Pokémon Crossing

"What kinds of trainers do you see yourselves becoming with these starters by your side? Where do you see yourself in the future? What new horizons do you see yourselves reaching?"

Pokémon Crossing is an Animal Crossing X Pokémon crossover written by Cherry_Bomb_Bees. The main story, Fly Me to the Moon, takes place in the Hoenn region, and is a retelling of the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire games with influences from Emerald.

What new horizons do you see with the tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Several cases across the story:
  • Tamoko and Mornay (Benedict's parents) are the neglectful type and often fight in front of their child. Mornay is stated to have taken Benedict's Poké Scout funds and bet it on gambling for racing.
  • Marie (Kidd's mom) is emotionally abusive to the point that Kidd emancipates himself in order to travel Hoenn instead of being near her. Merlot is the deadbeat type, not bothering to reach out to Kidd and letting Marie abuse him.
• Adaptation Dye Job: In the original games, Beau has bright blue eyes. Here, he has dull grey eyes as part of his beaten-down fate as an admin.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The Animal Crossing characters are more fleshed out than in canon, with many of them given a backstory and motivations.
  • The Pokémon world is expanded on. Several species not native to Hoenn are seen throughout the region, along with cities including things such as conventions, restaurants, specialized districts, and concerts on the regular. The evil teams use more Pokémon than they do in canon, while Gym Leaders and Gym Trainers interact more both in and out of the League.
• Adaptation Inspiration: While the series blends both franchises together, there's a third influence on the series; that being Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Multiple characters have parental issues, music-based references are everywhere, Pokémon battles are more hot-blooded, and Apollo is an expy of Jotaro (both being aloof muscle-bound major characters who wear leather dusters, dislike their female fangirls, and have familial issues). Benedict himself is based on the Joestars (absent father, five-point star birthmark on his left shoulder, wears a lot of purple, British/Japanese heritage). Later chapters end with the "To Be Continued" arrow.
• Adaptation Name Change: For several characters. Kapp'n and Grams' real names are Kaisho and Kanako Kobayashi, while Sable's last name is Nook due to her marriage to Tom Nook. Sprinkle's real name is Laurie Coldstone, keeping Sprinkle as a nickname. T-Bone's real name is Taijo, using his original name for a restaurant. K.K. Slider's legal name is Totakeke, after the music composer he's based on.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Animal Crossing is generally a happy, light-hearted game, but here, many characters have darker stories. The biggest one is Frank, who is depressed and reeling from the loss of his Croagunk.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Benedict, Kidd, and Tank are relatively plain villagers in the game. Here, they get bigger and fluffier hair, more stylish outfits, and are commented on their cuteness in the story.
• Adaptational Badass: Animal Crossing characters are generally laid back and calm animals who live simple lives in their small town. Here, countless villagers are competent Pokémon trainers who regularly get up to danger.
• Adaptational Heroism: Not to the source material, but to other fan works. Tom Nook is portrayed as a genuinely good guy whose made a few mistakes in his life, compared to other works that write him as a greedy capitalist.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Because of character divergency, many villagers have more distinct personalities which can include being more rude. Here, Raymond is a smug, but a snobby bigot who looks down on others for their species. Judy is a malicious manipulative boss who mostly cares about getting revenge on her ex-boyfriend, Dobie is an emotionally abusive boss whose callous to his destruction,
• Adaptational Sexuality: Due to being written by a queer author, many characters get their sexualities changed around. The main trio are all bisexual and in love with each other, Frank and Apollo are both gay with confirmed male love interests, Tom Nook dated Crazy Redd but left him for Sable Able, and Julian is all but stated to be bisexual.
• Adaptational Villainy: Multiple Animal Crossing characters are antagonistic in this series. This includes Judy who becomes a maniacal cult leader, Dobie the bloodthirsty homicidal leader, Julian who becomes willing to kidnap legendary Pokémon for love, and Raymond whose a bigoted bully to others.
• Adapted Out: For both franchises:
  • While most Animal Crossing characters are set to appear, with the exception of the human player character. In-universe, this is because humans are extinct and have been for centuries. The writer has stated that she won't include the human villager because of the implications of having a human character solve all the animal resident's problems and eventually become Champion.
  • Some elements in the Pokémon games are removed. HMs are replaced with Pokémon regularly attacking obstacles without any special moves, the DexNax is cut in favor of Rotom Phones, and the Trick House and Mauville Game Corner are cut entirely. Also while most characters get a counterpart, several don't. These include: Wally and his family, the Trick Master, and Lanette and Brigette.
• Age Lift: Multiple characters get their ages changed to fit the story. Frank and Apollo (cranky villagers, implied to be middle-aged in the games) are 21 and 25, respectively. Benedict, Kidd, and Tank (lazy, smug, and jock, respectively) are implied to be adults in the original games, but are aged down to 14.
• Arc Words: Several arcs in the story have a recurring word:
  • The Slateport arc has "beneath" in its chapter titles.
  • The Mauville arc uses "under", while Petalburg uses "stone".
• Artifact of Doom: The Red and Blue Orbs don't only summon their respective legendary Pokémon. After both Dobie and Judy get a hold of their respective orbs, they start hallucinating and hearing voices commanding them to summon the legendaries.
• Ascended Extra: Most Animal Crossing fan works focus on either Tom Nook, Isabelle, K.K. Slider, or the human villager. This series focuses on three villagers; Benedict, Kidd and Tank. Frank and Apollo also play major roles through both Fly Me to the Moon and gaidens.
• The Alcoholic: While Frank is dependent on cigarettes, Apollo's major vice is alcohol. He usually turns to drinking as a coping method, implied to be because of the stress and factors of being the regional Champion.
• Author Appeal: References to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and various music are common throughout the story.
• Author Avatar: The writer cameos in a later chapter, as a border collie selling art at a convention, as do two of her beta readers/friends in other chapters.
• But Not Too Foreign: Benedict is Galarian on his dad's side, Hoennian on his mom's side, but culturally identifies himself as Unovan (due to being born and raised in Castelia City).
• Brooklyn Rage: Benedict's from Castelia City and has a short temper, hot-blooded personality, and eagerness for Pokémon battling.
• Carnivore Confusion: Here, the animal residents eat Pokémon and it's seen as acceptable (even with two of the cast being species raised for food). However, only certain species are confirmed to be regularly eaten (Pidgey, Tauros, Spoink and Grumpig, Octillery, Basculin, etc.). Carvanha are also eaten, but are the equivalent to shark fins (barely nutritious, lack of taste). Chansey eggs are often regularly eaten as well.
• Cast Full of Gay: Most of the male cast applies. The main three boys are bisexual, as are Tom Nook, Crazy Redd, and Julian. Frank, Rooney, Apollo, and Wolfgang are all gay, while others (Pavé, CJ, and Flick) are implied to be gay.
• Cipher Scything: Because the player character is a blank slate in canon, the author axed said character. Here, Benedict and Kidd take on the traditional 'villager' role, being someone who moved from a different place (Castelia City and Lumiose City, respectively) and struggle with adjusting to their new place.
• Crossover Alternate Universe: In the series' universe, anthropomorphic animals replaced humans entirely. The villagers can take on different roles related to Pokémon, such as trainers, coordinators, researchers, or even joining villainous teams.
• Cultural Cross-Reference: Played around with. The fic is a crossover between two Japanese franchises, written by an American, and has several references to media that are neither (mostly British musicians such as Duran Duran, Hawkwind, the Beatles, David Bowie, and Pink Floyd, but there are references to Italo Disco).
• Darker and Edgier: For both Pokémon and Animal Crossing. The villainous teams are far more competent and get away with ecoterrorism and murder, both animals and Pokémon die, and several authority figures are secretly corrupt. Characters have fleshed out backstories involving topics like grief, ableism, depression, familial abuse, and gender dysphoria.
• Death by Adaptation: Some of the villagers are dead in this series. This includes: Sunny the frog, who was cannibalized by her fellow explorers, Leopold, who was murdered by Dobie, and Rosie, who killed herself in a spin-off chapter. Flash, Hank, and Dozer were killed in a mining accident.
• Deconstruction Fic: While the Pokémon half is played straight from a standard journeyfic, tropes and elements in the Animal Crossing fandom are torn apart:
  • Crazy Redd/Tom Nook is deconstructed to shreds, showing Crazy Redd as sleazy and abusive towards Tom Nook. Nook also has worked in crime with him, showing regret for everything in the present.
  • Raymond is a deconstruction of the smug villager archetype. His snooty attitude doesn't gain him friends in Hoenn, he often bullies other villagers for things like their species, and he's shown as an incompetent failure for his lack of kindness.
  • Cottage and Pastel are deconstructions of the "aesthetic" side of Animal Crossing, namely, the side with unplayable islands.
• Depraved Bisexual: Julian is a flamboyant bisexual who attempts to kidnap Latias just to impress Judy, and flirts with Apollo to try to get away with his actions.
• Demoted To Extra: Several characters, such as Isabelle and Timmy and Tommy Nook, only play minor roles throughout the story. This is because the author stated that she wanted to focus on the animal villagers rather than the NPCs.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Team Cottage kidnap and murder others for small infractions, including decapitating Leopold for not handing over the Fortree City's Pokémon.
• Divergent Character Evolution: In the original games, villagers from each personality trait are interchangeable from one another. Here, several villagers of the same personality have more variety:
  • Normal: Coco is a university student researching fossils and has a mean streak when pushed too far, while Celia is a full-time Gym Leader and more calm and easygoing.
  • Lazy: Filbert is easygoing but questions his role in villainy, Beau is a doormat who can't stand up for himself, and Benedict is a loud passionate League challenger with a delinquent streak.
  • Jock: Frobert is an athletic surfer dude whose fine with staying in the same town, while Tank is an intellectual Pokémon researcher interested in traveling all of Hoenn.
  • Cranky: Apollo is a gentleman who vows to protect Hoenn when possible, while Frank is crude, depressed, shut off from the world, and is more foul mouthed. Butch is a family man who's doting to his wife and daughter, while Static only has his wife for company.
• Doomed Hometown: Fortree City, in this continuity, is known as being the hometown of Tank, along with the site of an ecoterrorist attack by Team Cottage that led to the death of its previous Gym Leader.
• Doorstopper: The main story is 309K+ words, and as of 2024, is the longest Animal Crossing fanfiction.
• Elsewhere Fic: Several side fics, called gaidens, focus on other characters than the main boys.
• Everybody Smokes: Due to the setting being in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Japan, most adults are seen regularly smoking.
• Evil Versus Evil: Both Team Cottage and Pastel are at war with each other, and are ecoterrorists who regularly do things like ransack towns and kidnap others and even murder.
• Food Porn: Throughout multiple chapters, there's several scenes dedicated to the boys enjoying really good food. This can range from traditional Hoennian breakfast, to big bowls of ramen, to housemade dumplings.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Cottage and Pastel are very cutesy names for two ecoterrorist organizations.
• Freudian Excuse: Frank is a chain-smoking reckless trainer because he felt like a failure compared to Apollo (the latter able to become the Champion) and is emotionally a wreck due to his dead Croagunk.
• Furry Confusion: Pokémon co-exist with anthro animals, without any comment or lampshading whatsoever in the story. Amusingly enough, the main character is a chicken whose main Pokémon is a Torchic.
• Fusion Fic: The main story, Fly Me to the Moon, follows the plot of Pokémon ORAS, but with Animal Crossing characters instead.
• Hidden Depths: The boys have more traits outside of their main interests. Tank shows interest in astronomy and Hoenn mythology, Benedict is a fanfiction writer, and Kidd shows skills in cosmetology.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Several Pokémon-based phrases pop up through the series, including "Well I'll be a son of a Granbull" and "Look what the Meowth dragged in". Foodstuffs are changed to fit the Fantasy Counterpart Cultures, like the cocktail Blue Alolan, Crown eggs for Scotch eggs, and Rustboro ramen for the tonkatsu variant.
• Human-Focused Adaptation: Inverted. Any and all human characters are completely removed from the story, with a heavy focus on the animal villagers of the series.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Belladonna died after a Zoroark impaled her on its own fist.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: The author has stated that (almost) every Animal Crossing character is set to appear at least once in the story. This also includes both wild Pokémon and those owned by a trainer, characters created exclusively for the story (mostly relatives of existing characters), and brief cameos from the author and her beta readers. Due to the large amount of characters, no chapter includes every single major character.
• Multinational Team: The story's main trio consists of a Unovan with Galarian/Hoennian heritage, a Hoennian, and a Kalosian.
• Musical Theme Naming: This is seen throughout the fic because of the major Jojo's influence. Tank's last name is Pepper, Frank and Apollo's last name is Hawkwind, the subtitle of the main story is Fly Me to the Moon, and multiple chapters are named after song lyrics.
• Must Have Caffeine: Kidd drinks much more coffee than the other boys, fitting his Kalosian heritage and snarky nature.
• Must Have Nicotine: One of Frank's many flaws is his smoking addiction. He's frequently seen lighting up a cigarette, a habit he started after Belladonna's death.
• Named By the Adaptation: Multiple characters get last names in the story. This includes Apollo and Frank Hawkwind, Benedict Sussex, Kidd Chavignol, Tank Pepper, Coco Haniwa, Dobie Lupus, and Judy Nebula.
• No Party Like a Donner Party: In the Numelian Ruins, a group of explorers ended up lost when looking for Regirock. A journal reveals that after eating their own Pokémon, the party cannibalized Sunny (one of their members).
• Off with His Head: Dobie murdered Leopold by decapitating him with a machete.
• Parental Substitute: Tom Nook is one to the boys, regularly checking in on them and making sure they're having a good journey.
• Posthumous Character: Belladonna (Frank's Croagunk) has been dead for over a year, her loss still impacting Frank in the present day. Leopold (the former Fortree City Gym Leader) was murdered before the story began, with Fly Me to the Moon exploring the impact on Fortree City.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Because of the fanfic medium, several video game elements from both series are changed around. The level system from Pokémon is removed, and Sable works in a different job rather than as a tailer. The player character is also cut out, as they're a blank slate.
• Promoted to Love Interest: In this fic, Tom Nook and Sable Able are happily married, compared to their Ship Tease from the games. Multiple other characters are romantically together, including: Apollo and Wolfgang, Butch and Serena, and Static and Bangle.
• Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: Zigzagged through the story. While the boys are competent Pokémon trainers capable of taking down ecoterrorists in Pokémon battles, some chapters have Frank or Apollo take care of defeating Cottage and Pastel. One chapter rips apart this trope by having the boys severely injured and Apollo telling the boys to focus on their journeys rather than taking on adult matters.
• Recycled in Space: The basic plot of Fly Me to the Moon is Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire ...WITH TALKING ANIMALS!
• Reference Overdosed: The fanfic is chock full of references to both source materials and other pre-existing media, with the main story's subtitle being the name of a famous jazz number.
• Really Gets Around: Over the course of their twenty-five year marriage, Don is noted to have cheated on his wife with thirty-six women, showing his lack of shame and hedonism.
• Related in the Adaptation: Several villagers are now related to other. This includes: Tom Nook canonically being Timmy and Tommy's uncle, Apollo and Frank being "first cousins", Benedict is Celeste's and Blathers' half-sibling, Klaus and Bluebear are uncle and niece, and Antonio as Cyrano's biological son.
• Rotating Arcs: Benedict's Gym battles and Kidd's Contest chapters rotate chapters, making sure not to overshadow each other.
• Shown Their Work: The author extensively researched information about Japan and the Kyushu island as part of the writing process:
  • Several landmarks in Rustboro City are based on real locations in Fukuoka. The Rustboro City gym is based on the Fukuoka Akarenga Cultural Center, while the Trainer School is based on the Former Fukuoka Prefecture Public Hall Distinguished Guest House. A restaurant serves tonkotsu ramen, a variant that originated in Fukuoka.
• Show Within a Show: Several of these appear through the series. Tank is a fan of the tokusatsu series Crossing Rider and visits a convention in one chapter, along with the action series Rotom's Charming Angels.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Frank and Apollo Hawkwind were initially written as supporting characters who would show up as support or to fight for the boys, but later take over later chapters and even have an entire chapter about their family dynamic.
• Subverted Kids Show: A fanfic variant. While both of its source materials are child-friendly video games, the fic is very much for adults.
• Titled After the Song: The main installment, Fly Me to the Moon, is titled after the jazz number Fly Me to the Moon (however, the author notes that it comes from the Neon Genesis Evangelion version).
• Three Plus Two: While the story focuses on the main trio, they're occasionally joined by either Apollo or Frank, sometimes both in later chapters.
• The Smurfette Principle: Asuka (Benedict's Gyarados) is the only female Pokémon on the team, joined by the male Blaziken, Aggron, Manectric, Altaria, and Gardevoir.
• The One Guy: Kidd's Feebas is the only male Pokémon on his team.
• Tragic Keepsake: Deirdre always wears a Gym Badge on her clothing. The Gym Badge in question belonged to her dead boyfriend, Leopold the former Fortree City gym leader.
• Western Zodiac: All of Kidd's Pokémon are nicknamed after Zodiac signs. Aquarius (Swampert) is a freespirited Genki Girl, Libra (Kadabra) is calm and reliable, Aries (Pikachu) is cheerful and passionate about battling, Gemini (Skitty) is playful and social, Scorpio (Shelgon) is reclusive but kindhearted, and Pisces (Feebas) is shy and unsure of himself.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Chapter 28 takes inspiration from Legends: Arceus, with one of the trainers' Pokémon fighting like Rei and Akari from the game.
• Worldbuilding: The Hoenn region is expanded on in this fic, including several elements not included in the original games. For example, Route 111's desert is called the Numelian Ruins, while Route 119 hosts an exclusive location called Prism Lake. Universities are alluded to in the story, along with distinct cultures in each city. Dewford Town is placed on a small island called Juniper Island.
• Would Hurt a Child: Dobie and Fauna are more than willing to be physically violent to the 14-year-old protagonists. Dobie punches Tank in one chapter, while Fauna almost pushes Benedict off a cliff. She also beat the daylights out of Kidd in the Mt. Pyre arc.
• Your Cheating Heart: One of Don's major flaws is being hedonistic enough to cheat on his wife with at least thirty-six other women. Because of this, he has several bastards running around Hoenn.

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