Tag: torracat

When my Incineroar, Zjaar, was a Litten he had this odd habit of tapping my shoulder with his paw. I’d give him my arm to rub against but instead he’d very gently put my hand or arm into his mouth. He wouldn’t hurt me but would nibble a little bit, almost like he was holding my hand but with his mouth. He did this less when he evolved and doesn’t at all now that he’s in his final stage. Any idea why he did that when he was a kitten? He never actually sunk his teeth into me luckily.

That was actually a sign of affection, believe it or not. Feline pokémon, especially basic-stage or “baby”-like ones such as litten, will show affection by nibbling their trainer’s hand gently. It has to do with how felines interact with each other. Play-fighting is an important part of cat pokémon development, and they’ll often engage in roughhousing with one another to develop important skills, such as pouncing, clawing, and—of course—biting. Biting then translates into other forms of affection, especially if someone who is very decidedly not a cat gives them a limb for them to “capture” and nibble into. Thus, if your feline pokémon does this, this is a sign that they’re excited and, yes, would like to show you that they consider you a part of their families.

(However, note that if your feline pokémon pushes you away after a nip, this means they would like to be left alone. Always read your pokémon’s body language to ensure that you’re translating their signals correctly.)

As for why it decreased as your litten grew older, the answer is actually equally simple: love bites would hurt you. As a litten evolves, it gains an affinity for the dark type, and with it, it gains an understanding of what using it means. So once it reaches the torracat and incineroar stages, it realizes that it can’t display affection the same way, as this would harm you, a strange incineroar without any of its abilities or resistances, more than help you understand what it’s feeling. So instead, it resorts to other means of affection and only uses “love bites” if it thinks its message isn’t getting across (or if you’ve accidentally trained it to show this form of affection above anything else).

By contrast, it should perhaps be noted that this behavior lingers a little longer in both forms of persian, but that’s mostly because both forms of persian are a little more sadistic than most feline pokémon. Thus, if your persian grabs your arm with a paw, try to gently pull yourself away without getting clawed.

Best of luck!

The Litten Line

Litten
The Fire Cat Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 725
Entry: One of three pokémon traditionally offered to new trainers at the beginning of their journeys in Alola. Litten is known for its self-grooming habits, which it tends to engage in most of the time in lieu of expressing affection or paying attention to its trainer. This routine consists of litten bathing itself by raking its rough tongue over its fur to clean itself of loose hair and dirt. During this process, it has a tendency to swallow stray hair, which collects in its stomach and forms hairballs that are then ignited by litten’s internal flame sacs. Sometimes, litten expels these hairballs as Ember attacks during battle, but more often than not, it will simply expel these flaming hairballs on your wooden floor or carpet and proudly sit next to the growing fire until its humans come to clean it up.

Torracat
The Fire Cat Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 726
Entry: The evolved form of litten, by battle experience. The organ at its throat is a hollow, bell-like structure that rings every time torracat spits fire. This is convenient, largely because torracat possess the same grooming habits as litten and far fewer qualms about spitting flaming hairballs onto perfectly good wooden or carpeted floors. How any houses in Alola are still standing after young trainers bring this pokémon or its preevolution back home is a mystery and point of wonder to the author.

Incineroar
The Heel Pokémon
Type: Fire/Dark
Official Registration #: 727
Entry: The evolved form of torracat, by battle experience. Incineroar is infamous for its openly vicious, selfish persona—a persona that often makes it difficult to tame and handle. However, underneath that violent, selfish persona is really a caring and complicated soul just looking for a kind, gentle trainer who will help it heal from an unspecified past trauma and begin its long and arduous redemption arc … according to most fangirls on the internet, anyway. (In reality, this pokémon will Throat Chop any being it considers to be a challenger, including humans who approach it from the front. Handle it with caution and definitely do not attempt to give it a hug.)