#do you know how long it's going to take to get those invasive pokemon down to safe levels in unova??

[releaseviaboxes]

Look, to any trainer who releases their Pokemon in person: I know it feels more "personal," but please please please use the storage system release function; it sends the Pokemon to us so we can evaluate if it's even releasable and send it to the right place so it won't destroy the local ecosystem, and to rehome Pokemon that can't be safely released to the proper trainers or facilities.

Releasing on the spot is how you get Unova's out-of-wack ecosystem (thanks Team Plasma) and we have to send someone to re-catch them, which is just stressful for everyone.

Also a big fuck you to mass-breeders and anyone who releases fossil Pokemon, I hope a Joltik makes a nest in your fusebox.

[ariesgamesandminis]

A long overdue "New Site" update…it's a little long, but PLEASE READ IT, plus there is a double surprise buried in the post. Consider it a little bit of a treasure hunt to make you read!

First up…to those out in Nebraska with that tornado, my thoughts are with you all.

Sorry to everyone on the delay with an update, I've been VERY hard at work migrating everything I could over to the new site, and sadly…there were migration issues which I expected there would be, but not the amount, or the errors. I tend to be a bit overly anal with how I want things done, how I want them to work and be presented to the customer, and as such…I keep finding little things here & there I don't like and want changed. Either I can change it or I need whomever on the support team to change it, and due to that, sometimes it just takes a little bit longer. So while I wait…I search for bugs, and I squash them. I'm one of those…let's make it better than 100% kinda guys.

ANYWAYS…I wanted to let you all know, as I said previously, we are very close to launching, and there are a few things to be aware of!!!

When we launch, I will simply take down the blocked landing page you currently cannot get past, and I will not announce it because when I do…I'll be sending out account activation emails first. PLEASE WAIT FOR YOUR ACCOUNT ACTIVATION EMAIL!!! This will be an automated send, I just click a button and it will send out batches of emails for me. The problem here is that I have almost 10,000 customers currently (this fact blew me away, but some them I think are fake accounts and some have never purchased anything for whatever reason)…this process will take a while to happen!!! It might be a day, it might be two days, just please wait otherwise you will have issues logging in.

While I was able to import 100% of the customer accounts, I was NOT able to import about 90% of the addresses. This is due to multiple accounts having 5 or more addresses listed as ship-to listings due to moving around the country, being stationed overseas in the military, etc. For sanity reasons, I did not pick an address to import as most would likely be the wrong one…but that won't stop you from checking out. Just fill in your address when you check out, it's that simple.

Again…as we have posted before, we COULD NOT migrate your Wishlist (items you saved in a list you want to purchase later on), and we COULD NOT migrate your Waislist (items that were out of stock at the time and you would get an email when they were restocked).

The Wishlists were just S.O.L. for exporting data. Nothing I could do there.

The Waitlist for Back In Stock Notifications however…I was able to export, but there is no way to import that data, and as such, I have a file with over 700 entries on it, so I would HIHGLY suggest if you had something you were signed up for to be notified when it comes back in stock…EMAIL ME so I can send you the list. There's too many people on the list to email them all out, it would cause everyone's email servers to mark me as a spam bot and then you'd never see the store emails.

During this migration, we've received the 4 NEW releases from Iron Wind Metals which are the new Rifleman, Archer, Night Gyr, and Jade Phoenis A variant as well as a full restock on Iron Wind Metals miniatures, 2 restocks on Catalyst Game Labs including Clan Invasion Salvage Boxes, The Army Painter which included restocks on the brand new Fanatics line of paints, Gale Force Nine including the new Atlean Steppes bundle from Thunderhead Studio, some Pokemon items, and various other pieces.

We've also got 4 whole new lines showing up! 2 of which are ALREADY STOCKED RIGHT NOW (one has been requested over and over and I'm going against my better judgement in expanding this section of the store, so we shall see how that goes), another will hopefully be stocked in the next 2-4 weeks…and the other about 2 months from now!

The past shipping issues of the US Postal Service and UPS overquoting SEEM to be gone. I've tested this EXTENSIVELY and after roughly 10 years of dealing with that, and being stuck in the middle of those services blaming the shopping software and then the shopping software blaming those services…I just cannot be happier to move on from that problem. It was a MASSIVE pain in the butt, and I'm happy to have that behind me. However I will say this, I did do some tweaking to the shipping system on the new site which may, or may not need to be reverted. Only time will tell as more orders come in, but my testing says it's solid…but customers always find a way to make me pull what's left of my hair out as they submit an order I never thought possible! LOL

Local Pickup is now an option for ALL U.S. based customers…so if happen to be traveling from California and are passing through Kenosha WI…we can accommodate that, but as with the previous system, we will email you to arrange a time & date that works for all of us!

U.K. customers…sorry, but you guys still have to get past that dollar threshold to have shipping options show up. My best advice as always…DO GROUP PURCHASES!!!

Germany…yes, I know, you're still starving for stuff. I'm working on it, but it's not easy due to language barriers with companies out that way…but yes, I'M WORKING ON IT!!!

Lastly, and this is a recent development, we will be expanding our offerings of Digital STL files! We are going to do a little expansion there, just to see how it works out. This was literally a "just last week" thing, which I'm working on the interface now for and that pushed things back a day or two, so sorry on that. More on this in the coming weeks.

With all that said…we plan to open in the next couple days (best case scenario), and start those account activation emails rolling out. So keep an eye out on your emails!!!

[rannianbiologist]

Rann, a land of Fighting and Steel (p1)

Well, its a bit out of date and amateurish - nothing like my favorite map, that's for sure - but this is the one I could get scanned in with the damn computer I'm typing from. Did you know that computers scream in frustration sometimes? I didn't. Nether the less, I suppose we should discuss the various places of Rann, else how would you know where you're going, eh? The King Eternal's tenants teach that Castle Town is the center of Rann, but he's not writing this, I am. Thusly we'll start at my sister's little hovel:

Royalscorn (Hamlet - Population 242 Humans, 482 Pokemon circa '21): Tiny place, really. Was once a small farming village that refused to pay taxes, thus guards were sent. The guards married into the village. The village refused to pay taxes. This goes on for 19 generations until a renaming and pardoning of the stubborn lot. Big exports are Moo Moo Milk and Mareep wool. Home of the PokeProfessor Holly.

Dawnbreak Forest: Of course next to those stubborn lot in Royalscorn would be the one place the repelled the Eternal King's unification for 3 months. The number of insects and terrible dark type Pokemon wandering these woods is only matched by the presence of the Rangers. The Rangers are assembled by Duke Brilloth, their purpose is to appease the Titan of the Woods and to prepare to kill the king (hah!).

Rustroil City (City - Population 2600 Humans, 900 Pokemon circa '21): Technically one of the few places that qualify as a city. Rustroil being the official port of Rann means its allowed leeway in terms of technology, but they take it too far. (A tower made of television screens, really?). Still, a very important port town under the vasselage of the Kohn Family and the young Duke Kohn, age 13. They are our link to the world outside such as Paledea and Unova.

Ridge Spine Mountains: I have long suspected that something monsterous made the Ridge Spine Mountains, but they are too vast and their hostile Titan too agitating to my senses for investigation. Still, a passage from Dawnbreak to Little Southrock does exist, although as I understand it the Onyxs in the region often rebuild entire walkways, so mayhaps its gone. No Duke resides over it, technically its Duke Brilloth's realm, but its fossil deposits are invaluable.

Oshwat Town (Town - Population 920 Humans, 350 Pokemon circa '12) An invasion outpost. That's what it is, and I won't be brokering no argument. How else do we allow a clan of spies from the Kanto - all female I might add - take up and tend to land in Rann? I don't know what honeysuckled words these ladies offered but every year more and more potential witches go to live in their clay-tiled houses. (Also, they attempted to shoot down my precious Persephone who was just doing some scouting).

University of Leech (College - Population 1331 Humans, 1200 Pokemon est. circa '23) Our first hallowed halls of learning - well I suppose unhallowed due to the ghosts - focused on life and death, sorcery and potion creation. As of the decree of '63, any young warlock or witchling found amongst the populace has 2 years to report for training and study in these halls. I was trained in these halls. A horrifically haunted place with plenty of ghost types, the have woven a cloud to remain stationary above the main campus at all times, keeping the sun at bay and occasionally raining. Duchess Lilltom presides over it and the surrounding township.

Milldale aka Witch's Burg (Hamlet - Population 422 Humans, 920 Pokemon circa '23) Officially the town is called Milldale due to the exporting of, well, mill and seed. However, those from the college and the residents themselves call it Witch's Burg as to man they are magically inclined. Lovely sort. Everyday is a farmer's market and every night a festival of someone's gods (Although never to Arceus himself, oddly enough). Well, this old woman has typed long enough. I think I'll go for a midnight haunt of the swamp. Perhaps there's some trainers ambling about? I hope this has been informative, to say the least. - Professor Balsam

[goineedsleep]

i am cursed, and also delusional

i got sick recently(not covid, i am a fully vaccinated bitch), so i'm writing this on caffeine and pain

i hope you enjoy the shitshow

-trials of octopath is todays awful fusion idea

-for those of you unaware of trials of manas existence, it's a lot like octopath(and vice versa). trials is a game where you pick 3 characters out of 6 possible options to play as, and the story changes drastically depending on who's in your party. im' gonna have to cut a couple of the octopaths to fit this AU, but i'll be putting them elsewhere- you'll see them eventually

-i'm not even getting into story pairs! every two characters in trials of mana has the same final boss. if you put two characters together who have the same story(say, the fighter/duran or the mage/angela), it gives more information on those characters and their shared story.

-we have olberic the fighter(replacing duran) first. after an invasion of his home, he trusts erhardt with protecting it while he chases after the perpetrator

-then there's cyrus the mage(replacing angela)- he is the prestiged son of a famed scholar. he cannot use the same powerful magic his father could, and thus is chosen to be executed by him. cyrus unleashes enough magical power to teleport out of that situation(this happens in-game), and runs away to seek guidance from the Archbishop of the Church of the Sacred Flame.

-now we have therion the thief. he is a close friend of the leader of the Thieves Guild of the Ravuses, a man known as Heathcote. Darius, an "old friend " of his, saved Heathcotes life from being missing. this results in Heathcote acting very weird from the day he returns- at least, if you ask therion. Heathcote has never expressed the want to start a nation and invade another country until now! he gets help from Heathcotes son, the doctor of their group, to find out what's going on with Heathcote. It turns out... that Darius is using mind control to manipulate Heathcote to follow his bidding. man come on therion was just starting to not punch you in the face every night just when you were about to fall asleep again

-Darius uses dark magic to seal Alfyn away to another realm, and frames Therion for the kidnapping. Therion can't tell the truth about the situation either or kill Darius- Cordelia, Alfyns little sister, will die as well if he even dares due to a cursed article of clothing given to her by Darius.

-luckily for him, Tressa has mercy on him a couple months later and breaks him out of jail. therion decides to investigate the curse in order to find out how to stab Darius in the most affective way imaginable. Also to save Cordelia, but that isn't his priority at the moment

-now we have the warrior princess Primrose

-she's the captain of the woman-led guard of the country of Azelhart

-her mother died during childbirth whilst giving birth to her little sister tressa, and so she decided to take care of her to the best of her ability. her father is very proud of her for taking charge like this, but he still is the parent in this version. he is the one that technically raised tressa since I do not want to force primrose to parent someone when she's like 6

-primrose was just a dedicated babysitter

-she wants tressa to practice her dancing, and when she finds her she's being held at knifepoint by 2 thieves. the barrier protecting Azelhart from enemy forces is broken, tressa is kidnapped, and -Azelhart is no more. Now Primrose is no princess or noble- she's just Primrose

-She goes to the Priest of Light so she can pray for forgiveness from Aelfric before she kills all of the Ravus thieves guild

-H'aanit is the princess of the werewolves. they've been oppressed and marginalized by humans for years, so they've taken up the forest as their home. she's a hunter like most of them are, yet she's never been able to harness the power of her bloodline: it may be due to her being half-human, but she's never been capable of transforming into a beast like her brethren.

-she meets the snow leopard Linde in front of her dead mothers corpse, and starts feeding it

-she has a new pet now -linde and herself work together and they sometimes do better than full-blooded werewolves when they work together

-Z'aanta forms an alliance with Mattias, a man who's worked with the Church of the Sacred Flame a million times -immediately following the forming of this alliance Linde attempts to kill H'aanit -H'aanit doesn't wish to hurt her friend, but she has no choice: she turns into a werewolf for the first time in her life and loses control of her thoughts in her despair

-oh welp the cat's dead(I'M SO SORRY LINDE YOU ARE A VERY GOOD KITTY) -H'aanit heads back home to cry for a minute... then she overhears Mattias admitting that he killed her cat -H'aanit attempts to attack him, and then gets yeeted to Jadd -good job ham, you complete and utter pokemon trainer

-last up, we've got ophilia -she's the adoptive daughter of the Archbishop of the Sacred Flame -she hears Lianna's gonna be going somewhere, she gets an awful vision of Lianna never being seen again following this mission, and goes with her in secret -Lianna gets kidnapped regardless by Mattias -so ophilia decides to find this guy and punch him in the face

-alright that's all of the character backstories

-THANK GOD

-all of these people(save alfyn and tressa, who is being held hostage by the ravus thieves guild) go to jadd first- h'aanit is yeeted there by mattias

-h'aanit notices that her people are invading this town and will be invading Flamesgrace- her next goal is to stop this -olberic wants to stop this as well, so he and h'aanit team up first

-Primrose looks for Tressa in some desperate search, and meets Cyrus during this search. they decide to journey together to Wendel, figuring going together would be better than being alone -they think it's a dumb idea to fight the beastmen, so they decide to escape at night like the bartender suggested

-ophilia finds therion at the bar while looking for food, and overhears his story while she eats soup and bread -she leads him to Wendel, wanting to do help another adventurer before she goes off into the unknown herself

-olberic and h'aanit free the town from beastmen and go to the cavern that leads to flamesgrace(which i am going to keep calling Wendel on accident because that's what it is in trials, srry) -they get there and there's a barrier -archbishop put it up to protect them from the beastmen, and then h'aanit and olberic find the lakeside town of astoria -the villagers keep mentioning how a divine light has started appearing in the area, and olberic shrugs it off and takes a very long nap. the poor man is very tired -ophilia and therion head there as well and follow the light to where it falls- ophilia touches this flame and has to fight a giant robot w/ therion -they win, and ophilia doesn't see it anymore -she shrugs and heads back to astoria, where beastmen have wrecked the town. it is g o n e -ophilia holds a memorial service for them, where she tells therion about how she's a cleric of the Sacred Flame -therion shrugs and suggests they keep going. they don't have much time before it's day and the beastmen attempt to attack Flamesgrace, too

-h'aanit, olberic, cyrus and primrose are having a picnic at the barrier when ophilia and therion arrive -ophilia attempts charging into the barrier, and then it sets on fire and they can all go through -after a long and awkward icebreaker, they all decide to travel together. it's pretty dangerous out there anyways, with the beastmen attacking and atlasdams rumored invasion of Hornburg. the ravus nation is also a major worry, therion reminds them, but they arent' gonna be in the area for a while

-these guys make it to flamesgrace to receive advice on what's coming next -olberic is told to become stronger before challenging atlasdam, and not to do so alone. he continues being in the group due to this -cyrus is told to learn how to understand his emotions- magic is not the forms they teach at school, but rather what comes from the heart. he decides to accompany the travelers so he can escape imprisonment by atlasdam forces -therion first learns of how the dimension Alfyn's been tossed into is inaccessible by humans. it is the birthplace of galdera, and is a realm of which sinners reside after they've lived their lives. Alfyn is probably not going to last very long in this realm- he's as good as dead -therion is then told of how ancient and deadly of a magic the cursed choker is, and that darius is not human. what he is is a mystery, and to save cordelia he must find the sword of aelfric. he cannot save alfyn, so he may as well save his sister -primrose is advised to find her sister and that if she chooses to destroy the ravus nation, aelfric will not support her actions, though they are understandable. if she finds the Sword of Aelfric, she may gain the power she needs to destroy the Ravus nation. -h'aanit is told that Linde will live on through her, and that Mattias is a warlock of Galderas. he has been rejected by the Order of the Sacred Flame as a result, though he does lie very affectively. to save the Kingdom of S'warkii, she must take down Mattias. and since mattias is going after the Sword of Aelfric she may as well accompany Ophilia and make Mattias's efforts worth nothing at all -ophilia is told to find Lianna, since she has been chosen by the Ember. she is now the only person who can rise the Sword of Aelfric from its resting place

-the Sword of Aelfric is hidden within the Sanctuary of Aelfric, which needs an insane amount of power to be opened. normally this power can be leached from the Aelfric Stones, but doing so could let loose ancient and terrible demons. therefore, the 8 gods that reside next to these stones need to be called upon in order to open the portal to the Sanctuary. -Therion suggests going after Aelfric first, since he's the closest one to them. after that, they need to find someone who knows where the rest of them are and also how to get there -they all agree that it's a good plan, but cyrus brings up that the Aelfric Stones each belong to a specific nation or people. going there and borrowing the gods power would be going after large civilizations that have grown around these stones -olberic suggests that they plan this out later, when they have more information and time -they all agree and go ahead to find the first of 8 gods

[3centsofbutter]

Things I’ve missed about the sun - Bakugo Katsuki

Bakugo katsuki x reader

You used to be my sun, that’s what I always saw you as. 

A bright blistering star that blinded me if I ever dared to look upon you. You were dangerous to the touch but I basked in your warmth nonetheless. I missed that about you, how you were always there for me even if it wasn’t intentional.

“Oi Baka, you gonna keep starin’ at the window or are we gonna have a conversation like regular people do?”

Hatsume waved her hand in front of your face in an attempt to pull you from your thoughts. It was a humid Sunday afternoon and you had joined your friend for tea at the mall. College exams were finally over and done with so you both decided to celebrate before you were thrown back into the busy rhythm of life. 

“Since when did they have Bakugo collectables at Toyco?”

An all too familiar face stared back at you aggressively on a giant poster advertising the new line of hero collectables plastered outside the Toyco opposite the cafe. It seemed like his presence always found its way into your life no matter how far away he was. 

“Hm, Ground Zero merch, never thought it would be this quick before that bastard had his branding stuck all over the shirt’s of kids.” She lifted the straw out of her iced tea and pointed it at your face. “You’re not still hung up over that sack of trash, right?”

You sheepishly smiled and rubbed the back of your neck, a light blush dancing on the apples of your cheeks. It had been a while since you had talked to the hot-headed blonde but your high school crush on him had persisted. You were in the support class F and frequently interacted with hero studies class A for support items and general classes which coincidentally made you form an odd friendship with Bakugo. You were both really close at one point but fell off once the school year had ended. You really missed him even though he was just a phone call away, you could never bring yourself to make an excuse to call. 

“Well, it’s really hard when his face is every third news story on TV!”

Hatsume threw her head back and laughed. 

Bakugo was strange, obviously, and was infamous amongst the school for having the worst temper and the many incidents Class A somehow found themselves in, and by default, you found yourself in the midst of the chaos. 

“Bakugo! You know my workbench is not a bed, right?”

It was after Bakugo’s kidnapping fiasco that you found him lying on your workbench in the shared support facility. It was 5:30 in the morning and he knew that only you’d be there. 

“I want you to upgrade my gear, all of it.”

His voice was soft, almost a whisper, a rarity you had never heard from him before. You decided to entertain him. 

“Gotta be more specific, Sir.” You picked up his gauntlets and ran your fingers over the minor scuffs and scratches on its surface. “You can’t level up your gear like you evolve pokemon, tell me what you want done.”

His voice was still quiet. “I just want it to be better, got anything for that?”

You placed the gauntlet down on the table next to him and pulled out a wheely chair from underneath the table. 

“Is everything alright Blasty? Things have been rough for you recently but it’s not your fault, y’know?”

He sighed and raised his arms towards the overhead lamp and stared at the scars and burns that decorated his forearms. You had never paid much attention to them before but now in the light, it almost seemed like a work of art, you remembered that Hatsume once said that each uneven patch of skin and scar that marked a hero’s body was like a war trophy, a symbol of their resilience and hardships that they faced to get where they were today. 

“I hate these scars,” He said, as he dropped his arms back onto the table. “Those bastard villains gave me 6 more to hate.”

You carefully took one of his arms and held it in your hands. His silence was enough for you to know that he didn’t mind the invasion of personal space. You lightly traced the scars with your fingertips in silence, some had faded but some were more prominent than others. 

“Your hands are rough, you know that?”

You chuckled and lifted one hand into the light, fully showing the callouses that marked them. 

“You gotta have this many when you’re working with metal all the time.”

He grunted in agreement, not saying a thing more. 

“I like your scars y’know.” You placed his arm back on the table. “They show how hard you worked to get here.”

Your eyes met for a second in which it felt like an eternity. He was the one to break it. 

“Thanks.”

You both sat in silence as you watched the sunrise from the UA windows, relishing in each other’s company. It was such a simple interaction that was forever ingrained into your memory and probably the first time you ever fully realised your feelings for the boy. 

“Maa how long has it been, 5 years you’ve liked him?” Hatsume teased as she stole a forceful of your cake. “Maybe you should call him, would be a lot better than daydreaming about him all the time.” 

You furiously shook your head. “He’s probably busy doing hero stuff y’know, he doesn’t have time for a lowlife like me.”

You pointed to the poster that almost felt as if it was constantly eavesdropping on your conversation. “He’s got bigger things to worry about, Hatsume.”

She sighed and propped her chin on her hand. 

“Mmm, maybe if you didn’t leave so early at the reunion night last month then maybe you wouldn’t be in this position.”

“You know how I am with parties! If it’s past 10 I gotta go home, not all of us are night owls like you!”

It was honestly a terrible night. There were over 30 people crammed into Yaoyorozu’s penthouse apartment and there was too much going on to have any meaningful interactions with anyone. Sure it was nice to see everyone again but it was more like small clusters of people in their own conversations and you didn’t really seem to fit in anywhere. You had talked to Bakugo that night, but only briefly before he was dragged off by Kirishima to greet some other people. You had learnt that he was currently stationed in Kyoto in a partner agency with Kirishima. 

You sighed and stared at the empty plate in front of you. Hatsume had taken the liberty to finish off the rest of your blueberry yoghurt slice while you were lost in your thoughts. 

“Why don’t you make some support gear for him?” She asked. “He always liked the stuff you made anyways.”

You drummed your fingers on the table, you guessed that was true. 

“He probably has some big shot designers working for him right now, he wouldn’t want anything a college student is making.”

“Maa, you’re so annoying you know that?”

You simply laughed at her, even you could acknowledge you were a piece of work. 

“Mum, Mum! Look it’s the real Ground Zero!”

You looked outside the window once again to see a child pointing excitedly at that stupid poster. Every time you looked at it, it seemed to infuriate you even more. 

“Can you please sign my lunchbox, Mr Hero? Pretty please!”

You did a double-take at the Toyco and noticed a very familiar blonde headed boy, albeit his hair a little shorter since the last time you saw him. He was dressed casually in a pair of shorts and a graphic tee, different from how you usually saw him on the news. You watched him as he bent down and signed the kid’s red lunchbox and ruffled his hair with an encouraging smile. It looked like the public relations training worked wonders on him. 

He noticed your staring from the across the mall and you quickly turned away. Hatsume was nowhere in sight and a napkin with the words ‘GOOD LUCK!’ messily scrawled onto it was there in her place. You began to panic as you felt the heat rising to your face. 

The bell on the cafe door tinkled. 

“Is that you?”

You sheepishly looked up at him. 

“I thought you were in Kyoto, Bakugo. What brings you here?”

He rubbed the back of his neck, “I missed home so I thought about setting up an agency around here. I guess I’ll be around a whole lot more now.”

His face was a slight tinge pink and the awkwardness hung in the air like a thick blanket. 

Hatsume hadn’t bullied you about this for all those years for you to let him slip away from you again. Maybe it was time for you to pull up your bootstraps and act upon your feelings for once. 

“Are you free tonight?”

That caught him by surprise. “I guess I am.”

“Wanna grab a bite to eat?”

The widest smile stretched across his face. 

“Is this a date?”

Your face was heating up to an unreasonable degree. “It is if you want it to be.”

He laughed. 

“I’d be honoured.”

Your sun was back to stay. 

Master list of all my stuff

A/N Getting a bit inspirational by posting 2 in a day after leaving the site for like what, a month or so? lmao.

[mgrgfan]

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 9. A strange beginning

25.06.2000, 20 years after the Shift Neighborly Town, Sinnoh

Gentle ringing sound filled the room. With a sigh, a boy with long blue hair has removed the blanket and got up, doing morning stretches. After he was done, he took a shower, changed from his favorite dark pajamas to something more suitable and left his room, going down to kitchen for breakfast.

As always, his mom Deborah has made something amazingly-smelling and his dad Yakob was trying to start himself up with a cup of some horrifying caffeine mix, as dark as…

"Oh, and there you are, just in time!" said Deborah, as a figure has arisen from the shadows in the far end of the room.

"Suppose so. Morning, everyone," replied the Pitch-Black Pokemon, crossing the room.

"Morning, Darkrai," sighed Tobias, taking a seat. Yakob mumbled something welcoming too, then returned to drinking his crime against coffee. Darkrai visibly shifted away from Yakob, still having highly unpleasant memories about that one time he tried whatever infernal substance Tobias' dad was brewing for himself. There was a good reason it was once nearly classified as a chemical weapon, as a wide-awake Komala in Yakob's lab, who also made a mistake of trying this liquid insanity, could attest to.

After a wonderful breakfast (with Latios joining them soon after the beginning), the entire group started to pack up for today's trip in Unova. Thankfully, whatever unholy mixture Yakob was taking was sufficient to finally wake him up, so, he took the wheel, leaving Deborah, Tobias and Darkrai free to take seats, while Latios has cloaked and clung to the car's roof, loving the thrill of "riding" like that.

With a silent hiss, hydrogen started flowing into the fuel cells. Seconds later, with a quiet whine, wheel hub motors kicked in, driving the car away from the home and towards the Sunyshore City - specifically, the Theta Spaceport.

----

The not-so-young-anymore dragon silently flew underneath the forest's canopy, using the flexibility of its serpentine body to maneuver between trees. Something in the back of its mind screamed, that it shouldn't be going like this, that it should be soaring free in the sky, but immediate concerns continued to override it for many years.

Jet-black Legendary knew, that here, it was in relative safety. Humans would have massive troubles searching for it there. They won't risk using their horrific weapons there… or, at least, so it hoped.

Right now, it was nearing the edge of the forest, near the road from place, known to humans as "Pallet Town". It has decided to stay here for a bit, until the night comes… which should happen relatively soon, in fact.

Rayquaza took a rest on a tree, monitoring the situation around. Thankfully, the road wasn't used this often and Rayquaza knew, how to hide, so, even with its jet-black scales, it didn't have much trouble hiding.

Some time later, it has noticed a single young human, who was traversing down the road with two Pokemon at his side - a Pikachu and a Solosis.

Sky High Pokemon knew this human - quite a few years ago, this young human got lost in the forest and ended up taking shelter from rain under the roots of a large tree, together with a lot of Pokemon. Rayquaza knew this moment very well, especially since it also took a shelter there, coiling around others… and, despite worries of the Legendary, it all went pretty nice.

Sensing no one else of note around, the not-so-young dragon decided to take a risk and lit up the bioluminescent stripes, then flew almost right in front of the young human, even showing off a bit. While human did end up taking some device and pointing it at Rayquaza, evidently, it has malfunctioned and produced no result of worth… although Sky High Pokemon decided to stop doing the risky things now, darkened the bioluminescent stripes again and disappeared under the canopy of the forest, barely noticing Ho-oh flying above it, to which none of the participants paid much attention.

----

"Good afternoon passengers," sounded from the speakers. "This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight P-52-4 to Nuvema, Unova. Please have your boarding pass, Pokeballs and identification ready. Boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes time on Tower 12. Thank you."

Tobias, Deborah and Yakob nodded to each other and headed towards the appropriate access terminal. Two elevator and one travelator rides later, they were walking through the access arm to their vehicle, which was just finishing getting refueled with slush hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Seemingly short and stout (but only seemingly so), it, nonetheless, was capable of easily carrying up to 1000 people between any two points of Earth.

Family took their designated places, with Latios being confined to a Pokeball and Darkrai managing to secretly leave it and sneak into the shadow under Tobias' bunk.

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. The vessel will take off in ten minutes. Walkway is now retracting," sounded from speakers, as the doors to the outside world got closed and walkway got retracted. Passengers were still chatting, as they were taking their places and preparing for takeoff, some of them checking safety cards and/or watching the safety videos, some sharing their experiences, some merely talking… all was as usual.

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. The vessel will take off in five minutes. Make sure you're on your designated acceleration couch, safely strapped and with your Pokeballs put into the safe underneath it," sounded from the speakers again. Tobias, after a small check, found out Darkrai's small machination, but decided to stay quiet, knowing his oldest Pokemon partner all too well.

"Ten, nine, ignition sequence start, six, five, engine running fully... Liftoff! We have a liftoff on ballistic liner P-52-4! Tower cleared!"

As those words were being said, the plug-cluster aerospike engine has ignited and reached the nominal power. The launch clamps have opened too, letting the huge rocket soar into the sky and set the trajectory to suborbitals, while also making passengers experience moderate G-force. People, however, seem to take it just fine, some of them even joking about the flight being "Smooth, quiet and, in altogether, delightful experience".

Finally, all external fuel tanks ran dry and, with quiet dull clangs, separated from the rocket, starting their own flyback sequence to allow for easier recovery. In the meantime, ballistic liner finished the boost phase and entered the microgravity coast, with captain making another announcement:

"Good afternoon passengers. This is your captain speaking. First I'd like to welcome everyone on Talonflame Aerospace flight P-52-4. We are currently cruising at an altitude of 185 km at an speed of just under 7 km/s. The time is 1:25 pm. The weather under us looks good and with the lack of wind at the arrival point we are expecting to land in Nuvema with some fuel to spare. The weather in Nuvema is clear and sunny, with a high of 25 degrees for this afternoon. If the weather cooperates we should get a great view of the city as we descend. Right now, you will be able to unstrap yourself and to get some awesome views in the illuminators. I'll talk to you again before we reach our destination. Until then, relax and enjoy the rest of the flight."

Indeed, soon enough, people liberated themselves from the safety straps and started gathering around illuminators, with Darkrai managing to slip out of the shadows and get near Tobias too. While it did prompt some uneasiness, authority of Yakob and Deborah was sufficient to prevent it from escalating further, allowing a blue-haired boy and a white-haired Mythical to enjoy views of Earth from the space for a bit longer… until another announcement came through:

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. In five minutes, we will begin the flip maneuver. Please, return to your couches and strap yourselves back."

Grumbling, people have complied, returning back to their acceleration couches and strapping themselves in order to prevent flying away, when rocket fires maneuvering thrusters. In exactly five minutes from announcement, RCS engines rumbled and the rocket flipped around, pointing the main plug-cluster aerospike engine in the direction of travel. Soon, the main engine woke up again, decelerating the rocket a bit and correcting its trajectory.

The rocket plunged through the atmosphere, decelerating even further as it goes, with liquid hydrogen circulating through the truncated spike of main engine and cooling it down, allowing it to work as a heat shield. Soon, it ended its flight by a gentle hover landing, with exactly right position and heading to allow one of the access arms on the service tower to reach it. After the connection of access arm and opening of doors, Tobias and his family packed up and left the rocket, reaching their rented car two elevator and two travelator rides later.

As usual, human part of the family took their places in the vehicle, Latios cloaked and clung to the outside, while Darkrai stayed in shadows near the backseat.

"So…" started Tobias. "What's this conference's going to be about?"

"As always, yearly conference between researchers of Legendary and Mythical Pokemon," replied Yakob, driving the car to the hotel. "Thanks to your help, we've got some nice results."

"Yakob, if they ever try this again…" said Darkrai from the shadows in a pretty grim voice.

"I know, crouch, get to the nearest cover and wait for the Dark Void attacks to stop flying, then use the replicas of Lunar Wing over the victims, once you've cleared the area."

"Exactly. The fact of me deciding to follow Tobias and you two on my own volition does not mean me welcoming invasive experimentation."

"I sure remember the last time…" muttered Deborah in a strange voice.

"I didn't kill anyone back then, though," quickly replied the Pitch-Black Pokemon, as if slightly afraid, prompting Tobias to enter the conversation again:

"Mostly because of Latios with his Heal Pulse being capable of stabilizing their condition, until I was there to break the Lunar Wing replicas from my personal stash out."

"Yep. Exactly what I've counted on," said Darkrai, even leaving the shadow a bit and nodding.

"Not the best strategy… but, I guess, we'll have to let it slip for now." mumbled Tobias' mother, then sighed. "I hate the rocket lag, to be honest."

"We all do!" agreed everyone inside the car with her.

----

"Now arriving to the Space Colony Core-Middleway," sounded in the cabin of "Drapion" Galarian deep space transporter, as it was slowing down and preparing to dock to the still-unfinished Bernal Sphere - a greatest testament to the insane race of the Space Fever, alongside with automated factories on the Moon, as well as mass driver, which was used to deliver parts of the colony into space, where they were assembled.

"Finally…" mumbled a remarkably unremarkable human, cradling some strange case in his hands. Soon, a quiet, dull "clang" announced, that the ship has docked to the gigantic space installation. Man, blending in with the rest of passengers of the Earth-L5 express, left it through the docking tube and went through a route few people knew, heading straight to the biolabs block on the equator of the sphere.

Inside the Lab 14, another man was already waiting for him.

"So?.."

"Recovered," said the newcomer, opening his case and extracting a strange, tubular device with a faint glow inside the transparent middle section. "You have no idea, how hard it was, though. But old Fuji built some stuff real sturdy."

"Heh… brother was sure like this… was."

The colonial sighed, knowing too well, what's happened back on the planet, then went for another question:

"What about the second specimen?"

"Was unable to recover."

"Well… I guess we'll have to do with only her for now."

"I guess."

The newcomer gave the device to the colonial scientist, who, gently cradling it, took it to the adjacent room and placed it on the table, starting to connect it to the equipment.

"Lessons were learned, mistakes will not be repeated," mumbled the scientist, working on the device and, from time to time, looking at a huge empty biogrowth tube behind him. "I just hope you'll understand me, when the time comes…"

----

"Your Majesty?" sounded a message from the comm app.

"Yes?" replied the Empress.

"Project SAS is going almost as planned. Phase 2 is at 70%, industrial automation is progressing surely, second level networks are almost established."

"ISFs 3, 5 and 9?"

"Gave us all-clear on the technical side."

"And… what about possibility of Scenario 5?"

"Non-zero, but not too great. Roughly 3.6% possible."

"3.6% - not great, not terrible," concluded the Empress, before the call has ended and she relaxed in the chair, remembering, how has it all started fifteen years ago...

----

The Empress was sitting in her chair, listening to the group of scientists, who were standing before her and telling about a plan - a very audacious one, but, given, what has happened a week ago, worthy of consideration. When they've finished giving the explanation, she stood up a bit, walked to the window and, looking at the city outside of the Palace, asked:

"Automation of the economy, huh?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"And… what does it promise for the Empire?"

"Well… an economic solvency that will eclipse that of the rest of the world, no corruption, once it's fully implemented, highly-reactive planning, allowance…"

"Enough. Tell me one thing… Does it mean, that, should it be fully and completely implemented, I will lose my power and be, in fact, left without ability to rule the Empire, remaining merely a face of the new, automatic government system?"

"... Yes."

"And… will this system bring more prosperity to the Empire, than I and the rest of the current rulers can?"

"... Yes."

"... Then you have my full approval."

"... Huh?"

"You are to begin the implementation process as soon as you can. If sacrifice of my position and power will mean the best for the Empire - I am ready to do that."

"... As you wish."

The group of scientists left the room, leaving Empress looking in the window and thinking, whether this decision was right or not and should she cancel this project, while there's still some time left.

Author's notes: The ballistic liner Tobias and his family rides is based on ITHACUS global transportation rocket; The "Drapion" is based on a real project of a "Scorpion" general-purpose space transportation system; Space Fever will be explained more, as the time goes; Can you guess, what was the device the newcomer gave to the scientist on the space colony? The hint is in the only name mentioned in this section...

[fertileimaginationvault]

I Want To Know You - Superbat (DCEU Series)

Even though they seemed to be on good terms, Bruce never knew how to act around Clark. He never knew what to do or what to say instead of the endless repertoire of apologies echoing inside his head. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you in time to stop that madness before it took your life. I’m sorry for trying to destroy you. It should have been me not you... I’m not worthy of your forgiveness. I will never be worthy enough of it... Words that kept Bruce at a safe distance even though he never said them aloud. Instead, he hid behind a mask of impassibbility. Determined to ignore Clark's presence unless interacting with him was extremely necessary.

Bruce tried (emphasis on tried) but God knows how hard it was to act as professionally as possible near Clark, since the latter was determined to break all the walls Bruce tried to build between them. Actually, Clark's presence had become more and more frequent over time. He started to stick around a little longer after missions and meetings in the Batcave, sometimes to discuss details of projects for the rebuilding of the League Headquarters with Bruce (although Bruce tried to make clear that it wasn’t necessary), sometimes just to chat with Tim and Stephanie, also with Alfred who always brought him hot cocoa and cookies and always seemed pleased with his presence. 

None of that was convenient to Bruce's plans to keep the members of his new team at arm's length. Including Clark (specially Clark).

But it’s not like his family cared about his plans, anyway.

Bruce was not stupid. He knew his children and Alfred had somehow adopted Clark. The kids had movie nights once a month and sleepovers at Clark’s living room. They were always posting on their social media about gatherings at Starbucks and lunches at Clark’s favorite diner nearby the Daily Planet (Clark had become the star of Tim’s snapchats, but always being careful not to reveal his secret identity). Bruce knew about every Saturday afternoon playing Pokemon Go with Tim at the Heroes Park in Metropolis and sometimes inside the vast area of the Wayne Estate. And Bruce also knew that Clark was so determined to be back in the world again that all he did was smile brightly and agree with everything the kids wanted.

Time passed, and it came to a point where getting home and seeing Clark spending time with one of them was no longer unusual, either playing video games with Tim on the gigantic tv at the living room of the Lake House (Seriously? I rebuilt the entire manor so you could enjoy it, and you decide to play video games right at my living room?) or laughing with Jason about something only they knew. Helping Stephanie with dessert recipes she had found on the Internet. Talking to Dick about... everything (something Bruce was never really good at).  At first, Bruce admits it was kind of annoying to see Clark constantly in his house, being pampered by his children and his butler. Being a part of his routine. Being a part of his life. Clark could move around The Lake House and The Manor like he belonged there and that was starting make Bruce crazy.

It's not like he was jealous of his own children or Alfred. Actually, there was a part of him that felt good because they had someone like Clark around. Someone who could give what he did not feel capable of giving to his own family anymore. Bruce knew Clark enjoyed having them around too. And how happy he looked every time the kids were surrounding him, eyes filled with adoration. Even Jason, who was always out of everyone’s reach (specially Bruce’s) liked Clark. In the end, Bruce was glad. Clark was a better company to all of them than he could ever be. But at the same time it hurt to admit that he missed the times when they used to look at him that way too. Specially Jason.

Jason who now listened to Clark’s advices when someone needed to talk sense back into his head (which was a hell of a miracle, Bruce should acknowledge that). Tim who Clark was always helping with his school essays - They were always engaged in debates about Clark’s articles and the current political state of the country (something Bruce always liked to listen to, but would never admit it, not even to himself) -. Stephanie who always turned to Clark when she was going through a teenage crisis. And Dick who has decided that Clark was already a member of the family and no one could convince him otherwise.

In all these years, Bruce had failed each of them, burying them in his own darkness that let him see nothing but The Mission. But not Clark. Clark was like the sun coming out in the sky after years of stormy nights over the heads of the Wayne Family, shining down on them and showing the way to a new start. And what amazed Bruce the most was the fact that Clark wasn’t even aware of that.

For that reason Bruce never felt very comfortable with Clark being so present all the time, not only as the co-leader of The Justice League but in his life as well. After all that happened between them, his first assumption was that Clark would only interact with him during League duty, only talking the necessary for the sake of the team. And Bruce was fine with that. Maybe, they’d work together on a case or two, helping to defeat a villain in each other cities. But nothing more. Nothing more than a professional and pacific coexistence. He wasn’t in a position to ask for more than that. He would never ask more than that.

Even if he wanted more...

However, instead of what Bruce prevented, Clark was there. Always there. Bruce just couldn’t figure out why. Why that walking ray of sunshine was always in his house, strolling through the tunnels between the Cave and the League Headquarters just to talk to him. Why was he smiling at him. Why was he cooking for him and his children. Why was he always helpful, always loving and patient with the brats Bruce raised. Bruce tried to make sense of it but he didn’t seem to be able to. Why Clark wasn’t sick and tired of all this invasion of privacy? And why Bruce himself was not?

Clark on the other hand knew something was wrong in Bruce’s demeanor (more than usual) and confronted him one night at the meeting room of the newly inaugurated League Headquarters. He looked Bruce in the eyes. His blue eyes like two aquamarines filled with forgiveness and understanding, asking for forgiveness too. That was the first real conversation they had after Steppenwolf attacking Earth. After everything that has happened the night Batman and Superman fought each other and Superman died.

Bruce wasn’t used to that. Everything in his life had a purpose, a reason. Everything was extremely calculated. And at that moment with Clark staring at him with pleading eyes nothing seemed to make sense. Why was Clark doing this? Why would he want to be his friend?

“I just can’t understand you... Why don’t you hate me? Why don’t you stay away?”

“Because you’re all I have” Clark said, loud enough to shut Bruce’s mouth in a second before he could retort. “You’re all I have...” his voice was cracking although he wasn’t crying yet. The tears that threatened to fall, made his blue eyes even brighter. 

“You... your family... the team...” Clark let out a deep sigh before continuing. “When I’m around you all, it’s like nothing happened. It’s like everything was fine and the months I’ve spent in that grave were nothing but a night’s sleep. It feels like I finally woke up to a life where I’m part of something important.”

Clark took a deep breath in order to calm himself, wiping the tears before they could roll from his eyes. 

“The reason I got so close to your family is that I’ve spent my whole life being careful not get too close to people” he continued. “I was always being careful not to reveal too much of myself or my powers… I’ve spent most of my life being a ghost and now that I have you guys, I feel that I don’t need to hide who I am anymore. I feel that I can be around people who I can talk to… To share my problems and worries with… people who would understand them. After a very long time I feel like I’m not alone anymore” he finally paused to breathe, as if he really needed it, after throwing all those words at once. “I’m sorry for invading your space like that... I didn’t realize how much this was bothering you.” 

Bruce was standing still, staring at Clark without saying a word. He couldn’t think of any reasonable response for that. There was no contingency plan for that kind of situation, he thought to himself while Clark came closer to hold him tenderly by the shoulders, triggering all the alarms and red warning lights inside his head.

“Bruce,” Clark's voice sounded faint as a whisper, needy even, and Bruce had to fight a shiver down his spine. “I’m sorry for making you feel uncomfortable with my presence here. I didn’t mean to cross your boundaries, I only wanted to belong somewhere...” he looked exhausted. “I didn’t mean to invade your privacy but being with your family is what has kept me sane lately... I can’t make Ma carry this burden after all I made her go through. I can’t talk to my work colleagues about coming back from the dead and fighting space monsters because they don’t even know who I really am. I know our teammates are not here all the time for they have their own lives and their own problems to deal with... not that I think you don’t. But after Lois and I... after Lois and I broke up...” he paused for a second, staring at the floor, lifting his head to face Bruce again with a miserable smile. “Well, is not like there’s someone waiting for me at home now” one tear was streaming down his perfect face. Clark wiped that away too.

“What I’m trying to say with all this is that I want to put what happened between us in the past” his expression went from defeated to determined, more Superman’s than Clark’s. “ I wish we both had a better relationship than this because I can’t take it anymore, Bruce. It’s draining and it’s not helping any of us. I can’t stand you looking at me the way you do every time we’re in the same room. It’s like you’re in a funeral! My funeral! It’s like you’re still looking at my grave. But I’m not there, Bruce. Not anymore.”

He squeezed Bruce's shoulders affectionately, making the other man startle at the action. “And I’m not a hologram either” Clark tilted his head to meet Bruce’s hazel eyes. “I’m alive and I am here in front of you. I’m just waiting for you to realize that” he stopped talking, getting even closer to Bruce who still looked petrified, unable to come with a response.

“Look,” Clark added, taking advantage of the fact that the other man was still silent. “I know I can’t make you let me in your life but can I ask you to give us a chance to know each other better? So you can finally know the real me? The one who’s not a God analogy and most importantly, who’s not dead?” he smiled provocatively through his tears, his eyes glistening with the artificial lightning of the meeting room. “Everyone gave me that chance. Even your family did. Except you.”

Clark lowered his head once more, taking a breath before he raised his gaze to Bruce's again, as if what he was about to say was not easy for him. As if preparing to say goodbye.

“But... if you still want me to stay away, I can leave right now. You’ll only see me when needed. I promise.”

Bruce took a few seconds before he could finally speak. He was not prepared for hearing so much from Clark, although that answered a lot of his questions. He was expecting Clark to yell at him. To accuse him. To call him an idiot and punch him in the face because that’s what he deserved. He wasn’t expecting a heart to heart conversation, let alone Clark apologizing. Why was he apologizing anyway? For being kind to me when I clearly don’t deserve it? For making this damn Manor a home again? For making the kids happy? Is that why are you apologizing, Clark?

“I...” he started to say, trying to make sense of himself again after being hit by the flood of words Clark poured over him.

“I’m not the one who has to give you a chance, Clark. It’s the opposite” Bruce let it out with a sigh. He was exhausted too. “I’m the one who should ask that... I’m the one who should ask you for forgiveness,” he clenched his fists, taking a deep breath before facing Clark, “even though I know I don't deserve it.” 

“Bruce...”

“I should have listened to you. I should have tried to get to know who you really are and let you know why I do what I do Instead of tracking you down and hunting you like… like... I should have known better than to be fooled by Luthor's schemes... I hated you. I planned to-I killed you, Clark...“ 

Bruce’s breathing was shallow as he struggled with the words. It was happening again. The anxiety attack. The physical discomfort caused by the memories of when Bruce found Clark's limp body, closed his eyes and wrapped him in his own cape to carry him to Diana's outstretched arms that would take him to Lois to say goodbye... Bruce had to find the strength to keep going. He owed it to Clark.

“You’re not like the others” Bruce found courage to say, looking Clark in the eyes, “I should have known that since the beginning. You’re not rotten inside like…” me. You’re not rotten inside like me, he wanted to say. “You’re not rotten inside like most of us… and that’s why I don’t understand how can you stay in my presence...” he said instead. “I failed you, Clark. All of you. I put the whole world in danger because I couldn’t see past the end of my nose. I couldn’t see the true before it was too late. Before I could prevent you from being killed. Before-”

Bruce couldn’t finish his crooked line of thought for Clark was hugging him so tight at the moment, leaving him lost of words and gasping in surprise. Wondering if that has something to do with being hugged by Clark or his super speed.

“Bruce,” Clark said this time softly in Bruce’s ear, “I forgave you a long time ago. It’s time for you to forgive yourself” he was gently rubbing his hand in soothing circles on the other man’s back in to calm him down. “We both made mistakes. I should have approached you differently, now I know that. However, I believe neither of us would ever go so far as to actually kill each other, You see? You tried to kill me but you didn’t. You didn’t listen to me sooner but you still did listen in the end. You saved my mother and fought by my side to save both of our cities. You helped me and Diana to defeat Luthor’s creature. That’s what I carry from that night. Through this time we’ve spent together, I learned to admire and respect you. That’s why it would mean a lot to me if we finally get along. Can we do that? Can we at least try?”

Clark’s words and hug let Bruce out of function and it took him a few seconds to realize that he was holding Clark tight against himself in response, like Clark was a damn life buoy in the middle of the ocean. What a lovely irony that was...

They were silent, only their arms doing the talking. Bruce didn’t know how long they stayed that way and he didn’t care. All that weigh was leaving his shoulders at last. The uneasiness and the sense of helplessness were disappearing. Clark was there in his arms and he was safe. And he could breath again. Finally, Bruce knew what it was to gravitate towards Clark's light and he didn’t want to let go.

“I need to eat at least six pizza boxes before I starve to death, can we please... Oh... Am I interrupting something?”

Bruce found himself letting go of Clark’s embrace in the second a very confused Barry Allen entered the meeting room. And after an embarrassing moment of Barry telling how proud he was of Bruce for finally starting to share his feelings with his colleagues and then leaving to ask Alfred for the pizzas, Clark (who was laughing very hard at the situation) reached his hand to Bruce.

“So… Can we start again?” Clark offered, looking at him expectantly, almost hesitant at the possibility of Bruce denying his request. “This time as friends, I mean.”

“Yes, I suppose” Bruce finally felt able to reply, taking Clark’s hand and trying to ignore the leap his own heart made inside his chest when they shook them in agreement.

“Thank you, Bruce” Clark's eyes seemed to glow even more brightly as he smiled at Bruce “Is there any possibility of you joining me and the kids for a movie night?”

“I’ll think about it” Bruce let his mouth form a smirk that made Clark’s grin even wider as it was possible.

Bruce did his best to disguise the fact that such a sight had made him lose his breath and his heart leap inside his chest once again.

Maybe having Clark around wouldn’t be so bad...

Notes:  - The songs that inspired this were Quiero Conocerte (Jesse y Joy); Llegaste Tu (Jesse y Joy); I Wanna Know You (Hannah Montana); - English is not my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 201: You Get out of It This Time, Kendou

Previously on BnHA: Team MomoYamaTokoKure battled Team KendouMangaKuroToadette. Toadette’s disgusting mushroom quirk was put on display a bit too much for my liking. Manga on the other hand revealed what is easily one of the best quirks in the series to date: he can make any onomatopoeia he wants physically take form. Like he can make an impenetrable wall out of big block katakana characters, or spit out the onomatopoeia for the word “humid” only for it to increase the humidity in the area. Super cool shit. By the way, the katakana wall cut Momo off from the rest of her group, and Kendou took advantage of the opportunity to ambush her. She plans to beat Momo by attacking her relentlessly and not giving her a chance to think. But Todoroki was all “bitch if she wanted to win she should have taken Momo out with one shot because my girl is always planning and strategizing even under pressure.” And oh my god you guys it hyped me up so much. Let’s see how this turns out.

Today on BnHA: Momo makes a big fucking cannon (yesssssss) and uses it to shoot a supply bag over to her friends on the other side of Manga’s onomatowall. The bag turns out to contain a powerful antifungal spray (thank god) as well as a pair of infrared goggles. Tokoyami and Hagakure (Aoyama has unfortunately been captured) use the spray to rid themselves of Toadette’s revolting mushrooms, and track her and Kuroiro down with the goggles. Toko bitchslaps them with Dark Shadow and ties them up, but then Toadette sprouts some mushrooms inside of Toko’s windpipe, which is a punkass cheating move but I guess it’s technically allowed so whatever! Meanwhile Kendou manages to capture Momo after a long struggle, and Hagakure as well. So sadly my best girl Momo ends up losing the day, so thank you so very much for that, Horikoshi. I’m not bitter or anything though. Hope you didn’t end up getting artist’s cramp from drawing all those fucking mushrooms you cold-hearted bastard.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 223, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS

MOMO MADE ANOTHER GUN

(ETA: this should be one of her super moves and she should say it in a DJ Khaled voice. anotha gun)

you guys you don’t understand. Momo with a giant cannon protruding from her right side is my fucking aesthetic. look at that smirk. she is ready to blow a bitch up. she is going to enjoy it. “oh you think you’re all that because you have giant mickey mouse hands? well how’s about I literally turn my entire right side into an artillery unit?”

my only regret is that she didn’t go even bigger. I want her to sprout a fucking rocket launcher. or hell, why should Bakugou be the only one with a Howitzer attack? ya feel me? let Momo fuck shit up, is what I’m saying. her quirk is so fucking devastating if you just let her utilize it to its full potential!

somewhere Todoroki Shouto is heating up a bag of popcorn in his left hand and smirking at everyone in class 1-B

anyway, I’m gonna calm the fuck down now (maybe) and actually start reading

so Momo, still smirking, says it takes quite some time to create large objects

lmao and poor Tetsutetsu is all “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE POINTING THAT THING AT HOLY SHIT”

WHO DOESN’T LIKE CANNONS, KID WHOSE NAME HASN’T BEEN REVEALED YET?

lol Kendou is freaking out and thinking ‘no way, it has to be a bluff!’

well maybe it is and MAYBE IT ISN’T! maybe she just fucking snapped!! you don’t know! who says Momo can’t just go flying off the deep end and start making some cannons and being all “OH SO YOU WANT TO GET PHYSICAL HUH?” who says?!

ah well

...YOU GET OUT OF IT THIS TIME KENDOU. I guess. but you best watch yourself sister

so Kendou’s shouting “you really do like to think on the dangerous side, don’t you?!” and lol. I guess? I honestly don’t know, all I know is I’m fucking living for this side of Momo you guys

or here’s a crazy thought, maybe even before the moment of impact, you could do that. like why wait. you just like cutting things close or what

anyway so Momo’s taking aim and firing, and just like she said she would, Kendou’s slamming into her with her bigass hands at the exact same moment

eh?

MOMO WHAT DID YOU SHOOT??

“however...”

oh god the mushrooms again nooooo

-- lmao

it finally happened. we finally heard his hero name in action. what a glorious moment

omg

I can’t tell if this scene was meant to be this funny or if I’m just a horrible person for laughing at Tokoyami’s misfortune

...

he must be going for funny. this has to be intentional

oh jesus, Hagakure

weirdly enough, there still isn’t much of an outline to her. even at this juncture, Horikoshi’s still fully committed to keeping her appearance a secret, I guess. presumably because of her being the fucking U.A. traitor, yeah that’s right Hagakure I haven’t forgotten

and Tokoyami is being overly dramatic as usual

like, Momo’s been gone for thirty seconds and he’s already begun reciting his Shakespearean death monologue

though I do like the acknowledgement that Momo is the unquestioned brains of this operation and the leader of their team and that they’re hopelessly screwed without her

meanwhile Toadette is grinning and saying “shroom, shroom!” like some sort of pokemon. like calm down

lol Manga says his throat is getting sore. you’ve said like six words. though maybe it takes more out of him than it would for a normal person, which is understandable. screaming a bunch of rocks at someone probably does hurt your vocal cords a bit

ah, here comes Momo’s little gift to them, finally!

wow he put that together surprisingly fast

so what did she send them?? please be more guns omg

he’s grabbing Hagakure and Dark Shadow is flying them up to retrieve it

wow

are you two guys just gonna sit there and allow this

dun dun dun DUH!!!!!

so... what does it... do

“A WHOLE BUNCHA GUNS! OH SHIT!”

noooooo fuck, meanwhile Kuroiro says Aoyama’s been captured. DAMMIT TOKO HOW DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN

so that’s Kirishima, Kouda, and Aoyama confirmed dead in the inevitable U.A. invasion which will be the final arc of the series similar to the Battle of Hogwarts, and which will mirror the events of this training battle exactly, according to the conspiracy theory I made up just now which I’m thinking of making a half-hour long Youtube video about maybe but not really

hey what

[counts on fingers] ...

I guess they’re not counting Momo? because they know they’re not getting their hands on her no matter what, that’s right. it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Kendou’s fighting her separately and so they just assume she’ll take care of her. nah I like my version better where they just straight up gave up on that

so Kuro is completely incapable of looking Toadette in the eye, and he’s mumbling everything he says to her, and now he’s shyly thinking about how she just said “as expected of...!” so I take this all to mean that he has an adorable crush on her

holy fucking shit

that joke was almost cremino. have you no morels Toadette

now Kuro is hesitantly asking Toadette if she’s sure the A Team doesn’t know where they’re hiding

what made you think they didn’t? did I miss something? I guess they do kind of blend in pretty well with the surroundings

ah, anyway so the reason he’s asking is because Tokoyami is kind of barreling straight toward them. so

oh snap!

just like Momo offered to make for Kirishima that one time but he was all ACTUALLY FOR YOUR INFORMATION I HAVE MY OWN and she was like okay geez I was just trying to help

also “I stare into the abyss and the abyss stares back” is just. we’ve reached Peak Tokoyami, everyone. pack it up. we’re done here

so the bag contained the googles and also antifungal spray oh shit

loooool

I mean, yeah. use the goggles to track them down and use the antifungal spray to disinfect themselves and fuck the B Team’s shit up. we all understood those intentions you big ham

and he realizes she had already thought of this all the way back when Toadette first attacked

so Tokoyami is bragging about how he noticed that there were no mushrooms sprouting from anyone on class B, so he figured out that they sterilized themselves ahead of time

or she could have just specifically not used her quirk on them, but I guess you happened to be right though

oh yeah, Hawks sayeth that all the time. it’s like his fucking catch phrase. can’t go five minutes without talking about how great speed is

so here’s another new Tokoyami attack!

Tokoyami’s attack names just keep outdoing themselves honestly

so did he basically just spin around a bunch while wrapped in his Black Ankh? did he hit them with those claws?? that’s so violent. class A is just out here straight up trying to kill people

(ETA: lol just wait until the next battle)

LOL

I CAN’T BREATHE OMG. KURO’S FACE

side note, I can never get used to Toko’s first name. it just doesn’t sound like a first name. at all. imagine giving birth to this little baby chick and you’re like “I know, let’s name him Fumikage. like, using the kanji that mean ‘to walk through shadow.’ it just rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it”

then again their surname means everlasting darkness, so they probably already knew their baby was destined to be goth

oh shit what’s going on?? he just started coughing all of a sudden

don’t tell me he’s got spores in his lungs or something ewwww

OH FUCK FOR REAL

WELL THIS IS HORRIFYING. this is because I made all those jokes about class A going in for the kill isn’t it

Monoma is smugly saying that Tokoyami fucked up by thinking of this as “mere training” and that he should have knocked her out

meanwhile Manga is getting the shit beat out of him by Hagakure

oh shit

well, Momo, you tried. not your fault these guys didn’t take advantage of the cool shit you sent them

oh snapppp

she even bought you that much time and y’all still managed to fuck it up. unbelievable

ah well

and yet, you did! so this evens up the score as expected

well I can’t say I’m happy to see Momo lose, but she did her best, and class 1-B is freakishly strong you guys so all in all it could have been worse

meanwhile I’m still sitting here trying to figure out how the hell Todoroki of all people is gonna manage to lose the next match. that’s gonna take some doing

aww, the boyfriends

I hope so too Shouto. be sure to give her lots of pep talks after this. that is, once you’re done figuring out how you managed to fuck up so badly so as to lose your own match

Midnight says Momo seems like she’d be a great leader, and yeah. she just needs a little bit of time

and here it is

there there kids. and someone please get Fumikage some lozenges though because omg

(ETA: literally that’s the first thing that happens in the next chapter. relief)

[dork-empress]

Pokemon

part of my ‘another 100 dragon prince aus’ oneshot collection

Read on Ao3

Callum, Soren, and Rayla have hatched a Dratini egg and Soren and Claudia come to take it.

Thought process: Ooh, what about pokemon, that'd be a cool au!

*opens document*

I don't actually know anything about pokemon.

I did my best with limited research so. Here ya go.

“This place is kinda spooky,” Ellis admitted, petting her 3 legged Growlithe, “But...I like it.” She smiled at Lujanne, the scientist here at the Cursed Caldera.

Lujanne smiled back, setting food out for her guests, “The ghost Pokemon are very good at keeping out unwelcome visitors, but they’re really just softies,” she said, nuzzling a Gengar.

Rayla smirked at her end of the table, holding her own Ghastly. “Agreed,” She said, “And at least here we were able to hatch the Dratini egg.” She and Callum turned to see Ezran playing with the Dratini. They had taken it from the Scientist Viren, and now were trying to get it to safety.

Ezran’s own pokemon, a mudkip, was pouting as he watched Ezran play with the brand new pokemon. Callum, who had no Pokemon of his own, patted the water Pokemon on the head.

“Don’t you think we’ve been here too long, though?” Rayla said, “Those Pokemon hunters can’t be far behind.”

“What, Claudia and Soren?” Callum said, leaning back in his chair, “We don’t need to worry about them, they’re harmless. I’m ready to just sit back, relax and--”

“PREPARE FOR TROUBLE!”

A voice called out from behind them, making Callum fall back in his chair.

“Make it double!” another voice said, and they all spotted the two figures that had reached the mountain top, one a woman with long dark hair, and the other a man with short blonde hair.

“To protect Katolis from Elf Invasion!”

“To Unite all 5 of the human nations!”

“To denounce the evils of primal magic!”

“To bring forth a fate that’s truly tragic!”

“Claudia!”

“Soren!”

“TEAM DARK MAGIC BLASTS OFF AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT!”

A small poochyena jumped out of the bushes, “Ruff! That’s Right!”

Ellis tilted her head, “A Talking Pokemon! Cool!”

The team around them blinked, confused at this performance. “Do they always do this?” Rayla asked Callum.

Callum shrugged, “Pretty much.”

“Claudia! Soren!” Ezran said, “What are you guys doing here?”

“We’re here to collect the dratini egg--OOOH!” Claudia said, spotting the little Dratini, “There he is! Oh my goodness!”

“Yeah, and you can’t have him,” Rayla said, standing up, “Your dad was the one who was going to use him for dangerous experiments!”

“No!” Claudia protested, “He was keeping it from the elves who were going to use him for dangerous experiments!”

“Guys, guys, guys,” Callum said, “How about NO ONE uses him for ANY dangerous experiments?”

Claudia and Rayla stared each other down, but didn’t argue.

“Still,” Soren said, “We’re going to need you two to come back with us to our Dad. So how about this?” He held up a pokeball, “You defeat us in a pokemon battle, and the boys AND the Dratini come back with us?”

Rayla pulled out her own pokeballs. “Bring it on.”

[fgodestinyawakenings]

Babylonia Section 15~Section 16

Day 2 of the queue with the turning point of the story is here! Definitely a challenging one since this is way before a certain class kicks to deal with Avenger class. Though they are one thing... Another enemy that shows up in the near end is another! Anyway, let’s start!

Section 15

With Gilgamesh’s soul back to his body along with the people in Uruk, Ana welcomed us back... A new change of look? Guess she finally outgrown her fear of humans a little :)

Oh? Seems like everyone is rejoicing at the return of their king! Third return... Someone been into hell too much back and forth... Oh hey, the Gudas even their model done after saving the King’s soul!

Now that we left 2 days... Time to start the meeting against Gorgon’s attack. Siduri is making sure you’re finishing your work here so that’s a role of king for ya.

100k of hundred beasts marching towards the city tomorrow.. Half a day is given for us to enter Gorgon’s temple, so a limited time to finish her while Uruk is dealing with the beast. Ah, the axe has finally arrived as well! That should take care of the bounded field!

Expected of Quetz to be able to throw that giant axe! But the rules are still in effect by their alliance... That’s a nasty burn to you Gilgamesh from Quetz herself! She has a point of your missing golden armor from your archer counterpart. Good point, Doctor Roman, despite his behavior... It’s amazing how Ozzy and him got along

Oh Merlin will take care of the axe to the temple?! Seems like we need to sneak in there with Merlin... Hm? The red cloth? Guess it’s a way to grab the axe too from Quetz! One last repeat of the procedure, we’ll be facing the King once more for a final warm up battle!

Geez... I’m thankful the EXP cards but no need for a fight! While Gilgamesh remains in Uruk, Kingu is really an opponent not to be underestimated since he has the grail...

With Merlin bidding farewell to Gilgamesh and us to the people in Uruk, we’ve got one last feast to enjoy before the decisive battle. And... An old lady... Because of Ana’s effort in helping the shop despite her condition... Even keeping her alive knowing what happened in the last 2 chapters previously...

A flower wreath for everyone in Chaldean Embassy... Damn it, I’m about to cry but not yet, because the feels are only the beginning!

One night rest later, time to head to the temple... Bidding farewell one last time to the gatekeeper. Damn Merlin! I don’t know if it’s illusion but that’s one carriage for everyone!

And of course the trip to Northen temple involves bandits trying to kill us all!

One heck of a ride later, we arrived with all pieces of our body and soul intact. While everyone went to rest.... Looks like we meet up with Ana again, and a little more bonding with her. Also passing to her the flower wreath by the old lady to her... Ouch shit... Her grandchildren... And Ana for her grandchildren...

Seems like we meet Merlin along with Fou kicking his ass as usual. I picked the last one so it turns out he’s the one who sent Beddy back at Camelot Singularity. And well, we also get to learn a bit more about Merlin and his own views of humanity

The day has arrived with the beast finally invading Uruk... Time to head out to the blood fort!

An hour passed since we fought, Kingu arrived with his army and heading to the Northen wall by Romani’s words. And at the same time there... They are trying their best to withhold the invasion as long as they could. Jaguar Warrior and Quetz engaged with Kingu in combat.... And shark-teeth faced is back!

Buying time to prevent Kingu from finding us, let’s head to the Cedar Forest!

Looks like we arrived and...... I really wonder how Merlin raised his king at this point with that spell naming! And.... MERLIN THE BIGGEST FUCKING MORON COCK WIZARD OF ALL HISTORY, I’M SO GOING TO KILL YOU WHEN I GET TO AVALON FROM OUR DEATH!!!!!

.......... Bright side, the axe hits the gate..... Yeah Fou, let’s kick his ass after this. And crap, looks like Kingu is coming after us when we defeat Gorgon! I guess he and Gorgon shared something similar, Quetz?

Inside her lair... A demonic lair that really fits with cocoon for the next birth of demonic beasts.... Tch, damn it! At the face with her belly of the lair... She’s finally here!

No point in talking things out here, Mash. Considering by her legends and current motive... And Gorgon, as tempting as your roll is for tomorrow... I’m sticking with no. I’m not becoming your Master to destroy humanity!

And Ana... You’re... No, Medusa Lily... Are you sure? To fight with your older self... Another Shirou vs Archer fight from UBW with the stake of human history. Time to finish her once and for all!

Unlimited defense only work AOE lasers like her! But definitely trying to outdo her curse damage the moment she fires her NP once!

Pretty much this is a solo Chloe fight with two Mash supporting her ^^;

Story wise, looks like Gorgon isn’t giving up till the end.... Wait Medusa!! Into the hole... And the last smile..... ANAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

............. Damn it... Both Ana and Gorgon died from a suicidal attack... Flower Wreath from a gift becomes an offering for her..... Wait, if Gorgon didn’t hold the grail with her.... Kingu! So he had the grail all this time, not only that... He’s ready for revenge without a doubt. And of course we’re not even happy we’re doing this! Tch... So no longer a Lancer but an Avenger like Gorgon...

The worst one now without BB here to save the job. Especially RNG luck is praying he doesn’t charge his NP too quickly on this! Berserker still works but... Definitely still basing on RNG luck to deal with his unexpected NP charge!

Even after Gorgon’s defeat, the Singularity remains.... Woah what?! Space-time quake?!! MERLIN?! What... He... Merlin put the real Tiamat to sleep to prevent from awakening...?

As the seas turned black outside the lair, the skies turned dark... Okay, what the fuck DW?! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT CREEPY LOOKING THING!?!?!! Damn and it’s killing everyone again!

Damn it Merlin stay with us! Merlin!! MERLIN!!!! ............. Damn it so the real Tiamat awaken but.... MEEEERRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!

Section 16

After escaping from there... Those things already invaded Persian Gulf by Romani’s words. Three hours before 20k of those reached Uruk...  Or 10k since the rest of the cities in Uruk has already been invaded

Merlin disappeared as Romani revealed... And died too since his true body was killed... Damn it after Gorgon’s death it awake her and killed him!

Reuniting with Quetz... Time to head back to Uruk quickly since those things are arriving faster than expected! And Merlin... Haish, one more trouble before his death.

In Ur, looks like they already began attacking... And turning them to their own kind! Benkei! Thank goodness he’s fine and thank god! Ur’s people is temporarily safe for now too. Huh? Benkei?! What the hell is that just now?!

Tch, even Uruk is on fire the moment we’re nearing! Okay you creepy little shits, now who wants a piece of me so you can stay away from the innocent people here!

Yup... Who’s idea in DW that created this fucking thing! Buff removal is one, but defense down too really?!

I know it’s only fighting 3 times but.... WTF?!

Yup... Definitely endless at this rate! ...  OKay? They left? Well good thing, time for a breather to find Gilgamesh!

Definitely chaotic now with Gilgamesh trying to evacuate his people while fighting against those things... Seems like Gilgamesh knew about what happened too....

One report later... Solomon was the one who had brought forth Tiamat again huh...  Seems like the Evils of Humanity finally revealed here on this seventh Singularity and the purpose for the Grand Servants.

And those things... Okay fuck that, no adult stage please. This isn’t a pokemon isn’t it?! Lahmu who is Tiamat’s first child meaning mud of what they are... Well Ishtar, our Doctor may be an adorable goofball. But he does his job well! Gilgamesh on the other hand... Anyway!

Gilgamesh, where’s Siduri?

........... So, she got kidnapped by the Lahmu from the people she was protecting... I see why Gilgamesh refused to brought that up... BUT YOU FUCKING MORON! WE’RE GOING TO SAVE HER NO MATTER WHAT!! 

And geez make up your mind, are we your people or what?

Late at night with Kingu... Seems like a certain King of Mages is here in a way to mess things up even more.... And yeah, seems like not only him, but Tiamat’s words and wishes are fishy at this point.

Another human killed before Kingu... Damn it, open yours eyes, Kingu! Tiamat and the Lahmus are really not to be trusted at this point!

I brought to you an important announcement that we’ll end here today. Fighting that disgusting thing questioned my sanity to finish this Singularity. Regardless, tomorrow will be another day with another post!

[tumblunni]

Some other neat people i met on my wild search for a shop that sold pokemon!

A bunch of like thirty super patriotic Welsh muslims all decked out in football gear and holding a massive "48" balloon celebrating some sort of football anniversary i know nothing about cos I Suck At Sports. I just found it a nice experience cos i always hate bullshit "patriotic" people who think that being patriitic means hating other races and religions, and that a muslim can't have been born in wales or that someone who immigrated here cant possibly be an equally good citizen and love the country as much as you do. I'd damm say that this bunch loves the country more than you do,cos i am 100% SURE they don't actually sell hijabs, burqas and other traditional religious wear in football team colours and the full welsh flag! Seriously holy hell it must have taken so much work to customize all those outfits, they looked SO AMAZING! Also while i'm at it, fuck anyone who says women are somehow lesser football fans. Seriously there was a middle aged lady in an entire flag burqa and a scarf on top of that! (Actually maybe the 48 balloon was for her birthday?)

Nice hedgehog forest man! A dude informing people about saving the forests, and how to donate to the Woodland Trust in order to do so. He had a little plushie hedgehog and a cowboy hat?? And oddly enough he looked EXACTLY like the colourscheme for the american portagonist option in the new pokemon game. Like i was all "wow that's kind of a cartoony blonde, it looks like their hair is painted on" and then there's this dude who actually had such a bright bleached blonde and also THE BRIGHTEST blue eyes i have ever fuckin seen. Real huge anime ones too! Like man i'm asexual but i can still admire when a guy looks like a catwalk model even if i dont wanna bang him, lol. Oddly beautacious forest man, i hope you have luck in your forestly adventures! He was really like Kukui, he was a nice dadly figure of steange modelness and he was just so excited and passionate telling me about all this science research into trees and animals. There's been a 90% decrease in british hedgehog populations ij the last decade! And one of their recent projects is actually cuttibg down trees, because the famous 'bluebell forest' is actually losing its flowers due to invasive species of non-local trees sprouting in the area because of careless farming nearby. So their job is to take down all those trees and make sure to find all the roots and seeds so they dont come back, then replant more flowers and different saplings that work more in harmony with the flowers without growing too big too fast. Its really fascinating, i didnt know situations like that even happened! It was a really nice chat and im passionate to try and donate to this charity someday when my finances are more secure.

The cardiff christmas market!! It gets earlier and earlier each year!! Man i hope all the same shops are still here next month when i acrually have the money for it. Its like a big local crafts celebration, the sort of thing thay was common in the old days before we got stuck only selling stuff on etsy lol. Loads of amazing hand knitted/woven/drawn/carved/potteried/blacksmithed/whatever the verb is for making cool shit out of glass on a big furnace pipe thingie in the actual store while everyone watches and applauds. And all the store owners seemed SO NICE and answered my questions about their cool craftingness and im so excited to come back and buy all the stuff i liked if its still here next time. Or to discover even more new stuff if it isnt!

The nice people at the bank who helped me out when i realized i left my card at home and itd be a three hour bus journey to go back and get it and by then all the potential pokemonnery shops would be shut. I had NO IDEA that ypu could do bluetooth phone connection stuff with the app in any barclays store and withdraw money without a card! Holy shit technology just keeps creepin up on me lol! Its a shame tho that you can only withdraw in multiples of ten so it was a little awkward getting the exact change necessary for the pokemons. Thats why i went to the dumb lil restaurant afterwards, tho it probably would have been smarter to go to a supermarket and buy like three cheaper more bland meals instead of one restauranty one. But it was fun! And groceries arent a huge issue right now cos i have that pasta sauce stocked up and some bread and milk and stuff.

Oh and a poor security guard who was having a really tough day! I was in the library up on the top floor and i looked down the stairs to see the guard on the bottom floor all curled up in one of the kids's reading chairs, asleep! Poor dude yo, i hope he's feeling better now. I talked to the other guard who was sitting with him and asked if he was okay, and yeah he was just having a damn long shift and needed to catch some rest while he had the chance. Couldbt even actually sleep tho, he was just resting his eyes and having his buddy watch out in case the boss yelled at him. Seriously i wish i could freeze time and give you the proper sleeping schedule you need, dude!

[thekaijux]

Fandom ask thing: Godzilla

Whew boy, I’ve beenputting this off for too long…

Let’s be real here: thisone HAD to be asked eventually. XD Since my Godzilla knowledge stems prettydeep, I’m going to do something akin to the Pokemon Ask where I’ll havemultiple answers per sector. So… Let’s begin!

Favorite Male Character

THE MATTHEW BRODERICKCHARAC– XD Nah, I’m just pulling legs here. Though truth be told, I think I’mgoing to emphasize more of the humans / aliens here as opposed to the monsters,if only because I feel like there are some very strong characters littered throughoutthe franchise that I feel need / deserve more recognition. But for anyone curious about the monsters, just know that Iabsolutely love all monsters from the Godzilla series and the greater Tohouniverse.

While a lot ofrightful praise goes to Dr. Serizawa from the 1954 classic Gojira for his complexity and torn humanity of what’s right (a la,keep the Oxygen Destroyer a secret or use it to kill Godzilla), I’d actuallylike to point to his quote-unquote “counterpart” from 1984′s The Return of Godzilla, Dr. Hayashida.He’s a man who went into the scientific field to exact his revenge on Godzilla,only to mature over the course of 30 years and let it go. Honestly, the dudehas complexity, and it’s a nice subversion to the whole “obsessiverevenge” trope. There’s wisdom and mystique to Hayashida that I don’t think hasbeen recaptured, and part of that can be attributed to the late YosukeNatsuki’s performance. Stellar work.

Likewise, for thealiens, a ton of rightful praise goes to the Xilien Controller from Invasion of Astro-Monster (or, Godzilla vs. Monster Zero). I think inmany ways, if he didn’t blatantly state that they were using magnetic waves andif humanity didn’t have the ability to pull a new weapon out of its arse, hewould have conquered Earth. While it’s still obvious he’s the villain, there’sa certain calculative, methodical cunningness to his personality (at least forbeing a 1960s Sci-Fi alien from a script that was written on the fly) that I thoroughlyenjoy each time I watch Astro-Monster. 

Favorite Female Character

Personal favorite ofthe G-series’ ladies goes to the Xilien agent Miss Namikawa from Astro-Monster.She’s a stellar femme fatale who, in many respects, helps save the world at theend of the day. Being played by the beautiful Kumi Mizuno really helps, haha.

Additionally, KatsuraMafune is another great addition to the Godzilla series. While the executionwasn’t perfect, I do enjoy the melodrama of Terrorof Mechagodzilla, and Katsura’s arc was easily one of the highlights.

Least Favorite Character

Out of these… Myleast favorite I’m sadly giving to the Kilaaks. Granted, I think the Nebulansare also kinda on the low-ranking scale for me, but the Kilaaks are a biggerdisappointment to me because they felt like carbon copies of the Xiliens. Andunlike the Nebulans, the Kilaaks don’t have any new monsters! Well, there’s theFire Dragon, but that’s only a Kilaak UFO. Ghidorah reaaaaaally could’ve used the help there! Now that’s not to say I absolutely loathe themor despise them; but then comes the issue that they’re too bland to even beangry about. XD

Favorite Ship

Glenn and Namikawa,easily. ;) Even if the screentime for their relationship is sparse, you do geta feeling from those two, especially when Namikawa’s killed. Glenn’s reactionis damn well genuine and leads toprobably one of my favorite lines from the movie. An alternative, if I had togive any, would be Miki and Godzilla. :P

Favorite Friendship

JET JAGUAR IS EVERYONE’SBEST FRIEND SHUT UP.

Okay, whew… Stillstrictly speaking humans, this one is generally harder for me to pin down whatmy favorite friendship would be. If I had to go off the top of my head, thesibling relationship between Shindo and Naoko in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster is a lot of fun. Dare I say, Ithink the good guys from Ebirah, Horrorof the Deep (or, Godzilla vs. the SeaMonster) are a treat to watch interact. Same could be said for theprotagonists of Godzilla vs.SpaceGodzilla, even if the movie is rough on the edges.

Favorite Quote

For the sake of my ownsanity, I’m only going to roll with one—and I think everyone can take a goodguess to what it is.

“Nature has a way sometimes of reminding Manof just how small he is. She occasionally throws up terrible offspring’s of ourpride and carelessness to remind us of how puny we really are in the face of atornado, an earthquake, or a Godzilla. The reckless ambitions of Man are oftendwarfed by their dangerous consequences. For now, Godzilla - that strangelyinnocent and tragic monster - has gone to earth. Whether he returns or not, oris never again seen by human eyes, the things he has taught us remain…”

Worst Character Death (if any)

Katagiri’s death, nodoubt. Being the personal target to the King of the Monsters himself? You knowyou’ve done goofed. It’s even worse in the manga adaptation.

This made me so happy you have no idea Moment

It’s hard for me toimmediately recall a moment with the human characters that made me flee gleefuland excited… Though a moment that immediately comes to mind is Yuko’s speechfrom Mothra vs. Godzilla (the ’64 film).Ya’ll should know what I’m talking about.

Saddest Moment

OH LORDIE, SEEING MIKISAD MAKES ME SAD. ;_; I also have to point out Akane Yashiro (even if she’sjust a bit angsty) and Sara Yuhara from GodzillaAgainst Mechagodzilla are incredibly depressing, especially Sara. She losther mother, with only a little plant serving as her last connection, and shewonders why she couldn’t be brought back with the same technology used forKiryu. Katsura’s suicide and Namikawa’s execution are also heavy hitters.

Favorite Location

Okay,so I’ll be honest, I’ve put this one off for so long, I can’t remember what Iwas originally going to say. Darn you past self for not leaving any notes! XDSo I’m just going to pull one straight from the top of my head: Birth Island.From SpaceGodzilla. Because that had a REALLY pretty and romantic sunset.

There,I’m done. XD Sorry it took this long to respond, just been BUSY. Ugh. But I hope ya’ll enjoy it! :)

[barpurplewrites]

Gotta Catch ‘Em All.

Found this half finished in my WIp folder and thought what the heck. A RumBelle and ensemble Pokemon Go come to Storybrooke fic.

Very Fluffy, like you are going to need to brush your teeth after reading this level s of fluffy.

-x-x-x-

“So, this is my favourite of the ones I’ve caught so far, it’s a Sandshrew. It’s not very strong, but none of my friends have one yet.”

Rumple peered at the screen of Henry’s phone. The creature was a buff yellow rodent, rather like one of the other Pokemon Henry had shown him in the past half hour.

“It looks good.”

Henry nodded enthusiastically and tapped at the screen.

“See as you walk around Pokemon appear. Look there’s a Jigglypuff in here. Watch, this is how you catch them, that’s a Pokeball.”

Rumple watched Henry catch the imaginary monster with a little red and white ball, he didn’t totally understand his grandson’s obsession with this game, but he was glad the he was sharing it with him.

“Got it! We could download the game to your phone and catch Pokemon together, if you’d like.”

Rumple smiled and handed his phone over to Henry. As the lad worked the technological magic that summoned the game, Rumple rubbed his eyes, there was a dull ache in his head, which was probably caused by trying to understand all the information Henry had deluged him with in the past half hour. That didn’t explain the dry tickle in his throat, Rumple made a note to have Dove look at the air conditioning in the shop, it must be on the blink.

“Okay so you’re set up now with you Bulbasaur, you want to go for a walk now?”

Henry looked so hopeful that Rumple almost agreed, but his building headache sent a stab of pain across his temples.

“How about I meet you after school tomorrow? We can catch Pokemons for a while then I’ll treat you to dinner at Granny’s.”

“That sounds great. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Henry bounced out of the shop, almost colliding with Belle at the door.

“Hey Belle! Bye Belle!”

Belle gave the departing Henry a cheery wave, but her face fell into a frown of concern as she turned to look at her husband. Rumple looked pained.

“Are you alright?”

“Hum? Oh I’m fine, sweetheart.”

Belle crossed the shop to him and gave him a stern look, Rumple resisted for all of two seconds before he sagged; “I have a slight headache, nothing serious.”

“Have you overdone the magic today?”

Rumple frowned as he tried to recall what he’d done today; “Just a little potion, but one I’ve not made in this land before. The price must be different here.”

Belle pressed a cool hand to his forehead making him sigh in relief; he hadn’t realized he was that warm; “You’ve got a bit of a temperature. Come on I’ll drive us home.”

That Rumple didn’t put up any resistance to her driving his beloved car worried Belle more than she let on.

By the time they’d reached the pink house Rumple was snuffling, before the kettle had even boiled for tea that progressed into coughing and sneezing.

As Belle handed him the teacup Rumple slumped sideways on the couch in a faint. The spilled tea and broken china was forgotten as Belle’s practicality over-ruled her panic. A rapid phone call to Emma brought the Saviour and Regina to the door in moments. Between the three women they got the shivering semi-conscious Rumple arranged more comfortable on the couch and covered with a thick throw blanket. Regina worked a little magic and announced that Rumple had the flu. Emma raised a sceptical eyebrow; Rumple was sneezing tiny golden stars, and sweating a frankly alarming shade of pink.

“This doesn’t look like flu.”

Regina wrinkled her nose at the purple cloud Rumple coughed out; “Magical flu. It happens sometimes, it’s not contagious, but he’s going to be out of it for a day, or two.”

Belle relaxed a little, she knew of at least two books in the house that described magical flu, but since she had Regina here she asked; “Anything I need to know to take care of him?”

Regina shook her head, “Treat it like normal flu, fluids and rest. Call us if his temperature gets too high.”

With that Belle was left alone with her sick husband. She rolled her shoulders and got ready for a long evening. She wasn’t the only one who was going to have a restless night.

--

Hansel and Gretel were walking around the park hitting the Pokestops before dinner, and trying to track down a Ditto. Gretel’s head was bent over her phone when her brother suddenly said; “Pokestop.”

She didn’t look up, “I know give me a minute, my bags full I need to ditch some berries.”

Hansel caught her chin in his hand and pushed her head up, Gretel let out an annoyed sound before she saw what her brother was talking about; an actual Pokestop stood twenty feet in front of them. The siblings blinked at each other and shrugged.

“That’s new.”

In the game the park had three Pokestops and now they were looking for them they saw that all three were here in the real world.

“What should we do?”

Gretel shrugged, “Go on, give it a spin.”

Hansel frowned; “You give it a spin!”

She sighed and stepped up to the Pokestop. It felt solid enough under her hand and a good shove got it spinning. She stepped back sharply and watched with Hansel as it revolved and spat out three Pokeballs. Hansel nudged her; “Pick them up, they’re yours.”

As her brother was eagerly spinning the Stop for himself Gretel glanced around the park.

“Erm, Hans?”

The park was swarming with Rattatas and Pidgeys, actual real Pokemon stood waiting to be caught. Hansel’s eyes widen to a comical level.

“Call Henry?”

“Oh yeah.”

--

After a frantic phone call from Henry the heroes had gathered in Granny’s and were trying to work out how best to deal with the bizarre Pokemon invasion. Granny kept shooting glares at the Oddish sat on the end of the counter.

“Y’know it’s odd, I was explaining the game to Grandpa this afternoon…”

Regina raised an eyebrow at Henry; “That might explain this. Rumple has magical flu, it can manifest in strange ways.”

Charming nodded along; “Okay, so we just wait until Rumple is feeling better and this will all go away?”

Emma waved a hand at him as she finished her call to Belle; “Okay thanks Belle, let us know if anything changes,” – she blew out a frustrated breath and slid her phone into her pocket, - “Right Belle has hit the books and apparently a flu based manifestation this big must be resolved before Gold can get better.”

Regina groaned; “Well, that would be simple if we knew what the conditions were. What are we supposed to do with pocket monsters?”

Hansel’s face lit up with a grin; “That’s easy then!”

His face fell as everyone turned to look at him. Regina fixed him with a disbelieving sneer; “And since when are you an expert in magical maladies?”

He shuffled on his heels, as if trying to decide whether or not to run; “Erm, well I’m not, but this is Pokemon, isn’t it? So, we’ve gotta catch ‘em all, that’s what you do in the game.”

Henry was nodding enthusiastically; “He’s right, we need to catch them all, then Grandpa will be okay.”

Granny huffed; “And how are we supposed to catch them, they snarl and snap if you try to pick them up!”

The Oddish had already avoided Granny’s attempt to shoo it off the counter, much to her irritation. Gretel pulled one of her Pokeballs out of her pocket; “You don’t catch by hand, you have to do this…”

She threw the Pokeball in the air and hit the Oddish perfectly; the ball rebounded and split open drawing the creature inside. As the ball closed and dropped to the floor every kid in the diner began a count.

“One,” – the ball wriggled but remained closed, - “Two,” – another wriggle, - “Three,” – the kids waited with baited breath as the ball gave a final wiggle before falling still and emitting a pulse of light.

“Nice catch Gretel!”

“Yeah, good one.”

Everyone watched at the Pokeball shrank and pinged out of existence, Gretel sighed; “Guess we don’t get to keep them.”

Charming clapped his hands together; “Right, now we know what we’ve got to do, we need to get organized.”

Within twenty minutes the trainers had explained the basics to those who’d never played before, and soon teams were heading out to the Pokestops to stock up on balls. Much to the surprise of the non-players there were plenty of adults who had gotten hooked on the game.

Emma teamed up with Henry, who was grinning like crazy; “Why so cheerful, kid?”

“Well, it’s not as if this is as dangerous as most of the stuff we face.”

She hummed an agreement, this would have been a hell of a lot worse if Henry had been telling Gold about Avengers or something before he got sick.

--

The Pidgeys and Rattatas in the park were dealt with quickly by Hansel and Leroy. Gretel called her brother in a panic from the graveyard.

“We’ve got a flock of Zubats and Ghastlys here. Who do we know that is a great pitcher?”

The flying Pokemon could be tricky to catch in game, and apparently Rumple had picked up enough from Henry to know that. Leroy grinned, “We’ll send Bashful over, his got a wicked right arm, sister, and he loves Ghastlys.”

Leroy and Hansel left the park and headed down to the docks where Emma and Henry were trying to deal with a shoal of Magikarps and Poliwags.

Regina was getting frustrated with Drowzees and a high level Snorlax. Her situation wasn’t helped by the fact she was teamed with Sleepy who kept dropping off, she wondered if Henry had thought it was funny sending them to deal with these particular Pokemon.

“Oh, wake up! We need more balls!”

Charming and Red were tackling the Bellsprouts and Eevees along Main Street.

“Y’know the little furry one looks familiar.”

Red nodded and tossed Charming another Pokeball, “Eevee is a popular one, you’ve probably seen it in the cartoons.”

Charming lobbed a ball at a Bellsprout, “Maybe, but I feel like I’ve see in for real somewhere before.”

Red just shrugged at him; “Don’t worry about it. On your left!”

It wasn’t another Pokemon, but Henry and Emma running along the street. Emma slowed down enough to call out; “Belle just called Henry, we need to get to Gold’s house ASAP.”

Charming called after her as she jogged by; “And you didn’t use magic, because?”

Emma turned and ran backwards for a few steps; “Henry started running before I could. Docks are clear. We’ll call if we need back up.”

--

On the lawn of the pink house, Belle couldn’t resist snapping one more photo. Rumple had become more lucid over the past hour and his temperature had gone down, but he was still giggly and more than a bit silly. When Granny dropped some Pokeballs off on her way clear the edge of the woods of Ekans, Rumple had slipped out the back door, worrying her sick until he called for her from the back garden. She’d found him sat cross legged on the grass nose to nose with something that looked like a bright yellow pangolin.

“It’s a Sandshrew, you’re a very good little sandshrew aren’t you? Yes you are, a good Sandshrew.”

She’d giggled at his sing-song voice and the cute way he bopped the creature on the nose, but became very cross when he vanished the Pokeballs he spotted in her hands.

“Rumple! We needed those to catch it!”

He gave her a sorrowful look and sneezed another cloud of golden stars, before wiping his nose on his shirt sleeve; “But, Belle, this is Henry’s favourite. He has to catch it. Please?”

He sounded like a little child, and she couldn’t refuse him; “Okay, I’ll call Henry.”

When she heard Henry’s shout from the side of the house she slid her phone into her pocket, not wanting to give anyone else the idea of taking pictures of the Dark One in the strange state. Henry skidded to a halt, closely followed by Emma who looked stunned at the sight of Rumple.

“Wow, he is out of it.”

Belle gave her a quick nod, and smiled at Henry, “He wants you to catch this one, says it’s your favourite.”

Henry bounced a Pokeball in his palm, “Okay, I got this. Grandpa?”

Rumple tilted his head back and over balanced, he ended up flat on his back grinning at Henry, “Henry, why are you upside down?”

“I’m not you are,” – He pulled Rumple carefully to his feet, - “Want to help me catch the sandshrew?”

Rumple nodded like a bobble head toy, “Nope you do it, its for you.”

Belle caught Rumple’s hand and gently tugged him out of the way. Henry took aim and threw the Pokeball, which the sandshrew promptly headbutted away.

“Oh no, no, no, Bad sandshrew,” - Rumple took a step forward wagging his finger at the Pokemon, - “You are Henry’s favourite. Play nice.”

“It’s okay Grandpa, all the best Pokemon are tricky to catch.”

“Oh, alright then.”

Rumple settled down again and Henry took a second shot. This time the ball bounce correctly and opened catching the sandshrew.

Rumple gave a twittering giggle, spoiled only by another sneeze, and clapped his hands together, “Well done Henry!”

He sagged and leaned against Belle, “I’m sleepy, can I go to bed now, Belle?”

Belle rubbed his back, “Of course, why don’t you head upstairs, I’ll be right up, okay?”

He gave her a dopey smile, “Okay. Night-night Henry.”

“G,night Grandpa.”

Emma watched him go in disbelief; “Oh man, I should have took pictures.”

Belle gave her a stern look; “He’s ill, he can’t help in and it’s rude and unpleasant to mock, especially when any magical user in town could catch this sort of flu.”

Emma look apologetic, “Sorry Belle,” – Her phone beeped with a text, - “Come on kid, the Zubats are being a pain.”

With a quick wave Emma headed off around the house, before he followed her Henry paused by Belle’s side; “You did get a photo of him and the sandshrew didn’t you?”

Belle winked at him just as his mom shouted for him to hurry up. Henry grinned, “Cool. See you later Belle.”

Being able to laugh with her and his grandson about his Pokemon encounter was one thing, but Belle wasn’t going to let anyone else in town see those pictures.

“Belle! Where are you Belle?”

“I’m coming, Rumple.”

--

The Great Pokemon Go Adventure made it into the Storybook. The pictures were copied many times as everyone wanted a memento of them catching the colourful pocket monsters. Belle was the only person in town who had take photos of the event, and only a few people ever saw the images of Rumple giggling with a sandshrew.

[zydrateacademy]

Review - Assassin’s Creed: Origins

An extra year of work and this is all they could come up with? Don’t get me wrong. No matter what I say about this game it will be painted with a certain brush of bias. I’m a well known fan of the entire AC franchise and I possess all but maybe two or three of the more minor ones like those side-scrollers or one-offs like Russia, India, and Freedom Cry. I collect them like Pokemon cards and largely, I enjoy the series as a whole and the only one I don’t overtly like is probably AC3. The franchise as a whole is perfectly fine if you’re a stealth based player such as I, whom will roll rogues and thieves at any moment in any RPG that allows me to do so. There are some missteps and Origins is not necessarily one of them. Yet I cannot help but feel a tad underwhelmed. It’s more or less the Mass Effect: Andromeda problem all over again but in a different flavor of disappointing. Of course, I liked that game too but it did have a recurring feeling of “Is this it?” I will mention that Origins is... fine. It’s more Assassin’s Creed in the same way Andromeda was “just” more Mass Effect. If you’re a fan of the franchise then you’ll be at home here but with an adjustment period. Every compliment I have might have an underhanded semi-complaint chasing them every step of the way but do not forget that I am writing this review while paused during an enemy fortress incursion. The game is loaded and I am actively playing it between paragraphs so that certainly says something for the game as a whole, to be sure.

Chronologically I’m not sure where this story even takes place. Even as an active player of the franchise I have yet to actually beat Syndicate so as far as the ever-present and ever-boring modern segments go, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. Abstergo industries, the Templars-in-plain-sight of the modern setting still seem to be active as we play as a “Layla Hassan”, an employee of theirs exploring an Egyptian Tomb. The tomb of Bayek, the man you play as in “ancient” Egypt. That’s in quotations but the actual setting is a moderate cop-out, on the very occasion of Rome’s invasion and occupation of the country because developers can’t seem to have a people of color story without peppering white people in at every provocation. Still, it does give us an excuse for gratuitous historical cameos like Cleopatra (yes, that one), Julius Caesar and more.  The game begins with some spastic storytelling between teaching you how to play and vomiting flashbacks that barely constitute as flashbacks considering they are seemingly from mere months ago, though long enough for our man to grow a full beard. Still, the game picks itself off its feet when the first act ends and the story sends you off to Alexandria (yes, that one) which is where the game seemed to actually wake up for me. Basically, Bayek has lost a child to a shadowy masked group and he is systematically eliminating them for the sake of vengeance. He is a “Medjay” to boot, which I assume is some kind of knight with how people treat him. Protector of the people and all. Everywhere he goes people instantly recognize the sigil he carries around.

As the story goes on it becomes quickly apparent that Origins means exactly that. We’re essentially watching the founders of the Assassin order, though that word has yet to actually be used in my playthrough but I know it eventually does. At a certain point he even cuts off his index finger on accident on a slightly botched assassination which doesn’t really get mentioned but obviously leads the way for the ritual of dedication later in the Crusades age. There’s a lot of forward referencing like that dotted around and it is neat to watch, but the tradeoff is that there’s a skewed ratio of mucking about and actually stealthing that I find consistently irritating. No, game, I do not want to escort this spoiled merchant daughter to buy some linens. You see, Egypt is a very dreadful place. All mention of the practice is slavery is gone unmentioned but the tone of the game is still much more dour than Syndicate was. It seems every side quest is based around some form of misery. Once, I saved a woman from bandits who killed her entire family. In another quest I carried bodies from a swamp because hippo’s were aggravated by more bandits and led them to attacking a village. I had to carry corpses to a cart. In another quest, some Roman officer had pushed a woman off a tower because... racism, essentially. Every other quest I encounter is some variety of the above, usually highlighting the brutality of the occupying force. Other times it becomes quite apparent that the country is on the brink of collapse as you get embroiled in political intrigue and the shadowy organization that haunts Bayek at every turn. It’s all just... dreadful. Yet it’s as you’ve seen across screenshots and trailers, the landmass is incredibly pretty.

Yet even this has an undercurrent problem. It’s really not prettier than say... Renaissance Italy all the way back from AC2. The roman architecture is still in full force here as you run across expansive cities. The various oasis (what is the plural for that anyway?) help mix it up a bit but ultimately much of the game in my first dozen hours or so have felt like things I’ve seen and felt before. In an attempt to alleviate this, the game has introduced a Photo Mode. At the click of the button the world stops and pauses and you’re free to roam and manipulate to a limited degree that helps you capture more majestic views and vistas. I heard there was even a mode where you can turn off all HUD and presumably combat entirely just to wander the world and just take in all of the nuances the NPC’s might be programmed with. I’ve personally witnessed musicians, chatting traders, and a tanner. Granted they’re all speaking a different language half the time but the world is a pretty place, at least until you actually get back to playing and discover a burned down village with patrolling Romans and finding letters in loot about how the invading forces are treating the populace. Back to the more depressing episodes of the History Channel. The game itself feels a lot more RPG heavy than its predecessors. There was a fairly neat talent tree present in Syndicate but it felt far too easy to max things out and most upgrades just amounted to “more knives”, “sneakier stealth” and “extra gang mates”. Here, it’s a little more focused. There’s a bow tree, a melee tree, and a tools tree and they all interconnect and you’ll be expanding into each of them at some point regardless of your playstyle. Buying various upgrades will change the way your “adrenaline” attacks work (something you build up over time in open combat), taming animals, poisoning corpses, Slow-Mo bow using, chariot riding and much much more. I’m not sure how to describe it but it is both expansive and focused at the same time while Syndicate’s sytem was fairly straightforward. Thankfully Origins has pulled back on the whole toolset which was a growing problem in previous games. I don’t remember who the worst offender of the franchise was but Revelations does come to mind when it introduced a whole bomb crafting system which I barely used because smoke bombs were all I truly needed. So on and so forth. Origins continues giving us the eternally useful sleep darts and smoke screens. There’s a couple other addons that don’t really even give you any extra buttons, but actually just affect how other skills act under certain circumstances. Even the gear thing is more expanded on in a very RPG like capacity. Unity is the closest comparison but instead of one to five stars, gear typically levels with you and I do mean that quite literally. 

Origins is a massive world with dozens of zones, each of them a certain level range. As you move on in the world, enemies become tougher but will drop better loot. That’s also something I haven’t really found a spot to mention, but the combat is changed to reflect this RPG style; there’s no more countering to a degree. There is a parry skill you can buy early in the game (it’s one of the first things in the warrior tree) but it ends there, as it doesn’t instant kill anyone.  Combat itself is more reminiscent of Dark Souls games, as there’s a lot of flurry attacks and dodging to get out of the way of heavier classed enemies slamming their giant axe down on you. Instakills are now more reserved for your hidden blade and really well placed bow shots. I still have yet to get a full handle on the parrying which I know is vital for survival. There’s a very subtle graphical cue that is so quick I haven’t been able to nab a single screenshot of it. You see a quick red circle around the hilt of the enemies weapon that usually signifies the window to use your Parry but just like any other game, I’m complete shit at it and miss seventy percent of the time. I typically rely on dodgeroll survival and heavy attacks to break defense. I’m sure there will be a boss fight later in the game that will punish me for that. Due to the new combat system, it changed how enemy AI works. In previous games, being caught would alert the immediate area. Instead, I noticed that they can be quite deaf at times to balance out the slightly harsher combat. I once assassinated a guy right next to his patrol buddy and his mate kept walking right along. This is a mixed blessing with how I’m not too great at the actual combat. On one hand, I am punished less for screwups but the tradeoff is that getting caught in open combat means enemies will run towards beacons (Shadow of Mordor/War style) and summon a handful of extra enemies that will patrol the area looking for you. In this way, the game is probably the heaviest in the stealth category as most of the franchise is, and that’s why I like Origins the most when it actually remembers that fact. One of my favorite tools so far is probably Senu, Bayek’s pet eagle. Turns out it functions exactly like the drone in Ghost Recon: Wildlands but with no battery and unlimited range. And I do mean unlimited range, as that little bastard can go across the entire world as you see fit. This can set up a lot of great screenshot fodder if you’re just really interested in seeing the well crafted world itself for a couple of hours. I might take this tour myself some day but for now, I’m fairly content on finding encampments and wiping them out which I’ll elaborate on shortly. Senu herself can scan for enemies, treasures, and various ballistas that you can use while your infiltrating. 

In fact, even she has her own level up. As you capture Eagle Points (which do the usual of mapping the area and revealing side missions) her ability to scan areas becomes more useful. In the beginning you practically have to stare at an enemy in open view before it’ll begin ‘tracking’ them. Now, after a dozen or so eagle points explored I can sort of slowly case an area in Senu’s hover mode and it’ll continually scan enemies even outside the reticle. I liked the drone in Wildlands and I like Senu here, it’s a good mechanic if a bit of an overpowered one where you won’t often be surprised by enemies if you’re patient enough to scan as many as possible. As time goes on you can even upgrade her to pester enemies in combat and helps you hunt. She oneshot a deer at a certain point and I wasn’t even expecting that. Good girl! I mentioned earlier that I find more joy in enemy fort clearing. This hearkens back to a similar problem I had with Syndicate. It was a great game and I thoroughly enjoyed the city takeover stuff (which I did twice!) but once I controlled the whole map the story missions themselves just felt dull and forced. I feel the same way here for the most part as I started having more fun when I actually begun to treat Origins like an actual RPG. I stopped trying to blunder my way through story missions and instead focused on exploring the map, unlock eagle points (that continue to act as fast travel points that will make future questing slightly more convenient), pepper in some side missions and mostly stealth through enemy encampments with various degrees of success. It’s like the game becomes fun when it actually remembers it’s supposed to be in the stealth genre, and I even said in my Wildlands review that Ubisoft does a decent job with stealth as a mechanic that it’s kind of become their cornerstone. Yet they feel this constant need to stuff the game with... stuff. I spent a whole five minutes staring at a blank rock trying to get to an early game eagle point and I was just so damn bored.

Don’t let me take away from its accomplishments though. The combat is frustrating but refreshing. The world is lovely to look at and travel through. The stealth is as fine and ever and it takes some notes from recent RPG’s (Breath of the Wild comes to mind while playing) and employs them in a seamless manner. The characters are fine and the assassination missions are varied and interesting. The dozens of enemy encampments offer unique challenges, treasures, and strong captains to kill. It does of course, have a lot of loot to play with. The Photo Mode is a fun toy to play around with when you’re not too focused on other things. It is however depressing, dull, run of the mill and it feels like it was just factory stamped out of Ubisoft like a few of their others. The pacing is sluggish and there’s no sprint button, you’re stuck with a slow moving camel as your main mode of transport until you can afford a horse. The autorun is useful but fickle and doesn’t always take you where you want to go. The glitches are present and have forced an exit or death more than once. Enemy levels are damn near unfair at times with super units that wander around the world that are typically several levels higher than you or the zone you’re in, making them more like a flash flood to avoid. Origins has its place in the franchise, I simply do not believe that it’s a major step forward. More like a tiny skip.

[bramblepaw]

P2 Lab

apheeweek: Day 7 (sort of)

Prompts: Midnight + Poketalia

Ships: None; Characters: Estonia & Sweden + Norway, Denmark

Warnings: None

Rating: G

Notes:

Real life Got in the Way TM. This is also like, really cheesy. I’m sorry. Remember when I used to be really into Black and White 2? Those are still my favorite Pokemon games rip. Sinnoh probably having the Tohoku dialect helps me stop having an existential crisis over writing Sweden and what to do about accents.

Their eyes locked, and Eduard had to use all of his self control not to visibly panic. Before him stood a stranger, large and foreboding, who had broken into the labs of the Plasma Frigate and was glaring him down from the other side of the room. It was so late at night, most had gone to their dorms to sleep. Even as the security system that Eduard installed blared sirens, it would take approximately ten to fifteen minutes for anyone to get from their quarters to the labs on the other end of the ship. He was partially glad that, out of all nights, he had stayed behind, but also fearful because why him? He was intended to continue his project on the island their team had just bought, and was going to have to use the entire next day to acclimate.

He had to carry an air of control nonetheless. It was just some senseless thug, someone  that could easily be defeated in the context of battle. Because he had his Pokemon to defend him even when this man looked like he could crush him in two seconds. More unnerving was that so far, the intruder had yet to speak.

“Trespassing here was an idiotic decision.” His voice wavered, and the man hadn't so much as flinched; even with the sirens blaring in the background. “Especially alone.”

Eduard wasn't above having his Pokemon beat the intruder down. He just had to hold out through whatever the he had brought with him. Then, he could claim to single-handedly bring an outside invasion down (all of one, but who would know of his embellishment if he wrapped this up quickly enough for no one to see)?

However, much to his surprise, the intruder raised his hands in... surrender was it? Eduard wasn't buying it, and refused to relax from his defensive position.

“C'n we taalk f'rst?”

Was that accent from... Sinnoh possibly? He wasn't sure, and it didn't matter. For security's sake, he threw his first Pokemon out as leverage between them. Porygon-Z, for its goofy appearance, created a barrier to protect its master. The poor thing may have been an experimental failure to travel through dimensions, but at the very least, it had a physical manifestation.

The intruder, on the other hand, hesitated for a fraction of a second, before officially accepting Eduard's challenge. A Froslass emerged from the light of the intruder's pokeball, which set up further proof that he was possibly from Sinnoh. Still an assumption, but it was better than being in the position of knowing nothing. Eduard set himself up to defend, keeping a careful eye out for the intruder's first move.

But, the intruder wasn't calling out any attacks.

What?

“You c'n start.”

What???

“Thunderbolt? Then?”

Porygon-Z still responded to the hesitation, and lightning sparked from its body, hitting Froslass directly. Her owner made no attempt to tell her to dodge it, and continued to hover over the battle in silence.

The intruder's commands of Froslass were lackluster at best. He kept using ice beam, even after Eduard had set up Conversion 2 and made Porygon-Z immune to ice attacks. It was easy to tell that the intruder was throwing the battle.

“You could respect me enough to try.” Eduard called out over the still blaring sirens. He would hear them in his nightmares. Back-up would be coming shortly, and he gave up on dealing with this... situation by himself. He just hoped that the intruder wasn't intentionally stalling...

“Berwald? You wrapped things up and gotten those files on Genesect yet?”

He knew it. At least Intruder's accomplice had no tact in regards to secrecy. And there didn't sound like there were many with him, so they would still be absolutely crushed by the sheer size of Team Plasma's staff.

“Be quiet, Matthias,” came a much more firm, but warm, voice... clearly fighting a natural accent. Two more faces appeared in the door, both appearing somewhat surprised that Eduard was there. Would they not expect him to be? He worked there!

“Lukas, I thought you said the labs would be unoccupied,” Intruder's Accomplice One (Matthias apparently), said... loud enough for Eduard to easily hear. No tact indeed.

“They were supposed to be.”

Intruder, Berwald, hardly acknowledged his cohorts, and continued to try and hit Porygon-Z with the same move that it had been impervious to since the beginning. “Th's one is stronger thaan the oth'rs.”

What? No he wasn't. Berwald had just thrown the battle from the star--

This was all a set-up. He didn't know what for, but it was. Also, where was the rest of the staff?

“We already beat or scared away the rest of the staff, can you please turn off the sirens?” Lukas shouted over the noise.

Arceus save him and Giratina damn him, everyone was already gone. It was time to go for the emergency plan. What slept in the labs was a 300 million year old Pokemon, just starting to be modified in order to serve Team Plasma's purpose. It remained dormant in the pokeball it was stored in. For all of their leader's love of theatrics, it was smarter to hide a weapon in plain sight. He had Porygon-Z set up a barrier, and scrambled for the ball, holding it close to his chest in case someone grabbed for it. Which was good, Berwald might have been throwing the battle, but his friends didn't, as they quickly shattered Porygon's barrier and wailed on it with their own Pokemon. Three against one was hardly fair. But, then again, neither was a barely tested pseudo-legendary, which he had no qualms with releasing from its pokeball to avoid losing all of his team's hard work.

From the light of the contraption came the beautiful result of years of research, standing with menacing, red eyes and a newly installed cannon. It made a strange, hissing sound, but instead of doing what it should and battling for its master, it targeted its cannon for the wall and shot a gaping hole into the hallway.

“No... that's not... Stop!” Eduard wasn't sure if his voice registered to Genesect's over the sirens, rushing to turn them off. But, by the time that the dust settled and the room calmed, Genesect was gone, the sounds of walls collapsing echoing in the distance.

“... We need to g't out of heere.”

Berwald's partners had already taken that as a cue to leave, and they stood anxiously in the frame of the door.

“Come on!” Said the loud one, who seemed even louder when he didn't have to compete with the security system. But Berwald remained locked in place. It put Eduard on edge. The sounds of destruction from the floor above him left him with a sinking feeling in his chest, and a desire to escape just as strong as the intruders'. But, on the other hand, two years of work! If he stayed behind for just long enough for the intruders to leave, then he could save what he could without the threat of it being immediately stolen.

“You c'ming?” That thick accent cut through his panic-induced thoughts, and threw him off. His hesitance wasn't good enough of an answer, because Berwald withdrew his Froslass back to its pokeball and, with the barrier long dissolved, grabbed Eduard's wrist. “Caall your P'kemon back. It's n't safe for y'u to staay.”

Panic rose back into Eduard's chest. At least he had some of his research backed up, because there was no way he could save anything from the lab now! He could say goodbye to any future funding, because he was so terrified of Berwald and how he could snap him in half that he let him lead him out of the labs and into the remains of the Plasma Frigate. Genesect had caused so much irreplaceable damage... what if it found its way to the engine room of the flying ship?

“What about...” Berwald was dragging him faster than he could run, and it made it hard to question him, “what about everyone else?”

“They'll have to get off on their own right.” Lukas responded far in front of him.

Comforting.

The three trespassers apparently had Pokemon waiting for them; a Lapras, which would have been useless if the frigate had taken off once again, but it didn't and wouldn't. Two of them released their flying types and landed safely on their living life raft. Berwald released a Staraptor of his own, and offered his hand. But, oh no, going down with a sinking ship might be better. The island was only a short swim away and...

He didn't get much of a choice, Berwald grabbed his arm once again and hoisted him upon the back of the foreign bird. He wrapped his arms around Berwald's waist for fear of his life, and squeezed his eyes shut, but when he opened them again, the trip down was over.

The ship had barely sunk down in the shallow water it docked in, Genesect had disappeared into the night, and the intruders informed him that they were employed by their own so-called prince to personally stop the Genesect project without his father finding out. Eduard was too shocked to get angry, and Berwald was still intimidating, but he fumed over it for the next week or so, after having been left on the island with the brand-new lab and nothing to work with.

He shouldn't have gotten that funding cut, he should have gotten a raise for the things he had to deal with, and a solitary position where he never saw the team that had personally ruined his career again.

[poppun-chan]

The Year of Keroro Challenge Update 3 (Yes Sir)

This took quite a bit longer than I hoped, this post is a really big one, especially episodes 15 & 17. Actually, today I’ve caught up to watching, once I catch up in writing as well I’ll update weekly, but for now I still have a few posts worth (I’m especially looking forward to the next one).

But for now enjoy a translation of all the writing on the whiteboard from the pool episode:

There’s no shot of everything on the board but here is the meeting related part (Note “enjoy” is written a bit oddly, normally it would be in katakana since they used the English and the “ji” would be from “shi”, not “chi”). However, the best part is the little scribbles on the whiteboard:

It works because Japanese has vertical writing, but one of these is supposed to be both names under the same umbrella (You can see it done full scale with actual people at the end of Only Yesterday). In Japan sharing an umbrella with somebody is considered very romantic, so this is a bit like writing two names in a heart, either way it’s easy to guess who drew it. As for the “Finding Nemo” bit, it basically translates as “Even for searching....” which doesn’t really make any sense, but given the drawing and the fact that the movie came out less than a year before this episode aired, chances are they fiddled around with the writing to make a nod to the movie without name-dropping it (You can find more about that and quite a few other things under the break). And fun fact, flat fish can be either left or right sided and one is considered better tasting (I can’t remember which)

And the plan count:

Serious Plans: K66:14 D66:1 MMK:1

Funding Plans: K66:1

It’s a plan, I Swear!: K66:4

New category: Oh look! Progress (Not actually invading today, just trying to make it look they are so HQ will leave them alone): K66:2 (The ocean invasion plan went here, though it could fit almost anywhere)

Episode 15: This is one I’ve always really enjoyed....fun fact: psychologists seem to be a bit undecided about multiple personalities and over the years have gone back and forth a few times on whether it’s a real psychological condition or created by a person reacting a certain way to unrelated things (for example there was a time when a lot of people were diagnosed and it was traced back to a repressed memory, but when the catalyst events were researched it turned out that most never happened and those people were highly susceptible to suggestion).

On that note there are a lot of fun little touches in this episode like the fact that Momoka’s legs don’t fit in the machine (of course it’s made for somebody much shorter, but still), how when the the two Momokas merge the reversed light and dark pink on their swimsuits also blend to create a peachy pink (subtle), and the nod to frogs hibernating. It’s also worth noting that this episode aired in 2004, in July I believe, which is part of the reason why Keroro mentions the Olympics since this was shortly before the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens (Also Keroro & Giroro’s expressions while swimming are just strangely delightful, the way their faces look when their expressions break the face’s natural patterning).

Now onto something big that has caused a lot of confusion in regards to the original subtitles: The bleeped out bit was supposed to be Patrasch, not Cleopatra. The name and this entire bit of the scene was supposed to a reference to the Dog of Flanders anime series that was part of the World Masterpiece Theater series, namely the ending scene of the anime where the boy and his dog (Patrasch) both freeze to death in a church. The book is considered a classic children’s story in Japan and the 1975 anime still occasionally reruns on T.V. and received a remake movie in 1997, and the ending scene has been referenced in many other works (One example that’s made it here is the Pokemon episode Holy Matrimony). Basically, it’s the anime counter part to calling out “Rosebud”.

As for the censor bleep, that’s something that sometimes happens when somebody name-drops something that the production company doesn’t have the rights to, I’ve seen it in talk shows too. I believe it’s related to the way Japanese copyright laws work in regards to parody and references; appearently they’re allowed as long as the copyright holder doesn’t object, so by bleeping out name-drops and putting pixelation or censor bars over the faces of famous characters they can help lower the chances of a complaint by just suggesting the other work instead of out right referencing it. When there is a complaint the scene can end up being removed or in some cases, like the first episode of Osomatsu-san, the entire episode can be banned from official release.

Oh by the way, I’m presuming “Oha” is short for ohayou or good morning, I know around this time there was a children’s idol/media show called “Oha-star” which used a similar greeting.

Episode 16: It’s the Masami episode, and I have to admit, I had forgotten how far off the deep end Tamama goes in this one; when he showed up I expected him to be excited, but sweet goodness I didn’t expect him to be that excited. This bit is for the cross-section of Keroro & Pony fans, but I always imagined that if they had the originally human Sunset Shimmer appear in Equestria Girls they would handle it a bit like this

Also this is the second time Mois has come really close to destroying the Earth and I have to wonder how it repairs itself afterward so it isn’t already on the brink when she starts, the best I can think of is that magma flows into the crack and solidifies, linking the ground back together; sort of like when you get a cut

Episode 17: 

Actually, it’s a bit interesting that Tamama & Giroro were the ones who fell in the water tank; dark colours absorb heat better than light ones and red tends to make people feel warmer so they’re actually the best able to warm up afterwards. Also in part two the Aliens could have done better if they switched Mois & Dororo and Momoka dodging Natsumi was a fun detail, but didn’t they already establish the being watched feeling was caused by a weird but harmless alien? Having said that, I can imagine some ghost stories would actually be more frightening for a ghost since there’s a chance you’ll encounter whoever the story is about

The next two paragraphs are just talking about two ghost stories mentioned in the episode that I wasn’t sure how well know they were, if you already know them feel free to skip to episode 18

The T.V. program Keroro & Tamama are watching at the beginning is an adaption of a famous ghost story; there are many variations, the basic premise is a jealous wife thinks her husband is smitten with the maid and destroys one of their best plates so she can frame the maid and fire her. When the maid is accused she tries counting the plates and when she finds there’s one missing she searches for it, in one way or another this leads to the maid dying in a well near the house shortly after and her ghost appearing every night, counting the plates and always being one plate short.

As for Koyuki’s story, I’m not sure if the subtitles are quite right; she says “entrust”, so....Either way it’s the story of the Yuki Onna or Snow Woman. Although she’s known for freezing people to death in the mountains, in this story she spares a young man and warns him never to tell anyone of the encounter or he will suffer “a fate worse than death”. Eventually he marries, has children and forgets all about the incident, then he suddenly remembers it one night and tells his wife only to find out she was the Snow Woman all along and that because he told the story to somebody she must leave and warns him to take good care of their children. The fate worse than death she mentioned was having loved someone so much and had her taken away from him.

Episode 18: Alright, I have an odd question....If they’re doing a manzai or cross talk routine, does Keroro play “The dumb one”? The way a lot of these work is that there’s one person who says ridiculous, outlandish things and a more normal person who reacts; the former role is called “Boke”, the same as in “Bokegaeru”, so it would be a bit funny if actually choose that part.

Also Keroro & Mois’ disguise names translate as “Blue Sky Keroko” (Aozora Keroko) and “Great Sea Mois” (Unabara Mois....Appearently it was supposed to be an N, I was surprised too). They don’t show up until the next beach episode, but Nankyoku Tamae is “Southpole Tamae” and Giroro’s I believe is supposed to be a nod to Cucuruz Doan, a character from Mobile Suit Gundam who only appeared in one episode which never aired overseas.

Episode 19: Actually, Natsumi’s reaction seems a bit much to me; Dororo was making the takoyaki properly and had good intentions, Giroro was actually helping children win at his game (Come to think of it, considering Japan’s laws about gun ownership those games are probably the only time any of these children ever touch a real gun), and they removed Kururu’s rigged booth from the manga, so the only dodgy bit was the masks (and isn’t the scoop supposed to be defective with the normal ones being slightly more secure? so wouldn’t it be okay if she fiddled with the wire or used it upside down? I’m thinking about this more than I should, aren’t I?). I’m fairly sure her reaction to the radio plan would also have been less if it had been during another show

Episode 20: At the beginning Dororo makes a statement about protecting the Earth’s environment after invading and I’m going to hop onto my soapbox and mention that he’d probably do a better job. Did you know there are massive patches of garbage floating in the oceans caused by currents bringing the garbage together? Research has been done into cleaning it but if we could even just remove the plastics that would remove one of the main types of waste in these patches, benefit the (at least) 267 species affected by the photodegradation of plastics in the ocean, and save both petrochemicals and the energy that goes into creating new plastics (To give you an idea of the difference recycling makes, by recycling one aluminium cam instead of making a new one you can save enough energy to recycle that can 20 times or enough to power your house for 4 hours)....The ozone layer is starting to grow back, so let’s keep going (If nothing else do it because it would make Dororo happy)

I’d like to point out as well that they had recycling in the Edo period (one example was shops that repaired broken pottery, which were so popular that for a year no new pottery was made at all)....On a more lighthearted note the Keroro platoon looks adorable in those little sailor outfits

Episode 21: I have to wonder about Kururu’s handling of the video: on the one hand, he did seem to genuinely be upset about it, on the other hand not saving your progress is more of a beginner mistake than you would expect given he does this work all the time (and the laughing when the phone falls in the drink could be taken as either finding it funny or that laugh people do when everything has gone so spectacularly wrong it’s the only way to can cope with it all). In other words part of me suspects that he did have a backup stored away somewhere and just wanted to enjoy everyone else’s emotional highs and lows. It’s also interesting to compare Natsumi’s more transformational approach to coping with the heat (change the air’s temperature so it’s colder) to Koyuki’s more adaptive approach (change one’s body temperature so the air feels colder by comparison)

I also really enjoy the second part (and I’m sure Dororo would have too if he had gone with them), though I admit I used to get vertigo from the bit at the beginning with the other motorists (Appearently it’s a Lupin reference) when they fly off the road. The end is adorable though, when they realise they were helped by Grandmother Akina (though the scenes when she helps them are charming too)