The Dave

Chapter 25, part 2

Ran and Doro end up meeting up outside of the Cianwood City Gym, walking towards the Pokécenter together so that Doro can hand Strong and Precise’s pokéballs in for treatment. It’ll leave her with as many team members still available as Ran himself has, but that doesn’t change the fact that she beat Chuck three to one, whereas Ran went three to two.

It’s something the dark-skinned girl delightedly points out whilst she puts her training jacket back on, drawing an amused laugh ...

Chapter 25, part 1

With Doro’s match scheduled at eleven and Ran’s match and the ensuing conversation only having ran for about fifteen minutes, he’s got over an hour and a half to kill before he has to be in the stands to watch Doro’s match. Which is good, because his first stop, the moment he exits the Gym, is of course the pokécenter. 

It’s quick and easy work to hand in the balls of Caesar the Arbok, Skorupi and Golbat, leaving him only with Croagunk and Aria the Ariados still in their...

Interlude 4: Josie I

Josephine Shelby, though she goes by Josie, watches proudly, tension slowly draining out of her, as Ginger gallops across the field. The Agility she managed earlier in the match allows her starter to dictate the terms of the engagement against Morty’s third and final pokémon, a Haunter, with ease. It’s still been a good match of course, but Josie has a fresh team member in reserve and it’s obvious that Morty’s Haunter is running on fumes.

The fight has been a completely differe...

Chapter 24, part 4

Machoke bursts into motion, immediately rushing over towards the trio of boulders that got thrown around by Poliwrath earlier. They’ve ended up remarkably close to a fourth rock, giving it plenty of ammunition, should it reach its destination. Something Ran isn’t inclined to simply let happen.

“Air Cutter!” He orders yet again, hopeful that Golbat will once more see actual success with it, rather than the abject failure that resulted once Poliwrath started using its improvised s...

Chapter 24, part 3

“Hydro Pump, knock it out of the sky!” Chuck orders without hesitation, his Poliwrath obeying immediately, as its usually hidden mouth right above its stomach swirl flies open and a massive concentrated jet of water comes pumping out.

“Evade! Then Supersonic!” Ran instructs in return, giving Golbat only just enough time to fly out of the way of Poliwrath’s initial salvo. Chuck’s pokémon is well-trained however, the Hydro Pump not just consisting of a single burst of water b...

Chapter 24, part 2

“Toxic Spikes!” Ran immediately orders, eager to dictate the rest of the battle’s terms. 

Skorupi obediently moves to execute the order, his carapace glowing with poison-type energy in preparation as tiny bristles start to form in preparation for their launch. Chuck clearly doesn’t intend to give any freebies however, as his own order is only a half second behind Ran’s.

“Bulk Up, Machoke!” Chuck declares enthusiastically, before slapping his own slight belly as ...

Chapter 24, part 1

In the remaining week and change before his scheduled match against Chuck, Ran handles a few major things.

First and foremost, he gets back into a proper training schedule, working with his team of what is now five pokémon to the best of his ability, pushing them to be faster, stronger and more precise with their attacks day after day. There’s also some major progress made by Skorupi and Croagunk in particular, as they benefit significantly from training with Ran’s older and more e...

Chapter 23, part 2

After a lot of dropping into the sea by means of Golbat-flight, Ran eventually retreats from the water, joining Aria and Skorupi in their efforts at building a sandcastle. The end result isn’t particularly pretty, but the process is still enjoyable enough. 

Then, with the hot sun beating down on him and his team all the while, Ran eventually retreats back into the shadow once more, where tiredness and heat start lulling him into a late afternoon nap, as his various team members r...

Chapter 23, part 1

The next day, his team fully rested and the sun out in full force, Ran decides against another training day. With his match with Doro planned for some time later in the day, he instead quite enthusiastically decides on a proper beach day. He’s never actually had one and the characters on tv sure seemed to enjoy it, so he might as well. Plus, it’ll be interesting to watch his team interact in a new environment.

So it is that, around ten in the morning, after sleeping in for once, he ...

Chapter 22, pt.2

The sun is well and truly setting by the time Ran, belt once more having all of his team’s pokéballs on it, finally makes it to an unoccupied stretch of the beach clearly meant for training. There’s a few other trainers around, but they’ve all got enough space to work out without hindering each other, so Ran doesn’t pay them too much mind once he concludes that nobody has any poison-types or truly exotic pokémon out and about.

Taking into account the absence of exotic pokémon...

Chapter 22, pt. 1

“At which point Caesar carried me the rest of the way and I made it here just ahead of Doro.” Ran finishes his tale, drawing a final approving nod from Chuck. He’s received more than one throughout his tale, with Chuck having been  particularly impressed by his unorthodox deal with the Gym leader’s father. On the other hand, the way Ran managed to fool the first Gym trainer he ran into merely drew a disappointed groan from the experienced fighter. As for his arguably rather dange...

Character portraits A Viper in the Hole, batch 2

Figured I might as well drop these. Morton's out of the narrative for now, of course, but Doro's going to be featuring for a while so I figured it made sense. Unfortunately, the AI I used for these portraits ( a free service ) has been down for a good while, so I haven't been able to make any more portraits in the same style.

Chapter 21, part 3

Starting from the Gym, Chuck took them on a roughly southwestern course. The three flags have all been positioned roughly to the north of each other. A quick glance at the map his pokégear displays is enough to confirm that he’s roughly drawn level with the Gym once more, meaning that a directly eastern course would be the swiftest way for him to make it back to the Gym.

Unfortunately, a look in that direction isn’t all that encouraging. The plateau he’s on drops away sharply at ...

Chapter 21, part 2

Rushing into the tunnel, Ran is caught off guard by just how dark it is on the inside for a moment. Hurriedly, he fishes out his flashlight to illuminate the way. 

The passage is wide enough for two people to walk side by side, but no wider. The floor is decently level from left to right, though it noticeably slopes downwards, which is a frustrating thing to realize after the effort he had to put into getting this high up in the mountains in the first place. The path itself is stra...

Chapter 21, part 1

The next day, ridiculously early in the morning, hours before the Gym even opens, Ran looks down from the tall steep cliff Chuck has taken them to with a faint sense of unease. Cianwood City is by no means a small town, yet from the height they’re at, it suddenly seems quite insignificant, only further increasing Ran’s awareness that they’re very, very high up. Not that he’s discovering a fear of heights he wasn’t previously aware of, there’s just something… humbling about being...

Chapter 20, part 2

Ran wanders out of the Pharmacy with an exhausted Skorupi resting in his ball, a backpack that’s significantly heavier than when he entered the store and a whistle on his lips. Though the Pharmacy’s need for Skorupi-venom has been filled completely, ensuring he won’t be making any equally profitable return visits in the near future, he’s still left feeling as if he made out like a bandit.

Not quite in hard cash sadly, but the various medicines and supplements now sitting in his ...

January update

Happy New Year, everybody! Figured I'd provide another update after forgetting to do so in December due to how busy that month tends to get with other stuff. There's a few changes to discuss, as well as some general updates, so let's get right to it:

• A Viper in the Hole...

  • has reached has reached 718 watchers, spread over SB, SV and RR. Though there's likely duplicates, that's still an increase of 267 watchers over just over two months, or a roughly 37% increase, w...

    2025-01-03 14:15:22 +0000 UTC View Post

A drink to death - (Patreon Contributor Omake #3)

Hoheto Hyuuga POV

It is hard to describe your own mood, at the moment. Of course you could simply say that it’s complex and leave it at that, but such a description would be the coward’s way out, not to mention that your beautiful beloved will likely not accept the word at face value. So, when Kurenai asks you how you’re feeling, you answer honestly.

“I do not know, my love.” You admit openly, meeting those beautiful red eyes of hers with your own, to yo...

Chapter 20, part 1

With Skorupi recalled, Ran disembarks and steps out onto the pier the ferry has berthed alongside. From the ship’s rear, a ramp has been lowered onto the berth, a proper hardened area leading to a road that leads away from the city center. There, tourists are driving their cars out of the hold before setting off for wherever it is they’re going. 

The vast majority of the ferry occupants however, like Ran himself, disembark from the side, simply walking down the long gangplank o...

Chapter 19

With a few days to kill before his freshly-booked ship to Cianwood City departs, Ran spends his remaining time in Goldenrod City productively. 

To start, he gets in touch with Grady and spends another day with the younger trainer in the Goldenrod City Tunnel. They both get in a few more battles, with Ran garnering two wins and a single loss. The wins are earned by Caesar the Arbok in a singles effort and by the pair of Aria the Ariados and Golbat in an impressive doubles battle. Th...

Chapter 18, part 2

When evening eventually starts to set in, Ran gathers his team and starts heading back to Goldenrod City. Caesar, he keeps out of his ball for company and as a mild deterrent for any trainers that may want to challenge him on the road back to the city. The others are recalled easily, none of them seeming to mind after getting to spend nearly the entire day out of their balls.

It’s something he’ll need to make more time for in the future, as his pokémon have been spending a lot more...

Chapter 18, part 1

The next day, the very first thing Ran does is look up boat tickets to Cianwood City. There’s far more regular passenger ships between Cianwood and Olivine, but there’s still a regular weekly ship from Goldenrod to Cianwood as well. With it specifically geared towards trainers and tourists, tickets aren’t particularly cheap, but do offer the benefits of a proper pokécenter on board, as well as rooms capable of hosting a diverse array of pokémon. There’s a small list of pokémon that...

Chapter 17, part 2

“-five Mr. Mimes get brought out to stop Ekans’ Spit Up, whilst Whitney was watching like she was back in the Finals, eyes all wide and excited and then as the referee announced our victory and the crowd started going wild, Ekans chose that moment to evolve!” Ran finishes his completely factual retelling of his earlier Gym battle against Grady’s sponsor to the boy in question.

Grady had been awed before, at this point, he looks to be on the edge of asking Ran for an autograph. B...

Chapter 17, part 1

Ran wanders out of the Goldenrod City Gym with a new badge tucked away and an evolved starter in his pokéball on his belt. The grin that’s plastered on his face probably looks a bit silly, but that doesn’t bother him in the least. All that really concerns him in the moment is tracking down Josie and helping her process her own disappointing result against Whitney.

Whether she needs to scheme or be consoled or simply allowed to vent, that’s something he’ll figure out when he’s...

Chapter 16, part 3

For a few long moments, Aria and Raticate stare each other down, mirroring their trainers as Ran looks hesitantly towards Whitney, who meets his hesitance with smugness. Of course, as long as nobody moves, with Raticate’s poisoning, things are shifting in Ran’s favor. But then, Whitney knows that, so she’ll take the initiative any second now. Which is enough to spur him into action.

“String Shot! Slow it down!” He orders frantically, beating Whitney’s call for a Quick Attack...

Chapter 16, part 2

He doesn’t end up encountering Josie, the blonde likely having made a beeline towards the pokécenter. Maybe she’ll return in time to watch his own match, maybe she won’t.  Ran can’t concern himself with those thoughts however, as he instead thinks furiously on how he’ll approach his own match. The original plan, which was to start out by letting Skorupi debut before relying on the strength of the rest of his team, is discarded immediately.

After all, Whitney’s third-ba...

Chapter 16, part 1

Two days later, as Ran and Josie stand in front of Goldenrod City’s massive Gym, they do so with very different moods. 

Even though the battle he’d ultimately gotten into at the Tunnel, pitting Aria the Ariados against a one-badge trainer’s Aipom, had ultimately been a success, Ran was more than a little jittery about the prospect of facing Whitney. Because beating an Aipom in a debuff-focused fight with an evolutionary advantage was one thing, but Whitney’s reputation made...

Chapter 15, part 2

Ran makes his way back to his friends, the ongoing battle clearly having ended during the latter part of his talk with the referee, as two other trainers are now squaring off, with a Furret desperately trying to weave through an Octillery’s barrage in a thus-far-unsuccessful attempt to close the distance. Spotting the pair of Grady and Josie without too much difficulty, Ran is unpleasantly surprised to find an angry Grady glaring at Josie, who seems both utterly unrepentant and completely u...

Delayed Contributor Reward

Unfortunately I have been very sick this week, because of this, I didn't get the Contributor reward for November finished yet. It'll be delayed by a (few) day(s). This will not impact the rest of the release schedule, thanks to the backlog, but just to let everyone know that though "A Drink to Death" is still coming, it'll be at the start of December rather than today.

Sorry folks, I really hoped to get it out today, as I am now feeling better than I did for the past week at least, but ...

Chapter 15, part 1

After lunch, which is spent comparing purchases and taking in the sights from on top of the Department Store, they set off towards the famed Goldenrod City Tunnel, eager to see more of just what the city has to offer. As for what Grady and Josie ended up buying at the Department Store, Ran is a bit surprised by what ends up being a very mixed bag.

Josie’s choices aren’t too surprising, as she went for some chew toys, luxury feed and some special fire-type-proof shampoo, which she cl...