#Or Child-Perfect is dull as shit and the Ultimate slaps

[analyzingadventure]

Unfortunately I have many clowns living in my head rent free. The good news is that they will never be released from my head to wreck havoc upon the world, so everyone is safe

Okay but like the evolution line from the Wizarmon VB (Wiz -> Joker -> Pie) is fine, like it's very coherent both thematically, visually etc, but not too boring/similar*, it's like an example of a satisfying evolution line that makes sense but still feels fluid and fun, I like the evolution line here (I just don't want it to ever become like An Absolute Default Forever For Every Piemon From Now-on)

*(Something that can happen when you very specifically make a Digimon and build a custom evolution line for it from scratch. Like it can become super visually obvious that Mon A is supposed to evolve to Mon B, which makes deviating/messing with the evolution line harder, and it just feels so restrictive and dull to me? Think Guilmon might be like, the worst example of this (mind you I do like all of the Digimon in the line still), with Rena, Grey, Gao and like the whole GG trio close behind (there's many more examples I can only remember the ones featured in animation at the top of my head rn))

[misbhaves]

◤┆✕ ° ○  001. THE LONELY HOUR . ·╱჻

i NEED someone, that i’ll look to, in the LONELY hour, that we all go through to give me [comfort], and LOVE me through in the lonely hour, i need you I NEED YOU.

“you still haven’t slept?”

spoken like a siren, luring sailors from the deck and into the sea’s embrace. musical and commanding; it was no wonder, the way his blue eyes immediately fluttered open, a crease appearing between dark-blond eyebrows as they knitted together. the room was dark and silent save for the sound of soft breathing and the soft, tinny whirring of the AC as it exhaled cold air to combat the sweltering late-May heat. the walls of his throat were dry, parched for something that could not be named. “you could tell?” his voice was scratchy as he spoke, rough as sandpaper, and his tone resigned. goosebumps raised over his flesh as he felt her hand shift from the space below his collarbone, mapping over where his heart lay. the duvet shifted with her body as she leaned close, her lips moving against the dip in his bicep as she spoke.

“i could tell,” was all she said at first, voice soft with sleep. “you seemed too peaceful to be asleep.”

his throat tightened with the realisation of how aware she was, how aware they both were, of his chaos. of his storm.

he shifted onto his side at that and her face came into view, lovely even in near perfect darkness. her eyes reflected light like twin moons, illuminating the soft lines of her heart-shaped face. there was a curve to her cheek tailor-made for the press of his mouth. her voice was a lighthouse, guiding him out of the stormy waters of his thoughts even as waves continued to break against one another.

the moonlight spilling into his bedroom defined her silhouette, a shape he had committed to memory. the dainty contours of her shoulders existed in direct contrast with the strength and confidence that reinforced her body. like him, she was equal parts soft and sharp. perhaps that was why the grooves of his soul fit against hers so perfectly. at least in this aspect, they were the same.

this was how he saw her; this girl who loved him so profoundly, so powerfully, it melted at the frost that had formed over time throughout his veins. this girl—his girl; a person who had grown to know him in such a short duration of time even as he shut her out of the loneliest, most intimate parts of himself. his girl who preyed on his heart. his wolf.

“what’s on your mind?” she asked, but her tone implied she already knew he was unlikely to give her a real answer. “you’re so frustrating. it’s hard to sleep knowing you’re awake, torturing yourself over whatever it is you won’t tell me.”

his lips pursed before parting to speak. her hand left his body to press over his mouth. “i already know you won’t tell me.” it was met with an apologetic kiss to her fingertips. “you never tell me anything. i just want to know you. is that so wrong?”

gentleness was needed in his response. this much he knew. and so, his tone was smooth and sweet, like jack daniels honey, as his lips moved to whisper, reverent and passionate, “you do know me. you know one me. and i know one you, and those two people care about each other more than anything else. isn’t that enough? do you really need to know all of me? even if i tried my hardest, i don’t think i could know all of you.”

in place of an answer, she shifted closer to his chest. as though trying to force herself to believe his answer. that it was enough. that it was okay not to know him as thoroughly as she knew everything else. what he did know about odessa was that she was a perfectionist and regarded everything, including the people she cared about, as puzzles to be solved. strings of code to be deciphered. when facing a boy who had firewalls over every facet of his system, he knew it could be frustrating. guilt silenced his unruly mouth and caused quiet to reign over them for long, pained moments. what he did know about her was that she would not yield first, that she already felt she had given him enough by being the first to bare her heart, the first to fall. this show of weakness was already too much for her to bear. he knew. he knew and was so sorry, he felt constantly sick with it.

moments like these hurt, exposing cracks in the otherwise soft and seemingly perfect bond between the pair. their flaws taunted them both, but it was something they were both unprepared to stomach, work on and live with yet. odessa cared too much about being perfect and ciro—all he wanted was to be the perfection she desired.

“kassie.” her name fell from his mouth like a prayer. one that begged her to stay even as every iota of his intuition screamed the opposite. to remain right here, folded up into his chest, just a small leap away from entering his heart. his hand reached for her face, fingertips slotting behind her ear as his thumb stroked over the marble slope of her cheekbone. “you should sleep.”

a frown creased his features. being in the sun for so long had caused his freckles to become more prominent, dark against the soft glow of his skin. he sat on the window sill, one leg propped up as his eyes regarded the moving figures below. students chattering together, moving like cogs in perfect synchrony. he had only been back at school for a few weeks, a late admission midway into the first semester after his foster carers placed him on house arrest, and it seemed as though he was the only person who had yet to find his place in the machine they operated in. it was of no consequence, however. ciro had bigger things to concern himself with. six years had passed since his parents’ death and he was still miles away from his ultimate goal. the pendant he had found inches away from his mother’s body burned hot against his chest, her cross singeing against his skin as well. their nagging burning seeming to whisper a litany of: “don’t forget me; don’t forget me; don’t forget me.”

as if he ever could.

‘ciro.’ his eyes squeezed shut, the lines of his face appearing pained at the voice that had made itself known. ‘ciro, mijo, come home.’

it wasn’t time yet, but even if he moved his lips to tell her that, the voice would remain at the back of his head. it was a cruel and unusual punishment, the fact he had to carry her voice with him wherever he went. a heavy penalty for being unable to do anything but watch as she was murdered right in front of him.

her voice was bittersweet, making him feel simultaneously happy and sick. it felt both like arms that held him gently and hands around his throat. his lip quivered, pain slicing through his mind at the soft insistence. come home, come home, come home, come see us, we miss you.

the haunting insistence of a ghost that knew he had never gone to visit the body he had a part in draining the life from.

“stop it.” it was said through grit teeth, the pain so great he had not realised he had spoken aloud at all. in moments like these, nothing existed outside of himself. the world around him did not exist.

and so he was unware of the eyes regarding him from the doorway, filled with intrigue, the look of a wolf regarding its prey.

his lab partner had made themselves scarce, leaving him to his own devices. with boredom coming off him in waves, the blond boy’s dull blue eyes focused only on the lime green liquid trapped in the test tube. a perpetual sigh was fixed onto his mouth, present in the parting of his lips, as he listlessly moved the tube from one side to the other, swinging it back and forth like a pendulum.

“you’re jess’s partner, right?”

the shock of hearing someone address him nearly caused him to drop the tube onto the table, his body jerking upright as sharp blue eyes fell on a heart-shaped, pretty face. he recognised the girl from a few classes, but she was not someone he had ever spoken to before. a flush settled itself across the constellation of freckles on his cheeks. “uh, yeah. yeah, that’s me. um…sorry.” with a squint, he awkwardly continued to stumble over his words. “we haven’t…met, have we?”

a laugh like bells resounded from her mouth. it reminded him of the church on the outskirts of the small, sleepy town he spent his adolescence in. “don’t look so scared. we haven’t met before.” her had stretched out, expecting to be shaken. ciro had never seen someone do this outside the movies. in eureka, slaps on the back were the preferred mode of greeting. he hesitantly reached for it anyway, causing a pretty smile to flicker over her mouth. “my name is angkasa, angkasa bayu, but you can call me kassie.”

“ciro,” he responded, voice strained with nerves from sharing a name he had not used since he left his home for a life in the shadows, not since he was a child who still knew what it meant to be trusting, to be kind. “you can call me ciro.”

a bemused expression creased her face. shit. he hadn’t used the false name he had adopted during his time in eureka. mercifully, however, she did not comment. 

“kassie. you should sleep.”

instead of refusing him directly, she ignored his request altogether, leaning into his hand and fitting her lips against the inline of his palm. voice airy like a sigh against a summer breeze, “i love you.”

for a staggering second, it felt as though he could fool himself into thinking this was all there was. that no world existed outside the bubble they had formed around their bodies. that there was no burning vengeance deep inside his heart. that his blood did not flow for one purpose and one purpose alone. that this face he was regarding was her only face, and not just one bare of the many masks she wore. that there was no deep-set mistrust of her sincerity when it came to others. that this was enough; the way they fit, their youth and the power of their emotions. that they could love as freely and recklessly as she wanted them to. that he could take a sledgehammer to the wall between her and his heart and just let himself love, and then love, and then love like he desperately wanted to.

but, it was not true. it was not right. and he forced himself to shut his eyes nightly against that regret. chained by that knowledge, a frown twitched over the pink stretch of his mouth as he spoke, “quiero amarte.” a frown that matched his own spread over the bow of her mouth. “prometo que lo hare algún día…pero aún no estoy listo. lo siento, mi pequeño loba.”

“you’re such a coward.” there was still nothing but affection colouring her voice. “you always do that when I say it. you’re in for it when i start my Spanish course.”

a grin broke out over his face, despite the guilt that bore its great, white teeth and gnawed at his chest still. “i know. i can’t wait, little wolf.”

her arms wrapped over his chest and hugged him close, sleep crawling into her voice as she yawned her response. “me, too, ciro.”

she fell asleep soon after, but sleep eluded him well after dawn had already broken across the sky, mind racing with remorse. the responsibility of being loved sat on his chest like a dead weight.

“so,” he said awkwardly as they left the classroom together. “um, i’ll…i’ll see you around?” it was phrased as a question, thick with uncertainty.

something formed between them. something like a promise.

a strange and bemused look painted over her face. “oh, i think you and i will be seeing a lot of each other for a very, very long time.”

[metalempire]

so using the digimon picker i was able to find my top 20 favourite digimon it seems. the list itself reads right to left and goes in descending order, so i’m going to list them off in ascending order and give reasons as to why they got on the list it seems. a noticable trend on this list is dark themed, red coloured or metallic digimon. 

20. scorpmon 

it’s no surprise i like appmon and i do like that scorpmon harkens back to digimon designs by being edgy and having guns, plus he’s purple.i like the cameramon line so far and i liked the fight he had with dogatchmon. 

19. infernmon

one of my more favourite perfect level designs, i like that his mouth has a gun hidden in it and i loved how it was in our war games. honestly its got that kind of uncanny look on its face that makes it look both evil and cunning yet not hostile. its just a design i really appreciate, plus it looks cute when it tucks its limbs in,

18. dogatchmon

i like gatchmon and navimon, so combining their designs makes something i like. no brainer really. he gets alot of good fight scenes and whatnot in appmon and honestly he looks pretty sleek yet compact. not too much to say here he’s a more basic design in appmon i appreciate for not being too silly or edgy.

17. omegamon alter-b

out of all his numerous forms, this is the omegamon im most attached to, specifically because of next-0rder. i like the idea of swapping the weapons and imbuing it with darkness and letting it run wild, as well as being an alter evolution, it just looks really cool and was a great fight in the game as well. plus its just got a cool name.

16. millenniumon 

i always thought its previous form as kimairamon was a clusterfuck of colours, yet had potential as a design. so dampening those colours to darker greys, blacks and a little blue accented with that yellow and blue aura with those sick mugen cannons on it help bring the design together really, plus it looks thinner and meaner than its perfect form. 

15. leviamon

my favourite demon lord. i like marine life that can kill you and has teeth. plus im a very envious person, so this thing stuck with me, especially since he’s the most different looking out of the demon lords. i just like the idea of a giant crocodile being the second most powerful among the demon lords with a mouth big enough to rip a building in half if he wanted to. plus having two tails is cute.

14. chaosdukemon

honestly the uses of dull purples, blues and a shade of grey thats not quite black and not steel coloured either makes a very subtly impressive design, one that would convey dread over terror. im particularly fond of how its shield looks to be honest.

13. herakleskabuterimon

the only one who doesnt quite fit the theme of this list too well. huh. either way i think the tentomon line is a decent one only upstaged by a few others in adventure as it goes, yet ends up being my favourite ultimate from tri when all the kids get ultimate evolutions. i do like how it has a few nods to kuwagamon and has enough going on yet stays simple by using a mostly one colour. it looks powerful without trying too hard and i feel like i can respect this thing.

12. megidramon

i consider this to be guilmon’s true ultimate really and it does look quite terrifying. it has acidic saliva, hellfire themed design, elements of megalogrowlmon such as the arm blades and looks like a scary dragon rather than a dinosaur. i also like its lack of legs for some reason. when i imagine the digital hazard this thing first comes to mind, because it looks like a menace to any digimon really. its a woefully underused design and one that sticks with me to this day as something that really stood out in tamers.

11. megaseadramon

seadramon’s design was simple but not memorable really. megaseadramon has a much more effective design, using colours that mesh better, i like that its hair looks like algae and i like the metal twisted horn that shoots lightning, hearkening back to betamon. i also find it kind of cute, its slender and looks like it’d probably kill you on sight and i kind of like its demented eyes.

10. diablomon

yaoi hands. i like how diabolical this thing looks, it has wild eyes, a villain’s hairstyle and a nice way of walking that reminds you its kind of a bug but not really. those long arms that just whip around to slap you just add to it really when paired with its comparatively little legs. again our war games plays into how much i like this thing, since it was fast, cunning and powerful. quite alot for whats essentially the personification of the y2k bug.

9. globemon

red google daddy. fuck me this is the first appmon design i’d probably fuck. just look at him, sleek, tall, strong shiny. he moves in a very exaggerated fashion and is so laughably overpowered in concept that he can basically attack the entire earth with one move. i like the use of lasers and lights in his design and that he replaces most of the white and green from dogatchmon with timemon’s bright gold to look kind of regal yet commanding.

8. alphamon

best waifu. something about them hips man.... anyway, alphamon is probably op as shit for being able to rewind time and blast apart dexdorughoramon with one attack, as well as having a sword made of light and whatever the fuck an ouryuken is. its got a wide arsenal and pulls off a great black knight look, i like that its the leader of the royal knights who’s never actually there, just existing to control them if need be. x-evolution and cyber sleuth really helped endear me to alphamon, its so cool and smooth looking. 

7. hagurumon

the only child level on this list, hagurumon is adorable. its essentially thee gears sellotaped together with a crooked smile. it also has one eye thats covered by a circle and one eye with a spiky circle for variety. its just so cute, it fits exactly into what i find adorable, the way it moves, the way it smiles, the industrial look it has. it’s got a place in my heart as my favourite child level for just being unconventially adorable.

6. chaosdramon

considering it’s the evolution to another digimon on this list, it wins a spot by virtue of sharing a similar design, yet adapting it. its got eyes now and even though its black skin is actually cyber in some ways, looking some cool matrix shit, it makes it look more like a dragon/dinosaur wearing red digizoit armour. i do like how it has the same weapons as its prior stage, yet they do look noticeably different, i like the return to the classic dreadnought cannons that slowly snap forward and fire one colossal blast. the whole thing looks ready to go and kill. 

5. megadramon

arguably my favourite perfect level, megadramon has a classical design to me. its got that cyborg reptile thing going on that i love, its got a little tattoos, tattered wings, a metal helmet and those two missile launchers for hands. it looks ferocious and there’s enough going there to look at plus its one of the rarer instances where colours that clash a bit look kind of fitting for me. i’d like t imagine it curled up asleep sometime. 

4. lordknightmon

pink’s a good colour, knights are good. lordknightmon is therefore good. i love this thing as a character, someone who will do anything if the ends justify the means, so much untapped potential for conflict with the royal knights and with itself. its good villain, but also a food hero, plus its flashy and vain, which i find entertaining. i like the elegant design alot and the fact its pink. sexy. 

3. dukemon

i think everyone fell in love with dukemon the first time they saw it. it’s a timeless design, perfect uses of red and white. the weapons it has just look so good together, its body looks just right, its pretty much captivating in a way thats unique to the viewer yet always universal in that sense. i like its concept too, it tamed the digital hazard and instead used its power to protect the digital world as a holy knight instead of destroy it, even its personal justice seems to be that ones deeds determine your fate and that life is always precious. i also like that its a bit of a rebel among the royal knights once it starts thinking. be real, we’d all marry dukemon. 

2. metalseadramon

i like metal digimon, i like megaseadramon. combine the two and i’m signed up lads. in a way, i find this thing really cute, hard to explain, not gonna bother. i also really like how its nose is now a giant laser cannon because it must have one hell of a sneeze. honestly though this thing is so majestic looking, its got the hair, the gold and silver metal design, the wires and pipes, all of it slenderly put together on a sleek serpent of the seas, its so beautiful in a way, a design that just comes together perfectly.

1. mugendramon

anyone who follows me is not surprised at all that this is my favourite. i adore this thing. i love that its a combo of several perfect level digimon’s cyborg parts meshed together into one incredible machine of death and destruction. honestly i consider it the best designed digimon of all time. there’s so much going on but its not a clusterfuck, everything links together so well, you can really tell its machine digimon made to be the best of the best, taking so much that worked before and amplifying it. i like cyborgs and i like robots, so this thing hits all the notes for me while still trying to look like a monster, like a mechanical chimera that looks like it fits, like all the parts were meant to be put together to assemble this glorious machine. i love its wide variety of weapons and attacks, and that its essentially a digimon who runs on malice, that it petty much exists just to fuck up everything in sight. i’ll never forget the one analogman used at the end of digimon world 1 and i love the idea that it as the first ultimate, that because of this thing so many digimon rapidly began to change and try to reach its level of power. this thing definites the level its at, that all digimon going from perfect to ultimate should use this thing as a goal of sorts, to reach its sheer level of power. and its withstood the test of time, with so many digimon at the ultimate level being so strong in their own ways, this thing can still go toe to toe with the best of them. its a raw classic that just cant be beaten in my eyes, its always going to be my favourite really. i love it.