The Captain of the Virtual Console is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover Fan Fic written by Gancena, loosely based off of the premise to Captain N: The Game Master and similar works.
The story begins with a presence of light realizing a hero is needed to fight back against the ever-growing darkness pervading the world. She summons one, and gets Gancena, a video game fangirl who was playing her Nintendo Wii. Luckily, Gancena is interested in what's happened, and listens to the presence—named Selene—and her story.
The gaming worlds are under attack from creatures known as the Thoughtless, mindless monsters that represent Moral Guardians and the worst aspects of the Fan Dumb. If the attacks continue, Selene will be unable to stop them and their influence will spread into the real world, destroying everything. The gaming worlds need a hero to travel to the worlds and gather a Runestone, a representation of players' love for games, from each of them. Doing this would save all worlds from annihilation.
Eager and somewhat hesitant at first, Gancena accepts, taking on the mantle of the Captain of the Virtual Console (or Virtual Console Captain). With a SNES Super Scope in hand, the Captain travels to the worlds to collect the Runestones and save the gaming worlds and her own.
It can be found on Fanfiction.net
and AO3. The author's Twitter can be found here, and her tumblr here.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The Thoughtless are this to Moral Guardians and ignorant gamers, and Selene is this to gamers' hopes and dreams, acting as the bond between players and games. In Chapter 2, Gancena briefly sees a Thoughtless take the form of Giygas.
- Ascended Fangirl: Gancena is a huge fan of video games, and goes inside them to save all worlds.
- Author Appeal: Classic games are just as cool as new ones, and deserve respect.
- Author Avatar: Gancena is the author's self-insert at the time the story was conceived.
- Battle in the Rain: Invoked by Red's Blastoise using Rain Dance, with the most notable instance being at Cerulean Cave.
- Call-Forward: In the Pokemon arc, the Fairy type introduced in Pokemon X and Y exists, but hasn't been discovered. This is because the story started and takes place in late 2011, but the Pokemon arc lasted until after Pokemon Sun and Moon came out, meaning that Gancena wouldn't know about it for several years.
- Call to Adventure: Gancena gets this while playing her Nintendo Wii.
- Jumped at the Call: To the point where Gancena wants to accept the quest before Selene even explains it.
- Captain Superhero: Lampshaded in reference to Captain N: The Game Master.
- The Chooser of the One: Selene. She picked Gancena.
- Cliffhanger: Chapter 5 ends with the Thoughtless descending on Blaine's mansion.
- Composite Character: Blaine, being from Pokemon Yellow, has traits of his game and anime selves.
- Continuity Cameo: Yellow from Pokémon Adventures appears.
- Demonic Possession: The Thoughtless possess some Rocket Grunts and their Pokemon, as well as Haunter, and later Blue.
- Doorstopper: According to the first interlude, there are a total of twenty worlds Gancena needs to collect Runestones from. The first arc took 26 chapters and over 100,000 words. Do the math.
- Dramatic Irony: Applies regarding Giovanni, as the other Gym Leaders have no idea he's evil.
- Due to the Dead: The start of Chapter 10 is everyone mourning Blue's Raticate.
- Expy: According to
Word of God, Selene is one to both Princess Lana from Captain N: The Game Master and Princess Celestia from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. - Gateway Series: In-universe. Pokemon was this for Gancena; it's the one she chooses to enter first.
- Gender-Blender Name: Gancena names a female Pikachu "Ash," after the male Ash Ketchum.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Played with. Both Gancena and Mewtwo give Selene a name, with the latter calling her Amber. Gancena is also allowed to give a name to Selene's world: The Hub.
- Hub Level: Selene's domain, with portals to the other worlds. Gancena even names it "The Hub" when given the opportunity.
- Inspiration Nod: Gancena briefly mentions Captain N: The Game Master and how it at least had a good premise.
- Light Gun Game: Gancena's weapon of choice is a SNES Super Scope.
- MacGuffin: The Runestones, representations of the love players have for games.
- Massively Multiplayer Crossover
- The Mentor: Mew. Or so Gancena believes for most of the Pokemon arc. It's really Mewtwo.
- Mythology Gag: The Pokemon arc, despite being an adaptation of Pokemon Yellow, has some post-Gen 1 elements, like Berries and Johto Pokemon.
- Naïve Newcomer: Ash the Pikachu. She's never seen an ocean before.
- Named by the Adaptation: Red's parents, Rose and Glehn Spruce.
- Original Generation: Gancena, Selene, and the Thoughtless.
- Pokémon: Gancena's first destination is Pallet Town, specifically as seen in Pokemon Yellow.
- Poor Communication Kills: Gancena forgets to tell Erika that Giovanni is the boss of Team Rocket after narrowly seeing him get away.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Plenty of Pokemon, but most notably Red's Pikachu, the Kanto Starter Pokemon, Blaine's twin Ponyta foals, and Gancena's Pikachu, Ash.
- Save Both Worlds: The gaming world(s) and the real one are in danger.
- Self-Insert Fic: Gancena is the author as she was at the end of 2011.
- Shout-Out: The forest full of Pikachu is one to the Pokemon anime episode "Pikachu's Goodbye," which also had an entire forest full of Pikachu.
- The Black Fog from the Pokemon manga The Electric Tale of Pikachu is mentioned.
- Starter Villain: Offshoots of the Thoughtless are fought in Chapter 2. They're later seen "helping" villains from the games Gancena visits.
- Talking Pokemon: Shiimeji Haunter, and he says that it's possible for all Pokemon to learn to speak.
- Third-Option Adaptation: Gancena enters the world of Pokemon Yellow, where Red has a Pikachu, Blue has an Eevee, and Giovanni has a Persian.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Gancena likes Granny Smith apples.
- The Unreveal: Despite catching a Dugtrio, Red and Gancena never find out what its body looks like.
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: Mew, via Transform.
- Wham Line: Zapdos casually mentions that Mew isn't actually Gancena's guide.
- You Are Not Alone: Discussed in regards to Pokemon journeys:Professor Oak: The entire point of a Pokémon journey isn't learning how to stand on your own. The point is to stand with each other-people and Pokémon. They are our friends. We help each other and learn from each other.
