Ara. 25. A wallflower. An honest liar. INTJ. 5w6. Cherophobe. Misanthrope. Ailurophile. Lover of the night sky. Frustrated writer. Draws a bit. Emotionally constipated. Accepts Japanese translation requests.
You know how Akari is asked how she feels after being banished and she says “bitter?” What if that bitterness turns into vengeance because of how hurt she is over essentially being sent to die after doing what the Galaxy Team instructed her to do? Volo seeing that hurt and anger and using that as in opening to turn her against them. She is his biggest threat to his plans, so why not encourage her to fix the current issue so when it’s time for them to meet Arceus, she’s all for it. Basically evil VoloKari with a side order of manipulative Volo is what I’m sayin
Volo going full “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, since his enemy isn’t Arceus per se, Arceus is his means to an end - his enemy is the world, and the world just betrayed Akari. And she’s already his friend, though only of part of him…
The story could go a very different direction if, when he finds her, he doesn’t only take her to Cogita but also takes to fueling her bitterness. Telling her what he overheard the people of Jubilife saying after she left, deliberately omitting anything from the people who very much care about her. Showing her, on their way to the Ancient Retreat, the graves of former exiles and retelling the stories of the ones he’d heard of. How just like her, they were left to die, and how there will be more after her because this world is a cruel place. Akari is vulnerable enough at that moment that with the right prodding and narrative, she could be convinced that something really is wrong with the world.
In this story, he’d give her the Spooky Plate himself at the Spear Pillar without battling her. She’d have known about it for even longer, they’d have been talking about their plan since starting to look for the Lake Guardians. And the reason she forgave everyone who cast her aside so easily was because she knew they wouldn’t be part of existence for long.
They battle together a lot more, too. They agree they stand a much better chance against Arceus together, so they train against wild pokemon and each other until they’re near perfect battle partners.
