#and also from watching pokemon card pack openings

[aquanutart]

I absolutely LOVE the Squirtle/Wartortle illustrations by kantaro in Pokemon 151!

The Squirtle jumping so joyfully from the rock into the ocean, the colors are STUNNING! I love the contrast of the Squirtle's aqua blue framed in the vivid orange sky, the soft bit of blue reflecting in its shell and its tail just catching the sun, how little and squishy its body looks as it launches itself towards the water with such tremendous excitement!

The lineless style of the background gives me the feel of a travel poster and I sense the tropical environment around it from the rocks and trees framing the corners, the waterfall splashing with as much energy as the Squirtle!

The layered blues on the surface of the water and the bubbles rising at the corner make me FEEL the liquid rising to meet the Squirtle--I can just feel how the next moment it's going to break through and be immersed in a cool island swim!

And the Wartortle running along the sunset beach, this is somehow everything I always imagined for Wartortle! I adore the way the rich purple melts into the warm red/orange sky, the matching purple clouds and shadows in the foreground, and how the dimming sunlight glows red on Wartortle's deep blues!

I love how the yellow and orange of the sky illuminate the lapping waves, I can just feel the gentle motion of the sea at dusk. The aqua color of the ocean matches Wartortle's ears and tail and sets off the red-orange sand, I just love how the colors are here!

Wartortle looks so round and squishy, I love its happiness as it goes frolicking through the shallows, chasing the bubbles caught in the setting sun! The shine and deep shadow on its shell give it an almost jewel texture like real tortoise shell; I love the silhouetted splash Wartortle leaves as it goes running across the shore. It's so full of energy and delight at the end of a gorgeous day! The colors in these are SO vivid and harmonized and the style is so cute and bursting with energy and joy. I just LOVE it (also Squirtle is my starter)

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #long post #i have deep affection for bulbasaur as well though and i also love the bulbasaur/ivysaur cards in this set #i SO wish we'd gotten art of the final evolutions in the same style as the pre-evos' standard cards!! #(yes i do love the full art ones but i also love the illustrations on the standard cards!) #from the way the settings in these two were going; i would have imagined blastoise to be set at night (??) #i LOVE pokemon cards. i can't keep up with every set but i started collecting again now and then a few years ago #and 151 has really got me wanting the full set the way i haven't since childhood. SO many beautiful illustrations (but there always are) #it's like having little pieces of art of my favorite characters and it's only.. slightly... less expensive than actually commissioning .... #i KNOW it's less expensive to buy the individuals online but it's so much less fun #part of the fun is having YOUR own pokemon journey ((going to the store)) and seeing what YOU encounter ((when you open the pack)) #i do buy them online sometimes but i usually dont form as strong associations with them as when i open a pack in a certain setting or place #i tend to try to save them to open right before a significant event like starting something new or a holiday. so that i form associations #and it's like 'oh that's the galarian obstagoon from when my mom came home for christmas' #and 'that's the snorlax who reassured me when i was hurt' #i don't buy them too often so i've got to make it count #anyway i know i should wait for the prices on this one to come down because it's absolutely ridiculous #i didn't buy anything at release because i was like $6 for one booster pack??? but i couldn't take just sitting and watching them sell out #i really like the poster because i can look at so many beautiful pictures all together #i could say stuff like this about literally every pokemon illustration (if i had time to write it out) and sometimes i've wanted to #i just chose these two because these are a couple of my original favorite pokemon and i just couldn't keep it to myself. i LOVE these

[imthepunchlord]

Actually, I've wanted to ask but wasn't sure if you'd ever wanted to answer it since it was outside of ML...how did you feel when you discovered they were done with Ash's story once and for all? Which generation did you first start following Pokémon? How long have you watched it? Did you play the games at all? Read any of the manga? Have the trading cards?

Err...Sorry. That was probably too many at once.

No, no, that's fine.

Starting with the anime and Ash, I've watched the Pokemon anime since it first came to the USA, and stuck with it all the way to Advanced, watched a little bit after but then I was kinda done and stopped watching the anime all together. Not that I wasn't enjoying it, it's just, I was tired of Ash as a lead. As a kid I didn't like Ash enough to want to keep following Ash's story through the different regions, so I stopped.

And oh man, I remember watching the start of Advanced and being so excited cause it opened up with May, Sapphire is officially my first Pokemon game and I really liked the girl's design and I wanted more action-adventure shows with girls as the leads that wasn't stuck with overly girly themes and romance and so I thought Advanced was going to be May's journey and she was going to be the lead and then there was Ash and Pikachu and I just deflated. And I've never been interested to keep watching cause I just didn't care/like Ash enough to see more of him and his adventure.

So, personally, I was thrilled to learn that Ash was finally retiring, and we're finally getting some fresh faces for the anime. I've always thought they should've just gone ahead and swapped around leads with every new region, and just switch up whether the lead was the playable boy or playable girl. It really would've added some nice personality to them as they're blank slates in game wise. And have Ash occasionally cameo, like they had Misty cameo a few times.

So for the first time since Advanced ended, I'll actually be watching the Pokemon anime again, cause I'm excited for fresh faces. I've been wanting fresh faces for so long.

So, as the anime wasn't giving me the enjoyment I wanted as a Pokemon fan, I largely stuck with the games. I've played almost all of the main line games, with SwSh being the only one I haven't bought (it wasn't worth the money to me), I have also played almost all of the PMD games with Rescue RB and Explorer's of Sky being my favorites, played 2/3 of the Rangers games, Shadows of Almia and Guardian Signs and gosh, I hope SoA is one day remade, that was one of the best pokemon games I've ever played. I've played Legends Arceus and I hope Legends will become it's own series cause that was fun and fascinating, I really want one set for Jhoto, Unova, and Kalos. And I've played Gale of Darkness.

Pokemon cards I collected as a kid, and they were like a surprise treat from my dad when he came to pick me up as at random, he'd have a pack for me. I had no idea how to play so I just enjoyed collecting them.

Manga wise, I read the first following RBY, but didn't read any after it. The manga series is too dark for my taste, and some of the choices made for characters I found to be weird. So I decided it wasn't for me.

So, as a Pokemon fan, it was largely sticking to the games for me, but I am excited for the new anime, ready to follow some new faces. Personally I think it's long over due.

#ask Punchie #pokemon #personal

[alittledizzy]

okay so my best advice for anon from someone with almost 2 years of mcyt fandom bullshittery under their belt is to 1. completely ignore the dsmp lore. unless u have no other life stuff going on you will never be up to date with that. i failed to become up to date even 2 years ago, it's THAT much. so forget lore. But. 2. if u wanna get into shipping you can watch compilations on youtube. if that feels like it's missing context u can watch the vods they come from. watch George's cooking streams. look up irl streams with sapnap and karl. watch the snf meetup streams!! the qnf meetup streams too. look up "memes with dreams" and watch those too for dnf content or look up the jackbox streams. look up dream's discord podcasts-there are people who cut out the silences and they're awesome. watch the 2 "are you in love with your best friend" quiz videos. obviously watch the videos on their individual youtube channels. i think there's a dnfcliparchive tumblr account or something too but if that's not their url it's something along those lines. there used to be a doc explaining dream's controversies but that got deleted after his last one lol. at the end of the day, know that even people who have been here a while don't know EVERYTHING and if you see something that looks like an inside joke your best bet is just asking someone, you probably won't find the source on your own. it took me MONTHS to stop feeling confused about all the stuff that was going on all the time (it's a bit more chill now), but it's a fun fandom with tons of content to back-watch/read so you'll never really be bored. also!! if you want fic recs i will be happy to provide lol. maybe read heatwaves&helium cause those are the most popular fics and they're like... part of the dnf starter pack atp. and also have fun!! (also p.s. my favourite vods are the dream geoguessr ones feat george and sapnap& George's pokemon streams. also Sapnap's pokemon card pack opening streams and one of them is feat. george, bad, maybe dream?? so yeah. also i cannot state this enough THE SNF MEETUP STREAMS. trust me. u will die. anyway bye)

This is such a good primer (like the old school livejournal kinds) omg yes.

I actually saw a reupload of that controversies doc on reddit somewhere when I was first poking around and it was extremely useful because it made me realize a lot of the stuff I'd just internalized about him through social media osmosis were really and completely bullshit. I mean, he's sure as fuck not perfect, but he's not what I thought he was just from reading hashtags and headlines.

#dnf asks

[local-pokemart-worker]

I used to be in a dark place.

I will put a read more cut so you don't have to read. I talk about abuse, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

Pokemon helped save my life.

I have chronic medical and mental disorders and was in an abusive situation for awhile. I stopped watching Pokemon, stopped collecting cards, stopped playing the games, all because I was yelled at to stop.

I'm suicidal, even though I don't want to be, there is a very high chance that I will try again. I still remember every time I tried and failed to take my life.

One day I was in the hospital, and my favorite substitute teacher came to visit and drop off schoolwork. He also dropped off a coloring sheet, it was an eevee. Before everything he once printed off Pokemon themed coloring sheets for me during playtime because I didn't play with the other kids. He told me that since my name was Eevee I should have an eevee with me.

After that, I started to watch Pokemon again. It was my escape from all the yelling, name calling, insults, and hits.

And now I'm out of that situation. I have two moms who love me, a service dog, a few pet dogs and cats, plus horse riding lessons. I also have a job, I save half for my future and the other half goes towards Pokemon cards and games.

I still have habits, I hide food in my room, I have a hidden stash of cash, I have water in my room and bandages. Sometimes without knowing it I try to harm myself, I shy away from adults, I stay far away from men, I look at things and think of how easy it would be for me to die using it. I know how to pass off injuries as something my pets accidentally did. These are things I don't want, but I have.

Had my teacher not made that stupid eevee joke, I would still be in that situation, taking everything given to me, hating myself and still trying to take my own life. I wouldn't remember the joy of sitting down and watching hours of Pokemon at a time, trying so hard to beat the game with my team of eevees, laughing whenever someone commented on my name in the game because it's literally the name of a Pokemon, the joy of opening new card packs, finding all the ones I want, selling to the card store and picking out the ones I save up for a year to buy. Sitting down with the books and being utterly confused and unable to read it. Wouldn't find about the Pokemon irl Tumblr side. I put many parts of myself into Kit and her backstory, even parts you don't even know about yet.

It seems fitting that my favorite Pokemon is eevee.

I know I can say many things and you'll just ignore it, I'll say it'll get better and you won't believe me, trust me I didn't when I was there. I know it will, and I promise you that, even if you don't want to believe me. Just listen to this one thing.

I didn't fail at dying, I succeeded in living.

#ooc #cw sui thoughts #Tw sui thoughts #tw abuse #cw abuse #cw depression #tw depression

[starrycereal]

Board game store stories?

So many. So god damn many.

I work at one of the FLGS (Friendly Local Game Stores) in town. We sell board games, MtG, Yu-Gi-Oh, DnD, all that kind of shit.

I'm assuming this is in reference to my tags on this post so. Okay. Pokemon collectors are fucking insane, I'm sorry but also not really. I have had them scream at me for five minutes because I would not let them buy our entire stock before I wandered downstairs, told my boss what was happening, then let him deal with that shit.

A separate time, we had a kid buy a pack from us, open it with some actually relatively rare cards inside it, then accuse the shop of selling resealed packs on his YouTube channel which is. Not what we do. And also not great to do. Said kid didn't stop until it got to the point of "hey kid we do need to talk to your parents because this can turn into a whole actual legal issue and you are still a kid, so we gotta talk to them about it." The kid stopped after that. Outside of Pokemon, people will steal cards from others and then try to sell them to us, then get mad when we won't buy them. we don't even accuse them of anything, we just don't want to run the risk. I've watched people try and steal cards out of the binders while I am physically standing in front of them as they try this. One of the people playing MtG at the shop lost to someone younger than him, then spent literally like 10 minutes yelling at him about it on and off until my boss threw him out of the shop. I have had people banned from the shop because they were being a creep towards anyone who wasn't non-cishet man. I have banned people for being creeps towards me. I love my job, but holy fuck man.

#my ramblings #finlay answers #i have many more specific stories but i'm trying to not make a literal 8 page long post

[creationsbyjesska]

Pokemon Presents Updates

Pokémon Presents 2024 Recap: Exciting Updates and Announcements

Pokémon fans were in for a treat as the Pokémon Presents 2024 event aired on Thursday morning, just behind of Pokémon Day. With a slew of exciting announcements and reveals, the event had something for every Pokémon enthusiast for every game variant. If you would like to watch the stream you can here. Here's a quick rundown of what was showcased, I will post main details separately as they release: Special Tera Raid Events

Kicking off the festivities were special Tera Raid events featuring fan-favorite Pokémon. From Venusaur to Blastoise and Charizard, players will have the opportunity to participate in these limited-time events and earn exclusive rewards. Stay tuned for detailed articles covering each event and the best strategies to tackle them! Pokémon Go x Pokémon Horizons

In celebration of the release of Pokémon Horizons on US Netflix, Pokémon Go is introducing characters from the series into the game. Starting March 7th, players can expect to encounter these iconic characters in Pokémon Go, adding an extra layer of excitement to the gaming experience. This also includes Captain Hat Pikachu! Pokémon Masters EX 4.5 Year Celebration

Pokémon Masters EX is gearing up for a grand celebration with the addition of new sync pairs: Silver (Champion) & Shiny Tyranitar, and Pokémon Scarlet/Violet’s Champion Geeta & her Glimmora. Get ready to welcome these powerful additions to your team starting February 28th. Pokémon Unite

Pokémon Day brought with it exciting news for Pokémon Unite fans. The legendary Pokémon Millaidon has joined the game, with special events allowing players to obtain a license for this formidable creature. Don't miss out on the action, and the future Pokemon to arrive. Pokémon Sleep

The highly anticipated Pokémon Sleep introduces its first Legendary Pokémon, Raikou, available as part of a Research Event in March 2024. Get ready to embark on a sleep-themed adventure and collect Raikou mane samples to unlock special rewards. With Entei and Suicune to follow, now I might actually use the app! Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket

Experience the fun of collecting Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) cards with Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, an upcoming game for iOS and Android devices from Creatures Inc., the original developers of the Pokémon TCG, and DeNA Co., Ltd. In this game, you will be able to open two booster packs every day at no cost. You can collect digital cards featuring nostalgic artwork from the past as well as brand-new cards that are exclusive to Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. Amidst the excitement, concerns arose regarding Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket and its potential ties to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). However, The Pokémon Company swiftly addressed these concerns, assuring fans that the game will not feature NFTs. Players can rest assured and look forward to a digital trading card game experience without NFT involvement. Read the full article

#nintendo #Pokemon #Pokémon #pokemoncenter #pokemoncollector #pokemoncommunity #pokemonfan #pokemongame #pokemontrainer

[pandashop01]

Pokémon Card in India

Even though with all this obstacles, the craze of Pokémon TCG is only increasing day by day in India and it is nowhere near its potential and yeah I said that twice because I really want you to know that this hobby is going to be really big and as long as the supply of affordable licensed Pokémon products keep rolling in more and more, new collectors will come out naturally and yeah if you want to get official Pokémon product that are also affordable then you know where to come haha, sorry had to put a small advertisement for panda shop. Most of us has watched Pokémon at some point of our life and many are still hooked to it and with all those hours that we have spent on watching episode after episodes, we have kind of built a special connection with the show. If are just starting into this collecting hobby then I would recommend to go with what your heart is saying, like if you are more into generation 1 Pokémon’s then sets like Battle region and Dark phantasma will really impress you and if you have want to collect some expensive cards then sets like lost abyss, star birth will give you a really good pump of excitement while opening the packs and if you find any beautiful cards from our single card section then you can directly get them without having the need of opening bunch of packs for it and I am going to be honest, getting the card that you are chasing after directly will be much cheaper for you but the feeling you get while opening packs makes it worth it for sure and yeah I am not saying this to make you guys buy packs or booster boxes lol.

While buying your first packs or cards, always remember to get some card sleeves, they are basically a small plastic pouch for your cards and save your cards from getting scratches all over it and without the sleeve, any card can get easily damaged and that will bring down the value of your card. If the card is little expensive or from one of your main collection then you can use a top loader or semi rigid case for extra protection for your card and you can find most of the these items from our supplies (TCG) section. Majority of the TCG fans buys Pokémon cards these days for their collection so finding the value of your card will also be pretty important and exciting as well and for that we have also built a guide called “quick guide to check any card’s value”, you can click on the link and it will take you directly to it. The prices of the Pokémon cards changes frequently and it is pretty much like trading in stock market, the price of a card can be 61$ at morning and by end of the night it can be near 64$ and in long run, the price can rise up to 2x or even more of what you paid for it and if you got that card from a pack then congrats but one have to keep it in mind that the value of the card can fall too so always choose a card carefully. I think we should end this article now and before signing out, let’s do a quick summary : “Buy sealed or singles only after deciding what you need” and “always buy sleeves and top loaders to protect your cards” and then we talked about finding the value of your card and it isn’t explained in this article so you can head that guide that we just mentioned earlier to learn how to find your card’s value and like always, if you guys have any query or question then you can contact us on our Instagram account or you can also send the message directly from website chat so that will be all for today and see you on the next one…

This Post Is Originally Published Here: https://www.pandashops.store/post/pokemon-card-in-india

#PokémonTCG

[junowyear3]

Had a conversation with someone at Depot Artspace about some ideas in my project:

Tapping into, engaging with popular culture communities. Him and I brought, opened, and had a conversation over a pack of Pokemon cards we each got. He is someone who collects them seriously so he was paying attention to the ranks of each card and character. An interesting thing to note is that he showed me the proper traditional way to open the pack of cards, this is a very specific method of shuffling and ordering the cards so you can view them in order of the rankings, the ‘rare’ or ‘special’ card in the deck would remain at the back of the lot to help build that excitement when looking through the cards.

Human instincts and desires, primal instincts, selfish or repulsive desires. This stemmed from a conversation about him witnessing an arrogant and socially-unaware customer at Starbucks in the city, I talked about how sometimes I worried about moments where I feel I have no control over my body- like when you involuntarily twitch or jolt, I wondered if it would be possible to do something destructive or embarrassing without even being aware of it. Fleeting moments of watching oncoming traffic, you wait until the cars drive past but sometimes you get fleeting desires to jump into the middle of the road. When you stand on a balcony, you occasionally experience an unexplained desire to jump. Also this concerning sensation of wanting to simultaneously hug and crush things that are vulnerable or cute, I discussed this in my pecha kucha: 

“This stems from the psychological and physical affect and power that cuteness has over us, and how we respond with an ambivalent mixture of both care and aggression. Sianne Ngai argues that our response to the cute aesthetic is actually imbued with violence, that the strong affect that cuteness has over us could also be seen as deceptive. Daniel Harris has argued that the cute object elicits a desire for mastery in the subject, which is in turn tied to a sadistic drive. His research was based on the feeling of ‘you’re so cute I want to eat you up.’“

The blind-box, the Pokemon card-pack:

Gambling. Simultaneous feelings of excitement and disappointment. I previously wrote about the shopping experience being a double-edged sword, experiencing contradictory emotions at once and feeling guilty from it. Addiction, collection. Addictive quality of videogames, entertainment, and marketing. Do you actually enjoy this or are you being manipulated?

[cyberpsych0sis]

There’s really a Pokémon named slugma huh

#take the l out of slugma and what does that spell out :) #I know not that much about Pokémon but I’ve been watching a lot of Pokémon snap videos #my only knowledge of Pokémon comes from Pokémon go #and also from watching pokemon card pack openings

[fishoutofcamelot]

📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂 (or as many as you want to answer)

I count 32 folder emojis so you get 32 headcanons. A moment of silence for everyones dashboards, bc im too lazy to add a read-more line.

When Gwen became queen, she decided that they could get a different servant to wake them up so as to let merlin sleep in. George is an early bird, so he is happy to wake them up most mornings (except in special circumstances like birthdays or whatever, then merlin will surprise them with breakfast in bed)

Lancelot was young when bandits killed his family/village, and spent most of childhood and formative years on the streets as an orphan

Gwaine is pan

Sometimes, merlin will use his animation magic to bring balinors dragon statue to life. He'll sit there in his room, watching it eagerly fly in circles overhead. He named it Flappy

As an extension of the previous point, Merlin is really bad at naming things. The name "aithusa" only came to him bc of dragonlord magic. For example, upon catching/killing a rat in arthurs chambers, he named it "Ratravaine"

Gwen, on the other hand, spends a whole day nervously agonizing over what to name something. Elyan caught a caterpillar and asked Gwen what it should be called, but this only drew her into a week-long crisis. By the time she decided on the name "Wilbur", Elyan had already released it back into the wild

Ygraine and Nimueh definitely had a gay thing back in their teenage years, and ygraine was definitely bi, and nimueh definitely used to tease uther about how she hecked his wife before he did

Arthur is a dog person

Percival is afraid of deep water and also doesnt know how to swim. But after elyans lake funeral, percival became determined to learn - perhaps it was merely a coincidence, or perhaps out of some morbid desire to one day wade out into the lake and feel closer to his fallen friend

Arthurs love language is gift giving. Gwaine, leon, and lancelot are acts of service. Merlin and Gwen are words of affirmation. Percival is quality time. Elyan is physical touch

Post season 3, Morgana grew to hate flowers because they reminded her too much or Gwen, but could never bring herself to crush/destroy them

Arthur has a lactose intolerance, but since no one knew what that was back then, no one thought to tell him to stop eating dairy

Pre-canon, Gwaine and Tristan/Isolde worked together on some smuggling gigs

Gwen, Merlin, and Arthur meet up with Tristan to visit Isolde's grave and pay their respects once a year

Tristan turned down Arthurs offer of knighthood, but does come to help out whenever they need it. He makes no secret that merlin is his favorite

Post-canon, Merlin is THE pokemon card collector. Like. He keeps binders full of them. Doesnt trade or compete in card games/tournaments, though. He just likes to look at them

Percival is an artist. As a kid he didnt have any art supplies, but he used to carve amazing sketches into the dirt using sticks. Knowing this, Lancelot bought him a box of paints using his first Knight WageTM

On his deathbed, Percival asked Merlin to fetch his paint box. The paints had long since run out, but he kept the box as a comfort, and as a reminder of all the friends he had lost. He holds it to his chest as he lets out his final breath. Merlin buries him with the box in hand

George is left-handed

During council meetings, Gwen and Merlin will make faces at each other when no one is looking

Merlin actually hates the color gold, for reasons you can probably imagine

Merlin starts season 1 at the age of 17, is 27 by season 5, and 1500+ by the end of the series

Post-canon, Merlin has begun studying robotics in the hopes of one day creating an ai sophisticated enough to be his companion. After all, a well-maintained machine wont die as quickly or easily as a human would

Gwen's favorite color is purple/lilac

Leon suffers from insomnia and also has major PTSD

You know the "Siblings Song" by Brian David Gilbert? That but with Leon, Elyan, and Gwen (leon being the oldest brother, obviously)

Merlin will pack-bond with anything. He once painted a face onto Arthurs chair, named it Mr. Seat, and forbade arthur from sitting on it. Gwen played along, and under her orders Mr. Seat was placed in the vaults

Gwen is poly, but knows that arthur isnt as comfortable with open relationships so she doesnt pursue anything polyamorous out of a respect for his boundaries

Everyone thinks mordred is innocent bc he's the Baby Of The Family, but he actually curses worse than a sailor. And his curses are creative too. He did spend some time working with slavers, after all

Theres this one noble who used to bully servants, even bullied gwen and Merlin. So when gwen became queen, thereby outranking the noble, she was all "ooooh ive been waiting a long time for this" and gave up half of the noble's land to the nearby villages. Merlin wouldve preferred she punch that bastard in the nose, but she insists this way is much more effective (it is)

Between the stone dog, the dragon in the flames spell, and the horse in the smoke spell, Merlins favorite type of magic is animation magic. He likes bringing things to life, bc for just a moment those magical constructs make him feel the tiniest bit less alone

Merlin has very faint freckles that only pop out when he spends long periods of time in the sun. Incidentally, these freckles also glow gold when he uses magic

Thanks for the ask! <3

#merlin #merlin bbc #bbc merlin #bbcm #ask #fish post

[pokeexehasstoppedworking]

Love Doesn’t Do Encores Ch8 Battle Gym Leader Milo

(I have read somewhere sheep love dandelions so Im applying that fact to wooloos. I would also like to note that all side quests shall also be considered a part of the story.)

It would be nice to wake up without pain in your neck, sides, or back wouldn't it? That's what you wished you could do as you were shaken yet again the very next morning by someone. The four of you had decided to set up camp in the nearby camping grounds near the stadium since the day was starting to come too a close and you still weren't used to not sleeping on anything between you and the ground besides the thin floor of the tent and had fallen asleep feeling the hard ground beneath you and it must've taken you at least a good three hours before you had fallen asleep that night. Your sobble softly snoring sleeping on your head. And this morning was just like the rest when you woke up with a slight pain in your neck and back, popping them as you stretched. And with what happened yesterday you must've looked a sight-

"You look like you haven't slept in a month." Yep. It was Gloria decked out in her white gym uniform again ready to take on the day and battle ....or so it seemed.

You yawned and rubbed at your neck. Giving a groan as you already felt your sobble climbing on your back to reach it favorite riding spot and you gave him a look when he flopped half of himself over your shoulder. You were starting to see a pattern with this little guy liking to hitch a ride instead of walking himself.....Hm. Well if he was gonna stick with you for a while maybe you should give him a name? But right now you were more concerned with how much you were yawning. "Haha. I wonder why."

"Is she up?" Victor's head appeared in the opening of the tent next to his twin's and rose a brow at you blinking at the sunlight. "Oh...Wow you weren't wrong? Real case of bed head there, Y/n."

"Glad to know I can scare off Prince Charming," you sarcastically stated, "Although I wasn't expecting any kissing from any royalty anyhow."

Gloria snorted and Victor quickly held up his hands. "WHA- I-I didn't mean to be rude I swear it's just-"

"Ah. It's fine." You cut him off moving to grab your lumpy backpack/pillow at this point and made to crawl out of the tent. "Im always like this in the morning anyways. All I need is a quick hair brush and Im fine. ...What time is it?"

"Pretty early in the morning. We can all head on over to the stadium if you want but we'll still have to wait. Milo's still battling someone at the moment."

It must've been one of the trainers from before you guessed as you completely crawled out reaching up to straighten your hair out in an attempt to look presentable from a night of little sleep. "I guess he's still busy today. Kinda makes me wanna rethink my whole business liscence schtick if this means I'm gonna run a business like that."

"Business stick?"

"...Nevermind. Help me put away the tents then we can head on over to the gym ok?"

The four of you scrambled to put the tents away as you fumbled to get yourself looking half way decent. You doubted anyone would pay too much attention to you being only one random person sitting in the crowd of possibly hundreds of more people...That reminds you. You looked over your shoulder at Gloria who was currently in a pretty deep conversation with her twin whil Hop (tried to-) wrestle the tent down into it's more compact form. Victor mentioned she had stage fright. Not as bad as before stage fright, but still stage fright. He mentioned she had gotten A lot better but it seemed there was still some left since you could still remember her stiff smile and the way Hop had assurringly held his friend's hand out on the field there, which was real sweet of him. You could definately tell he was related to Leon. But it won't be the same here. It's not like you or anyone else would be there to encourage her while on field. The best any of you could do was cheer her on from the stage. Guess the two of you would have to roll with the punches as they were about to hit you. It didn't take too long to pack everything away, and you had helped Hop with his struggling battle to put the tent away. As soon as it was tightly packed away and placed onto Hop's back, you turned ready to journey to the stadium-

"Hey." Gloria's voice stopped you mid step as she pointed back up the way from the stadium. "Before we head on out I need to buy me some dandelions."

You gave her a look like she was crazy. "Dandelions? What would you buy dandelions right now for?"

"Milo's still busy right? Then we have time to get some before we go!"

You had zero idea what in the world Gloria would want with dandelions especially before her first gym battle, but you agreed since it meant you'd have some more time to straighten your hair out. So you agreed and she proceeded to buy dandelions at the florist shope. Stuffing them into her white uniform's pants pocket. She had bought a good amount and you wondered what in the world they were for. A gift for Milo perhaps? By the time the four of you made it back down to the GIGANTIC stadium. Her brother turning to her as you three stopped by to part ways. From here you could hear the cheering from the hundreds of people within and briefly wondered for a moment exactly where all these people came from. Certainly not this small town unless they traveled to see the matches. Which seemed more likely.

"Don't forget to show them your League Card to get in," Victor reminded her.

"I know."

"And stay calm."

"I know."

"Have a clear head and think things through alright."

"I KNOW!! Vic I'll be fine! You guys should get seats and watch me kick some butt!"

You heard him groan and shake his head. "Just....Don't forget what we talked about earlier alright?"

She nodded her head before giving him a smile and turned on her heel to trot on over to the front doors, which was guarded by more of those security people from the first stadium. Hop caught your attention when he nodded his head towards the stadium and you agreed following him as he turned to walk towards around the far side of the stadium with Victor hurrying to following behind. The three of you walked around until you came to two large double doors with stairs leading up and up into the stadium and you followed them screams and cheers becoming more and more promanant until you exited through the top and found yourselves high up and in side the stands....Huh. There wasn't as many people as you thought there would be. There was still a lot of people filling the seats around you but there was considerably less than at he opening Ceremony. There was still a good chunk of empty seats scattered about even with the large crowds. Surrounding the field was hundreds of seats with spectators cheering loudly and chattering likely excited for the next battle with Milo but said Gym Leader was no where to be seen on the field. Your guess was that he was taking a small break before the next battle to be had. You still followed behind them as they walked down the steps(thank GOODNESS that it wasn't as loud as the other stadium. You didn't think you could take that loud of a racket again.) and the lot of you were able to be seated a lot closer to the field this time thanks to the variety of open seats. As the three of you sat down the cheers of the crowd soon turned into loud but managable to your ears murmurs. Your sobble had taken to pushing itself up half on your head to look around interested but you reached up to take him into your lap instead. Neck still stiff from your awkward sleeping position.

It was then you noticed there was no one on the grassy fields below. "Hey. Where is everyone?"

"Gloria must be going through the challenge right now," Victor said it was easier to talk to him now than at the Opening Ceremony. "It took Hop about twenty five minutes to make it through so we'll have to wait and see what happens."

"It wasn't too hard," Hop commented crossing his arms, "In Postwick it's practically a need to know skill how to herd wooloo. A right of passage if you will. That challenge was practically begging me to solve it!"

That's right. Hop and the twins were born and raised amongst these pokemon. This should be fairly easy for them you thought. Or more likely hoped.

"Is this being broadcasted on TV as well?"

"No. Only the Entrance Ceremony and the Champion Matches at the end of the year will be. All the battles at the stadiums are recorded though, but they're uploaded to the Gym Challenge League's official Poketube website. So Mom would still be able to watch us if she wanted too. It helps with the pacing of TV channels and networks and makes it more convienet for anyone watching."

Ah. That makes sense. Guess you just had to wai- ....You blinked and squinted your eyes towards the field and pointed. "Hey. Who's that?"

Both boys looked towards the stadium's giant TV and Hop answered. "Oh. That's Dan. He's the gym's referee here, but he doesn't usually step out on field unless the battle's about to begin."

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! THE BATTLE BETWEEN GYM LEADER MILO AND GYM CHALLENGER GLORIA SHALL BEGIN!!"

All three of you looked rather surprised at what was just said by the blonde man before Hop said what the three of you were thinking. "WHAT?! Already?! How could she have finished the challenge that fast!? It's barely been ten minutes."

You weren't sure yourself but were distracted by the sudden amount of cheers from the crowd as two more figures stepped onto the field. From the far left came Milo, the same man who worriedly apologised for letting his wooloo knock you over and from the right came Gloria..but she looked a bit different. Unlike last time, instead of stiff her movements were fast, jogging her way to the middle keeping her eyes slightly downward as the cameras caught her image and placed them on the screen for everyone to see. The two of them met somewhere in the middle of the field by Dan and although you could see their lips moving as they exchanged a few words you couldn't hear anything. You had guessed you wouldn't unless they had microphones to speak into. Before long the two bowed to each other before turning on their heels and walking away from one another. The flash of Victor's camera making you blink as he proceeded to capture his sister's first real battle of the league. Hop watching with a set determined face. The referee taking a few steps back himself, most likely not wanting to get caught in the crossfires.

"Here we go."

In one fluid motion with a cheer from the crowd, Milo threw a ball out and in a flash of light out came a gossifluer. Gloria mimicked the motion with her own pokeball and to your light surprise it wasn't a scorbunny. It was a corvisquire. The crow bird like pokemon gave a loud caw as it fluttered there awaiting orders. You didn't remember her catching that pokemon. Must've been one of the new ones she managed to capture back before you left Motostoke.

"BATTLE BEGIN!!"

Immediately Milo pointed and his lips moved in yelling in order. Immediately his gossifluer responded by a wind blowing around itself and suddenly leaves danced around it it a tiny tornado before being flung forward towards the bird pokemon. Razor Leaf move perhaps? Gloria's small form (or big form on the giant tv depending on which one you were watching) pointed back and barked something and like a blurred shadow the bird thing shot forward, dodging the leaves thrown at it, and like a seagal plucking a fish from the sea, the tiny gossifluer was quickly snatched up into the claws of the crow thing. You could only watch in worry for the poor thing as the corvisquire flew up, up, up until it would've been considered out of bounds of the gym. Before plummeting like a rock down below. THEY'RE GONNA crash!! Was the first thing in your mind as they went and just at the right moment the pokemon snapped it's wings back up and easily managed to fly away unhurt. A sigh of relief escaped you. Thank goodness....Only...it no longer had the gossifluer in it's claws. Your hold on your sobble increased making it give you a confused chirp, as your f/c eyes instantly went to the part of the field it would've crashed into. Only to catch the part glimpse of a light going back into the pokeball in Milo's hand. That could've only meant that Gloria managed to one hit K.O. the poor pokemon. That didn't sound right, unless the corvisquire she caught was pretty strong or-...Oh no. It couldn't be that- No time to wonder on that now as Milo sent out another pokemon who looked like a walking puffy dandelion. Eldegoss if you remembered right. While Gloria kept her corvisquire....before returning it. Guess she was changing it after all.

"ALL RIGHT!! DYNAMAX TIME!!"

You didn't have time to ask Hop what he meant. A bright red glow oozed out of the band Gloria wore upon her arm as she held her pokeball, it quickly was surrounded by the glowing energy before becoming bigger in her hands. She stumbled a bit seeming to have trouble with the added weight where you for sure thought she'd fall, before uprighting her self and turning around. With her teeth grit, Gloria raised the gigantic red pokeball above her head and tossed it. Your eyes followed it as it sored as high and far as she could- CRAP!! Your hands came up as an explosion of red appeared out of no where like multiply giant fireworks, followed by a whoosh of wind strong enough to push your body back and an UNGODLY giant cry in such high volume you could've sworn your ear drums could burst. There was a very loud chirp of panic and your eyes opened in a panic down to your shirt just as your sobble dove under it to escape the now......FREAKING. GIANT. BIRD THING!!! THAT THING WAS MASSIVE AS YOU STARED AT IT FLYING!! Thank god the stadium was built big enough for that thing to flap it's wings!! Speaking of which every flap sent a gust of wind flying from it, making Victor have to hold hit hat with one hand as he continued taking photos! Good gosh! No wonder your sobble was shaking against you! That'd thing give would give you nightmares too! A red circle of dynama clouds hung over the Corvisquire and it's black body now had a red shine to it. Looks as if Milo had decided to do it as well, because he did the same process of returning his own pokemon and adding the same red energy from his dynamax band. Giving the precious red pokeball a few pats with a smile before turning around and with one arm chucked it into the air behind him. Once again you had to shield your eyes from the bright explosion of red as the giant eldegoss made it's appearance with a slam down on the field that disleveled the ground and shook the stadium from under you. In an instant Gloria pointed towards the dynamaxed grass pokemon and must've given some kind of order you couldn't hear. Because it was at that very moment what you could only describe as a giant whirlwind of a tornado whipped from the corvisquire and straight for the eldegoss in a dead hit. That's right. Dynamaxing was a cool thing, but neither pokemon could dodge each other's attacks they were too big. Dynamaxing was a test of brute will to see how much you could hold out. And you were pretty sure Gloria had the upper hand but not because you thought she was super strong. The high winds made the three of you clutch your seats as it hit the eldegoss head on. If your hair wasnt a mess before it was now. Once the winds (other than the powerful breezes from the bird's wings) died down, you nearly choked seeing Gloria's form on her hands and knees clutching the grass to not be blown from the dirt. HOW WAS MILO STILL STANDING!? With a shriek of it's own the eldegoss leaned it's large head forward and you were surprised when three large green seeds fired off from it's head and landed with giant thuds under the bird's feet. Thank goodness Gloria was already ducking. What sprouted forth was GIGANTIC green mushrooms and grass surrounding it, then it exploded in a giant flash of green light. Giant glowing petals made of energy shooting everywhere before disintergrating into thin air. Green waves of energy washing over the crowds as the bird gave off a giant eagle cry of it's own but still flying in tack. ...That was one tough chicken!

"Eldegoss's Dynamax Move!! Awesome isn't it!?"

You couldn't answer. Another giant eagle cry pierced the air making your ear hurt and two black jet streams poured from it's wings. You watched in horror and shock as the dark jetstreams encircled the poor grass pokemon. Encasing it with a dome of black before exploding in a blast of black. The eldegoss crying out in pain as is tilted towards the ground- OMG! That thing was gonna crush Milo!! The eldegoss went out in an explosion that sent dirt clouds flying up everywhere as it timbered glowing brightly through the dust clouds as it magically shrank down winthin it's own mess. You all watched with baited breath as the clouds spread out and covered the famous gym leader as well, Gloria's bird pokemon glowing a bright reddish color before beginning to shrink down until it was back to it's normal size. It's normal size being about as big as Gloria herself (which was still pretty big but when again you remembered how big corviknight are supposed to get), and perched back onto the ground right next to it's trainer who was staring from her kneeled position as the dust literally settled. At least the giant gusts of wind weren't pushing you against the seats anymore. Maybe you should suggest to Leon to install seat belts on these stands. As the dust finally settled with great relief you saw Milo, unhurt and waving his big sunhat to shoo the dust away. Behind him was a giant crater in the ground and disheveled land. All that was left behind from the battle that had taken place.

"THE BATTLE IS OVER!! VICTORY GOES TO GYM CHALLENGER GLORIA!!"

The absolute UPROAR of the crowd's cheers along with Hop standing up to shout his own cheers to his rival/friend and another flash from Victor's camera signaled him capturing the shocked look on his sister's face just standing there looking around herself....Before you saw the brightest smile Gloria's ever given on her face and hugged her corvisquire making the poor pokemon wobble on it's feet as Milo placed the hat back on his head. The gym leader took a moment to look behind him at the disheveled field and big crater in the ground before looking back to the teenager and approuching her. Gloria seemed to notice because she stopped hugging her pokemon to face Milo with wide eyes as he approuched her. The two exchanged words for a moment before Milo held out his hand in a fist with a smile. Wide eyed she took a moment to stare at it before slowly holding out her own hands and he dropped something into the palm of her hands. Wide eyed and staring straight at it, it only took her a few moment for her to hop about excitedly and hold up the small thing in her hands. The cameras zoomed in enough for you to see that she was holding the same badge Hop had showed you the other day on the TV. She did it!? Her first badge! One more step on your way home! ...At Least you hoped. In the end the two of them shook hands and soon after excited the field as the three of you exited the stands, you taking your sobble and putting him on your shoulder again. The poor shaking pokemon calming quickly noticing there wasn't anymore giant pokemon. Hm. You might have to put him in your backpack from now on if he was gonna react all scared and hide like this. By the time the three of you excited the stands Gloria was already waiting outside the doors she went in. Smiling and bounding over towards you waving the badge around in her hand.

"LOOK AT THIS!!," she yelled excitedly shoving the badge in your faces the bronze-gold shining in the sunlight. "On my first try too! I told you I could do it!"

"You must've took my advice then."

You gave Victor a curious look. "Advice?"

He nodded. "Yeah. We used to play VR battles when we were younger as practice since we didn't have any pokemon. I suggested she pretended it was like the game and try her best."

Oh. Well that worked out pretty well for her anyways. Hopefully it'll work for the next battle as well, but you were a bit concerned that Gloria(and Hop-) only won because Milo and his pokemon was overwhelmed and tired by the onslot of trainers coming so early. But you were reluctant to say so. Not only because you didn't want to disturb the progress of the game's story more than you might have already did just by being here, and because you didn't want to hurt either of their feelings. Weighing your options, you decided that not mentioning it was the better choice for now.

"Congrats! I knew you could do it!," you complimented as she smiled wider.

"Thanks! I guess Hop and I must be on the same battling skill level then!"

"HECK YEAH! Wouldn't expect anything less from the greatest trainers to come out of Postwick!" You chuckled at him. "Oh by the way. What'd you do with all those dandelions you bought? Did you give 'em to Milo or something?"

A sly smile spread across her face. "Nope! I'm surprised you didn't remember."

He rose a brow. "Remember what?"

"Expert on wooloo huh?" She shook her head. "Wooloo love eating dandelions! That's why you barely find any of those flowers where wooloo graze or on farms in general. The objective was to get the wooloo to knock over the hay bails right? What better way than to get them to chase after you with their favorite food?"

Wow. That was actually a really smart idea you had to admit. Growing up in a farming community must really pay off. Hop's jaw practically fell open with this new revolution and his hands hands came up to grip his head. "AW MAN!! Why didn't I think of that!? I got my own wooloo for crying out loud!"

"Hey. It's ok. You're still smarter than me when it comes to science and research. You'd be a pretty good scientist too!"

"Science? Really?"

Hop nodded with a sigh. "Yeah. But it's more of a hobby, I just find learning stuff interesting y'know. But my main goal is to become the next Galar Champion!!"

"Not if I beat you to it!"

"Bring it on, Glory!

"Speaking of becoming champion," you interrupted the two, "Have you guys figured out which person you're gonna battle next?"

Both of them paused before looking at each other and Hop shrugged. "Well, there's really no particular order you have to have to battle in so I can pick anyone I want to battle next. It really doesn't matter as long as you get the eight badges for your Badge Circle...." She looked at you. "But Mr. Milo suggested I should go battle Nessa instead. He said she might be a good challenge for me."

"Nessa? Isn't she that model lady you showed me before?" She nodded.

"No way! That's where we were headed too!" Hop smiled. "This is a great chance to do a bit of traveling together!"

"Hey that sounds like a great idea! But first I want to check out this Turrfield treasure."

You all looked at her confused. "Turrfield treasure?"

She nodded. "I heard from a kid that there's supposed to be some kind 'o treasure around here. I think I figured out the riddle since then and I wanna go check it out before we leave."

"What kind of riddle?"

She made a thinking face. "Uh...Hang on a sec. What did she say how'd it go again? Some treasure lies in Turffield and the way to find it is with the standing stones and a riddle."

"Standing stones?"

"She means the ruins around Turffield," Victor answered you seeing the confusion on your face. "Some people call them 'Standing Stones' since most of them stand upright with their strange carvings."

"Seek the standing stones with Grass before the other ones," Gloria recited, "Use well that strength and find then the strength of it's strength in the end. Dally not if you've a mind to find what time has left behind...I don't know what it means tho."

"I do! It's about Pokemon types duh."

The three of you looked at Hop. "How did you solve that mystery?"

His answer was to point upwards towards the small florist and gift shop. "You remember the gift shop up there we were in?" You nodded confused. "They have this brochure in there with info on the Geoglyph and Standing Stones. I got curious after what Glory said about the thing and had a lil peek. It turns out one of the older standing stones has symbols that spell the word 'Grass' on it. And then there's two other's with 'Water' and 'Fire' cut into 'em too. It's like the three pokemon types. Grass types are usually stronger than water types but water types are usually stronger than fire types. And Fire Types are usually stronger than Grass types. It's a whole cycle of advantage type strengths."

You all were completely floored with such a logical and smart answer to come out of the teen but Gloria seemed the most impressed when she suddenly grabbed onto his hands making the poor boy freeze. "NO! WAY!! Oh my eevee! That makes so much sense! Hop you're a genius!!"

....He blinked a pink hue coming to his cheeks. "I-...I-I am?"

"YES!," she insisted eyes wide, "Who else would've been smart enough to figure out that riddle in one day!? And make the connection with pokemon advantages!" She gave him a tug and he stumbled a bit as she pulled his hands. "C'mon! We gotta go check 'em out! You know where they are right?"

"Wha- GLORIA!! What about our travel plans!?," Victor shouted after her gesturing towards a road that if you looked, was the way out of town.

She waved him off tugging Hop quickly down a different path back towards the Geoglyph. "It's just a quick look see! We'll meet you guys at the Pokemon Nusery on Route Five!!"

"GLORIA WAIT!!.....UGH!!" Victor facepalmed himself with a groan as he stood there and you blinked. "This is why I'm glad she has a traveling buddy." He looked back up at their disappearing forms with a scowl. "She gets one idea in her head there's nothing stopping her from getting it! Then she just rushes off into it without a second thought."

"Then I take it she didn't tell you about tresspassing on the Chairman's mine shafts."

"She did WHAT?!"

"Uh...Nevermind," you deflected pointing down the road. "Should we uh...Go wait for them?" In the end Victor huffed, shook his head, and turned on his heel to begin walking down the road. So you took that as a yes and made to follow him. "So....Where's the way to this Nessa person?"

Victor took a minute to respond with a sigh. "I'm not too sure. I know it's all the way on the other side of Galar in a coastal town called Hulbary. So it's safe to say it'll take some time if they insists on battling her gym next. Let me check my map." You watched and walked beside him patiently as Victor reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Turning on to where the screen lit up and then spoke. "Hey Rotom. How long would it take to travel from the town of Turffield to the town of Halbury?"

Now you know you shouldn't have been surprised considering all phones had a rotom pokemon in it acting as this world's version of 'Hey Google' but you still blinked at the almost robotic voice answering him back. "ZZZZT. Follow on Route 5 to your destination. By Flying Taxi it would take approximately a week. By foot near a month."

"A WHAT!?"

He gave you a look. "Flying is a lot faster than walking, and Halbury's all the way across Galar from here. Of course it would take that long to travel by foot." Oh...right. Not a game. R.I.P your poor feet and the many night of awkward sleeping positions to come. He looked back to his phone messing with something on the screen a few times. "...According to this, Route Five starts once we pass the Pokemon Center and cross Turrfield Bridge. From there it's a straight course right across country to the east coast. It might take a while but it's the most convenient one for all of us."

"Isn't there a train or those taxi things?" Even if you REALY didn't want to try using those birdbrain powered taxi's you didn't like the sound of you walking across country for about a month either.

"Even if we got a taxi you heard Rotom. It'd take like a whole week of flying. And the corviknights need time to rest and eat and sleep too. They're living things just like us. Even cars, trains, and planes need to stop and need time to tune up and refill on gas don't they? And besides there's no train stations or Flying Stations set up in Turffield. If you want a train you'd have to travel back to Motostoke which is half a week, or you'd have to call a taxi from there to pick you up. Besides Gloria has a whole year to complete this task. One month out of eleven more isn't going to hurt anyone."

Except your feet and sleeping abilities but you couldn't argue. He was right. You traveled for four days and waited five for Gloria to get her first badge. You could do it again but longer. As the two of you walked down the road, the town began to fade away a bit behind you as you two traveled down the road. You both were just crossing over a small hill when you noticed a small cabin like building with a sign above his door reading: Turffield Pokemon Nursery. That must've been it! It looked as cozy as it did cute. And a little bit a ways from it was a bridge. That must've been the Turffield Bridge Victor spoke of earlier. Maybe you two should wait for the other two inside? It was pretty sunny out and you've been in the sunlight for a while. As you two walked towards the building, some movement near the bridge caught your eye and your eyes turned towards said movement. And your vision was filled with blurs of black and red and your hearing clogged with yelling. Your hand instinctively coming out to grab Victor's shoulder. The teen stopped from the tug on his shoulder a few yards away from the Pokemon Nursery before giving you a confused look as you stared. He followed your gaze just as what was happening finally registered in your head. It was those goons again! The weird ones that looked like they just stepped out of some kind of rock concert! The same ones from the hotel back in Motostoke! Why were they here tho? Two men who looked about your height a bit taller, were standing there on the bridge just as it connected with the road and backed against a part of the bridge was another man who looked all dressed up to be a doctor. Blue jumpsuit and a mask over half his face as he held up his hands to the men. Now yelling could be heard.

"OI! Just hand over that bike already!," One of them shouted pushing the smaller man's shoulder once, "We need it to cross this long bridge!"

"N-N-No!" The doctor man stammered out backing further against the wall of the bridge. "I-I bought this with my own hard earned money f-f-fair and square! What would two blokes like you even do with it!?"

"We're gonna use that bike ta chase around Gym Challengers! It'll be a scream!," the other said before cackling out with laughter.

"WHAT!? N-NO WAY!! I-Im not letting you two meatheads use my bike to chase around innocent children!"

"...Victor?"

"Yeah I see it." He peered around you brow raised looking at the scene before you two. ''Who the heck are those guys?"

You didn't answer, just stared as the two brutes jabbed the man again demanding his bike (or lack there of as you couldn't see one-) be handed over to them. How mean! But what really caught your attention was mentioning chasing around gym challengers. Now you couldn't remember if anything like this had happened in game but chasing around innocent kids for whatever reason just didn't settle right on your gut. There was two kids with you that were challengers and one could easily mistake Victor for one if you weren't careful.

"....You stay here." To reiterate your point you pulled Victor to the side of the road and firmly planted him there. He blinked and opened his mouth- !? He blinked again once you shoved your backpack into his arms and began walking. Your sobble giving a small chirp of surprise with the sudden movements. "Hold this."

"Wha- H-HEY! Y/N! What're ya doin'!?"

"C'mon old man! Give us the darn bike and we'll leave ya alone! You can get another one!"

The man scowled up at them. "T-Then why dont the two of you BUY one!?"

"Money's tight man! Just give it to us!"

"HEY UGLY!!" Dust sprayed everywhere or at least over one of them. As the three men turned to the sound of a woman's voice only for one of the weird rockstar wannabes to receive a splat of dirt picked up from the road to hit him square in the face and have the rest of it cover his front body. The man sputter/screamed out and hands immediately went to wipe at his face. Luckily none got in his eyes so no pain, but that didn't stop the annoyance. Especially since when he looked back up there was a girl standing there hands on her hips and sobble half hiding behind her head as she point. You gave them the angriest scowl you could muster. "You two KISS lookin' airheads leave that poor man alone! He already said no so beat it before I make you!!"

Behind you Victor's jaw dropped and the two goons seemed to be at a loss for words for a moment. Looking between the two of them confused before scowling and looking back to you. Crap. These two were both at least a good foot or two taller than you were. You hadn't really thought ahead but no turning back now.

"Oi! Girly, why don't ya mind your own business?"

"Yeah! This doesn't concern you!" They said leaning over you. Unknownt to anyone your sobble was starting to get a bit teary eyed at the two above him.

"It IS my concern if you're going around hassling innocent people! What'd the guy do to you two?! Back off and leave him alone before I call Officer Jenny on your arses!" Really you didn't know if this region had an Officer Jenny, but it seemed to work as their scowled wavered a bit.

"Whatcha gonna have us arrested for!? We haven't done any crimes yet!"

"Yeah yet! And what about you two planning on scaring everyone you see?"

"Last chance Girly!" One poked your shoulder as if to intimidate you. "Mind your own busines-"

"WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The three of you were interrupted by a loud almost baby like wail as you immediately cringed from it being from directly next to your head. You hissed hands coming to cover your eyes in a panic feeling tears start to sting from them. Was the pain of the yelling so loud you started crying?! If you could've seen past your furious wiping and tears you would've noticed the other men starting to cry as well, face paint starting to run down their faces.

"AAA!! M-Man what's goin' on!?", one shouted to his companion.

"I-...I D-DONT KNOW!! LET'S JUST GET OUT OF HERE OK!?"

They fled. Bumping into you and knocking you over in the process. You yelped as you fell to your butt on the dirt road and your sobble let out a choked hiccup as it was jostled from your head and onto the grassy ground in the men's haste to escape. Well...the baby cry was gone at least, but there was still a few hiccups from behind you as you hissed and used your sleeve to furiously wipe at your stinging eyes. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!?

"OMG! Y/N! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?"

"Here young lady. Turn your head up." You blinked crying to see past the stinging of your tear soaked eyes and someone gently grabbed your jaw. A Second later a wet cloth was wiping at your eyes. Almost instant relief came from your sore red eyes as someone wiped at them. "There we go. Lucky for you I always have a Sobble Tear Cloth handy on me due to how sensitive the little ones can be." Once you got enough clear vision you could see the faces of Victor and the doctor man who were both kneeled next to your fallen body. "There now. How do you feel?"

".....Peachy,'' you mumbled shaking your head from his grip. "What was that?"

"Your sobble crying. When sobbles cry it's like someone chops a hundred onions near you. It's a defense mechanism that's highly affective as you can see. The effects take a while to wear off but luckily for you I happen to be an expert on these kids of things." Grabbing your arm the man carefully helped you on your feet and smiled behind the mask. "Thank you kindly for the help. But you didn't have to, Im sure they would've left sooner or later."

You waved a hand sniffing as said sobble began to immediately start climbing up your pants leg again. Combined with your wooloo bowling trip, you must've really looked a sight. "It's fine. Can't be worse than being knocked over by a wooloo. Are you alright, Mister?"

He nodded. "Yes. Thanks to you. Here. Let's get you to the Nursery. There's some eye drops in my office that might help you further. I work there as one of the nurses with the caretaker and her assistant."

You nodded and with the urge to wipe at your eyes the Docter and Victor helped you stumble walked your way towards the Nursery, your sobble continuing to climb up your body with little difficulty as it reached your shoulder. You felt it touch your cheek and give a small chirp but at the moment you paid it no mind trying not to fall over.

"Hey, Vick-...Oh wow. What happened? Was Y/n crying or something?"

Oh great. Well at least they finally showed up.

"Ill tell you later. Opening the door over there and let's get her inside."

The next thing you knew you were inside a cozy looking house and was given eye drops. It took a few minutes for you to go back to normal and the redness around your eyes to subside. But by the time it did you were feeling way better and sitting on a green couch. One hand petting your sobble who happily accepted the affection with a smile. Hop and Gloria had returned from their small search a little bit after you had managed to chase those men off, and they happily explained their trip from standing stone to standing stone...But unfortunately didn't find anything other than an old ten dollar bill that someone most likely accidentally dropped while visiting them. And Victor got to scold you about just walking up to strangers like that. Weren't you the grown up here? Glad to know everyone was ok tho. The elderly lady at the center had offered the four of you tea as thanks for helping to rescue their nurse and Gloria excused herself to check out the Center's Free Pokeboxes in their own rotomi stations. When you asked about it Hop was happy to explain.

"Oh. Free Pokeboxes are basically boxes from people's rotomi boxes. Usually Nurseries and Centers get a whole lot of them if a pokemon's trainer passes away, or if they were donated or abandoned to the system. From there they're sorta put up for adoption or released back into the wild if no one claims them within a year or so.....Y'know I think Ill take a look too. I might just find a neat new partner." He got up to go join Gloria currently flipping through options on the rotomi leaving you with Victor sitting on the couch.

You sighed. "Man. Some day it's been huh? A riddle solved. A gym battle won. And now a nurse was saved."

"All thanks to you. But please maybe don't be so reckless next time. I was afraid something bad might've happened to you by what those brutes yelled running off."

"Oh? What'd they say?"

He hummed. "Um....I think....'You're too strong!" He tried to repeat in a failed attempt at a deep man voice. "If you stay in the Gym Challenge you're gonna cause problems for our lady! You haven't seen the last of us! We're gonna make sure you stay out of our lady's way!'..Or something like that."

Well that perked your interest. You stared at him. "Our lady?...Does that mean someone ordered them to go after Gym Challengers?"

He hummed a more worried look coming over him. "Could be. But I wouldn't know who or why. Who'd want to go after the Gym Challengers?"

That was a very good question. You wracked your brain for a moment. Was there any person in the game with a pack of goons? And was there any lady out to stop the gym challengers? Your memory turned up nothing as you sighed and sunk back into your seat on the couch as you did. Those goons were at the hotel and now here as well. That couldn't just be a coincidence could it? No...You had a feeling there was something linking those guys to whatever's about to happen to you. Too bad you didn't know. As you both silently sat there, another person walked in through the door and up to the counter but you paid them no mind even as Gloria approuched them.

Eventually you sighed. "I wouldn't know either it seems, but just in case I think we should all be keeping a really close eye out for anymore of those guys and let Leon know the first chance we get. As the saying goes better be safe than sorry."

"Couldn't agree more. Especially since this is concerning my friend and sister."

"What's concerning us?"

Oh that was Hop. You turned. "We wanted to tell you about-" You blinked coming face to face with a grumpy purple face in the arms of Gloria as she held the tiny pokemon clinging to her like a baby. ...You pointed. "Where did you get that?"

"My Toxel? The lady that just came in wanted to drop it off. Somethin' bout hatching it and not being the pokemon she wanted or some speel. I couldn't just let a cutie like this go into adoption or tossed out in the cruel wild after just being hatched." She held it up to her face as she smiled. "Look at how cute you are! Who'd wouldn't want acutie pie like you?" The baby toxel in her arms responded by reaching an arm out and grabbing her nose. Aw! Cute.

You shook you head with a smile before standing. Lifting an arm up with your sobble clinging to it to allow it to freely crawl back onto your shoulder before you stood up slinging your pack over your shoulders. "C'mon. I'll tell you as we walk. The sooner we start the sooner we can reach Halbury and our next step of this little adventure."

#pokemon shield #pokemon sword #pokemon swsh #pokemon sword and shield #Pokemon Piers #pokemon piers x reader #Reader #piers x reader #reader x piers

[imjeralee]

Request: Holiday (Part 1), Raihan x Reader

Requested by elisanice.

This was a pretty big request so I've had to split it up. The first part is essentially - 

Summary: Raihan has 4 days off so you and Raihan go on holiday. 

Whenever I write requests I end up feeling like its some sort of extension to Wallflower haha. Like when reader and Raihan are more advanced in their relationship...maybe when a few years have passed.

Format: Drabble/one (two-shot, potentially lol)

Notes: SFW

It was another peaceful day in your house in Hammerlocke when you hear the front door opening and you look up from the book you were reading to head over; you see your boyfriend at the doorway, removing his shoes.

“Welcome home!” you say excitedly as you dash towards him, and as he looks up, he greets you with a wide grin.

“Babe!” he exclaims, grabbing you by the waist and lifting you high in the air (but still being careful so you would not smack your head against the ceiling) before he spins you around in a circle.

This is usually how you greet your boyfriend when he comes home from work at the stadium but he seems to be in an elevated mood and you wonder if something’s happened.

“I have four days off,” he proceeds to tell you excitedly, “Let’s go on holiday.”

“Holiday?”

“Yeah,” he replies, “There are no scheduled matches until for two weeks and I wanna spend time with you.”

Your lip wobbles at once as you contemplate his words; true, Raihan could spend this precious time perfecting some battle strategies or training his pokemon to prepare for his next exhibition match with Leon but he wants to go with you on vacation so you appreciate the thought; wrapping your arms around his head, you snuggle him against your bosom and he chuckles when you let go to clasp his cheeks together, leaning over to smother him with kisses all over his cheeks and nose.

“C’mon, let’s look at plane tickets and hotels,” he murmurs with a grin.

With an enthusiastic nod and smile, Raihan lets you down and you head into the lounge where you both huddle on the couch over your Rotom phones with your feet up and your toes rubbing together as you look up information and details.

In a very short amount of time, you and Raihan have decided to book two return tickets to Unova; you’ll be staying at one of the popular resorts in Undella Town.

You’ve both always wanted to go and it would be good to venture out and see what it’s like in the region. Unfortunately, your credit card limit is too low to cover the price of the flights and resort for two people so it’s up to Raihan to complete the bookings which he’s more than happy to do so anyway.

You will handle the itinerary; it appears Nimbasa City will take up most your time since it’s so large and there are so many things to do. Raihan is a big shopper so there are many department stores he wants to visit. You will also attend one of the baseball games in the stadiums and you also recall there are Pokemon Musicals to watch so you book tickets for a showing in the late evening.

Due to the short notice, you’re taking a flight at dawn so you and Raihan pack as quickly and efficiently as you can before you head off to bed after a quick meal with your pokemon.

In a few hours, you wake up to make your way to Galar International Airport.

For you, it’s a bit of a challenge since you are so sleepy and the flight is quite long, and it doesn’t improve when you have arrived at Mistralton, you’re both feeling extremely weary so you make your way to Undella Town as hastily as possible; this is where the Corviknight taxi would really come in handy but unfortunately Unova and many other regions advocate flying on your own pokemon so you and Raihan have no choice but to fly on Flygon.

Whilst Raihan seats you snugly in front of him on his pokemon, he battles to stay awake for the brief flight whilst you snore and drool over his arm as he holds you tightly around the waist to stop you from falling off along the way.

Thankfully, the concierges at Mistralton airport will send your luggage to the resort in Undella Town for a fee which Raihan paid of course.

You eventually stir awake and you open your eyes to see Raihan and Flygon have taken you to the resort and you yawn and rub your eyes as Raihan slips off the dragon and hoists you up and into his arms.

You cling to him like a baby as he recalls Flygon and carries you up the steps with a grin; a bellboy comes running up to open the doors for you and Raihan enters the establishment, still with you snuggling against him.

“Is she okay?” one of the bellboys ask, but Raihan merely rubs your back soothingly.

“She’s just a little airsick.”

You are most certainly not but it seems Raihan enjoys carrying you like this, and in public too. Regardless, the early hour means there’s not a single soul in sight so he can get away with it.

He checks in at the front desk and the receptionist hands over the hotel room key and bids you both a warm welcome after she goes over the amenities which were already advertised on the website. Raihan also asks for a wakeup call in the afternoon.

“Have a great stay!” the receptionist exclaims once everything is accounted for, “Enjoy your honeymoon!”

As Raihan carries you towards the directions of the elevators, you groggily open your eyes. “Did she just say….honeymoon?”

“Yep. I told ‘em we’re on our honeymoon and we got upgraded at no extra cost.”

With widened eyes, Raihan carries you into the elevator as you splutter and go pink in the cheeks. He lets you down and once the lift arrives at your floor, you find the honeymoon suite hand-in-hand and Raihan unlocks it where you emit a gasp of awe at the luxuriousness of it all.

The room is huge! There’s a king-sized bed in the middle of the room facing the beach, the covers are sprinkled with rose petals with towels folded into swans. There is also a bottle of chilled champagne on the bedside table along with two glasses. To the left of the room is an outdoor area sectioned by glass and curtains controlled by electric remote control that leads to a jacuzzi and infinity pool.

“Holy shit, Rai!” you squawk, realizing your boyfriend has gone all out for you.

“Hehe, you like it?” he says with a grin.

“I love it!” you exclaim before you turn round to throw your arms around him tightly.

Raihan immediately plucks you off the ground again, scooping his large hands under your ass and you wrap your legs around his waist; leaning forwards, he presses his lips tightly against yours and walks you over to the bed where he drops you over the duvet and keeps you pinned to the mattress with his hands gripping your wrists before he attacks your cheeks, lips and neck with deep kisses, causing you to giggle.

As he peppers you with kisses, you turn your head to the side as he lets go of you and you glance up to see the massive TV to your right and the plushy couches. There is also a door that leads to the bathroom where a pristine, white marble tub sits in the middle lined with unlit candles.

You hoot with excitement, giddily pointing to the bath but Raihan takes your chin with his hand, forcing you to look at him and his blue eyes meet yours for a brief second before he crushes his lips over yours once more.

You smile as you slide your arms around the back of his neck, kissing him passionately in return. Grinning against your mouth, Raihan begins trailing his lips down and over your collarbone and to your stomach, attempting to lift your shirt up; when he arrives at your pants, he’s keen to get you out of them until he hears a light snore from the back of your throat and he swerves his gaze back up to see that your eyes are closed, mouth half-open.

You’re fast asleep.

Raihan stops and blinks owlishly, before he smiles at you haplessly and lifts you gently into his arms; once you’re propped up in his lap, he peels back the covers and tucks you inside.

You have a long day ahead.

…

The ringing of the phone forces you to stir and you open your eyes only to be met with darkness - the curtains has been drawn - and Raihan is spooning you from behind on the bed.

You yawn, stretch and grasp blindly for the phone which should be placed on top of the bedside table, picking up the phone and bringing the receiver to your ear only for an automated voice telling you it’s the wake up call that was ordered.

“Rai…” you mutter as you put the phone down. “It’s time to get up…”

You hear him groaning incoherently behind you before he squeezes you tightly around the waist and buries his nose into your hair and neck. “Mmphh…”

Reaching behind you, you gently pat him on the arm and the side of his face. “C’mon…”

“Nmm…fine…” he finally pulls his face out of your neck and grabs your hand, and you both sit up in bed side-by-side, emitting huge yawns.

Nimbasa City is your destination today so after getting ready, you fly on your pokemon to the electric city. 

In an effort not to be recognized, Raihan has changed into a casual, oversized hoodie with gaping pockets and matching baggy pants along with a white pair of sneakers. He thinks he’ll get spotted easily if he wears his statement orange headband so he swaps it for a black cap which he places neatly over his head though they do hold his dreadlocks down. He even dons a pair of expensive, designer shades in order to remain anonymous as possible.

When you go out with him, this is something you’re rather used to so you think nothing of it and once you arrive at the city, you stare at the huge and towering buildings that are lit up with huge billboards and adverts with all sorts of pokemon on them before you spot the ferris wheel and rollercoasters in the distance. It appears to be a complete entertainment zone itself which could even rival Wyndon. 

You and Raihan walk around aimlessly for a few minutes or so just to get a feel of the area until Raihan spots the nearest department store.

“Let’s go,” he says, and you walk hand-in-hand towards the building; Raihan is quite the shopaholic compared to you.

In fact, you’re hardly into fashion and designer labels, what’s in season and what’s not. All you need is a pair of comfy shoes and sweater and you’d be fine.

The moment you step in and you realise it’s a totally different world inside and that it is rather high class; Raihan still blends in well with his height and the airy confidence he carries whereas you find yourself dawdling by his side, looking left and right and clearly not at home.

You feel the shop assistants can tell you are working class from your clothes, the dowdy bag you’re carrying and also the dirt on your shoes – you clearly cannot afford anything here and they wonder why you are here in the first instance. They regard you from head to toe along the way as you and Raihan check out some of the items for sale, oblivious to their judgemental stares.

“Isn’t that Raihan?” you hear one of the staff members muttering to themselves, “And is that his girlfriend?”

Despite the effort to blend in, you didn’t realise you and Raihan would still be recognizable. You stick by your boyfriend’s side as much as possible but he’s still oblivious to the growing whispers and murmurs that surround you. It’s possibly because he’s so used to the attention; whilst you notice a few girls staring at your direction inquisitively, Raihan busily looks through the clothing racks and barely bats an eyelid to them.

As you continue shopping, he tries on several hats and sunglasses and asks you how he looks whilst you merely show him a thumbs up. You have not been inside the store for an hour and Raihan has already purchased a few statement articles.

He’s got good taste and he has the money, whereas you obviously don’t so you’re left trailing after him as he picks out random hoodies and t-shirts and shirts and pants and trying them on and asking for your opinion along the way. The shopping bags begin to pile up and you help, balancing one in each hand and some hanging over the bend of your elbows.

You wonder if you will ever see something you like and it happens when you spot a few dresses along the way which are very pretty and as you stop to stare and subtly find the price tag, your eyes widen when you see that it costs eight hundred thousand pokedollars.….holy Furret…if that dress costs eight thundred thousand, you cannot fathom how much everything else here costs.

Raihan is loaded. You kind of knew Raihan was rich from his work and sponsors but you didn’t realise he was that filthy stinking rich!

With that money, you can think of many other items or things to do with that money… and you immediately let go of the dress to return to his side; Raihan grins as you linger by his side, staring longingly at the dress on display.

“What’s wrong? Did you like that dress?” he asks, noticing your glum expression.

“Yeah, but it’s way too expensive.”

“If you want anything, let me know. I’ll get it for you.”

You shake your head firmly. “No, it’s okay, Rai.”

He observes you carefully, noticing how you slide your gaze to your shoes, looking rather forlorn. “It’s okay, babe, I’ll get it for you. You really like it, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s way too pricey,” you shake your head adamantly when he doesn’t look convinced. “It’s fine, Rai, I don’t want it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah-“

“Raihan??? Raihan of Hammerlocke?!”

You cringe and you both turn round to see a small group of Unovian Lasses standing near you in the store, grinning giddily at your boyfriend. They’re all clutching pens and books in hand and you blink widely.

“Can we get your autograph?” one of asks.

Raihan blinks wide-eyed; he looks a little stuck, partially because you’re with him.

However, you give him a reassuring nudge and he’s quickly swarmed by the groups of girls who come charging forwards, waving their pens and booklets in the air and wanting his signature and photo. You hastily step backwards to let them through and your boyfriend is swarmed in seconds. It’s funny how tall he is as he towers over the majority of them.

Raihan glances at you and you playfully wave at him, “Have fun!” you mouth at him and he shoots you a helpless grin. You nod at him knowingly; you’re all too aware that this happens more often than necessary so you’re used to this and so is he.

You use this time to slink past and away and leave the store.

It’s about time you had some space for yourself to browse on your own so you find a new store called ‘Noir’; it appears to be cheaper and less high end than the other boutiques in this mall and you haven’t heard of this label before either but when you’re greeted warmly by the staff, you feel much, much better.

You respond to them with polite smiles, knowing they haven’t judged you in any way or manner, and you head to the women’s section, glancing around and looking at the shirts and dresses for sale; you know Raihan will take a while so you pick up some items that captures your eye – for instance, a black dress which is a tad cheaper than the other ones you saw in that other store – you also pick up a nice skirt and matching top…and it’s then you spot the most beautiful black leather jacket you have ever seen that is displayed on a dummy at the very middle of the section.

It’s a very eye-catching display and you stare for a few seconds or so before you wander over, your eyes drawn to the garment like a moth to a flame.

Circling round, you wonder if you’re even allowed to touch it so you glance left and right quickly before reaching over and rubbing your fingertips carefully over the black fabric. It’s better than you realized!!! So silky and soft and smooth! It’s love at first sight! It does exist after all!

Enamored, you head to another aisle where a few of the same leather jackets are put on display and see if you can check if you can see the price label and you’re kind of too embarrassed but all in all, you could be checking if it’s your size... You meticulously hunt for the jacket with your right size and pull it out of the rack, grasp the label gently and glance at the price.

Your eyes bulge.

Five hundred thousand pokedollars.

You gulp for you cannot justify the price so you let go of the price tag and take a few steps back until a pair of strong and sturdy arms wrap around you from behind and someone’s lips find the shell of your ear.

“Grrr ~ gotcha.”

It’s Raihan and you inwardly breathe a sigh of relief and giggle as he bites and nips at your ear playfully before he begins to nuzzle the side of your neck.

“Did you finish giving out autographs?” you ask, smiling widely as he presses deep kisses over your nape.

“Yeah,” he pauses to reply - he sounds tired - before he nibbles on your neck again.

“Poor baby,” you reach over to pat him on the head.

He grins in response, tightening his grip on you. “What’re those?” he murmurs, noticing you’re holding several items in hands.

“Oh, uh…nothing. I’m not going to buy these.”

“You can try them on at least.”

You ponder for a few seconds or so; Raihan’s right...you may as well. You got nothing to lose. You want to try something at least…

“Okay,” you agree, and you grab the jacket too for good measure.

Raihan guides you to the direction of the changing rooms where he waits outside with Rotom; you pull the curtain behind you and set out your selected items on the hooks provided before you get changed out of your own clothes.

You’ve chosen a black cocktail dress which you can wear should you and Raihan decide to go partying; Raihan likes to go partying a lot so party dresses like these are a must. You carefully slip into the dress to discover it’s a great fit – fits like a glove - and you gulp when you realise it’s love at first sight all over the again as you stand and look at your reflection in the mirror...what will Raihan think?

“Um…Rai?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m coming out now.”

“Okay.”

You take a deep breath, your heart thundering as you nervously peel back the curtains, stepping out of the cubicle and Raihan’s put away his phone to wait for you but you certainly weren’t expecting this kind of response.

His eyes widen briefly as he gets a good look at you, and you’re stunned yourself when you realise you have actually stolen his breath away because Raihan cannot take his eyes off you… and you swallow down the lump in your throat as his lips curl into a grin that almost reaches his ears.

“So…um…what do you think?”

He likes what he’s seeing, and you blush heavily and pull down on the bottom of your dress because somehow it feels a little too short now.

“It’s perfect,” he murmurs, rising off the couch to stand before he approaches you.

“I’m not gonna buy it though.”

His grin drops. “Why not?”

“Too expensive.”

You quickly rush back into the cubicle to get changed into the next items you picked out where you pretty much elicit the same reassuring response from Raihan but again, it’s way too over your budget so you have no choice but to put them to the side.

It’s finally the jacket’s turn and you feel your heart dropping heavily when you slide your arms through the rich and silky materials of the sleeves and pull the lapels together over your chest.

The jacket is so perfect and the material is so luxurious and beautiful and you put your hand to your mouth; you almost want to cry out in agony that you cannot afford such a gorgeous item and you’ve never seen anything like this for sale in any of the Galar’s boutiques. You try to think of the practicality of it all and realise it can be mixed and matched with so many different outfits – dresses, denims and white or grey shirts, sweaters, skirts…everything. If you had a choice, you would probably invest in this.

Regardless, you step out of the cubicle once more with the jacket for Raihan’s approval, and he grins and nods.

“Suits you,” he comments, and you smile to yourself as you glance at your reflection at the floor to ceiling mirror outside the cubicles; Raihan joins your side, peering over your shoulder and you realise you and Raihan make quite the good couple and it’s all thanks to the jacket and its wondrous durability. It also makes you look pretty badass. No-one would mess with you, that’s for sure.

You croak, “I really like this.”

Yet you sigh and take it off.

Raihan looks at you expectantly but you shake your head.

“It’s fine…”

As you plod towards the direction of the cubicle to grab your things, Raihan scoops the unwanted clothes into his arms. 

“I’ll put these back for you.” He says, and you nod. “I’m also gonna pop to the restroom so…”

“It’s fine, I’ll just take another look around the shop.”

With plans in place, you and Raihan split ways; you leave the changing room and continue browsing through the clothing racks until you realise quite a while has passed and he hasn’t called you or messaged you. You hope nothing’s happened to him.

You’re about to leave the shop to head to the restroom area until you spot a familiar figure standing at the counter; it’s Raihan…? What is he doing here? He’s chatting to the sales assistant who’s pulling out bag after bag and plopping them over the counter. Has he bought something???

You head over quickly and stop by his side. “Rai?”

He sounds surprised by the sound of your voice and turns round before grinning widely at you. “Hey babe,”

“What’re you doing here? I was looking for you; I thought you went to the restroom.”

“Sorry, did I make you worry?”

You nod and he coos at you, reaching for you and bringing you into his embrace. “Ah…I’m so sorry, babe,”

You close your eyes, rubbing your cheek against his chest as the sales assistant piles up to six bags and begins to press her fingers rapidly over the cash register and the total comes up. Your eyes bulge but Raihan delves a hand into his pockets for his wallet and promptly pays.

He must have bought something for himself.

You’re done with the shopping spree, so you leave the store hand-in-hand and you wonder what he’s bought until your stomach gurgles loudly and unfortunately, Raihan hears. 

He laughs and your cheeks redden thoroughly; you’re hungry so you head up to the top floor where all the restaurants are and after a brief search on Rotom, Raihan finds a highly-reviewed rooftop bar and restaurant where he asks for a seat with a good view of Nimbasa City.

You’re both directed to a booth in the corner with comfy sofas; the view is breathtaking and you stare in awe as you make your way up to the glass and peer at the horizon. It’s absolutely stunning; the lights in the city are so bright and vibrant...

And after you both settle down and order your food, Raihan places all the shopping bags on the spare seat and sighs, rubbing his temples. It’s been a long day but hell, you only managed to go shopping today.

As you wait for the food to arrive, you can’t help but wonder what he’s bought so you casually reach over and peep into one of the bags. Eyes wide, you see it is none other than the leather jacket you had tried on.

“Huh?” you gasp, and Raihan starts to chuckle.

“Do you like it?” he murmurs as you whip your head to him in shock.

“I…Rai, you…I didn’t know…you didn’t have to - !! Oh, babe…” you squeak out and as he chuckles louder, you leave your seat and head over to him.

You could hardly care less about the fact that you’re in public. You inch towards him with open arms and he reaches for you as well; Raihan pulls you into his chest, enveloping you into a tight hug. You settle yourself into his lap on the sofa as he draws you into his embrace before you snuggle into him affectionately, closing your eyes as he chuckles again and presses a kiss over your forehead.

“Rai, you really didn’t have to.”

“Think of it as a gift.”

“....Now I feel bad.”

“Don’t. You know I’ll always get anything you want,” he murmurs in your ear, and you smile widely in response.

Arceus, Raihan spoils you so, so much. 

You let out a chuckle at this thought, wrapping your arms around him securely.

Part 1 - Holiday (end)

#raihan #kibana #pkmn #pokemon #pokemonshield #pokemonsword #pokemon shield and sword #reader #request #raihan x reader #Raihan x you #Raihan being a sugar daddy

[hayleyb100]

The Reunion... The end

*It’s a continuing story from The Misconstruction -> The Origin -> The Letters!

"Please wait here, Mr. Richard is absent at the moment to pick some herbs, but he will be back soon."

"Th... Thank you." As another rescuer guided Raihan inside the Pokemon Shelter, the Dragon Gym Leader smiled awkwardly. He came here to seek for his dad to put an end of inner turmoil but still doesn't know

"But I cannot believe the Tamer of Dragons is here! Boy, Mr. Richard would be so happy."

"Oh?" Do they know that I'm his son already?

"He is your biggest fan!"

What?

Raihan was thrown off. A what?

"In fact, he keeps whole scrapbooks on your battles, news, league cards, and everything you name it! He never misses your battle on Hammerlocke Gym and Wyndon Stadium on TV too! Hee hee, but when I found out Mr. Richard was keeping your scrapbook, he hid it and looked scrambled, saying it's embarrassing for someone to find out he is a fan at such age."

"...Oh." Raihan didn't know what to say. He just sat on the couch in the living room. The rescuer left soon after to attend the pokemons he is looking after.

Raihan peeked around to see if anyone's looking and sneaked upstairs. He knew that the old man's room was there because he came over to this workplace all the time to play. Upstairs were two doors, one belonged to Raihan's dad and the other used to belong to little Raihan. And it was clear which room belongs to the old man. A neat door decorated with dried flowers, leaves, branches, and pokemon's footprint - kind of like a room suited for Hattrems.

He gently opened the door. Thankfully, it wasn't locked. It was hard to get in since the door was so low. Considering how short his dad was, it wasn't weird.

The room too was mystic and charming like the door. It gave the vibe of Ballonlea. The first thing he saw was a photo frame on the desk with his family photo. His mom, dad, and Raihan beaming without a worry in the world. It just made his heartache. Next, he saw so many herb samples, powders, and extracts on the desk that he can't even name. But it wasn't what Raihan was looking for. He soon tore his eyes away from the desk to seek what he wanted in the bookshelf. It was packed with all sorts of difficult books on medicines, herbs, Botanics, Pokemon Biology, Pokemon Ethology, Pokemon Communications, countless journals, and more. 

And at the topmost shelf, there were about 7 books that were wrapped in blue, written 241. Can't he be any more obvious? Raihan thought and pulled out one of them and opened it. And true to rescuer's words, it was indeed a scrapbook. Raihan slowly turned the pages.

It was incredible.

It was a well-organized Raihan history book. All his footsteps from his Gym Challenge at age 10 to his appointment as a Gym Leader and interviews were filling page after page. And on every page, small notes were saying how proud he was towards Raihan, and compliments that he couldn't convey to his son. Raihan couldn't believe how much his father was eager to convey his love. The letter wasn't enough. His love was quiet and still, but steady as a river.

"Raihan...?"

As Raihan was so absorbed scanning all seven of his scrapbooks, he didn't notice any indication of a person being around. Raihan shut his eyes close for a second, as he wasn't ready for this reunion in 10 and more years. He inhaled deeply and opened his eyes. There he stood. The man with the same but very different teal eyes. The eyes with everlasting kindness.

Richard just stood there without a word. He just stared at Raihan as if he is observing how much his son grew. Raihan knew his dad won't come near him, so he walked up to him. The day when Raihan left the home to set off the journey, he was looking up to his dad whenever he talked. But now, Raihan was looking far down at his dad. That just proved how much time passed.

Raihan just didn't know where to even start. The distance between them was as far as the time they spent away from each other.

Richard very slowly lifts his hand and started stroking his son.

"...Am I dreaming? I watched you over the screen so I did not realize, but my goodness, look how much my little boy grew." Richard tried to keep as calm as he can, but his hands were shaking and his eyes were dewy at his son, in person, right in front of his eyes.

Raihan too, slowly shook his head to say it isn't a dream. He desperately wanted to say everything. Everything that he got from his dad's dedication... the letters he received over many years. But instead, his mouth spat out unprocessed emotions in the most clumsy way possible.

"Why do you even keep these?" He snapped, pointing at the scrapbooks.

"Why do you keep these and send me letters when you're just gonna lie and say you're my fan, not family? Were you that embarrassed at me since I acted like a jerk to you?"

No. Stop. JUST STOP YOU FOOL.

You don't even mean that.

Raihan's heart screamed him to stop, but it was too late. The words are spilled.

To Raihan's surprise, Richard shook his head almost simultaneously.

"There is no way I would consider you my embarrassment."

No matter how much Richard tried, Raihan could feel his dad was almost choking with sadness.

"It is just... I would never dare to call myself your father unless you forgave me."

A complete silence took over the whole room.

Raihan just stood there and stared at his dad desperately holding back the tears. Raihan failed to believe what a person his dad was.

He still remembered it.

HE STILL FEELS GUILTY FOR THAT SLAP, EVEN WHEN IT WAS RAIHAN WHO CORNERED HIM TO DO THAT.

"Why!!"

Raihan shrieked, like that 8 years old boy who lost his mother.

"It's the point where you should be mad at me!! I was a complete bastard who cornered and hurt you!! I ditched all your letters, didn't give a damn to visit you, ripped your heart with all my words and actions!! Why are you... Why are you still loving me?!"

"...Because..." Richard started, voice shaking from holding back the tears.

"Because to me, you are a miracle. The most precious blessing that I ever received in my whole life. That one slap on your cheeks weighs heavier than any other wound I ever got. Sure, I missed you. But I never once was hurt by any of your actions, darling. I know you were also emotionally cornered, and I know you did not do any of it on purpose. And the fact that you returned offsets anything you did in the past. It is... like a long yearning dream came true to me."

Those words just disarmed Raihan in seconds. Absolute love. Those were the only words that could describe what Raihan was witnessing at the moment. All those years of wandering frazzled just melted down upon such clear-cut place to return to.

Just like his dad did all the time with his cape all those years ago, Raihan embraced his father with all his might. Richard gasped, but soon wrapped his arms around his son too. Both dragon men were overwhelmed with warmth.

Richard could feel his shoulder going wet. He knew what it was coming from, but he didn't turn to his son, because he knew he was a man of pride and Raihan will not accept anyone see him cry.

"Dad... I... I... I missed you... I was so scared that you would follow mom and leave me, but I was a coward not to come see you. Please forgive me for everything I did. I'm so sorry!! Sorry..."

All of Raihan's overdue emotions gushed out at once.

Why didn't he realized?

Why was he wandering around like a fool, when there was such a reliable shelter who will love him unconditionally?

Richard quietly stroked his son's back. He knew all the hardships and pressure Raihan was going through alone, and he too was so sorry he wasn't there for him.

"Everything will be alright, son. You are at home. You are safe here, my darling."

Raihan finally realized the difference between the love from his fans and love from his father. The difference between 'infatuation' and 'sincereness'. The difference between the affection where Raihan has to desperately try to achieve, and the mild, cozy love that is showered at him with no effort at all.

This is it.

This was what Raihan was stacking all his powers for. To protect this never-drying well of love. The origin of his dream he was looking for.

"...Welcome home, my son." tears streamed down Richard's eyes as well.

Raihan cried like never before in his life that day as if he is venting every fear and sorrow he built over the years.

______________________________________

-Several weeks later.-

"Mie!" Mildred pulled Richard's cape as if she is hustling him for something.

"Alright, dear. I am almost done. It is the last page of my scrapbook, so I have to do it neater than ever."

Richard finally finished sticking the last photograph on his scrapbook and pulled out a pokeball outside the shelter. Gale, his Noivern, happily gave his master a ride on his back and flew to Wyndon Stadium.

The stadium was packed as usual, as the crowd is excited for another big match of the Tamer of Dragons and the Champion. 

Even Victor was surprised to see how Raihan was more determined than ever.

Raihan turned to look at the audience.

There stood his goal of life. He was determined to now engrave his son's history in his eyes and mind instead of the pages of the scrapbooks. 

They beamed at each other, as the match began.

#pokemon raihan #raihan #gym leader raihan #pokemon oc #pokemon richard #pokemon swsh #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon gen 8 #pokemon generation 8

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #407

“sugar pop, sugar pop, baby here i come, straight to #1″

Do you follow any special diet? (dairy free, vegetarian, gluten free etc.) No. What’s your favourite summer activity? Swimming is all I really enjoy about summer. Who was the first person to break your heart? It wasn't in a romantic sense obviously, but my dad. First band you obsessed about? I've only ever *truly* been obsessed with Ozzy Osbourne as a band, haha. First place someone took you on a date? I want to say a local skating rink. It was a group thing. How many doors are in the room you’re in? Two, if you include the closet door. Has anyone ever drawn a picture of you? Yes. Do you have any nieces or nephews? Quite a few. Which movie villain do you find the most terrifying? Well, if you've seen the scene where Pyramid Head literally rips a woman's skin off like a sheet in Silent Hill... u kno. I genuinely do find him to be a terrifying monster though, all bias aside. Humanoid monsters with ambiguous faces unsettle me. I wouldn't want that knife swingin at me, either. Do you get grumpy when you’re hungry? Yuuuup, I sure can. Do you stick your tongue out often in pictures? I have done that maybe twice in my whole life. Which one of your family members are you closest to? My mom. If chocolate was an illegal drug - would you be a drug addict? Nah. I'd be able to survive if it was illegal, but it would suck. Are you proud of your parents? Yes in some areas, no in some others. There are things both have said and/or done that I can't say I'm proud of them for, but overall, I am. Do you say “soda” or “pop”? "Soda." Are you shy about singing in front of people? YUP. I just don't do it. If you could get backstage tickets to ANY concert - which would you pick? Ozzy. :') It'd be fantastic to tell him thank you for his music that has always brought me joy and comforted me, and also let him know for sure just how strong he is and that it is absolutely not overlooked to still be nailing out an album while fighting Parkinson's. I'd probably start blubbering like a baby while rambling at some point, haha. Which is better: orange or grape soda? Orange. I don't like grape soda. Do you sleep with a sleep mask? Well, you could sort of call it that, ha ha. I have to wear an APAP mask to subdue my sleep apnea that causes wild nightmares/terrors. Do you like techno music? It's actually grown on me the past few months. Have you ever been drunk? No, I've never quite reached that point. I've only been tipsy. Are you mad at your best friend right now? Nope, got no reason to be. Do you know anybody with a pet snake? Yes, including myself. Is there any drink that you absolutely MUST drink cold? WATER. ABSOLUTELY WATER. I canNOOOOOOT do room temperature water anymore. It's gotta be pretty damn cold for me to drink it like it's nothin'. Have you ever painted anybody's nails aside from your own? No. Do you ever donate to the less fortunate? Mom likes to donate our old clothes and stuffed animals. Did you buy an American flag after 9/11 to put on your car/house/ whatever? I was a little kid when this happened, so. I don't know if my parents did. Honestly, do you have any Hilary Duff on your MP3 player? HA, I do. I love "Who's That Girl." When was the last time you had an ice cream sandwich? Wow, probably years... I really, really want one now, ha ha. Have you ever caught a friend cheating on their bf/gf? Well, my sister's friend, anyway. I was just sitting on the computer in the living room and there they were on the couch just casually making out. Do you enjoy doing math? Fuuuuck no. Do you think your mom has secrets she’s never told you? Oh, I know she does. There are things she's done that I know I have plenty of missing details from, but I don't ask because I know they're sensitive subjects. Do you own anything you don’t want your parents to know about? No. Do you pose in your pictures or just smile? I usually just smile. Do you use scented soap in the shower? Yes. It smells like cinnamon rolls and it is HEAVENLY. Did you ever want to be a fashion designer? No. Who was the last person you danced with? Enjoyable? Ha, Sara. Yeah. Dark or light colored jeans? Dark, 100%. I never wore light jeans. Can you take apart a computer and name all the parts? No sir. Can you take apart a car and name all the parts? That's an even bigger "no." Have you ever purchased a lotto ticket? No. What is the longest amount of time you've spent playing Monopoly? Idk. Have you ever witnessed a tornado first-hand? Thank fucking Christ I haven't. I am terrified of them. Have you ever colored your eyebrows? No. Have you ever taken another person's prescribed medication? Pain medicine, yes. Have you ever played golf (not miniature golf)? No. I'm not interested to, either. Have you ever gotten dressed with the windows open? I definitely don't believe so. Have you ever taken a shower outside? At the beach, yes. If you could call it a "shower." Have you ever been to a junkyard? No. Have you ever watched the History Channel willingly? No. If you could get the cell phone of your choice - what would it be? Probably a current iPhone. Apple is such a rip-off, but damn is the camera good lmao. Do you hand out candy to kids on Halloween? This will be my first Halloween in this house, so I really don't know if trick-or-treaters happen here. Do you like huskies? Love 'em, but I could neeeever own one with all that fur. What do you smell like? I'm always self-conscious over if I smell like sweat because of my hyperhidrosis. I hope not. Do you take your dog for walks? I don't have a dog. I used to take Teddy when he was younger, though. He loved those, but I stopped when I noticed his arthritis kicking in. Have you ever went paintballing? No. Seems stupid to me, honestly... Like that shit seems painful, so like, why??? What kind of movies are you drawn to? Horror and fantasy, mostly. I don't watch movies often. How often do you update your Facebook status? Just about never because I either just have nothing to say or am afraid of saying something stupid. I only ever share posts or pictures that appeal to me. What type of pet would you like to have? A Brazilian Black tarantula. :( I will whine about that until the day I get one, ha ha. I would also really, really like a plains hognose and a woma python. What breakfast are you most likely to have? Cereal. When you're starting to feel sick, you: It depends on what kind of "sick," but odds are I'm heading for the medicine cabinet. What colors are you most drawn to? Pastel ones. :') Light and pretty. What deadly sin are you most likely to commit? Sloth. When you're away from home, what makes you feel at home? "Having my stuff with me, like my laptop." <<<< Same. Do you prefer to lounge in a hot tub or swim in a pool? Swim. How many books do you have out in the public areas of your house? None. Who makes a better burger, in your opinion? Sonic. @_@ What do you like best about the holidays? Seeing my niece and nephew so excited. You think your eyes convey: Boredom, probably. Besides screaming for ice cream, what else do you scream for? If a bug surprises me by being on me. Well, depending on the bug. Do you like fried chicken? Noooo, it is so gross to me. What do you think of belly button piercings? They are SO cute imo. I want one, but I think it would look hideous on me. Maybe if I was actually thinner. Not saying bigger people can't wear belly button piercings, I just don't think it would look good on me. Do you like plain Lays potato chips? They're my favorite! I especially like the ruffled kind. Is there a big screen television in your house? In the living room, yeah. Would you rather no heat in winter or no A.C in summer? No heat in the winter, EASILY. I can't handle no A/C when it's hot. At least if you're cold, you can bundle up with tons of blankets. Have you ever had braces? I did for a long time because we couldn't afford to take them off. Do you do your own laundry? No, honestly. Mom likes to just do it all together, so I let her do it. Which do you prefer: English, Irish, or Australian accents? Irish. Is there anything on your bedroom door? Yeah! I got a "Meerkat Lover St." sign for my door. :') What is the best vegetable? Broccoli. Guys in eyeliner: Hot or not? That shit is h o t. Have you ever seen your favorite band live? No. :( Do you drink water or soda more often? Ugh, soda. Did you collect Pokemon cards back in the day? I didn't deliberately, but only because I was awkward about asking for Pokemon stuff because I thought people thought I was weird for being a girl and being obsessed with it. I think I got one pack. I really, really wish I'd been less self-conscious about that passion. Pet turtle: yay or nay? I'm personally not interested. Did anyone famous come from your town/city/school? Yeah, but I'm not sharing who. Have you ever seen a celebrity on the street? No. Have you ever pretended to be sick? To avoid school sometimes, yes. Can you ice skate? Never tried, too scared to. The blades terrify me. Do you have your nose pierced? No, but I want to have it redone. Do you loooove Tim Burton movies? I sure do! What arcade games do you like to play? I haven't been to an arcade in forever... but I liked the racing ones. What's the most expensive gift you've ever gotten for someone else? I'm not sure. Would you rather spend a whole day with your mom, or your dad? At this moment, probably my dad. We haven't hung out in a long time. What would you say if you found out your last ex was in a relationship? I'd be happy for her and tell her she'd better let me know if the person ever fucks up so I can kick some ass, ha ha. Are you easily confused? Very. I'm slow to understand things. Where was your MySpace/Facebook default taken? My bedroom. Can you whistle with your fingers in your mouth? No. I've never understood how that works. Do you like peanut butter? Love it.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''bubblegum bitch'' by marina and the diamonds

[purplesurveys]

1161

 survey by pichu4850

What color do you think of when I say...

Anger? Red, or a really bright red-orange.

Confusion? Gray.

Inspiration? Sky blue. Both word and color give off calming vibes to me.

Shy? Something like an off-white shade, and maybe even pastel pink.

Agony? Olive green was the first color to come to mind, though I have no idea why.

Sleep? Dark blue, like the night sky.

Chipper? Yellow.

Beautiful? Red, the way roses are.

Morning? Light blue or yellow.

Would you rather be named...

Andrea or Aimee? Andrea.

Emily or Erica? Emily. I know an Erycka that I’m not too fond of, so this is an easy pass.

Kelsey or Casey? Casey, though I’d mix up my name a bit and have it be pronounced and spelled as Cassie.

Madeleine or Marina? Eh, not really a fan of either but I’d mos likely go for Madeleine.

Alec or Aaron? Alec.

Ryan or Ross? Not a fan of both names as well though I’d probably go with Ryan, but only as a feminine name.

Dylan or Daniel? Dylan.

Jack or Jordan? I guess Jack, if I have to pick.

Gabriel or Gavin? Gabriel.

How often do you...

Brush your teeth? Once or twice a day.

Eat breakfast? Twice a week, during weekends; though sometimes I’ll end up skipping it for an entire week altogether.

Check your email? I literally never check my personal email anymore after having gotten hired, but I know I should quit that habit and check it every once in a while just in case an intriguing opportunity might come my way. My work email is a different story; I have to use it everyday. I open my emails even during weekends so that when I report to my shift on Monday, my Gmail won’t look as clogged.

Go to the mall? When quarantine protocols loosened up a bit I used to go either on Saturdays or Sundays for some me time as well as some much-needed time away from the house, for the sake of my mental health and sanity. But now that we’re going through another surge in cases, no one’s allowed to go out again and malls are back to just keeping the essential stores open.

Go to the beach? A few times a year, at least before the pandemic. I haven’t been to the beach since 2019.

Play card games? Only happens once in a blue moon, when I get together with friends and someone happens to bring a deck of cards. This isn’t a usual occurrence with any of my friend groups, though.

Have at least 20 minute phone calls? Never. I have 20-minute Google Meet and Zoom calls instead.

Paint your nails? They are never painted.

Wish you were happier? Every now and then.

Did you ever want to be...

A veterinarian? Yes, when I was younger. I once stumbled upon an interview with a horse vet on one of my kid’s almanacs and thought what they did was so cool.

An astronaut? Yup, definitely became a big obsession of mine at one point in my childhood. I still think it would be cool to go to outer space and should the opportunity ever become accessible in my lifetime, I wouldn’t want to miss out on it.

An artist? Not really. I knew from the get go I wasn’t meant to be one.

A school teacher? I would guess yes, but I definitely wasn’t as interested in teaching compared to being an astronaut or like a firefighter.

A housewife? Lmfao yeah. This was the answer I would give when I was like 8 up until I was probably 10 and I knew it stressed out my Asian mother big time. My grandpa got a kick out of it, though.

A firefighter? Yes. This was up there with astronaut.

A princess? Not so much.

A lawyer? I definitely considered law for a brief period, but it was already during my latter college years. There wasn’t enough time to mull over it. But hearing all the law school horror stories from my friends kind of made me relieved I didn’t push through with it; I knew I wasn’t passionate enough about law to want to go through all the hardships that come with law school, so I was fine letting that dream go, and still am.

A doctor? This was never a dream of mine.

Would you consider yourself...

Materialistic? Yes.

Pessimistic? It comes out occasionally, but I don’t think it’s a main trait of mine that people would generally see me as.

Avoidant? Not so much. I can be shy and anxious sometimes but I get over it at some point.

Sarcastic? Only occasionally. I wouldn’t say I speak the language.

Talkative? Definitely not. I hate being in the spotlight, and whenever it’s my turn to share a story or talk in a group I usually have the tendency to rush through it or make it as short as possible so as to return the spotlight on someone else. I’ve always been more of a listener.

Strange? Maybe not strange but weird to an extent?

Intelligent? I guess in some ways.

Lucky? In some ways I am, but I also got handed the short end of the stick in other contexts.

In the next twenty-four hours, will you...

Talk to someone you care about? Probably. I talk to at least one friend a day.

Go to work? Yep, I’ll finally be going back to work since the Holy Week break is over. My workaholic self felt kinda unsettled with all the free time, so I’m actually kinda relieved.

Go to school? I’m not in school anymore.

Be in a different city? Nope, it’ll be working from home for me like usual. We were initially allowed to book visits to the office if we really needed to go there to pack some goodies and stuff, but because of re-heightened Covid protocols our admin has once again prohibited anyone to go there for the meantime.

Read a book? I highly doubt it. I haven’t read any in months.

Watch a movie? Nope. It’ll be a Monday coming from a 4-day break, so it will be incredibly busy tomorrow as there would be a lot to catch up on.

Go to a dentist/orthodontist appointment? No, I won’t.

Do your laundry? My parents probably will seeing as our hamper was nearly full the last time I checked.

True or False: Family...

I have two brothers or more. I only have one brother.

My mom lives with me. This is technically true but isn’t phrased right in my case. I’m currently living with my parents.

My grandparent(s) live with me. No, we moved out of our duplex (where I did use to live with my grandparents) well over a decade ago.

I have half-siblings. Don’t have any.

I am the oldest in my family. Eldest child, that is.

I am an only child. I have two other siblings.

I have 15 cousins I can name off the top of my head. Easily. My first cousins are less than 15 in total, but I know a good number of my second and third cousins as well so this is a cakewalk.

The nearest Aunt or Uncle lives less than an hour away from me. The aforementioned duplex we moved out of is just at the next village; we didn’t move too far so that we can continue visiting them.

True or False: Food...

I am allergic to chocolate. I’m not, fortunately. I’m not crazy about chocolate but I’d be pretty miserable if I could never have it either.

I like vegetables more than fruit. Infinitely more, hahaha. I hate fruits.

I have tried pizza dipped in ranch sauce. Ranch isn’t a very common dressing where I’m from, so it’s not usually offered in restaurants. Given the chance, though, I’d definitely try my pizza with ranch at least once.

I've never eaten kiwi fruit. True, but then again I’ve never eaten most fruits and don’t plan to.

I love junk food.

I love to try new food.

Ketchup goes best with fries (chips). I don’t like ketchup and barely put it on anything.

I like fried rice. I haven’t met an Asian who doesn’t like fried rice.

I can prepare dinner for myself (using a stove or oven).

I hate sushi.

How many...

Pairs of shoes do you have? A little over 10, maybe? I don’t feel like counting in my head rn.

Songs do you have on your music player? I don’t have a music player anymore.

Hours of sleep did you get last night? Around 4.

Times have you had alcohol? Like, ever since I started drinking when I was 18? I never kept track lmao but if I would guess, maybe around 50-60 times? I’m not a regular drinker; I drink probably once or twice a month at most.

Books have you read/started reading in the past month? None.

Windows in your house/apartment are open? I know my parents and sister have their windows open at the moment, so that’s 2. Mine are usually open as well, but I’ve turned on my aircon so I’ve closed them for the night.

Pets do you have? 2.

Kids do you have/want to have? I’d cut it off a a maximum of 3 kids, but having just 1 would already be so nice.

Minutes does it take to get from your home to school or work? I work from home, but in the two times I went to the actual office it took anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour.

Have you ever...

Spilled a cup of grape juice on the carpet? I don’t think I’ve ever even encountered grape juice in my entire life.

Played spin the bottle? I don’t think I’ve ever played this. My friends and I usually resort to truth or dare.

Played Twister? Yes, and there are many fond memories that come with it as well. So when I was 7 years old I befriended Katreen, and her mom and mine hit it off instantly so they started this arrangement where every Friday, her mom picked me and my sister up from school along with Katreen and her sisters, and we’d stay for several hours at their place until my mom would pick us up. Her mom was an amazing host and every week we’d play Twister, watch Pokemon, read books together, etc; anything to keep us comfortable and entertained.

Been caught doing something you weren't supposed to be doing? It’s bound to happen every now and then.

Walked out of a movie because it was horrible? I’ve gotten this feeling a few times but I always stayed in my seat because I paid for the damn ticket.

Given the finger to someone on the street? Oh most definitely, as well as drivers passing by. And it’s always been towards men that are being disgusting pigs.

Been so sad/angry that you started laughing? Sure.

Been in a wedding? Yes, but I only got invited as a kid since I was usually picked to be one of the flower girls. I haven’t been to a family wedding since 2007.

Been in a situation where you almost died? Probably not died but almost substantially injured, sure.

Misc...

Are you stressing out about anything right now? Just worried about the deluge of tasks that will inevitably come at me tomorrow but knowing how easygoing my bosses are, I know I’ll be able to ease up soon enough.

Do you think before acting or act before thinking? I used to be the latter but I now see the importance of first considering possible consequences of or how others would be affected by my actions.

Do you act upon your emotions and instinct, or logic and reasoning? Again, I used to be one of these, this time the former. Now that I’m at a much more stable and peaceful place in my life I try not to let my emotions get the best of me.

What are some personality traits you find appealing in a potential partner? I had a number of negative experiences in my last relationship so forgive me for scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to my expectations lmaaaao – I’d love for someone to be sensitive to my needs and feelings, and for them to be able to own up to their mistakes or hurtful habits and know how to apologize and be open to changing if it’s for their self-improvement.

How have you changed as a person in the last 5 years? I tolerate less bullshit now. I think I’ve also grown to be happier and a lot more stable, emotionally. I also have a better sense of what I want out of life and where I want to be, and I’ve also learned to be more sociable and open up to people.

If you could do anything you wanted right this moment, what would it be? Order sushi :(

Is there anyone you can totally relax and be yourself around? Yes, that’s what my friends are for. If I can’t feel comfortable around my friends, I’d view that as a problem.

Did you ever wanted to say something to someone, didn't, and regretted it? No.

Are you scared about the future? I’m scared of the idea of not meeting some of my goals, like having a family; but I’m also excited about what the future could bring me.

#survey #surveys