#but like it feels so weird to try and match a specific kind of region

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

i do this funny overcompensation when im writing where because when i use british words on purpose because i know theyre british and im writing british characters i feel like a poser so i pick (what i think are) the more american alternatives when i know i have options, making my fic sound more american than it already does by virtue of my having watched a lot of american tv

[lunarsilkscreen]

Pokemon Unanswered Questions

There are two; does every trainer start in the starter town? And what are Gym Leaders *exactly*?

In the original comic, Gym Leaders were closer to Martial Artists that opened their own Dojo. Challenging a Dojo Master is like challenging a Black Belt to a sparring match.

In the original story; Yea, every Gym Leader was therefore extremely strong in comparison with a regular trainer. But the RPG leveling system took away some of that feeling of danger in the games.

The Elite Four were this weird combination of "Stronger Gym Leader" and "Stronger Team Rocket" who doubled as world ending threats, and even tried to ****** extremely strong trainers like red.

And collecting all the badges were linked to a super strong power that could only be achieved with all eight badges (which were unique) and the magic words that only the Elite Four knew.

Obviously, the games changed this. The Elite Four became the 4 strongest members of the Pokemon League which held sanctioned tournaments regularly, and the various Pokemon Gyms were scaled down.

The number of badges you've earned is equivalent to a Martial Art's belt level.

So no badges is a white belt, and eight badges is equivalent to a black belt. The TV show changes this idea, because Ash sucks. And kind removes the idea of badges really showcasing a trainer's true talent by treating Ash as if he's still badgeless between seasons.

That's a problem with the show, but It feels better in the games.

Therefore; each Gym Leader is hand picked by the league, there are Gyms that are trying to earn a place in the League like the Kanto region fight club, and they adjust *their* team based on the challenger's skill level.

Season One of the anime actually showcases Gym Leaders that are closer to the original design, while later seasons nerds them into how I've described them. Seriously, the season 1 battles definitely had a more life/death feel to them, while the modern ones are just "Yea, you know the drill. I, the gym leader, don't really have anything to lose here."

As such, the Gym Leaders are specifically picked for their expertise in Pokemon Rearing and a type mastery of at least one type.

A Pokemon Professor is likely a Gym Leader that has studied and more or less mastered a region instead of a single type.

And the Elite Four is the four strongest trainers at the time of when the tournament is held, subject to availability and scheduling.

What this likely means is that a Gym Leader can double as a Pokemon League representative and hand out starters to new trainers. In fact, some of the Gym minions are likely new trainers that are getting ready to go out on their own Journey like the MC.

In lieu of a Gym Leader; Pokemon Centers also double as education centers, and in some towns: Pokemon Museums. Who also have the authority to start a trainer on their journey.

However, Not every person in the series is a Pokemon trainer, or even able to raise Pokemon. In the series we see plenty of trainers that simply befriended a random pokemon, and one of the Protagonists of one of the Comics starts with a Poliwhirl, and catches a Pikachu that was gnawing on the wires in his house; while other trainers are gifted with *actual* starter pokemon; this trainer has a Poliwhirl and a Pikachu.

Which is literally a tadpole and just a random mouse in the series. Literally, weak-mon. That trainer's name? Red.

It's why Gary Oak is closer to Blue in the series being gifted an Eeve to start with. Literally able to have a better starter pokemon than average, while Ashtoshi gets a random pokemon that is considered weak.

Anyway, the Pokemon League has changed in form and function from the initial launch of the series and today. Which has some interesting implications, but at the same time; the widespread acceptance and change really reflects Pokemon in the real world as well.

[tombstone-pisa]

I haven't seen any ghost aus so I decided to be really, really mean to Emmet. I mean, ghosts are canon in pokemon! :)

Ingo never comes to the future and Emmet never manages to reunite with him in the past. No matter what he does, how hard he tries, he just can't seem to find a trace of his missing brother. It's like Ingo just vanished. He never gives up, though! He goes to Alola to investigate Ultra Beasts and to Johto to try and find Celebi. He even heads to Sinnoh, thinking that maybe Dialga or Palkia will have the solution.

That's where he finds Ingo's grave in the burial grounds of some half-forgotten clan.

It sucks. He cries a lot. He starts grieving all over again. Everyone seems to think he'd get some sort of closure from finally finding out what happened, but it just made him feel worse. All he can think about is Ingo dying alone a region and century away.

Emmet goes home. There's still a subway to run, there's still pokemon that need him. He knows Ingo would never forgive him for leaving their pokemon behind, but he's definitely thinking about ending it. Like, what's the point? He resolves to take care of their pokemon and the subway until he's found someone that he thinks is worthy to pass the mantle on to. It's a decision made in the depths of despair, thinking about how he never told Ingo how he feels about him. Thinking about what their last words to each to the other were, thinking about whether Ingo went peacefully or not. Listening to voicemails from Ingo because he can't remember his voice otherwise.

When he gets home, Chandelure is acting funny. It keeps trying to lead him out of the house or to specific rooms. When it's not doing that, it vocalizes seemingly at random. Emmet's usually very kind to Chandelure, he's kind to all of his pokemon but Chandelure was Ingo's partner so he's a little more lenient with it. But he's at the end of his rope and snaps a few times or even ignores it outright.

And then one day Chandelure gets fed up. It flares its fire up a little and poof - there's Ingo. Standing right beside it, looking confused and worse for wear. He's older and his uniform is torn up and his posture is shit. But it's Ingo! Emmet goes to hug him and phases right through.

His heart is already on the way to breaking when Ingo asks who he is and where they are. Ingo's been dead for a very, very long time. He was the last of the ghosts in the burial ground. It's been so long that he's not quite connected to the living realm, fading in and out.

(Chandelure goes out at night a lot. It and Ingo spend a lot of time together and Ingo always seems stronger afterwards. Stray pokemon are disappearing. Visitors are getting sick. Emmet can't find it within himself to care.)

Over the next few days, the two of them try to adjust. Constant interaction with Emmet and Chandelure helps Ingo to become more solid, more present. He's not so confused and sometimes even remembers things from life with Emmet. His voice grows from a whisper to nearly matching his old volume. Sometimes, Emmet can feel the faintest pressure when they try to touch each other.

Emmet goes back to work. People give him a lot of weird looks for being so cheerful in the wake of his brother's death. He doesn't mind! It does break his heart when Ingo tries to interact with the depot agents or passengers and they just look through him, though. Ingo likes being around people, likes helping them. The enforced solitude is bad for him.

(Even the senior Depot Agents won't go in the abandoned tunnels anymore. Chandelure is never in its pokeball. The subway seems darker, somehow. Colder. There's a wave of sickness in Nimbasa, spilling out from around Gear Station in lazy spirals. Chandelure's fire burns brighter every day.)

(Someone jokingly asks Emmet about calling some ghost-hunters. The look on his face is enough to shut them up.)

(Emmet wonders if Ingo knows what exactly it is that's sustaining him, that's keeping him from fading away. Probably not. His brother would never forgive him or Chandelure. It's okay. So long as Ingo stays by his side.)

[elegybeatty]

While everyone else is freaking out over pokemon attacking humans in Legends Arceus for the 30th time, i've just been theorizing about the identity of that new pokemon, so, why not share my thoughts? Here's what we know about it so far.

It lives in very cold environments, specifically snowy forests (i feel as though the specific area shown in this trailer is an area that i've theorized to be Eterna Forest based on its placement on the Hisui map).

It seemingly has the ability to lure prey towards it, implying a more magical/spiritual theme, perhaps a Psychic, Ghost, Dark, or Fairy type.

It resembles Growlithe and Vulpix, but isn't either of them, implying a quadrupedal, canid-esque appearance. Also implies a prominent orange coloring, but i'll be less strict about this when theorizing what this pokemon could be.

It has a red tipped tail, fluffy white fur on its head and around its neck, and round yellow eyes.

With the known information out of the way, let's list some possibilities!

Hisuian Arcanine/Hisuian Growlithe regional evolution. The description is very close to Hisuian Growlithe's, even though the environment it's found in doesn't seem to match. Despite the Fire/Rock typing, magical abilities aren't entirely out of the question. In addition, we know that H-Growlithe travel in pairs, so it's likely that what's happening in this trailer is one Arcanine luring the person filming and the other attacking while they're distracted. Still, though, there's not enough supporting this idea in my opinion, and it'd be really weird for them to reveal the evolution of an already revealed pokemon like this.

Hisuian Vulpix. i'm not a big fan of this concept, personally. i'm fine with the idea of Meowth being the one pokemon that adapts to all kinds of different regions, but giving a second Kantonian pokemon another variant just seems like pandering. Also, the biggest point against this, the pokemon is only mentioned to have 1 tail, sooo...

Hisuian Zorua. Zorua fits a lot of these descriptions aside from the coloration. All that'd need to change is swapping out the black for white, adding a bit of red to its tail, and giving it yellow eyes. In addition, as a trickster, it definitely makes sense for it to try luring people into danger with its cute appearance. We also seem to be getting a lot more Unova rep with this game with Basculegion, Hisuian Braviary, and Oshawott as a starter. Of course, a lot of the evidence for Zorua is shared with Vulpix, but i think this is the slightly more likely scenario, as well as my far preferred one.

Hisuian Absol. Like Zorua, a lot of the given desciption already fits aside from a few differences in coloration. Just change its eyes to yellow and give its tail some red and there ya go! Additionally, what seemed like the person filming getting attacked at the end could have been an avalanche or some other disaster that the Absol foresaw. Maybe it was purposefully leading them there, maybe it wasn't and it actually ended up saving them while leaving behind the camera, who knows??

It's FAKE!!! That's right, i think there's a chance this isn't even a real pokemon, but, instead, an illusion made by a more terrifying pokemon to lure in unsuspecting victims! After all, the description given sounded like such a mishmash of different pokemon, maybe it really is just an amalgamation of several super cute pokemon to lower the defenses of anyone viewing it as much as possible? i think this is the least likely possibility of all, but it's still a really cool idea that i felt like sharing.

There's tons of other pokemon i could suggest, but none i have much substantial evidence for aside from "welp, they sure are tailed quadrupeds!" So, what's everyone else thinking? Do you believe that one of these ideas is the most likely or did i miss something big?

[randomidiocyncrazies]

i know you like them both so yunichika and oda/aoki for the ship ask

thank you for giving me a chance to gush about these kids!!! they’re precious.... this got pretty long so imma put it under a cut

YuniChika, the main boys of 2.43:

• when or if I started shipping it:

tbh i didn’t really ship them when i read the first book... they’re the kind of pairing that i can see people shipping and i think it’s cute, but i’m not super invested in them as a romantic pairing. I think i was more sold about them as a ship in the second book, but i can’t quite remember if there was a specific moment that made me change my mind, or if it was a gradual process

• my thoughts:

i think the anime definitely played up the tension between them (allll the blushes lol), but i’m glad people are enjoying the YuniChika content XD they’re pretty cute!

also, i think they balance each other well and spur each other to become better—Yuni and Chika are both self-centered(?) in very different ways: Yuni lacks drive because he mostly wanted to please people so they’ll like him, while Chika has the opposite problem in that he acts like he doesn’t care what people think of him. 

but now Yuni is able to take a stand for his interest in volleyball and for Chika, and while Chika doesn’t really soften and still has a problem with not realizing how harsh he could be, he’s more willing to communicate his thoughts.

• what makes me happy about them:

boys reuniting! relearning how to have a relationship with one another! learning from past mistakes and trying to be better people together! HELL YEAH

• what makes me sad about them:

boys, please use your words to communicate with each other...

also, from Yuni’s perspective, it’s kinda sad when someone you used to know really well comes back into your life, but they’ve changed so much that they are essentially a different person... but of course they have a new opportunity to become closer now 😉 so i’m not that sad about it

• things done in art/fic that annoys me:

... there are fanworks for them????????? 

(on a more serious note, erasing their flaws to make them more likable... please don’t make Chika ‘secretly nice’ or whatever, the kid is blunt as hell, and not realizing how his words affect others is his biggest flaw. on the other hand, Yuni can still be a little spineless at times, and sometimes his priorities are. questionable.)

• things I look for in art/fic:

hm, i’d like a future fic about them as professional players! i think their inclination is to stick together (they’re a package deal!) but it’d be super interesting to read something where they’re on rival teams years down the line

EDIT: haha Chika actually transferred to Keisei High School after their first Spring Tournament, so he and Yuni have faced each other as rivals since then (2.43 next 4years). they’re go to the same university and are on the same team now though!

• who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

uh i don’t really have specific people for this, but Chika would probably have to be with someone who understands his love of volleyball (like Oda, but if Oda wasn’t their team captain and thus too much of a dad friend to qualify as a romantic interest), and someone who can inspire Yuni would be good for him

also, i know who i’d NOT be comfy about: the first book (and anime i guess) had this weird tension between Itoko and Yuni, COUSINS who BASICALLY GREW UP TOGETHER. i think(?) their weird whatever was mostly dropped in the 2nd book and wasn’t really made explicit, but like. what the hell. (i have no idea what happens beyond the 2nd book.)

• my happily ever after for them:

the YuniChika in college arc is being serialized rn, so in a way that’s already fulfilled? (i have NO idea what’s going on tho) 

in general i just hope they can play volleyball together until one or both decide not to, for whatever reason, and that they stay in each other’s lives and support each other even after they’ve retired from competitive volleyball. i think with Yuni’s personality he could be a good coach after getting more experience, and Chika... he’s really valuable as a strategist, but I think he’d always be a little brusque, so he’s respected but hard to bond with if he does take on coaching?

• what is their favorite non-sexual activity?

bold of you to assume Chika even cares about sex

anyway, they don’t go to movies for a romantic date night, they go watch volleyball matches. sometimes this backfires when Chika gets too frustrated at bad plays tho

and of course i will never pass up an opportunity to talk about Oda/Aoki, the main guys of my heart (my OTP for this series tbh):

• when or if I started shipping it:

they pinged on my radar when they were bickering in Ibara’s chapter, but i wasn’t super duper invested... and then I got to The Dog’s Perspective and the Giraffe’s Perspective (specifically The Kick™) and oh god i’ve never fallen so fast

• my thoughts: 

GOD WOW Aoki really loves Oda... even though objectively Oda’s height prevents him from being a super ace, he is the coolest, strongest super ace to Aoki. i think it’s beautiful that someone can see you as your best self even when you’re feeling shitty about yourself. Aoki knows that objectively Oda faces a lot of obstacles, and wants to support him as best as he can—not out of pity (pity would’ve burned out long ago), but because he really respects Oda’s passion and drive.

also, these two have unaddressed issues that they should talk about! Oda, i know you feel inferior but you are so much better than you think you are. please accept that Aoki really does respect you, and that you are worthy of it (or like, you don’t have to be ‘’’worthy’’’’ or ‘’’’’’deserving’’’’’’’’’’ of it, because it is Aoki’s choice to support you and play volleyball with you!!! it’s not something you gotta earn, it’s something freely and happily given to you)

(ahhhhhh i die when i think of them)

• what makes me happy about them: 

gosh i love their dynamic SO MUCH! Oda is exactly my type of character (passionate, determined, knowing that he can never be the best at what he’s passionate about due to factors he cannot control, trying to be kind and gracious but struggling with feelings of inferiority and jealousy, thinks of himself as a selfish person, a supporting character...) and Aoki’s devotion is really touching. 

again: even when you feel like crap about yourself, there’s someone out there who thinks you’re the best thing that happened to them.

there’s also the fact that Oda thinks the world of Aoki as well (to the point of feeling inferior, which is like... c’mon Oda :/ you are better than you think you are!) he trusts Aoki a lot, despite knowing his willingness to engage in, uh, underhanded methods

• what makes me sad about them: 

it’s their last year together, and they’d be approaching a new phase of their lives in different places... although Aoki offered to lower his rankings so they’d go to the same university, realistically they’ll go to different colleges, and most likely end up in different prefectures. (like, not only do i think it’s a Terrible Idea to give up your dream school so that you could stay with someone else, there is no way Oda would accept the offer without being crushed by guilt. something like that would actually ruin their relationship, which i think Aoki knows as well.)

there’s also a lot left unsaid between them at this point and i just want them to lay everything out between them and move forward together

• things done in art/fic that annoys me: 

the fact that there’s NONE >:[ what does a gal have to do to get some content for them???????

• things I look for in art/fic: 

at this point anything is fine.... it’s a desert out there and i’m dying

more specifically i’m Extremely Down for a get together fic; i personally only see them getting together after high school, at least several months (or even longer) studying in different prefectures and no longer able to see each other every day. (i mean... absence makes the heart grow fonder right?)

i’d also love to see Oda using Aoki’s first name, considering Aoki calls him “Shin” and all. Oda managing to surprise/fluster Aoki would be nice too.

EDIT: they’re both in the Kansai region (2.43 next 4years prologue). Oda’s revealed to be studying in Osaka, and assuming Aoki got into KyoDai, they should be around 2 hours away from each other by train? so visiting each other over short breaks would be cute! also, apparently Oda took a gap year before going to Osaka (2.43 next 4years Ch 1.2), so something set during that time would also be awesome :V

• who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

hm... if i had to imagine people well-suited to them, i’d say Aoki’s type is people who are straightforwardly passionate about their interests (Oda hooked him with his unbridled love of volleyball way back in their first year of high school after all), and I think Oda probably needs someone who is willing to indulge him a little (like Chika he can be pretty dang determined about what he wants, though without the single-minded intensity at the expense of everything else)

... this is just a roundabout way of saying i think they’re ideal for each other, especially if they resolve the problem of hiding things from the other

• my happily ever after for them: 

they get careers/hobbies they enjoy, and get a place together as boyfriends/husbands. no i will not hear any criticism of this idea

i can see Aoki working in the private sector (this guy is fine with ‘joking’ about blackmail after all!) after getting his law degree. this is super self-indulgent, but given his penchant of rooting for passionate but objectively disadvantaged entities, i think it’d be pretty awesome if he works for a smaller company that truly believes in their work, instead of working at a big firm pulling in big bucks.

while I’m not sure what Oda is canonically studying, I can see him going into sports education or sports therapy—i think he’d be really good at nurturing the talents of other athletes, and he’s good at rallying the team (Aoki pretty much says he’s the heart of the team in the epilogue of the first book, though Aoki’s kiiinda biased lol). i think it’d be really cute if Oda coaches a grade school team!

neither plays volleyball competitively after high school, but sometimes they watch matches for fun (esp if their ex-teammates are playing). Oda also makes Aoki come to his students’ matches if he doesn’t have work

EDIT: apparently Oda continues competing as a wing spiker in college, playing in Kaisai’s 2nd Collegiate Division (2.43 next 4years Ch 1.2)—Aoki probably watches his matches, even when he’s busy (and Oda probably chides him for neglecting his work, but they both know Aoki can manage his workload).

• what is their favorite non-sexual activity?

hm... idk, i think they’re the kind of couple who are cool with just chilling with each other doing their own work. like, Oda planning strategies for the kids he’s coaching while Aoki reads next to him, occasionally glancing over to make comments, stuff like that

also since Oda says they mostly talked about volleyball during high school, I can kinda see them finding something new they both enjoy after they get together? Maybe shounen manga, for something fun

[tyrannuspitch]

been reading abt this one genetic study and it is rlly interesting but also bc using modern genetics to infer stuff abt history is something i'm Aware you have to be Cautious of it does kind of result in me having Knowledge that i don't feel entirely comfortable thinking of as Knowledge. which is a v weird state of mind. esp when some of the original phrasing was already really cautiously vague.

(cut to ramble abt boring things i am in no way qualified to teach)

like okay time to ramble: i found it bc as part of a long slowburn identity crisis i got rlly frustrated with what little i know of history & not having a clue where to place myself in it - like, england has had so many different waves of migration and changes of regime, and also aristocracy-focused history isn't always good at even distinguishing between those, and if we don't even know which of those groups we're descended from... do we know anything??? (eg: fucking druids wld be talking abt The Old Ways and i'd be sitting here like. okay even if you weren't glorified wiccans, are they "the Old Ways"? are they??? is that our history or someone else's entirely? like, literally, i don't have any particular interest in doing this, but if i theoretically WERE to try and return to the religion of my prechristian ancestors, should i reconstruct druidry or heathenry or smthn else entirely?)

SO i basically wanted to ask how much, if at all, are the modern english descended from the various groups who have lived here. Who The Fuck Actually Are We

and i did basically get a cautious answer! (after finding better scicomm than the fucking guardian, which didn't even take enough care to clearly separate "english and cornish" from "british". fuck the guardian.) the actual conclusions we can pretty safely draw re: this question are:

1. the modern english have a v high level of similarity with other peoples of the uk (the study said "british isles" but roi was not counted), much of which appears to be v ancient dna, which means the genetic evidence directly contradicts the old theory that the anglo-saxons completely displaced/wiped out the britons of england. which is nice. love when my ancestors do not commit genocide on my other ancestors

2. the genetic "clusters" in england and cornwall showed a significant minority of dna (less as you travel north) theorised to be anglo-saxon - "between 10% and 40%". which, like i was saying, is both Information and Non Information. "congratulations participants, you're helping our understanding of history evolve bc you're def partly descended from the ancient britons but you also appear to have some anglo-saxon ancestry!" "oh cool. how much?" "oh you know... some". i know it doesn't matter in the real world but sjfkflshlk damn historic population geneticists u live like this? (they weren't even saying "25% +/- 15%". didn't even give us an average. just like. somewhere in this range lol)

(okay actually i am in Explaining Mode so here goes. afaict part of the problem is they're not even sure which common ancestry to be counting. only clusters in england/cornwall have any northern german common ancestry, but everyone in the uk has danish common ancestry - BUT the danish dna is significantly higher than average in groups w n.german dna. so the problem is: what's ancient, what's anglo-saxon, could any of it be viking? we just don't know.)

(they might have been able to tell by dating it but idk if they tried. and also some of their other dating was coming out Wonky - eg iirc the n.german dna is mostly dated to abt 300 years after anglo-saxon migration ended. so what's going on? did the two communities just take a v long time to integrate, or is something afoot?)

(also, of course - england is pretty genetically homogenous but there is still Some variety by region in this genetic component so making a sweeping statement abt "the english" is hard.)

3. there is a Mystery ComponentTM that makes up a larger segment than the alleged anglo-saxon dna, is found in england, scotland and northern ireland BUT not wales (so it's not just Basic British Ingredients), and matches northern france? i think they're guessing prehistoric migration for that. idk if they dated it. Hmmmm. ~Mystery DNA~

4. methodological info if you're concerned: they used participants from rural areas whose grandparents had all been born in the 50mile radius from them, so region-specific info should be p trustworthy, and the sample size was over 2000. they also found their "clusters" algorithmically and then plotted them back onto the map, so there shouldn't be confirmation bias there.)

(if i *were* to complain, looking at their map... scotland and wales have some gaps in them. some significant gaps.)

5. smthn we might genuinely be concerned abt in the analysis of these results - are we taking the results from places we know to have a historical migration as more meaningful than those we don't? looking at the results shows me every single cluster has a small but significant portion of common ancestry with modern belgium, maybe 1/12. (i'm looking at blurry pie charts, that's my best guess lol.) no analysis i've read has mentioned it.

on the other hand - idk anything abt the history of belgium but i wld not be at all surprised if their genetics were basically somewhere between germany and france, and we've already discussed both those places.

plus, possibly more relevantly - they DID scan for similarities with various other countries in europe and didn't find them. eg, no signficant/detectable common ancestry with the finnish. so if it's showing up at all, let alone as 10% or more, it's more than just random noise.

so it's knowledge but it's not knowledge but it's /more/ knowledge than not knowledge? yeah. i'm having a great time

6. assorted fun(?) facts for those who made it this far:

-the most unique place genetically they found was orkney (note: there were no participants from shetland), who showed ~25% norwegian ancestry, followed by wales, who as we remember have no Mystery DNA.

-the differences between cornwall and devon were minor, but they were definitely there and they followed modern county line p much perfectly!

-there were two different clusters in northern ireland and the west of scotland, but they DIDN'T break down into ireland vs scotland. it looked more like it might be a highland/lowland gael/gall thing. i don't know if they checked if the n.irish respondents were catholic or protestant but uhh probably better not to all things considered

-no matter how minutely you break down genetic differences, there is a large group covering much of england that is basically homogenous. you can tell genetically which island in orkney someone's from, but you can't tell the difference between people from north yorkshire and people from kent.

okay this has been a poorly explained ramble if you'd like to read the damn thing yourself it's this: https://peopleofthebritishisles.web.ox.ac.uk/population-genetics

nb that is their website for laypeople, i've looked at a few different interpetations of this but i haven't looked at the actual paper (yet? dk if i can be bothered going deeper. we'll see)

[tungstenb]

WIP Weekend Whenever

Tagged by @rpgwarrior4824, @ljandersen, @natsora, and @inquartata30. Thanks for the mentions, everyone!

Inq and Nat asked for fluff, so that's what I'm gonna try. I don't think my writing style is suited for fluff. But! An attempt was made. ^_-

I'm planning a bit of an intermission between SAtS and BODS — a series of vignettes from the trip to Thessia first referenced in "Cardamom and Cloves" — so here's a snippet from that (~2,500 words).

Enjoy!

Thessia: Day 2

Something's wrong.

It wasn't so much a thought but a feeling, an instinct. A surge of adrenaline to rouse her from sleep, to tense her slack muscles and propel her to act. One short intake of breath and she shot upright. Eyes keen. Mind ready.

Stillness. Early dawn.

Not wrong, only different. She'd forgotten.

Armali.

Shepard sank back down onto the plush bed, her sigh lost in the breeze rumbling with the crashing surf. Beyond the vast bedroom windows and billowing sheer curtains, new light tinted the scenery outside in a cool muted grayscale, the sky dilutely inky, the ocean mercurial, the scattered islands and jutting rock formations awaiting the colors of day, just beginning to come to life with swaying trees and flocks of birds. She sighed again. Allowed the last of her hypervigilance to bleed away. And as she shifted, turning to her left, she couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips.

Beside her, Liara slept soundly, facing away, curled up comfortably under a drape of sheets. The relaxed curve of her shoulder rose and fell slightly with her steady breathing, the gentle sheen of microscales still somehow catching the dim early light. She glowed, even in the gray.

Shaking her head, Shepard barely suppressed a quiet breathy laugh, all amazement and relief and disbelief. She never thought she could have this. Never thought her heart could feel so full. She reached out, stopping just short of running her knuckles gently over Liara's arm, or sweeping the fallen strap of her nightgown back up over her shoulder.

She wouldn't wake her.

Hand sinking into the pillowy mattress, Shepard propped herself up and swung her legs over the bed, taking a deep breath, rolling out the residual soreness and tension in her shoulders, stretching her neck, massaging her bad leg. She stood. Breathed. Stretched again. The woven rugs were soft beneath her feet and the stonework cool as she made her way to the kitchen. Priority: coffee. Leave it to the asari to perfect the tech even for that. She hummed as she scooped the fragrant grounds into the machine, tapping a few buttons to start it brewing.

By habit she brought up her omni-tool before remembering she'd decided to ditch her usual early-morning reading for the week, her daily newsfeeds and all but the highest-priority messages muted, their pinned widgets grayed-out and transparent on her homepage. She clicked her tongue over the whirring and dribbling of the coffee maker, then wandered to the refrigerator, idly appraising its contents.

The rental house had been stocked with essentials before their arrival — maybe standard Armalian fare, maybe items a bit more suited to human tastes, maybe things Liara had requested specifically, Shepard couldn't be sure. Two large glass bottles, one green juice, the other milk (or something milk-adjacent). A variety of eggs cradled in a basket, some small and pastel, some larger, textured and mottled with bluish spots. A package of dense, doughy bread, sliced, cylindrical in shape. Small blocks of what appeared to be cheese, or butter, or another sort of cultured or aged dairy product, wrapped in decorated waxy paper. Assorted vegetables in crisper compartments. A bowl of shiny berries. A jar of… whatever the hell. She grabbed it, unscrewed the top, took a whiff. Fishy.

Best wait for Liara to wake before attempting to cook. Bit out of her element, at least with these ingredients. Chances were she'd fuck it up, Liara would wake up laughing at her and her sad burnt breakfast lump, and they'd have to go out to eat. And maybe Liara'd prefer to go out anyway, head to a quaint little cafe on the waterfront that starched its cloth napkins and served fancy drinks with like, olives and celery sticks or whatever the garnish for socially acceptable breakfast/brunch booze was here. Probably best to defer to her judgment; this was her home, after all. But she could, at the very least, have tea ready for her when she woke.

Taking the milk-like bottle and setting it on the counter, she readied and leveled her translation overlay. Tapped for an audio sample. Melikhratun, said a silvery voice in her earpiece. She poured some in a glass and tasted it. It was reminiscent of melted vanilla ice cream, even in thickness, and it coated the interior of the glass. Kinda weird, oddly tasty. She shrugged and set the glass aside, skimming through the article.

Melikhratun: a sweet liquid cream/yogurt made from haavi milk, rich in… well, everything. Fat, sugar, protein, vitamins, sometimes probiotics; eezo content variable, generally ranging from 0.5 to 5.0 ppm, depending on livestock origin and feed. Ideal for the energy needs of those who make ample use of biotics. Many regional versions, cultured and uncultured, in a multitude of flavors, some seasonal, some staples, some festive varieties only making brief appearances for annual holidays, most notably porfuranq flavor, for Janiris. Either drunk straight, used in recipes, mixed with other beverages — and essential for serving arwamaasi, a tea made famous in Serrice.

She tapped the link to arwamaasi, the article popping up beside the one for melikhratun, humming a tune as she shuffled over to the pantry.

Arwamaasi, arwamaasi… that one also sounded familiar.

The hinge squeaked as she opened the pantry door, and she turned. In the sliver of the bedroom still visible from the kitchen, she found Liara still sleeping soundly, face serene, arm relaxed resting before her. Thankfully undisturbed by the squeal of oxidized hardware needing oiling — constant humidity and salty sea air would do that. With a quiet breathy chuckle — and a mental note to tend to it later — she turned back to her search.

Translation overlay active she scanned the labels, looking for a match among the tins and boxes and jars lining the shelves. The pantry was well-stocked — nonperishables left by previous guests — and she scanned over the bubbles of transliterated text that popped up in real-time.

Arwamaasi, arwamaasi, arwamaasi, she repeated, silently. Liara had said the word before, back on the Normandy, the syllables rolling off her tongue as sweetly as the scent of spice that permeated the air and lingered on her lips after she'd drunk cup after cup, counting on the kick of caffeine to keep her awake and alert long after staring at her terminal had strained her eyes and made her mind weary.

"It's just not the same without melikhratun," she'd explained to Shepard, but assured her she enjoyed it even without the rich, sweet Thessian dairy product. Not practical to keep it aboard: perishable, spendy, difficult to acquire without eezo contamination. I'll see what I can do, regardless, Shepard had thought. Errands on the Citadel. What's that stuff called again? Alone, she'd detoured on Tayseri Ward and ordered coffee from an asari-owned cafe, hoping to jog her memory. Thought to ask for something nice to put in tea, a specific kind of tea, what's-it-called? Stopped. No, just the coffee. But… god, no. The gesture would be too forward. Her omni-tool chimed as she finalized the transaction and rocked, agitated, on her heels.

Pull yourself together.

It had ached, hurt like hell back then. Soft freckled cheeks and supple lips and spiced tea and she'd punched the Normandy's elevator console just a bit too hard, because it wasn't right, all these impure thoughts she couldn't shake, but what could she do but go run on the treadmill for half an hour and blow off that steam and longing and frustration because fuck, Liara had to know what she was doing to her when she talked so smart and sucked on her teeth and licked her lips and smiled like that.

No fucking way in hell should she even think about making the first move.

But if Shepard swiveled to her left — and she did, then — there, only meters away, Liara slept, that placid comfort clear on her face in the early light, and that sight ached too, but it ached so good. Warm and full and perfect and — god, how did she get so lucky? Bouncing on her heels, she quietly hummed while her nose and her eyes crinkled in a grin she couldn't fight, and she shook her head, scoffing in disbelief.

Shepard turned back toward the pantry, peering through the hovering transparency over her forearm. And a match. She waved the translation app away, tin in hand, flicking back to the article.

Arwamaasi: developed by tea artisans in Serrice. Made with leaves soaked in concentrated spices, then expertly woven into packed shapes designed to bloom when steeped; then fermented, where they grow in pungency; and then aged, where they condense into pellets as they dessicate. High in caffeine, this tea is treasured for its distinctive flavor, heightened with the addition of melikhratun.

Making it would be simple enough, and she collected the rest of what she needed — the melikhratun already sitting out — and switched the electric kettle on. The dry, compact tea pellets rattled in the tin as she pried off the top, then stuck her nose inside. Sniffed once and pulled back at the pungent sting. Punchy. Smells like a concussion but probably tastes real good. Gingerly, she plopped a pellet into a glass teapot.

Shepard poured a mug of coffee and drank, leaning against the counter as the tea kettle heated. It was good coffee. Really good, actually. Even better in the quiet, with the gentle humid air, the soothing rhythmic crash of the waves, the incredible view. She smiled, eyes lingering on Liara, still fast asleep —

The kettle beeped shrilly and Shepard spun to turn it off, shushing and admonishing it for its disruption, and quickly poured the boiling water into the glass teapot while sneaking glances toward the bedroom.

Stupid noisy thing. Hopefully it didn't — nope, still sleeping.

The packed cluster in the teapot unfurled lazily like some sort of sea creature, releasing amber swirls as its delicate leafy arms swayed in the steaming water. Shepard sipped at her coffee, waiting for the tea to finish steeping, tapping her fingers against the countertop as she sang soundlessly. She topped off her own mug before finishing Liara's tea preparation.

Coffee in one hand, tea in the other, she returned to the bedroom, setting the tea cup down on the nightstand. And as she lingered there, smiling, the sweet scent of arwamaasi spices wafted on the humid breeze. She leaned over, kissing Liara lightly on the cheek. When she pulled back, though Liara's eyes remained closed, a sleepy smile warmed her face.

⁂

Something warm and sweet tinged Liara's fading dreams. She stirred. Yawned. Stretched, breathing deeply as she sat upright, spilling out of a loose cocoon of soft sheets. Before her, on the nightstand, was the steaming source of that familiar scent, sweetly spicy and full as it mingled with the fresh air and tickled her nose. She picked up the cup and swiveled to look behind her.

Unsurprisingly, Shepard's absence on the bed meant she was out on the balcony. There, she sat, ankle on the opposite knee, coffee in hand, staring out at the ocean.

For a moment Liara just waited, watching her, one leg tucked up on the bed as she drank her tea. She'd never seen her look so relaxed. Never had her heart felt so full.

Eventually she slid off the bed, greeting Shepard with a light brush of her hand on her shoulder and a playful tousle of her hair.

"Mornin'. How's the tea?" she asked, scooting over in her chair to make room.

"Perfect." Liara sat, their shoulders brushing.

They didn't speak for some time, Shepard resting her head on Liara's shoulder, both watching the birds and boats and waves as the sky continued to lighten and the comfort of closeness was enough. Shepard set her mug on the table first, hopping off the chair and heading down the balcony stairs before Liara could ask where she was going. Reluctantly, setting aside her own tea, she followed.

The bottom tier, at water level, served as a dock. As Shepard leaned against the partial railing, taking in the scenery, Liara nestled up beside her. "Did you see something?" she asked.

"Something?" Shepard scoffed in amazement. Gazed back out at the ocean. "Everything," she said, awed.

Liara only chuckled softly in response, the warming breeze tickling her crest and her affection leaving her speechless. Pausing, she traced the curve of Shepard's cheek, her skin soft and slightly — as she'd recently learned to say — peach-fuzzy. "What did you want to do today?"

"That's such an open-ended question." She took Liara's hand and cupped it in both her own, running her thumb over her knuckles. "Dunno. This's your home. Anything. Surprise me. I'll even close my eyes the whole way there, if you want."

Liara shook her head, amused. "I would be willing to wager a significant credit sum that you couldn't manage to keep your eyes off me for a minute," she teased.

"Oho. Oh. One whole minute."

"An entire minute." Liara smirked. Lowered her hand from her grasp. "Okay. Let's practice."

"Okay." Shepard's gaze was unwavering as she shifted her weight from foot to foot, hands at her sides.

"I'm starting a timer," Liara warned, and brought up her 'tool.

Shepard closed her eyes, the hint of her smile still there, as she took Liara's hands in her own.

Hands occupied as they were, Liara couldn't reach out and cup Shepard's cheek, run her fingertip over the scar on her brow, trace the stubbly texture of the buzzed hairs on the sides of her head. But she could, in this moment, lean forward and kiss her.

"Five seconds," Liara announced smugly, pulling away.

"Hey — uh, no!" Shepard sputtered. "Sabotage. Doesn't count."

Liara flicked up her brows. "Try again, then?"

"I have a feeling by 'try again' you mean — ahhh…"

Liara kissed her again, pulling her close. Suddenly, she gasped and staggered back — and not because Shepard's fingertips had found pressure along the ridges on her spine.

A trio of maidens skipped by on a motorized skiff, squealing and hollering their delight at the show while triumphantly waving protective hats and fishing gear. Liara clapped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide.

Shepard, shoulders rocking with silent laughter, cleared her throat. "Uh, where were we?"

"Day plans," Liara said, removing her hand from her mouth just enough to speak.

Shepard continued to rock with laughter. "Right," she deadpanned.

"Hmm." Liara gazed upward, sucking on the inside of her cheek as she thought. Looked back to Shepard, raising her brows. "Armali Natural History Museum?"

"Oh shit, dinosaurs!"

"Excuse me?"

Shepard, expectantly wide-eyed, mouth excitedly open, burst into actual laughter.

"Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?" Liara pressed.

"It's a 'whatever you want to do today, Li.'"

"Petraaa."

That earned Liara a nose-wrinkle. "Nobody calls me that."

Liara tapped the end of Shepard's nose and shrugged, grinning. "I do."

"At the very least," Shepard said, playfully swatting the arm attached to Liara's nose-bopping-hand away, "we should talk breakfast first." She took Liara in her arm, pulled her close, kissed her shoulder. "There's some weird-ass eggs in the fridge if you know how to cook those. Or we could eat out… hey, why are you looking at me like that?"

Her grin turned devious. "I think I'd like that," she said, and she grabbed Shepard's hand and pulled her up the stairs.

[the-bloody-masquerade]

Bloodlines 2 - They/Them Pronouns and Trans and Asexual Representation

There has been some discussion recently regarding information that was presented in a recent podcast interview given by Bloodlines 2 writers Brian Mitsoda and Cara Ellison. I think it is important to know what was and what was not said and understand it in context so I would like to provide a transcript to the passages in question for us to reference as we continue to have discourse around the issue.

I also want to try to give a little more insight as to why they/them pronouns were not able to be added to the game as there are some substantial programming concerns when it comes to adding conditional content that cannot be accessed in versions of the game where the language used only has two pronouns instead of three.

This comes from episode 22 of The RE:BIND Podcast. Published on June 22nd, 2020. The interviewer is Emily Rose, the interviewees are Cara Ellison and Brian Mitsoda, lead co-writers of Bloodlines 2 (Mitsoda having been the original Writer on Bloodlines 1)

Character Creation and Pronouns (passage starts at 1:14:45)

Note: [...] denotes a false start or when they start their sentence over a couple times.  

Emily: In Bloodlines 2, how is character creation being handled in terms of gender?  

Cara: Oh, character creation. So, one of the major problems we have is, and actually this is not unique to us, but the entire industry, is that localization severely limits the way you can write characters and we’re actually coming up against this problem now even though we have made a bunch of decisions on like how you refer to the player character and the characters in our game. But like, a major problem that we always have in video games is that English has a way to refer to people who don’t want to have a gender. And a lot of languages around the world, don’t have that.   

Brian: Currently, there’s like, movements in some languages to get that.  

Cara: Right like, so if your Quebecois, there’s a term that’s like generally recognized as being ‘they’ that you can use, but a lot of languages might have people who for example are agender, but the terms that they use to refer to themselves are not thoroughly recognized throughout their language and country. And that provides us with a humungous problem because we are making a game about Seattle, and there are a large number of people who live in Seattle who don’t want to have a gender or don’t want to be referred to as a particular gender or they frankly don’t identify as a particular thing, so we represent those characters like we normally would, but we run into a bunch of problems when we try to localize. So like, in the character creation section what we decided was the best option for us is to essentially let you create the way your character looks in like, entirely separate of gender, so you can make your character look any way you like as masculine or as feminine or whatever you like. […] You basically can then say ‘I want to be referred to as ‘he’ or I want to be referred to as ‘she,’ and that’s the option that we give you. The reason we don’t give you the they/them option is because […] I think there are four or five languages that can do this, but a lot of European languages can’t refer to the player character as ‘they’ or ‘them’ because they have to choose one or the other, so, we ended up not being able to do the they/them option for the character creation. So we basically tried to give you a way of expressing yourself and how you look, whatever, but we do end up actually asking you to specify ‘he’ or ‘she’ because it actually is just the way we had to do it for localization. […] For example, when I worked at MiniMolecule they had the exact same problem and it’s a problem of scale as well, because if the scale was just like we only release in English, we could have done the third option, we just couldn’t do it. And also because, we actually systemically throughout the game, its structured to be able to like have lots of interactions based on your identity so we had to sort of choose that early on, so it kind of got structured that way as well. But we do have main characters in the game who do not have a defined gender, and at least if you play the game in English they will be referred to as ‘they.’ We did have the option for NPCs at least in English, to have that referent, but unfortunately, we were very limited by localization on that point. And we’re not the only game that’s limited by that, but as this is kind of more, this kind of specific thing in language rolls out across lots more languages I think actually it will become easier to do this over a time, I think, as well. I’m hoping, at least.  

TLDR; You will create your characters appearance separate from physical sex or gender and then you will pick he/him or she/her pronouns. The reason why they/them is not being included is because most of the languages that the game is being localized in do not have a 3rd/gender neutral set of pronouns and [presumably] would require all version of the game that only include 2 pronouns (because of language) to have their dialogue systems reworked/separately programmed. 

This is a bit different than “they should just put they/them in the English localization then.” If pronouns will be a character creation option that probably means they will be set up as a content trigger, which is what determines which voice and text lines you get (to correspond to your gender). For languages that only have two pronouns, what would you do with that third content trigger representing the they/them pronouns? They also talked content “structured to to be able to have interactions based on your identity.” If there were interactions that were only triggered by the they/them choice in character select, this content would effectively be lost in localizations that only had two pronouns in character select, (barring a comprehensive structural overhaul for regions with only two pronouns) 

The quicker way to do this would just be to have most NPCs use as little gendered language as possible to make most lines an content universal/not have to trigger alternate text/content based on the pronoun choice, but then this may defeat the purpose of being able to customize your PC’s gender and pronouns to begin with.  I do not mean to be an apologist. Gender neutral pronouns in RPGs are frankly overdue as an industry standard it is disheartening to hear that they/them will not be a choice in Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2. I just wanted to try and elaborate on why the inclusion/exclusion of gender neutral pronouns in a game slated for world release is from a programming standpoint more involved that one may at first think.

Trans Representation in Bloodlines 2 (1:19:37)

Emily: So obviously we have some kind of gender-nonconforming representation. What is there in terms of maybe more specific representation, like say, are there any transmen are there any transwomen? Anything like that. Is that brought up at any point during the game?

Cara: […] I think what we want to do in the future is, actually have some main characters be transmen or transwomen, but I don’t—unless the junior writers have actually—actually no the junior writers have written some characters new that we have specified to be trans. But I would have to check, unfortunately, I don’t think we have actually put anyone who’s trans into the game currently unless I’m forgetting about someone. But yeah, I think our plans are to do that, but we didn’t want to do it like we’re just oh, we’re gonna just put it in…

Brian: Yeah there’s definitely […] when you’re doing the [game] design stuff, you’re looking for a character that might fit for the scene or the quest or the story beat that you’re doing and so one thing I never want to do just try to shoehorn in everything that we want to do.

Cara: By the time I had joined the main cast had been very clearly defined, so we didn’t have the option to add a trans main character which is what we have wanted to do.

Brian: Yeah, I would also like it, if we do add a trans character, we can find a voice actor who’s also…

Cara: …trans as well.

Quests with Trans Themes and DLC  (1:21:24)

(immediately follows last section)

Emily: That was gonna to be my next question, so that’s really good to hear actually. So I totally understand how it goes just in terms of like, the preplanning and establishing the world and things like that, and the main reason I bring it up in the first place is just because so much of Vampire does tend to gravitate around people’s identities their expressiveness with both their sexuality and who they are and so it’s just something that’s like kind of been kind of been some sort of undertone in the series for a long time so I was just curious how it was being handled in Bloodlines 2. Those are pretty sufficient answers.

[…a brief interlude where they talked about a random quest from Bloodlines 1]

(1:23:00)

Cara: We actually have a quest based on the idea of dysmorphia, like feeling like you’re trapped in your body and it doesn’t match the way you perceive yourself. A lot of our writing is based on what it actually feels like to be in this state of stasis when you weren’t expecting to feel that because it has happened suddenly to you. And so there are loads of issues that would be really valuable to explore in that way, and you know we have staff who are super interested in giving their input on that, so I think we should definitely approach it, we just haven’t actually put it in the game in terms of main characters. We wanna make a trans main character, I think that’s important to us. We’ve got some DLC coming up that we’re gonna like make a greater effort on that front, like its Seattle, it would be so weird if we didn’t have trans characters. [Note: Cara lives in Seattle currently. 

Brian: Mmhmm

Cara: So, yeah. [to Brian] Ask Margaret as well, our voiceover director, if there are any trans actors that she would recommend we could cast for the role and maybe write it for them. So yeah.

Emily: So that’s the thing and even I struggle really to think of many games that have a trans character in a main role, let alone--I can’t actually think off the top of my head unless they’re very like micro indie stuff any games that feature like a trans woman protagonist. I think the last time I saw a transwoman in a game was I think I wanna say like Dishonoured 2, one of the semi-core side characters you encountered for one of the quests is a documented as trans.

Cara: And I think the Dishonoured 2 team really really really made a huge effort on that front to be able to represent a huge variety of different backgrounds of people. They were very interested in [doing that] from the start, so yeah I think there are like some games where it does matter too, and it really feels like the world is bigger when you actually provide those characters.

In-game Asexual Characters and Their Ideal Approach to Portraying LGBT+ characters.  (1:25:29)

Cara: But yeah, like we have tried to represent asexuality as well in the game.

Emily: Good good.

Cara: We have characters who are asexual. Who are canon asexual. And yeah, […] We try as well, not to write it sort of clumsily, we don’t write characters that like, out themselves, because that’s not—

Brian: No, because generally someone does come up and say that immediately.

Cara: when you’re from a background that has been marginalized, you’re very aware of your own safety. Especially if a stranger who looks shady approaches you, like our characters, you’re not gonna like immediately say it. But we make it explicit that this is who they are, but not in a way like ‘Hi, I’m Cara! I’m transgender!’ You know?

Brian: Yeah, yeah.

Cara: I think some of the ways in which people have done it in the past have been a little clumsy so I’m very aware of that as well.

Brian: Yeah, I would never want to handle it in a way that’s like ‘The main thing about that character is that they are trans’ like that’s not right at all

Cara: I want the main thing about that person to be something that they’re interested in, like, actually like exploring with the player character and I think like, most people are coming from somewhere when they approach you and its not going to be about I want to talk about my…[they both trail off laughing,]

Brian: They probably want to talk about a way in which they’re going to fuck you over. Or get something from you, or get you to do something for them.

Cara: Yeah and I would love to write a trans character who is like really really interesting and really really involved in something and I don’t want it [their transness] to be their defining [feature].

~~

Thank you for reading.

[cosmopoliturtle]

Flipping the script - Which are your least favorite redesigns you did? Like maybe they just don't seem right now or something? And also, favorite redesign for the beta Pokemon you've done so far?

Oh boy– Okay, now I’m on the hot seat XD I guess we’ll do the same Generation format. 

I guess as a disclaimer, if any of the one’s I bring up here are anybody’s fave I’m not throwing shade on you, this is just how I feel. Maybe there’s something in them you see that I don’t. I’m sure somebody could crazy indepth look at all of my redesigns and find faults in all of them but like, I see faults in literally everything I do so I dunno how much that would help.

 Also if you’re wondering why I don’t go back and change any of these specific Pokemon it’s just cause if I were to go back and start changing things now, I’d be stuck in a hell loop and I’d wanna start changing everything. They reflect who I was and what I wanted to do at the time so I’ve chosen to respect that fact and I’m overall satisfied with how most of my redesigns have turned out in some way or another.

Gen. 1 - Pikachu Line

Pikachu and Raichu were ones I went back to most and made changes. It was kind of all in vain honestly because I don’t think I could ever match the perfection of such a long-lasting icon that Pikachu has become. Pikachu has kind of transcended Pokemon and is just a staple what people think of when you talk about any thing touching Japanese media. I think the odds were stacked against my favour but I can definitely say I did not recreate the magic of such an iconic brand but I tried doing my own thing and here we are I guess.

Gen. 2 - Granbull

This one is kinda cheating because I already went back and made it something I really like now, but yeah the original never really sat well with me while the new one I feel much better encapsulates the things I like about Granbull while the original I think went too far in a different direction.

Gen. 3 - Volbeat and Illumise

I drew these 2 while having a massive panic attack for unrelated reasons XD given that I think they turned out fine but I always kinda thought they could be kinda cuter, maybe rounder and softer. I like the idea behind them still but I definitely think Volbeat in particular could of been pudgier and cuter then he currently is. I’m very attachted to their concept though and I think illumise for the most part looks fine. Most of this is on Volbeat. This is probably the closest one I feel the urge to go back and change mainly because the changes would be minor and would make me feel so so much better. Just like a little itch is all. 

Also one I do like but I can critique - TAMATOA

Here’s the thing– I love Moana, I love Tamatoa, Tamatoa’s song is amazing, it’s one my favourite little bits in a western animated movie, I can separate the creatives working there versus Evil Corp but that being said I think my Crawdaunt is a little on the nose. I don’t doubt other Pokemon may be references or inspired by the things the creators love but I think they do it a lot subtler then I did. I still like the colours, the vibrant contrast is something I do with Dark Types regardless, and I really like the goofy pose and the dragon-claws but I could of been a wee bit more subtle I feel. 

Gen. 4 - Probopass

I like this guy in theory but wowie zowie does it ever look…something. Like I kinda love it for being so weird but I feel like the idea could of been cleaner. It’s so bizarre, this penguin totem electric moustache spinning top hat man. I think it exemplifies how weird I take these sometimes so I like in that regard but I think it could have been done cleaner and more succinctly.

Gen. 5 - Cryogonal

While a big departure from regular Cryogonal I kinda feel like I played mine too safe if that makes any sense. Normal Cryogonal has always bothered me for just being a big face but I feel like mine kind of being an ice golem thing could have been done weirder. I had so many off-the-wall ideas for this guy I’m not sure why I settled on this one. I do like aurora mantle and the colour contrast but I feel like I should have pushed it to being something a bit less conventional in terms of silhouette mainly.

Also one I do like but I can critique - Gothita Line

I can definitely see someone saying this is more a Regional Variant of my Ralts Line then a new Pokemon but at the same time I don’t particularly care and I really like them anyway XD I love the Hime Cut and the red string motif I went with. I’m putting them here though just ‘cause I think it would be fair to point out.

Gen. 6 - Hawlucha

This guy could be crazier I think. I like the colours for the most part and I like all the patterns and shapes and what I did with the tail being connected to the mask but I feel like the face could be weirder considering what normal Hawlucha looks like. I think taking inspiration from something like Alebrije could of pumped this one up in being a bit more memorable. I like most of it but I think it could have been pushed way way further.

Gen. 7 -Tapu Bulu

This one I feel similar to Hawlucha and Cryogonal where it could have just been pushed a bit further to give it a greater sense of identity. I think they’re cute but they also don’t quite fit with my other Tapu redesigns that have more mask-like faces. I think I figured the hat would cover that part but I think it could have been done a bit better. 

Mega Evolutions - Mega Aggron

I really like all the shapes like the face, the wingalings, the face on the chest and the tail hooking together but I think it would have looked better with more Kaiju-esque body shape like the normal one has. Considering that Aggron is one of my favourite Pokemon I’m not sure why I settled on a more theropod shape–I don’t think it’s bad but I think the dumpier, Kaiju shape of the normal one is a lot more likeable.

Beta Pokemon - Best and Worst 

Best one is Ghift, I’m probably never drawing anything this cute ever again sorry not sorry.

Worst one is Belmitt because they’re okay I guess. I like the shapes I did down the back but they don’t inspire any incredible feelings or anything. It’s fine.

Moral of the story is I’m still trying to improve all the time and hopefully I am I can’t tell I dunno. 

[pokeworldrevisited]

Yes tell me about the brother bear au plz it’s sounds so good

Oh boi this… this is gonna be long… trust me, this is the upteenth time I wrote this AU down, it always ended up too long for my liking.

So what I should say first is that even though I said this is based of Brother Bear, it’s also based off other movies or game series that I liked. Brother Bear was just the main inspiration since I was listening to the OST while thinking this AU up. (And not I can’t UN-THINK this AU so thanks OST)

This AU is basically a whole rewrite of the game’s story, since it takes place literally at the start of the game. (Specifically the first time you go into the Slumbering Weald). This is why I keep writing so much for this, there’s a lot to know and add in.

In fact there’s so much about this AU that what would be the Post Game is basically a story all on it’s own.

Here’s a few things to note about this AU before I get into it:

I’m not gonna specify which trainer becomes which Legendary, that’s up to your interpretation 

Seeing as Victor and Gloria would have two separate reactions and additions to this AU, I’ll be referring them as MC instead. If you want me to do some stuff with Victor or Gloria as the MC, just ask

For most of this AU, Hop and MC are in what I’ll call ‘Uncrowned Form’, it’s basically the Hero of Many Battles form but with no battle scars. Their Crowned form also lacks scars.

Brother Bear (Temporary name) AU

Bit of Lore:

You know how important the rusted sword and shield are in game? Well, up that importance by like 1000 here. We know that it’s the sword and shield that basically brought Zacian and Zamazenta from the dead (or at least a very long sleep), they are what give the wolves their mighty powers that cause them to go to their Crowned forms.

So here’s a random question, what would happen if someone were to break the sword and shield?

Oh, and before you ask, this doesn’t mean that the old kings of Galar were also turned into the wolves at one point. That part of history is still the same. Hop and MC just did a bad thing and have to pay for it in the weirdest way possible.

Beginning:

Hop and MC were destined to become the next heroes right from the start, however when they were supposed to first meet the spirits of the legendaries something goes wrong. As in the spirit of Zacian/Zamazenta never shows up to stop the unprepared heroes from going further. And so further they went.

They found themselves at the Shrine and Gravesite of the wolves, where they discover the sword and shield just lying on the ground. And when they find the old relics they make a grave mistake, they accidentally break the sword and shield. And by doing so they severed the sole items that tied the heroes of Galar to the region. (The way the sword and shield break depend on which trainer took which relic or if MC was Victor or Gloria; For example, if Gloria grabs the sword she’d suggest having a little sparring match to calm Hop’s nerves and then bad things happen)

As both a punishment as a way to ensure there’d still be hope for the region against the upcoming Darkest Day, the wolves decide to use what little power they had left to turn Hop and MC into the legendary wolves. Yet to Hop and MC, all they see is the broken relics glowing and the mist around them starting to thicken.

Then, an illusion is created, one that scared the trainers’ poor Pokemon to run deep into the Weald, not to be seen again for a long while. It’s a battlefield, to be specific the first battle against the Darkest Day. Neither of them knew it at the time, but the illusion was showing them what they needed to do to break the curse that was going to be placed upon them. Hop and MC are so focused on the false battle that they don’t realise that the relics were floating, nor did they realise that the wolves sent some kind of blast that got absorbed into their bodies until they felt an explosion of pain strong enough to knock them both out. 

When they wake up, they find themselves in a place they don’t recognise (The Research Lab), being greeted by a Yamper which they could now… suddenly understand. Not too far from them was Leon who was talking to an unfamiliar woman (Sonia) about how he couldn’t stay because he NEEDED to find Hop and MC. But that’s weird, Hop and MC were right there, right? So why would Leon-

It was then that the two now former trainers looked at themselves and realised that they weren’t human anymore… let’s just say they reacted accordingly.

—————

The most important thing about this AU, and why it’s taken me so long to properly write it down, it’s because since this happens right at the start of the game, literally the entire game’s story changes from a kid travelling with their Pokemon to two Adults, two Kids who royally messed up in 100 different ways, and a pupper. (Though Leon doesn’t initially join in on this journey as he was looking for the kids, but a bit of convincing and a promise from Sonia’s part made him decide to help the wolves out)

Hop, Leon, MC and Sonia all go together on this journey for separate reasons:

Leon wants to find his brother and his best friend. Considering that they disappeared not long after he gave both Hop and MC their starters, he feels that what happened was in some way his fault. Of course he’d never let it show, but each new day where there’s no news on the kids’ whereabouts is starting to tire him out. 

Sonia wants to find out what Pokemon Hop and MC are. Her goal isn’t too different from in game, but instead of just looking into the history, she’s finding out more about the Pokemon themselves… then it eventually evolves into researching the history of the wolves

Hop and MC want to both make the adults realise that their not actually Pokemon and they want to find a way to get back to normal. Though Hop leans more on trying to find a way to tell Leon and he’s there and that he’s okay, while MC’s learning of the history of the wolves alongside Sonia in hopes that something from there would tell them what caused the whole transformation to begin with.

As this AU is in my ‘Sibling based AU’ list, it’s obvious that families would be important. There’s actually two sibling/sibling-like relationships:

Hop and Leon being the brothers they always are despite Leon not knowing that the legendary wolf that’s he’s been helping is actually Hop. Meanwhile Hop is overjoyed that he finally gets to see his brother in action 24/7, it’s like a dream come true. 

Then there’s the bond formed by MC, Sonia and Yamper. Yes, they were strangers at the start of this AU, but at the end when everything’s back to normal, these three become extremely close to one another. Sonia behaves like MC’s smart older sister while Yamper is like a excited little brother and the former trainer couldn’t ask for anything else.

Due to always travelling together, Hop, Leon, Sonia and Yamper get much more development (along with Hop getting a completely different character arc than in game for very obvious reasons), however this means that other characters such as 6/10 Gym leaders appearing less while characters such as Bede and Marnie get a different story for their arcs.

This part isn’t really finalised yet in my brain, but one of the main things is that seeing as Hop and MC are Pokemon (and the fact that Leon doesn’t know that Hop’s one of the two Pokemon in question), once they learn how to fight, their allowed to help against the wild dynamaxed Pokemon we just hear about in game. What’s most surprising especially for the former trainers is that their able to beat the giant Pokemon extremely easily.

Not only that but for Sonia’s side of the story, when she sees the statue of the two wolves, she assumes that Hop and MC are actually the legendary Pokemon of the past, or at least closely related to them. And so she starts suggesting more and more that they help against Dynamaxed Pokemon.

It’s not just Leon and Sonia that are important to this AU. But the Pokemon take more of a role than just being travel buddies. The two more important Pokemon for Hop and MC just so happen to be Charizard and Yamper, who have helped the former teachers learn to get around in their new bodies and helped them figure out how to properly fight.

Of course the Wild Pokemon is where it’s at. While wary at first, when Hop and MC got to truly travel the Wild Area, they found that the Pokemon there were surprisingly nice. A conversation here, a battle and a few berries there and new friends were made before nightfall. In fact the former trainers made it a habit of sneaking away from the adults in the dead of night to play with their new Poke-pals.

————–

There’s a lot more about this AU that I want to talk about but if I put it all in one post it’s gonna be WAY too long. This is just the gist of the AU, and I haven’t fully thought out the ending. But here’s what I got at the moment (Note that things might change):

When the Darkest Day comes, Hop and MC flee to the Weald where they find the spirits of the previous Zacian and Zamazenta, who in some way help the former trainers realise that they needed to save the region in the spirits’ steed. So that’s what they do, they fly over to Hammerlocke and fight against the Darkest Day, rescuing Leon from getting hurt from Eternatus’ attack and as a result turning into their crowned forms for the first time.

Once Eternatus is defeated (but flees before Leon has a chance to catch it), Hop and MC turn back to humans, the sword and shield separating from them. However now the relics looked new with little to no damage on either weapon. 

They have to give out one very long explanation to an overjoyed Leon and a confused Sonia about how exactly they became Pokemon in the first place, but once that’s over it’s all happy times. 

In fact the only drawbacks were; 

The fact that Leon basically grounded the two for giving him the heart attack of the century (aka their not allowed to go on their gym challenge until the next year, they don’t even get new starter Pokemon until the champion decides so) 

And the fact that for some reason Hop and MC can STILL talk to Pokemon even though their human again.

So yeah, happy end! …Until two weirdos with dumb hair come to ruin everything for their own selfish desires.

(Sorry is this wasn’t what ya wanted. I had so many ideas that this was the best I could do. But I do really REALLY like this AU, I’d love to do more with it if that’s okay with y’all… and rework on some aspects of this AU I’m not currently satisfied of)

[pokeshippingflashfic]

ok no prob ^^ what about a 'we should kiss just to break the tension' kinda fic?

[Okay so when I received this I had a really fun little idea that didn’t perfectly match the quote - if it’s supposed to be a quote, I wasn’t sure - and I felt my inspiration… may trump my uncertainty about possibly not quite meeting anon’s expectations for this fic… Very sorry in advance!]

He’d thought things were finally back to normal.

Ash Ketchum was not what one would call particularly observant. He himself had admitted on at least one occasion already to not fully understand the female, or rather one specific female’s, mind… But he’d seen Misty bristle in irritation when Melody introduced herself on Shamuti Island’s beach and he’d inwardly blanched at the redhead’s aggravated and curt response when he’d asked her to join him in fulfilling his role as the so-called chosen one in the Shamuti Island legend.

Lugia had since returned to their deep sea home, the other legendary birds had retreated to their respective islands, all of the Pokemon that had journeyed to the supposed end of the world had begun to withdraw… Ash and friends, including his mom and Professor Oak, had spent one final night on Shamuti to nurse their thankfully small wounds and new emotional scars. A feast was thrown and everyone who’d had a part in securing the three elemental orbs that quelled their respective titans’ fury had retired to bed rather early.

And, by end of next day, Misty was back to glaring daggers and offering little more than argumentative commentary whenever they shared the same space.

Ash sighed, squinted up at the twinkling stars from his position at the rear deck of the ferry he and his friends were riding on to reach their next destination. Honestly he was too tired to be playing detective. There was a reason he’d opted to take a ferry instead of sailing to Pummelo on Lapras…

Speaking of tired, he yawned, standing to his full height and stretching. There was no point speculating on Misty and her weird moods. He did hope though that whatever she was going through would resolve itself before he completed the Orange League. Truth be told, it was nice to think of her cheering him on…

“–Ack!” The half-formed complaint formed in Misty’s throat as he turned and knocked straight into her.

“Mwah! Sorry! I… oh, Misty.”

“Geez, Ash, look where you’re going! And don’t sound like you wanna take back your apology just ‘cause it’s me you ran into!” she rebuffed briskly, turning her nose up at him.

“Uh, what’re ya doin’ here? It’s pretty late to be wandering around,” he replied almost sheepishly instead, choosing to ignore her attitude.

“I was going to the bathroom, not that it’s any of your business. I thought I’d take the outdoor route since the ocean at night is so nice to look at,” she told him almost absentmindedly, though he saw the twinkle in her eyes as she confessed her admiration. “But I could ask you the same thing. You can’t be this restless after everything we just went through, right?”

For half a second, he wondered to himself if that was concern he’d heard in her voice.

“Actually I was just going to bed, was thinking about some stuff but I’m done now.”

It was awkward. For all of his lack of knowledge and experience dealing with Misty Things™, even Ash could feel the air thicken with restrained hostility. Neither of them moved, not even to create enough space for the other to pass them by.

“Well, see ya in the morning then,” she told him in that same curt tone he’d practically gotten used to (again, for she’d all but ceased in using it since the first few months of their travels together… and honestly, what kind of friend acts that way for no reason), her gaze sharp as she stared him down.

“Hey wait!” he practically shouted, even going so far as to grab her hand and pull her softly back, forcing her to face him. Well, sorta. She refused to look him in the eye all of a sudden, and he swore her face looked a lot redder than what was normal.

“Wh - what?”

“Is something the matter? You’ve been treating me weird the past couple days.”

“Wh - huh?” she responded blankly, though the lack of ire lasted mere seconds before her brow knitted in irritation, lips pursing to keep herself from saying anything she’d regret too much as she tugged herself free from him and placed blunt and somewhat callused fists on her hips. “Why of course not, Mr. Pokemon Master. Don’t be silly! I’m treating you normal.”

No, you’re not, he thought automatically, somewhat frustrated but not enough to risk raising her temper by calling her out aloud.

No, I’m not, she internally relented but she shouldn’t have to point the obvious out to him and, really, she wasn’t emotionally prepared to be that open with him anyway. Maybe things would just have to be unfriendly between the two of them for awhile yet. They’d gotten through a rough patch before, right? They could do it again.

Because how could she tell him the reason she was so upset was due to another girl coming on to him? Kissing him on the cheek? Not to mention twice! 

It hadn’t seemed to phase Ash quite as much the second time around but Misty, having only just found it in her to be honest about his importance to her, had not planned for Melody’s second attack just before their departure from Shamuti Island. The redhead had half a mind to ask if that had been more for her response than his but hadn’t gotten the opportunity.

But perhaps the most shocking part of it all was that Ash noticed anything was wrong to begin with. The only hope she had now was to keep from giving him anymore clues. About anythi--

--She was interrupted by a three or so second long soft and rather chapped pressure against her left cheek.

Wide-eyed, breath stifled somewhere between her lungs and throat, the redhead clamped both hands quickly over the victimized part of her face, doing her best to form an accusation.

“Wh - wha... what’re you doing, Mr. Pokemon Master? What was that?!” she whispered in an oddly high-pitched voice, face burning as bright as her hair looked, mind turning a little gooey despite her best attempts to stay vigilant.

“Uh... I guess it was a... kiss?” he replied, his face scrunching a little in distaste of the admission. He didn’t offer her anymore information off the bat, perhaps focusing more on his own reaction to such a choice. He’d never done that before after all, for anyone, and had never even been tempted in the past.

But while Misty had been thinking hard about Melody’s final transgression against her, kissing Ash on his cheek a second time before he and his friends left her home island, while she’d been resigning herself to her reigning temper and temporary fear that he’d somehow manage to put two and two together to figure out her feelings, he had returned to playing detective.

And the fact that he’d kept circling back to was that Misty had been angry again by the time their group left Shamuti. And she’d been angry within minutes of them first arriving on Shamuti. And somewhere towards the end of their latest perilous adventures in the archipelago region, she’d temporarily gotten over that feeling. So her anger didn’t seem to be tied to frustration over him getting caught up in something dangerous, nor did it have to do with her part in saving him from that something dangerous...

He’d acted instinctively, so swiftly after coming to his conclusion, that he too hadn’t had time to mentally prepare for its ramifications before kissing her chastely, intimately, on her cheek... just as Melody had done to him.

“But why did you kiss me, you dummy?” she practically squealed, eyes glinting though he couldn’t tell what emotion was clouded behind them.

“It, uh... I dunno,” he finally confessed after trying and failing to find a better excuse. “But you’ve been mad ever since Melody kissed me so... I figured this would help break the tension.”

Break the...

“You... Agh, Ash Ketchum!” she wailed finally in response, stomping her foot against the ferry’s deck and wishing desperately that it was his dumb face.

“Mwah! Was I wrong?” he yelped, leaping back a step, momentarily pursing his lips together afterwards as he replayed the moment where he leaned in and pressed them against her cheek, eyes squinting tightly shut. Weirdly, he hadn’t much minded such a gross decision but there was no time or energy to dwell on that at present.

“Gah! Of course you...” she began in reply, fists formed and looking mightily prepared to fight against something. But her anger burned to fumes rather quickly as she looked the oddly nervous boy up and down before it hit her... that he had no idea how deep this whole thing went, he couldn’t possibly fathom the details. He simply thought things were resolved now.

What a nice thought that was.

“... Maybe... you’re right, Ash.”

“I - I am?”

Misty sighed, blinking her eyes closed as they threatened to roll out of her head. A little romantic voice was screeching in joy at the back of her mind, the part of her that had knowingly declared herself to be Ash’s protector not more than two days ago. Most of her still seethed at his audacity to decide a kiss from him would quell her passionate fury but...

“Let’s just... call it even,” she abated, smiling faintly for the first time in at least a day, hands up in defeat.

He squinted suspiciously at her, unsure how to counter. Call it even... What had been uneven to begin with? He still didn’t know. Maybe such things were for the best. It was weird that his redheaded companion, usually so capable of holding a grudge, was acting so suddenly forgiving. But was it a good idea to look a gift Ponyta in the mouth? He certainly didn’t mind the idea of things returning to normal... even if a part of him now felt as though something different and new was burgeoning from deep down.

But Ash Ketchum has never been the observant type. And he generally had little to no patience for Misty Things™.

“Well, that’s good then... So we should go to bed?” he asked hopefully, pointing in the direction of the room their group was sharing.

“Oh, uh, you first. I still have to take care of something, y’know?” she replied, face tinged red once more for reasons unrelated to her romantic scope, reminding him what had made her venture out of bed in the first place. 

Her rather smooth response reassured him that things would be fine though as they went their separate ways.

And by next morning, all was normal, mostly because both of them had convinced themselves that the kiss had either been some weird fantasy or some unexpected dream they had no option but to shake off.

But good luck trying to figure out who thought which.

[tlbodine]

A Plea for Some Non-Cringe Native American Representation

There’s something that has bothered me for a real long time, and I haven’t said anything because it didn’t really feel like my place to say it. But if pasty white folks across the country will insist on continuing to make these books and comics and movies, then I guess this pasty white girl can make a plea to do it better. 

So. Here’s the deal. Native American representation in fiction sucks. 

We’re going to talk about why, and then talk about some ways you can do it better. And it’s going to take a while, so join me under the cut. 

PROBLEM #1: Erasure 

The first problem with First Nations people being represented in fiction is that it, uh...doesn’t happen very often. It’s pretty rare for a show or movie or book to have a Native character, and even rarer for that character to exist without being a vehicle/mouthpiece for some kind of hamfisted message. 

And, of course, Native characters who do show up in movies are sometimes played by non-Native actors, which is just. Um. 

somebody fucking kill me I don’t want to live on this planet anymore. 

PROBLEM #2: The Same Stock Character Over and Over and Over 

There’s this weird thing where TV shows have A Very Special Native American Episode(tm) where a Native American character shows up in a storyline designed to, idk, provide a tidy outlet for the viewer’s white guilt or something. I see this a lot in superhero stories for...some reason: 

Batman and Chief Screaming Eagle (ok, it was the 1960s, surely things have gotten better right? oh...) who’s butting heads with a villain over a bad contract for, uh, the chief’s ancestral lands

There was the Buffy episode “Pangs” where a Chumash vengeance spirit is the villain-of-the day after being disturbed by some construction (and this is honestly one of the better treatments of the premise, at least the episode is well-written) 

There was the Smallville episode with Kyla Willowbrook, the Kawatche Skinwalker (I know, I know) who for bonus points dies tragically in Clark’s arms (I KNOW) and who was deeply concerned with...with some construction...disturbing her sacred homesite...(this is starting to sound familiar)

And then there was The Flash episode where Barry is forced to fight with the complicated-yet-tragically-evil Native American activist woman whose crimes involve stealing cultural artifacts that belong to to the museum (yes I’m screaming) and also murdering people...y’know, for vengeance and stuff. 

I could keep going but I really don’t think I have to. When your only representation of a culture is a character (frequently a smoking-hot member of the opposite sex to the hero) who is an ambiguous villain who is motivated by vengeance and/or justice over having their land/cultural artifacts disturbed, and who has a valid claim but is really going about it in the wrong way and whose tragic death and/or defeat really gives the white character something complex to think about for two seconds.... well. That’s more than a little racist. 

PROBLEM #3: These Are Not Your Stories to Tell 

You know what white people love doing? 

They love appropriating Native culture! Seriously! They love it! And who can blame them, really? Native people have so much rich symbolism and mythology and cool clothes and neat aesthetics. Painted war ponies and buckskin dresses and shapeshifters and monsters, oh my! Indian burial grounds and vengeful spirits (oh for fuck sake enough with the vengeful Indian trope)

But here’s the deal: 

The mythology you’re borrowing from belongs to a group of people who are still alive and sometimes practicing the religion you’re liberally reinterpreting 

There is no such thing as a “Native American” myth. You’re talking about literally hundreds of different tribes who are culturally distinct from one another and have their own complex histories of interaction, diplomacy, war, friendship, etc. with one another for centuries before white folk got here. You erase all of that when you treat Native culture as a grab-bag of cool things you can mix and match to your liking. 

Maybe, just a thought, stop it with the oppression narratives about activists and/or vengeful spirits who are real threatened by white people disturbing their homes? It’s not that there isn’t a lot to unpack in that -- I mean, white people really did conduct mass genocide against a race of people, for starters -- it’s just that this isn’t really your oppression narrative to tell. 

It seems to me that folks writing about Native Americans don’t actually have any idea what Native people are like? They either think of them as anachronistic figures, an extinct and ancient group, or they think of them as people really hung up on their cultural past. Because maybe people can’t think of anything to do with a Native character other than use it as a vocal mouthpiece of one very specific part of their cultural oppression.

But please. Please stop. That is every bit as stupid and racist as making a Black character who only talks about slavery, or a Jewish character who only talks about the Holocaust, or giving all of your gay characters AIDS. 

So what do you do instead? 

Writing Native Characters in a Way That Does Not Suck - A Quick Primer 

I can’t write a definitive guide on writing good Native representation, because there is no such guide, and if there were it would take a whole book probably, and I am not in any way even remotely an authority. 

But I can give you some pointers that will help you. 

(And to be honest, Native representation is so awful that the bar here is really super low, even just attempting a tiny bit is a really welcome breath of fresh air)

Choose a Tribe 

Step one: Figure out what kind of Native people you’re writing about. 

Because, as previously noted, Native People Are Not A Monoculture. 

How do you pick a tribe? Well, start with geography. Where do you want the story to take place? Obviously people move around, so you can find folks outside of their ancestral lands, but they all started someplace, and a lot of people live where their parents and grandparents and cousins all live. 

So where does your story take place? Pick a spot. Then find out what tribes live in that region. It’s not a secret. There are maps:

(Source: http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/native_american_tribes_map.htm) 

Or maybe you want to go about this in a different way. Maybe you have a specific story idea in mind and you want to write it in a way that would be accurate and respectful. Cool! A good first step on that is to figure out what tribe actually does the thing you’re wanting to write about. 

Skinwalkers, for example, originate in the Navajo Nation (Dine` people), although there are related myths from surrounding tribes in the area. 

If you’re writing a story about Wendigo, then you should know those myths originate with the Algonquin people of Quebec and Ontario.

If you’re writing something with spiritually significant buffalo, you should probably choose a culture that actually interacted with buffalo -- ie, a Plains Indian tribe like the Lakota-Sioux people. 

And so on and so forth. 

(Note that this is only the first step. You still have to do a lot of research after this to be sure you’re doing everything properly and respectfully. And, y’know, maybe reconsider if you actually want to tell a story respecting that mythology, or if you just want to sound cool and exotic) 

Also, personal preference: Please don’t make your characters Cherokee if you’re just going for “character with Native ancestry.” Please choose a different tribe. For a lot of complicated (and sometimes surprisingly racist) reasons, white people have been claiming Cherokee heritage for a long time, and even when it’s true, it feels cheap and cringey in fiction. If you want to tell a story about the Trail of Tears or something set in Tahlequa, Oklahoma, great! Write Cherokee characters! But if you just want a Native American character for other reasons...pick a different tribe. 

Choose a Name 

Fun fact: Modern Native people that you meet out on the street don’t have names like “Stands With Fists” or “Running Bear.”  

If you have an impulse to name your character any kind of descriptive “adjective + animal” name...just don’t. Please. And don’t go to BehindTheName or some other random site to pick out something that “sounds” Native. 

Names in other cultures are tricky. Some (but not all!) Native people may have a cultural tradition of having multiple names, including naming ceremonies (often as a rite of passage in adolescence). Some tribes have clan names. Everybody’s different. But these special names are culturally sensitive, often sacred, and are not a thing readily accessible to white people. White folks spent centuries trying to wipe out Indigenous people’s belief systems; they deserve to have some things kept private and sacred. 

So what I’m getting at here is that white writers really, really should not touch on the “Indian naming ceremony” trope at all if they can help it, because it’s gonna be real hard to get the details right, and getting the details wrong is going to make you sound like an ignorant racist. And most of the time, it’s not really that important to a story. 

Most contemporary Native people have regular English names. They may also have tribal names and clan names (that they may or may not share with outsiders). But lots of tribal members don’t, and that doesn’t make them any less Native. 

My recommendation for naming your Native characters? Find real people from the time period, tribe, and region you’re writing in. Find a phone book or newspaper from a town on or near a reservation for your chosen tribe. Look at names of participants in powwows. Look at the sports rosters for Native schools. Look at historical records like census data from the year you’re writing about. Don’t just make things up. 

** One Note: You know how “black” names are a thing? You encounter a similar sort of thing in some contemporary Native Americans. I grew up with a lot of kids who had “weird” names like Kirby, Sheriden, Baskerville, Sterling and Precious. (and by “weird” I mean “names middle-class white people don’t tend to use”). There’s also a lot of black-sounding names in Native populations. There’s some complex reasons behind this, and a lot of sociology of naming, and I won’t spend too much time on it right now but just...so you know. It’s a thing. 

Write a Human Being 

This really is the biggest thing, and it’s true of every writing you do, all the time, no matter what: Write a real person and not a caricature. 

Native people are people first. Their cultural heritage affects them the way anyone else’s culture does. The things they eat, wear, do, believe, the stories they know, etc. are all affected. But Native people don’t have a responsibility to be walking representatives of their tribes. And they definitely shouldn’t be a vessel for white guilt. 

(Fun fact: “Iron Eyes Cody,” maybe best known for the “Crying Indian” role in a commercial about pollution, was an Italian-American born  Espera Oscar de Corti) 

Here’s a really, really good article I found while working on this rant that might be of interest to you as wellas you set out on this quest:  https://mashable.com/2015/03/24/american-indians-tv/

I still have so much to say on this topic, and maybe I’ll write more in the future, but this is already very long so I’ll stop. I hope this has been at least a little bit helpful for y’all. Go forth and write non-terrible characters, I beg of you. 

*Disclaimer: I am not a Native person and do not claim any special knowledge or ownership of Native culture, and I beg you to please listen to Native voices when possible in your creative endeavors. I’m just a gal who happened to have spent most of my life living near reservations and growing up around Native people and having Native friends and being taught about historical cultures by my mother who has a degree in Southwest Studies and has done a lot of formal and informal research due to her own interests in the topic. 

If you found this article helpful at all, please consider dropping a tip in my tip jar.

I also have a book coming out! You can pre-order it now! It features a main character of mixed heritage, New Mexico reservation border towns, and zombies trying to get by like everybody else. 

Pre-Order now on B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/river-of-souls-t-l-bodine/1131956124

Or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/River-Souls-T-L-Bodine/dp/1950305015

Or from the publisher: http://journalstone.com/bookstore/river-of-souls/?fbclid=IwAR14Qna5tMgWBV0We2uGSLreBkmyvZ5SoDAzPQpTKeFn4JR4PWSyKGl0VEo

Or add it to your Goodreads library: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46183381-river-of-souls

[iceprincessmiyu]

An Applin for an Applin

If anyone is interested in how my OC and Leon first confessed their feelings for each other, I thought I would share the story here!

Small backstory, though: Hiki and Leon were rivals as well as very close friends during their gym challenge, and two years after he became champion, she returned to her home region, Johto, to take on the gyms there. From there she went to all of the other regions to do the same (one region each year). This takes place after she returns to Galar six years later, when they are roughly around 18!

"Alright Leon, all you have to do is give her this Pokeball and she will be all yours!" the ever confident Raihan said. He was giving the champion a pep talk to help encourage him to tell Hiki how he felt. She had recently returned to Galar, so the two boys and Sonia threw a ‘Welcome Back’ party for her.

"But I've given her a Pokemon before! Don't you remember the Charmander I gave her before she left for Johto?" Leon scratched the back of his head. "What if she thinks it's weird that I’m giving her another Pokemon?"

"That girl loves Pokemon! She'd never think you giving her one as a gift is 'weird,'" he responded, air quotes and all. "Besides, everyone in Galar knows what it means when you receive an Applin from someone!"

“You’re right. Okay… I’m going to do this!” the champion said as he smacked the sides of his face. It was the perfect time to approach her, as she was finally alone. He took a deep breath and walked over to her.

When she saw him walking her way, Hiki smiled at him so brightly he thought his heart was going to melt. “Hey, Lee! Thank you for throwing such a great party! It’s been a lot of fun catching up with everyone!”

“We’re all really happy to have you back! I’ve really missed you-- Uh we’ve really missed you!” Smooth. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I have something for you! You can think of it as a Welcome Back gift!” He handed the Pokeball to her, his face just as red as the ball itself.

“A Pokemon! Leon, you didn’t have to do this!” She took the ball and held it close to her chest, practically dancing with excitement. Her adorable reactions were almost too much for him to handle. “Can I let it out right now? I want to meet it!”

“Yeah, of course!” he told her. It was important for her to see what Pokemon it was!

“Come on out, then!” she released the small Pokemon from its ball and knelt down to greet it. “How cute! It’s an Applin! I wanted to catch one of these back during our Gym Challenge, but now I have one of my very own!” She scooped Applin up in her hand before giving Leon a one armed hug. “Thank you, Leon! I promise to take really good care of it!”

He blinked with confusion and returned the hug. She wasn’t exactly responding the way he had expected. “Ah, you’re welcome, Hiki! But… what do you think of it?” 

“Weren’t you listening, silly?” She giggled and nuzzled the Pokemon to her cheek. “I said it was really cute!”

“Uh, right! So does that mean you feel the sa--” But before he could finish his question, he was interrupted by Sonia calling out Hiki’s name.

“Hiki! We have curry over here if you’re hungry!”

Hiki hadn’t eaten since earlier that morning before her flight, and Sonia’s curry was definitely something she missed while she was away. “I’ll be right over!” She turned to Leon before walking away. “Thank you, again, Lee! You always give the best gifts.” She gave him one more smile and went over to where Sonia and a few of the gym leaders were sitting.

Raihan came up behind Leon and put an arm around his shoulders. “Well? She looks happy! I’m guessing that means she likes you back?”

“She… didn’t say,” Leon said, while watching her walk away. He was a little surprised that she hadn’t at least commented on how that meant he felt about her. “She just said the Applin was cute and that she always wanted to catch one.”

“Weird… I was so sure this was going to work,” Raihan responded, almost as lost as Leon was.

---

Hiki sat next to Sonia with a plate of curry, happy to have one of her favorite meals prepared to celebrate her return! Her new Pokemon, Applin, was sitting on her shoulder and the redhead noticed it right away.

“Oh! I didn’t know you had an Applin, Hiki!” Sonia said to her.

“I didn’t! This little one was just given to me!” She smiled and pat Applin on the head.

Sonia gasped. “Oooh~! They must really like you! How did you respond?? Is it someone cute??” How exciting! Hiki had an admirer! 

Hiki chuckled a little. What was with her strange questions? “I told him it was a cute Pokemon and thanked him for it!”

Sonia tilted her head to the side. “You mean you didn’t tell him if you feel the same way about him as he does about you?”

“How I feel? What do you mean? He said it was a Welcome Back gift!” Was there something she was missing? He never mentioned anything about feelings…

“Wait… Hiki, don’t you know the old rumor about Applin?” Sonia asked, realizing that Hiki didn’t seem to catch onto what was actually going on.

“Rumor? No, I haven’t! Applin aren’t native to Johto and I never got the chance to catch one when I was here before, so it wasn’t added to my Pokedex!” Hiki explained.

“Oh that poor boy…” Sonia responded, still unaware of who Hiki’s admirer even was. “So basically if you really like someone and you give them an Applin, then you’ll be together forever! That means whoever gave you this Applin has a crush on you, Hiki!”

Hiki just stared at her in disbelief, not even sure what to say in response. The guy she hadn’t stopped thinking about since they were kids was trying to confess to her and like an idiot she was completely oblivious… It was the exact opposite of how she always imagined it would happen!

“Hiki?” Sonia waved a hand in front of her friend’s face.

“Oh, sorry…” Hiki responded with an embarrassed laugh. “I just really didn’t expect this.”

“It’s okay! You didn’t know what his intentions really were! But I have to know! Do you like him back?” Sonia questioned. 

Hiki looked down to her hands in her lap, where she fiddled with the pokeball. “Actually… I do like him. A lot. You’re sure that’s definitely why he did this?” 

“Really?? You have to let him know!!” she exclaimed. She had to tell him before he took her response as a rejection! “Oh, I know that’s why he gave it to you! Who is it, anyway?” If it was someone at the party, it must have been someone she knew!

“It’s Leon…” She stood from her seat, with a smile creeping its way onto her face. Leon had a crush on her! She could hardly believe it! “And I’ll tell him… but there’s something I have to do first.”

---

It had been nearly a week since Hiki had returned to Galar, which meant a week since Leon had attempted to tell her how he felt about her. When she found out that was what he was trying to do, she went out in search of the perfect Applin to give him not only as an apology, but to tell him that she was also interested in him.

"Lee? You have a moment?" Hiki asked him when she caught up to him. He had just won yet another exhibition match, which meant he should be in a great mood!

However, there was something she didn't know. The champion was still really embarrassed over what he assumed was a rejection from her. It had left him feeling a little down on himself. "Ah, Hiki, I'm sorry but… I have--"

"I promise it will only take a moment! And it's kind of important…" she said, holding her hands behind her back and stared at the ground. She could sense the sadness in his tone, which made her feel slightly guilty.

He sighed, knowing he couldn't possibly say no to her. Spending the past week avoiding her was driving him crazy! Especially after not getting to see her for six whole years. He gave her a warm smile. "Okay, what is it, Hiki?"

"Here, this is for you." She pulled a very special ball from behind her back, a Love Ball to be exact. Leon's eyebrows raised as he took the ball from her hand. It was a very specific choice of Pokeball… "You see… I honestly had no idea what your gift the other day meant. In Johto, we don’t have any sort of traditions like that, but Sonia explained the whole thing to me. So I didn’t want you to think that your gesture was going ignored! Go ahead and let it out! I spent all weekend trying to find the perfect one to show you… how I feel."

How she feels? So that meant her reaction before wasn’t a rejection? But if that’s the case, did that mean there was an Applin in the ball she was giving him? And in a Love Ball, no doubt? He released the creature from the ball he held, and was amazed by the sparkling sight he saw. In front of him was definitely an Applin, but unlike the one he gave her, this one was green. His jaw dropped as he looked back to Hiki. “A shiny Applin?” He knew how hard it was to find such a rare Pokemon like that, and to think she did it all for him… “You did this for me?”

“I felt really bad for not giving you a proper response the other day, so I wanted to make this extra special! Because… you are really special… to me,” she answered, starting to feel a little more nervous than she imagined she would be. She was even too shy to make eye contact! “You know, I really missed you while I was gone.”

He chuckled lightly and took her soft hands in his. "I can't even put into words how much all of this means for me to hear…" He pulled her into him and hugged her tightly. "Thank you for coming back. That is honestly the best gift you could have given me. But little Applin there is very close to taking that top spot away."

Her face grew bright red as it made contact with his chest, but she brought her arms up to return the hug. She couldn't help but giggle at his last comment. 

Unfortunately, for both of them, Leon's phone rang. It was Rose. "Ah, jeez… I'm going to be late. Can we pick this up where we left off later? Maybe around dinner time?"

She put her hands on her hips and gave him a half teasing grin. "Are you asking me out on a date, Mr. Champion?"

"I-If that's okay with you!" he responded, feeling a little embarrassed. He wasn't exactly used to this sort of thing!

"I'd love that." And with that, Hiki sent him off with a warm, happy smile.

[mirage-babey]

For scientific reasons, which trainers would be best buddies? Which ones would be rivals? What kind of lives would they live? What regions would they live in? I’m sorry for all the questions, but I’d like your opinion

okay, here we go! the current guide to the Apex Legends Pokemon Trainer AU!

Bangalore

Typhlosion (Partner), Braviary

From Kanto

Her family was originally military, but she and one of her brothers ended up running a fire-type gym after an incident

When Natalie and Octavio came along to challenge the gym, after talking with them she realised they all had parents that had placed very specific expectations on them and decided to tag along on their journey to broaden her horizons

She and Octavio, both challenging gyms, have a friendly rivalry going on

Bloodhound

Gallade (Partner), Corviknight, Luxray

From Johto

A very mysterious character with a preference for honourable pokemon

Gibraltar and Ajay have no idea of this trainer’s background, but they’re always grateful for the assistance Bloodhound lends

They and their pokemon make a team of talented trackers, and it makes Gibraltar and Ajay’s jobs of finding and helping pokemon and people stuck in natural disasters much easier

Still, they are dedicated to Arceus above all else

Crypto

Rotom (Partner), Dedenne

From Sinnoh

idk i’ll decide on his story when he gets released in game

Caustic

Wheezing (Partner), Vileplum, Dustox

From Galar

He’s a scientist that wanted to develop the use of poison types but his work was deemed unethical and thus he was fired

however he found that a number of shady organisations were very interested in his work, and so he continued his research

His Wheezing is not a Galarian form despite Alexander being from Galar - it didn’t mesh with his evil scientist aesthetic

Gibraltar

Hariyama (Partner), Aegislash, Aggron

From Alola

His parents were Pokemon Rangers, and he grew up to follow in their footsteps - usually a ranger has just the one partner pokemon, but Aegislash and Aggron just never really left his side

He met his partner pokemon the same day he decided to become a pokemon Ranger; he and his boyfriend got caught in a mudslide, and when his parents came to the rescue, a Makuhita - a pokemon known for it’s tenacity - decided it would try to help

Lifeline

Absol (Partner), Togetic, Chansey

From Unova

When she found out her parents were making some deals with some dodgy organisations, she left the life of wealth she lead in urban Unova in favour of doing humanitarian work with pokemon around the world

Her team consists of pokemon that’d help in rescue situations (Absol can predict natural disasters, Togetic is said to bring good fortune and happiness, Chansey shares its eggs with those who are injured)

Was close friends with Octavio as children, but they grew apart as their paths diverged in adulthood. She still supports his pursuits, though, and he regularly donates to the charities she works with

Gets on well with Gibraltar, they’ve worked together on a number of occasions - Makoa specialises in dealing with the overarching issue, while Ajay helps any injured people or pokemon.

Mirage

Zoroark (partner), Vulpix, Mime Jr, Mawile

From Hoenn

His older brothers all left to go on their pokemon journeys years before he did. Elliott and his mother worked together on holographic tech for entertainment purposes, taking inspiration from the various pokemon that used illusions

He wanted to go on his own journey, but didn’t want to leave his mother alone. His mother’s Zoroark had an egg though, and she gave it to Elliott. The Zorua that hatched from it became his partner.

Most of his pokemon come from the fact that he’s a big softie at heart. Vulpix are known to feign injury to fool enemies and escape, which he thought was really cool. Mime Jr was practising its mimicking skills, Elliott complimented it, and it just completely forgot what it was doing it was so happy and so Elliott immediately took it under his wing. Mawile looks cute but it’s also terrifying and will kick your ass and Elliott just had to have it

He generally takes the route of a battle trainer, but he entered a pokemon contest once on a whim and completely dominated, much to Zoroark’s glee

One day while travelling through Johto he ran into an Espurr - a pokemon with a creept stare that wasn’t native to the region - that scared the shit out of him. He’d never admit it, but the fact that its trainer saw so easily through his pokemon’s illusions also kinda intimidated him

In Unova, he came across the same Espurr, except now it had evolved into a Meowstic. Similarly, his Zorua had now evolved into a Zoroark. He challenged the trainer to a battle and found her psychic type pokemon were at interesting match against his pokemon that specialised in trickery.

The match was observed by some really tall, lanky, excitable guy with an Ambipom and a Cubone. The three trainers coincidentally spent the night at the same pokecentre, and they just didn’t really part ways in the morning.

Also one time when he was drunk, Elliott was flirting with someone and that trainer’s Gourgeist attacked him. It was funny, and the trainer apologised, but he’s also lowkey been afraid of the entire evolutionary line ever since (Wraith and Pathfinder found out when one day, while they were at a pokecentre, Elliott turned around, saw a Pumpkaboo, and screamed)

Octane

Linoone (Partner), Zebstrika

From Unova

He grew up as a rich kid in urban Unova, but with busy CEOs for parents, he often found himself bored

As a kid, a Zigzagoon caught his attention while on a business trip with his family, and he ended up catching it

He and the pokemon got along famously, and when it evolved into a Linoone - the rushing pokemon - he found his taste for adrenaline evolving alongside it

He began to grow distant from his childhood friend Ajay at this time, but he still recognised how important her work was so he supports her whenever he can

Now he partakes in gym battles, the occasional contest (usually due to a friendly rivalry between him and one Elliott Witt), and regular death defying stunts with his high speed pokemon team

He lost his legs in an accident involving a race and a misuse of pokemon moves

He’s got a good few fans as a result of the videos he makes, but he can always count on Ajay, Natalie, and Anita to keep him grounded

He’s got a knack for convincing people to take a risk - it’s how he got Natalie and Anita to go on their own journeys to find what they want from life

Pathfinder

Ambipom (Partner), Cubone

From Unova

He was an orphan with a desire to see the world (and maybe find out the story behind his birth parents along the way)

His first pokemon was an Aipom whose mobility he admired greatly. He has a Cubone because he found it crying and, as an orphan himself, he cared deeply for its loss

He isn’t quite sure what he wants from life, but being a pokemon professor and learning about the world sounds pretty good to him

Near the start of his journey, he was staying in a pokecentre and ended up being the referee for a pokemon battle

When morning came, those two same trainers looked a little lost (though they’d never admit it), and as he himself was brilliant with directions, he ended up offering to show them around the region

But they ended up sticking together long after that

Wattson

Morpeko (Partner), Plusle, Minun, Luxio

From Kalos

Worked closely with her father researching ways in which electric types and people can work together and how those relations could be utilised

She and her father raised an unruly Shinx that was very uncooperative, but one day it accidentally electrocuted her (causing the scar on her face), and it was the guilt it felt that caused it to finally clean up its act

When he passed away, she inherited her father’s Electabuzz. At first, she wouldn’t necessarily consider the pokemon a part of her team, but more of a family member that still assists in her work, though this changed when she started her journey

(shoutout to @gayneflynt @wraithofthevoid for their ideas)

Met Octavio when he was participating in a competition at an arena she had previously done work on. Her father had just passed, and Octavio convinced her that she should give going on a pokemon journey a go to try and fill the void that had been left behind

She met Anita when Octavio was challenging a gym. Anita, sister of the gym leader, got to talking with the pair, and decided to tag along on their journey

Wraith

Gothitelle (Partner), Meowstic, Abra

From Johto

She has amnesia, and woke with nothing but a psychic type pokemon leaning over her in an abandoned lab

Gothitelle is particularly protective of her, as a pokemon that can predict the future and can become aware of their trainer’s lifespan. This was the pokemon fawning over her when she awoke with no memory

Abra can read minds and sense danger, teleporting away when it feels threatened. Sometimes Wraith wishes she had the same ability - the two felt a kinship and it joined her team. She caught Espurr because it’s the restraint pokemon - she personally felt restrained by her lack of memories - and she was kinda fond of how weird and creepy it sorta was

The Espurr scared the shit outta one trainer she met while she was still in Johto - to be fair, it was staring at him weirdly

She ran into him again in Unova. Her Abra - despite being terrified of everyone they met - never once tried to teleport away from him, so in the morning when he invited her to join him and some makeshift tour-guide, on a whim she said yes

All of her pokemon seemed happy with the decision, so she decided that maybe she should stick around in this trio

[eurekq]

so here they are.... my revamped darlings. naohiko, rika, amane, and maya are new! im going to put all their bios under the cut, they’re mostly copypasted from the old ref though except for the new kids :P i really like naohiko, he’s basically an amalgamation of every percussionist i’ve ever known lmfao

basic premise: 16 fresh-out-of-highschool prodigies are invited to star in well-respected and widely-watched big brother-esque reality tv show, which takes place on a cruise ship. what they weren't expecting was for the show's 25th season to be a killing game! the students: CHOUMI YUKIYAMA: exceptional among even her fellow shsls, choumi made her historic mark on ballet by becoming the world's youngest ever prima ballerina at the age of 13 and japan's first ever prima ballerina assoluta at 18. fans flock to her ethereal, angelic grace on stage as well as to the percieved sense of otherworldlyness surrounding her albinism. on the darker side of her popularity, repeated sexual harassment from fans and male dance partners alike has hardened her world view to make her not quite cold, but definitely reserved in her emotions. she adapts fairly easy to stressful situations and pushes through pain with almost no visible outward struggle due to her all too common experience with dancing through foot and ankle injuries. because of this she usually ends up taking initiative in difficult scenarios if no one else steps forward. she is also a quite talented hobbyist figure skater and is fluent in both english and russian. REN KIKUHARA: a fairly odd florist in that instead of ordering flowers to arrange into bouquets, every flower he sells is grown himself. although this means that his selection is seasonally and fairly regionally limited, he has an incredible talent for working with plants and can even sometimes coax out-of-zone flowers to grow. he's fluent in hanakotoba and is surprisingly good at flirting through flowers without it seeming cheesy, although he doesn't do it very often. people often remark that his bouquets often seem to have more love and life in them than store-bought ones. ren is a calm and kind soul and prefers listening to talking, with what he does say always seeming to be just the right words for the situation. MARIKO MIKAMI: mariko was a sickly child, and spent a large part of her elementary school years in hospitals. around the age of seven, she began folding paper cranes as something to do, and wished to live normally after she folded her 1000th. she soon recovered, and feels that she owes her life to origami. she is precise and calculating in everything she does, which shines through in her art: every delicate, artful piece of origami that she makes is creased and folded perfectly. she also dabbles in wet-fold origami. she's most famous for her dry-fold though, and her pieces are well known for their complex, precise, mathematical beauty. she refuses to fold paper cranes anymore, feeling that they are too sacred for her to touch after they saved her life as a child. a calm, slightly disconcerting smile is always on her face, no matter the circumstance; her manner is polite for the most part, if i a little aggressive. MOMOTAROU KOBARA: momotarou, born into a rich family that fufilled his near-every want, made a name for himself in the world of collecting at the age of just eleven by, through luck and love for the series, collecting every pokemon card. from then on he set onto collecting just about anything non-perishable: pins, collectors set bandaids, vinyls, etc. he has exceptional luck in finding deals on ebay and other sites. he cant really be called a hoarder, since he likes to have just one of everything; he resells, gifts, or uses any duplicates. his mood swings between a dreamy, chilled out, flirtatious persona and periods of numb depression when it hits him that his whole life revolves around material possesions and that he has no real human connections. SARA KUROKAWA: a talented young woman from a long line of popular backalley tattoo artists. she combines traditional symbolism and youthful influence in her designs to make something new and more appealing for the younger generation, and is a huge proponent for tattoos being shown off for fashion rather than hidden away in the traditional style. sara does have (illegal) tattoos done by her older siblings on her arms despite the minimum age being 20, although her being homeschooled, looking older than her actual age, and having a tendency to wear long sleeves year round has led her to encounter few problems. she and her family are among the many who simply choose to ignore the statute requiring a medical license to tattoo. sara is a fairly rude person in a backhanded way, acts stereotypically catty and even a little deranged sometimes, and enjoys making herself the center of attention, whether through her appearance (dyed pink hair and white contacts) or the things she says. the only two things that can break her shell and make her excited and genuine are tattooing and piano, which she has played from a young age and loves. NAOHIKO KINZUMI: the son of a concert pianist and a professional jazz drummer, naohiko shortcutted the usual pots-and-pans percussion stage most children go through and spent most of his childhood hitting actual drums. blessed with perfect pitch and a natural feel for rhythm, his parents enrolled him in private music lessons at age five, and he joined onto his first indoor percussion ensemble at age 13. a fast learner, naohiko can play most all percussion instruments at a professional level, including both tuned and auxiliary. he is especially known for his drumset skill, specifically being able to match the speed and complexity of most double kick pedal rhythms with just one foot, and his delicate grace at bowed vibraphone. naohiko is loud, brash, and fun, with an infectious smile and sense of humor that draws people in. despite the flashiness of his drumset playing, his favourite instruments are actually the weird obscure ones, like the waterphone, mahler hammer, and "bucket of loud objects to be dumped on the floor". HARUMI HAMANAKA: harumi is a sweet and bubbly girl, if almost cloyingly so. her good luck is a fairly stable force (nowhere near as chaotic as komaeda, for example), generally acting in the favor of wishes of people around her. her mother intensly wanted for her to be on the show because of the exposure it provides, and this is what harumi attributes to her being selected. despite the way her luck operates, shes no doormat and in fact has an overwhelming force of personality, and her sweet demeanor can become rather passive aggressive if challenged on pretty much anything. SHOU KATSUKI (PROTAG): pushed to succeed in the game from a very young age, shou is japan's reigning chess champion, a FIDE-certified grandmaster, and went to international competition the year before the killing game. he played through to the finals with influenza, which worsened through the matches due to lack of treatment and culminated in debilitating pneumonia that left him in the hospital and unable to play for first. because of this, he's cultivated a sort of inferiority complex that he tries to cover for with self-confidence, which actually comes off as condescending rudeness. he has a natural talent for cause and effect analyzation and is good at planning ahead. he gets flustered easily over trivial things and is a sore loser, but tends not to crack under actual pressure. shou doesn't like to be associated with his family due to the intense pressure they put him under only to steal his winnings the second he began to succeed and thus prefers to be referred to by his given name, even by near-strangers. he does genuinely love chess, but his favourite board game is actually risk. (no one ever wants to play with him, though.) RIKA FUJIMIYA: originally scouted as a young child for her unique eyes and birthmarks, rika's first minor film role at the age of nine left the director stunned at her acting capability. as someone who grew up with a very murky self image and a difficulty interpreting social situations, rika lived most of her early life essentially "acting" the way she believed others would respond well to, which resulted in her easily adapting to doing the same for the cameras. she went on to have a very prolific child acting career without really settling into a niche. As a teenager she took her first steps into stage acting, playing juliet capulet at 16 in a moving and extremely impressive performance, and later at 18 performing a striking and memorable female hamlet. her deep and rich voice has also landed her several voice acting roles. her personality offstage has solidified a lot more since her younger years, although she doesn't go out of her way to talk to anyone, fan or otherwise. when approached, she is polite, gentle, and humble, although she has trouble separating her image as a celebrity from that of her as a person and thus it is extremely difficult to get to know her. KENJI MINAMOTO: an eccentric and a bit airheaded olympic fencer whose strange insistence on not wearing protective gear during practice (he believes it makes him better by giving him a stronger motivation to not get hit) has earned him many a scar over the years, and has left at least half of his joints in braces at any given time. he follows his own bushido-esque moral code (the details of which he will not tell anyone), although he will not put himself above whapping the occasional really annoying person in the ankles. his épée is his best friend and he carries it most everywhere. most of the scars on his face and hands are actually from trying to put in his very sharp industrial piercings while drunk. despite his oddities, his light-footed and elegant ambidextrous fencing has been compared by many to a graceful dance, and although in many respects he comes across as dumb, on the court his mind is laser-focused and unbelievably quick and analytic. AMANE BECKE: a more lowkey type of talented than her fellow contestants, amane hasn't won any major competitions, been on tv, set any records, or anything of that sort. she does, however, run what is widely considered the best bakery in japan. based out of nagano and the daughter of a swiss pastry chef, amane has a natural talent for baking nurtured through over a decade of dedication and love for the craft. she excels at interesting flavor combinations, but her true genius is in her classic, feel-good baked goods. many say that the things she bakes just taste like home and warmth. amane is as warm and sweet as her creations, but with a spark of wit and mad-scientist-y genius that make her an entertaining joy to watch work, if a little overbearing to talk to. EISUKE ITOU: eisuke grew up sewing clothes for his younger sisters barbie dolls, and he particularly loved dressmaking. he gained exposure in his first year of highschool by handmaking gorgeous outfits for his class's booth at the school festival, and, through application to various junior fashion competitions, he was eventually noticed by a big-name designer in paris. however, he found learning french next to impossible and has spent the year prior to the game in relative isolation, unable to have any real human conversation. his psychological state was fairly severely impacted by his long hours spent sewing and designing on internship with no company to get him by, and he is now debilitatingly socially anxious and finds conversation difficult and awkward. MAYA HANABAYASHI: maya spent her early teens with only a passing interest in survival-based media, having enjoyed hunger games and similar media, but not to the point of obsession. however, when traveling on a plane with her father back from visiting family in las vegas, she found herself in a similar situation when their plane went down in a heavily forested area of california, leaving a seventeen year old maya as the only survivor. with only a swiss army knife and a lipstick-shaped stun gun gifted to her by her father to feel safer during their stay in vegas, she survived alone in the woods hatchet-style for six months until late fall, when the fallen leaves made her campfire coincidentally visible to a very observant park ranger on firewatch. after being rescued and returned home to japan, maya found it extremely difficult to readjust to normal life. her thick and warm camo jacket, more a fashion statement when she was wearing it originally, was lifesaver to her during the cold spring, and she she can't bring herself to separate from it even with multiple rips and burns in the fabric. she has refused multiple book deals due to still being heavily traumatized, but after a long period of deliberation decided to go on the show as a way of finally moving forward and acknowledging it. maya isn't exactly socially anxious, but rather closed off and disconnected. JUN TENSEI: born jun harada, many believe that his spiritual connection is the real deal, but a few critics hold that he is most likely just an incredibly talented bluffer. the real truth about him is unknown, but many say that his seances do accurately reflect the personalities of their deceased loved ones and help them feel at peace. he is deeply religious, but not to any one traditional faith (although he does use traditional christian symbols such as crucifixes and items such as holy water on occasion). he believes strongly in the power of the soul and its ability to exist beyond death. his voice is soft and almost hypnotic, and he has a penchant for gentle teasing and riddles. he comes off as pretty shady to most, but he's fairly harmless. TOMOKO KAITA: a peppy and outgoing astrology guru who can read your deepest flaws and strengths with just your date and time of birth. known worldwide for her extremely accurate personal horoscopes. despite this, she strongly believes in the ability of an individual to defy their fate through hard work and self improvement. she dislikes giving negative horoscopes, and does her best to focus on the positives that the stars hold in store. her smile brightens the whole room! she is intensely loyal to her friends, to the point of self-sacrificing emotional labor. YUU IROIKE: yuu iroike isn't even his real name, and it's a mystery as to how show staff even tracked down his mailing address to get him on the show. he's a well-known public figure for painting huge, sprawling, colorful murals in tokyo, yet who he really is remains unknown. he paints faster than his murals can be scrubbed away, and has somehow never been prosecuted for vandalism because his graffiti is generally considered an improvment. he's sly, mysterious, and teasing in person, and gets a bit of an itchy trigger finger when he hasn't painted in a while. His skill with spray paint is so great that it seems as if the paint bends to his very will.

[cutiecrates]

September 2019 Lucky Treat!

Well here we are guys, finally! As it turns out, I was supposed to get this on my birthday (the 15th) and it came, but at the time I was taking a nap because I was gone most of the day and I felt really tired when I got home. So they showed up around 6pm but nobody answered the door, and since I had to sign for it they left.

This isn’t the first time this has happened, I somehow miss foreign packages I need to sign for <_< my mom and I argue over this every time, and as I expected it didn’t come the next day. I wasted 2-3 hours stalking the front door and not leaving the room at all for anything. So yesterday morning we picked it up, but it just wasn’t a good day to try to post this.

It’s also the reason why my next review hasn’t been posted but you can expect to see that later today. So for now, let’s focus on this!

As a reminder I won’t be reviewing these items due to them being sent for free. I’ll just be showing them and giving my opinions.

(Note the Kawaii Box I’m supposed to review in the background...)

Okay, so as you can see this is exactly how it arrived. I initially assumed it would be one large box, so I was actually relieved to see it consisted of 2 medium-sized boxes. Both were light weight and easy to carry.

Japan Haul, for anyone unfamiliar with the name or new to the blog is the online store belonging to the branding that makes Tokyo Treat, YumeTwins, NMNL. You can find a lot of the box items, as well as some unique items on there, which is why I try to recommend you check it out if you’re ever interested in the items from those boxes. There wasn’t any special papers or anything in the box, but each of them had an “order summery sheet“ and a sheet of protective Styrofoam on the bottom.

Before I begin I wanted to mention that usually there’s a “value“ depicted in the information or picture for the Lucky Treat, but this one didn’t have it. On each box it says their values were 1000yen, so combined I think that might be $200.00? I don’t know much about foreign currency so don’t quote me on it.

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Mew Plushie & Vulpix Plushie

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am OBSESSED with Vulpix/Rokon- it was the reason I just had to have this box, and it hasn’t left my side since I opened the one it was inside. It was true love from the day we met; I have various Vulpix items, including a smaller plush from a KFC promotion when I was a kid, a couple toy items, stickers, coloring book pages, and several TCG cards in both English and Japanese~

About a year or so back they were featuring Vulpix (normal and Alola) in Japanese merch. I’ve always wanted to visit Japan, but that was probably when I wanted it the most.

The plush is pretty big (although I know in comparison to the Mew it doesn’t look it), it’s the perfect lap size~ It’s also very soft, with fluffy material for the hair and tails that is a combination of rose swirls and tufts. The tails are one solid piece with lines between them to give them the feel of individual pieces, but the curled portions are separated. I love love love love love it~

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So as you can tell, Vulpix isn’t the only plush we got in this months box :3 in fact we got a handful more to go- including this really big Mew Plush. Currently this is the second biggest Pokemon Plush I own, it’s a few inches taller than the piplup I won at the fair a few years back, but smaller than the Meowth I got when I was a kid.

This plush is made from the same fabric as the vulpix but lacks the fluffy hair accents. The sewn details are perfect, it’s feet are properly stuffed and a little floppy, while its super-long tail is sewn to the back, so I assume it would dangle if I cut the strings. He’s great for hugs.

Flaaffy Plushie & Mini Eeevee Plushie

We got 2 more Pokemon plushies, including this very small Flaaffy plush~ It’s like the Vulpix in which it has normal plush fabric, and slightly softer fabric for the wool on its neck and head. It’s stitching and details are great, it’s a really good quality plushie.

According to its tag it’s part of a Pokemon Fit line. I never heard of it so I don’t really know what it contains- but I think it’s adorable how out of the 4 Pokemon it’s normally the biggest, and here it’s the smallest. It fits in the palm perfectly. 

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Our final Pokemon plushie is an adorable, fluffy Eevee. I really like Eeevee and its eeveelutions, and I really liked playing Let’s Go Eeevee! so this was a lovely surprise; now if only I had some items to make it match mine~

It’s well made and very cute and sweet looking, and according to the tag this came out last year- probably for Let’s Go Eeevee :P It’s a big bigger than Flaaffy, but still fits in the palm nicely. I can’t decide if I like its fluffy neck fur or huge tail more~

Kopiyo Friends Cushion

This is our last plush-based item in the box, an adorable cushion themed after an adorable birdie. From Kopiyo Friends there was a variety of various birds you could get in this set, but for Lucky Treat it was this specific... parakeet? It looks like the ones I used to have when I was little, so I’ve been calling it that.

 It’s a good size for a pillow (head, lap, legs, etc) and it’s stuffed enough to feel marshmallowy squishy, and it stretches a little bit. It was very comfortable, and it makes for a nice secondary pillow you can cuddle with.

Solgaleo Figure & Mewtwo Mug

If you guys couldn’t tell this box was almost entirely Pokemon oriented :3 and to go with our plushies, we have a Solgaleo figurine from the latest handheld Pokemon games (until sword and shield comes out anyway). It’s from the Moncolle-EX collection of Pokemon figures... and that’s pretty much all I can say other than it’s paint quality is great. I’m not sure about the figure quality itself because I won’t be removing it from the packaging. I might give it to my friend, who bought this version of the game. 

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Now this next item goes with the Mew I got, and I think they were both made to celebrate the upgraded/updated Mewtwo Strikes Back movie. I know my picture quality of this sucks, but I was kind of on a time crunch at this point... and by that I mean, I had cats going crazy in the background trying to get in my way and play with the boxes <_<

The mug has a very detailed, mood-setting picture for the movie. I have to admit it’s not really my style (CUTIEcrates probably says it all right?), but I do like it as a Pokemon fan and I’ll find a use for it.

Gengar Mask & Pokemon Memo

Now this is an item perfect for this time of the year, as well as when I clean or when the allergies hit (where was it during summer when I needed it?!). I did have one mask from a really old DokiDoki, but I have no clue where that went.

I love Gengar (at this rate it’s easier just to say every Pokemon in this box are ones I like, nearly), so this is a cute, funny little item. It’s a nice, padded mask with two layers of filtered-like fabric over the part covering your nose and/or mouth. I’m not really sure if they serve a purpose (maybe filtering dust or scent or something?) but they have a nice clean smell.

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We can’t forget the stationery items now :3 and to go with all of our Pokemon goodness we have a notepad with 4 sets of 8 different designed papers! They easily tear apart and come from the Pokemon World Market series, featuring the various Pokemon from various regions hanging out and having fun.

Pokemon World Market Re-Ment & Colorful Ramune Blind Bag

I’m assuming the Pokemon World Market is a current series/collection :3 because next we have an adorable re-ment set. I miss getting re-ments in the boxes, so this was very exciting. Like the notepad, these were based on various regions foods, Pokemon, and activities. Such as the one I got, the Kanto region, having a bike, a Poke Flute, and a Pokemon Doll. Each one also includes a map of the specific region.

If you were curious, here are what the others had: 

2. Squirtle Watering can, toy, milk, manju/dorayaki?

3. Torchic, Rice cracker, Pokeblock storage, and what looks like an envelope and ticket.

4. Piplup, helmet, shovel, what looks like chocolate, and Poffins.

5. A Pokedoll, a ferris wheel toy, and ice cream.

6. Pokedoll, food, skates, and the girl trainers hat.

7. A book or magazine with Snorlax, a toucan measuring piece(?), a bowl or fruit in a box, and an Alola Exeggutor pen with base.

Now compared to the others, mine feels pretty simple. But the detail on each piece is amazing; I could look at re-ments all day~ I really wish I could display mine, but I just don’t have a safe place or any room for them at the time. As much as I think a re-ment subscription box would be fun, I’m kinda glad they don’t have one of those :P I’d be in trouble.

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Now, this is a Tokyo Treat special box, of course there has to be a couple food items~ and first up is a Pokemon, Wobbuffet bling bag candy tin, which features 6 different designs that feature Wobbuffet interacting with various Pokemon. They’re all so cute!

But lookie lookie, did you notice which one I got~? The special mystery one :D I’m not sure if that was intentional or not, but I thought it was a fun additional surprise.

There are 3 flavors of candy, including a blue ramune/soda, yellow... I think lemon (but it could be banana? It doesn’t taste like it though), and a pinkish-red one that I couldn’t identify. It might be cola, because it tastes like a nasty cola Japanese candy DIY I tried a couple years back- one of the only cola flavors I didn’t like. But the candies are pretty good, even that weird might be cola one.

Pokemon Nori Chips & Dragonball Super Candies

Given the few Non-Pokemon items in the box, I was surprised to see this Dragonball themed candy. These come in a tin-like piece similar to old-style Japanese fruity hard candy. I’ve seen them several times but never had them before- and let me tell you, it’s a picnic trying to open these! You’ll definitely want a pen or scissors or a cornered object or something, nails are not recommended though. But maybe mine are just wimpy. The good news is that you don’t have to worry about them spilling.

Anyway, these are just cute orange spherical candies with a simple orange-ish flavoring to them. It’s not overly sweet or tangy, so it’s good if you like a mild candy.

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To kick up the snacks, we also have some curry-flavored Nori Chips/Seaweed. They come in this adorable Pokemon tin featuring Pikachu and some other impressive pokemon, and the inside is lined by pleated paper. The tin is 71.0 calories.

The seaweed/nori is thin, but in 2 layers, with curry flavored powder/substance between them. If you don’t like the taste of curry or seaweed you probably won’t like these, but if you do then you will. I actually really like eating seaweed as a snack, and curry is pretty yummy so I really like them x3 they’re not spicy, but it seems to pick up heat the more you eat of them. They’re also very crunchy.

Pokemon Tote

We also have some fun apparel, including a Pokemon Tote by the brand Outdoor Products, which has been in business since 1973 apparently. It includes a rainbow variety of colorful Pokemon from a few different generations making a variety of poses. I think there’s 2 per Pokemon. The bag also features a velcro strap to hold it shut, and it’s a medium-big size, so it would come in handy for a lot of stuff.

Pokemon Mini Bath Towel

To go with the Pokemon World Market collection, we also have this adorable and colorful mini-bath towel featuring all the different regions Pokemon having a fun time playing and checking things out at their respective hangouts x3

Despite the name, this thing couldn’t be fit into a single picture without losing a lot of detail, so I had to settle for this. It’s very soft fabric, I’m very eager to begin using it because it’ll go great with that set of Pokemon wash clothes I got a few months back.

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Okay guys, that will be it for now! What did you think, was this Lucky Treat good? I really wish the other subscribers could have won this too because it was very fun and exciting- I still can’t believe i won it!

However, I did notice an item is missing. There was also supposed to be a pair of Pokemon Socks that I didn’t find in either box. I checked multiple times, and I couldn’t find anything to say the item was removed from the box, so I don’t know what happened. I messaged them about it, but because this was entirely free, I don’t actually mind the mistake. It happens... of course, if it had been my Vulpix then heads would roll.

Just kidding :P Anyway, I’ll keep you guys updated on that. Until later, remember to hug a Pokemon!