ThIS brought in so much emotion that I'm crying

Fantastic story this is!

I said I was done after that last one about Brock and Gary but then uuuuugh I found this last one shot and I was like "yeah sure I have to at this point"

I need like, a new word for what your writing style feels like. It's just... Lulling. Nice. Homey. Hearth-y. Like I'm sitting in a room with all of my friends, and they're all laughing and I;m watching content from my phone, just happy to be around loved ones. Or that feeling when at like a big sleepover when everyone is starting to fall asleep and it's mellow and quiet and you feel safe. I'll stop with this metaphor before it gets mushy gushy.

And at the same time, it like. Aches. It's a bittersweet kind of thing. By the end, it's pretty much all sweet, but the ache of change is still there.

I like that you took a topic like homophobia and made it delicate and danced around it while also shoving it violently into the main charcater's face. We all knew what was happening, but we need the explicit detail. It was subtle and tactful and nice.

And You nailed down what I think is really important in the aspect of homophobia. People don't understand it and inherently turn something that isn't dirty at all into something perverse and toxic. Kids in their blank slate don't look at two boys holding hands and gross out about it. They see what's right in front of them and move on. Adults of the homophobic variety look at it and immediately skip to dirty and perverse things, and immediately make their problem everyone else's problem.

You articulated that really well, I think. Ash didn't care what Cilan was or what the words meant of any of that. He didn't care that attract would work on Cilan if another boy used it. It's not being gay that's the problem, it's that people don't see it as innocent like they do heterosexual love, somehow. The bullies just messed Ash up by making it adult. They took a perfectly healthy topic and made it child unfriendly. I know you know that and wrote this and I'm writing this half essay at 4:30am for my own benefit at this point, but I just. Loved how you danced with this fic.

And when you got Misty involved! Describing everything as too big for him because Ash is a tiny little boy who should live his ten ear old life for Pete's sake. That was such a cute way of describing what was no doubt the cutest little puppy love crush ever. You nailed down a child's voice in describing romance and budding love, I think, and that's got to be difficult. Children just have such a fresh and different way of seeing the world that's just pure... Innocence. Handling innocence and the soiling of it and slow rebuilding afterwards to be happy, but ever changed, that's a huge, huge thing to tackle and I literally cannot stop raving about how well I think you did all of this. It was just so amazing. I've been having fun looking at Pokemon from a teenage/adult view with darker under and overtones and thought those stories were like, the pinnacle of the Pokemon universe. I think I was wrong. This story, all of your other stories too, they were just so refreshing and bright and childlike and I might be rambling and over emotional because of my state of sleep. I have a feeling I'm going to be carrying these stories with me for awhile. They're really important.

Thank you 3

Iris was mostly left out. But whatever.

cool

I like this story. It had good writing,and I liked that Ash and Iris weren't bothered by Cilan being gay.

Maybe Ash just chooses to be that dense or something? or perhaps he's a bit too naive to know what gay is? lol Whether or not Cilan is... that's something Ash will deal with huh? It's pretty obvious at the depressing mood this fic brings. Almost melancholy but still beautiful. :) I love the close friendship, perhaps more they have. :)

It's good. It's very well written and it's very emotion certainly to the point of being depressing. Reading some of your work is like being stabbed in the heart sometime. The main complaint I have is that I think you've made Ash be a little bit too childish. He's way too childish in this story and its almost as if Iris and Cilan treat him lesser for being so. If Ash is only 10 then I can understand that he wouldn't understand and would feel uncomfortable if people were to suggest his friend wanted to do sexual things to him. However there is no reason why he should not be able to understand that Cilan is gay - I'm presuming the word being used is something like "Fag," "Queer," or "Faggot." I can't see why it would be difficult for Cilan to explain to him that he's more interested in boys, that he has feelings for Ash and reassure Ash that he wouldn't do anything to hurt him. Gay people do exist and there is nothing wrong with them. Ignorance of such things does not make one innocent and there is no benefit to children provided by having them think everyone is straight. If Ash can't understand that then he's got the emotional intelligence of a toddler. I mean seriously - Is Pikachu going to die if Cilan kisses Ash.

I liked this story. It's very emotion and moving and like all your work very melodramatic. I particularly liked the ash and pikachu are a bit too close part. I presume the work was some derogatory term for being gay. I only have one criticism. I don't see how at ten the idea that a boy can love another boy would be that shocking to him or why he couldn't explain. Iris understood as she's his age or younger. Other than that it's great.

Usually I hate the fact that Ash never grew up in the series, as if he never had a chance to learn from his mistakes. And the fact that Pikachu always goes back to being a weak starter, even after facing freaking legendaries and all that.

But after reading this, it made me less angry because this was a wonderful story that wouldn't have been possible if Ash grew up. It is a wonderful fic because you made Ash as a precocious kid, which most people tend to forget since he acts so stupidly in the series. And he is stupid, he is a kid after all, but he does have his moments of insight despite his immaturity. (Or I'm just making a big deal out of the fact you didn't make Ash a complete idiot despite his immaturity due to his age, which is a skill in and of itself.)

Anyway, other than the tense jumping and Attrack, this is a really awesome fic. x3

I have a big lump in my throat. Wow...this is really amazing. I love this a lot.

First off, it's realistic. Being a ten year old boy, and a very sheltered one on that note, it's not like Ash would understand the concept of homosexuality. He spends most of the story trying to understand it, what this word means (which I am assuming is either "gay", "fag", or "faggot".) but when he does he wants to burn it from his mind. Cilan's reaction to this is also very realistic. He purposely never told Ash that he was because he knew Ash was too young and innocent to understand it. And when Ash is told in the most revolving way possible, Cilan takes the blame on himself for being the way he is and he later explains it to Ash in a way he knows he will understand; through a Pokémon move. In the end, Ash realises that Cilan's his best friend and that's the only thing he really cares about.

The descriptions and storytelling are beautifully heartbreaking. The style for with the situation being given to Ash, and his way of handling it was exactly how e would do it if this actually happened in the show. I could literally feel my own self breaking just by reading this, it was just that powerful and moving for me. You should definitely write more serious stories for Pokémon. You're a talented writer.

I think I only have a few bits of critism to give. You did have some grammatical errors here and there, and you mixed up the tense in a couple paragraphs. But it never ruined the beauty of this story. This is going on my favourite list and I hope to see more from you in the future.

Wolfie

Wow! That was so cool and touching. Almost made me cry! :) Great job and keep it up

aww this was so cute! Friendship overcomes anything!

That, was...beautiful. There is no other way to describe it. I am sitting in bed, at 1 in the morning, and all I can think of is how amazingly this was written...even if I have no idea who Cilan or Iris are, even if. I haven't watched Pokemon since the Kanto region when I was little, nor played past Ruby Version...

You as now officially on my list of Epic Authors.

3

What was the word? Was it an insulting word for a homosexual?