>>56986331I don't read coomslop but if pokemon are able to speak in your setting, it should require such a monumental effort that very very very few pokemon would ever bother. Not only does it just take away the magic, but from a more practical standpoint it's ignoring the fact that they're just not built for it.
Their jaws, tongues, etc, were never designed for it, their brains weren't designed to learn it, and their spirit actively rejects the idea since they already have a mystical understanding of all audible communication. Stuff like this should be the obstacle that makes a pokemon and even trainer see it as not worth the effort. After all, why go through all this effort when you and your pokemon already understand each other well?
Still, I think the possibility should be there because pokemon are ultimately intelligent creatures and thus learning to speak a language wouldn't be impossible. Unless of course their anatomy made it impossible.
All of that said, the MC's pokemon should not be one of the few who've learned to speak human. Some other pokemon speaking to reveal the possibility can be cool, but absolutely not the MC's pokemon. At the very most they may learn to speak an easy word or two, but full on verbal communications is fubar.
