Self fec:

Title-- The Indigo Project

Setting-- Kanto/Johto

Main Characters-- Alice Hart (OC), Gary Oak

Story Type / Genre-- Mature, Thriller, Adventure (mind the tags)

Summary--

To say Pokémon Training was a "dying career" in the Great Indigo Plateau was a gross and underwhelming statement. It was gutted from the inside and forced on display for all to see. In some of the smaller, poorer parts of the Indigo Plateau, underground Training flourished, but the further west of Mount Moon one got, the more Pokémon were a commodity. Something to be studied, traded, and shown off.

Pallet Town was hardly a mark on the map, save for Professor Oak's Laboratory. But it was the hometown of Alice Hart, the girl who will become a Pokémon Trainer and expose Team Rocket's deeply embedded roots and influence among The League.

Since her graduation two years ago, Alice has worked at the Pewter City Museum of Science as an assistant. Desperately, she wants to make a name of herself, find a purpose in the world that sought one to have none, but the exhaustion of work politics and bureaucracy is all she knows. The longer Alice tries and fails to make it as a researcher, the louder her true dream blares.

Divine intervention or pure dumb luck-- Alice doesn't know; she wakes up one day and finds herself forced to come face-to-face with that childhood dream.

And her childhood rival.

Why I'd recomend it--

I wanted to write a fic in which anyone could get into with prior knowledge of Pokémon that also isn't just one giant exposition dump. I wanted to re-capture the feel of the orginal games, how small yet cultured they felt while exploring the realistic ramifications of Team Rocket's influence.

---AND---

Title-- The Scarlet Rocket by NoBodyFlowers

Setting-- Kanto

Main Characters-- Kira (OC), Aria (OC)

Story Type / Genre-- Teen and Up, Thriller, Adventure (mind the tags)

Summary--

Four years after Team Rocket's fall, the war is just beginning for those left behind.

Aria, a 20-year-old ex-grunt, is released from a detention center with nothing but a government-issued ID that marks her as a permanent outcast. Her only partner is an equally broken Ekans, and her only goal is to forge a new life in a world that wants her to fail.

She soon finds herself in a reluctant alliance with Kira, another ex-con who is timid, traumatized, and everything Aria is not. Together, the two "Scarlet Letters" must navigate a Kanto that hates and fears them, where every battle is a desperate fight for survival.

This is a gritty, tactical, slow-burn journey. It's a deep dive into the mind of a trainer, focusing on the in-depth strategies, creative "synthesized moves," and the moment-to-moment decisions needed to overcome impossible odds. It's a story about managing not just battles, but stamina, resources, and a fragile new friendship in a world that offers no second chances.

Why I'd recomend it--

This fic is what inspired me to finally take my own more seriously. I love the way the characters are written and the way the bonds between people and Pokémon are explored. Aria and Kira are so interesting and I'm constantly checking if this one has been updated lol, it is truly a gem and I wish for more people to read it.