MATURE: - Complete Happy Hate-alloween

[Ness]

No way Ness partook in a fic contest! This is my roundtable 2025 entry.

Rated MATURE for containing horror elements

Spoiler: Happy Hate-alloween

My name is Drake. I hate Halloween. I can't stand the little kids in their weird and disturbing little costumes. I can't the execessive jumpscares and frights. I can't even stand the kids trick-or-treating.

That is what I would have said years ago, but I have grown to adore Halloween. Not believable, I know but its true. How did I start to adore Halloween, you ask? Well it all started... last year...

I woke up on October 30th. I then used a megaphone to wake up my partner Pokemon Sandslash.

"WAKE UP SANDSLASH! UP AND AT 'EM!" I shouted in the megaphone.

The quilled mouse Pokemon woke up. It even gave me a good morning "sandslash!"

I had Sandslash ever since I was 10, when my mom gave it to me as a Sandshrew. I cared for it like it was my child ever since. To this day, I am not sure if its a boy or a girl Sandslash. Maybe someday I will get lucky!

Anyway, back to our main story. I did the usual stuff I do in the morning have my breakfast and my coffee, getting dressed, brushing my teeth and brushing Sandslash's quills. After that, I asked Sandslash what it wanted to do today. It pulled out a game of chess.

Sandslash kept beating me.

"Never knew it would be this embarassing to be beaten by a Pokemon in chess." I mumbled.

After getting my ass whooped by Sandslash in chess many times, the power suddenly went out. Luckily, I had a flashlight near me, so I turned it on. As I looked around, I saw a Mewtwo! Next thing I know that Mewtwo hit me with a psychic blast!

"Drake? Drake? Drake, are you okay?" said a rather soft and gentle female voice.

"Yes I am... Wait! Sandslash? Is that you talking?" I asked.

"Yup! Nice that you can finally understand me now, huh?" Sandslash answered.

"That Mewtwo was sent by the Halloween God to curse you for not liking Halloween! The way to reverse the curse is to meet the Halloween God itself." Sandslash said.

"Then let's go!" I replied.

I exited my house and past my friend, Mike.

"Rai?" said Mike partner, Raichu.

"You are right! Lets go find out where he is going!" Mike said

I ran into some battles along the way. I don't remember most of them but I do remember one I had against a Eevee and its trainer.

"Sandslash, use Dig!" I commanded.

"You got it!" Sandslash said.

Sandslash dug into the ground. The Eevee was using Swift but it missed because Sandslash was underground. After a while Sandslash dug straight towards the trainer's Eevee and performed an uppercut causing the poor Eevee to faint just like that.

"Eevee, no!" the trainer said.

I walked off after saying "good fight." After that me and Sandslash approached a bridge.

The bridge me and Sandslash were walking on made a strange creaking sound, almost like there was something under it.

"WHO DARES DISTURB THE MIGHTY MON?" said a loud scary deep voice.

"Oh, Mr. Mighty Mon, its just me, a Sandslash and her trainer." Sandslash replied.

"HA! FOR A SECOND THERE I THOUGHT HEARD YOU SAID TRAINER! THAT WORD IS DEAD TO ME! I HAVEN'T HAD A TRAINER IN 55 YEARS, WHEN MY TRAINER ABANDONED ME IN THIS VERY ABYSS I NOW RECITE! YOU SHOULD TURN BACK! NOW!" yelled the Mighty Mon

"Then show yourself Mighty Mon! I'm not afraid of you!" Sandslash said.

The Mighty Mon heard that, so he climbed up the deep dark abyss, when he finally got to the top, I tried not to laugh.

The Mighty Mon was a Larvitar.

"GO AHEAD! LAUGH! I KNOW I... I... I..." The Mighty Mon said stopping mid-sentence.

He said he was crying because he had no friends ever since his trainer abandoned him in the abyss 55 years ago and he was cursed by the same Mewtwo that cursed me, only his curse was the ability to talk to humans. I felt bad for the little Larvitar , so I became its friend. Thats when I saw a shadowy figure in a tree.

The shadowy figure jumped off the tree. It was another Larvitar, this one however was a shiny one.

This one was apparently called The Wighty Won.

"WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO A HUMAN!" said The Wighty Won.

"THIS IS DRAKE! MY NEW FRIEND!" The Mighty Mon said.

"Um... sorry Mighty Mon and Wighty Won, I gotta go break my curse." I said.

"In that case, farewell Drake! You may cross our bridge!" The Mighty Mon said.

Meanwhile, Mike and his Raichu encountered the Eevee trainer. The Eevee trainer was still worried about his Eevee.

"What happened?" Mike said.

"A Sandslash caused my Eevee to faint!" said the Eevee trainer.

Mike and Raichu knew who did just that!

I arrived at the Johto Sea. I remember my mom telling me it used to be a deep dark hole until the legendary Suicune made it into a sea. I thought this is as far as I would go until a friendly Murkrow arrived.

"Hello! What brings you to the Johto Sea?" The Murkrow said.

"Wait! Were you also cursed by the Halloween God?" I asked.

"That's right! Name's Murmurkrow, and you are?" Murmurkrow said.

"I'm Drake and this is my partner Sandslash. Can you help us cross the Johto sea?" I said.

"Of course!" Murmurkrow said.

That's when Mike caught up with me.

"Drake! What are you are doing?" Mike said.

"I have to reverse my curse?" I said.

"Oh, well um... that makes sense." Mike said.

Murmurkrow flew us across the Johto sea. We arrived at the lair of the Halloween god. Its appearance was horrifying! He looked like a clown from a horror movie.

The Halloween god knew why I was here so he broke the curse

"Drake! You shall never hate Halloween again!" The Halloween God said.

One year later

"Trick-or-treat!" a group of kids said in perfect unison.

Each kid I got was dressed as a Pokemon native to Johto. I am glad I changed my ways. So me, Sandslash, Mike and his Raichu, The Mighty Mon, The Wighty Won, Murmurkrow and The Halloween God lived happily ever after!

The end!

 

[Unovia]

Okay, time for my Review:

The story, “Happy Hate-alloween”, was an interesting one. I wish that it would be revealed which Sandslash type it was. I assume it is a Kantonian one, though it could have been Alolan. Small detail. How would the trainer, Drake, not know whether the Sandslash was male or female, especially since it is stated in the story that Drake has had Sandslash since it was a Sandshrew? How is Sandslash playing chess? A random Mewtwo showing up, and yet, it is not the Halloween God? Mewtwo would have worked better as the Halloween God.

Sandslash’s attitude and comments are hilarious in the story. The Mighty Mon and the Wighty Won were fun. They acted like children, and I was surprised that Drake didn’t offer to capture the two Larvitars. The shiny one was cool. It was cool having Drake running into various Pokemon along the way.

I did not like the Halloween God. Was not that descriptive, and so I filled in, thinking of the IT clown. Would have appreciated more description and more explanation of why the Halloween God took it upon himself to curse people who didn’t like Halloween. The ending was a bit rushed, which was disappointing. Still, a fun entry.

 

[Ness]

Okay, time for my Review:

The story, “Happy Hate-alloween”, was an interesting one. I wish that it would be revealed which Sandslash type it was. I assume it is a Kantonian one, though it could have been Alolan. Small detail. How would the trainer, Drake, not know whether the Sandslash was male or female, especially since it is stated in the story that Drake has had Sandslash since it was a Sandshrew? How is Sandslash playing chess? A random Mewtwo showing up, and yet, it is not the Halloween God? Mewtwo would have worked better as the Halloween God.

Sandslash’s attitude and comments are hilarious in the story. The Mighty Mon and the Wighty Won were fun. They acted like children, and I was surprised that Drake didn’t offer to capture the two Larvitars. The shiny one was cool. It was cool having Drake running into various Pokemon along the way.

I did not like the Halloween God. Was not that descriptive, and so I filled in, thinking of the IT clown. Would have appreciated more description and more explanation of why the Halloween God took it upon himself to curse people who didn’t like Halloween. The ending was a bit rushed, which was disappointing. Still, a fun entry.

Thank you for the review! I will be honest i didnt really know how to end a story like this lol. I will say this: in my future contest entries i will make sure the villain is likable

Also Sandslash was Kantonian

 

[PokePal15]

Here's my review for "Happy Hate-alloween":

This fic was fun, though did feel a little disjointed. I almost felt like a comedy sketch or even an anime episode. While I could follow along, there were a few things that didn't make sense. Like Drake states at the beginning that he hates Halloween and gives some things that he doesn't like about it, which is fine but doesn't really explain why he doesn't like those things. It would be helpful to know that, but the fact that he hates it is good enough. I would have liked to see a bit more background on this.

When Drake says that now he has grown to adore Halloween, I was looking forward to seeing what changed: maybe it was like a "It's a Wonderful Life" type of change, you know. But I was a little disappointed that all it was was the Halloween god basically saying: poof, you now like Halloween. A lot of build-up with a not completly satisfying resolution. I was also a bit confused by this:

That Mewtwo was sent by the Halloween God to curse you for not liking Halloween! The way to reverse the curse is to meet the Halloween God itself.

So the Mewtwo was instructed to curse Drake by the Halloween god because he didn't like Halloween but then he had to meet the Halloween god to become uncursed? What was the curse? You don't really mention what it was, just that Drake was cursed.

Along those lines, there were some superfluous characters and events that didn't feel like they added much to the story. What was the point of the Eevee trainer and Mike? I can see Mike maybe wanting to help his best friend, but I don't see much motivation for him outside of that and it's not clearly stated if that is what he is doing.

There were also a few grammatical things that stuck out to me, like below:

After that me and Sandslash approached a bridge.

The bridge me and Sandslash were walking on made a strange creaking sound, almost like there was something under it.

It should read "Sandslash and I" and it just stuck out to me a bit more than anything else.

All in all, a bit convoluted with a slightly confusing story. Not entirely missing a flow but not the easiest to follow plot-wise. An interesting read, but maybe not one I would think about re-reading.

 

[Ness]

Here's my review for "Happy Hate-alloween":

This fic was fun, though did feel a little disjointed. I almost felt like a comedy sketch or even an anime episode. While I could follow along, there were a few things that didn't make sense. Like Drake states at the beginning that he hates Halloween and gives some things that he doesn't like about it, which is fine but doesn't really explain why he doesn't like those things. It would be helpful to know that, but the fact that he hates it is good enough. I would have liked to see a bit more background on this.

When Drake says that now he has grown to adore Halloween, I was looking forward to seeing what changed: maybe it was like a "It's a Wonderful Life" type of change, you know. But I was a little disappointed that all it was was the Halloween god basically saying: poof, you now like Halloween. A lot of build-up with a not completly satisfying resolution. I was also a bit confused by this:


So the Mewtwo was instructed to curse Drake by the Halloween god because he didn't like Halloween but then he had to meet the Halloween god to become uncursed? What was the curse? You don't really mention what it was, just that Drake was cursed.

Along those lines, there were some superfluous characters and events that didn't feel like they added much to the story. What was the point of the Eevee trainer and Mike? I can see Mike maybe wanting to help his best friend, but I don't see much motivation for him outside of that and it's not clearly stated if that is what he is doing.

There were also a few grammatical things that stuck out to me, like below:

It should read "Sandslash and I" and it just stuck out to me a bit more than anything else.

All in all, a bit convoluted with a slightly confusing story. Not entirely missing a flow but not the easiest to follow plot-wise. An interesting read, but maybe not one I would think about re-reading.

Thanks for the review! Sorry about the grammar mistake

 

[kintsugi]

Hiya Ness, making my way round the roundtable! Thanks for joining us.

I think Pokepal15 covered a lot of the good points, especially regarding how the throughline of the story might've felt more joined if Drake's journey had somehow taught him to love Halloween. Maybe meeting the Mighty Mon and the Wighty Won (a wild M/Wario reference?) show him that things that look a little intimidating (like the darker parts of Halloween) are actually quite fun to interact with, or he realizes going around to all of these strangers and getting funny bits of gifts/advice from them is a nice way to make friends (much like trick or treating). Doesn't have to be these things specifically, just something that makes the conflict of the story (that Drake must travel around to fix his curse) related to the resolution (that he now loves Halloween). I also was confused about if he was cursed to hate Halloween, or if he was cursed because he hated Halloween--the ending and the beginning imply two different things.

All in all I thought this was a lot of fun though! I enjoyed the silly shennanigans and all of the character felt very earnest--I think it was a lot easier for me to get invested in Murmurkrow or Wighty Won than it was to buy into the "here were a lot of battles that I forget except for this one against an Eevee", for example. It was delightfully chaotic and I'm really nostalgic for these kinds of stories where anything goes, more or less.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[System Error]

Pressing on round the table...

- An interesting intro to the fic. The first paragraph is pretty gold. That said, I was kind of disappointed by the second. Could have been potential for like a Halloween Grinch situation instead of a "you're probably wondering how I got here". Just a thought anyway.
- Okay wow that's some mood whiplash. I was not expecting this one-time grouch to use a megaphone indoors.
- Paternal instincts before puberty?!
- I mean it does make sense that gender might be hard to tell but I don't want to think about what he means by getting lucky. Maybe I don't want to.
- Yeah all right this is utter insanity, that's the tone here, got it. A Pokemon beating a human at chess. How does it hold the pieces?!
- Well it's probably just the afternoon so I imagine there would be no need for a flashlight since there would be natural light out.
- So this guy can't tell gender but he knows what a Mewtwo is?
- Dialog tags ending in a period should end in a comma if not at the end of a sentence.
- That seems rather extreme on behalf of the Halloween God. What's this curse do? I mean it seems more like a blessing.
- Mike's partner, since it's the possessive form.
- Good thing this isn't gen 1 otherwise the Swift would've hit anyway. Actually could've given them a cool niche, why was that changed?
- And here comes the bridge troll! Hey wait, why can he understand the Mighty Mon and not Raichu? Also, what even happened to them? Are they like, following at a distance and not being noticed despite being overheard they're going to follow?
- Oh that explains the above, got it~. Also there's a stray space after the comma after "Larvitar" here, and a missing apostrophe with "thats" here.
- Now I have to wonder why this Mewtwo got cursed, and why this seems to be a blessing too.
- Clearly, this one set it to W for Wumbo. It could've given a formal introduction though.
- Interesting lore on the Johto Sea here. There's some capitization confusion going on with it though: first it's a full proper noun then it isn't.
- Okay the humor admittedly hasn't been landing here but I did crack a small smile at the exchange about reversing the curse.
- That confrontation went by stupidly fast. "Okay you came now you can't talk to Pokemon but you're going to love Halloween" and then he does.
- I guess this adventure lasted longer than a day. "HAVE FUN NEXT YEAR" or something.

Mm, not really fully sure what to make of this one, being honest. It jumps from scene to scene without much coherency. I like absurdism, and there's enough there to follow, but still: there's nothing wrong with slowing down and letting things breathe. I'm also confused at how this is supposed to be a curse. Like, there's serious potential there with your tone: the God thinks it's a bad thing, but Drake could be like "this is great!" Because it is! Like there's undertones they're incompetent already, between the curse being a blessing and make the adventure take so long this Halloween can't be enjoyed. It's totally plausible for someone like that to totally fail and make things worse! Or maybe only succeed because Drake can have fun scaring kids with his new powers. Just some thoughts.

Still, I didn't dislike this. It was pretty all right. Nothing wrong with a bit of random insanity~

 

[Welkamo]

None of this would have happened if Drake had just asked for Sandslash’s pronouns.

I love absurdism and surrealism, but this… isn’t really working for me. Nothing really feels connected to anything else, and the parts themselves don’t have much of a point on their own, so it’s hard to get invested in anything. I think the “overarching story with a bunch of side quests in the middle” plot structure can be a lot of fun. Journey fics do this all the time, The Odyssey is basically this, and The Point, one of my favorite movies, does this with an equally absurd and nonsensical tone. But the reason it works is because scene are given time to breathe, and also that those scenes (sometimes) tie into the larger the point of The Point, which is that everything has a the point, even if it’s different from what society considers a the point. If the narrative is jumping from scene to scene without time to process what’s happening, it starts to feel like the story is trying to hard to grab your attention. Even if the side quests don’t add much to the larger narrative, they can still be engaging by telling their own mini story.

In conclusion: watch The Point—I mean, plot is important. Or something.

 

[Apopheniac]

It's a bit disjointed, but I dig the tone and the overall idea you're going for. Still, I agree that it would read better if the core plot — namely, the what, where, and why — were more consistent. Often it's hard to determine with a work like this where to distinguish between the necessary and the arbitrary, but working out the former first is useful for highlighting where to put the gags and how to implement them.

After that, I asked Sandslash what it wanted to do today. It pulled out a game of chess.

Sandslash kept beating me.

"Never knew it would be this embarassing to be beaten by a Pokemon in chess." I mumbled.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with chess, but I feel like this would be funnier if there had been more detail about how Drake kept losing. Is he just blundering pieces and getting Scholar's Mated, or has Sandslash been hitting the books and grinding her Elo? It'd be a bit niche, but absurdism often hits harder when you commit to the bit.

After getting my ass whooped by Sandslash in chess many times, the power suddenly went out. Luckily, I had a flashlight near me, so I turned it on. As I looked around, I saw a Mewtwo! Next thing I know that Mewtwo hit me with a psychic blast!

[...]

"That Mewtwo was sent by the Halloween God to curse you for not liking Halloween! The way to reverse the curse is to meet the Halloween God itself." Sandslash said.

Why does Mewtwo attack with a psychic blast and then have Sandslash communicate the Halloween God's message on its behalf? If the curse enabled Drake to understand Pokémon, why doesn't Mewtwo talk to Drake itself?

"Eevee, no!" the trainer said.

I walked off after saying "good fight."

I got a good chuckle out of this section. There's always a bunch of randos waiting around for Pokémon battles who get so devastated when they lose, and it's funny how Drake just gives him the barest minimum acknowledgement. He's got places to be!

"A Sandslash caused my Eevee to faint!" said the Eevee trainer.

Love the phrasing of this, where he identifies the culprit but not the precise action, like the opposite of "there was a Pokémon-involved digging."

He said he was crying because he had no friends ever since his trainer abandoned him in the abyss 55 years ago and he was cursed by the same Mewtwo that cursed me, only his curse was the ability to talk to humans.

If the curse enables humans and Pokémon to communicate with each other, why should it be lifted? Is the upside not worth hating Halloween?