#*squints* i think thats all my headcanons for contests

[steel--fairy]

Worldbuilding Headcanons #3

contests and contest spectaculars! (hoenn specifically, sorry sinnoh)

contests were started in hoenn, in fallarbor. it was a community bonding activity for the small, agricultural town. the format was a bit different from modern contests. there was just the talent round, and it was a knockout format. people would be put into groups of four and use a move. whoever got the most applause would go on to the next round until there were only two people left.those two would then compete for five turns. whoever won best out of five was the ultimate winner.

it started off small, only between the people of fallarbor, but a few travellers spread word of this fun show and it grew into a whole spectacle people came from all over hoenn to watch. unofficial contests started popping up across the region, though none were as big or popular as fallarbors.

after a few years, someone stepped forward and made a committee to keep track of all the contests happening across the region and standardize the rules and prizes.

the former format continued for a while, but a major problem began to arise. it'd been known for a while after the initial boom, but ignored: the knockout style competition simply took too long for one sitting. it was fine for a small town or for a big once a year competition, but it was not as fun to sit all day for something more casual.

the contest committee got together and hashed out an entirely new way of doing contests. there wouldnt be just one free for all category, but five: cute, beautiful, tough, cool, and clever. people would have to tailor their moves to the category they were competing in. there would also be two rounds--the appeals round and the talent round.

the talent round was similar to the original format with four people using moves to impress the audience over five turns. the appeals round meanwhile was brand new and perhaps made to take advantage of the fact that contests were going to be filmed for tv. in the appeals round your pokemon (and later, it would be common for the trainer to join in as well) would perform a routine meant to embody their category to a panel of judges. it was the first round and only the best four would move on to the talent round.

this format worked well for a handful of years. too well, perhaps. their gamble with showing contests on tv was a huge success creating a second, even larger, boom in interest in contests. at the next committee get together, they announced the formation of four ranks: normal, great, ultra and master. if you won a ribbon in one of the ranks you'd be able to move on to the next for that specific category.

this has ended up being the basis of modern contests. however, a few of the top coordinators were unhappy. they were the big stars, the ones who had their own merchandise and fanbases. they didnt like how mundane even a master rank contest was. any contest hall (and nearly every major city and town in hoenn had one by this point) could put one on and any casual could win a master rank ribbon. they found it offensive to them, the ones who were trying to make coordinating into a full career.

thus, the contest spectaculars were born. they had the same format as a regular contest but were meant for professionals. unlike regular contests that were held whenever the contest hall wanted, contest spectaculars had a season like with sports. you needed to compete in specific contests over the course of the season in order to attain a decent enough regional ranking in order to participate in the grand festival at the end of the season. the winner of the grand festival would then win the title of hoenns top coordinator.

this separated the casual coordinators, the ones doing it for fun, from the professionals who made it a job. while it was difficult to get all the necessary ribbons, making it all the way to the contest spectacular level easily could make you rich and famous. lots of coordinators at this level also have jobs as idols or actors, adding even more to the image of a coordinator as something glamorous.

however it also attracts a lot of attention. paparazzi, invasive journalists, and rabid fans are a huge problem. this is especially a problem as a lot of major coordinators are minors. the contest committee does its best to minimize any contact between known gossipy reporters and minors but they cant do much if things happen outside of a contest hall. still, it's a common goal for kids and teens to become a top coordinator.

and of course, contests have spread from hoenn to other regions, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. sinnoh was one of the first and added several twists to the hoennian formula. most other regions adopted one or the other styles, hoennian or sinnohan. theres a bit of a rivalry between the two regions, even if coordinators from hoenn will regularly participate in sinnohan contests and vice versa.

in the end, contests are the most popular form of pokemon based entertainment in hoenn, even more so than professional battling in most years. the two's seasons even overlap a bit (contest spectaculars running from late august to early february and the professional battling circuit running from late january to early july) creating more of a rivalry. however, contests always seem to win out in hoenn, if only because it was started there.

[marsupial-tapir]

okay ANIMORPHS cooking headcanons, who can follow a recipe, who doesnt understand portion control, who sets pasta on fire

wow what a surprise i cannot believe u have requested this

take 3 on the cooking headcanons. U ASKED FOR IT

marco: remember how whenmarco was 11 his mum died and his dad fell into a major depressive episode andmarco unofficially became his own sole carer for 2 years? HA good times wellmarco knows how to cook. thats how he��s alive. he never viewed the task withmuch enthusiasm bc it was just like,, something that needed to be done,, (atleast some of the time. obviously 2 in 5 days it was just m&ms for dinner)and he’s got all his skills from trial-and-error and from watching the terribledaytime cooking shows that his dad watches, so he’s not an Artiste™ but hispractical skills are off the wall. he can make a shockingly palatable meal outof nothing but convenience-store canned items, jake’s lunch leftovers, andgently-expired condiments. also he is a MASTER when it comes to Secret KitchenTricks (many of which were cannily passed down to him by a forward-thinking evabefore she disappeared). the only person who knows about these talents this iscassie. one time he called her and she was like “im SORRY marco im distractedby this bacon disaster, i just put the olive oil in and its all going wrong”and marco’s like “well duh there’s your first problem. you dont FRY withOLIVE OIL cassie. thats why it SMOKES. use rice bran oil like the rest of us”and cassies like ???????? she never tells anyone bc she realises hes lowkeyembarrassed by the fact that he’s developed this as an Adaptive Survival skill,and when hes a kid he plays it down like nbd, but later on when he getsolder he starts to milk this talent for all it’s worth. hes like hang on…. thisshit is VALUABLE. that’s when his true culinary talents can blossom

jake: uworded this “who sets pasta on fire regularly” and my response to that is thatone (1) time jake did Not set the pasta on fire and it made marco cry realtears of joy. listen jake tries So Hard (because, in the spirit of being theUltimate Straight Ally Dadfriend and an All Round Decent Fella, he’s lowkeyaware of his existence as a straight white guy and makes well-meaning attemptsto avoid hypermasculinic douchebaggery in domestic life. also he’s probablythat disgustingly wholesome Hey Mom Do You Need Some Help In The Kitchen kindof kid) but when he tries its just. so bad. oh my god its so bad. he’s onlyever tried like 3 ultra-basic Good Ol Classic American meals and every time hedoes its a crime against his culinary heritage. his brownies come out lopsided,, he putswildly incorrect ingredient volumes in,, he confuses salt for sugar,, somehownever manages to stir the cake mix properly,, tries to do taste tests like “i thinkit tastes ok??” no it doesnt jake this gravy tastes like toxic waste,, withoutfail lets something catch on fire while he’s squinting at the recipe trying tofigure out which step he was up to,,, its a mess. his family suffers through itnevertheless because they are Heroes. “t-tastess ��� gre at,, llittleb uddy”pre-yeerk tom says once, with tears of anguish streaming from his eyes

rachel: terriblecooking is a berenson gene and if rachel had survived the war marco’s talk showwould have included a nailbiting Reality TV segment where contestants sample amystery berenson dish and have to race to identify the Cousin of Origin beforefood poisoning sets in. this segment would have been discontinued after the 3rdhospitalisation and a food safety inquiry. in essence rachel is as terrible asjake but also worse because the constant failure pisses her off so much thatall of her concoctions are brewed with a terrible bitter malice. Fuck You,Pasta. You Deserve to Burn. also i think at some point in the series itmentions taht rachel tried being a vegetarian and i choose to believe this istrue and also that it is the point where things go from worst to worster.eventually even she has to admit she’s never gonna manage it and resorts tolike. deep-frying entire zucchinis or something

tobias: uknow what?? im gonna say Not Terrible?? tobias is pretty creative and lbr idoubt his neglectful ass relatives were gonna cook for him. he probably pickedup some stuff from recipe books bc he liked reading through them (listen i cantcook for shit but even i get a kick out of lookin at food books bc goddamn??the aesthetic?? plus tobias was a book kid in general so) also if we’re runningwith the autistic tobias concept (its Canon, folks) i like the idea that as ahuman tobias couldve been hypersensitive esp. to tastes, so he was pretty goodat noticing when two flavours clashed and figuring out what stuff to puttogether to avoid that. (obviously he cant do this as a hawk but sometimes hewatches ax’s food choices and the twist of primal horror he experiences is acomforting reminder that some vestiges of his humanity remain). HOWEVER by thesame token he also doesnt strike me as the sort of Organised Efficient personwho’d be a really productive cooker. i might be self-projecting here but like,,have u ever tried to string together a series of practical tasks into an organisedsequence while in the kitchen,,, theres like 80 bowls and justt too manyutensils and timers goin off and u forgot to put the herbs in and u ran out ofbench space so u gotta try start washign up at the same time but meanwhile ugotta Coordinate all the cooking stuff really fast so u dont poison urself orstart a fire and then u lose focus zonin out thinkin about smth else u alreadymessed up the order of actions sso do u start again or just eat the garbage or??? look cooking is hard and i feel like tobias gets that. he’s ok at it intheory but his application is shit. also hes a bird

cassie: idsay she’s not a natural culinary prodigy but with lots of patient practiceshe’s become pretty decent. im not sure if its canon but for some reason imconvinced her dad is a really good cook?? meanwhile her mum is approachingberenson-level bad and DESPISES it. hooooo boy. (she and rachel bond overthis). this means her dad enlists cassie as Head Kitchen Assistant and teachesher the ropes, and she really quite enjoys it? preparing a meal is simple andpractical and instantly-gratifying in a way thats really calming, and she likesbeing able to spend time with her dad. also not to be sappy but one time theyhave rachel over for dinner and cassie and her dad are helping each other stirthe pot on the stove while her mum and rachel viciously chop vegetables andtoss carrot tops at them from across the kitchen as a protest against beingrelegated to washing-up duty, and afterwards cassie tries to make brownies but burnsthem atrociously and they gotta pick through the charred remains to find ediblebits and rachel says “HA who’s top of the Poisons Authority Watchlist now??…dont answer that” and thats. a really good night. cassie holds on to that. ALSOafter the war cassie pretends she’s a way worse cook than she actually is soshe has an excuse to invite marco over to “”help her”” and get him doingsomething different. he never admits that it helps but she knows fromexperience it does

ax: HOOO BOY HERE COMES THE WILDCARD. i was torn betweensaying “theres an intergalactic petition to establish a restraining orderbetween ax and Every Kitchen” and “he is a culinary TREASURE” but u knowwhat?? porque no los dos. ax around food is an unrestrained force of nature. this is a canonical fact. he gathers his flavours from the world around him (literally from the entire world around him, and from under him, and sometimes from the gutter to his left) AND im gonna say that despite his unconventional pantry choices hes actually,, not too bad at making flavours Work. unfortunately since he never has to occupy a human body for longer than 2 hours he has never had to work around the concept of “”food poisoning”” and his talents would have gone to tragic waste,, had marco not stepped in to save the day. with the help of marco’s PRACTICALITY and his handy snippets of earth advice like “the alfoil is aUTENSIL not an INGREDIENT what the FUCK AX how are u even CHEWING THAT” ax’s raw talent is skilfully tamed. together they areunstoppable. They take out several team cooking shows on network tv,once because ax famously used the kitchen’s set props as a garnish. Ax probablybriefly invests in a popup restaurant for the fun of it and meets with roaringcritical success before it is gently shut down by the well-meaning andhighly-entertained food safety authorities, on account of his questionableingredient choices. Notable exchanges in the restaurant’s brief andspectacular history include the food connoisseur who located ax personally toimplore “what is this…. subtle twist of flavour? the acidic flare that tinglesin the throat and warms the belly to its deepest crevice? please aximili, umust reveal what mystery ingredient is responsible for this luxuriant gustatorysensation” “its helicopter fuel”