#celestial Storm

[pokemon-cards-hourly]

[trainerjoshie]

Pokémon TCG SM Celestial Storm (2018), Team Up (2019), Unbroken Bonds, Unified Minds & Cosmic Eclipse illustrations by miki kudo ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[lovepokemontcg]

illus. Sumiyoshi Kizuki "Minun" from Celestial Storm

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2946: Steven's Resolve (Celestial Storm)

Sometimes, a card comes along that has a really powerful effect and a big drawback. Steven's Resolve was one of those cards, being a Supporter that let you search your deck for up to 3 cards to put into your hand. This was, of course, extremely powerful, since it let you just get the most important cards available in your deck. The drawback was that your turn just ended immediately. This kept it out of most decks that relied on attacking directly to win, simply because it deprived you of an attack. Using a single copy for going second in decks where you had to evolve Pokemon and likely wouldn't be attacking was something to think about, and it showed up like that sometimes.

The results were very different for stall decks. It was common for a lot of those decks to end turns without attacking with a Pokemon with a passive Ability, a lot of HP, or a Lillie's Poke Doll up front, and Steven's Resolve could take advantage of the turns where you didn't have an obvious Supporter to play beforehand. There was, of course, the risk to get hit by an N, Marnie, or Reset Stamp and lose those cards, though stall decks at least got more cards off the N or Reset Stamp than most others would. The downside was certainly lessened here in multiple ways and a lot of stall decks ran this, with higher amounts in old Expanded decks than in any standard one.

[hippopopotas]

0353. Shuppet

[peachypokedex]

[lilitdraws]

Aurora on Saturn's south pole.

Instagram: nasahubble

[celestial-sphere-press]

Fanbinding: The Desert Storm (series) by @blue-sunshine-mauve-morning

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!

This is 1 of 2 posts for today, a massive project that I have hit a significant milestone for: completion of both my & the author's 15-volume set of the 1.1 million word The Desert Storm. This is the fic series that got me into Star Wars as an actual fan.

Four years after Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi Order, a grieving, struggling Ben Kenobi finds himself inexplicably taken back in time, crashing headlong into the foundations of fate. Grasping hope and vengeance with both hands, Ben rebuilds his identity and seeks to change the course of history: by saving Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi Order, the galaxy - and just maybe saving Obi-Wan Kenobi along the way.

My design for this typeset was significantly influenced by mem, who had begun a typeset before me and selected black & white images for the title pages, a trend I continued.

As this fic series has meteliculous attention to both canon & EU lore, I stuck with aurebesh characters for titles wherever appropriate, which occasionally gave me some fun opportunities for chapters & tables of contents like this:

For scene dividers, I used a image you can interpret either as twin suns, or as an eclipse.

While I committed to a more classic and less elaborate design for this series, I still rounded & backed every volume in the set. "Editioning" high numbers of similar books like this is often considered in bookbinding circles as necessary to practice skills (I am at 37/45 volumes), and I can certainly say that I have gotten much better at a number of things along the way. The largest book in this series is 616 pages; the smallest, 160 - and I needed to round & back both.

Further thoughts...

Blue_Sunshine (the author) has a fantastic skill for foreshadowing; reread of this series are a must. On top of that, character relationships are consistently and realistically fleshed out and developed. And critically for a "go back in time" story, Blue has a wonderful grasp of the dominoes - what changes trickle down and ripple out; and how that could come back to bite some people. Finally - if you live a badass Obi-Wan Kenobi, this is definitely a fic series for you. Also Blue is a lovely person & our little bits of correspondence has been such a bright spot for me.

Material notes: Duo oatmeal bookcloth, orange marbled jute from Sustain and Heal, hammermill cream paper, gold foil + paint for titles.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 284

“Oh little storm,” the being cooed, hands that are both large enough to crush the world yet small enough to hold his face gently running through his hair. He was being held by lightning, by stars and space and everything in between, cradling his form like he was something oh-so precious. “A surprise to be sure,” the being crooned, purred, rumbled, cracked, some noise of the depths of space mixed with something indescribable. “A surprise, but a welcome one.” 

Billy had never felt so small, yet so loved, like the world itself was holding him against its heart as the whispers of the gods bled away in something akin to awe. The being smiled, distant storms letting loose and ending droughts, even more distant stars bursting into being. “A little marvel of existence,” they hummed, hissed, cooed, whistled, hair- or strands of galaxies- melding into the abyss around them. 

“A surprise son. A child of the Cosmos. Yes.” He was held so gently, space itself dancing and flickering around him, suns pressing hundreds of freckled kisses against his head. “Welcome home, little storm. Welcome home, my son.”  

[aroaessidhe]

faves of 2024: adult sci-fi

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words

The Stardust Grail

Walking Practice

Those Beyond The Wall

As Born to Rule The Storm

Time’s Agent

These Burning Stars

Pluralities

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport

Raven Strategem/Revenant Gun/Hexarchate Stories

Yours Celestially

The Fortunate Fall

[pokemon-cards-hourly]

[trainerjoshie]

Pokémon TCG SM Ultra Prism (2018) & Celestial Storm (2018) beautiful illustrations by the amazing Shibuzoh. 🤩

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2933: Hiker (Celestial Storm)

Hiker was one of the stranger Supporters out there. When played, it let you look at the top 5 cards of either player's deck, but not both. You picked 1 of those cards, had the player who owned the cards shuffle the others back into their deck, then put that card on top. This did have some use for getting a card off the top bit of the deck when combined with Zoroark-GX, though not being able to fetch a Supporter for the same turn was a bit of a problem. When not looking for a specific card, you could make sure the opponent's next draw was the least useful card of their top 5. The combination gave Hiker a small niche, mostly in expanded Zoroark Control decks. A copy or two there was worth considering. Most other decks had better uses for Supporters, however, and it never really got traction in any standard format. A quick note that this is apparently banned in the Gym Leader Challenge format that's become reasonably popular over the last few years because it could be recycled by this lock deck that just shut the opponent out of the game. Amazing what happens when the card pool and limits are different.

[sophiesplushies]

Celestial Ursa beanie! ✨️

[peachypokedex]

[stormbreaker-290]

some yapping about Static/lorebits under the cut

Static is,, for lack of a better term, a people pleaser. not just in the sense that they like to help out or avoid fights, but because she sees this as the only way anyone will really care about them. the only way he'll be useful. they're always at their loved ones beck and call, even when he himself is struggling. they often suppress their needs and negative feelings for the sake of not being a burden to anyone around her, until they cant bear any more and break down, usually followed by apologies for their own expressing of such emotions.

His "creator" more or less engraved it into them that even at their very best, when doing everything she could want and ask for, they would always have failed potential. always could've been better. always never being enough, even when giving every last bit of herself.

they still carry some of this mentality subconsciously, years of healing and recovery later have lessened the thoughts, but he still sometimes gets the gut feeling that their very presence is unnecessary. that no one really wants let alone needs her around. they're only good for what they can do for others. utterly, and wholly Replaceable.