TFW the first fifteen chapters of this fic are all a lie. This twist, I seriously had to sit down for a hot second and just stare at the wall going "wait what". Perhaps in this regard it feels a little cheap? That somehow the reveal of all of this at once feels a little too convenient? Then again I'm not really sure how "you're possessed by ghosts and this is all part of Silver's not-a-bad-guy elaborate plan to get to the bottom of this" can be revealed gradually either, so...

This certainly puts a spin on things, and it does bring to light one of my favorite things: narrator bias. It's one of those things that people who seem to not like first person POV miss out on (their loss). What we thought was the story up to this point, in which we violently learn it was *not* the story, boy that's fun. I always enjoy a good "flip the script", and this is no exception.

Perhaps the only drawback to this chapter was how drawn out the beginning felt? It sort of seemed like the same scene played over several times before anything happened. The back and forth banter and assessing battle power felt a little repetitive, especially since we'd already (read) lived the events. It kind of lessened the tension of the encounter for me. Though the reveal of the twist more than made up for it. Really it's a small gripe on what has proven to be such a pivotal chapter.

I'm loving this shared purgatory experience of the Sprout Tower. There's this wonderful disconnect between the individual fears and how they're relating (or not) between human and pokemon. Iris's anger butting heads with our fearless leader was a great contrast against the nothingness that was Rousseau's floor, which I truly didn't understand *why* it was empty until the very end of his segment. Chilling, the line about his memories and the emptiness of that floor:[he sought them eagerly]. Great stuff.

And of course this all leads up to the end of the chapter, this comical exclamation point on what was a rather sobering trek up the tower. When we think we've figured out this tower's tricks, and it's not a trick any longer. He probably deserved it though, let's be honest.

[The good news was that the possessed-by-ghosts-person in Sprout Tower wasn't bad news, naturally, was that the possessed-by-ghosts-person at the top of Sprout Tower wasn't me, was trying to kill us, and easily outmatched the forces of my metapod and unconscious sentret.]
One of those places where the narrative voiced worked for me. Charming, humorous, and grim.

[I realized then that he was feeling about as lost and overwhelmed as I was. ]
Think this needs a little more, like: "I realized then that no matter how unfazed he outwardly seemed, he was feeling about as lost . . .] otherwise it feels like whip-lash from the previous comment about how unrattled he is.

In contrast, here [Silver straightened his back a little, and I swear I could've seen a touch of pride in his eyes, had the buffeting wind not made it difficult to focus.] I think you could cut off after "straightened his back a little" and let us infer that it's pride making him refuse help.

["I'm not allowing a rookie trainer who doesn't even have a badge to get caught up in this.]
Bit confused by this though. Why was be bringing her up the tower if he didn't want her involved? And if he thought she was the only possessed person in the tower, why even head to the top?

[Iris hurtled through the air, her striped tail fully extended and rigid as it impacted the beam, the force of her blow sending her back even as she shattered the wood. ]
Damn, Iris

["Ssssurely," shouted the marionette-like body of Falkner, hands thrown back, "ssssome revelation issss at hand!" ]
Hard to put into words how much I enjoy ghost!Falkner

["We have to get out of here," I said, but I was too quiet, too slow.]
It wouldn't matter if she said those words faster or louder, would it? maybe, "but no one was listening and anyway it was too late"?

[The command "—shit, go for a Psychic—!" come a fraction of a second too slow. ]
Typo, should be came

[Silver's abra took the hit head on, its tiny paws crossed over its torso to defend itself]
Aww, poor bebe. Nice physicality here and really throughout the battle. The way you've integrated the pillar, gusts of wind, and shattered wood is intense.

["Dante!" Silver shouted, his composure slipping in an instant, his voice nearly lost in the wind.]
I would cut the second clause about the lost voice for more impact here.

[There was a vein in the thigh that was important. I had no idea where it was. But we had to disinfect the wound. No, we had to stop the bleeding. No, we had to stop the madman that was trying to kill us. ]
Love the chaotic thought-stream here.

[Too late, I realized what he was trying to do, and it terrified me. "Wait. You can't—" I began, but that was washed away by a cold sense of calculation]
Very smart move by Silver here! The realization of what he's trying to do works great.

["Rousseau. Advantages and disadvantages that a ghost would experience when possessing a human corpse."]
Starting to really enjoy possessed!protag.

["That thing just threw her into a wall and she shrugged it off."They had to be stopped from discussing this matter any further. There were still assets available, and the elements for distraction had already been set. Iris, for whatever reason, seemed the most loyal at this moment.]
Yeah, this is so fun.

[The scene played out in fast-forward: a blast of wind would throw my body into a support pillar, which would not yield. Instead, my neck would.]
Ooh, very nice! Looking forward to more whenever you get around to cross-posting!

Been having some trouble putting my reaction to this chapter into words. I think the crux of it is that the scene where protag and Silver declaim the other's fear felt very forced to me and a bit unnecessary. Her reasoning before she begins to analyze his worst fear doesn't make much sense—now, maybe it's just that she's slipping into possession here, which is certainly implied by the cold voice. But since provoking your over-powered enemy isn't the greatest survival strategy, that would confuse me as well.

[His eyes hardened, and I knew then that something had shattered between us, perhaps irreversibly. I could feel him gearing up to strike back, to hit me just as hard as I'd hit him, and I realized that I'd sparked a fire that I should've never even touched. He had all the resources he needed to destroy me. Giving him the incentive to do so was even worse. ]
This is a bit over the top. First of all, there wasn't much there to shatter to begin with. Secondly, no duh you shouldn't monologue to the unstable dude with the killer abra about his worst fears. Thirdly, the idea that he's going to “destroy” her by putting a name to her fear is, well, not true, at least with what we've seen from the others and her reaction after he speaks.

I guess both these moments feel over-hyped to me. Neither of them are destroyed. They get to the top and need to battle the ghost!Falkner. I get that it's a story device to explain what these rooms mean, but . . . maybe you don't have to? Maybe it would be more effective to let us put together the pieces ourselves and have the protagonist and Silver have to coexist in the uneasy knowledge that they potentially know each other's worst fears?

[We'd forged an uneasy alliance out of the acceptance that we needed each other to get to the top, but we were hardly keeping it together as it was. ]
Huh? They didn't really form an alliance—Silver holds all the cards and he wants information from her. He doesn't need her to get to the top, unless I missed something.

[it was Gaia who seemed to understand him the most, who had repeatedly offered him forgiveness even though he'd hurt her more than any of us . . .Because she truly did understand him the most. Because the broken have a way of sensing their kin, no matter how many lies they tell.]
This isn't really clicking for me. Gaia seems to be pretty forgiving of everybody? What makes Gaia so “broken”? Also, the idea that Silver is human or broken seems to be presented as a revelation, but he was literally just talking about people trying to kill him as a kid and his dad not giving a single fuck. Pretty much a given that he's a bit messed up.

[I let the calculation run in the back of my mind. ]
[I did the math. ]
There's a lot of this kind of language in the chapter to describe the protag's thinking, and it really doesn't seem to gel with everything we've seen of her personality so far and the whole doing things without thinking thing.

["From the outside, Sprout Tower has three floors and an attic." . . "This is our third floor, you've been on five, and, if those stairs are anything to go off of, there's another one coming up."
I frowned, suddenly entertained and simultaneously terrified by the idea. Entertained, because this seemed like one of those times that I tricked Atlas into trying to catch his own tail, and terrified, because this seemed like one of those times that I tricked Atlas into trying to catch his own tail.]
This is the awesome supernatural shenanigans I am here for! I really like the metaphor of the houndour chasing it's tail and the name Atlas adds an extra layer to that. If Atlas chases his tail, is he holding up the world still? Conveys the precarity of that kind of dimensional trickery realization.

[Whatever was behind this wasn't creating images at random. It knew, without a doubt. It knew. And I knew that it had never happened like this, that it would've been too godsdamned poetic for it to have happened like this, that it was never truly my— ]
Really strong paragraph. I like the sense of an intelligence, a sentience that is behind this, not just the reflections of her own mind. And I like the flow between 'It knew' and 'I knew.' The disjointed way her thoughts are coming here rings really true.

[that it was never truly my—
Isn't it prettier to think so?]
I'm intrigued by this. I assume that sentence ends 'never truly my fault.' So the ghost-version, that it is her fault, is prettier, more poetic? I guess that accords with the sentiments of the prologue, which accuses the 'fault in ourselves' of being the poetic take. But I kind of don't buy that. The fault being in the stars does seem like the more poetic, karmic take to me, which Shakespeare was reacting to and deconstructing.

The Falkner scene was fun and ended on a suitably dramatic note.

[{He has a penchant for literature,} the pidgey said, snatching up the point of conversation. {He hasn't been doing it quite right since—} ]
This made me lol. Though you passed up on the chance to have Falkner quote Faulkner!

Good chapter! Full chapter! Much revealed. I really like the way you shift into the ghost possession after it's been named. We've seen her doing this a number of times, but camouflaged at the edges. The clarity of her thoughts and her understanding of her pokemon's capability's and how they will react are jarring after the fumbling of the previous chapters. The narrative voice also worked really well in the opening of this, that sort of delicate pushed pull between her bravado and her unease, as well as the humor (Breloominati!) that really contrasts with the calculating, humorless cold feeling.

I think Silver's physicality could be better defined in this conversation. For example, in one sentence he's looking at her, but later he's described as turning around. I really didn't get a hang on his mood and how it alters in the course of the conversation, either. The emotional descriptors felt a little random to me or out of nowhere.

[“I'm not going to hurt you,” I muttered]
When Silver says that's a lie, I assume he knows from his Gift, but there's no indication in the protag's inner monologue that she wants to hurt him, so that confused me.

[My bus was late . . .]
I love so much that she starts with this. Just perfect.

[I think their point is that you're preaching to the quire about having it rough]
This rubbed me the wrong way. I feel like Gaia has been narratively appointed the sensible voice of reason, but their 'rough days' don't seem super comparable. Only one of them is personally endangered and singled out by all this. And only one of them has been dealing with death threats since he was a small child.

[I'd seen slugma move faster]
Slowpoke, maybe? Unless non-native cross-over from Hoenn is normal . . .

[It seemed like I'd made a lot of poorly-informed decisions this week]
Well, no arguing with that. But I'm not sure how this info would have changed her decision? She did everything she could to avoid battling him. It wasn't like she charged up 'ahoy, you have only a puny psychic type and I have a mighty murkrow.' What exactly would knowing this info have changed for her?

[I've been officially licensed for over six years]
Locked pokeballs is such a clever way to have your sixteen year old protag who just started out be able to battle the sixteen year old rival who's been a trainer six years.

[His expression was unreadable]
I could use a little more here. How is he saying the words? Determined? Tonelessly? Resigned?

This gift concept is so cool! It adds an extra flavor of wonder to it all, and gives the poke-trainer relationship a new symbiosis. Also provides a compelling reason for the prevalence of mono-type trainers! Really cool idea.

[In his defense, it was probably the most intelligent-sounding thing he'd heard me say]
ah ha ha. In all seriousness though, the protag has been full of very detailed tidbits about pokemon habits at times, so I don't buy the idea she's an idiot or ignorant, though her knowledge does seem to seesaw.

I found the whole section with her reaction to the Celebi really confusing. Wasn't sure how Daisy tied in, wasn't sure why the Forest Queen is on her “long list of things I was a threat to.” What does that even mean? How is she a threat to the Celebi?

[I'd take being an asshole any day, so long as my actions were my own.]
This seems to contradict the sentiments of the prologue, where she insists that her actions are fated. I guess I'll be paying attention to her thoughts on fate vs freewill and responsibility going forward.

[a naïve little girl, clutching a metapod and knee-deep in her worst nightmare, and yet trusted with her life.]
This confused me. How exactly is the protag trusted with Iris' life? Entrusted by whom? Or maybe I'm misreading the pronouns.

[It spawned again. Iris destroyed it.
It spawned heavily, Iris slouched back down on her tail, brown-furred head sinking beneath the grass as her ears wilted. She didn't even bother attacking the illusion this time]
This whole sequence with Iris was intense to read. Her grief and frustration really come through.

[It is not our duty to intervene with the affairs of mankind.]
So different than the caterpie! I wonder what happens when trainers catch sentret by force. If they're abandoned, are they allowed back?

[And now I'm stuck with you.]
Still not sure why Iris is stuck with the protagonist. She's exiled from her clan, but why does she have to go with protag?

[In hindsight, it almost made sense that most of my pokémon were trying to kill me. I'd done a pretty good job of ruining them first.]
Are they trying to kill her? In every conversation she has with them it seems they're begging her not to abandon them. There's a bit of a disconnect for me between the narration and the actual interactions she has with her pokemon.

[Everything's a calculation to you, Captain. Everything's a battle. You say what you think other people want to hear.}]
I'm not sure how seriously we're meant to take this analysis, but it definitely doesn't ring true to me. The protagonist doesn't seem to think much before she speaks most of the time. Maybe Iris is picking up on the cold presence thing.

[You don't know what I've been through. You aren't the only one who's had it rough.]
Has she explained yet about the whole Rocket thing? It seems pretty relevant. If only because her Pokémon should know that they could be killed too if she's captured . . .

[I'm vaguely inclined to agree,} the gastly chimed in cheerfully. {And I really do dislike agreeing, so I'd take this as a—}]
Ha, still loving this gastly.

[I suppose, to her, that made me the xatu.]
I like this parallel but at the same time, I don't see why she and Iris have to be bound together just because helping her got Iris exiled.

[Funny how she ended up being the heart of our team more frequently than I did.]
This line reminds me of the first line of the last chapter in that it seems like an observation that you don't really make after only a few days and of a team that can't really be called a team yet?

I'm really enjoying all the ghost lore and Rousseau's struggles with memory and self-identity. Rousseau and Locke, huh? When will we meet Hobbs and complete the social contract theory trio?

[It is much easier to leave the slate blank, so I did. I do,} he lied.]
'He lied' struck me as a really weird speech tag here. Protagonist thinks he lied? Why? It seems like an intrusion of omniscient voice.

[We could hide ourselves behind our respective walls—incessant sarcasm, unfeeling cocoon, bristling fur, coyish indifference—but the truth had a way of seeping out eventually.]
This is all a bit on the nose. I don't think you need to be telling the reader this. Also - unfeeling cocoon really does not describe Gaia. She has a cocoon but she has been the opposite of unfeeling.

[trying to find proof in an empty room that he was still foolish enough to be alive.]
Aw, poor Rousseau.

[But I'd recognize that goddamn hair anywhere at this point."No. This is stupid."]
Hah, this ending scene was hilarious. Every second of the buildup was a pleasure.

These tower scenes are really beautifully imagined and sketched out, and I love the concept. The disconnect I keep struggling with is that the protagonist never really asked these pokemon to come with her, and in fact has wanted to abandon most of them, so it seems weird for the chapter to treat this like a referendum on whether she's worthy to be their trainer, as if she's asked that from them.

Typo:
["Hey, lay of her.]

[There were some days where I really just felt like throwing in the towel and quitting. ]
This opener struck me as slightly odd. It gives the impression she's been doing this a long time, but it hasn't been more than a few days, has it? And quitting isn't really an option, if execution's at the other end.

[ The Tower, while architecturally flawless, smelled like must and was caked in a fine layer of rattata shit.]
Loved this line

[{Or what,} the voice—it was smooth and surprisingly mellifluous, with the consistency of melted butter,]
Oooh, lovely usage of mellifluous.

[{I get the feeling that would quite a ghastly feeling for both of us.}]
Omg this ghost is the pun-master, and I am here for it. Every line coming from this gastly was gold.

I love the idea that floor is sculpted from Gaia's fears and it looks so innocuous to the protag and co at first. The scene is super well-done, with how it seems ominous, but not really threatening. But it didn't quite fit together for me. If Gaia is so focused on becoming strong and gaining glory, and her worst fear is continually being abandoned by her trainers so that she can't be strong, how does that mesh with the idea of her being a pacifist who doesn't love to battle? Also, if in the past, everyone could understand pokemon through their dex translators, it's a bit hard for me to believe that out of sixteen people, none of them would be down to battle enough with her to get her up to butterfree level-butterfree can be tough for quite a while. This makes the protagonist seem like she's either a ton more empathetic than the norm or really out of step with the rest of her world in terms of obligations toward pokemon. Would make a lot more sense to me if poke translators weren't as common a thing before either.

[Do you know why snow falls so slowly?
Because it doesn't know where to go any more.]
This didn't work for me as an aphorism/metaphor. Does snow really fall that slowly? And snow goes everywhere, it covers everything. I understand the snow means Gaia, but it kept tripping me up.

I like the opening pokemart sequence a lot, with both of them on their last nerve. Kind of weird to read this right now when toilet paper rationing is going on.

[The people of Violet City, however, had no faith in these myths. There were no shrines to the Wandering Beasts, and the gargoyles on their roofs were stylized representations not of the Birds Regent, but of the very birds they trained. They were a people who had founded themselves on the clouded slopes of a mountain rather than move to lower, easier-to-access ground. Their center of worship, if I could call it that, was living proof of an epoch come to earth. They were among the legends, not beneath them.

Nothing higher.]
Love this. Really awesome characterization of Violet City and its relationship to myth and religion.

['d never been one for worshipping the legends, although my mother had been a fan of the names in the myths. Icarus, Gaia, Iris, Atlas—perhaps, so had I. Battling with a team full of legends made for an easier time than a team full of ragtag misfits.]
Still confused over whether this is meant to be the Greek mythology of our world (along with Shakespeare, Locke, etc) or if these names relate to poke-related myths. I find it pretty hard to imagine myths exactly parallel to the Greek myths could develop when pokemon like Lugia exist.

[ The arch of the door was a work of art in itself, one I didn't feel worthy of observing.]
The narrative voice feels pretty different in this chapter. A lot less blase, more respectful, more observant.

[Ornate brass figures, intricate flocks of birds flying up the archway toward the gleaming sun above my head. Frozen in the first moments of flight, a million feathers all pointing upward. ]
The architecture description is really nice throughout the chapter. Feels very smooth and natural.

["It is dying," the man continued mournfully. And indeed, with each pulse of light, the room seemed a little dimmer than before.]
I was feeling the 'that escalated quickly' feeling right there with the protag.

[I was reminded of an ekans slithering through piles of dry leaves.]
ooh, very nice simile.

[Then, his face began to dissolve. I bit back a scream, but the wizened old guy had disappeared into a puff of dark smoke, in which I could see the faintest outlines of a cackling face before the smoke, too, dissipated, leaving me alone.]
ooooooh, gastly monk!

Huh, Bates perspective! Him owning Silver was pretty fun to read, as was his dawning awareness about his identity. See Bates, anyone could accidentally threaten Giovanni's son! He does invite it.

[eighteen different colors of hair dye. "Um. All of them."]
HA oh I died at this. And you can tell Bates is so pleased with himself, too.

Silver POV too! Kind of interesting he's into Locke? Not what I would have expected.

This POV snippet felt a little short and the bits didn't gel for me into a character voice.

[He hadn't quite decided if that meant he should pity her or fear her even more]
Since we don't really get either emotion in his POV, this line didn't really work for me.

Silver's clearly not a true believer, but time will tell what he wants, I guess. I would have liked to get a hint from this POV snippet why his focus was on battling her, not capturing her.

Love the pokemon translation stuff!

["I think she say you are 'grackle-bellied tail-less tretlimb' in sentret language. In murkrow language, we say you have dull beak for scraping worms and deserve frow in heap of milderdew."]
Beautiful. It's interesting that murkrow insult sounds the least violent of the three.

The sentret wants to come, huh? And once again there's the fear of being abandoned and the naming. This is starting to get a sort of ceremonial vibe.

This line especially- "It is my promise that I won't abandon you."

Seems that might be tied in with some family issues, though? Absent father, maybe?

Every name so far has been Greek mythology, even the houndour, which she didn't name. Not sure what I'm supposed to read into that-and like with Ragnarok, a bit curious about how Greek mythology translates into the pokemon world.

[Bates. Holy gods, Bates. I'd messed up with that one.I didn't know how to handle that. I didn't. ]
This was a little vague. I think she's talking about her inability to say something vaguely comforting when he explained who the frosslass had been, but I'm not sure.

[In retrospect, it would've been much easier to cut it first and then dye it, but I wasn't really one for good forward thinking.]
Great little moment. It's a small thing but really does emblematize the protag's recklessness, hastiness, and bad decision making.

["Tret." She glowered at me for a moment after the granola bar hit her on the white, target-like ring of fur splattered on her stomach (maybe my aim had improved a bit), and didn't touch it."It's not poison," I muttered sourly, aware that I'd thrown half of my potential dinner into a bed of dry leaves and a disgruntled ferret. "If you don't want it, I'm totally taking it back.""Sen," she muttered, and didn't touch it. But when I looked away, I heard crunching, so I figured that was a good sign.]
Protag and the sentret grumping at each other are fun. Wait, has the protag ever introduced herself? To Bates or her pokemon?

[fist-sized lump of shiny black material ]
Hm? Dusk stone, maybe? He did used to train dark types. Then again, I would expect the murkrow to be more attracted to it in that case.

["Yes, I know you have no arms." I glared at the lime-green cocoon propped up against a tree, looking back at me mournfully, and scowled. It was like getting growlithe-puppy eyes, except from a metapod. And somehow, it worked.]
Gaia continues to be the cutest thing.

[ I fetched it for you! Oh boy! Can you throw it again? I love fetching! I am very good at fetching! ]
Though I guess she has competition now . . .

Picking this up after a couple of years! First, I want to talk about the changes, in the first arc (ch 1-6) in particular. I think the narrative voice is much improved. A lot less time spent on pointless snark and more on realistic character reactions. The narrator feels better placed to me in the world-details about her background, like the fact that having the Rockets in charge has improved the education she can get, made her feel more fleshed-out and not just someone things happen to. The world-building is also a lot more intense. I actually understood the magnetic apocalypse this time and the very strict typing hierarchy of the rockets was a lot clearer. I liked the examples of students from her area and what starters they got.

The main issue I had in the opening arc still is that we have moment after moment of the narrator realizing this is it, I can't return to an ordinary life. It seems to happen every other paragraph and it left me without a sense of her emotional progression. She seems to understand the situation pretty well right off, but then that realization keeps happening again and again. Of course, it's completely realistic that things don't sink in at first, but from a narrative perspective, I think it would be stronger if we did get a sense of progression, rather than constant reversion or repetition.

To be honest, even though the prologue gets on my nerves less this time around, I'm not really sure why you need it. The summary gives us the whole 'the ending is pre-determined thing' and everything else could be integrated into the first chapter.

Regarding Bates:
So I like Bates' character a lot, but I'm having a hard time squaring some of it, particularly his prolonged threats in the pokemart, even after it's obvious she's just got a caterpie. What I don't get is why the pokemart would be deserted, when the pokecenter is so full. Seems like people would be stocking up and hoarding for the apocalypse (not unlike now.) I wonder if this sequence would work better if it weren't the "official" pokemart? I know Cherrygrove is small, but if the main pokemart was out of stock or exorbitantly expensive, that could send her to a more sketchy store? The blue-roofed pokemart feels like an official piece of the pokeworld structure and Bates just doesn't make much sense to me as part of that infrastructure.

The narrator describes an intense stigma against trainers with ghost types, so I am also confused about why Bates is so open with his? Again, that would make more sense to me if he weren't running the main pokemart.

Ch7[I thought he'd started complimenting me when I picked the map]
Very confused by this, as I don't recall any mention of a map. Later in the chapter she mentions picking out a map, but not before.

Ch7 [not to take any more from this man than I already had]
This line confused me. What has she taken from him?

Ch8[I couldn't lose Gaia. Not here. Not now. ]
Gaia? But the sentret mentioned seeing a dark-type ie Icarus, so why is she thinking of Gaia?

Ch8[but I'm not risking my skin that this isn't part of something bigger.]
Not sure why that would occur to anyone as a possibility? Feels forced

Ch9[Brigid whirled away from the houndour to look at her trainer, who was frozen in the cold. ]
For some reason I found 'her trainer' very hard to parse here. I kept thinking it referred to the houndour's trainer (who obviously doesn't exist). Maybe just saying Bates instead of houndour? Or this could just be my weird brain and not an issue.

Ch 9[{You will destroy Johto,} it said at last. {That is what I saw.}"And till I stay the course," I said thickly as I locked eyes with it.]
Pretty confused why she says this and keeps saying it. Doesn't make much sense if you're trying to stop a thing from attacking you. If the cold thing in her head makes her say it, I'd want that to be more clear. Moments like this where a character does something that just seems inexplicable with their situation destabilize the sense of them I have as characters.

[[I wanted to turn around, to ask Bates how he could justify this, this level of barbarism—pokémon battles were never to the death, never, no matter what anyone said, no matter how huge the stakes, no matter what had happened before, no matter—]
This seems like a strange hang-up for someone in a world with brutal televised executions. and don't rebellious pokemon get executed too? And weren't the dark types hunted to extinction because they're supposed to be too dangerous? So isn't there a whole socially recognized category of 'rabid dangerous pokemon, must be put down'?

Ch9 ["Brigid, kill her," a stony voice said from behind me, and to this day I still wonder if Bates meant the froslass or me.]
This sounds very drama but really? Seems pretty clear he means the froslass, particularly with the explanation we get in the next chapter. I wouldn't mind the line if it weren't for the 'to this day.' Makes sense she'd be freaked out in the moment but afterwards, with the history he gives, seems unlikely.

Also, since it's a new inclusion-the houndour is super super cute. Best doggo.

Okay, chapter 10-first chapter I haven't read before.

Ha ha she forgot the prize money of course. And of course Silver is extra enough to think beating him is worth 1,500.

[I would never speak of what I'd seen there. About how I'd found him.]
This doesn't follow? How she found him? Why is that the secret?

["Magnarok?" I frowned. "Like that thing in World of Warcra—"]
This is cute but also like Ragnarok is a real-world religious thing and this makes me wonder what religion it's tied to in this world. The reference especially with the video game feels jarring.

[He was bluffing.]
This doesn't make sense. In the next breath Bates warns her that rockets won't hesitate to kill, and therefore it was stupid to believe that baby rocketto would kill her?

And his speech ... she knows all this? It's been her internal monologue since she gets the murkrow. Before she got the murkrow, even-which is one thing I wondered about. Seemed a bit weird she was running through how the rockets are a totalitarian regime randomly in her head that morning.

[I hardly think that's fair."And, even stupider, I found myself making an unspoken promise to set out to change that world.]
See I don't get this. She's acting like this is new information when every action she's taken so far has been premised on the idea she will get killed for being given a murkrow? Which is even harsher a world than he's if she's realized right now that's kind of insane and unfair, cool, but nothing in her internal monologue has suggested that leap and it feels very out of nowhere.

[The hypocrisy stung like a slap]
How is this hypocrisy? Saying 'pokemon can be killed, you know' after killing a pokemon isn't an example of hypocrisy, it's proof.

[The way he'd frozen up when he realized that the froslass had been looking for me. How he'd called it a 'her,' as if—"Bates, I didn't know—]
Stop me if I'm mistaken - the idea is that the froslass is the ghost of one of his previous pokémon? This ghost lore is very intriguing and I love the idea of losing your pokemon twice, but this does raise a lot of questions for me. Ghost pokemon seem to have defined species in your verse, just like in main canon, but if everyone is the unique soul of a different killed pokemon species, how does that work? April, a presumably fire or dark type pokemon, dies, and is reborn as a froslass?

I finally get now why he said "It's her" in the forest. When I read that chapter I thought it had to do with the protag's mysterious past incarnation identity or something.

["Your friend that you mentioned. The one that you said looked like me. Is she—"
{Yes.}"But did she—"{Yes.}]
What friend? I don't remember this coming up so far.

Whew, she's made it past Cherrygrove! The houndour seemed to vanish a bit in this chapter, but I'm guessing it will be joining her team, so that should be fun. I'm still confused as to why both Icarus and Gaia are paranoid about being abandoned by the protag, but they both seem to know something I don't, so I am sitting tight.

Wowowow the suspense is killing me

Hmm, so we finally get concrete confirmation that we are dealing with some sort of other entity, but from how it takes control it does not seem to be a ghost, very interesting.
And I quite like the way the shift takes place.

Still not getting why taking rash decisions in life-or-death situations is so surprising for everyone involved, particularly in a world as grim as this, and especially coming from someone associated with Team Rocket who has been established as routinely executing people and having made a habit out of exterminating entire species.

Absolutely phenomenally written. Can’t wait for more

this fic is crazy good