#& not only one of the least annoying animal companions

[thepringlesofblood]

my hot take is that tangled is easily top 5 disney movies all time. that shit rules.

[cy-cyborg]

It's been confirmed that there are 3 amputees in the main cast of Dragon Age: the veilguard - Neve (leg amputee), Bellara (arm amputee) and your inquisitor (arm amputee). So as an amputee myself, here are some things I'd like to see.

Note: these aren't predictions, just things I'd really like to be included.

The inquisitor doesn't use a prosthetic (I already talked about this in its own post but with 3 amputees, and 2 of them already being shown to use prosthetics that, lets be honest, do look like "perfect replacement" prosthetics, it would be nice to see at least one who doesn't)

We will get to customise our inquisitor in chatacter creation, so I would love, if they do use a prosthetic, for there to be some customisability to it (im not holding my breath there but still).

Neve and Bellara's prosthetics aren't perfect prosthetics, and they are actually acknowledged as being disabled while still being active members of your party.

There's some kind of party banter between Neve and Bellara about some of the downsides/problems with their prosthetics, not necessarily in a "poor them" way, but in a "ugh, don't you just hate it when you can't get the stupid thing on in the morning" kind of way.

I get a kind of jokey/adventurous vibe from Bellara, I hope they aren't affraid to let her use her prosthetic for pranks or jokes. I don't think neve would, but I can see bellara having a blast with it.

I hope the prosthetics come off during down time. No amputee wears their prosthetics 24/7, it's uncomfortable, and they get heavy and sore after using them all day.

I hope we see Neve express some frustration or see her alter her walk animation on rough terrain. It's hard to get a clear look because the trailers she's been shown in are so dark, but her foot doesn't look articulated, which is going to change how she walks, even just a little bit.

I hope the prosthetics don't break - this is a trope I'm starting to notice more and more, where someone has a perfect prosthetic that is only not a perfect replacement when it breaks, usually for plot reasons, at which point the character in question is forced out of the action until its fixed. DA has forced companions out of your party for story reasons before (e.g. solas after you free his spirit friend and he needs to cool off) so I can see this being used for plot, and I really hope it's not.

The inquisitor, Neve and Bellara compair prosthetists (the maker of the prosthetic) and maker techniques.

I really doubt they'll do this but I'd love it if random NPC's approach you if you have any of the amputees in your party to ask what happened and/or make weird comments at them ("but cy, that would be so annoying and inconvenient!" That's the point. So many people do that to irl amputees, and it's never at a convenient or even safe time, and I've never seen it happen in media. A game is arguably the best place to have it happen, in, say, a random event similar to the ones that could happen in origins)

In that same vein, I'd love to see a scene where someone approaches the inquisitor to call them an inspiration- you and the inquisitor assume it's for, you know, beating corripheus (I know I spelled it wrong lol) and saving the world, but it's revealed the chatacter has no idea who the hell the inquisitor is and just means it's inspiring that they're out in public "like that" - referring to their arm. This also happens to me all the time, and you can't tell me some snooty orlesean or tevinter noble wouldn't make those back-handed compliments, lol. You also can't convince me that any version of the inquisitor would just accept that

I hope none of the chatacters are used as inspiration porn ("don't you worry Rook! I can still pull my own weight on the team despite being an amputee, you just have to give me a chance to prove myself!")

At least one of the chatacter's stories of how they lost their limb is left untold in game (we don't always need to know how it happened if it's not relevent to the plot).

Like I said, these aren't predictions, just my hopes. I wouldn't hold my breath for any of these to be honest (bioware has not been the best in term of disability rep in the past) but A lot of them wouldn't be hard to implement and could take the representation from hardly even acknowledging their disability to something actually pretty decent disability rep-wise. It's also pretty rare to have so many characters with the same kind of disability in the cast of such a mainstream piece of media, and I really, really hope they do something with that because you can have a lot of fun with that.

[cl0wncakez]

Say whatever you want about the black and white anime, but the one thing i will always stand by is that IRIS AND CILAN WERE NEVER PART OF THE PROBLEM!!!!

i did a full watch of the bw series a few weeks back, and the main 2 complaints i had about it were ash’s pokemon (he caught too many and most of them didn’t get enough screentime as a result) and team rocket (they were like barely there and didn’t even do the blasting off gag until the last season i think)

but for me the best parts of it were iris and cilan!!! i was kinda expecting them to be annoying cuz of all the hate they got, but i was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable they were.

first off, i am the number 1 iris defender. all the posts i see that complain about her say the same thing everytime: “all iris does is say that ash is a little kid!”

well, as someone who’s binged the entire unova anime in like a week and a half, i can say that there is so much more to her. but for one, she doesn’t even say that ash is a kid as often as you might think. she mostly says it in the first few episodes when she first met ash. for the rest of the series, she’ll occasionally say it in passing, but it is not her one defining trait. while there are a few instances where i thought that it wasn’t warranted, there are plenty more times where ash was being big dummy and deserved it.

what people seem to forget about iris is that at the start of ash’s unova journey, iris is practically a new trainer. her axew is at most only a few weeks old, and her excadrill, while strong, hasn’t battled for who knows how long after being brutally defeated by drayden’s haxorous, leaving it in a state of shock. so obviously, she isn’t going to be the most experienced trainer out there.

iris grew up in the village of dragons, which as the name suggests, is a village inhabited by various dragon type pokemon. having spent her whole life surrounded by dragon types, iris has made it her dream to become a dragon type master. while at the beginning of her journey, she’s just with her axew, she over time has several encounters with dragon type pokemon, all of which help her better understand how to communicate with dragon types.

in one episode, she helped a druddigon out from a trap set by team rocket, while everyone else assumed it was rampaging out of anger. in another, the gang were helping out at a pokemon daycare, and in it was a deino, who was extremely shy. it’s trainer hadn’t returned for days after they said they would (the trainer ended up getting lost in a cave) and it was beginning to refuse to eat due to its anxiety. and what did iris do? she stayed with the deino the whole night, helping it relax in a place it wasn’t familiar with. it’s episodes like these that show that she’s not a one dimensional character, and like the rest of ash’s companions, she has character development.

but what helped fully flesh out her arc was when she caught her dragonite.

unlike axew, who was by her side from the beginning, she and dragonite did not get along immediately. dragonite was stubborn, wouldn’t listen to iris, and had its own way of battling. in order to become a dragon master, she would first have to understand dragonite. the trust that was built happened really slowly, but she did get there. by understanding a pokemon as troubled as her dragonite, iris would then be able to reach out and soothe her excadrill, making it confident enough to battle again, and help axew evolve after her journey with ash ended. and i think that was a solid way to end her arc until pokemon journeys, where offscreen, she fulfilled her dream as a dragon master and became the champion of unova.

now onto cilan.

cilan doesn’t get hated on nearly as much as iris, he’s more or less just forgotten about. so while i was expecting to hate iris when i first started watching, i had zero expectations on cilan. and tbh, i think he’s my favorite traveling companion?? if not than at least top 3.

cilan is the oldest of three siblings, and he first met ash and iris when ash came to battle at the triplet’s restaurant/gym. usually, the challenger only battles one of them, but ash was the first person to want to challenge all 3 brothers. when it was cilan’s turn to battle, he assumed that he would win due to him having the type advantage (ash choosing to battle with oshawott against cilan’s pansage)

well, ash won. and a few episodes later, cilan asked if he could join ash on his journey. the reason cilan wanted to come along was because he saw a new side to pokemon battling that he wanted to better understand.

something about cilan is that while he is a gym leader, he doubles as a pokemon connoisseur. a connoisseur is someone who makes critical judgements in fine arts or matters of taste. for cilan, he analyzes the bond between trainer and pokemon. and during his battle with ash, he evaluated his and oshawotts bond based on their battle. and he dug INTO ash, almost outright insulting his capabilities as a trainer, due to his assumptions from ash using a water type against a pansage.

but the thing is, cilan was wrong. in the end, oshawott ended up winning with ash’s strategy and support.

he fully expected to win, and was given an entirely new perspective of battling after seeing ash pull through. like cooking, pokemon battles aren’t just about type advantage and throwing moves out. it’s about thinking outside the box and trusting your pokemon, which ash accomplished by having oshawott use its scallchop to deflect a bullet seed attack. wanting to become a better trainer and connoisseur, cilan tagged along to gain a new understanding between trainer and pokemon.

and outside of his arc, cilan is just a genuinely fun character!!! did you know that along with being a pokemon connoisseur, this man is also a fishing, cooking, detective, judge, and film connoisseur??? and he can cook!! (EDIT: people are mentioning that he is also a train connoisseur!!! sorry :( i forgor)

cilan is shown to be more composed with his emotions than the previous traveling partners ash had. he also plays a mediator role whenever ash and iris bicker. and remember, cilan is the oldest sibling of 3 triplets, so he’s likely had to play mediator countless times if his brothers ever argued. ash and iris also seem to have a sibling-like bond, so their clashing was probably similar to what cilan faced before with cress and chili.

as i said, cilan is much more patient and gentleman-like. so the few moments where he genuinely loses his shit leaves a stronger impact.

the most notable example was with skyla, who instead of fulfilling her gym duties, played out battles in her head, and made her own judgements on if she could win a battle or not. this lead to challengers either being pushed away without a chance to battle, or given a gym badge without deserving it.

now cilan, who is a gym leader, sees this as a disgrace. it goes against everything a gym leader is supposed to do. skyla was lazy, arrogant, and wouldn’t do her job, which set him off. while he did lose against skyla, it was a big character moment to try and defend his honor as a gym leader.

overall, cilan is soooooo cool you guys don’t get him the way i do!!! i am the number 1 cilan fan!!!!

i think the reason people complain about iris and cilan more than any other companions ash had is because they were different.

iris had a completely different goal than everyone before her, it was a complete 180. she had zero interest in contests or performing, her dragon master dream was brand new in the anime. additionally, her relationship with ash was more like siblings than best friends, which likely made some viewers think their bickering was annoying.

and cilan. poor guy didn’t even have a chance from the start. not after brock was around for like a billion seasons.

overall, the black and white anime does have its problems, as does every pokemon anime. but leave iris and cilan out of it THEY ARE INNOCENT PARTIES :(

[inkyquince]

So you know when you have dogpeople activated, it's a huge taboo to be caught fuckin em and such

So they have the usual dog roles don't they?

So just... Having thoughts...

characters. Whitney. Mention of Landry and Niki.

cw. Whitney times ahead. Dog-person reader. Mention of animal cruelty but nothing graphic, just a joke. Breeding, pet play to the extreme, taboo behaviors, for fucking DoL at least. Whitney watching you piss, make of that what you will. 2.6k words.

Whitney never really liked dogs. Everyone thought he should, a boy treasuring a loyal companion who wouldn’t mind sticking by him, even joining in on his shenanigans. They were wrong. Whitney was never a fan of dogs. Cats. Anything. 

Worse? Hybrids. Fucking useless. Not a full dog, not a full person. 

So, when his aunt surprised him with a dopey fucking dog, he was less than pleased. What the shit was he going to do with this thing? None of the pros of having a dog, all the cons of having a dog AND a fucking roommate. Even if the stupid thing didn’t even realize it. 

“Can just tie them up outside. It’ll walk itself, shit in the corner of the garden, piss. Just throw some chow out there and it’ll snarf that up.” One of his friends leaned over to light his cigarette, fingers curved against the wind blowing through the park. 

“Pretty sure that’s animal cruelty.” Someone piqued up, coughing after dragging on a shoddily rolled joint. 

“You’d only get half the sentence, though.” 

Whitney huffed to himself and took a drag on his cigarette, letting the heat fill his lungs, tickling his throat pleasantly before exhaling raggedly. 

“Should just sell the thing.” He mused, flicking the ash into the wet grass. “Get some fucking use out of it.” 

“Give it to Landry, he and that photographer use ‘em for those videos.” That piqued his interest. 

“What videos? The usual sick shit?” Whitney glanced over, aware of some of the shit the criminal helped produce. Fuck, that was the first time he ever jerked it to fucking internet porn. Some nasty fucking shit, not entirely… Legal, but fucking normal in this town. 

“Oh, better. Landry’s a sick fucking puppy, bro.” His lackey grinned up at him, so proud of catching Whitney’s interest at long last. “Yknow, those pups are horny, but you gotta just shake them off and then they just lick their own crotch for a while. But, y’know, some people? Some people… Fuck em.” “Yeah, no shit, cuntface.” Whitney wasn’t a fucking idiot. Hell, he loved sending stupid sluts to go grab something for him, only for them to get trapped with a dog person. Fucking rubbing their stupid cunts on their face, or getting mounted by a fat dick, and the stupid slut crying for someone to help them. No one wants to be seen getting rutted into or against by one of those stupid things. It’s fucking humiliating. The entire town labels you a pervert. “I know people fuck the-” “Landry films it. Films it and uploads it. Then give the dog-person over to the pound or something.” She relaxed against the grass, leaning back so glibly that she didn’t realize that she was lying in his cigarette ash. Idiot.  The others pulled faces at each other, grossed out at the thought  of anyone getting off on watching someone fucking or getting fucked by a dog-person. Whitney, however, squinted at her. 

“Any good?” “Whitney, gross-”

“Yeah, yeah, fuck off, are they any good?” 

“I mean… From the views alone, I’m saying Landry is making a neat little sum on the side.” She shrugged before pulling her phone out and typing on it, her long fake nails making the most annoying clicking noises. Whitney’s annoyance grew until she finally showed him a website she pulled up. All he got was a glimpse of a page packed with thumbnails of cocks and tits and dogtails before she took her phone back again. “I say, sell the thing to him, and if they’re good enough, you’ll get a nice bit of pocket money on the side.” “Hey, that’s not a bad idea, is it, Whit?” One of the other blockheads piqued up. “Grab random dog people and sell them?” “Landry’s not going to take any random mutt, shitlips.” “It’s Lipschitz! And fuck off, it was a good idea-”

“Yeah, for a dipshit-” 

Whitney rolled his eyes and leaned back on the swing again, exhaling the smoke from his nose as he ignored the bickering between his lackeys again. Yeah. Get rid of you, and get a nice payday. He could work with that. 

Except as he walked, he couldn’t help but mull it over. The site. The amount of videos. Curiosity nagged at him with each step, bringing him closer to his evening plans. 

His parents were never in anymore, especially in the evenings. Off, on a date night, wrapped up in each other, or at work, or at what the fuck ever. It’s always been up to him to make his own food, wash up, clean, except now he was doing it for two. Heated up something in the oven for himself and poured some food for you into your bowl, dragging on his cigarette as he watched you chew loudly, snarfing it down gratefully. Refilling your water as he washed his plate, jabbing at the chunks of food before giving up and leaving it to soak, so his mother would eventually take care of it. Pulling a face as you whined to be let out and nudging the backdoor open so you could trot out and make yourself comfy, stubbing out his cigarette as he watched you piss into the grass, feeling something warm in the curve of his belly. Eventually tugging you back inside and locking the door before heading upstairs, ignoring your excited little steps after him. Continued to ignore you as he flung himself into bed, as you nosed among his things, before tucking yourself under his cluttered desk with a little yawn. Whitney’s kicks off his pre-ripped jeans, underwear and shirt before giving his balls a rub, stretching out on his duvet. He slipped on some sweats, before dragging a blanket over his midriff, more focused on his phone, pulling up the website whats-her-fuck showed him earlier. 

It was obvious that most videos came from one person, with only a few being some real amateur shit, with shaky camera and an overexcited camera person. No, Landry’s shit was obviously good. Niki as the camera guy, appreciative angles, but also… 

It fucking looked good. 

The dog boy sitting all cute, blinking like a stupid bitch at the camera as it zoomed in on his big eyes before zooming out. Late at night, at the beach, his tail wagging, before the camera pans over to some guy, naked from the waist down. Cock bobbing as this dude massages his own balls. 

“This your dog?” A voice from behind the camera asks and the guy nods. “You fuck the pooch a lot?” 

“Oh yeah.” The guy’s obviously mic'd up, with the seashore wind picking up. “I got him from the pound and he just had such a cute ass. They’re so easy to train. Watch.” 

The guy whistles and the puppy boy trots over excitedly, his bubble butt raised high and proud, almost inviting a pervert in. Whitney’s cock began to rise, tenting his sweats. He huffed to himself, laying his hand over his bulge and giving it a squeeze. The dog-person leans up to sniff a bit at the guy’s cock but doesn't seem that interested, more into sweetly nuzzling at his balls. There were a few chuckles from the men standing around and the pup looked around, tongue lolling out, tail wagging so hard at being the object of such enjoyment. 

“He’s cute.” The guy behind the camera said, to some murmurs of agreement. 

“You ain’t seen nothing yet.” The guy chuckled before snapping his fingers at the dog-boy. “Present.” 

The change was instantaneous. His ears perked up and his tail started going a mile miles per hour. Fuck, even his knotted cock sprang up so quickly that it earned an appreciative whistle. Within moments, he had fallen onto his back and rolled over onto his soft tummy, raising his ass, even humping the air a bit, as if trying to entice. 

“Yeah, puppy. You want a nice breeding, don’t you?” The guy dropped to his knees and Whitney had to slip his hand into his sweats at long lost, massaging at his shaft eagerly. 

The puppy-boy whined and raised his ass further, spreading his legs. 

“Breed! Please breed!” He whined, shaking his ass like he was about to pounce. 

Whitney groaned, his stomach tightening, slipping his cock free fully and jerking it with desperation. His thumb dragging against his slit, teasing out precum as he desperately played with himself. Fuck, he didn’t really get it before, but this was fucking doing it for him. Stupid sluts he enjoyed, but fuck. Trained stupid sluts, rolling over at the snap of his fingers? No wonder Landry was having success with this shit, way more appealing than anything he’s watched before- 

The feeling of something wet brushing the back of his hand made him cuss and nearly throw his phone. Blinking against the dark after staring at his phone screen for so long, it took him a moment to realise what the fuck that feeling even was. 

Your big stupid eyes were staring up at him, nudging your nose against the back of his hand with a look of blind adoration. 

“What ya watching?” Your tail was wagging, probably having heard the sound of an excited puppy-boy from across the room. 

Whitney glanced from your big, excited eyes, your tail wagging wildly, back to the his video, titled “Puppy-boy bred full at the beach”, with the camera in the perfect POV shot, showing a fat cock drilling the poor dog-person’s asshole, before looking back at you. You didn’t seem perturbed by his staring, stupid bitch you were, in fact, your smile at him just broadened, happy at the attention. Your happy little face so close to his fat cock, throbbing still in his hand. 

He slowly sat up, chucking his phone to the side, slipping into a cross legged position, cock pressing against his stomach. Whitney took hold of the base of his cock, a smirk slowly growing on his face as you remained close, tail wagging. Squeezing the base of his cock, he watched as your eyes went from looking at his face, to his erection with an innocent curiosity. He grinned and lightly tapped the head against your lips, smearing precum, and your tongue flicked out to taste it, before scrunching your cute little face up. 

“Salty.” You stuck out your tongue, as if airing it out would help. 

Whitney took the moment to drag his cock over it again, your rough tongue brushing over the slit in a way that almost had him grab you by your floppy ears and fuck your mouth… Well…

“Open.” Whitney demanded, and you whined, tail stilling for a moment before you opened your maw. 

Perfect. A sloppy, pink hole for him to fuck until you learn to love the taste of cock. Maybe that will up your value. 

In the dark of the room, with the only light being from his phone, the loudest noise was the wet slap of his cock rubbing against your drooling tongue, hitting the back of your throat, saliva swishing loudly as Whitney groaned. It wasn’t like the sluts at school. You couldn’t stop salivating, spit running down your chin as your tail continued to wag wildly. He could fucking condition you. Just the whiff of cock and you’d be a drooly, wet mess. 

“Fuck. Fuck. Who's my good puppy?” He groaned, letting his mouth run without meaning to. 

You whined with excitement, ears perking up at the first bit of positive reinforcement you had ever gotten from Whitney. 

“Yeah, you are. My cute, stupid, cockwhore puppy.” His tone was soft and your brain registered as good, as your brain clouded and you couldn’t stop drooling. “Gonna fuck you, huh? Gonna breed your stupid puppy hole, huh?” 

Your tail stopped all together, your eyes growing large and dark. Ah. Liked that word huh? Whitney yanked his cock out of your throat, drool spilling all over his floor, dripping from his erection and your tongue. 

“Alright. Roll over, or something. C’mon.” 

You whined and spread your legs from your seated position, sitting back on your haunches, showing off how excited you were, making a mess all over his floor. Squirming a bit, you fell onto your back, tail peeking out and wagging as you stared up at your master with unblemished love. Whitney smirked and kneeled down in front of you, leaning over for a moment to spit into your mouth before papping his slicked up cock against your hole, puffy and ready to be bred. 

The sound of the front door opening had him stilling for just a moment, and his cock softened a bit. If his parents found him with his stupid dog-person like this? What-

Your hole snagged against the tip of his cock, jerking his attention back to you as you whined and desperately humped at him. Alright. Fuck. Yeah. His pooch needed seeing to. As his parents moved around downstairs, his mother bemoaning the fact he left his dishes in the sink, he put a sweating palm over your mouth, letting you lick the salt from his palm as he rubbed the tip of his cock against your hole. Whitney groaned as he slowly sunk into you, your excited huffing slipping into a pleasured whine. 

“Good puppy.” Whitney hissed out between his teeth, his hips moving involuntarily as he fucked into your tight, sloppy heat. The squelching sound of his curved cock hitting deep into your hole was the hottest fucking thing he’d ever fucking heard. He’s heard sluts whining for cock, he’s fucked his fair share of whores, but jesus christ, this puppy-bitch was the best of both worlds. Loyal, dumb, like a dog, with the hole of the nastiest whore in town. Thoughts of selling you onto Landry, only seeing you fucked open on videos, slipped away, more focused on simultaneously trying to fuck deeper and deeper into you, but also keeping quiet as his parents ascended the staircase. 

“I should check on Whitney.” His mother whispered to his father, who just grunted. 

His panic flipped, both from his balls tightening as your heat clamped down around him, but also shock. Whitney was not going to get caught fucking his stupid fucking dog-person. With a low hiss, he hooked his arms around your thighs and picked you up, you nuzzling into his neck with a happy huff, stupid bitch. He almost had to wrestle you into bed, with you excitedly still trying to back up against his cock trapped in your hole. His mother’s voice came closer and he just barely yanked his covers up over him and you, with you still snuffling at his cheek. 

The door opened and a line of light cut across his room and there was a beat of silence, with you still lovingly nuzzling into him. 

“Awh. He finally let the pooch sleep on his bed.” His mother cooed. There was another beat, of her watching him, and you slowly humping at his cock, balls about to fucking burst inside his puppy-person with his mother fucking watching. 

After a beat, the door closed again, and Whitney let out a guttural moan into your shoulder, a few more humps from you more than enough to send him over the edge, cum flooding your hole as his mother’s footsteps retreated to the master bedroom. 

“Fucking… Hell…” Whitney raggedly breathed out as you shivered against him, beginning to lick affectionately at his chin. You were more of a person than a dog, he guessed. 

A few days later, he was back at the park, with you dozing against his knee as he sat at the fountain.  Whitney had struggled with selling you to Landry, with his friends around him remarking their surprise the mutt was still around and still as adoring of him as ever. With only the one who recommended  him the site giving him a knowing leer and petting your ears. 

[teecupangel]

*chants* CAPYBARA DESMOND MILES! CAPYBARA DESMOND MILES!

Look at that little face:

They would probably first see Desmond somewhere with a body of water.

For Ratonhnhaké:ton, it would be when he first sees Aquila. He would be walking back to the manor and find Desmond following him. He’s never seen a capybara before but it seemed friendly enough and had went on his hind legs, raising his front legs as if to ask for Ratonhnhaké:ton to pick him up. Ratonhnhaké:ton does and he brings him to Achilles who admits to not knowing what Desmond is, only that ‘it’ usually stays inside the wreckage of the Aquila. Faulkner would probably have more information so Achilles suggested that Ratonhnhaké:ton talk to him (but also to not get distracted by the ‘rodent’, cue Desmond glaring at him) but Faulkner only knows as much as Achilles as the ‘thing’ appeared one day and never left until he followed Ratonhnhaké:ton anyway. At least, Faulkner was able to tell Ratonhnhaké:ton what Desmond likes to eat. Desmond spends most of his time in the manor and served more as a companion to Achilles who always gives him something to eat whenever Ratonhnhaké:ton is gone.

For Ezio, Desmond would actually be a gift from Machiavelli. A strange gift with Machiavelli saying “He reminds me of you” which Ezio and Desmond still aren’t sure if it’s meant to be a complement or not. Regardless, Desmond becomes the unofficial mascot of the Italian Brotherhood and is super spoiled by the other recruits. Claudia also teases her brother that Desmond (and Ezio didn’t know why he named the animal Desmond, it just seemed right) is the only child that Ezio would accept officially. It’s all said in jest as Ezio has no idea if he has any illegitimate children running around. (Claudia doesn’t believe it, Ezio is more on the fence, Machiavelli says the only way Ezio wouldn’t have any unknown children is if he can’t have children at all). So Desmond is treated like the mentor’s child more than pet and everyone spoils on him. Then Leonardo meets him and… Desmond began to appear in Leonardo Da Vinci’s works and sketches.

Altaïr would meet Desmond during his travels to one of his mission. A small pond or lake that he stopped by to let the horse rest. Altaïr would find Desmond flopping around the bank and they would stare at each other for a moment before Altaïr would turn around to ignore him. Desmond would probably be offended and ‘run’ after him, his feet making wet squishy sounds against the ground. Desmond would grab hold of the reins of Altaïr’s horse or maybe his robes and wouldn’t let go. Altaïr has no time to deal with this kind of tomfoolery but he couldn’t just kill this creature since it wasn’t dangerous. Annoying, sure. But innocent nonetheless. ……… and that is how… Altaïr finally manages to turn Malik speechless when he brings the creature with him to the bureau, letting the creature rest in his arms. Oh. And the creature waved at Malik and Malik was simply too confused that he instinctively waved back.

[raezlove]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

I finished it after 90 hours over the last week. I did all quests and side content available to me and was pretty thorough with notes and momentos. I was hooked from the start, definitely saw why the writing got criticized during the middle, and then was continually surprised by the end sequence.

For me this was a solid 7/10 game if looking at it from a linear story game rather than a branching rpg.

Thoughts below. Some spoilers.

Starting with some general categories then moving on to larger issues I had.

I’d say the majority of the voice actor performances were really good. There were moments throughout where they weren’t great but that was combined from the very cringe/generic writing. But when the characters needed the emotion for a moving scene, I felt it. Even characters I, at the time didn’t care for or were biased against, the voice actor’s performance made me hurt for them.

Companion cast had some gems as well as some underwhelming members. For me I was taken by Lucanis, Emmrich, Neve, and Davrin as characters. They still weren’t spared from poor lines throughout though. Bellara came around for me by the end as I had initially been biased hearing she was incredibly annoying but I also didn’t have her in my party very often for gameplay reasons. Taash and Harding I also rarely took out for gameplay reasons nor did they pull me in as companion characters.

Companion arc quest lines I enjoyed them all well enough but I liked Davrin and Harding’s the best for world and lore building,though I admit the actual quests for Harding felt lacking to me. The map locations also didn’t feel utilized as they were only ever seen those couple times. Bellara’s quest was also interesting for lore but other than the ending, which was not unexpected, felt mundane to me. Lucanis’s and Emmrich’s were decent arcs though they didn’t feel like anything groundbreaking, it just helped that I had already found their characters compelling. Neve’s was very underwhelming to me which was disappointing because I initially was quite intrigued by Neve. Taash’s was done as well as they could’ve with the direction they decided paired with their safe writing. I mean no disrespect for them wanting to include a gender queer story but something about this didn’t land. I saw someone else say it but the modern lingo in this fantasy setting made it seem out of place just for the sake of it. I don’t know how they could’ve implemented that aspect of Taash better but their writing and performance came across too stiff at times. ((This is not an issue of including lgbt characters, rather how they are written and if they are pushed to be defined solely by that one sole aspect of their identity))

Art design and world direction was never an issue for me even from the trailers (except for that first one where I thought I was watching a live service mobile trailer). I don’t mind brighter exaggerated designs or flashy colors. Nothing stood out but nothing was bad either, it was just an average design to me. As mentioned above though there were specific locations I felt were underutilized and sometimes felt included just to make the map seem bigger. I liked the character designs but outfit choices were definitely not my favorite and I wished they had an all black outfit for Rook but that’s just an irrelevant personal wish.

The callbacks to Inquisition were something I was incredibly curious to how they would handle and was looking forward to. For transparency, my original Inquisitor romanced Solas and refused to give up on him so I was holding out for my Solavellan heart to be fixed or at least something that dulled the ache. The Inquisitor appearances were about what I expected. Lavellan shows up a couple times, sends some letters, then shows up for the finale. I did get my Solavellan ending and while selfishly I wish it could’ve been more, I think it was adequate (though that kiss animation left something to be desired). It felt like an appropriate end for my Lavellan who was so sad and beaten down for so long after losing someone she loved with her entire being and after having the weight of so many people looking to her for guidance for the last decade when she never asked for the responsibility in the first place. She finally got to save her person and leave the world’s problems to someone else. As for Dorian, I’m not sure if he shows up/is mentioned more if you saved Minrathos but his appearances kind of felt unnecessary. I loved him in Inquisition but he didn’t feel properly utilized in the Minrathos story lines I saw. He could’ve just been a name in letters and he would’ve had the same impact.

Main Story was a trip. Overall I found it intriguing and compelling, though sometimes it dragged or some missions were boring. I enjoyed Ghilan’nain and Elgar’nan as villains though Ghilan’nain was more interesting with her molding the blight. Elgar’nan was compelling as a direct comparison to Solas with their pride and arrogance. Their dragons were cool though I really wondered how we were supposed to fight Elgar’nan’s dragon after seeing its size. The end solution did make my jaw drop but also made me chuckle after because I can’t imagine how else they would’ve had the player fight that. Again, I’m biased as I loved Solas as a character for all his complexities and flaws so I enjoyed any of his scenes and appearances. I especially enjoyed the story’s direction in terms of regrets and guilt. Prison sequence was a highlight to be sure. I will also say I really wasn’t expecting them to commit to main companion cast consequences at the end considering how safe they had played it to that point.

Gameplay was a welcome improvement to me over Inquisition. I played Inquisition for the first time about 3 years ago as a mage but I played it again in the last year as a rogue. Both times I played on easy difficulty because I found combat such a nuisance. I am biased as I prefer combat systems more in the realm of Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild so this fit in with that if a bit busier. I played my Rook as a mage and I tended to use the ability wheel rather than the shortcuts because I needed the time to process and think about what I wanted to do, also the fact I kept switching companions and their abilities depending on the situation I couldn’t remember what abilities were mapped to what buttons. Dodge and parry didn’t feel the best, although I admit that could be fully on me (especially parry). For parry it constantly felt like there was a delay in pressing it though it could very well have been made worse depending on which tv my Xbox was connected to. My issue with dodge was the fact that after a double it basically left you halted with no momentum. Again, very possible it’s just a me thing and I need to ���get good” but for how much certain encounters were chaotic enough to be constantly dodging it did become annoying especially if you get hit once and then get caught repeatedly. On normal difficulty as a mage, fights usually felt fair and doable with some more challenging than others depending on wave size or vulnerability paired with specific companions. There was only one fight in a miscellaneous side quest for a haunting that I got too annoyed with and even after trying multiple companion pairings I lowered the difficulty to just get it over with because I couldn’t be bothered. For a random side quest with no real story or likely payoff it didn’t feel worth it.

Now for the largest problem I had with this game: it’s gall to call it an RPG. I don’t expect or need Balder’s Gate level in every RPG game. But this didn’t feel like it even met the level of RPG that Inquisition offered. Whether it was world choices or companion choices very few things felt consequential. For the world, I can only think of 2 or 3 choices that I felt would have any change on the world one of which is literally just a 50/50 of which city is getting destroyed. And of course for the others you never saw or heard and real consequences or reactions aside from initially following the decision. There was nothing that made me second guess myself like deciding to forgive or banish the wardens like in Inquisition, who drinks from the well, the inquisitions fate. And for companion arcs, the choices all felt underwhelming and more a direct effect on gameplay/rewards than any story ramifications. There was never a moment that felt like it mattered to the companion story or their future interactions with me or others. Nothing that felt like it mattered like making Bull choose between his friends and the Qun, encouraging/dissuading Cullen from taking Lyrium, or having a hand in choosing the new Divine. A common thought I had throughout this game was it seemed really hard to get a “so and so disapproves”. There seemed to be more instances in Inquisition where decisions would inevitably be both approved and disapproved by various characters so it was never going to be a case of pleasing everyone. I remember seeing the disapprove notification maybe three times in Veilguard. The critique of the dialogue wheel is also very valid. There is no real choice as all options typically lead to the same outcome just with a different line. You can’t even really be mean or an asshole from what I could tell. Options were sincere, joking/less serious, and stern. None of this I think would’ve mattered as much if it weren’t for the fact this was advertised as a choice based RPG when that just isn’t the case and going in with those expectations is bound for disappointment.

As a last issue it had to do with romance. I liked Lucanis. I like him as a character and I like the voice actor’s delivery. There were lines of his that made me giggle and smile. But the overall writing of the romance and their moments sometimes came across as awkward with the subpar writing. There also wasn’t the same charm I got from Inquisition when at the base. Part of that comes from the lack of actual interactions of being able to talk with your companions in the lighthouse. I hate to keep comparing it but in Inquisition you could still talk to the characters even if they had no new dialogue. In that, you’d have the moments where Solas would call you vhenan or speak Elven or like in my second with Cullen you always had the stealing away for a kiss option. It just felt warmer in a way where in The Veilguard I would get a random one off line when I stood in front of Lucanis and, while some of them were sweet, the lack of player input and interaction caused more disconnect.

So overall as a game I think it’s a good buy assuming you go in with the right framing of what you’re going to be getting. A competent story, some interesting characters, good performance, good gameplay marred by a good helping of juvenile safe writing and lack of choice.

[3gremlins]

feel like im having a DA2 experience again where I really liked it and was in my little "this is good" cocoon where i played it many times only to emerge from underground and find everyone else hated it (i mean ive found the other da2 cicadas since but at the time it got really slammed). i've been really enjoying DA:TV so far ( lol tho obvs have notes) here's an early thoughts review, may be a bit spoilery, def rambley, trying to stay vague on stuff still (i think i'm about half way maybe? im trying to not look things up and doing it blind on my first run through. it's hard to tell b/c i went hard on all the side quests and am now way over level for the msq)

the combat system is a little jarring at first and i still miss at least being able to switch to and play as party members if your character dies (instead of the god of war style of full wipe), but i've gotten used to it (it's more annoying for boss fights, regular combat it's very zippy and fun). the targeting at least on controller is kind of annoying sometimes- i'll think i'm pointing at one enemy only to have rook turn and fire at nothing or companions to hit an add instead of a boss. I wish we at least had more control over how it queued who it was hitting. some of the arenas are obnoxious design wise - there's bosses that teleport to you and they give you like a tiny little box to dodge around, not the most fun. i do like that you can punch way above of your weight class sometimes which reminds me of DAO a little bit (like how you'd just wander into a fight or hit a gong and be like oh no, those enemies have skulls over their heads, oh well YOLO). sometimes it doesn't work out but when it does it's very satisfying. It's nice to be able to conquer something mechanically even underleveled (smol fromsoft vibes) Having always been a big fan of the strange composition parties (i.e not just war/rogue/mage), i like that this is now even more viable (and not just me being cheeky "we're having a leather party!" of all squishy rogues). but like the main thing about bioware games is the companions/interpersonal shit and i'm enjoying the heck out of that .i only do main quests to get more side quests from companions (or more side quests in general so we can troll around for more banter). i like petting griffons (and cats and dogs) and playing games with manfred*. I wish the gift system was more interesting like DAO or DA2- i was so excited to see it again and then it was a little disappointing to have them barely react when you get them stuff.

my current fave party are rook and the poison boys (emmerich and lucanis) since they're a rogue too and we just stack necrosis, bleeds and other elemental effects on things till they disintegrate. i like the lighthouse, it feels much cozier than skyhold. I love that you can just wander up to companions having convos and awkwardly eavesdrop. I do miss the little interactions/quests you could get with cole esp*** i think the animations are a little lack lustery? Idk there's something with the face model morphs that sometimes feels weird but the voice acting is strong enough that I don't notice too much. i do miss some of the more bioware-y cheeky things like item descriptions or weird notes near random silly environmental tableaus (there's a little but i just want to read all the notes! there's some in the grey warden areas where i was just like WAIT I HAVE QUESTIONS but there was no plaque about them T.T). where are the stacks of cheese (i do appreciate the fereldens love cheese jokes tho and harding getting so excited when someone says something nice about ferelden) i was esp bummed that there were no random things to read in the black emporium and it's all codex entries instead (that's my favorite tiny bit in DA2 where there's junk you can click on and xenon says weird shit to you). i also wish more had been done with accents of npcs- like i wish all the antivans had similar accents or your crow rook had an antivan accent, stuff like that (having a lot of "ferelden" generic british accents everywhere is disappointing. takes you out of the immersion a lot) My biggest gripe is probably the pacing - I wish it had more horror/mystery pacing like dao and da2 had- the reason we're all scarred by the brood mother is b/c the build up to that was so so creepy (also the necromancer bit w/hawke's mum in DA2). They gave us time to be unnerved or afraid and I do feel the evanuris reveals have been a little rushed so you can't really feel that worried about them (some of the side quests get close to this but still not quite there**). I wish they'd let them breathe a bit more instead of rushing from one giant world changing event to the next. Some of the reveals have been not so great- like lore that the fandom has poured over for 15ish years explained in one line?? i wish there'd been more build up of rook as a character too, maybe even a time skip from a prologue to finding solas kind of thing. the first trailer made it seem like that's what was going to happen but then it in media res'd us in a strange way. the first 10 hours of the game are probably the weakest imho, it took it a bit to get rolling and feel more natural. I appreciate that the first major decision doesn't really let you scum save for it (bit of a jump scare for me lol).

I also don't really need this much varric anymore, i kinda wish we had a different narrator if we have to have one. He feels really awkward to just have there and not doing anything(and not just kill off or have something happen to him? he got stabbed by the dagger and harding only touched it is what i'm saying). at least let him get better pjs and slippers or something Idk it does feel like bits of previous iterations they were working on are still there and they don't completely serve the plot well. And ofc there's the decisions not meaningfully carrying over thing- which is a huge bummer. But in reality they've never been good at that- the characters from previous games we see in new games don't really carry through their plots/arcs that much (it's more like cameos or they're a new person now) and the world states are usually effectively the same just with aesthetic faction swaps. I was sort of hoping we'd get some solavellan SOMETHING but it doesn't look like we will get much at all past the stuff in minrathous. i feel like if they were going to only include the one choice it really should have had more impact on the story. (i am also still a clown and want to talk to solas constantly still even tho he has no reason to talk to my rook at all, i do not care, i love a sad woof. i wish we could just casually visit him in the fade. i wish we could switch to lavellan and visit him in the fade, idk something. need more gareth david-lloyd pls) the interpersonal character decisions have been the only ones that mattered much and then only within the constrains of their own games- the bigger world changing stuff is usually the illusion of choice. It would have been nice if they let us have one protagonist carry through but i can also see why they liked changing it up and felt stuck in that format. tl;dr: i'm really like it for what it is but it's def got flaws. Parts of it feel super polished while other bits do not- i think knowing how game dev works that they had to make decisions on what was going to get prioritized and some of it works while others not so much. I wish the pacing was better for sure but i love the characters/companions which is generally what bioware is best at. sad it won't get meaningful dlc, i don't really care about mass effect 5 tbqh. So far I like it better than inquisition for the most part- it feels like a bigger/more polished DA2 in a lot of ways if that makes any sense (with similar budget/pacing issues, but the environments are more fun). as i mentioned in my other post, i really appreciated the trans/non binary inclusion into the story/cc tho. like that can't be discounted, even if the rest of the game has issues. (all the holes in the narrative make me want to do fan art and fan fiction tho so idk, maybe that's an okay thing. maybe dragon age is best at inspiring us to sandbox around in it)

*side note, i am surprised at how much i like emmerich like holy shit what a lovely soft nerd of a man! going to have to play through a few times and romance him and also bellara for sure (romancing lucanis this time round) i find myself shipping my companions with each other more than i normally do too. I just want them to be happy! I wish they'd let us have polyamory, like i could see little polycules in this squad so easily. i need to give bellara hugs and lucanis head pats. taash deserves head pats too, but my rook will need a ladder.

**i am going to cry if they do with the griffons what i think they're doing with the griffons. like straight up, feeling like it was a cursed wish to have them now T.T *** do we think the caretaker is cole? the character design makes me wonder (like the hat/silhouette is very cole like but maybe not. maybe i just want it to be cole lol) there's def characters i want to see show up that aren't going to and then bioware is like "what about this fan favorite??" and i'm like "eh".

[spleelover06]

Why I prefer Yo-Kai Watch over Pokémon

I have mentioned before that I prefer Yo-Kai Watch over Pokémon, and if you're interested in knowing why, here are the reasons why I do:

1: It's interesting how the YKW anime doesn't always just focus on the main protagonist as it also focuses on what some of the other characters and Yo-Kai do more. Pokemon pretty much focused too much on Ash Ketchum for over two decades despite having different friends from different regions. We mostly never get to see what Ash's friends are up to.

2: The side characters in Yo-Kai Watch don't get replaced every couple of years, and it feels like the crew behind the franchise actually gives a damn about their characters, unlike the Pokemon franchise, where they constantly and commonly introduce new characters and rivals and then replace them with new ones every now and then, which I did find pretty cool at first, but now it's gotten old and annoying, and I just wish they'd stop with that.

3: I find the Yo-Kai Watch fanbase to be more sane and less toxic, and it isn't around the same level of how toxic and annoying the Pokemon fanbase is, which is why I left it and also kinda regret being in it. The shippings in Yo-Kai Watch aren't really taken as seriously as the shippings in Pokemon, and there isn't really any shipping wars happening in the Yo-Kai Watch fandom, at least from what I've seen. Plus the fanbase behind the YKW games doesn't seem as bad either.

4: Yo-Kai have more personality and can make more noises and say far more than just their name, which makes it easier for me to know what each Yo-Kai is individually like.

5: The episodes in the YKW anime feel more of my style as I have always personally preferred episodic shows over shows with a lot of ongoing storylines and with the whole to be continued thing which I can find really annoying.

6: The Yo-Kai Watch games, to me, are more enjoyable than the Pokemon games are because there's more exploration to do, there's lots of content in both before and after finishing the game, the cutscenes don't really take up space during my time playing it and they are at least more interesting (especially since there are ones where they speak with voices), and the graphics, soundtracks and settings looks great to me.

7: The storylines in the games and anime are better, plus I find Nate to be a better protagonist than Ash. Nate acts more like a person in the real world with actual personality and it's interesting to see how he can see creatures that other people can't in a non forced way. This goes for Hailey Anne as well because both characters are quite relatable for people in the real world. Ash on the other hand just travels through participates in Pokemon leagues over and over again, and the show can mainly suffer from having him as the main character since it's mostly through his perspective, and the plots mostly involve him and even have him there even if he's just there not doing much (what's the point of even doing that?).

8: There aren't as much gender stereotypes used in Yo-Kai Watch as there is in Pokemon. What I mean by that is the fact that Ash's female come out as either girly girls that participate in stuff that makes them wear dresses and do elegant/graceful stuff with their stuff, or tomboys that want to accomplish something strongly just like Ash. Not only that but all of Ash's' companion's personalities and traits in Pokemon can blend into one-another, resulting in them lacking true individual personalities. Meanwhile in Yo-Kai Watch almost every character is shown to have their own personalities even if they share some traits with each other, showing that there are no gender stereotypes overused.

9: Yo-Kai Watch isn't afraid to leave the status quo like how Pokemon mostly is because we get to see Nate go through different challenges and plots as the series continues, while before season 25, the Pokemon series was too afraid of leaving the status quo to the point where they had to keep Ash going to different regions while keeping him at the age of 10 with Team Rocket stalking him. There are no excuses why they had to keep on doing that other than being afraid to leave the status quo.

10: There's no overuse of clichés in YKW, like Nate having feelings for Katie does not become so forced for example as well as how not every episode plot has the good ending we'd all sorta expect to happen. Heck, the premise seemed pretty original to me also. While in Pokemon, it's about a new trainer becoming a champion and/or Pokemon master overtime and encountering/defeating evil teams in every single region, and this is one of the reasons why I left the fandom. The whole premise just seemed really clichéd to me and it's something that the Pokemon anime was too afraid to change it up more until the horizons series came (I'd say it's more tolerable than the original anime).

And that's me done with explaining things out about why I think this way. I've tried to think the opposite of this when I was younger but I fully failed to do so and went back to my original thoughts on the two franchises. There's just too many Pokemon, games, seasons/episodes, movies, altered storylines and characters from the Pokemon franchise for me to give a damn about them while Yo-Kai Watch gives out all of that stuff in a way where they're not overdoing it and that makes the series more interesting. If you think the other way around, then I can handle that opinion of yours. This pretty concludes what I wanted to say here and I hope y'all understand what I felt like saying here. If you do, thanks.

[saigawrites]

My dear gelatin orb pet,

Seelie! Genshin x Platonic! Gn! Reader

Inazuma edition | part 1 part 3

Tags : crack, fluff, scenarios, headcanons

Warninigs : mentions of stalking, animal attack

Summary : you took home a strange creature that looked nothing like anything in your world. So you somehow try to live and be friends with the peculiar pet of yours.

A strange flying orb is now basking in your presence, observing you attentively. Uneasiness filled your entire being as you were stared down at, so you attempted to break the suffocating atmosphere by talking to the orbit. Minutes pass, and there is no reaction whatsoever, until the little thing flies off somewhere, only to return with a torn off paper sheet and a pencil in their tiny nubs.

Heizou ♥︎

"Hey~! I am Heizou, the great detective of Inazuma! It sure was a dream of mine to one day meet someone as odd as you! I hope we can get along with each other, even with our different physical traits. I was wondering, could I please make a psychological study with you? I want to know if there's any more oddities about you, especially your mind!"

Okay, why is this period blood blob trying to attempt psychological experiments with you now? You just met, and he's already looking through your soul 🧐.

You might suck at geography but you never heard anything about the so called 'Inazuma'. Wait, so he's an alien?

That theory have already explained why he was so interested in your psychology, and honestly, you were kind of scared of him after the realization.

But it was still hard to feel threatened by an dark red floating circle with a little bouncing antenna. Maybe he used that to communicate with his species?

You weren't familiar with the behavior of different creatures from another planets, but you discovered that these one seemed to be extra clingy.

He floats after you everywhere, always watching with the most attentive gaze, looking out for any type of quirks you might have. You became all the more aware of him, secretly staring at him with your peripheral vision so that he couldn't try anything funny🤨.

He would startle you a lot, annoying you and scaring you on purpose. He LOVES your reactions, whether it would be you losing your temper and tossing him around like a basketball, or you screaming at the top of your lungs when you feel something slimy wiggle under your shirt.

You're lucky that he doesn't do that all the time. Surprisingly, the cherry colored orb has his own business to do, which is just as strange as his appearance. He likes to go out, watch and stalk random people on the street. You found out when you caught him red-handed in the act, hiding behind a bush and looking at all the people passing by.

You tried to scold him, tell him that it's dangerous to go around for him like that, but to no avail, he would always nod in confirmation and then do the same thing on the next day.

So you decided to find him a hobby, something that would distract him long enough from harassing strangers on the streets. And that is, television. News channels in particular.

It was completely accidental when you found out about his interest. You were extra bored, and decided to finally watch the TV in like a decade. Soon you found your crimson red companion levitating in the hall, glancing at the TV and back to you a few times before flying to your side and nuzzling in your lap, making himself comfortable in your warm hoodie. Petting his tiny body, you both took in the situations happening all around the world.

Arataki Itto ♡

"HEY THERE!!! IM THE FAMOUS ARATAKI ITTO!! THE LEDER OF THE ARATAKI GANG!!! ITS NICE TO MEET YOU!!! WHATS YOUR NAME? LETS BE FRIENDS!! YOU LOOK SO COOL!!!! DO YOU WANT TO JOIN MY GANG?"

Woah, that's one... energetic light bulb. Bouncing on your office table cheerily while his long vertical horns wobble a bit, he squeaks excitedly as if he just found out he won a lottery. Well, he kinda did though, if you're the one to take care of him.

At least that's what he thinks, as your demonstration of desiring to bathe him from all the dirt and dust he somehow gathered gave him all the right signals.

Even if he splashed and spilled all the water onto you, and wiggled and squeaked under the turned on faucet like an over-energized parrot, still, you would rub his soapy circular body with care, patting him with the softest towel of yours that he was sure you were the fittest blob-parent of all.

Did I mention parrots? He is one. An even more chaotic one. You have to hold him with your most strong grasp from him speeding across your house like a flash, bouncing off walls, ceiling and the floor like a deflated balloon. You always have to scold him like a concerned parent about how his form is not exactly unbreakable, and he still needs to be careful with surroundings.

And that escalated into him finding your bed as the best trampoline he can access. You want to stop him and tell him that he's going to break the carcass if he continues, but you just can't resist the sight of a palm sized jelly ball jumping on your bed gleefully, ridiculously rotating in the air as he lets happy sounds escape his nonexistent vocal cords.

Sometimes you would curse the universe for making your circle companion this cute, because he sure can cause a lot of trouble. Almost getting mauled by the neighbors dog because he wanted to pet it two days ago and almost breaking all of your glass dishes because he wanted to help you make the table yesterday. Oh boy, I'm sure excited for what's in store for the future😀.

Though, it was what you should've expected from a supposed gang leader. He even invited you to be a member of this band of his, remember?

You do agree now with all those shoujo mangas where the gangsta would actually be a softie inside, because your glowing orange ball friend sure is, no matter how destructive he acts.

Yae miko ♥︎

"My, my... such a interesting creature you are! It is sure a blessing for me to be in your presence, another amusing humanoid~. I am the Guuji of the Grand Narukami shrine, Yae Miko. I am also the owner of the Yae publishing house. As a grandee of the kitsune clan, it is a pleasure of mine to be familiar with such a high being like you. I am in your care from now on, my dear~"

WHAT IS THIS LIGHT PINK DOWNTURNED FOX EARS GAS FILLED BALLOON ON🗣🙌💯🔥🔥

On all seriousness though, you tried your hardest to understand atleast half of what she wrote, but so far what you seemed to catch is that she's nowhere near an earth creature. Oh and her name is Yae Miko.

Confusedly glancing at her then at her message, your nerve cells steamed as they tried to figure out what type of emotions you should be feeling in this case. The guuji seemed to be quite entertained by your puzzled face and somewhat judging side eye.

Her actions make you no less confused, as you question why would she harshly tug on your clothes at the most randomest times of the day. Out of nowhere, the pink squishy orb would just sail in the air over to you, and then pinch a spot on your clothed body and pull it with an incomprehensible strength.

Which leads you to chasing her, speeding up after her oddly fast self. With groans and screams you would finally catch up to her and squeeze her annoying ass to smitherins☠.

If you don't react to her antics, she'll keep being even more of an ass and pinch on your skin, hard. So far atleast half of your body now itches and pulsates because of your flying jelly companion.

Other than annoying you, the cherry blossom blob with ears likes to do research. Literally on anything. It ranges from politics, history, culture to bitcoin, nfts and all of the other shady stuff. She doesn't take half of the happening seriously, finding the stupidity of your kind ridiculous.

Oh, and she is going to shove it in your face. Always giggling when you two would watch an educational video on some topic, as if making fun of you. When she would write her opinion on your communication notebook she would always leave a snide remark like "the absurd that your kind ensues never ceases to humour me" or some shit.

She really just makes fun of your whole existence as if she's superior in any way. You do your best to hold yourself and not slap her into the oblivion. Oh, but she knows you would never do that. She knows.

Kokomi ♡

“I, Sangonomiya Kokomi, want to greatly express my gratitude towards your actions, human-like creature with a pure soul. Your kindness will always be remembered and appreciated in my heart. Now, as you read this, I shall, as the grand seigneur of Watatsumi affairs, be taken care of by you, as you are in capability to do so. I am one of the descendants of the Sangonomiya clan, and my full form being taken away from me is a major cause of danger for me. I hope you understand my demands, and I hope you will comply with them.”

A lot of confusing words and hard to spell names didn’t stop you from looking at her with puppy eyes and an ‘aww’ escaping your lips. Even though her tone might sounded a bit bossy near the end, your inner mother instincts still kicked in and your heart swore to protect the light globule that looked at you with anticipation.

Her colour pallet reminded you of aqua monsters, something along the lines of mermaids, sirens, and the similar. And you kinda guessed it, since the way your pink and ocean blue pearl like friend gravitated towards water was as if a magnetic pull was in between them.

The funniest thing is that at the first few days she didn’t even know you had water in your house. Modern furniture confused her senses and for a while she thought your biology didn’t require water.

Until one day you came particularly tired home, and the only thing in your mind was the thought of running a warm calming bath with the aroma of your sweet candles. Not noticing your dwarf merblob levitating right after you and watching you turn on the bath faucet, made you jump in your place when she plopped herself in the filling water.

You were about to groan and ask her to get out, up until your gaze fell on the itty-bitty joyous expression that she demonstrated while floating in the lukewarm liquid. With a snort, a small smile followed along with a defeated look. Letting the spheroid bathe instead of you, you contemplated about her otherworldliness.

It all escalated into a degree where she would spend almost all of her time in your bathroom, swimming in your bathtub hours on end. On your knees, with pleas and begging, you would query her to get out of the pear shaped tank, but to no avail, the deep sea creature would just ignore your whines and continue flowing around in the water.

“Komi please, I haven’t bathed in a decade.”

“Splash. Blub blub blub.”

And there she goes again, making bubbles and blowing them at your face as a response. Even so, you still let the marine pearl have her way, as she’s way too adorable to be mad at.

Kazuha ♥︎

“Come driving rain or winds that churn, I shall return, by blade alone, armed, if barefoot, to my home... I am Kaedehara Kazuha, a wanderer who roams the land. Fate alone has destined us to meet, thus it is a great gift for us to be able to communicate, distinctive individual. May I put a question to your origins, your story, and your name?”

What is he, a poet of some sorts? Such a distinguished gentleman, saying such extravagant things, but looking so ridiculous it could kill a person.

Guessing was probably your only best talent, as this japanese flag jello was immaculately successful at using all of the paper and stationary that he could find in your house to make his pieces of art.

Or the “haikus” as he calls them. Paper scrolls all over any hard surface, fully scribbled over with elegant handwriting. You wonder how the heck can a round strawberry marshmallow with nibs instead of hands write so much and also write prettier than you could ever manage.

Reading through those is one embarrassing of a trip as more than 70% of the writings are about you. The other 30% are about the environment, the furniture, the nature, the textures and sometimes about his homeland as you assumed.

And no you definitely didn’t bawl your eyes out while reading those and no you certainly didn’t feel sorry for the tiny little guy and no you for sure didn’t hug him in the most gentlest way and promise him that you’ll somehow get him back, no, beyond any doubt that didn’t happen.

On another note, this guy was unquestionably the cause of your literature grades significantly improving. Both you and your teacher are raising a brow at how good you instantaneously became at writing essays and other in the sorts. You even caught yourself in the act of speaking flowery, as if your 18th century self out of the blue found themselves in the modern world.

And that’s all thanks to Kazuha, and his litres of poetry inside your house. What’s outside your house though, is his music. Yea, turns out your spherical friend is talented in tunes too.

On one particular morning when you two were in a public garden, choosing an outlying area to have your picnic in, you came across a eerily wholesome phenomenon.

Holding a tree leaf in his itty-bitty arms, he seemed to be performing a tune with the help of the frond. You stared at your pal in awe, mouth wide open as a beautiful melody rang through your ears.

When your homeboy finished his little concert you couldn’t help but clap gleefully and throw wows at his excellent performance. Just how lucky were you to befriend such a talented jelly orb.

ARGGFDDDDGJSFICGGV IM SORRY FOR BEOMG SOOOO SLOW😭😵😰😓 I’m currently in a middle of a whole makeover of my house so it’s kinda unmotivating for me to do literally anything but no worries, your homegirl will always find a way to deliver🔥🔥🔥🔥

[dailycharacteroption]

Menagerie Manager (Starfinder Archetype)

(art by CazadorR on DeviantArt)

I’ve talked about them before in previous entries, but I do like the solution that starfinder came up with for creature companions, not only providing efficient rules so that anyone can make use of them, but making it so easy to create your own, which let you create any sort of alien critter (and can absolutely be used as a sneaky back-end way to formulate the price of robots for player purchase, for those annoyed that construct creation and price was something never directly addressed).

Anything from familiars to robot guardians to ferocious tamed battlebeasts are all on the table here, but perhaps one last frustration is that one cannot have more than one beloved critter buddy.

…That is, unless you take the menagerie manager archetype!

Contrary to the name, characters with this archetype need not be zookeepers or any sort of professional animal handlers (though they absolutely can be). Instead, all that is really required is a nearly empathic knack for raising, training, and caring for multiple said companions without neglect, and what’s more, they’re simply better at it than other trainers, teaching their pets more tricks and how to act more independently yet loyally much more quickly.

But fret not, GMs, they don’t bring multiple beasts into combat at once. Rather, they train many beasts and companions for a variety of scenarios, and we’ll see exactly how below!

Starting out, these trainers learn the basics of training mounts, combat companions, or simply having a pet squox. Furthermore, their talent for raising multiple pets becomes immediately apparent, though obviously they only bring one of them out into the field at any time, the rest being stored somewhere such as on a ship or their home domicile or base.

Later on, their mastery of companions or mounts increases, and they can push them to move just a little bit faster.

Many companions are chosen for their adorable appearance and demeanor, and others for their fearsomeness, and some for a bit of both depending on what is emphasized or who you ask. With a bit of coaching, these masters can have their pets emphasize adorable or menacing behaviors to aid their master in diplomacy or intimidation, respectively.

Later on, their mastery of their pets improves, and the loyal companions learn how to drag their master to safety if they lose consciousness. (or at least protect their body).

At their zenith, they become true virtuosos of commanding their pets, and not only will they drag them to safety, but they also can retrieve an item for their master so that it is in their hand when they regain consciousness for any reason.

If you love the creature companion rules like I do and want a way to have many that you can switch between, this archetype is right up your alley! Remember that creature companions, unlike companions from Pathfinder, do require financial investment to level up, so at least some of your character’s budget is going to be focused on upgrading the companions that you use a lot. Beyond that, companion choices vary a lot in what they are good at, so consider what your character needs for different situations, such as small, sneaky companions for infiltration work, big strong ones for close combat, and so on. As for class choice, any of them can work out nicely, from the envoy operative with multiple cute but functional pets, to the mystic focused on being a far-future druid, to the mechanic with far many more robotic companions than just one drone, to the combat class with a loyal beast companion as either hunting aid or combat beast, and even various other casters sporting magical familiars.

If you’re going to have multiple companion creatures, it only makes sense to give every single one their own personality, quirks, and more to make them truly characters in their own right, but for some players that may be hard, so there’s no obligation to.

While they were once a beast trainer for the corps, Bulkas is now retired, and spends his time training animals for competitive challenges rather than outright warfare. However, the old hobgoblin still keeps his most loyal pets, which though old and scarred, are just as deadly as ever, much like their master.

The party is on the trail of a hidden jinsul enclave, thwarting their clandestine plans left and right. They’ve successfully proven to be a thorn in the enclave’s commander’s side, but they haven’t managed to catch him yet, especially since every time they see him, he seems to have a new robotic pet armed with deadly weaponry.

Tracing their history to long before interstellar travel was even a dream, the Agyi clan has mastered every single technique of survival and espionage, cultivating the very best shinobi, and later operatives in the entire galaxy. While all partake in at least the basics, some choose to specialize, such the Collar Path, which house masters of using all manner of companions for support on their missions.

[breannasfluff]

Twilight was being weird again. Ever since Wild’s encounter with the wolves, even though Twilight wasn’t present, he acted strange.

The rancher was intimidating; obviously well-traveled and well-balanced. He might have the least oddities in the group and his input was often taken by Time.

No one asked for Wild’s input but…that was probably for the best. The few times he suggests battle plans they are shot down as too risky, too many bombs; just asking to be smitten by the Goddesses.

Silly, really. He survived his adventure with his wits and unconventional approaches.

Twilight could always be counted on to be level-headed and keep the group together. Rather like a flock of sheep and Twilight circled the edges of the herd, making sure they stayed a cohesive unit.

Wild didn’t take well to being herded and hemmed in, but he put up with it on occasion because it seemed unconscious for the hero. Now, though, the level was taken to the extreme.

“Wild!” Twilight’s calling him from where he stopped to examine a mushroom. “Stick with the group!”

Grinding his teeth, Wild stares back and pointedly picks the mushroom first. He’s not familiar with it, but the slate will identify it for him later. Still sulking, he drags his feet to join the group. He was only a few feet away, for Hylia’s sake! What did Twilight expect, a monster to pop out of the bush and stab him?

Possibly, because 10 minutes later when Wild stops to pull a rock from his shoe, Twilight is circling back again.

“What are you doing? C’mon, stay with the group.” His body reads wary, nervous, annoyed.

Wild bares his teeth before remembering it’s a canine gesture and not a hylian one. ‘Rock in my shoe,’ he signs, hands jerky.

Twilight ignores it and nudges him to keep moving. “Got to stick together out here.”

Glaring, Wild moves, if only to avoid being poked again. He worms his way to the middle of the group and pointedly takes up a spot by Wind, who easily transfers his chatter from Four to him.

Being in the middle of the group and stuck on the trail chafes, but maybe Twilight will calm down.

By evening, Wild wants to scream, or kill a monster, or wrestle Wolfie until the buzzing in his head stops. Wolfie’s been missing since the wolves, though, and it’s his fault. If he hadn’t attacked his friend, lost in battle memories and confusion, the wolf wouldn’t stay away.

Every day that passes without him carves out a deeper hollow in his chest. Wolfie was one of the few Wild felt comfortable near—someone to count as more than a friend. A companion, for all he was an animal. Wolfie listened to his fears and helped in his own way. He provided a warm body to cuddle against when the touch of others drove him away.

Wolfie made sense, and Wild drove him away.

“Champion.” Time’s looking at him with a frown and he wanders over. “What are you thinking about?”

‘Have you seen Wolfie recently?’ Wild signs.

Their leader shakes his head, eyes glancing across the group and landing on Twilight for some reason. “I haven’t. Are you worried about him? He comes and goes as he pleases.”

True, but Wolfie is pack and pack sticks together. They keep each other safe. “I hurt him.” The words are hard to force out and his voice grinds like rocks in his throat. “I scared him.”

“I think Wolfie was scared for you, not of you, Wild.”

‘You weren’t there. You didn’t see him.’ The Champion turns to pace, unable to remain still with emotion buzzing through his muscles.

Time nods once. “I didn’t, but I heard about it from the others. Didn’t you and Wolfie make up?”

Yes, Wild apologized the best he could, but it wasn’t enough. It’s never enough. ‘He’s still gone,’ Wild points out. Pack doesn’t betray, and he did. He deserves the cold shoulder, but the thought of Wolfie leaving—

He cuts off the thought because it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe he’s just delayed somewhere.

Telegraphing his move, Time carefully rests a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, cub, I’m sure he will show up soon.”

Wild looks away and moves to the edge of the camp, kicking rocks and picking up sticks for the fire. Behind him, Time moves to sit with Twilight. He can feel their eyes boring into his back and he sticks close to the camp. No need for Twilight to herd him further.

Read the rest here!

[pigeon-behavior]

I just want you to know that there is no pigeon breeder, companion or otherwise, that is making a profit off of their birds, other than a few extremely rare exceptions.

There is not much money to be had in the hobby. The grand majority lies in pigeon racing, which while not my favorite thing in the world still isn't as bad or evil as some people make it out to be.

Even the money to be made in racing is usually not enough to turn a profit. A racer who wins one race a year of a couple thousand dollars almost certainly made nothing back doing that. And if they did, it was probably enough for gas money.

Why is this the case, then, in so much of the hobby?

It boils down to one thing: pigeons are expensive.

Buying them, acquiring their food, the necessary supplies, building housing, maintaining housing, medical treatments, treats and supplements, etc.

Cutting corners on these things does no breeder or racer any favors. If you aim to show your birds or to have them perform for sport, and you want them to win, you have to invest in them.

You want your racers in peak condition. You want your show birds looking their absolute best. These things don't happen by accident - you have to make them happen by providing the right things to your birds.

And that is a money black hole. It's gone and it is never coming back.

There are a few scattered places in the world where the prizes for shows or races are astronomically huge, and these are the only people making significant money off of pigeons.

Racers in Belgium, for instance. At the highest tier of racing a pigeon can sell for a million dollars. More.

But you should view that as the same kind of separation between the average middle class citizen and a billionaire oil executive. The number of people who are walking away with that kind of money is astronomically tiny.

Another very wealthy area of the world for pigeons are sections of the Middle East. Essentially if it is a prosperous area, the hobby is prosperous.

Saudi Arabia is known for a growing market of rare morph falconry birds and yes, for pigeon breeding.

My understanding is that they show and sell these birds. They are extremely beautiful animals. And I have seen some truly insane prices.

But they are re-investing their money too. If you look at the lofts of the rich in the Middle East they are. Utterly gorgeous. I'm not sure there is better housing to be found on planet earth.

They are obsessively clean, filled with artistic detail, and extremely spacious. Some of them look as if a little temple has been built for these pigeons. I think one of my friends once told me he had seen stained glass in one.

Companion breeders are not rich. At least none that I know. They will charge you upwards of $100 for a pigeon, and none of that will be a profit for them.

It will offset some of the costs they have invested to keep their pigeons at their best, but not by much.

I know some people have assumed that price tag is greed, in the past, but that's not the case.

It's a deterrent. If you aren't willing to pay the front cost on a bird significantly cheaper than any parrot larger than a budgie, are you going to be willing to pay for vet fees later down the line? To provide the animal with the best care it can get?

It's a test. If you shy away at the last moment to go pick up an instant gratification bird that costs $25 from an unverified source, you failed it. You annoyed that companion breeder, but at the end of the day you proved they didn't want you to have one of their birds anyway.

Don't go into breeding to make money. You will only lose it.

If you like my posts, please consider tipping me on ko-fi!

[blueikeproductions]

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet anime adaption Ash version.

After another adventure with old friends and foiling Team Rocket’s schemes yet again, the young Champion Ash Ketchum gets an invite to visit the illustrious Orange-Grape Academy in the Paldea Region. He is offered a student teaching position to speak of his experiences in Pokémon Battling as well as get offered a chance to compete in the Blueberry League and fight the local Elite Four.

After being seen off by his current traveling companions, who decide to stay in Kanto to surprise visit their little cousin Liko at Indigo Academy, Ash enrolls at Paldea, starting fresh once more with Pikachu at his side.

Team Rocket, overhearing the matter, decide to infiltrate the school disguised as the RAs of Ash’s dorm in an attempt to get Pikachu, and if possible, nab every Pokémon at the facility.

Ash’s students include Nemona, Arven, Penny, and new character Alfie, an exchange student from Galar who looks up to Ash. These two share a big brother-little brother dynamic and form a duo. Completing the trio is Iono, another student teacher and popular streamer of Paldea. She handles the school’s audio visual arts, and helps fund the school with her videos.

Ash quickly finds Champion life isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, as Iono has made it her mission to document the life of the new World Champ, and films him every waking moment no matter what he’s doing, while Nemona is a teacher’s pet, and as a fellow Champion herself, desperately wants Ash to be her rival. While Ash and Iono manage to get along after finding a compromise (as well as being forced to room together), Nemona proves to be the more annoyingly persistent one that even Team Rocket (disguised or not) has had to step in between on occasion. Nemona openly hates Team Rocket, mostly because of how they interfere in her quest to get Ash to be her rival, and her Pawmo has sent them flying off with a single punch more than once.

Ash works under Director Clavell, who in this universe is a little more eccentric and tries to be more openly “with it” to appeal to the children of the academy. He’s not particularly good at it: he seems somewhat stuck in the 90’s, but he means well and is respected, and someone Ash can go to for advice when unable to talk to his father figure Kukui. When Team Star causes trouble on the school grounds, Clavell often turns to Ash and his friends to “set them straight”. Team Rocket form a rivalry with Team Star and find them tacky and annoying. Like with Team Skull, they often clash with a trio of younger grunts that are analogous to Jessie, James and Meowth. There has at least been one clash between them that involved a weaponized Starmobile and weaponized Meowth balloon mecha.

Team Rocket is instructed to take Giovanni’s teenage nephew Lorenzo under their wing to teach him the ropes. He is functionally the Amethio equivalent, only far less rigid but not any less goal oriented. While he finds TR bizarre, he develops a begrudging respect for the trio. He has some deep rooted issues that see him exploited by the Four Disaster Pokémon. He isn’t a permanent fixture of the group and attends the Academy to learn about Paldea and its Pokémon to benefit Team Rocket while Jessie and James scheme to get Pikachu and the school’s Pokémon.

Goh and Gary meanwhile have reunited and form a research team investigating sightings of the Paradox Pokémon. A running gag is they tend to get distracted by other matters, and often miss the Paradox who is standing right behind them, wondering what they’re doing before wandering off. They host segments on Paldean Pokémon at the end of the episode and are occasionally joined by Professor Oak offering his own opinions and comedic timing to the proceedings. It’s stated on occasion Gary has worked with Friede of the Rising Voltekkars in the past on Pokémon research. Later on in the story, Ash’s group and Team Rocket start having their own experiences with the Paradox and Titan Pokemon, leading to a team up with Goh and Gary to get to the bottom of the matter. Ash’s Orthworm is actually a Titan Pokémon that has an addiction to Herba Mystica, and is a little pathetic, but with Ash’s help, it slowly quits the habit and becomes a capable battler. It had a rivalry from fellow Titan, Klawf, that Team Rocket egged on as a means to be able to control a Titan for their purposes, if temporarily.

Some of the visual glitches are used for comedic purposes, like Ash’s Fuecoco falling into a lake, or Team Rocket getting buggy eyed when a situation goes hairy. The creepy stretched out Player avatar is seen as a sculpture in Brassius’s art class as well.

The Paradox/Titan Pokémon and Arven’s plot are the first major story arc, followed up by the Teal Mask DLC and confrontation with the Four Disasters as the second major arc with the Blueberry League and a related final confrontation with Team Star closing out the series. While the Teal Mask DLC is the main focus, Indigo Disk material outside of the Blueberry League is partly dependent on what Horizons does with Terapagos and if Liko and Ash meet canonically at all.

Ash and James are a major part of Arven’s arc, the three bonding over food and shared love of dog Pokémon. (James doubly so because of Greavard and Growlie.) Greavard is also the return of the loving Pokémon that injures James archetype, accidentally draining his life force when it happily pounces on him. It once slept on top of James during the night and almost killed him. It returns life force by giving James a big sloppy lick in the face.

Partner Pokémon (* designates Evolution):

Ash: Pikachu, Fuecoco, Frigibax*, Wattrel*, Orthworm, Primeape*

Alfie: G-Slowpoke*, Quaxly, Toedscool, Eiscue, Fidough*, Chewtle*

Iono: Bellibolt, Porygon*, Toxel*, Sandy Shocks, Jolteon

Jessie: Wobuffet, Scovillain, Lechonk*

James: Tandemaus*, Poltchageist, Greavard

Lorenzo: Maschiff*, Spidops, G-Meowth, Charcadet*

Supporting Pokémon: Miraidon: A Legendary Pokémon Ash befriends. Ash, Alfie, and Arven nurse it back to health during the early Paradox plot, and it becomes loyal to Ash, sticking with him to the end of the adventure. It has a bit of a Speed Buggy type personality and speech impediment, and drives Ash around campus and later to the Kitakami Region.

Bombirdier: A new courier employed at Team Rocket taking over Delibird’s job. It’s strongly suggested it did a hostile take over of the position… Besides Delibird, it also hates Iron Bundle, mistaking it for Delibird. It has a cruel personality and enjoys dropping heavy deliveries on Team Rocket.

Scream Tail: A little weirdo who pesters both factions. Analogous to the original Jigglypuff, and first encountered by Goh’s group. Seems to have found camaraderie in Team Star.

Iron Bundle: Encountered by Goh’s team, but more properly encountered by Team Rocket. It seems to want to help out people, but also doesn’t abide nonsense, blasting people and Pokémon that anger it with its blaster bag. Seems to have found a place at the Academy’s school store. It has a personality and mannerisms similar to Bubo the robot owl from Clash of the Titans.

Tinkaton: The Bewear equivalent that harasses Team Rocket and occasionally Ash’s group. Its primary motivation is to get James’ bottle caps to bling its hammer, and appears in all manner of crazy ways to acquire them. It once led a squad of its own family of Tinkatuffs riding Cyclizars after Team Rocket during the middle of a Pikachu operation to accomplish this. Team Rocket also once made the mistake of piloting a Corviknight mecha in its presence unknowingly….

Gimmighoul: Another weirdo that took residence in Team Rocket’s dorm room and started playing havoc with their finances and that of the school’s. It takes a fancy to James’ bottle caps also, and forms a friendship with Tinkaton. Its various Gimmighoul Coins are scattered around Paldea, with Ash, Iono, Alfie, Meowth and others having found at least one in passing not knowing what it was but kept it. Gimmighoul, after experimenting with James’ bottle caps, manages to collect its G-Coins and evolve into Gholdengo. Iono affectionately nicknames Gimmighoul/Gholdengo “Earl” after a particular video game character she likes. Has mannerisms and speech patterns similar to Digit the Cockroach from An American Tail as Gimmighoul.

Okidogi, Munkidori, Fezandipiti: The mysterious, mildly eccentric Pokémon of the Kitakami Region. They choose Ash, Team Rocket, Alfie and Iono to assist in preventing a coming disaster that threatens Paldea and Kitakami. Ogerpon’s role is pending further DLC information.

[humorisstoredinthetits]

The Heathers + Veronica and their Pets

This is just a silly little thing I wrote before I start working on my next big work

Heather Catler the Cat

She's a dark greyish-black maine coon

She's Chandler's pet, but the cat doesn't really care for her at all

Mac is actually her favorite, but that's probably because she always sneaks her treats

When the Heathers and Veronica began their jobs, Chandler hated being alone all day, so she decided to go a get a companion

She stopped by the animal shelter where Mac sometimes volunteered, looking to adopt a cat as she was afraid of dogs

She decided on a maine coon because she had read up on their intelligence and gentleness, and figured that one would be a great companion

And sure they shed fur a lot, but its a small price to pay

Despite being a rather expensive breed, the actually had one at the shelter, and when Chandler approached her she began to rub up against her legs and purr

She was immediately sold on taking this little cutie home, and within a few minutes they were on their way

But as soon as they got home, the sweet gentle cat from the shelter was gone, replaced with an incredibly sassy drama queen

She would sit on the couch, hissing at Chandler anytime that she got close, only getting anywhere near her when she was hungry

She would let her know that she wanted food by going up to her, looking her in the eyes, and meowing very loudly until she gave in and got her food

Eventually her gfs returned home and were all greeted by hissing and loud, dramatic meows when they tried to sit on the couch

Chandler started to complain about her day and how the cat was a nightmare, only for Mac to giggle and say that yeah she does that

Apparently this isn't the first time that this has happened, as the cat was brought back on at least two separate occasions after she pretended to be a low maintenance cat to get adopted, only to reveal her true colors one they got home

Veronica then joked that the cat reminded her of someone and gave Chandler a pointed look, to which she got flustered and annoyed

Thats where the name Catler came from, full name Heather Catler, sometimes just Heather

Mac, because she's a nice person, would often sneak the cat treats which endeared her to her

Now she'll follow Mac around wherever she goes, occasionally trying to meow and get treats

She's also the only one who is allowed to touch her, so despite being Chandler's pet Mac is the one who has to brush her and bring her to the vet

When the four of them cuddle, Catler will come up and hiss at anyone who is touching Mac, but she has never bitten anyone

She's all hiss, no bite

Everyone just kinda tolerates her, she's that one roommate no one really likes but also aren't willing to get rid of

Chandler still tries to get her to love her, giving her treats, constantly buying her new toys and cat trees, but the cat still just views her as 'food human'

Most of the time she can be found at the top of her tallest cat tree, laying there like Simba on Pride Rock, overlooking her kingdom

She gets along with the other pets for the most part, but if one of them is getting too much attention from Mac she gets upset and makes it known

She will literally just sit on whatever poor creature has Mac's attention at the time until she acknowledges her existence

When she isn't home Catler becomes upset and will throw tantrums, just flopping near Chandler and meowing saying 'make nice human come home now food human'

How she views everyone;

Chandler - Food Human/Spare Human

Duke - Lazy Human

Mac - Nice Human

Veronica - Annoying Human

Cornelius the Snake

He's Duke's Ball Python

She had always wanted a pet, but her parents were dicks and told her that she could get one once her grades improved, which of course they never did

So now that she was an adult and could make her own decisions she decided to get a snake

When she told her gfs about her idea for a pet Chandler flipped out, saying that there was no way in hell she was going to let a snake into her house

Duke started teasing her, asking if she was scaaaaarrrrreeeedddd

Chandler then said 'YES I AM SCARED ITS A FUCKING SNAKE HEATHER THEY DON'T HAVE ARMS JESUS CHRIST THEY ARE SO CREEPY'

Duke then said that if it having no arms scared her then she could just get a tarantula, they had 8

Chandler's face went white, and then told Duke to just get her stupid snake

After doing her research to see the kind of enclosure that a ball python would need, the food and where to get one from an ethical source, she was able to finally get her dream pet

After some arguing it was decided that the snake, which Duke dubbed Cornelius for literally no reason at all, she just thought it was a funny name, would be staying in her room

He's a snake, so he doesn't do much, but Duke really enjoys just watching him exist

She thinks that he's just so cute, and she just loves when he flicks his little tongue

Whenever she's stressed or upset about something and can't talk to her gfs about it she'll sit in front of his enclosure and rant to him, always thanking him for being such a good listener

JD will often come over just to see the snake, and him and Duke will just sit around and talk about snakes while Cornelius explores Duke's bed

Being the chaos gremlin that she is, she knows that she can use Cornelius in pranks, especially with a certain one of her girlfriends who is afraid of snakes

Like one time, after Chandler beat her at Wii Sports and spent the rest of the night gloating, she snuck the snake into her makeup cabinet and waited for the screams

Of course Chandler eventually opened the cabinet, saw the snake and screamed, and then Duke walked in laughing, telling Chandler that this was for last night

Speaking of Chandler, it was her job to feed Cornelius when Duke was at work

To help her accomplish this task while also ensuring she stayed as far away from the snake as possible, she ordered these 3 foot tongs, allowing her to hold the rat (which she found disgusting as well, but not as much as the freakin' snake) and let Cornelius get it while she stayed away

When Duke saw the tongs she told Chandler that she was being ridiculous, he's a ball python his defense mechanism is literally curling up into a ball, he can do nothing to her, but Chandler didn't wanna hear it

Since he's a snake he's not all that intelligent, so all he does is just slither around his enclosure, but even still Duke has declared him to be her son and that she won't let the mean Chan-Chan hurt him

Munchkin the Rabbit

This is Mac's pet

He's a tan Holland Lop with just the most floppy ears one has ever seen

He was surrendered to the animal shelter Mac volunteers at and whenever she saw him she knew she was taking him home

Mac loves most animals, but rabbits especially

They just have cute little twitchy noses and floppy ears and just every part about them radiates cuteness

She didn't do any of her work that day, she just sat there and watched him just do his thing

Without telling her gfs she adopts him and heads straight to the pet store, buying literally anything and everything she thinks a rabbit may need or want

She then heads home to where her gfs were waiting, being like 'hey Mac where have you been, you're never usually this late'

And Mac, who is bursting with excitement, gets the crate and opens it up, and Munchkin, who she named such because he's so cute and tiny like a little munchkin, hops out

Veronica immediately coos over him, and he just loves the attention

Chandler and Duke are less than thrilled, mostly because she made an impulsive decision and they don't really have the proper things to care for a rabbit, and that's when Mac goes get everything out of her car and they spend the rest of the night helping set everything up

They have one of the many spare rooms being used as a rabbit room, where Munchkin has free reign to bounce around in

It is filled with a little kingdom, a rabbit-sized castle that he can hop in and on, along with plenty of toys and hay

Mac makes it a point to spend at least an hour with him every day, but usually more than that, and unless it's raining or too cold/hot she'll take him outside to let him roam around their spacious backyard

Munchkin is a extremely friendly rabbit, not afraid of any people or other animals, so they can bring him out with them into the living room

Whenever Martha come over the first thing she wants to see is Munchkin, and just like when JD comes over her and Mac will spend time in the rabbit room just watching him hop around

He's also very cuddly and enjoys laying on the couch with Mac or any of them while they watch TV or whatever

While he may like everyone, someone really does not like him

Catler despises him, which is sad because he loves her

She hates how much attention he gets, and will hiss whenever she sees him

He doesn't seem to mind however, even when she sits on him

He'll just go up and sniff her, and when she hisses he'll take it

Despite being a rabbit and therefore not that smart, he has figured out how to get out of his room, usually by jumping over the fence or chewing through it

On several occasions Mac has woken up at 3am to see a rabbit trying to burrow into their cuddle pile, and it being 3am she's too tired to bring him back to his room

This has resulted in some hilarious moments whenever whoever is sleeping next to Mac feels something warm and furry when waking up and jumps and screams out of fear, only to see Munchkin's cute little head poke out of the blankets

JFK The Cat

He's an old tabby cat, blind in his left eye

He's Veronica's cat that she's had since middle school, and although he is getting up there in age he shows no signs of slowing down, mostly because he's already slow

She named him JFK after learning about him in history class during middle school, and he was a gift from her parents after she begged them for years to get a cat

He is the laziest cat to ever exist, all he does is sit in their library and occasionally get up to eat or go to the bathroom, before returning to his spot

This isn't even out of the ordinary or something that happened with his old age, even when she first got him he would just sit on her bed all day

He does so little that Catler didn't even know there was another cat in the house until 6 months after she was adopted, when Veronica had to bring him in for a vet appointment

Catler was so confused and meowed very loudly in protest

Veronica checks in on him everyday to make sure he's alive, and she gets more and more surprised each time

She jokes that he's 'too lazy to die', like literally the cat grim reaper would come to take him to cat heaven or whatever and he'd say 'that sounds like so much work, I think I'm gonna just stay here'

Veronica tries to play with him, but he always just stares at the toys and then her with a judgemental old man cat stare

Regardless of all that the Heathers know that she loves that old smelly cat and that when he dies she's gonna be heartbroken

But despite his advanced age he is in perfect health, the vets are amazed that she shows no signs of any diseases or issues that cats normally get towards the end of their life

Other Possible Pets

They've talked about getting more pets

And by they I mean mostly Mac

Chandler has said that she wants to get another cat, maybe one that actually loves her, but A they don't want the cat to fight with Catler and B despite her attitude Chandler still loves her and hopes that one day some understanding can be made between them

Duke also wants some more pets, mostly a frog bc 'they're gay, they have to get a frog they're gay icons' and a ferret bc she thinks they're cute

Chandler told her hell no bc frogs are gross and ferrets are creepy

And then we get to Mac

Mac wants every animal under the sun because they're all just so cute and she wants to be friends with all of them

They range from normal things, like a dog (specifically a golden retriever bc Duke always called her the human version of one) or tortoise, to things that are illegal or very difficult to own like lions or penguins or ostriches

She's heavily debated buying some land out in rural Ohio and converting it into an animal sanctuary, but she also knows that she doesn't really know what she would be doing so that idea is on the backburner for now

The main thing she's thinking about is finding another friend for Munchkin, maybe a little girlfriend, because although she loves him she's worried about him being lonely when she can't be around

The only reason she hasn't is that apparently its hard to find a neutered female of similar age that is friendly with people and other animals

She wants one with a similar temperament to Munchkin so that they get along, but apparently most rabbits are skiddish and don't like most people, who knew

Veronica doesn't know if she'll get another pet after JFK, but since he probably isn't gonna die anytime soon she doesn't need to worry about that just yet

[elysianymph]

🔥

i’ll always support ppl being haters xx

thank you fae for enabling me to hate <333

companion post to my sirius one bc i can't stand new remus either. sorry but remus isn't a cool, effortlessly smart, basketball player casanova fuckboy who beats people up and sells drugs in the hogwarts bathrooms and is friends with REGULUS BLACK, EVAN ROSIER AND BARTY CROUCH??? if you actually think he is... well i can tell you've got bigger issues to deal with, get well soon 🫶🏻 delusions are tough

remus is a loser. no other way about it. people only knew of him bc of the marauders. no one paid him much attention outside of his core friends bc he was a nobody. he was literally trying to get by hogwarts without being noticed bc HE WASN'T EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!! what part of "dumbledore felt bad so he let him attend hogwarts anyway" makes you think remus would have the guts to go around selling drugs and weed in his school??? or getting into fights??? fucking in bathrooms with random people??? i mean yeah pulling pranks with his friends was a nuisance too but as far as he (and peter) go harmless pranks was all it was. sirius and james (the entitled assholes) were the ones hexing students left and right for no reason other than "they annoyed me".

remus spent most of his days studying in hopes to catch up to his friends who somehow still got better grades without even trying. he became a prefect but despite that he couldn't hold his friends back from playing pranks and joined them instead (he could've just told mcgonagall bc at that point it was his literal duty to keep them out of trouble but he didn't. why? bc he's a people pleaser and deathly afraid of his friends leaving him behind if he goes against them one too many times). he helped the first years around the castle and made sure they didn't get lost. he had an embarrassing crush on sirius and blushed every time sirius did so much as put a hand around his shoulder. poor peter had to listen to him complaining about his big grey eyes and pretty hair and soft skin and kissable lips ("moony, one more word about sirius and i'm gonna throw you off the astronomy tower"). he cried over the smallest inconvenience and kept stuffed animals on his bed (made by his mum). he spilled ink on himself when he did his homework and by the time he was done with it he had ink marks all over his face from rubbing at his eyes with stained fingers. he couldn't wink (sirius tried to teach him but he kept blinking and sirius laughed at him and it was too embarrassing he refused to do it ever again). he was always pouting :((

also i'm tired of the lupins being bad parents!! lyall and hope struggled with a lot but they were amazing parents and they loved their boy more than anything. hope was remus' best friend before hogwarts and lyall was deathly protective over him. he received at least two letters a week from them always asking about how he was doing in school, how he was feeling. hope would usually send one of his favorite homemade treats along with the letter too

[littlepinksapphire]

How each class copes with their dark urges

Barbarian

You really, really, really need to hit something

A barrel, a sack of flour, a precious vase, it doesn’t matter

As long as you can wreck shit and bloody your knuckles you’re happy

And so you take your dark rage out on things

Things can’t care. Things can’t die

Bard

You sit in secluded beauty, by the river, under the stars, within the trees, wherever you fancy

And you play

Your melody drifts through the breeze, a lilting and melancholic tune

A potential lover lingers out of view, listening quietly

For now, the music thrums through your soul and drowns out the darkness

Cleric

You pray in the dead of night

Tears fall in your lap as you bow your head

Can they forgive such a wretched soul as yours? Can they even hear you? Do you even deserve it?

Something warm and holy bristles against your skin like a breeze on a sunny day or a gentle hand grazing your cheek

You are on the right path, you need only keep believing

Druid

You need to be alone, away in nature, amongst the flora and fauna

Perhaps you change form and hunt, sating the predator within you for a few hours of malevolent sport

Perhaps you conjure a minor tempest above you and wail at the whirling sky, unheard as wind and rain pelt you from all sides

Or perhaps you dig your feet into the dirt and grow beauty all around you, tethering yourself to something more pure than blood

Fighter

You’re up at the crack of dawn to get a workout in

Today you’ll run along the river’s edge, tomorrow you’ll do pull ups in the trees

Some of your companions find your commitment annoying, others endearing

Each day you break a new personal record

If you can push past aching muscles and pumping lungs, you can push past the nightmarish thoughts that wake you each morning in the first place

Monk

Blood pounds in your skull and you breathe in, deeply and fully

The pounding slows, you breathe out

Arms extend upwards, stretching tense muscles

You extend a leg and lean forward, breathing in again

You focus on the steady beat of your heart

For the first time your mind is silent

For the first time you are at peace

Paladin

You repeat your tenets to yourself like a mantra

Every time your mind slips into darkness, you whisper your oath and take a deep breath

It grounds you in the things you truly believe and reminds you of who you are

Or at least, who you strive to become

Ranger

You had formed a fast bond with both Scratch and the owlbear cub

One morning, you awake from a nightmare with them on either side of you

Scratch lays atop your torso, his head resting on your chest as he watches you while the cub nudges your arm

The softness and warmth of your animal companions slows your frantic heart

Right now, right here, you are safe

Rogue

Some might call it being a kleptomaniac

You call it being enterprising

Any apprehension from your companions ceased when they realized how expensive healing potions can be in times of war

A necklace here, a coin purse there, nothing anyone would miss too dearly

The rush is much the same, even if it doesn’t satisfy in the right way

Better a stolen item than a stolen life

Sorcerer

You find an open clearing or an empty room, somewhere away from prying eyes

You breath slowly and extend your arms, feeling for the weave

It’s tangible and potent, seeping into your skin and flowing through your bloodstream

It crackles on your fingertips and, with natural precision, you release it

Beautiful spells dance around you as you speak them into existence

You may be a maker of death, but you are also a maker of wonder

Warlock

You decide to call upon your benefactor, a risky decision depending on your contract

But with risk comes reward, you hope

If you play your cards right, you can get something from them

Maybe they have information on the nature of your affliction

Maybe they can shield you from the endless onslaught of unspeakable desires

At this point, you’d do almost anything to gain some control over this evil within you

Wizard

You drown yourself in study, poring over the same texts again and again

Exciting discoveries and notes of inquiry distract from thoughts of death and gore

You speak of these magical musings to your companions, either talking at them or engaging them in debate, depending on who lends their ear

Either way, they are relieved to see you smiling about something