#bc pokemon ARENT REAL :((((

[roxannarambles]

I still think the DLCs should have focused on the 3 main characters from the main game and not introduced any new characters unless they're supporting characters

Frickin' . . . Ogerpon's story is custom-made for them to all relate to. And the theme with masks and such . . . look at them. Look, here's Penny, literally hides behind the persona Cassiopea, Arven who puts up a prickly tsundere front, autistic Nemona doing the thing that is literally called masking,

Every single one of them understanding being an 'outsider' and a 'weirdo' in their own particular way, and you're trying to tell me the DLC wasn't for them?

[claitea]

still thinking about anthea and lacey btw. getting first-hand coaching from one of blueberry academy's finest, probably getting in touch with the rest of the bb crew through lacey. in addition her brother is a champion-tier trainer, who in turn is friends with More champion-tier trainers who could also help her train

i'm imagining her starting a journey at some point and absolutely DEMOLISHING anything in her way. just blitzing through the entire gym challenge bc the early gym leaders didnt account for the fact she's maybe gotten Overprepared. she should take the champion title she deserves it i think

[mimikinyuu]

Heyyyyyy, Technically Not Team Skull member here! Which alola island, and, Pricing details for those Mimikyu cloths? I've already made a custom cloth for mine myself but it might be nice to get one more professionally made. Thank youuuuuu -Vi

ah. same island as you guys .

pricing details though, i should probably make A Sheet eventually haha. it varies by complexity, my cloths start at 1,000 poké, and i usually deliver in-person. if i cant deliver it, dont worry about shipping costs.

[cryptids-lobelia-garden]

I managed to pull this together in the middle of an Absolutely Horrible work day! Yay! (Writing this is probably part of what got me out of a stress and caffeine induced panic attack) Unfortunately I didn’t get it edited on time to post on time, but Hey! It Exists :D Anyway, people should write more characters having autism shutdowns. It’s very frustrating being barely able/unable to talk (I am autism btw)

Anyway, this one’s very environmental. I feel like the timespace distortions in PLA could have been a LOT more horrifying, and I’m here to deliver! Warnings: animal attack (again), uuuuhh what do you call this.. time and space are being bent and torn around him and it is some sort of cosmic horror or something idk what that term means exactly I just know it’s what comes to mind, but uuuh yeah this one’s kinda tame actually.

All of mine so far have been pretty tame, let’s be honest. I promise I can write other stuff we just haven’t gotten to the Good Stuff I Have Planned yet

Day 5: Reckless

Takes place some time after the battle atop Mount Coronet. (After day 4 of this event, far before day 3, which happened before days 1 and 2)

~~~~~

Volo should have known this would happen when a strange energy started to fill the air. He should’ve known this would happen when sparks started to fly.

He thought he had more time before it did, thought he could pick a few more berries from this tree and run.

He should’ve known better than to test his fate, especially in a distortion that he had indirectly caused. Arceus has a sense of humor, after all, and Volo is no stranger to the cruelty that fate seems to love to bring him.

Scents from past and future flow into the air, and he can hardly breathe, stumbling as the ground morphs and shifts under him. One moment, he’s standing on the grassy hill, and the next, a structure he doesn’t understand appears out of nowhere, trapping him inside.

He scrambles his way out a window and brings his fingers to his mouth, whistling as loud as he can.

But Toge doesn’t come. She can’t hear him in the storm.

I could die here.

The realization sends chills down his spine.

He’s been confronted by his own mortality plenty of times in his life. It’d be a surprise to hear someone hasn’t, really, in a world as dangerous, as cruel as this one. Wild Pokémon attacks that aren’t immediately deadly can still be incredibly dangerous later, after all, and there’s a myriad of other dangers in this world.

Volo happens to be particularly good at getting himself into bad situations, and fate has always seemed to be especially cruel to him. He’s faced death plenty of times.

But it’s never felt so close.

He could run from murderers and wild Pokémon. He managed to strike a deal with Giratina when they met, he learned everything he could forage so he would never starve, he had even escaped the wrath of a particularly powerful zoroark, which is an impressive feat, considering the fact that even the normal zoro put plenty of people on the death toll.

But he can’t run from this. Not when he can’t breathe and the ground itself doesn’t seem to work as it should, flickering in and out of existence at the drop of a hat.

He curses himself for his stupidity as a terrified steelix shrieks, a sound like boulders tumbling down a mountain. It’s moving too quickly to see where it’s going, barreling straight towards Volo.

He just manages to dodge out of the way, ducking and rolling behind a tree- but an electric attack hits him, and he shrieks as his whole body jolts from it, falling to his knees.

It’s hard to move, he’s shaking, his muscles are spasming.

He can’t run.

Paralyzed.

I’m going to die here.

Something falls into his hands, a strange device. Some sort of bracelet, with a thick, flat face.

It lights up as he touches it.

He frantically presses back against the tree as an alpha raichu steps forward, holding the strange device up.

He’s about to move to throw it in desperation-

And then something he touches on it creates a shield of pink and blue energy, surrounding him just as the raichu tries to hit him with a Thunder.

He can breathe.

Volo scrambles to his feet, catching his breath. “Is this- some sort of shield..?” It moves with him as he walks- no? It’s moving with the device.

He scoops it off the ground, shaking his limbs out to try to get the rest of the electric attack out of his system, and he sprints towards the outside of the distortion, carrying the device with him. The ground materializes beneath his feet, holding steady even as it breaks around him, and he thanks fate for finally giving him something good.

Some attack hits the shield, and he yelps as he’s thrown, but he isn’t hurt by anything except his own bad landing. Scrambling back to his feet, he runs the rest of the way out, jumping through to the outside of the bubble of distorted land just as the timespace storm starts to swirl.

Terrified pokemon shriek as they’re swept into it. Volo nearly throws up as he sees human remains inside, swirling with the rest.

And, in a flash, all of it is gone, leaving no sign of what just happened but specks of shimmering pink dust, floating softly to the ground.

He’s in a cold sweat, shaking as he stares at where he was almost swept away. The trio would RUN INTO these. For FUN, to collect the things inside.

What the HELL is wrong with them!?

He takes a few shaky breaths, collapsing to his hands and knees. The device makes a clicking sound as it wraps around his hand, but he pays it no mind for now.

Okay.

Okay, I’m okay. I’m alive. I’m okay.

..I have nobody to blame for that except myself. I shouldn’t have stayed when the storm started to gather. And for what, a few handfuls more of berries? That wasn’t worth the risk!

He stares at the strange device, which has moved to his wrist. There’s numbers on the front, though he’s not sure what they’re for.

It’s a miracle I made it out. And it’s because of this wondrous device..

It’s locked itself around his wrist somehow. He can’t see the locking mechanism- it looks like a clean band, aside from the face. The only sign as to its origin is some strange lettering on the side, though he doesn’t really recognize the characters. He knows he’s seen them somewhere before, though.

With some experimentation, he figures out he can move the device up and down his arm, but he can’t take it off. It’s comfortable no matter where it is, fitting perfectly to his skin, but it won’t go over his hand, despite obviously having the capability of doing so.

Fascinating..

Okay, he’ll deal with that later. He stands, making his way back to the little camp he’s set up.

He’s still feeling a little stiff with the after effects of a fairly mild electric attack paralysis, but he’s not too hurt- he must’ve not been hit too bad, thankfully.

Volo sits at camp, dumping out his bag and counting the supplies he’s managed to gather.

If he finds a way to preserve the food, what he has gathered today will be enough for a few days. So the progress towards what he and his Pokémon need to survive the winter is slow, but it is progressing.

The extra berries he grabbed are enough for two extra meals for Toge, so there’s that, at least.

Was it worth the risk? No, not in the slightest. Not when he can easily gather that safely.

But does it make him feel a little better about it?

Absolutely.

He looks up as a shadow falls over him, quickly moving to catch Toge as she flies into his chest. “Hey!”

She squeaks happily, shaking her bag- and that’s the sound of a bunch of apricorns. He can also see the leaves of a few different edible plants and medicinal herbs sticking out.

Volo smiles, cuddling her close. “Thank you, sweetheart,” he murmurs, burying his face in her feathers with a quiet sigh. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

~~~

PARADOX DETECTED

A young woman leans over to look at the alert, brushing curly red hair out of her eyes. “Oh! Well, that explains where he got his watch.. That is a dangerous paradox, wow. Very lucky it didn’t break anything. Dialga must have helped..” She sighs, tapping a few buttons on her watch and sending a quick message to Management. “..Dragons. I need to figure out how Eclipse got it off so I can update the security systems.. What a bother.”

[cantdanceflynn]

THIS BTW. IS MY PLAN FOR THE NYX FANDERG

[the-flys-buzz]

oooo thats neat!!!!! i got a shiny cetitan on. accident believe it or not. i randomly stumbled upon it!!!!!! i like shiny hunting sometimes so i have a few....... but yeah!!!!! water pokemon are cool and jake is very correct for liking sprigatito!!!!! its. also very fitting considering most people call it weed cat. i also tend to like fire types!!!!!! ceruledge and skeledirge are cool.....

JUMPSCARE PART TEN BILLION. i should be back for real this time so YAY. bothering my dad is my top priority because i cant get to sleep:3

hhehheeyyyy dad !!!!!!! sorry i keep going into hibernation i. think it might be a winter thing. LATE MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

//@the-flys-buzz

“Hm? Oh! Welcome back! Albeit a late gift? Take this. I am unsure if you still enjoy things. But, here.”

[He offers you! A fly plushie with a small Will Wood shirt on it!]

“Ha. Nothing big! But.. somewhat.. sweet…? I hope.. ha.”

[sparklingdemon]

hey hihi! ive been curious for a bit (and honestly. probably shouldve asked sooner) .. how do you feel abt ppl making their own adaptations/takes on your pokepasta ocs? do you enjoy it? are there certain ones that you prefer arent touched on like that?

its mostly curiosity but also i feel like its best to ask bc im one of the mods on a blog where leaf takes a LOT after fallen leaf but with a fair amount of deviation all the same and. i realized recently that despite u still being active and present online i never thought to inquire about that,, im so sorry njakljndnjk

hey hey it’s all good!! i think what you’re doing with missing numbers is really cool!! it always gets me really excited to see bits of fallen leaf in missing number’s leaf bc i’m just like “look gary there i am! there’s my story!!” i think combining fallen leaf’s story with abandon lonliness is INSPIRED, and it’s so so cool seeing fallen leaf be put in alongside the other more “classic” trainerpastas. it makes me happier than you’ll ever to know to see her get representation alongside all the others who have been there so much longer than her, bc it makes me feel like i wrote a story that fits right at home in the golden age of pokepasta.

that being said, i’m usually pretty chill with fan interpretations and reimaginings, or AUs that have my characters in them! “death of the author” is a real thing, and people are going to do whatever they want with my stories/characters regardless of if they realize i’m still an accessible person that can be asked permission or not - so i think it’s important for me to have a healthy/supportive outlook about it.

but… at the same time, i still don’t like it very much when people use their reimaginings to “fix” a story, to remove the “cliches” that made the story what it is.

for example, if you took BRVR out of pokemon channel and made the game take place in pokemon yellow instead, or removed the death/gore, then that’s not really BRVR anymore to me. by taking the “pokemon channel” out of “pokemon dead channel” or taking the “DEAD” out of pokemon dead channel, then you have essentially made a brand new story/character, but given it my character’s name.

so i think what i don’t like is when a reimagining comes from a place like that, where it doesn’t try to keep the spirit of the original story in mind and instead wants to “fix” it.

BUT, i should clarify how this is only a pet peeve of mine! i’m not going to tell people, “no, you’re not allowed to reimagine my story The Wrong Way™” - because ultimately i care more about people having fun with my stories and art in whatever way they want to, even if it’s something i don’t personally agree/vibe with.

of course that’s not what i think you’re doing w missing numbers at all!! i think it captures the heart of the OG stories very well, even when seen through an “in-universe” lens. i’m really really excited to see more from it!!

as for if there’s certain characters i’d rather not let anyone touch, i feel like the only one i have right now is cody, but only because their story is still ongoing and people still don’t fully know them as a character yet. it’s very easy to misinterpret a character from a story that’s still ongoing, after all!

but other than that, my answer is go wild!! do whatever you want with my pasta characters and i’ll generally be pretty hands-off about it! the only rule is have fun!!

[umbweon]

arent the stories abt pokemon based on real life japanese myths and folk tales? idk why people are like ohhh german/russian/whatever country fairytales are so dark and grim and grimdark omggg but as soon as a fictional creature does something bad its fuckin armageddon

yeah theyre very japanese folktale like, and ive made my share of posts talkin bout hot typhlosion husbands once i read it i know and understand these things are just stories , and if they were actually put into the game instead of reduced to the “pokemon and humans got married long ago” excerpt in one of the games it wouldnt change anything with a silly animal catching game. ppl acting like its the end of the world for certain pokemon now bc of this need to mature badly its just some stories written by one girl

[liverpool-enjoyer]

random ask since i'm in a pokemon mood: have you played any rom hacks? if so, which ones are your favorites?

DAIHSAKAFFOOOOOOH V I CAN TALK ALL DAY ABT ROM HACKS!!! I AM CACKLING LIKE A MANIAC RN THIS IS MY CHANCE

okokok ik you asked abt rom hacks but im gonna include hacks AND fangames cause tbh i always put em in the same category (illegal pokemon games)

the best, most top tier, most BRILLIANT fangame of all time is a game by ekat n michael called pokemon ashen frost. bestie @frostbite-yinny can vouch for how amazing this game is. basically its a crime noir pokemon game that takes place in one huge ass city. you play as a detective with a swinub as a partner n the game is split into cases rather than gyms. my words arent enough to describe how high quality and genuis this game is. the story is deep n intricate n so beautifully told. n ohmygosh the SETTING. the city of riverview feels so,,, real. like i literally miss being there. the MUSIC too!!! its so jazzy n compliments the setting n story so well. n dont even get me STARTED on those CHARACTERS,,, you will get ATTATCHED. n i mean it. the end a the latest demo literally had me WEEPING. it features a talking protagonist which rlly helps you bond w the other characters. basically, ashen frost is a story abt people that takes place in the pokemon world, n thats what i adore abt it. i IMPLORE anyone who likes pokemon to play this game. im not saying that cause its my favorite, but bc to not play this game is literally a disservice to yourself. in fact i'll even give you a download link,,, here ya go

ahem. anywho. as for actual rom hacks, my favorite is easily pokemon fire red rocket edition. pokemon but you play as a member a team rocket!!! its such a breath a fresh air. a fun way to play through kanto, which is definitely needed seeing as most ppl have played through kanto 53629523 times. n the STORY??? goes HARD. theres a twist at the end that changes the way you see the story of red n blue. it takes the game from really great to fuckin BRILLIANT.

special shoutout to my first rom hack n the one that got me into all this,,, its a fire red hack by @shima-draws n its basically the story of fire red but your rival has a crush on you n flirts w you throughout the course a the game. my gateway drug n the reason i was able to play through kanto <3 her post abt it is here

another special special game is pokemon legends of the arena. another BRILLIANT n unique fangame that has you travelling the region while participating in a tournament rather than a gym challenge. amazing characters, a talking protagonist which is AWESOME, n an amazing soundtrack!!! the story is absolutely FANTASTIC too. n theres a breathtaking sidequest too. n theres like three different endings!!! which i love!! i got the true ending on the first try hehe ;))

i also cant help but love pokemon insurgence. as my first fangame i have a lotta nostalgia for it. look man, this ones FUN. its got super cool delta pokemon which are essentially regional forms before regional forms were regional forms. the story is a fun level of over the top n i love the inclusion of some a my favorite canon pokemon characters. also, this game made me cry. not bc a the story, but bc its fuckin HARD. n my ass was playing on NORMAL difficulty.

some other rom hacks ive played are pokemon gaia n pokemon glazed but tbh its been so long i dont remember much abt em,,, heh.

[drifloonz]

hmm.. do you have any favourite Pokémon/Poképasta characters? If so, what do you like about them? Or.. if you could make your own Poképasta character, what would their concept or design be? Or name in general, you don’t have to do a fully fleshed out backstory for them. Orrr, what’s your favourite thing about being on the internet or being in a fandom?

i... to no ones surprise, reaaally like steven. glitchys up there, but i think his og pokepasta sort of sucks ( which is not an unpopular opinion ), but strangled red ( specifically strangled red, strangled and doors open are... neat, but sort of badly written and way more stereotypical ) is just... mwah. chefs kiss. stories about grief and abt a depressive spiral that gets worse and worse AND you get to see how he was like before it? soo good. you can argue the missingno plotline in it was unnecessary which i could agree but i think its just cool more than anything else, esp since most pokepastas based on gen 1 use it or other glitches in the 1st gens for horror a lot, which i think is interesting. missingno can be many things!

i like to think logically that glitches and stuff in game prob exist in the pokemon universe as well, since... well.. pokemon can be turned into data. you put them into the pc. missingno likely just exists and is a heavily corrupted pokemon that is not supposed to be there, or a glitch that the pc or something made real.

therefore, miki probably was "healed" because missingno "filled" her "missing data" or something like that, but i like to keep it more vague and ambiguous too. you can do a lot with strangled red and steven, miki, and mike too which just intrigues me. once again read lessons in guilt and grief and faulty on ao3. they explore this and steven, mike, ( and daisy who doesnt get enough attention ) in a way i 100% agree with and enjoy .

as for other characters i obviously enjoy glitchy but i much more enjoy the like... post-fnflull version of him cuz' in his original popularity he was just sort of prettyboy red who was also a creepypasta but ppl barely drew him like he was one ( i like fnf lulls interp bc of how his body constantly stutters and how when hes irate his mouth just stretches and shit like that. gmod ragdoll with broken physics ass mf ). also as said before his pokepastas sort of forgettable but i do like the concept of a red stuck in a game self aware bc im allll for that shit. i am an IHNMBIMS fan, i love AM, i love self aware AIs that feel trapped and take it out on every1 else or cope with it in Some Way... very interesting concept, idk.

honorable mentions for pokepastas that ppl prob know that i do not talk abt a lot that i like the writing or concepts for are DISABLED and Hell Bell.

hell bell you could argue has a stereotypical 'pasta ending of "ooooh you die in the game you die for real" but idk i eat up the way they did it in hell bell bc the person doesnt die but they sort of do since nobody can see em anymore ( iirc, i hvent read it in a bit ). also uses gen 4 which as someone who started mainline games with diamond and pearl respectively, i enjoy that a lot.

for DISABLED, its not super deep or scary or anything ( ok well its scary for the narrator obviously ) but its another one that just sorta makes me feel bad in all the right ways.

i have concepts for pokepasta aus of my ocs and some side characters but they arent pokepastas theyre just like... ppl who live in the world ( of fnf lull usually since i like to think everything there is connected and coexists somehow ), but i am not original to save my life so i dont think id make an actual pokepasta anytime soon, lol. the closest i got was making a super horrible choose your own adventure where you played as a cubone on deviantart when i was like idk 9

as for internet and fandom stuff, i dont associate myself w fandoms or fandom terminology and unironically i just start to call myself an "enjoyer" of things, bc i dont like being associated w anything... fandom oriented a lot of the time anymore. a lot of fanonization of characters also sucks. i do think the pokepasta fandom has some funny fanonizations though. like yes dilfify that man ( @ steven )

also esp for pokepastas bc i have Hyperfixation Shame. its why i have a sideblog for it, both so it has a concentrated place to go and so no one knows i like it enough to write abt it lol

thank u 4 asking :]!

[deutoplasmic]

ive never been to an onsen in china!! i would love to experience one tho

its ok i have a brother with terrible takes too i get it 😭 AND THATS CRAZY HDNDJD our politics are also painfully messy and i imagine with our senate elections coming up itll get messier,,,

LMAODKDJDJ theyre really dumb yea but its ok i love them 😁 OMG LMAO POOR Y/N I CAN IMAGINE THE STRESS 😭 he just looks at you with puppy eyes watching what you do,,, and youre like,,, youre never holding this knife ever again

PLSSS MAME AND JIN PARTNERS IN CRIME THOUGH,,, those two definitely ship y/n and takeru idk,,,

OMG DEINO,,, i love the pseudo legendaries so much (im a dragonite, goodra, and komo’o defender till the day i die) bonding with fengfan over the little dragons,,, you would have to pry bagon and deino apart after those two are besties now do not separate

omg another y/n scenario could be like,,, you have a kanto rapidash and ruki has a galarian rapidash,,, and you two just keep racing each other and are in a lot of friendly competition

or with yudai its like,, you have a but of a gremlin partner like a krookodile so yudai and krookodile go roughhouse while you and gallade have a tea party LMAODKDKD

NURSE JOY SHO OMG,,, OR BREEDER SHO,,,, bro probably runs the daycare and has a machamp help him pick up all the little babies when they run around

omg not to shoehorn dxteen but,,, shotaro running a little bakery with his partner swirlix,,, like everyone loves him and his lil friend as they do bread deliveries all around town,,, OR KOSHIN WITH HIS PARTNER CLEFAIRY AND HE DANCES WITH IT DURING FULL MOONS SO IT DOESNT FEEL LONELY,,,

they're lots of fun :thumbsup: though most of the time i'm pretty sure it's not actual geothermically heated spring water nor does it have minerals like selenium or whatever in it LOOOOOL

unfortunate twinning :handshake: but yeah average usa moment LMAO i hope your elections go well. like well enough so you guys arent totally done for. wait wasn't there this filipino politician who was murdered whilst taking a photo with his family (?) and got the shooter in the photo?? also isnt your main man in charge (im sorry i forgot if you call your leader guy a president or a pm or some other variant) literally the son of one of your other old leader guy :rofl: true nepotism. unrelated but your currency name is SO CUTE like yes guys i have some pesos!!!!!!!

they sound like such cuties.... what are their names?? and yeah no. youre at your wits end with this guy. you could also be overwhelmingly average in smartness but takumi sees you as like a genius bc you showed him how to open a car boot by using the fancy little button on his car keys and he was FLABBERGASTED no one's ever taught him how to do that before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh yeah they so do. they do so bad it's crazy. mame starts alerting you about some danger so you run over to help him and. no. actually he's trapped you in some mysterious shack with takeru and it turns out jin did the same and god you sit there in solidarity for 5 seconds before you remember you two hate each other

omG i love goodra so much its such a slimy goopy friendly lil bro!!!!!! and dragonite is so cool........ i love kommo-o's first evolution jangmo-o so much its such a pouty pokemon free my bro.... wait you and fengfan could be the leaders of a dragon-type gym!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dragon type pokemon reserve!!!!!!!!!!

omg. omg. omg. youre so real for this. he could also have an alolan sandshrew too............... also you best bet you two keep tying but sometimes he lets you win and pretends to be a little bothered about it but actually he just likes how excited you are.................... he'd like stare at you when youre not looking kms...................

OK THATS SO FUNNY. i imagine yudai's gallade would be so composed and make the most fantastic green or oolong tea ever. he even like does the 洗茶 thing and all. you two occasionally look outside the window to see them rolling around in the grass and youre pretty sure yudai's shirt has acquired multiple grass stains.........

SHO WITH A MACHAMP ITS SO REAL. he probably took it in after the breakdown of the illegal fighting ring it was in or smth and now they spend their days happily taking care of a bunch of baby pokemon....... sho probably taught it how to garden and now they have the prettiest front yard of the whole region.................

omg dont worry the lapone pokemon au is expanding. if we're talking shotaro bakery you can't forget the pokemon actually built out of bread fidough.... like it has literally got yeast for breath shotaro needs himself a lil bro like that!!!!!!! ALSO THE IDEA OF HIM RUNNING AROUND DELIVERING BREAD IS SO CUTE hes prolly from this tiny tiny tiny town where everyone knows each other and its just a normal thing to see him dashing off somewhere with his pokemon following him!!!!!!!

IM SO SANE ABOUT THIS. youre so right. hes for SURE got a clefairy. AND HE DEFINITELY DANCES WITH IT!!!!!!!! he definitely befriended a cleffa and like. he hung out with it every single day without fail. and on his birthday he got jumpscared when the power of friendship made it evolve!!!!!!!! ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also im peddling nalu with a marill. they live right next door to the beach and have a rollicking good time working at their fish and chippery every day...........

[haootia]

watching mind field episode about fear and thinking about . petscop. if you have seen the episode you may already know what im getting at but for those of you who arent also currently on a vsauce rewatch marathon: they put michael "vsauce" stevens in a chair and classical condition him into being afraid of a picture of a pink square. and that itself is kind of superficially/memey "petscopcore" bc petscop contains not only a lot of geometric shapes and colors but also themes of coercion & experimentation, but it made me think more broadly about how the work as a whole is able to make us the audience have those really strong emotions, including fear, towards very simple icons/symbols. and of course this is why petscop massively outpaces most web horror [interscript note: i never watched valle verde or crow 64 and i have only watched incomplete bits and pieces of ai builds / sheriff domestic / diminish so i cant comment on the "tgif genre" or other directly post-petscop works] because it ties its dread and scariness into things that are Not Scary. there are no jumpscares or hyper realistic blood and the typical "horror" moments (that's a dead kid / i'll shoot her in the head / dog monologue / hurts me when playstation on) are presented really quite casually and non-graphically.

petscop is very Eerie and Dread-inducing but it's not (& not trying to be) actively frightening, which is really good, because it is damn hard to make a non-playable recap of a video game frightening. there are too many layers of removal, it's too cheesy, at least for an adult audience or an audience with any prior experience with horror. when i was a kid sure i got freaked as hell reading ( / listening to yuriofwind narrate) haunted pokemon game creepypastas (even when the narration was full of "lol, this is lame" asides) but once i got older it stopped eliciting such a response. i reread a bunch of them recently and my main commentary (both internally and in discord chat to my fishfriend) was mostly "the grammar in this is distractingly bad" and, more importantly, "the bare bones of this premise might have been interesting somewhere else, but this is not it." godzilla nes has endured slightly better because it has an underlayer of "the game knows something it shouldn't" that provides the real meat of the horror, and the creepy body horror screenshots are interesting but not really frightening. it's still not great, btw, most creepypastas aren't, but i can enjoy it in a silly nostalgic way that at least puts it on a higher shelf than pokemon lost silver or whatever.

in the time between first reading a bunch of creepypasta wiki slop and first watching petscop, i experienced like, actual trauma. this particular incident was very much not an inherent part of growing up , but i think "having something really scary happen to you irl" Is a life transition you can expect to happen sometime between like eight and sixteen. and this event is a pretty dramatic perspective shifter. before it happened i was able to be legitimately thrilled and scared by pokemon creepypasta and afterwards. i wasnt. it was definitely not an immediate switch and between age 10 and 13 especially i struggled with nightmares and extreme anxiety over a lot of really lame spooky internet content which i sought out for blah blah blah reasons. ok this isnt about me, its about petscop, ostensibly. the point im trying to make is that petscop gets Scarier with age. if i had seen petscop when i was eight years old i would have found it first and foremost Way Too Long And Boring and secondly Not Very Scary. there's no blood and no monsters and no ~watch out or it might get you too!!~ so who even gives a fuck, right.

and of course this beautifully represents the themes of the work itself. children do not understand the world the way adults do, they don't understand "reality" and all the secret rules that adults (generally) agree on, and sometimes they don't realize when bad things are happening, or why the things that are happening Are Bad. the protagonist of petscop is literally an adult looking back on their childhood through layers of other people's perspectives, and through (somewhat strange and magical) context is able to see things that weren't there before. if the horror was immediate and upfront, it wouldn't be interesting. if Everything was as in-your-face as "that's a dead kid" petscop would kind of just be a slideshow of childhood traumas, which is definitely Sad and Uncomfortable but not really Scary. so the horrors are disguised by symbols. things the audience doesn't already know about. "rebirthing" (the exact implications of which rely on the audience knowing about external, real-world events), "tool", "machine", "pieces", the needles piano, A / B / NLM "phases", even graves and "coffins" are icons that mean things beyond just "a place where a dead body is". it's a story you have to decipher, it takes actual Effort beyond just looking at a scary image manip. (further commentary on the horror youtuber petscop explanation industrial complex may be provided at a later date; for now i'll just say that anyone who attempts to produce a definitive "externalized" explanation of the story is not only missing the point but actively rejecting it. petscop is literally a story about putting the pieces together yourself.) and through that effort you condition yourself to see certain things as scary.

the amount of symbols in petscop means that there's not one thing i can point to as its "pink square", something that is associated one to one with Fear. and the emotions petscop runs with are a lot more complicated than the adrenaline-based fear response they gave michael vsauce stevens for tv. but god damn if by the end it hasn't constructed a symbolic language that can make me feel a deep and immediate emotional reaction to a red triangle. or eyebrows, or daisies, or like, the platonic Concept of a car? it's good. it's good storytelling. mother horse eyes also kind of pulls this in the last couple chapters to contribute to the final emotional impact but i don't think it's as fundamental a part of the story as it is in petscop. also of course homestuck does this like crazy but it's not (nominally) a horror story and also doesn't benefit from having a definite point-of-view protagonist who is learning to interpret the symbols simultaneously or in parallel with the audience. that's key to good writing in my opinion, btw, that the protagonist should either be on the same footing as or just slightly one step ahead of the audience. if the protagonist is way behind the audience it turns into a frustrating Yelling At The Screen Experience and if they're way ahead it makes everything seem completely arbitrary (see hbomberguy sherlock video for more). people may frame this as the protagonist being an "idiot" or a "genius" but i don't think that's actually the distinction that matters, it's specifically about how much information the character has from out-of-text sources, not really their ability to put it together in a rational or intelligent way. and now we're onto a completely different topic so im going to cut the post off now before i spend the rest of my life talking about the nature of storytelling or whatever, slowly withering away from starvation until i'm just a shriveled husk holding an iphone

[squiiids]

lions would win against the pokemon bc lions are real and pokemon arent. case closed :3

^

[lemoneychicken]

while i am excited for the new pokemon game it makes me deeply uncomfortable that its coming out so close to legends’ release, and it makes me all the angrier about how the sinnoh remakes were handled

this means while bdsp and legends were being worked on, sv was also being worked on. game freak had to split its attention between two games made to blow us away, which could put some incredible pressure on the developers. this also means nintendo intended from the start for bdsp to be worked on by someone else so they could have game freak work on these two games

and like. the remakes fucking suck. the controls are weird and jank, the pokemons follow animations look bad, the underground lost the core reason people enjoyed it. issues that wouldnt have happened if game freak was able to handle them. nintendo opted to have long anticipated remakes get handled by someone who didnt understand why people enjoyed sinnoh in the first place so they could push game freak to make other new titles, giving us three pokemon games in the span of a year

anyways

game freak should unionize

[mxdotpng]

yoo jonghyuk self identified pro gamer loses at uno against a 12 year old universal god every time they play together. more at 10

[fluttersheep]

hey if ur sga and/or trans reblog w ur orientation and what ur pokemon team would be if u lived in the pkmn world (so not necessarily the ultimate battling team if u wouldnt be a trainer)

im nb bi and mine would be bulbasaur, nidoking, scolipede, duskull, skitty, and altaria