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Nemona is known to be a fierce battler, she takes each and every of her fights very seriously, as she does with training, she always wants her Pokémons to be in their best shapes possible.
She evolved many Pokémons.
She caught some on much later levels.
She was infamous for her tauros, or her pawmot.
And some were less famous, such as her goodra, or her lycanrok.
And Niko had some questions about her goodra.
Recently, he has been thinking about raising another dragon type.
He had his Garchomp back in Kalos that he raised from a Gabite, he had also caught a very big and very agressive Garchomp back in ancient Sinnoh too, but lately he’s been thinking of raising a new dragon type, specifically a goomy. But not just any Goomy ; a varient from ancient Sinnoh.
And so he made his way to Nemona’s dorm room, and knocked on her door.
“Oh ! Loco !”
Nemona was ecstatic to see Niko, which was a given since he was also a pretty strong trainer. Heck, he even gained the special title of “Ace Trainer”, which wasn’t nothing !
But that did not mean that the green haired had to drag the brown haired into her room hoping for a battle.
“Are you here for a battle ? Cause I got a new strategy I wanted to try and it’s so great that you’re here amigo-“
“Wait wait wait slow down !” Interjected the older student. “Hold on, I’m not here for a battle, I’m here for advice.”
This got the battle maniac to sit down on her bed immediately, clearly listening to her friend. Which he took as a sign to continue speaking.
“Okay, so, lately I’ve been thinking about making a new addition to my team, and-“ Nemona had leaped from her bed and Niko had to physically make her sit down so she would not interrupt him, though she looked as she was nearly vibrating in place from excitement. “Please let me finish- and so I’ve been thinking about a goomy, so I’ve come to ask you what was it like to raise your goomy.”
“Oh I did not raise my goodra from a goomy !” She immediately told him. “I actually caught him as a sliggoo and evolved him when we were in the rain, which wasn’t too long so I’ve only ever known him as a goodra !”
Well that was problematic for the older one, he heard about how complicated it was to raise a goomy and heard about how problematic sliggoos were, and he only heard tales of a goodra’s anger.
“Dang.”
“But I can still help you ! What do you want to know ?”
Niko sat besides his drink with a sigh, reaching in his bag to pull out an old looking textbook with multiple white stars on the cover.
“Well, I’ve been thinking of raising an hisuian goodra as I have an hisuian goomy, and I figured an ancient goodra and a modern day goodra couldn’t be that different behavior wise, they are still the same specie, so I wanted to ask you for your help since I read how difficult it was to raise one.”
Nemona let out a small “ooo” at the explanation as she looked over at the page for ancient goodra, and immediately noticed how different it looked. The shell on it’s back, it’s sad little face, and most importantly : second typing.
“Dragon and steel type.”
“It’s such a good typing.”
“It really is ! There’s so much resistances !”
“I know right ?! And with it’s Sip Sapper ability it is immune to grass type moves-“
“Like my Goodra !”
“Yeah and it’s only weak to fighting and ground types moves !”
“What is written about it ?”
Nemona asked excitedly as she was near bouncing on her bed, Niko didn’t mind as he was just as excited to share about ancient Pokémons, extinct Pokémons he has fought, and he knows he should keep it a secret but he was in Hisui for a bit more than a year of his life, it’s so hard not to talk about it !
“Prof Laventon wrote and I quote : ‘Able to freely control the hardness of its metallic shell. It loathes solitude and is extremely clingy—it will fume and run riot if those dearest to it ever leave its side.’ Which is basically really close to the Pokédex entry for regular goodra !”
“So do you think it’s just in their nature to go mad when they’re alone ?”
“Probably, certainly in their genetics since they nearly act the same even though hisuian variants have been instinct for more than a century !”
“Mostrarme sliggoo !”
“Yeah yeah got it got it !”
And the picture of the cutest bundle of slime greeted them, a tired and sad little smile on it’s face as it semi-hid away in it’s shell.
“Que adorable !” Gasped Nemona, and Niko couldn’t help but absolutely agree with her.
“I know ! And they roll away like spheals !!”
“Que adorable !!” She cried again as she stared at the creature ever. “They look so polite ! And definitely smarter looking than today’s sliggoo’s.”
“Well I did some research and yeah- modern sliggoo’s brain is in their tiny shells, and because of their mucus their eyes melted so they can’t see anything.”
“That explains so much.”
“So my working theory is that since ancient sliggoo’s had bigger shells that weren’t being melted off by their mucus, which means that they were probably much smarter because bigger shell, and they could see because mucus didn’t melt their eyes.”
Nemona shrugged at that. She was no professor. She wasn’t that good in Professor Jack’s class. She didn’t know. She just likes battles.
And Niko didn’t know much more either as he was in the language faculty of the academy, and didn’t mess with hisuian sliggoo’s much.
“So, your team will be composed of what types exactly ?” Type coverage is very serious, and very important, having too many Pokémons of the same type is a pretty bad idea, so different Pokémons of multiple typings is very important in battle.
“Since lopunny prefers to stay in her mega form, that makes her a normal and fighting type.”
“Hm-hm.”
“Typhlosion is fire ghost and zoroark is normal ghost.”
“That’s already a repetition.”
“Yes, but normal and ghost typing is a fantastic combination and she can learn dark type moves.”
“It is true that she’s very strong.”
“My very big girl, so no I’m not boxing her. Then I have my sylveon as a fairy type.”
“So you currently have normal, fighting, fire, ghost, and fairy type. What about that ogre Pokémon you caught in Kitakami ?”
“Ogerpon, I don’t think lopunny will give me a choice so I’ll add her to the team, and she’s a plant type. Though I will probably have her wear the Cornerstone mask since I don’t have a rock type and she would make a nice addition.”
“Why would your lopunny not give you a choice about keeping ogerpon or not ?”
The brown haired looked at his friend, and made a limp wrist gesture. When the green haired still didn’t seem to get it, he did it again. After the second time with his friend still looking confused, he just said loudly :
“They’re gay !”
“Oh !”
“They’re girlfriends !”
“Oh !”
“Yeah.”
They fell into silence for a few seconds, before Nemona uttered out :
“Raise a goomy ! I want to see my goodra fight yours someday ! And dragon steel is an amazing type combination ! That would be a memorable fight !”
Niko sputtered at Nemona’s pure joy and hunger for a future battle.
“It’s not that I don’t want to raise a goomy, I just don’t know how. I know it’s very hard to care for them because if they’re not kept all nice and slimy they can pass away, and I don’t want to harm an innocent Pokémon because I was not able to care for it properly, so I’ll have to always have creams, lotions and water on me to keep it hydrated and comfy, and how do I do that at night ? What if I fail to care for it because I’m busy ? That is for goomy, for sliggoo they can accidentally kill their own trainer because they confuse them with food, I know the hisuian variant may not make this mistake but it’s still a risk, always preparing gloves and separating it from my other Pokémon so no one gets hurt but that might hurt it emotionally since it doesn’t do well with being separated from others and they are normally sad to begin with, and I don’t think I am built and even ready to handle a goodra’s emotional outbursts, they can lash out from loneliness and I know I won’t be able to always be with them, I know I need my own time alone and I don’t want it to suffer from it, I just worry so much about messing up.”
Nemona pat Niko’s back as he vented his feelings, head in hands as he whacked his brain about how he can do a good job at raising a goomy. How can he make sure it does not get hurt under his care ? How can he keep it healthy ? How can he make sure that the water he provides is full of iron and minerals so its shell can grow to be strong and resistant once it evolves ? He just wants to do a good job, he knows it’s a hard task to care for a goomy but the more he keeps thinking about it the more it seems to be simply impossible to properly raise a goomy, and that panicked him even more because he doesn’t have that much time free.
“Hé loco, remind me who managed to evolve a buneary to a Lopunny ?”
The older student looked at the green haired, confused, raising slightly his head from his hands.
“Huh ?”
“Who has a Sylveon ?”
“Penny and I ?”
“Who’s zoroark hated his guts at first and now would gut anyone who looks at him wrong ?” The brown haired chuckled wetly. It was true though. “Who is friends with really important legendaries ?” Also true.
“That’s me..”
“Of course that’s you ! And you know what ? Why would a goomy be different ? Look at you ! You always take really good care of your pokemon, and they adore you! So what are you scared of ? You should be scared to be too protective of your goomy ! You’re an amazing trainer, your goodra will turn out fine ! And even if you do make mistakes, it wouldn’t hate you !”
It felt nice hearing these words. It did not wash away all of his worries entirely, of course he was always going to worry, but he knows that if he has any trouble, Nemona would not hesitate to come by and help him, and right now, all he really needed was the reassurance, that little push to make him do it.
“You know what ? I’ll give it a try.” With the way Nemona beamed at him she looked like she was the one able to raise a tiny little baby that some people would throw over a small to medium sized nation for, but she was getting something out of this and it would be a battle, someday. “And with that I think I’m going to start preparing to make it as comfortable as possible.”
He walked to the door while the green haired rose up from her bed, bouncing in place and crossing her fingers.
“Cruzaré los dedos por ti !” She exclaimed with a smile.
“Je pète pas un mot de ce que tu dis Menz.” He replied with a smile as he walked out of her dorm room with a small wave.