#[ might make a one piece verse or pokemon verse at some point

[age736]

jujutsu kaisen and dunmeshi verses have been made here!

[pkmnomegaverse]

Zoroark!N Premise

I’m not sure when I’ll cave and eventually make an art piece for this AU concept because despite how much Zoroark!N is a behated concept for me, I have thought about how I would deal with an AU where N is actually a Zoroark. I see it enough that while I may not like the idea, I can’t help but consider it. It would still be IsshuShipping endgame, of course. Since a small part of my issue with the idea (my true issue with it is how it undermines the overarching concept of N as a character if he’s secretly a Pokemon all along) is how I’ve noticed people often use it as a reason to not pair N with the BW Protag. Which we respect all ships here, but if one must run a Zoroark!N plotline, I don’t see why that means he can’t still get with the BW Protag.

So anyway, the point of this post. While I’m holding back every time the AU prompt comes up for fankid week from actually drawing it, I’ve thought about what that would mean for the fankids. If N was actually a Zoroark. I’ve never implemented this for any ship in this verse…but I do run with the idea that humans are technically a type of Pokemon in a vague sense. It’s actually the anime that supported this idea for me. A combo of how humans can be hit with Pokemon attacks and not take a lot of damage. And then that one extremely damning episode where there’s that ancient Pokeball that is able to capture Team Rocket. The Sinnoh books in the games, if one takes the original translation about humans marrying Pokemon way back, just add further fuel. So okay. Given all this. It would technically be possible for Pokemon to breed with humans. I’m just not about that life so I’ve held myself back from ever using this concept for this verse (I’d be lying if I said I’ve never thought about the implications though).

But if N was actually a Zoroark? You better believe that would not hold me back from him having children with Hilbert. But much like how Pokemon are the same species as the mother Pokemon, regardless of the type of Pokemon the father is, this would hold true for a hypothetical human/Pokemon couple. If mom is the human, kid is a human. If mom is the Pokemon, the kid is whatever type of Pokemon the Pokemon is. Thus any children N and Hilbert would have would be human since Hilbert is the mom (as he’s the omega in this omegaverse AU). Might get some “egg moves” so to speak from N so they have odd abilities of some kind. Probably can talk to Pokemon (I’ve hypothesized before this is why human!N can talk to Pokemon. Has a Pokemon in his family tree somewhere). The most all of this would change (since no reason to change up the kids just cause N is a Zoroark) would be Arian and Braith wouldn’t have green hair. I guess their hair would be black? Or some combo of black and red since both inherit their hair color from N. Clover is largely unchanged just has dark green Zoroark eyes.

Like I’m sure I will def cave one day and draw this since I’ve thought about all of this way too much despite not being a fan of Zoroark!N. Like there’s def an AU that lives in my head that follows this idea. But yes, some IsshuShipping thoughts on if N was secretly a Zoroark all along. He’s still getting with Hilbert, they’re my fav ship so nothing is holding me back.

As a side note, if you’re a Zoroark!N fan, no shade intended! Everyone can headcanon what they want, we’re all just having fun here. Just ain’t for me despite that being what this post is about.

[mmx-code-crimpphire]

If you remember, one Christmas in 2018, I made this post about if there was a made up religion about X. Well, it’s evolved to BOTH X and Zero. And I have made one piece of art relating to it, and some of the Christmas specials mentioning it.

This goes in depth on how it started and blossomed.

I’ll put this under “read more” just in case it’s spoiler territory for anyone enjoying the AU.

Without further ado, let’s get on with it

NEW CHAPTER ON AO3

It all just started with ONE post and I’ll show that here {also "here" for the previous chapter on AO3}. I was decorating that year before thinking about the Christmas special. Specifically listening to “Little Drummer Boy” sung by the Harry Simeone Chorale. A version I am quite fond of listening to in my childhood.

I thought of that version being sung whilst I also thought some of the reploids and humans would have worshiped X in some form or another.

Then it hit me, how X could actually be worshiped based on the fact he saved the world multiple times, and Zero doing so by his side, despite his record of dying at least twice. Before, the idea was mentioned he would only die once but it was scrapped for the two deaths he had canon in the games. I’ll probably talk about those in another post as well, or maybe not. I’ll ask the people in the server directly if they want to see that or not.

As I was developing the Christmas special for 2018, it definitely escalated into both the boys being worshiped at some point. Heh… it’s also kinda funny cuz “worshiped” kinda is a pun off shipping lol-

I’ll shut up about that AHEM anyway-!!

After the special was posted, it kinda got more in-depth of how it would work, and Xiddall was created with the help of my best friend Ashard, and I thought of an animaloid design to fit them. Something similar to Xerneas from the Pokemon X and Y games, basically a deer god-like mechanaloid. I have yet to design them yet, but I hope I do in the near future so you’ll see what they look like, and hopefully make a post about them and how they're created in verse.

X and Zero’s worship then connected to the worship of Xiddall that made Xevdex the son of the god, and Zero the fallen angel from the deep dark space. It’s definitely Hell’s equivalent, but it’s not a downward spiral, it’s more a “the deeper you go in one direction, the darker and deeper it gets” kinda feel. I call it “the Dark Web Abyss”. It may be a placeholder title until it’s called something better that revolves around more of the theme for “Cyberspace”.

There’s also a thing that’s added into the lore of this cult that certain humans and reploids have created that’s made even X and Zero uncomfortable.

Them having the duo’s song as a hymn for their “church”, and every time they heard it being talked about or them singing their song, Xev feels sick to his stomach and Zero has to escort him to help keep them walking. Sometimes they'll run into those worshipers. There's a bit of a spectrum of them where some are very nice and respectable, others on the other end being crazy that they think they saw cryptids, or right smack in the middle where they're a mix of both. Trying to be respectable to an extent but then can't hold in how awesome and honorable it is to be in the presence of the famous X and Zero.

Poor things have to endure it every once in a while, and at least they're able to vent about it to their small close group of friends/found family.

I think they eventually convince the "church of the messiahs" that if Zero writes some hymns for them that they might stop using their song as one, and most agree and apologize profusely while others object to the idea. It probably becomes a whole debate amongst the worshipers, but eventually Zero would write those hymns and the song is sung way less in their services. Which does help Xev feel way more at ease.

Idk I just thought of a funny lil thing I could put in the AU and it kinda expanded from there lmao.

[goboymusic]

I seriously question my intellect every day. Does that mean I’m actually really smart? #dunningkrugereffect

I am forever burdened with justifying the existence of #Konnichiwa.

I love #Japanese culture, and more specifically, the juggernaut media IPs they’ve created over the past few decades (Pokemon, Hello Kitty, Mario, Dragon Ball, Gundam, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pac-Man, One Piece, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Naruto, Godzilla, and loads more). I’d like to stay there for a few months someday in an AirBnB, working on music. Maybe longer. Specifically in Tokyo and/or Kyoto.

I spend a considerable amount of my waking time thinking about geeky fictional universes, like the ones mentioned above. Typical comic-con-esque nerd.

”Konnichiwa” was written around the verse melody, which was originally meant to go with the chorus melody of “Baby Blue” and be released as song 42. That song wasn’t working, so I scrapped it and eventually reused the abandoned melodies for “Baby Blue” and “Konnichiwa.”

This is GoBoy’s SUPER minimalistic phase. Some will be turned off by the simplicity of GoBoy 4 songs.

I was really into the idea of meme songs at the time of making ”Konnichiwa.” The goal was to make something that would be memeable. Something totally ridiculous, but catchy. If you want an example of a meme song, you can find playlists of them on YouTube and music streaming services. The whole meme song idea was utilized for a number of songs on GoBoy 4 and 5, such as “Dragon Fire,” “Magic Unicorn” and “Dick” (excerpts from post 69).

“Nightcall” by Kavinsky teaches us that the verses of a song can be identical (essentially copied and pasted) and people won’t notice as long as they’re spaced far enough apart and the song is catchy enough. It took about 10 or so streams of “Nightcall” before I realized that the verses are identical. This idea of having identical verses (with maybe a tiny bit of variation) would be utilized for this song and others on GoBoy 4, 6 and 7, the most recent being “Don’t (Song 121)” (excerpts from post 56).

After dabbling in bubblegum pop for the 2nd half of GoBoy 3, my original plan was to focus on lyrically driven content for GoBoy 4. The release of ”Everything Will Be Okay (Song 69)” changed my mind, as the focus on dark lyrics impacted my mental state for months afterwards. Focusing on the dark elements of your own life for long enough can turn you into a neurotic mess (the original song “Everything Will Be Okay” had a 3rd verse the delved darker). My focus would shift to bubblegum pop from that point forward, which would impact this song. Music would be made for enjoyment and catchiness, not necessarily for conveying a message. I don’t regret this shift in focus… yet (excerpts from post 60).

In April, 2021, almost all of GoBoy 3, 4 and 5‘s songs were restructured to be under 3 minutes (preferably under 2m 30s), including this song. In an attempt to increase replay value in this streaming era, most of GoBoy’s songs are now purposely around 2m 20s (excerpts from post 38).

A bass boost was added to songs 37-99 in Nov, 2021, while I was stuck at home with covid. As a result, this song feels more powerful. The bass boost isn’t a simple plugin nonchalantly added to each song. It’s a process that took about 3.5 hours per song, or one whole month to complete all songs. Admittedly, I pushed the bass boost a little too far for some of them. The bass in some songs sounds like a freaking earthquake (unnecessarily pronounced low frequencies 20 - 50 Hz). Might dial that back someday. The bass boost was also applied to every song on GoBoy 6 and beyond (excerpt from post 37).

[ravenclaw-questions-gone-writing]

Outline # -1 Abandoned Lore (Trinity)

@fanfics-and-fangirling

I have learned my lesson, I will be writing these on Google docs and then copy-pasting onto Tumblr. While I am on GD, I figured I might as well open the docs I used to write the actual fic. Man, I went through a ton of hoops to get where I am. I will be using the most coherent ones for reference. 

I can literally track my thought process as I went through writing all the different versions and I still have no idea how tf I went from this to dropping a flaming papermache whale on Ra’s Al Ghul. And I will die mad about it. Which means more meticulous notes in the future I guess.

Also, I’d like to apologize for how long it took to get this out, I have no sense of time whatsoever and as always, there’s a lot more than expected. This was 7 pages long

Original Ramble Post 

Like most of my stories, the MC is an OCI - reincarnator brought into a fictional world they once watched. (Because I am obsessed with that trope.)

I now find the original name I had for her cringy and out-of-place given these are norse gods. So, from now on her name is Lokka, which is the female version of Loki

There’s a whole ass backstory about the transition of godly names and power I won’t go into. Just think Thor and female Thor kind of thing I guess. She’s basically seen as a spare Loki but it’s also a respected position.

Was tempted to name her Sigyn since Marvel doesn’t care about actual norse myth relations. No, Idc that there’s a canon Sigyn.

If you’re curious, the original name was Aradia. Yes, like the queen of witches.

MC is an asgardian, the daughter of the librarian in the royal palace and a blacksmith

She managed to get an apprenticeship under Loki and is occasionally taught by Frigga. She also learns under Eir when both her royal teachers are busy.

Lokka found her way into the central plane, probably having found it’s location from Loki’s notes and is unaware that it’s unstable.

So, Lokka is in the central plane, having the time of her life exploring new lands when she stumbles across a crying Marinette who is very lost 

Unlike Lokka, Marinette does not know where she is or what is going on. She literally just tripped into a portal and has no way home.

Lokka takes Marinette under her wing and promises to help her find a way home

Problem is, she doesn’t know which of the three universes Marinette is from.

Even if/when she finds out that the girl is from MLB-verse, she still wouldn’t know which one that is because she has no reference to which world is which. Only that Marinette is probably not from Asgard.

At this point, she is unaware she lived in Marvel, she just knows Asgard is Norse Mythology.

So they continue to wander the central plane, Marinette ends up picking up a card guardian for a pet, accidentally becoming a cardcaptor. 

Marinette has trouble pronouncing Lokka and Lokka gives Mari permission to call her Cosette (pre-reincarnation name)

Meanwhile, Ra’s sends Damian and Talia into the Central plane for combat experience and resource gathering.

Ra’s might be 700 years old, he might have access to the Central plane but he sure doesn’t know about magic or how it came to be or the current state of it. He might know something’s off because all the inhabitants have been increasingly on edge and the weather’s been stranger than usual but he didn’t deemed it important

Notably, he has never seen anyone other than those who he’d sent in himself in the central planes (CP, from now on bc I am getting tired of typing the entire thing out) so as far as he knows, the CP’s only entrance point is under his control.

Talia and Damian, who’s still going by Hafid, go hunting for resources and training

They separate for a bit for individual hunting/training time

Marinette and Cosette (Lokka) stumble across Damian’s camp

Misunderstandings occur, Damian fights them, more accurately he fights Cosette

Cosette tries to protect Marinette while also making sure not to harm her opponent

It was harder than she expected considering her opponent was a child

Asgardian training pulls through and she is able to do both

Damian’s tied up, Marinette is confused, and Cosette does not want to deal with this

Negotiation time

Marinette can’t speak Arabic, Damian doesn’t know french, and Cosette has all-speak

This means Cosette’s sitting there, having to repeat everything the kids say to each other for translation’s sake

also misunderstandings before the kids realize allspeak is a thing

Cosette is stuck with two kids who don’t like each other, one of which barely puts up with her so she does what most adults do when kids are too troublesome

Distract them: she does magic tricks with actual magic

Damian+Marinette are fascinated, Cosette accidentally gains two magic students 

even though she’s still learning herself and all she has for guidance right now are Loki’s and Frigga’s notes

So, the trio end up travelling together

Damian demands Marinette should at least be able to fight so they train her too

They also figure out that Marinette and Damian’s worlds are not the same.

Cosette drills some value of life, basic morals, and feminism into Damian’s head

Marinette and Damian (Hafid) have trouble pronouncing each other’s names

They chose nicknames for each other from Cosette’s bedtime stories

Marinette is obviously angel or Tenko

Damian is gets Kabane, the name of a half demon

Kabane later changes to Kasane, protective blade

Yes, Cosette was/is a weeb and yes, they still mispronounce names which defeats the whole purpose but at least they kids don’t notice now even if Cosette is cringing every time they

They run into another card guardian and this one goes to Damian.

Cosette does not pout about this, it would be very immature

One training montages, several fights, a couple language lessons, and an abandoned (and Cosette-raided) house later, Cosette gets to the part of Loki’s notes where she figures out that the CP is collapsing in on itself and uh-oh

She tells the kids the gist of it but they’re too smart, ask all the right questions, and end up figuring out the important parts of situation that she’s trying to keep from them

Cosette is both impressed and a little put out, mostly impressed because not only did they figure out extremely complex magic, they also mostly remained level headed.

Marinette wants to rescue the card guardians and for once Damian is backing her up so Coestte gives up the notion of returning home and they go collect the guardians.

Remember, DC and MLB universes are closing in on each other 

MCU is drifting away

If they don’t collect the guardians, Cosette would have the time to just drop them off at their world collection points and head back to hers

After collecting a couple guardians, they end up finding Talia and explain the situation to her.

Talia joins the gang, she may or may not be plotting a marriage

They raid a couple more houses, collect the 54 card guardians, and complete the power transfer ritual (replacing the Yue’s trial because the cards are the guardians)

The cards end up latching onto the three kids. 

Marinette gets the Mistress title, Damian gets Sun Guardian, and Cosette gets Moon guardian.

Originally Cosette was going to be the mistress and Marinette the Moon guardian but because of the way I’ve decided magic works in this world - explaining that will need a whole other post - if Marinette is the moon guardian and gets the Ladybug miraculous, she will - for lack of better word - get sick and possibly die... or not.

Y’know what, it made sense at the time. But now that I think about it, we’re going back to the original idea.

Cosette’s the Card Mistress, Marinette’s the Moon guardian and Damian’s the Sun guardian.

Spoiler alert: that is a plot point for tropes-verse.

The completion of the ritual breaks puts CP deteriorations in high acceleration

Damian and Talia get into their circle, Cosette and Marinette in the other

Damian doesn’t have any cards bc he doesn’t want his grandfather trying to get to them. He and Talia agreed Ra’s would only know about the CP’s destruction. He does, however, have a CP beast that they picked up.

CP beast: magical creature that was born of CP’s magical residue or smth

Damian’s looks like a Teddiursa (Teddy bear pokemon) it is not

They have a notebook from a raided house detailing CP’s deterioration for proof

Cosette goes with Marinette because she can’t make it back to her universe and in the event that Marinette’s also from Cosette’s universe, she won’t be alone

They separate with the promise of meeting again.

At this point, I have had several differing ideas

They all go into DC world because they aren’t sure of Marinette’s world

Child trio goes into MLB world and Talia tells Ra’s Damian died

Everyone goes into MLB and Ra’s finds out about the collapse when he tries going in himself and finds out he can’t and just assumes they died

Y’all, I’m starting to see why I can’t do one-shots…

One of the things I forgot to mention in the rambling post is that while Marvel-verse was pulling away, it also messed with the time regulation thing, a day in the Maribat-verse will

Time in CP was very messed up

Kind of assumed readers could piece it together but I figured might as well make it obvious and straight up say it

MLBU: Cosette and Marinette arrive safely 

Marinette is delivered home and Cosette has to figure something out

They find out Marinette has only been gone for a week

Marinette has some separation anxiety for about three days

Cosette slowly realizing this is an MLB universe and having a crisis

Cosette gets adopted by the Dupain-Chengs and starts working at the bakery

I have not figured out ages for Cosette

MLB goes like most Maribat fics pre-gotham because I’m lazy

Will likely be adjusted if I ever actually write this fic

Except Cosette steps in when things got too far and Paris has 3 heroes

Cosette is the known as the Sorciere or Lokka

Her uniform is just her asgardian armor

Good but misguided Adrien, Cosette probably adopts him too

Love square goes platonic and Cosette is glad this rom-com is over

Magic tutoring continues

Cosette is neutral with Fu and fascinated by the miraculous

You remember those ghost interactions? Those are filtering in

One of the first things to merge is the internet, because it doesn’t have a physical body and it’s just waves of information

News and discoveries between the world are being swapped

Given what I remember from DC and dimension travel, it wouldn’t be surprising if they figured out universes were merging.

The news about JL and Paris’s situation are causing all kinds of confusion

Cosette beings looking for information on Damian

As the physical world begins merging, there’s pockets of space where you can slip from one world into another; not quite portals but close

Eventually the trip to NY became a trip to Gotham because their plane slipped between planes (sorry, I saw the chance and I had to take it.) but yeah, that happened.

There’s quite a few details I’m forgetting

DCU: Damian and Talia arrive ok and report bare basics to Ra’s

It has also only been a week

Ra’s is displeased to find them back until they report the state of the CP

There’s the whole coup not long after and Damian is sent to Bruce

Damian is much more innocent looking when he’s bringing what appears to be a teddy bear with him

It’s name is Abd and it has grown wings by now. Actual name pending.

He gets teased about it, but under Cosette’s teachings, he has learned the virtue of patience, underestimation, and getting revenge with a side of entertainment

He does not try to kill Tim either

He also has to make the choice of bringing Abd with him as Damian or as Robin

He choses to make a side company for WE making toys based off creatures from the CP so Abd wouldn’t look too out of place

It takes two weeks for the bats to realize there’s something off about the Abd

They are convinced it’s haunted and Damian is very entertained

Abd only moves in daytime when no one - Damian excluded - can see it

Movement can expel magic that interferes with recording tech

Alfred is the first to figure it out and surprise, surprise, he has some magic books for Damian to learn from

It’s from the Wayne family library and they just assumed the language was lost to time. At least three are from Alfred’s own family.

Bat brothers spend the next 6 months trying to convince Damian his magical pet bear is a haunted doll.

Damian sort of getting along with Poison Ivy because his Sun magic is very compatible with plants and they love him

On an unrelated note, the plants seem to refuse to attack the new Robin

Damian randomly, unconsciously humming to songs Cosette and Marinette sang

Damian just vibing with the magic users of JL and Teen Titans

No one took him seriously at first but he pointed something out during a conference

“Robin, stand down and let the magic users handle this” - Green Lantern, probably

Constantine who actually knows what he’s talking about “No, no, let the boy talk.”

The plan was twice as efficient after Damian was through with it

Now Constantine’s trying to adopt Damian as an apprentice, he’s failing bc the bats are protective and possessive of what is theirs

Reminder that Damian brings Abd with him everywhere and he’s still getting teased about it from anyone who is not a bat (still convinced the thing is haunted)

The only thing the magic users have picked up about Abd is that he’s a magical construct which could mean a number of things but they brush it off as just a doll.

No one is prepared for the thing to come to life, multiply in size, and start spitting ice, sleep sand, and illusions. (Hiccups bubbles and can also turn into a cloud.)

They are also not prepared for the thing to quadruple in size and for Damian to ride it like a horse into battle. Reminder that Abd has wings and can fly.

Confusing talk about what’s going on in Paris and some other parts of the world

JL slowly figure out the universal merger that Damian already knows about

Damian is not impressed, it took him and Angel about 2 hours as 9 year olds

Somehow, Damian still has the ice prince image, less demon spawn though, that goes to Abd

Time moves on and one day, a plane from the other world arrives in Gotham

There’s a bit of confusion but it’s not exactly the first time something like this has happened at this point

WE steps up and offers jobs and a tour and all the usual Maribat plans (not just for the kids but all the other people on the plane)

Given the merger of the internet, MLB class and crew have some idea who the Waynes are and they accept. 

Estimated about 6 months for full merger so people from MLB world are kinda just stuck there until then

Lila literally cannot lie about knowing the Waynes personally but she sure can lie about other things.

Dick and Damian are sent in to monitor the group

The reunion is awkward given they can’t freely interact and are not supposed to know each other. 

While Dick is talking, there are just wide eyed staring between Marinette, Damian, and Cosette. With something a little extra between Marinette and Damian.

Cosette is torn between laughing and groaning at another rom-com trope coming in fast.

She ends up filming it bc blackmail is always good to have

Adrien is confused and quite frankly, he’s really just there to cover for them

The tour begins and about five minutes in, the trio breaks off and exchanges stories and names.

Cosette hears about Batman and has a dawning realization of what this world is, mentally nopes out, later digests that they are going into Maribat verse

Starts checking off Maribat tropes they’re coming across bc she might as well have fun with it

They continue to meet up

Batfam thinking Damian somehow managed to get two girlfriends

Damian choking on his breakfast when it is brought up

The girls are invited to dinner and Damian is just dying inside

Cosette blatantly hitting on all Damian’s brothers in the first 5 minutes

Damian screaming internally while Cosette cackles

Dick is awkward until he realizes it’s a joke, Jason plays along, Tim has an awkward bean crisis

Tim x Cosette? Maybe.

Cosette does that sit and repeat thing at least three times out of habit

Batfam gets full explanation about how they met and everything

I have played with the idea of Cosette getting fear gassed a couple times and Idk how it would go tbh.

That’s as far as I got with this version, so shenanigans ensue

Pretty sure they used the cards and magic throughout even if I didn’t mention it

Absolutely would be useful for being in two places at once

I later changed so the merger happens and then Paris’s heroes meet the Justice League

Damian immediately recognizing Cosette but not Marinette bc magic

still effective but weaker because of Damian’s magic type

He later recognizes Marinette later when she pulls off a move he taught her way back in CP

Nickname confusion for everyone else

Cosette vs Constantine on who gets to teach Damian magic

Damian goes to Paris. They beat Hawkmoth and then go to Gotham.

Also had a general idea of a plot with LoS that never got fleshed out past existing

If we’re going for the rebound version: Cosette reunites with Thor and Loki during the Avengers movie

Also, poor Heimdallr. He probably had a lot of headaches with the universe crash

Accelerated merger because of the convergence in the dark world.

I wanna go with 2012 Avengers towers shenanigans. + Loki and his sort-of but not really daughter

Cosette vs Antman, shrinking/growing, science vs magic.

And then there’s the whole Ironman vs Batman vs Arrow rich boy fight

Hammer x Luthor or Hammer vs Luthor?

Also, Cosette just staring at her home universe in betrayal and being insulted she didn’t think of it earlier because classic Nordic myths had Loki as Odin’s brother and not his son among other things but still

Fight against Thanos is a bit anti-climatic when you give a gremlin murder child magic and a sword that can through anything, including magical artifacts.

this baby boy can and will fight God and Cosette’s not really the kind to hold him back

If I actually wrote this, a lot of things would probably change because I’d actually have to put more thought into logistics and how things work

[the-schwayest-batman-around]

Commissions Open

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well and this year has been more than a little crazy. However, I figure to help make the year a little easier and help out for some future plans, I’m going to be reopening commissions. 

There will be 5 slots. I don’t want to overwhelm myself and I don’t want to suddenly keep a lot of people waiting in case my job situation does change. This will first come/first serve. I will only be accepting stuff via ask or tumblr messenger. That means no anons. I need to actually communicate with anyone interested in commissions.

Details Under the Read More:

Headcanons (Examples): These will cost $10.00 as a base fee. With headcanons, I try to go in depth with the concept you wish to discuss. This won’t really feature an POV of the character in question. Their point of view can be explored but it generally is done in my perspective. The $10 will buy you the first 1,500 words completely free of charge with an extra dollar for every 100 words. The word count will be rounded up if it’s over 50.

Drabbles (Example): The cost will be $15.00 as a base fee. As opposed to the head canons, the POV will now be focused solely on the character you wish to focus on. Have you wanted to see the character in a school setting? Maybe fighting crime? Perhaps doing something mundane or magical? Maybe doing some complicated fighting? I will be happy to do it. Like before, the $15 will buy the first 1,500 words, with an extra dollar for everyone 100 words. The word count will be rounded up if it’s over 50.

Character/Story Consultation: Do you require an editor or second opinion on your work of latest creation? At $10.00 for a character and $20.00 for a fan fic (per chapter), I will schedule a time with you over tumblr, discord, or google to go over your desired work of fiction or character. 

Extra Costs:

Brand New Verse: If you wish me to write about a headcanon or drabble that does not exist in any media, this will cost an extra $5.00 if I accept to do this. I’m literally breaking brand new ideas and won’t try to half ass anything. This will also add another 500 words. Examples of this may include: “What sort of Pokemon lineup would Vox Machina of Critical Role have”, “What types of benders would the cast of Sailor Moon be”, or “Who would win the Hunger Games from the cast of Batman Beyond?”.

NSFW: I can accept and write NSFW, but I have full reign to also deny those requests. I do not wish to write incest, no pedophilia, and nothing illegal. This will also add another 500 words to your story. This will also cost a $5.00 charge on this.

Original Character: If you want to include an original character of your choosing into the story, I can. I will require samples and this will cost an additional $5.00 as I’m working with something a tad unfamiliar. I may also be asking you a little more often about certain actions or choices said original character might do.

General Questions:

I wish to buy multiple headcanons/drabbles from you? Can this all count as one slot?

For the time being, no. I don’t want to be unfair to you or any other potential customer so in this case, one commission equals one slot. If I finish up all the slots and wish to continue this, I may change this rule.

Can I only commission Batman Beyond from you? What if I want a headcanon or drabble about something else?

I’m happy to accommodate! I have a ton of experience in several different fandoms and I’m happy to take a stab at something if you’d like to.

What fandoms are you interested in writing?

The absolutely easiest ones I can write about as a setting or with characters would be the following: DC Comics, DCAU (DC Animated Universe), Young Justice, Marvel, MCU, Marvel Exiles, Marvel 2099, Pokemon, Digimon, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Sailor Moon, Dragonball, Naruto, One Piece, Persona, BNHA/MHA/Hero Academia, American McGee’s Alice, TMNT, Final Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Critical Role, Avatar: TLA/LOK, Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, Steven Universe, Kamen Rider, Game of Thrones, Invader Zim, The Hunger Games, The Promised Neverland, and a few odds and ends here. If you have any concerns or want to check with a fandom I may be familiar with, please don’t hesitate to ask.

If you aren’t familiar with a fandom but I’d like you to write it, will you?

It ultimately depends, but I will certainly try my best. I’ll generally read or watch as much as I can of the fandom to get a better understanding. If there’s a big learning curve (examples being watching say Supernatural or Dr. Who’s mega arcs), I may have to decline. I want to give you the best product I can and not half ass any of my work.

Will you accept any request?

No. If I feel like something is too difficult to write (EX: I’m unaware of the fandom, I’m too uncomfortable to write the material, etc) I will say no and ask if we could find a middle ground or a potential second option. If that’s impossible, then I will deny the request.

Can you do freebies?

I have to decline from doing freebies at this time.

Can you write about my original character and a canon character?

Sure. As stated earlier, I will be asking for references as much as possible if I’m totally unfamiliar with a character of your creation.

How and when do I pay for commissions?

We can sum it with these quick steps:

1) Following the requests and any questions, I will calculate the cost and email you an invoice. The invoice must be paid in full in order to proceed.

2) During said process, I will begin work immediately on your request. If the word count will go over the requested amount, I will notify you and give you the option to take a shortened story ato your desired word count or we can renegotiate to allow more words and a secondary invoice will be made. Once again, no progress will be done until the invoice is paid.

3) Once all invoices are paid, I will deliver the product to you via tumblr or via email.

What is your turnaround rate for writing?

This ultimately depends on how many commissions I have lined up as well. I do have a 50+ hour work week but I am eager to work on your story when I have time. I try to at least complete a project in 1 to 2 weeks upon beginning. If I need additional time, I will notify you of this. 

Can I do anything with the story afterwards?

Absolutely. You paid for the drabble/headcanon. You can post it anywhere you’d like. Depending on how I feel about certain headcanons or drabbles and if I can post it on my blog or Ao3, I will absolutely do so.

I suddenly had an idea and wanted to change my SFW story to be NSFW or vice versa. Can this be done?

I will only allow up to 2 major changes like this. If you wish to add something, the additional charges will be done to the final payment. As stated above, I will not release the product until payment is complete. If you wish to remove charges, I will not refund you. However, I will attempt to increase the word count to make this a fairly even trade.

What would constitute a major change?

As mentioned above, changing the format of the story from SFW to NSFW or vice versa. Also included would be wishing to add new original characters. Things such as “character goes to a picnic when we agreed upon a restaurant” or requests in a similar vein would not count as a major change.

What if I have more than 2 major changes for the fic?

I’ll ask that you request a new commission.

Can I simply donate to you?

You may if you wish!

I don’t have any money but do wish to support you. How may I do that?

Reblog and spread the word! This will only be for a limited time.

Why should I buy a commissions?

I have a little over 20 years of writing experience in several formats and fandoms. Aside from what you can find on the blog, I have assisted in creating unique battle scripts and plots for my own original projects and writing partners. I have created several unique plots with several praising the quality of work and creativity on display. 

[unmeiverse-nextadventures]

I decided to answer no. 7 as a ‘both of them’ sort of thing since essentially/technically they share the one major scandal that anyone who knows of their family knows about.

Enid

5. What is a secret that they have?

Enid isn’t the type to keep secrets for long unless she really feels the need to keep it secret. The one she did keep for a long time that troubled her a lot was the fact that, despite being dead in her verse, she couldn’t help but feel complicated towards her extended family, particularly Tristan. At some point in her teens she was able to piece together that she was meant to replace her deceased cousin, and this just really made her uneasy and insecure. She knows its dumb and its not like Ingo or Emmet ever compare her to him so she just kept those feelings to herself for the most part. It helps that neither of her dads try to bring up the subject of their dead family members to her much.

(This finally comes up once she meets Tristan and his universe’s version of her dads. Awkward times ahoy)  

14. What is something that never fails to make them excited?

Traveling! She likes going to new places especially, meeting new people and pokemon and seeing new sights! It probably started around the first time she visited her “aunt” Evelyn and her family in Kalos. While she loves the Battle Subway and Nimbasa City as a whole, she’s always up for the chance to visit another city or even region.

24. What do they think they’re good at, but aren’t? 

Hiding her feelings. 

Specifically, when she’s at work and faced with very rude or difficult to handle people she tries to keep on the “Friendly and Helpful” image even when she’s clearly agitated / frustrated / uncomfortable. Her smile becomes more stiff and forced and there’s a change in her tone of voice. Its not that it looks like she could cry or snap in a few more seconds, it just looks like she’s become more ‘robotic’ to most onlookers. Its clearly obvious to her co-workers though that she is Not Handling It Well and they would step in, but she herself doesn’t realize any of this.

28. When left to their own devices, how would they spend a free day?

Enid likes to go out around the city and visit shops, maybe find some new ones, and buy at least one thing from each one. Going around for some casual trainer battles or even trying out a new sport or activity are also good.

Generally though she doesn’t really mind what to do on a free day so much as getting to spend it with the people she likes. Those people being her dads, her close friend Rinne, and possibly some other acquaintances or friends she might have (that I haven’t developed at this point). Scarlet is at the bottom of the list of people she would willingly spend a free day with though. Alone at least, she would probably not mind as much if Briar or An or even Denis were there since then Scarlet would have others to annoy tease pay attention to.

Tristan

28. When left to their own devices, how would they spend a free day?

Tristan is the type of person you have to force to take a break because otherwise he’d just use the free day to get “other work” done. Though he does have some activities he prefers to do once he gets barred from working. 

He likes going to crowded areas, places where a lot of activity goes on, and just doing his own thing while life goes on around him. Would spend hours on one of the tables of the outdoor dining area of a cafe or small restaurant in a busy area, heck even just sitting at a public bench would do as well. He likes the feeling of many people just going about doing their own thing while still in the same space for a relatively brief period of time (just like in the subway). 

If for some reason he can’t go out he’d either try drawing the inner workings and machinery of some trains or try sketching out a new design that would come to mind. He isn’t the type to go and work on a new idea on his own but he would show it to Rinne if she asks and she would try to build a small scale version of it when she has her own free day.

And now the fun part

7. Any family scandals? Does your character know about them?

Well the most obvious one is Ingo and Emmet’s relationship. No matter the verse those two are way closer than is normal for twin brothers, and people will notice and will talk. 

Enid deals with more of it though, being their daughter and all. Even though biologically she’s not an actual incest baby, the fact she’s being raised by twin brothers who are both alphas and who are mated to each other just makes things equally scandalous. She definitely had some trouble in school because of the whole situation, but for the most part she tried to not let it get to her and Rinne was there to curb most instances of bullying. 

There’s also the whole drama that lead up to her being born in the first place, but the public doesn’t know that and neither does she at first. It’s more of a scandal for the families involved (the SubMas twins and the Chatelaine sisters) and absolutely no one wants to bring it up to any of the kids. She does eventually figure out some of it on her own though and keeps it to herself.

Tristan only has to deal with the rumors since his uncles aren’t together like that, really. His main way of dealing with it is just ignoring what the people say, unless someone tries to actually publish something on it then you can bet he’ll desperately try to stop them. Later on its one of the few reasons he’s grateful for meeting Scarlet; she’s not afraid to take more extreme and probably illegal measures if needed. His personal feelings on the matter, though? He’s in denial, but he knows deep down his uncles are really dangerously toeing the line with their relationship. He would still accept and love them, if they ever do cross it, but they don’t.

Besides that, anything that Alvert (Tristan’s dad) might have done that might have been considered scandalous were all Dealt With and unlikely to ever come up. Tristan’s...heritage...from his other parent might also be big deal if people found out but like, none of them even knew anything about that for most of Tristan’s life. Said parent is long gone by the time they do find out (plus genuinely didn’t know at the time either because of deliberate, self-inflicted amnesia and all that). They only find out because Siegfried ends up befriending and later dating Tristan, and while he didn’t mind how “off” Tristan’s aura was everyone else he knew that had something to do with the supernatural Very Much Minded. They all agree to keep it just within their circle though so it doesn’t become too big of a deal.

Also both Tristan and Enid have to deal with a Scarlet that keeps doing things to try and start drama, especially flirting with people older than her, which include them. 

[dingoat]

A Kiss on the Hand

This is probably going to be the most involved of my OC Kiss Week pieces, hah, and comes from another prompt from @kaosstar (seriously thank you for these!!) - ‘A platonic kiss on the hand or cheek from Zim to Ahuska.’ I mulled for a while over how to let this come about, and once Kaos suggested Zim might want to compliment Ahuska’s singing, everything kind of fell into place.

It also gave me a grand opportunity to very gratuitously surround Ahuska with ALL THE LOVELY BOYS. I’ve borrowed @humanrevolt‘s Crow and @askshivanulegacy‘s Blakk for the occassion as well, I hope I’ve done right by everyone, ahhh, and of course this is only as ‘canon’ as everyone/anyone wants it to be.

If you want to read the tale (rated ‘C’ for ‘cheeky’) then carry on below!

---

Mar’an Crow did not understand his wife’s obsession with Pokemon Go.

“You can go catch real… like, real live, actual animals, any time you want! That’s literally what you do! People pay you real credits to do that!”

“Yeah but that’s not the point…”

“I thought that was one hundred per cent the point of the game?”

“I mean yeah, sorta, except it’s just fun like… it’s silly and nonsense, and doesn’t matter at all, and I kind of like that about it? Plus some of them are just stupidly cute…”

Crow did not understand. But considering their home planet was quite literally off the grid, he was willing to indulge Ahuska with a trip to Alderaan to participate in the upcoming Safari Zone Weekend. He trusted her claims that it was a ‘big deal’, that Alderaan was one of the ‘best planets’ to play on, and he trusted her, even if he didn’t trust that blasted Agent she’d be catching up with for a hot minute.

And so, having spent the previous day indulging in one of his favoured activities (white water hoverboarding over the Glarus rapids), a long sleep in and a gourmet breakfast in bed (they put berries on everything!!!) and a leisurely trip to the Alsakan Highland Wildlife Park in the morning (the vorn tigers had a three month old litter of cubs), Crow found himself giving Ahuska a peck on the cheek and wishing her a safe and fruitful ‘fake animal hunt’.

She laughed, kissed him back, and he barely even heard what she said while he took in the way her eyes almost perfectly matched the clear blue sky. “Mmm- what?”

“I said give my regards to Dahlia, you di’kut! And make sure Pexu gets into whatever mischief she wants. Only fair, since she couldn’t come to the park with us this morning. See you in a few hours.”

“Yeah, see you then. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

---

Imperial Cipher Omega Blakk was just Blakk, today, having shed his uniform and his mission objectives to spend some time, in person, with his long term Pokemon Go buddy and fellow Instinct teammate. He still wasn’t quite sure how he managed to let her talk him into it; face to face interaction with somebody on the Empire’s hit list was dicey at the best of times and they were usually far more discrete and brief when chance brought them into the same sector at the same time- usually no more than sharing a quick caf over a trade before being on their separate ways again. He wanted to say she was incessant, that she was insufferable, that she twisted his arm or blackmailed him into it, but the simple truth that he would never admit out loud was that he found her infuriatingly delightful.

She loved to tease him through the game, going out of her way to find Pokestops marked over Anti-Imperial graffiti to send him gifts from, barely restraining her giggles when she showed him one of her pokemon – one that was a literal bag of garbage with a goofy little face – that she’d named ‘The Emperor’. But she also squeaked with delight every single time one of her favourite creatures showed up (a little blue and white animal based off a vulptilla), and actually clapped her hands together with glee when he offered up one of his absurdly exclusive regional legendaries for trade, when she didn’t have anything remotely comparable to offer in return. He couldn’t explain why, exactly, but he was happy to do so.

She actually grabbed his hand at one stage, to haul him onto his feet with a whoop and drag him three blocks over in pursuit of a new rare spawn that showed up on the map. She didn’t hesitate to climb a tree (full of bugs and probably other things) with both of their datapads tucked into her satchel to save them having to enter a gated country club that required guest sign-in for non-members (something neither of them were particularly excited to provide) – to access an uncontested gym. She paused play for twenty minutes to watch an Alderaanian snow squirrel pick its way across a garden lawn. And she teased him relentlessly about the fact that his clothing looked better suited to an evening gala dinner than a day outdoors playing games in the sun.

Maybe it was the fact that she was so bright and free spirited that her constant ribbing didn’t get to him. There was something different about spending time together in person. Or maybe… maybe it was the fact that for once, Blakk had a plan to get her back for months of endless cheek.

---

She wasn’t a Bothawui-born Bothan, that was for certain. It only took a few minutes of watching her for Ziminder to be confident about that.

His line of work brought him into contact with Bothans on a reasonably regular basis, and she had a vibrancy and openness to her that one simply didn’t see amongst those more embedded in the naturally mistrustful, back-stabbing culture of the species, whose economy was based on knowledge, and power was held by those able to seize and protect the most. The young Alderaanian nobleman smiled to himself, as he stood discretely off to one side in the dappled shade of an archway artfully overgrown with flowering vines, slowly nursing a sparkling drink. It had been a surprise, when Blakk had contacted him out of the blue, wondering if he was free to meet up for an afternoon tea with some other new friend of his. A pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. He had been busy, but he’d never let Blakk know that he’d rearranged his schedule to fit him in. It had been far, far too long, and he had to admit that he was painfully curious to see what sort of friend might actually be capable of dragging the Agent out into the light of day, even for a little while. He had to guess that this Bothan- Ahuska- was a fan of his old acting work, and that Blakk’s invitation toward him was, in part, some sort of surprise favour to her, because he’d been instructed to hang back and wait until Blakk’s cue before meeting them at their table.

He thought that was tremendously cute, and was all too glad to play his part in such a gesture.

And so, he leant back and watched, bringing his tall glass to his lips once more, waiting for Blakk to catch his eye and give him that subtle nod.

---

Ahuska had been having a brilliant day. From the long, lazy morning to an entertaining and fruitful session of monster hunting, everything had just been downright lovely. Crow had treated her like a princess, and even Blakk seemed… somehow brighter than she’d come to expect from him.

She hadn’t really known what to make of his expression when she’d paused at one point to pick some wildflowers, and start weaving the stems of the stunning blue-violet blooms into a crown. Almost like he was jealous, she thought, though he went all odd and stiff when she offered one of the flowers to him. But he had accepted it, and pressed it neatly inside his wallet to stash in his pocket. She finished her crown, but wound up making it long enough to wear around her neck, and she still caught him staring at it a little oddly, from time to time.

She thought Alderaan’s Celebrity Walk was a bit of an unusual choice for them to have their afternoon tea break; granted, the place was littered with cute cafes amid the statues and memorials to famous Alderaanians from all walks of life, from war heroes to nobility to artists and actors and musicians, and she couldn’t deny that the place was an absolute haven for pokestops to keep an eye on while they ate.

It was just one of those spots that felt a little too tourist-catering for her tastes, and she would have assumed Blakk’s as well… until she saw the little commemorative plaque on the pavement beside the table he lead her to, and she had to stifle a giggle.

“Ohhhh, okay, okay, no, this makes sense now. Blakk, honestly, this crush of yours is way too cute.” She had, somewhere down the line, worked out that he was quite familiar with every work featuring the undeniably easy-on-the-eyes Ziminder Antilles, locally born actor who’d covered almost everything from commercials to holoflix series to feature length films. And so the fact that he’d want to sit next to Zim’s plaque was understandable and utterly delightful to her.

It also prompted her to start humming, and eventually singing aloud, the little ditty from one of Zim’s shows that she’d re-worked the lyrics to specifically for Blakk’s benefit (or discomfort, depending on who you were asking). She barely even thought about it as the words tumbled from her lips, while she stared over the menu in the vague hope that this particular café sold fresh donuts. “Toss a coooiiin to Ziminder, you big grumpy agent, you big grumpy agent…”

As she went on, she dared a glance his way, but was disappointed to see he wasn’t quite squirming the way he normally did. As she took a breath, Ahuska decided to up the ante, diving into a brand new verse that pushed just a little further out of the comfort zone than she normally dared to tread.

“At the e-edge of the bed, Face all flushed and red…”

She stood, grinning wickedly, all the better to add a couple of cheeky gestures to go with her words.

“He hammered and he-eld you! Now you’re giving him—" “Ahem,” a polite little cough from behind Ahuska cut her words short, and she froze like a kybuck caught in speeder lights.

Almost comically slow, the Bothan turned with her breath caught in her throat, to see none other than Ziminder gods-damned Antilles himself, standing right there in the flesh. Her song turned into a mortified squeak, and all it took was one horrified glance over to Blakk to catch that proud little cat-smile curling his lips for her to realise just how perfectly she’d been played. The fething Agent had set her up! Her ears hadn’t flushed quite so bright a shade of crimson since the time she’d walked in on  Nines and Lyrisal performing roughly the same act she’d been about to describe in song, and she found herself just as flustered and stuttering as back then.

“I um, ah, oh, uhhhh. Hi I was just um…”

“You must be Blakk’s friend!” The holo-star swept aside her fumbled words and took up one of her trembling hands. He’d heard every word, of course, as Blakk’s timing had been impeccable, and he too recognised the smirk that had graced his old friend’s expression. Quickly re-assessing the situation, Zim had cut in before Ahuska had completely disgraced herself and worked to set her at ease.

Ahuska still felt her ears burning as Zim lifted her hand with practiced grace, landing a delicate kiss on top of it. “I… ahh, yes, uh…”

“Ahuska, is it? He never mentioned what a lovely singing voice you have! It’s my absolute pleasure to meet you. Please, please allow me to buy you a drink…”

---

Crow paused for a moment, looking out across the open air café, bright and bustling in the early afternoon light, watching his wife laugh and tease. That Agent always made him uneasy, despite her constant assurances that he’d never sell them out, despite her unerring trust in him. When they were joined by another fellow, it gave him a bit of a start; wasn’t that that actor? That Antilles lad—wasn’t his House quite firmly allied with the Republic?

He found himself smiling, and more thoughtful than he’d expected to be. There she was, his Ahuska, giggling at a table with an Imperial Agent on one side and a Republic noble on the other. And she, like him, somebody who had rejected both, choosing a life free of the bounds of either of the galaxy’s major governments. And yet… yet… there they were, finding common ground, somewhere, existing together without the bloodshed and the ultimatums that he’d become so accustomed to between the factions. Maybe there was hope for the galaxy yet, even if bonds were built one being at a time.

And then the light caught Ahuska’s ears just so, and Crow realised how flushed she was. He hadn’t seen her turn that shade of red since he’d had a certain (Completely tasteful! Absolutely inoffensive! Very flattering!) painting of himself delivered to her tent at the old Clan headquarters, so many years ago. Whatever had happened just now, she was embarrassed as hell, and Crow took that as his cue to step in and perform his solemn duty of deflecting attention.

“Hey there!” The rough cheeked, scarred Mandalorian swaggered over, one hand forcefully extended in an offer for Zim to shake. “I see you’ve met my wife! Aren’t you the fellow who was in that toilet cleaner commercial when you were twelve…??”

[empatheticaura]

Worldbuilding/Headcanon: Aura

To start with I’d like to say that my version of Aura is kind of a mix of the obvious canon aspects from the anime/games/manga, real-world aspects, and my own headcanons. So anything canon in the anime/game/manga worlds to aura is still canon in my version. As a summary these things include: -Aura can be used to heal, at the detriment of the healer -Able to read the minds and actions of others through Aura -Able to sense other’s aura’s and see surroundings through a blindfold and other objects. -Projection of one’s aura to attack or make barriers -Activate time flowers -Aura can be disrupted by air-based attacks as its a type of energy wave -Able to track using aura as long as there is a piece of aura to track -Able to prevent mind control of self and those around them

Real-world based things on aura are: -Every person’s aura is different, while blue is the go-to color in the anime when using aura, in actuality each aura is a different color and different in general, making an aura user able to identify a person just by their aura. Using this I’ve also somewhat expanded that if an aura user knows a person and their aura, well enough, they may be able to track without a base piece of aura to concentrate on. -Aura’s are like a veil around a person

Now to get into my own headcanons I’ll start with that every living thing has an aura, this is why Aura users can see their surroundings even when blinded. Now note that it’s a bit different, focus on ‘living’. Grass, plants, and the like all produce an aura, though it’s weaker than what one may call “intelligent life”, rocks, on the other hand, do not. Nor does brick, concrete, metal, or things like that. BUT, and here’s something that still helps it apply, nonliving objects can obtain an imprint of other’s aura’s from exposure. The amount of exposure and attachment to the object will make this imprint stronger and last longer. A well-beloved object may never actually lose it’s imprint, even if it dulls in strength over time. Aura is the literal life force of creatures, what one could say is the soul of living objects (this is why using one’s aura to heal another is dangerous), and the more a person loves an object and keeps it around the more ‘soul’ is imprinted into the object, a literal piece of the person. So, a common rock may have aura imprints from those who pass it or touch it, but it would be multitudes and fade away relatively quickly. If no one passes by for a long time, it will be an aura ‘dead’ zone, nothing seen. A well-beloved broach on the other hand that's constantly worn? That the owner has taken care of and loved for a long time? It will have such a strong imprint of the persons aura who cared for it that it will probably overshadow any other aura imprints. It may also dull a bit in ‘brightness’ of the aura over the years once the owner dies or loses it, but will never fully fade. If passed on to another who loves it, it may start taking on their imprint as well and revitalizing the imprinted aura. This is why Aura users can use objects to help them track an aura, the imprint is a permanent connection to the very person's life force.

 Now a little bit more back on the topic of seeing aura, intelligent life has a stronger aura, but there are still variants. Pokemon based on inanimate objects, like Geodude, Klink, and the like, and really steel type and rock types, in general, have weaker aura than other “intelligent’ life just from their basis not having its own aura at first, but it’s still more significant than a common plant. Most other Pokemon types have an average level of aura, varying to be a little weaker to normal humans to about the same, some even a bit stronger, next strongest would be Fairy and Grass types in general as they’re so close to life itself. Then would be Pokemon who can utilize Aura naturally, like Lucario, and finally, humans that can use Aura have the strongest aura. This is why Aura users can tell when they meet another Aura user.

Now getting really far into headcanon territory is something I’ve touched upon both in my Ash’s bio, and Rui’s villain verse. An Aura user is NOT restricted to using just their aura. They can pull from other sources, even weak ones like grass. Of course, touch is the best way to do it, but with enough concentration and training, they could pull from a distance, though not an overly great one. Of course, there are a few dangers in this, as pulling from another will most likely weaken them, and if pulling past a certain point, they can very much suffer the same consequences as an Aura user pulling from their own aura to heal, that being if stopped at a certain point a shortening of their lifetime, and if continuously pulled from too much, death (think Sir Aaron’s and Lucario’s death in the movies. It’s not automatic, but it is quick.) These dangers are easily avoided by being careful of course, you could say that there is always a certain level of ‘excess’ aura, with Aura users having the most ‘excess’ aura to pull from. If you only pull from it it will at most weaken and tire the other temporarily but will reaccumulate after a bit of rest.

Now a bit of expansion on some canon/real-world points that start delving into headcanon territory as well: Reading one’s “mind” through aura is a bit different than being able to through telepathy in my opinion. Telepathy can act much the same, but with enough focus can dig deeper. Using Telepathy one can dig into memories or the like, delving deeper into the consciousness and even subconsciousness. Aura, on the other hand, more skims the top, this allows for communication, and even reading what one’s next move might be, but in the end, it’s only surface level. Aura users can talk to Pokemon or communicate with a human without speech, but they won’t be able to, say, dig into the actual memory of a story. They pretty much have access to the base level stream of thought that flows through someone's head, such as when one is talking to themselves, or planning out what they’re going to do.

Now, this might make it seem odd that they can block mind control, but really they only need access to that base level first, and then they can pretty much make an aura barrier around them and block any access to the deeper levels as you can’t even reach the most shallow.

I’ve also already stated this, but I think I’ll go into detail. For a person an Aura user doesn’t know, they’d need an object that has the person’s Aura imprinted on it to even track a small distance, the more well-loved the object the better. For someone they know well (as an example, let's say if Rui was trying to track Wes) they can track their aura for short distances (I’ll say a few miles) without an item. For longer distances, an item is needed though, and admittedly even short distances are easier with one.

When it comes down to how aura is presented, as stated, every aura IS different, but they all follow a certain pattern. Closest to the person is what one would call the “core” aura. This is the personalized aura of the person, and can be one color to a mix of colors, and is usually a representation of a person. A core aura can change over time, but it’s so slow it won’t usually affect anything like tracking unless someone is using a REALLY old object that the person hasn’t been around for a long time. (For an example of aura’s changing: I headcanon Rui’s aura is a mixture of a soft blue and pastel pink when she first meets Wes. But I now imagine she’d have flecks of gold and purple in her aura that cropped up as she got closer to Wes (gold) and Charlotte (purple) as they both became such a big part of her life and who she is. She probably also has some Red (for Silver) coming in as well.) Then right outside the core aura is a more... flexible aura. We’ll just call it the mood aura. This is an ever-changing color of aura reflects the person's moods, every color representing a different emotion more or less. Of course, it’s not always the most specific. The other thing about this is that what each color represents can be different for each person, based on their own beliefs or feelings on the colors or what colors represent. This means that, unless you have an advantage like Rui with already having Empathy, most Aura users won’t be able to tell someone's emotions just from their aura unless they know them well. Though they can, of course, use context clues like a normal person, or if they want to intrude use aura to read the surface level of their mind to try and pick out their true thoughts/emotions to start putting together what each color represents to a person. Now on top of all this there is a connection to aura and health and aura and... well I guess you could say morality? But not really. How violent a person can be is more accurate, or cruel, but it’s not actually black and white. I’ll use a few art terms to describe these a bit, but what you could say is health is represented by Saturation, the higher the Saturation of the colors in the whole aura the healthier the person is, while the lower the Saturation (the more gray) the sicker a person is. Now on the other hand Value can represent "morality”, with the lighter the color is, the closer to white, the less likely they are to be cruel or violent, while on the other hand the closer to black one is the more they have a propensity towards cruelty and violence, or has done a lot in the past. Now, I’ll again state, this isn’t black and white. It doesn’t take in the “righteousness” of the violence per se, and can also be influenced by other factors and even how the person sees themselves. And that it’s incredibly rare for ANYONE to be fully on one end of the Value Spectrum or the other (in other words pure white or pure black.)

As a few examples of how the “Value system” works with aura, Rui’s Aura is on the lighter side but it is still relatively dark as she WILL use violence to save her friends or the like. She has even admitted to being willing to kill people before when she honestly believes them to be irredeemable (-cough-Ghetsis-cough-), this has made it so it’s darker than one might think, but she is still such an honestly kind and selfless person that her aura isn’t very dark. Ash, on the other hand, has a much darker aura. He can be a very kind and even selfless person with a bit of a hero complex, but the thing is the time he spent in Rocket kidnapped did change him, and the things he did afterwards. Ash will see no problem in hurting or killing if he thinks you deserve it, it doesn’t even matter how redeemable they may be most of the time. He’s killed poachers with no care for if they have families or a life outside of poaching that isn’t violent, he’s lost a lot of his optimism in the world, though not all of it. Just recently I did a bit of a plot point on Discord with friends where Ash went and killed the scientist lady in Galar who made the Fossil Reviver thing, after destroying the invention, as he felt it was too risky to keep her alive to make another one to create the abominations called Fossil Pokemon in Galar. This is why his Aura is actually a lot more on the dark side.

Other things that can also influence Aura is, obviously to be honest with one of my characters being from Colosseum, Shadowfication. Now while it’s obvious that Shadowfication in and of itself will change an aura, usually into hues of black and dark purple, it also leaves a mark on those shadowed, and those around shadow Pokemon for long periods of time. Rui and Wes both carry some taint, Rui less than Wes as Wes has spent more time than Rui actually handling the Shadow Pokemon and trying to heal them. The mark of Shadowfication can cause an aura to darken as well more than it may have ‘naturally’. It can also leave permanent “shadow” splotches that won’t fade away. Of course, the effects of Shadowfication and being around Shadow Pokemon are not well observed seeming as how there isn’t a lot of aura users to do the observing, not is Shadowfication a common thing, at least outside of Orre.

Another fun fact I didn’t quite delve into before, there is one more Pokemon type with a... I guess you could say weird interaction with Aura. That’s the Ghost-type. The thing you need to remember is Aura is pretty much the soul of a person, as well as life force. So while one might think Ghost types wouldn’t have one, it’s quite the opposite. Ghost types tend to be different in the fact that their whole BEING is aura, or will show up as aura. So, as an example situation, if an aura user is, say, blind or even temporarily blinded, and are using Aura to see, then when looking at a human or normal Pokemon they’d kindof see an aura “dead zone” that would show up as, well, nothing, a void, right in the middle of the aura of the being, where their physical body would be, pretty much allowing them to see a silhouette of the person, but not the person themselves. On the other hand, if a blinded Aura user sees a ghost, they wouldn’t really look any different than when they can see normally. A Gastly still looks like a Gastly, a Dreepy looks like a Dreepy, there is no difference, no aura “dead zone” The only exception being Mimikyu as they wear a disguise that isn’t actually a part of their being.

Anyways I think this about covers everything? If I remember anything else I’ll just post a smaller headcanon. I apologize for this rambling behemoth of a Headcanon.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Dogleg Interview: Buckle Up, Motherfucker

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Earlier this year, Michigan punk four-piece Dogleg released one of the most blistering, endlessly playable debuts of the year in Melee, which, yes, is a Super Smash Bros. game. At this point, much has been written about the band, from their beyond wild live shows to their Pokemon-referencing and video game-playing prowess. Lost in the shuffle is that 2020 was poised to be their year to gain even more of a national following. Released on March 13th, right as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Melee was supposed to be supported by three cancelled tours--SXSW, an opening slot for Microwave, and an opening slot for Joyce Manor--and an appearance at this year’s cancelled Pitchfork Music Festival. Listening to the songs on the record, you can only imagine how they translate: the jerky momentum of “Bueno”, build-up of “Prom Hell”, gang vocals of “Fox”, clear-vocal anthem of “Wrist”, and odd groove of “Ender”. The band agrees that playing live is what makes them Dogleg: “Our live shows is what made us the forefront of the DIY music scene for as long as we were with such little released music,” bassist Chase Macinski told me over the phone in April.

The band’s self-titled debut EP--at the time, the band was simply a solo project of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Alex Stoitsiadis--was released in 2015. Full-band follow-up Remember Alderaan? (Macinski, drummer Parker Grissom) came out in 2016. In the four years between EP2 and LP1, Dogleg took their time writing what would become Melee but wasted no time debuting unreleased songs as they were finished. It was not just their energy, but their steady stream of new material that garnered the band a growing fan base, local and beyond, and eventually a deal with venerable indie punk label Triple Crown Records. “Fox” and “Kawasaki Backflip” were released as singles last November and February, respectively, and the generated hype garnered them rave reviews from publications like Pitchfork that, 10-20 years ago, probably would have scoffed at them.

Dogleg’s bigger moment--they’ve certainly had plenty of already big ones--may be on hold. Macinski continues his day job as a janitor in Southfield, about 20 minutes northwest of Detroit, while Stoitsiadis has played around with live-streamed acoustic and solo electric sets. While the group approach to writing that allowed the band to flourish when making Remember Alderaan? and Melee may not be possible without a completely reopen Michigan, and while Dogleg won’t be able to feed off of crowds for a bit, I have no doubt they’ll come back when they can with an even greater drive.

Read my interview with Macinski below.

Since I Left You: To what extent can Melee be fully appreciated without the context of the Dogleg live show?

Chase Macinski: I think you get a feeling for it. You understand it. But you still haven’t experienced it. We have been playing these songs for a long time. “Headfirst” for example, we basically had that song written by the time Remember Alderaan? came out in 2016. But we didn’t want to include it on the EP because it was close but not finished. Two weeks later, I’m pretty sure we wrapped it up, and then we were like, “Cool. We have the first song for the new album.” At that point, we thought it was time to make an album. We were playing it ever since it’s been done. As we were writing songs for the album, we were incorporating them into our live shows. A year ago, when the album wasn’t even out, half our set was still this album. Locals who saw us on the most recent tour we got to go on did catch that experience but didn’t get the whole context of the album, you know?

SILY: "Headfirst”, especially, is the most maximal song on the record.

CM: Oh yeah.

SILY: At the same time, when I read reviews of your music that say things like, “Dogleg plays loud,” or “Dogleg has energy,” it seems to leave out the complexity of the arrangements. The stop-starts, the drum fills, the crescendos. There’s a lot going on in the music, beyond it obviously being loud and fast. Can you talk about achieving a balance between raw energy and composition?

CM: We want to build up a lot of tension when we play, and we keep that in mind when we’re writing songs. We definitely try to think of, “What’s really hype? What builds up a lot of energy? What gives us butterflies in our stomach and makes us really jazzed up to hear this or anxious?” For the live shows, since we focus so much on those details, the start-stops and crescendos, it fills itself in pretty easily since we’re all focused on that and on the same page in terms of execution, that it just happens, and on the other side of that, we’re trying to be as energetic and involved and engaging with the music as possible. What we do in theory helps us out in practice, if that makes sense.

SILY: How did you approach the sequencing on Melee?

CM: We took it very seriously. It took us a lot of time to figure out what order the songs should be in. I immediately said we should start the album with “Kawasaki Backflip”, and I got some backlash on that. The other two contenders for the first track were “Fox” and “Prom Hell”. “Prom Hell” had more of an argument than “Fox” did. My attitude was, “‘Kawasaki’ starts off like a roller coaster, and that intro guitar riff is just like, ‘Buckle up, motherfucker.’ Let’s go for a ride.’” I really thought it had that tension immediately out the gate and blasted you with what could be a middle ground for the entire album, where I thought “Prom Hell” didn’t really address or show you what you can fully expect on this. For the first track, you might think something differently. After that, it was a lot of, “Okay, how does one song end and another begin?” We thought a lot about what key songs were in, what note songs ended on, how they ended, what the band was doing, what they sounded like, and then we thought about the same thing for how songs begin. “How does this one start? Does it start full-band, just guitar, drum fill?” We wanted to make sure we weren’t being too repetitive and created a sense of flow that could make one song go into the other. We even incorporated those moments where we were very specific about the time change between “Kawasaki” and “Bueno”. We were very specific about when “Kawasaki” ended and how much time passed between that and for you to hear the drums of “Bueno”. We wanted it to be an exact timing just for enough tension to be built up.

SILY: Were there any considerations to the thematic sequencing of the songs?

CM: No, not really, other than when we wrote “Ender” and decided to call it “Ender”, we knew it would be the last song. Otherwise, there wasn’t thematic sequencing because the lyrical content and the themes through the lyrics throughout the album were Alex’s thing. We write a song, and when the whole band writes the song, it’s an instrumental. Then, Alex comes up with a melody, and we all pitch in with what the lyrics might sound like, and Alex writes all the words. I’ve contributed when he’s got writer’s block and have helped him out a bit there, but for the most part, all of the themes for the lyrics he puts in. 

SILY: There’s a line on “Kawasaki Backflip” that does seem like an appropriate introductory mantra to the record: “We can destroy this together.”

CM: Yeah, I mean, I think that’s a pretty powerful statement as an introductory song on the album. “Kawasaki”’s that “buckle up” song, as well, so the instrumental aspects definitely lead into that idea of “get ready for what you’re about to experience.”

SILY: A song like “Cannonball” is a bit more swaying instead of clearly uptempo. When you go into write as a unit, do those differences occur naturally, or are they forced with any sort of intention?

CM: “Cannonball” I would say occurred naturally because we wrote the song as we were practicing one day. In between songs we were practicing and making noise, I played that main verse riff, that A to C progression. I was just bored, not thinking, and playing my bass, waiting for Alex and Parker to be like, “Okay, let’s play another song.” While I was doing that, Alex was like, “Yo, what’s that?” I was like, “I don’t know, I was just messing around.” We started building on that and took that swaying feeling for what it was, and the lyrics to add to that--I think “Cannonball” was maybe the 4th, maybe 5th song on the album, so we didn’t have any idea what would be on it at that point. We knew it was a Dogleg song.

SILY: On “Ender”, are those actual strings in the outro?

CM: Yes, those are our friends who go to music school in Chicago. We know them from the School of Rock music program we all did when we were in middle school and high school. They were home for summer vacation and had their instruments, and we asked, “Yo, can we record y’alls playing violin”...I forget the other instrument. [Editor’s note: It’s double bass.] Those are actual strings. Honestly, I thought they played the parts so well, I made a comment that, “I don’t think people will think this is real because it sounds so genuine and good.”

SILY: I actually assumed it was a synthesizer.

CM: It’s legit. They’re just really good at playing their instruments. The horns are real as well.

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art?

CM: The cover art is Alex’s aunt’s artwork. She’s a really great artist, and we’ve used her designs in the past. If you’ve ever seen the dog pack t-shirt, where it’s the bunch of dogs in watercolor--it’s also the artwork of our first EP--she also did that. She just really likes drawing dogs. We’ve never really commissioned something from her--she’s always already made something that we’ve thought is really cool, and then Alex asks her whether we can use it for the band, and she says, “Yeah, sure go ahead.” One day we were playing a show in 2017, way before we had half the songs on the album written, before “Fox” was even an idea. [Alex] was scrolling through his aunt’s Instagram and came across that picture. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and was like, “What is that?” He just goes, “It’s just something my aunt made.” I was like, “That is a fucking phenomenal piece of art. We have to use that for our album artwork.” He was like, “Okay.” He asked, we got permission. We made no edits to it. I don’t know when it was drawn or made, but when I saw it, I immediately knew it was perfect.

SILY: Is she a fan of the band?

CM: Yeah, she likes the band. She thinks it’s really cool.

SILY: Have any of these songs evolved, from the song structure to the performance, as the fans get to know both the recorded and live versions?

CM: We play the songs faster live, that’s for sure. Before we did any recording for the album, we had to decide on a tempo we wanted to play them at for the album. But since the songs were written, it’s just whatever tempo we’re feeling. For Melee, none of the song structures have really changed. But for the Dogleg self-titled EP, a lot of those songs, we play very differently live. Alex did that all by himself, recording, drums, bass, vocals, guitar. When we got incorporated in the band, that’s when we had the ability to put our spin on it. We changed and added those stop-and-go’s, different solos. No major changes to structure, but they feel more like Dogleg songs you’d expect to hear today.

SILY: Have you written anything during quarantine?

CM: Alex has been making some riffs, but we haven’t written any music. Alex says it’s pretty difficult for him at the moment. The songwriting process for every song on Melee and every song on Remember Alderaan? has been a band experience: Someone comes to the table with a riff, melody, one piece of the puzzle, and then the entire band fleshes it out. It’s pretty difficult for us to write music at the moment when we can’t get together.

SILY: Is there anything else next for you? Are you releasing any more music videos?

CM: We have some ideas. Nothing fleshed out yet. The last thing we did was the “Wartortle” video. We also have the Eureka [Records] sessions, which were all filmed before Michigan was put under lock down. We have some guitar play-throughs that will get out eventually, where it’s Alex playing along with the songs.

SILY: Is there anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading during or before quarantine that’s inspired you, comforted you, or caught your attention?

CM: I’ve been listening to a lot of music that I’ve listened to in the past. Once I graduated college and was really active in the temporary jobs I had and on the road, I stopped using Spotify for a long time even though I still had my account. My senior year, my Spotify minutes were huge: You listen to music when you study, do homework, whatever. Once I graduated, I couldn’t listen to music while doing things. A year ago, I was working at a hospital on a research project, and you’re not allowed to listen to music during work. I had like 15% of the music usage I did the previous year. So I’ve been revisiting a lot of old music. I’ve been listening to a band called Colossal. I forget the name of the album--it’s the only one I have in my car. The first track is called “The Dusk of Us” so it’s the first thing that comes to my mind. [Editor’s note: It’s Welcome the Problems.] Phenomenal album, really nice. I’ve listened to that a lot. My roommate has an extra PC, so I’ve been playing a lot of PC games, which I haven’t done in a long time because I don’t have a PC that can keep up. I’ve been playing [Civilization VI] with friends over Discord, which is nice, because I haven’t talked to them in a while. I haven’t really been reading anything, and I’ve been trying to watch movies I’ve been expected to watch for a while. Yesterday I watched The Matrix for the first time. 

Melee by Dogleg

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man v3 2099 #23-25 Thoughts

Some mixed feelings.

 There was a lot of stuff I liked, and a fair amount I was disappointed by.

There was some art and dialogue production issues, which I think might’ve occurred because the series was wrapping up and whoever was in charge didn’t catch as they were prepping for whatever the next project was.

But more significantly, I honestly felt that there were several unanswered questions:

·         What was the big bad thing Miguel and Liz did that was talked about back in volume 2 #1?

·         What actually caused the Maestro’s version of 2099 to happen?

·         What caused that future to alter into the Sinister Six’s future?

·         What was up with those purple Mohawk mutant people from volume 3 #1 who obviously had something to do with Tempest but it’s never explained

·         How was Tempest’s mother involved with the Fist

·         Shit there wasn’t any resolution for Tempest’s mother at all was there!

·         What exactly did Tyler Stone plan to use Tempest for? Was he really just tempting her to take his treatment so she’d stab Miguel on sight?

·         Why should Sonny Frisco be left in the present day? He’s from the future and has some future tech leftover from his Iron Man armour

·         What happened to the Sinister Six 2099? Electro is presumably shut down for good but what happened to Venom, Vulture, Doc Ock and Sandwoman? Yeah presumably they’re all going to team up in 2019, but Sandwoman was nowhere to be found and IIRC she wasn’t dead. Moreover they were still around in 2019 under the employ of the Fist.

·         How did Tyler Stone travel to the past?

·         How did Tyler Stone join up with the Fist?

·         How did Tyler Stone rise to what seemed like the leadership of the Fist

·         What happened to Venture and Glorianna?

·         What happened with Miguel’s fellow time traveller who created the new version of X-Factor? Was that really just very loose and light set up for Secret Wars 2099?

·         The payoff for the Alchemax prison facility which was then turned into a terrorist internment facility was...just the place for the final showdown to occur? Really?

Why DID the cure for Tempest’s cancer turn her into an insect monster back in Vol. 2?

Also, not really an unanswered question but the emotional investment into Miguel and Tempest’s relationship is still rather hollow as I talked about back in issue #20. It just kind of feels significant because Tempest has been around since waaaaay back in the backup story from ASM volume 3 #1. Not to mention Miguel’s survival is definitely a dues ex machina.

The harsh truth is the more I think about the resolution of this the more I come to the sad realizing it at best left an awful lot to be desired.

Objectively it’s very problem riddled.

Now that being said...on a pure enjoyment level I did LIKE it.

I don’t think I ever expressed this before, but the reason I started calling posts like this ‘Thoughts’ rather than ‘Review(s)’ like I used to is because, whilst I firmly believe a story can be objectively evaluated, I found it stressful and well...not fun doing it.

Plus I do this blog for me and realized posts like this one are more for me, so I have a record of my thoughts and feelings for these stories.

I’m not saying me liking something or disliking it makes it good or bad objectively. But what I am saying is...well I enjoyed this.

I was disheartened by the lack of pay off to a lot of stuff, but I did enjoy the ride while I was on it.

Let me talk about a few minor things that annoyed me before I end more positively.

So a Pokemon Go parody is intrinsic to the battle to save the future. I dunno, that just feels both on the nose and unearned since Pokemon Go! wasn’t even a thing when this series began. Also Tyler Stone’s motivations were rather underwhelming and Miguel didn’t get enough of a showdown with him. Granted, I guess you could argue said showdown already happened in Secret Wars 2099. He same applies to the Sinister Six 2099, especially Venom given that he is Miguel’s brother from another mother. Furthermore the explanation for who Aisa is, was a tad underwhelming but not illogical as I’ll address later.

Now for positives.

For starters it’s funny that whilst this issue came out in like September 2017, it’s depiction of 2019 wasn’t that far off. The only things it a little wrong was that people aren’t as much into Pokemon Go! as they were in 2017 and Silk to my knowledge doesn’t operate in New York city anymore. But all of those are easily No. Prized so in theory this comic’s depiction of 2019 is actually canon. I think it basically HAS to be or else the Fist’s plan could still happen and Miguel would’ve prevented nothing. Although the Marvel.wiki says otherwise. But they aren’t always right.

My biggest point of praise is in regarding Gabri.

Maybe I was being dense, but I honestly didn’t figure out who he was until he stabbed Tyler Stone with a stinger like Tempest’s.

See, when these issues were coming out I obviously saw the covers of Miguel in his new suit alongside another Spider-Man 2099, one wearing the original red and blue 2099 costume. But I wasn’t paying enough attention to notice the red and blue costume was similar, yet clearly different to the original. I was thinking that it was simply Miguel from another universe, another timeline or another point in time, possibly playing off of the Edge of Spider-Verse issue with the alternate Miguels back in volume 2 issue #5.

But no...this is the son of Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of...well we don’t actually know what year he is from. He’s a time traveller and whilst he’s partnered up with his mother in 2019, he looks to be about Miguel’s age. Giving him a suit similar yet unique to his father’s, with his ‘cape’ evoking his mother’s wings and such was a nice touch. I think PAD in making him a time traveller adds just enough credibility to his powers too as some kind of future technology. I doubt we’ll see much more of this character, but damn I’d like to, even out of his outfit he seems pretty cool.

And if nothing else, I just like that Miguel has a legacy and got to KNOW that.

Another thing I really liked about the structure of the story essentially allowed for there to be two climaxes, one in the future of 2019 where Aisa was the final boss and one in the present of 2017 where Miguel got to settle his business.

Let’s talk briefly about Aisa. So she’s literally one of the Greek Fates. I found this underwhelming, but I can’t say it wasn’t a logical reveal. In fact it justifies the Medea story arc with Elektra as that in hindsight was putting Greek myth on the chessboard for PAD to use later.

In fact these last three issues can be looked at as PAD essentially treating elements across his 2010s Spidey 2099 run (or at least the issues that weren’t mandated events) as chess pieces that came into play here.

·         Back in volume 3 issue #1, Miguel referenced Peter, Silk and Miles being around to pick up his slack. Those 3 saved the civilians under mind control.

·         The Sinister Six and Tyler Stone obviously all showed up in the Sinister Six arc beginning in issue #10, and in particular Tyler was popping up sporadically since the Secret Wars mini

·         Strange 2099 with the help of Cap 2099 ultimately save Miguel’s life and they were showing up before and during Secret Wars

·         Tempest’s insect form was introduced back in v2 #11-12 and was critical to the climax of this story. In fact I love the poetry of Miguel and his father Tyler both dying via stingers, stingers passed down from mother to son no less

·         Sonny obviously was showing up on and off since Secret Wars

·         The Alchemax Prison is something that’s been lingering (and unfortunately was often ignored) since way back in v2 #5

·         I already explained the Greek myth angle

·         Man Mountain Marko has been building a grudge with Spidey since before issue v3 #10

In a sense it was rewarding seeing all this stuff come back into play for the climax, but it definitely could’ve been done better, in a more satisfying way. Frankly, if the Medea story had been cut to 2 issues tops we might’ve had an extra issue to fix some of this stuff.

The final thing I want to talk about is issue #25 specifically. I don’t know if this was intentional, but to me issue #25 read as PAD delivering a microcosm of Miguel.

In various scenes, organically strung together, we see different facets of his personality. The dives are not necessarily deep, but this one issue, for any faults you might find in it’s plot, speaks a lot to who Miguel O’Hara is as a person.

It’s light, it’s subtle but it tells you the cliffnotes.

He’s sarcastic.

He’s sardonic.

He’s not a murderer, but is willing to be violent, willing to kill.

He is on the side of the angels, but is absolutely not one of them.

He values family but they frustrate him.

He’s far from wholesome.

He’s willing to make the sacrifice play for what’s right, for what has to be done.

He faces his own destruction head on.

He has a cynical streak in him.

He’s got anger in him and acknowledges it can compromise him.

He’s smart, both in terms of scientific brilliance and tactical thinking.

Hell even the use of his powers and gadgets (we could include Lyla in that) get one last ride in this issue.

And it’s all capped off with him saving everyone at the cost of his lover, his child and his own life. Only for him to come back to the world he’s saved, his home and ring in the new yea, the new century in factr. 2099 is OVER at last!

But he doesn’t celebrate. But he also isn’t Peter Parker, so he doesn’t somberely mope. He just gets on with it acknowledging what he’s lost, what it was for and rolling his eyes at the fact that the good times aren’t going to last.

And yet...it’s not depressing.

THAT’S Miguel O’Hara to me.

Over all, this arc 100% could’ve been better. But as a fond farewell to the character, possibly even being the last time his creator will ever write him, it was a Hell of a ride.

And for that ride, I thank Peter David and Will Sliney.

[heartbxnd-blog]

@alolua has sent: Out of all the Mortys ( Pokeani, Pokespe, Soul Silver, Silver, Crystal, Modern, even Mortys from some of your verses ) who is your favorite and why ??

// O shit whaddup!!

Here is the TLDNTR version:

All time favorite design: Gen 2 (more specifically Golden boy’s one)

Small acknowledgement/shoutout to Spaceworld 1997′s Morty/Enoki

From my verses: Ancient!AU

Read more for the explanations!

OKAY SO, I said once and I will forever keep saying this. But good old gen 2 (gsc) Morty will forever be my favorite design that he has ever had!

IMO the one interation that makes justice to this look, HAS to be the Golden boys manga.

It reeks with creativity- the late 90′s early 2000′s looks and daring, likely because at the time the old designs didn’t follow a format/pattern- they didn’t solely rely on stereotypes in order to convey what type the trainer specializes at. For as silly- and eye soring itburnsIcan’tlie non sensical it may look like to us, it did convey in its own way some kind of depth to the character- as in ‘Hey, our lives are a whole lot more than what we train’ especially for Morty who is found at the so-called heart of Johto’s history.

Off topic- but I feel like it still is relevant and worth to bring up: looking back at the other gym leaders designs of this time- I guess this isn’t an outlandish idea or way to look at it. But with the exception of Chuck (maybe Clair and Whitney) based solely off on their looks, you can’t quite tell what the Leaders are supposed to be specialized at. Some might say this is bad? But you have their names, and that’s where their specialty is given out (...IDK how a flower named jasmine- is related to Steel but....).

Or u know maybe they ran out of time? System limitations? An accident? I could be looking too deep into this. BUT look at all of these conclusions you can draw out of this “flawed” design, this is why the more I look at these older designs- the more I feel like they just dumbed out a lot in the Galar’s gym leaders and characters so far Im really disappointed.

Also just gonna slide in here his in game sprite- that was dope.

This color scheme deserves a brief shoutout

This is going to be short, I swear! But with the release of the beta designs, I just couldn’t get over how DRASTICALLY different yet FAMILIAR at the same time he looked.

He is most certainly different from his gen 2 looks, but it is so fun to realise-that his modern looks actually took his beta design as the base for this redesign.

It’s no wonder Morty’s changes definetely felt like they were amongst the most drastic ones in the remixes.

Also worth mentioning that- since his name at this point in the development was Enoki, some pople speculate that he might have been a poison type trainer instead! Or even a dark type trainer- which because of the kanji representing ‘ki’ it means demon.

// So this leads me to my favorite version of Morty (which tbh... Can I even still consider him Morty by this point?), his ancient AU setting- which finds itself around the time when the Burned tower incident happened in the pokemon world’s history.

At this point in this verse’s development- it’s hard for me to outright call him Morty, because he has become an entity of its own.

This is Matsuba- Morty’s direct ancestor (great grandpa of 300 years in the past). Morty is the descendant from one of the numerous children he had in his lifetime, this is where he inherited the clairvoyance abilities from. Which obviously- he isn’t aware of such lineage.

It’s funny to see how in his conception- very early on, it was just one of the countless verse me and @dragonmasterlance came up with- it was just meant to be a silly feelsy Lance/Morty AU nothing else. But- it grew on me, and it became such a neat and nice compliment to Morty- now I can’t see him without Matsuba being a piece of his story.

I thank a lot @auraguardians & @thetreeofbeginning for helping me on this one, for using this AU so helping me to flesh out this verse.

[makomaragi]

left over thing from femslash february. it’s long and dumb but idk.  a prequel to another fic I wrote last year. i’m just kind of over tweaking this lol 

prompt: jewelry

pairing: juniper/fennel (scientificshipping), but burnet/kukui are there for a little bit

rating: um pg they talk about sex for a second

fandom: pokemon

Research never seemed to take her to Alola as often as it did other regions, and after having been there for nearly a month, she wasn’t sure why. The region was teaming with all sorts of relevant topics, the time she had spent there not feeling like enough. Professor Juniper had gone to help excavate a new tar pit that was found near the sea, hoping that what they might find would help her with some theories that linked to other fossil Pokemon in other regions. She had heard for years now that Alola was a heartland for fossils – found so often that they were being sold in shops to trainers. Her own theory was that it had to do with the volcanoes and how the island itself developed millions of years ago, collecting samples of the dirt, rocks and fossils to take back home and test.

Packing up the camp site always left her feeling a bit nostalgic, having spent most of her childhood and teenage years backpacking with her father. She could probably untie and repack a tent with her eyes closed by this point, though, not everyone enjoyed the camping aspect of it as much as she did.

Most of the research team had left by that point, Professor Juniper and a few others lagging behind to tie up a few loose ends. She booked herself a hotel for the final few nights in Alola, giving her a chance to have a steady internet connection and a quiet place to get organized before returning to Unova. It worked out, and she was much obliged to meet her old friend Burnet and her husband for lunch in Konikoni City the next day.

She had kept herself holed up in her hotel room the entire time since checking in, seated at the desk that morning, reviewing her scribbled notes and attempting to make more sense out of them by typing them out on her laptop in a more final report. She still had hours to kill until lunch – too close to the time to eat, but plenty of time to do something else.

There was the lingering feeling of wanting to scope out the town. It would give her a chance to stretch her legs, hoping her body would adjust before the long flight home. She had been aching after sleeping in a tent for the past few weeks, but she had hoped taking a few days off from physical labor and sleeping in a proper bed would help ease it.

Bringing something back home for Fennel had crossed her mind several times. She tried her best to pick something up for her in her travels most of the time, but this time especially seemed to carry some weight. Fennel had been upset that she would be gone for nearly a month as it was and they hadn’t been able to speak much while she was gone. When they did speak, Fennel was her usual bubbly self, but the feigned distance and sadness in her voice couldn’t be ignored.

Several flyers and signs had caught her eye in the time she had been in town of a jewelry shop run by one of the Island Kahunas. She had known that Alola ran a different league system than many other regions, and wasn’t sure exactly what the Kahuna’s job was, but it was something to do with trainers. The professor felt a tad embarrassed not being as well versed in Alolan culture as she was elsewhere. She had met the Elite Four in other regions numerous times, some more than others, but felt she should at least know the names of those with the title in the region she was visiting, at least making an effort to introduce herself.

It was said that money couldn’t buy happiness, but higher end jewelry would at least put some sort of sparkle in Fennel’s eyes when she gave it to her.

The shop was small and rather quaint, Aurea not even sure it was open until she pulled on the wooden door handle. “Hi, there. I was told to come speak to Olivia?”

“You’re looking at her,” the younger woman looked up from her spot at the counter, raising an eyebrow. “I know you from somewhere.”

“Could be.”

“You’re a Pokemon professor, aren’t you?”

“Professor Juniper,” she held out her hand as a more formal greeting with the Kahuna.

“I’m Olivia. Island Kahuna and proud member of the Alola Elite Four,” shaking her hand before gesturing to the jewelry under the glass countertop. “So, what are you looking for today? Something for yourself, or a gift for someone?”

“A gift, I think.”

“For your wife, I’d assume.”

Aurea’s brow raised at this.

“You’re wearing a wedding ring and I don’t have anything in the way of men’s stuff. Besides, I know that you’re with that scientist chick,” the kahuna continued. “Any certain occasion? Let me guess. You’ve been away from home for a while, and want to get her a souvenir.”

“Something like that, I guess.” It was all extremely presumptuous of the girl, but she also supposed that she had an eye for these types of things when it came to her jewelry business. She was also sure that Kukui had something to do with all of her previous knowledge of her, somehow. Though being a Pokemon professor did technically make her a public figure. Olivia had already known who she was, after all. Nothing she said had been a secret in any way, and she supposed word had gotten around that she was visiting the region and had been there for a few weeks.

“What does she like? Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, what?” The young kahuna started pulling some shelves around under the display, pulling a few of them on to the glass counter top.

Aurea had a pretty good idea of what Fennel’s tastes were, it was easy enough – anything pink, purple, or shiny. None of which helped her narrow it down. There was a lot of jewelry in front of her. Fancy jewelry was never something that interested the professor on her own, never wearing much of it herself. Her late mother had left quite a bit for her, most of which she had given to Fennel. Fennel knew what all of the jewels were, what they meant, and which ones to wear with which outfits.

There was one piece that caught her eye, though. A small crystal looking, heart shaped pendant set on a silver chain that didn’t look at all like the other pieces, somehow. “This necklace is interesting.”

“Ah, this one. I don’t have many left.” Olivia picked it up and set it down on a cloth on the table to provide a better look at it. “We can only make them one time a year and sometimes not at all if the temperature wasn’t low enough.”

“Why is that?”

“The Vulpix shed their coat, leaving behind these crystals that look like ice. They can only be made and found here in Alola! It’s my shop’s specialty.”

“So it’s Pokemon dandruff?”

“Er, sorta. But it makes for some nice jewelry, don’t you think?”

“I guess.” She couldn’t pretend to be as enthusiastic as Olivia was over it, because she simply didn’t get it. Fennel would like it, though. “I’ll take that one, then.” Maybe she would save it for a special occasion, even if she didn’t know for what yet. It was expensive enough to warrant a birthday or anniversary gift. Or maybe she would just give it to her as planned.

Olivia picked up the necklace, finding a box for it in a bin behind the counter somewhere. “You probably know Kukui and Burnett then, huh?” she mused as she looked around for something else.

“Oh, yes.”

“They’re really nice people. He comes in here a lot. I made her engagement ring, you know,” she continued, stuffing the box in a bag and taking a few of her business cards off of the counter to add to the contents of the bag. “Well, you’re all set, then.”

“Thanks. Let me know if you’re ever in Unova, alright?”

Olivia gave a cheerful nod to this, waving in the same tone as the professor saw herself out.

Olivia was friendly enough, if not a bit bold. The professor could see she and Fennel becoming fast friends should they ever meet.

With what started with time to spare ended in her being late now. Kukui and Burnet were already seated at the restaurant, them noticing her before she could scan the room.

“Aurea Juniper!” Burnet pulled her in to a hug before she had any time to react. “It’s been forever!”

“Professor,” she extended her hand to him, only to be pulled in to another awkward hug.

“Alola!”

“How are you? How’s Fennel?”

“Fine, it’s all fine,” Professor Juniper barely had time to take her seat across from them and pick up the menu before the questions started.

“You know, I really wish she had come with you. She could of stayed with us, we’d have been happy to show her around.”

“I know, but she’s been very busy herself. So have you guys, for that matter.”

“I’m sure we’re all always busy. But we should make time for friends, right?” Kukui set down his menu to add. “I bet she’d love it here!”

“Fennel’s never been to Alola. She’s been wanting to come here as long as I’ve known her. She really wanted to go for our honeymoon, but then she changed her mind when she saw how busy it gets in the summer.”

“You’re both always welcome, you know that,” Burnet repeated.

“Maybe you should come back to Unova. Let us know when you come to visit your family.”

“Aurea and Fennel were roomies in college,”Burnet started, turning to her husband. “Then they got married.”

“That’s not...the exact progression,” Aurea attempted to hide her face in the menu, despite that she already knew what she wanted.

Yet Burnet continued, seeming fueled by her friend’s embarrassment. “Fennel had a thing for her for a long time.”

“I’m not the one that went to Alola for a research assignment and came back showing off that rock on your hand,” she attempted to direct the attention off of herself and on to the other couple.

“No, but Fennel showed me the one you got for her.” Burnet shrugged off Juniper’s comment, even if it was true. “They were together for, like, 10 years before they got married. Had a house and a lab and everything. Aurea thought they were being secretive, didn’t you?”

“It’s beside the point now.”

Aurea was certain that her old friend was only telling her husband this now in an attempt to embarrass her, and it was working. Surely she had told him all of this before. Even if it was the case, he was laughing. Burnet had actually known Fennel first, and introduced them in college. She was also confident Fennel had confided in her with other details of their relationship through the years, and the professor was perfectly happy not knowing what.

“Speaking of rocks, you were at Olivia’s, huh?” Kukui gestured to the bag that sat next to Aurea.

“Yeah. Thought I’d introduce myself to the Kahuna. She’s a very sweet girl.”

“But you bought something, eh?”

“I, um...” revealing the contents to them would only result in more attention on herself, which she did not want. But maybe it was best to get it over it. Picking up the bag, she handed it across the table for the couple to inspect. “Be careful with it. It’s for Fennel.”

The two scientists had opened it and gazed upon it for a short time, both smiling and handing it back quicker than Aurea thought they might.

“You did good. She’s going to like it,” Burnet had some sort of sly smile. “It’s just hard to imagine you in a jewelry store picking that out for her.”

She had never been so thankful to have a waitress approach and take their orders.  

Their lunch was nice at least. Burnet couldn’t open her mouth to embarrass her if they were all eating, even if it had all been in good fun.

“I hope that next time you’re here we’ll be able to spend more time together than just lunch. Unless I make it to Unova by then,” Burnet gave her one more hug upon their departure.

“It was great seeing you guys, really.”

“Tell Fennel to come visit, with or without you.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at that. “We’ll see.”

Aurea didn’t know why she felt such a rush to get back to her hotel, besides to finish up some paperwork so she had less to do once arriving home. Fennel would want her to take the next few days off, and she probably would, if only to enjoy being in her own space for a few days and not hotel rooms and camp sites.

She was trying to wait until it was late enough in the day in Unova to call Fennel. If it was 2 am in Alola, it would be around 10 am or so in Unova. Or something like that.

Fennel quickly answered the video call, though she seemed a bit distracted. “Aurea, hi!”

The professor couldn’t help but smile upon seeing the other’s face on the screen. “I figured I’d call you at the lab because you’d be on the computer. You’re not busy, are you?”

“Not really,” Fennel started, seemingly organizing some papers around her computer desk. “But I can talk for a little bit.”

“We’re done in Konikoni City. I’m actually in a hotel. I’ll be home tomorrow evening.”

“I can’t wait. I miss you so much. And when you get home, we’re going to have sex all night. And we can take a bubble bath, and drink some wine, but mostly I just want to touch you again.”

“Is….is anyone there….with you…?” the professor’s face was definitely turning red, not that Fennel seemed at all alarmed by this or what she was saying to cause it.

“Oh, yeah. My assistant’s here, and Bianca. Bianca, Marie, say hi to Aurea!” Fennel picked her laptop up and spun her chair around, turning the screen so that they could see it across the room. The professor gave a hesitant wave to the other two women,  both who gave over exaggerated waves in return. They both seemed rather occupied, only looking up when Fennel prompted them to. Thankfully blissfully unaware. She really had been gone for too long if the dream scientist was being so forward with her.

“I had lunch with Burnet and Kukui this afternoon,”  she attempted to change the subject.

“How are they? I’m glad you were able to take time away from looking at rocks to be a normal person and socialize. When are we going to go to Alola? I miss Burnet,” Fennel had looked down at her papers again, throwing some off to the side but not wavering in her conversation.

“They’re fine. They’d be glad to see you, too. I’d be happy to take you there sometime.”

“We’re about due for a vacation, I think,” Fennel gave a wistful sigh. “But mostly, I just want you home with me. I’m so bored without you here.”

“You want me home because you’re bored?”

“Mostly, yeah,” the quick response met with giggles on both behalves.

“Well, my plane should get in tomorrow around 8. I’ll text you when I’m on my last transfer.”

“Hm...will you take a few days off to spend with me before you get all wrapped up in your research stuff?”

“I suppose.”

Fennel was still smiling, but seemed suddenly alarmed by something off camera. “I need to go, I’m sorry. There’s a trainer call coming through. I’ll see you tomorrow, I love you!”

Aurea didn’t have time to repeat the sentiments before Fennel had hung up the call. She’d rather Fennel tend to her work than ignore trainers for her sake. They would have time to catch up and plan vacations, especially now that she had promised Fennel a few days without her research coming between them.

They hadn’t spent but more than a few minutes speaking, but the yawn that crept up on the professor reminded her of how late it was. She would cram in as much note taking as she could before the hour was up, and force herself to sleep at some point. A night’s rest and a few plane rides were all that stood between her and being reunited with her beloved wife.

[mrultra100]

1000th Post Y’all!

Well how ‘bout that? 1000 posts of my random and ridiculous shenanigans! It’s been a wild ride folks, and I couldn’t be more happy for all of your support! (And to this, that I started this blog for fun back last summer) To celebrate, here are my top 10 favorite posts!

10. https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/177268053221/diosmiles (by @diosmiles)

This mash-up of “Interior Crocodile, Alligator” and the SSBU version of “Gangplank Galleon” was made when King K. Rool was revealed as one of the game’s newcomers. When it may be short, it does have a nice rhyme to it. Seriously thou, the updated version of the Kremling King’s theme is fitting for his long awaited return in Smash Ultimate.

9. https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/178806537791/amtrax-squigglydigg-new-bendy-and-the-ink (by both @squigglydigg and @amtrax)

Another music one. Out of all the fan-made BATIM songs out there, “Welcome Home” might be my all time favorite of the bunch, with the lyrics, voice acting, etc, Hailey, Austin, and the gang really outdid themselves with this one, especially at the last verse of the song.

8.https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/175851041991/cookievampiress-mrultra100-asked-me-to-draw (By @cookievampiress)

Behold ladies and gents (If you remember this one) the very first art request I ever sent! (And also the first V-Twin request at that) Since the first time I since “Fangs a Lot Johnny” (A Johnny Test  season 5 episode), the Vampire Twins (Especially Vampire Mary) have climbed onto the ranks of my all time favorite characters. There’s just something I love about evil goth-like versions of certain cartoon characters, and since I love vampires, this ain’t no exception. 

Though I don’t like to share personal info or complain, for some reason, Cookie decided to block me shortly after the request was done. I could have upsetted her over something, and I wish in the near future, I can speak with her again to see what happened. Again tho, I’m not big on controversy, but I wanted to point that out. Let’s move on!

7. https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/179708341611/mexican64-so-two-major-things-happened (By @mexican64)

This piece was made towards Piranha Plant’s reveal as a fighter in Smash, and our first meeting with Alastor in Hazbin Hotel. If there’s something that the 2 have is common, that would be those sharp smiles they have. More points for adding the visual elements of the Radio Demon onto the carnivorous flora, Especially the ears!

6. https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/178498693031/bogleech-i-didnt-even-give-gooseworx-any (Made for @bogleech by Gooseworx)

As you may know, “Awful Hospital” happens to be my favorite web-comic, and that’s coming from a guy, who’s not big on stuff like “Homestuck” and all that. Nonetheless, AH could always used it’s own theme that captures the twisted and bizarre feel of the series, and what other that the extremely talented Gooseworx? (Goose also does music for the aforementioned Hazbin Hotel btw) As Bog stated, this this also count as Dr. Phage’s personal theme, very fitting for him as he is my favorite AH character.

5. https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/182018074106/seriously-tho-its-been-lil-more-than-2-years-at (By yours truely!)

Outdated meme aside,not to be rude, Did anyone noticed the similarities at all? Guzzlord basically what happen if you feed Vaka-Waka some experimental steroids and throw him in a another dimension. And to make this more loco-crazy, the Mixel came a little more than a year before the Pokemon (Mixels Series 6 was released on October 1, 2015, and Pokemon Sun and Moon was released on Novenber 18, 2016), weird, right?

4. https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/180606173256/retrograde64-art-request-for-mrultra100-heres (By @retrograde64)

At the time of this one, I was getting a lil’ tired of sending V-Twin art requests, since there’s now so many of ‘em, so I figured, why not “stretch” (I ain’t sorry for that pun) the boundaries of what I sent as art requests, and try new ideas? If you’re wondering, my favorite of the Flexers (and the Mixels in general) is Tentro.

3. https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/182991618561/here-is-it-the-favorite-character-bingo-that-no (By me again, of course, and this was created by @ trash--senpai )

This was created by a good friend of mine (@trash--senpai) and might count as the weirdest request I ever sent. When I asked her to create this one, she was a bit confused by it, considering that she’s a artist, this was strange to her, nonethless, she not only got mine done, she also made one for herself. (I told her that she can make one for herself when she worked on mine)

2. https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/182810505846/kirby-after-the-events-of-world-of-light-this (Done by me, based on @terminalmontage)

This is the only drawing of mine on this list, cuz let’s face it, my art skills suck donkey dongs! (More on that later tho) This one was made for Valentine’s Day, and as well all know, celebrating Valentines is killing world-destroying gods together with your loved ones. Sigh... Kirby makes that part too easy!

https://mrultra100.tumblr.com/post/175498459271/draculabrides-fangs-a-lot-johnny-you-can (By @draculabrides)

To finish this list, let’s go back to where it all began. One summer night on July 3, 2018, a certain fella in his mid-teens (I.E, me!) want to create a fandom based blog on a website notorious for feminazis whining about Steven Universe and “political correctness”, Eugh. Anyways, the first post (Or reblog if you will) was a collection of gifs featuring a certain sparkly undead duo who went on to becoming the mascots of said blog.

Welp, guess that all of them, and that’s only 10 posts out of 1000 posts and reblog that I made in almost the last year. To all of my friends and the followers who were crazy enough to follow a fella who’s obsessed with cartoon vampire girls like me ( @good-guy-is-alive , @naty-js , @odreiwa , @captain-animatordreamer ,etc) thanks for everything! Also, I plan to start digital art sometime in the near future, and I might leave this blog to start anew after some practice (and with a whole new name AND look to boot) Don’t get me wrong, I’m not leaving here, I might keep this blog as a memory. I’m Mr. Ultra, the Fandom Jacka** of the Digital Blue Hills of Hell, and I hope you have a nice day. See you later, and “Stay Ultra Folks!”

[stageonmay]

                PERFORMANCE ROUND: MAY’S LAMENT

Pokemon:

Blaziken: Fire Spin, Sky Uppercut, Brave Bird, Blaze Kick

Beautifly: Silver Wind, Morning Sun, Psychic, Aerial Ace

Venusaur: Vine Whip, Petal Dance, Solar Beam

Shinx: Wild Charge, Double Team, Scary Face

Music:

Jack’s Lament – Vitamin String Quartet

Outfit Reference:

By Whitley ( @imbicilite​ )

Word Count:

Without Intro: 2205

With Intro: 2645

Notes:

Every use of/reference to a move is Bolded. The first time a move is referenced in a combo it is BOLDED AND ALL-CAPS. 

Click here to read on Google Docs.

Tagging: @allhalllows && @heartists

introduction

“I wanted you guys to know…”

May smiled, pausing in her speech as she focused on putting the last touches on Venusaur’s giant leaves. He was so tall to her; even on her tiptoes she was stretching, and for a second she almost forgot she was talking. “...There!” Dusting off her hands, May took a proud look at Venusaur. He really did look the part!

“Anyway, I wanted you guys to know that no matter what happens today? I’m really grateful I got to experience all of this with you!”

Her smile relaxed, a little bit contemplative and every bit sentimental. It was easy to get drawn into the big orange gourd Venusaur had been painted into. His leaves and plant were now entirely green--as close to a pumpkin as she’d probably ever see a Pokemon be without stitching. But as proud as she was at who seemed to be the star, May made sure to catch every one of their eyes. Blaziken stood firm, his body now greyed and looking so convincingly like stone after all of the speckling that she had surprised even herself. He was making a fantastic gargoyle, especially with the added wings. Shinx was just too cute for words--easily the simplest to paint, since he was pretty much just in all white except for the yellow tip of his tail that she had painted red. And Beautifly. Unlike their last performance, the detailed stitching and patches of blue, pink, and yellow May had filled in her natural pattern with made her definitely look like the counterpart to May’s skeletal outfit. She really was gorgeous with just a touch of creepy, and yeah--maybe she wouldn’t get more bonus points this time, but she was proud of their work. This performance, she was sure of it, would stand on its own.

“Seriously, it’s been so fun learning new things with you all. I know I’ve been distracted by all of the stuff going on backstage, but in a few minutes, it’ll be just us. Just like what we know and love best, right?”

The team, all four of them, clearly agreed--piping up vocally and even bouncing in excitement as they awaited their cue. So May couldn’t help but smile--couldn’t help allowing her insecurities to take a backseat for a little while. Besides, she couldn’t call herself the trainer if she was doing all of the freaking out--even if it was a little in-character for being sort of a girly Jack Skellington.

“Alright, then,” she breathed, pulling a smile onto her painted face. The backstage lights were flashing. It was finally their turn. “Let’s go have some fun!”

performance

To the audience, it may have seemed very much that May was reprising her first performance. The stage was dark, and were it not for the fact that white practically glowed anyway, all four of them would’ve been totally enveloped by the unlit stage. For now though, only the slight wagging of Shinx’s mostly-white body, the skeleton hands that seemed to float in the air, and bits of May’s white makeup could be made out. Everything else--the twelve piles of PETALS that circled most of the cast; the fact that Blaziken stood a few paces behind the rest of the team; even the iconic white pinstripes of May’s long-tailed crop top were hidden from the audience.

And so their stage was set, and the performers waited for their music to begin.

Although May had chosen an instrumental cover, she knew that the four opening notes of Jack’s Lament would be instantly recognizable to much of the crowd. And it was hardly her intent to keep the connection between piece in performance a massive secret. As measures began to pass them by, Blaziken took carefully practiced leaps between the piles of flowers that Venusaur had laid out prior to their performance.  With every BLAZE KICK inflamed step, a pile of stilled Petal Dance was set to flame, lighting up the stage and, with the assistance of the stage lighting itself, revealing the performers.

But May, her Zero, her pumpkin and her Sally would not begin to move until a silence fell onto the stage. As Beautifly took perch on May’s head, Venusaur, with practiced timing, lowered the vines from his VINE WHIP to May’s level, allowing her to hold each Vine as if they were a hand.

The motions were gentle, allowing May to flow right into the easy bowing of the first verse of the song. Venusaur may not have been moving much, but his Vine Whip was guiding May’s waltz as though he were any other lead dancer. Not that they were starting off with anything too fancy. Yes, May’s thick tulle skirt flared as she twirled, and the tails of her coat fluttered when they picked up speed, but if she were to move too quickly, Beautifly’s carefully timed flaps of her wings would go unnoticed, and May would never try to upstage her princess.

Of course, simplicity could only stay interesting for so long. Two plucks of the strings popped over the music, and Venusaur gently lifted May off of the ground; her Shinx, who had been faithfully following her along, jumping into the air as though to try to reach her and, in particular, the fluttering Beautifly who was now using the glow of her PSYCHIC attack to highlight the wings that adorned May’s head.

And so a rise and fall seemed to happen. As the music repeated itself, so did May and her Pokemon, starting off slow and low to the ground, picking up into the air when the music did the same.

This phrase, though, would not end on the exact same note. Shinx, excited for his turn in the spotlight, built up a spark around its body, soon becoming so encased in the yellow glow of WILD CHARGE that merely his silhouette remained visible to the naked eye. And yet he would only Charge upstage a few paces, stopping dead in his tracks to throw a SCARY FACE towards the crowd, instead. Blaziken too, who had waited patiently for another time to shine, charged forward alongside Shinx, blowing a controlled FIRE SPIN right at the Scary Face that Shinx had created.

On its own, the flame attack was plenty poised to disintegrate Scary Face and blow right into the crowd. But Beautifly would launch off of May’s head, catching both moves with PSYCHIC instead.

The power of the move spoke for itself. Scary Face and Fire Spin alike were both aglow in magenta, the mouth Shinx had created opening wider to make room for the fire Blaziken had provided to fill it. The face was no longer just Scary; it posed a warm threat to the front row and, seemingly, to May herself, who had become hidden (along with Shinx and Venusaur) behind the suspended display.

May, though, would be fine. With a wave of her hand, and Venusaur’s well-placed moan, she stepped through the now-parting flames, untouched on the strength of Beautifly’s control alone. Still though, Beautifly was only one Pokemon, and May hardly expected her to hold onto the two moves forever. Once she was safely through, May threw her gloved hand into the air, signifying to Beautifly that it was time to move forward. And it was clear, this time, that Beautifly was putting all of her might into the Psychic attack. Her fluttering cry could be heard over the music as teeth and flame alike crunched into each other; a somewhat crude display of the mouth eating the flames that was immediately compressed until the three moves exploded into harmless sparkles.

And with that first big display passed, May allowed herself to exhale. Blaziken would offer her a hand as Venusaur offered her a VINE, and she would gladly accept both, allowing the two to guide her up to the top of Venusaur’s head. (A display that might have been boring on its own had Shinx not been circling them with WILD CHARGE again. And although Beautifly would now perch on May’s head once more, she was far from done with her part in the performance.

Again, Beautifly was putting PSYCHIC to good use. This time though, it was clear the task was less work; her voice chanting in sing-song along to the music as she lifted the very electricity off of Shinx’s back and created a simple circle with it in the air behind May and Venusaur. And now that the stencil was set, Beautifly lifted off of May’s head to fill the circle with the light of MORNING SUN; perhaps an ironic choice for a Halloween-themed performance, but the perfect one to fill their shining moon with appropriately pale yellow light.

So now, May was perfectly poised to make her announcement--to sing along to the song that she was ‘The Pumpkin King’ in her native tongue, extending her arms on each exact beat. But, if she knew one thing about anything ever, it was never to boast for too long.

Ever trusting, May leaned back into Blaziken’s arms. He had been standing, spotting, ready to catch her; and now it was time to actually do so--to twirl her gently before setting her back onto solid ground. Soon, say for the butterfly hovering over May’s head, everyone was in a straight line again.

Now, finally, it was time to show the world that Beautifly was more than just the Pokemon that made things float. Shinx, whose voice began to echo several times across the auditorium, used DOUBLE TEAM to launch many copies of himself into the air. And Beautifly, not once losing focus of the prop she was responsible for, dodged each duplicate with seeming ease, careful not to destroy a single one.

No, destroying the duplicates was Venusaur’s job, and much like Beautifly, Venusaur was finally getting to show off what it could do with its VINE WHIP. Now he actually used it as an attack, skillfully popping duplicates without so much as grazing Beautifly.

Yet despite the more aggressive show above them, May and Blaziken simply waltzed. No fancy flaming steps, no throwing into the air or secondary attacks--just a waltz, May and her very first Pokemon, an appropriate moment for just the two of them even if no one else would get it.

Above them though, the duplicates were quickly dwindling. It was when they were down to the last few Shinx copies that May and Blaziken parted, allowing Blaziken to launch himself into the air, fist extended to SKY UPPERCUT the ring of electricity into nothing but fizzling pops. Shinx--the real Shinx--fell into May’s arms just as his attack disappeared into the air, an easy trust fall for a Pokemon as young and hyper as this one.

Although that drop was apparently easy, May was coming up in the most nerve-wracking parts of their performance. Arms hugging tightly around Shinx, May performed her own trust fall into Venusaur’s vines, the two VINE WHIPs showing surprising strength as they easily caught the pair. With the help of Beautifly’s shining SILVER WIND, Venusaur flipped the pair almost as high into the air as his vines (and the stage) would allow, ensuring the audience that the show was hardly over.

May, for as many times as she had practiced this, could feel her heart trying to burst out of her ribcage. If she didn’t have Shinx for this part, she wasn’t sure how she would’ve done it--she was up SO HIGH! But Shinx’s bubbly laughter helped May remember the fun things about this part of the performance, like dipping Shinx and seeing his wide, toothy smile, or hearing the way he chuckled his name when she tossed him even higher into the air. (Blaziken, once again, was ready to spot them, cleverly disguising his precaution by circling Venusaur with a simple display of his BRAVE BIRD attack that really showed off those wing-props of his.)

Finally, after having tossed and caught Shinx a couple of times, May hugged him close again; a quick goodbye before she threw him seemingly at nothing towards center stage.

If May didn’t one-thousand-percent trust that Beautifly was going to catch him with her PSYCHIC, she never could have done such a thing. But Shinx was hardly allowed to fall, and he pawed at the air in amusement as he cause caught by the purple light of Beautifly’s attack. Usually, someone would use Psychic to stop someone in their tracks and then throw them around a bit to do damage. But today, Beautifly and Shinx danced in the sky like partners, May taking the backseat by simply gesturing to the happy dancers. Who said Sally only got to dance with Jack, anyway?

But the more the two danced, the closer, May knew, she was getting to her stunt. Maybe people knew the song really well. Maybe they knew that around this time, Jack started singing about how no one could scream like he could, and so it made sense that Venusaur loosened his Vines and let May ‘free fall’ back towards earth--Maybe it made sense that May’s own scream shook the stage.

But if the audience didn’t know that--and there were probably plenty who didn’t--the girl probably seemed like she had lost her mind. Because the music briefly paused, allowing her scream to echo a bit over nothing and give people some time to process what they had just seen--to wonder if she was okay.

Of course May was okay, though. It may not have been her favorite stunt in the world, but Venusaur would never drop her, and the fact that she was draped across his head now was entirely for show.

But May couldn’t leave them in suspense for too long. She could barely leave herself in suspense. Her arms were still working, right? She hadn’t passed out or anything? No, the fact that she stood up (with a bit of Blaziken’s help) and managed to make her cue of drawing a smile in the air with her hands proved pretty definitively that she wasn’t harmed--she hoped.

At least, if nothing else, they were headed to the big finale. And May loved the big finale--everybody really started working together here. Venusaur, knowing it would take time, began to charge SOLAR BEAM. Shinx, ready to make a new show out of an old trick, began to charge up his WILD CHARGE. And as soon as Solar Beam was released, Blaziken and Beautifly would get the chance to show off their aerial skills. Beautifly, truly the master multi-tasker of this performance, took off with AERIAL ACE, using PSYCHIC to drag a trail of electricity along behind her. Opposing her, Blaziken launched another SKY UPPERCUT, this time lighting his feet with BLAZE KICK to leave a flaming trail of his own. Together, they wove around the pillar of light that Solar Beam had created, clearly headed for the same point as the original Beam of light began to fade out.

As the two reached the top, May picked up Shinx so they could enjoy the show together. Beautifly, making great use of the electricity she had borrowed from her partner, used Psychic to push the sparks into the air above her. And Blaziken, showing off what he did best, angled himself to Kick the ball of electricity dead in the center, capping off their piece with the kind of flashy display of faux-fireworks that were signature to these kinds of shows.

Finally, the music was starting to dwindle into the kind of whisper it had opened with. The two airborne Pokemon touched down, and as the music died out, May gestured to her team, effectively timing them for their bow.

That was it--they were done. Everything now was up to the judge and the audience. But May could safely say this about her performance: they really did have fun.

[infragments]

stage name: sabrina name: natsume hirohata (廣幡家 ナツメ) age: twenty six gender: cis female birthday: october 31st hometown: celadon city, kanto - > fuchsia city, kanto - > saffron city, kanto occupation: saffron city gym leader

physical:

eye color: yellow hair color: blue black height: five feet five inches physique: slim, slightly underweight

personality:

positive traits: eloquent, perceptive, adaptable neutral traits: introverted, intelligent, intense negative traits: rebellious, misleading, antisocial

personality stats compared to main verse:            [ - ] 100 pts. anger            [ + ] 25 pts. agreeable/understanding            [ + ] 25 pts. personable/approachable             [ + ] 25 pts. cooperation            [ + ] 50 pts. happiness             [ + ] 15 pts. morality  

biography:     warning: implied child abuse, implied drug abuse, human trafficking.

You were found on the streets of Celadon City, bruises littered your body from head to toe, yet the glare you gave was what attracted their attention. There was a sense of sheer determination, so unlike that of your birth parents, who’s minds were lolling in the corner, painful to listen.

Your little hands would always find themselves covering your ears and attempting to block them, but it didn’t seem like it was coming from there but inside your mind.

You were four years old and with an empty belly when you were indoctrinated into the Team … all for a few coins to pay off the debts of your parents, but you didn’t seem to mind. No, you were interested in what they had in store for you, but Team Rocket wasn’t a babysitting service. They threw you into one of their various fronts, an orphanage full of children raised to be Team members.

As you grow older, you see groups form. They don’t go near you, they’ve seen your scars and all the strange things that happen when you’re around. It’s not something you can help. Sometimes your power just leaks over and it’s not as though you have a pokemon to help you regulate it.

It’s your fifth birthday, and a premier ball is given to you. It doesn’t have anything in it, but it’s the first present you’ve gotten and you’re more than happy to have gotten something.

At some point during that day, you find an abra having escaped from the casino. Instead of trying to catch it, it catches you, touching the button on your pokeball and choosing you to be it’s partner. The Rocket supposed to be watching them keeps quiet, telling you to do the same, and you were more than happy to do so.

When you head home, which was simply a bunk in a room filled with beds, he came out his pokeball late at night. He’d ‘talk’ to you. He taught you about how you were the one who drew him in with your psychic powers, and that they were nothing to be ashamed of — just you needed to learn to use them more consciously.

You were six years old when the orphanage was attacked. A rival group attacked and your caretakers were easily taken down. People were screaming, and all you knew was that these strangers were not good people. It was easy to hide, to tell others to hide, even if you did not shy away yourself.

For some reason, you weren’t afraid. You stood your ground, feeling the stronger for some reason, holding your hands out in front of you. Your psychic powers weren’t strong enough to defeat them, but the barrier you put up—that was enough to stop them from harming you long enough for your savior to appear.

The long scarf was the first thing to catch your eye, fluttering around as the person it belonged to made quick work of the people that had attempted to take over the orphanage.

You clung onto the tail end of that scarf — and, then, you’ve found home.

Koga, you learned much later, was the name of your new guardian, and you’ve gained a younger sibling as well.

From then on, you began to look up to the older Rocket, wanting to be just like him. You might not have shared in his physical prowess as a ninja, but you’ve found ways to make up for it with your psychic powers and your pokemon.

You were well aware of your faulty parentage in the family; a fact never kept hidden by your supposed ‘aunt.’ But, it hadn’t bothered you in the least. The child was one you gladly looked after, almost like a little abra, only more physically rambunctious.

Time passed and things had changed.

It wasn’t long before you’ve rose through the ranks and got that agent status.

It wouldn’t be until you reached fourteen years old before you’ve thought about picking up another title. You’ve thought about it for a while, becoming a gym leader through the system, and the closest that wouldn’t arouse suspicion (and would be entirely beneficial for the Rockets) would be Saffron City. So, you went, inspecting what it had in store. They met you with leers that reminded you of the looks of the men over at another one of Team Rocket’s fronts, the slow eye movement from chest to bottom but never your face, never mind the words they threw back at you when you asked to challenge them.

At fourteen years old, you took over the fighting gym and downgraded it to a dojo. You still remember the look the other two gave you, more than proud of how far you’ve gotten.

Years had passed since then, and you’re older and stronger. You’ve shown your strength time and time again. The poof was in how you’d taken over the Saffron Gym, claiming it for yourself. It was a rare enough circumstance for others to remember for years to come. Regardless of the type advantage you had, it’s something you find yourself extremely proud.

Now that the pieces were set, it was time for the Team to act. It doesn’t go well, and time blurs.

And, suddenly, you’re an adult.

verse canons

koga ( @fansirvice )

will ( @phantompsychic )