#anyways dream was also a pokemon but in a human suit | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

miraculouswolf99 · 3 years

Text

Grand Festival Showdown

The Miraculous gang as Pokemon trainers. All of them are the same, but their dreams have all been modified to include pokemon. Kagami, Kim, Alix, and Ivan are all battlers. Marinette, Adrien, Luka, Nino, Chloe, Nathaniel, and Lila all do contests. Juleka, Rose, and Mylene all do showcases. This all takes place in the Sinnoh Region.

Includes my favorite Lila Salt as well as Alya Salt.

My original characters are included in this story as well. Lyon being a champion grand coordinator, Vallia being a pokemon nurse in training, Apollo is a contest contestant, Mason being a gym leader, and Lena is a friend to the twins.

This is a long one, about 6000 words, so buckle up people.

*****

If there was one thing that Adrien loved, it was competing in pokemon contests. Since his father usually forced him to model for his fashion company, he appreciated the beauty that he saw in the pokemon that his father made matching outfits of for the photoshoots. And from watching the Pokemon League on television, he definitely also knew that they had power. So contests were the perfect blend of how he saw pokemon as the beautiful and powerful creatures that they were.

Not that his father even knew that he participated in them. Gabriel Agreste wanted his son to be a proper heir to Gabriel Pokemon Fashion. And that did not include anything involving contests, battles, or even showcases. He forced him to do all kinds of photoshoots, had him model with humans and pokemon alike, not to mention the fact that he would not have gotten his starter pokemon had he not sneaked out of the house. But he did it anyway, and his adorable Turtwig had managed to evolve into a Torterra.

But if there was one mistake that Gabriel made, it was letting him have lots of privacy. There may be cameras outside his bedroom door, but none inside of his room. That certainly helped when he had to sneak out to meet his friends, capture more pokemon, train his pokemon, or compete in a contest that was nearby. Plus, he also was able to sneak away to contests that were in the same town as a photoshoot that he was doing. He just had to lie and say that he was staying in his hotel room for a few hours. His life may have been mostly controlled, but that did not mean he was not sneaky when he was getting what he wanted.

Since contests were televised, he did have to keep his father from finding out. So he donned a disguise. He became Cat Noir, a mysterious pokemon contest prodigy that no one knew the real name of.

Only three people knew about his second life as Cat Noir. His best friend Kagami, who shared the same type of sheltered life as he did but she preferred battles to contests, and his other two friends Lyon and Marinette. Lyon is one half of a set of twins, his sister currently working under a Nurse Joy in order to become a pokemon doctor, and he was already a top coordinator back in his home region of Kalos. Marinette is a coordinator like him and also came from the Kalos region like Lyon, but she is usually shy and also has desires to become a pokemon fashion designer.

He had met Kagami during one of the social events they were both forced to attend by their parents. They got along great and both had the same desire to be free. If they were in the same town, which happened more often than one would think, they would often use each other as an excuse to sneak away for a gym battle, contest, or training with their pokemon. He met Lyon by chance when he had been training and his Turtwig almost hit the Top Coordinator with a razor leaf gone wild. Lucky for him that Lyon was a lot more down-to-earth than one would expect from a person with as much success as him while he was so young. Marinette, being a fellow coordinator, had been at a contest which she had lost to him. She had seen him take off his Cat Noir mask and recognized him from his father's magazines. She had been a great friend to him and understood why he used the mask.

There were few things that could actually make him smile so carefree other than contests. His constant photoshoots, dealing with stuck-up models, and his seemingly careless father did not make him smile that way. He hated modeling and even though he loved being all the pokemon that he modeled with, he wanted to see pokemon just as free as he wanted to be. He wanted to be famous for working hard like legendary trainers Ash Ketchum, Gary Oak, and Steven Stone. Or coordinators like Fantina, Wallace, and Zoey.

But he was now was at the top pokemon contest of the Sinnoh region. The Grand Festival. He had earned his ribbons and now Cat Noir was at his first Grand Festival. What he looked forward to most of all was that he knew that Kagami was going to be in the audience, Lyon was a special guest, and that Marinette was also competing.

He did not like the idea that he might have to battle his friend at some point, but these things do tend to happen. Especially since he was also aware that other friends of his had also made it to the Grand Festival. They had all attended the same pokemon school before it was time for their journeys to begin. He knew his friends Luka, Nathaniel, and his childhood friend Chloe were also all competing.

So, he was just getting ready backstage before all of them would have their qualifying performances before the battle rounds started. He was in his Grand Festival outfit of a black suit with green details, a black and green coat with a cape-like back, shiny green dress shoes, "cat claw" gloves, his signature cat-eye mask, and fake black cat ears on his head.

"My, my, don't you look fancy," Adrien heard near him.

The model almost jumped out of his skin but calmed down when he saw that it was just Lyon. And from looking at him, he definitely saw why people called him the White Wolf.

Lyon was in an icy outfit that almost gave him the illusion of having his own ice powers. He had on a fancy white vest over a blue short-sleeve silk shirt. It matched the white pants that he wore with his shin-high blue boots. He also wore a white hooded cloak with snowflake designs all over it. On his lower arms were silver arm-band bracelets with snowflake and wolf designs on them. His midnight-black hair also had fake wolf ears in it.

"Oh, Lyon," Adrien let himself breathe again. "For a second, I thought my identity had been discovered."

"Well, you may need to get a little better at hiding when you change," Lyon chuckled. "If you win and become Top Coordinator, the press will be even more ruthless with trying to find out your identity."

"I deal with the press on a regular basis already, Lyon," Adrien reminded him.

"Yeah, but I can tell you from experience that when it comes to being a Top Coordinator, people pay more attention to us," Lyon said.

"Well, I can see why that would happen with you," Adrien not-so-subtly flirted with him.

"Careful, kitty," Lyon teased him. "Wouldn't want the wolf to eat the cat before his big performance."

Adrien chuckled, always having liked how they could always joke around with their chosen performer names of cat and wolf. There were so few people that he could act like himself around and he certainly enjoyed Lyon's company.

"So, you here as just a special guest or also as a surprise judge," Adrien asked him.

"My dear Cat Noir, now that would be telling," Lyon smirked as he teased the teen coordinator.

"Oh, thank Arceus that I found you," they both heard a female voice.

They both turned and saw Marinette running toward them. Lyon recognized her from pictures that Adrien had sent him and of course, Adrien would recognize his best friend even if she was decked out in her Grand Festival dress. Probably a dress of her own design as well.

She was in a beautiful dress that was in a ladybug design with a little pink mixed in. It was a knee-length dress that was mostly red with black spots all over it. Under it was a crinoline that was colored pink that helped her dress by more poofy. The sleeves of her dress were elegant bell sleeves that ended at her elbows and lower arms instead of her wrists. Her hair was also extended and placed into a long ponytail coming from the top of the back of her head with roses tied where the ponytail started. On her feet were red wedge-heel boots that went up to her knees.

"How you can run in those heels is beyond me," Lyon said.

"Especially given that one of the first things that you told me about yourself was that you are extremely clumsy," Adrien added.

"Well, I was running with a purpose," Marinette said.

"That purpose being to find one of us if what you had said means anything," Lyon says.

"It's about Adrien, or rather Cat Noir really," Marinette said.

"Oh, great," Adrien sighed, having expected the fame of his mysterious identity to cause some type of drama at the Grand Festival.

"Do you remember when I was telling you about that liar, Adrien," Marinette asked him.

"Yeah," Adrien nodded. "Lila is what you told me her name was. The girl that lies with every breath she takes and has an ego bigger than a Wailord."

"Well, she somehow got her five ribbons and is going around telling people that she knows who you are," Marinette tells her friend.

"What," Adrien's eyes widen.

"Not just that," Marinette continued. "She is also saying that she is dating you and you're apparently head over heels for her."

Adrien could not help but facepalm when he heard that.

"Here comes the headache that I did not know was going to happen," he groaned.

"Here's some aspirin," Marinette gave Adrien the medicine. "I thought that if the liar managed to get here, I would need some myself. I've already had three headaches because of her. And that is just today."

"Am I missing something," Lyon asked.

"Yes," Adrien said before popping the medicine into his mouth.

Marinette rolled her eyes as she took the liberty of explaining.

"Lila Rossi is a pathological liar that I ran into after I won my first two contests," she says. "At first, I had believed her tall tales until she said that she knew the designer for Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale."

"MDC," Lyon raised an eyebrow. "As such a private designer, I highly doubt that a random girl would know her. Especially if she is bragging about it to anyone that will listen to her."

Marinette nodded. "Exactly. So I then immediately knew that Lila was nothing but a liar. Especially since she said that MDC is a boy when anyone with common sense, and access to the internet, know that MDC's only given clue to who she is that she is a she."

"Yet, people actually believe her," Lyon put a hand on his hip.

"As I said, she is a pathological liar," Marinette says. "One that uses people's knowledge to make her lies sound realistic. Like how my friend Rose is friends with Prince Ali, and my boyfriend Luka is Jagged Stone's son, and even how Adrien is Cat Noir. Lila uses people's own experiences to give her lies credibility. Like a situation of 'if I can know celebrities then so can she."

"Weirdly enough, I can see how that makes sense," Adrien said.

"What can we do about her," Lyon asked. "Can we just have Adrien call her out as Cat Noir?"

"Since Adrien has to keep his identity a secret, she could just pull out another lie about him protecting her or that they got into a fight," Marinette said. "It's how she explained when MDC posted on social media that she had never met Lila before."

"This is gonna be a disaster, isn't it," Adrien guessed. "There is no way someone like how you describe Lila would go down without a fight."

"She may be lying, but won't she lie herself into a corner," Lyon asked. "Especially if 'Cat Noir' actually does enter a relationship."

"The problem is the damage that she can cause along the way," Marinette said.

"Trust me, I was on your train of thought as well until Marinette explained things more to me," Adrien said. "Lila is not just lying about herself, she is also lying about what she can do for others. Saying that she can put a good word in for people to get certain jobs, internships, or futures in careers that they want. When it actually comes time for them to her to fulfill those promises, a lot of people will be met with disappointment. Plus, with her promising these things, they will not apply to other jobs, colleges, or internships on their own. It would take a long time for them to recover from her lies."

"I see," Lyon understood what they meant. "Guess this just gives me more reasons to not come out in public more if I have to deal with people like her."

"She hasn't happened to make any lies about Lyon, has she," Adrien asked Marinette.

"Well, she apparently was trained in the art of contests by Lyon and was supposedly the muse that inspired him to chose his 'White Wolf' look," Marinette said.

"And... now I have a headache," Lyon pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Here you go," Marinette handed the top coordinator some aspirin.

"Thank you," he took it immediately.

Adrien had known Lyon for quite a while now. Lyon had come from a rich family just like he did. But while he had been almost forced to model, Lyon's parents let him choose his own path. He was known for being the youngest ever grand coordinator out there. But since he had met him, Adrien also knew that Lyon generally was very humble and kind, but was basically an ice prince to anyone that tries to use him for their own gain.

So if Lila was not in trouble before, she sure was going to be now that Lyon knew about her lying about him. And that was troubling enough without Lyon's twin sister, Vallia, hearing about this. She might have the nickname of the Flower Princess and might be trying to become a Pokemon doctor, but that did not mean she was not dangerous on the battlefield.

"If she is still telling lies, I am guessing that she still has her regular audience," Adrien looks at Marinette again.

She nodded sadly. "Alya is still her most loyal sheep and there are also a lot of other friends of ours that are under her spell as well."

Lyon looked at the two with a raised eyebrow, silently asking for more details.

"There are times where I can escape photoshoots even if I do not have a contest to sneak off to," Adrien explained. "I would meet up with Marinette as much as I could and she introduced me to a lot of her friends. I have especially gotten along well with Nino, Kim, Juleka, and Marinette's boyfriend Luka."

"And before Lila came along, my friend Alya was my best friend," Marinette said. "I went to our town pokémon school with them before we all started our journeys. But when Lila showed up with all of her tall tales and false promises, they follow her like sheep following their shepherd. Most of my old class is under her spell. Only Adrien, myself, Luka, Kim, Juleka, and our other friends Nathaniel, Marc, and Kagami know that she is nothing but a liar."

"Alya used to be a reporter hopeful," Adrien tells Lyon. "She ran a very popular blog about up-and-coming battlers and coordinators. But then Lila came along with her tales and now most of Alya's blog is about her. She basically takes Lila's words as gospel and attacks anyone that so much as even hints that they think that Lila is anything less than a perfect angel."

"Wow," Lyon gasped. "This girl sounds worse than an angry Darkrai, and you never want to run into one of those."

"Yeah, Lila is a piece of work," Adrien sighed. "She really needs to be silenced before her tales get someone into trouble."

"Yeah," Marinette said. "She has been saying how Jagged Stone wrote a song about her and that Clara Nightingale stole dance moves from her. Those types of lies can ruin their careers."

"Well, I have no secret identity," Lyon says. "She won't be able to lie her way out of me saying that I have no idea who she is."

"Just be careful how you explain how you heard about her lies," Adrien warned him. "Lila has been trying to turn people against Marinette because she knows about her lies. At a few past contests that I had won, I heard a few other coordinators insulting her all because of lies that Lila told about her."

Lyon looked disgusted by the behavior. Coordinators and battlers were both very large families. Yes, there were some bad seeds in each family, but this girl was something way beyond a bad seed. How can one person just be such a selfish liar that she is willing to ruin another person's life just because they did not believe their lies?

But before they could continue their conversation, an announcement was made over the backstage speakers. It was for the coordinators that were competing to get ready since the first round was going to be starting soon.

"Just do your best, you two," Lyon tells them. "And if that liar gives you any trouble, she won't be much of an issue for much longer."

With a "Whoosh" of his cloak, Lyon left to go down the hallway. He had his own business at the Grand Festival that he needed to take care of before he would be able to help his friends.

"He always did like to make dramatic exits," Adrien chuckled.

"I just hope we actually won't have to deal with Lila for much longer," Marinette says.

The two of them went the opposite way down the hall, to the locker room where the contestants have to stay when they are not on stage. Adrien went to the side and leaned against the wall to keep up his appearance of the mysterious and quiet Cat Noir. Looking around the room, he noticed some familiar faces. Like Marinette had gone to stand next to her boyfriend, and fellow coordinator, Luka. There was also her friend Nathaniel and his boyfriend Marc along with her former friend Nino, Alya's boyfriend. Adrien also noticed his childhood friend Chloe as well and, unfortunately, Lila.

Soon, on the screens, appeared Marian, the usual contest announcer for Sinnoh. And from the audience that was seen in the background, Adrien could make out Kagami in the crowd as well as Alya. He was surprised to see Kagami there, but it was a very welcome surprise.

"Welcome, everyone to the beautiful waterside town of Lake Valor for this year's Grand Festival," she announced into her mic, making the crowd cheer. "Sixty talented coordinators from all over the Sinnoh region have joined us here to perform and battle their way into becoming the newest Top Coordinator!"

"And that will be me," was muttered all around the locker room, from confident and cocky contestants.

"Over the next few days, these talents coordinators will perform and battle their way into being named the next Top Coordinator," Marian continued. "The first stage is the Performance Stage, where our contestants will show off the beauty of their pokémon and their moves in double performances. After this stage, we will boil down our contestants to the lucky thirty-two for the Battle Stage where they will fight in double battles to win the chance to be named Top Coordinator."

"We got this, Torterra," Adrien whispered to the Pokeball in his hand.

"And to help us, let me introduce our judges," Marian continued again. "First is the Chief of the Pokémon Activities Committee, our head judge, Mr.Contesta."

"I look forward to watching all these coordinators doing their very best," the judge said as the spotlight shined down on him.

"Next is the President of the Pokémon Fan Club, Mr.Sukiza," Marian introduced.

"Remarkable," the next judge used his catchphrase.

"And, of course, Nurse Joy," Marian announced. "She is a very special guest all the way from the Kanto region."

The spotlight shined down on the pokemon nurse.

"It's an honor to be here and to help judge these amazing contestants, I called my sisters from Pewter City and Cerulean City."

Two more Nurse Joy seemed to materialize from behind her.

"We're very happy to be here," they all said at once.

"And last, but definitely not the least, our guest judge," Marian announces, making the crowd and contestants curious as to who it might be. "He is the youngest ever Top Coordinator of three regions and has graced us with his presence from all the way in Kalos. He's known as the White Wolf, it's Lyon Garden!"

A fourth spotlight shined down and Lyon was presented, making the crowd erupt into cheers.

Adrien was both shocked and not shocked at the same time. He figured that Lyon was here for a reason, but he suspected that it was for a guest performance, not as a judge. But he did smirk as he saw Lila pale a little at the sight of one of the people that she lied about.

"Ladies and gentlemen, coordinators of all ages," Lyon says. "I hope to see plenty of creativity, skill, passion, and most of all, I want to see good sportsmanship. I wish you all the luck in the world, but I will still tell you the cold hard truth about everything you and your pokemon do."

Adrien chuckled under his breath. Lyon would always be Lyon, and that meant that the Ice Prince, which all of their friends called him, would come out every now and again.

"The performance stage will be divided into three separate stages," Marian announced as all three male judges went to a separate stage with one of the Nurse Joy's. "Blue, green, and red. And the performances will be happening simultaneously. Let's get this first round started!"

The crowd cheered. In the locker room, the three first contestants were called out for each of the stages.

Adrien certainly got the meaning of the three stages. It was an extra challenge to be able to do a proper performance when there were two others happening at the same time. It was all about being able to focus on what you were doing and not get overwhelmed.

As the performances started and coordinators showed off their skills, Adrien definitely saw a few that would be his main competition. Such as when Luka took his turn on the blue stage, he did a very enchanting performance with his Sunflora and ghost-type Oricoro. As Marinette has told him, Luka loves music and almost always includes sound in his performances. And as he heard the sound and saw the glowing musical notes of Luka's performance, he knew that boy was going to be a challenging opponent.

There was also Nathaniel and Marc. They worked on a pokemon comic book together, so both of their creative and artistic skills showed in their performances. And it was also an amazing sight to see how Nathaniel had a rare Phione that he paired with his Piplup for his performance was stunning aquatic moves. And Marc was definitely no slouch as he gave an incredible display of nature with his Meganium and Cherubi.

But that was to say that there were not some fails as well.

Sadly, this list of fails included Nino. Adrien might have once called him a friend, but that certainly stopped when the guy started believing Lila's lies about Marinette. And by how badly he failed his performance, Adrien had to guess that Nino had probably taken some of Lila's "advice" about what he should do. It certainly was not a good look to the green stage judges when his Buizel went flying back from a Will-O-Wisp from his Drifblim was too powerful for the combo he was trying to do.

When Marinette got her turn on the red stage, Adrien was proven right when he had guessed that she would do a flawless performance. It was an amazing combination of her icy Amaura with her beautiful Vivillon. Especially when she had beautiful glowing snowflakes falling all over the stage with a combination of icy wind and silver wind followed by a morning sun.

Plus, it was certainly nice to see Lila so angry over Marinette having done nothing wrong in her performance one bit.

But even Adrien had to admit that even though he hated Lila as a person, she did pretty well during her own performance. Sure, her combo moves were a little predictable with the pokemon that she chose, but they still worked out in the end for her. But Adrien had a feeling that like the liar that she was, she was probably just using combo moves that she has seen in the past and using them herself but with different pokemon so that it is not obvious that she is just a copycat.

Then, Cat Noir was called for the blue stage. Adrien took a deep breath as he went out toward the stage. He passed Marinette on his way and she gave him an encouraging hug. He knew that Lyon was the judge for the blue stage along with the main Nurse Joy guest judge from Kanto. But he knew that Lyon would not judge him any easier just because they were friends. If anything, he'd be judged harder since Lyon knows how hard he had trained for this.

"And next on the blue stage is the talk of the Grand Festival," he heard Marian announce. "A masked coordinator that has been taking the contest world by storm. The pokemon contest prodigy himself, Cat Noir."

There was loud cheering as he ran out there and pulled out his pokeballs.

"Torterra, Togekiss, claws out," he threw their pokeballs into the air with his signature catchphrase.

With the star sticker on both the pokeballs, both of the pokemon came out in a swirl of stars. Most would doubt using a pokemon as big and tough-looking as Torterra for the Performance Stage, but Adrien was not most people.

Togekiss lands gracefully on the tree of Torterra's shell. There was a reason why Togekiss were known as some of the most graceful pokemon in the world.

"Togekiss, sky attack. Torterra, leaf storm," Adrien commanded.

Togekiss shined with a white aura as it slowly floated into the air. But at the same time, Torterra's tree let out its storm of leaves and green wind. Since Togekiss was right on the tree, as it flew into the air, the storm swirled around it and followed it. The leaves and window giving off an incredible light that was a result of the combo of the light of the sky attack with the flow of the leaf storm. Togekiss then flew higher into the air.

"Safeguard," Adrien commanded.

Togekiss then unleashed the blue and sea green force field that the protection move grants. It caused the sky attack and the leaf storm to disperse in a gorgeous flash of light.

Lyon and Nurse Joy both looked impressed by how he so effortlessly made a beautiful start to his performance.

"Torterra, sunny day. Togekiss, aerial ace," Adrien commanded.

Torterra's tree glowed with sunlight as it then threw a ball of light into the air. It headed right toward Togekiss as it was surrounded by streams of white energy as it flew around to use its move. The sunny day move was hit by Togekiss, resulting in a bright flash of light.

And the crowd and judges and fellow contestants gasped as Togekiss emerged from the light. The aerial ace and sunny day had merged together and had created a stunning rainbow trail that followed it as it flew around the stage. It was one of the most stunning things ever seen in a contest in ages.

Togekiss then did an aerial twirl before landing right back on Torterra's tree and causing the rainbow trail to burst into rainbow-colored sparkles that fell all over the stage.

Adrien took a bow as his performance ended. The crowd and judges were all on their feet as they gave him a giant round of applause. Lyon caught his eye and gave him a look filled with pride and congratulations.

"I don't think I have ever seen a performance like that," Lyon says, doing his judging. "A true mastery of both the power of a Torterra and the elegance of a Togekiss. Truly the best performance I have seen in a long time."

"It was indeed incredible," Nurse Joy added her judging. "To combine two pokemon so different from each other and making them work in such harmony really is a breathtaking piece of art."

Adrien could not be prouder of himself as he returned Torterra and Togekiss to their pokeballs and then started to walk back to the locker room. He was about halfway there when Marinette basically tackled him with a hug.

"I have never seen anything like that," she practically yelled in excitement. "You're Torterra was so well-trained and Togekiss was beautiful. I will never know where you get your time to train performances like that, but that was so awesome."

Adrien chuckled at the enthusiasm of his friend.

"Thanks, Marinette," he said. "I loved your performance as well. Those snowflakes were such works of art and they were almost like fairies floating around the stage."

Marinette blushed at the compliment.

"Thanks," she smiled. "I knew that ice moves and flying-type moves are usually a good mix, so when you add in the light from the silver wind, it creates the snowflakes."

"I just know that I will see you in the finals," Adrien grinned at her. "I may not want to beat you, but I'm going to."

"In your dreams, kitty," Marinette giggled as she knew that it would be one hell of a showdown.

"Get your hands off of Lila's man, Mari-brat," a female voice was heard.

"And, here we go again," Marinette groaned.

Marinette turned around as Adrien looked at who was yelling. It seems that Alya was as much of Lila's attack Growlith now as she always seems to be since the liar showed up in their lives. And it looked like Lila was fake crying behind her while Nino was trying to comfort her.

"Uh... who are you," Adrien asked.

Now, Adrien had done some voice acting for a few movies that his dad wanted him to do. So, he was a pretty good actor. Adrien might know who Alya is, but Cat Noir has never met her before.

Alya looked at Adrien, smiling at him. But he could still see the rage in her eyes over something that Lila probably lied about. This was probably about the lies about him dating Lila with the liar probably also throwing in some other lies to make Marinette look even worse.

"Oh, I guess Lila never mentioned me," Alya said. "I'm Alya, your girlfriend's best friend."

"Uh... And who is..." Adrien tried to reveal Lila as a liar.

"Oh, don't worry about lying to protect her," Alya interrupted him, proving that they were right about how Lila would lie her way out of Cat Noir saying that he did not know her. "But I should warn you that this girl that you're talking to is nothing but a giant bully."

"Excuse me," Adrien had to stop himself from snapping at Marinette's former best friend.

"She is nothing but a bully, liar, and cheat," Alya glared at Marinette. "She is always bullying Lila and trying to steal her pokemon. She always calls Lila a liar when she is no such thing. Plus, she drugs all her pokemon to make sure her performances are good. Plus, she steals Lila's contest ideas. So, get your hands off of Lila's boyfriend, Mari-brat."

"You know, Luka used to tell me that you're heart song screamed that you were a bad friend," Marinette crossed her arms. "I did not believe him, but I will never doubt him ever again since you have ditched me for a liar."

"SEE," Alya yelled as she looked at Adrien and pointed at Marinette as if she had just been proven right. "She just called Lila a liar. She is a total bully."

"Well, she obviously is..." Adrien was interrupted again but by a different person this time.

"Hello, kitty," Lyon says as he approached the group.

"Wolfie," Adrien was immediately back in a good mood as he saw his friend.

"I have a reward for you for such an incredible performance," Lyon said.

Before Adrien could ask, he was suddenly kissed by Lyon. But the shock soon wore off as he melted into the kiss.

Marinette looked ready to burst in excitement as her ship has finally sailed. But she did now owe Luka a batch of his favorite caramel and chocolate scones since he had bet her that the two would get together at the Grand Festival while she thought it would happen after it. But she did not care.

Alya looked ready to burst in anger. Lila looked like she wanted to either cry more fake tears or just throw a monster tantrum. Nino just stood there with his mouth hanging open.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF ARCEUS ARE YOU DOING," Alya screamed.

That made them break apart from the kiss. But Lyon just put his arm around Adrien's waist.

"I believe that I was kissing my boyfriend," Lyon said. "We've had to keep it secret because of the media, but we've been together a few months."

Adrien and Marinette both knew that he was lying, but they did not care. Besides, this was to both expose Lila and have an excuse to start dating.

"You've been cheating on your girlfriend for that long," Alya continued to scream.

Lila then chose to speak up, also choosing to fake cry.

"How could you do this to be, Noir," she cried to fake tears.

"Oh, so this is the girl that you were warning me about, Marinette," Adrien decided to join Lyon in his act. "The one that was going around and saying that I was dating her?"

"Yep, that's her," Marinette played along as well.

"Well, then," Adrien started, facing Alya. "As I was about to tell you, I do not have a girlfriend. I never have and I never will. As you can plainly see, I am gay and I have a wonderful boyfriend."

"Lila is not a liar," Alya continued to scream. "You're just a cheater that is trying to make her look bad."

"Wow, this girl is a piece of work," Lyon rolled his eyes.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Alya yelled at Lyon. "She was the one that gave you the inspiration to be the White Wolf and you trained her to be a coordinator. How could you betray her like this?!?"

"Her? Inspire me? As if," Lyon gave Alya an icy glare. "This is the first day that I have ever met this girl. I became the White Wolf because my sister used to call me a wolf because of how loyal I am to my friends and family. They also all call me the Ice Prince, so White Wolf was born out of my two childhood nicknames."

"You need better friends since Marinette is most definitely is right," Adrien said. "This Lila girl is, most definitely, nothing but a liar."

"Let's go before our IQ gets any lower from being around a liar and her loyal sheep," Lyon held Adrien's hand as the three of them left. "And if someone is accusing you of drugging your pokemon, Marinette, I will lend you my family lawyers to sue that liar for slander."

Marinette wanted to laugh so hard as she saw the look of horror on Lila's face as they passed. She did start laughing once they were out of earshot.

"This is turning into the best day of my life," Marinette looked so happy.

"You're welcome," Lyon smirked.

"Won't you now get accused of favoritism when Lila will probably spread that you two are 'together' as revenge," Marinette asked Lyon.

"Everyone saw Adrien's performance, so I doubt that will happen," Lyon was confident.

"Okay," Marinette accepted that. "Also, it is about time you two got together. Adrien's had a crush on you forever."

"MARINETTE," Adrien yelled as he blushed.

All Marinette did in response was smirk and giggle.

#lila salt #Lila exposed #i hate lila rossi #alya salt #CrossOver #crossovers are the best #pokemon #pokemon contest #grand festival #miraculous #miraculous fandom #original character #nino salt #marinette x luka #adrien x oc #ADRIEN DESERVES BETTER

209 notes · View notes

steve0discusses · 3 years

Text

Yugioh S5 Ep 20: Yugi’s Senshi Outfit

So I’ve been doing a lot of work, and I haven’t looked at the blog for a hot minute and when I finally checked back in to do these posts I noticed something on my tumblr was just blowing up. I got all excited thinking “oh shoot, Did I draw something right??” and instead, it was a random post I made about the bootspants from season 1. Three years later, resurrected from the grave and covered in...thousands of notes? I don’t understand how this website works.

Anyways, the comments are mostly good, but a little bit wild. A lot of people seem to think I would know what Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is, when I’m an adult who is still watching the first 5 seasons of Yugioh. (I will never have time to watch Jojo,) and then some other people started talking about Actual Card Mechanics that went...completely beyond my comprehension. But then there was one person. One person who said one thing, and brought it all together.

Poots.

The boots that are pants.

Poots.

I can’t believe I looked at all the different combinations, but a Poots never crossed my brain.

It is so perfect, so cathartic, although it took 3 years to get there.

Poots.

Anyways, we’re in S5 and unfortunately not in poots anymore, Yugi is now dressed in a tupperware container from hell and they have wandered into a desert. On cue, Grandpa has an injury, but at least this time it’s not his ass.

You know how there’s artists who do hyper-realistic versions of pokemon monsters with detailed bone structure and muscle anatomy? I dare them to look at this orb and tell me how the hell it has wings. Like go ahead and try and pin a spine down on that thing. I’ll wait.

(read more under the cut)

So Joey decides to sprint down this endless desert with just boundless positivity.

Over the edge of this sand dune is a whole bunch of huts,just random civilization out in the middle of no where.

One girl walks over and it’s a look.

She’s really the only one here who can talk, and she just seems...so incredibly bored to be here. A whole lot of Wednesday Addams energy. She leads them into a hut where an old guy pulls a scroll out of blue fire. As you do.

Again, this arc should have been a video game, because while it’s something to get the player interested if there’s some riddle they have to solve to progress, when you’re watching a TV show, it’s not like I’m the one solving the riddle. The format is honestly one of the downers of this arc, tbh.

It has strong “I played a D+D sesh and made a webcomic out of it vibe” and I know I just called out like half of you, but listen, I will not take it back.

This episode, our gimmick is some asshole is going to be yelling at us from the other end of the map, just shouting in the background for the entirety of the episode like that tangible human skull meme.

Then Wednesday Addams hands over yet another MacGuffin because why not?

Tea can twin it up with Yugi now. Her necklace doesn’t seem haunted, but it’s only a matter of time. (also her necklace looks so freakin terrible, we’ll see it later and I’ll have a lot more to say because wtf it looks like some sort of polly pocket.)

I’m not 100% that the voice that shouts at us from the end of the hall this episode is Mokuba’s voice actress. But I’m 99% positive it is, or Mokuba’s voice is just really that type of vibe.

Stuff happens, and it felt like card duel stuff, so I’m gonna skip over the part where they pulled out their duel monsters one by one, since the fight was pointless anyway because the worms can turn you into stone. So Yugi and Pharaoh decide to have a chat about it because their plan is clearly not working.

This is when Pharaoh has a vivid lucid daydream, which seems like something that would have been more convenient before he ended up turning into stone on the floor of some desert. But, hallucinations never come when they’re convenient on this show. They usually come during card games, tbh.

Imagine with me that you’re dreaming of like...an old ass greek guy who is 99% Alexander the Great. Imagine he tells you to fuse with a sentient paper card that you already carry around in a weird capsule.

Please

For the love of all that is holy

Do not think about what it means to fuse with the Dark Magician.

Dark Magician is...he “exists” but he’s like not even a person. There seem to be whole fleets of dark Magicians, which are all the same guy, just cloned, right? Or maybe they’re a family? Or like...I don’t freakin know. Like they’re all hanging out together in some card dimension so it’d be more like fusing with the guy who dresses like Barney the dinosaur instead of actually Barney. Like he’s more of like a concept than a dude, but apparently you can just introduce him to your...whatever this armor is supposed to be, and Dark Magician turns into a Super Suit.

I want to express my thanks to the Yugioh team for not putting Yami in his underoos. Hell, they didn’t even take off his jacket. I do not know what art directer ok’d this for animation and said “yeah, this won’t kills us if we animate it.” but that is a hell ton of lines and design right there. Yeah they have 3d, and probably had to 3d that staff...but that doesn’t mean you don’t end up drawing it, in the end--you still have to draw over your 3d. You still have to draw literally everything.

Anyway, when we get to the eye of the storm. The secret to getting there was that you have to fly, which again--3/5 of these guys already have a monster that can fly. We can finally tell the voice at the end of the hall to stop yelling because it’s really bothering all the townspeople, and then move on with the quest.

Everyone else was stone during this. So when they un-petrified they kinda looked over at Yugi and were like “how freakin long was I out???”

But youknow, Yugi’s 2 people, so it’s fine. So long as you don’t get down to the third bastard still sitting around in there.

After this, our NPCs vanish, and the show pushes us directly forward. No time for them to piss off a land turtle or set a bunch of wolves on fire. Just get out of the desert and freakin go.

I’m just so bothered by this random ass huge chunky necklace.

It’s like the size of your freakin fist. And it’s just...a pentagon. Congrats Tea, you have a fake ass plastic necklace. I guess it’s so that when we’re far away we can still see it on her chest but like...This show loves huge ass necklaces, and they’re all basic ass shapes. We got a pyramid, the Kaiba’s wear squares, Bakura wears a circle with kind of phallic bits hanging off of it and this is just...it’s literally just a pentagon.

I guess Ishizu wore a wadjet and Duke has an indecipherable clown as his necklace. But man...the Yugioh necklace game is just a lot of shapes.

And so we continue on with this filler arc, which is also a pokemon arc, and even secretly has a Sailor Moon arc just stuffed in there for funsies. This arc is weird.

Also, I brought up the human skull so I legally have to post this.

youtube

Anyway, here’s a link to read these in chrono order, in case you just got here: https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

And I’m off to drink a bin of ice water because it is 5 billion degrees right now in this house.

#ygo #yugioh #yu gi oh #episode recap #photo recap #S5 #Ep 20 #yugi muto #yami #grandpa muto #tea gardner #and her new accessory #tristan taylor #joey wheeler #and that time that Yami fused with dark magician and we all acted like that wasn't extremely weird

39 notes · View notes

catflowerqueen · 3 years

Text

Rescue Team Retrospective Part 8: Characterization, Part 5

Hero

Much to my surprise, they actually do have more spoken dialogue than I remember. However, most of it still seems to be when they are/think they are alone, when they are dreaming, or during dialogue tree options. They also have funnier dialogue options on the whole, compared to in Explorers. …And I honestly don’t remember how much they have in PSMD, but I feel like it still less than they had in Gates?

Anyways, I get the feeling that they’re a bit older than most of the other protagonists, mostly in terms of what little dialogue we do see and how their situation seems a bit more dire in general? They are more prone to speculating on their new nature as a pokemon, for one, and they seem a bit more active over all in actually trying to figure out what exactly happened to them. Possibly this is because they actually get some hints early one with Alakazam suggesting they go check out the Hill of the Ancients, compared to Explorers waiting until the expedition and then pretty much stumbling into a possibility with Uxie, PSMD not really seeming to touch on it until way, way late in the game, and Gates actually having some knowledge of what they’re there for, but then deciding not to bother finding out anything else despite having the clearest path.

The Rescue Team Hero has the smallest support group and the natural disasters they keep experiencing first hand, even within the town, make their situation the most dangerous from the get-go, but they rise to the challenge admirably. And also, no one questions the fact that they are choosing to live alone even though we do have multiple examples of parents with children present in the Square—which is another reason why I think they must be older, because otherwise I would hope one of the actual adults would question it. So I’d give them late teens at minimum.

We don’t really get too much of a backstory on them besides the fact that they apparently spoke with Gardevoir and suggested the memory wiping themselves as a test of their worthiness. I think that the implication might also be that they are actually from the pokemon world specifically, rather than pulled there like the Gates hero was, but it isn’t entirely clear from the dialogue exactly how far the “We” that Gardevoir spoke of could reach on their search for a savior, so it could really go either way. I personally headcanon them as coming from the human world, though.

Of all the different heroes, I still think they have the least actual characterization—though they definitely do have more of it than I previously remembered.

Partner

I’m going to note again that I am just going with the original version. I know that DX changed some stuff—especially when it comes to the post game interactions—but since I haven’t played that version, I can’t comment on it.

The Partner actually seemed a lot sassier and selfish than I remember them being. Like, sure, I did recall that line about them faking a stomachache before they go off to save Shiftry, but even before that… well, they make fun of the hero’s name, for one, and they seem a bit self-centered and glory seeking when it comes to receiving personal rescue requests. Like… I touched on it a little in the Gengar post, but their reaction to the mail stealing scene struck me a bit differently as an adult than it did when I was a child. They weren’t angry that someone was stealing from their friend’s mailbox—they were angry that they weren’t the ones who would be getting the credit for completing the rescue requests. And maybe I’m just being nit-picky about it, but the subtle difference there just strikes me as putting the partner in a bit more negative light.

That aside, their devotion to the hero is clear. They are a great friend and go to many lengths to help them figure out their identity. And I actually think their moment of doubt after hearing the Ninetales Legend for the first time actually serves to strengthen their emotion and conviction. They really did go ride or die from the hero—knowing all the risks and having only their friendship as a reason to follow them on the fugitive arc. Comparatively, the Explorers partner literally was just dragged along with no say in the matter, the Gates partner thought it was just going to be a standard rescue mission when they agreed to help, and the PSMD partner was really the one who seemed to be calling the shots for the most part (and also accidentally got dragged along to their fugitive arc equivalent much like the Gates hero did, since their initial assumption was that the mission was going to be different than what ended up happening).

This is why I felt—and still feel—very betrayed by the fact that they pretty much abandon the hero after the main storyline. And they can even kick you out of your actual house if you choose them to be the leader. Okay, so the way that they frame it is to suggest taking a divide and conquer approach—that you can make teams specifically suited to each quest—but its just really sad that they no longer follow you around anymore or get any special dialogue if you visit their friend area.

I don’t think their goals and desires are as clear cut as some of the other partners. They seem to be almost making things up as they go at some points. Yes, there is an early indication and justification for wanting to form a Rescue Team initially, but they don’t really seem to get too into the idea of what that actually means until Caterpie expresses an interest in one day joining and the partner then suggests one day creating a proper base. And then promptly says nothing else on the matter or tries to get that started at any point between then and the fugitive arc until they randomly bring it up after meeting the mankey gang. Like, sure, some of that was put on the backburner when they got that suggestion to see Xatu… but there was still a little time before that, and there was ample opportunity for them to have had some sort of dialogue option indicating that they were still interested in doing that, but were going to put it aside in deference to the hero’s needs.

From that point of view, their bond with the hero probably is a lot stronger from the beginning. Which is in some ways good, but in other ways bad since it means we don’t get to see as much relationship growth. Though, ironically, I think we do see more growth from this pair in that matter than we do from the Explorers pair, especially considering the “moment of doubt” scene.

Like, sure, the Explorers duo are excellent friends, and obviously they are extremely close considering the whole Dimensional Scream thing. But while we do see some individual growth from the partner, there aren’t too many overt examples. Sure, we get that montage before the credits… but its just a lot more subtle. And that actually speaks more to the sort of easy friendships of young children, which is another reason that I headcanon that pair as being so young—which makes it all the sweeter that the duo can stand the test of time and remain close even after the big adventure is over.

That being said, I still think that the Rescue Team pair has less relationship growth than Gates or PSMD does. Which is probably one of the few nice things I can say about PSMD—I really do like how they handled the partner’s character growth there… it’s just too bad that a lot of the time it came at the expense of the hero, in multiple ways.

So I guess my overall verdict on the Rescue Team partner is that they aren’t as flat of a character as I remember, they’re still lacking in personal growth overall and are probably the overall weakest partner of the series even though there are some aspects in which they excel.

As a final note… Interestingly enough, it really is only the Gates and Rescue Team partners who really get the chance to make a deliberate choice to put the hero’s desires before their own—though it is slightly more subtle in the Rescue Team partner’s case. Sure, unlike the Gates partner, the Rescue Team partner doesn’t ever have the opportunity to actually ask the hero to stay with them—the hero didn’t tell them they would have to leave and then came back on their own anyways fairly quickly, and though the partner did question once whether or not they wanted to turn into a human again, they didn’t really comment much either way and the subject was quickly dropped. But it was the Rescue Team partner who worked through a moment of doubt and resolved to trust their hero, and, again, they did not have to go on the run with the hero. The hero outright offered to disband the team and give them the chance to leave, and they refused.

This is much like the subtle way that the Gates partner showed they cared. True, they didn’t exactly take back their words to the hero about wanting them to stay—at least not beyond what they said in the goodbye frism—but they were very willing to pass up on the opportunity to wish for their return if it meant the hero would be happier on Earth, and they tried their hardest to give them the best of both world when they did finally make a wish.

In comparison, the question was never really brought up with the Explorers partner, and they didn’t really have a choice or opportunity either way. And the PSMD partner didn’t give the hero any chances or opportunities at all, period—only some of which can be explained on the fact that apparently they also had their own case of amnesia, because even then they weren’t trying all that hard to look into the hero’s situation before that point when they, at least, actually got the opportunity to have an actual life and childhood full of new memories with their guardian and didn’t actually realize they had changed species at all, unlike the hero who knew full well from the get-go that they had amnesia and weren’t supposed to be a pokemon at all.

#pokemon mystery dungeon #red/blue rescue team #retrospective

2 notes · View notes

patema-introverted · 5 years

Text

a bunch of anime and what i only know from my dash:

revolutionary girl utena: sword lesbians and roses dororo: it’s about a blind ninja and his adorable baby sister. they both have ponytails and he fights monsters. hunter x hunter: i thought it was a fantasy but i guess it’s kinda got a video game in it? but i think it’s mostly about found family ft. a green haired kid and his white-haired friend who looks like Son Material card captor sakura: like pokemon but with cards. i think theres a romance neon genesis evangelion: mechs with heavy christian subtext, i think everyone dies at the end? mob psycho 100: a young underdog with telekinetic powers is apprenticed to a dumbass businessman and the animation looks way better in motion that i thought just by looking at screencaps. i think its kinda about pacifism? also i think theres a bill cipher fart lookin thing but i dont know what they do or what they are one piece: apparently it’s about pirates????? i only learned this recently. also the reboot has pretty shit anatomy kimi no na wa: i’m not sure if this is a movie or a show but i think its about starcrossed lovers who meet in their dreams and are trying to find each other irl jojo’s bizarre adventure: there’s a clan of muscly guys all named variants of jo. i have no idea what mischief they get up to but i’m sure it’s a lot love live!: there’s??? girls???? and they to “cute anime girl” things?? ft. homoerotic subtext probably castlevania: a polyamorous dnd trio fight vampires and disappoint jesus pop team epic: this anime is just T-posing menacingly over the other animes ouran host club: i think its about boys learning to??? appeal to straight girls to con them out of money?? they wear fancy suits and caitlin glass voices one of them cowboy bebop: 21st century cowboy gangsters?? the promised neverland: there’s a cute baby named emma and they wear pajamas. but also i feel like theres some dark human experimentation or child slave shit going on? just a hunch i dont actually know. theres something about ears thats important. anyway i wanna adopt emma already sword art online: anime homestuck, probably

4K notes · View notes

virginsqq · 4 years

Text

pokemon au

sj!sqq:

crobat. yes its a friendship evolution. raised since a baby zubat. literally sqq’s first pokemon. no one ever brings this up. yes this is because i think sj is more of a softie than people think of him as. so there.

charizard. lovingly and tenderly raised since it was a charmander. evolved into charmeleon to help burn down the qiu house. sj literally saved its life. in the og timeline, lbh literally kills it. thats too dark

kadabra. lovingly raised since it was an abra. sj has been trying to get it to evolve to alakazam for ten years.

marowak. has been with sqq ever since qi-ge left. evolved the same time as charmander.

yamask. you know, people say yamask are the ghosts of people who died of betrayal...

sy!sqq

so first off. the kadabra and the marowak left because they like sj not sy.

golbat. because sqq’s first pokemon will not give him the dignity of a friendship evolution.

charizard. but charizard is NOT happy about it. its just sticking around in case sj comes back :(

yamask, but it makes fun of sy behind his back.

ditto, the copycat pokemon

mimikyu

yqy

aegislash. has been raised since it was a honedge “Honedge's soul once belonged to a person who was killed a long time ago by the sword that makes up Honedge's body.” “Once upon a time, a king with an Aegislash reigned over the land. His Pokémon eventually drained him of life, and his kingdom fell with him.” :)

dragonite. cause its a pseudo legendary which is known for kindheartedness

phantump. “These Pokémon are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died in the forest. Their cries sound like eerie screams.”

serperior cause it reminds him of sj

gardevoir because gardevoir is the protective psychic type :)

sqh

alolan vulpix. a gift from mbj but sqh just thinks its cute. it bullies him all the time though

wishiwashi. cause its a crybaby! and sqh loves water types cause he needs to calm down.

jigglypuff. because he REALLY needs to calm down. and also jigglypuff gets mad when on one likes its singing like sqh does when no one likes his writing.

mime jr. cause it can be used for spying and its tiny and adorable and so fucking weird.

mandibuzz which was a vullaby in the original work but sqh raised it to evolve. vulture cause he just preys on leftovers & refuse.

mbj

beartic. yeah just cause its a cool looking ice type you know how it is.

froslass. the ice type pokemon that eats humans. thats on brand for mbj

sneasel. vicious ice/dark type who i love <3

alolan ninetales cause alolan ninetales is way more vicious than alolan vulpix and also more of a cool beauty, which sqh is known for giving to mbj.

vanillite. was a gift from sqh which mbj has a very complicated relationship with because its scared of mbj but mbj really wants to use it to make a relationship with sqh but it just fucking hides from him.

mqf

chansey. yeah. cheap. i know.

butterfree

audino

lqg

hariyama. fuck yeah big ol fighty guy.

medicham. same reason as above.

mienshao. see above.

lucario. pseudo legendary fighting type. absolute king shit. also has a strong sense of justice

umbreon. love evolution. good for him.

sha hualing

mawile. “Don't be taken by this Pokémon's cute face - it's very dangerous. Mawile fools the foe into letting down its guard then chomps down with its massive jaws. The steel jaws are really horns that have been transformed.”

chimecho. cause. cause its a bell pokemon.

nidoqueen. it just suits her.

liepard for the same reasons lmao

ning yingying

smoochum in the og work, jynx in the sy!sqq verse

ralts in the og work, kirlia/gardevoir in sy!sqq

azurill in the og work, marill in sy!sqq

pokemon she didnt have in the og work but she does have in sy!sqq

primarina, lovingly and tenderly raised

huntail cause she used the wrong evolutionary stone on clampearl lmao

bingge

zoruark. cause hes supposed to be dark and tough and also zoruark is a pseudo legendary so. there we go.

hydreigon but was forced to evolve early. another pseudo legendary because i think sqh would just give bingge whatever the coolest pokemon are.

banette. “Resentment at being cast off made it spring into being. Some say that treating it well will satisfy it, and it will once more become a stuffed toy.” found in the endless abyss.

salamence. “After many long years, its cellular structure underwent a sudden mutation to grow wings. When angered, it loses all thought and rampages out of control.”

hypno. dream pokemon in a weird creepy and mean way.

absol. “Long ago, superstitions were spread about it, saying it brought disaster. This fed a hatred of it, and it was driven deep into the mountains.”

bingmei

altaria. fluffy dragon type and more friendly than the other dragon types. genuinely friendly.

munna. dream pokemon replacement for hypno. because its more friendly :)

sylveon. because you need two hearts in pokemon amie to evolve it and bingmei is a very loving boy.

stufful pre-abyss, bewear post-abyss. because hes a hugger and he can actually put up with getting hugged by bewear. also kind of a foil to banette, the evil stuffie pokemon.

zoruark because lbh isnt actually evil and neither is zoruark no pokemon is :) anyways. tenderly and lovingly raised since it was a zorua. they are best friends.

wooloo. cause. hes the white sheep protagonist :)

#.din #.txt #scum villain #svsss #long post #pokemon au #trust me on this. im a genius.

15 notes · View notes

sonofkhaz · 4 years

Text

Musing: Pathologic 2

Pathologic 2 is what you get when Russian game developers down an entire bottle of Flintstone Vitamins with some Vodka while listening to Hardbass after being awake for 72 hours straight. It’s probably one of the best games I’ve played in terms of story-telling and themes.

It’s a great game, despite some mechanical issues. A few years ago, I got the original game off of GOG and only got about halfway through before giving up out of frustration and a little bit of boredom. The sequel fixed a lot of the problems the first game had. For starters, there’s a lot less walking back and forth; rather than having to literally walk around the whole town to check up on your patients to see how they’re doing, it now tells you at the end of each day if they’re okay, in danger of infection, or infected. It’s easier to track your character’s thoughts, the map now has markers, and you can sprint instead of walking (sprinting is now a feature, yes). You can use a ferry system to fast-travel around town at the cost of a coin called a Fingernail, and you can hold down CTRL to highlight points of interest and characters you can speak to.

Despite being praised in Russia and having very positive reviews (91% at the time of writing this) on Steam, the game didn’t get much traction upon its release in the west, with “game journalists”, a term I still don’t fully understand, comparing its difficulty to Dark Souls (yeah, some people still use Dark Souls as the litmus test for game difficulty) and claiming that it has Skyrim-inspired RPG elements. It’s as if “game journalists” have never played anything outside of Bioware games, Skyrim, Dark Souls and Pokemon.

Yeah...despite the fact that comparing a game like Pathologic 2 to something like Dark Souls or Skyrim is completely obtuse and ignorant, I think I understand where the frustration comes from, which I’ll get to later.

The game takes place in Town-On-Gorkhon, an isolated town in the steppes built upon contradictions. From a glance, the town might just look like your average early 20th century Russian town, but it’s inhabited by two groups of people: the Townsfolk, who are just becoming industrialized, and the Kinfolk, a group of Steppe nomads who hold veneration for bulls because they believe that the town rests on the back of a giant auroch, Mother Boddha. In addition, the latter group has a species of humanoids called Worms who water the ground with blood to grow plants, women called Herb Brides who dance in the steppes to make the twyre bloom, and other practices. Despite the contrasts, the two are not at complete odds at each other; rather, both cultures have meshed together.

In the first game, there were 3 different playable characters, but for now you’re only able to play as Artemy Burakh, the Haruspex. His father was a Kin doctor and his mother was a Townsfolk. After six years of medical school, Artemy is called back home by an urgent letter from his father, only to find out that he’s been murdered. See, a haruspex was someone in history who could divine the future from entrails; since Artemy is technically a surgeon who just returned to a town where cutting arteries, attacking someone with a knife, and digging holes in the ground are all considered taboo, he’s the primary suspect, so everyone hates his guts. People will initially refuse to trade with you, shopkeepers won’t sell their goods, and some people will try to attack you in the street. In the wake of this, a mysterious plague referred to only as the Sand Pest hits the town.

Pathologic 2 is like an adventure game and a “horror survival” tied into one. The imagery of the game goes from uncanny valley to flat out dark, with red pustules and moss-like substances growing on the buildings and streets of infected districts, infected townsfolk shuffling towards you to try and infect you, and plague clouds that manifest and chase you down the street. If you’re unfortunate to get infected with the plague, you hear voices in your head telling you, gently, to lay down and die so your suffering can cease. While you’re trying to find a cure and trying to save NPCs from the plague, you yourself are trying to survive.

Your overall survival is dependent on more than just your health bar. Sergei tries to shank you for your track suit and Semechki seeds, yeah, your health will go down if he manages to hit you. But then you have to factor in your hunger, exhaustion, immunity, and stamina/thirst. You’re hungry, so you eat some toast, but now your thirst meter is going up; while it’s not immediately detrimental, it affects the duration you’re able to sprint and fight. Your exhaustion meter is full, so you lay down to sleep for a few hours, but now your hunger is going back up and you’ve just spent precious hours that could have potentially have been used doing something else. Uh oh, you just got hit with a plague cloud and your immunity is dropping - do you use the immunity boosters/tinctures you were saving for patients to bring it back up, or are you going to take the risk and wait for it to slowly climb back to where it was?

Any time you die, your screen blacks out and you speak to Mark Immortell the Theatre Director, who gives you a tut-tut-tutting on dying and sends you back to your last save file with a penalty. Your maximum health/exhaustion meters are reduced, you get hungrier and more tired as time progresses, so on and so forth. These all stack, and they’re all permanent across all save files, so there’s no going back to scum save to prevent the penalties. If you die enough, you get visited by a friend who will offer to remove your current and future penalties forever...for a cost that you may not learn of until it’s too late to change your mind.

This ties back to my previous statement about how people were criticizing this game. A lot of survival games in modern gaming tend to be generous towards the player in terms of, well, survival - you have a meter that’s running low, or a supply that’s dwindling, so you stop whatever you’re doing to rectify the situation. Should you fail there’s usually an “out” by returning to a previous save. You can’t do this in Pathologic; one reason being mentioned in the previous paragraph. Another is the fact that time is always working against you - really, the only moment where time tends to stop moving is if you’re in a dream sequence or if you physically pause the game. The clock is always ticking so you need to frequently assess the efficiency of what you’re doing and if it will pay off in the long run. The game has a lot of choices, and not in Peter Molyneux’s Fable or Black and White perspectives of “choice”. The decisions can vary greatly. Let’s say that one of your friends needs a water barrel because they want to get water for the poor and impoverished in their district. Well meaning, but what if it infects the neighbors? The hospital needs the tinctures you need to boost the immunity of nameless patients; everyone will like you more if you carry the task out, and you’ll get paid the next day, but what if tomorrow means that half a dozen cast characters get infected and you don’t have the time to make more tinctures?

Critics of Pathologic 2 have bemoaned the fact that you can’t just walk around, immune to virtually anything and everything, and talk to the NPCs while freely exploring the town to learn more about the Sand Pest and the overall story. The desire to know more about the story is a fair point, but here’s where I see the problem: There’s a genre of story-driven adventure style games, usually referred to as “Walking Simulators”, that are typically praised and lauded by the “video games are art” crowd. Games like Dear Esther, Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Gone Home are usually put in this category.

The difference between Pathologic 2 and those games is that the latter group takes a more “hands-off” approach in their storytelling. You don’t have a lot of interactivity or mechanics that directly tie into the games. The named NPCs you speak with in Pathologic 2 are fleshed out; it’s personal because Artemy Burakh has history with them, and the decisions that you make, or don’t make, will ultimately decide their survival. Many of them have multiple outcomes; you speak with them, see their angles, see what information they may be willing to give out or abstain from initially giving, so on and so forth. The game pushes you towards investing them emotionally. Not only are you trying to save them from the plague, but you’re trying to save yourself. You’re also trying not to starve, you’re also trying not to get infected. Rather than watching a sinking ship, you’re part of the crew trying to bail the water out and plug the hole.

Not all the mechanics are perfect. Guns and their ammo, while being extremely rare/expensive to find, have a tendency to jam up way too much and hitboxes can be choosy. Hand-to-hand combat can feel clunky, and the inventory can be a colossal pain in the ass to manage since the game does not auto-sort individual stacks and uses Diablo-style inventory management. However, I have very rarely seen things like these critiqued by the “video games are art” crowd; rather, they complain about the meter management. The problems of the town seem real because you’re in it as well. Without having to manage your meters, making sacrifices and decisions, it takes away the conditions that make moments in the game memorable.

Remember: Failure is a very real, understandable and relatable aspect of human life and society. There are times in life where you fail repeatedly before you see the light at the end of the tunnel and triumph. One of the marketing pitches of this game was, “You can’t save everybody”. For example, I spent three consecutive days treating Andrey Stamatin after he was afflicted with the Sand Pest, and it ultimately came to naught because he died anyway. Some of the game's most memorable moments and interesting dialogue come when you are unsuccessful, because the game knows that you’re going to fail at some points even when you try your best.

Overall, would I recommend Pathologic 2? Absolutely. Would I recommend it to someone who cares about story-driven games? Totally. Would I recommend it to people who have low frustration walls? No.

#pathologic 2 #pathologic #computer games #musing #long post

17 notes · View notes

evergreen-dryad · 4 years

Text

thoughts about spook 65

...Although, it’s more like a stream of consciousness commentary. I try and fail not to make this too long as usual, so warning long post ahead.

Summary: Aidairo leaves us on that cliffhanger by giving us a break with tension-breaker Kou with his caring friends, more Mitsukou, and then dun dun dun they encounter a Wild Comic Relief of Universal Proportions Natsuhiko (poor fish and tarantula I hope they got back safe) and apparently Natsuhiko wants to capture No.6 like he’s the rarest pokemon of all and might have the secret key to the immortality fountain?? Will we ever know more about these mysterious man stay tuned next month. And oh yeah also No.6 always wanted to throw Aoi into the hole to rot away because he’s also a necromancer. Just great and swell here folks, don’t know how Nene and Akane are faring ~

whaaww Kou’s feeling really overwhelmed I mean this is a lot for like what a 13 year old boy

LMAO IS HE WIPING THE MOKKE OR DID HE READY A KERCHIEF FOR NENE

‘Teru-nii hasn’t been home recently’ -- hmmmmm? What’s he up to? Is he out on a journey to exorcise bigger fish out there?

...Or it could be just a field trip lmao

lol. out of context -- 👀

(I love that white-black juxtaposition between the two of them)

AWW WHAT GOOD BOIS

KOU HAS SUCH GOOD FRIENDS I’M MELTING HEREEEEE

ahahahahaha ofc Satou sugarboy here has his priorities right. ‘Get sweet drinks and sweets for us you simp’

awwww

I love it, we’re getting outside perspective from the supportive side characters. It’s the Arc for no1 Supportive Side Character Ao-chan after all!

ooooooohhhhh Satou’s the observant one here. Starting to love him now~

what a cheerful sandboy Yokoo is holding that carrot

oyo it’s Mitsuba but I’m just distracted wondering if those plants on the left side are mimosa plants, le touch-me-not

LMAO

MITSUBA YOU NEVER HOLD BACK

omg you just popped right outta the mirror like that. I would have screamed and flung my hands everywhere. Kou you have nerves of steel or in this case your brain is a steelwool scrubber right now

Yeah man that’s his job your man’s a ghost in case you forgot

AWW HE’S ALSO CONCERNED

MITSUBA DOING THE BLESSED WORK AROUND HERE HE JUST OUTRIGHT ASKED KOU WHAT’S UP

LMAO KOU

It is unbelievable to him since Mitsuba has always been such a prickly tsun before he’s probably never shown much common decency let alone common friend interaction like showing concern esp since Kou to him is a blokehead

Awww, Kou

(oh? oh? what was his wish again exactly, to be friends or for him to be human somehow?

and lmao Kou is going doki-doki when Mitsuba for the first time ever asks if he’s okay)

Aww, Mitsuba misses his Daikon-senpai, this is too cute guys I--

Nene your fantasy came true Mitsuba’s looking for you like a lost puppy

LMAO HANAKO IS THE BAD FRIEND IM SCREMINH BUT KOU HONEY YOU’RE RIGHT HE FIGHTS BEATS STABS PEOPLE UP AND INTRODUCES YOU TO PORN AND EVEN GOES YANDERE FOR AN ARC

really. why am I so intrigued Teru is gone. Where did he go. There must be a story somewhere.

oh whoa there goes Kou acting all otome ML again (callback to Hanako wanting Nene’s wish to come true too with the shoulder-clutching?)

HAHAHAHA YEAH HE DIDN’T LISTEN AT ALL. THIS SIMP. YOUR BI HIMBO. YOUR MORON.

Mitsuba’s face is sending me I swear

Yes Mitsuba he deserves that kick to the arse. Teach him to listen to you

There we go again~~ *Kou otome ML move count: 2*

A scream??? COULD IT BE---

BUGS AND TRASH PLS PLS BE OKAY

wow Mitsuba just suited up. our two superheroes on the move

AAAAAAAAAA

IT’S A FISH???? WHOSE LEGS ARE THOU TOO LONG?? DON’T TELL ME IT’S NATSUHIKO

also lmao these phat daikon arms. And these rando fish are all so cute. Look at this guy on the right. So smooth and chill like a seal

Ya jeez more and more apparitions are showing up y’all it’s becoming a yokai manga (I’m not complaining I love them all.)

Oh that dramatic foot in a spotlight, Natsuhiko you dramatic hoe, it’s you I’d know you anywhere (jokes aside I saw that Sailor Moon edit of him so)

HAHAH THE FISH LOOKS SO HAPPY. PEAK COMEDY THAT FOOT SILENTLY SLIPPING OUT OF SIGHT I--

HONESTLY HOW DOES NATSUHIKO KEEP GETTING INTO THESE SITUATIONS

Good shonen boy Kou finally jumping into action to the rescue, because god knows without Hanako around there’s no one to do the saving of damsels in distress around here

‘I want to join too’ -- AWWW LOL THIS IS SO CUTE

and off they go bullying a fish like it’s a game, so sad I liked that whalefrogfish

is it ded. rip.

oh wow Natsu you kissed fish gullet, look how red your face is wow. Also you really shouldn’t think that you’re too funny to let die. You survived being thrown into Nowhere, you’ll survive fish llke Jonah did. But fr did Sakura throw you into a fish trash pit or smth

LOL OH YEAH KOU DOESN’T KNOW AND YEAH HE IS THE NO1 AIRHEAD FOR MITSUBA NOT KOU LOL

OHMYGOD HE DID A DRAMATIC SELF-INTRODUCTION WITH THE FLASH STEP AND ALL I LOVE U YOU DORK. YOU HUGE SHONEN DORK OF INDESTRUSCTIBLE COMIC RELIEF PROPORTIONS

ohmygod he called himself an Onii-san. He wants Kou to call him Onii-san. I am crying. Teru come back your lil bro’s being propositioned (w hA T a tiME for YoU TO Be GonE eH)

HAHAH THAT IDOL POSE. NO WONDER SAILOR MOON I AM DECEASED

KOU BABY IS SUSPICIOUS IM CRYING YES AS YOU SHOULD BE HUN (that font is just perfect *chef’s kiss*)

Natsuhiko just awkwardly perched there in the background

Touchy touchy LOL MITSUBA YOU SAID WHAT I THOUGHT

and yikes Natsuhiko’s pulling the same moves as Nene to gain kouhais lolol, aaah I’m starting to see similarities between them

HAHAH OMG *Kou otome ML move count: 3*

ooh what a shady guy. Natsu what do u know tell us tell us tell us

omg y u like this. whY do you sound so threatening now. I take it back you’re not harmless

W H A T

Natsuhiko do you mean to tell me you’re immortal????? Is that why you survive all these ridiculous levels of eldritch horror????

Fml he really looks like a vampire in that lighting. Esp since I can like see all his individual teeth what on earth is this level of detail Aidairo for once Natsuhiko looks like the cool mysterious guy he was meant to be

Just realised he has like a dyed hair thing going on kinda like Tsuchigomori. Don’t tell me. Natsuhiko are you Tsuchigomori’s secret love child.

‘There’s a bad energy coming from here’ --- pFFFT. He sounds like he’s trying to be a fengshui expert now. A conman

hmmmm??? Oh that wasn’t a phone?? what is that it’s an onsen...?

wait that is probably a phone nvm. I’m just jumping at every little detail like 👀

so huh I’m assuming Tsukasa can’t handle no6 on his own either, so....or possibly Natsuhiko is acting on his own??

Ooh cool blankets, everyone has different flowers!! (*squints* no stop you can’t go looking for flower meanings everywhere)

And yes that’s a phone. Naatsuhiko just canonically has an onsen symbol phonecase just to show he’s a Chill Bro

lol Mitsuba i don’t think you need to worry you’re not a whole soul anymore

D’AWWWW LOOK AT ALL THOSE LITTLE CUTIES (sheep, elephant, bunnies (multiple), rubber duckling)

You. Natsuhiko. You’re the one most like a cat.

omg what a braggart. what a chest-thumping man u are Natsu-senpai

OMG KOU NOOO WE WERE MAKING PROGRESS HE TAMED YOU ANYWAY

hahahahha I’m crying. Even Natsuhiko’s conscience is touched by Kou’s trusting naivete I can’t

oh my god. but thank god Teru-nii still comes first he still hasn’t completely seduced you over to the dark side just yet

awwww, Kou. Awww. He really, really wants to do his best to save them all. I--

Aw yay Natsu is touched to the point he’ll help!! Hopefully he wasn’t lying!! I hope there isn’t a sacrifice involved-

oh???

Onix (srsly I really love all the lotuses everywhere. really going Buddhist symbology there)

look at dat foot. it go.

oh!! we’re fresh at the battlescene!!

!!!!!!

IT’S ALIVEEEE

I guess these guys are too useful to let rot in the trashpit eh

?? For one moment I thought we were looking down into the trashpit at our missing 4 lmao. But why. No 6 you’re coming off as ...naturally innocent??? Dang. Let this cutie rest

I’m genuinely curious how on earth this no 6 is not a god on his own. (It’s funny to me that I’m coincidentally writing about a god like this as well at the same time.) How does he rank equal to the others. How is Hanako even his boss have they ever met before I demand a full show of Hanako’s powers one day. We’re not even sure what his boundary is. Or is it that he only has the power of life and death on those in his boundary?

(edit: just realised that if Tsukasa is behind Natsuhiko then no6 is basically Tsukasa’s dream power - necromancy. He could build all the Frankensteins his little heart ever wanted)

oof there go the minions. I love how they have little buds on their heads. Every minion of his is ‘living’! And they’re like the first with individuality I’ve seen...?

oh he thinks Aoi did this purposely? Pfft she got dragged in there

juijuirjfuerjcjkekerjckdediejdiedmwec. I am so worried. But fr this one panel of Aoi is so beautiful.

Huh the hole is a starburst shape? 6 points hmm --oh wait im dumb it’s closing up oh no

LOL KEIKAKU DOORI

But shiet really how did he see to that. By giving her power over those specific bugs?? Planting info of that hole in her?

IM SCREAMING THAT’S THE END OF IT THAT’S IT TILL NEXT MONTH

#jibaku shounen hanako kun #jshk #jshk manga #jshk spoilers #jshk 65 #tbhk #mostly #hyuuga natsuhiko #minamoto kou #mitsuba sousuke #shinigami jshk

10 notes · View notes

nelvana · 4 years

Text

In which they travel to another continent

First [ARC 1]: In which the human is transformed First [ARC 2]: In which a present is prepared Next: In which there are dreams and discussions Previous: In which they arrive at the guild

The first trio staggered slightly after the teleport, then glancing around at each other and their new surroundings. Nelvana flipped over the now dull stone in her hands, passing it over to Alex to hang onto instead while she got a better look around.

“Yeah, we’re a bit off, but we definitely made it! There’s Gull Village just a bit south from here,” she told them, pointing out to where she spotted the nearby village, just past some trees from where they currently were.

“That’s great!” Keahi cheered, “we’ll just have to wait for the others to show up then, and we can head over,” zie continued, stepping up to stand beside zir partner again.

“Pretty nifty the guild makes extra teleport gems for cases like these, seem to be a capable bunch,” Alex commented, joining the other two. “Seeing as how Team A.C.T. was like, I’ll admit I was a bit worried that the others around the guild would be similar. A bit of a rude assumption to make, I know, but…”

Keahi sighed, “just being safe. Yeah, I get that’s what you were thinking.”

Alex smirked back, “glad to know we’ve been together long enough to pick up on those sorts of things.”

“Hate to interrupt, but shouldn’t the others have shown up by now?” Nelvana questioned, standing up on the tips of her toes in an attempt to get an improved look at their surroundings; searching for their allies.

“Nel’s got a point,” Alex agreed, his smirk fading away.

“Well, they shouldn’t be too far, right? Maybe they’re a bit closer to Gull Village, or maybe even a bit farther. Either way, that seems to be the point to meet up at,” Keahi suggested, though a worried look crossed zir eyes as well.

“Good idea, seems to be the best one we have, anyway. For as good as the teleport gems are, they aren’t perfect.” Alex nodded. “We were a bit off, so it’s reasonable to believe that the others were too.”

“Alright, let’s make our way to the village then,” Nelvana responded.

Taking the lead, she began to walk down towards civilization with her partners quickly following suit. They had just appeared right where the forest began thinning out right before the beach town, so it was simple for Nelvana to recall the steps and follow the sight of the buildings over to Gull Village itself.

It occurred to Nelvana that the last time she had been here, it had been nighttime. Thus, it was a mild surprise to see the town filled with more activity. Though it was beginning to drag on to late evening now, there were still plenty of villagers wandering the streets, and the lights illuminating the inside of the houses displayed shadows through the windows of other pokemon enjoying themselves indoors.

“Well…” Nelvana trailed off momentarily, adjusting her scarf absentmindedly. “Here’s Gull Village,” she announced, “you can see the docks over there-“ She pointed slightly eastwards of where they were. “-and right by those should be the tourist shop or whatever that runs the ferries.”

Alex peered over to where Nelvana pointed, and a smile grew on his face, “looks like Ceebee and Tsuki beat us there!” he said.

“They’re at the docks?” Keahi responded, “we should go over then! Come on!”

Laughing with relief, the trio hurried over to the docks where they found Ceebee and Tsuki, staring out over the water while they waited for everyone else to arrive. The waiting pair glanced over as the others approached, smiling back and getting up to meet them halfway so they could chat together.

“Glad to see you made it safely,” Tsuki greeted, “we had been worried at first when we did not see you here right away,” she admitted.

“But!” Ceebee chimed in, “I soon sensed you all were just by the outskirts, so we decided to wait for you to turn up here on your own. Figured everyone would turn up here eventually, and if not, I could have always just sent a telepathic message.”

“Hey, we were worried about you two too!” Alex replied, “where did you two teleport to?”

Ceebee tapped her forehead, “right where we were supposed to, here at the docks! You forget that I can teleport too, I’d be pretty bad at that if I didn’t remember where places were,” she told him with a giggle, “nothing against you, Nel! Don’t worry, you still were pretty close to here. So is Damien and that group, though a bit farther out than where you teleported to.”

Nelvana shrugged, “it’s alright, I’m not offended or anything. As you said, you’re the one who actually does this more often. You were also here more recently.”

“True that!” Ceebee agreed.

“So, how far away are the others now then?” Keahi asked, shaking zir feathers. “Does this place have closing hours? And are we actually going to use the ferry right away, or should we rent a place for the night?” zie continued.

“It doesn’t seem to have closing hours, when Damien and I showed up last time it was still open in the middle of the night,” Nelvana told zim, “you do have a good point though, this may be our last chance to get an actual room to stay in for the night.”

“Also, looks like the others are showing up now!” Ceebee chirped, “we’ll be able to ask for their input too!”

At Ceebee’s comment, the group glanced over to see the three ghost-types in the group heading over from the other end of the docks. They waved over at the trio, prompting Edgar to split off from the other two he was with and bolt over to the main group, too impatient to wait until all three of them got there together.

“Hello everyone!” Edgar greeted, “I hope you weren’t waiting too long for us!” he added.

“No problem, we have not been here for too long. We had just been discussing plans for tonight,” Tsuki replied, “there is some consideration of finding an inn to stay at for the night.”

“The original idea was to just set out right away, but if we don’t want to rush ourselves too much, I remember there is an inn we could stay at; seems like a nice spot,” Ceebee added.

“What’s this about an inn?” Damien asked, finally catching up with the others, Dusknoir right behind him.

“We’re thinking about staying at the inn here for the night to get rested up again before heading out on the ferry,” Nelvana told him, “we don’t know when we’ll get another chance for a good opportunity like this.”

“Yeah, I can get behind that idea,” Damien added, stretching idly.

Alex sighed, “mhmm… I wouldn’t want us to waste our time, but who knows what it’ll be like when we first show up at the Grass Continent. This definitely doesn’t seem like a waste, to build back some proper energy.”

“Hey, if Mr. Hasty can agree to this, we seem to be in the clear!” Keahi teased, “how about we look for that inn? Ceebee, you said you saw it last time you were here?”

“Yup!” Ceebee nodded. “So, we’re all in agreement to stay in Gull Village for the night then?”

Tsuki kneaded the ground in front of her with her claws absentmindedly, “I don’t believe this one night will make that much of a difference to our progress, so we should be fine to rest up here before going.”

“I…” Dusknoir paused, letting out a cough before continuing. “I recall someone mentioning that it could take another day on the ferry ride to get to the Grass Continent. Could we not rest on the ride instead? If we do not, we will end up needing to rest again right when we get to our destination.”

“Might be for the best though,” Keahi replied, “it means we’ll have rested right before needing to take on Brine Cave and any other dungeon before Dialga,” zie pointed out.

Dusknoir paused again, before nodding sagely, “very well, you have certainly convinced me.”

“Well, I think you were the only one on the fence about the matter,” Alex huffed, “alright, Ceebee, lead the way to the inn then.”

Obliging to Alex’s instruction, Ceebee fluttered into action again, navigating through the streets of the small town and over to where she could recall seeing an inn. While she paused momentarily at first to catch her thoughts and properly remember where she needed to go, she easily led everyone over to the building they were looking for.

Fortunately, despite being a docks town, there were enough rooms for all nine of them to stay in. While they had only intended to reserve their places there for the night, the team ended up being identified by another team staying there at the inn, and the two teams began conversing together in the lobby of the building for longer than intended.

During that, Damien requested to borrow the stone that housed Giratina from Alex, and managed to fill his own time speaking with the deity. He had initially done it to just pass the time, but soon found himself telling Giratina about how Gardevoir was doing and more of what had happened with that incident, and in return, Giratina spoke about Ninetales, and also about their own experiences with spirit guides like Gardevoir. Damien found it strangely comforting, and silently wondered if Giratina felt the same about their own conversation.

Dusknoir, on the other hand, felt adamantly against speaking to Giratina with Damien, and yet obviously lacked any place with the others’ conversation. He simply watched the larger group at first, but eventually grew bored and oddly envious, and left the building instead. He knew they would not be pleased to find that he had wandered off, and instead leaned against the outside wall right against the doorframe, watching the few townsfolk still walking the streets. For awhile, he was simply silent again, and let himself zone out into his own thoughts.

“Excuse me, mister?”

Snapped out of his thoughts, Dusknoir looked down to see that a young munchlax staring up at him. He mentally scolded himself for allowing himself to get so distracted as to not even notice a mere child getting so close to him, but forced himself to keep his body language neutral. It had… been a long time since he had been in the presence of someone so young, and part of him wished to hold onto such a simple moment.

“Yes?” Dusknoir finally responded.

Munchlax gave him a wide, toothy smile back, “hello! I noticed you looked kinda sad; do you want this chocolate? That usually makes me happy,” they said, presenting a thinly wrapped bar to Dusknoir.

Dusknoir blinked, and then narrowed his eye slightly, “…didn’t your parents tell you not to talk to strangers?” he questioned.

To his surprise, Munchlax shook their head, continuing to offer the item to Dusknoir. He almost wanted to sigh and shoo the child away for being so foolish; didn’t they know he could harm them if he felt like it? However, he found himself instead accepting the gift, eyeing it carefully now that it was in his own hands.

“I see a lot of new people here,” Munchlax said, “mum ‘n dad said that I should always be nice to them,” they continued, answering Dusknoir’s previous question whether they actually realized it or not. “Why were you sad?” they asked innocently.

“What made you think I was sad?” Dusknoir asked in response instead.

“You were standing here all alone and just staring at nothin’!” Munchlax answered, waving their arms in the air. “You looked sad.”

Dusknoir wasn’t quite sure what to think of this child, but he realized that despite Munchlax’s evident naivety and foolishness, they were right about Dusknoir’s prior mood. He wondered if all children of this time were so innocent, eyes wide open to the world around him. The kids back at Pokemon Square had been far too loud for him to really consider interacting with them much, and he almost found himself regretting that choice now. He couldn’t even recall if he had ever been like that, though he doubted it. He had grown up to a harsh world, and learned to act harshly right back. It was strange how much simpler and more peaceful things could be here.

“Well, thank you then,” Dusknoir simply replied instead, “you should go back to your parents now though.”

“Okay, mister! I hope you feel better!” Munchlax chirped, waddling off back to the streets; hopefully back home.

Dusknoir sighed, shaking his head as he watched the kid leave. Glancing behind him at the in again, he could faintly hear the conversation between the two teams closing up. He turned his gaze down to this… chocolate he held in his hands. Deciding it would be best to deal with this before the others found him, he carefully peeled away the wrapping to look at the contents inside. He had heard of chocolate before, and knew that it was a treat meant to be eaten. Crumpling the wrapper in one hand, he pried open his belly mouth with the other to place the food in. His jaw, or more specifically, the scar running through it, ached from the effort, but he managed to eat the chocolate bar.

It tasted good.

Soon afterwards, everyone else in the group exited the inn together. While they were momentarily displeased by Dusknoir leaving the building without them, seeing as he didn’t wander off too far, and they had to admit that they had talked for awhile, no one seemed to judge him terribly for it; which surprised himself slightly.

Deciding that while they were staying in a town for the night, they all decided to look for some sort of restaurant to eat supper at. The inn itself was too small for serving food itself, so they had to look somewhere else in Gull Village. Ceebee offered the idea of a bakery she had visited in her time here, but that was turned down in favor of finding something else. While Gull Village was small, they found that it did, in fact, have a restaurant in it. It was a local pub and grill, which seemed to suffice for what the group was looking for. They headed in and managed to get a nice warm meal out of the trouble, and fortunately had enough coins from the two dungeons they had been through to pay for the bill; as they had left their other savings back with Persian.

The rest of the night continued in a similar, relaxed fashion. Not wanting to just meander the streets for the remainder of the evening, after they had finished eating everyone went back to the inn to settle in their rooms for the night. They had rented two rooms, figuring anyone could go back and forth between the two when needed, and considering nearly half of them technically didn’t even need to sleep, this loose system was comfortable for everyone.

They stayed all in the same room for the time they were awake though, still having a few hours left in the day before they would need to go to bed. Normally at times like these, as Keahi commented, they would be able to play some of the board games at the base, but they lacked those here. Fortunately, zie instead offered to play some other games that were just vocal, introducing some simple games. Once zie got the ball rolling, Damien had his own ideas to offer, so they were able to keep entertained until it was time to turn in for the night.

In the morning, the group quickly checked out of the inn, ready to take on the next part of their journey. Ceebee again suggested the bakery for some breakfast, but at that point they had spent most of their spare change on the stay at the inn and the food at the grill, aside from what they were saving for the ferry fee, so they had to pass again on that idea in favor of just going back to the packed rations.

Without anything else to delay them further, they made their way back down to the docks, entering the building that was familiar to some, and finding Dewgong still there at the counter. Dewgong blinked with surprise as the large group entered, but smiled politely at them and waved them over.

“Why, hello there everyone! Welcome to the Gull Village Docks,” Dewgong greeted, “I see some familiar faces in the group, hello! How have you been?”

Nelvana nodded back politely, and Damien waved as well, though it would be Ceebee who would step in to carry on the conversation first.

“Hi again! We’ve been doing well, thank you,” Ceebee hummed, “we were hoping to get a ride down to the Grass Continent? Do… Do you provide rides down that route?”

“Yes, we do! Not many of our guides do know that route, but you’re in luck, we do have Lapras on shift. He’s also the best for taking large groups such as these,” Dewgong answered, “some of you got a ride from Lapras as well, which is another bonus! We always try to let visitors ride with familiar guides if they so wish anyway, so this seems to have worked out smoothly.”

“Yeah, that does sound nice!” Nelvana chimed in, “we’ll get tickets there for all of us then.”

Nodding, Dewgong rung up their total, with the group thankfully finding that they had saved just the right amount of coins to afford the tickets. With such a large group, and a faraway destination, they had predicted that the price would be high.

“Do you run this place on your own?” Keahi asked curiously, glancing around at the various souvenirs up for sale around the store.

“Well, not all by myself,” Dewgong answered, sliding over the tickets to be collected. “I do own the docks though, if that’s what you were wondering! I get plenty of help from a few other employees for this store, and then of course none of this would be possible without my lovely guides here,” she explained, “now then, since there are more than four of you, you’ll need the extra boat…”

Trailing off, Dewgong shuffled around behind the counter for a few moments before pulling out a thick walkie-talkie. It audibly fizzled with static, and she held down a button and leaned over to speak slowly and clearly into the old item.

“Barbaracle, Lapras is going to need the spare boat attached for a ferry group,” she said.

Through the static, they could hear a gruff voice of approval. Dewgong chirped out her thanks before turning off the device and setting it behind the counter again.

“Alright, Barbaracle should be making sure everything is ready for you all!” Dewgong told them, “Lapras should be on the dock just outside on your right.”

“Thank you for your help!” Keahi replied cheerily, prompting a chorus of thanks from many of the others.

“My pleasure! Safe travels, have a nice day!” Dewgong hummed, waving farewell.

When they got outside and over to where Larry was docked like before, they found the previously mentioned Barbaracle attaching a wooden boat behind the lapras. They tied a few ropes to the spikes on Larry’s shell, letting the small boat float behind him. The boat itself was decently sized, and could probably fit an extra four size category one pokemon in it if needed.

“Greetings!” Larry called out as the group approached. “Ah, Gengar, Nelvana, it is nice to see you again. Heading out to the Grass Continent with your friends, I see?”

Damien nodded, “yeah. And it’s actually Damien now,” he responded.

Larry smiled, “ah yes, names! Such a wonderful thing! I would love to get more introductions underway, but first we should settle the seating arrangements,” he said, oh, and thank you for your help with the boat, Ronald,” he added, turning back to look at Barbaracle, or Ronald.

“You’re welcome,” Barbaracle responded, though grumbled something about keeping first names to outside of work under his breath before leaving.

“How many should be fitted on your shell versus the boat?” Alex asked once Barbaracle had left.

“Well, Dewgong does her best not to overload anyone, but I’d say I could fit most of you onto my shell myself; most of you all are fairly small,” Larry answered, “no more than four on the boat, I’d say, and no more than six on my shell.”

“I’ll take the boat then,” Dusknoir decided, taking the initiative and carefully floating into the boat himself without another word about it.

Eyeing the situation, Damien sighed, “I’ve ridden on the shell before, I’ll try the boat too.”

“In that case, it would probably be best for me to ride on the shell,” Tsuki announced, “I am not sure how well I would have done in the boat regardless of who was in it; it does not appear steady enough for my comfort,” she admitted quietly afterwards.

The rest of the seating arrangements were handled swiftly afterwards. Alex was the next to go straight for riding on the shell, and finding comfort with her partner, Nelvana was quick to follow, though surprisingly she sat by the back of the shell, close to the boat. Keahi followed suit, and Ceebee simply perched atop one of the spikes on the shell, inviting Edgar to join her up there.

And with that, they were off.

As promised, Larry was quick to address introductions. He admitted that he couldn’t promise that he could remember everyone’s names, but assured them that he would try his very best to.

After that though, the awareness quickly sank in that they were all stuck sitting like this for the next several hours. It would be a long ride, and they had already previously begun exhausting their game options back at the inn the night before.

“Hey Larry, how’s about some songs?” Damien requested during a long period of silence after the first hour or so of the ride.

“I would be honored to!” Larry responded, “do you have any specific requests?”

“Not from me, just wanted something to fill the time.” Damien shrugged, though glanced over at Nelvana afterwards to encourage her to give her input, if any.

“How about one of the peppier songs?” Nelvana asked, “I feel like we’re in need of one of those.”

Eager to oblige, Larry chose one of the more upbeat songs he knew and began to sing for the group. Damien, again, began keeping beat, but this time chose to do so by tapping the edge of the boat he had lounged out onto with the extra space from only being himself and Dusknoir; he still felt mildly on edge around the larger ghost-type, but he felt it was worth the leg room to be on the boat regardless. Nelvana began simply keeping beat by tapping her club on the shell like she had the previous time, but she was soon interrupted as Keahi stood up on the middle of the shell and gestured for Nelvana to join zim.

“Come on, dance with me!” Keahi prompted.

“Dance?” Nelvana repeated, “I… I’m not good at dancing. I’ve only done it a couple times.”

Alex smiled, “you’re not bad at dancing, I’ve seen it once, so long as you have the steps down. I’m sure Keahi could teach you something if you can’t remember any human dances,” he chimed in, choosing not to mention that Nelvana had managed to recall something about her past at all as to not ruin the moment, despite how his heart leapt with excitement at hearing her mention even small details of her past.

“Come on!” Keahi continued, “Alex is right, I could teach you some steps. It’s just for fun, no one’s judging you about it!”

Sighing, Nelvana relented to the eager eyes of her partner and stood up. It was slightly shaky, to try moving on something that was moving itself, but Larry was steady as he swam and it wasn’t difficult for her to keep her balance. Keahi squealed with delight as Nelvana stepped over to join zim.

“Alright! Okay, I’ll teach you an easy one first, it goes well with most songs anyway, so it’s a good place to start for this…”

Beginning, as zie promised, with a simpler dance, Keahi led Nelvana through some steps to follow along as Larry sang. They both had to do the same thing, so if Nelvana ever felt too lost all she had to do was mirror her partner’s movements and just try not to fall behind. Getting excited watching his friends try dancing, Edgar ended up floating in circles around the pair for awhile before leaving to lay back down and just watch instead.

Afterwards, Keahi progressed to another type of dance that zie explained was traditional for zir family.

“Do you want to try another one?” Keahi offered, “this one will be a bit harder though, I don’t think we’ll get through the entire thing, but I can teach you some of the early steps at least.”

“Okay, sure!” Nelvana agreed, feeling more confident while the whole dancing idea by this point.

This dance required different steps for each person involved, so Keahi would show Nelvana what to do, and when they would actually try together, zie would do something different. They quickly found that this one wouldn’t be as easy. Nelvana’s part required more tapping around with her feet, which was difficult on the back of the shell, and in general the movements were more complicated than the previous one. Still, they tried it a few times, with Larry politely even repeating some songs to keep them better in beat. Besides, it was a pretty and fun dance to do. Even after finally giving up, Keahi promised that maybe some other time they could try again.

By the time they stopped with that kind of dance anyway, they were both getting pretty tired and decided to take a break from dancing altogether. Nelvana sat down after deciding that, though Keahi stayed standing a bit longer to bounce in place and flap zir wings about, almost similarly to how zie was supposed to in the dance, but quickly ended up wearing zirself out completely and sat down as well.

Larry continued singing despite the end of the dancing, but his voice by now was beginning to wear out slightly, so he moved on to some of the calmer songs he knew before eventually stopping altogether after a quick apology. At this point, he had been singing for at least an hour, and everyone agreed that it would be unfair to try getting him to continue, and he deserved to give his voice a break.

The ride remained quieter for the next couple hours, but any previous tensions had been mostly relieved after that and everyone began having various conversations. Edgar floated back down beside Tsuki, who was stubbornly not looking down at the water and just had her head resting in her paws, so he began energetically chatting with her, distracting her from her previous uneasiness. Ceebee leaned down to Keahi to ask for more details about the types of dances the torchic knew, since they had caught her interest.

Nelvana ended up rolling over to her belly, facing the boat being towed behind Larry again. She wrapped her arms around one of the spikes to make sure she wouldn’t slide off or something, and cleared her throat to get Damien’s attention.

“Hey,” Nelvana greeted.

“Nice moves back there,” Damien teased, propping an arm back to rest his head against. “What’s up?”

Nelvana rolled her eyes, but chuckled, “I actually wanted to ask you something, you jokester.”

“Alright, shoot,” Damien replied, turning more of his focus towards his friend.

“If you want, you could strategize a bit more,” Nelvana told him.

“That wasn’t a question,” Damien snickered, though Nelvana noticed that his smile faltered slightly now.

She sighed, “fine. Why don’t you contribute your thoughts more when we’re making plans?” she asked instead.

Damien shifted in place, as much as he really could for his position on the boat, “I don’t really have thoughts to contribute. You all are better at strategizing. What gave you the idea that I would be able to help with that.”

“Okay, well, this isn’t the best example… but you did plan that entire accusation against me really well,” Nelvana responded, and Damien stiffened. “Yeah, it wasn’t a good thing, we both know that. But at the same time, it was really well orchestrated. If we hadn’t actually gone out for evidence ourselves… I’m not sure how long the town could have just hung there in suspense,” she continued, trailing off slightly at the end of her explanation.

Frowning more, Damien curled up into himself slightly, shifting his gaze out to the water instead of at Nelvana. Eventually though, he exhaled and faced her again, though he did not say anything, instead looking to her expectantly, silently prompting her to go on.

“My point is… you’ve proven that you can contribute good ideas, even though you say that you can’t. It’s always good to have more input, especially from varying perspectives,” Nelvana finished.

“…fine. I’m just… not good at planning in the moment,” Damien admitted, “back when I was a trainer, I would do best when I could plan ahead, and when things didn’t go to plan, I would start struggling. You’ve seen that. Alex coming in during all… that, caught me really off guard,” he chuckled dryly.

“That’s still pretty good though. Alex ‘n I are a bit better at acting on the fly than strict plans ahead of time, so you could still help with planning more before hand,” Nelvana insisted, “I’m just saying, think about it. You’re welcome to share more of your ideas for planning; you’re smarter than I think that most people think you are.”

Damien sighed, “alright, thanks Nel.”

Smiling again, Nelvana nodded back to Damien before sitting up again and then turning to face forward. She simply sat back against the spike she previously had wrapped her arms around, before seeming to change her mind and carefully getting up to move so she could speak to Alex instead.

The day continued on for their ride across the ocean. Around noon there was discussion about actually having a lunch, but a few members were still feeling a bit seasick, so everyone decided to wait until they were on shore. A few minutes after that, Damien asked if Larry had his own lunch to eat, to which he was relieved that the lapras did, in fact, pack his own lunches for longer trips such as these.

“Are we there yet?” Edgar’s voice cut in suddenly.

Larry chuckled warmly, “no, not yet. We are over halfway there now though.”

“Okay…”

Finding more ways to occupy themselves for the remainder of the ride varied in difficulty, but in general everyone was able to keep themselves from getting bored for too long. Sitting around for so long with limited space was unusual to them; everyone was used to walking or having other games to play with, but they managed. While there were times they began thinking that they had run out of discussion topics, there was always something new for someone to talk about when reminded.

Eventually, as the sun began to set on that day, land could be spotted in the distance. Excitement and cheers bubbled up right away, but seeing didn’t mean that they were quite there, and everyone sat anxiously in wait for the last minutes to past before they finally arrived at the Grass Continent.

“Is there a particular location you wanted to land nearby?” Larry asked as they began approaching. “I’ll want to alter our course slightly if that’s the case!”

“We’re looking for Brine Cave,” Keahi told him.

Larry nodded, “got it! I’ll just have to go around some of the land to get as close as possible, hang on for a bit longer!”

Turning further west momentarily, he altered his path slightly to begin swimming around the land they had spotted. They watched as they moved past forests, mountains, and even what appeared to be a desert, on the mainland, continuing past all that as Larry curved around the land and finally docking where the water flooded in as a lake in the distance.

Right away… there wasn’t much to look at. In fact, while some of them had been expecting something new and unfamiliar compared to where they had come from, nothing stood out right away. They landed at a rocky part of the shoreline, and in the distance, there was mostly grasslands, with some mountains even further out.

“This is it,” Alex murmured, hopping off from Larry’s shell to navigate the rocks so that he could look out to the horizon. “Brine Cave should be just a bit north from here. You can almost see it from here.”

“Oh, wow!” Ceebee exclaimed, following the grovyle up to the land. “I remember this area! We camped nearby here when we came through here to get to the Temporal Tower last time! It’s so strange to see everything in color like this, so much healthier too…”

Nelvana carefully made her way over to the other two, scanning the area around her in hopes of meeting that same familiarity that her friends obviously had. She bit her lip, furrowing her brows as she studied their location. As Alex pointed out the direction that Brine Cave was supposed to be, she couldn’t help but silently agree with him about that, but past that she barely got any sense of déjà vu. Perhaps it was because last time she had been here it would have appeared differently enough that her current memory couldn’t piece it together the same way she had recognized Alex and Ceebee upon seeing them, but it was still disappointing to her to not recall this place the same way her friends could.

“Thanks again for the ride, Larry,” Damien told the lapras as he attempted to pull himself out of the boat, with it rocking as he stood up and began trying to walk around on it.

“Yeah, thanks Larry!” Keahi chirped as well, hopping off onto the rocks, pausing before going to join the others. “Will you be staying here the night, or do you have to swim all the way back tonight?” zie asked.

“I will rest here for the night, and head back in the morning, so long as you do not need me for the return trip,” Larry answered.

“We have the badges to get back, thanks though,” Keahi told him.

“Very well then! Thank you for allowing me to guide you all out on the trip here,” Larry replied cheerfully, “do not worry about how I will get back, I am still prepared to make the return trip on my own; I have done this before. Good luck on your journey!”

“Thank you!” Edgar responded, following by more thanks given by the others, chorused together and mixed with farewells to their helpful guide and ferry ride.

Once everyone had gotten off from the boat and shell, and in some cases taken a moment to recover from the trip overseas, they traveled on foot a bit off from the shore so they could set up camp further inland, walking until the sun had almost fully set. Due to lacking nearby trees for a campfire, the group was soon submerged into the darkness of the night. Seeing this as reason to sleep early so they could collect their bearings properly the following day, everyone turned in for the night, excluding Dusknoir and Edgar. Tsuki herself decided that this may be her best chance to get some proper rest and refill her energy, having stayed up at their stay at the inn, and thus she too eventually fell asleep with the others for once.

Nelvana had not been asleep for long, or at least she did not feel it had been long, before, to her surprise, she opened her eyes to a familiar green void in her dreams.

First [ARC 1]: In which the human is transformed First [ARC 2]: In which a present is prepared Next: In which there are dreams and discussions Previous: In which they arrive at the guild

9 notes · View notes

zarla-s · 5 years

Text

Just for fun, I thought I’d outline what my dream Pokemon game would be like. I’m fully aware a game like this probably wouldn’t be technically possible, especially with the sheer amount of Pokemon now, but I like dreaming about it anyway, and I wonder if others would want the same thing too.

A Pokemon can follow you like Let’s Go and HGSS, but with all the detailed, unique running/walking animations like in Let’s Go. Every Pokemon’s walk/run cycle would be designed specifically for them. You could also talk to the Pokemon and get their thoughts about their environment like in Let’s Go/HGSS, with responses specific to that Pokemon’s nature/species. A buddy Pokemon is also good, although I realize that role would mostly be best suited to small cute Pokemon who can ride on your shoulders, which I’d be fine with as long as it was a wider pool than just Eevee or Pikachu.

An extremely large open world like Breath of the Wild, mostly wilderness, with small towns dotted here and there you can fast-travel between (with Fly, presumably). Instead of a single land mass, the continent (?) would be split into at least two islands so you can hang out with water Pokemon more easily and have reason to use them or Surf around. I picture it in the same kind of cute chibi style as Let’s Go or Sun/Moon, lots of nice bright vibrant colors.

You can choose your own Ride Pokemon to use for whatever HM service you need, and the animations would change accordingly. So you can choose if you want to use Fly with your Charizard, Tropius, Dodrio, or Golurk if you want and it would show you Flying with that Pokemon. I’d also like some kind of equivalent of the Soar mechanic from ORAS where you can fly around at your leisure and look at stuff from above.

You’d have the same freedom of movement as in BOTW through the use of your Pokemon (ie if you see a mountain you could climb it, if you have a Pokemon with Rock Climb, or be able to glide distances with a Flying Pokemon). You should feel like you can go almost anywhere and do whatever you want.

Your follower Pokemon would interact with the environment around it accordingly. If it rains, your Pokemon might get wet and unhappy, or enjoy it if they’re a Water Pokemon. If you walk into water, a Fire Pokemon might not want to follow you into it. A Chatot might sing or mimic Pokemon it hears as it follows you around. Your Follower Pokemon has to feel like it’s as present in the world as you are.

You can see Pokemon in the wild and observe their behavior, and they’d interact with the environment and each other realistically. So you could see Butterfrees harvesting nectar, Caterpies eating leaves, Shinx cubs playing tag, herds of Tauros and Milktank grazing, Seviper and Zangoose fighting, Ekans finding Pidgey eggs to eat, things like that. Depending on the Pokemon, you could interact with them in other ways rather than battling them, like feeding or petting them. The most important part is the sense that Pokemon have their own lives outside of humans and their own niche in the ecosystem with other Pokemon.

Anything more than a bare-bones plot is unnecessary I think, it’d mostly be sandboxy and sort of choose your own goal-ish. There’d probably be some kind of evil Team wanderin around causing trouble and events to antagonize you randomly in various areas, like in BOTW or RDR2, but no like, giant 300 year old man and the world ending device or somethin.

Along with being able to customize your character’s gender, clothes, skintone, and hair, you’d be able to customize their age as well. Different age groups would get different outfits.

There’d be gyms and an Elite Four and all, but beating the Champion wouldn’t be the ONLY way to beat the game. You can also beat the game through doing Contests, or other things. Whatever you choose to pursue as your Pokemon journey, you should feel supported. You could do the gyms in any order, with the other gyms scaling in difficulty as you get more badges.

The battle system can stay the same, that’s fine. Although, an AT based system like in Chrono Trigger could be interesting...

There’d be an intense and complicated Contest system like in ORAS, where battle moves mean and can do completely different things. A whole different system along with the standard battling system. And contests would be taken seriously! They’d lead to their own finals and have their own plotlines like a normal battling run as well. Pokeathlon kind of things would also fall into this category. Mostly other ways and uses for Pokemon moves that aren’t just minigames.

You could get a camera and decide to be a Pokemon photographer like in Pokemon Snap, where you’d have to sneak up on wild Pokemon without being detected and take pictures of them for magazines or some such and get points for how good your photos are. Mostly a way to interact with Pokemon without catching them. There’d be cool things you could only see if you were being a photographer. Maybe you could even tie this into a path where you could do research on Pokemon behavior and become a Pokemon scientist.

Every Pokemon would have some kind of accessory you could put on them, like a hat or a ribbon or a sticker or something like that. Each Pokemon would have specific accessories JUST for that Pokemon, so you could make ANY Pokemon special if you wanted. To get those accessories, you’d have to find Trainers in the wild who had that Pokemon - if you beat them, they’d give you an accessory for that Pokemon. So no matter what my favorite Pokemon is, I’d be able to find something special for them. Certain Pokemon might have more if they lend themselves to decoration easily, but every Pokemon would have something. And their accessories would be designed specifically for that Pokemon and be appropriate for their bodytype. You’d be able to see the accessory in battle and if they were Following you in the field.

I realize this is personal preference, but it always kind of bothered me how Water Pokemon just float magically in the air behind you when in land, so I’d like them to interact with the ground correctly (like Magikarp) or maybe not be able to follow you on land. To make up for it, only Water Pokemon could follow you when you’re swimming or surfing, since that’d be their natural environment. That’s been handwaved in battles for so long though that I don’t mind it as much there. I’d also like hovering Pokemon like Pidgeot to just... sit down and not flap for a few minutes every now and then.

You’d be able to see the whole water Pokemon ecosystem when Diving, it’d be a whole different world down there.

Here’s where we get into the real impossibilities - there’d be Pokemon variations. You’ve seen the posts about these I’m sure, but each Pokemon would have DIFFERENT variations. For example, Lampent might appear in different forms of lamps, while Paras might have different types of mushrooms. Some of them might be environment based, some of them might need secret items, and some of them...

If you breed Pokemon together, you’ll get Pokemon hybrids. This was one of my favorite things about Monster Rancher 2, where if you bred a Golem and a Hare, you’d get a Rocky Hare, or a Hare and a Jell would get you a Jelly Hare. In this case, when you breed two different Pokemon together, it’d still be the same species as one parent (the mom?) but it’d have markings or a form influenced by the other parent. You might have to close down breeding pools a bit to make this managable, but this means that being a Pokemon Breeder and getting every breed of Pokemon would actually be an intensive and long quest and a real thing you could do.

Rare or legendary Pokemon would be hidden with riddles and secrets, like the Regis in the original Ruby and Sapphire. Getting a Legendary should involve a lot of quest-solving and exploration. The Regi riddles is the level of problem solving that’d be ideal for legendary Pokemon in this game. It should be tough but doable.

You can trade with your friends by getting their friend-code directly and in a really intuitive and simple way. Nothing complicated like Festival Plaza or the bizarre Let’s Go system. Just ping your friend and trade or fight. I actually really liked Join Avenue in BW2, I’d like a form of that to come back (not the Festival Plaza form). Friend Safaris were also good for shiny hunting, I wouldn’t mind those.

I actually also liked Secret Bases in ORAS, we can bring those back too.

A Pokemon Amie/Refresh system is a must, ideally expanded so you can do more things with each Pokemon, or at least more customized to each Pokemon you have, so it feels more like you’re really interacting with that Pokemon.

You should be able to pet your Pokemon as you walk around.

You should be able to ride Pokemon like in Let’s Go too.

That’s all I can think of at the moment...

#pokemon #walls of text

2K notes · View notes

surveys-at-your-service · 4 years

Text

Survey #255

“who gives a fuck if they hate you; you’re the god that they pray to.”

How many pillows do you sleep with? Two. Could you go a day not talking to the last person you kissed? It would suck. What was the last song you listened to that made you cry? I didn't like, sob, but "Another Life" by Motionless In White does it. Your ex REALLY needs you at 3am and you have a way to their house would you go? Well, I can't with Sara considering she lives two hours away, and that's by plane. If she lived here, duh. For Girt or Jason, yes. Without saying any names what is one thing that you would like to say to someone(s)? I'm sorry. Would your parents get mad if you got drunk while they were present? No. Would you date someone who lived in another state? Eh, maybe. I don't know if I want to do long-distance again. I mean I probably would, but idk. Are you friends with your ex? Sara and Girt, yes. Who is the person you last texted? Sara. When’s the last time you told people you were fine, but really weren’t? I dunno, I honestly don't lie about that often. When was the last time you wanted to punch someone in their face? Months back when I found out the shit my therapist said about me and disability. Not only did I want to knock her jaw off, but I sobbed for like, a long-ass time. Who did you spend your summer with last year? Just Mom, really. ... Or wait, maybe that was the summer Sara was here??? My memory is such shit, idk if that was last year or the one before. What’s bothering you right now? Stress about dropping out. Have you lost friends in the past year? I don't think so, at least. Have you and the last person you kissed ever talked about going out? We did date. If the person you’re dating said they were falling in love with you, what would you do? I'm not dating anyone. Who was the last person you were in love with for more than a year? Sara. Do you have a secret life? RP stays a pretty big secret. Have you ever seen the last person you kissed without a shirt? Yes. Do your parents know EVERYTHING about you? No. What are you watching? Nothing rn, surprisingly. I'm listening to music. Are you friends with your best friend’s boyfriend or girlfriend? She's single. Don’t tell me lies, is the last person you texted attractive? Yeah. There’s a serial killer in your house, what do you do? Jump out the window. If the last person you kissed went back to their first love, what would you do? I think I am hers. Do you own any bug spray? No, not currently. We need some damn wasp killer. Every spring/summer, they build a nest literally right above our back door. Are you a good gift giver? Honestly think I'm really good at it. I always try to put a load of thought into it. What's the longest trip you’ve ever been on? The drives to either NY or Florida. I can't remember which is further. Are you a daughter or son-in-law? No. Do you know anyone in the military? Multiple people. Do you like your significant other's siblings? N/A Have you ever received a singing birthday card? Yeah. Those always suck when you open them and boom, loud singing to an obnoxious song. Do you own anything made by APPLE? My iPod. Have you ever tried Hamburger helper? Yeah, that was a semi-frequent dinner as a kid. I never liked it that much, though. What was your first car's color? N/A Do you have a best friend? Ye. Do you remember who your Kindergarten teacher was? I do. Do you have a favorite president? A least favorite? No, considering I don't know enough about any and their policies. Can you french braid? No. Were you ever a girl scout or a boy scout? I was as a tiny kid. I met my first best friend that way. What's your least favorite color? I'm just gonna use the very basic colors: yellow or green. Do you know anyone in jail? Not currently. Do you have kids? Ew. What's the strangest name you’ve ever heard? Apples. Yes. I'm serious. How old were you when you learned to walk? Idk. Do you own anything made of lace? Yeah. What's your favorite football team? Idc. What kind of bubble gum do you chew? Just about any. Fruity is my favorite. Do you wear a one-piece bathing suit or two-piece, a speedo or trunks? NOBODY needs to see me in a two-piece. Did you go to your senior prom? Yes. Do you support a charity? Well of course. I used to give coins to those super-old charity things for sick kids back in the day, but I can't remember the exact charity it was. I also donated hair to Children With Hair Loss a couple years back. I haven't donated to any other that I know of bc no personal income and I don't ask my parents for money really, but boy have I wanted to. I always use that Facebook feature where you pick a charity to share and ask for donations for your birthday, though; I've done the Trevor Project and one for pancreatic cancer in honor of my grandmother. I don't remember the others. Do you pop your knuckles? EW no please don't in my presence @ Sara. Do you scrapbook? No. I just don't have the creative drive and dedication to. If you could change your eye color would you and to what color? A much brighter blue. Have you ever had braces? For a long-ass time because we couldn't afford to take them off. One tooth is pushed too far back because of it. Imagine your dream home, does it have a fence around it? No. I want to live in the woods where *that's* my yard. When were you the saddest in your whole life? 2016 OH WOWIE WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you ever seen a ghost? I definitely believe I have. Are you a virgin? No. How many books do you read a month? I like, just started reading again, so I can't say. Can you type fast? Very. In school were you bullied? I'm extremely thankful I wasn't. Have you ever swam in the ocean? Yes, I love it. Do you own a boat? Not me myself, no. Dad does. What about a camper? No. Do you read the newspaper? No. Are you on any teams? Team Mystic in Pokemon Go *waggles fist @ criticism* If you died today where do you think you’d go? Idk. Who really knows what happens when you die. I hope it's some serene existence, but, *shrugs*. Do you know anyone who is pregnant? Ummmm I don't think so. Who is the first contact in your cell phone? Best friend! :') What color are you bed sheets? The one I'm using now is light blue. Do you use online dating? I cannot FUCKING believe I was briefly on Christian Mingle I would actually rather die- How often are you sick? Extremely rarely. Did/Do you miss a lot of school? Eh. I had my mental health days and had to leave early a lot. Do you like scented candles? Yeah man. When was the last time you were told you were pretty/beautiful/gorgeous? When I recently changed my FB picture after forever. Do you hate the last guy, other than family, you had a conversation with? No. What’s the last thing that made you laugh? Roman being silly. If someone were to ask you out right now would you say yes? I don't know. Do you have a secret that you’ve never told anyone? Yeah. Name four things you want right now: My fucking tattoo updated laksjdlflw, a healthy goddamn weight, my laptop, and a tarantula omg. Do you prefer to hold or be held? I mean, it depends on who we're talking about. I guess generally held? Are you currently wanting any piercings? You have no idea. Are you afraid of falling in love? Very. What was the last thing that made you feel like your life was complete? lol I've never felt that. You ever slept on the floor with someone you liked? Yeah. Do you still speak to any of your classmates from elementary school? Off the very top of my head, no. Does it take a lot to make you cry? NOPE. What is the wallpaper on your computer screen? Why did you choose it? One of my favorite pictures of Teddy, because I adore and miss him. Is there a pattern on the pants you’re currently wearing? Which one? Plaid. Do you like going to baby showers? Do you go only for the cake? I mean, not especially. They're crowded and it's a bad association anyway since it was the last time I hung out with Jason. The cake is indeed the best part, lmao. Mexican food, Chinese food, Italian food, French food or American food? American. What is the color scheme of your absolute favorite fast-food restaurant? Red, yellow, and blue. Do people ever ask you to do things they’re too short to accomplish? Very rarely. I'm not all that tall. Is there carpet or hardwood floor in your bedroom? Carpet. Do you believe in superstitious things such as breaking a mirror? No. Do you get sick of people who call themselves bipolar all the time? As someone who is bipolar, very much so, yes. Ever have an ultra-sound performed on you? What was it for? Yes, for my liver. I was fine. Do you like those "end of the world," "Armageddon" movies? Not especially. Ever been choked severely on something during lunch at your school? No. Do you remember who you sat next to in Kindergarten? Who was it? No. Has anyone ever compared you to an animal? Which one(s)? No. Do you eat more vegetables or fruits? What’s your favorite fruit/veggie? Fruits, by far. Strawberries and broccoli. Something on the human body that grosses you out the most: This is not intentional or meant to be discriminatory of those with 'em, but penises literally repulse me visually. Do you like meeting new people? What’s your most common greeting? Yeah, even though I'm scared. I think I say "hi" or "hey" most. What is something that bothers you about most surveys in general? Extremely heteronormative. Would you survive if zombies were to take over the world? Why or why not? HA no. I'm an anxious mess that is not fast or nimble in any way. What is your favorite color of apple? Red, green or yellow? I like the reddish/yellowish ones. Do you live anywhere near a mall? Maybe like, 15-20 mins away. If you were dying who would you say goodbye to first out of everyone? My mom. Are you someone who actually likes to babysit children? NO. What’s your favorite lunch meat, if you even like any in the first place? Honey ham. Would you rather write with a pen or a pencil? Why is this? Pencil, by far. You can erase. Scibbling stuff out looks messy. Have you ever wanted to be in a band? What position exactly? I am NOT kidding: one of the motivating factors of me going back to public school after 8th grade was the idea of making new friends and maybe making a band to be the guitarist lmfao. Who is your role model or hero in life if you have one? I have multiple for different reasons, but #1's gotta be Mark, man. Were you a really mean kid or a sweet and quiet kid? I was a really friendly kiddo. Do you keep secrets from your parents that you don’t keep from your friends? I don't think so. What is your father’s best friend’s name? Do you know them personally? Idk who that would be. Ever submit a video to America’s Funniest Home Videos? I don't believe we have. The most painful medical procedure you’ve ever had? Jesus fuck, I wouldn't wish having an infected cyst drained without NEARLY enough numbing medication on the goddamn devil. Are you someone who likes to eat Poptarts? What’s your favorite flavor? Yeah. I like the chocolate sundae one most. Ever have a dream you’re being abducted by aliens? Was it scary? No. What is your favorite flavor of Doritos? What do you drink with them? MMMMMMMMMMM cool ranch. Usually soda with chips. What is your favorite nickname you like to be called? Why do you like it? Ozzy. *shrugs* I like my online nickname and the "y" added sounds kinda affectionate ig. Do you already have your outfit for tomorrow planned out? I don’t plan my outfits. Has your favorite song ever been featured on a commercial? No. What would you say was the best year of your life? Why? 2017. SO MUCH DEVELOPMENT AND HEALING!!!!!!! Have you ever been pulled over by the cops for speeding? No. Is anyone in your family a firefighter? Who is it anyway? No.

#survey #quiz #questions #personal

3 notes · View notes

stressbakeling · 4 years

Text

January 2020 - Baking Catalogue & The “Made It” Trophy

I’ve been suffering such intense imposter syndrome lately, I feel like a human embodiment of that Reductress article. It definitely feels directly correlated with a deeply-rooted sense that happiness is at best, a lucky accident, and at worst a mix-up that the front office hasn’t gotten around to sorting out yet. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop means I’ve started having fantasies about building a hermitage, about becoming invisible, about stopping time and living under a bedsheet for a quarter century or so. That part of me has its foot on the pedal.

It’s also at direct odds with the other part of me, the one that’s got its hands on the wheel and has no choice but to over-correct for the rapid increase in speed. Gunning toward the woods to be alone, my hair is turning bluer, my voice getting louder. The former would like to lay on my couch and be sad about how all good things inevitably come to an end. The latter doesn’t have time for that shit when buttercream is only about twenty minutes of effort away from materializing right in my kitchen. My physical efforts to subdue my personality are being wildly overwritten by most basic mental nature. I’m trying on suits, I’m getting tattoos. I’m calculating my income tax for next year and getting more holes pierced in my face. I’m getting nervous about retirement and spending more money than I’ve ever spent before.

I’ve finally purchased a car--a dream I’ve had since I’ve graduated high school. It was probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve made in my life and boy does writing that down make me feel privileged and stupid! I thought adopting a dog for six weeks to socialize it before giving it to my grandpa for Christmas felt like a crushing commitment. I just agreed, signed officially on a piece of paper, to pay something off over the course of years. Years! The student loans didn’t feel this horrific because it didn’t feel like a cost I could forgo--I had to get a college education and by the time I had realized what I was in for, I just sort of resigned to pounding away at them until they’d go away. But I, as a grown-ass adult, just agreed to throw the physical manifestation of my blood, sweat, and tears at an environmentally questionable choice for a while and... it feels... good? It still doesn’t feel like it’s allowed. Or right. Or deserved.

It’s so hard to say I feel like I’ve earned it. I suppose I always thought I’d catch myself changing as an adult--one day I’d have crazy colored hair and spend my money on stupid shit like earrings shaped like airplanes and Taco Bell and the next I’d have crows feet, a love for historical fiction and the BBC, and care about my 401k or something. Instead I’m blending hair dyes while watching Poirot and learning about the historical ups and downs of AMT tax calculation in America. So where did I get this very one dimensional understanding of growth? Of success? Of belonging?

Revising your personal vision of what it means to grow, to succeed, to belong is I suppose all part of achieving those things. It’s just a tad embarrassing to realize what I’ve been limping along with as paradigms of those core tenants of happiness. As a child you are sort of given some basics and then there are sadly few who make you re-examine these thin, plastic rhinestones you’ve fit into the imagined trophy that is “Making It” from then on out. I’ve always felt deeply conflicted about being on the Systems Engineering team at work, for example. “I don’t write any code! I don’t ‘engineer’ anything!” I gesticulated wildly at the kitchen table one night while Eric rolled his eyes and mixed me a drink. “Do you do anything useful?” he said. I took the question a little indignantly. “Yes, of course I--” “And do you belong somewhere else? On another team?” “...Not one that I know of.” He didn’t have to finish the thought. What was I talking about?

To belong is to do what everyone else is doing. To contribute or benefit the team is only to conform to these expectations. To belong is to have the same pair of Air Jordans everyone else is wearing. To grow is... um. Well, to not be able to do something one day, and then the following day, if you’ve done your research and thought hard enough about it, well, then... you can do it! Like learning how to convert fractions to decimals or how to say a phrase in Spanish. And failure is definitely not part of that process. Failing is the opposite of growth! So then to succeed is... oh no, to succeed is... What have I inscribed here on this crappy plastic trophy? Honor roll certificates? Swimming in a gold-filled swimming pool a la Scrooge McDuck? Catching all 151 Pokemon? Living in a house with a ball pit and a tortilla press? Jesus, did I put all of these things in place when I was in second grade? Is this really, deep down, how I feel? What I’ve been striving for this whole time? Pop goes the sound of the little stick-on gem rhinestones peeling off of my Made It Trophy. Unfortunately, the crappy adhesive only seems to release when you truly change your mind about what it means to excel. To “win.” Money won’t coax it off, nor recognition, beauty, power. Then it turns out, once you get your hands on it, it seems to make a better pencil cup or a door stop then it does belong on any shelf or display case, anyway.

3 notes · View notes

fulldreamsahead · 4 years

Text

Demon Betrayal

TL;DR Last night I had this crazy dream that involved part of the cast of How I Met Your Mother, but also Adam Driver. It starts out as a romantic comedy between me, as Lily, and Adam Driver. Over time he is revealed to be a demon, I become a demon, and I am tricked into spawning another demon. It begs the question of if you could turn back time, would you?

If you’re curious, the full dream is under the cut.

I think I am supposed to be Lily, but I am more of a regular hometown girl. I meet Adam Driver and we fall in love and spend our days together. I guess in my dream he’s like, actually Adam Driver, but I have no idea that he’s famous. Over some unknown length of time knowing him, I start to realize that he has some kind of notoriety. We decide that we are going to be together forever. Our bliss is cut short when I start getting bad vibes followed by a genuine death threat. It turns out that Adam Driver is some sort of Seafoam God/Demon that can control waters/tides and he’s been trying to subdue the threat without my knowledge by using ice soldiers to be my tiny unseen body guards. The ice minions move me from location to location, trying to keep me safe from this ever pursuing threat. I guess that it must be some other demon, but I can’t be sure. Whatever their motive may be, I do end up dying, but Adam Driver assures me that it’s for the best as we can now truly be together.

I am revived and am now a demon. My skin is really cool and shiny with a gold sheen. As I admire how awesome it looks, Adam Driver is forlorn. He knew this was the only way we could truly be together, since he is a demon and ages at a different rate, but he mourns the loss of the human me that died. He is upset because he didn’t want it to happen like this. I tell him it’s OK, since I’m not just dead. He seems amused by my lighthearted demeanor and we continue our relationship. Time passes and around mid-November he becomes increasingly distant and strange, but in a lazy way. He no longer wants to go anywhere and instead just wants to stay home and watch movies all the time. Around the beginning of December, I find out I am pregnant and happily inform him even though it is early in my term. He seems delighted by this, so when Christmas comes around and he doesn’t want to go out to our yearly party among friends, I am suspicious. I try to entice him with Barney-like suits, but he won’t keep his attention on me. I tell him I don’t know the extent of my demon prowess, so maybe I could change something to help him out. He considers me a moment before asking if I will instead just let the subject go. If I do then we can go to the party. Even though this wasn’t my intended response, I am delighted to go.

At the Christmas party, we start mingling while we are preparing to eat and strange things are happening. He greets Robin and is falling over himself as if he is in love with her. It reminds me very much of the way he used to act toward me in the beginning of our relationship when I was still human. It’s very strange and while it makes me uncomfortable, I recognize that something is very wrong.

This is probably a good time to mention that while I and Adam Driver are demons, we look human to anyone’s eye. Even demons can’t see each other as demons unless they are willed too. A weird exception to this rule seems to involve colored glass (like old time Church windows). If someone looks through colored glass, you can see a demon’s true form. For example, after I awoke from death as a demon, I still saw Adam Driver the same, but one day I happened to see him through the droplet glass pieces of a chandler. It was then that I found out his true form has porcelain white skin (like actual porcelain, he looks like a delicate old time doll). His eyes glow a deep blue green, the color of seafoam, and his hair cascades off his head in contained ocean waves. Alternatively, since I didn’t know I could contain my form, I present to him as soon as I wake which might have been what startled him a bit. Besides the gold skin, I suppose I otherwise look like the angel that would top a Christmas tree, very similar to the pokemon Magearna, except with a halo and steampunk like wings.

Anyway, since colored glass is plentiful at Christmas time, as I move around the table I happen to glance at Adam Driver through a glass. I am horrified to find that instead of my demon husband there is instead a grey skinned demon version of Ted overlaying him kind of like a ghost possession. I am stunned because I only ever knew Ted as human, but I start to realize that I haven’t seen Ted since I died. I grow weak, clutching onto a party chair as I wonder how long this Ted demon has been masquerading as Adam Driver. I only found out I was pregnant in the beginning of December and I retch at the thought that the baby might be Ted’s. I rush off and with the help Adam Driver’s little ice minions that he’s kept around just in case, I find out where he’s been locked up. I wander around the labyrinth of the building the dinner is being hosted in, which also coincidentally is Ted’s house, and find him locked up down in a boiler type room that is reminiscent of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

I break Adam Driver out and he’s distraught as I tell him everything that’s happened. He’s been trying to reach me, but Ted has been intercepting his little ice minions from giving me the news. Based on the timeline of how long he’s been locked up, he also realizes that I can’t be pregnant with his child. He doesn’t believe me at first, so I take a glass goblet that Ted has been serving him with and hold it up to my stomach. He resists, but eventually looks through the colored glass and it allows him to see inside of my womb like a sonogram. What he finds there must have had some Ted-like signifiers because he puts his head in his hands. He explains that I am also pregnant with twins, something I did not know. He is devastated by this and explains that he can use the tides to turn back time, but there will be severe consequences. He leaves the option up to me, because he’ll do anything for me. I feel horrible and violated so I agree and he puts his hands to the ground to manipulate the water in the earth. I’m conflicted since I never truly found out what the consequences are and am not sure if I should stop him since the whole scenario is so wrong. I wake up as time is reversed.

#me #my dreams #dream #dreams #scary dream #demons #story time #Adam Driver #How I Met Your Mother

2 notes · View notes

duhragonball · 5 years

Text

Dragon Ball Z 204

Welp, Gohan’s just chillin’ in a giant nest.

Oh, also Goten’s here. So there’s a family of those big pterodactyl-looking creatures and apparently Gohan and Goten are friends with them, but they’ve gone missing.

This episode used to confuse me a lot when I first saw it, because I hadn’t watched the entire series up to this point, so I wasn’t sure if Chibi and his parents were a retcon or if they had appeared before this. Gohan acts like he’s known them his whole life, but this is indeed their first appearance. I think I might have confused them with Icarus aka Haiya Dragon, who was Gohan’s animal companion in Movies 3,4, 5, and Episodes 108-119. Kind of weird how Toei just sort of dropped that altogether once the androids showed up. Maybe Icarus died during the three year gap? It just feels like this episode was written with him in mind, like he married a female of his species and now Gohan has to save his newly-hatched offspring.

Meanwhile, Mr. Satan is chillaxing in his home, watching footage of himself winning the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai with a bottle of wine. I suppose this is telling. In private, this is the stuff that keeps Mr. Satan going. His victory over Cell was a fabrication, but winning the World Tournament was a genuine achievement, one he can truly take pride in.

I just wonder if he’s haunted by the memory of the Cell Games. He’s the only one who knows what really happened, so he can’t tell anyone, even his own daughter. Everything worked out, sure, but he still has to live with the knowledge that all of those strange people were stronger than himself. That must put these highlight reels into a different perspective. Maybe Mr. Satan is watching them for the sake of nostalgia. He’s thinking back to a time when he didn’t know better, and he really believed he was the strongest man in the world.

Anyway, Videl asks him about the previous Tenkaichi Budokai champion, and Mr. Satan explains that Son Goku was a mysterious man with a lot of fancy tricks, but he was surely no match for Mr. Satan.

And this is apparently the moment when Videl realizes that the former champion has the same family name as Gohan. Hmmm...

Meanwhile, Gohan and Goten watch news coverage of a circus wth a new act: a baby monster.

Turns out, it’s Chibi, the baby they were looking for at the top of this episode. This asshole named Musuka caught him and made him part of his asshole circus. Seriously, what sort of act is this? He just stands there with a whip and Chibi curls up into a ball and shivers in terror. Why would people pay money to see this?

Awww, look at this adorable little man. Fuck you, Musuka. Fuck you and fuck your audience. Fuck the circus, while I’m at it.

Seriously, I don’t get the circus at all. I have faint memories of going to one as a kid, and I’m pretty sure the only thing I wanted to see was Pac-Man, and I missed him while I went to the restroom or something. I have no idea how Pac-Man was at the circus, but I just know I sat through like 95 hours of boring-ass non-Pac-Man content, and then I blinked and he wasn’t there. Maybe I dreamed the whole thing. Fuck the circus is my point.

I’m pretty sure it was real, though, because I’ll see ads or circuses today and they promote appearances by Spongebob or some other cartoon character, and it’s probably just a guy in a suit. The point is that they have to do that kind of thing because kids haven’t cared about animal acts for at least forty years. They like cartoons and video games, because those are fucking awesome.

And you don’t need a circus to have meet-and-greets with cartoon characters. Just slap a costume on a guy and have him chill out in an air-conditioned building. Circuses do it because they have to adapt to the times, except they keep clinging to all this other stuff that doesn’t work anymore.

I have no pity for it. I read a Batman comic from like 1988, where Dick Grayson checks up on the circus he used to run with before his parents got murdered, and every time Robin checks up on his circus pals they always do the sob story about how business is down because no one goes to the circus anymore. It was cliche in 1988, and that comic is older than most of the people reading this. I’ve been hearing about the slow, agonizing decline of the circus my entire life, and I was born in the Carter administration for crying out loud. Nobody goes to Sears anymore, and you don’t see anyone feeling sorry for Sears.

I don’t want to get too anti-capitalist on this thing, but it annoys me when people get all weepy over businesses that can’t keep up with the market. Everyone was all sad when Toys R’ Us went bankrupt, but that’s bullshit, because no one really cares about Toys R’ Us, or they wouldn’t have gone out of business in the first place. What is it we miss about that store? You can buy the merchandise elsewhere, which is exactly what everyone did. So what’s left? Geoffrey the Giraffe? Fuck that guy. He’s no Pac-Man, that’s for sure. The jingle? You can look that up on YouTube right now.

The circus is the same deal. We’re supposed to care when one of them shuts down because it had been in business for like 105 years or something, like just because something is old that makes it important. Once upon a time they didn’t have Pokemon, and the best you could do was to hope some carnies rolled through your town and they had a cool bear that would do tricks. But that business model wasn’t going to last forever, and if it can’t adapt to the times then it doesn’t deserve to continue as it is. I feel like I read once that circuses have shifted their focus towards human performers, which makes more sense to me, because it gets the animal rights activists off their back, and the humans can do flashier things anyway. Then again, I scratch that itch by watching pro wrestling, so I don’t know if that’s viable. It comes down to a question of what a circus has to offer without giving up its identity as a circus. if the answer is to rebrand as some other kind of show, then just do it and don’t look back. If you’re determined to keep up the pretense out of some misplaced sense of obligation, then don’t look for pity when the business dries up.

Same deal with trains. I dig Johnny Cash, but he had this one song that was basically all moping about how nobody travels by train anymore. Well I rode a passenger train once and it was exactly like taking an airplane only cheaper and slower. That’s why people don’t do it as much. You can romanticize this stuff, but you need more than romance to turn a profit.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, Gohan tries to talk the owner into releasing Chibi into the wild, and when he gets shot down, Gohan just waltzes over to Chibi’s cage and busts him out.

Yeah! Fight the power!

Yeah, this is a Triangle Guy episode, by the way.

Musuka doesn’t take kindly to hearing his star attraction has been stolen. What’s amazing to me is how he’s just sitting at his desk counting huge stacks of cash, presumably earned from people paying top dollar to watch him abuse a defenseless animal. I mean, yeah, this is Dragon Ball Z, but this is pretty broad, even for this show.

So Gohan plans to just fly Chibi back to his nest, but oops, Chibi’s having a hard time flying so high and so fast. Awwww, look at the spirals in his eyes, he’s all dizzy. Hang in there, buddy.

So basically Chibi is baby. Gohan will have to carry him out of Satan City on foot.

I forget why, but the truck driver from the Vegeta/18 fight is in this episode. Pretty sweet.

Then Videl shows up. Musuka called the cops, who in turn called in Videl, since Great Saiyaman’s a little out of their league. Videl’s shocked that Saiyaman would steal like this, but it gives her an excuse to fight and unmask him, so she’s down with it.

So yeah, you’ve probably seen the gif of this shot where Videl jumps on Gohan and wraps her legs around his head, but I’m pretty sure she was setting up a hurricanrana. Everyone needs to get their heads out of the gutter.

Awwwwwwwwwwww.

Awwwwwwwwwwwww.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

For some reason, Musuka wanders over and starts whipping Chibi, like that would help anything in this situation. Seriously why does he need a whip? Anyway, Chibi cries out and...

... Uh-oh.

So here are Chibi’s parents, and they’re not pleased. This was exactly what Gohan was afraid might happen, but Videl wouldn’t listen to him, and he didn’t want to just punch out Videl, Musuka, and the cops to avoid this.

The cops try to shoot at Chibi’s parents, and Gohan can’t get anyone to back off. I don’t see why he doesn’t just grab Chibi and hand him over, but whatever.

I think around here, the dub has Gohan try to talk to them, and Videl points out that dinosaurs can’t talk. So Gohan goes “Yes, thank you Videl, you’re very smart.”

But I do like this version, where Videl is surprised to find that Great Saiyaman’s childhood involved playing with pterodactyl monsters. This is the sort of stuff Gohan doesn’t want gettng out about himself. Not this specifically, but just the idea that he’s super strong and runs with huge animals and his best friend is King Piccolo and he turned into a giant gorilla a couple of times.

Anyway, Gohan’s idea is that he can use his voice to get them to calm down, since they ought to recognize him.

But at one point he almost uses his real name, and Videl gets so fixated on it that she takes her eye off the whole “giant monster” situation.

Then Masuka pulls a gun and Chibi’s dad almost eats Videl and it’s all breaking down...

(Awwwwwwwwww.....)

So Gohan has to deck Chibi’s dad to get things under control. Maybe he should have just done that in the first place.

Chibi’s all upset, but Gohan didn’t hit him that hard, so it’s cool.

Fortunately, Chibi’s mom is a bit more practical, so Gohan hands him off to her and escorts them out of the city, carrying Chibi’s dad on his back.

Nice shot of the reunited family.

And Goten flies over to get a kiss from Chibi. What a good boy. My only regret here is that no one kicked Musuka in the balls. He threatens to go back and capture Chibi all over again, but Videl threatens him into abandoning that idea.

The next day, Gohan’s wearing a bandaid on his face because of a scratch he got from Chibi’s dad. I think in the manga, he got it from the Red Shark Gang, but whatever. Point is, Videl thanks him for yesterday, and he completely forgets himself and responds to this, which basically blows his secret identity.

The moral here is that there’s more to a secret identity than the disguise. In the end, Gohan’s just too honest to live a double life. Videl asks him if he’s the Golden Warrior too, and he insists that he isn’t, because he absolutely cannot let that secret get out. I’m not sure why, though, since Videl already knows he has super powers. A few episodes later, it’ll become clear that Gohan doesn’t want Videl to find out that he beat Cell instead of her father, so maybe that’s part of what’s going on here.

Anyway, Videl agrees to keep his secret, if Gohan agrees to enter the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai. Last episode, she found out that the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai’s winner was Son Goku, and she figures that must mean Gohan is his son. And since her father won the 24th Budokai, she’s thinking it might be cool if they both entered the next tournament. Gohan isn’t too interested in that idea, but he has no choice, since Videl will expose him unless he plays along.

I never really thought about this, but Videl really acts as the flashpoint for this entire arc. Everything that happens from this point onward is a direct result of the tournament. All the major players converse there, and that only happens because Gohan chose to enter, and that only happens because Videl blackmailed him into it.

And really, Videl’s only taking this much of an interest in Gohan because of the Cell Games, and the Z-Fighter’s indifference to Mr. Satan claiming the victory over Cell. She’s convinced that her father and Gohan’s father are peers, and that the two of them could have an even match. If the Cell Games had played out differently, maybe Videl wouldn’t bother bringing any of this up.

Oh, one last thing, Videl wants Gohan to show her how to fly, since it gives him an unfair advantage over her.

So now Gohan’s stuck. He has to fight Videl in public and teach her how to fly. Well, he’s been through worse situations than this.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #great saiyaman saga #gohan #videl #goten #chi chi #mr satan #chibi

27 notes · View notes

mrauthor3ds · 5 years

Photo

This is my SSBU tier list of the fighters’ canon power!

Just a quick note: just because some characters are in a lower tier doesn’t mean they can’t compete with the tier above. Well...except for the Normal Human and Penny-Sized tiers. But Peak-Human and up, they can still find a way to battle with the tier just above themselves.

-= GODLY =- - Dark Samus: The single most dangerous entity in the Metroidverse. Teleportation, intangibility, possession, power absorption, Phazon corruption, illusions, fast regeneration, and everything that the Power Suit can do...It took the death of the planet Phaaze to put her down, and even that required some strange circumstances! - Kirby: Already confirmed to hold infinite power. And regularly dukes it out with cosmic horrors, anyway. - Ganondorf: Holds the godly might of the Triforce of Power, and nigh limitless magic with it. Unless you have a divine weapon/power, you stand no chance of slaying him. - Mewtwo: Can conjure a global mega-storm, and that’s BEFORE Mega Evolution (which it can potentially do on its own). - Rosalina & Luma: Rosie can pilot the whole Comet Observatory swiftly throughout the cosmos, and the Lumas are capable of undoing a powerful black hole. - Palutena: Even if she’s not the strongest god in the Kid Icarus world, she’s still VERY powerful. She’s also the source of many of the Powers that Pit used, including the finishing shot to Hades. - Shulk: Even if his Monado III alone isn’t the True Monado, but rather a third of it (alongside Zanza’s and Meyneth’s Monados, which it combined with to remake the world), it still allows Shulk to be a godslayer. - Bayonetta: Again, a godslayer. And one that can bend time and space.

-= HIGH SUPERHUMAN =- - Mario: As one of the seven Star Children, it makes sense. He’s also incredibly strong, tough, quick, and can adapt to just about anything. - Donkey Kong: Another Star Child, and one that can punch his world’s moon down to the surface! - Link: Not just for his Master Sword, but his high adaptability to different powers in each incarnation. The Champion here even harnesses the powerful magic of his four comrades! - Samus: Even if she alone isn’t planet-busting, her Power Suit still makes her a one-woman army against all sorts of biological and mechanical horrors that overshadow the whole Federation. - Yoshi: Another Star Child. While all Yoshis pretty much have the same capabilities, they’re still generally strong, fast, and tough enough to handle all sorts of things - even getting kicked to the moon and hurling gigantic Eggdozers! - Luigi: Another Star Child. Being similar enough to Mario means his strength is practically on-par with him - moreso, if you consider his great potential. - Ness: By the end of EarthBound, Ness harnesses the power of the Earth itself, allowing him and his friends to withstand even Giygas’s powers. - Peach: Another Star Child. She may not look it, but she’s quite powerful when she must be - likely due to her great magic, which can even overpower and shatter the reality-bending Dream Stone! - Bowser: Another Star Child. And a darn stubborn one at that. Besides his super-strength, his greatest claim to fame is a grand combination of tenacity and durability. Still mortal, but it takes a lot (or just circumstances) to end him. - Zelda: While she doesn’t have Link’s physical prowess, she still wields great divine magic. Only thing keeping her in this tier is that she’s as mortal as Link. - Meta Knight: Clearly not on the same ground as Kirby, but he’s able to keep up by repeatedly defeating the planetary threat, Galacta Knight. - Wario: Another Star Child. His strength, defense, and speed are practically on-par with the other Star Children. - Charizard: Being a high-stage Pokemon, this is a fitting place to put Charizard. Mega Evolution aside, it’s quite fast and can melt stone with its fire breath (which is better than how it performs in the main games’ battle system, but official lore counts in canon power). - Lucas: He holds a PSI that resonates with the Dark Dragon that practically holds the remaining world together - something that even the powerful Magypsies can’t harness. - Sonic: There are limitations to the Super/Hyper Transformations (mainly Ring Energy), but it’s enough to let him duke it out with immense threats time and time again. That or the power of teamwork after Unleashed. Eh, still a high tier. - King Dedede: Again, not on the same level as Kirby, but close enough. The Dedede Clones’ flavor text did say they were cloned from “one of the strongest life-forms on the planet“. And he’s still capable of standing up to cosmic threats. - Lucario: High-stage Pokemon. Also has a versatile skillset, Aura senses, and Mega Evolution. - Greninja: High-stage Pokemon. Besides ninjutsu and high power, it can potentially Battle Bond and turn into Ash-Greninja, which is even faster and stronger than before. - Robin: He’s a step above the divine sword wielders because he holds the power of Grima. And in gameplay, he’s one of the strongest units in terms of max stats and Skill variety, AND confirmed that he can size up other units at a glance. - Ryu: It’s not just the power of Ansatsuken that puts him here, but also the Power of Nothingness (Mu no Ken), which gives him much, MUCH more influence over his ki and his surroundings. It’s also practically confirmed to be stronger than the Satsui no Hado alone. - Corrin: Like Robin, Corrin has greater power than most humans in his world, being half-dragon, holding power over Dragon Veins, and access to a wide variety of Skills. And that’s before accounting Omega Yato, a sword with enough power to destroy the world! - Ridley: Not as dangerous as Dark Samus, but still a massive threat (no pun intended). Swift, strong, and able to heal himself quickly through metabolism alone...not to mention his smarts and HUGE sadism (again, no pun intended)! - Incineroar: High-stage Pokemon. Besides its high durability and strength, it can resonate with its own unique Z-Power.

-= SUPERHUMAN =- - Pikachu: Put here as a mid-stage Pokemon. General Pikachu are fast and have lightning-grade electric power, but are otherwise physically vulnerable. - Daisy: Nothing hints that Daisy has magical power on par with Peach, but she’s still capable enough to keep up with the others in all the (really dangerous) sports they play. - Sheik: This is pretty much Zelda, but keep in mind that she used this persona to hide from Ganondorf’s notice. That means her magical power is purposefully handicapped in this form. - Marth: Having a dragon-slaying sword isn’t enough to make Marth demi-godly, but it is just enough for him to stand up to such foes. Being able to heal is definitely a nice touch. - Lucina: Same as Marth. Wields the same dragon-slaying sword, but she went through comparatively more dangerous situations than Marth did (essentially being close to an apocalypse). - Young Link: Not quite as powerful as an adult Link, but still much stronger than most adult warriors in his world. Not sure just how high the Fierce Deity Mask would take him...but then again, it can only be used when fighting bosses. - Roy: Same deal as Marth and Lucina. Though the Binding Blade is the source of most of his incredible might, his keen mind is nothing to sneeze at. - Chrom: While he didn’t go through Lucina’s harrowing experiences, he still managed to complete his Falchion’s Awakening. - Pit: Yes, Pit can battle with gods, but let’s be honest - most of his strength was lent by Palutena and Viridi, especially in the final battle against Hades. - Dark Pit: Same as Pit. - Ike: I will admit that Ike was capable of standing up to a more literal goddess (since other gods were just really strong dragons)...but he DID have the direct blessing of that goddess’s counterpart, so... - Ivysaur: Mid-stage Pokemon. Being able to cut through trees and induce sleep, paralysis, and poison alone is pretty scary. It’s like a Poison Ivy in the making... - Diddy Kong: Not quite as powerful as DK, but able to keep up with his gadgets. Which he made himself. From LOGS and BARRELS. How does he do it?? - R.O.B.: ...Really not sure where to put this. Really, I’m gauging R.O.B. by his World of Trophies incarnation (the Ancient Minister). Yeah, he has rocket thrusters and eye lasers, but not much indicating him to directly match the High Superhumans. - Toon Link: Same deal as Young Link, though this one has wielded both the Master Sword (which Young Link himself couldn’t) and the Phantom Sword (which holds the power of the Phantom Hourglass). - Mega Man: I probably should put Mega Man in High Superhuman, but I did consider that the Reploids made 100 years later were all made to be stronger than this one (somehow)...Still! With the right weapons, he can handle just about anything! - Mii Fighters: Again, not sure where to put these, since Miis’ power varies based on the game they’re in. Their strongest instance I can think of is Miitopia, but that’s still general RPG adventurers. - PAC-MAN: Might be higher, might be lower...He’s so underused, it’s hard to tell. - Bowser Jr.: Only here because he’s not yet on Bowser’s level, but still capable of giving Mario and friends a hard time. Same with the Koopalings, also being bosses. - Ken: Only thing keeping Ken a tier below Ryu is that he hasn’t harnessed the Power of Nothingness. But being an Ansatsuken practitioner, he’s still far above the average fighter. - Cloud: ...Could be higher, but it REALLY feels like Aerith played the biggest part in the team’s victory against Sephiroth (especially when you consider the mind-boggling Super Nova). Still, he’s far stronger and tougher than even actual SOLDIERs. - Inkling: Certainly not city-busting types, but their bizarre ink powers make them really hard to take out. And the fact that Inklings are brave fighters by nature makes it hard to make them surrender. - Simon: He’s capable of using weapons that are strong against demons and vampires and the like. Doesn’t make HIM godly, but it’s still something. - Richter: Same deal as Simon. (Though he did get brainwashed at one point...) - King K. Rool: I’m not sure how K. Rool compares to Donkey Kong, since he’s been absent before DK was shown in his prime. Still, his crazy gear and trickery does at least let him keep up with the ape.

-= PEAK-HUMAN =- - Fox: He may be a threat in Smash, but in the Star Fox games, he’s mostly just a pilot. Still, it did take a lot of training to be capable of flying fast interstellar spaceships. Not enough to directly compete with supernatural powers himself, but it makes him quite strong. - Captain Falcon: Similar deal with F-Zero racers like Captain Falcon. And before you try to bring up the anime scene, it wasn’t his Falcon Punch that blew up Black Shadow’s base. That was thanks to the Dark Reactor malfunctioning (thanks to the full Boost on Rick Wheeler’s vehicle). Falcon was just keeping Black Shadow from getting away from the Reactor before it exploded. - Jigglypuff: Lower-stage Pokemon. Well, its natural skillset wouldn’t quite compare to Pikachu’s in realistic power, but it’s still much stronger than most normal people. Quite a lot of low-stage Pokemon are. - Ice Climbers: They may be small and cute, but they’re still trained to scale tall icy mountains and battle with hot pants-clad polar bears. - Pichu: Low-stage Pokemon. While it’s a GOD in Smash, it’s very weak in the Pokemon world. It IS one of the “baby Pokemon”, after all. - Falco: Just like with Fox. - Zero Suit Samus: Without her Power Suit, she doesn’t have much besides a Paralyzer. Still, she is more fit than other humans, thanks to her Chozo training (and splicing). - Snake: Being a super-clone makes him very strong by human standards. How much higher he goes from there depends on what weapons he salvages, since he begins all his missions with the bare essentials. - Pokemon Trainer: Yeah, I know. These Trainers are all children, ages 11-15. But they’re still capable of trekking across regions, going through dangerous climates and areas, and can fall quite far without a scratch. Heck, being able to hang onto a fast-flying Pokemon doesn’t sound like something an ordinary kid can do! - Squirtle: Low-stage Pokemon. While its water attacks ARE high-pressure and capable of sending foes flying, they still pale in comparison to its higher stages. - Wolf: Just like with Fox. - Little Mac: Just a boxer, sure. But a very resilient boxer able to easily take down opponents far higher than his own weight class - even when they use their stranger skills (like Great Tiger and Soda Popinski). - Piranha Plant: Yes, these man-eating plants are a threat to most people, but to the lead characters like Mario, these are just common enemies.

-= NORMAL HUMAN =- - Dr. Mario: This Mario comes from a reality where he only battles diseases with vitamin pills. Not much to prove himself on par with the usual Mario, but I could be wrong here. - Mr. Game & Watch: Let’s face it - the usual lead roles of the Game & Watch games are ordinary people. - Villager: Probably one of the most pacifistic characters to ever join Smash. The worst he ever had to deal with in Animal Crossing were tiny scorpions and spiders. - Wii Fit Trainer: Certainly a fit individual, but not one that engages in combat frequently in Wii Fit. Pretty sure she can’t even conjure solar power there... - Duck Hunt: They’re just a normal hunting dog and a normal duck. Yup. - Isabelle: Same deal as Villager, really.

-= PENNY-SIZED =- - Olimar: I made this tier. SPECIFICALLY. For Olimar and the Pikmin. Also applies to Alph, because same size.

#super smash bros ultimate #tier list #canon power

17 notes · View notes