#admittedly I know nothing of Pokemon but this felt right

[totally-correct-star-wars]

Ezra, throwing a pokeball at Kallus: Kallus, I choose you! Kallus, not looking up from their book and catching it: You need an Ultra ball to catch this Legendary Pokémon.

[bb-drayster]

[geez. juliana had breezed through his trial so easily. admittedly, he did expect her to at least struggle in his trial, considering she was a exchange student and her strongest pokemon likely were from paldea.

the students working under him for the trial certainly weren’t on drayton’s level, but they weren’t chumps either. drayton always gave them good battling advice, and even trained with them…when he felt like it. and still, she’d made it through the trial like it was nothing. hell, a good chunk of bba students couldn’t get through his trial, giving up at the final hurdle.

juliana really was the real deal.

with that, drayton took his place on the battlefield.]

“hm. ‘bout here should be good.”

[he mumbled to himself. after all, didn’t want to be too close to the action and get hit by some debris. again.

anyway. he turned his attention to juliana. a few students could be seen gathering behind her.]

“y’know. i was thinkin’ about that look you get when you’re in battle. and i realized i’ve only seen you like that from the sidelines.”

[he remembered clearly her battle against atlas. from that point, he knew he’d made the right choice, trusting in her to blow through the bb league and bringing the club back to normal. were his tactics underhanded? definitely. but he knew good and well the league club would be better off once kieran was defeated.

and…kieran himself…he’d be…]

“…guess i know what it’s like to face you from across the court now. heh.”

[tagging @bb-drayster. drayton battle! I skipped the trial cus I couldn't think of anything lol]

Juli sighed as she reorganized her team back to the normal team. She had just beaten Drayton's trial.

When she was done, she turned to look at Drayton.

"Ok. I'm ready."

[leggerefiore]

I based him off ORAS persona not RSE Maxie for those with preference!

someone request Maxie with a grunt s/o which I'll do eventually, but I misread it (sorry about that) and wrote all of this and went "well, might as not let this go to waste"

☀️Magma Leader Maxie General Romance HCs🌋

🪨 He's distant. He doesn't mean to, but he struggles at times. His mind wants to solely focus on his goals and research, so he often finds himself busy with plans and leading an entire organisation. It's obvious when he's aware that he's given you none of his time. Suddenly, you're in his office with a Numel curled up in your lap, chatting with the Magma Leader about various things. Tabitha likely reminded, admittedly, but he still acted accordingly nonetheless.

🪨 PDA is something he struggled with. His standoffish demeanour and need to seem respectable keep him from doing little more than a secretive hand-hold. The small affections comfort him more than you'll ever know. If you're more affectionate than him, you get to give a hug and kiss when you greet him. He becomes deeply flustered by this and doesn't reciprocate. (Don't be fooled. He liked it.)

🪨 In private, he's a lot more lenient. He's a cuddly guy, as his main hobby is stealing body heat. (He definitely screams blanket hog in bed.) You'll find him leaning on you quite often. In a more daring mood, you may even find him with an arm around you. You'll get a polite kiss, but nothing more. If you want to cover him in them, however, he'll secretly adore it. Maxie is just odd about intimacy. Clearly craves it, yet no idea how to initiate it. Help him, please.

🪨 Maxie varies on a Jealousy scale. With Courtney and Tabitha, he's calm and full accepting. They're his trusted admins and friends, they'll never do anything with you. With, say, Archie, he's suddenly wedging himself between you both and clearly not happy with the interaction. He overall leans more neutral, but has his moments in certain situations. He's definitely been a bit upset when he felt a Kalosian was being too affectionate. He's mostly going to complain aloud about the other person needing to learn manners. You find it just a bit funny to see his composure break about it.

🪨 He does want you to support him in his endeavours of awakening Groudon. You must understand that he's doing this for the good of humanity. The redhead is completely driven by this goal, so its quite an inevitability that it gets brought up. Should you disagree, he will try to convince you of his side. He's a bit callous and demanding, with a bit of mania. Your rejection of it stings, especially so since he values your opinions above others. If you agree, he will try to convince you to join his team. Though, he does accept is you truly don't want to.

🪨 When his plans fail, he needs much support. It haunts him terribly that not only was Archie right, but also that he almost destroyed his beloved Hoenn and the entire world with his foolishness. He takes to trying to properly help Hoenn, since Steven inexplicably got him out of any actual charges. You should just remind him that he was thankfully stopped before causing any true harm, and now he has grown as a person. He thinks on this for a while. It's a group effort between you, the Magma Admins, and most of Team Magma to reassure the man. The false confidence suddenly being gone is admittedly a bit disturbing.

🪨 If you're a trainer, he's mildly interested in seeing what you battle. It's not necessarily his forte, but he can recognise skill and talent. He may even ask you to help him become better at battling. Maxie is relatively decent in his own, but other input certainly helps. If you aren't, he still prefers you have a pokemon (Numel) for protection. Who knows what those Aqua brutes will do to you if they catch you alone. That's why you should at least have a pokemon to defend yourself.

🪨 His idea of dates are a bit strange. He'll do normal things like dinner or walking somewhere scenic (so long as it doesn't involve a large body of water). These are always pleasant and sweet, but other times his idea of a date is walking through Mt. Chimney examining rock structures or staring at the lava pool within the volcano. He's so deeply fascinated with it all that you just let him have it. (He seems like the type to enjoy a geode as a gift.) He also tends to watch all the Numels you pass with intrigue.

🪨 In case it isn't obvious, he's quite a big fan of Numel and Camerupt. They're the main star of his team and his megaevolution partner. Receiving one as a gift from him means completely trust. If you're a Numel breeder… he may propose to you after a single date. Your power is something he nearly respects as much as Groudon's own.

[kris-side]

ok im gonna

yell abt this stuff about Ingo and Volo to the best of my ability

do like i dont really have much of a connection to the pokemon game's protags, personally. so after i played through most of pla, i thought. i like ingo, i like volo, lets intertwine their stories some more.

so Ingo is taken to the past on accident and in the process his memories get scrambled. he spends however long in hisui before Volo came along, and he was immediately intrigued. I mean, after all, Ingo is very skilled and unafraid of pokemon unlike everyone else. he has become warden to a very picky Sneasler. he also, y'know, fell out of the sky and almost died in the snowy mountains.

So they chat. they become friends. Volo convinces Ingo to come help him gather the plates, instead of what would be the protag. So Ingo kind of takes that role, doing all the base pla story. i dont know whether or not i care for adding the original protag, but thats ok! this is just my version of this idea.

and my version is admittedly. very mean to ingo :-)

because Volo, is sly and clever and a wonderful actor. and it helps that Ingo is trusting to a fault, so long as Volo appears nice. they journy, they camp together, eat meals and listen to each others stories. it becomes comfortable, routine, intimate.

Volo, one day, pries on Ingo with a Zorua. Those sneaky foxes have been known to find something deep within your subconscious to use against you. It was a surprise to both of them when it took the form of what looked like Ingo, but dressed in white with a big smile on his face. And it was a surprise to both when Ingo ran to the figure, ready to barrel over it into a hug. Startling the Zorua in disguise, and before he knew it there was pain in his ribs as he lay crumpled on his side, gasping in pain.

Volo silently dismissed the Zorua and tended to Ingo. He was jumpy for days after, and they had to take a break from their mission.

A long break that Ingo would prefer not to have ended.

But it did, and they continued. It was ok, if it was for him.

They trained together, too. Pokemon battles and mock sparring. Exerciding together. Ingo didnt mind it, though he didnt know why Volo trained so much as well. Their relationship had become clear to him now: Ingo would protect Volo. At all costs. Nothing else mattered.

His heart had swelled the first time he realized, and later vocalized to Volo. That was the feeling, right? Maybe. His heart had beat so fast, and so hard, it felt like he was going to pass out. It felt like he had started freezing from the inside out, tiny needles prickling his skin.

But, that was fine. It was normal, even. It had to be, if Volo said ot was. And, besides, he had so many holes in his memories. Every day its so painfully apparent that he's forgotten so many things. Basic, simple things even.

Volo helps him remember, though. He's very kind like that. Ingo loves that about him.

-----

ok im done for now

[bitchapalooza]

I'm gonna be unapologetically mean here. So far, my playthrough of Scarlet is fine. I'm finding the running around and exploring and finding items to honestly be the more fun parts. I like the picnicing and sandwich making to an extent I suppose. So....

I think the reason Im personally not having so much fun is because the lack of real world building going on. The player is chucked into this world and they cant actually explore their friendly rival's house because all that seems to exist is the one room. And thats all in that area. We know nothing more about her other than her annoying, overwhelming, but oddly charming love for battles. We can roam her bedroom for a poster collection or anything to tell us her other hobbies. The school isnt free roaming either exactly. I was expecting something a lot like two stories worth of exploration, not options to choose from and a loading screen. This doesnt add much to the region's character at all. And so far, neither does the surrounding empty land or cities. Where is my reason to like Paldea? Where is my reason, as the hero of whatever the story is, to keep Paldea safe? Although admittedly weakly written, Galar had the Darkest Day story shoved down our throats every single second Gloria was on screen. So wheres Paldea's lore in the beginning to get us actually pressured into choosing a path? Because Arven's was weak. He barely tried it felt like.

As of right now, this game is probably the worst pokemon game design wise in my opinion(no hate to the team, hate to the company who greenlit it and didnt play test it or anything).

[a-tale-of-legends]

The Bonds We Share( A SwSh Rewrite/Retelling)

Chapter 1

Summary: Naomi is a simple girl in the simple town of Postwick. Though, today wouldn't be so simple. Not when she has a champion and twin cousins to pick up! ( She totally didn't forget. Nope)

Word Count: 1,855

Notes: This is my first chapter of my first ever fanfic! Well, long term fanfic anyway. It took me while to get to this point and I'm proud that I am! I hope you all enjoy!!! Also check tags if you want to hear my post writing rambles lol.

" Welcome, one and all, to the world of Pokemon-"

" Hey, Rotom? Could you lower the volume for me?"

A quick "bzzt!" from the phone and Chairman Rose's voice lowers down to what would be a whisper. Naomi smiles at her phone, lightly tapping its frame.

"Thank you!" she says, earning another happy "bzzt!" from her phone. She then puts on back her headphones, bobbing her head to the beat from her tape recorder. She already knows what's coming anyway; Rose makes his grand speech, then Leon makes his grand entrance, then his opponent appears, some quick smack talk for the crowd, and then they battle. And just like every battle Leon has been in before, he always wins. Admittedly, each time was different from the last, and it was always fun to see what strategy Leon would use. But today, right now, Naomi just wants to listen to her music and vibe.

She closes her eyes, letting the music flow through her body. Soon her limbs move on her own, swaying and bobbing to the beat. The rhythm takes her as she dances in her room, now in her own little world. Just her, her song, and no one else. She can feel herself hum to the music, and she smiles to herself. This is bliss.

The song is about to reach the best part and turns for a spin- only to be greeted by a familiar set of golden eyes and a cheeky grin.

" Hop!" she shrieks, jumping back a bit. She can feel her face flush as she takes her headphones off. Hop grins, mischievousness shining in his eyes.

" Well, don't stop because of me," he snickers, which does nothing to qualm Naomi's embarrassment.

"Out!" she yells, rushing towards Hop, pushing him out of her room.

" But you're so good, Nomi!" he compliments, but she furiously shakes her head.

" Thank you, but OUT!" she stutters, giving the final push and slamming the door behind her.

" Don't forget we're picking up Lee and your cousins from the train station today!" The embarrassment she felt just a second ago quickly vanishes as she swings her bedroom door open, staring at Hop wide-eyed.

" What?! That's today?!" she panics. Hop nods, the cheekiness of his smile growing.

" Yep! Better hurry!" he grins as Naomi scatters around her room, trying to find her boots and hat.

" Why didn't you say something?!" she exclaims, hopping on one foot putting on one of her boots.

" You were dancing, and I didn't want to disturb you," he says matter-of-factly, clearly teasing her, " Also am I allowed in your room now?" Naomi glares at her friend.

" No! Wait outside!" she points out of her room, and Hop gives her a salute, then quickly runs out of the house.

"Yes, ma'am! But hurry, we don't want Lee getting lost!" he yells behind him, and Naomi hears the outside door slam shut.

"Well, that was eventful," her mum's head peeks from the side of her bedroom door frame, a kind smile on her face, " Are you ready to go, Naomi?"

"Yep!" she nods, hoisting her bag- which used to be her mum's- over her shoulders, " Got my bag and everything!" Her mum moves into full view, leaning against the doorway.

" Yes, I see that, " she gives her a concerned smile, " But I'm talking about how you're feeling, dear. I know the topic of your cousins has always been...confusing for you-"

" I'll be fine, mum," Naomi shrugs, ignoring the way her heart sank, " It's like you said; I haven't seen them since I was 5, so it would make sense I wouldn't remember them!" she forces a smile.

" I'm fine, mum! Really!" Naomi's mum eyes her septically but lets out a sigh.

" Alright, if you say so," she steps to the side, " Now move along then! Hop is waiting for ya!"

"Okay! Bye, mum! We'll be back later! You too, Toby!" The sleepy Munchlax only yawns.

Waving her mum goodbye, Naomi opens the front door to Potswick Town proper. It's beautiful, as always. The sky is a wonderful bright blue, and the soft fluffy clouds roll in the sky as the Wooloo do on the freshly green fields. Naomi feels a soft thud in the side of her leg, and looking down she sees her mum’s Budew, Valentine. Valentine looks up at her and gives her a small smile.

' Hopefully, today will be a good day,' she thinks to herself as she bends down to give Valentine a little pat on her head, er, bud. She looks down the stone steps to see Hop standing idly by the front gates. He glances upwards towards her, a welcoming smile on his face...before looking behind her and bursts out laughing.

" Ha! You're really going to carry that big lug on your back, Nomi?" he laughs, but his face then distorts into one of mild horror as Naomi's cold glare reaches his vision.

" U-uh, I mean- you look great!" he chuckles sheepishly, giving Naomi two thumbs up.

"Thank you!" she says cheerily, her icy demeanor vanishing instantly, much to Hop's relief.

" Nomi, have I ever told you that you are scary?" he sighs as Naomi walks down the steps.

" I have no idea what you're talking about," she teases, sticking out her tongue. Hop huffs but smirks.

" Well, you will be.....when you lose! The last one to my house is a kantonian Slowpoke!" and he dashes off, leaving Naomi stunned once again.

"H-hey! Wait for me! Hop!" she calls out, running as fast as she can to catch up with her speedy friend. Though, as always, she ends up last.

" Hop, " she paints, the palm of her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breathe, " That wasn't fair, you got a head start!" she points her finger at Hop accusingly, who snickers.

" Not my fault you're a slowpoke!" he grins, causing Naomi to puff out her cheeks.

" Yeah, yeah," she Naomi groans, straightening her back, "Let's just head inside,"

Hop's house is like Naomi's, but bigger; a staircase, multiple rooms for more family members, but has that quaint, cozy feel of her home. It's no wonder they have so many sleepovers- some planned, most of them not. Always feel right at home.

" MUM!" Naomi jumps a bit at Hop's sudden yelling, " Mum, is he here yet?! Is he?! Oh, I bet you're hiding him in the cupboard, aren't ya!" Hop runs into the kitchen, practically hovering over the ground. His mum sighs, putting down the dish she was cleaning. She gives Hop a stern but playful look.

" For the hundredth time, Hop, no Leon is not here yet," she glances to Naomi, " Neither are your cousins, deary," Naomi felt a little sigh of relief come up her throat. She quickly suppresses it, giving Hop's mum a nod.

" But, they all should be coming soon. Well, Leon, at least. I'm not sure about-"

" Well, we best not keep them waiting!" Naomi interrupts, grabbing Hop's hand and rushing out the door, leaving Hop's mum in their wake.

" Woah, Nomi-"

" Hey, you said we have to hurry!" Naomi cuts Hop off, speed walking to the bridge. She can already see the crowd near the train station. All that noise, those people. She pushes down her sense of dread, " So lets just-"

" Naomi!' Hop tugs her to a stop, effectively turning her around to face him. His face is stern, if not painted with worry.

" Naomi, what's going on? You're being antsier than usual," he leans it a bit, speaking in whispers, "Is it your cousins,"

Typical Hop. Always reading her like a book. Though, just like her mother, she must make it easy.

" Y-yeah, kinda," she looks down at her boots, " I haven't seen them since....you know," Hop nods, giving her hand a comforting light squeeze.

" And, well, I don't know," she sighs, " It's already hard to remember Dad, but now I can't even remember them, and I just- I don't-"

" Hey, it's alright, Nomi! " Hop gives her hand another squeeze, " It's okay if you do not know how to feel about your cousins. Especially after...that, " She grimaces at his implication.

" But hey! That just means you can create a new path for yourself! New memories!" Hop cheers, " They'll love you, Nomi. You're amazing! How could they not?" Naomi's cheeks flush at the compliment, and she nods.

" Thanks, Hopscotch. That means a lot-"

"OI! Are you two having a heart-to-heart without me?!" a familiar voice, Carol, shouts at them. The two of them turn to see a peeved Carol, hands on their hips, tapping their right foot impatiently on the bridge.

" Carol!" Naomi and Hop cry in unison, rushing towards them.

" I thought you two ditched me!" Carol fumed, arms now crossed.

" Sorry, Carol," Naomi apologizes, fumbling with her fingers.

"Yeah, sorry, mate," Hop apologizes as well. Carol looks between the two of them, not saying a word. Then they smirk.

" Gotcha," they tease with a wink. And to believe she felt sorry for them a second ago.

"Carol!" Naomi and Hop shout, glaring at her friend. Carol just shrugs their shoulder, the teasing grin never faltering.

" Ah man, you two are so easy!" they laugh, " Though it is sweet that you two were actually sorry, haha,"

" Well, of course, we were! We really didn't mean to keep you waiting, Carol!" Hop said. Carol's grin softens a little, less cheeky and teasing than it was before.

"Yeah, I know. I just saw you two looking all stressed, and I wanted to make ya feel better!"

"By pretending you were angry with us?" Naomi huffed.

"Yep! It worked, didn't it?" Naomi pauses for a moment. The stress of seeing her cousins again was admittedly less than before she'll give them that. Naomi gives Carol a grateful nod, to which the beam at.

"See? No harm, no foul!" They turn around, pointing to Wedgehurst, and consequently, the big crowd forming in front of the train station.

" Now, let's hurry and get to the train station! Unless we want to miss The Great Champion Leon," they say, waving their hands sarcastically. Hop frowns at this a bit, probably not liking Carol's tone, but Carol simply winks at him, " Unless you want him getting lost, eh?"

' Nice save,' Naomi thinks, as she sees Hop's frown turn into a cheeky smile.

"Ha! Yeah, Lee is pants at directions," Hop giggles, and Naomi does too, remembering all the times they had to point him in the right directions somewhere. Then again, Leon coming home seems to happen less frequently than he used to...

" Come on, then! You two are already slowpokes, eh?" Carol teases as they run towards Wedgehurst.

"Hey! I'm not slow, that's Naomi!" Hop counters running after them. Naomi just sighs, choosing to ignore Hop's comment, before realizing the two are far ahead of her.

"W-wait! Hold on! Wait for me!" she cries, running as fast as she can to keep up, her bag sloshing around on her back.

Okay, maybe Hop had a point about the bag. But he doesn't need to know that, does he?

[beelsnack]

Obey Me! Boys and the Hidden Talent You Wouldn’t Expect Them To Have

Lucifer: Honestly, they had thought it was just for decoration.

Considering how little the brothers actually used anything in the music room, they had just assumed most of the instruments in there were just for show. The only reason they were proved wrong was by sheer accident.

Their insomnia had been a hindrance back in the human realm, but now that the constant darkness of the Devildom had taken a hammer to their circadian rhythm, they found themselves wandering the halls of the House of Lamentation more and more frequently in the middle of the night. While they knew they weren’t the only one awake at this hour (they had made the mistake of wandering too close to Asmo’s room and discovered that his nights were very active) they typically were the only one out of their room.

It was their second pass around the first floor when they heard it. A faint, unfamiliar melody ringing softly down the hall. Before they realized what they were doing, their feet had brought them to the music room. When they peeked through the doorway, the sight made them freeze.

Lucifer was seated on a bench, eyes closed in an uncharacteristically serene expression. The soft candlelight shone behind him, making him look every bit like the angel he once was as his long, graceful fingers plucked skillfully at the strings of the harp. The song was hauntingly beautiful, much like Lucifer himself, and something about it made the human’s breath catch in their throat.

They hadn’t thought they made a noise, but demon hearing was something else. Lucifer’s eyes snapped open, hands halting over the strings as the two of them made eye contact. 

At first, it seemed like Lucifer was preparing to scold them, and they felt themself reflexively tensing. Instead, Lucifer’s expression softened.

“You should be in bed.” his voice betrayed how tired he was, even if he appeared just fine.

“I couldn’t sleep.” they murmured. Speaking too loudly might break the spell, and this gentle illusion would shatter.

“Hm.” he motioned them forward, patting the spot next to him. The bench was small enough to when they sat down, they were shoulder-to-shoulder with Lucifer. “I couldn’t sleep either.”

“I didn’t know you could play the harp.” they blurted out. Lucifer, caught off guard by their bluntness, stared down at them for a moment before sighing. A nostalgic smile pulled at his lips, and they found themself wishing he would smile like that more often. 

“A skill left over from the Celestial Realm. Playing always put me at ease.”

“Will you keep playing for me?”

He chuckled softly. “Of course. Shall I play a lullaby for the two of us?”

Mammon: “Are we done studying yet? This sucks!”

They didn’t even bother looking up from their textbook. Mammon had done more complaining than studying at this point, and they were honestly too worked up about passing this test tomorrow to worry about entertaining him.

“You can be done if you want, I’m going to keep going.” they mumbled. They talked big, but they had been reading the same sentence over and over again without taking in a single letter. They knew that it wasn’t really helping, but they were convinced that if they didn’t spend every last second studying the material, they were going to fail spectacularly. Honestly, after one semester of Potions, they were never going to complain about chemistry every again.

“You’re gonna ruin your eyes, at this rate.”

They nearly jumped out of their skin. When had Mammon gotten up? How had he gotten behind them without them noticing? Shit, maybe they did need to give it a rest.

“Alright, alright,” they sighed. “I’m not retaining any of this stuff anymore anyway - ow, fuck!” 

“What’s wrong?” Mammon sounded unnecessarily terrified, the big worrier.

“Nothing, nothing, sorry.” they brought a hand up to the back of their neck. “Been hunched over for too long, my neck and shoulders are mad at me.”

“Damn, human, you had me thinkin’ you were dyin’ or something.” he breathed out. “Here.”

“What are - “ they cut themselves off as Mammon’s warm hands settled on their shoulders. His thumbs worked soothing circles on the column of their neck before sliding down to work on their shoulder blades.

They felt their eyes slipping close without their consent. “Holy shit, Mammon.” they probably should be a bit more concerned with how breathy their voice sounded, but he was working wonders on their stiff muscles.

He knew just how much pressure to apply, just how to move his hands. The warmth of his palms seeped through their shirt, and they let out a sigh that might have sounded a bit like a moan.

“Hey, you can’t go makin’ those noises while I’m doin’ this.” his voice had gone just a bit lower. “You’re gonna make it awkward.”

“Sorry.” they muttered. “But you’re really good at this. You should open up a massage parlor. You would make a killing.”

“Heh, I thought about it.” he pulled his hands away, and they almost whined at the loss of contact. “But I don’t want to have to rub my hands over some crusty old bastard.”

“Oh well,” they shrugged. “Guess I’ll have to just keep you to myself then.”

Leviathan: “Hey, normie, open up!”

They considered ignoring him in favor of finishing up this very intense Pokemon battle, but it was pretty rare that Levi came to their room without texting them first. With a sigh, they shut their DS and hopped off of their bed to let him in.

“What’s up?” they leaned against the doorway.

“Didn’t you hear? That new MMO is having an exclusive pre-release event. Only the first 300 can get in! Go get set up, people have been talking about this new totally OP armor they’re going to - “

Levi cut himself, peering over their shoulder and wrinkling his nose. “What’s that?”

At first, they thought he was talking about their DS, but when they looked behind them, they realized what he meant.

“Ah, yeah.” the walked over to their bed and picked up the old stuffed dragon toy. They creadled him gently to their chest and frowned a little. “He got a little roughed up on his way to the Devildom. I had to get creative.”

The toy was clearly well loved, but the real attention-grabber was the piece of duct tape holding its front left leg to the rest of it. Little bits of fluff could be seen beneath the tape and it was clear that the repair job wasn’t going to last for much longer.

Leviathan clicked his tongue. “That’s never going to hold. Bring him over after the event tonight.”

“Why?” the human tilted their head, clutching the dragon tighter like they were afraid Levi was going to mercy-kill him.

“I’m going to fix him for you, duh.” there was a faint dusting of pink high on his cheekbones, and he looked away quickly. “I don’t like to bring my sewing stuff out of my room, I’ll lose it for sure.”

“You can sew?” they sounded incredulous. “Since when?”

“Th-there was a contest a while back. Whoever made the best TSL cosplay got to have a meet and greet with the cast of the movie.” Levi looked like he was about to catch fire now. “Of-of course, I couldn’t just go buy stuff, everyone knows the handmade stuff is better, so I learned how to sew.”

“Levi, that’s amazing!”

Levi blinked. “I-It is?”

“Duh!” they beamed up at him. “I could never do anything like that! I definitely owe you one if you can fix him up for me!”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he muttered, staring down at his feet. How was he supposed to handle getting compliments like that?

“It is!” they placed their toy back on their bed in favor of wrapping their arms around Levi’s middle. “Thank you so much!”

“Whoa, hey! You can’t just d-do that all of a sudden!”

Satan: They quite enjoyed their study dates with Satan. The two of them could sit in amiable silence for hours and just focus on getting their work done. It was peaceful, and Satan never minded if they took a rest on his shoulder

As they struggled to keep their eyes open (a coffee break might be in order soon) they caught sight of something in the margins of Satan’s notebook.

It started as idle pencil marks in the corner of the page. Little spirals that slowly transformed into vines  winding their way down the side. Delicate little flowers soon began to bloom at random intervals until finally, in the bottom corner, Satan was in the middle of doodling a lotus flower.

“That’s so pretty.” they felt Satan jump as they broke the silence.

“What?” he blinked, refocusing. “Oh. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m doing it.”

“I should have known you were a doodler.” they laughed. “I read somewhere that people who doodle in class actually retain more information.”

“Is that right?” Satan muttered, more to himself than anything. “That explains my notes in class. I wonder if there’s a reason I enjoy drawing outside of a learning environment?”

They nudged him before he got too deep in his own thoughts. “You’re allowed to just have a hobby, Satan. There’s no need to psychoanalyze it so much.”

Asmo: When they had admitted that they had never gotten their nails done, Asmo had wasted no time in whisking them away to his room. He insisted that everyone should have a manicure at least once in their life, sat them down on the chaise lounge in his bedroom and set to work.

Admittedly, they probably should be taking care of their nails better, and it was nice to have someone pamper them a little bit. They hadn’t really been expecting the hand massage at the end.

“Oh, you have earth hands, darling.” Asmo said as he worked his thumb into the center of their palm. “Reliable, stubborn, practical. Fits you to a T!”

“Huh?”

Asmo ignored them, continuing to analyze their hand. “Your love line starts under your index finger. Well, with seven partners, I should hope you’re content with your love life.”

“Asmo, what the hell?”

“Hm? Oh, sorry, darling.” Asmo laughed, tracing his finger in a circle in the center of their hand. “I suppose I should ask before I read your palm.”

“Is that what that was?” they asked. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Mm, there’s plenty of things I can do, my dear.” he practically purred. “An old lover of mine was a practiced chiromancer. I always thought it was fascinating, being able to read a person just by the lines on their hands, so I had them teach me. If nothing else, it’s a neat party trick.”

“Wow...” the human murmured, staring at their hand. “What else can you tell?”

Beelzebub and Belphegor: It had been decided long ago that Beel could not be trusted with cooking duty on his own. So the twins always had joint cooking duty.

It had also been decided that Belphegor couldn’t be trusted with waking up for cooking duty, so Lucifer tacked the human on as well.

None of them particularly minded it. Well, Belphie minded it a little, seeing as Beel had to literally fireman carry him to the kitchen. But all three of them worked well as a team.

It wasn’t terribly uncommon for Beel to hum to himself when he cooked. The kitchen was his element, and cooking always seemed to put him in a cheerful mood. It was uncommon, however, for Belphie to join in.

They hadn’t really been paying attention, simply registering the twins as background noise while they focused on their task. But soon, Beel’s humming turned to lyrics in a language that the human didn’t understand, but sent a shiver up their spine anyway.

Beel sang in a smooth baritone voice that they could feel thrumming through their chest. The human found themself closing their eyes and listening, nearly forgetting that they were supposed to be chopping up mandrake root.

They almost chopped their finger off when Belphie joined in.

When they turned around, the twins had their backs facing either other, but they had paused in their work. Both of them wore identical expressions of nostalgia - eyes closed, lips tugged upwards in a soft smile. Belphie’s soft, clear tenor mixed with Beel’s low timbre, and, despite not understanding a single word, the human felt goosebumps rise up their arms.

When they finished the song, the twins opened their eyes and looked at each other over their shoulder. Beel honestly looked like he was going to cry out of sheer joy. 

“It’s been a while since we sang together.” Beel grinned.

“At least a century.” Belphie nodded, shaking his head. “I’m surprised my voice hasn’t broken.”

“I feel like I’m intruding on a family moment, here.” the human muttered. They honestly hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but by the time they realized, it was too late. The twins had turned their gazes on them like they had just stood on the table and started screaming.

“What’re you talking about?” Belphie drawled.

“You are family.” Beel smiled, crossing the kitchen in three strides to ruffle their hair. “So you can’t be intruding.”

They stuck their tongue out at Beel, ducking out from underneath his hand. “Can you two teach me that song?”

[xyzcekaden]

🚍 unsuspecting sunday afternoon 🚍

by me, xyzcekaden! a pokemon fanfic about when the one you hate to love is made for you

How capable is the human heart now?

fandom: pokemon, gen 3, advanced generation characters: ash, may, steven stone in a “supporting” role ship: advanceshipping genre: romance, angst themes: friendship, pre-relationship, slowburn, 6+1 if you squint setting: modern, hoenn, pokemon universe lite word count: 4.6k rating: T

read it below, on ffnet, or on ao3!

A/N (9.7.201): So this has been in my drafts since about April 2020 😅 Sure, I'm happy to finally share something new with the small yet strong advanceshipping fandom; but more than that, I'm relieved this document can no longer taunt me with its incompletion, hahaha. Do let me know what you think! Especially with this opening formatting; I'm trying something new. :)

Nothing sensitive in the fic, but the characters are all adults so it felt fitting to rate it T. Title taken from the song of the same name by the Backstreet Boys, and its lyrics/sentiments are interwoven throughout. The narrative is inspired and framed by monstaxnight's anonymous ask. If you recognise it, it doesn't belong to me. Thanks for reading!

~~~

fall for someone whose body would start fires

On a Saturday, May asked Ash to come over the next day. “I need a second opinion on something,” she had said. “It’ll be super quick.”

Of course, ‘super quick’ means Ash has enough time to set his switch up on May’s gigantic living room tv and play a few rounds of his favourite fighting video game while she gets ready for something or another in her room. He always acts like he has better things to do than help her with her sundry weekly ventures, but they both know he’d rather do ‘nothing’ with her than ‘something’ on his own somewhere else.

“Okay, Ash, are you ready?” May’s voice rings out. “Yeah,” he answers distractedly, strategically button smashing.

“So I kept the jeans from this last outfit, but this top I just got two weekends ago and haven’t had a chance to wear yet,” May narrates as she exits her room. “I had the, frankly, brilliant idea of using the jacket from Outfit 1 and pairing it with those heels you paid for for my birthday, et voila!”

The clacking of heels stops at the entrance of the hallway. “What do you think?’

Ash redirects his attention to May. His avatar dies on screen, just like his voice dies in his throat.

“You, um, you look great.”

In actuality, May looks smoking hot, but that’s not new for either of them. His best friend is supremely attractive, and he knew it and had no problem acknowledging it normally. This time, however, May doesn’t just look physically great, she also looks like she feels like she looks great. He doesn’t know how much sense that makes; but there is decidedly something different, and Ash feels a strange sense of dread in his chest.

May beams, taking the inarticulate response in stride. “Well that’s a winning endorsement if I ever heard one! Now let’s just hope Steven has as great of a reaction.” She turns to one of the many full-length mirrors stationed around her condo and reviews the outfit with a critical eye.

This brings Ash out from his stupor. “‘Steven’?” he repeats as he sits up on the couch. “You’re going on a date?”

“It’s not a date,” May replies in a tone that clearly conveys that she would not be opposed to it turning into a date. “My dad is having dinner with an old business partner, and the guy’s bringing his son along, so me and Max were invited, too. We were kinda friends back when we were young, but it’s not like we’ve kept in touch or anything. I just figured I should make a good second first-impression… You know, for my dad’s sake.”

Ash can tell the last bit was just something she’s telling herself to rationalise why she’s trying so hard, and it doesn’t sit right with him. He slinks back down on the couch dejectedly and halfheartedly starts a new game.

He finds himself wondering how often they hung out and how much whatever-that-number-was-teenth impressions were worth. He hopes it’s a lot.

~~~

fall for someone who always runs from his kiss

“… And I was right! They were roommates!” May boisterously ends her story, almost losing her ice cream to physics as she wildly gesticulates.

They’re just strolling around the park that’s honestly nowhere near either of their apartments; but over the years, it became their park anyway. They didn’t even set plans to hang out today, but it kinda just happened―a recurring theme in their friendship, admittedly.

For his part, Ash hides a smirk with a lick to his own ice cream, not bothering to say or do anything to protect her treat. If she hasn’t learned by now, she never would. “Oh my god, they were roommates,” he deadpans instead.

May sends him an unimpressed smirk and lightly smacks Ash’s shoulder. He yelps. She yanks her hand back as soon as she realises, but the damage is done.

He blinks down at the cold, vanilla, rainbow-sprinkled stain before raising his gaze to meet May’s equally stunned one.

They stare in silence for a moment, then May cracks a conciliatory grin. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry?”

He shrugs it off easily. “I probably deserved it,” he says, making peace with the knowledge that his previous unwillingness to protect her ice cream from any accidents is the undoubted origin for his current poor luck. He nods toward the path. “Shall we?”

“We passed by a restroom a little bit ago. We can clean you up,” May disagrees, tugging on his arm in the opposite direction.

“‘S fine,” he argues as he tries to continue walking forward.

“Ash, it’ll stain!” She tugs harder.

“It’ll be an improvement!” He’s overpowering her, but not as easily as he’d like.

“Why are you being such a butthead about this!?” She’s pulling with all her strength now, this being a matter of pride to her at this point.

“Come on, May!” Ash heaves one last time.

They tumble head over feet onto the ground, but that’s not the reason Ash feels like his world has turned upside down.

May’s body weighs comfortably on his, his hands naturally settle on her waist with hers on his chest, and his brown eyes bore into her blues. Their ice cream has fallen… somewhere, but Ash doesn’t concern himself with that considering this is the closest they’ve been since they first met.

They’ve been toeing this line since then, too.

I’m gonna do it, he thinks to himself.

He closes his eyes.

He leans in.

May scrambles away.

Ash sits up and blinks at the sight of May’s confused, furious eyes. “Ash, what are you doing?” Her voice croaks like her throat is dry. It makes him clear his own before dumbly responding, “I was trying to kiss you.”

“Why??” she asks, her voice strangled. He pushes himself off the ground warily as he watches her hold herself, bite her lip, shake her head in a panic; and somehow in all of that, he understands.

“I thought it wasn’t a date.” Ash tries so hard not to sound accusatory, but her wince in response proves it didn’t work. It also proves his fear correct.

He turns, hiding as if the people walking by could discern his transgression and shame by the sight of his face alone. Besides, his mind can conjure up an image of her running away just fine on its own.

Ash notices the remnants of their impromptu outing splattered on the ground near his feet. He picks up what he can and stomps over to the nearest trash bin, throwing it in as hard as he can to let out some of his frustration.

He hopes he hasn’t gone and screwed everything up.

~~~

fall for someone whose lips belong to someone else

They don’t talk about it, and then it’s too late.

“Ash, this is Steven,” she tells him softly, as if it could make up for how it feels like the sight of her arms wrapped around the guy’s torso and his arm casually thrown over her shoulder assaults him every time he blinks.

“Steven Stone. It’s great to finally meet you. May speaks of you highly,” Steven introduces with a dignified air. Not pompous, no; he is just someone who was raised being told that he was going to do important things and who happened to believe it.

They shake hands, and Ash’s fingers feel cold, a marked contrast to how there’s something in his chest that’s burning.

Inside the restaurant, the waitress asks if a table is okay, and no one asks for a booth instead. In his seat, Ash is neither directly in between nor directly across from the newly-established couple, and he wonders if this is where all his luck went into.

Lunch goes better than expected.

Ash was prepared to hate the guy, but what is there to hate? Steven has a decent sense of humour, loves pokemon but loves rocks even more, and is COO of the biggest enterprise in Hoenn. He is a safe, sensible choice. This guy isn’t going to break May’s heart.

As the meal winds down, Steven offers to pay for everyone; but Ash still has his pride. In the end, he manages to negotiate paying for just his own plate and drink, knowing he has no right to battle for the privilege of paying for May’s.

He wouldn’t even do so on a typical occasion anyway; but as far as Ash is concerned, Steven’s presence throws all of the friends’ typical rules of engagement out the window.

They say goodbye and part ways in front of the restaurant.

A few steps later, Ash snaps his fingers as he recalls something. He turns around to remind May of their movie plans in a few days, and he is met with the sight of the couple sharing a sweet kiss on the corner while waiting for the light to change.

Steven could never break May’s heart, but he sure can break Ash’s.

Ash turns back and continues walking. He hopes May can remember on her own.

~~~

fall for someone whose touch is way too much

May insists that nothing has changed between them, but clearly something has because Ash doesn’t remember ever being so anxious about her proximity before.

He had always been aware of her, though. Always. When your first meeting is saving the other from getting run over by a tour bus, you quickly develop the habit of keeping track of where the person is at all times.

Between his athleticism and her natural proclivity towards tactileness, casual physical exchanges quickly became their norm: hugs and high fives, friendly elbows in the rib after a good joke and sharing a blanket as they watch a movie, (lingering touches on the shoulder and holding hands even after they’ve escaped a crowd… or did he make those up?).

They were controlled yet unmistakably affectionate markers of their relationship.

But now?

When she shifts one centimetre closer to him in line at the mall food court, he accidentally overpays by fifty pokeyen out of distraction. When she grabs his fork out of his hand to try a piece of his takoyaki, he jerks so hard at the contact that he spills his soft drink all over the table. When she pats him dry using flimsy food court napkins with a joke about ice cream in her voice and fondness in her eyes, he needs to claim a rapid-onset fever in order to give himself an excuse to cut their lunch short immediately.

These innocent touches have been an ever-present facet of their friendship since basically the beginning; and even when he realised he was in love, they hadn’t affected him like this.

Things are different now, despite what she says.

Well, maybe not things; maybe just him.

He had allowed himself to revel in their familiar touches when she was single because he could, because there was no one else that she was supposed to be able to make feel like this. Even if the feeling wasn’t meant for him, it wasn’t meant for anyone else either.

But now.

He can’t, in good conscience, allow his heart to rush and his smile to form and his hand to squeeze back. It wouldn’t be fair to May, not when she’s trusting him with her friendship and he’s taking more from her than that.

Even though he’d like nothing else than to keep that closeness, to go back to how it was between them before, this is the way it has to be now. He just hopes she can understand.

~~~

fall for someone he doesn’t want to feel for

On sleepless nights, he wonders when.

He knows the who, what, why, and how; but the when eludes him.

...

They were both breathing heavy, attention focused on the spot of the road where the girl would have flattened like a pancake if it weren’t for his quick reflexes and hero complex.

The clapping of a few passers-by snapped them out of their shock and into the realisation that he still had her protectively cradled to his chest.

They quickly broke apart, and he took the time to wave off the praise from the gathered crowd while she checked her purse to see if everything was inside.

“You got everything?” he asked after people’s attentions finally turned back towards their own lives.

“Yeah, I do,” the girl replied, and her voice was rather cheery considering the ordeal she just survived. (He would later learn that was her default.)

“Great,” he said, genuine yet awkward.

They continued staring at each other. The adrenaline from their brush with danger hadn’t worn off yet; his heart was still beating very fast.

“So, um, have a good day,” he bade after it was clear neither of them had anything more to say. He made to return to his errands, but a hand on his arm stopped him.

“You saved my life, and you’re just gonna walk away?” she asked incredulously.

He blinked at her. “I’ll be honest; I wasn’t aware there was an after-action protocol for this sort of situation.”

She was incredulous for only a second before she giggled at him. “The least I can do is buy you lunch to say ‘thank you.’”

“Well, I’ve never turned down a free meal,” he accepts with a grin.

She giggled again then stuck out her hand. “My name’s May.”

“Ash.”

...

No, it wasn’t then. Nor was it during the meal they shared, nor at the bar where they happened to see each other that weekend, nor while they were escaping from the bar fight that she accidentally instigated that night.

...

“Is this going to become a running gag? Will I have to constantly be saving you from trouble you unintentionally get yourself into?” Ash panted after he directed her to duck into a nearby alley.

“Hey, as far as I’m concerned, this automatically makes me the most interesting friend you’ve got,” May countered.

He took one extra second to check no one was following them then cut a glance at her. “I don’t know about you, but most of my friends have my number.”

She rolled her eyes with a smile. “Smooth.” They switched phones and exchanged numbers.

“Better memorize that by heart,” he jested as he handed her her phone back. “Don’t wanna waste your one phone call at the station just because you mixed up the last two digits by accident.”

“If the next time you hear from me is because I went and got myself arrested, just leave me to rot. I must have earned it,” she smirked.

...

Luckily, the next time one of them reached out to the other wasn’t to bail the former out of jail. May invited him to a pool party for her birthday, where he handily won a water balloon fight and impressed everyone by fixing the grill for their barbeque. Their friendship continued to progress naturally: movie nights that turned into impromptu sleepovers, brunches that turned into walks around town. Several shopping trips and video games and hikes later, they were each other’s best friends. It was basically inevitable.

So when? When would he have had the chance to fall in love with her?

...

“Hello?”

“Ash, you picked up!” she sounded surprised―happy, but surprised―and he winced. He knew he’d been blowing her off a little more often lately, but making her think he’d turn down her phone call?

“Heh, yeah, sorry about that,” he said, betting on the hope that she somehow implicitly understood everything he was apologising for. “Is everything okay?”

For an extended second, she was quiet, then she said, “I need to tell you something.”

His hackles rose, and he started grabbing his keys and putting on his shoes. Maybe she finally ended up in jail. “Where are you? I can be there in ten minutes, maybe twenty with traffic―”

She giggled, and he paused. That was her nervous giggle. “May?” he asked, still wary but not about to race out of his house with only his boxers on.

“No! No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just… Steven told me he loves me.”

His breath left his lungs.

“And I told him I love him back,” she continued.

All the adrenaline that had surged through his body only moments before completely left him at her words, and his limbs locked up instead. He felt cold.

“Hello?”

He didn’t even realise he had sunk to his knees until he meant to take a step back towards the couch. He just slumped onto his butt. “That’s―” He had to clear his throat. “That’s gotta be recent.”

He could slap himself. He sounded as dead as he felt. He tried again: “I mean, that’s great news, May! He’s a lucky guy. Yeah.”

She sighed with relief. Could Steven tell what her sighs meant over the phone? ”I’m the lucky one, I think,” she said happily, and that was his last straw.

“Heh, yeah, well,” he sputtered out, just to have something to say. “Listen, since you’re not in danger or anything, uh, you actually caught me at a bad time, so I gotta go. I’ll catch you later, yeah?”

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

“Wait, Ash! Before you go!”

He held back a sigh. “What’s up, May?”

“It’s just… You’re right; it is recent. You’re actually the first person I told.”

“I’m honoured.” He couldn’t help the sarcasm that spilled out, but he backtracked quickly. “I mean it. Thank you for telling me.”

“Of course, Ash; I tell you everything. At this point, it’s like I have to; nothing would ever feel real otherwise.”

He shut his eyes. He really couldn’t take this anymore. “I know what you mean. Same here.”

She made a cute sound, a quiet little ‘hmm,’ and that was when the first tear spilled out. “Alright, I’ve taken up enough of your time. I’ll text you later!!” she promised.

“Later,” he repeated, both an echo and a goodbye; and finally, blissfully, he ended the call.

...

When, when, when?!

That was supposed to be one of the sweetest moments of her young adult life, and she called on him―trusted him, even―to be happy for her. When did he get to the point where he couldn’t even do that? Instead, he recalls it now as he struggles to fall asleep, playing the memory at half-speed over and over again in his imagination, and all he does is hope.

He desperately hopes it’ll stop hurting so much.

~~~

fall for someone with the sweetest rebel heart

When he finds out he didn’t get the promotion he was vying for at work, there’s no one else’s comfort he sought but May’s.

“I’m sorry that happened, Ash,” May soothes as she rubs rhythmic circles into Ash’s back. They’re in her condo, noticeably nicer maintained than Ash’s flat, side by side on the sofa. It is the first time he’s let her touch him in weeks, and he really needs it. “At least now they know you’re interested? It might be your turn next time.”

Ash snorts but nods anyway. He’s usually the type to look at the bright side, but it would be an understatement to say that he is simply disappointed. After all the L’s he’s been taking in his personal life, he had been hoping at least something would go his way professionally.

May continues, “Just make sure not to let this setback actually set you back. Keep putting your best foot forward, and I know you’ll win those guys over… just like you did with me!” She ends with a wink, trying her hardest to inject some levity into the situation.

Just like that, Ash’s mood sours even more. “You can’t say that to me, May,” he angrily replies as he shuffles out of her hold.

“What are you talking about?” she pouts as she feebly tries to get him to lay back against the couch so that the cold air can’t get under the blanket they are sharing.

“I didn’t ‘win you over,’ clearly.” He shrugs off her touch and scoots away. He has spent so long trying to keep his bitterness inside, but he doesn’t have the emotional wherewithal to regulate himself right now. He’s tired of trying to get over things that make him upset.

May frowns, the furrow between her brow getting deeper as she sits up straight on the sofa. “Ash, why are you talking like that? I meant, like, how we became friends, obviously. I didn’t grow to love you by accident.”

Ash stands then, balling the blanket up and throwing it back on the couch. “I bet Steven wouldn’t be too happy to hear you say that.”

She follows suit, her voice elevating in volume as if to match. “I bet Steven wouldn’t appreciate being judged by someone who’s only met him once―despite my efforts otherwise, might I add.”

“I bet Steven would love to hear his girlfriend say she loves another guy.”

“I bet Steven isn’t dumb enough to think I can’t love you both.”

“You don’t love me, May!” Ash finally explodes.

He has never raised his voice like this, not to her, but he’s tired. He’s tired of loving someone he can’t have, he’s tired of hating himself for it, and he’s tired of the guilt when he takes it out on her despite all his attempts not to.

She looks like she’s torn between yelling right back or kicking him out; and before she could make up her mind, he collects himself enough so he could bring his voice down. He states simply, “Not the way you love Steven.” Not the way I love you.

He doesn’t say it, but he can tell she hears it anyway. He clears his throat and turns around, trying to hide without running away. “Hearts don’t work like that,” he murmurs into the room.

He makes to leave, but May’s hand on his shoulder stops him. She forcibly turns him back to face her, and Ash is shocked at the determined set to her face. Her eyes, bluer than a water stone and twice as powerful, hold him as captive as they always have. “You listen to me, Ash Ketchum.” Her tone brokers no argument. “If you thought for a second that I stopped loving you because I fell in love with Steven, you clearly underestimated what my heart is capable of.”

Her grip on him tightens, as if making sure he is still with her in the moment. “It’s big enough for the both of you; and if that’s not the way hearts are supposed to work, then I’ll just be the exception that proves the rule.”

She pulls him into a hug then, like locking that promise between them, and he dares let himself hope she means that.

~~~

fall for someone whose heart needs sewing up

Ash wasn’t expecting a knock on his door this late at night, and he definitely wasn’t expecting to see a beautifully made up May Maple standing in the hallway, mascara-tinged tears and runny nose notwithstanding.

"Steven is moving to Alola to support Devon Corp’s expansion," is all she said, but even that much is hard to make out through her watery voice.

The news sinks in, and Ash’s heart feels like someone moved it three centimetres to the left: still there, still functional, but not at all where he needs it to be.

"You’ve always talked about going to Alola," is the only way he could respond, thinking of all the times they’ve imagined taking a week off and vacationing in the tropical region. He won’t, can’t let himself think about anything else or else he’d break down.

In his heartbreak, he cannot recognise May's tears, which are too raw and too loud to be that of someone bearing regrettable news. These are the tears of a confused, broken heart.

"Ash, I'm not going," she sniffles, still stiffly standing outside his door. "He asked me not to."

Finally understanding that he misunderstood, Ash is even more disoriented than he was before. "Why would he do that?" he asks, obviously still trying to wrap his mind around what the hell was happening.

"I don’t know!" May yells while clenching her fists and stomping a high-heeled foot. It is the most movement she's made since he opened the door. "I demanded a reason, and he spewed nonsense at me! He said―" and she stops. Her whole body slumps back into stillness but without the stiffness of before. She continues quietly, "He said he didn’t want to see what I’d look like with my heart so far outside of my chest," like a guilty confession. Ash is at once reminded of their almost-fight a month ago, and he still isn’t sure what this all means.

He almost asks, Why wouldn’t he believe your heart was right where you were? or How capable is the human heart now? but he doesn’t.

Instead, he finally welcomes May inside. He sits her on the couch and helps her take off her heels before she wraps herself up in the blanket he keeps there―a blanket he only has, he remembers, because when she first visited his apartment, she insisted his couch needed one. She doesn’t just hold the blanket around her shoulders; she hides her entire frame within its folds. He merely sits on the couch next to the lump and places a solitary hand on top, unsure where it was resting yet hoping it is providing comfort nevertheless.

He wonders if May ever let Steven see her like this, the way she needs to shut out all stimuli as if to physically recreate her darkest moments. He wonders why he loves that she does that, even though it causes him so much selfish pain to be close enough to see her like this but shut out from her healing.

"I don’t think I have a boyfriend anymore," May says at length, voice dampened by the space and fabric between them.

It would have been the happiest news of Ash’s adult life if it weren’t for the extreme melancholy that laced her tone as she said it out loud.

He squeezes his hand into a fist on top of the blanket, his signal that he’d like to hug her if he could.

"I would have missed you if you left." Ash gives a nonsequitur-confession in response. May burrows deeper into the blankets and says nothing.

Instead, she reaches a hand out from a heretofore unseen opening in the fabric and holds on to his other hand tightly.

Ash stares at her slender knuckles, made paler from her firm grasp, and stops hoping.

He gently plies her fingers from his palm and tries not to feel guilty about the shocked, embarrassed way the hand pulls back into the blanket as he leaves her there.

The love of his life needs compassion right now. This is not his opportunity to sweep her off her feet; this is not his second chance.

He returns from the bedroom, settles back into his place on the couch, and forces May out of the blanket.

~~~

May jerks her head up, shocked and angry and still embarrassed from her rejected attempt to seek Ash’s comfort, but she is quickly mollified into confusion. The expected sight of Ash’s lit up form in his lit up living room ends up being no different from the blackness from which she thought she was rudely taken.

It is so dark under the extra, larger blanket that she can’t even see Ash’s nose even though she can sense his head is mere inches from hers.

His hands find hers in the darkness and squeeze. Relief flashes through her as she finally surrenders to the deep, thick slice of heartbreak.

May wants to see his face, but she settles for a hug.

[selfdestructivecat]

Virgil Sanders

@therealashpollo

I love you both so much for this.

First Impression

I remember that I actually watched Sanders Sides out of order, since I did not realize there was a chronological order, so I don’t remember which episode I had watched first? But I thought he was broody and angsty and, admittedly, I did think of him as the bad guy for a bit, since he was Anxiety and I have terrible anxiety myself.

Impression Now

He is my favorite character, no competition. He totally fits the mold for my typical comfort character: gruff and distanced, but incredibly loyal and protective. I adore him to pieces and want nothing more than for him to be happy.

Favorite Moment

Oh no I’m not sure if I can choose! I love so many moments! I love him in The Twelve Days of Christmas, his little smile at Patton’s jokes never fails to make me melt (AND THE CARD HE GAVE PATTON, AHHHHHHH HE CARES!)

He was also fantastic in the Puppet episode. I loved that he went along with Patton and Roman’s idea even though it made him uncomfortable, because he wanted to help. Him teaming up with Patton was so darn cute!

(“When you lo-CARE FOR someone, nothing hurts more than their scorn.” Yeah just watch me absolutely sobbing in the club right now.)

And ooooooh I LOVED him as the overworked, stressed techie in Can Lying Be Good! His expression as he faded in the lights or swept the stage were just absolutely priceless. You can tell he didn’t want to be doing any of this but he still went along because he wants to help! He was trying his best!

I could write an entire essay on Flirting with Social Anxiety, but I’ll get to that later.

But in the end, I have to go with Accepting Anxiety: Part 2. Specifically when he was calming Thomas down with the 4-7-8 technique to get everyone out of his portion of the mind. You can tell how much he genuinely cares about Thomas and the others, and HIS LITTLE SMILE DURING ROMAN’S SPEECH! HE DESERVES THE WORLD AHHHHHHHHH!

Idea For A Story

I have tons of ideas bouncing in my brain for stories about Virgil. I recently came up with a Pokemon AU that could be the catalyst for a Virgil-centered story. I also adore stories where Virgil is physically protecting the others or Thomas, since he’s fight or flight.

Maybe for a story idea, Thomas is in a dangerous situation (perhaps getting mugged?) Virgil is terrified, Patton having to try to coach him out of a panic attack while the other sides are trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. Eventually, the attacker takes out a weapon, and Virgil just... stops breathing. All signs of the panic attack are gone, and he’s impossibly still with a hauntingly blank stare.

The shadows seem to close on the commons. Everything moves in slow motion.

Virgil jerks violently, and the next thing they know, the attacker is knocked out cold on the ground and Thomas’ knuckles are throbbing with pain.

Unpopular Opinion

I know a lot of people hate Virgil being characterized as being cute or the like, but I actually don’t mind it? I like characters being able to show vulnerability, and as someone with anxiety who has unwillingly been subjected to situations that forced this vulnerability on me, I think there’s a lot of potential in this area.

I’ve always thought of him as the youngest side, and of course he’s sarcastic and tough as hell, but even the strongest people need support, and who doesn’t need a good cry every once in a while? Give me the other sides taking care of him! And hell, give me Virgil taking care of the others! They’re a FAMILY, your honor!

Favorite Relationship

Prinxiety!!! My love for this ship honestly stems from me searching up fanfics when I first got into this series, and fics for this pairing were popping up the most (and by then, Flirting with Social Anxiety had just come out, so that was just pouring a bucket of gasoline on the flames).

I just adore their banter and dynamic, and how they support each other through actions, and how they used to be enemies but through time and working hard getting to know each other, they became friends! Even if they aren’t romantically confirmed in canon, you can’t deny that they are extremely close (FWSA is absolutely proof of this).

Just... Roman and Virgil working together, Roman willing to give up a chance at love because he realized that it scared Virgil, the infamous push, literally the entire end card for that episode.

Honestly? Through loving Virgil as a character, I actually grew to appreciate Roman more, since relationships need communication and balance to work. I had to get to know Roman better if I wanted to understand their relationship in a romantic sense, and so the side that used to be my least favorite character is now very dear to me.

Favorite Headcanon

I’ve written about Spider!Virgil before because that headcanon owns my entire heart, so I’ll go with another one that I love.

This is a pretty common headcanon that I’ve seen thrown around, so I won’t claim credit for it, but I love the idea that Virgil was basically raised by Janus. He, Janus, and Remus were inseparable, helping Virgil to learn that his spider-like appendages were actually super cool, and that he was valuable both as Anxiety and as Virgil.

But as Thomas grew older, things changed. Remus’ intrusive thoughts became more gruesome and uncontrollable, and although his intention wasn’t to scare Virgil, the anxious side was terrified. Janus started to change as well, eventually believing that he had to act as the villain to look after Thomas and resorting to trickery. Virgil hated it, seeing the person who he used to trust more than anyone hiding things from Thomas and even the other sides. From him.

His family’s new behavior, on top of the new terrifying possibilities life began throwing at him, was a huge factor in his transformation into Paranoia.

Virgil didn’t want to resort to trickery like Janus. He didn’t want to be viewed as the bad guy like Remus. He wanted his family back, wanted Janus to read them stories and for Remus to take him on adventures and to return to normal.

He felt impossibly alone.

When he finally reverted back to his normal self, he left for the Light sides. He doesn’t regret it, he loves Logan and Patton and Roman, but occasionally late at night, he would miss his fellow dark sides so much that it hurt.

And, perhaps on those same exact nights, his past family would be feeling the same.

Ahhh thank you guys so much for the asks! This was so fun! :D

Send Me some Character Asks!

[the-dead-sea-trilogy]

WIP Wednesday: Ophelia and the King’s Madness

expected to be about 100k+ words total, 50% complete

Hi and welcome to another WIP Wednesday!! Today I’m sharing Ophelia and the King’s Madness, which is a spin off from my Hardenshipping Dead Sea Trilogy that focuses on Colress, the novelty third wheel, and his time in Team Plasma.

Ghetsis hires Colress to look after his daughters who, despite being adults, live completely isolated from the outside world.  But Anthea and Concordia find themselves smitten with the man who brings so many strange and wonderful things to them.  But as their relationship develops, Concordia slowly discovers the truth of who he and her father really are, and must face the choice to leave everything in her world behind.

Hit me during quarantine while I was...... stuck inside all day and couldn’t leave my house........ funny how life does that to you.

There will be mild - but not explicit - sexual themes.  But today is just a preview!  Colress and Ghetsis dunking on one another.

I ripped this straight off my google doc so enjoy all my typos and funny musings ✨

Link on AO3

Ko-Fi Tip Jar

(Full text below the cut)

 Chapter 0.5??? (AT RISE?  CURTAIN???)

 Colress Achroma had seen every sight there was to see in Castelia City.  There was nothing new about the subway station, the cars, the lights, the people, the noise, and even his own apartment.   Nothing fulfilling about the bars, the clubs, the drinks, the parties.[---maybe mention something about the people who lurk in the subway station/swers and how weird they are--]

 And while it was objectively true that there were perhaps hundreds--if not, thousands--of new things to do--drink, fuck--every day, for Castelia City had no shortage of people like him--nothing      felt    particularly new.  Not since he had moved back from the Hoenn region, where he had completed his PhD, which had grown especially underwhelming in its own regard.  While he had certainly missed the sheer expanse of the city in that time--ever since getting his PhD--which had turned out to be nothing but dull barrier after dull barrier--he felt incredibly,      painfully     understimulated.  And so, he sat in the [bleak] alleyway in the dark, grimy underbelly of his hometown, spinning the petals of a white rose in his hand, waiting for something new.

 No, he wasn’t there for a hookup.  He knew better places than here for that.  He knew this underground tunnel system perhaps even better than the subways themselves, even as it ran adjacent to them.   Admittedly, the cryptlike sewer system had become something of a second home to him, ever since he was a kid.  Here in his favorite corner, for instance, there were still even smears of ash from when he had started a fire when he was 14 and narrowly escaped the police.  That, particularly, was the first of what was soon going to become many narrow run-ins with the law.  No, he wasn’t here to sell or solicit, even though he was told someone would meet him here.

 Okay so when put like that, it might as well have been a hookup.

 But as he sat perched up on a ledge, scanning shadows in the dim, yellowy light on the wall--down past the shadows that scooted across the filthy waterways--he saw a long, black shadow emerge from the darkness.  [add in the flower ‘he loves me, he loves me not’ thing?].   Although, it was more as if the cloak had pulled off and carried teh darkness with him.  The man was large; and wore a long, black cloak; his footsteps, which would have otherwise been almost soundless and serpentine, were interjected with a      thud     from his cane--forcing him to walk in an uneven, cacophonic rhythm.  He leaned into his left, and leaned into it hard.  In fact, with the hsape of the cloak, and the way he walked, even from here, it would appear almost as if the man entirely lacked a right hand.      

 Colress dropped another white petal down from the ledge.  “He loves me,” he said, then glanced up at the man and smiled.  He slid down off the ledge and stared up at the large man, the grossish yellowish light grossly illuminating his face.  “You came.”

 “I was told I could find someone here.”

 “Well, you found correctly,” Colress said, waving the flower around.  “Now, what exactly is it you want?  I’m not accepting clients, if that’s what you’re after.  But, there are plenty of girls down here who, if you pay them right--”

 “Enough,” the man said, spitting on the ground at Colress’ feet.  His voice boomed, nearly echoed down the chamber.  “I’m not here for a prostitute.”

 “The polite term is ‘sex worker,’ actually, but--”

 “I’m looking for a scientist, not a whore.”

 “Lucky for you, I’m both,” Colress said, smiling.  The man stops and stares at him, incredulously, like he doesn’t think he could be serious.  Colress flashes some sort of badge at him.  “How can I help you?”

 “You can’t be serious.”

 “Oh I am,”  Colress said.  They stare off again at one another, Ghetsis is like “Nevermind this has to be a mistake” and starts tot turn to go.

 “I thought you might be a little apprehensive, given our location, but I promise, only the best of the best gather in the nighttime here in Castelia City,” Colress said, reaching into his bag.   “After all, how would you have gotten your contacts to get ahold of me? I prepared for you my entire CV--” he extended the document to him [basically traps him from leaving].  The man raised his eyebrows, but tentatively accepted it.  “Although, you should know this is quite the unusual place for a job interview.”  [Colress gives him a devious grin.]  “I dig it.”

 “Jesus Christ,” the man muttered, scanning over the document.

 “What?  Overwhelmed and amazed at my outstanding credentials?”

 “No,” the large man said.  “I had heard the rumors.  I just didn’t believe they were      fucking true    .”

 “Ah, so I have a reputation I see!  That’s good news,” Colress said.  “You should have a clue as to who I am, then.  However, unfortunately I’m still not sure with whom I have the pleasure of--” Colress paused, now seeing the profile of the man in the low light.   “Wait a moment,” he said, beginning to recognize the face.  “I’ve see you before.  You’re…” [the memory comes to him] “You’re Ghetsis Harmonia,” he said.  “The leader of Team Plasma.  All those ones going around talking about all that ‘Pokemon’s Rights’ bullshit--”

 “Pokemon liberation.”

 “Oh and the      airship!      Quite a mechanical wonder, I have to admit.  I’ve always sort of wanted to get up close and personal with that antigravity machine,” he said.  He leaned in to Ghetsis with a sing-song tone.  “Are you here to give me a ride~!”

 “Only if you’re useful.”

 “Useful?” Colress asked.  “In what way?”

 [is he like a court jester to a king????]

 “I’ve already told you I’m not accepting clients.  That’s never been my game anyway.  Useful?  To Lord Ghetsis Harmonia… isn’t that what they call you?  My lordship?  My king?  Leader of a selfless, benevolent organization devoted to the freedom of Pokemon.  It’s quite ambitious, I have to say.  I’ve never really seen anything quite like it.”

 Ghetsis was silent.

 “But what could a proud, noble, and upstanding lord want with a--ah, what was it you called me?”

 [MAKE SUR EHE CALLS HIM SOMETHING BEFORE THIS]

 “‘A sewer rat’ like me…?”

 “Research,” Ghetsis said, shortly.

 “Oh?” Colress asked.  “Of what kind?  Surely we didn’t have to meet in such a remote location to go over my CV.  We could have gotten lunch.  Oh, or      brunch--!    ”

 “Enough,” Ghetsis said, more sternly.  “I won’t tolerate this level of [silliness? Pfffft No better word].”

 “Then what do you need of me, my lord?”  

 “I need you for research.  A very particular kind of research my own scientists believe you to be capable of.”

 “Oh, scientists from down here?” Colress said.  “Word certainly does get around.  But what makes you think so?”

  [Ghetsis hands him some kind of flyer from a battle or tournament or something]

 “How’d you do it?” he asked.

 Colress raised his eyebrows.  “What do you mean?”

 “Your thesis was about DNA and Mega-Evolution,” Ghetsis said.   “And this,” Ghetsis pointed again to the page.  “You enhanced its power for competition.”

 “I didn’t enhance anything,” Colress said, flatly.  The flatness in his voice, however, spelled sarcasm.  “The ‘power of friendship’ did that.  If I had enhanced anything, that would be cheating, wouldn’t it?”  Colress paused.  Examines Ghetsis.  “Of course, the ‘power of friendship’ in this scenario might involve a few extra nuts and bolts.   Nothing more.”

 [  Ghetsis like grunts or makes one of his Ghetsis noises.  Colress kind of turns and looks at him.  Ghetsis maybe says something like [We could pay you well to do it again] or something etc.]

 “But what would a noble Lord want with a researcher like me?   What would an upstanding and noble, pacifist organization like Team Plasma possibly want to do with Pokemon battling power?  And, with you coming to me in such circumstances, I’m beginning to think that you’re either horny, or Team Plasma isn’t exactly what it says it is.”

 “We have certain aspects that we keep only to the initiated.”

 “Well, it’s a cult, isn’t it?” Colress said.  “I mean, Team Plasma is a cult.  You all walk around in hats and robes, handing out pamphlets and preaching about love and destiny and higher wisdom.  And you at the very helm.”

 Pause.

 “Well, if this is a personal invitation to join your freaky little cult, I’m afraid to tell you I’m not really religious, and I don’t really plan on ‘being saved’ any time soon--”

 “I heard you weren’t satisfied with your day job.”

 “Day job?  What day job?” Colress laughed.  “I don’t need to work for a living.”

 “Exactly.”

 Long pause.

 “I do what I want.  I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to come around.”

 “And what exactly is that opportunity, Colress?”

 [Long pause. Colress decides it’s time to spill.  Something pulls him to know to understand what Ghetsis is there for, air of malice.]

 “Have you heard of an organization called Cipher?”

 “Faintly.”

 “They were a criminal organization responsible for the ‘Shadow Pokemon’ incident that happened about a decade ago in the Orre region.”

 Ghetsis raised his eyebrows, interested.

 “They operated in secret laboratories in abandoned warehouses scattered throughout the region.  Their laboratory director, Ein, was behind the conception of the project,” Colress said.  “In his profile, he is described as someone ‘long on ambition and short on emotion,’ something to which I think we both can relate.”

 “Mhm,” Ghetsis siad.

 “Ein was the pioneer behind the creation of these creatures--Shadow Pokemon.  Pokemon capable of entering this hyper-empowered state.”

 [Maybe more nods.]

 “I always sort of wished I could talk to Ein.  But, unfortunately like any other criminal organization, they were eventually found out, and their records destroyed.”

 “So what was the point in you telling me all that?”

 “Please let me monologue.” [Say something about how like if he’s going to join an evil organization he’s only going to get a chance in this once in his life--also maybe it’s like he’s given ghim a sales pitch??]

 They stare at each other.

 “What they were doing was highly illegal, of course.  Though, I couldn’t stop myself from wondering, if, given the opportunity, I could do better.”

 [They have a moment where they’re on the same page.]

 “Cipher’s mistake was that the Pokemon were strong, but ultimately uncontrollable,” Colress said.  “Their approach, ironically enough, was too emotional.  This flimsy control maxed out Pokemon’s power, but brought them into a manic state that made them lash out uncontrollably.  This lack of control also made it an easy effect for anyone to reverse.  A handful of people were known for doing so.  They called it Purification.  ‘Opening the door to a Pokemon’s heart,’ that’s what they called it.  In fact, that’s even how Ein himself chose to define it,” Colress said.

 [Colress turns and then laughs].  “That’s what he called it.   Can you believe?  ‘Opening and closing the doors to the heart…” what the fuck does that even mean?  Some bullshit phrasing they made up to describe the process of divorcing a creature from its emotional integrity.  ‘Hearts’ and ‘doors’ aren’t measurable data.  It was a chemical they were using.  A wave.  Cipher’s true methods, as I’ve said, were unfortunately lost to time.  But, we do have the work of Professor Krane, who developed a more regimented procedure for purifying these Pokemon,” Colress said, smiling.  “It’s a wave.  They used EM waves.”

 “Congratulations.”

 “The way I see it, Cipher’s approach likely targeted the limbs, so to speak, rather than the creature as a whole.  This left weak points that Krane and other purification scientists were able to exploit.  If they wanted to truly be successful, they would have had to find a way to overrun the entire mind of the creature,” Colress said.

 “So success would mean absolute control?”

 “Yes,” Colress said.  “Precisely.”

 “That I can agree with you on.”

 Another pause.  “Theoretically, one would be able to use the work put forth by Professor Krane to reverse-engineer the way that Cipher created these Pokemon, and then build upon it for their own ends.  To do so would be highly unethical, of course, and cause quite a stir in most procedural review boards,” he said.  “So it remains a fantasy that I’ve considered, but never fully entertained.  The bureaucrats win out again, and for good reason, I suppose.”

 “That’s quite a tale you’ve spun for me.”

 “Isn’t it?” Colress asked.  “I always thought so.  But that’s not what we’re here about, is it?  We’re here for you,” [he turns to him and smiles].  “So, Lord Ghetsis Harmonia… cult-leader, king.  What is it that I can do for you?”

 “By the sound of it…” Ghetsis said, slowly.  “Exactly what you want.”

 Colress [does something], smiling.  “Then, gratefully, my lord, I am ever at your service.”  [Maybe kisses rose and tosses it at his feet?  → this ties him back to Concordia]

[aj-anime-blog]

To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts - Review!

First review here we go!!

So, after being completely and utterly obsessed with Jujutsu Kaisen and AOT season 4, I decided to check out MAPPA studios and watch a bunch of stuff from their roster. My so-called "MAPPA binge" included this strange and unknown piece: Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e, or in English, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts. An adaption of a manga originally released in Bessatsu Shounen (you might recognize this as the magazine that released Attack on Titan!), it looked pretty promising. I do have to admit that I didn't read a page of this anime's manga, though the art style on it looks gorgeous!!

The concept behind the show: A war has torn two halves of a nation apart, split into the North and the South. The Northerners, who were previously greatly outnumbered in battle, created a half-human, half-beast species known as "Incarnates" because of their God-like abilities. But the Incarnates begin having some issues when their beast forms take over their bodies, turning them into monsters. When the war ends, our protagonist, Hugh Hank, an Incarnate and previous captain of the Incarnate squad, swears to kill all of his mutating Incarnate buddies before they can destroy the world.

This review will not contain spoilers until the labeled "Spoiler" section at the bottom.

In general, what do I think?: 4/10, this show kinda sucked. Ouch! I hate being that blunt! Especially on my first review here! But To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (let's call it TTASB from here on out!) had glaring flaws that, while it did hold up as a show, made it uninteresting and hard to love. Not only were the characters mediocre and boring, but the show seemed to contradict itself and its own opinion of the Incarnates all the time! Are they bloodthirsty monsters that need to be killed? Are they misunderstood humans who should be given peace? I don't know! Our main characters don't seem to either! Other than the "war bad" motif that gets shoved down your throat from episode one, the show felt stagnant in what it was trying to make the audience feel.

I hate being so cynical about it, though, because it does still earn those 4 points! Even though a lot of it falls flat, as a whole, it's still an ok show! Hank and Schaal have good concepts and their dilemmas are interesting in certain parts when the writers manage to nail pits and pieces of their development! The fight scenes were cool and I think that the concept for the world was neat! And the show does have a pretty cool title. Let's be honest, To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts sounds super metal.

So what about those characters?: 5/10! Hugh Hank and Schaal are our two main protags for the show, and they both have pretty interesting concepts! Hank is an Incarnate, he used to be the leader of the other Incarnates, and he made a vow with them that when they lost their minds, he would kill them himself. Schaal is the daughter of one of these Incarnates that fought under Hank. Interesting, right?! How could these two opposing characters get along with one another?

TTASB tries to give the two of them a sort of grumpy-old-mentor-teaches-a-cheery-youngster relationship (which, admittedly, is one of my favorite tropes) and manages to forget everything good about having this kind of relationship. To start, it feels like Schaal has next to no reason to be tolerating Hank, and vice versa. She follows him around because *insert some excuse about understanding the Incarnates?* and Hank lets her because *insert I really don't know*. It really feels like Schaal doesn't need to be there, and she's just a plot device to move along Hank's character development.

Then, the two of them never really interact in ways that really moved me. It never felt like they made a deeper connection that meant something to the plot. They interacted, sure. They spoke about their issues, yeah. But it never felt like Hank needed Schaal, or that Schaal was emotionally tied to Hank, until the show spoonfed it to you that they were.

In the end, neither of their developments felt compelling or interesting. There were a few scenes that maybe, if you squinted, hinted towards them growing as people, but for a 12 episode anime, it was very menial. It also felt like said scenes were fairly forced, with their development not really leading them to the point that they ended up at. Again, TTASB has a bit of an issue with contradicting itself.

The villain was so meh. He has a motive, yeah. It's pretty lame. He's not compelling at all. Nothing about him is interesting or kept me hooked on him. The show probably could've existed without him, to be entirely honest. I don't really have much else to say about him! I just did not really care about him at all.

The best characters in the show are hands-down the supporting cast of Incarnates. Each one has fairly interesting motivations, and even though they're only given an episode or so to tell their stories, they feel the most genuine. My biggest qualm with them is that the show doesn't build their connection to Hugh Hank at all, so when he gets emotional over them, you're kind of like "uhhh u know this guy??". More about this down in our spoilers section, as I'll go over a scene where this is prominent.

So characters were meh, but what about the story itself?: 4/10, just as meh. Again, very interesting! Lots of potential! But it fell flat where it mattered. To be clear, just before we dig deeper: the 12 episodes of TTASB isn't the entire story. It's clearly intended to be continued, though, as of writing this, I haven't been able to dig up any news about a potential season 2.

I don't really mind if animes aren't completely original, as long as they're fun, but TTASB didn't really do that. A lot of the episodes felt boring and reused like it was a watered-down copy-paste of other material. Some episodes were repetitive and seemed to be trying to hammer in the same themes, only to be later contradicted by other episodes. TTASB will spend a few episodes showing you how misunderstood and sweet the Incarnates are and then have an episode where an Incarnate murders a bunch of people. I would love it if it was, in any way, shape, or form, sarcastic, but it is not. TTASB just thinks it can get away with the blatant disregarding of its own morals. It only ends up feeling disconnecting and frustrating.

It follows an almost monster-of-the-week style format for introducing the Incarnates, which does them a bit of a disservice, in my opinion. I really would have liked it if there was a bit more overlap between the Incarnates and their stories! We know that they're all very close (or, at least, the show tells us that they are without really showing us) so seeing them interact with one another outside of their respective episode would've been fun!

The story tries to be darker and grimier than it actually is. I didn't end up caring much for the nation itself and much of the politics that the show tried to utilize felt boring and, again, watered-down. It felt like the show wanted to make it a political drama about war and human rights and only ended up shying away from what makes those genres impactful. Again, this isn't to say that TTASB's story is bad, it's just not as good as it could've been.

But it's MAPPA, so the art has to be good, right?: Yeah! Art was cool! Nothing golden, like MAPPA's newer stuff, but a solid 7/10! The fight scenes were nice, and even though a lot of them felt redundant to watch, they were still smooth! I have some qualms about a few of the Incarnates' beast forms (especially Hank's) looking like they belong back in 2001, but they still looked cool nonetheless.

I don't really have much to say on this front! Nothing really blew me away, but I never looked at the screen and winced away.

Ok and finally, pacing!: 4/10. 12 episode animes always have tricky pacing to them. I like to think about the show being pretty much only 5 hours long, which isn't that much time to cram in as much story and plot as they might want to. Overall, TTASB actually had pretty decent pacing, with a long enough build-up that led to a final showdown. If you ask me, I do think there was a pacing problem in the second half, as it felt far too stretched out, but that could've just been my perception of it.

My biggest issue with pacing loops back to the characters again. They're never really given time to explore or build up relationships. Especially not Hank and his prior team of Incarnates. I think that there should've been more screen time dedicated to their time in the army, to better explain the emotional distress that he's going through as he's forced to hunt them down. Instead, TTASB relies on a throwaway line or scene to deliver this emotional blow, and it nearly always falls flat.

Music!!!!: 6/10, The soundtrack in this anime really wasn't memorable and I don't remember much from it. Whoops!

I did like the opening a bit! It was done by Mafumafu, who I think has done a Pokemon intro song? Either way, it was energetic and fit the theme of the show well! The ending is also a bop, now that I'm thinking about it! It manages to be nostalgic and sad without being too slow! So good music on both fronts!!

OK, now we're in spoiler territory! Be warned!

I don't have too much to say regarding spoilers. Nothing in the show really feels important enough that I have to mention it under a spoiler tag. A few small notes, I suppose.

The show treats Hank like the more important character but then throws him away in his "death" to focus on Schaal, which was a very frustrating episode. Schaal felt so bland and useless in it, even when she faced her father again. Bringing him back to life felt like a sad excuse to force her into character development. I did like it when she found the courage to shoot him, but I also thought that it wasn't really as emotional as the show wanted it to be.

Hank's connection with Schaal, particularly in the second half, feels completely unnatural and forced. When she gets kidnapped, he has some sort of mental breakdown over her and it, if anything, felt creepy. It was undeserved and was forced down your throat rather than built.

Beatrice was the best character in the show and I think that if they stuck to ideas like hers (misunderstood creatures who just want to go back to their old lives), the story would have been much better. Instead, you switch to characters like the Gargoyle Incarnate, who just goes on a murder spree, and it ruins a lot of the development that Beatrice brought to the table.

& our deep deep look at one part: Forgive me if I get this screwed up a bit, it's been a weekish since I finished the show and my brain dumped out all details of it already.

Hugh Hank goes to the mountains and fights the Garmr Incarnate, Rex (Roy? I'm a bit confused on his name), in an epic show-down. Obviously, at the end of it, Hank wins, killing Rex. Now, if you're like me, you sat there for most of the fight going "who tf is Rex and why is this battle important?" and only at the very END, when he's dying, do you see a clip that you might remember from the very beginning of the anime, with Rex talking about Schaal. You go "oohhh I know who he is!" but you wished that you remembered this ten minutes ago when the fight started because it would've been so much more impactful. The show didn't remind you of this scene. It didn't tell you that Rex was this same person that you already met. It expected you to remember, and I didn't. This scene sums up a lot of the character problems with the show, where even if something does have emotional weight, the show doesn't act on it.

Now we're done!: Sorry if this was harsh, but that's my full review on To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts! I'd love to hear if you agree with me or think that I'm totally wrong! If you've read the manga, tell me if it's better or worth a read! And thanks for reading!

(The crossed-out "Hugh"s are all of the times that I got Hank's name wrong! I'm not super great with character names, but I always take it as a bad sign when I screw up the name. )

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #375

“why do i see her, the never-ending night  /  why do i see her, wearing nothing but the dark?”

Who’s one person who changed how you viewed something? I hold Rhett & Link responsible for "curing" my homophobia. I went through a phase where I shipped them like CRAZY, and they're still my "OTP," and it really made me question why I had such a disgusting belief. The switch was officially flipped when listening to their podcast with Hannah Hart, who discussed growing up as a lesbian surrounded by homophobia. Let me tell you, it felt fucking good to let that repulsive belief go. It was my former religion that tied me to it, but it could no longer be an excuse to me, even when I stayed Christian a while longer. And here I am now as a bisexual woman who wants to deck younger me dead in the face. :') Were you ever scared of driving? What scared you about it? I am TERRIFIED of driving. I'm most scared of getting in a wreck and killing somebody, something I would never. Ever. Ever. Forgive myself for. I'm also petrified of, once again, getting in a wreck and I wind up paralyzed from the neck down. The most memorable time that you skipped school, what did you do? Nothing very exciting. What was the last topic you did thorough research on? Why? Toxic masculinity for an essay in college. What is a dish you absolutely love, but hate to prepare yourself? I don't cook, so. Of the many different American accents, which one is your favorite? New York. Is there anything hanging from the doorknob in your room? No. Why did you move to where you’re living now? Because we had to get out of our former house because the growing mold problem was a health hazard (especially for Mom, given her then-recent cancer diagnosis), and our family friend newly owned this house as a part of the former resident's will. Said resident knew Mom as well and the house problems, so she wanted Tobey to help us into this house anyway. What’s your opinion on wearing pajamas in public? Do you yourself do that? I literally couldn't care less. I do it a lot. Do you usually fill up at the same gas station? No; Mom just pays attention to the price. Are you currently looking for a new job? No. I don't plan to until I'm done with TMS therapy. Are any of your relatives musicians? No. Have you ever had an asthma attack? Thank goodness no. My mom has asthma and I have seen her have an attack, so I know they're terrifying. Have you ever been in a hospital and not felt safe? There was one occasion during a psych hospital stay that my roommate had WILD anger issues. She would explode out of seemingly NOWHERE, to the point once or twice she had to be put in solitary because she would literally scream and damage shit, like throwing tables and such. She scared the piss out of me to the point I finally plucked up the courage to tell the nurses that I needed a different room. What’s the highest fever you’ve ever had? I don't remember. Have you ever been hospitalized for a day or more? At psych hospitals. I think my shortest visit was just shy of a week. Have you ever had surgery? Two. Are you lonely? I'm admittedly very lonely. Are you mad at someone right now? No. Do you eat late at night? I sometimes need a small midnight or so snack because I cannoooooooot sleep when my stomach is growling. If I'm in basically any sort of discomfort, I have extreme trouble sleeping. Who do you miss? A lot of people. I miss Jason, Megan, Mini, Hannia, Emily, Journee... I don't feel like dwelling on those I've lost. Who do you admire most? Mark. If you could transform into any animal what would it be and why? Maybe a cat. Quick, agile, stealthy, majestic, well-equipped to defend itself... sounds pretty good. Are you more artistic or mathematical? Definitely more artistic. Which supermarket do you usually shop at? Wal-Mart. When was the last time you went to McDonald’s? I'm not sure, but it's been a while. Maybe around a month. What was the last chocolate bar you ate? I believe I had a 3 Musketeers because I was really craving one. Who was the last person you talked to on Skype/video chat? The woman who was doing my evaluation to determine if I was a good fit for TMS therapy. Can you remember the first time you ever talked to the person you love/like? Does he/she remember? I think I might have a vague idea, but I don't really remember. Would you be able to have a relationship with someone you didn’t find attractive, if they had a nice personality and treated you well? Yep. It sounds cheesy, but I do mean it when I say a beautiful inside blossoms into the body itself for me personally. Does the last person you kissed have brown eyes? Yes. Have you ever really liked someone to begin with, then changed your mind about them? I guess you could say Girt, because I had a pretty big crush on him when I started HS. We were just friends for way too long that when we finally dated years upon years later, it felt much too weird. He really was my "brother from another mother" by that point. Has anyone ever told you that they wanted to spend the rest of their life with you? Aaaaand he left. :^) If you decided to dye your hair, would you choose to go lighter or darker? Lighter. I want to dye my hair pastel colors so very badly. Do you know what the Enneagram is and if so, what’s your type? INFP. Do you listen to Mayday Parade? I only know "Terrible Things," which I positively adore. Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? I have an extremely hard time sleeping at night. It's honestly one reason I sometimes sleep so much during the day. Are you on a laptop, desktop or phone/iPod? A laptop. Have you ever been so angry that you screamed out of nowhere? I've screamed into a pillow. What’s the longest movie you’ve ever watched? I dunno, maybe over three hours? What was the last thing you watched on Netflix or Hulu? I have no clue. What do you think about your current relationship status? I mean I miss being in love and having someone who sees a future with me, but I know in the deepest part of me that it's wiser that I stay single until I figure some things out. Of most concern, I don't have a job or even a confident sign I'll have one soon, I'm not in school headed for a career, I don't drive, I don't cook... I'm a liability, financially and in other ways. It wouldn't be fair to my partner or even myself to go into a relationship with a heavy risk of heartbreak because I'm taking too long to get to where I want to be. I'm 25 now - if/when I get into a relationship, I want forever, and I'm not wasting time on anyone for almost inevitable failure as romantic partners. I want to AT LEAST have a steady job before I enter another relationship. How many people have you kissed? Three or four. Do you go out on dates? I have no one to go on a date with. Do you kiss on the first date? I never have and probably wouldn't, but I guess if things went very well and I was really into the person, maybe I would. What’s the farthest you’ve gone with someone? Doing to do. Would you rather receive a stuffed animal, flowers, or chocolate? I'd really appreciate any. I think flowers are sorta overrated though honestly, like someone ripped some healthy flowers from their roots and doomed them to a quickly-approaching death, but society still has a part of me thinking "oh that's sweet." I think more than anything, I'd be crazy over a meerkat plushy. Or would expensive jewelry just be fine? You really don't have to do that for me; I don't really wear much jewelry at all anyway. Odds are you'd be wasting your money. What’s the cheesiest romantic gift you’ve ever received? I don't know. Do you like romantic poetry? Yessssssssss. Have you ever been rickrolled? I'm unsure. Do you like bologna? Yeah. It was my favorite lunch meat as a kid. Have you ever had a nose bleed? Yes. Have you ever puked on a fair ride before? No, because I don't go on rides that generally induce that sort of risk. What animals have you ridden? Just ponies. What is your parents' idea of grounding you? Taking away my access to the computer. Dragons or unicorns? Dragons! Do you wish vampires existed? Uh, no. At the moment what is your favorite song? I'm going through another phase of really digging "Castle of Glass" by Linkin Park. Have you ever been pantsed? No. What is your favorite magazine? I don’t read any. Did you ever like Barbies? Do you currently like Barbies? I never really was, I just played with them when my little sister wanted to. I was more into playing with my dinosaurs and Pokemon and stuff. I'm not into them now, either. What’s your favorite hit song right now? I don't know what songs are "hits" right now. What’s your favorite element? (fire, water, air) Fire, aesthetically. Have you ever been to a wild party? Nah. Do you put on a robe when it’s cold? I don't own a robe. Is the last person you kissed gay? She's demisexual. What breed was the last dog you saw? She's some sort of hound mix. We think there might be dalmatian in her, too. What type of day are you having? It's been all right. I'm just REALLY not feeling this damn heat. Driving an hour and back to the TMS office in a car that has no A/C is agony. Have you ever thought about getting your nose pierced? It's been pierced multiple times, and I want to do it again, but this time with a nostril hoop versus a stud so the goddamn thing stays in. Do you prefer warm or cold weather? I have an incredibly strong preference for cold weather. Fuck the heat. Like just 70*F is "too hot" to me. Who was the last person you talked to in person? My mom. Do you hate the person you fell hardest for? No. Do you like rain? Yes, but I don't like being caught out in it. I just like looking at and listening to it. Have you ever liked somebody and never told them? Yep. Do you like to cuddle? If I really like you and it's not too hot, yeah. Are you shy? I'm excruciatingly shy. If you were paid 1 million dollars to spend the night in a supposed haunted house, would you? Hunny, I'd do that for free. Which do you like better- zebra print or leopard print? I'm not really a fan of either particular pattern on anything but the animal. Do you have any stickers on your car? I don't have my own car, but Mom has one that allows her to park in her old school's parking lot. Do you watch Pretty Little Liars? No. My sister Misty, tho

[connorspiracy]

Fangs and Fries || Connor & Rio

Timing: Current Location: Rio’s hospital room Parties: @connorspiracy & @3starsquinn Content: References to violence, injuries, death and abuse Summary: Connor visits Rio in hospital after the werewolf attack and Rio opens up to him about things.

Rio hadn’t talked too much about the Winston situation or his parents’ death or much of his life at all, and now that he was living by himself, Connor was pretty worried about him, and not just because he’d been in a fight with a werewolf. He got a selection of burgers and chicken stuff and fries from McDonalds, skipping the deserts because he figured they’d melt and taste like arse before too long. “You alright mate?” he said by way of greeting as he walked in. “They’ve not got you on too many painkillers?” He put the bags of food on the little tray in front of Rio, pulling up a chair, then he took off and unzipped his backpack, pulling out some other stuff. “I also brought my Switch and some comics so you have something to do ‘til you can come home.” Hospitals were loud. Connor could hear the screaming from a room next door, someone who’d just left their body and was yelling at the doctors to please bring them back to life. He could hear crying and faint whispers, and he could feel the particular brand of heaviness in the air, but he needed to focus on Rio right now.

Orion had some preparation time when he heard Connor coming down the hallway. He had been occupied staring at the TV screen, waiting for news to break about another attack by the wolf. Nothing yet, but that hadn’t meant that nobody had been hurt. Connor had done Rio a service by not only bringing him food, but launching right into the conversation without too many questions regarding his wounds. The bruises across his face were bad enough, but add onto it the IV’s didn’t make it possible to wear his usual hoodies. He stuffed his arms under the blanket, then attempted to position them under the swinging table once Connor set the food down on it. He had no reason to hide it, but it still wasn’t his favorite conversation to bring up. “I’m fine. Probably not enough painkillers honestly,” Rio laughed, trying to sound convincing. Connor had brought an entire assortment of options, and even as Rio stared at the food and realized that he didn’t have much of an appetite, he still wanted to eat. He grabbed a handful of fries first, plopping them in his mouth one by one as Connor pulled the game system and comics out of his bag. “Woah! Thanks dude, that’s so nice holy crap. I appreciate it. I’ll be out of here in a couple days though probably. So not too much time to kill.”

Connor usually played it cool. He was a curious person, someone who liked to have all the answers and would do as much digging as it took to get to the bottom of them. There were some things you didn't ask questions about though, so while he knew not all of the scars on Rio's body could have come from the wolf attack, he didn't mention them. "Are you wearing one of those hospital gowns where your arse hangs out? Damn, if I knew, I'd have brought you some pyjamas too," he snickered. "And a couple of days sitting in a fucking hospital bed is more than enough. At least this way you'll have Pokemon and Mario." He helped himself to a serving of fries and a quarter pounder. "So," he said, after taking a copious bite. "Werewolf? Tell me about it. What'd it look like? Was it huge?"

If it wasn’t bad enough that the hospital gown was already embarrassing, Connor’s comment drug a blush out of Rio almost instantaneously. “Uh -” Rio started, a nervous laughter escaping his mouth, “Yes, but I have like underwear and stuff” Rio eventually found the words and mumbled them quickly. There was no way he’d ever be caught dead completely exposed out in public. He already felt naked enough without something long sleeve to cover his arms. “It’s fine, my sister brought some clothes to me. I just haven’t put them on yet because nurses keep coming in to check the claw and bite marks.” Connor was right, regardless of how long he was here a game or comic would do wonders to help pass the time. It may even distract him from watching the news so much. “Thanks. Seriously this is awesome. I really appreciate it.” He had certainly said that a lot recently. “The wolf? Uh-” Rio tried to think of the wolf in relation to the other werewolves that he had seen. His experience seeing them transformed in person wasn’t as high as many other hunters, but he had definitely seen his fair share by now, “I mean he’s definitely bigger than a normal wolf or a human. They weren’t the biggest one I’ve seen, but they were definitely the scariest.”

"What, it's not an arse out kinda look?" Connor teased gently, but he could tell Rio was embarrassed. Hopefully knowing Connor didn't take any of this seriously would help him feel better about the whole thing. "What'd you tell them?" he asked. "Do they think it was just an out of control dog or something? There's no actual wolf-wolves in Maine, right?" He remembered reading that. "I haven't seen a normal wolf in person. Or a werewolf," he said, chewing the inside of his cheek. "At least not a transformed one. Did it--are you--" His throat was dry. He took a sip of Diet Coke from one of those McDonalds cups that always made it taste like shit because it went flat so fast. There wasn’t really a polite way to phrase this. "Will you turn? Did it like, bite you?" 

“Nothing about me is an ‘arse out kinda look’” Orion laughed again, copying Connor’s statement and bubbling them around quotation marks that Rio made with his fingers. Rio’s own style was very much covered, for multiple reasons. The scars didn’t help, but they certainly weren’t the only thing contributing to Rio’s irrational fear of anyone seeing him shirtless. “I didn’t tell them anything, honestly.” Rio shrugged, taking a bite of a burger and chewing before speaking again, “I sort of played the whole traumatized victim card. I just sat outside the restaurant until I got in the ambulance. But I heard some others talking about a wolf. I’m sure the police report is just going to say it was a wild animal attack.” Connor’s next question baffled Rio for a moment. Admittedly, he had never even considered the possibility. He had known his entire life that he couldn’t turn, so the fear had never crossed his mind during the fight last night. But at the mention of it, Rio thought of the bite mark on his leg beneath the blanket. It would be easy to say that he hadn’t been, but Connor was one of the closest friends that Rio had. He was also one of the few that Rio hadn’t been forced to show his hunter heritage too. He had taken advantage of that blessing for too long it seemed. “Oh uh- I guess technically yes they did bite me. But I’m not going to turn.” Rio spoke slowly and carefully, unsure exactly how he wanted to word it, “I can’t turn, actually.”

"Oh, c'mon. You're proper cute. If you weren't taken, I'd flirt the heck out of you," Connor said, dipping a chicken nugget in some BBQ sauce and practically swallowing it whole, flashing Rio a big grin. "I thought you were massively hot that time I first met you when you broke a lock with your bare hands." He was sure that would make Rio blush a bit more, but he hoped the fact he was shoving McDonalds down his gullet with no concern about looking attractive reassured Rio that he just meant it as a compliment and wasn't looking to make a move. Connor watched Rio's face when he answered the question about being bitten. He'd had a few curiosities about him ever since Nell had insisted Rio come with them to apprehend moon-murder Adam. Like she knew something he didn't. "Ah," he said, simply nodding. "You're immune." Now the easy padlock breaking made sense. "Sick." 

“So I’m supposed to believe that the whole time we’ve been friends you haven’t been flirting with me?” Orion teased, fully aware that Connor couldn’t get through an entire conversation without flirting at least once. He was that way with most people. Rio didn’t feel the need to mention that he technically wasn’t taken anymore. Doing so might imply that he was anywhere near to being over Winston or ready to be in a relationship again. Neither were true. “You’re a natural flirt, dude. It’s very charming.” He knew that by now Connor was aware that any complement towards Rio would immediately result in blushing. By some miracle, none of those made Rio dizzy anymore. The two were clearly close enough to talk like that now. “Ha ha. Well, I wouldn’t say hot. But we had to get in somehow.” The fact that Connor even remembered that factored into what Rio was trying to tell Connor now. Connor’s specialty was ghosts, so Rio had no idea if telling Connor that he was immune to the bite meant anything to him. It wasn’t exactly common knowledge, especially since only certain types of hunters were immune to it. It really only left Rio the option of just coming out and saying it. “Right. Yeah. Which uh- in case you aren’t aware… is because my genes carry certain abilities. That I got from my mom. Who was a werewolf hunter.” Talk about beating around the bush. He just didn’t want to claim that word for himself. Not out loud. “So I guess technically speaking, I have those genes. But I’m not a hunter. Just to be clear.”

"Trust me mate, if I was flirting with you, you'd know about it," Connor teased. He usually sounded a lot less confident when he was actually trying to flirt and not just... flirting as a friend. "Yeah, but it's just me being English and charming. Not actually trying to get into your trousers." He chuckled softly, flashing Rio a wink. "Cute as you are in that hospital gown." He stopped joking around for just a moment, listening to Rio talk. "Yeah, I know about people with abilities. Not a lot, but... enough. Adam talked to me about it too." Adam was no secret. They'd all seen his powers with their own eyes. It made him feel better that Rio was so quick to clarify that he wasn't a hunter. Connor gave him a small smile, nodding. "I know. You're a librarian."

Despite Orion’s lack of an appetite, he found himself eating far more than he had originally intended as he got lost in the conversation with Connor. Soon he had downed a burger, most of a ten piece nugget and the entire thing of fries. Maybe he had been hungrier than his stomach was letting him acknowledge. “Yeah, well I sure hope you’re not. Because I’m not even wearing any trousers.” Rio used an appallingly awful british accent for the last word. It was good being able to have talks like this. Even after what he had seen inside that restaurant. He needed the distractions. “Right. Makes sense. Was it after that night?” Rio wasn’t sure he actually wanted to know. The less he had to talk about Adam right now the better. Those feelings were far too confusing to add on top of everything else he had going on. “Adam and I are similar. Sort of. We both come from hunter families, but mine is a bit more focused. It gives me certain advantages that typical humans don’t have.” At least Connor was willing to move past it quickly and acknowledge that Rio wasn’t using the title for himself. “Yeah, a librarian. I guess it is something like that in a way.”

Connor laughed as Rio said trousers. “I know, right? Hospital gown's just a bit lacking on the sex appeal, mate." He finished the burger he'd been working on and started on some mozzarella bites. He nodded. One thing about White Crest was that it made you pretty bloody good at switching between jokes and serious topics. That Gallows humor came in strong. "It was, yeah. After the Moon Murder Spree. Which... that was a bloody hell of a time." Literally. Connor was still trying to process it. It wasn't that he didn't trust Adam. He didn't feel that Adam would ever hurt anyone maliciously when in his right mind. It was just still a bit weird. "Good genes but none of the murder," he said with a little smile, offering Rio some fries. "Sounds good to me." 

As far as Orion was concerned, everything about himself was lacking in sex appeal. But knowing Connor’s all too charming way with words, he wasn’t about to mention that. He preoccupied himself by staring at the uneaten food. He couldn’t believe Connor had grabbed all of this just to make sure Rio had something he liked. It was really nice. “Yeah. It was something like that. I’m just glad he’s back to his normal self.” Or at least the self that he presented to others. Rio still wasn’t convinced he was as easy going as he liked to claim. But he also couldn’t pretend to have spoken to him much recently. Ironically, Adam had been the first person that Rio had wanted to talk about the wolf attack with. “Right.” Rio agreed with Connor. He had discussed the hunter heritage, but he wasn’t exactly ready to break the news to him about his parent’s death. That might elicit a slightly different response. “I’ve never been much of a fighter, honestly. I definitely prefer safety.”

Connor continued to blank out the surrounding ghosts. They were growing a little louder now, as if beginning to realise that he was here. “I’m sorry, mate.” He paused sips of his coke and trying to decide whether he should even ask about this or just leave it to Rio to bring things up when he was ready. He had never been very good at holding in questions though. “So, what’s up with you and Winston? You never like, said very much about it. I know you were together at least since I moved here. They left town and you guys are… maybe broken up, or maybe not?” There was no blame in Connor’s voice, no judgement against Winston for what they’d felt they had to do. He just wanted to get Rio’s side of it. “I reckon that’s the hardest bit. The not knowing. That’d drive me nuts.” 

Figuring that eventually it would come up, Orion managed a grin when Connor mentioned Winston. Looking back, making a dramatic and sappy post about heartbreak may have been a bit more melodramatic than needed. Though he felt the pain of Winston’s absence, the breakup itself had hardly been the source of his anguish. It barely constituted being considered a breakup at all. “Great question. I don’t exactly know for sure. But I don’t think it’s that bad of a thing. At least I don’t think so.” Rio shrugged. He wasn’t sure how to explain it. “When they left town, we talked about me going with. I thought about it. But eventually I decided that I couldn’t leave yet. So we left things open ended. That someday Winston might come back and the two of us will see where we are at in our lives and if we still make sense. And if anything has changed than that’s fine too.” At the time, the conversation had made sense. Rio was happy with how they had chatted. Rio had gone to sleep crying, but overall he had been content. Now, Rio stressed about what that future may hold when Winston got back. The wolf attack definitely hasn’t helped anything. “Overall, I’m really freaking sad. But I’m okay too? If that makes sense.” 

"Not a bad thing?" Connor posed, expression quietly curious. He was pretty full now. He'd been casually picking away at his food the majority of this conversation. "The person you love leaving town isn't a bad thing?" He sipped his Diet Coke, shrugging. "I haven't really had a proper relationship before, but it sounds like a bad thing. They have to do what's best for them though. I don't hold it against them." You couldn't really blame anyone for wanting to leave White Crest with all the awful things that happened here, especially when someone close to you was killed in the awful circumstances Todd had died in. "Did you talk about if you can date other people?"

Orion shrugged as an answer. He couldn’t answer that question with any certainty because he wasn’t sure about his own feelings. “It’s hard to explain.” Another nervous laugh that Rio calmed by taking a drink from his cup. “They needed to go. I needed to stay. I hate not being with them, sure. That part is very bad. But I think they needed this. That makes me happy.” And it truly did. He hoped that Winston got everything needed out of their time away from town. No matter what that meant for their relationship. Winston’s happiness was the priority. “I’d say technically yes. We decided to leave things up to life.” Rio spoke slowly and carefully, “But I’m not sure it matters. I don’t really see myself dating anytime soon. It took a long time for Winston and I to even DTR.”

"That makes sense," Connor answered. “Well, last date I had, we were starting to get down to business and there was a fucking monster beaver eating my bed, so, even with this set-back, your love life’s probably better than mine,” he said with a laugh. Connor and Winston didn't know each other pretty much at all, and if Connor had a dog in this fight, it'd be Rio, but it didn't sound like there were any hard feelings. "Alright bro. I don't do relationship advice, so, stop me from eating the rest of these bloody chicken nuggets, and pleeeease tell me all the cool shit about your super powers?" 

“Oh god. That’s so awkward. I can’t believe I actually feel second hand embarrassment for you about a relationship. That’s supposed to be my thing.” Orion was full on cackling now, every single breath stinging his side. He didn’t care though, because it felt so good to not be so sad. “I think we could probably battle back and forth on that one. Did I ever tell you that my sister slept with Winston? I never even did that.” He wasn’t saying it for sympathy. He wasn’t even saying it angrily. He had moved past that long ago. This was simply matter of fact, a way for Rio to tell Connor more about his life. Connor was one of the closest friends that Rio had, it was time to start being a bit more open. “Deal. I’ll stuff my face some more. I’ll even tell you about the time I got fireballed through a window.”

[shinneth]

what is your absolute favorite ship? How did you start shipping Stevidot? And rant about any ship you feel like, good or bad? :))

… you fool

OH GOD ALL-TIME FAVORITE SHIP YOU SAY. YOU KNOW DAMN WELL I CAN’T CHOOSE ONE.

(it’d probably be Stevidot anyway; objectively I’ve done more for it than anything else I ever shipped in my life and it’s absolutely precious both in platonic and romantic forms)

BUT IN THE INTEREST OF FAIRNESS… and attempt to tone down redundancy, let’s see what other ships earned the “OTP” label from me!

I mean, I pretty much had to lowkey ship Mamoru Chiba x Ami Mizuno because Usagi/Mamoru is basically what Connverse wishes it could be as far as the Ultimate Ship goes. So at the height of my involvement in the fandom (you know, late 90s era), I was never brave enough to make anything for this ship. But the few times they get to interact in the classic anime is legit adorable stuff and I wish we could’ve had more of it. 

Before Gem Ascension, before Travels of the Trifecta, my greatest multichaptered epic was a Digimon Tamers fic called By My Decision. I was a hardcore Digimon fan in my early teen years well before I ever got into Pokemon, in fact. And I shipped shitloads of pairings in Adventure and 02 - I can only imagine how many of those would be demonized by the new age fandom puritans of Tumblr nowadays. You can actually see literally everything I ever shipped on my FFN profile here.

But I didn’t really make anything for the first two seasons. Tamers was what really sparked my inspiration, because Takato and Jenrya… honestly, they’re just adorable together. They get to bond a lot, they’re really in touch with their feelings (contrasting to token girl Ruki who was a stiff hardass most of the time), and I often got the impression that Jenrya, unlike Takato, really doesn’t have any other friends. 

So of course, I tormented these two on the regular in my story. I of course didn’t forget Juri (for I love her dearly); I was kinda trying a love triangle subversion with Takato angsting over loving both Jenrya and Juri… while Juri’s still got so much PTSD (story is 2 years post-series), shipping is hardly on her mind, and Jenrya’s outright in denial of his feelings for Takato to the point where it very literally screws him up and awakens some inner darkness of his own. I even had Jenrya and Juri bond, but it was pretty platonic stuff. 

Still, this ship was way down on the totem pole at the height of Tamers’ fandom. Very frustrating. Takato/Ruki and Jenrya/Ruki were way more popular and I hated both of those ships something fierce. I love Ruki, but I just cringe at the idea of shipping her with either of her fellow leads. Then Jenrya/Ryo got something of a cult following that I couldn’t stand; admittedly I was jealous it was getting the representation that I felt Takato/Jenrya desperately needed more, and I also didn’t like Jenryo in its own right, anyway. 

But yeah. Jenkato is a very underappreciated ship that I loved dearly and invested many of my teenage years into.

So, here’s a fun fact: While I played the classic games (my cousins had a Sega Genesis), the way I was mostly raised on Sonic was via the first two cartoon series and the Archie Comics version of the franchise. Archieverse was largely based on the SatAM cartoon; Amy Rose also didn’t exist in the show and it took about 25 issues for her to show up in the comic. 

So I was big on Tails x Amy. For a long-ass time. And really, the ship was really only feasible in the Archie continuity. There, Tails is actually older than his usual depicted canon age and Amy is introduced to be around his age before she artificially aged herself with a magic ring so that she could later take on her Sonic Adventure design. 

Before that… in these years, Sally was the most well-known love interest of Sonic in the west. So Sonic/Sally seemed like a lock (none of us knowing how Sega felt about that at the time) - and in retrospect I honestly believe it’s a far better Sonic ship than his more well-known modern alternatives. 

So, because of Sally’s prominence, Amy was relegated to Sonic’s fangirl and her crush wasn’t really that big a deal. Honestly, that was for the best, as I by far found Amy way more tolerable in Archie’s incarnation than the majority of her other canon contemporaries (Sonic the Comic Amy Rose is more of a competent badass, though).

Tails and Amy had some good banter in Archieverse and the few times they were allowed time to do stuff together as a duo, they were very cute and endearing and I loved them. 

Tails also had a lot more going on in terms of character development and backstory in Archieverse. Like, a lot more going on. He even had a “Chosen One” deal that sadly didn’t have a very good payoff, but. It’s more than what they really do with Tails in any other continuity.

Bear in mind, I started on these comics when I was eight or nine years old. Yet I followed this comic well into my late teens and even part of my early twenties, so you can tell Archieverse Sonic has shitloads of lore to it to have that long of an ongoing narrative. 

After Sonic Adventure was released, then the Sonamy shipping started to explode. Amy was front-and-center in the spotlight, Sally became the obscure figure in the fandom, and it’s more-or-less stayed that way ever since. 

But I was like “It’s okay! Tails and Amy are still tight in Archieverse! Sucks they have to adjust to Sega’s many changes but they’re still best buddies who’ll hopefully get married one day….” 

Then 25 Years Later happened and for some goddamned stupid-ass reason, Tails was paired with Mina the Mongoose and I believe Amy was suspiciously never ever mentioned in the future timeline stories (as Sonic and Sally did become endgame in this little series). 

Tails and Mina had little to no interaction, and Mina was largely there to be a potential Sonic love interest, and even after she moved on, she got together with another character and still didn’t interact with Tails. 

I was sooooooo pissed off. Archieverse was my one hope for Tails/Amy becoming a thing and they ruined it for me. :(

I did get a consolation prize in Geoffrey St. John x Hershey becoming so canon they actually did marry. That’s another one I shipped ever since they first interacted years and years ago.

Of course, Hershey was then “killed off” - and was set for a major comeback, but Ken Penders put a stop to that and had them both erased from reality because fuck Ken Penders, I actually got a nice thing and you yanked it right out of my hands.

Genis Sage x Mithos Yggdrasill from Tales of Symphonia, a ship I hardcore loved enough to write about. Also a ship I think Tumblr would burn me at the stake for shipping at all, but you know what? Fuck Genis x Presea. It’s a boring-ass puppy love ship that in its own right should be lambasted similarly according to anti logic. 

…. did I get sidetracked? I did? Pfff. Okay, let’s try and get to another question.

How I started shipping Stevidot?

Pretty simple story, really. I binged SU all the way up to Escapism (Change Your Mind hadn’t aired yet) last December/January. Also watched a looooot of Youtube clips. Most involving Peridot.

And inevitably, most involving Steven as well. 

When I started getting into Peridot and SU as a whole enough to seek out fanfiction and whatnot, I didn’t really have any set shipping preferences at first. But when I made myself think about it… honestly, Stevidot just felt the most natural to me. I wanted to see stories about antics with those two specifically - I never liked Lapidot and Amedot did nothing for me ever. So Stevidot was like, pretty much the only thing I really focused on after a while.

Then I found A Gem Like You. And suddenly, INSPIRATION! I developed headcanons for Watcher’s fic, I started reading as much Stevidot as I could, and I was convinced it was the best pairing in the world and fucking hell I need to give it some representation after I noticed how relatively niche it was in the fandom. 

And so, Stevidot consumed my soul for all time. I hope those clods are happy.

Rant about a ship, you say…

Good god, that really does need to be its own post. I have so much to say about various ships in general, I may need a bit to… uh, figure that out. Or throwing out some random ones I’d know about would help my focus, fff.

[pangtasias-atelier]

Battle Tower Payback

Edit: added more during the actual WG portion

So this was made after getting pissed off lol. I just hate how it's purely up to luck as to what the game chooses for Leon's Pokemon.

Also kinda rushed so this isn't the greatest in terms of wg content and Leon characterization.

Again, actual weight gain diminished as I write this, it's at least still the main point. Also, I'll most likely write more Pokemon stuff, but don't ever expect an actual attempt at a battle.

Also, fun fact, the first story I ever uploaded online was a Pokemon fic back when I was a Highschool sophomore, specifically X&Y. It was deleted like a week after and I don't have it any longer lol. Still remember the gist of it though lol. Wasn't kink obvs

__________

"Is that all? Don't you remember our battle for the title?" Leon's words stinging, the stung only worsened as the day went on. The words true yet harsh, you couldn't help but mutter to yourself about how damn happy he looked from beating you. Twice no less.

Granted, the battle was only for the battle tower, nowhere near as grand as the title of champion, a battle where you had come out on top, you proudly remind yourself. Picking your head up, you happily rush to the counter.

The lady surprised at your burst of determination, she happily lets you on your way as you head up the battle tower once more.

But as luck seemed to have it, Leon's team felt perfectly catered to all but countering each of yours. The prospect of double battles intimidating, your well crafted team and strengths didn't matter when Leon had the perfect composition to take each one down. And with having to fight other trainers to reach Leon, the prospect of trying him a third time today feels like a burden.

At a disappointing 3:2 win:loss in your favor, you glumly head out of the tower. But Leon's voice rings out, the tower indeed easier on his finding his way.

"Champion! I expect you to show me a champion time eventually, unlike today," His eager, booming voice doesn't fill you with happiness or enjoyment as it once did. Nor does his outfit, the change of clothes rather lovely on Leon and a nice change from his outfit as champion.

Nodding and waving goodbye, you smile as you exit the building. Calling a Corviknight immediately, she takes you to the wild area. Stewing in your own anger and thoughts, your quick search turns into hours as you scour the expansive zones.

Spotting your golden goose, an Alcremie stands alone in the grass. You yourself being spotted, she slowly makes her way towards you. Head tilting, she watches you as you remain still. On your knees, you wave to her. Placing a pokeball beside yourself, Alcremie notices the motion. Nodding her head, she expectantly waits for you. Remaining still as you slowly lift the pokeball, she happily accepts, the pokeball releasing that familiar click as it captures a Pokemon.

Letting Alcremie back out, you introduce her to her new partners as you set up camp. Sending a text to Leon, you tell him to expect you tomorrow at the battle tower. And to be ready, since you plan to win.

Enjoying nature, you sleep in your cozy camp, night turning to day as you envision tomorrow's plan.

The bright sun waiting for you, you stretch at you slowly wake up. Back cracking, you sigh. Quickly packing up, a Corviknight promptly comes and takes you to the battle tower. Clutching Alcremie's pokeball in your hand, you rush to the counter again.

Admitted inside, the two poor trainers in between you and Leon that receive your Pokemon wrath go down quickly.

Leon your third opponent, he happily greets you. "Great to see you fired up again! Now, let's see if you can match how you were during the tournament!" Leon's words igniting the spark in your brain, the two of you send out your first two Pokemon.

Tyranitar and Corviknight your choice, Leon's first two leave him at a severe disadvantage off the bat. Scorbunny and Mr. Rime stand no chance against the harsh sandstorm worsening their vision. Corviknight supporting with reflect, Tyranitar launching rock slide immediately does them both in.

Leon's face grim, he hurriedly sends out his Charizard and Haxorus. Smiling, as Leon prepares to storm Corviknight, the supportive Pokemon in the way of Tyranitar, you swap in your brand new Alcremie. Both dragon moves having no effect on Alcremie, they remain susceptible against Tyranitar's rock slide. Gigantamax unable to be gotten off, Leon grips his hat as only his Haxorus remains.

"Finally! A real challenge," A change of plans, Haxorus dynamaxes before your eyes, the massive dragon filling up the area. Alcremie ignored, Tyranitar ends up Haxorus' victim. A swift focus blast launched Tyranitar's way, the raging sandstorm doesn't help him, the strong blast causing him to faint.

Sending out Froslass just for posterity, whoever you choose doesn't matter, the battle already yours. Gigantamaxing Alcremie, Froslass's frost breath wraps around Haxorus, the cold air constricting Haxorus and making him faint.

Having won the battle, you pump an arm into the air. Froslass recalled, you leave Alcremie out, the gigantic, imposing figure remaining.

Leon's smile from the battle washes away. Eyebrows furrowed, he lets out a yell as you command Alcremie to attack him. Gently you remind Alcremie, the missiles unable to damage anything besides Leon's waistline.

The first one hitting its mark, Leon's mouth, he stumbles back from the force. His fear turning to confusion, the harmless cream covers him.

"Wha-" Letting out a burp, Leon clutches his stomach. Stomach bulging, he groans as his outfit straigns against the sudden extra weight. Cream encasing him, the pile of it clings to his body. Struggling against it, he trips against the heavy cream. More of Alcremie's missiles soon follow the first one.

Alcremie's wonderfully fattening cream affecting Leon, his small belly soon grows out even further as cream reaches him. Clothes tightening, they soon tear off. Bulging belly held in one of his hands, Leon stumbles as he stands up. Glaring at you, a small blush on his face, huffs as his body gets used to its new weight. Breasts now where a chest once was, his developing moobs sag down. Leon's admittedly flat ass no longer resembles what it once used too; instead, the sugary, calorically dense cream seems to go mostly to his thighs. His ass a victim, Leon's bare cheeks weigh him down just like the rest of his body.

Groaning, Leon takes a confident step back. Scooping up the remnants of his clothes, all of it scraps to cover his obese body.

Unrelenting, you command Alcremie to fire even more. Leon standing no chance, all the missiles perfectly hit him. A swarm heading his way, the cream composed missiles splatter upon impact. A couple at first, most of the cream heads down his throat, the rest splattering over his body.

His body growing further, soon, you can't really see the effects of Alcremie's cream as it barrages him. Shooting nothing but missiles, Alcremie's time soon runs out, the power of gigantamax ending. Calling her back, not without a thank you, you stare at Leon.

The plan working far better than you imagined, far far better, Leon is completely swaddled in his own gigantic mass of fat. Mobility clearly lost, he rests on his ass, the mountainous quivering blubber rising high behind him. Hands and feet sunken in, his fingers and toes shake from Leon's struggling. Everything else unable to move, Leon wheezes under his weight.

His face a collection of cheeks, they take up most of his face, the bulges sagging down. His chins and neck merging, you can barely count all the rolls before losing your spot. His chest two different entities, they make their own shelf, both splaying out to the sides. Each bigger than his head, they rest on Leon's stomach. His stomach rests on the floor in turn, the car sized mass oozing down and forward. His thighs pushed exaggeratedly wide from his stomach, they resemble a can of squeezed out dough. Absolutely unable to move, Leon simply wheezes. Standing right in front of his billowing stomach, his face still feels too far, his expansive body spreading out far across the battle tower floor. His stomach alone wider than any Snorlax, the entire mass wobbles just from his breathing alone.

His clothes torn to shreds, all remnants of them mere tatters. Rich brown skin covered in cream, the explosive caloric food still remains. Climbing onto Leon, his body sinks under your weight. His plush breasts large enough to serve as a bed, you lie down on them, smirking as you look up at Leon.

"Damn…." Scooping up a dollop of cream off of his right moob, you shove it into his mouth. The cream flowing down, the extra couple pounds are insignificant compared to his current crushing weight.

Leon's eyes shut tight, the sight sets you off. Grabbing more cream, you mercilessly endeavor to scoop up to the very last bit. Knowing what's coming, Leon keeps his mouth shut.

Leon not cooperating, tugging his hair does the trick. Letting out a complaint, you shove more cream down his throat, Leon choking but ultimately swallowing it. Sometimes you manually force his jaw open, the fatty cheeks envelop your hand as you use the other to cram even more cream in Leon.

Your task perhaps a bit too daunting, bits of cream remain, remnants left in-between his countless rolls.

Hands deftly roaming Leon's body instead, his anger washes away soon after as you begin to rub his stomach. Picking up and dropping his rolls of fat, you pinch and massage as far as you can go. His moans and blushes a change from his initial anger and confusion, the expansive mass of his stomach carefully gets massaged under your gentle hands.

"Looks like they're going to have to shut down the facilities for a while with their leader missing," Letting out Rapidash, Rapidash's psychic abilities teleport you three.

The location now your bedroom, Leon's vast fat flattens everything in its wake. Leon's fat goes from wall to wall. Shrugging, you recall your tired Rapidash with a thank you, the task of teleporting such a large mass tiring on her.

"Time for food!" Pinching Leon's right cheek, Leon closes his left eye. Jumping off of Leon's fat, you head off to your kitchen, pantry and fridge stocked in anticipation of this. Leon's small whimper sounds divine. Turning around, you smirk. "Don't ever taunt me," Rushing off, you him as you prepare Leon's food, any notion of consequence or notion of reversing this ignored, cooking and stuffing Leon more important. The prospect of a bath after dinner, to clean all the cream sounds great, your house certainly going to be much busier having a monumental guest.

[feathered-hype]

There was much fussing to be had at the Homestead as Falkner squinted in front of his desktop computer screen. Technology was by no means his strong suit... And as he worked tirelessly that morning to set up the webcam and microphone, there were times where he honestly wanted to give up! 

“I just hope this works...” the bird nerd scanned the instructions on paper one last time while adjusting his reading glasses as they slid down the bridge of his nose. 

For now there was a blank square in the middle of the monitor, yet Falkner fidgeted in his seat lightly at the anticipation that any minute now his dad was going to pop in on that little screen. Oh it was like waiting for Christmas morning~!

A wide grin settled on his face as he turned to Fang, who of course was being the best of boys sitting idly by for the big show.  “Aren’t you excited? We’re gonna see ‘im!” 

The Arcanine let out a loud bark as he slightly wagged his tail. He quite honestly didn’t understand any of this...but, seeing Falkner happy was always a good thing. 

And as if he was summoned out of the aether, a little phone jingle started to ring along to a static picture of one that wiggled back and forth in the black square. The bird nerd nearly jolted upright with excitement before putting the headset on. “Alright! Alright this is it...you ready?” 

Fang barked again, letting his tongue roll out of the side of his mouth with the panting getting heavier and his tail thumping harder. 

He presses the button, and just who appears on the screen is nothing short of a glowing moment for the bluette as his heart swells with longing and happiness to see him, Walker Hayato. 

“Heeyyyy there son! How are you doin’?” the man glows back at him, he’s getting a little older now. There’s more wrinkles that shape themselves around Walker’s eyes and mouth, but still his own blues flicker with youth and spirit.

“I’m good!” If it were possible for Falkner to smile any wider, it would reach back to his ears. Fang barks more aggressively once he sees Walker, nearly bumping himself into the desk to get closer to the screen. Though while the bird nerd starts to panic, his father only laughs more loudly.  

“It’s good to see you too Fang! Have you been makin’ sure Falkner stays well?” 

“--Ohhh I’ve been alright!” A dismissive wave of his hand is sure to follow, but Fang stops, giving him a hard grumble and a look to match it. This, one could be sure, did not go unnoticed by his Father.  

“Are you sure?” there was a slight quirk of a brow. “I hope you’ve been goin’ to the doctors regularly still.”  “Yes...”  “Takin’ your medicines?”  “Yeah...”  “Well good, don’t forget those things are probably still important to do.”  “I know...” 

Walker’s sharp look of sterness lingers for a few moments, he could see the typical response Falkner was doing. Hiding behind his flopping hair to keep half of his face covered, looking guilty. 

However Falkner’s eye flicked over to the shape that lingered behind his Father. “Who’s that??” He practically blurted out, though whether or not that was a trick to get to be dodgy on further questioning, it definately worked. 

“Hmm?” Walker turned his head over to the Pokemon beside the kiosk in the Pokecenter. “Oh, this is Screech. He’s a Noivern.” another mischevious glint appeared in the older man’s eye. “I got him from the same region I got ya’ that Hawlucha.~”

The Pokemon could be heard making an excited ‘ackackackack!’ sound as it chattered its teeth from being mentioned. Even the ears were humming in vibration with pleasure, though it made Falkner’s low quality headset pop and crackle. This...didn’t really make sense, and the bird nerd tilted his head. 

“What happened to Petunia then?” 

A hard pause. Though...Walker’s expression said it all. The air escaped from Falkner’s silent breath as he read his Father’s lips more than he heard the words. 

“She passed away.” 

“P-passed!?” the bird nerd gasped the life back into himself. “Since when?” 

“About six months ago.”  “H-how!?” 

Much to his shock and disbelief, Walker only chuckled lightly. “Age. She was old Falkner, it happens to the best of us...”

“And ya’ didn’t think to tell me!?” 

“Well...” now it was his Father who seemed to be more guilty. “I didn’t want ya’ to be sad about it just yet...and I was greiving too.” The silence from his son did not reassure him, nor did the saddened look he wore when just moments ago he looked so happy. “It’s alright...” he cooed. “She lived a long, happy life and went peacefully in her sleep.” 

There was a soft sigh, and a slump to his shoulders as Falkner looked down to take a moment of silence to think his peice before looking back up. Admittedly it was very welcoming to see Walker shoot him a smile, an old familiar comfort he would come to rely on when he was getting the blues as a kid. 

“She sure loved to sit on me when I was misbehavin’ huh?” 

His father let out a sudden sharp laugh. “Oh yes! I remember that! I think she thought you were her chick after awhile, maybe me jokingly callin’ you her mom convinced her of such over time.” 

Now Falkner laughed a little himself too, letting himself relax as the conversation flowed naturally about their fond memories instead. Of the house, their Saturday morning cartoon watching, movies... The good times lasted for a few hours in fact. But none of it felt wasted as the bird nerd soaked in the precious moments he got to talk to his dad face-to-face, well, sort of.

“I’m gonna be going to Galar soon, but lemmie tell you I’m certainly gonna be missing Alola.” Walker chuckled fondly of the thought.  “I bet!” by now Falkner was grinning more again. “You look tan....I don’t think I’ve ever seen that!”  They both laughed in a similar way.  “Yeah I guess not, huh? The sun’s just so nice and warm here, I may have to fly south in the winter from now on.” “Well I definately wouldn’t blame you if you did.~” “I’ll bring you along too next time I do, how’s that? It’s close enough to Kanto!”  The bird nerd nearly jumped into the screen like he would have loved to hug him right now. “I’d love that!” His reaction garnered another amused chuckle.  “Good, good. I’ll let you know.” 

Walker looked over to the clock at the Pokemon Center for just a peek. By now he was the last one sitting at the kiosks to facetime relatives, it said 11:34pm. “Gosh, would you look at the time! I should get goin’...” His father turned to look at Falkner again, but leans in with a bit of a mischevious look on his face. 

“But hey, listen before I do...I’m sending you something in the mail.”  “Y-you are?” 

By then Falkner was trying to suppress his disappointment over the fact that his Father had to go...he was having so much fun!

“Mhm.” another nod. “I think you’ll like it, I won’t needing it anymore. And before you ask it’s not any new Pokemon-- yet.~” 

Now the bird nerd was the one leaning in too. “Well, now I’m curious!!”  “I can’t tell ya’, it’s a surprise, you’ll just have to wait.” 

The older man’s grin only grew a bit wider when he heard the muffled protests of his son.~  “H’oookay...” he was still huff lightly though. Mark his words!  “But, on that note I’ll let you get goin’. I’ll talk to you soon.” Walker kept a steady gaze at Falkner as he spoke those words in earnest. “Alright?” 

“Alright...” the bluette nodded a bit slower, he’d try his best to remember that. “I love you..”  “I love you too, son.”  “And happy Father’s Day~!”  The last image Falkner sees is the bigger smile on Walker’s screen before the call disconnects. He lets out a bit of a sigh...he’s missing him already. But--! Slowly and surely he makes sure to grin himself too, knowing that soon. 

--Soon they will speak again.~