The information written here are all truthhoods; information on the story of Pokemon Sword and Shield from the mouth of someone who was there; the elite Fairy-type Gym Leader, successor to Opal, and rival of the Galarian Champion herself.

Don't you feel special?

At the time that I'm writing the first draft of this prelude, it's the day after I was finally able to pull myself from the Pokemon Masters gacha. While I've never liked gacha games, Pokemon Masters is one that I've kept up with, if only for more official content of the people and creatures that I miss so dearly. DeNA sure took their sweet time adding me; I was the last of the trio of Galarian rivals to be added, and my thread on Twitter counting the days until I was added (which didn't even include every single day since Pokemon Sword and Shield was released, mind you) had reached over 250.

Still waiting on my anime appearance, though. I'm the last of the Galarian rival trio to be seen there, too. The Chairman and Miss Opal's first appearances have come and gone without a sign of myself...

Oh, well.

As-of the time of my writing of this first draft, it has also been 957 days since I saw myself; almost 1,000. Not 'saw myself' in the sense of looking in the mirror, of course. Not even in the sense of when I first layed eyes upon what I looked like in this past life. (1,049 since then, though, if you're wondering. Ironically, one of the first online recordings that I could find of what I had to say about who I didn't quite know was me included calling the boy with a too-long purple coat 'the rude rich boy'. When being assumed to be rich was actually one of my biggest pet peeves back then.) No, it has been 957 days since the Pokemon Sword and Shield League Cards were leaked, and I layed eyes upon Bede's Gym Leader League Card variation with a sense of recognizing one's self. It was only when I saw myself dorned in the pink and blue of my first true home that I was able to awaken.

All of that before the games had even been released.

I think that a lot of myself was waiting for that moment; the recognition of who I used to be. My previous connections to Pokemon rivals with a less-than-friendly nature, accompanied by headcanons that they secretly wore pastel pink when nobody was around. My love for and connection to the Fairy-typing since it was first revealed when I was just 10 years old. My sense of comfort within fantasy settings of forests with glowing mushrooms and mystical creatures... Perhaps it all led up to this.

In my time, I've recognized quite a few kintypes; even a small handful of core ones. One of which, of course, is the namesake of the website that you're on now. But still, the one that I recognized almost 2 years ago has been the only core kintype that I have that I felt so strongly towards that I only needed one familiar piece of imagery to be reminded of what once was. The only core kintype whose connection has never wavered. The only core kintype who, ever since recognizing it as myself, I have been in a near-constant permashift for.

My other core kintypes are, of course, important to me. Unspeakably so. But this one is different, somehow. Perhaps it was my most recent life. Perhaps that's why these memories of mine are as clear as they are.

So, dearest stranger, allow me to bestow an honor onto you; something that only I can give to you. An autobiography; a historical account; of the story of the events previous to, during, and following Galar's Darkest Day, told in bits and pieces, just as I remember them, as Pokemon Trainer Bede.