Wayker
patreon
I am rewriting a part of the story
🕑 Added 2025-06-02 16:55:59 +0000 UTCDouble sorry to you guys. I can't really make any excuses, except I think the story will be better for it.
This was originally written for Spacebattles, but, of course, applies to every place where I post the story.
TL;DR: I'm officially removing the Embedding system from the story. Think of it like a Thanos snap, gone. Aura and Type Energy will still work the same way, but Pokémon will now grow stronger through more intuitive means: training, experience, and effort.
Why?
The short version?
I just don't enjoy writing about it.
….
The Long Version (a bit of a rant, but hopefully insightful):
When I write stories, one of my core goals is internal consistency. I want things to feel like they make sense, logically, emotionally, and tonally. Especially in a Pokémon fanfic, that means finding a balance between game mechanics, anime-style drama, and a more grounded narrative logic.
For example, my version of Aura was created to help with that balance, it functions like a shield, similar to RWBY's Aura system, which lets me write intense battles without triggering the uncomfortable "isn't this just animal abuse?" alarm in my head.
Type energy is similar, with it explaining stuff like movesets, egg-moves and most of the related stuff.
So… why did I invent Embedding?
1. The Queenie Problem
This started back around Chapter 5, when I realized a major issue:
Why isn't Queenie already a near-champion-tier Pokémon?
It might sound like a stupid question, but Cynthia is portrayed as a prodigy. With her personality, there's no way she hasn't been training Queenie obsessively since day one. Reading manuals, studying battle strategies, drilling every day. So, if she's been doing all of that for years… why isn't Queenie just sweeping Gyms out of the gate?
Of course, she does do well, but not that well.
So, I needed a way for a Pokémon's growth to feel gradual and earned over the course of a year-long Gym circuit, while still allowing Cynthia and others to plausibly reach Conference-level strength by the end.
The solution? Embedding.
It was a system that explained why talented kids like Cynthia wouldn't immediately dominate the world stage, because it was hard knowledge they didn't have, while also allowing the timeline to be fast enough for someone to go from zero to Conference-level within a year.
2. Balancing Cynthia and Myst
The second reason was something a commenter pointed out. It's a way to balance Myst and Cynthia strength's.
Put it simply, I was, and still am, worried about Myst overshadowing Cynthia.
He has meta-knowledge, he's basically Bulbapedia with legs, and in-universe, Cynthia can't really "beat" that.
For the parts that his knowledge didn't extend to? Well, the whole concept method is Myst's idea. Even if Cynthia might be better at the whole Custom Moves thing, Myst isn't exactly lagging behind.
Embedding was designed to be Cynthia's edge, something she excelled at. A domain where her discipline, experience, and, frankly, the fact that she's from this world made her the stronger trainer. It was something Myst had no frame of reference for. He might have trivia and game knowledge, but Cynthia understood how to actually train Pokémon.
3. A Fairer Training System (That Didn't Land)
Thirdly, I wanted to suggest that Pokémon training was fundamentally fair. Not entirely equal, of course, clan kids might have a head start, but I wanted the message to be: with effort and understanding, anyone could master training.
Not perfectly equal, clan kids still had advantages by proxy of more knowledge about the entire thing, but I wanted to reinforce the idea that, with effort and knowledge, anyone could become strong. Embedding was meant to reflect that: not a secret technique, but a kind of unspoken collective knowledge. Something you didn't teach to kids too early because it could be dangerous or misapplied, not because it was some elite club's hidden manual.
But I'll admit: I never loved this idea as much. "Collective secrecy" is hard to sell, especially in a world as open and competitive as Pokémon training. Like, the only reason I managed to convince myself was because the internet or phones isn't really a thing yet, so its easier to hide.
But, frankly, I didn't explain any of this well. A lot of people read it as a privileged technique, a clan-only thing.
So, What embedding Even Supposed to Do?
Stripped of all the fluff, the system came down to this:
You could train faster through three types of alignment:
Matching Type: Your embedding technique suited your Pokémon's type
Matching Species: Your embedding technique suited your Pokémon's species
Matching Personality: Your embedding technique suited your Pokémon's personality and instincts.
All of them were supposed to be on a sort of spectrum of how well you managed to do this, and the better the alignment the faster you could grow… and more importantly, the longer you could grow fast.
Later on, I was going to explore narrative versions of stat allocation, like having Navi (Ralts) channel more Aura into her horn and mind, increasing her Special Attack but reducing her Defense. Basically: EVs, but in-world.
I had a lot planned around it, including an arc where it's revealed that Myst… misunderstood how Embedding even worked.
Yeah, okay, not my brightest idea, considering how you guys felt maybe not knowing it, but it sounded cool at the time.
The plan was this: Myst never actually got a proper explanation for how Embedding worked. All he figured out was that you're supposed to "absorb Aura into your body."
For Cynthia, that obviously meant helping a Pokémon channel their own Aura into their body, using Embedding to do it.
For Myst?
Well, he is a fan of cultivation novels.
So if you're familiar with how those usually go, you can probably guess why he was making his Pokémon do breathing techniques and why I kept hinting that they had "more Aura than usual."
Still, Why Scrap It?
Well… have you ever seen one of those colorful soaps that look really tasty as a kid? You think you want to eat it—right up until you actually do.
That was me with Embedding.
The chapter that introduced it felt a little off, but I figured it was just because I'd reread it too many times (that always makes me hate my own stuff, lol).
Then I wrote the second chapter that brought it up, and felt the same way. Still, I thought, eh, maybe once I don't have to describe it so much, it'll be more fun.
Then came this chapter, where Embedding was once again the focus, and I hated every second of it.
When I posted it on Patreon, I couldn't even bring myself to do a final pass. A whole section ended up missing because I was just too drained. I didn't even read the comments right away.
Eventually, I saw someone pointed out that Cynthia hadn't explained Embedding clearly, and I was like… wait, she didn't?
So I fixed the mistake, but the bad taste in my mouth lingered.
Then I released the chapter here (Patreon is two chapters ahead), and people started pointing out what Embedding actually did to the story:
It didn't really add anything.
It made Myst's training feel less earned.
It weakened Cynthia's emotional connection to Queenie.
And yeah… I agreed with all of it.
Despite all the effort I'd put into making the world make sense, I'd lost sight of the thing that made me love writing in the first place: the characters.
Embedding wasn't helping them. It was hurting them. It warped the narrative around a system I didn't even enjoy using…
Hell, it honesty didn't even help the world make that much more sense.
So… What Now?
To those of you who liked the concept and were curious about what it could've become, yeah, I'm sorry. Maybe I'll revisit it someday in a different story, when I thought about it some more, but for now?
It's gone.
Poof.
Vanis—
…you get the idea.
I'll be rewriting a few sections to clean up the remnants, so there may be one less chapter than usual this week. Though honestly, that was probably going to happen anyway, my summer job is eating a lot of time right now.
Still, thanks for sticking with the story. I understand if some of you feel iffy about continuing after a big retcon like this. I get it. I really do.
I'm just an amateur. I write because I like to read, because I find it fun, and because I want to get better at it.
This story is sort of a draft in that sense, so I won't pretend this will never happen again. Hopefully not on something this big, though. Maybe one day I'll screw up a character and instantly rewrite a chapter, but hopefully, that'll be the limit. (Also, yeah, that did happen in my last story. Whoops.)
So yeah.
MB.
Wayker.
P.S. I promise that like, 90% of this, wasn't just because "Embedding" is a terrible name and I've grown to hate it with my whole heart.
Comments
thevolunteer
That’s a fair call. I was skimming embedding tbh, I’m here for character interactions and plot, not theory crafting how a circuit could function while allowing a champion to rise after a year.
Baron of Awesome
Yea I figured it was something like that. Embedding is a cool concept but I understand that it doesn’t really make the story more interesting with its inclusion. I kinda wanted to see where it went but I agree the story might be better off without it. Maybe another story in the future would benefit from its inclusion. Maybe even it being the main premise? Like cultivation mystery dungeon au fanfic? Or something at least. Anyway I hope you continue to enjoy writing because enjoying the process is the most important part of writing at story.
