Jessica is a creepypasta about a boy, Cameron, who likes playing Pokémon games, and who discovers a disturbing situation related to the first Pokémon game he ever played.
Cameron gets his first Pokémon game, Pokémon Yellow, at the age of six. He nicknames the starter Pikachu Jessica, and it (or she) becomes almost like a friend in his mind. And after beating the game, Cameron battles the Elite Four over and over with Jessica and the rest of his team, even after he gets later games in the franchise.
Not even having a friend mess around with the game and evolving Jessica into a Raichu diminishes Cameron's enthusiasm. He still treats Jessica the same as always.
The Pokémon Yellow game and Jessica prove to be Cameron's only source of solace when his mother passes away. However, one day, after being bullied at school, Cameron comes home in a fit of rage and trashes his bedroom, destroying his Pokémon Yellow cartridge in the process.
After this, Cameron forgets all about his Pokémon Yellow adventures, and about Jessica, even as he dives further into Pokémon games. But this all changes after he gets Pokémon Black. He catches a Pikachu in the game, and subconsciously nicknames her "Jessica." And Cameron starts to get hints suggesting that Jessica knows him from somewhere, and isn't happy with him. In the course of the gameplay, she brings his past back, including something shocking, about which Cameron wasn't aware.
Jessica contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Cameron accidentally crushes his Pokemon Yellow Cartridge, killing his team, including Jessica.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unknown if Cameron's brother was Driven to Suicide or if he succumbed to Death by Despair. Since he was just found dead.
- Abomination Accusation Attack: The first unequivocal sign that something's off in Cameron's Pokémon Black game:Jessica: You're a liar... a cruel, heartless killer...
- A Boy and His X: Sort of. As time passes, Cameron starts to see Jessica as a close friend rather than as "pixels and bytes in a video game."
- Adaptation Name Change: While most of the Black and White characters are referred to by their English names, Bianca is instead called Belle, her Japanese name.
- Addressing the Player: In-universe. The Pikachu gained by Cameron in Pokémon Black starts saying weird and disturbing things, and Cameron eventually realizes that she is talking to him, not to the player.
- Aerith and Bob: In addition to the Pikachu Jessica, Cameron's Pokémon Yellow team includes a Dragonite nicknamed "Gororo."
- Amnesiac Resonance: Having forgotten about his old Pokémon Yellow Team, Cameron absentmindedly nicknames his new Pikachu "Jessica" in Pokémon Black.
- Back from the Dead: After Cameron apologizes, Jessica is restored to his team.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Cameron and his online girlfriend, "S," who helps him through the period after his mother's death.
- Broken Pedestal: In the game, Cheren says he looked up to Cameron but feels betrayed after finding out what happened to Jessica.
- Bully Magnet: Downplayed with Cameron after his mother dies. A grieving boy who likes to play Pokémon is an obvious target for bullies, but there's only one instance of the bullying impacting his life: which results in his destroying his Pokémon Yellow cartridge in a fit of rage.
- Chekhov's Gun: The missing piece of the broken Pokémon Yellow cartridge. After their reconciliation, Jessica gives it back to Cameron inside the Pokémon Black game.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Jessica had one of these, judging by how badly mutilated she was shown in Celestial Tower.
- Dead Sidekick: Jessica, sort of. Cameron would get through many hard times following his mother's death by playing through the Pokémon League portion of Pokémon Yellow. He came to think of her as a good friend, and it killed him inside when he broke his Pokémon Yellow cartridge by accident.
- Death Fic: Subverted in the end. Jessica is returned to life in Cameron's games.
- Deconstruction Fic: The story explores the existence of Pokémon inside their respective game cartridges... particularly, what happens when a cartridge is physically destroyed.
- Didn't See That Coming: Jessica (in Pokémon Black) refusing evolution via Thunderstone.
- Drama Bomb: The unexpected (to the kids) death of Cameron's mother predictably causes a slew of mental health issues for both Cameron and his brother.
- Dramatic Irony: The reader is well aware of the significance of the name "Jessica" when Cameron subconsciously nicknames his Pikachu that in Pokémon Black, but Cameron himself has forgotten.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Discussed and defied at the very end, when Cameron vows to be extra careful with Pokémon games in the future, because he doesn't think Jessica will give him another chance if he repeats his past mistakes.
- Friendly Rivalry: Cameron and his friend, "P," play Pokémon Black and White simultaneously to see who finishes first. Cameron leaves P in the dust.
- Fury-Fueled Foolishness: Cameron comes home in a blind rage and throws his belongings everywhere, only to accidentally crack the Pokemon Yellow cartridge, killing his team.
- Loser Protagonist: Cameron is obsessed with Pokémon and mentally ill.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's possible Cameron just hallucinated Jessica talking to him, as his friends did not see what he is seeing.
- May It Never Happen Again: The story's conflict is jumpstarted by Cameron unintentionally cracking his cartridge of Pokémon Yellow, which ends up killing everyone on his Pokémon team, most prominently Jessica the Raichu. When he plays Pokémon Black, the Pikachu he caught reveals herself to be Jessica, and she tears him a new one for his carelessness. Cameron apologizes to her, and she decides to forgive him. At the end, Cameron says that he has not deleted the save file of any of his games since, and he has made sure not to destroy them again so that he will not incur Jessica's wrath.
- Missing Mom: Cameron and his brother's mother dies of cancer.
- Mistaken for Insane: Near the end of the story, when it becomes clear that Jessica (the eponymous Pikachu) has begun talking to Cameron and is accusing him of being a killer, he tries showing this to his friends, P and R. However, when he tries showing them this, the message would replace itself with Jessica's stats screen, leading them to think that he has gone nuts. He has also been diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder at this point, which may not have helped matters.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Cameron is horrified when he realizes that Jessica and the rest of his Pokémon Yellow team are real, and that he killed them when he destroyed his Pokémon Yellow game cartridge.
- Mythology Gag: Discussed. Cameron first thinks this is what is happening when Jessica starts acting like the starter Pikachu from Pokémon Yellow, and asking if he remembers her.
- No Antagonist: Cameron has plenty of hardships in the story, but none caused by a specific person in opposition to him.
- Nostalgia Filter: Downplayed. Cameron gets comfort from battling the Kanto Elite Four with his Pokémon Yellow team, but he still finds other Pokémon games fun.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Jessica turns out to be this. An unusual example, since Cameron is the one to whom she is proven to be real, not others around him.
- Oh, Crap!: Cameron, after realizing that he broke his Pokémon Yellow cartridge, thus depriving himself of his greatest pleasure permanently.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Jessica as a Pikachu. She becomes Cameron's first Pokémon at Level 100.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: At the Celestial Tower, Jessica tears Cameron a new one for destroying her and the rest of his team and forgetting about them.
- Red Is Violent: The dialogue about Cameron killing Jessica appears mainly in red text."CAMERON USED RAGE! JESSICA DIED!"
- Rule of Empathy: The sympathetic setup for both Cameron and Jessica possibly contributes to the happy ending, with the two reconciled and Jessica returned to life.
- Secondary Character Title: The story is named after Jessica, Cameron's Pikachu from Pokémon Yellow who reappears inexplicably in a different game years later.
- Signature Mon: Jessica for Cameron.
- Split Personality: After his mother's death, Cameron is diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder. He has not two, but three distinct personalities inside his head.
- Starter Mon: Jessica, of course. This is part of the reason why Cameron is so attached to her.
- Stylistic Callback: In-universe. After Jessica leaves for Celestial Tower and bids Cameron to follow her, all of the Pokémon sprites become static, 8-bit ones, just like in Pokémon Yellow.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: Jessica forgiving Cameron is by no means obvious before it happens.
- Tears of Remorse: Cameron weeps as he apologizes for crushing Jessica and forgetting her.
- The Topic of Cancer: Cameron's mother dies of cancer while he is still a young child. He says that everybody but himself foresaw her death.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Spoken word-for-word when Cameron follows Jessica to Celestial Tower:Alder: This... is unforgivable... but maybe, she will...
- Through the Eyes of Madness: A strong possibility for the scene in which Cameron realizes who Jessica is, and ultimately reconciles with her. Cameron's friends cannot see the creepy things that he sees Jessica say and do during the game, Cameron is known to have Multiple Personality Disorder, and both of Cameron's alternate personalities are quiet when he is engaging with Jessica during the game.
- Tragic Abandoned Toy: A video game character variation. When Cameron unintentionally crushes his copy of Pokémon Yellow, he forgets about his old Pokémon team and gets a copy of Pokémon Black. He subconsciously names his Pikachu "Jessica" after his Raichu from Yellow with the same name. Jessica begins acting strangely and reveals to him that she's heartbroken and furious that he accidentally killed her and his team and forgot about them all. However, Cameron tearfully apologizes, and Jessica decides to forgive him and rejoin his team.
- Troubled Teen: Both Cameron and his brother suffer from mental illnesses after their mother's death, which do not subside once they reach their teens.
- Vengeful Abandoned Toy: The "angry videogame character" version. Cameron has Pokémon Yellow and he is close to his Raichunote , Jessica. During a moment of Fury-Fueled Foolishness, he accidentally destroys the cartridge and is devastated. Over a year later, he gets a copy of Pokémon Black, and he also names a Pikachu Jessica. The latter begins to angrily ask if he remembers her and leads him to Celestial Tower, where she chews him out for unintentionally killing her when he destroyed Yellow and for forgetting about her. She forgives him, however, once he sincerely apologizes to her, and she becomes a member of his team.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Bianca and Cheren do this to Cameron at Celestial Tower:Bianca: Cameron... how could you do such a thing...?Cheren: You... I looked up to you... how could you betray me...?
