’ in-game since Protect usually doesn’t work twice in a row and the time between turns isn’t usually more than twelve seconds)
Sylveon: A three foot tall, fifty-one pound fox/dog Pokemon covered in pale cream colored fur with pink feet, ears and tail, Sylveon has two bow-shaped bits of fluff on it, one on the front of her neck and one on her left ear, from which two long, ribbon-like ‘feelers’ sprout. She and the rest of her species use the feelers to sense their Trainers’ emotions, distract opponents, and touch things. A timid natured Pokemon, she is nonetheless one of Jean-Yves’ most reliable Pokemon in battle, as her species’ nature lends her to be deeply invested in doing whatever her Trainer is doing. Having been hatched from an Egg by Jean-Yves as he was working to fill up his Pokedex, she is not as high of a level as Carbink, but has a remarkable Speed stat that helps compensate. Her ability is Cute Charm, which gives every Pokemon of the opposite gender that attacks her a thirty percent chance of being infatuated with her, which is a status effect that in turn gives the opponent a 50/50 chance of not being to attack for a turn. However, it only works on opponents who have made physical contact; those that haven’t can go entire battles without activating it.
Her attacks are: Disarming Voice: a Fairy-type attack that never misses (in-game I will interpret this to mean it doesn’t miss if you’re within earshot/reasonably close)
Swift: a Normal-type attack that hones in on all opponents who do not flee/dig/take to the air to dodge it and looks sort of like throwing stars made of energy
Misty Terrain: a Fairy-type move that clouds the area in pink mist for five turns, during which power to Dragon-type moves is halved and more importantly, Pokemon in the area cannot be poisoned, burned, paralyzed, frozen or put to sleep – on both sides, not just the side of the one who used the move – although status conditions from before Misty Terrain was used are still in effect. It’s a preventative, not a cure.
Hidden Power: a move whose type is randomized for every Pokemon, Hidden Power is a blast of circular glowing globes of power from within that, while not very strong, is prized by Trainers for its’ ability to take opponents by surprise. For instance, Jean-Yves’ Sylveon has a Hidden Power that is Ground in typing, but on official forms, Hidden Power is always listed as a Normal-type move by Pokemon world law
Goomy: A baby Pokemon whose Egg Jean-Yves forgot he had in his backpack while out fighting Lysandre, Goomy is the youngest Pokemon he has. Bold in nature and cheerful, Goomy in an outgoing little blob. Litterally, Goomy looks like a light purple, vaguely slug-like blob. The top half of his body is a lighter purple than the bottom half, and the two halves are separated by a squiggly, dark purple outline decorated with five green dots. He has beady eyes, and he has two rows of two horn-like structures on top of his head. The weakest Dragon-type Pokemon, Goomy is more convinced of his fighting abilities than he really should be, so a lot of Jean-Yves’ time is spent with Goomy in his Poke Ball so the little guy doesn’t get hurt. He is a foot tall and weighs six pounds, which makes his confidence all the more endearing/exasperating. His ability, Hydration, heals him from burning, being poisoned, being frozen, being confused or being paralyzed if it’s raining. His attacks are:
Tackle: A Normal-type attack where Goomy tackles the opponent.
Bubble: A Water-type attack where Goomy blows bubbles at his opponent, which kind of sting
Absorb: A Grass-type attack where Goomy absorbs some energy from the opponent and gains health. This is his weakest move.
For Jean-Yves' superpower outside of owning Pokemon, I would like to give him the Pokemon ability Snow Warning. This will summon a hailstorm - even indoors, it's Pokemon canon - whenever he enters a battle or feels sufficiently threatened or stressed. The hail is relatively light, just enough to sting, and will pass after a few minutes. Eventually he'll get to the point he can control it happening, but for the first month at least, it's just illogical ice chunks that he and everyone else have to learn to deal with. The size of the hailstorm shouldn't ever get bigger than a twenty foot by twenty foot circle.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[The camera comes into focus carefully, as Jean-Yves has one arm full with his Goomy, who is nestled in his lap. His smile is a little awkward, slightly too formal, and he wonders if he'll ever get used to being the new kid. Then Goomy blows a single Bubble at the camera and the smile becomes a bit more genuine.] Bonjour. I was wondering if anyone knew of a decent place here willing to serve Poke Puffs - er, cupcakes, to Henri here? Going to cafes is a good way to socialize young Pokemon, and one I got used to back home, but I guess they're not quite used to that in this world.
Also, since apparently I can't earn money battling here, I've decided to start trying a different idea. From what I can tell, Kalosian and French are essentially the same language, and after having had a crash course in Kalosian followed by months of speaking it, sometimes in high-stress situations [like the possible end of the world] I can safely say that I know it like the back of my hand. Anyone interested in lessons should contact me, although if you opt to come over for lessons, please be aware Henri is harmless, he just thinks he isn't. Mon petit terreur, everyone. [Goomy wiggles his antennae in response. There's some fondness in his Trainer's voice as he rubs the purple blob's head and then reaches out to switch the feed off, smiling serenely.]
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
The spring rain pelted the government housing's roof, reminding Jean-Yves of Laverre City. It was a sleepy sort of place, mired on one side by swampy roads and on the other by a massive Poke Ball factory. Here, lots of buildings outdid the Poke Ball factory in size, but while cars may hover, people were still reluctant to venture out in the rain. There was a quiet air to the world when it was like this that he liked, as it allowed him to sit down to think things through a bit more. He was new again, the familiar feeling of being directionless in a strange new place one that didn't induce panic in him even back when it first happened. Sitting at his desk, he fiddled with his communicator, opening up a document and making a list of things he needed to know in order to make it here.
Of course, the government agent debriefing him had warned him of both pro and anti imPort sentiments, but Jean-Yves was fairly sure that at its' worst, the hate couldn't rival staring down Yveltal for sheer levels of stress. Having encountered a legend had really given him a healthy dose of perspective, he mused as Henri, his Goomy, dozed against the windowsill, lulled to sleep by the rain. Trying his hand at Schmoogle searches, it took him a few minutes before the thought struck him, blunt and sudden, that Lysandre would have hated this world too, thought it broken and decaying, and the thought was hard to refute as he read articles casting imPorts in the worst possible lights. They weren't universally reviled, nor were they the only people causing problems here, but there was a definite undercurrent to the news of redirection of attention, the same kind that, ironically enough, Lysandre himself had used in order to make his horrible actions sound remotely justifiable later on. Especially the more editorial news pieces, whose tone held the same contempt-in-the-name-of-the-greater-good that he'd gotten so used to hearing from the redheaded Team Flare leader.
If I hadn't grown out of being mopey by facing down a legendary being of death, he thought as he closed the news tab he'd opened and instead starting putting historical terms he'd heard into the search engine, I might be persuaded to think this situation sucks. And true, as he read about this world, he flinched more than once, but it, like the last world, failed to be as beyond repair as people believed it was.
He had a feeling most worlds were.
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