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hailing-stars · 4 years ago

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@febuwhump day 7: poisoning

don’t blame the unicorn

summary

“Peter?” asks Morgan. “Why are you all red like ketchup? ‘Cept around your eyes, like Aunt Nebby’s raccoon friend?”

“Because Peter didn’t listen to his wise mentor and put sunblock on,” says Tony.

“Oh, Pete, that looks really bad,” Pepper says, reaching her hand to his forehead.

“Don’t touch,” says Peter, stepping backwards.

Peter falls asleep floating, but he wakes up on fire.

His skin aches, it cracks and it breaks against the hot plastic underneath him, against, even, the smooth surface of his sunglasses. He wants off this ride. He wants to dip off the giant, inflatable unicorn he had loved before his nap, and into the lake, where the cold water is sure to put out these flames.

It’s a delicate situation, though. The thought of moving at all, the idea of rubbing his skin against the plastic even further, is traumatizing. It keeps him pinned to that unicorn, under the blazing, bright sun, subject to its torturing gaze.

He decides it has to be fast, like Flash to the lunchroom, or like MJ to her favorite true crime podcast. He closes his eyes, and he flips his body into the lake.

Peter loses his sunglasses when he’s under water, but doesn’t care enough to splash around for them. The coolness he’s engulfed in is soothing, though there’s still fire under his skin, and a sun above his head. He swims to shore, emerging just in time to greet Pepper, Tony, and Morgan by the dock.

“Peter?” asks Morgan. “Why are you all red like ketchup? ‘Cept around your eyes, like Aunt Nebby’s raccoon friend?”

“Because Peter didn’t listen to his wise mentor and put sunblock on,” says Tony.

“So sunburns are real?”

“Of course they’re real. I wouldn’t lie.”

Morgan frowns, kicks at some grass, and miserably says, “All I know is broccoli never gave me any superpowers.”

“That’s because you haven’t eaten enough of it yet.”

Pepper looks at Tony like she wants to slap him, before her face folds into concern when she pulls her attention to Peter.

“Oh, Pete, that looks really bad,” she says, reaching her hand to his forehead.

“Don’t touch,” says Peter, stepping backwards.

“He needs a cold bath,” she tells Tony, still grimacing. “And some Aloe, I’ll run out and get some. You need to check his temperature. He might have a fever.”

Tony nods, and Pepper marches on, straight to the business of running off to the drug store to pick up the aloe.

“Alright, angry bird, let’s get you out of the sun and into the bath.”

Peter growls at the annoying nickname, but his skin hurts too badly to do anything except make futile noises of complaint.

Peter sits in the cool bath, still wearing his swim trunks. He tries to keep his eyes open, but they’re heavy. Apparently the sun had zapped his energy while it fried him.

Cool water against burnt skin it’s a strange duality. It’s a feeling he thinks he might appreciate more if it weren’t for the nauseous feeling creeping up in his belly, or the way his head and eyes along with his skin, or the way he just wants to be asleep.

“Ok hellboy,” says Tony, as he walks into the bathroom with supplies. “Open your mouth.”

“Please stop with the nicknames,” mutters Peter. He opens his mouth, and Tony puts the thermometer in and clicks the on button.

“No promises.”

Peter knows before it starts beeping that he’s got a fever. It’s just his luck, and he feels awful enough to be considered sick without the fever.

Tony takes the thermometer, looks at it, and sighs, before putting it down on the sink. “Am I a bad parent if I say I told you so? About the sunscreen?”

“Yes.”

“Then I won’t say it.”

“Technically you already did say it,” says Peter. He’s tempted to splash some water in Tony’s direction, but the effort that would require is too great. “How bad is the fever?”

“Not ER bad,” says Tony. “More like your ass is gonna be resting for the rest of the weekend bad.”

“Great.”

“Could be worse.”

“Don’t really see how.”

Peter had been looking forward to a weekend away from the city, from the responsibility of Spider-Man and school. Tony’s lake house is the perfect escape, unless you fall asleep on the giant, floating unicorn. Now the only relaxing he’s going to get is accompanied by painful burns, a fever and Tony’s constant mother-henning.

“I’m gonna murder that unicorn,” says Peter. “I’m gonna take a kitchen knife -”

“-yeah, no,” says Tony. “If you do that, Morgan will just have me resurrect it with patches. And don’t blame the unicorn. Next time wear sunblock.”

Peter groans, and Tony hands him a bottle of water and two small pills.

“Two supercharged Ibuprofen for the super red kid,” says Tony.

He plops the pills in his mouth, unscrews the lid to the water bottle, and gulps down some water, swallows the pills. He tries handing the water back off to Tony, but the man won’t accept it.

“Sip on it. Google says you need to stay hydrated.”

“Does Google say how long I have to stay in this bath?”

“Until you’re ready to come out.”

Tony leaves the bathroom and comes back with a change of clothes for Peter, the aloe Pepper had gotten for him and a tube of hydrocortisone lotion. Before he leaves Peter to change, he stops him with one last request.

“Can you put a Gatorade in the freezer?”

“Sure,” says Tony. “But, water first.”

“Yeah, yeah,” says Peter. Tony starts to leave again. “Wait!”

“Yes?”

“You gotta set the timer. For the Gatorade. So it’s just right, and it’s half slushy.”

“Got it. Gatorade slushy.”

“And it has to be Glacier Cherry.” Peter yells as Tony tries to leave again.

Tony stops, puts a hand on the doorframe, and looks at Peter. “Anything else, prince of the red Sour Patch kids?”

“And some crackers.”

“For someone who complains about my hovering, you sure seem to be taking advantage of it.”

Tony manages to get away that time, before Peter can tell him there’s a difference between demanding slushies and crackers and having him shove a thermometer at him.

Peter wakes with a whimper.

He’s cold, and hot, and his legs are tangled up in his blankets. Trying to free himself only makes him dizzy, or at least causes him to remember how dizzy he’d been before falling asleep. He falls from his bed in the struggle, knocking an empty Gatorade bottle from his nightstand, then thumps to the floor. A rubber straw landing near his head.

And his room is spinning with his fever. The carpet rubs against the burns on his face, his head pounds, and all Peter can do is cling to the floor, holding on for dear life.

Until he can focus, with his ears, on a heartbeat that gets closer and closer.

“Peter?” asks Tony. “Buddy, what are you doing on the floor?”

“‘urts,” is all Peter manages to say.

“It’d probably help to be up on your bed.”

“Can’t move,” says Peter. He digs his fingers into the carpet.

Tony helps him to his feet, avoiding his burnt skin by lifting him up from under his arms. Peter sits on the bed, and wobbles, until he has enough sense to lay his head back down on the pillow and let Tony work out the blankets.

“Alright,” says Tony, throwing the blanket over him. “No more falling out of bed.”

Peter nods his head a little.

“Glad we understand each other,” says Tony. “So, you stay here, and I’ll be back.”

Peter watches Tony leave, and it isn’t long before his back with more water, more pills, and a cold washcloth. He sits on the edge of Peter’s bed, and waits until he’s gotten the pills down to take the water bottle back.

“I’m sorry I woke you up.”

“You didn’t,” says Tony. “My alarm did.”

Peter frowns, and he elaborates.

“I set my alarm for when it was time for you to have another dose of the pain meds,” says Tony. “The thought of you laying in here all french fried and in pain would’ve made me miserable in the morning.”

“Oh,” says Peter. “Thanks.”

“What else am I here for?” he whispers. “Now go back to sleep. Let those super healing powers do their magic.”

Peter didn’t need to be told twice. His eyes slide shut, and Tony presses the cold wash cloth against his forehead. Sleep comes fast, thanks to the soothing coolness, and the steady, gentle beat of Tony’s heart.

3 weeks later

The sun is blaring down, but Peter doesn’t care. He’s remembered his sunscreen.

He looks at his giant, inflatable avocado with pride. Way better than a unicorn, he decides. After his experience with sun poisoning, anything is better than a unicorn, but if he’s going to lay about the lake all day long, it might as well be on the super fruit.

“Why are you so white?” asks Morgan. “Like a ghost?”

“I think that’s what we call overcorrecting, Morguna,” says Tony.

“There’s no such thing as too much sunscreen,” says Peter. He double thinks, and gives Pepper a worried look. “Right?”

“Right,” she assures him.

“Good,” says Peter, with a sigh of relief.

His skin had peeled for at least a week after being traumatized by the sun, and he’s determined to never let that happen again. Even if he has to use a whole bottle of sunblock every hour. Even if he never looks at the unicorn again.

Peter sets his avocado in the lake to sail, and drifts away, this time sun-protected and ready to safely nap.

#febuwhumpdayseven #poisoning #fever #sick Peter parker #irondad #irondad fic #my fic

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peterparkrr · 5 years ago

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The Santa Clauses

AO3 Link! Happy Holidays :)

Tony can glean a lot of information from the way Pepper walks into a room. Actually, he can tell a lot about anyone from the way they enter a room, he’s perceptive like that. But, he has years of studying Pepper under his belt, so she’s definitely his area of expertise.

The way that the door to the garage swings open—fast, yet controlled, she doesn’t let it slam into the wall, but it’s a near thing—means that Tony did something Not Good. Not 'slowly dying of palladium poisoning without telling anyone' bad and definitely not 'wielding all six infinity stones in a field full of super-humans' bad, but still, Not Good. Or it could be that someone close to Tony did something Not Good. Either way, it means that he has a mistake to fix.

“Tony,” she starts.

“Pepper,” he replies. “I want you to remember that the holidays are right around the corner, so in the spirit of forgiveness—”

“Oh, hush. You don’t even know what happened.”

That’s good. That means that it wasn’t Tony who made the fatal error.

Pepper leans against one of the tables, arms crossed. “You know I love Nebula and she is welcome here anytime.”

Tony feels his eyebrows raise automatically. Nebula is the offender. That’s a new one. She and Pepper get along just as well as he had speculated that they would. They have a shared love for the practical that Tony’s not sure that he will ever understand.

“What did Ms. Smurfette do?”

Pepper sighs. “She didn’t do anything on purpose.”

Tony peeks out the window of the garage. From what he can see, the house still seems to be intact.

“She was playing outside with Morgan.”

Tony swivels to look out the window on the other side of the garage. Morgan’s toys are scattered about the yard as usual, no sign of extra destruction. Also, no sign of Morgan. Tony’s heart races for a moment, but Pepper wouldn’t be this calm if something like that had happened.

“Morgan insisted on wearing one of her Christmas sweaters today—the one with the sleigh and the reindeer.”

Tony remembers. He’d thought it was a little early for that sort of thing. It’s only the sixth after all. But, they’re trying to foster Morgan’s self-expression.

“Nebula asked her about it. So she gave her an overview on Christmas.”

“Wasn’t Nebula here a few years ago at Christmas?”

“Yes, when Morgan was still a baby,” Pepper says. “Which is why Nebula knows that Santa and his reindeer are just characters.”

Tony’s starting to understand the problem. “And she told Morgan as much.”

“Yes, she did.”

It’s sad. Tony thought Morgan would have at least a few more magical Christmases, but she was always going to figure it out—sooner rather than later. She’s too smart.

“Well, this was bound to happen at some point.”

“Tony, she’s six.”

“My old man told me to quit believing when—I must have been four! Maybe younger.”

“Because that’s the example we’re trying to follow as parents,” Pepper mutters.

Tony laughs, but quickly sobers when he remembers the aftermath of that particular conversation with his dad. He’d been crushed. Even Jarvis couldn’t coax him out of his room the next day.

“Is she upset?”

“It didn’t seem like it. She just went back to playing.”

Tony breathes out a sigh of relief. “We’re in the clear then. No waterworks. That’s impressive.”

Pepper’s head snaps up. “We are not in the clear! Our daughter doesn’t believe in Santa! Christmas is in less than a month!”

“Honey, we can still have a wonderful Christ—”

“This is how it all starts.” Pepper’s head falls into her hands. “First, we lose Santa. Then, there will be no more family dinners because she’s out with friends. Then she’ll graduate and move out. It’s the beginning of the end.”

It seems that they’re spiraling on this previously calm December afternoon. Tony wants Morgan to stay as she is, all wide-eyed wonder for the world, just as much as Pepper does. He’s just not sure if the Santa-thing means the end of all of that. “Don’t you think—”

Pepper points a finger at him. “Fix this, Tony.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you!”

She’s gone before he can say anything else. It’s Tony’s turn to rest his head in his hands.

Tony raps his knuckles on Morgan’s door. “Maguna, anybody home?”

There’s a quick succession of footsteps from inside, then the rustling of sheets.

“No,” she calls, followed by barely stifled laughter.

“Oh, I see.” Tony pushes the door open and steps inside, surveying the child-shaped lump under the comforter. “Then I guess it’s the perfect time to finally take all of her toys to sell. I’ve been trying for years. Look at me now, FRI, it’s finally happening.”

“Stealing from a six-year-old, boss, very impressive.”

“FRIDAY, stop him,” Morgan whispers. “Override code alpha-romeo--”

It’s only the first two letters of one of his override codes, but it's enough to convince him that Morgan has the whole thing. It’s not the first time she’s gotten one, and it won’t be the last either. She’s going to be a nightmare to keep up with as a teenager, Tony can feel it.

“Woah, there.” Tony places two hands on the comforter and yanks it back with a bit of flourish. “When did you discover that one, little miss?”

She covers her face with her hands and shakes her head.

Tony decides to let it go. He’s here for a more urgent reason—a ‘Pepper will never forgive me if I don’t fix this’ reason.

He sits at the foot of the bed. Morgan clambers the rest of the way out from under the covers to sit next to him.

“Mom said that Nebula played with you today. That was nice of her.”

Morgan nods. “She let me take off part of her hand.”

“She—“ Tony trails off, shaking his head. He’s learned not to question what Morgan and earth’s mightiest heroes get up to. Morgan has all of them wrapped around her tiny finger.

“I put it back just right,” she adds.

“Good job.” Tony brushes her hair back so that it’s not flopping over her right eye. “Just be nice, okay? Nebula might not want to be treated like a project all the time.”

“Okay.”

“Did you and her do anything else today? Or—talk about anything else?”

Morgan’s face scrunches up in thought, before smoothing out again. “I told her about Christmas. She said Santa isn’t real.”

Tony knew that, but it still feels like a punch in the gut to hear the words out of Morgan’s mouth. He steels himself for the rest of the conversation.

“Do you believe that?” He keeps his tone as neutral as possible.

“Why would Nebbie lie?”

He hadn’t been prepared for that one. All he can do is hum in response.

“Did she lie?”

Tony purses his lips and looks to the side. He can’t outright lie to Morgan’s face. It’s too much of a betrayal. He should create some sort of telepathic link so he can tell FRIDAY to sound an alarm just from his thoughts. It would help him get out of so many sticky situations.

“It’s a little complicated, Mo.” Tony cringes even as he says it. It’s not his finest save.

She seems to accept it though, nodding sagely. “I’ll figure it out.”

Tony calls Peter.

“Is this a trick question, Mr. Stark? Because when May asks me that, I’m supposed to say yes, because otherwise she gets all sad and then I get sad, too, because—”

Sometimes talking to Peter is like listening to a hamster run around and around on its squeaky wheel. Then the hamster gets off, does a lap around the cage, and hops back on to run in the other direction. It’s exhausting, and grates on his nerves at times, but somehow it’s mostly just endearing.

“I just want your answer, the truth, please.”

There’s a long silence.

“No. I do not believe in Santa.” He whispers it, like it’s some shameful secret. “Unfortunately.”

“Perfect, I need your help.”

Peter doesn’t cry when Tony explains the situation, but it’s a near thing.

“I’m sorry,” he says, as he tries to collect himself. “I thought that we had some Christmas-themed villain to take down. Not this. She’s so young. How did this happen?”

Tony waves his hand in the air. “Long story, Nebula’s fault.”

“This is a disaster,” Peter mumbles. He seems almost as distraught as the time they thought Morgan had been kidnapped. Tony should lock him and Pepper in a room and let them commiserate until all the fretting is out of their systems. “What’s our plan?”

Peter is the plan. “I thought maybe you could talk about Santa like he’s, you know, real. She worships the ground you walk on.”

“Oh man.” Peter grimaces. “I don’t know. That’s a lot of pressure.”

Tony stares at him in disbelief. “Kid, you fought a titan—on an alien planet.”

“There’s so much more at stake here!”

Tony rolls his eyes and then places his hands on Peter’s shoulders. “You’ve got this. I trust you.”

Something in Peter’s face shifts and hardens. He nods once, sharp and final, before spinning toward the door and walking out of the room.

“Oh, you’re going for it, now, right now?”

Peter doesn’t stop, so Tony follows him into the family room where Morgan is criss-cross on the floor surrounded by magnets. She’s moving one around above them so that they spin to align with the poles.

“Hey, Morgan,” Peter says.

She drops the the magnet in her hand and leaps to her feet, sending a bunch of others scattering around the room. Tony tries to catalogue where they go so he can find them later. At least three slide under the couch. One is between the chair and the end table.

Morgan runs at Peter and he lifts her into the air with an ease that Tony can’t help but envy. He tosses her once, and ducks a little so that she falls longer than she thought she would. She squeals as he catches her again.

“I didn’t know you were coming over!” She beams at Peter. Her grin has gained a few gaps in the last month. Pepper has a point about time flying.

“Well, here I am!” Peter tosses Morgan onto the couch and plops down next to her. Tony wanders into the kitchen so that he can still hear without obviously spying.

“Are you excited for Christmas? Have you written your letter to Santa?”

Tony winces. Peter’s going straight in. Subtlety has never been one of his finer skills.

Morgan doesn’t answer right away and Tony has to resist the strong urge to go back and see what’s happening.

“Yeah,” she says slowly. “Have you?”

“Of course! I’m so excited to see what he’s going to bring me.”

“Oh.” Morgan sounds confused.

“I always hear reindeer’s footsteps on my roof on Christmas Eve! Have you ever heard them?”

“Um, I don’t know, maybe?"

It goes on like that for a while, Peter finding more and more creative ways to keep the conversation centered around Santa. Tony puts a stop to it when Peter claims that he saw Father Christmas himself at a beach one summer.

He makes some excuse about May calling and practically drags Peter out of the room.

“I think I really sold it,” Peter says. “Did you hear me?”

“Oh yeah, aces,” Tony deadpans. “Stick with the superhero gig, alright kid?”

After Peter leaves, Morgan follows Tony into the garage. His plan was to work on some of her presents, but he can’t do that with her watching, so he ends up opening old suit plans instead. He spins them around idly, hoping Morgan will get bored and leave.

“Peter believes in Santa, like a lot,” she finally says.

Tony stops and turns to her. Maybe the plan had worked after all.

“You should tell Nebbie not to tell him. I think it would make him really sad.”

Tony nearly smacks his head into the concrete wall. Pepper’s going to kill him.

Tony takes Morgan to lunch—a nice little diner where they won’t be bothered by any reporters.

They get almost matching cheeseburgers, Morgan’s sans pickles. Tony waits until she’s finished about half of hers before launching into his prepared speech.

“Remember when I told you that Santa was complicated?”

Morgan’s nose wrinkles and she places her burger down. “I’ve been trying to figure it out. It should just be a yes or no answer.”

“A lot of things that seem straight-forward aren’t,” Tony replies. “You’ll learn that as you grow up.”

She sits up straighter. “I’m almost seven.”

“That you are, which is why I’m going to explain it a little bit, sound good?”

She nods. Tony takes a deep breath. Belatedly, he realizes that he should have discussed the route he had decided to take with Pepper beforehand. There’s no going back now, with her eyes fixed on him, watching expectantly.

“I like to think of Santa as a metaphor.”

“Those are the ones without ‘like’ or ‘as’.”

Tony smiles. “Exactly. Santa represents being kind and giving.”

Morgan tears her napkin in half. Tony feels like he can see her thinking, trying to predict exactly where he’s going with this.

“We all get a chance to be a Santa, when we’re ready.”

Morgan abandons the strips of paper and meets Tony’s eyes. “How do you know when you’re ready?”

“Well,” Tony says. “As an experienced Santa, I can make that decision.”

Her chin juts out, a little. It’s the same face Pepper makes when she’s preparing to lay out her best argument. Tony feels his lips tug upward.

“You’re a little young, kiddo, but I think you might be ready.”

She wiggles a little in her chair, excitement radiating out of her. “What does a Santa have to do?”

“Well, there are a few rules.” Morgan leans forward. “The first is that you can’t talk to anyone who isn’t a Santa about it.”

“Is mom a Santa?”

“Of course she is.”

Morgan looks relieved. “Good, I can’t keep secrets from mom. She always knows.”

Pepper will love to hear that one. Tony can’t wait to tell her.

“As a first-year Santa, your job is to choose one person to give a gift to. You have to find out what they want without asking them and the most important part is that you can’t tell them it was you.”

“Easy,” Morgan says.

“Do you know who you’re going to pick?”

Morgan nods around a mouthful of burger.

Morgan chooses Peter, of course. She’s an overachiever, so her gift is two-part.

The first part, Tony helps her with. They code a slew of upgrades into a new holiday suit, from the more practical things — the heater needs to be warmer on his hands, sometimes they feel like ice after he patrols, dad — to the festive — would jingle bells give him away to the bad guys? When it’s finished, it’s green where the original was blue, and the spider symbol has a Santa hat. There are also some Christmas fairy lights sewn in for if he’s in a particularly jolly mood.

The second part, Morgan does all by herself. She types up a note, to Peter, from Santa. She doesn’t let Tony read it.

She delivers the suit before Christmas so that Peter can wear it during the holiday season. Tony drops her off at May’s apartment building and waits in the car so she can have a quick escape. She sprints out of the building, gesturing wildly for him to start the car.

When footage of Spidey in Rockefeller Center, with the Christmas lights shining bright, appears on the news, Morgan jumps up and down and plays it on loop.

“I think Peter likes it, mom, dad, look he’s wearing it by the big Christmas tree!”

She pumps a fist in the air as Peter swings in front of the camera once again. He throws up a peace sign and Morgan mirrors it, bouncing on her toes.

Pepper squeezes Tony’s arm. “You did good. Thank you.”

“I don’t know why you’re surprised.”

“Two words,” she says. “Giant bunny.”

“Oh, come on!”

On Christmas morning, Morgan tears through her presents with the same vigor that she brings to most things. The pattern she takes to go through them is systematic, yet the action of opening each is reckless, crumpled up balls of paper flying in all directions.

There are toys and books and gadgets. Most notable is the present that Pepper and Tony poured most of their time into — a robot that Pepper had sketched out and Tony had built. The pieces are disassembled, in a box. There’s a tool kit so that Morgan can put it together herself, and a paint set so that she can decorate it.

She runs over after she opens that one, wrapping her arms around both of them, as far as they will reach.

“You guys are the best Santas,” she whispers. She squeezes one final time and bounds back to the box, prying it open and dumping its contents on the floor.

Pepper leans her head on Tony’s shoulder and sniffles. Tony’s definitely not crying.

May and Peter are supposed to get to the cabin at 3:00. Tony knows that this means to expect them around 3:30. Morgan starts standing by the window at 2:45.

Tony, Pepper, and even FRIDAY try to coax her back to her toys, but she refuses to move.

“Peter will love the letter,” Tony tells her.

“You haven’t read it!”

“You wouldn’t let me, Mo.”

She sighs. “I should throw it away.”

“No, you worked hard on it. He’ll love it.”

The telltale crunch of tire on gravel nears the house. Morgan gasps and presses her face against the window. Then she runs around Tony to open the front door.

“Santa left a present under our tree for you, Peter,” Morgan blurts as soon as he steps inside.

“Really? Should I get it now?”

Morgan pales. “Um, if you want to.”

Peter heads for the tree and Morgan darts to Pepper’s side, latching onto her arm.

The letter is in a holiday-themed envelope, red with a snowflake border. Morgan had asked Pepper to write Peter’s name in cursive on the front. He picks it up and tears the adhesive, careful not to rip the envelope or the contents.

It takes him a few seconds to read it and then he blinks a couple of times and clears his throat. His eyes dart over to Morgan, then Tony, then finally up to the ceiling.

“Thanks Santa,” he says. “That means a lot.”

Morgan grins. She buries her face into Pepper’s side to hide it.

She goes back to working on her robot on the floor after that. May and Pepper sit on the couch by her, half-watching, half-chatting. Tony and Peter drift into the kitchen.

“What did it say?”

Peter clears his throat again and then passes the letter into Tony’s hands. “You can read it.”

Tony hesitates, but curiosity wins over and he opens the folded paper.

Dear Peter,

Congratulations on being on the nice list. It’s great to finally write to you. You’re one of my favorite children, and that’s saying a lot because I know all the children in the whole world. I heard that you’re a big fan of Santa. I’m honored that Spider-Man thinks so highly of me. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me!

This year, I wanted to write you a letter because you’re one of the most deserving people in the world to hear from Santa Claus. A lot of people were sad when you were gone. People told stories about Spider-Man, but Morgan’s dad told stories about Peter Parker. He missed Peter a lot. He’s a little old to write letters to me, but I’m sure if he did, he would have asked for you back. Morgan thought the same thing, so she added you to her Christmas lists for her dad. That wish finally came true last year.

Morgan originally wanted you back just to make her dad happy, but she got the best big brother out of it too! Keep up the good work! Santa is very proud of you!

Merry Christmas,

Santa

P.S. I hope to see you again at the beach this summer.

Tony folds the paper back in half and slides it across the counter to Peter. He picks it up and places it back in the envelope.

“She did,” Tony says. “She always put 'Peter' on her lists — once she was old enough to write them. Cried like a baby the first time I saw it.

Peter’s finger is running over the outside of the envelope, tracing the lines where the paper meets. Tony feels like he should say more, but he doesn’t know what. Even if he did, anything longer than a few words would probably come out choked and end in tears. This Christmas isn’t for crying. All of the darkest days are over.

“Merry Christmas, Tony,” Peter says.

Tony leans a little to the side to bump Peter’s shoulder. “Merry Christmas, kid.”

#irondad #peter parker #tony stark #morgan stark #pepper potts #irondad fic #irondad fanfic #my stuff

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zchaotic · 6 years ago

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Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. What is the real problem with its story?

I’m not sure if I am crazy for thinking that the Pokemon games, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon have done things with its story better than Sun and Moon.

The changes to the story made sense to me, (If you read my previous posts on the matter, you will get why I think that.) I liked how the Ultra Games humanized Lusamine and made her redemption MUCH more believable. I found Lillie’s growth to still be great, the Aether Family had closure to their drama.

Hau’s growth was great, RR was out there and amazing. Guzma having a redemption arc was good and I liked the concept that a pokemon is the main villain.

It confuses me when people hate on USUM’s story for these changes, it confuses me when they state problems with the story that were never there in the first place.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t see problems with USUM’s story in comparison to SM.

I personally see two big ones.

1. The Ultra Recon Squad and how they incorporated them and Necrozma into the story of SM.

The Ultra Recon Squad are essentially people from another dimension that came to Alola to study its light and find a way to stop Necrozma from going lose and stealing light from other worlds.

They were the people that Lusamine ended up making contact with instead of delving further into her search for Mohn and gave her an excuse to focus her efforts on something meaningful. They arrived on Alola through a Solgaleo/ Lunala and I can get the reason why the Nebby plot still happened. (Lusamine went Leeroy Jenkins on the Recon Squad and blew their plans up in smoke.)

I also get why Lusamine didn’t use the Solgaleo/ Lunala the Recon Squad have or why they didn’t give it to her. If they let that pokemon of light near Necrozma and if Necrozma went nuts... it would eat their only ride back to Ultra Megaopolis and their only way to get help.

That isn’t the problem with the Ultra Recon Squad, the things they do in the background are not the things they do on screen. Where all they talk about is backstory on Necrozma, things about their world and occasionally battle you.

They show up through out the story and never really do anything drastic on screen. Sometimes they show up in places that don’t really need them and they could have been used to take on a more active role.

As for Necrozma, like most pokemon in the “Upper” game, he is the central focus. In most of those other games, they show up at the end with little build up and do their part. In Emerald, it is because Aqua and Magma woke up Kyogre and Groudon and something needed to be done. In Platinum, Giratina shows up and drags Cyrus to hell.

Necrozma’s role is slightly better than Giratina’s... because he is the main villain of the game.

The problem though is outside of that eclipse in the beginning, he himself DOES not show up until the climax of the story. The plot revolves around people trying to stop Necrozma for various reasons and Lusamine agrooing Necrozma for her own selfish goals.

It isn’t bad of a story, but the build up comes from other characters and NOT from him.

He isn’t as established as people wanted and thus is kind of disappointing compared to SM where we had a lot of build up with Lusamine.

HOWEVER! In USUM, once Lusamine agroo’s Necrozma and the thing attacks Nebby, he... was....awesome! He ate Nebby, caused everything to go crazy... from an Ultra Beast outbreak to him draining Alola of its light and giving you an urgent reason to go into Ultra Space and beat Necrozma.

It is back to you the hero needing to stop the legendary, but that payoff was worth it. In addition, once we get to Necrozma and beat him, we get to learn about him. His lore, his connection to Z power and how he is the source. How he, like Solgaleo and Lunala can manipulate Ultra Wormholes.

Why Necrozma is going after light, etc.

In addition, Ultra Necrozma is a FAR superior climax boss compared to Mother Beast Lusamine. We actually fight the fused alien monstrosity this time and he gives us the best challenge we can want in a pokemon game... compared to the Mother Beast who just uses totem boosted pokemon.

Had USUM giving Necrozma more activity... or a passive way to making himself known, (Like frequent eclipses.) no one would be complaining about the story changing for the Necrozma plot, we would have had much more weight to seeing him as the big bad.

I did like Lusamine going Leeroy Jenkins and agrooing him, but the thing I mentioned would have made things over the top in crazy much sooner.

Speaking of which.

2. The Aether Family

While I like the changes to Lusamine and the family dynamic, the biggest problem with USUM is towards Poni Island and the focus on Lillie.

In SM, her and her family story dominated the plot and in USUM most of it is still there. (Because third versions keep most of the story there.)

In SM, it was nice to spend time with Lillie and form a connection with her. In USUM, we get less of that in the main story, starting with the removal of her moment in Exeggutor Island. I get why it was removed, the general thing of what she said in her feelings towards your character was moved to the end of RR’s episode and Lusamine was humanized so Lillie’s speech about her and Lusamine’s cute moment were rendered not needed.

However, it could have been tweaked to where you and Lillie talk about something else and have that bonding moment.

The next removal that is a problem is Lillie from the climax of the games main story. She was left with Lusamine, Guzma and the URS while you go fight Necrozma. There, she has a call out moment with Lusamine and we only got to see the aftermath.

I personally would have liked if we got both, Lillie tears down at Lusamine in a manner similar to SM and seeing Lusamine sit there and take it this time. But we were busy with Necrozma and miss out on Lillie’s big moment.

I liked that Lusamine listened to Lillie, but... it could have been better instead of becoming a trade off.

Then comes the Post Game, I liked Lusamine’s slow progression in her identity crisis, her resolution, her trying to understand her kids more instead of assuming she knows everything and post RR, seeing those frozen pokemon thawed out.

That... could have been added more, where we see Lusamine do something more than waving Gladion goodbye and letting Mohn. Seeing this woman go through some struggles, BUT this is pokemon where most of our reformed baddies are reformed just by the dialogue.

This story telling is as present in SM as it is in USUM, where we are TOLD things, but not shown thing!

SM and USUM story wise are meant to be looked at and used in a compare/ contrast so we can see a bigger picture to the more hidden things in both games.

SM, due to some of the basics we know of the characters and story.

USUM, due to giving us the bigger picture that SM tried to tell us/ show us and once again, proper closure to all these characters.

If you do that instead of dismissing USUM as a ruination of SM’s story, then you realize that combined... you got something pretty good in the story department by pokemon standards.

#USUM #What was wrong with the story.

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epicocityfic · 6 years ago

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Lillie is a Poorly-Written Character

Lillie, from Pokemon Sun and Moon, is a horribly written character.

There. I said it. I welcome pitchforks, but first, read the actual point I’m making.

That isn’t to say I always thought she was a bad character. Quite the contrary; early in the SM series, she was in the running for best character of the series. She had an engaging difference from her game counterpart in that she couldn’t touch Pokémon. This was pretty interesting in its own way, and provided an investment for her character arc.

It was after Shiron hatched that things very quickly fell apart.

It’s because of this that it baffles me when people tell me that she had one of the best-crafted character arcs in the series that we ever see, because I don’t see it, and it all comes down to one thing: Lillie lacks any character agency.

Compare her to both Lana and Kiawe, the far more superior written characters of the saga thus far. When it comes to their major strides (Z-Ring/Crystal for Lana, new Pokémon for Kiawe) each of them seeks it out and does their own work for it. They get help, but the decisions they make are entirely their own and are driven solely from themselves. They don’t even need a push to see it done or get it started.

By comparison, Lillie has none of that. At the beginning she can’t touch Pokemon, which is fine, but as more is revealed, the more her character is called into question. Namely, why, after four years, did Lillie not even think to find out the reason she lost her memories? It takes a random act of Nebby teleporting her to random places for it to finally kickstart her. It’s Ash going “hey, let’s get your memories back” that makes her even consider it.

For a character that’s so supposedly proactive and developed, this makes the development seem either handed to her at best or undeserved at worst.

This aspect of her character, lacking that agency that others have, really comes to a head in SM 49.

On the surface, here’s where I can see people liking Lillie. She makes a momentous stride in character development by being able to touch Pokémon again and seeming to gain this burst of courage. But all of that’s on the surface. If you just put those points on paper, yes, I agree, she sounds amazing. But when you look at the little details, a lot of it starts to sort of crumble apart.

It really starts in SM 48, when Lillie reverts being able to touch Pokémon completely. In and of itself, it’s clearly a move made to induce drama, but it’s what happens in SM 49 that not only erases any sort of progress she actually made on her own, and instead hands it to her.

Because she gets her memory back, and suddenly she can touch Pokemon again. That’s it. No hardship (and indeed, any hardship from before was erased, and thus can’t count). She can just suddenly touch Pokemon.

4 years of trauma ended because she got her memory back. 4 years of trauma ended because she recognizes a misunderstanding.

I feel that’s not quite how trauma works.

I’ve made the comparison elsewhere, but I liken the whole situation to that of Guy Cecil from Tales of the Abyss.

Like Lillie, Guy has an inability to touch something (women, in his case). Like Lillie, Guy didn’t have his memory of what triggered it. Like Lillie, Guy gets that memory back.

Unlike Lillie, Guy doesn’t get over it in 5 seconds after that memory is restored. Instead, he has to work through it.

Now yes, I know, “it’s a kid’s show”. But that’s no argument (and, indeed, the laziest one) for not allowing Lillie to work through her problems. They could have given her memories back and still had her work to overcome her issues. It could have even prevented the issue her character is facing now.

Bottom line for this: Lillie is a badly-written character because she doesn’t have any agency in her initial development. It’s handed to her.

This is fixed after that moment in SM 49 above. Instead, an entirely separate issue occurs: favoritism.

Since that episode, it’s become increasingly obvious that we, as the viewers, are meant to love and adore her. That everything she does is, in fact, worthy of praise.

Perhaps there’s a bit of hyperbole in there, but I think it’s apt.

To say this, I provide two key points of evidence: Lillie’s relationship with Lusamine, and her “development” since.

Since the former is a bit more complex than the latter, I’ll address the latter first. Namely, in this case that, like much of Sun and Moon, they only address the character when they feel they want to. That even after her big arc, Lillie gets an episode for herself...resolving an issue that never even existed.

Then we take more than 30 episodes before even bringing up that Lillie doesn’t have a goal. Any other character, even the equally-badly written Mallow, would never have taken this long to address it. Heck, we didn’t even know this bothered Lillie until, somehow, it becomes relevant!

Now, points to her for the battle against Tyranitar, but it still fuels this fact we need to love Lillie given we see her, an inexpert battler, take down (used loosely) a Tyranitar, and in a curb-stomp, no less. The Icium-Z is a given, but then she gets an Ice Stone, too? For no other reason than “Charjabug found it”.

It pushes the narrative that Lillie must be loved and deserves praises and gifts.

However, what reinforces this narrative is in how the story deals with Lusamine.

Obviously, in the games, Lusamine is abusive to Lillie, and so, seeing Lillie stand up against her mother offers catharsis.

In the anime, Lusamine...is a workaholic.

That’s really about it. Well-meaning, clearly a bit ditzy, and yes fails as a parent in some aspects but clearly loves her daughter even more than her own lifelong dream (given she protected her family). The narrative shows this. Yet, we’re also supposed to believe the narrative when Lillie constantly pushes her away, gets angry at her and, ultimately, never has any true reconciliation.

Hell, the major crux of her relationship with her mother is saying “Mother, I hate you!”, as though it’s justified.

But is it? Lillie hates her mother for three reasons: 1) She evolved Clefairy when Lillie didn’t want to. 2) She’s never around and is condescending, at worst, by calling her baby. 3) She allowed herself to be kidnapped by Ultra Beasts.

On the surface, you can see where the anime is trying to justify Lillie being in the right, but when the details come to light, it makes Lillie instead come off as a whiny brat.

1) Said Clefairy was Lusamine’s, and clearly okay with evolving. Where does Lillie have any point to really argue about it? 2) Most parents act that way towards their children around that age, but even ignoring that (and the separate can of worms that is the fact SM wants to treat its kids like kids but also adults), it’s Lusamine’s work that allows Lillie to live such a wonderful life. 3) She was only kidnapped to protect her family.

Yet, at the end of the day, we’re supposed to agree with Lillie, once more reinforcing that “love Lillie, she is right” mentality.

I realize I’ve gotten rather winded here, so I suppose I’ll wrap this up simply with a TL;DR.

Lillie is a poorly written character because for half of her “development” she lacks any agency in making it happen and only allows outside forces to control it. When she gets over that, however, the narrative tries to force us to agree with Lillie at every single turn, even if a clear look at the events point her out to really just be a brat who gets everything handed to her, but wants to complain anyway.

Dare to Be Silly,

Epicocity

#pokemon #sun and moon #lillie #character analysis #sorry not sorry #character writing #pokeani #anipoke

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dentos-wife · 7 years ago

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Alright I finished Ultra Moon! Game play was fun, the new totems were interesting I love the new outfits you can get (should have given us more darnit what are there two?!). And Ultra Space is fun probably the best thing about this game honestly.

But...anyone who knows me know I LOVED Moon, it actually has my favorite story in any Pokemon game as of late, a great cast and a wonderful plot. When USM was announced I had some concerns about how the plot would be handled. The only reason they had two games instead of one for their third game was because Nebby was two Pokemon they needed one for each. I was concerned due to Necrozma being the focus they’d kill the plot that made SM so good. Especially as when looking it prerelease material it seemed to be the same game with little touches here and there.

If you enjoyed the original and want to play more go for it there are some differences you might enjoy but if you never played an Alola version and want to jump in I would call the original better in terms of the world of Alola but Ultra better for gameplay so it depends on what matters to you. I generally prefer character and plot, so my recommendation goes to the original most would say the opposite.

My full review with spoilers for USM under the cut

Sun and Moon was not really your story, it was Lillie’s and the bond she had with Nebby. Ultra Moon is treated just like Moon until the very last half of the game, and then the new plot starts and it’s a total train wreck. See, if they were going to do a new plot you’d think they’d start it earlier and not have all the dialogue be the exact same because it doesn’t work with the new plot.

Here’s what I mean by the dialouge is the same at one point it’s hilarious because Hau beat Hala in USUM, but Gladion still states that Hau can't beat Hala when you first meet him. It’s just wrong and lazy. That a minor thing but then it cuts into story.

Lillie is still treated the exact same until everything starts and she’s roughly shoved aside. The touching moment between you and her on Executor Island? Gone. You go alone. She still does her Z form and all that but because Lusamine is so different (more on that later) it just feels pointless and all the power behind that scene is sucked away. She doesn’t even go to Ultra Space with you and obviously because her plot is chopped up she doesn’t go to Kanto either. She’s just there. And it would be okay because I get it different game but then why set her up to be the exact same as she was in the original games and then violently shove everything aside to make up for the new plot. It. doesn’t. work.

Lusamine....oh Lusamine, one of the most interesting villains we’ve ever had was reduced to wanting to go to Ultra Space to fight Necrozma because she has a hero complex and is selfish, same basic stuff we always had but it’s very hard to tell what they were trying to do with her. Because most of her dialogue is exactly the same and she still has the frozen Pokemon room and again it just doesn’t work. People are upset she’s now redeemable but she was in the first game too and at the very least it made sense in that one.

She lost her husband and due to it became an ultra beast obsessed Nilhelgo poisoned drug addict who continued to get more and more batshit insane the more she came in contact with said UB eventually becoming Mother Beast and needing a good old fashioned beat down and giving us one of the greatest confrontations and lines from her daughter.

In Ultra Moon she goes to ultra space to fight Necrozma and comes out. Lillie and her apparently talk while you’re fighting Necrozma and...that’s it.

Which again would have been fine if they didn’t set her up exactly like the original. Nilhelgo still shows up in Aether Foundation and you still battle the thing her lines are exactly the same. They don’t change until Lillie gets kidnapped.

Minimal changes usually do work, Platinum is the best example of that. But it doesn’t work with the plot SM had, USM should have gotten rid of the family drama then because that only works with Lusamine being the antagonist she was it doesn’t play as well with her sidelined role. Granted because she’s not toxined and Kanto’d you can unlock this but...that was also very underwhelming.

Hau on the other hand they tried to make this game more about him, and honestly they should have thrown Lillie’s plot out then because what they do do with him works. It was nice to see him beat his grandfather and being the “champion” you had to face instead of Kukui. That was all nice, but then they should have had him be involved in the main plot more. Then in post game it’s back to Lillie as Lusamine is kidnaped by Rainbow Rocket. And we see what we always wanted to see Lillie as a trainer! But it’s...meh not that powerful she’s only a double battle partner and then gives up and heals you along the way.

So what is the main plot? Necrozma fuzes with Nebby once it becomes Lunala (or Solgaleo if you’re playing Ultra Sun) retreats to Ultra Space and you with help of the Ultra Recon Squad’s Pokemon to get you there (otherwise they still do nothing) beat it and come back. In that Ultra Megalopolis thing right? Except man you’d think something with that name would be massive right? Even the prerelease material hyped it up. The distortion world was really cool! This though was a tower. That’s it. You can even do anything in the place it felt really bland. I half wonder if they planned to do something with it and then ran out of time.

Anyway Necromza retreats and you can catch it right before the league on the mountain. Little underwhelming really. The URS was more of a walking plot device then actual characters too which is a shame as I wanted to like them but they would appear talk plot and then leave. And Necrozma isn’t even evil like advertised (Surprise! Who’s surprised? No one.)

So yes game play and all that is fixed but the plot is damn terrible. Seriously, yes URS is new but for the first four islands: "Hello. Cryptic stuff about our world. Bye!" and then straight back to the Sun/Moon plot. Which shouldn’t be how it was, they should have done more with them everything hits too late and EVERYONE suffers because of it. Except Hau, Hau did pretty well.

As someone who likes to get invested in the characters and plot I’m very disappointed. The Looker and Anabel quest is gone which...is a damn shame. That also gave us some more world building about Alola. Instead you get this Rainbow Rocket which is alright I guess. Ghetsis and Corless having a showdown was neat and you see a little into the past villains with some text. Guzma gets something which is cool too but why replace something that expanded on Alola for this? Could you have had both somehow then? I know Pokemon doesn’t have DLC and thank goodness but eh RR plot should have without a doubt been DLC. Delta Emerald was a great post game plot, it expanded on the world gave our new people some character and we learned more about Hoenn. Compared to that Rainbow Rocket was....fanservice.

Since most people are into Pokemon for gameplay this will be fine I’m sure but as for me this game was basically my worst fears. I didn’t need to exist the same way BW2 didn’t need to exist (and as much as I rag on BW2 AT LEAST it was a sequel so there was nothing to ruin) I don’t agree with their choices and it was a total let down from BW but compared to this...which was a third game for a already pretty complete game. The one that NEEDED the fix was XY and it got nothing. I would have rather had Z over this honestly.

But the gameplay is solid at least, I’m just more of a involved with the world kind of person.

#usm critique #unpopular opinion #maybe anyway I don't truly know #tldr #if you want a feel for the region play the original #if you're 99% of the pokemon fanbase and only care about gameplay this will be fine for you

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magma-paint · 7 years ago

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Some Sun and Moon headcanons

Okay, mostly Guzma and Plumeria, but I’m gonna try and cover as many characters as possible. And of course, be advised for NSFW ones.

Professor Kukui is actually a distant cousin of Archie’s. They don’t talk often but when they do, Kukui is confused and disappointed that his cousin started an evil organization hellbent on expanding the ocean, but finds amusement that he’s dating the leader of his rival team, Maxie of Team Magma. But no, really, he’s glad his cousin has sought reform and found a partner he’s happy with. Kukui will still joke with Archie asking when the wedding is.

The closest thing Lillie had to a first Pokémon other than Nebby was a Ducklett named Odette. She let it go to be happy when it became a Swanna. She dearly misses Odette, though, and hopes maybe she’ll see it again.

Hau started watching El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera after finding out that Frida, like him, enjoys delicious sweet fried dough treats (churros for Frida, malasadas for Hau). Now he likes the show for the family dynamics and got Kukui to watch it as well. The two often joke who would win in a match: Kukui as the Masked Royal, White Pantera, El Tigre, or any other character adept at fighting.

Mallow would love to go on Master Chef or Hell’s Kitchen, but she’s a bit terrified of Gordon Ramsay in addition to absolutely admiring him.

Mina is a low-key hippie/stoner. That explains why she looks stoned the majority of the game. Although she’ll only tell her friends about essential oils and other medicinal herbs, especially hemp products that don’t come packaged with the bad psychoactive effects.

Sophocles and Molayne would be great at Cinema Sins. And Gaming Sins.

Gladion is a huge fan of Shadow the Hedgehog and you cannot tell me otherwise. Plumeria and Guzma are jokingly regretting the day they got him that plushie.

When the day comes that Kukui and Burnette announce they’re going to have a baby, Guzma will be the first and probably only one whose mind will go in the gutter, screaming “They had sex!” in his brain so loudly he has to look around to make sure no one can actually hear what’s going down in his mind.

When Guzma dissolved Team Skull, he watched people leave from the balcony of the Shady House. Once he was alone he snapped off his necklace and threw it away, just like how Ralph did in Wreck-It Ralph.

Type: Null (and Silvally to a certain extent) really doesn’t behave like a typical animal but it does have more canine mannerisms than anything. It also loves playing fetch.

Plumeria really does not like to talk about her family at all, having rejected them and making Team Skull her real family. Cliffnotes version is her mom was a raging alcoholic, her dad was a habitual cheater and pathological liar, and her two older sisters had mixed results. Her oldest sister, Chrysanthemum, did go on to become a successful fashion designer and own her own shop, and the other sister, Dahlia, pretty much ended up as high-school dropout, teen mom, freeloading trash with a rap sheet and won’t take any responsibility for her actions. But wait, if Chrysanthemum was the good girl, why doesn’t Plums just stay with her? Well, no matter what, Plumeria was always thrown to the wayside and she decided to look out for herself and eventually ran away from home to find some friends she could call family and treat just like a loving family. That, and Chrysanthemum scoffs at how horrible her family is and turned her nose up at Plumeria after finding out she got involved with Team Skull.

Lusamine has tried sexual advances on Guzma at one point. He wasn’t comfortable at all and post-Ultra Space he doesn’t want anything to do with her. No one knows exactly what happened but Guzma has confirmed she tried to get in his pants.

Lillie is actually a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and relates to Fluttershy the most. Hell, Gladion got her a big plushie for her birthday to make up for not taking her with him away from the Aether Foundation.

Mohn doesn’t reminisce about Lusamine and the kids because it could be likely he suffers from some degree of retrograde amnesia after his studies on the Ultra Wormholes.

Ever wonder what’s going on when no one dares go in the arcade on Royal Avenue or in the Hau’oli Shopping Mall? All of Team Skull is spending their coins on the DDR machine. DDR just seems to be a thing they do a lot and something you gotta be good at if you wanna join.

Also, everyone in Team Skull has their nails painted. Everyone. Female grunts have the pinkies painted hot pink, the other fingers with black, and the Skull X on the thumb, male grunts have the thumbs painted electric blue, the other fingers black, and the Skull X on the pinkie, Gladion has his painted all black but with a red edge like Shadow’s color pattern, Plumeria has her index, middle, and ring fingers painted black, her thumbs fuchsia, and her pinkies yellow, and Guzma’s all black or a special color of polish that accurately represents Dark Eco.

Plumeria will not let Guzma go out with certain Grunts while bored, drunk, or impulsive. The last time it happened he came home with his belly button pierced (he kept it, by the way).

Acerola is a HUGE fan of Homestuck, and Rose and Nepeta are her favorite characters.

Guzma has been found to give Nanu volumes of Garfield comic collections for his birthday. Nanu has also said they’re some of the best gifts he’s ever gotten and he’ll read them with his squad of Meowth and Persian.

Gladion will deliberately show Kill la Kill to Lusamine during one of their video chats while she’s undergoing treatment. Either it’ll cause some self-reflection or she’ll blow it off.

Hau has been known to sing “Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride” while on walks with his Raichu. The result is adorable.

Ilima doesn’t care if people refer to him as a boy or a girl, he even likes to watch people try to figure it out. But he utterly HATES people turning everything into a matter of identity politics.

Wicke’s cup size is a DD at MOST. She really doesn’t get why she’s told not to look up art of herself and even more confused when she DOES look up art of herself.

Calling Plumeria flat-chested will get your ass kicked. She’s between a B and a C cup, and to Guzma that’s fun enough to play with.

Wicke is the aunt of Velma from Scooby Doo. She wants to visit her niece as much as possible and learn about her adventures but working for the Aether Foundation shoots that plan hard in the foot. They keep in touch by mail, though, and Velma has at least one wall of her room she plasters with postcards from Alola.

Faba is low-key gay for Colress, but he’s perfectly content with just hanging out with him or “partaking in gentlemanly endeavors”, as he calls it. He’s too posh for the term “hanging out”.

Yes, Team Skull is considered a family, but Guzma isn’t exactly a Father to His Men. He tries, though, but since he came from a sh1t family it comes across more as the older brother but mostly boss role.

Hala won’t admit he adores the “You’re welcome!” song from Moana. Not even after he’s been caught singing it in public or by himself.

Olivia has heard these jokes about rocks before and she hates them, so stop it: “That’s a leaverite, you leave ‘er right there!” “Oh, that’s an Indian sex rock. You know, another fucking rock.”

Guzma hates wearing jeans or other pants that have a fly on them because the edge of the fly digs into his belly button.

Not an excuse for her behavior, but Lusamine’s obsession with beauty stems from her own mother’s obsession with glamour and beauty. She wanted Lusamine to be as pretty as she could possibly be, and Lusamine is the one who took it too far, where enough screws came loose and she concluded that the only thing capable of achieving God Tier levels of beauty were the Ultra Beasts. Cue insanity after research on the Beasts became her undoing.

On that note, Lusamine is the daughter of Queen Barbee from Panty and Stocking. She took hairstyle tips and fashion advice from Stocking and Weiss Schnee, respectively, growing up, went to college with Gol and Maia Archeon and their insanity rubbed off on her, and took parenting advice from Medusa Gorgon and Ragyo Kiryuin.

Lana was endearingly nicknamed “Ponyo” as a baby. Only her family knows about it, though.

Kiawe has seen quite a number of burns throughout his life. By now he’s practically indifferent to any new ones he sustains and has even kept a record of how many he’s gotten. Currently he has dealt with 209.

Nanu once took an Espurr under his care and Acerola fell in love with it so much he eventually entrusted it to her.

Hala isn’t just Hau’s grandpa, he’s considered to be everyone’s grandpa, because wouldn’t it be cool to have a grandpa who specializes in Fighting Types, is an island kahuna, AND will mentor and help you become one of the best trainers ever? And still give it to you straight what you need to fix?

Plumeria has some of the most miserable periods ever, even on birth control. We’re talking an emotional trainwreck where she’ll either ragequit or cry at the drop of a hat and some of the worst cramps imaginable. When that happens, stay away and let either the Grunts or Guzma take care of it. The Grunts will usually try to make her some herbal tea or even cheer her up with some artwork and a pillow and blanket nest she can curl up in. Guzma makes sure to get back as quickly as he can with dark chocolate, the biggest toy panda he can find, and DVDs of South Park and Panty and Stocking.

It actually takes a lot to get Guzma to cry, but thinking about how Lusamine threw him away in Ultra Space and the fact he’ll never live up to his father’s expectations are the fastest shortcuts.

Wicke has tried to get Lusamine some help in regards to how she treats her children, but it usually got brushed off or denied. To say Wicke was tired of seeing Lillie and Gladion be treated like dolls, toys that could be easily disposed of when interest was gone, is the biggest understatement of the century.

Team Skull used to have rollerskates/rollerblades as part of the uniform. The lack of decent stretches of level ground where they could actually be useful resulted in the retirement of them, but they’ll still rollerblade near Po Town.

Lillie plays piano, and her favorite song to play is Chocolat. She had no idea it was from the Panty and Stocking soundtrack until Gladion pointed it out and then he had to explain the series.

Someday the news will cover what happened with Lusamine, which will bite the Aether Foundation pretty hard in the ass.

Mina has made so much art that Hapu has had to let her rent out a shed on her property to store it all.

Kukui would love to see the moves Precipice Blades, Origin Pulse, and Dragon Ascent in action. Even more so in Primal status. Although Burnette jokes that he wouldn’t be able to survive the intense nerdgasm that would ensue.

Hau doesn’t just have an appetite for malasadas, he also likes orange poached squash. Hell, he could eat a whole pan of it at once if you let him.

Mallow preaches that you don’t put pineapple on pizza. Olivia and Kiawe disagree.

One time Plumeria made better-than-sex cake for dessert, and Guzma half-jokingly and half-seriously said “Challenge accepted” to the namesake.

After becoming champion and their final battle, the player character will INSIST Guzma to stay at their place or Hala’s so he can get back on the road to becoming a great trainer and keep him out of his parent’s house and the toxic environment that created his anger issues. They care about this dork.

Hapu’s Mudsdale is named Big Macintosh and is capable of saying only one human word: “Eeyup.”

Although Nanu is a cat person, he really dislikes people shaming Absol for its tendencies and its infamy. He’ll take one under his wing in a heartbeat if he finds one.

As a little kid, Acerola was TERRIFIED of the movie Coraline. Now it’s one of her absolute favorites and what may have helped her gravitate toward Ghost types.

Plumeria’s Salazzle is kind of a brat. She’ll bite at your ankles if she doesn’t know you or if she doesn’t get what she wants, Grunts have complained of stomach problems caused by drinking from cups they left unattended as she left poison spit in the ones she drank out of, she has burned Guzma at least once when she tried to jump in the bath with him, and on occasions has given her own trainer poisonings, scratches, and burns when Plumeria tried to get her off the bed. But if anything threatens a member of Team Skull, it’ll probably be the last thing they do. She’ll also try to seduce you into giving her your food.

Guzma’s first Pokémon was his Golisopod. He caught it as a Wimpod when he was a kid. Every day he’d go out to the nest to try and lure the bug out with some berries and try to catch it, but usually with no success. One day he went back out there to get his mind off a recent whooping he got but all the times he failed to catch the Wimpod just kind of caved in on him and he sunk down by the hole in the rocks crying. The Wimpod came out, nudged his hand, and crawled in his lap to try and console him. As Guzma left to go home it followed him and since then they’ve been inseparable.

Burnette has partaken in the pet-shaming fad on the internet with Kukui’s Rockruff once. The cheeky little puppy had a sign propped against him that read: “I buried my human’s Z-Ring on the beach at low tide and he couldn’t get it until the tide went out again.”

Cynthia and Grimsley often get into arguments with Steven and Wallace over who’s the better Elite Four/Champion couple.

Red and Blue aren’t dating in the Alola games. It’s more of a “take your frenemy on vacation” outing.

When Lillie and Gladion were younger, they asked Wicke if she could be their new mama. By the end of the day Wicke’s chest was hurting from crying so hard.

Burnette’s team consists of Pokémon she brought from Unova; a Musharna, a Gothorita, and a Beeheem. The outlier is a Comfey she acquired when she and Kukui got married.

Sophocles’ Togedemaru thinks he was destined to be an alarm clock. Every morning at 5 he jumps up on Sophocles’ pillow and starts chittering loudly, quickly hopping as he does to emulate a vibrating cell phone.

Guzma’s Golisopod is highly protective of his trainer to the point he will attack anyone who tries to hurt him. This overprotectiveness stems from when it was a Wimpod and it couldn’t do anything about Guzma getting beat by his father with golf clubs. It really wanted to do something to protect his trainer and once it evolved it finally could, although it seems like a vast overcompensation. The two people that Golisopod will be very dangerous to approach when in the vicinity are Guzma’s father (if that bastard tries to lay a hand on that boy again this bug will fuck his sh1t up) and Lusamine (he didn’t even trust her to begin with and he was right all along).

Type: Null (and Silvally) loves having its belly rubbed. It even curls up next to Gladion while he sleeps.

Ryuki (the Dragon user who appears as a challenger for the Champion Title) used to be the Trial Captain at Poni’s Abandoned Trial Site. He quit the position to pursue his rock star career and by the time he returned he was no longer eligible to retake that position. Thus, the Trial Site remains without a Captain.

Guzma really doesn’t like Kahili or her guts. He always lost to her when they were kids because her Bird Pokémon held advantage over his bugs, and after his last battle with her she said he could train until he dropped dead from exhaustion but he would never be good enough and that he was absolutely pathetic. Kahili really didn’t care how talented Guzma was, if he never placed first in any competition he entered, he wasn’t worthy in her eyes. Not even the Dawn Stone he won for his first ever victory was warranted. To Guzma, Kahili was just like his father and that’s why he refuses to have anything to do with her.

Mohn is actually pretty damn strong physically and used to be in really good shape. After getting married, having kids, and the stress from his studies on the Ultra Wormholes, however, the pounds started packing on. Eating all those Poke Beans doesn’t really help.

Lillie made a lemon cake for Lusamine to commemorate her 4th consecutive week on the mend and showing good progress in recovery. Lusamine loved it and broke down into tears after Lillie revealed that Burnette taught her how to bake, going on to profusely apologize and vent her regret for not teaching Lillie or Gladion anything about baking or something they may have been interested in.

Tapu Cocoa has a similar history as that of hot chocolate’s evolution in Mexico, but what helped shape Tapu Cocoa is the fact it was a drink created in honor of the Tapus. Koko, Lele, Bulu, and Fini were so pleased with the respective concoction prepared for them as tribute by the mortals, that each kind of Tapu Cocoa was adjusted and perfected for consumption by all. On Melemele, the drink is prepared with a splash of coconut; Akala, often served with a strawberry tea cake or with crushed raspberry; Ula’ula, prepared with chile peppers; and on Poni, prepared with orange peel or served with a macadamia nut cookie.

The only way that Kukui can get away with the assumption that the Masked Royal is someone entirely different is that he can pull of the character well enough that the illusion stands. Unfortunately the player character can see right through it (he shouldn’t have spoke with his usual speaking pattern when the player got to Royal Avenue).

Headcanon voices of the Tapus: Koko’s voice sounds similar to the Guardian of the Cave of Souls’ from The Book of Life, portrayed by Eric Bauza; Lele’s voice would sound similar to a very serious Pinkie Pie from Friendship is Magic, portrayed by Andrea Libman; Bulu’s voice would be similar to that of the Cave of Wonders, portrayed by Frank Welker; Fini’s voice would be reminiscent of Rarity’s from Friendship is Magic, portrayed by Tabitha St. Germaine.

Guzma’s Golisopod and Plumeria’s Salazzle have an interesting take on the friendly rivalry relationship. They’ll fight each other and give each other sh1t, but they’ve got each other’s backs. Mess with one, you mess with both. And if left to their own devices they can restrain each other if needed (although Salazzle is the one doing the most restraining).

Golisopod, Salazzle, Rockruff, Silvally, and to a certain extent, RotomDex, are on the cock block squad; Golisopos and Salazzle to Guzma and Plumeria, Rockruff to Kukui and Burnette, Silvally to Gladion, and RotomDex to the player.

Kahili comes across as pushy and having no time for anyone’s antics, but in reality she pushes herself to perfection way too hard and blows off people who try to help her. She’s so focused on trying to be the best in the golfing world that when she eventually cracks under the pressure she’ll have no idea how to get back on track or reach out for help.

The tattoos that the Team Skull higher-ups wear are actually made from a cosmetic paint that’s highly durable and can last for a whole year. Hence why they easily disappeared post-game, Guzma and Plumeria scrubbed them off (and it took 2 and a half hours straight to scrub them off).

Faba can admittedly be very cocky about his position, which he may have been able to get away with while Lusamine was running the Aether Foundation, but Gladion can easily one-up him and put him in his place.

The whole squatting thing among Team Skull actually started with Guzma. The guy suffers from quite a bit of back pain, which stems from all the times he was beaten by his father. His hunched over posture, not only a sign of someone who’s been browbeaten to the point their self esteem has sunk to the lowest doldrums, is the result of poorly set broken bones that have since healed over (Plumeria and especially Hala hound him on getting into a therapist to get that fixed as soon as possible) and when he does stand up straight his back cracks very loudly. While hunching over helps the pain a bit, in the long run it makes it worse; the pain also seems to worsen while sleeping in a weird position, slouching while sitting, or during sex on some occasions. The only thing that really seems to help his back outside of Plumeria cracking his spine back in place while lying face down is squatting down when he needs a break from standing. Some Grunts asked why he squatted down when he needed to rest and he just responded “It helps my back and I just think it’s cool.” Cue the Grunts joining him and soon it was a thing all across the team.

The Seafolk Village in Poni Island takes a lot of cues from Adabat from Sonic Unleashed as the two locations are in close proximity (at least a 5 hour boat trip). Probably explains why the night theme sounds like it was inspired by the Jungle Joyride night stages.

The old lady in the trailer that Plumeria and some other Team Skull members live in post-game is actually a very grandmotherly family friend of one of the Grunts. She’s helping them get back into good standing.

Mimikyu could disguise itself as any Pokémon it pleases if it wanted, but it sticks with imitating Pikachu because of it being the mascot and because it wants to nab a share of all that glory and attention.

After battling Lana, the reason why she doesn’t pop up again until after the player is crowned Champion is because she took the boat near her house to go look for Kyogre. She didn’t find it, but she made friends with a lot of Water Pokémon out there.

Despite Plumeria sounding irritated with Guzma post-game, she’s actually worried sick about him. When she does meet up with him again she can’t even pretend to be mad at him, she’s just so happy he’s okay and is actually brought to tears when he reveals he’s taken Hala up on his offer and is back on the road to becoming a great trainer again.

Personal Headcanon! Based on my experiences at the Hau’oli Battle Buffet, I don’t think my character could actually eat 5-10 servings of a single item in one go (whenever I see text like “You got _ plates of (whichever food)” I tend to think the plate size reflects the average plate size at American buffets—they’re big, about 12” in diameter). So, I like to think that once I’ve gotten my haul I actually share my food with my team.

Adding onto an earlier headcanon, Plumeria and Kahili didn’t like each other at all either especially because of his past with the latter. After Plums went through the Elite 4, Kahili mentioned Guzma and that Plumeria could do better than him. Plumeria got so angry about her attitude that she had to give her a verbal dressing down and once Kahili found out that Guzma got HURT by his own parents for losing, she actually felt sick to her stomach after remembering everything she ever said. She still fears it’s too late to apologize even behind her cutthroat demeanor. And if she attempts, man will Plumeria have to serve as the most patient mediator ever. Apologizing to Plums is one thing, apologizing to Guzma is another.

Gladion won’t admit it, but he likes it when Hau invites him over to his house. One time he brought over his console and some Sonic games for a sleepover and it was the most fun he’s ever had.

Olivia has encouraged Mallow to make her own YouTube channel where she makes videos about her latest recipes. While Mallow hasn’t made her channel at all—besides, she’s too busy with her duties as a Trial Captain--she still wonders about how well her show would do if she made it. She’d call it “Mallow’s Kitchen” or “Sugar, Spice, and Delish Tamato Slice!”

Kiawe would never have considered putting Wyoming on his bucket list of places to travel to had someone not mentioned Yellowstone National Park and the supervolcano slumbering beneath it. Now he’s gotta check that sh1t out.

Colress is a secret agent for the Aether Foundation.

Ilima was bumped up a couple grades because of his maturity and willingness to accept greater responsibilities as a Trial Captain.

Plumeria knows firsthand that the “skinny penis” joke associated with Guzma is a flat out lie.

Wicke jokingly checked out some Steven Universe episodes at Faba’s recommendation. One season later, she became infatuated with the series.

Guzma has a very bad habit of lying to his mother and he hates himself for it. The reason why it sprung up as bad as it did is because his mother, while well-meaning, is really none the wiser about her husband’s behavior. Mother asks about his bruises? Guzma says he fell on Route 3 even though the bruises came from, well, the obvious. Mother asks why Guzma can’t get out of bed? He says his stomach hurts even though he was hit so hard last night he was still in too much pain to get up. Mother asks about Team Skull? Guzma says he had no involvement even though the news HAD to have covered them at some point and may have footage of him. Even if he did tell the truth growing up what could she even do about it? Sit his dad down and talk about what’s going on and try to resolve it? Guzma still loves his mom, but he’s starting to get tired of her laze-faire attitude and naivety that would make Lianne Cartman look like she’s got her ducks in a row.

Ilima makes either sugar cookies or macadamia nut cookies when friends come over for tea. They just seem like just the kind of fancy cookies that would be served with tea, in his opinion.

Hau faced Hala first in his run through the Elite 4 and convinced him to go all out against him. Considering that Hala unintentionally scared Hau when he was little and refused to unleash his fury since then in battle, Hala took that challenge. At the end of their battle, both of them were crying as Hau went to hug him; Hau was proud of his grandpa for unleashing his full fury in battle, and Hala was proud of his grandson for how far he’s come and bringing his best.

Mina has always had paint in her hair. Finger paint, acrylic, oil, you name it. When you get super artistic from a young age you never really pay attention to where your painting tool goes outside of the canvas.

Guzma’s hair is hella SOFT. It’s like petting a cloud made of very plush microfleece. To keep it that way, Plumeria lets him use her shampoo and conditioner and he makes sure to wash his hair every other day.

Molayne likes to think of the frequency of his friends cussing on a scale from 1 (no swearing here) to South Park (they swear so much you’d think they need their mouth washed out with soap). Molayne ranks about a 3 (some swearing, but only as needed), Kukui is about a 4 (might need a stronger word on occasion for things), Sophocles ranks about 4, Hala ranks about 3, Hau is a 1, Nanu is a 6 (frequent low-key swearing to infrequent strong swearing) Plumeria is a 9 (uses stronger words very frequently), and Guzma ranks at South Park (he swears a LOT). The player character… well it depends on who you are, I guess.

The best place to get Tapu Cocoa is at the Observatory. Especially at dusk.

Guzma and Plumeria rarely get completely unclothed for sex because their outfits are just too comfortable. All they really gotta do is kick off their shoes and socks, Guzma will get rid of his glasses, off go Plumeria’s pants and sports bra, and Guzma just has to yank the front of his pants down, pull the crotch of her panties aside and stick it in. Plumeria also pulls her shirt up over one or both boobs for him to grab. Sex after showering or bathing only really calls for Plumeria to clip her hair back. Condoms only used to protect against STD’s since she’s on the pill (this is the only relationship they’ve ever been in, but you never know).

Sorry, Grunts, you may be sexually attracted to Plumeria or Guzma (it seems to be a rite of passage for a Grunt to find themselves attracted to either of them during their involvement) and you can fantasize about fucking all you want, but sex between the Grunts and the higher ups is off limits.

If you want to know how bad Ultra Space affected him, Guzma has had to confide in Hala and Nanu about a particularly bad nightmare he had one night about being tentacle raped by Lusamine as the Mother Beast. Sure, he’s had nightmares for a while as a result but damn…

Professor Willow is Guzma’s biological father. Because Guzma’s mother isn’t the most trustworthy in long-term relations, she was seeing Willow on the sideline while already in a relationship with the man she would later marry. Guzma was then conceived by Willow in a time frame so close to sex with the husband that the mother and her husband both thought Guzma was of the man we see in the game. The mother continues to see Willow on the sideline while pregnant and he’s well aware of her having an affair with him and tries to get her to just come clean to her husband and he’ll help mediate the fallout. She really doesn’t think it’s that big a deal. Willow takes her to the hospital and at birth it can be seen that Guzma’s hair is a dead giveaway of his parentage (black and white, just like Willow’s). The husband eventually finds out and puts two and two together when Willow comes over to see the baby. The mother gets caught with her cheating but still treats it like no big deal, Willow is forced to stay out of his son’s life indefinitely, and Guzma looks forward to a miserable life with this man as his father. If Willow could do it over again, he would’ve just walked right up to the husband, told the truth about the affair, and accept a role as a single father to raise Guzma on his own once he was born. Professor Willow misses him so much and he knows he’s going to have a lot to talk about with Guzma when he finally sees him again.

While going through some of Plumeria’s music, Guzma and Gladion found a couple of ‘N Sync CDs. Wondering why Plumeria listens to them a lot they decide to play them for the lulz. The next day they’re in the nearest media store looking for their own copies.

THIS WAS 10 PAGES OF HEADCANONS IN MICROSOFT WORD WHAT THE FUCK???

#pokemon sun and moon #headcanons #long-ass post

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mrauthor3ds · 8 years ago

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Things I hope to see in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon

Time for early wishlists! Assuming that Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon are indeed sequels to Sun/Moon, what kind of things would I like to see in them...

1: Lusamine and Nihilego’s redemption arc

I’m sure a lot of us hope to see that Lusamine is making an effort to atone for her insane actions in Sun/Moon. Perhaps it can also give us more insight on when and how she lost it. But I also hope to see that specific Nihilego redeem itself, too.

I’m of the belief that that Nihilego, the one that was hanging out next to her in Ultra Space and was supposedly in that Beast Ball, is the same on that appeared at Aether Paradise twice, and could be the one that applied its neurotoxin to Lusamine long before the story began (judging by how long Gladion stayed at Route 8′s motel, I’d say about 2-3 years prior).

And keep in mind, after Nebby got Lusamine and Nihilego to de-fuse, Nihilego went back into the Beast Ball, and likely got brought back to Alola with her. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lusamine was tasked with making sure Nihilego doesn’t try to cause more trouble, and maybe eventually, that Nihilego will truly become an ally to us.

2: Mohn gets a role in the story

We’ve seen Mohn managing Poké Pelago, yes. We also hear the name as that of the leading professor on Ultra Space studies. And there’s way too many in-your-face hints that he’s the husband of Lusamine who got unexpectedly pulled into Ultra Space and was never seen again. Given what tends to happen to Fallers - people who have gone through Ultra Wormholes - as we see with Anabel, it’s easy to guess that Mohn suffered amnesia when he reappeared where Poké Pelago is now.

So I’m sure a lot of people wanted to know why we can’t just bring him to Gladion and Lillie to resolve things sooner. Well, perhaps Mohn can make an appearance in USUM’s story and maybe clear that up. Maybe he’ll remember scant tidbits about his time in Ultra Space, which can provide some help to us.

And who knows, maybe his wife and children might not be able to fully restore his memory, but they can be happy that he’s still himself in spirit. I know that’s not quite the happy ending that most people would want, but I think that would still be happy enough, and it would give a subtle but important lesson in the process.

3: A different Team Skull

And by that, I don’t mean make the Trial Captains of Sun/Moon be its members. We’re talking if this is a sequel. No, I mean a completely different Team Skull, with slightly different duds and perhaps a more serious mission. They can still retain the goofy quirks of the previous Team Skull, but with a SERIOUS MISSION.

...Likely involving Necrozma. After all, one of the reasons everyone suspected the Aether Foundation in Sun/Moon is because their white/gold color scheme goes with Solgaleo and Lunala. Well, Team Skull had an emphasis on black, which is clearly Necrozma’s primary color. Also, the “necro“ in its name can relate to the skull of Team Skull (death and all). So...yeah.

But who would lead this Team Skull? Well, one Punk Girl in the trailer park near Tapu Village tells that Team Skull was originally founded by a disgraced kahuna, but was deposed by the wrath of the tapu. This is likely long before Guzma rebuilt the gang. Perhaps that disgraced kahuna can make himself known here in USUM.

I’m sure the previous Team Skull of Sun/Moon won’t be happy to hear about a Team Skull appearing. Guzma and Plumeria especially might not be happy about this. You know, it can be sort of like the new Team Plasma of Black2/White2, but under a different management altogether.

4: An Ice-type specialist

One of the fascinating things about Alola is that there’s a specialist for just about every type. The Trial Captains cover Normal, Water, Fire, Grass, Electric, Ghost, and Fairy, the kahunas have Fighting, Rock, Dark, and Ground, Kahili has Flying, Molayne has Steel, Guzma has Bug, Plumeria has Poison, Faba has Psychic, and Ryuki has Dragon.

...But no Ice-type?

Okay, I know Sina has Ice-type Pokémon, but she’s only battled in the Battle Tree. That and Dexio is another Psychic specialist, so I’ll have to count them as complete outsiders (though Ryuki might also count as an outsider).

Point is, there’s a lot of things in Sun/Moon that beg for an Ice user to appear in these games that clearly put focus on Necrozma. For instance...

Post-championship, an Aether employee in Secret Lab A will comment on how Pokémon moves were used for cryostasis on the Pokémon in Lusamine’s “collection“. This makes me wonder...the possibility of a high-ranking Aether member, alongside Faba and Wicke, who specialized in Ice-types and was ordered at some point to deep-freeze all those Pokémon, as well as the three Type: Null...and afterward s/he left.

Again, it seems that Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon will be putting focus on Necrozma. In Refresh, when you pet the horn above Necrozma’s face, your hand will freeze. But it’s not Ice-type? Still, that gives me another theory. What if that same Aether member who was told to freeze those Pokémon defected to this new Team Skull, which is trying to harness Necrozma’s power for...something? Wouldn’t be the first time the new team got an Ice user while harnessing the power of a cold legendary Pokémon - I speak of course of Zinzolin in New Team Plasma (BW2 again).

Either way, in Aether or in Team Skull, I really hope that s/he has some prominent blue on the outfit.

5: Hau as the new Melemele kahuna

I know, I’ll be taking a lot of cues from Black2/White2 for this. But what if Hau finally succeeds Hala as the new kahuna of Melemele Island by this time? This is of course a similar vein to how the rival Cheren became the first Gym Leader you face in the sequel.

Not sure if he’d have a single type specialty, or if he’ll be anything like Blue (as the Viridian City Gym Leader in Gold/Silver) and use a few Pokémon of completely different types. You know, like say...Flareon, Vaporeon, and Leafeon.

6: Don’t replace the island challenge with Gyms!

Seriously, I doubt that Alola is going to just give up the island challenge altogether in favor of the classic Gym formula. I mean, come on! The island challenge is one of the things that made Sun/Moon so unique to the series!

Yes, I know. Alola has a Pokémon League now. But that doesn’t mean it has to use Gyms just like all the other regions. It can still work its traditional island challenge into it.

So in short, keep the island challenge. Make new trials for this time around, sure. Maybe see some new kahunas as well (likely just replacing Hala and Olivia, since they’re Elite Four members now).

7: New Alolan variants

I know some people were bummed to only see variants for Gen-1 Pokémon. Well, this can be a chance to add Alolan variants from other generations! Might probably be just Gen-2 ones, though. Since the Gen-1 games came to Virtual Console leading up to Sun/Moon, I believe that Gold/Silver on VC will lead up to Gen-2 variants.

Wouldn’t be new. After all, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire added a lot more Mega Evolutions. So...

What would you think? Lately, I’ve been toying with the idea of a Fire/Ice-type Girafarig, so it can get a new duality to play around with. Or maybe a Grass/Fire-type Sunflora, as a result of getting so much sun in Alola.

Anyway, I feel we should look at the Pokémon that currently can’t be found within Sun/Moon for ideas on new variants, especially since Masuda said that we’d see Pokémon in USUM that can’t be found in Sun/Moon.

8: More signature moves

This can be a chance to give some Pokémon their own new signature moves, like Mimikyu. For such a standout Pokémon, it doesn’t have an exclusive move that it can call its own. Maybe a Ghost- or Fairy-type mimicry of Pikachu’s famed Electric attacks? And Nihilego stands out even among the Ultra Beasts, but it doesn’t have its own unique move. This can be a chance to truly give Pokémon like them their turn in the bigger spotlight.

Along with this, I also hope to see a few more unique Z-Crystals. You know what I mean, right? The Z-Crystals that give exclusive Z-Moves to certain Pokémon. What Pokémon do you think deserve their own special Z-Moves? Silvally? Nihilego? Lemme know.

9: More clarification on the Ultra Beasts

The reports that Wicke provides on the Ultra Beasts in the post-game do give a few neat details on how SUPER WEIRD they are. But I hope we see EVEN MORE information on the Ultra Beasts, like how they came to be. Perhaps Lusamine and Mohn can give more insight?

10: Visit Ultra Space

Yup. Being able to access pockets of Ultra Space during your journey. Perhaps you can meet Pokémon that have hidden abilities in there, similar to the Hidden Grottos in Black2/White2. Well, that and be part of the main story.

11: Story battles with special twists

So we know that Totem Pokémon, and Fused Lusamine’s team, get stat boosts right at the start of the battles, which can set them apart from normal battles. But apparently, that’s not good enough for SOME people. Perhaps there can be other twists in some story battles, like against the antagonists. For instance, that suggested Ice-type specialist could do something that neutralizes Ice-type’s weaknesses during some battles. Or, someone could make it possible for all of his/her Pokémon to use their Z-Moves, rather than just one. Or someone whose Pokémon are all Mega Evolved. You know?

12: Difficulty toggle

So clearing Black2/White2 will let you access different difficulties. Easy Mode to reduce opponents’ levels, and Challenge Mode to raise their levels. Perhaps something like that can be enabled for Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon...though preferably without needing some keys.

And...that’s all I can think of at the moment. What about you? What features - whether story or gameplay - to do you hope to see in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon?

#pokemon #sun #moon #ultra sun #ultra moon #sequel #speculation #ultra beasts #nihilego #lusamine #team skull #necrozma #black2 #white2

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agent-7-at-your-service · 8 years ago

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Future Plot: Project Titanomachy - Chapter 25

(( Camille belongs to @inklingleesquidly

Nebula belongs to @myzzy and @agenttwo

Agent Blueshift belongs to @myzzy

Depiction of Agent 2 belongs to @agenttwo

Celeste and Willow (mentioned) belongs to @alpinesquid

Arsenic (mentioned) belongs to @a-demo-of-a-hero

Chirhio (cameo) belongs to @petit-blu-inkling

Telemachus, Kitzeh, and Justinian belongs to me ))

Nebula, Justinian, the Frosted Stars, and the Galaxa Gems have managed to be escorted to a hospital, and it took time for them to recover.

Willow cautiously made her way to Mt. Olympus through the secret passage in Octo Valley. There was no word from Hephaestus, Celeste, and Arsenic about completing the quick passage between Mt. Olympus and Octo Valley. They were probably not finished yet.

Agent 7 was taking a break from the situation for the sake of his family.

Telemachus, Hermes, Anteros, and Kitzeh were off in Octo Valley after hearing about a fourth meteor fortress crashing in an Octarian Refugee Camp.

Agent 0 and Suzy were given the order to prepare the Argus Initiative's forces for tomorrow as the Titan Meteor drew closer. The civilians of Inkopolis were already evacuating to the safe sectors with one of them being Shee-Booyah.

Ebisu First Care, Alexandria District - Inkopolis - 8:00 AM

Blueshift and Agent 2 stayed in Alexandria District to watch over their daughter. The parents of the Frosted Stars and the Galaxa Gems visiting their children when they got the news. They planned to take the kids out of the hospital immediately after their recovery, and they did. The Frosted Star and Galaxa gave their thanks to Camille before they were sent back home. So Justinian and Nebula were the only ones still in the recovery room.

Camille was sitting on a bench and looking at Athena's spear. She wondered why it didn't allow her in her Olympian form yesterday. She didn't like to slow down think like this, but this rare for her. As for the Key to the Underworld that she stole from Chaodis, she returned that to Telemachus who was the Champion of Hades.

Soon someone approached her in a yellow wisp of flames. As it materializes into a cloak of animals skins, mostly the skins of wildcats, it was the same wraith-like maiden from the museum. But from all the memories Camille has been through personifying Princess Camilla, she can figure out who this maiden really is.

"I know who you are now," Camille began, "But I'm still wondering why you’ve chosen me for this role."

"You leave an impression that I like," the maiden replied. She then sat next to Camille. "And there is something you have that I also like: a personality."

All Camille can do in reply was smirk and say this: "There has to be a better reason than that--" She looked at the maiden and addresses her name: "--Princess Camilla Penthesilea."

The maiden removes her hood to reveal the Amazon's face. She still appeared the same with her tan skin, beige ink hair, and green heterochromia eyes. She smiled at her.

"Well, then I should leave out that you're 'the fastest squid alive'." Princess Camilla giggles. "Camille, it's because I see some potential heroism in you that has yet to be shown. You want to move on in becoming a racer, and that's true is it not?"

Camille hasn't forgotten that, and she nods.

"A call to adventure should never be ignored." Princess Camilla sounded serious. "And you won't allow those Titans and Typhon to just destroy your world and all that live in it, would you?"

"Now that you mentioned it, yeah..." With all the things that happened to Camille so far while taking up the role as Zeus's and Athena's champion, she wouldn't say no. "And I really deserve a break."

Princess Camilla sighed blissfully. "The way you behave and act is very......how should I say this..... unorthodox for a hero. But then again, you've made it this far. A long break that you deserve will come after this ends."

"So how about this issue?" Camille shows Athena's spear, raising an eyebrow. "I tried to twirl it and get into Olympian form, but the Hermes and Willow are telling me that it's all out of energy or something."

"That... I can't help you with..." Princess Camilla shakes her head. "Athena never warned about this happening, but I'm sure it is probably energy being overused."

Camille changed the topic. "Do you think Athena would've been a good friend to me?"

".....I'm sure she would've love to see you." Princess Camilla remembers her times with Athena before the Trojan War.

Soon nurses were seen coming into the recovery rooms to check on Nebula and Justinian who were now awake. Blueshift and Agent 2 were glad to see that their daughter is okay. Princess Camilla quickly vanished.

Camille took notice and enter the room to quickly embrace Nebula.

"You had me worried, Nebby!" Camille exclaimed.

"Careful Miss Squidly!" A nurse warned. " They just woke up from their recovery.

"Oh...sorry..." Camille let's go.

"It's alright Cammy." Nebula gave a weak smile. "But it seems Chaodis was using us to lure you in."

Camille cringed but then gave a smile. "Don't worry, I gave him a what-for for stabbing me in the back."

"Well, he deserved it," Justinian thanked Camille.

"So what happened to the Trident and Staff?" Camille noticed they didn't have them in their possessions.

"They're here." Nebula puts her hand in front of her and water vapors gather and materialized into Poseidon's Trident.

Justinian did the same, taking out a pomegranate seed and it quickly grows into Persephone's staff with Demeter's garden bag tied to it.

"So the Frosted Stars and the Galaxa Gems finally recovered?" Nebula asked Blueshift.

"They did, sweetie," Blueshift answered, "And they left their thanks to Camille."

"And Justinian and I should be thanking her too." Nebula smiled at Camille.

Camille then asked one of the nurses. "How long until they're able to leave the hospital."

"12 more hours," the nurse replied.

"Nebula, sweetie." Agent 2 sat close to her daughter. "You should rest. Leave the Titan situation to Camille and your friends."

Nebula nods. "Alright, mom." She then looked at Camille. "Do it for everyone here in Inkopolis."

"I will." Camille is confident.

Telemachus charged into the room in his normal appearance, wearing the same modified Hero Uniform. But it was Madoka's personality that was coming in to report to Camille.

((Background music: https://youtu.be/CY3X8sGBrlg ))

"Camille-san! Three of the remaining six titans are in Octo Valley!" Telemachus reported. "That fourth meteor nearly destroyed an Octarian Refugee Camp."

"Which Titans?" Camille questioned.

Telemachus's personality switched to Homura. "It's Hyperion, Theia, and Coeus. And one of them is calling for you for a duel."

"A duel? With one of them?" Camille is not impressed. "Alright, show me where the camp is."

Octo Valley - 9:45 AM

Telemachus and Camille made haste to Octo Valley, using the Sandpiper bikes and then the Ocra watercraft. When they arrived at the valley, a pillar of smoke can be seen on one part of the valley where the refugee camp is. Both of the inklings made their way to the source of the smoke.

Octarian Refugee Camp, Octo Valley - 10:05 AM

The smalls clouds that gathered made the skies turn from blue to indigo, and then to purple, and then to red, and then to orange. It was like dawn.

Octolings can be seen evacuating as many Octarians as they could out of the camp and to higher ground. Chihiro and an Octoling shrine maiden were there, helping out paramedics in getting the wounded out of the camp and tending to their injuries.

Kitzeh was in her Olympian form, and as a champion of Dionysus, she was wearing a laurel crown, a leopard skin tunic, and ornaments made of silver. Along with the outfit is boots made from cheetah skin, a cloak made of tiger skin, a scarf made of grapevines, and cheetah mask. She was protecting the Octarians from Lamiai, tossing purple ink like an octobrush with a wand that looked like a Thyrsus.

Anteros and Hermes can be seen, keeping Theia and Coeus busy. Anteros was missing the blinding lights of Theia with pink ink from his brother's arrows. Hermes was tossing ink-soaked sponges and splat bombs at Coeus.

Hyperion was nowhere in sight.

((End of Background music))

"My guess is that Hyperion is the challenger," Camille prepare Agent 1's Hero Roller, "I can handle him without Athena's spear."

"Do you even know who Hyperion is?" Telemachus cautioned.

"...Enlightened me, Squid Nerd," Camille mockingly commanded. She wanted to hear from Telemachus's personalities.

Telemachus personality, Moemura, soon took over. "He's a personification of the Sun, and with the sun, that means he's--"

A ball of burning ink is thrown near Camille and she jumps; she was now in Telemachus's arms. When it landed, it melted into a pool of molten ink with flames rising out.

".....A pyrophobic, Miss Squidly?" Telemachus asked as himself.

"N-no!" Camille quickly gets off him. "I just hate fire!"

"Sure you are." Telemachus then looked at where the fire came from. "And your challenger awaits." Telemachus takes out Agent 3's Hero Splattershot and helped Kitzeh out in evacuating the Octarians.

Hyperion stood before them in his heat-resistant armor. His head was completely engulfed in flames with glowing round eyes and a gaping mouth being distinguishable in the flames. He stood like all the other titans except Atlas, 36 feet.

Camille stepped forward and switched Agent 1's Hero Roller with the Hero Splatling. She had Athena's spear kept close just in case it managed to regain the energy to get into her Olympian form. She looked up to face her Titan opponent.

Hyperion carefully got on one knee, bent over, and took a closer look at Camille. His flames were as intense as massive forest fires. He narrowed his eyes at Camille, trying to intimidate her.

"You don't look prepared, Champion," Hyperion began, "the horrors tell me the Champion of Zeus and Athena was adorned in bronze and that her spear left her enemies with great fear of her."

"What did you expect?" Camille was not impressed.

"What I see here is just a meek little mortal," Hyperion belittled, "a mortal with weapons turned into toys."

"You mean this thing?" Camille raised her Hero Splatling to give Hyperion a closer look. "This Splatling here? Well, I don't know how creatures like you ended up having ink parts coming from a bond with this Typhon guy, but no one calls me meek!"

Camille charged up the Splatling and fired a barrage of ink at Hyperion's face. Hyperion screeched and stood back up, covering his face. He smears the ink off his face and shakes the ink off his hands. He then gave out a deep, dementia-producing maw which, released from his gaping mouth a wave of sulfuric flares.

Camille sped away to safety, turning a corner and into an alley, avoiding the flames.

When the flares passed, she left the alleyway and keeps her Hero Splatling aimed at Hyperion. The flaming sun titan was still kneeling.

"Where is Athena's spear, Champion?!" Hyperion is demanding to see the Olympian form. "Show me Zeus's thunderous might that's within that stick of bronze!"

"How about I show you this." Camille aimed the splatling at Hyperion, but due to being out of range, she directed her aim to a wall of a shanty. She charged and released, making an ink path for her to climb to the roofs of one of the shanty complexes. "I'll show you I can beat you without the Spear!" She charged her splatling again and fire at Hyperion's face.

This time, Hyperion shielded his face with his molten ectrodactyly hands. The ink didn't cause a much damage as it should since Hyperion's fire is evaporating the ink.

Camille jumps from roof to roof on the shanty complexes, circling the Titan and stopping momentarily to fire her Splatling at Hyperion. Hyperion tried to reach towards Camille and grab her, but her speed made her almost impossible to catch.

But the Titan saw an advantage when he saw Camille's reaction to fire. He then took a deep breath with his chest rising. Hyperion then blew fire like a dragon, making Camille's paths become fields of fiery hairs. Camille attempted to runs through the flames, the intensity prevented her from making the attempt. Camille can handle heat up more than 140 degrees Fahrenheit; the heat of the flames that Hyperion produced is the atmosphere of Venus which is about 8 times more than what she can handle. With Camille's heat tolerance taken out by her dislike of fire, Hyperion has a slighter chance to try and catch The Fastest Squid Alive.

When Camille reached a dead end, she jumps off the roof to enter an alleyway, but Hyperion manages to reach his arm into the alley and grab her. He then flicked the Hero Splatling and Agent 1's Hero Roller out of her hands with ease with just a finger and a thumb.

The Titan's fiery hands burned Camille when it came into contact with her. Camille screamed in endless torment. Hyperion didn't tighten his grip and instead slams his other hand on the squid two times before throwing her back down to the earth.

Camille's Agent Alpha Hero Suit was scorched up, and it reveals exposed burnt skin and ink-blood. Camille tried to get on her knees despite the pain that came from the burns. Her head felt light and her body felt like it was going burst into ink drops or melt into a puddle. She did not want to die like this.

Hyperion is laughing.

"You're weak, mortal." Hyperion knelt down and was ready to burn the squid into ashes. "You may have speed and heat tolerance, but you can't take the heat, can you!? Why would the petty Olympians choose an ignorant fool like you!"

Pools of flames drew close to Camille, about to consume her while she's still breathing.

Camille looked down and at her hands. There was nothing she had to defend herself except for Athena's spear, a malfunctioned mermaid's purse, and a racer's scarf. There was also Phoebe's Tome, Mnemosyne's amulet, Apollo's Bow, Artemis's Antler Crown, and Heracles's Lion Skin formed into an empty scabbard, but all those items don't look used at the moment. She carefully took out the scarf given to her by her mother, Callie. As she took a closer look, she started remembering several things: her loving family, her close friends, and a time before this war. She misses them already.

Camille soon remembered a lullaby that her mother has sung to her when she was a child. She teared up and held the racer's scarf close. She can't die now; there are so many things she's fighting for now.

(( Background theme for Vs. Sun Titan Hyperion: https://youtu.be/VwPLsIP1AmI ))

She soon got back on her feet and she puts on the racer's scarf. Hyperion has his arm raised when Camille looked up. Camille stops his attack by pulling out Athena's spear with a fine grip. She was doing all this despite the pain.

"The Spear of the Wise Goddess." Hyperion is astonished. "It's time for our true battle, mortal!"

Camille glared and raised the spear up high towards the dawn-colored sky. The small clouds that gathered there merge to form larger clouds; it was enough to cover the sky and dispose the colorful hues of dawn. Blue lighting descended down to strike Athena's spear. And in one flash of light, the scorched Camille is now in her Olympian form, but instead of her armor being bronze, it's a glimmering gold.

Camille pointed Athena's spear at Hyperion and makes the blue lighting strike the titan.

Hyperion stood back up and tried blocking the lighting with his arms, but this time, it was breaking his armor and piercing into his molten body. This time the wounds left cooled spots that hardened into obsidian which is fragile. The titan's wounds left unusual craters and sea snakes made of lava popped out of them, drooling pitch-black violet ink.

Camille sprouting owlings from her back and she carefully kneeled down, resisting the pain from her burns. She then takes off and flies towards the titan, striking cuts at his armor. She strikes his chest with such force that Hyperion is knocked down and crashing into some shanty complexes.

The titan got back up and tried swatting Camille away, but she learned to avoid that when she fought the Gigantus in Arowana Mall. She barrel rolled to the side and continue her attacks, flying down to the abdomen and fly her way to Hyperion's head. She used Apollo's bow to cut the lava snakes out of her way since she didn't have glass arrow to shoot them down, and she uses Artemis's Antler Crown as a good luck charm. She increased speed as green ink and blue ink started to coil around Athena's spear along with electricity; it even left a trail as she flew.

Hyperion tried to grab Camille again, but her speed has once again made her escape. Hyperion tried spitting flames at her, but her blue shield Aegis pushed them aside.

As Camille got closer and closer, Athena's spear glowed gold with a green and blue ribbon tied to the head. The electricity coiling around it was massive to the point that Camille and produce her own natural lightning.

When Camille was reaching the head, she delivered an uppercut, using Athena's spear instead of her fist. The uppercut puts out the fire and exposes a molten skull with the same round eyes and gaping diamond mouth but with a huge cut at the centers. When Camille land on a roof, she turns around, twirls Athena's spear and plants it on the ground.

Hyperion was soon convulsing with his head glowing brighter and brighter until flame burst from his wounds and armor. Then his head explodes with the bright light dying out. His titan corpse got on its knee and then collapsed.

((End of background music))

Another Titan eliminated.

Camille was breathing fast and then looked at Athena's spear. She then noticed something: her skin was no longer burnt. It was as if she never got the burns in the first place. That's something she doesn't need to worry about now. She quickly located Agent 1's Hero roller and her Hero Splatling and carried them on her back since her Mermaid's Purse wasn't functioning.

Looking at the situation now, the titan Theia and Coeus were retreated with red lightning striking them and making them disappears. The last of the Lamiai in the area were exterminated.

Chihiro and paramedics were treating the remaining injured Octarians. Hermes, Anteros, and Kitzeh were cheering in victory, but Telemachus just watches the Titans retreat.

It wasn't over yet.

The final battle is drawing near.

#Future #Plot #Project Titanomachy

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sage-nebula · 8 years ago

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Pokemon Sun/Moon games please?

@yoshi12370, you also requested this, so I”m just going to tag you here! And also, oh boy, let’s see if I can keep this to five, because to be entirely honest I’ve been thinking about my dissatisfaction with Sun/Moon’s plot a lot recently (especially with everyone is gushing about how it/its characters are “the best the series has ever had!!1!” which … no).

Justice. For. Gladion. This is honestly one of my biggest sticking points, because I’m still so aggravated with the way he was treated by the game’s narrative.To begin with, he was hardly in it. Although he is introduced on the second island, his introduction is brief, and he doesn’t show up again until much later in the plot to give a cryptic warning, and then when Lillie and Nebby go off to Aether Paradise with Plumeria. Now, most of the characters in this game were neglected, and if he was simply another character then—while I would be disappointed because I like him—I would be more inclined to sigh and let it go. The fact is, however, that he should have had more of a role because he is Lillie’s brother and Lusamine’s son. He should have been just as important to the plot as the two of them, and he isn’t, to the point where it’s actually rather easy to forget that he’s even a part of that family considering the fact that he’s completely cut out of the picture after the events on Aether Paradise. Hell, even when Lillie shares her memory about dancing in the rain, Gladion isn’t mentioned at all. She recalls no memories of her brother whatsoever. Even a little mention there would have given a nudge that, hey, he was once part of this family as well—but we didn’t get that, on top of not seeing him throughout the plot. Considering his role in this family, it’s unforgivable.And it’s especially unforgivable in the climax. Don’t get me wrong, not having him show up more throughout the game is just as much of an issue, considering the fact that there are so many gaping holes in his story. For instance, he’s an “enforcer” for Team Skull, but what is it that he enforces? Team Skull doesn’t have any power in Alola whatsoever. They are, understandably, treated as a joke by the populace. Clearly he isn’t enforcing any sort of regulations or power, because they have none. He’s also not keeping the Skull grunts in line, because they openly disparage them, and he doesn’t even live in Po Town. Instead, he lives on a completely different island in a motel room. Given the fact that Team Skull is dirt poor and the fact that the motel manager tells us that Gladion paid two years of rent in full and is running out of money (presumably to buy food), we can also assume that Team Skull isn’t even paying him for whatever it is he does. So why is he employed by them? What is he getting out of it, and what does he do? We don’t know, because the game doesn’t bother to tell us. (Well, we do know that he wants to get stronger, so perhaps he battles—but again, we don’t know why he’s battling for them, if he’s battling with them or against them, et cetera. None of this is elaborated upon at all.) So all of that is an issue, but the fact remains that he’s not allowed to be a part of the climax, despite the fact that Lusamine abused him just as much as she abused Lillie before he left, and continued to berate and verbally abuse him when he finally returned during the Aether infiltration (and sicced Guzma on him to boot��nothing like abuse by proxy!). Gladion isn’t allowed to call her out, confront her, or even be there to support his sister. He’s not allowed to be there despite saying that he feels some measure of (misplaced) responsibility due to the fact that she is technically their mother. I get that the game wanted to give Lillie her big moment, and I’m glad she got to have that, but I’m upset that she was the only one who got to have it, and that Gladion’s abuse is so casually swept aside (and that he’s forced to go back to Aether Paradise to “clean it up” even though he had no believable reason to do that, and it’s clear that they forced him to do so just to get him out of the way). Hell, Gladion had far more of a reason to be there at the climax than the player did! If anything, it should have been Gladion and Lillie playing the flutes, a sibling duet in order to open up Ultra Space to go after their horrible, abusive, excuse for a mother. I also wish the game would have been even more explicit about the abuse Gladion suffered (which is implied to have been shifted to Lillie once he left, meaning he got the brunt of it before he did), because people still dismiss it and call him “emo,” and that really upsets me as someone who comes from an abusive background and reacted similarly to how he did. So seriously, justice for Gladion. He needs more of a role in the plot. He definitely needs a role in the climax. He and Lillie both need to confront Lusamine, together, and he needs to go to Kanto with Lillie to travel with her and show her the ropes of being a trainer (and also just to reconnect with her after their two-year separation). That would be a far better ending.

Lusamine needs to die. She should have died in the climax. Killed off for real, no take-backs. Aside from that …I’m upset at the rampant abuse apologism throughout Sun/Moon’s ending. The implication that she was the way she was because of neurotoxins, or “well she was nice to Lillie once so clearly she can be redeemed”—bullshit. My own mother was abusive to me and employed many of the same verbal/emotional abuse tactics Lusamine did (as well as some physical ones that we’re never told Lusamine did), and yeah, sometimes she was nice. Sometimes she showed kindness. That’s what abusers do, that’s what the abuse cycle is, that’s how they keep their victims where they want them! They show kindness sometimes so that the victim thinks “they really do love me, they’re just having a bad day/I made them angry/it’s this other thing that went wrong.” And hell, it fucking worked! Gladion says straight up that he told himself that Lusamine’s behavior was caused by his father’s disappearance so he could get through it. He specifically says that’s what he told himself so that he could get through it, meaning a.) that’s not necessarily true, and b.) he was trying to convince himself that his mother did love him, she did, she just had external factors that were driving her out of control. Particularly if she had rare moments of kindness with him like she did with Lillie, that would make it easier for him to convince himself that there were factors beyond her just not loving him, and thus make it easier for her to maintain control over him for as long as she did. (Which was a long time; he might be calling her “Lusamine” and “the president” by the time we meet him, but that letter found in his motel room has him apologizing for escaping his abusive situation, good lord.) Furthermore, we know that the rain dance situation was a rare moment of kindness because Lillie talks about how she was shocked she didn’t get punished, and kept waking Lusamine up because she couldn’t believe she was allowed to sleep in that bed. It was out of the ordinary for Lillie, that’s why she remembered it so clearly. Lusamine was an abuser from start to finish, and the game’s constant harping on healing her, redeeming her, helping her get better, and how her abused children felt responsible for caring for her was abhorrent. And honestly? While I’m on how absolutely repulsive that was, it’s especially repulsive to me because it was shoved down our throats that Lillie and Gladion had to help Lusamine after everything she did to them. Ghetsis was awful, yes, but the Unova games never made an attempt to tell us that he should be redeemed, or that N had a responsibility to him. N did come back to try and stop him in B2W2, and did try to talk some sense into him, but it was made apparent that N’s felt responsibility was in stopping Ghetsis from committing more evil, not taking care of and looking after him. It was never portrayed in such a way as, “Ghetsis abused N, but N still owes responsibility to him.” In the Alola games, however? Despite the fact that we see more on-screen abuse from Lusamine than we saw from Ghetsis (and more realistic abuse, too! She straight up pulls a line straight from my own abusive mother’s mouth!! I had to put the game down for a second I was so affected!), we’re still force-fed the “oh it wasn’t her fault” and “she can be redeemed” and “her kids are looking after her, don’t worry!” It’s vile. It’s straight up vile. I loathe it. So all of that said? She should have died. Nebby should have obliterated her after the Mother Beast battle. If they really wanted to, they could have still had that Regina George line that she gives to Lillie, all “when did you start becoming beautiful?” (bitch she was always beautiful, stop giving her backhanded compliments, and don’t ever talk to me or my daughter ever again), but then she should have legitimately died. I know that would be taking it a step farther than usual considering we don’t typically kill off characters in these games, but we talked about mass genocide last gen, we’ve talked about death in this gen, and they did straight up murder Lysandre’s ass in the anime. They could and should have killed Lusamine. Lillie and Gladion should have been free, and I would have been much happier. (Seriously, the relief I felt when I thought she had died, only to be crushed when I read the words “oh, she’s fine, just unconscious.” Ffs, kill her off! Vaporize her! Grind her into dust!!)And yes, I’m fully aware that Japanese culture plays a lot into familial responsibility, and honoring your parents, et cetera. Believe me, I know. But that doesn’t make it free from criticism, and it’s not as if Game Freak didn’t know that these games would be localized for a western audience. So while I’m sure that their cultural values did come into play, and while I do acknowledge this, it doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to be bothered by or criticize it, particularly since quite a lot of Lusamine’s behavior was reminiscent of my own abusive mother’s. (And also? Alola isn’t even a Japanese region, it’s an American one, so if anything, western values do play some role in it, too. It’s a complicated issue, but nonetheless.)

Pretty much the entire cast was under-utilized, to the point where the only one who had legitimate development was Lillie. Everyone else either had rushed or no development whatsoever, and barely impacted the plot. However, the main ones are:- Plumeria. Plumeria was barely in the plot, which is the second biggest damn shame next to Gladion’s minimal presence. To involve her more, I would have had her play an actual role in the Aether infiltration, namely in order to call Guzma out on his horrid treatment of Team Skull. While Guzma has a history of abuse himself (his behavior really speaks of someone who was abused in childhood and never received help), that doesn’t excuse how he treats the Skull grunts now, particularly since those he acts abusively around (by screaming, trashing the place, gloating about “beating down” Gladion, et cetera) are children, while he is a grown man. Plumeria is said to be Team Skull’s “big sis” and it’s clear that she cares about them. Therefore, she should have confronted Guzma at Aether Paradise with regards to him selling out the Skull grunts to the Aether Foundation, should have called him out on how horribly he treats them, and should have battled him, perhaps even for the title of Skull boss. Seeing Plumeria take charge and get shit done would have been amazing, and would have made her presence in the plot actually worth it, rather than completely wasting and not developing her character at all.- Burnet. Just like I love Plumeria, I also love Burnet, but again, she has a grand total of one scene in the plot, and that’s not enough. It’s especially not enough when you consider the fact that her specialization is in the different dimensions and creatures within them, which is directly tied to Sun/Moon’s main plot. We see Kukui all over the place even though his specialization has basically nothing to do with the main plot, and that … that’s a damn shame. Like, no shade on Kukui, but it’s a shame. So I would have involved Burnet more as well, including giving her a confrontation with Lusamine over both the Ultra Beasts/Ultra Space and her treatment of her children. - Hau. Hau was pretty much a static character throughout the game, and his presence in the plot was, again, very minimal. We get hints that he has more to him—living in Hala’s shadow, his father disappearing, brief disappointment when he loses right before the League, and his discomfort around Gladion due to how Gladion is constantly dragging him—but it’s not enough. I would have liked for Hau to have an actual character arc about building his own confidence and learning to be comfortable with himself, rather than just showing up for a friendly match, few jokes, and malasada lines. Again, I love Hau, but he should have had more done with him—he should have been a better realized character.- Wicke. Wicke is so boring. Her dialogue is bland, and her role in the plot basically amounts to “nice maternal figure who doesn’t actually do anything but low-key drag an abused boy by calling him ‘sheltered.’” Her character needs to be completely reworked to be more interesting. Also, make her somewhat villainous like Faba? Yes please.Really, all of the characters need expansion, but those are the ones that I keep coming back to whenever I think of all the wasted potential. There’s so much wasted potential.

I would have liked Lusamine’s focus to be less “OMG BEAUTY MINE MINE MINE” and more about scientific beauty. The Aether Foundation—which, mind you, should have been evil from conception to end, I hate that they were just ~*~temporarily~*~ evil, fuck that noise, I’m still counting them as the real villains, idgaf—has a very sterile, scientific feel to it. Even if we don’t go the straight up alchemy route (#disappointment), they’re creating chimeras and running space-time experiments. Lusamine is the president. I know that the game threw in an NPC saying it was her grandfather who created the Aether Foundation (of course), and also that it was Mohn who carried out the bulk of the original experiments (of course, this is all very typical of Pokémon, unfortunately), but in my view we should excise her grandfather, and hell, excise her husband (it’s not as if he’s terribly important anyway, we could do without him—and no, we don’t need him to explain the twins, because if Johto Rival doesn’t need a named mother, then Lillie and Gladion don’t need a named father), and make it about her and her fascination with science. Because here’s the thing: They can keep Lusamine’s interest and love for beautiful things while also making that interest and love clinical and scientific rather than obsessive and a stereotypical brand of feminine evil. Formulas can be beautiful to a scientist. Ultra Beasts could be beautiful to her in a fascinating way. To her, it can be less about beauty in the form of love, and more about the beauty in control, the beauty in flawless experimentation, the beauty in power and having her plans come to fruition, the beauty of science. Rather than Lusamine’s motivations being reduced to either “she wants to love things” or “she’s obsessed with beauty” or “she’s obsessed with finding her husband,” it could be all about her scientific experimentation, quest for power, and other motivations that are, quite frankly, typically given to male characters but are for some reason denied female characters for, gee, some reason we just can’t figure out. Having Lusamine still retain her manipulations and deception and playing that into her exceedingly high intelligence would have been far more interesting. Hell, if they wanted to model her after another character, GLaDOS is right there. I’m just saying.

I strongly dislike how the player was touted to be this amazing gift from the heavens without doing anything to actually deserve such praise. The Pokémon games are, of course, set up with the express purpose of enabling the player to Be The Very Best Like No One Ever Was™, but ordinarily it either happens as a bout of happenstance (the player is usually just in the right place at the right time, and is only given just enough thanks for whatever it is they did—and sometimes less than they deserve, tbh), or it’s literally written in as a bout of potential destiny that someone (/coughcough N /coughcough) chose to make a reality. Here, however, it felt like the trainer wasn’t really doing anything but completing a few really easy “challenges” (the Island Trials were not nearly as complex or involved as I would have liked them to be; I really enjoy the concept, but I want them to be more like Zelda’s temples in the future if they’re brought back), and then being practically worshiped by every single character for literally no reason, including and especially Lillie, even if you’re a jerk to her in your dialogue choices. It was excruciatingly aggravating by the end of the game, to the point where I actually disliked having to sit through cutscenes of Lillie gushing over the player character. Those were scenes that would have been much better if she was instead bonding with the brother she had been separated from for the past two years, you know? I don’t need praise heaped upon me, especially when I’ve barely done anything. I’m just a person, and not even a very interesting one. Please, take the laurels off me, pass the focus over to the twins, and let me enjoy a story in which they both get the focus they deserve, instead of having me take Gladion’s portion just so that the game can try and make me feel special. So yeah, this is a huuuuge issue that would need to be fixed, but less hero worship for the player, harder challenges, and more focus on characters who aren’t the player (and are thus actual characters and deserve the focus far more therefore). That would definitely be an improvement.

#five things i would change meme #yoshi12370 #kittykatzvillage #there's a lot more i could say tbh #the more i see people gush about these games the more ://// i feel #Black/White were far superior plot-wise imo #these were still really good #but they're far from The Best™#long post for ts

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butter-ff · 8 years ago

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Good Ones Go...

Porter: "What have I done!" I sobbed into my mother's arms as she comforted me. "Shhh sweetheart just breathe." Was her soothing response. What I said to him, and the face he gave me... he didn't deserve it but this is all too fast. Watching the movies last night with him and my mom and how comfortable he was, how much I can tell she already adores him. It's scary. When I moved here it was to spread my wings and be free to do whatever. The job at Noir is amazing but I'm getting extremely too comfortable and it scares me... I don't want to be one of those women who settles just because her man loves her and she is well taken care of. I want to also have something of my own and be able to take care of myself if need be! My breathing calmed down and I sat up looking at my mother who stared back with sad eyes. "He didn't deserve that..." I said lowly. "No he didn't, but you said it and it can't be taken back." She responded. "I just want... I need space from him... from us... we're moving so fast and so heavy and I barely know myself as a woman!" I began and she nodded just allowing me to get it out. "I never should have blamed him for sex... I really wanted it." I looked up mortified at that outburst. And was rewarded with a laugh. "Child you are grown, I know what grown folks do. Do I agree with it before marriage? Not really because it has a way of complicating things... but the only complicated thing I see right now is you!" I stared at her as she spoke letting the words deep into my soul. "I hurt him!" She nodded. "You need to figure shit out and hope that when you do... you didn't lose a good one!" She kissed my forehead and got up leaving me with my own thoughts. When she closed the door I facetimed Bam. FaceTime: Bam: hi boo... what's wrong. She knows me so well. Me: Bam I fucked up! Bam: how mama? Me: I pushed him away, and I said really foul accusations, and he left... he tried to stay but... I wanted to cry all over again but I sniffled to hold them at bay. Bam: Porter no!!! Why did he tell you about the rings or... She caught herself but not before I heard her. Me: What rings Amber? Bam: shit did I say rings... I meant... Me: nuh uh nope don't even, what rings! Bam: he's been ring shopping babe and he's narrowed it down. They're gorgeous P! But we all told him you aren't ready. We told him not to even give you the inkling because you would pull this shit! I stared at her as she stared back with sad eyes. He wants to propose. Somehow I just knew... but I never would have guessed he has already been looking at rings. Me: I asked for a break... Bam: how long will that be? Me: I don't know. Bam: Good ones go when you wait to long P... Me: I know but I have to find myself. I need to be able to have something to call my own... so many women fail when they just live in their men's shadow what if... Bam: No ma'am no what if's. Life can be a bitch when you deal in what if's! He loves you so much, he wants you to be happy, and healthy, and always taken care of. He wants to be the only one for you. He's your perfect, hear me when I say with confidence you are it for him. He has proven it time and time again. He can find someone else to love... hell we all can! But that would be unfair to the next person because he already gave his heart away and you just threw it back in his face. I hate when she talks reason. Me: Bam what do I do? Bam: honestly apologize to that man and then get your shit together, because the Porter I'm talking to right now doesn't deserve him! Me: ouch bitch am I your best friend or is he? She laughed and I did too. Bam: tough love babygirl... you needed it! End FaceTime: I texted Remy before making my next call. Phone convo: Ju: Princess P to what do I owe this call? I smiled. Me: I need a favor... End convo: Aubrey: As soon as I pulled up to my house Erin was there. She got out of her car and came into the garage following me into the house. We both sat on the couch and as soon as she put her arm around me I broke down like a little bitch. "Let it all out!" She soothed rubbing my back. I pulled it together and leaned back on the couch resting my head. "Talk to me!" She said softly. "She said some really foul shit E, I have no idea who that person was this morning!" I started. I heard a text chime and E could be heard typing on her phone before reply tone sounded. "What happened?" Was her reply shortly after. So I broke all the way down from the shower sex to the movie night to the argument this morning. She listened carefully ignoring the constant messages coming to her phone giving me her full attention until my last word. I looked up to see her quickly reply before turning her intense eyes on me. "Wow... you didn't fuck up. She did!" That response from her blew me. I wasn't expecting that. "E..." she put up a hand and continued. "What you did last night was wrong, you didn't give her a choice in that matter at all! But she can't blame you for the other times that was unfair. Now her want to have a break and find herself is valid. You love so openly and so hard and it can be overwhelming when someone does that. The other person finds them self being swept up in it and losing track of themselves and their wants and their needs because they are so enveloped and focused on the other person. If that person doesn't know themselves they may later resent themselves when times get hard. Which they will. Butta every woman is not a willing ready made wife. My dream was to grow up find my soulmate and start a family. That is what I've always wanted to do. So what you and P have is like a fairytale very modern but you get it! P is ever the free spirit, she loves space and trying new things. And figuring out things for herself. She's scared so she's running and we told you she would!" "But why can't she find herself and try new things with me?!" I asked. "One you can't keep your eyes or hands off of her, and two some things a person truly needs to go through on their own. Imagine if you wouldn't have cheated on Nebby and pushed her away... would you be this successful at this age at this point in your life?" She had a point. I would still be up under her content in whatever job I had just trying to make sure I always supplied for her. Of course I imagine I would have gotten to this point someday, but not this young. And I can't imagine my life any other way honestly. "I see your point." I replied. She smirked and laid her head on my shoulder. "I won't tell you to wait for her, I'll just say let your heart be your guide!" I laughed nudging her. "You been watching Disney movies with fat mama again huh?" I asked. "Shut up lighty, that's damn good advice!" She giggled. "Thanks for coming E!" I kissed her forehead. "My man is a sweetie... he doesn't mind sharing because he knows how close we are!" I nodded making a note to call Ant and thank him as well. She hung out with me for a few hours before heading home. And not soon after that I called it a night and went to sleep hoping maybe to talk to P tomorrow and let her know I support her need for time apart... but that never happened. When I got to work the next day she had come and gone and left a note on my desk. The Note: Aubrey I love you with all of me. You have my heart, but no matter how hard you would try to support my need for space and undoubtedly try and give it to me. You're clingy as shit and you know every damn way to knock down all my defenses. You honestly know me more than I know myself and that in itself is why you're my ultimate weakness. Please just give me this time. And if it takes too long I'll understand if you move on because like I said to you I don't know how long it will take. I had Mark help me find you a knew assistant. She's not ugly but she's not BAD either... you're welcome! I just really want to find the woman in me that you fell in love with! I love you baby... and if I'm pregnant I promise to reach out! I'm sorry ❤️ Porter... I read the note at least three times before Mark and the guys came in. "AG you good?" Mark asked and all of the guys waited for my answer. "Yea I'll be straight!" I responded putting the note away. "If you want to talk..." Noah offered. "Nah let's just keep it business y'all... she wants her space and she left me to go get it. I may or may not wait on her. It is what it is." I said. "Negro please! You will wait because you love her extremely too much. Just pick a damn ring, ok buy that shit. Lock that shit up in your desk drawer bro and when she comes back do her on that desk and slide the damn ring on her finger!" Chubbs replied and all the guys laughed including myself... I love my boys. "I agree!" We all whipped our heads to see Steez and Bam in the door to my office. "Hey fellas! Aubs ya girl petty for that new assistant she look basic as shit!" Bam spoke and my Boys laughed again as I shook my head and Steez tapped her bottom. "What!" She asked innocently. She gave everyone hugs as Steez spoke to each of us. "She was foul bro, Bam told me what went down. When she got her shit together... you have my full blessing on whatever you decide!" We hugged as he finished and I silently thanked god for my family of friends. "Where is she?" I asked Bam. "Paris with Remy." I nodded... I hope she's happy. Porter: "Welcome to Paris, I hope you all enjoy your stay. As always Mr. Chambers thank you for trusting and flying with us!" The pilot spoke to us as we had just landed in Paris. My mother agreed to house sit for me a little while and my godparents would be staying with her as well as they all look at moving to Toronto to be close to Ant and I. Julian was sweet enough to fly me to Paris so that I can spend some time with Remy and figure out what I want to do! We got off the plane and I raced to Remy hugging her. "Yes I finally got you to Paris... we have so much to do and see!" I smiled at her excitement. I can't wait to see what life has for me...

#drakefanfics #drakefanfiction #drake fanfic #drake #aubrey graham #aubreydrakegraham

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victorluvsalice · 5 years ago

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AU Thursday: Once Upon A Time. . .Cinder-Alice

Sooo, have I come up with a Valice fairy tale AU yet? Well, I'm happy to say that I have!

Three years after Nebbychan did!

Yes, the AU in question is good old "Cinderella." My friend Nebby did a gender-flip AU called "Cinder-Victor" back in 2016, where Victor was in the Cinderella role to Nell, Bumby, and Barkis, and Alice got to be the princess, which was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I figure I might as well detail my own take on the idea, given it seems like the best fairy tale AU for the Valice pairing.

So, as per usual, Victor is the prince of a small but prosperous fishing kingdom, with the main difference being that he's not in an arranged marriage -- at least not yet. His parents are going over prospects and trying to decide which alliances would benefit them the most. Victor understands the need for good relationships between royal families and political benefits and all that jazz, but he can't help but wish they'd involve him in the process more. Mainly so he can meet some of these princesses and maybe, just maybe, fall in love with one of them.

Alice, meanwhile, has been the slave of one Angus Bumby ever since she was about eight or so. She used to be the daughter of local schoolmaster, Arthur Liddell, but that was before Bumby -- who was obsessed with her older sister, Lizzie -- broke into her house, raped and killed her older sister, and then killed her parents. A master of dark arts, he's cast a spell on her that prevents her from telling anyone what he's done or harming him in any way, and forces her to play servant in her own home while he enjoys the Liddell family fortune and puts up a show of being a "philanthropist" who helps orphans (while secretly funneling them off to unsavory sorts). Alice is furious with her circumstances, but can't figure out a way to escape as she doesn't know anything about magic, and Bumby keeps her busy enough that she can't learn.

But then two important things happen:

Firstly, one day, she and Victor stumble into each other at the edge of the Liddell estate. Victor explains he was part of a hunting party of local lords and got lost while they pursued a deer. He and Alice get to chatting, and find they rather like each other. They end up meeting each other regularly by the spot (which has a convenient twisty oak to mark the location), getting to know each other and forming a friendship. Alice of course can't explain her situation, but she's happy enough with Victor being a bright spot in the terrible monotony of her days.

Secondly, she finds a hurt cat on the grounds and, feeling sorry for it, gives it some fish and bandages its wounds as best she is able. It stays the night in her attic room, but vanishes in the morning -- Alice occasionally sees it watching her around the estate, but is never able to tempt it back toward her, despite her desire to keep it as a sort of pet. She contents herself with leaving the occasional scraps of meat under the tree it seems to like best.

Eventually, Victor's parents tire of the whole "trying to figure out which kingdom we want to ally with most" game and decide the best thing to do is let it shake out via a kind of lottery. They announce a grand ball that all the nearby princesses and eligible ladies are invited to, and whomever makes the best impression on the prince will have his hand. Victor is astonished, but cautiously on-board because holy crap he gets a say in this --

Alice, upon hearing of the party and realizing Victor might fall in love with and marry someone else, realizes she absolutely hates the idea and that she's in love with him.

Of course, not being a princess, she's not invited to the big shindig, and while the Van Dorts have generously arranged a party for any commoners who want to attend the same night, it's not in the same location and she'd never be able to sneak into the proper ball. Not to mention, Bumby makes it pretty clear that she's not going anywhere near either party (having noticed her resemblance to Lizzie, and making a few plans to force her to marry him before anyone else gets any ideas). The night of the ball, Alice retires to her room, feeling miserable. . .

To find a large grinning cat sitting on her bed, asking why she looks so despondent when she has a party to go to.

Yes, turns out the cat she helped was the mortal disguise of a Faerie creature, the Cheshire Cat, from the realm of Wonderland. Aiding him when he was injured has earned her a boon, and he and his friends, upon seeing her reaction to the news of the ball, figure spiriting her out so she can enjoy a night on the town seems like decent repayment. Alice, after making sure this isn't going to get her into debt with any Faerie monsters, is all for it, and receives a beautiful blue gown, a hat/mask combo, and glass slippers enchanted to never break. They also throw in a mild charm that will keep anyone from figuring out who she really is, just in case. They spirit her off to the ball, and Alice enjoys a night of dancing and revelry -- mainly with Victor, who thinks she seems both really nice and really familiar, but between the mask and the charm he just can't place her. . .

And then midnight hits, and the Queen of Hearts, the ruler of Wonderland, appears and tells Alice that it's now morning, their agreement was for a night, and if she doesn't leave now, she'll undo all the magic and leave her naked in the castle. Alice promptly bolts for the exit to avoid angering her -- but in the process, loses a slipper. Victor collects it and tells his parents that, if he has to marry a princess after only knowing them a night, the owner of this slipper is the one he wants. Everyone tries to figure out who the mystery princess was, but thanks to the magic, nobody can remember her name or quite what she looked like. Frustrated, Nell declares that whoever fits the slipper can have her son's hand. A lot of young women try, but the slipper, despite LOOKING like it should fit one of them, always seems to be just off. . .

Meanwhile, the Queen of Hearts has discovered the loss of the slipper, and declares that Alice now owes them a boon. She decides that Alice should come serve her for a while in her court. Alice, who has discovered that Bumby is planning their wedding for the near future, is actually all for this, even if she doesn't like the Queen that much -- but Bumby discovers what's going on before she can be taken away, and he and the Queen get into a scuffle over Alice. The Queen undoes the spells Bumby has cast upon Alice, and Alice IMMEDIATELY takes the opportunity to get a knife and stab the bastard to death. With a murder on her hands, she's now even more eager to escape to Wonderland. . .

And then Victor shows up with the shoe. Partly because he's been going around trying it on people anyway, partly because, while having a think about what he enjoyed about the princess's company, he realized that what he liked is that she reminded him of Alice -- which led him to realize he has feelings for her. So he's hoping she's either the mystery princess, or, failing that, he can fake that she fits the shoe so he can marry her. He's -- more than a little shocked by the dead body, but Alice tells him the truth of what Bumby's been doing, and he basically goes "okay yeah, that was definitely self-defense." He gets his guards to help search for evidence and attend to the orphans, then tries the shoe on Alice.

Perfect fit, of course. He's thrilled, as is Alice -- however, the whole thing with the Queen of Hearts stands, and she says that any nuptials will have to be delayed until she's fulfilled her obligation. The Queen is willing to at least let Alice go to the palace and explain what happened to the royals in person (while reclaiming the shoe, obviously), and everyone heads over. Nell is furious that some "nobody commoner using fairy tricks" snagged her son's heart and declares that she won't honor the agreement because Alice isn't a princess.

The Queen of Hearts, who has already decided she Does Not Like this woman and getting impatient with all this nonsense, responds by spontaneously adopting Alice.

Well then! Nell shuts up, realizing she's probably playing with fire; the Queen wonders what the fuck she just did but is obliged to honor it because of her nature (also because Cheshire totally saw it and won’t let her go back on her word); Alice tries not to burst out laughing. She accompanies the Queen back to Wonderland as the new Princess of Hearts, and gets married to Victor in a fairy glade that connects the two realms. And they lived happily ever after, alternating their time between Wonderland and reality.

Bonus: If you want to include Victoria and Emily, they could be princesses that attended the same ball, who both liked Victor and were hoping to make a good impression on him -- only to fall in love with each other while the whole thing with Alice was going on. XD

#cinder-alice #au ideas #fairy tales #yeah I had a think about it #and I figured 'Cinderella really fits Alice's circumstances in the games'#'as long as I make it different enough from Nebby's take'#which I think I very much did #the Queen adopting Alice out of spite at Nell was a late but hilarious addition XD #I just love the idea of those two butting heads honestly #so much passive-agressive sniping on both sides #and the Queen constantly calling for Nell to be beheaded #only to be reminded that it's a bad idea to kill your son-in-law's mother #hehehehe #but I like this AU idea and think it came out well #the Wonderlanders being Alice's fairy godparents (in a sense) tickles me #Alice looks at this group regularly and wonders 'what the hell did I get myself into' XD #queued

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dontfindyourcenter · 6 years ago

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Chapter 22: I don’t know about you, but here’s chapter 22

Rules: https://dontfindyourcenter.tumblr.com/post/177027661290/rules

Previous chapter: https://dontfindyourcenter.tumblr.com/post/178360375750/chapter-21-trial-7-seven-trials-a-swimming-six

The moment I walk out of the trial room, Lillie runs up and heals my pokemon again. Yay! Then it’s up the stairs I go…

At the top of the stairs, Lillie says “I can feel the strong power of the moon”, like she’s an ocean all of a sudden. Then we stand on two platforms and each blow our respective flutes. I turned my volume up for this and it turns out we both manage to sing a passable harmony without any apparent rehearsal. Honestly, it makes me feel like Tori and Lillie have been missing their true callings throughout this game - if they’d just spent this whole time honing their gifts as flute prodigies, they’d be famous by now. In any case, playing the two flutes at the same time must level Nebby up a few times, because it’s a lunala now. And just to ruin the anime’s assertion that all pokemon can only say their own names, it turns out that the cry of lunala sounds like “mahina-pea!” I was never particularly fond of the pokemon-say-their-own-names thing, but I’ve got to say, I’m not quite sure why that’s less plausible than “mahina-pea!” Anyway, I had my volume turned up and it sounded mostly like “eaaaaa” to me.

Nebby then picks up Lillie and I and brings us into Ultra Space, which as it turns out, looks like an abandoned aquarium. “How surprising. It’s more beautiful than I would have expected…” says Lillie. Lils, you either had really low expectations or you inherited your mum’s rose-tinted glasses for anything with the word “ultra” in its name. This place is just creepy.

We soon run into Guzma, who calls us stupid for following him and Lusamine. Not an unfair assessment. “It’s all dark here… I’ve got no clue what’s going on,” he says. I didn’t know Ultra Space held screenings of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.

No, it turns out Guzma tried to catch a Nihilego, one of the ultra beasts floating around the area, but he ended up with his mind and body possessed and found out what fear felt like. Gee, I wonder if this is foreshadowing something? Spoiler alert: yes.

Then Lillie and I run forward and see Lusamine. Lillie gets in an absolute killer of a speech here, which I just had to google so I could transcribe it in full; “Children... Children are not just THINGS that belong to their parents! Pokémon are not just THINGS that a Trainer can do whatever they want to! I am alive! Cosmog is alive! We are not things for you to collect! We're not made for you to just discard when you get bored with us! That is terrible, Mother! You are terrible!"

It’s a really powerful, well-earned moment; everything in the stories of Lusamine, Gladion and Lillie has paved the way to this confrontation, from the references to the experiments that Aether Paradise performed on both Nebby and Type:Null, to the fact that Lillie kept talking about how her mother chose her outfits for her back when she was dressed suspiciously like a Nihilego. The fact that this whole segment was excluded from Pokemon: Ultra Sun and Moon is part of the reason why I was so underwhelmed by those sequels. As it stands, in those games, Lusamine just seems like she gets forgiven at the end without either of her children calling her out for ignoring them. Also, in those games Lusamine’s obsessed with Necrozma instead, so is it just a complete cosmic coincidence that she still ends up dressing Lillie like a Nihilego?

Sorry, you don’t come here to hear me going on tangents about which aspects of these games do or don’t work for me. As we’ve firmly established by now, you come here to see if my pokemon die and make me burst into tears. You monster. You terrible, terrible person.

Just like the first time Lusamine fought me, the first pokemon she sends out is a clefable, while mine is Digit Al the magnezone. This time, though, the clefable is surrounded by an aura which boosts its special defence, thanks to Lusamine’s Ultra Beast-melding powers. Luckily, it only takes a couple of Charge Beam attacks before Digit Al’s special attack is high enough again to do serious damage with his Flash Cannon move. Soon, the clefable has been beaten, having taken away a shade under half of Al’s health.

Lusamine sends out her bewear next, and since Al’s speed actually decreased a little when he evolved into magnezone, I decide the safest bet is to switch pokemon. Enter Wash the toucannon, who has to contend with a bewear whose defense stat has been raised one stage by the creepy Ultra Beast power. I decide to use my favourite strategy with Wash, which is to use Beak Blast and assume that the opponent will burn itself by using a move that makes contact.

That doesn’t happen, though; instead, I am the witness to the most elaborate example of self-sabotage I’ve seen in quite a while. The bewear uses Pain Split, a move which takes the current health of the user and the target and splits it so that each pokemon ends up with the average amount of health. Since neither pokemon has taken any damage yet, though, Wash’s health stays exactly the same, while the bewear’s health gets lowered by a pretty reasonable chunk, since bewears in general have quite a bit more health than toucannons do. Then Wash’s Beak Blast attack hits, doing even more damage, and on the next turn he’s able to use Drill Peck to finish it off. So that’s a whole member of Lusamine’s party beaten without Wash taking a single hit point of damage. Unexpected, but I am not complaining.

Next up, Lusamine sends out her mismagius (which has its speed ultra-beast-boosted), while I switch out Mr Nancy. The mismagius uses… Pain Split? Again? Okay! This time it doesn’t even seem to do anything - I wouldn’t be surprised if mismagius and Mr Nancy started off with the exact same number of hit points, because neither health bar seems to be affected by the move at all. Then again, I didn’t get that long to look at mismagius’s health bar before Mr Nancy used Crunch and took out more than half her health.

To Lusamine’s credit, it looks like she does use Pain Split at tactfully advantageous moments sometimes; that’s what she uses this move, too, doing quite a bit of damage to Nancy while bringing mismagius’s health back to the point where my second Crunch attack doesn’t quite kill her. On the following turn, though, she gets cocky and uses it again, and while that does leave Mr Nancy with less than half of his health left, it doesn’t heal the mismagius quite enough to keep the next Crunch from killing it. That’s three of Lusamine’s pokemon down. Cool!

Lusamine’s penultimate pokemon is a special-attack-boosted lilligant, and since Wash did so well in his last match, I decide to send him out once again. This match-up is the least challenging so far; the lilligant tries using leech seed, and when that misses, Wash’s Beak Blast attack knocks it out in one hit. Last pokemon now!

And… surprisingly, Lusamine’s milotic is just as easy! Hedwig beats it in one Leaf Blade attack after it basically wastes a move using safeguard. Sorry, sadists - none of my team are dead!

Time for a long old cutscene, everyone! Lillie calls on the legendary pokemon to save Lusamine when it looks like she’s having a bit of a wobble; Lusamine celebrates being back in her normal form by saying Lillie is becoming beautiful; then the whole of Ultra Space starts shaking. Fun fact; after Guzma starts saying “What now? What’s going on?” while the space we’re in shakes rapidly, I got distracted by something on the TV, and when I looked back thirty minutes later everyone was still looking around in panic in the middle of an earthquake and Guzma was still saying “what now? What’s going on?” Guess no-one thought to actually do anything in that time.

Then a bunch of Nihilego turn up and Lillie says “there are so many Nihilego!!!” She’s right! Good thing Nebby the lunala turns up to take us away. Hapu pops up in between the unconscious Lusamine and Lillie says “Hapu… Is my mother…?” while looking at the two of them. Bit oedipal, Lil, but whatever floats your boat.

Then the lunala asks me to try and catch it. Uh, that’s sweet, but there aren’t really any open slots on my team at the moment, pal. Please don’t take it personally, I’ll always like you as a friend. It’s not you, it’s me. I hope you’ll understand.

I do have to catch it to move forward in the game, though, so I get Loki to use Thunder Wave and Foul Play and then lob a ball at it. Since there aren’t any dead characters from franchises I’m in the fandom of called “Nebby”, I decide to call it “Remus” (because his nickname is Moony, do you get it) and send it to the PC box. I like to pretend that I’ve set it free.

“Nebby, you belong with Tori now,” says Lillie; “She will be the one to raise you. Just like any parent should raise their child.” Uh, about that…

Seriously, she keeps saying stuff like that for a full couple of minutes of tearful dialogue. “See the world… Have battles against strong Pokemon where you can use your full power...That’s the kind of world Tori can share with you!” All while Moony/Nebby is sitting on an island in poke pelago. Way to make me feel guilty, Lillie! It’s not my fault I’ve gotten attached to the team I’ve already got. Granted, it IS my fault that I’m playing a game where I’m never allowed to withdraw any pokemon from a PC, but that’s neither here nor there.

Then as Lillie rushes off to be with her mum, Nanu turns up at the top of the Altar of the Moone to tell me that the Pokemon League has been built now. Yay! He offers to take me along with him, but I say no; I’m pretty sure there’s a section of Vast Poni Canyon I forgot to explore the first time round, and I don’t want to go to Mount Lanakila without every item I can get my hands on.

I’ll leave all that for another day, though. I’m knackered after all that. End of Chapter 22.

#Pokemon sun and moon #alola #Pokemon moon #suicide run challenge #no Center challenge #pokemon #lunala #ultra space

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zchaotic · 6 years ago

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Decent story telling deciphering. Episode 1, Lillie.

I think I got the core of Lillie's character growth figured out.

From both sets of games to the anime... it is about Lillie learning to make that first step into becoming a braver person.

For most of SM and USUM, Lillie was a timid person who could barely do anything by herself without having second thoughts. This stemmed from Lusamine being so much of a control freak to her and Gladion, making all the decisions for them and telling the two to just listen to the adults around them. (How extreme this was depends on the set... but it doesn’t matter much in the end when it is emotional abuse.)

Some time before the events of the game, Lillie saw what was being done to the Cosmog Nebby and found it so extreme, so wrong that the girl realized that her mother wasn’t sound in the mind.

So she took the Cosmog and ran, the girl wanting to help get Nebby back home and find the means necessary to do it.

That is when the Cosmog teleported Lillie out of Aether.

Out of that toxic environment and to the tropical region of Alola. Where two were cornered. Lillie found proper emotional support in Kukui and Burnet, individuals that allowed her to relax to the newfound freedom she obtained.

When you the player arrived, Lillie was slowly trying to break away from the lingering, over bearing shadow Lusamine had over her. That... is what her old look represented, the resemblance to Nihilego is just a coincidence since in USUM, Lusamine’s goals have nothing to do with that Ultra Beast despite everyone looking the same. The clothes themselves represent a past of a bound childhood.

Every time Lillie was trying to find a new look to suit her, was every time she tries to find the courage towards becoming independent. With you, Hau and everyone Lillie befriended inspiring her towards that.

To become a trainer, to become strong enough to fight her battles.

Then Team Skull came along to get the Cosmog while you were dealing with Guzma.

We the player raided Aether Paradise and through some dialogue from Gladion, figure out that Lusamine was a control freak to her kids... explaining why Gladion is trying to do things in his own way. Whether to stop Lusamine from endangering Alola and the family or to stop her from endangering herself. (USUM and Gladion’s motive to raise Null to its potential and prove that woman wrong.

When we confront Lusamine, we see why Lillie had so much self doubt. Lusamine talks down on Lillie for stealing her stuff and leaving, this woman really thinks that her kids should just shut up and let her take care of things (USUM) or think they are pests getting in her way to what ever she wants (SM).

Then you fight Lusamine for what ever reason. (In SM it was self defense since the crazy bitch was trying to kill you, in USUM... because the crazy bitch wanted to prove to her kids that she can manage Necrozma. “I’ll get to her in another time.”)

Nebby’s power got used in great lengths and it evolved into Cosmoem to survive.

Then the next day happened, after some thinking... Lillie changed her outfit to a more lively Z powered form. Finally making that big step out of her mother’s overbearing shadow, with a goal in mind... rescue Lusamine from her own stupid/ crazy shit.

During your trip to Poni Island, Lillie took more and more steps to facing her insecurities, things that would frighten her before and press forward. (USUM took out Exeggutor Island... BUT the things she said on that island went over to the RR episode in some way or form.)

Eventually reaching the altar and helping you evolve Nebby. Depending on the version, you and Lillie either go into Ultra Space to fight Lusamine... OR Necrozma kicked Lusamine’s (and Guzma’s) butt for you and causes everything to go off the rails.

In SM... Lillie chewed Lusamine out and the crazy bitch latched onto Nihilego in an attempt to kill the both of you. Then Lillie had Nebby blast Nihilego off of Lusamine, the woman said some sweet words, Lillie forgives her... gives you Nebby right there because she wasn’t a trainer and made it her objective to help Lusamine recover... while saying she is going to become a trainer in Kanto. Yes these scenes are emotional... but it kind of undoes most of Lillie’s development towards the end, her standing up to her mother, only to go back to her in the end. We have no idea if that woman learned anything and for all we know, Lusamine would just go back to abusing Lillie again. No closure and if it was.. it is a pretty gritty ending that soured a good story and goes against the message that Children are not things that belong to their parents.

In USUM... because you the player had to deal with Necrozma... who ate Nebby and was stealing the light from Alola. Lillie’s chew up at Lusamine was off screen, but Lillie told us what she was going tell that woman at around Vast Poni Canyon.

Off screen, she called out a less crazed Lusamine out on her self entitled crap... that people are to help one another instead of trying to do things by themselves. (Like what Lusamine had been doing to her kids.)

We go back to that aftermath and we see Lusamine having a change of heart... knocked off her high horse by Necrozma and lectured by Lillie.

Admitting that her kids were right to go against her. To Lillie’s fortune, she saw her mother make the first big step to repentance... tending to what was the Cosmog. (Lusamine making repentance towards Nebby.)

This isn’t as focused as SM... but this is a good trade off.

Lillie only went back to Aether Paradise to help Nebby recover, while you the player finish up the last grand trial.

Gladion tells you to go to Mahalo trial when you beat him.

Where you find Lillie and Nebby... in the place you all first met. Lillie says her goodbyes to Nebby and promised it that she will become stronger. While Lillie doesn’t go to Kanto, she does stay with Kukui and Burnet. It isn’t as emotional, but it makes me feel happy that she is showing her growth and is in a happier environment.

As well as becoming a trainer and beginning her biggest step towards something. Which is seen in RR when Lillie becomes a trainer, it is a Clefairy and the only reason it is high leveled is because of your point in the game.

Lillie is a support trainer... which fits her character perfectly. Speaking of courage, she was willing to help you fight RR... kick a grunts butt and even help you in battling Faba. She is starting out as a trainer, so of course once that happens... you the player have to manage the rest while Lillie takes the role of healing your pokemon when needed. Some might find this disappointing, but this is reality... she started off as a trainer and she isn’t as tough as you yet.

In addition, after RR she offers to become your partner for the Battle Tree... and is one of the best supporters in that whole place.

Even if USUM isn’t as focused on her or as emotional this is good closure for one of Gamefreak’s best characters and those who said this game butchers, her story, when it really didn’t, can go take a hike.

Now for the anime. Lillie’s backstory is different compared to the games. Lusamine isn’t an abusive control freak and instead is kind of a goofy mother that smoothers Lillie in affection the first chance she gets. Treating her daughter like a baby.

She is pretty god damn neglectful and is way too childish that problems arise between her and her kids.

. In addition, Lillie is still a girl that hasn’t seen much of the outside world... so she comes off as timid and awkward.

Lillie had PTSD from being attacked by a Nihilego and ever since, she had a fear of touching pokemon. For most of the first season, Lillie slowly tries to overcome that trauma and as part of school therapy, she bonds with an Alolan Vulpix that hatched from an egg.

Snowy.

We see Lillie try to overcome that trauma piece by piece, from bonding with that Vulpix, Ash’s Pikachu AND riding on a Stoutland.

Throughout Season 1, we were also giving hints that more was to this trauma and Gladion is trying to take matters into his own hands to protect his sister. This doesn’t get revealed until the Aether Arc. (One of my Favorite Story arcs.)

Unlike the games, where Lillie was scared of Lusamine... in the anime, Lillie wasn’t scared of telling this woman off for doing things her way... like evolving Clefairy without telling anyone.

While the Clefairy Lillie cared about was Lusamine’s... that woman should have asked her kids if it was okay.

In addition, we have a pretty strained relationship between the family... because Lusamine wasn’t never really there for her kids... especially when Lillie got traumatized and that woman never bothered questioning how it happened.

We are drawn into how more of this happened and Gladion explained to Ash how Lillie’s Trauma happened. Then a Cosmog Ash was taking care of (Nebby) teleported Lillie to Type:Null... who was apart of that trauma and it caused a regression that was SO bad that Lillie didn’t even want Snowy with her. In Lillie’s eyes... Type:Full tried to attack her.

Desperate to overcome that regression, Lillie... with Ash and Nebby, retraced her steps bit by bit... to hopefully regain those memories and understand what happened. Now for those with PTSD... this is probably a bad idea if the person suffering from it doesn’t want to remember it, in this case Lillie does want to remember... as scary as it might be.

Eventually the teleporting leads to the Aether Lab... where Faba wanted to keep the incident a secret if to save his own hide. The bastard took Lillie and tried to erase her memories, which resulted in Gladion coming in with his Type:Null... that broke his helmet and kicked butt as a Silvally, to rescue Lillie.

There... she remembers what happened, she remembered what happened... she remembered Silvally pouncing on the Nihilego that caused her so much pain.

With that mystery clicked... Lillie started being more open to touching pokemon and she relished every fun moment now her phobia is gone.

Then Faba came along, took Nebby and caused a chain of events that lead to Lillie and her family meeting Nihilego again. That pokemon... caused Lillie’s fear to surface, through that event... the thing nabbed Lusamine and went into Ultra Space with her.

More trauma and leading to the girl finding a new goal... to rescue her Mother from the Ultra Beast.

That is when she takes on her Z powered form, the meaning behind the clothes is a BIT different, her stepping out of her sheltered world in an attempt to become more braze... instead of taking life into her own hands.

With this courage, she and Gladion went off to Poni Island and the alter to rescue their mother. She also helped her brother over come a Totem Kommo-o during this journey.

Once they reached the alter, Ash and the others came by to lend their supporting hand. The Tapus come and Ash brought Nebby... where the evolution end up happening and they all go into Ultra Deep Sea.

The world of Nihilego... where Lillie and the group found Mother Beast Lusamine... who thanks to the venom now drugging her out of her skull is acting like a child. She shouts out pretty harsh things to her kids and in her rampage, nearly kills them when she tries to run from them.

Along the way, the Mother Beast sends out her Pokemon against the class mates. Most keeping them at bay, with the final pokemon our heroes having to confront, being Clefable... a pokemon Lillie has a close bond with.

Even if it is a pacifist way, Lillie had the guts to try and snap Clefable out of the mother beasts control with... a pretty sappy I love you speech and a hug. (Dangerous as hell... but it worked.)

Then she, Clefable, Ash and Gladion reached the Mother Beast into a corner... where Lillie had a different choice of words to the Mother Beast. A chewing at Lusamine for her neglectful behavior, for treating Lillie like a baby and turning around to act like a bigger one. For letting work and that desire to see a UB take priority over her kids... and becoming a puppet for the UB.

That speech... worked on snapping Lusamine out of the haze... but then Nihilego took control and tried to swat Lillie. Then comes Ash using that 10,000,000 volt Z move out of nowhere and knocking Nihilego off of Lusamine.

The heroes rescue Lusamine, go home and... even if Lillie changed back to her old look, she had pretty good development to where she isn’t the same timid wreck she was. (Remember, Lusamine isn’t a control freak in the anime... the clothes have a different meaning and Lillie doesn’t have a reason to toss it out when there isn’t a symbol of an overbearing shadow.)

While Lillie is a try hard that over does herself from this point forward, she ends up taking more steps to becoming more mature and braver. (Including being part of the Ultra Guardians and dealing with more UB’s...being willing to do that as well.) Like fighting a Tyranitar that was terrorizing a group of Alolan Sandshrew, she and her Vulpix helped the Alpha shrew fight back... drive Tyranitar out and in exchange, got an Icium Z and an ice stone. Showing that more is going to be done.

As of now, she and Gladion want to look for their missing father... Mohn.

That girl is taking another big step in trying to help... by finding a way to restore a Magearna’s soul heart and becoming stronger so she CAN do something to get him back... to give her family that needed closure. This... is becoming something that might surpass the way the games told this families story if it plays its cards right. We just need to wait and see.

Lillie becoming brave enough to face this big obstacle, for the sake of her family.

#Analysis #Lillie #I'll save the Manga for later.

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