Lyra (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
genderbentmario) wrote2012-03-14 03:06 am
genderbentmario) wrote2012-03-14 03:06 am
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Player Name: Snap
Character's Name: Lyra
Character's usernamegenderbentmario // notsilvertongue will be used as an icon mule if necessary.
Game Series:
Link to previous app: Original app
Age (If there is a change): Three years have elapsed for Lyra; she's now 15 years old.
Canon point changes (If any): In addition to the full eight Johto badges, she now has seven of Kanto's badges.
Additional history that happened since the last application:
Stuff that happened at SBG, The Super Condensed Version:
- Ran around being a gigantic spazmo
- Learned the sacred art of poffincrafting from Cool Sinnoh Kid Lucas
- Roomed with a HORRIFYING SCARY BAT AAAAAAAA ;_____;
- Beat down Giovanni for a second time
- And also cosplayed him for a day, complete with absolutely terrible impression. Falker got the shoddy-dollar-store-mimcry treatment too. Lyra really needs to get some hobbies.
- Started up a Pokeathlon funtimes team
- Had an awesome badge-earning double battle against Brock and Misty with Silver
- Investigated into a mysterious pair of bounty hunters mysteriously getting up to sneaky tricks in Kanto
- Also investigated an obnoxious all-knowing pixie god rigging up an elaborate scavenger-hunt around the brutal beating of a bunch of nonhuman students and staff
- MET THE TEAM ROCKET KID OHHH MYYY GODDDD
- Got subsequently heartbroken and disillusioned when Team Rocket Kid's Charizard and Venusaur got caught up in human-mauling incident
What the heck has she been up to for three whole years:
Ever since she was seven, Lyra idolized the heck outta Red. The events that happened two Decembers ago shook her beliefs up in a pretty big way. Lyra eventually came to the decision that everything she'd figured out about herself had happened over the course of her Pokemon journey; maybe all she needed was to get back out into the world and get adventuring again. See if gathering some experience would bring her some revelations. That kinda thing.
Year one: Revisiting Johto and seeing what Kanto has to offer. The Dragon's Den, the Battle Frontier, the Safari Zone, and (of course) the Pokeathlon all saw plenty of visits from Lyra. She rebattled a few of the Johto gym leaders, to test herself against them when they weren't required to hold back. The shrine at Ilex Forest got a few zinnias carefully planted at its base. She offered well-wishes under Tin Tower's dazzling shadow, visited a friend in the Whirl Islands, chased playfully after shadows dancing through the tall grass. She finished cataloguing the Unowns in the Ruins of Alph, though to be honest she's still not sure she really understands the ruins' mysteries. Deep in Tohjo Falls, she eagerly told the dojo master of Mac and her resolution to get better at boxing; his Hitmonchan humoured her with a few gentle lessons.
Kanto was fresh and new to her; Lyra ate up all it had to offer with bright-eyed excitement. Clefairies danced beneath the night sky on Mt. Moon. She bowed her head quietly before the few graves that had been salvaged in Lavender Town, sunk within the nostalgiac bittersweet sense of absence the Tower's destruction had left. She ran into a Charizard on the southern edge of Route 9, a strange rusting band of iron around its ankle, but Rui drove it away before she could venture a close look. She marvelled at the size and the bustle of Saffron and Celadon, arms already weighed down with souvenirs from the the mall. Visiting Pallet Town was... strange. It wasn't much bigger than New Bark Town, this place where the Team Rocket Kid had taken his very first steps with a water-type of his own. Somehow, it made her feel... sad. Wistful. A sense of incredible distance. She lingered here, helped Professor Oak and his aides care for the newborn Squirtles, Charmanders, and Bulbasaurs that would someday join some other kid.
And, of course, she gathered badges. Well... most of them. The Viridian gym leader was mysteriously absent, so that put a premature end to her Kantoventure. Mt. Silver was fated to remain out of reach a little longer.
...There was nobody up there waiting for her anymore, anyway.
Year two: What's left to aim for? Maybe she was ready to go back, but... she wasn't sure she felt ready. She couldn't say she had become the Team Rocket Kid's equal when she was still one badge off, but... she'd had a lot of time to reflect on that. Over her journey, she had ended up carefully mirroring each of his footsteps. She had stood against the Rockets, had faced up against Giovanni himself, clawed her way to the title of Champion, worked through two regions, had smiled up at legendary beings. And yet... she felt strangely unfulfilled. What was it her journey had been about?
She was still hungry to see the world. Walking with Pokemon means you tread a path with no end, right? On Janus' strong, world-crossing wings, she left Kanto and Johto behind, and headed for the south. First came the sun-kissed islands of the Oblivia region. There were no pokeballs in sight here, much to Lyra's surprise; the partnership between people and Pokemon was built up just like it had been before the first Apricorns had been used to catch Pokemon. She sunned herself on serene beaches while Tavi chased the Buizels along the shore, endured a sweltering volcano while her Magcargo bubbled happily amid the magma, made snow-angels with fluffy-coated Bunearys, and listened to ancient songs of a long-gone hero. The Oblivia islands were small and few in number; she only lingered for a few months.
The next stop was a region called Orre. Though she looked, she only ever ran into a single wild Pokemon: a Gligar that tried to steal her Aprijuice while she slept underneath the stars. The sun that had once been so encouraging on Oblivia's lush shores now burned at her skin with vampiric hostility, and the wind carried nothing but dry, choking dust. Even in this inhospitable land, though, people and Pokemon still flourished together. Her team endeavoured through Mt. Battle, though the peak, sadly, remained staunchly out of reach. She learned of Pokemon that'd had their hearts forced shut and their empty war-machine ruthlessness in battle, and hugged Tavi a little closer. But even then, she was told, love never loses its power: a Pokemon called down into those dark depths could be lifted back up again by a patient, nursing hand.
She returned home tanned, leaner, and thoroughly dusty, but wiser.
Year three: Home again. Reluctant to leave again so soon, she decided to spend a little more time in her beloved Johto. She'd been thinking hard on why she'd picked the path of the trainer, and about everything she'd learned about the nature of the bond people and Pokemon form. Battling together, striving in the Pokeathlon... she'd tried her hand at plenty of things involving working together with Pokemon, but when was the last time she'd done something for Pokemon?
A question that she mulled over for a few weeks in the comfort of home, before an answer drifted down to her. A call came in from Lance: word had come in that local trainers noticed that you could no longer hear singing in Union Cave -- the Lapras population there was already very small and reclusive to begin with, but it was strange for them to go entirely silent. It was probably nothing, but if she was hungry for something to do, then it couldn't hurt to just look around, could it?
So Lyra gathered up her posse and plunged bravely into Union Cave. Then immediately ran out screaming again because AAAA bats everywhere. Okay, it took a few tries, and a lot of clinging very very close to Rui, but she finally got up the nerve to head into the basement of Union Cave. Nothing in the water but Woopers, Goldeen, and Magikarp, but the Laprases always had been shy. She figured she should camp out a while, see if she could catch a glimpse once Friday rolled around. The red-letter day came, and she caught a glimpse of something, all right: a couple of trainers setting up nets. She tried to have A Few Words with them, but she got brushed off: it's not like catching Pokemon is illegal, and they were only taking in one Lapras a week, so it wasn't like they were really overfishing, right?
It was a loophole, but technically, it was accurate. They were operating within the parameters of the law. Still, slowly depleting Union Cave's Lapras pod didn't sit well with Lyra. There had to be something available to her, right? She tried coming back each Friday to drive the trainers off by battling, but there were mixed results: the noise and the damage to the cave itself these battles did just caused the Laprases even more stress, and that's nothing good for such a sensitive, peaceful species -- they got so skittish they refused to eat, so Lyra quickly revised that plan.
Okay, what about relocation? Union Cave's waterways connected only to the Ruins of Alph, not to the open sea, so the Lapras population couldn't exactly avoid the trainers on their own. Surely there had to be a place they could go where they'd be safe from trainers, or at the very least someone could keep a constant eye on their numbers and restrict catching. If only there was some kind of giant Pokemon nature reserve where Pokemon catching was carefully controlled according to this privately-owned establishment's rules. IF ONLY.
In less stupid terms: Lyra made a call to Balboa. He thought the idea of introducing a Lapras population to the Safari Zone was totally kickin' rad, but he's a really busy man so uh she was just gonna hafta be the one to handle the preparations. Okay, sure, not a problem. Can't be that hard, right? Step one: make sure the have a suitable habitat. This... was not as easy as anticipated. Freshwater enclosure, okay, yes, got it. Good filtration system, lots of fountains to encourage water circulation. Water temperature? Do Laprases want it cold because they're ice-types or warm because they're sometimes found in tropical oceans?? Better trek back to Union Cave and spend some more time figuring out the average water temperature down there. While you're at it, hey, Union Cave's pretty big -- is the current enclosure in the Safari Zone even enough space for a pod of such big creatures to live comfortably? Hmm... no. Doesn't look like it. Better add on the headache of enlargening the enclosure. And you know what? Just plain, open water won't do, either. They'll need somewhere to hide if they're startled or want a little privacy. Oh, and they'll probably want shade too, summer gets pretty hot and they DO usually spend their time in an underground lake and all, so direct sun might be a problem. And you definitely want the Lapras to be able to feed themselves, right? So that means stocking the thing with prey species like those Magikarps and Woopers. And that, of course, means aquatic plants to help sustain the prey, too. Oh, whoops, did the plants you pick die because the water's too cold for them? Why not go back to Union Cave AGAIN and see if you can bring a few samples to transplant into your habitat? And how are the Laprases going to get enough calcium for proper shell growth? Better trade for some Swanna and build some nesting boxes by the shoreline; the eggshells left behind after the chicks hatch should do the trick.
OKAY. Man, that was a massive load of work, but finally the landscaping phase was complete. Now she just had to figure out how to stock that lovely new enclosure. Another trip to Union Cave! AUGH BATS AUGH FUCK AAA. Now she was kind of stuck in the same place she'd been in the beginning: instead of trying to stop the trainers from catching the Lapras, she had to make sure she was getting to them before the other trainers. Duking it out for capture rights every single Friday wasn't gonna work, nor was a scrabbling race: these'd just scare the poor Lapras off before anyone could get close.
Finally, the Saturday after one of these frantic failure attempts, Lyra hit on an idea: each of the trainers would catch the first Pokemon they saw inside the cave, train it for exactly one week, then come together for a Battle Royale on the Thursday before the Laprases were expected to show up again. It'd be a perfect test of a trainer's ability; it only made sense, then, that the victor was the one most deserving of Lapras capture rights. Kind of like the bug-catching contests in the National Park. No TMs, no Lucky Eggs, no EXP Shares, no Rare Candies or vitamins: just hard work.
THANK GOD: The first Pokemon Lyra ran into was a Sandshrew, not a Zubat. She was given the name Tambora, and thus did a week of hardcore training begin. Thursday rolled around in a flash, and thus, Tambora the now-Sandslash was pitted against the forces of a Corsola, an Absol, and an Onix. Rock-types, for the record, are a giant pain when Sandslash learns basically zero ground-type moves by levelling up. Absol fell pretty quickly to a Defense Curl/Rollout combo, and that Rollout had enough momentum to chip th Corsola down too, but MAN. THAT ONIX. Truth be told: Lyra won only because a lucky Poison Sting poisoned it, and spamming Defense Curl and Sand-Attack let her simply outlast it. Totally a squeaking-by victory, but nonetheless, Lyra had won Lapras-catching rights. For that week, anyway. For the remainder of that summer, these meetings grew increasingly competitive: TMs were allowed in, trainers started making use of Choice Bands and Brightpowders and other such items, and everyone got caught in a fierce dance of trying to predict and counter the strategies they'd seen the previous week.
During the last week of summer, Balboa finally announced they had enough of a base population for the Safari Zone. It was surprising to think she was going to miss the weekly battles, but she agreed: it would have been hypocritical to keep catching more Lapras than she needed. Tambora was proudly adorned with a bright red bow, and taken to the Safari Zone to enjoy a relaxing retirement (with the promise, of course, that Balboa would put up signs advising patrons not to lob Safari Balls at the stylishly accessorized Sandslash). From there, the remainder of the year was spent guarding over her flock, so to speak. When her temperatures proved too low and half the herd caught pneumonia, she dragged in as many Nurse Joys as she could find and stayed adamantly at the lakeside, beside herself with anxiety over her mistake. When poachers tried to make a move in the cover of the night, they were met with vengeful beaks and snapping alligator teeth. She monitored for signs of overfeeding, underfeeding, boredom, stress, in-pod aggression. She measured pH levels, ammonia levels, nitrate levels, salinity, and all the other stuff that she'd never even heard of outside of her freshman-year Chemistry. Her autumn and winter were filled with badly-drawn sketches and pages upon pages of notes on Lapras behaviour, and her bag grew heavy with a scrapbook filled with photographs. (The very first egg the pod laid in captivity proudly got a page all its own. It was a boy, for the record.)
Finally, she realized: no longer was she a watchful caretaker, she was only a spectator. The Lapras population was settled into their home, and was showing signs of beginning to thrive. After making Balboa promise approximately 500 times to call her the second anything bad happened, Lyra returned home, eager to show Professor Elm all the heaps and heaps of crap she'd noted about the Lapras pod. ...It was a good feeling. None of the Lapras were technically hers: she'd released each one she caught into the Safari Zone, after all. She'd never used them to compete -- in battles, in contests, or in Pokeathlons. But still, she felt just as fulfilled as when she'd first been given that bitey little Totodile, or witnessed her little Spearow evolving into a broad-winged Fearow. She wasn't sure, but she thought maybe she'd figured out a lot of things about what walking with Pokemon is about. Now... maybe now, she was ready to go back to that school.
TL;DR VERSION: putzed around Johto/Kanto for a year, spent another farting off to Oblivia and Orre, spent the third dumping a bunch of Lapras into the Safari Zone.
Other crap worth noting:
- Since Gold is from the Heart Gold version of events, I'm tenatively saying Lyra comes from Soul Silver. I'm still remaining vague on the status of plot-legendaries and red Gyaradoses in case someone wants to app them as OCs, though.
- Team is tentatively still Feraligatr/Dragonite/Furret/Scizor/Magcargo/Xatu.
- Fearow may also be a thing if Cass apps Ayah, though, so Xatu will probably be living back home with mom if that's the case.
- Sandslash mentioned in giant wall of text now hangs out in the Safari Zone, so obviously won't be around the school either.
Personality Changes (ie, some characters grow are are different based on where they are taken from. Please write down any changes in personality compared to the first app):
I wanted to be famous too. It's not just about being on the news or getting attention, though. I want to walk with Pokemon my whole life. I want to help everyone that thinks nobody's on their side. Save them when they can't defend themselves. I wanna show people that even if you're small and not that strong on your own, you can still change the world if you've got enough heart. You're not too powerless to stop injustice. That's what it means to be a Team Rocket Kid, isn't it? That's what I thought it was.
Lyra still very much wants to change the world. Sticking her nose all over the place and being an Ally of Justice is just in her wiring. Over those three years, however, she had a lot of time to think about her journey, and she's finally started to stray out of the Team Rocket Kid's shadow and try to find a path of her own. It's by no means a certain road: ask her where she pictures herself in ten years and she'll probably bounce wildly between being an Interpol agent and still the Champion and a Pokemon professor and an olympic-level Pokeathlon coach and a radio drama voice actor. A lot of her basic traits have remained unchanged. She's still pretty dopey and wears her heart on her sleeve and sees everything through rose-colored glasses, yes, but she's also older and wiser now. She's learned a few things about when to play her cards close to her sleeve, and she's a lot more aware now that things aren't quite as black and white as she used to see them.
Still loves the heck outta those radio dramas, though. SABLE, SHE READ YOUR AWESOME POINTED LOVE FANFICTION. 5/5 WOULD READ AGAIN.
In-Character 1st person sample:
[The camera clicks on, and good lord, it looks like a tornado has been through the room. Lyra is trying very hard to hold onto something that is struggling equally hard; judging by the hint of brown just within the frame, it's probably her Furret.]
Come on, Tavi, you look so pretty! You were having so much fun with dressing Rui up, why are you getting all shy now?
[She glances over at the screen and smiles, still trying to keep her grip on six feet of noodly squirming ferretmonster.]
Uh, hey, so... I heard that there's been talk of starting up a contest thing around here! I heard in Sinnoh they dress their Pokemon up a bunch for it, so I thought maybe I'd try it out. I think it turned out pretty well! Tavi here is... ack!
[Tavi almost escapes, but she catches him in the nick of time.] C'mon, Tav, what's the matter? You love dressup, don't you? Here, show everyone how you look.
[Reluctantly, Tavi shows himself, and GOOD GOD. It's like Picasso's interpretation of a drag queen caught in the rain mid-performance. I'm not sure why you would ever want to put lipstick on a ferret in the first place, but it's clear Lyra isn't much of an expert at it.]
So... what do you guys think? Pretty adorable, am I right?
In-Character 3rd person sample:
Ugh. Rainy days. It wasn't so bad in the summer, when the rain was a welcomingly cool reprieve, but the springtime breezes had a bit too much of a bite to them for getting caught in the rain to be anything but a freezing-cold time. The sensible option, then, was to just stay in.
But on the other hand... there was nothing new on the journal network, Pokechan was kind of lame today (and someone had just posted one of those Gardevoir threads), and Mewtube failed to yield anything entertaining to watch. Lyra was pondering maybe trying her hand at some fanfiction, but then again... how could she ignore Rui casting those longing glances out the rain-splattered window? When you pick a water-type starter, you sign yourself onto certain responsibilities, and this was one of them. Sometimes, you just had to be a little spontaneous. Let Emperor Rui the Almighty Crusher unleash the inner Totodile for a while. There wasn't any harm in that, right?
...Right...?
Fast-forward 45 minutes. One very soggy girl was now in the infirmiry, sniffling every four seconds or so. (It was just as annoying to listen to as you'd expect it to be.) "...So basically, I was taking my alligator out puddle-jumping," Lyra finished, entirely oblivious to the flat stares she was getting from the infirmary helper. (And the puddle her shivering self was dripping all over the floor.) "So, um... can I get some cold medicine? Like, an Advil or something?" She ventured optimistically.
Character's Name: Lyra
Character's username
genderbentmario // notsilvertongue will be used as an icon mule if necessary.Game Series:
Link to previous app: Original app
Age (If there is a change): Three years have elapsed for Lyra; she's now 15 years old.
Canon point changes (If any): In addition to the full eight Johto badges, she now has seven of Kanto's badges.
Additional history that happened since the last application:
Stuff that happened at SBG, The Super Condensed Version:
- Ran around being a gigantic spazmo
- Learned the sacred art of poffincrafting from Cool Sinnoh Kid Lucas
- Roomed with a HORRIFYING SCARY BAT AAAAAAAA ;_____;
- Beat down Giovanni for a second time
- And also cosplayed him for a day, complete with absolutely terrible impression. Falker got the shoddy-dollar-store-mimcry treatment too. Lyra really needs to get some hobbies.
- Started up a Pokeathlon funtimes team
- Had an awesome badge-earning double battle against Brock and Misty with Silver
- Investigated into a mysterious pair of bounty hunters mysteriously getting up to sneaky tricks in Kanto
- Also investigated an obnoxious all-knowing pixie god rigging up an elaborate scavenger-hunt around the brutal beating of a bunch of nonhuman students and staff
- MET THE TEAM ROCKET KID OHHH MYYY GODDDD
- Got subsequently heartbroken and disillusioned when Team Rocket Kid's Charizard and Venusaur got caught up in human-mauling incident
What the heck has she been up to for three whole years:
Ever since she was seven, Lyra idolized the heck outta Red. The events that happened two Decembers ago shook her beliefs up in a pretty big way. Lyra eventually came to the decision that everything she'd figured out about herself had happened over the course of her Pokemon journey; maybe all she needed was to get back out into the world and get adventuring again. See if gathering some experience would bring her some revelations. That kinda thing.
Year one: Revisiting Johto and seeing what Kanto has to offer. The Dragon's Den, the Battle Frontier, the Safari Zone, and (of course) the Pokeathlon all saw plenty of visits from Lyra. She rebattled a few of the Johto gym leaders, to test herself against them when they weren't required to hold back. The shrine at Ilex Forest got a few zinnias carefully planted at its base. She offered well-wishes under Tin Tower's dazzling shadow, visited a friend in the Whirl Islands, chased playfully after shadows dancing through the tall grass. She finished cataloguing the Unowns in the Ruins of Alph, though to be honest she's still not sure she really understands the ruins' mysteries. Deep in Tohjo Falls, she eagerly told the dojo master of Mac and her resolution to get better at boxing; his Hitmonchan humoured her with a few gentle lessons.
Kanto was fresh and new to her; Lyra ate up all it had to offer with bright-eyed excitement. Clefairies danced beneath the night sky on Mt. Moon. She bowed her head quietly before the few graves that had been salvaged in Lavender Town, sunk within the nostalgiac bittersweet sense of absence the Tower's destruction had left. She ran into a Charizard on the southern edge of Route 9, a strange rusting band of iron around its ankle, but Rui drove it away before she could venture a close look. She marvelled at the size and the bustle of Saffron and Celadon, arms already weighed down with souvenirs from the the mall. Visiting Pallet Town was... strange. It wasn't much bigger than New Bark Town, this place where the Team Rocket Kid had taken his very first steps with a water-type of his own. Somehow, it made her feel... sad. Wistful. A sense of incredible distance. She lingered here, helped Professor Oak and his aides care for the newborn Squirtles, Charmanders, and Bulbasaurs that would someday join some other kid.
And, of course, she gathered badges. Well... most of them. The Viridian gym leader was mysteriously absent, so that put a premature end to her Kantoventure. Mt. Silver was fated to remain out of reach a little longer.
...There was nobody up there waiting for her anymore, anyway.
Year two: What's left to aim for? Maybe she was ready to go back, but... she wasn't sure she felt ready. She couldn't say she had become the Team Rocket Kid's equal when she was still one badge off, but... she'd had a lot of time to reflect on that. Over her journey, she had ended up carefully mirroring each of his footsteps. She had stood against the Rockets, had faced up against Giovanni himself, clawed her way to the title of Champion, worked through two regions, had smiled up at legendary beings. And yet... she felt strangely unfulfilled. What was it her journey had been about?
She was still hungry to see the world. Walking with Pokemon means you tread a path with no end, right? On Janus' strong, world-crossing wings, she left Kanto and Johto behind, and headed for the south. First came the sun-kissed islands of the Oblivia region. There were no pokeballs in sight here, much to Lyra's surprise; the partnership between people and Pokemon was built up just like it had been before the first Apricorns had been used to catch Pokemon. She sunned herself on serene beaches while Tavi chased the Buizels along the shore, endured a sweltering volcano while her Magcargo bubbled happily amid the magma, made snow-angels with fluffy-coated Bunearys, and listened to ancient songs of a long-gone hero. The Oblivia islands were small and few in number; she only lingered for a few months.
The next stop was a region called Orre. Though she looked, she only ever ran into a single wild Pokemon: a Gligar that tried to steal her Aprijuice while she slept underneath the stars. The sun that had once been so encouraging on Oblivia's lush shores now burned at her skin with vampiric hostility, and the wind carried nothing but dry, choking dust. Even in this inhospitable land, though, people and Pokemon still flourished together. Her team endeavoured through Mt. Battle, though the peak, sadly, remained staunchly out of reach. She learned of Pokemon that'd had their hearts forced shut and their empty war-machine ruthlessness in battle, and hugged Tavi a little closer. But even then, she was told, love never loses its power: a Pokemon called down into those dark depths could be lifted back up again by a patient, nursing hand.
She returned home tanned, leaner, and thoroughly dusty, but wiser.
Year three: Home again. Reluctant to leave again so soon, she decided to spend a little more time in her beloved Johto. She'd been thinking hard on why she'd picked the path of the trainer, and about everything she'd learned about the nature of the bond people and Pokemon form. Battling together, striving in the Pokeathlon... she'd tried her hand at plenty of things involving working together with Pokemon, but when was the last time she'd done something for Pokemon?
A question that she mulled over for a few weeks in the comfort of home, before an answer drifted down to her. A call came in from Lance: word had come in that local trainers noticed that you could no longer hear singing in Union Cave -- the Lapras population there was already very small and reclusive to begin with, but it was strange for them to go entirely silent. It was probably nothing, but if she was hungry for something to do, then it couldn't hurt to just look around, could it?
So Lyra gathered up her posse and plunged bravely into Union Cave. Then immediately ran out screaming again because AAAA bats everywhere. Okay, it took a few tries, and a lot of clinging very very close to Rui, but she finally got up the nerve to head into the basement of Union Cave. Nothing in the water but Woopers, Goldeen, and Magikarp, but the Laprases always had been shy. She figured she should camp out a while, see if she could catch a glimpse once Friday rolled around. The red-letter day came, and she caught a glimpse of something, all right: a couple of trainers setting up nets. She tried to have A Few Words with them, but she got brushed off: it's not like catching Pokemon is illegal, and they were only taking in one Lapras a week, so it wasn't like they were really overfishing, right?
It was a loophole, but technically, it was accurate. They were operating within the parameters of the law. Still, slowly depleting Union Cave's Lapras pod didn't sit well with Lyra. There had to be something available to her, right? She tried coming back each Friday to drive the trainers off by battling, but there were mixed results: the noise and the damage to the cave itself these battles did just caused the Laprases even more stress, and that's nothing good for such a sensitive, peaceful species -- they got so skittish they refused to eat, so Lyra quickly revised that plan.
Okay, what about relocation? Union Cave's waterways connected only to the Ruins of Alph, not to the open sea, so the Lapras population couldn't exactly avoid the trainers on their own. Surely there had to be a place they could go where they'd be safe from trainers, or at the very least someone could keep a constant eye on their numbers and restrict catching. If only there was some kind of giant Pokemon nature reserve where Pokemon catching was carefully controlled according to this privately-owned establishment's rules. IF ONLY.
In less stupid terms: Lyra made a call to Balboa. He thought the idea of introducing a Lapras population to the Safari Zone was totally kickin' rad, but he's a really busy man so uh she was just gonna hafta be the one to handle the preparations. Okay, sure, not a problem. Can't be that hard, right? Step one: make sure the have a suitable habitat. This... was not as easy as anticipated. Freshwater enclosure, okay, yes, got it. Good filtration system, lots of fountains to encourage water circulation. Water temperature? Do Laprases want it cold because they're ice-types or warm because they're sometimes found in tropical oceans?? Better trek back to Union Cave and spend some more time figuring out the average water temperature down there. While you're at it, hey, Union Cave's pretty big -- is the current enclosure in the Safari Zone even enough space for a pod of such big creatures to live comfortably? Hmm... no. Doesn't look like it. Better add on the headache of enlargening the enclosure. And you know what? Just plain, open water won't do, either. They'll need somewhere to hide if they're startled or want a little privacy. Oh, and they'll probably want shade too, summer gets pretty hot and they DO usually spend their time in an underground lake and all, so direct sun might be a problem. And you definitely want the Lapras to be able to feed themselves, right? So that means stocking the thing with prey species like those Magikarps and Woopers. And that, of course, means aquatic plants to help sustain the prey, too. Oh, whoops, did the plants you pick die because the water's too cold for them? Why not go back to Union Cave AGAIN and see if you can bring a few samples to transplant into your habitat? And how are the Laprases going to get enough calcium for proper shell growth? Better trade for some Swanna and build some nesting boxes by the shoreline; the eggshells left behind after the chicks hatch should do the trick.
OKAY. Man, that was a massive load of work, but finally the landscaping phase was complete. Now she just had to figure out how to stock that lovely new enclosure. Another trip to Union Cave! AUGH BATS AUGH FUCK AAA. Now she was kind of stuck in the same place she'd been in the beginning: instead of trying to stop the trainers from catching the Lapras, she had to make sure she was getting to them before the other trainers. Duking it out for capture rights every single Friday wasn't gonna work, nor was a scrabbling race: these'd just scare the poor Lapras off before anyone could get close.
Finally, the Saturday after one of these frantic failure attempts, Lyra hit on an idea: each of the trainers would catch the first Pokemon they saw inside the cave, train it for exactly one week, then come together for a Battle Royale on the Thursday before the Laprases were expected to show up again. It'd be a perfect test of a trainer's ability; it only made sense, then, that the victor was the one most deserving of Lapras capture rights. Kind of like the bug-catching contests in the National Park. No TMs, no Lucky Eggs, no EXP Shares, no Rare Candies or vitamins: just hard work.
THANK GOD: The first Pokemon Lyra ran into was a Sandshrew, not a Zubat. She was given the name Tambora, and thus did a week of hardcore training begin. Thursday rolled around in a flash, and thus, Tambora the now-Sandslash was pitted against the forces of a Corsola, an Absol, and an Onix. Rock-types, for the record, are a giant pain when Sandslash learns basically zero ground-type moves by levelling up. Absol fell pretty quickly to a Defense Curl/Rollout combo, and that Rollout had enough momentum to chip th Corsola down too, but MAN. THAT ONIX. Truth be told: Lyra won only because a lucky Poison Sting poisoned it, and spamming Defense Curl and Sand-Attack let her simply outlast it. Totally a squeaking-by victory, but nonetheless, Lyra had won Lapras-catching rights. For that week, anyway. For the remainder of that summer, these meetings grew increasingly competitive: TMs were allowed in, trainers started making use of Choice Bands and Brightpowders and other such items, and everyone got caught in a fierce dance of trying to predict and counter the strategies they'd seen the previous week.
During the last week of summer, Balboa finally announced they had enough of a base population for the Safari Zone. It was surprising to think she was going to miss the weekly battles, but she agreed: it would have been hypocritical to keep catching more Lapras than she needed. Tambora was proudly adorned with a bright red bow, and taken to the Safari Zone to enjoy a relaxing retirement (with the promise, of course, that Balboa would put up signs advising patrons not to lob Safari Balls at the stylishly accessorized Sandslash). From there, the remainder of the year was spent guarding over her flock, so to speak. When her temperatures proved too low and half the herd caught pneumonia, she dragged in as many Nurse Joys as she could find and stayed adamantly at the lakeside, beside herself with anxiety over her mistake. When poachers tried to make a move in the cover of the night, they were met with vengeful beaks and snapping alligator teeth. She monitored for signs of overfeeding, underfeeding, boredom, stress, in-pod aggression. She measured pH levels, ammonia levels, nitrate levels, salinity, and all the other stuff that she'd never even heard of outside of her freshman-year Chemistry. Her autumn and winter were filled with badly-drawn sketches and pages upon pages of notes on Lapras behaviour, and her bag grew heavy with a scrapbook filled with photographs. (The very first egg the pod laid in captivity proudly got a page all its own. It was a boy, for the record.)
Finally, she realized: no longer was she a watchful caretaker, she was only a spectator. The Lapras population was settled into their home, and was showing signs of beginning to thrive. After making Balboa promise approximately 500 times to call her the second anything bad happened, Lyra returned home, eager to show Professor Elm all the heaps and heaps of crap she'd noted about the Lapras pod. ...It was a good feeling. None of the Lapras were technically hers: she'd released each one she caught into the Safari Zone, after all. She'd never used them to compete -- in battles, in contests, or in Pokeathlons. But still, she felt just as fulfilled as when she'd first been given that bitey little Totodile, or witnessed her little Spearow evolving into a broad-winged Fearow. She wasn't sure, but she thought maybe she'd figured out a lot of things about what walking with Pokemon is about. Now... maybe now, she was ready to go back to that school.
TL;DR VERSION: putzed around Johto/Kanto for a year, spent another farting off to Oblivia and Orre, spent the third dumping a bunch of Lapras into the Safari Zone.
Other crap worth noting:
- Since Gold is from the Heart Gold version of events, I'm tenatively saying Lyra comes from Soul Silver. I'm still remaining vague on the status of plot-legendaries and red Gyaradoses in case someone wants to app them as OCs, though.
- Team is tentatively still Feraligatr/Dragonite/Furret/Scizor/Magcargo/Xatu.
- Fearow may also be a thing if Cass apps Ayah, though, so Xatu will probably be living back home with mom if that's the case.
- Sandslash mentioned in giant wall of text now hangs out in the Safari Zone, so obviously won't be around the school either.
Personality Changes (ie, some characters grow are are different based on where they are taken from. Please write down any changes in personality compared to the first app):
I wanted to be famous too. It's not just about being on the news or getting attention, though. I want to walk with Pokemon my whole life. I want to help everyone that thinks nobody's on their side. Save them when they can't defend themselves. I wanna show people that even if you're small and not that strong on your own, you can still change the world if you've got enough heart. You're not too powerless to stop injustice. That's what it means to be a Team Rocket Kid, isn't it? That's what I thought it was.
Lyra still very much wants to change the world. Sticking her nose all over the place and being an Ally of Justice is just in her wiring. Over those three years, however, she had a lot of time to think about her journey, and she's finally started to stray out of the Team Rocket Kid's shadow and try to find a path of her own. It's by no means a certain road: ask her where she pictures herself in ten years and she'll probably bounce wildly between being an Interpol agent and still the Champion and a Pokemon professor and an olympic-level Pokeathlon coach and a radio drama voice actor. A lot of her basic traits have remained unchanged. She's still pretty dopey and wears her heart on her sleeve and sees everything through rose-colored glasses, yes, but she's also older and wiser now. She's learned a few things about when to play her cards close to her sleeve, and she's a lot more aware now that things aren't quite as black and white as she used to see them.
Still loves the heck outta those radio dramas, though. SABLE, SHE READ YOUR AWESOME POINTED LOVE FANFICTION. 5/5 WOULD READ AGAIN.
In-Character 1st person sample:
[The camera clicks on, and good lord, it looks like a tornado has been through the room. Lyra is trying very hard to hold onto something that is struggling equally hard; judging by the hint of brown just within the frame, it's probably her Furret.]
Come on, Tavi, you look so pretty! You were having so much fun with dressing Rui up, why are you getting all shy now?
[She glances over at the screen and smiles, still trying to keep her grip on six feet of noodly squirming ferretmonster.]
Uh, hey, so... I heard that there's been talk of starting up a contest thing around here! I heard in Sinnoh they dress their Pokemon up a bunch for it, so I thought maybe I'd try it out. I think it turned out pretty well! Tavi here is... ack!
[Tavi almost escapes, but she catches him in the nick of time.] C'mon, Tav, what's the matter? You love dressup, don't you? Here, show everyone how you look.
[Reluctantly, Tavi shows himself, and GOOD GOD. It's like Picasso's interpretation of a drag queen caught in the rain mid-performance. I'm not sure why you would ever want to put lipstick on a ferret in the first place, but it's clear Lyra isn't much of an expert at it.]
So... what do you guys think? Pretty adorable, am I right?
In-Character 3rd person sample:
Ugh. Rainy days. It wasn't so bad in the summer, when the rain was a welcomingly cool reprieve, but the springtime breezes had a bit too much of a bite to them for getting caught in the rain to be anything but a freezing-cold time. The sensible option, then, was to just stay in.
But on the other hand... there was nothing new on the journal network, Pokechan was kind of lame today (and someone had just posted one of those Gardevoir threads), and Mewtube failed to yield anything entertaining to watch. Lyra was pondering maybe trying her hand at some fanfiction, but then again... how could she ignore Rui casting those longing glances out the rain-splattered window? When you pick a water-type starter, you sign yourself onto certain responsibilities, and this was one of them. Sometimes, you just had to be a little spontaneous. Let Emperor Rui the Almighty Crusher unleash the inner Totodile for a while. There wasn't any harm in that, right?
...Right...?
Fast-forward 45 minutes. One very soggy girl was now in the infirmiry, sniffling every four seconds or so. (It was just as annoying to listen to as you'd expect it to be.) "...So basically, I was taking my alligator out puddle-jumping," Lyra finished, entirely oblivious to the flat stares she was getting from the infirmary helper. (And the puddle her shivering self was dripping all over the floor.) "So, um... can I get some cold medicine? Like, an Advil or something?" She ventured optimistically.