#even the team roles map pretty well

[jeannetterankin]

Leverage and Criminal Minds are mirror opposites of each other

an elite team of hyper competent people travel around fighting evil by getting into the heads of bad guys (and/or punching them)

But one is outside the law, one is the law. One is premised on the idea that evil in the world is a result of systemic problems, the other that it originates in lone evil individuals.

And Leverage, despite being not really all that good, is excellent. While Criminal Minds, despite being actually quite good, is not good.

[envysparkler]

Whumptober 2024 Masterlist

It's Whumptober time! 🎃🎃 Prompts are currently closed; it's time for writing!

No. 1: RACE AGAINST THE CLOCK Search Party | Panic Attack | "If only we could hold on.”

stician

No. 2: TRUST ISSUES Amusement Park | Role Reversal | “You got away with the crime while the knife's in my back.”

unrefusable offer

No. 3: SET UP FOR FAILURE Fingerprints | Wrongfully Arrested | "I warned you."

purr

No. 4: HALLUCINATIONS Hypnosis | Sensory Deprivation | “You're still alive in my head.”

Shrike!verse

No. 5: SUNBURN Healing Salve | Heatstroke | "If my pain will stretch that far."

geolocation

No. 6: NOT REALISING THEY'RE INJURED Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms | Healed Wrong | "It's not my blood."

leash

No. 7: ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES Unconventional Weapon | Magic with a Cost | "It's us or them."

no hard feelings

No. 8: SLEEP DEPRIVATION Isolation Chamber | Forced to Stay Awake | "Leave the lights on."

exhaust

No. 9: OBSESSION Broken Window | Bruises | “Frame me up on the wall, just to keep me out of trouble.”

unrefusable offer

No. 10: BLOW TO THE HEAD Slurred Words | Passing Out from Pain | "I can't think straight."

cling

No. 11: SEEING DOUBLE Convenience Store | Loneliness | “Leave no trace behind, like you don't even exist.”

grave secrets

No. 13: TEAM AS A FAMILY Familial Curse | Multiple Whumpees | "Death will do us part."

inhibition

No. 14: LEFT FOR DEAD Hunting Gear | Blackmail | “Because I want you to know what it feels like to be haunted”

the other wayne kid

No. 15: CHILDHOOD TRAUMA Painful Hug | Moment of Clarity | "I did good, right?"

haphephobia

No. 16: NECROSIS Swamp | Wound Cleaning | "No, I can't feel anything."

Reconciliation

No. 17: NOWHERE ELSE TO GO Ruined Map | Shipwrecked | "We had a good run."

sink or swim

No. 18: REVENGE Unreliable Narrator | Loss of Identity | “I see what's mine and take it.”

Godfather

No. 19: BLOOD TRAIL Abandoned Cabin | One Way Out | "Is there anybody alive out there?"

unrefusable offer

No. 20: EMOTIONAL ANGST Shoulder to Cry On | Giving Permission to Die | "It's not your fault."

pretty robin

No. 21: BODY HORROR Body Horror | Tattoo Gun | Spirit Possession | “Let the bedsheet soak up the tears.”

leash

No. 22: BLEEDING THROUGH BANDAGES Tourniquet | Reopening Wounds | "Oh that's not good."

whiplash

No. 23: FORCED CHOICE Public Display | Broken Pedestal | "I'm doing this for you."

blood of the covenant

No. 24: RADIATION POISONING Collapsed Building | Equipment Failure |  “I never knew daylight could be so violent.”

favored

No. 25: SURGERY Stitches | Being Monitored | "It's for your own good."

hot wheels

No. 26: NIGHTMARES Breakfast Table | Parting Words of Regret | “I'm haunted by the lies that I have loved, the actions I have hated.”

paying dues

No. 27: VOICELESS Laboratory | Muzzled | “I have no mouth and I must scream.”

muzzled

No. 29: FATIGUE Labyrinth | Burnout | "Who said you could rest?"

padded cuffs

No. 30: RECOVERY Hospital Bed | Holding Back Tears | "What have I done?"

robin's roast

No. 31: ASKING FOR HELP Therapy | Making Amends | "I'm alive, I'm just not well."

wibbly wobbly

Alt 3. Finding Old Messages

paying dues

Alt 4. Forgotten

we're all ghosts

Alt 5. Friendly Fire

burn at the stake

Alt 8. Regret

paying dues

Alt 9. Secrets Revealed

groundhog day

Alt 10. Shivering

the other wayne kid

Alt 11. Survivor's Guilt

unfinished business

[jermer10]

For a fic request, Soldier slowly falls in love with the reader and constantly denies it because he feels like a strong American man shouldn't have butterflies in his stomach every time he sees a pretty person.

TF2 in the trenches | soldier x reader

gn reader | soldier is so awesome love that guy, sorry for the comically long wait time and enjoy mr artoatsblog and eris090 <3

drabbles under the cut :P

You had just joined the administration team as a fresh recruit, assigned to the role of Civilian - a object of protection. You weren't a fan of the title, nor the nature of your role. Having to be escorted across the map by whichever team had you that week, putting up with the fretting and the comments, as if you were a hassle more than an important part of your workplace. If the pay wasn't so good, you would have left on your first day. Most mercs not-so-secretly reveled in the idea of getting to play the hero, the RED Soldier, however, was more than happy to ignore you. An intimidating presence on the battlefield, barking orders and rarely engaging with anyone outside of his explosive rants. His helmet shadowed his face, making it even harder to connect with him on any personal level.

But still, something about him drew you in. Maybe it was his unwavering determination, or perhaps the way he threw himself into danger without hesitation. Whatever it was, you wanted to get to know the man behind the helmet. Your first few attempts to speak with Soldier didn’t go well. He wasn’t rude, but his responses were curt, clipped, and filled with military jargon you didn’t quite understand. “Sir! I just wanted to thank you for covering me on the battlefield earlier,” you said one day after a particularly rough mission. He stopped polishing his rocket launcher just long enough to give you a sideways glance. “IT WAS NOTHING, MAGGOT. JUST DOING MY PART TO FIGHT THIS WAR AGAINST THOSE COMMIE SISSIES!” He left all too quickly, rambling about something in the kitchen.

You nodded, feeling a little defeated. Every day, you tried a little harder to get through to him. You’d help him clean his gear, bring him his favorite rations, and even offer to spar with him during training. Yet, each interaction ended the same way - short, jargon filled responses and some quick reason to leave. The first time you managed to break down one of his walls was after a particularly shitty week. The team had lost, and everyone was exhausted. You found Soldier sitting alone outside, staring at the rain falling on the muddy battlefield. His usual brash energy was nowhere to be found. “You alright, Soldier?” you asked cautiously, approaching him. “You don’t usually sit still this long.”

He grunted but didn’t tell you to go away. Encouraged, you sat beside him. “I know today was tough,” you said gently. “But we’ll bounce back. We always do.” For the first time, he didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he sighed, the sound heavy with exhaustion. “Lost too many good men in my time,” he said quietly, surprising you. “Can’t afford to lose any more. Not again.” The vulnerability in his voice caught you off guard. This was the first time he’d spoken to you like a person, not a recruit or a subordinate. You carefully placed a hand on his shoulder, half-expecting him to pull away.

He didn’t.

“We’re not going anywhere,” you reassured him softly. “You’ve got our backs, and we’ve got yours.” You understood his feelings of inadequacy. Soldier finally turned to face you, his eyes, usually so stern, softening just a little. You had no idea what Soldier's life was like before taking this job, the things he had seen, the things he had done. The mercs couldn't die, but you both knew he pushed them a little too hard sometimes. Finding someone to take their place in the family the team had built, well Soldier wouldn't admit it, but it would hurt. “You’re a strange one, recruit,” he muttered, shaking his head slightly. “But... you’ve got guts. More than I gave you credit for.” You smiled.

The next few days were different. Soldier still barked orders and rambled about war as per usual, but there was a subtle shift in how he interacted with you. He didn’t brush you off as quickly when you approached him, and every so often, he’d even seek you out himself, whether to talk strategy or simply share a meal in silence. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for you to notice - and enough for him to realize he was letting his guard down. That realization, of course, did not sit well with Soldier.

He found himself more aware of you whenever you were around. At first, it was just an occasional glance, a brief acknowledgment. But soon enough, it was much more than that. He noticed things about you he hadn’t before: the way you smiled when you talked, the way you styled you hair differently for every mission, and how, despite the constant chaos around you, you managed to stay calm and collected.

And that was the problem.

Soldier wasn’t supposed to notice those things. He wasn’t supposed to feel anything other than the drive to win the war and keep you safe as part of his duty. But now, every time you crossed his mind, there was that familiar, frustrating feeling - his stomach tightening, chest warming in a way that made him want to scream at himself. He refused to let it happen.

The next time he had approached you, it was after a flawless mission. You were sitting off some ledge somewhere, bottle of whisky in hand and a pleasant look on your face. He felt hot and awkward - he knew the next day you had to go over to the BLU's, and he hated knowing that he would have to try and kill you in order to prevent the enemies from winning. He also knew he had feelings for you - some not so 'professional workplace relationship' feelings, and trying to explain them to you of all people was so easy yet so hard.

“Mind if I sit?” he asked, already leaning down to sit. You smiled up at him. "Yeah, could do with some company." You passed the bottle between one another, taking swigs and cracking jokes, discussing the recent victory you had shared. After a few moments of silence, you noticed that Soldier kept sneaking glances at you from under his helmet, his jaw tight. You tilted your head, curious. “Is something bothering you?” He slammed the almost empty bottle onto the wooden planks of the flooring next to you, clearly frustrated with something - though it seemed like the frustration was directed more at himself than at you. “This- this isn’t right!” he finally snapped.

You blinked, startled by the outburst. “What isn’t right?”

“You!” Soldier pointed at you with a gloved finger, his voice rising. “You keep... getting in my head. I can’t focus! Every time I turn around, there you are, smiling and asking questions, making me think about - about things I shouldn’t be thinking about!” Your eyes widened as realization hit. “Soldier, wh- are you saying-?”

“No!” he interrupted, his voice gruff. “I’m not saying anything! I’m a soldier! I don’t have time for... whatever this is.” There it was. The vulnerability he had been fighting against for so long. He hated feeling weak, and these feelings, whatever they were, were making him feel weak. But now that it was out in the open, there was no taking it back. You were startled, confused, and feeling the same churning feeling in your chest and warmth spreading over your face that he was. “It’s okay to care about people, Soldier,” you said softly, your voice calm. “It doesn’t make you weak. If anything, it makes you stronger.”

For a long moment, Soldier didn’t say anything. He just stared at you, his expression unreadable beneath the brim of his helmet. Then, finally, he let out a long, defeated sigh. “I don’t like this,” he muttered, but there was no real bite in his words. “I don’t like... feeling like this.” You smiled, a small, understanding smile. “You don’t have to like it. But you don’t have to fight it either.” Soldier processed your words, chewing at his bottom lip. Then, with another resigned grunt, he nodded. “Fine,” he said gruffly. “But don’t think this means I’m going soft, maggot.”

You laughed softly. “I wouldn’t dare.”

And for the first time, Soldier didn’t try to deny what was happening between the two of you. He might not have fully understood it yet, but he was no longer running from it either.

[hiraya-rawr]

— their roles in a modern zombie apocalypse .

synopsis !! you meet them in an apocalypse, here's what they're like (hcs)

characters !! diluc, itto, alhaitham, zhongli, xiao

contains !! gn reader. some violent descriptions? anything you expect in a zombie apocalypse + lots of team dynamics!

+ + +

DILUC

The one who saves you from a risky situation. I'm taking about being surrounded and all of a sudden, he jumps in and knocks them all out.

always in the front lines

weapon of choice is a large bat (eventually, he'll wrap barbed wires around it or nails just for extra measure). brutal fighting style, hits them head-first

definitely wears a leather jacket, or something equally dark and large. i don't make the rules.

despite being extremely strict and protective with the group, he's actually extremely reckless when it comes to saving others- like, he'll run back into a hoard just to save someone that almost seems hopeless

gets scolded by kaeya and zhongli for doing things by himself.

ITTO

The disaster-prone guy who (for some reason) survived after all this time. You meet him in the middle of a supply run with his own teammates, Shinobu and his gang. He was making so much noise that you all had to run away together from a hoard.

Imagine stealth missions and all of a sudden, he sneezes really loudly or steps on a branch

you often get chased by zombies when you're with him, it doesn't help that he screams at them while being chased, catching the attention of more undeads.

like diluc, he also holds a pretty heavy bat, or anything just as big.

he makes up for being disaster-prone by also being very good at defending his partners

often gets into arguments with his other teammates, especially the leaders. he prefers being free and going around on his own, not knowing how stupid it is (but he's been handling himself pretty well so far)

ALHAITHAM

The one who gives you books to read. No one prioritizes entertainment on a supply-run, so seeing his mini-book collection in your hideout was honestly impressive.

he's strategist who keeps track of all supplies. He's the one who plans all the supply-trips you guys go out for, usually leading them himself. He hates Itto for putting his team in danger but brought him into your gang anyway.

it makes sense because he memorizes the map of streets like the back of his hand. he also keeps track of which roads are blocked or highly infested.

holds nightly meetings with the other leaders, discussing the next plan of action to ensure everyone's safety

on a softer note, he still tries to collect books when he can during the supply runs (you often have to move, but if you ever find a place you can stay for a little while longer, he can gather quite the collection)

everyone likes to borrow a book or two from him, since any other form of entertainment is down

some people find it odd that he still studies. he even reads academic books. it's not like he can ever get a professional position with the state of the world anyway? he says it's just because he likes it (and perhaps, for a sense of normalcy in his life)

if you ever bump into him late into the night when you can't sleep, he'll offer you a book to read (or perhaps, if you're lucky, even read you a book)

ZHONGLI

The businessman you leeched off of to survive since day 1. You were just walking the streets when the apocalypse happened and for some reason, while everyone was panicking and getting bitten, he was skillfully fighting the growing hoard and helping people evacuate the streets. You ended up being one of the survivors following him.

The gentleman who doesn't seem like he could survive in the apocalypse but is actually really, really good at it

I mean, he still wears a business casual outfit with the sleeves rolled up! how can he possibly survive?

but not only is he skilled with all sorts of weapons (which is incredibly suspicious for a mere salaryman) but he's great at hand to hand combat with zombies too

gains everyone's respect real quick with both his fighting skills and his ability to manage a small community in the apocalypse

XIAO

The unexpected source of comfort on nights when you question if living in this type of world is still worth it.

zhongli's right-hand man and honestly, the only reason why everyone underestimated zhongli at first was because xiao usually fought for him instead.

little guy tears apart at zombies before they could even approach anyone from your group

like diluc, he always gets scolded by his teammates for doing everything on his own

on nights when you feel alone, xiao is often on the rooftop of your building, keeping watch without being asked to

you once told him that you could take his shift of keeping watch so he won't have to stay late so much, only for him to rudely refuse. you used to think it was because he thought you were incompetent, but xiao just generally wants to keep watch as his duty.

you figured it would be lonely. so with the books you borrowed from alhaitham, you'd read by his side on the rooftop, occassionally keeping watch of any growing hoards

CHILDE

The sus guy from another group of survivors you keep bumping into.

If destiny were a thing, it would be him with how much you keep accidentally running into each other in the most ridiculous of situations.

at first, you thought he was a pretty nice guy. he's just like any other survivor trying to find supplies and apparently, he has a little brother back at camp!

he tells you he was picking up Teucer from school when all this happened.

then you got chased by zombies and childe– archons bless his soul, he loved the thrill of it and fought them off like a madman.

that's when you realize his entire group is full of sus people, equally crazed as him, and often causing trouble for other survivor groups.

you try to avoid him as much as possible but again, it's like destiny.

note !! i think this is the first I've written something for itto? not sure but it feels new. and this took way too long to write mainly because i keep messing up the writing style 😭

ko-fi || character m.list

[mrs-barnes-rogers-writes]

Pretty As A Picture - Chapter 3

Marvel

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader x Bucky Barnes

Theme: Soulmates - Feeling the connection as soon as you see each other.

Summary: When Bucky fell from the train, their soulmate was told he was gone. When Steve Rogers disappeared into the ice, their soulmate was again told one of her soulmates were gone. But she didn't believe it. Couldn't believe it. Committed to a mental health institute, she dies of a broken heart. That's at least what the hidden S.H.I.E.LD files say, but if that's the case than why is there a photo of her. A photo that shows her side by side two redhaired Avengers.

Warnings will be per chapter.

For this fic reader will be British, but let your imagination replace if needed.

Chapter Summary: Everyone is confused, nothing makes sense and what does Romanoff know?

Chapter Warning: Mentions of vomiting, sad Steve, sad Bucky.

It didn’t take long for the team to jump into action, naturally separating to try and best support their soul brothers.

Sam and Tony followed the heaving of Steve into the bathroom, Rhodey started pulling out cold bottles of water from the refrigerator. Bruce, Natasha and Wanda knelt in front of Bucky as Vision took the photos Wanda was holding scanning through quickly for anymore of their soulmate before putting them and the frames back into the print room.

Steve had finally lost it, he thought to himself as he harshly threw up the sandwich Sam had made him at lunch. First he sacrifices himself and then he’s in the ice for seventy years, he wakes up in a fake room and his first thought is his soulmate, then Bucky, followed by ‘why is this room fake’, and he runs. Everything is different, absolutely everything. He’s never felt so alone. He meets the team and discovers their his soul friends, making them soul family. None of it makes sense. Why did he have a soul brother, Bucky, and a shared soulmate, for everyone else to be in this new life. It makes no sense and he still feels alone. Nat and Clint are close, Bruce and Tony bond over science and Thor leaves to return his wayward brother to Asgard. He finds Peggy but there’s no sign of their soulmate. They’ve been deleted from every statement, every plan, even archive footage and then in a lucid moment Peggy mentions their girl was admitted to a mental institution. Shipped home and locked up, she says, and for a moment she tells him how she tried to get a guardianship in place but then she’s gone again. Lucid moment over.

After the fall of S.H.E.I.L.D and before Ultron, Steve breaks down, too much Asgardian mead in his system and too many soulmate couples around. He doesn’t even have a grave to lay flowers at. Pepper and Nat wrap him in a hug, Tony starts looking through his Dad’s old paperwork, Sam starts looking for graves as well as looking for Bucky and then Natasha looks again. Not like she hasn’t looked a hundred times already and there’s no sign of their soulmate anywhere. Then Peggy’s estate is finalised and a British agent, double 0 something hands Steve a file during a liaison meeting and their soulmate is found. There’s no photographs but it’s full of information, her role within British Special Forces, a rarity even during the war. How Peggy had seen some of her mapping and plans and had snatched their girl away to work with her and The Howling Commandos and then the mental institution. Steve thinks about that file and decides he needs to look at it again, for what will probably be the thousandth time. He tries to get up but struggles. He hears Sam’s voice and there’s hands around him pulling him to his feet.

Sam guides him out of the cubicle and to the sink where he washes his hands and face. Tony appears from somewhere with a toothbrush and mouthwash. They both look concerned but also confused. Neither knowing what to say. The silence is broken by Rhodey entering the bathroom and handing Steve a bottle of water.

“You OK?” he asks. Tony and Sam roll their eyes.

“Not exactly.”

“That was a stupid question wasn’t it?”

“You think?” “Yep” came Tony and Sam’s replies.

“Barnes needs you. He’s not responding to the others.”

“Shit” and Steve’s feet are moving before the rest of him is engaged and he’s almost falling into the corridor before he knows where he is.

“Buck?”

The others pull away and Steve is pulling him to his feet. He hugs him with everything he can, even in his washed out state. Bucky pulls away and finally speaks again.

“It makes no sense Stevie.”

Broken. That’s how Bucky sounds and Steve is pulling him back into his arms. The team watch them as they seek comfort in each other. Wondering if this is how they were before but with their soulmate between them. Comfortable in each other’s presence. Bucky comfortable with affection and Steve open about his emotions.

“I know Buck but it means she’s here. We’ve found her. We’ve got our girl back.”

Tony brushed a stray tear from his cheek and cleared his throat.

“Does someone want to start explaining? And by someone, I mean you Romanoff, and don’t think you three are exempt from this either.” Tony said, pointing at Bruce, Vision and Wanda. “Do you remember when we came back here? When we came back together? We made a promise? No more secrets.”

“Tony.” Bruce went to interrupt, keen to defend his own soulmate.

“No, we don’t brush over this. You’ve known for how long? HOW LONG?” Tony snapped. The team jumped in surprise, even the super soldiers, surprised by his outburst. Tony could barely stand them at the moment and now he was sticking up for them.

“What’s going on?” Pepper’s voice suddenly added to the conversation as she joined them in the corridor. She wrapped her arms around Tony and he held her tightly. Pepper’s eyes scanned the team as she leaned out of the embrace. Wanda and Nat looked tearful, everyone looked puzzled. “OK, let’s try again, what’s going on? Why are you watching Steve and Bucky hugging? Should I call the therapist again?”

Sam was the first to break and let out a small laugh, nervous laughter but it set Rhodey off too.

“You know I didn’t think our whole soul family thing could be anymore fucked up but here we are.”  He laughed out.

“But really should I call the therapist?” Pepper asked.

Calmed by his soulmate’s presence, Tony was the first to answer.

“Pep, I love your dedication towards us figuring out this mashed up family but the therapist can’t help with this one.”

Steve smiled softly at them both, still wrapped in each other’s arms. Bucky pulled away from Steve and stepped towards Pepper, passing the photos to her.

“She’s pretty. Who is she?”

“She’s our girl.” Bucky almost whispered. It didn’t slip Pepper how broken Bucky sounded or that his eyes were bloodshot and his face was wet with tears or that Steve looked like he’d seen a ghost. He kind of had. It also didn’t slip passed her that their soulmate wasn’t alone in these pictures.

“You knew? You two knew? You promised me Natasha. You promised me you looked. That you tried to find her!”

Natasha went to speak but Pepper was quick to cut her off.

“I don’t want to hear it. Everyone in meeting room four now. Two days. I’m gone for two days and this happens.”

Pepper stormed down the corridor with a smug looking Tony trailing behind. He loved it when she was assertive.

One by one the team joined them. Bucky was first, sitting immediately across from Pepper and he didn’t miss that although the therapist may not have been present, she’d picked the room most like a therapists. Soft couches and pillows, with plants dotted around.

“Please may I have her back?” Bucky asked Pepper.

“Her?”

“The photos I mean, I’d like to look at them please.”

“Sorry Bucky of course” she replied passing them back.

“You holding up OK?” Tony asked, taking Bucky by surprise.

“Not really.”

Rhodey was next to enter, coffees in his hand, passing one to Tony and one to Bucky. Thank yous were muttered as a sheepish Wanda entered carrying a tray with a pot of camomile tea and cups, followed by Vision. Sam was next with more coffees, followed by an uneasy looking Nat and Bruce. Steve was last carrying the file. The file double o something had given him placing it on the table. Tony noticed the handwriting immediately. Peggy Carter’s.

The atmosphere was uneasy as Steve looked around the room, he glanced to his left where Bucky sat alongside him, full of emotions. He knew then he needed to take the lead, push his emotions to one side, piece this together and get their girl back. He sat straight in the chair and in what the team had called his ‘Captain voice’ broke the silence.

“Romanoff start talking.”

Enjoy this fic? Fancy a cuppa? My Ko-Fi.

[mt-oe]

𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙁𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙—𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙢𝙞𝙯𝙪 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙣𝙨

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Hey dears!

I've been getting addicted with playing Valorant recently and thought it would be fun to try and make some hcs for Mizu <3

Clove's release is so exciting and I'm so happy non-binary people are given some representation in games. They're so much fun and their ult mechanic is such a game-changer.

Please tell me if you'd like me to make more of these or if I should make some for other games too (as long as I know them well enough).

Anywho, let's go!

Enjoy! Mwa mwa :*

warnings: not proofread, the use of "clutch or gay", she/her for mizu

mizu has a crush on you :3

✦ Her fave maps are Icebox and Bind. Whenever you play comp with her and these maps roll up, you're internally fucking hollering. You're thanking every possible deity there is, dancing in your seat, kissing your monitor.

She's such a god in these maps. Every good agent for every role, every lineup, and even some pro play shit strats, she memorized it.

She loves Icebox for how easy it was to clear angles and how easy it was to formulate AND predict strategies. The map was pretty straightforward and no bullshit. Perfect for her.

Bind for the outplay potentials. Teleporters + Yoru TP/Omen TP and Ult? There's no telling where she may be. Will she plant in A? Will she plant in B? Maybe she's already flanking? Who knows?

✦ Mizu doesn't buy skins but she DOES have some. They're gifts from you and her friends! An oni phantom, neptune spectre, and sovereign marshal from Akemi; An arcane sheriff from Taigen because they're probably taking their shit-talking to League too; and a reaver vandal, reaver karambit, and the oni katana from you.

She doesn't really give a shit about skins, but ever since she was gifted one, she started appreciating them. You'll see her using the inspect animation once in a while if she picks up a skin she's never seen before.

If it's just a chill comp game or she's playing solo queue, she'll use the oni katana. If she's playing with you and/or wants to show off, she'll use the reaver karambit. Of course you have to go with the sexy one when trying to impress.

✦ Doesn't shit talk heavily, but shit talks in a way that'll piss you off.

"Ooooh shit someone's mad," you laughed over the voice-comms, watching as the enemy Reyna started spewing all sorts of insults at your team. It was mostly targeted at Mizu, who was also playing Reyna, and was top-fragging. Soon after that fiasco, you'd see Mizu type "." in all chat every time she killed the enemy Reyna, got a clutch, and even an ace. Everyone was snickering at her antics, finding it funny how Mizu was shitting on them while the enemy was clearly progressively getting even more tilted.

On the other hand, if Taigen was there and Mizu failed to clutch the round, he'd be laughing loudly over the voice chat, making fun of her over and over. He'd even type "GG [insert Mizu's current agent]. Aimlabs is free" in team chat, which was so fucking embarrassing. The moment Mizu catches Taigen lacking, she'll be having a hayday in the team chat, spamming "GG [insert Taigen's current agent], Aimlabs is free" over and over which effectively pisses Taigen off.

✦ Along with the previous one, if someone ever decided to trashtalk you, she's going absolutely feral. She still wouldn't be spewing nonsense, but you'll notice her becoming more aggressive.

"Didn't you just use your ult?" You asked her, spectating as she used another Reyna ult which you swore she just used two rounds ago. "I just feel like playing a little better today," she replies. But then goes to strafe like a fucking bitch, doing a poppin' swing once or thrice, making the enemy struggle before killing the enemy and t-bagging them aggressively.

You raised an eyebrow at her antics but still laughed at it. "You sure you're not here for blood?" you joked. "Yeah.." she said while spamming your trashtalker's KD status in all-chat.

✦ There's no doubt about how well she plays with different agents, but her worst agent to use would be Gekko. Something about Dizzy's trajectory and letting Wingman plant and defuse felt off to her. Maybe it was because she was used to having control over the speed of her flashes and being able to fake defuse.

✦ Actually responds to "clutch or gay" jokes.

If a random teammate or anyone in your friend group (mainly Taigen) decides to use that joke on her during a clutch situation, it doesn't matter if it's a 1v1, a 1v5, a 1v5 + Sage res + Clove ult. She's winning. She's fucking winning.

You watched in anticipation as Mizu, using Omen, went through attacker spawn in Breeze. It was a 1v4, having picked one off when she picked up the spike. For a moment, you thought of something before typing "clutch or gay" in team chat. It worked for your other friends and randos, why not try it?

The moment she read that chat from you, you could immediately see Omen throwing his weapons off of the map. The noise of the agent's footsteps prompting the enemy to shoot him. "Bro what the fuck are you doing?" Taigen groans, annoyance heavy in his voice. Mizu doesn't respond in voice chat, but you hear her typing. After a while, a chat pops up.

(Whisper) From mizu: did you see that?

(Whisper) To mizu: mhm. why'd u do that :c

(Whisper) From mizu: you said clutch or gay

(Whisper) From mizu: i didn't clutch.

But she only ever does this to you.

✦ Actually plays fill but everyone in your friend group decided to place her as a duelist. She's going to treat every agent like a damn duelist anyway. Why place her somewhere else? You get site early and fast + She gets higher RR from combat score. It's a win-win. Plus, she loves secretly showing off to you. She relishes the "woah where'd you learn to satchel like that?", the "nice kill!" when she wins in an Iso 1v1, and the way you bought her an op upon her request when she used Jett as if you automatically trusted her.

[hms-no-fun]

Tell us about Dill and Alexander! I kinda picture them in my head as Kermit and that blue eagle Muppet but gay and gamer/greasy mechanic. Is that where you got the idea? Is sburb's frog fascination gonna play into the story of these boyos?

oh what's that? you want to be the captive audience for a lore dump about my very special guys? completely unprompted and with total investment in everything i might have to say? well well, don't mind if i do!

SO, Dill Croaker and Alexander Falcon are members of a now-defunct group called The Falconers. they are modeled after Star Fox (the team) from Star Fox (the video games). we haven't seen Alex on screen yet, but here's @girlpillz's rendering of Dill for B1 verse 1, where Lenore Lehart shows off her sick bouncy ball skills for Dana Straten to get the attention of Dill.

Alex being a blue falcon, i imagine he looks legally distinct from Falco Lombardi from Star Fox (the video games; the team) albeit less cocky and attitudinous.

there are technical reasons for The Falconers' existence. going into 3.2B, i knew i wanted a secondary supporting cast in the margins capable of handling dirtywork off-screen. for instance, they're decrypting and analyzing Lenore's stolen witch data so the main cast doesn't have to worry about it, leaving us more time to luxuriate in what we're actually here for: feelings.

Star Fox 64 is my favorite game, so when it came time to come up with that supporting cast, the possibilities of a knockoff Star Fox team immediately sold me on the idea (especially since this is the only story where i will ever reasonably be able to get away with such a blatant act of self-indulgence. you wouldn't believe it from looking, but i don't actually do a lot of indulging myself with Godfeels. i try very hard to never throw things in without serious calculation. The Falconers are pretty much the only thing i've introduced that came as an inorganic external mandate of my own selfish making, and even then i've worked very hard to integrate them naturally). as a broken up four-person crew, they mirror the Upsilons-- and so, them helping the Falconers reunite in order to find Alphi and Edie gives these guys some juice. their backstory is a shadow of the Upsilons', and a useful point of comparison as the narrative plugs along. i could've made a girl Star Fox team, but frankly Godfeels is just so women-centered, so female-focused, so tgirl-transfixed that i figured it was about time to throw the boylikers a bone.

The Falconers are balanced as a calculated twist on the Star Fox team. the most immediate difference is that here, Alexander Falcon fills the role of Fox McCloud. he's the charismatic team leader, a little surly (especially these days) but good at his job and deeply committed to the care of his team. Dill Croaker is, obviously, only about five runs through the dryer away from Slippy Toad, and fills the same role. my reason for this is that everyone is mean to Slippy and they're wrong. Slippy is a brilliant engineer and programmer, why do you expect him to be an ace fighter pilot too? that's YOUR job, hotshot! Nintendo themselves have been all over the map with Slippy in terms of characterization, pretty much never getting him quite as right as he felt in 64. so, yeah, Dill is my take on Slippy: a clueless gamer frog who plays with a lot of edgelords but is himself impervious to their venom. he never cusses because he's a good boy, and he respects women.

Dill and Alex have lived together on Crime Planet for a long time. are they fucking? no, i don't believe they are. Dill strikes me as something of an ace king, and anyway i don't think he's Alex's type. mostly they work together in the shop and hang out doing bro stuff. maybe Alex lifts weights while Dill plays shitty space MOBAs. but all this begs the question: who is Alex's type?

as of the B1 solo we've learned a little bit about the other two Falconers. first there is Erol [last name unknown], the oldest member of the crew who's likely analogous to Peppy Hare. which leaves us with Yolo Sionnach. a lot of information can be implied about him from this exchange:

yes, a lot of information indeed. but as much as i would love to enumerate the implications, i must hold my tongue. i mean, i would type it all out, but i can't, because i'm literally using my fingers to hold my tongue in place so that i can't say the spoilers out loud

anyway, i like the muppet comparison. that wasn't what i had in mind at all, but now i'm imagining the Falconers as the puppets Nintendo used to advertise Star Fox Zero and........ ohhhh scope creep you saucy temptress

the Slippy slander is rampant! and that's to say nothing of the ad where muppet versions of Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Reggie Fils-Aime slowly transform into Peppy, Fox, and Falco respectively.

i can't say that Sburb/the Universe Engine have much to do with The Falconers' story. they're not godtier, they don't know anything about the UE, they are literally just space mercenary furries. they come from the Lemurian Star System, trained at the Academy on Lemuria, and worked in the Lemurian Sky Corps until starting their own independent outfit as contractors (which i imagine is a fairly common career path in a region racked by interplanetary war and rampant espionage). age-wise, they're in their mid 30s.

thank you for this wonderful question. no one ever asks about the other guys, and i am always dying to talk about the other guys.

[theladyragnell]

Number 2 for the leverage ot3? Thanks :)

(Eye contact across a crowded room! This one was weirdly hard to write, because it mostly came to me as a little episode snippet but unfortunately I cannot download videos from my head to yours, but ah well, c'est la vie.)

Eliot knows what it’s like to have a team.

Been a long time since he had one, since he got weaned off having a team when they realized his killer instincts were more useful on offense than defense, and everything since then has been temporary, based on contract or control or cash, but it still comes back. He’ll never say it, doesn’t even want to think it, but it’s his natural state, standing between someone else and trouble. He’s been doing it a long time.

Some of the finer points, though, those get lost in a long time away. The way he gets really damn annoyed when he’s trying to listen to a job plan and someone won’t stop making judgy comments about his guacamole not being like their Nana used to make it. The way he wakes up sometimes feeling like he missed a step on the stairs because he’s not sure where one of them is. The way, in a room full of people, he always knows where they are, like markers on a map.

This isn’t a hard part of the job. Eliot is just there as backup for Sophie, and everybody else is playing safe roles, the kinds they can just disappear into, service staff mostly, but Eliot still knows where they are without looking. Parker by the drinks table swapping out a tray. Hardison badly fixing the event space’s sound system that he sabotaged earlier so they’d have to call him in. Sophie doing that annoying socialite laugh that follows her from identity to identity. Nate pretending to be messily drunk but having to pretend less than he should, getting ready to spill something on the mark.

They’ve all got their own ways of keeping eyes out, Eliot doesn’t pretend that’s some superpower only he’s got, but he’s pretty sure, with the kind of comfortable knowledge of his own skills that his training gave him, that he’s the best at it. Hardison might think he is, but Hardison needs an earbud and a screen to do it.

That’s why he knows a second before everybody else does that the job is about to go wrong. He knows Parker’s too far from an easy escape route, that Sophie’s too close to the mark’s security, that Hardison’s in a nest of wires that will trip him, right when Nate does his trip and Eliot realizes the most competent security guard, who was supposed to be off tonight, came in with food poisoning.

Sophie isn’t blown. Nate isn’t blown. But Parker and Hardison, they tend to do the little one-note grifts to set up the bigger con, and this guard is the kind of person who makes note of new delivery drivers on his routes, an intern who only lasts one day. Eliot looks at Parker first, and finds her looking back, already waiting for him to make the play. It’s taken more than a year for her to trust him like this, but she does, she’s Eliot’s responsibility and he’s not going to leave her out to dry.

“Catering emergency in three,” Hardison says in Eliot’s ear, and Eliot glances over at him, too, finds him looking back. Of course his facial recognition would pay off a second after Eliot figured it out. He’ll even be smug about it later.

But they’re all fast. That’s why they all make a good team, and especially why the three of them make a good team. Eliot might have known first, but he doesn’t have to explain it to any of them. They all know how to handle this. It just takes a moment of connection to make sure they’re on the same page, and when Hardison looks away, it’s to catch Parker’s eye, all three of them syncing up while Nate starts drunkenly stammering his way through an apology to the mark.

“Two,” says Hardison.

“I’ve got the guard,” says Eliot, already moving, taking his eyes off Parker and Hardison, trusting them to get through the next steps.

“One,” says Parker, already moving when the kitchen fire alarm goes off, Hardison using the excuse to panic and flail and sever a wire that kills some of the event lighting, and Eliot moves into the well-practiced dance knowing he’s standing between them and danger.

[object-vault-9]

Question I have about the vault itself, do you have an idea of what it looks like? The whole interior layout and everything? I've been wondering for some time now...

Ohh I should really sit down in a map maker and put it together ! A lot of the inspiration for the layout comes from Vault 101 and Vault 76 in the fallout games, plus a huge agricultural inspiration is from Vault 33 This is gonna be long and have pictures from the games/show/my comic/etc so it'll be under a break, might include some rambling about the way the vault used to operate too ! Very rambly/unorganized for now

Vault 9 is built into a cliff face, and behind it is a mountain range.

The vault was built for much more people that currently live there, and large portions of it are ominously empty. You can genuinely get lost in there, even Timer/Shovel/Mousetrap can even get turned around in there and they were born and raised there. Had Car Key survived he was intended to be the one that knew the layout almost perfectly, being the head security officer (and lone survivor of the security teams prior to the opening of the vault). If I were to draw less visited parts of the vault, portions of it would be roped off. The largest open areas in the vault are the farm (above) and the cafeteria

Vault 9's structure and culture when established was less individual, there were not a lot of rec rooms, rooms were all bunks to hold multiple people, etc. A lot of stuff involves some degree of depersonalization, etc. So thats why despite there being so many empty rooms presumably, most characters are shown to share rooms when their rooms are shown. Lcukily, especially with a colorful cast of characters from different backgrounds and over a century past its establishment, people are more encouraged to be themselves here There's a few rooms set aside for professions, there's the clinic, plus a larger room beside it for long term patients, though with the small population Mousetrap keeps people close to better monitor them There are classrooms, pretty much always empty, Spade/Shovel/Timer/etc are among the last to "graduate", and school years were not hosted every year due to the diminishing amount of people being born. So while Timer is a little older than Spade and Shovel, and Push Pin was a little younger, they likely all attended the same "grades/classes" together. Usually the family will teach basics (basic math/reading/writing) before the official vault curriculum, with classes starting for older students (like 10+) instead of starting at kindergarten

The intention of Vault 9 was mostly on self sustaining populations, so most people were intended to be involved with the care of the farm over anything else. Other roles were security/education/medical/culinary/etc, as well as leadership roles like a peoples court and the overseer The armory is very small and depleted/half destroyed, and there is only one or two quarantine/prison rooms

The floor structure is built in a way that the further down you go, the less likely you need to be there, this is my vague idea of it but with floor plans some things might be rearranged The surface level is only the door, airlock and door controls. Some storage is kept up there too Second floor down/B2 is the largest area. Farm, cafeteria, public rooms, clinic, classrooms, etc. There's a small library Third floor/B3 down are the living quarters, as well as the overseers office, peoples court, and locker rooms for showering and stuff. The overseers office is the best furnished room in the vault, and it had personal living quarters for the overseers family that were nicer too Fourth floor/B4 are guard armory/small training room/most storage/certain aspects of vault maint, etc. Fifth/B5 is storage and machinery for the most part. The boiler/furnace/etc, there's also a work shop down there and where Hehe/Apricot/CoG hang out. There's also the columbarium and morgue down there

Lowest level, heavy clearance, is where the power is. It's still nuclear power, the intention is to keep it buried so a failure might destroy the vault but cause less damage on the surface

I'll revisit this soon and have drawings and floorplans hopefully

[yukidragon]

Just wondering, in terms of the Sunny Time Crew Show, we know who’s Jack, but who are the other characters and what were their respective roles? Where can we find more information on what the TV show itself was about?

I’m afraid our clues so far are pretty limited. What we’ve been able to scrape together so far is some of the teaser tweets and the artwork Sauce made of the cast, one of which is used for official merchandise.

As always whenever I include some of the official publicly posted artwork for the series, I want to give full credit to Sauce for drawing it. They put a lot of hard work into this and deserve to be credited.

Remember, don’t repost the privately posted images from the SnaccPop Patreon. Let’s give our full support to Sauce and the team where we can, okay?

We know the names of the rest of the cast members thanks to a map of Cloudy Town. There were big, big plans, according to this map.

Starting us off is the star of the show, Sunny Day Jack, the main man himself. Even on the map, his school house is right there at the top, drawing immediate attention. It’s in his signature primary colors, though the print shown is worn with washed out colors.

Luckily, Sauce was kind enough to post a version of the map on their twitter that didn’t go through the aging process. Since the twitter is gone, allow me to show it here.

Directly from the school house is Knackadan Drizzle’s field. Quite the name, huh? It’s a pretty sporty place, fitting for a sports themed clown... or rather a coach themed clown?

While nothing has been confirmed for certain, it looks like Knackadan Drizzle was responsible for the lessons on the show that related to sports, likely also teamwork and cooperation as well. Fittingly, he is colored in shades of green and yellow like his field. I imagine even his green mustache might be something of a nod to the green grass on the field.

The playground isn’t associated with any one person, but right next to it is Daisy Chain Jane’s Joke Shop. Like Jack’s school, the joke shop sports primary colors, similar to Jane’s design.

Now Daisy Chain Jane is a pretty interesting character. Those who remember this post I made about the SunnyTime Town AU might recall that Daisy Chain Jane is a character exclusive to that AU rather than the fictional world of the show.

Then again, Buddy existed in the show as a belt puppet that apparently could talk, so it’s possible that Jane might exist in the show’s canon as well.

My guess is that there were plans to have her character introduced during the next season as Jack’s big sister. After all, the map itself was posted with the caption that there were big plans. Jack’s murder certainly scrapped any future for the SunnyTime Crew Show... at least 40 years ago.

Next we have Rory Rainberry’s Bakery in shades of purple, pink, orange, and red. Some of you might know his actor Jean Laurent, but the character he plays seems to be a lot more wholesome than this candid shot.

As suggested by this picture and the map, Rory is a baker. I’m sure he teaches kids about nutrition, staying healthy, eating sweets in moderation, and maybe a few simple cooking recipes they can do at home like putting peanut butter onto celery.

Finally we have Cloudy-Belle Sue and her white, pink, and pastel blue library. Sadly, we don’t have a picture of her alone, but I suspect that she was in charge of story time with the children, likely using fables to teach important lessons that are outside the scope of the more grounded parts of the show.

Overall, the show seems to have been aimed at young children, teaching life lessons in a way they can digest easily, with cheerful clowns in bright colors acting as both their teachers and friends. CloudyTown was meant to be a place of fun and learning. It’s hard to say for sure what the age range of its target demographic was exactly, but I’m sure we’ll find out in the game’s full release when we get a look into the backstory of the show.

I will point out though for those who might not have caught it - the colors of each character’s locations seem to correspond with the main colors in the characters’ clothes and hair. The main colors of the show, as shown by the logo and at the bottom of the map, seems to make it clear that Jack was always intended to be the main character, no matter what he says that there is no leader of the crew during the interview.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars

[roxannarambles]

Rough Legends Arceus/Volo Headcanon Notes

While playing through Legends Arceus, while I was bored grinding out research tasks I amused myself with developing headcanons for the game.

These are for an OC in the player role/player is not Akari, though. (It's for my character June, who was a Bug Catcher while she was growing up, never did the gym circuit in her region, just liked bugs and casual pokemon battles and hanging out with her pokemon. She was attending her local junior college when she got snatched by the Void)

Headcanons focused on June & her "friendship" with Volo.

They chat about her work with Galaxy. She doesn't actually enjoy it much. She loves pokemon, sure, and the nature's pretty, but the survey work is tedious, lonely, boring, dirty, hazardous, etc. Pokemon research sounds fun in theory but not in practice-- not in ancient Hisui, anyway. The research tasks the Professor assigns her seem so arbitrary and weird, there are very few people in the Survey Corps who are brave or skilled enough to help her out so she usually works alone, she lacks all the conveniences of modern civilization, etc. Camping out for a week in the bogs and going to bed each night caked in mud and slime, not able to bathe 'til you get back to the village, so forth.

Volo comments, 'Well they must pay you handsomely at least?' No, the pay isn't that great, most money she makes is from stuff she picks up off the ground. But, well, at least they're housing and feeding her. It's something.

He calls her sky child.

She remembers her life from before she fell here. She doesn't know why she came to be here, and why that weird phone appeared along with her. She half-remembers a weird pokemon that she dreamed about while in the rift, but she can't remember what it said to her. It was probably just a dream, anyway.

The phone is weird. It has a map of the area, and icons light up sometimes, and she also gets texted mysterious messages. She thinks maybe she accidentally fell through a portal to another realm, but the presense of this phone makes her suspect it's more than that. Did a person intentionally create a portal and push her through it? And now they're ordering her around with this phone? They seem to want her to study the pokemon here.

She doesn't like being used.

The phone has a Notes app. She thought about using it to record her thoughts, but she's paranoid that whoever sent this phone could be spying, reading her notes. She doesn't know if writing on a paper journal is good idea either though, anyone here could find it. She's not sure who to trust here, they already seem so mistrustful of her, they'd likely rifle through her stuff. She wouldn't put it past them, anyway.

Eventually she asks Volo if he can get her a journal with a lock on it. If such a thing exists here. He seems very curious about her request, but doesn't push questions on her about it. A few days later, he appears, having procured her a leatherbound journal with a sturdy locked latch.

He keeps a copy of the key in secret.

Sometimes she camps out for many days in a row during her field work. It's often gruelling and lonesome. People from the Security Corps bring her meals sometimes and supplies to the campsite, but they are not always there-- they come and go. The pokemon professor drops by on occasion too but he's often busy with work back at the village. At night June sits in her tent and writes in her journal by the light of her phone. She can't even get attached to her pokemon, since her rearch forces her to constantly change her team. Supplies are precious, too, so she often can't afford to use tons of potions, and her pokemon faint a lot. They work as hard as she does, to the point of exhaustion, and she imagines they resent her for it.

"So how are things going with your Galaxy friends?"

She tells Volo about how most people in the village seem to act nice enough around her, or polite in the very least. But even after all of these weeks here, she can tell none of them trust her. She can see the looks they cast her, from the corner of her vision, the way they still whisper about her when they think she can't hear. Some are still openly mistrustful or hostile, like the Commander of the Security Corps, although most are a little more subtle. Either way, it's exhausting to deal with. She's worked herself to the bone for them, and they tell her, "you're a part of our family now, we have your back," but it's not true, she know it isn't true. And she's realized by now that no matter how hard she works, how many favors she grants, how many missions she fulfills, it's never going to be enough, is it? She'll always be a stranger here, always out of place.

Even the Pokemon Professor and Rei, the people who are friendliest to her in the village, she doesn't feel close to. They seem nice enough, but in the end they're just using her too, aren't they? To get their research done. So who's to say whether their kindness isn't conditional? It always seems conditional here, in this place. Maybe she's just paranoid, but it's hard to tell. It's hard not to resent them all. She feels scared and alone. She has no one here.

She tells all this to Volo. She's not sure why. Maybe because he seems like an impartial party. Maybe because he's the only one who doesn't look at her with the eyes of someone who's mistrustful. Maybe because he's just there and she has to tell somebody, she can't bear not truly talking to somebody anymore. He listens compassionately. Seems to understand. And tentatively, he tells her that if it pleases her to think it, he'd be happy to call her friend.

She's quiet for a while. So far, her rapport with the Gingko merchant over the weeks had been friendly, but she hadn't been sure whether it had qualified as friendship. He had been straightforward in the past that his motives were professional ones; being congenial with customers was just good business sense. Still, she had always liked to think perhaps it might become more than just being chummy with customers. He'd seemed like a genuinely nice person, and she'd always enjoyed their conversations.

She smiles and shyly thanks him, realizing she's maybe not entirely alone in this place. She's quiet a while, but soon says she wants to give him something. She digs through her satchel. She doesn't have much right now, but she pulls out a curious little fragment of stone, pretty and angular and red. She says she found it while exploring one of the space-time distortions that everyone else is too afraid to approach. He asks if she's sure she wants to give it to him. She says yes. He thanks her and promises he shall treasure it.

Later, he has a jewler turn it into a necklace. He makes sure to wear it all the time, usually beneath the folds of his clothing, so that one day June can 'accidentally' see it.

They run across each other at random times. He's always traveling, and so is she, but their paths always seem to cross eventually. They stop for a spell to chat whenever it happens.

He helps to teach her survival skills, sometimes, like cooking food out in the wild. She cannot always rely on the Survey Corps to bring her food, after all, especially when she's in a more far-flung area all alone. He tells her what fish are good for eating; Basculin are best, Magikarp are worst. He teaches her how to scale and gut and clean fish, how to cook them. He tells her that Sitrus berries are toxic when unrripe, how to find Razz berries, where to look for mushrooms. In turn, she brings him things she finds sometimes that are curious, old verses that Ursaluna dug up, shards of pottery, photos of ruins, strange pieces of colored glass.

One day, they see each other while out in the mirelands, and walk together for a time. He's on his way to gather caster ferns. She warns him not to head in that direction, an alpha has been patrolling there lately. He's never seen an alpha there before and has been to that spot dozens of times, hundreds by now, so he sort of just ignores her, insisting it will be fine, until they hear the cry echoing across the marsh and he stops.

"Er . . . perhaps . . . I will gather some other day."

She decides to catch the alpha so he doesn't have to do that. She's happy she can do something to help him out for once, since it always seems like he's the one helping her. She knows he only has Togepi, after all.

"So what have you been doing to pass the time here, June? When you finally have the chance to rest for a spell from all that survey work of yours, that is."

"Not much. Overthinking, mostly."

"I see . . ."

"What do you do to pass the time, when you're out traveling?"

"Probably much the same."

She looks to him, surprised. The comment had been dropped quietly, carelessly, and he seemed to quickly rebound.

"With all these mysteries to ponder, after all, I'd hardly have much chance to be bored!"

She isn't sure that's really what he'd meant, but she doesn't push it. He tells her he also reads quite a bit. They chat about books and he says he can loan her one of the ones he'd finished reading. He gives her a well-worn book, and when she opens it for a peek, a piece of paper slips out that he'd been using as a bookmark. When she picks it up, she sees there's a charcoal drawing of Togepi on it. It looks beautiful. She holds it up and asks Volo if he drew it.

He seems briefly distressed, but stifles the expression, admitting he did. She tells him he shouldn't be shy, it looks really good! He awkwardly thanks her, saying it was just idle scribbling, really.

When she reads the book later in her tent, she finds he's also left some notes scrawled in the margins. She suspects he's forgotten about them. She enjoys the book but finds his scribbled notes the most interesting part of the book.

When they meet again, they chat about the book she borrowed, discussing the story and characters. One day she asks him if he can teach her to draw. He seems in a rather laid-back mood and indulges her.

She tells him about the Arc phone, eventually. She usually doesn't whip it out in front of people, feeling reluctant to do that; she knows it's a strange piece of technology and it tends to make others uneasy of her, not to mention some might see it and think to steal it. But eventually she trusts Volo enough to show the device to him. It comes up in conversation when he finds her with her pokemon team, taking a group photo of them. (All Alpha Bug pokemon)

He's very curious about it. She shows him the map app, and how to use it. He picks up the basics quickly. He asks her how the technology works. She's not sure how to explain a tiny, pocket-sized computer to the people of this era. It doesn't help she has a poor understanding of how computers work, herself, even coming from an era with them. She gives a very stilted explanation of computer chips and computer code and how a ton of data can be crammed into a very small space. It's not a good explanation but he appreciates her trying. He asks what else her device can do. She shows him the camera app, they take a few photos and a selfie together. He's fascinated with it. What else can it do? There aren't a ton of apps on it, there's a clock, a notes app, a flashlight function . . . she switches the light on. Volo says that must be very handy. Does this device require fuel? She isn't sure. Normally phones do need an energy source, you need to plug them in to charge them, but there doesn't seem to be any charger for this phone. Not that she'd have a way to plug it in, if there were. She's been using this phone for weeks and it's yet to lose power, so she doesn't know if it's solar powered somehow or if it's some other energy source . . . she honestly doesn't know.

"So if you use this device for too long, it's possible that . . ."

"Yeah. It might die eventually, and then never work again. That's why I try not to use it too often."

She doesn't mention the weird text messages she gets on the phone, or the way icons light up on her map sometimes as objectives.

One time she comments Volo seems like a man with a lot of secrets.

"Who, me?" He holds his chin and acts as though he's thinking.

"Mmm, well. In my line of work, you get to know a lot of people. You must be good at small talk, getting to know your customers, and people do like to talk, so I end up hearing a lot of gossip . . . so I suppose I do know some secrets."

He asks June if she'd like to know any gossip and she says sure. He tells her that her Galaxy Commander, he sleeps with a Teddiursa plushie. She laughs. He asks now that she knows it, will she try and blackmail him? So that she could continue getting paid but no longer need to do this tedious survey work?

She says no. She'll have an easier time dealing with the jerk, just knowing the information now. She's not the sort to blackmail, anyway. Volo tells her that she's a good person. June isn't so sure.

He procures for her a bigger bag, like the ones the Gingko Guild use. It's much roomier than the tiny satchel. It's well worth the purchase.

During conversation with him June mentions one time that she gets cold easily and has been freezing her butt off lately during work. A few days later, Volo appears with a nice warm jacket and gloves for her, that fit her perfectly. She is very excited and grateful. He's always charged her for the things he gets her (although he sometimes offers a friendly discount) so she expects the same here. But when she asks how much she owes him, this time he says not to worry about it. She is flustered at first, saying they must have cost him a lot, is he sure . . . but he insists. It would not do him any good if his favorite customer died of hypothermia out in the wilds.

At the Coronet Highlands, there is a place called the Fabled Spring, a secret little alcove by a calm lake, with trees and soft grass and wildflowers. This is where Volo finds June laying there, staring out at the water, idly picking grass, looking very lost in thought.

"Fancy seeing you here."

She looks up in surprise. She asks what he's doing here and he responds he comes here for razz berries. He asks if he might join her, and she nods. He sits with her.

Conversation turns to the next Noble she's meant to face. She's nervous. He tells her he's sure she'll be fine, she handled the last one so well, after all.

She says it's getting harder each time. The last time, with the Arcanine, she got burned very, very badly, and she had to withdraw her first attempt. They had to carry her home. Back in Jubilife, they had a special medicine they used to help heal her, although it still took several days for her to recover.

"So you recovered fully?"

She did. It was a powerful medicine, made from an herb that was a pokemon. But she still remembers the pain of those burns. She returned and soothed the Noble on her second attempt. She's worried this next Noble will be even harder, though.

"Well . . . if it goes rough, all you need is more of Galaxy team's medicine and you'll be as right as rain again, right?"

Maybe. What if they run out of medicine though? She could tell it was precious to team Galaxy and rare, difficult for them to harvest and make. Or what if . . . something worse happens to her than just burns or a little paralysis. They are both quiet a while.

Volo eventually tells her he's sure everything will work out. He changes the subject so she won't dwell on her worries. Shares some leftover fish with her. She loves how it tastes. He has spices that Galaxy doesn't use. It's so much better than that potato mochi she's so tired of.

After she defeats the Electrode Noble, he asks her how it went. Surprisingly well. Easier than Arcanine. He acts pleased, told you it would be all right.

She's been thinking though, about the rift. Since the Commander keeps bringing it up. See, for now, Galaxy and June's goals are aligned. But they might not always be. And she knows this, and it troubles her. Galaxy wants to close the rift, eventually. But what if, in order for June to get home, she finds out she needs to leave the rift open? Or even . . . to widen it?

Could she do that? To leave everyone to that chaos and just bounce? Especially when she's the only one around here strong enough and brave enough to face frenzied Nobles?

Volo says it is an interesting conundrum she brings up. (She says she wouldn't use the word 'interesting' to describe it...) What would she do? he asks.

She doesn't know. It is a horrible thought, she doesn't think she can do it, just leave and screw everyone. Do that to a whole region, a whole group of people?? That'd be awful. But on the other hand. To not only never see her family ever again, but her entire world and timeline....to be stuck in what's to her, a backwater era that's super technologically primitive, among people she doesn't even like (well, except for you, you're pretty cool), to be forever displaced in time....it's....god, she doesn't know if she could face that either. She'd be out of place, out of time and a stranger her whole life, here.

After a span of silence she asks quietly,

"Would you blame me if I left?"

He murmurs a response so gently she almost doesn't hear.

"I wouldn't."

She gives him a bunch of colored fragments and stardust that she's collected.

"Take these, Volo, just . . . just in case."

He asks, what do you mean, June? She says, if things get bad, if worse comes to worst, you can sell these, maybe get out of the area altogether. You're a merchant, you must know how to get out of here in a hurry. So at least . . . you'd be safe . . .

"June--"

She explains she has a ton of money now, nobody ever wants to approach the rifts, and she collects the stuff there in droves. People are too afraid of the powerful pokemon there and of being sucked into the distortions. But she goes towards them, hoping the distortions will bring her home again. Picks up valuables while there. She still works for Galaxy but now not for the money. But because she needs them as allies for now. They are powerful. And she needs their help learning more about all these mysteries, so she can hopefully get home.

"It's just in case. Hopefully it never comes to that. And I may not even decide-- you know--"

"All right, June. I'll take them."

One hot day, June overworks herself to the point of nearly fainting. Volo finds her on the ground, dizzy and weak. He carries her to a safer place where pokemon are less likely to harass them, under the shade of a tree, gets her some food and water. Asks things such as when's the last time she's eaten, or bathed, or slept. She mumbles her answers. It's been days since she's slept any longer than ten minute stints, she was lost in areas with way too much pokemon activity to let her guard down.

"Days?!"

He starts to wash the grime from her face with a wet washcloth, chewing her out for letting the Galaxy people overwork her, and treating her for any less than she's worth (if those idiots realized how valuable an asset she really was, they should never do that, and she's worth her weight in gold), she has to take care of herself--

June starts to cry while being chewed out. Mostly from being overwhelmed from it all. He apologizes awkwardly, tries to comfort her, touching her face and telling her it will be okay. Dries her tears and washes her face, then wants to pull her hair back to help with her cooling down, has to brush her hair first but it's all snagged and caked with dried mud, he gets a comb from his bag and brushes it all out, carefully, so that it doesn't hurt her. Gets her to nap, eventually, convinces her he shall watch over while she sleeps. She is concerned he will be bored, he laughs, he's very much used to passing time. She tells him to look in her bag, she got a book she wanted to give to him next time she saw him.

He reads her diary while she sleeps.

She records her struggles. Her fears and confusion. How much she misses home, how estranged she is here. Her desperate attempts to figure things out, speculations. She hates the public bathhouse the town has, she hates the food, she hates the way everyone looks at her, she hates the cold, the mosquitoes, so many things. The weeks spent filthy in the bog before finally returning to town for a pathetic amount of research points. It's recorded here, so raw.

She talks about the townspeople she meets. Including the Gingko Guild trader named Volo. She analyzes him shrewdly, cautious about trusting anyone, including him. But he's caught her interest, enough to make note of it.

Her entries continie to talk about the professor and Rei a lot, the Commander, the 'stupid potato mochi resturuant jerk' (she hates the mochi too, just because it's all they ever eat), but she also writes about Volo. Mentions each time she comes across him.

He begins to show up in the diary more and more. She eventually says, 'He's the only one who's any fun to talk to, really,' saying that she finds his pure curiosity in investigating things to be refreshing, (as opposed to the Galaxy people, whose research is motivated by protection/safety but claims to be scientific; or the Pearl/Diamond clan's petty squabbles and nonsensical arguments) and his directness about his motivations refreshing too (he's a merchant, he's being friendly because it's good business). It stands in contrast to everyone else. The other Gingko guild folks are fine enough but not particularly engaged in talking with her, the way Volo is. And just not . . . hmm. The sort of person who's interesting, she supposes. He's engaging, intriguing. Still, June knows she musn't be too open with things when talking to him. She knows nothing about the charismatic merchant, nothing about anyone really, and she must be careful in this world.

"He never talks about his past. I often wonder why. I can tell he's carrying secrets, though. I try to ask him about his past, but he always deflects. Sometimes I think he's a criminal on the run from the law, and he's traveled to this region to avoid punishment. He could be a serial murderer, for all I know. Of course, he might simply not want to think about his past, perhaps something painful happened to him or his family. It could be many things, really. We all have our reasons for keeping secrets, I suppose . . . I won't try to push it, just see what he feels like sharing."

Volo begins to flip more hastily through the diary to directly hunt for mention of his name. He sees their interactions through her point of view now. He is pleased with the effectiveness of his infiltrations but also impressed with her attention to detail and her sharp observations and analyses and continued caution. Her descriptions of him stroke his ego and as the entries continue they grow more and more flattering, more and more detailed. He gets to the part where she is analyzing the comments he'd left in the margins of that novel.

June stirrs and he quickly puts the diary away.

When she recovers enough, she's embarassed she worked herself hard enough to get to that point, and is very apologetic to Volo. He tells her not to worry about it, it wasn't any trouble for him; she just had to promise him she'd take better care of herself in the future.

She is asked to quell the final Noble. She drags her feet getting around to it. She needs to earn a 5 Star Rank before they let her go there. She's earned plenty of research points for that but delays telling them, pretends she needs to get more research done.

She's trying to learn more. She's afraid once she quells the last one, the rift will close and she will never get home. She tells this to Volo. But she can't delay forever, she knows; sooner or later Team Galaxy will catch wise. The two settle on a plan; June will try to hunt for those plates and those verses with Ursaluna. And Volo will do what he can to find out more for her, too. They decide to meet up again in a week, choose a place and time.

Eventually, even with what info June turns up, it's not enough. And Volo has his own contacts, but they insist that they have nothing more to tell him. They are still no closer to understanding this mystery.

"In truth, June, it seems the best shot we have at learning more is for you to face this final Noble. Perhaps doing so will help us learn more about these strange frenzies. Perhaps the others are right and something may happen once you calm them all."

"Yeah . . . I was afraid you were going to say that."

He tells her that he's sorry he couldn't be of more help to her. She shakes her head, says it isn't his fault.

He tries to comfort her.

"Who knows, June. Perhaps nothing will happen when you calm the final one. Or something will, but the rift may not close, that's just pure speculation, something else could happen. Perhaps the Almighty will be pleased with your work and send you home!"

She chuckles.

"That's always possible. Although I dunno if I believe in Sinnoh."

"Oh? . . . I suppose an outsider has no real reason to. . ."

June apologizes and realizes it was probably a rude thing to say. He says that no, he's glad that she feels comfortable enough around him to be honest. She asks if he believes in Sinnoh. He says he knows it by a different name, but that he does indeed; he's studied it for most his life. 'What more proof do you need than this strange rift in the sky and the fact that you are here?' June explains her perspective. That portals to other realms are not beyond the realm of possibility. That she may not need the explanation of divine intervention for them. They simply may be an aspect of nature, the same way that the sky, the air, the trees, the sun are . . . and that strange lightning. Perhaps that is just a weird sort of weather. Odd that it strikes the Nobles, but uhm, maybe it's like a lightning rod and hits the strong ones, you know? Who knows. Point is. She doesn't know. But. It is possible that Sinnoh exists and brought her here. She really doesn't know. They are quiet and thoughtful a while.

He speaks again.

"Well. The only way for us to learn is to keep asking questions, to keep searching for answers, and to keep moving forward."

She agrees that is true, smiling faintly. He asks if she is ready. She nods.

When nothing seemed to change after quelling the final Noble, June was glad. The forboding hole in the sky frightened everyone but her. Where they saw fear, she saw hope that she might still return home. They returned to Jubilife and dined on bland, tasteless mochi that sat heavy in her stomach, while the Professor nattered on about pokedex work. There was a certain comfort in it.

The next morning, it all went to shit.

Even June was frightened at the sight of the blood-red sky, which made the rift look like an open wound. It seemed like armageddon. When they summoned her to a meeting, she wasn't too surprised what came next. Was she angry? Yes. But she wasn't surprised. Part of her had always hoped she had been wrong about the Commander, about all the people here, and that they wouldn't turn on her, so it still hurt when it happened, but it really didn't surprise her. That asshole had been looking for a scapegoat the day she landed here, and today she was the lamb chosen for the slaughter. They whispered and stared as she was led out of town like some kind of criminal.

For what it was worth, the professor and Rei tried to help her, sort of. They suggested she seek out the Diamond and Pearl clans. However, the clan's respective leaders could only offer sympathy. They explained they could not help June, lest they risk war with Team Galaxy. The professor and Rei likewise were unwilling to directly disobey their superiors and risk banishment themselves. There was a lot of hand-wringing and sad looks, but not much else. After everything she'd done for them, all the times they swore she was family now, that they had her back. Not a single person stepped up to help her in return, now that she really needed it most.

They sent her away into the wilderness, alone. She had her big backpack stuffed with everything she could carry, and her team of six bug alphas, pokemon who still hardly knew her at all, since she rarely had opportunity to even bond with them. She sat on the hill overlooking Gruelling Grove, under the blood-red sky, just staring out at the fields numbly and wondering what to do next, and trying not to give into the fear threatening to overtake her.

Eventually, a voice startled her from her dark thoughts, and she looked up, meeting with a familiar, friendly face. The corners of Volo's eyes crinkled and his face lit up with his usual sunny smile, even under the cast of the grim, terrifying sky.

"I've been looking for you everywhere, June," he said.

She had only cried once since she'd fallen through the rift, when Volo had found her dizzy and exhausted that one time, but not since then. She felt the tears begin to fall now, though. Volo spoke soothing words and helped pull her to her feet.

She pulled him into a hug, squeezing him fiercely, causing him to wheeze, sounding startled and flustered.

It had felt like an angel had come to save her.

He brought her to his humble campsite to shelter her. "It isn't much, but it's home, and you're welcome to it," he tells her cheerfully. They sit around a campfire; he makes what are essentially shish kebabs for dinner, chunks of vegetable and meat skewered and roasted over the fire. While they eat, he tells her excitedly about one of his contacts and how he's going to take her there to meet her tomorrow morning. This mysterious contact was now feeling much more cooperative, once Volo told her that June had quelled the last Noble and apparently met with her approval. He says that she is very wise on the myths passed down from the Celestica peoples of old, and she will surely be able to help them sort out this space-time mystery.

They share his tent that night. It's a snug fit, and June doesn't sleep much, her mind swimming with thoughts.

She never paid attention in school when they discussed ancient mythology. In hindsight she wished she had. Maybe if she did, she would have noticed sooner that something was amiss.

It wasn't until the two of them reached the top of Mount Coronet with all the plates, and he chose to reveal his true colors, that she learned the truth. She trusted him right up to the end.

When he told her how he bid Giratina to tear a hole in the sky, the one that she fell through, it felt like being run through with a knife.

After everything that happens on top of that mountain, when June returns and gives her report, she doesn't mention Volo tried to destroy the world and everyone in it. She just says they finished collecting the plates, and climbed to the top of the mountain to see if anything would happen. Giratina appeared there, and she battled it, but it escaped before she could catch it.

Technically, all of it was true. She just left out some important parts, is all.

Later, when she's alone doing her survey work, he finds her and grabs her roughly by the shoulder, hisses at her,

“You! What game are you trying to play here?!”

She asks what he means.

“Don't play dumb. I know you didn't tell your Galaxy fools about me. Why not? If you're hoping to use it as leverage, you can forget it, I won't be anyone's puppet--”

“That's-- that's not why I did it!”

“Then why?”

She confesses she's not exactly sure why.

“I guess I just . . . look, if I told them, I'm not sure exactly what they'd do, I don't know how you even punish someone for that kind of crime, but in the very least they'd do something, banish you from basically all of Hisui, probably. And that's what you deserve. But I also know if they did it, there'd be zero chance of you . . . getting better.”

He demands to know what that means.

“Becoming a better person? It . . . it sounds stupid when I say it outloud, I guess. I know the past few months you've spent just lying to my face and using me, but part of me still wants to believe that maybe a small piece of all that wasn't a lie. That there was a grain of truth to it, that the goodness I saw in you is still buried down in there and wasn't entirely made-up.”

She looks into his eyes, trying to find even a flicker of evidence for that. She's not sure. She can't trust her own judgment, anymore. He stares back for a time, then silently turns and skulks away without another word.

She does not see him again for a long time. When he reappears again it's to demand a rematch. She wins again, by a narrow margin. He rants and raves about how close he is to defeating her, fumes about Arceus having chosen her. They argue. As he storms away she yells after him, voice choked,

“I'm being used by Arceus like a puppet, I don't think that's something to envy!”

He stops.

His demeanor changes. Like flipping a switch.

Eventually, says,

“If you resent Arceus, why do you still scamper about and do their bidding?”

“. . . because I want to go home.”

He turns. Asks her if her world is as cruel and unforgiving a place as it is here. June argues she doesn't think the world is cruel and unforgiving, then amends, well, it can be sometimes. But it's also filled with good things, too.

“And why should such ugliness and horror exist alongside such beauty? Why should some prosper while others are left to dine on naught but dust?”

She . . . she doesn't know.

“That is why I want to meet them. So that I may ask. And . . . perhaps fix things.”

“Volo, I understand wanting to make things better, but I don't think the solution is to mass murder everyone on the planet and starting over from scratch! There are better ways . . .”

He remains silent for some time. Then he pulls on the cord about his neck, takes his necklace off. The one he made out of the comet shard she gave him. He gives it to her.

“I don't deserve to keep something accepted under false pretenses.”

Then he leaves. June stares after for some time, confused. Why was he even still wearing it? If he'd been wearing it only to manipulate her, why continue the act once she knew the truth? Did part of him actually care? Or was he still trying to manipulate her now?

He didn't seem to be. It seemed to be a good-bye, in fact. She had a feeling he didn't plan to see her again.

She finds Giratina one day, in a small, dark cave she stumbles across while exploring the coastlands. She's shocked that she can capture it in a pokeball. Gods shouldn't be so easy to subjugate, surely. Perhaps the Pearl cand Diamond clans were right to fear the contraptions. They were strangely chill about her capturing their sacred Palkia and Dialga in pokeballs, but she had promised it was a temporary thing, so perhaps it just went to show how much trust was finally placed in her now.

When she told the Professor about Giratina, he revealed something that surprised her. He said Volo had approached him not long ago and spoke to him. Told him that Giratina had been responsible for tearing the rift in space-time, but that once it battled June, it realized that it was no match for her. It chose to instead protect Hisui, and it was no longer a threat to them.

June should catch it. So that you may study it, he told him.

Perhaps that's why it had been so easy to capture. June was still shocked, though. Shocked that Volo had bothered to speak to the Professor at all. Why did he? Did he feel protective over Giratina and wanted to ensure its safety? Did he want to reassure Team Galaxy that they didn't need to worry-- a peace offering, of sorts? Did he do it for June?

She didn't know. The Professor told her the last thing he said was that it was probably the last time he'd see him; and then he wandered off. She's pretty sure he meant it. She hadn't seen him for a month now, not since he'd given her the necklace.

Later, June sent Giratina out of its ball, when she was alone out on the coastlands. She stared at it, calmly, and spoke to it.

“You spoke to him after you fled the mountain, didn't you? What did he plan on doing? Where did he go?”

The dragon stared back at her silently.

“Please. I . . . I'm worried about him.”

In truth, Hisui wasn't the same without him. She hated what he did, what he did to her, and it felt like twisting a knife whenever she thought of him, but she also missed him.

She was reminded of him constantly, and she spent hours upon hours going over the memories. Sometimes she searched her memories for hints of his subterfuge, wishing she'd noticed sooner, wishing it had been different. Sometimes she'd daydream of getting revenge. Sometimes she'd spend the time wondering if any of his friendship had been real, hoping at least something had been. Often she wondered what was going through his head, who he really was, what he was doing now.

She'd been alone with her thoughts for too long and they were driving her mad. She needed closure. She needed to know what became of him. And she needed something more than the daily life she was living now. Once he'd left she'd turned her obsessive focus to finishing the Pokedex, as Arceus seemed to demand of her. She hardly had spent time doing anything but that work. She was withdrawn with everyone else. She'd gotten closer to her main team of pokemon, that was about it. It was horrifically lonely and monotonous.

It took June time to realize Giratina had lowered to the ground, uncoiling its long body, almost in invitation. She blinked at it.

“Do you want me to, um, climb aboard?”

She was nervous, but when she approached, it remained still. She climbed onto its back, half-surprised to find it felt solid, despite it being a ghost. She settled onto one of its golden ribs, as though it were a saddle. Silently, the dragon raised up once more, and began to fly through the starry sky. It felt surreal.

He misses her and their "friendship," now that she's gone. It takes him by surprise. Why should he miss such a thing? It wasn't a real friendship on his side, of course, but it wasn't real on her side, either; since she had merely liked the lie, not the real him. He was certain she wouldn't have liked the real him. Certainly not after what he did. Naturally.

But he missed it, anyway, that beautiful lie he'd created with her. Perhaps because he hoped like she had liked at least a part of him. Perhaps because it was just nice to pretend.

He hated to admit it; he'd spent so very long in denial that he had cared about her at all, and it still churned his stomach to think about the ugly truth, but it was becoming impossible to deny.

Because he can't seem to stop thinking about her. And it's driving him a bit mad. He's lost now, no clue what he's going to do. He just keeps thinking of the way she once looked at him with such kindness and affection. And how it all transformed to anger and hurt and mistrust and pain instead. Like a lovely flower plucked and crushed.

It didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

It was too late. It wasn't as though she'd ever forgive him. It wasn't as though he wanted her forgiveness.

. . . perhaps he did. But he certainly didn't deserve it.

What was he? Some poor wretch who'd fallen from Arceus' grace. Even Giratina had turned its back on him, in the end. The one creature in all the realms he thought would understand him. He didn't blame it; he'd failed it, after all. He was not worthy to weild its power.

He hid from the world, tucked away deep in a corner of Hisui that others dared not tred. The days passed in a blur, and he barely thought to eat. He spent much time sleeping, but still found little rest, tormented by his dreams.

At first he assumes the Hoopa portal that abducts him is Arceus finally choosing to smite him from this mortal plane.

Giratina leads her to the cave Volo had been staying at. She picks through the refuse, it's disgusting there, a total mess, and his possessions are strewn all about, but she finds no one home. She grows more and more anxious as she searches. There is a fire still smoldering as if he'd been there recently; what's more, she eventually finds his pokemon team is left there. She asks Giratina what happened but the dragon either doesn't wish to speak or she cannot hear it.

The portal finds her too eventually. She's sucked into it in a much better position though. She has her backpack and her full pokemon team on her. When she's spat out on some grass somewhere, she is . . . unamused, though. It feels far too familiar. Powerful pokemon transporting her across time and space at their whimsy.

She wanders around, and eventually comes across Volo. He's disheveled, disoriented, and devoid of most possessions, save for a single pokeball, which has a Togepi. He won't say why he has it (it's the child of his Togekiss). He's shocked when she appears, and says it musn't be the afterlife after all. He asks why she's here, she explains she went searching for him, found his camp empty, Giratina led her there. Then a portal got her. He wants to know why she went searching for him at all, but their conversation is interrupted when they are discovered by some friendly locals. They're led back into town by them. They learn this place is an island called Pasio.

At first June is very, very excited. She thinks she's landed in her native time-line. However, once she gets a phone and contacts her family, she is shocked to learn a version of her already exists in this place. So close to home and yet so far.

In the meanwhile, Volo is amazed by the future and his changed situation and the gears in his head are quickly turning. He tries to lie to the people here and pretend to be nothing but a simple merchant from the past with an interest in myths and the research into sync stones. But June is having none of his bullshit. Once she figures out what he is up to, she goes right to Professor Bellis and the Prince and warns them what he tried to do in the past, and that he might try to do the same again. She doesn't want them to simply lock him up, though, so she asks if there might be some other solution. They thank June for the warning and decide to restrict Volo's access to certain things, such as learning about sync stone research. They also put June in charge of keeping an eye on him, so that he does not cause trouble.

When she delivers the news to Volo, he's shocked, at first, then tries to act innocent, saying he wasn't lying to anyone, he merely didn't see a reason to bring up the past; he'd hoped he could start fresh, turn over a new leaf. June gets very angry, and hurt, yelling,

"Are you KIDDING me? You're still trying to lie to me, even now?!"

This seems to get to him, and he stops trying to convince her his intentions were all purely innocent. She finishes explaining the deal to him, including the fact she's responsible for keeping him out of trouble, now. His mouth curves in a smile and he laughs, dry, bitter.

"So you are to be my warden."

Things don't go very well at first with this new arrangement, and he's not cooperative at all, keeps trying to get away with things, manipulate her, and they keep arguing over his obsessive goals. Tensions mount and they keep butting heads until an especially heated argument, June just snaps.

She barks an order to her Alpha Scizor; it immediately reaches out and grabs Volo around the neck with its massive claw. She screams at him,

“If you're so eager to meet Arceus, why don't I help send you to it?!”

Scizor lifts Volo up off the ground until his feet are dangling. Eyes wide, he looks down at her.

He looks terrified.

She hesitates and then sighs. She tells Scizor to put him down. It was only an empty threat because she was absolutely sick with anger, but seeing the genuine fear in his eyes made her immediately feel bad. She could never actually hurt him.

Maybe she was too good of a person for her own good.

Things change after that. Volo seems to realize June isn't going to be manipulated anymore. He grows more cooperative, more contemplative. (Other plot stuff happens that I only have vaguely defined, but one of them is he starts to become sort of friends with Jacq-- for real this time, not like at the start when he was putting on an act. He also is doing work while on this island, so is June, and he's battling trainers, sometimes, and learning more about the world and the future here.)

Their relationship gradually shifts, and they start to have conversations that are not purely antagonistic.

One day he tells June he read her diary, back in Hisui.

June is appalled but reigns in her anger and asks why he's telling her this. He explains he asked her to start telling her the truth.

"I did say that, didn't I . . . ugh. Okay, that's fair, I guess. But why did you feel the need to even do that to begin with?"

He explains that he thought perhaps Arceus had sent her to Hisui for some purpose, and he needed to figure out why, because perhaps she could be the key to him meeting it. He hoped to find more information there. She sees the cold logic in his choice, and then asks with some trepidation how much he actually read. He relays what he could recall reading, and then starts to ramble about his judgments of her, which were very harsh judgments at that (he thought she was weak, and soft, and pathetic, and she whined and complained about how everything was difficult, and he didn't understand why Arceus would choose her) and she gets understandably ticked off, face flushed in anger.

He cuts her off before she can yell at him, though, when he says reading her diary started to shift his thinking, though.

He says it made him realize just how much she was up against every single day. She had the deck stacked against her from the start. No one and nothing was kind to her in this place, and every gain she made was as hard-fought as possible, and yet . . . she kept going. The weight of the world on her shoulders, pressing down on her, but she didn't buckle. She bent but didn't break.

She awkwardly thanks him for acknowledging it.

One day they are having a relatively minor disagreement and she says,

"I could have just told them to lock you up, you know."

"I know."

"Would a 'thank you' kill you?"

He hesitantly explains no it would not, but he doesnt want to say something to her that he doesnt mean.

She is very unamused.

"So it's not that you can't say thank you, it's that you're incapable of feeling gratitude. Great."

He's quiet for a time.

"...possibly. I'm not sure."

One night he rushes to her room and shakes her awake.

"Hnnngh . . . Volo? What is it? What's wrong??"

He instantly loses nerve and apologizes for waking her, and says that it isn't important

"Wh-what??" She demands to know what it is, it must be important enough to charge into here like that, but he apologizes again and starts to leave and she grabs his wrist. His eyes widen.

She senses his uncertainty and speaks much more gently.

"No, w-wait, Volo, don't go. Tell me what it is." He looks to her.

"Please."

He hesitates a while, working himself up to it, face a little red and licking his dry lips. Finally says,

"Thank you."

She is confused. "What?" With difficulty, he repeats,

"Thank you."

"For what?"

After a bit, he tells her,

"For asking them to allow me to remain."

"Oh."

He explains it does not benefit her in the slightest, on the contrary, it inconveniences her at every turn. Even when he's made it clear he shall never feel indebted to her or help her in any way, she persists . . . she continues to help him. And he doesn't understand why, after everything he's done . . .

He seems to realize he's saying more than he meant to.

"I don't know why I'm here saying all this. I'll let you get back to sleep--"

"It's okay, really, I don't . . . mind you at all. You can come talk to me anytime. Even in the middle of the night."

He seems uncertain.

"Truly?"

"Yes. I mean, within reason, maybe knock on my door gently next time instead of giving me a heart attack, but yeah. Also, um, you . . . you are wearing pants, right?"

The room's still very dim but she can see that he's shirtless. He looks down at himself, considering the question and looking alarmed she might think that. He stammers,

"Yes, of course, I-- I was in bed, but I'm wearing pants--"

The incredible awkwardness in his voice makes her giggle a little. In relief, she says,

"Okay, good, just checking."

He is spellbound for a time by the feeling that goes shooting through his chest when she giggles. It is the first time he's heard her laugh in his presense since he'd pretended to be her friend.

When he returns to his bed, laying there, staring at the ceiling, he decides he'd do anything to be the reason for her to smile and laugh again.

[transpanda-1]

Birds of Prey might feature Katherine Karlo in the near future

So for those of you not in the know, the new (gorgeously drawn) Birds of Prey is following Black Canary saving her sister from a doomsday scenario, and featuring a breakout role for Maps Mizoguchi, a character who was prominent in Gotham Academy

But, from careful observation (straw grabbing and bias), there might be another from Gotham Academy making an appearance, Katherine

Katherine Karlo is one of Maps' closest friends and her main roommate for the run of Gotham Academy (pretty sure). While not altogether that important in the run, she made a notably important role with Maps in the mainline Batman comics.

Now Maps getting a leading role, even if for one story, in a main Batman comic probably helped keep her on people's minds before her debut as superhero from the future, Meridian.

BUT Katherine being included could be indicative of the same treatment, even if a lesser role!

Furthermore, we'd like to point out one of the characters being included in the new BOP run is Cassandra Cain, who some readers may remember as being one of the very few genuine friends made of Katherine's dad Basil Karlo, AKA Clayface

Intentionally or not, we now have two characters on the team who have had very close ties to a shapeshifting clay Karlo. Bordering on "one of very few friends" territory, too.

(Unsure if Harley should be counted with her show heavily featuring Clayface, but just mentioning that. Clayface is sort of making a surge in relevance lately with The Batman II slated to feature him)

We're getting into stretching territory, but there's a few more things we want to mention that... *could* be something, but might not.

First, this mission involves going to Themyscira, or the islands of the Amazons that Wonder Woman originates from. Who... is made of clay

It's unknown if Wonder Woman will appear, but they do actively talk about her in the second chapter, which may be foreshadowing. But she is a canon clay woman! (We also heard Nubia may be too?)

A lot of clay character hovering around the skirts of this story...

Second is... this specific wording from Big Barda when Maps goes back to the future(?)

"The one from the future was made of dirt?" ...Dirt? Why dirt? She looks more like snow, or potentially electricity or static. And Big Barda is smart, she's royal and uses boom tubes to travel great distances across space. Dirt's, well, brown, Barda knows that.

"Made of dirt" is a small line but it doesn't really make sense to us based both on the visual AND the character's knowledge. Unless it's supposed to mean "We need to allude to clay/mud but can't SAY say clay or mud because that's too obvious." Made of dirt too, there's just a lot to possibly unpack there.

But the weird thing is the only thing we can really pull from that is... could Katherine is pretending to be Maps *right now*?

Unlikely, but it might explain why peppy, hyperexcitable Maps's adult self was... oddly quiet after introducing herself. Not to mention she'd leave right before the part of the mission that involves swimming...

She at least seems to be working with someone, judging by the way her little device goes off (or hit her time travel time limit, idk...!)

(Also we're a bit curious why her superhero name is Meridian specifically. It's a geographical map term to describe lines going upwards from the north to south pole, and there's a prime Meridian, which is cute for Maps' dnd obsession but is there something more?)

We understand if Katherine doesn't make an appearance, but we hope we maybe convinced you how there could be a chance for the character to appear sometime in the story!!

Thank you for reading through this and listening to our rambles about a fellow clay girl...! (-Annie🤎)

[dailycass-cain]

Birds of Prey #3 had Cass but it was her smallest role in the series so far to date. HOWEVER, there was A LOT to digest.

So let me get into my thoughts on this issue...

Again this issue was AMAZING even not pertaining to Cass. All the members clicked this issue with Zealot doing her thing with Maps and Dinah/Harley hijinks abound and of course...

Everything keeps escalating from the hidden force subtly playing the Amazons to Wonder Woman doing her best impersonation again of a freaking Nemesis from RE3 (the last time I was this scared of WW was in DCeased: Unkillables).

I'm really curious where the next issue goes other than the obvious fight the team will have with Diana. Not only that but what occurred in Future Map's timeline. The hints writer Kelly Thompson keeps laying out got me curious in how she ties into the threat the BoP are trying to stop.

The issue delivers a moment many of us were hoping would occur last year, and it kind of makes the whole Red Canary angle just more disappointing (many thinking it was Sin then it was a OC who hasn't done much).

So there was A LOT of things that made me love this issue even with the lack of Cass. Because in those few pages we got crammed in of course this golden gem.

We're just gonna add that to the "Cass should be Batman" evidence for a future story. 😝

Though maybe I'm reading more into #1 the lack of bonding with the team (save Barda) is just how socially awkward throughout. We did get it in Batgirls, and well she was one in Spirit World. But here it's more front and center.

She's there just reacting to the team's antics and being like, "Um how am I supposed to react or do with this?" It's a little nugget that I am enjoying.

The real meaty nugget I enjoyed in this issue was Cass vs Amazons. It's a subject many a fan debated how she'd fare against one? Well, we get an answer in this issue (and the next).

Which feels like a better answer than what Red Hood & the Outlaws #15 ever gave us. A fight between these two titans and we only see the final blow. 🙃🙃🙃

I wasn't as salty at it back then (I was happy for the small bones I got). Now? That issue just feels dated.

This one? She takes out two nameless Amazons with little effort (and we get to SEE HOW via artist Leonardo Romero showcasing it all) and the next issue teases a bigger fight?!

GIMME!

I wanna see the limits.

It's also a funny side note how many fans wanted to see Cass on Themyscira. It's a story element the character NEVER had. Somehow, the character has visited the island in the main DCU (at last) and two other properties in this year alone (Harley Quinn: Legion of Bats mini and Dark Knights of Steel).

It feels pretty GOOD seeing the character thrown into elements never used prior, and it kind shows the potential for even more stories.

So yeah, BoP #3 while not giving Cass much to do, still gave the character a lot of elements I truly enjoyed in the issue. Beyond that, the team bonds (or shows the tears within that might cause some more trouble), reunions we longed for, and a BIG fight coming next issue.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Hey mod did you see the hundred of last line of defense academy what your thought

//Honestly, at this point I'm exhausted trying to keep up with all of these games. Kodaka won't rest until he puts a Danganronpa spin on every genre out there.

//My face definitely lit up the moment I saw Komatsuzaki's art style, and I'm glad that they're opting to go back to the more visual novel aspect of it.

//It makes me laugh because Last Defense Academy looks like it SHOULD be a Danganronpa spinoff. They're trapped in a school, they have a mascot character overseeing them.

//Rain Code didn't really have this problem (I say problem, but it's not really a problem, just something worth noting) because even if there were some stark similarities between it and Danganronpa, Kanai Ward as a setting, the interactions between the characters, the supernatural element of the story, as well as the overall theme and style of that game made it stand out as its own thing that could be loosely linked to Danganronpa.

//You could legit replace the main cast of this new game with the cast of Danganronpa, and have Monokuma fill in the role of that mascot, and I don't think there'd be much difference.

//In fact, do you know what this feels like? This genuinely feels like what could have happened during the two years before the first killing game, when Class 78 holed themselves up in the school and are defending it from the Despair outside while they board it up and cut them off. It really just does feel like it should be a Danganronpa title, but Kodaka didn't want to slap the name on it anymore.

//I mean, it's not like he can. He doesn't really own the series anymore. But it's clear he loves Danganronpa dearly, and so he should, it's his pride and joy, and there's no shame in basing most of his games off of it. That's what put him on the map in the first place.

//This is the closest thing I have to a gripe. The characters look plenty interesting, and the idea of a strategy RPG-style game coming from Kodaka is cool, and I really want to see where he takes it.

//Narratively, from what I can understand of the plot, Kodaka is taking the stuff he wrote with the Danganronpa series and Rain Code, and he's giving it more of an Assassination Classroom spin. And if you remember some of the discussions I had during the Mukuro Vs Kayano phase of the Death Battle even, I think that sort of twist works really well.

//Not only that, but when I went back and listened to what they were saying in the trailer, it also seems like the team is re-using a really old concept that they first came up with with Distrust; Danganronpa's Beta Version. And that's the idea that your choices can affect which of the main characters die and which one's live.

//Like the typical DR setting, there are 16 students including the protagonist, and the trailer states that you need to defend the school from the unknown assailants for 100 days. This makes me think that the game is taking a Fire Emblem/Until Dawn route, and there will be multiple endings to it, like one where all the students die, one where they all live, one where certain students die and it affects the others, etc.

//If that IS the case, then that's pretty stellar for what Kodaka and his team have put out so far. Danganronpa may be a sensation, but it's simple in practice and execution. It's the character writing that carries it; not the gameplay.

//Rain Code improved upon the gameplay aspect a lot, but even then, it never went as far as this.

//Unfortunately, despite all I've said I can't give a full opinion of it until the game actually comes out, and/or we see more gameplay footage and information of it. The stuff that they showed in the teasers isn't an awful lot to go off of.

//Also, whenever this comes out, there's a chance that, depending on whether I like it enough, I MIGHT add the characters to the blog. HOWEVER, if I DO, then it's probably only going to happen if I decide to do a Phase 4.

//Originally, I only planned to have Phase 3 be the end of the blog's main story, but for all we know, depending on how far this goes, it could very well just serve as the end of the Zetsubou saga. I don't really like dragging these sorts of things out, but this blog and it's story got way more popular than even I was expecting, and I'm always happy to deliver for you guys.

//But again, I can't write promises that my mouth can't cache, so don't quote me on this.

-Mod

[kc5rings]

Alright, I’m still waiting to see if they stick the landing but at 50% of the way through the story I’m enjoying myself enough to actively shill for Exoprimal

Y’all, the marketing around this game did it SO dirty, it’s wild.

I went into this expecting some pve crumbs in a pvp focused game, I knew and accepted that as I was really just chasing the high of early OW days when I truly loved playing Reinhardt, getting to protect my team and live the Wall power fantasy with Roadblock

What I did not expect, was a PvE mode that evolves in relation to the story you unlock through completing matches. Nor did I expect to actually get invested in said story!

It’s simple (so far) with well trod character tropes for the genre, calm and cool leader, soldier with a chip on her shoulder, eccentric tech expect etc, but all written with the feeling of someone who actually likes this genre of sci-fi and not as an irony poisoned nod and wink to the player. It’s cheesy but earnest, being roughly 1 part Pacific Rim to 1 part Starship Troopers

There’s also just so much more story than I expected, the above image is the story map at roughly 50% complete, each of those blue icons around the outside are clues awarded after a match, data, that corresponds with deeper overarching mysteries represented by the inner rings. Collect enough relevant data, which can be audio logs, text or video, and one of the inner ones unlocks that then has a cutscene to contextualize all the data.

It’s a drip feed story that has me doing my next match to find out what happens instead of only grinding for currency or a suit upgrade. It’s not groundbreaking narrative but the dialogue is snappy and the characters are fun, so I’ve stayed invested

As for the gameplay itself, I’ve been playing for several days and touched pvp maybe 3 times. The first match you play is random (so I got pvp there, and the other two times were scripted moments in the story that took place during a match because again, the gameplay evolves with the story

The first few matches are , frankly, a bit of a cakewalk. Medium hordes of fairly easy to deal with fodder, a few larger threats thrown in. Nothing difficult and the mvp nearly invariably goes to one of the more AoE specialized DPS with supports or more single target focused DPS with not much to chew on

Cut to later missions like the ones I did before work that throw multiple specialized enemy types at you that operate at different ranges and demand everyone do their job or you get overrun. Tanks have to hold back the tide or duel with one large threat, AoE DPS need to keep the numbers on small enemies down, healers work constantly to both heal, damage and debuff while single target DPS need to surgically remove major threats such as one later mob that spawns at a distance and can silence your entire team unless it’s weak spot is hit

Commendation screens shift sharply at this point, being largely supports, tanks or DPS who really excelled. The fights are a damage race at the end of the day, but each class is rewarded strongly for playing their role and selfish play pretty much just gets you dead

There are other modes/challenges that can pop up in a match that I won’t spoil here, but have ended up beating some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a hero shooter period, making each match just a little bit more exciting because you know at any moment things could change dramatically. Going from trying to blitz the challenges in order to beat the team you’re racing to just trying to survive as you hear the words “Carnage Module Online” from the AI running these wargames is always a thrill

It’s not perfect, the pvp is…. There, but nothing to write home about even accounting for my personal exhaustion with pvp. It’s also got the seemingly obligatory battlepass mess, though (so far) it’s only cosmetics. Everything that’s gameplay related (suit upgrades/unlocks) is earned through gameplay, even a fair few of the cosmetics can be bought with match currency so the pass is far from necessary

All of this is just me saying that Capcom barely marketed this game and focused almost entirely on the least interesting aspects of it. So I’m marketing it for them because it’s the team based PvE I’ve been begging for for ages

And you get to Punch Dinosaurs

With Power Armor

Which rules

So consider at least taking a look at the game and join me in some Dino punching and together we can help this game last long enough for Roadblock to get a good skin

[curio-queries]

Run BTS: 047 | Protect the BTS Village part 1

Original Air Date: 03 APR 2018 Episode Length: 29:49 Total Parts: 2 YouTube English Subtitles: No Title Song: Blood Sweat & Tears

Synopsis: The iconic debute of the Blue Village saga. Think scavenger hunt meets a social deduction game (think werewolf/mafia for some, Among Us for others). I am completely biased by this concept. The best birthday party ever has was when my mom set up a scavenger hunt. When escape rooms became popular, i was so excited. so it's impossible for me to be objective with this episode. When I started watching Run BTS for the first time, i honestly didn't think there would be an episode that topped these.

Production: They do a great job with the location and getting coverage. the map graphic is a great piece of storytelling as well, it's a shame that it comes out a little stagnant with how little movement it's actually conveying so a more dynamic version would have helped with the pacing. The explanation screens are pretty excessive. i get that this concept is a little more complex and they are trying to avoid staff just rambling the setup, but this is definitely a crutch in these kind of eps. The art dep does a good job with what they need to do, but overall I'm not a fan. The one before the meeting is even more superfluous. I think we'd all rather have had more footage in the time consumed by that 'summary'. We just watched the scenes that it summarizes and we're about to listen to the members share it all with each other. The one after the meeting is quotes of what we just heard the members say...

Endearment: Call me crazy but I think these episodes have some of the best glimpses into authentic personality traits for the guys. They're honestly so bad at these types of elaborate setups that they have to spend the whole time focusing on that and less on being entertaining. so it feels a little more genuine.

Winner/Loser: see final part

Best Cheater: Jin, for that fake hint

Member Moments:

RM: Mechanic RM, doing such a good job trying to unravel the hints and figure out a meta of who is on his team.

JN: Bank President Jin, first instinct: make up a clue to point to Yoongi.

YG: Flower Shop Owner.... wait you can hear the intro to give it to me during his introduction?? i never noticed that before. Yoongi is so great in these kind of episodes, i don't know how to describe it, he's just the most chill version of dedication to the role playing and strategy

JH: Supermarket owner! I'm loving the irony of his description, "a social person with all the villager's info'... uh, with happens later with Jimin, Hobi clearly did not keep up with that trait! lol Hobi actually is pretty good at the searching aspect of these games, but you can tell he thrives in a team mentality. he knows how to point out what may be important and then brings it to someone else to get it to the finish line.

JM: Delivery man... i adore Jimin but you can tell that he struggled with the act. they clearly cut away from him every time something points to him being guilty. y'all i wasn't expecting to have any feels during this episode. the Jm/jk salute in the police station... i just wanted to watch a silly run ep, not be reminded of the ms.

V: Patisserie V! We didn't get much V coverage this episode, but we find out more about what he was up to in the next one.

JK: The least observant Police Officer in history. He literally picks up the hint and doesn't see it. Now it's obvious the guys were not given any direction regarding what they should be looking for, but the edit kindly points it out to the audience. bless poor JK's heart

Bonus Content: Much shorter than expected for this episode, and it's mostly the same scenes we had. does anyone know when the bonus content was released? it makes sense if it was before the final part, and they were trying to keep the reveal secret.

CQ Rank: 5

(CQ Eval Date: 04 FEB 2024)

Check out this post for my Masterlist of all episodes and descriptions of how I'm evaluating these.

Previous Episode: 046

Next Episode: 048