Questions About Owning a Chandelure

[ShadOBabe]

EDIT: I've had this up for a while now, so let me add some stuff here.
The idea is how dose a person successfully take care of Chandelure without it hurt the trainer or the other Pokemon.

I have already learned somethings:
- Life energy grows back (evidenced in the anime)
- Chandelure CAN eat other things (evidenced in the games)

Facts about the kind of work I'm trying to create:
- Pokemon are not evil
- The Chandelure isn't going to kill anyone
- The Pokemon are depicted as pretty much sentient creatures, not animals, so the Chandelure has it's own personality
- The Chandelure is quiet and gentle
- The trainer and the Chandelure get along

Okay, having established that, please feel free to read the original post below.
As it says at the end, the idea of the topic is, "How do trainers take care of their Chandelure?"

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Hello everyone!! I just joined and decided I should go ahead and post these questions of mine.
(Warning: It's 1:40am where I live, so I might fall asleep, but I'll be back!!)

So I'm working on my own Trainer character and her Pokemon family. She is a Fire Type Specialist and I am giving her a Chandelure.
But I was wondering for the sake of any stories I create, what is to be expected when owning a Chandelure, in your opinion?

They, along with it's unevolved forms, feed on "life-energy", or in some sources, "souls".
So do they do this indiscriminately?
Does this cause permanent damage? (Likely not since after it happened to Team Rocket, they were back to normal... I guess souls... regenerate?)
I know in some sources it's implied that some do this to their own trainers... Do they think this is okay? Do they just maybe not have a close relationship with their trainers?

I guess knowing the circumstances would help:
My trainer lives on, and helps run a place called "Sunny Day Sanctuary".
She is a good trainer and treats her Chandelure well, like all her pokemon. I don't assume the Chandelure would want to harm her or its friends, but it DOES need to eat.
So what would happen? It is surrounded by many, many living creatures. Assuming "life-energy" replenishes, and it just nibbled a little here and there from everyone at the complex, would it make a difference?

Bottom line (tl;dr): What is it like owning a Chandelure, in you opinion?

 

[Tyrfing]

I've always thought it would be done out of the Pokemon's own will; after all, it isn't maiming you when you use one. Also, I imagine Chandelure has some power that allows it to consume food (that isn't souls).

 

[ShadOBabe]

I've always thought it would be done out of the Pokemon's own will; after all, it isn't maiming you when you use one. Also, I imagine Chandelure has some power that allows it to consume food (that isn't souls).

I tend to gravitate towards the "it does it only if it wants to" idea. But I don't understand what you mean by the "it isn't maiming you" comment. Of course it isn't. From what I gather, they're basically like (and I hate to use this word because I love Chandelure so much) "parasites". They just quietly and stealthily eat their fill while the food source is none the wiser. And they can eat by just being in close proximity to another creature.

But hey, that is a good point. A lot of pokemon in the series are stated to eat various foods, but those same pokemon are also depicted eating man-made foods.
Not to mention you can feed them things like berries, sodas, poffins, etc. in the games.

I do wonder though... what kinds of ingredients would someone like Brock use to make a pokemon food for Chandelure?
The thing FEEDS ON SOULS. You can't exactly find bottled life-force at the Pokemart.

 

[Tyrfing]

I've always thought it would be done out of the Pokemon's own will; after all, it isn't maiming you when you use one. Also, I imagine Chandelure has some power that allows it to consume food (that isn't souls).

I tend to gravitate towards the "it does it only if it wants to" idea. But I don't understand what you mean by the "it isn't maiming you" comment. Of course it isn't. From what I gather, they're basically like (and I hate to use this word because I love Chandelure so much) "parasites". They just quietly and stealthily eat their fill while the food source is none the wiser. And they can eat by just being in close proximity to another creature.

But hey, that is a good point. A lot of pokemon in the series are stated to eat various foods, but those same pokemon are also depicted eating man-made foods.
Not to mention you can feed them things like berries, sodas, poffins, etc. in the games.

I do wonder though... what kinds of ingredients would someone like Brock use to make a pokemon food for Chandelure?
The thing FEEDS ON SOULS. You can't exactly find bottled life-force at the Pokemart.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear on that comment: I meant when you use it in the games, it isn't exactly sucking up your life force for dinner. I would imagine Chandelure has a "back-up" nutrition system in case there are no souls to feed on; what if a wild Chandelure was miles away from a living organism with a soul? It would have to eat, so it could probably eat regular food; I just don't know what the Chandelure would like. Something tells me it would like Old Gateau; after all, in the Pokemon world, it is usually related in someway to ghosts, and it is based off a Japanese desert.

 

[Karpi]

Well, the best part is that you can create your own mechanics for how the pokemon works. You have a bunch of ways to go with this. But keep in mind that giving a pokemon an internal struggle that the trainer is unaware of is can be a great plot point.

I would have to say that logically, a soul starts to regenerate after being "nibbled on", because it would be necessary for Chandelure to survive as a species considering that they don't (at least they don't appear to, you could always do this though LOL) factory farm fast-breeding pokemon in order to consume their souls.

So maybe in order to satiate its hunger, your character's Chandelure decided that it didn't want to kill things. This means that it needs to find out how much of a soul it can eat before they will no longer regenerate. Maybe there is some area way away from the farm in a little ditch or something where Chandelure dumps the remains of its experiments in soul-eating. It could be an internal struggle for him, to visit out of pity the Growlithe that only has 1/3 of its soul left and the Vulpix that has a little over half of its soul left. Maybe they just look so sad and are irreparably damaged

Obviously by the time your trainer goes traveling around (if that happens), Chandelure will have figured out how to just take a tiny fraction of the other party members' souls every day and let them regrow, but it would be very interesting to see the failures along the way that he took to get to that point.

But, obviously, this is your story, so you don't have to use any of this. But feel free to if you want! (I just like to support people using ghost pokemon!)

 

[ShadOBabe]

Wow, thanks for the well thought out answer. Like Ghost pokemon, do ya? 83

Yikes, that hit home when you mentioned a Growlithe and a Vulpix. They're two Pokemon which the trainer ALSO has (though they're evolved by the time the Litwick is a Chandelure).
Yeah, the "dumping victim's bodies in a ditch" thing is a bit TOO cold and dark for me and the stories I'm going for. Plus would open up some definite plotholes due to the setting. I won't bore you with ALL the details, but one problem is that in this story a lot takes place from the point-of-view of the Pokemon at the Sanctuary. And being pretty much human-like characters, Chandelure doing something like that would make it look like a homicidal nut.

The Chandelure (as a Litwick) DID try to suck the Trainer's life-force once (or twice, still working on it) when it first met her.
But yeah, it got too attached to her. So perhaps eating physical food like Jdog1020 suggested would help.
Heh, and maybe it could be slightly comedic if I had it get peckish sometimes and kinda munch a little on her friends a bit and then be like, "I'm sorry!! I couldn't help it!!"

 

[jjl2357]

I remember seeing a theory somewhere that pokemon stated to feed on "life-energy" and such things (IIRC it was a gardevoir) have a vested interest in keeping their trainer happy so that they have more life-energy to nourish themselves from..

 

[ShadOBabe]

I remember seeing a theory somewhere that pokemon stated to feed on "life-energy" and such things (IIRC it was a gardevoir) have a vested interest in keeping their trainer happy so that they have more life-energy to nourish themselves from..

Sorry for taking so long to reply.
Hmm, I don't know I think there's an implied difference between the energy produced by positive emotions and the essence of your soul. Gardevoir feel good when you feel good. Chandelure eat souls like Drowzee eat dreams.
But I think this has been solved for the most part by a previous poster. All Pokemon in the games can be fed physical food and drinks, so I don't think they are forced to only eat not physical energy sources.

 

[Hex Maniac]

Maybe Chandelure is also able to feed from alternative sources, such pokémons or plants. Maybe they can also eat regular food or eat some kind of artificial Chandelure food. I also think that when it comes to feeding from people, Chandelures wouldn't feed from their trainers until they were dead but just hover around and get small amounts of energy that added up over time. Maybe people would have some device or technique to control how much energy got sapped or even store extra energy to feed it.

 

[Karpi]

I imagine there is some kind of vitamin supplement you have to give Chandelure if you want it to be a non-soul-eating Chandelure. Like, their bodies are perfectly adapted to use exactly what they get from sucking out souls. But you could also feed them regular food, but they just need some kind of vitamin supplements in order to get all the nutrients that their body has adapted to use.

Also, this is just me wondering, but if you give Chandelure food that it wasn't perfectly adapted to, it's going to have to poop because there will be some extra stuff in regular food that it CAN'T use. But I have never seen a fanfic talk about pokemon pooping, so you can probably leave that part out!

 

[ShadOBabe]

I imagine there is some kind of vitamin supplement you have to give Chandelure if you want it to be a non-soul-eating Chandelure. Like, their bodies are perfectly adapted to use exactly what they get from sucking out souls. But you could also feed them regular food, but they just need some kind of vitamin supplements in order to get all the nutrients that their body has adapted to use.

Also, this is just me wondering, but if you give Chandelure food that it wasn't perfectly adapted to, it's going to have to poop because there will be some extra stuff in regular food that it CAN'T use. But I have never seen a fanfic talk about pokemon pooping, so you can probably leave that part out!

Heh, not necessarily.
It's not certain Chandelure have the same kind of digestive system as other kinds of Pokemon. It's said when they eat souls, they literally use it as fuel for their fires. So I could see them just incinerating whatever other food you give them. So less like poo, more like ash. But yes, there's a trope about that. In fiction, it's very rarely people discuss going to the bathroom. It's just not proper and no-one REALLY needs to know.

 

[ShadOBabe]

Maybe Chandelure is also able to feed from alternative sources, such pokémons or plants. Maybe they can also eat regular food or eat some kind of artificial Chandelure food. I also think that when it comes to feeding from people, Chandelures wouldn't feed from their trainers until they were dead but just hover around and get small amounts of energy that added up over time. Maybe people would have some device or technique to control how much energy got sapped or even store extra energy to feed it.

Well part of problem would be sort of the ethics of the activity. In my stories, I take less of the Pokemon are just like animals/pets, and more like sentient creatures.
So would it be "bad" that the Chandelure munches on the life energy of the people and Pokemon around it? Should it care? Will other Pokemon care? Would it HURT the beings around it? Or is it completely harmless as long as it's just a little bit from everyone, and no one cares?

 

[Cool and Spicy]

Maybe the "life force" could be interpreted as basically the vibes people or pokemon give off. And as the Chandelure absorbs it, it takes on that vibe. For example, it feeds off someone who's happy, ready to take on the world. The Chandelure starts to feel good, confident. On the other hand, if it eats off someone who hates the world, and has a miserable outlook on life, it'll make the Chandelure start to feel that way. How much the Chandelure's mood sways off those vibes could be related to how strongly that person or pokemon feels about life, and things in general.

I realize how much of a stretch this is, but I just wanted to offer a different perspective.

 

[ShadOBabe]

Maybe the "life force" could be interpreted as basically the vibes people or pokemon give off. And as the Chandelure absorbs it, it takes on that vibe. For example, it feeds off someone who's happy, ready to take on the world. The Chandelure starts to feel good, confident. On the other hand, if it eats off someone who hates the world, and has a miserable outlook on life, it'll make the Chandelure start to feel that way. How much the Chandelure's mood sways off those vibes could be related to how strongly that person or pokemon feels about life, and things in general.

I realize how much of a stretch this is, but I just wanted to offer a different perspective.

I appreciate it. But I think that's more of how the Gardevoir family works.
What the Chandelure family does seems to have much more potential to be dangerous.
In the episode of the anime where you see Litwick leading around some of the main characters, the pale, lethargic look of Team Rocket after hanging around the Pokemon for a while looks distinctly unhealthy.

 

[Akromatic]

Your trainer is dead, unless life energy grows back and Chandelure just nibbles on it every now and then. It would be an interesting twist, going against the rule that all main characters have an invisible shield around them. Plus, it could be a loyalty thing, like your trainer staying with the Chandelure even when she finds out, or Chandelure secretly planning to betray her, or something like that.

 

[ShadOBabe]

Your trainer is dead, unless life energy grows back and Chandelure just nibbles on it every now and then. It would be an interesting twist, going against the rule that all main characters have an invisible shield around them. Plus, it could be a loyalty thing, like your trainer staying with the Chandelure even when she finds out, or Chandelure secretly planning to betray her, or something like that.

Uhhhhhh...
No offense, but that first suggestion is really... bad. Just having her die? Her and her team are the whole focus of the stories.
No more trainer, no more team. That's like if Ash suddenly died. Welp, guess the adventure's over. Unless people want to watch him as a ghost, only interacting with mediums or turning into a Yamask.
I'M not interested. Sounds like better fodder for a fanfic.

And the second one isn't much better either. I mean what, are all Chandelure owners just eventually going to be killed by their Pokemon?
I doubt it. I'm pretty sure I'm coming off as unnecessarily harsh, but seriously.
The reason I made this topic was to find out how trainers LIVE WITH their Chandelure (like Morty).
Not how I can create this evil creature hanging around waiting to murder her (or other Pokemon, I had that suggested too). I'm not a creepy pasta writer.

How does it work? How does feeding them work? We know that they can eat life energy, and we DO know it grows back, because Team Rocket got a ton sucked out of them, and they were fine in later episodes after they got away. Can they eat other things? Well according to the games they can.
Things like that.

 

[Akromatic]

Uhhhhhh...
No offense, but that first suggestion is really... bad. Just having her die? Her and her team are the whole focus of the stories.
No more trainer, no more team. That's like if Ash suddenly died. Welp, guess the adventure's over. Unless people want to watch him as a ghost, only interacting with mediums or turning into a Yamask.
I'M not interested. Sounds like better fodder for a fanfic.

And the second one isn't much better either. I mean what, are all Chandelure owners just eventually going to be killed by their Pokemon?
I doubt it. I'm pretty sure I'm coming off as unnecessarily harsh, but seriously.
The reason I made this topic was to find out how trainers LIVE WITH their Chandelure (like Morty).
Not how I can create this evil creature hanging around waiting to murder her (or other Pokemon, I had that suggested too). I'm not a creepy pasta writer.

How does it work? How does feeding them work? We know that they can eat life energy, and we DO know it grows back, because Team Rocket got a ton sucked out of them, and they were fine in later episodes after they got away. Can they eat other things? Well according to the games they can.
Things like that.

OK, different advice. Your fanfic. Do what you want. Your headcanon. Make it able to eat other things. It does have a mouth (those stitches between its eyes are a mouth, right?). It's plausible. If that's not a mouth, then... I don't know. Make it absorb non-human life force or something like that. Maybe it could absorb butterfly souls.

 

[ShadOBabe]

OK, different advice. Your fanfic. Do what you want. Your headcanon. Make it able to eat other things. It does have a mouth (those stitches between its eyes are a mouth, right?). It's plausible. If that's not a mouth, then... I don't know. Make it absorb non-human life force or something like that. Maybe it could absorb butterfly souls.

LOL!! Pssh, butterflies don't exist in Pokemon.
ButterFREE do though. XD

Actually not a fanfic as all. Comic.
And I'm thinking I should probably edit my first post.
I wrote it about a month ago, and I seem to be getting a lot of creepy pasta-ish ideas.
I should indicate more the direction I'm going for.

 

[Akromatic]

OK, different advice. Your fanfic. Do what you want. Your headcanon. Make it able to eat other things. It does have a mouth (those stitches between its eyes are a mouth, right?). It's plausible. If that's not a mouth, then... I don't know. Make it absorb non-human life force or something like that. Maybe it could absorb butterfly souls.

LOL!! Pssh, butterflies don't exist in Pokemon.
ButterFREE do though. XD

Actually not a fanfic as all. Comic.
And I'm thinking I should probably edit my first post.
I wrote it about a month ago, and I seem to be getting a lot of creepy pasta-ish ideas.
I should indicate more the direction I'm going for.

Fine. He could eat live fish. Those exist in Pokemon, right? In the anime, and I think in the games, too.

 

[ShadOBabe]

Fine. He could eat live fish. Those exist in Pokemon, right? In the anime, and I think in the games, too.

I was mostly kidding.
That's always been confusing though. Back when Pokemon were more like animals, I could believe people ate them, but now they're a lot more human. Though there is still evidence of people eating them, so I don't know if that matters. And then yeah there WERE normal fish in Pokemon, but... I haven't seen any in a long time. Now the oceans are just populated by Pokemon it seems.