Chapters: 25/25
Fandom: Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Guzma (Pokemon)/Reader
Characters: Guzma (Pokemon), Hala (Pokemon), Plumeria (Pokemon), Kuchinashi | Nanu, Dr. Kukui | Professor Kukui
Additional Tags: Post-Game(s), Physical Abuse, Slow Burn, Masturbation, Oral Sex, Hand Jobs, Fingerfucking, Anger Management, Anger, Vaginal Sex, Light Bondage
Summary:

Seeing Guzma back with his parents is a bit more painful than you might realize at first.

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I wanted to take a second to rec this fic by @irinokat, the first lengthy one I read after getting bitten by The Guzma Bug ™ (pun totally intended). It’s a really fascinating, well-written fic that doesn’t shy away from his anger issues or sweep them under the rug. It presents a powerful, nuanced exploration of the character, and a romance that had me more than once clutching my chest from feels or hugging myself as I giggled with delight. It may be the best Guzma romance fic out there, though I admit I have not read exhaustively, it is by far my favorite, as is this writer’s take on him in general (even including the game).

One thing I found fascinating after delving briefly into Pokemon fic was the second-person tense used by writers so prevalently. I admit I had seen it around on Tumblr, especially for het romances. In a way, it seems to have replaced the typical Mary Sue or self-insert. At least for video games, I admit the second person makes a lot of sense and actually overcomes an issue I had with reading video game based fic where the main character is customizable, such as Mass Effect or Dragon Age. 

But second person is really hard to write. Most of the time the mere mention of it, with very few exceptions, is enough to make me quit right out of a story. The fact that this is becoming a popular method of writing romance is really fascinating to me on its own. The prevalence of (Popular Character)/Reader stories was one I rolled my eyes at initially, I just didn’t think it was possible that it could be good. @irinokat showed me that I was wrong in my assumption. It is still undoubtedly a difficult method of writing, it can be confusing, disorienting, and shallow at times. But it is also possible for amazing stories like “Healing” to be written. There was complexity in the POV I have rarely seen. Though we didn’t delve much into the POV protagonist’s past, I still felt like I knew her intimately. The second person allowed me to continue to see my own player character and myself in the narrative, but also to feel the differences with little hints of the character’s own unique story t. I also felt intimately close to the author, as if we were one person, and there was incredibly sympathy and empathy conveyed through that atypical writing style that was totally unique. 

I’m now keeping an eye out on this Character/Reader trend, rather than simply dismissing it. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see it become hugely popular in the world of printed romance novels within the next decade (if it isn’t already and I’m just ignorant of the trend). It is absolutely fascinating to me how this trend amongst young women (largely, but not exclusively of course) writing romance fic for themselves and one another has evolved and could actually becoming something with real literary merit and quality, something I think this author of this fic demonstrated. @irinokat is extremely skilled and I look forward to reading more of her work. I also highly recommend this fic to anyone who enjoys the Pokemon franchise and would like to see serious, well-written, mature fic for those games. 

Healing – irinokat – Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions [Archive of Our Own]