TIMELINE (currently tentative)
Jan. 19th, 2011 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wontpickupFOUR TO SEVEN
Red and Leaf are the only children around Blue's age, so he naturally gravitates towards them. Being a bit of a brat, his first discovery about his new friends is that Red is pretty fun to push around and he makes use of this discovery often. His second discovery is that Leaf is highly resilient to both words and fisticuffs. He learns his limits in a Pavlovian manner -- pushing Red "too far" becomes a point just a little beyond the moment that Leaf steps in -- and comes to appreciate both aspects of pushing those limits.
After all, it's all in good fun. He enjoys both making fun of Red and gesticulatively jousting with Leaf, and it never crosses his mind that either of them could be having any less fun than him.
SEVEN TO ELEVEN
For some time, Professor Oak has been a proponent of the hypothesis that a Pokémon's strength is directly proportional to the emotional bond with the trainer. To put this to the test, he gives his grandson and his friends standard starter Pokémon years before the age when they might start their Pokémon journeys. The intent was that they would be given the choice of Pokémon in order of age, but Blue, the youngest, refuses to wait his turn and snatches a Pokémon after Red, trying to show him up by choosing one with a type advantage: Squirtle. As usual, Leaf is pretty chill with it, so he gets off with only a light scolding from his grandfather.
Blue is annoyed that, despite being given a Pokémon early, they have been forbidden from battling with them yet. However, he feels confident that Squirtle is the best and strongest amongst them and he often brags as much to the other two. Red is content to let him, but Leaf usually defends both her own Bulbasaur and Red's Charmander. Whether he wins or loses the arguments doesn't stir him from his belief that, though youngest amongst them, he will one day be the best trainer amongst them. As he grows older, he sometimes bothers his grandfather for information on Pokémon through the Kanto region to construct his dream team in his head. He complains about the lack of a single, organized source for the information often, but he's still grateful for the head start he thinks that this gives him.
It's the day that Red returns to Pallet Town in Leaf's arms that it really sinks in for him that the two of them are closer to each other than either is to him. But that's not really a big deal. They complement and complete each other, the wussy boy and the brawny girl. He is totally awesome all on his own.
ELEVEN TO TWELVE
Armed with his nifty new duds, he meets with his similarly freshly-outfitted friends to receive their trainer cards. Though both have been eleven for some time, they waited for him so that they could start together the way they had promised to as kids. Of course, the first thing that must be done once restraints on battling is lifted is have a brawl, right? Blue certainly thinks so and, upon coercing the others into it, he establishes the hierarchy that will remain throughout their journey: Blue beats Red but falls to Leaf.
He's a little disappointed by his loss, but he brushes it off and moves ahead with Red while Leaf stays behind to catch up on her sleep. He catches a Pidgey along the way, then veers off from Red's path to check out the gate to Victory Road, partially a way to inspire himself and partially a way to express his overwhelming cockiness. On the way back, he encounters Leaf, who gives him the Pokédex and explains its purpose. In return, he challenges her to the second battle of the day, which he loses, even with his new Pokémon. For her victory, he tells her which direction Red went and skedaddles.
To his great disappointment, he misses seeing Leaf carry Red back from the Viridian Forest, but he will have plenty of opportunity to see that sight as time passes.
TWELVE TO FOURTEEN
Blue's main goal remains the gyms and, in the end, the champion's seat, but the Pokédex has become a secondary goal. He amasses a Pokémon collection more rapidly than either of his friends, but he gives most of them over to his grandfather to be studied. He's already got a good idea of which Pokémon are going to be on his team and he doesn't need any others. To tide him over, though, he keeps back his Pidgey and his Rattata, knowing them to be easy to raise, as he searches for the right ones. He treats them reasonably well and Squirtle is always and forever his bro, but he doesn't love and trust them the way his friends love theirs.
When he's not trauling for Pokémon, though, he spends much of his time in the rival position, occasionally tracking down Leaf and Red to challenge them to a battle, always losing to the former but always winning against the latter. It's generally not too hard to find either: Red's trail leaves footprints in rumours of the gym-crasher "Fire" (a name that makes Blue laugh, sometimes even to Red's face, but he rolls with it) and Leaf's path occasionally leaves signs in the form of broken rocks and trees.
It's not only for battles that he meets them, though. At Mt. Moon and the Celadon Game Corner, Team Rocket face not one, but three small children. Clearly, they have no hope. But, while they are fighting their way through, they get separated fighting grunts. The grunt is not much stronger than most, but Blue has been pushing Raticate and Pidgeotto hard as he tries to save the rest of his team after hearing rumours amongst the grunts of some important person in the base. Near the end of the battle, the exhausted Raticate is struck just wrong.
Blue leaves the base immediately after Giovanni's defeat, but, by the time he reaches the Pokémon Centre, it is already too late. When he meets the two again at the Pokémon Tower, he pretends that he had already known about the Rockets there and that there is no other reason for him being there, never explaining what happened to them. But, after that, he won't need to be told off for not loving his Pokémon properly at the Champion's seat and his Pidgeotto earns its place on his dream team.
He doesn't lose his cockiness, though. He is tracking Red down for another battle when he catches the other boy slipping into Silph Co. Once he realizes what is happening, he stops only to send a quick message to Leaf before he dives in after Red. There is some part of him that can't leave Red to fight alone, but much of it is the love of an adrenaline rush from defying the odds. He wants a piece of it for himself.
He's so cocksure, in fact, that when he sees Red disappear up ahead to the boardroom, he lies in wait for Leaf. Now that Red has gotten this far, a small part of him hopes that Red will manage to defeat Giovanni or whoever is waiting for them at the end -- he's pieced together by now that Red's determination to do things on his own are a way to catch Leaf's attention. But, mostly, he overconfidently believes that either he or Leaf can come out of a fight still able to sweep Giovanni and he knows that, if he stands between Leaf and helping Red, he will get to experience a particularly intense battle.
He loses, of course, but he's mostly okay with acting as backup for Leaf's Big Damn Heroes entrance and ridiculing Red all the way down in what he considers a jocular manner. Still, as they walk down, he vaguely feels that it might be nice if Red were to rely on him, too, once in a while.
FOURTEEN TO FIFTEEN
The threat of Rockets temporarily abated, all three return to the task of completing the Gym challenge. As has become a constant now, Red takes the lead, but Blue is not too far behind. However, all three pile up suddenly when they reach Viridian Gym and find it empty. Irritated, Blue takes off to continue training and collecting data for the Pokédex. Leaf also leaves to wander Kanto, but Red chooses to stay close to Viridian City. It's some time later when Blue receives a message of the gym leader's return from Red. He hurries to Viridian City to find Red still outside the gym, waiting for them. The leader, Red explains, looks like Giovanni.
Having learned from the near-thing that was Silph Co., they enter together and are almost instantly beset by Rocket Grunts. All the Grunts. Chased from their bases, they gathered in the Viridian Gym and they are less than pleased that the same meddling kids have returned yet again. Wanting to show off -- Red to Leaf and Blue to the world in general -- and realizing that this is Leaf's destined battle, the boys clear a path for Leaf and hold the Grunts back so that she can disappear after Giovanni.
Some time later, after the many crashing sounds in the distance fade, Leaf returns with three Earth Badges. Blue is a little disappointed that he has to accept a win by default for the ultimate badge, but he is forced to accept it since the leader has absconded. He only learns this days later, though, as Leaf falls asleep almost immediately after giving it over. After watching Red struggle to carry her for a while, he lends a hand, amused the entire way.
The gym challenge complete, they go their separate ways to train and prepare for the Elite Four. But they promise to meet again in one year's time to walk through that gate Blue stood in front of at the very beginning of their journey.
SIXTEEN
Leaf, as always, oversleeps. But that's just fine by Blue, who is annoyed enough that Red has gotten the jump on him. Though it's only perhaps a couple of minute's difference, Blue can't do anything while waiting for the fights to end and the Elite Four's Pokémon to recover. Eventually, after enough pacing, he and his team take a leisurely breakfast. He probably should be nervous about taking on the Elite Four, but, after a year without so much challenge as the rest of the journey, his confidence has ballooned even higher.
As soon as they are prepared again, Blue hands them their second defeat of the day and faces Red once again. Red has indeed grown strong enough to be Champion, but so has Blue and the battle plays out as always, making Blue the second Champion of the day. While he has longer to celebrate than Red did, it is only a matter of hours before Leaf absolutely curbstomps the Elite Four and rams right through his Championship title.
His grandfather has the excellent timing of finally getting there to congratulate them at the moment of his defeat. Still, all are congratulated in turn and their names are placed in the Hall of Fame, though it takes a while to adjust the "length of reign" indicator to account for smaller time intervals for the first two. Then, together, they return home.
They don't remain in their small town for long, though. Red moves to Floe Island, studying to become a Pokémon Breeder. Leaf chooses to explore Kanto in its entirety, occasionally returning to the plateau whenever there is a challenge for the Kanto Champion.
And Blue? He puts a few finishing touches on what he considers a reasonable number of Kanto Pokémon for the Pokédex -- completing it, especially with some Pokémon scarcely more than legends, is a task he doesn't expect to finish -- before taking the vacant position of Viridian Gym Leader. He may not be able to make it as the champion (yet), but, as the leader of the strongest gym, he can still retain recognition as one of the strongest trainers in Kanto. That's enough for now.
THE END
...?
UNKNOWN ???
The ashes that were once a city shift beneath his feet. The people, evacuated. The little that could be restored, repaired. All that remains are the few workers who chose to hold on to the Pokémon Centre. All that remains is to survive.
It's almost a shame. It has been a good distraction while it lasted.
Blue rests against the rocks that now buried the city of Cinnabar Island. Rests, and reflects. Being a gym leader has not been the fulfilling goal he once believed it to be. It's not to say that he dislikes it. But, frankly speaking, he's bored. So few make the journey to the final gym of Kanto and, while some might overcome his gym team, none have provided the challenge or excitement of either Leaf or Red. And yet he was still straddled with the responsibilities that came with it. He has been able to get away with wandering through Kanto when there are no challenges, but he will never be allowed as gym leader to wander so freely as his friends.
When people speak of those three great trainers of Pallet Town, what will they say of him? There will be Leaf, certainly the greatest trainer of her generation and the strongest of Pallet Town in living memory, at the very least. There will be Red, the weakest of the three, but it seems that one day he may be a master breeder. And then there's Blue, a little like Leaf but not as good. He already sounds like a footnote, even to himself.
He's not satisfied with second, but he's challenged Leaf again since the Championship. Each time confirms his place behind her in battle. Perhaps he should take after Red and find his own path as a trainer. Something his alone. But it isn't so easy to find it.
And to think: even in the disaster of Cinnabar Island, he has not found someone to really rely on him.
Red and Leaf are the only children around Blue's age, so he naturally gravitates towards them. Being a bit of a brat, his first discovery about his new friends is that Red is pretty fun to push around and he makes use of this discovery often. His second discovery is that Leaf is highly resilient to both words and fisticuffs. He learns his limits in a Pavlovian manner -- pushing Red "too far" becomes a point just a little beyond the moment that Leaf steps in -- and comes to appreciate both aspects of pushing those limits.
After all, it's all in good fun. He enjoys both making fun of Red and gesticulatively jousting with Leaf, and it never crosses his mind that either of them could be having any less fun than him.
SEVEN TO ELEVEN
For some time, Professor Oak has been a proponent of the hypothesis that a Pokémon's strength is directly proportional to the emotional bond with the trainer. To put this to the test, he gives his grandson and his friends standard starter Pokémon years before the age when they might start their Pokémon journeys. The intent was that they would be given the choice of Pokémon in order of age, but Blue, the youngest, refuses to wait his turn and snatches a Pokémon after Red, trying to show him up by choosing one with a type advantage: Squirtle. As usual, Leaf is pretty chill with it, so he gets off with only a light scolding from his grandfather.
Blue is annoyed that, despite being given a Pokémon early, they have been forbidden from battling with them yet. However, he feels confident that Squirtle is the best and strongest amongst them and he often brags as much to the other two. Red is content to let him, but Leaf usually defends both her own Bulbasaur and Red's Charmander. Whether he wins or loses the arguments doesn't stir him from his belief that, though youngest amongst them, he will one day be the best trainer amongst them. As he grows older, he sometimes bothers his grandfather for information on Pokémon through the Kanto region to construct his dream team in his head. He complains about the lack of a single, organized source for the information often, but he's still grateful for the head start he thinks that this gives him.
It's the day that Red returns to Pallet Town in Leaf's arms that it really sinks in for him that the two of them are closer to each other than either is to him. But that's not really a big deal. They complement and complete each other, the wussy boy and the brawny girl. He is totally awesome all on his own.
ELEVEN TO TWELVE
Armed with his nifty new duds, he meets with his similarly freshly-outfitted friends to receive their trainer cards. Though both have been eleven for some time, they waited for him so that they could start together the way they had promised to as kids. Of course, the first thing that must be done once restraints on battling is lifted is have a brawl, right? Blue certainly thinks so and, upon coercing the others into it, he establishes the hierarchy that will remain throughout their journey: Blue beats Red but falls to Leaf.
He's a little disappointed by his loss, but he brushes it off and moves ahead with Red while Leaf stays behind to catch up on her sleep. He catches a Pidgey along the way, then veers off from Red's path to check out the gate to Victory Road, partially a way to inspire himself and partially a way to express his overwhelming cockiness. On the way back, he encounters Leaf, who gives him the Pokédex and explains its purpose. In return, he challenges her to the second battle of the day, which he loses, even with his new Pokémon. For her victory, he tells her which direction Red went and skedaddles.
To his great disappointment, he misses seeing Leaf carry Red back from the Viridian Forest, but he will have plenty of opportunity to see that sight as time passes.
TWELVE TO FOURTEEN
Blue's main goal remains the gyms and, in the end, the champion's seat, but the Pokédex has become a secondary goal. He amasses a Pokémon collection more rapidly than either of his friends, but he gives most of them over to his grandfather to be studied. He's already got a good idea of which Pokémon are going to be on his team and he doesn't need any others. To tide him over, though, he keeps back his Pidgey and his Rattata, knowing them to be easy to raise, as he searches for the right ones. He treats them reasonably well and Squirtle is always and forever his bro, but he doesn't love and trust them the way his friends love theirs.
When he's not trauling for Pokémon, though, he spends much of his time in the rival position, occasionally tracking down Leaf and Red to challenge them to a battle, always losing to the former but always winning against the latter. It's generally not too hard to find either: Red's trail leaves footprints in rumours of the gym-crasher "Fire" (a name that makes Blue laugh, sometimes even to Red's face, but he rolls with it) and Leaf's path occasionally leaves signs in the form of broken rocks and trees.
It's not only for battles that he meets them, though. At Mt. Moon and the Celadon Game Corner, Team Rocket face not one, but three small children. Clearly, they have no hope. But, while they are fighting their way through, they get separated fighting grunts. The grunt is not much stronger than most, but Blue has been pushing Raticate and Pidgeotto hard as he tries to save the rest of his team after hearing rumours amongst the grunts of some important person in the base. Near the end of the battle, the exhausted Raticate is struck just wrong.
Blue leaves the base immediately after Giovanni's defeat, but, by the time he reaches the Pokémon Centre, it is already too late. When he meets the two again at the Pokémon Tower, he pretends that he had already known about the Rockets there and that there is no other reason for him being there, never explaining what happened to them. But, after that, he won't need to be told off for not loving his Pokémon properly at the Champion's seat and his Pidgeotto earns its place on his dream team.
He doesn't lose his cockiness, though. He is tracking Red down for another battle when he catches the other boy slipping into Silph Co. Once he realizes what is happening, he stops only to send a quick message to Leaf before he dives in after Red. There is some part of him that can't leave Red to fight alone, but much of it is the love of an adrenaline rush from defying the odds. He wants a piece of it for himself.
He's so cocksure, in fact, that when he sees Red disappear up ahead to the boardroom, he lies in wait for Leaf. Now that Red has gotten this far, a small part of him hopes that Red will manage to defeat Giovanni or whoever is waiting for them at the end -- he's pieced together by now that Red's determination to do things on his own are a way to catch Leaf's attention. But, mostly, he overconfidently believes that either he or Leaf can come out of a fight still able to sweep Giovanni and he knows that, if he stands between Leaf and helping Red, he will get to experience a particularly intense battle.
He loses, of course, but he's mostly okay with acting as backup for Leaf's Big Damn Heroes entrance and ridiculing Red all the way down in what he considers a jocular manner. Still, as they walk down, he vaguely feels that it might be nice if Red were to rely on him, too, once in a while.
FOURTEEN TO FIFTEEN
The threat of Rockets temporarily abated, all three return to the task of completing the Gym challenge. As has become a constant now, Red takes the lead, but Blue is not too far behind. However, all three pile up suddenly when they reach Viridian Gym and find it empty. Irritated, Blue takes off to continue training and collecting data for the Pokédex. Leaf also leaves to wander Kanto, but Red chooses to stay close to Viridian City. It's some time later when Blue receives a message of the gym leader's return from Red. He hurries to Viridian City to find Red still outside the gym, waiting for them. The leader, Red explains, looks like Giovanni.
Having learned from the near-thing that was Silph Co., they enter together and are almost instantly beset by Rocket Grunts. All the Grunts. Chased from their bases, they gathered in the Viridian Gym and they are less than pleased that the same meddling kids have returned yet again. Wanting to show off -- Red to Leaf and Blue to the world in general -- and realizing that this is Leaf's destined battle, the boys clear a path for Leaf and hold the Grunts back so that she can disappear after Giovanni.
Some time later, after the many crashing sounds in the distance fade, Leaf returns with three Earth Badges. Blue is a little disappointed that he has to accept a win by default for the ultimate badge, but he is forced to accept it since the leader has absconded. He only learns this days later, though, as Leaf falls asleep almost immediately after giving it over. After watching Red struggle to carry her for a while, he lends a hand, amused the entire way.
The gym challenge complete, they go their separate ways to train and prepare for the Elite Four. But they promise to meet again in one year's time to walk through that gate Blue stood in front of at the very beginning of their journey.
SIXTEEN
Leaf, as always, oversleeps. But that's just fine by Blue, who is annoyed enough that Red has gotten the jump on him. Though it's only perhaps a couple of minute's difference, Blue can't do anything while waiting for the fights to end and the Elite Four's Pokémon to recover. Eventually, after enough pacing, he and his team take a leisurely breakfast. He probably should be nervous about taking on the Elite Four, but, after a year without so much challenge as the rest of the journey, his confidence has ballooned even higher.
As soon as they are prepared again, Blue hands them their second defeat of the day and faces Red once again. Red has indeed grown strong enough to be Champion, but so has Blue and the battle plays out as always, making Blue the second Champion of the day. While he has longer to celebrate than Red did, it is only a matter of hours before Leaf absolutely curbstomps the Elite Four and rams right through his Championship title.
His grandfather has the excellent timing of finally getting there to congratulate them at the moment of his defeat. Still, all are congratulated in turn and their names are placed in the Hall of Fame, though it takes a while to adjust the "length of reign" indicator to account for smaller time intervals for the first two. Then, together, they return home.
They don't remain in their small town for long, though. Red moves to Floe Island, studying to become a Pokémon Breeder. Leaf chooses to explore Kanto in its entirety, occasionally returning to the plateau whenever there is a challenge for the Kanto Champion.
And Blue? He puts a few finishing touches on what he considers a reasonable number of Kanto Pokémon for the Pokédex -- completing it, especially with some Pokémon scarcely more than legends, is a task he doesn't expect to finish -- before taking the vacant position of Viridian Gym Leader. He may not be able to make it as the champion (yet), but, as the leader of the strongest gym, he can still retain recognition as one of the strongest trainers in Kanto. That's enough for now.
...?
UNKNOWN ???
The ashes that were once a city shift beneath his feet. The people, evacuated. The little that could be restored, repaired. All that remains are the few workers who chose to hold on to the Pokémon Centre. All that remains is to survive.
It's almost a shame. It has been a good distraction while it lasted.
Blue rests against the rocks that now buried the city of Cinnabar Island. Rests, and reflects. Being a gym leader has not been the fulfilling goal he once believed it to be. It's not to say that he dislikes it. But, frankly speaking, he's bored. So few make the journey to the final gym of Kanto and, while some might overcome his gym team, none have provided the challenge or excitement of either Leaf or Red. And yet he was still straddled with the responsibilities that came with it. He has been able to get away with wandering through Kanto when there are no challenges, but he will never be allowed as gym leader to wander so freely as his friends.
When people speak of those three great trainers of Pallet Town, what will they say of him? There will be Leaf, certainly the greatest trainer of her generation and the strongest of Pallet Town in living memory, at the very least. There will be Red, the weakest of the three, but it seems that one day he may be a master breeder. And then there's Blue, a little like Leaf but not as good. He already sounds like a footnote, even to himself.
He's not satisfied with second, but he's challenged Leaf again since the Championship. Each time confirms his place behind her in battle. Perhaps he should take after Red and find his own path as a trainer. Something his alone. But it isn't so easy to find it.
And to think: even in the disaster of Cinnabar Island, he has not found someone to really rely on him.
