#green eyed chubby cutie

[therearelesssynapsids]

Nils (gift for Saxitlurg)

It feels quite weird as I, who usually make paleoart, post my first art on Tumblr as not paleo one. Well, this is a gift for my friend @saxitlurgartblog a fanart of her OC, Nils. Drawing humans is EXTREMELY HARD for me. But.. when I found Saxitlurg’s art, I just thought, “he’s just a cutie and he requires to be depicted on fanart”. So I did this one, trying hard)

[twisted-nox-sidus]

Hello there, I’ve just read your headcannon of Strix trolling the Octavinelle trio. LOL. Thank you for the laughs. Since April fool’s day is coming. If you have the time, can you do a scenario where Strix trolls the other dorms with the help of her dream eaters. If you can include Malleus, it’s okay. If not, I understand. Thank you and stay safe.

Anon continued: Hi there, during my previous post, I was asking whether or not Malleus would join Strix’s trolling in trolling the other dorms since April Fools is coming. Oh! I almost forgot, can Grim and Lilia join with Strix in trolling. Thank you and have a good day or night.

Oof, doing six other dorms is a lot in one post, so I’ll keep things condensed, hence the headcanon format (sorry if you really wanted a scenario version!). I see Malleus and Lilia as types to watch for entertainment than directly take part in it. Strix left Grim out of her plans since he himself is chaotic already. It was time for her to assume the lead and let it out, at least for the day.

It’s come to my attention that I like doing headcanons of Strix and her dream eaters, so I plan on doing more headcanons/scenarios involving the pesky but cute spirits. They don’t stop here so look forward to it! Happy April Fool’s~

Heartslabyul

Heartslabyul could handle strange things more so than any other dorms. Just not anything against the crimson tyrant’s 810 rules.

“WHO PAINTED THE ROSE MAZE BLUE?!!!”

Riddle’s face fumes as red as his hair. Not a single trace of red is found! There was only blue as far as the eye can see.

Deuce, Trey, and Cater were rendered speechless by the sight. Just...wow. They’re not even dreading the culprit’s fate at Riddle’s mercy; instead they’re impressed with the feat. Such commitment!

Meanwhile Ace was resisting from bursting in a fit of laughter. That madwoman actually did it! She even casually remarked about doing such a feat but no one had paid her words seriously. Bravo! Bra-freaking-vo!

Ah, speaking of...

“You have a lot of nerve showing your face, Strix! You must be begging for your head to roll! This is defying the Queen of Hearts herself! Repaint every single rose -by yourself- until all is red!”

“Sheesh, let’s not get a rage stroke. You’re still so young...” Strix nonchalantly yawns. “I wanted to surprise you so I spent the whole night painting every rose blue. Of course, I had a helping hand with me.”

She vaguely gestured to the dream spirit hiding behind her leg. Me Me Bunny’s ears act as another pair of hands, and this cutie is quite dextrous; it also knows “bun fu”.

“Oh you surprised me all right. [Surprise] is only an understatement!”

A sigh. “You don’t get it, Riddle. Think of it this way. Blue makes the red stand out. Then the only red rose we’ll see...is you, my queen.”

She leans forward to slip a strand of Riddle’s velvet red locks between her fingers and graze her lips on them. Her half-lidded bright blue eyes gaze into his steel gray pair. Perhaps she was still under the drowsy spell to comprehend what she was doing, though a part of her was knowingly teasing.

Riddle stared wide-eyed. His cheeks flushed in a different meaning this time.

She pulls back to give space and turns the other way.

“Plus, contrary to your words, I think you actually like my surprise. It’s certainly not boring. And it’ll only be for today.”

Strix flashed a lazy grin his way.

“Happy April Fool’s~”

Savanaclaw

Strix’s dream eaters are quirky, adorable, and colorful spirits. Jack often questions their capabilities. What can little prey do to the brawny hotheads of Savanaclaw?

A lot.

One day Strix was on patrol. Jack had been keeping an eye as she works part-time as the “cleaner” of Savanaclaw. Just how much power can she draw from these familiars? It was a test for Strix to see if she can meet the standards of a respectable magician in this academy.

Meanwhile Ruggie anticipates something interesting will happen. Strix’s dream eaters are an enigmatic force to reckon with. He himself certainly doesn’t plan on confronting them since that’s not what he signed up for as vice dorm leader.

The hyena snickered his trademark laugh. What mayhem will the prefect student do?

Strix had to break up a fight for the nth time this week. Things happened, and one of the students said something that forced Strix to deal her hand.

Instead of commanding her eagle and hawk to attack, she summoned a single chubby cat/dog hybrid with stubby legs. It doesn’t look like a clever beast.

Aww, look at it roll around and paw at air for affection while its pink tongue stuck out. They’re going to die of cuteness.

Strix blankly stared ahead. “Meow Wow... Balloon.”

Said spirit stood on all four legs and stopped wagging. Every onlooker watched as it inflated in size. It continued to grow and grow until no one could see the light of day. It was then everyone thought it’d be wise to run from immediate vicinity.

However it was too late when Meow Wow deflated in puffy smoke and sparkles, drowning its victims along with the plume of clouds.

Jack and Ruggie watched from a platform above where they could see the area in action.

“Magic familiar tamers have unique strengths...” Was what Jack concluded. A hawk and eagle’s cries pierce the sky.

Ruggie rubbed the back of his head. “Let’s be real; in this world, birds are a real hassle. As long as you don’t make an enemy of them...”

Strix was already gone by the time Meow Wow inflated. Her eagle dream spirit now willingly massive in size acted as her glider and transporter. Strix’s body dangled as she clung tightly to her Eaglider’s talons until it settled her on the balcony of a dorm room. Eaglider flew to patrol elsewhere alongside Halbird, the hawk dream eater.

Sitting on a chair was Leona playing with a chess piece in his hand. A chessboard was already set up on the table, the black side facing him.

“Enjoying your job, aren’t you.”

Strix allowed a sheepish smirk. She’s not exactly proud to engage in cleaning up people’s messes, but there’s the thrill she finds in it. “To be honest, yeah. I think I might be a sadist at this point...” She mumbled under her breath and continued, “Sorry for the wait. Let’s start.”

Scarabia

“Jamil, a rainbow fish is swimming through the skies!”

“Nonsense. There are no aquatic animals in Scarabia. You probably just saw a magic carpet.”

“Then how come no one told me magic carpets can shoot lasers??”

Before Jamil can decipher whatever the hell Kalim meant by that, the sapphire blue skies turned murky. No, that wasn’t the work of clouds.

To everyone’s bewilderment, they bared witness to a school of colorful fish roaming freely through the air and above the whole dormitory aimlessly.

Lasers shoot from their mouths and make contact with the other to cause sparks to erupt in colorful fireworks. So that’s the laser part...

Kalim’s eyes sparkled. “It’s like the aquariums at Octavinelle, but airborne! *gasp* I just got a great idea for the next party!”

“For the nth time Kalim no more parties this month!”

*whistle* “Fin Fatale’s actually enjoying this. Who’d knew?”

The two boys turn to see Strix approaching them causally.

Strix grinned. “Bet you don’t see this in Scarabia often.”

Pomefiore

Pomefiore students have a tendency to look into a mirror at almost any given opportunity. They recognize every detail of their their highly bestowed beauty, lest they would fail to maintain perfection.

Imagine their surprise when a carbon copy of themselves suddenly replaces their reflection, except in a horrendous eye-burning color palette that screams “clown”

Turns out the copy really is a clown creature with a large tongue. Jestabocky simply loves to prank people at the expense of their reactions, and it took a liking to Pomefiore students.

Strix giggled in amusement, much to Vil’s chagrin. Standing next to the man was a Vil duplicate, except in that hideous orange carrot and lemon yellow palette that made his eyes want to bleed. Of course no one could ever compare to the original, especially a circus mimic at that.

Rook was examining his blood red and ice blue carbon copy. What a refreshing change of pace! “Your dream eaters never cease to amaze, little owl.” “Don’t hunt them for sport though!”

Epel was staring at his clone awkwardly. Cotton candy hair and yellow eyes are an odd combination. And would it stop grinning uncharacteristically like that? It’s freaky.

Strix looks beside her. Teal green hair, violet eyes, and an orange to yellow uniform color scheme. It’s horrendous, but that’s where the fun lies. Her dream eaters don’t know the meaning of color coordination.

Ignihyde

Strix thinks a surprise here and there in the shut-in dorm leader’s life ought to keep him on his toes. She knows how much Ortho wants him to come out his room, and so she’ll deliver just that.

Idia recieved an alert message as he was browsing the net. A window pops up displaying the security camera footage across the entire Ignihyde dorm.

To his horror, rainbows invaded the cameras everywhere he looked. In each one there was a massive bipedal colorful panda doing something to the students behind the screen. One was lifting a student to the air, another swinging and cradling, and others generally giving bear hugs to any soul -dead or living- that enter their vision.

Though the pandas are harmless and students are unharmed (some seem to enjoy it while others are bewildered in shock), Idia was quaking in his chair. If he walks out the room he’ll be crushed by the pandas’ mercy! (And by rainbows and cuteness!)

He zoomed in one of the footages. A Kooma Panda held a sign directly to the camera.

[YOU’RE NEXT]

This is nightmare fuel! Nightmares, he tells you!

Just as he spun around to hide and cower in the safety of his blankets, he had failed to notice the looming shadow over his flaming head prior to this very moment.

There was the same panda. In his bedroom. Staring right into his soul.

It smiled. (I reread this part and lowkey I realized I was writing a FNaF fanfic for a moment wut)

Idia wheezed. How did it get here?! Was it capable of teleporting?!

The shut-in had never ran for the door to the outside world with such eagerness in his life up to now. He slammed the door open and was about to hit the breeze when suddenly he recognized Strix standing right in front of him.

He practically tackled the poor girl (oof). Just when he dreads the contact with the floor, he felt something bouncy push them off. And then the same bouncing source came from behind. Now he’s squeezed between something.

The world spun in his eyes. Light-hearted laughter snapped him out of his trance. His soul actually came close to leaving him the moment Strix’s face registered in his vision. So close!

Two Kooma Pandas were hugging and nuzzling the two in a human-dream eater sandwich. Awww.

From the sidelines, Ortho watched in awe. That’s one way to bring his big bro out of the room. He eagerly joins in the hug fest with Strix and an all-too drained Idia.

Strix giggled and wrapped her arms around Idia and the panda behind him. She was clearly enjoying this. “Happy April Fools~”

Diasomnia

First things first: Strix can’t fool two all mighty and powerful faeries. Instead, she’ll entertain them like she and her dream eaters have always done. After all, boredom is their kind’s biggest enemy.

One day, Diasomnia students were walking down the halls when they notice a colorful bat creature hanging upside down from the ceiling, innocently watching people pass by.

There was one Komory Bat. The next door over there are two. The door after that door appeared three. In front of the dorm gate there may or may not be a bat perched to greet students in and out.

In the library, students are surprised when they’re greeted by the librarian aid...who was working upside down and levitating with gravity magic.

Strix casually acts as though it was natural. When she had to move away from the counter she continued walking upside down on the ceiling. If the ceiling was too high she’d float over just above people’s heads, and address when needed.

Strix likes to mess with Sebek by doing a “handstand” on his broad shoulders while talking to Silver. Sebek would shoo her off and when he does, Strix still pesters him by floating with a mocking haughtiness behind the way she rocks back and forth while grinning mischievously. The sight is hilarious, much to Sebek’s chagrin.

She can see why Lilia likes doing this. By the end of the day though, that’s enough walking on ceilings for the year.

Strix greets Malleus at eye level. “How’d you like it? Not boring, right?”

The horned fae chuckled. The glimmer of accomplishment in her stunning blue eyes amuses him the most. Like a child who proudly boasts their little achievements to appeal to their parents. It was adorable. “Certainly.”

[ladysarahsakura]

Stein’s daughter

My apologise if you believe Professor Stein is OOC in this story.  Also like many of my posts, this is an OG character I created to immerse myself into the world Soul Eater. If you’d like to see X Reader stories they will come I promise. Obviously, I don’t own Soul Eater I only own the characters I created to represent me and my weapons. Love you all!  

   Dr Franken Stein had a rough childhood. Combining the issues he had with his longing to dissect with how doctors who tried to ‘fix him’ would poke and prod him, it’s safe to say he wasn’t too happy with the way his childhood turned out. He was slightly jealous when he found out his ex-weapon partner-Spirit Albarn- was not only getting married but having a child on the way as well. Stein had many concerns about having a child and getting married: could he have found anyone to deal with him and his oddities? What about the madness within him that causes the need for dissecting, would he pass it on to his children? What if one day he did something to the child? Or his partner? He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he did. One way to fill the small void he had since he was scared to father a child and be a spouse was to choose one or two days a week to go to Death City’s orphanage where he would teach the older children- the younger ones, around 4 or so years old feared him- about animals he’s dissected or told stories of his old missions when he was at the DWMA as a student. These children looked past his stitches, his scars, and the screw/bolt protruding from the side of his head, and saw a scientist that made teaching fun for them. A couple of nurses that cared for said children were a bit unsure of Stein but the children adored him. One nurse, who oversaw new babies from a couple of months to 3 years, formed a friendship with Stein and he assisted her in preparing the food and formulas for the infants and toddlers at the Orphanage. On a sunny day in August, Stein’s life was about to change. The morning of the 27th of August in 1998, the orphanage welcomed its first-week old baby in 10 years. The small baby girl had been left on the doorstep at about 2 AM and the head nurse rushed to the door upon hearing the rapid knocking. They immediately fed the girl bottled formula, weighted her, took her temperature and swaddled her. Upon the infant nurse returning for her shift at around 5 AM, she immediately began round the clock care for the baby after the head nurse told her everything and even had the assistance of a pair of fraternal twins- Rocky and Roxy Takahashi, four-year-old, black-haired, green-eyed cuties who lost their parents to a kishin, took turns keeping an eye on baby girl, reading to her, and keeping watch on her as she slept soundly during naptime. On this day during his weekly visit is when Stein first sees the small infant, only 6 pounds but very healthy, wispy blond hairs already on her head, sleeping soundly in her crib in a light purple sleeper, Stein attempts to not wake the baby up as he converses with her nurse on her health and how she came to be in the orphanage this day. Rocky and Roxy also decided to move into the room with the baby to keep an eye on her at night, attaching themselves to her quickly, treating her like they would their own baby sister and Stein smiled slightly at the sight of the twins playing with the baby girl. Nearly a month passed and the baby girl was growing steadily, was happy and healthy, babbling happily to her friends and caregiver, and had still somehow had not been named. The twin children argued back an forth over what to name the infant girl, the caregiver just chuckled before ushering the rowdy 4-year-olds out for the baby’s nap and they stopped upon seeing Stein watching them interact again with the baby as the nurse slowly put her to bed. To stop the twins bickering, Stein suggested a simple name for the baby girl that he felt the twins would agree on: Sarah, Hebrew for lady, princess, and noblewoman. The baby had been such a sweet baby since she came to the orphanage she deserved a name as such since the twins called her their Princess anyway, also it was a name Stein liked. The girl just seemed like a Sarah. They immediately loved it and made certain to tell the baby her name once she awoke.Over a course of eight months, Sarah began to crawl, tugging herself up at times on her crib, a pants leg, or with the helping hand of her caregiver and the twins. She was slowly learning to walk with the help of Roxy and Rocky holding her hands and walking behind her. Aside from her being a little small, she was exactly where she should be in development. Overall, she was a happy, cheerful, sweet baby girl. By June 1999, she was walking even better, holding herself on the wall or holding onto her caregiver’s pants leg and waddling beside her around her room- they didn’t let her explore much except her room and the hallway outside it- and Stein still watched the baby girl develop from a distance, worried his appearance would scare her as it did the other younger children. He didn’t understand why he was drawn to the infant and worked so hard to make sure she was developing properly, conversing with the caregiver when she would get sick or have a rash or wouldn’t eat some foods. Stein knew better than to believe he could adopt a child, to care for and father them, what if he scared them once they saw his tendencies? What if he snapped and hurt them? He had a couple of friends that would assist him in raising a child for he had spoken about it many times to them, wanting an outsiders opinion on if he would ever be a decent father. Marie Mjolnir and Sid Barrett both said they would assist him when he needed them to. A young Sid was already partially caring for a baby boy named Black☆Star who had been found by him on a mission almost a year prior and he said several times how if Stein adopted the girl how sweet it would be if she and Black☆Star would be friends later in life. Stein had to admit, he did find himself drawn to the small child even after years of saying he wouldn’t be good enough to be a father. He tried to converse with her caregiver about her progress and the two adults remained unaware of the infant waddling slightly back from her spot from the corner of the hallway where her twin friends were attempting to get her to walk towards them. Sarah caught sight of Stein and proceeded to waddle towards the stranger she saw many times but never really met. The twins watched as the blonde, little girl waddled her way up to be near Stein, her summer dress swished slightly with every uneven step she took with her chubby baby legs towards her desired destination which was towards the person she knew of but never saw who conversed still with her caregiver unknowing of the baby they spoke of waddling/walking straight towards them. Her caregiver noticed Sarah first but pretended to not notice as she waddled closer to Stein, Roxy and Rocky giggling from the end of the hall. Stein still talked for a moment before feeling a soft tug on his lab coat. Looking down, he met the baby browns of the child he had been meaning to avoid in fear of scaring her as he did all other young children. His green-grey eyes widened and he stiffened, waiting patiently for baby Sarah to begin crying or wailing at his stitches, his bolt/screw, or his towering height but what he got next shocked him more than anything. Sarah reached up with her chubby baby arms and made grabby hands, a sign she wanted to be picked up...by Stein. He slowly relaxed and slid down to the floor, hesitantly, before she surprised him again by clamouring onto his lap and grasped onto his shirt. Her baby hands examined his own, his clothes and his face and hair as she did with everyone she found interesting and she didn't know it but Stein’s heart began to melt. She touched his mouth, his chin, his nose, his glasses- which he then took off to keep them from accidentally being broken- then her hands made their pathway towards his hair. Again, he braced for a scream or crying, instead, he found baby Sarah place a small hand on the screw/bolt and cocked her head to the side at it. Stein smiled softly and reached up to turn it and Sarah grinned and clapped at hearing a slight click click click from the turning. She grinned and babbled cutely, showing her newly grown bottom teeth and she too tried turning the bolt only to find her baby hands weren’t strong enough. Noticing her confused head tilt again, Stein reached up to twist it again and her face lit up. To get her mind off the screw/bolt, Stein held out his hand to her to examine and she happily did so. She continued to play with his hands, his jacket, she’d trace her fingers around his nose, eyes, scar, and babble happily, even speaking a few real words here and there she had been learning. Stein smiled softly at the baby in his arms, relaxing as she continued memorising him. He continued to talk to her caregiver who had sat beside him and was joined by the twins. She grinned when Sarah began to cuddle into Stein’s shirt as he held her in a large hand as she gripped his finger tightly. He completely relaxed and smoothed her hair away from her closed eyes and she mumbled quietly, did she just say, papa? Soon she was sound asleep, snuggling into his shirt and mumbling softly. Her nurse chuckled, “ You’re really great with her. And she seems awfully attached to you. Have you made up your mind about adopting her?” Stein gaped at the woman, “Me? Adopt her? No, no I couldn’t. Not only is my lab completely unsafe for a baby or a kid in general but I doubt I would be a very good father.” His face fell slightly, imagining all the bad things that could happen to the innocent child. Sarah’s caregiver placed a tender hand on his shoulder, “ Come now, Stein. You’d be an amazing father. Look at everything you’ve done for the older children- teaching them, getting them interested in science and animals- also everything you’ve done for Sarah. You’ve helped with formula’s when she wasn’t liking the previous one, you helped make a salve for her diaper rash since store bought didn’t work on her, you’re attached to this baby and I can tell she’s attached to you.” “ But what if something happens? I mean, I would never intentionally hurt her, but my mind…” The caregiver softly smiled. “Then bring in a trusted friend. Caring for a child could be an experiment for you two as caring for any child would be. You can baby proof a certain section of your home for solely her and not let her past that area and have your friends assist you in helping care for her. The choice is entirely yours but,” she glanced down at the little baby, “ I believe someone already made up her own mind.” She chuckled at the infant resting happily in the scientist's hand. He pondered on for a bit on the what ifs. What if he did adopt this girl? Would he be a good parent? Could he provide a happy home for her? A safe home? Could he really be able to do it so simply? Study how to raise a child and asking Sid and Marie for help? What if something went wrong? What if he couldn’t keep his dissecting thoughts from her? Or worse what if he completely lost it. Soon he chose to go home, after unlatching the infant from her strong grip on his finger and shirt, he phoned Marie and Sid to come over for a talk to weigh the pros and cons for raising her or any child. During their meeting, Marie offered to stay with Stein for a bit to help him raise the child if he chose to adopt her and Sid offered to take her to school with Black☆Star, have play dates and such to assist in her development. Both friends swore to assist Stein in his choices no matter what. On that note, Stein wrote a list of pros and cons which by the end the pros outweighed the cons and he finally made up his mind. With Sid and Marie’s help, the babyproofed a section of the Patchwork Lab: every doorknob, corner, outlet, put a big lock on is lab and cleared out three side rooms for her beside his bedroom. Each room was baby proofed and he labelled each room for different things such as her bedroom, a playroom, and a library/study. Stein, with Sid’s help since he was assisting in raising a baby Black☆Star, helped create a feeding chart and Stein made a chart for when she would get older so she would have a routine she could adapt to in case he was called on a mission- which was rare but could still happen and would ease whoever kept an eye on her then. Marie went out and bought everything a baby would need: diapers, clothes, changing pad, blankets, burp cloths, a new crib, a playpen, a carrier, towels, baby bottles, a stroller, and many many stuffies and toys to amuse Sarah. By the next morning, Stein began the long path to adopting the baby girl filled with home studies and paperwork. He would go visit Sarah every day and personally assist her in learning to balance herself, helping her with her words, he even quit smoking to get the better chance of her actually being adopted by him. This went on for three whole months until all the paperwork and home studies were done. By the end of September, Stein had a daughter. Upon entering her new home, Stein and her caregiver agreed to a trial period. He had one week to see if he could handle a one-year-old and if he couldn’t, his would giver her back to the orphanage and gift all he and Marie had purchased to her to keep. The twins were saddened by not being able to see their younger friend but they were happy when Stein told them he or Marie would come to get them every weekend to bond with Sarah that way she would never forget them. Stein had given the baby girl a few gifts that were more scientific, like a stuffed frog she could “dissect” by taking apart the velcro straps on its torso and insides, he had hand knitted sweaters for her and a few blankets, even stitched little doll figures that looked like her, Stein, Sid, Marie, Rocky, Roxy, and her caregiver. Her favourite was the one that resembled Stein and she slept with it in her new crib in her new home beside her new papa who had set up a cot in her room to keep watch on her first few nights. Sarah slept soundly in her new home and grew steadily. By her fourth birthday, they found out she was a meister and that the twins were weapons. Around the same age, she had begun to question why she didn’t look like her papa and Stein had told her the truth, “ Yes, darling. We don’t look a bit alike, do we? But that doesn’t matter, little one. Because you chose me to be your papa that day when you were a baby and I knew you were my darling daughter. Nothing and no one will ever change that. Stein didn’t enrol Sarah into school instead Marie came and would teach her and she trained with Sid and Stein to get physically and stronger on her own before she became meister to a weapon partner. Sarah grew into a loving both the normal things any child would as well as having a growing curiosity about life to the point of her assisting her papa in his scientific studies. Miss Marie would take her to meet with Sid and Black☆Star where he boasted several times about wanting to surpass Lord Death and stated that when Sarah finally joined the DWMA with him, he’d challenge her to their first duel. By the time Sarah became of age to bond with a weapon, she bonded with both Rocky and Roxy which explains why they bonded so quickly at the orphanage. Poor Stein had to get Marie to help the year prior when Sarah got her first period and he didn’t want to embarrass her by having that whole talk. By age fourteen, the trio had gone on many missions to collect Kishin souls as requested by Lord Death even if they weren’t students of the DWMA yet. Sarah chose to postpone her studies at the DWMA for a little while longer since she was learning about her papa’s evils and he confessed to only feeling calm with her or Marie home with him. Marie still taught Sarah and she learned to bend her own wavelength to heal as well as having papa’s ability to use it as a defence without a weapon and learned that the twins had multiple weapon forms which Sarah could easily wield. She made tremendous progress and not once did she lose her love of life and sense of freedom. Stein couldn’t have been a prouder father, however; he was scared for when she would enrol into the DWMA which was now also a college for older children who wished to have further teachings. Would she be ridiculed for being his child even if it wasn’t biologically? Would she be ashamed? Would she still be happy? There was one way to find out. Byt the morning before her next mission, he enrolled her into the DWMA at the age of nineteen. When she returned home she would be a student. 

[netflixmomma516]

Her Secrets 1 - 13RW Series

Yes, I’m reposting this whole series again. Hopefully, I can keep up with updating it. 

I woke up to the stupid alarm on my phone going off. I mentally roll my eyes and hit snooze for another 10 minutes of sleep. Not wanting to get out of my new cozy warm bed.

The alarm went off again. I roll my eyes again and hit off. I sat up in my bed and looked at the window. The sun barely reaching the horizon, but I see a birds nest in the tree outside of my window.

I smiled to myself, I swung my legs over the edge of my bed and my feet hit the cold wooden floor. I shuffled to my bathroom. I quickly brush my hair and throw my hair into a messy bun with a white headband.

I secondly went to my walk-in closet. I found a pair of Capri tights and paired it with my dad's old football sweatshirt. I decided to keep my glasses on considering I'm dressing lazy, and don't really have anyone to impress. Plus it's my first day at a new school. I was pissed to move my senior year, but honestly, Crestmont isn't that bad.

I grabbed my bag and went down the stairs to see my dad. I gave him a smile, while I grabbed a banana and my smoothie out of the fridge. "Have a good day." He calls after me while I leave to go to school. My dad and I don't have the best of relationships. I had no choice but to move in with my dad.

--

After 15 minutes, my car and I are sitting in the schools parking lot. I finally find a spot close enough to the school. If it's anything like my old school, I'm probably in somebody's spot, but I don't care at the moment. I grabbed my bag and schedule that I got when I registered here, I took a deep breath and got out of my car. I started walking to the school entrance. I see a group of teenage guys sitting on a bench. They all stop and stare at me. I suddenly become really self-conscious, looking down at my schedule, and back up. My first class is English 12. I looked around to figure out where I should go. A dirty-blonde haired guy comes over to me, "Hey, you must be new." He smiled down at my short stature. "That obvious?" I blushed. "Yeah," he smiled. "What are you looking for?" "English 12 with Balding." "That's my first class I'll show you, but first come hang out with us for a little bit." He pointed back to his friends, which were all staring at us. I smile, "okay." We walk over to his friends.    "Hey cutie what's your name?" A brown hair green eyed boy asked. "Y/N," I said confidently. Even though I'm feeling the least bit of confidence at the moment. "Cute name." He said. "Thanks." "So where you from?" Another one with brown skin and brown hair and brown eyes asked. "Omaha," I answered. "Alright well let's get going, we have to stop by our lockers." The cute blonde said. We walked away from the big group of teenage guys. "So what's your last name?" He asked. "Y/L/N." I had him look at my schedule. "Oh, so you take the empty locker next to mine." He said smiling, I blushed. "Oh well, here we are." We arrive at a row of lockers very similar to my old schools. "This is yours," he points to a blue one, "this is mine." He points to the gray one. I nod and do my combination, and it opens instantly. I swiftly got my notebook, folder, and my pencil bag from my bag, and put it in my locker. "Ready?" "Yeah." I smile as I follow him to the classroom. "It's right here." He pointed to a door that was decorated with Liberty High Tigers stuff. I smile at the door. It reminds me of my old History teacher last year, who was obsessed with Nebraska State. - I walk into history, "Y/N, you missed the game Friday." Sam said as I took my seat in front of him. "Y/N, you didn’t go to support your best friend?" Mr. Rose interrupted me and my best friend's conversation. "I had to babysit Michael," I told both of them. "Excuses, excuses." We all laugh. - "Oh yeah, I'm Scott Reed by the way." He finally introduced himself. "Y/N Y/L/N." I smiled at him. "Hey, Scotty," Balding said when we walked in. "Hey this is the new student that you were talking about yesterday," he announced. "Oh Y/N, hey." He gave me a warm smile. "Hi." I smiled back. "You can sit wherever you'd like." He held his arms out, the majority of the desks are empty. "Okay," I smiled and looked back at the desks. "You can sit here," Scott pointed to the one in front of him. I smiled an nodded and made my way over to the desk. "So how different is Liberty from your old school?" He asked. "Not much difference." I confess. I look into his eyes; they're perfectly deep hazel. My butterflies go crazy. "Well that's good," he said.    The bell rang signaling that the school day was starting. "Hey guys," Balding said in front of the class as he sat on a stool. "So I told you guys yesterday we were getting a new student today and here she is." He stands up and walks to me. I smile and look to the rest of the class. "So where are you from?" He asked. "Nebraska." I answer. "Where in Nebraska?" He pressed. "Omaha." Not a lot of people really know where Omaha is. "Oh cool." He laughs and I smile. He walks back to the stool and sits on it again continuing to talk about the lesson. Finally, the bell rang. "So what's your next class?" Scott asked me. I look at my schedule, "Chemistry and Physics with Sullivan." I say looking back up at him from my schedule. "Do you need help finding it?" He asks. I shake my head yes. Desperate for help around this maze known as Liberty High School. "Alright, I'll take you." He smiles his perfectly white smile. We walk to our locker to put away my book. Then we continued to walk to Chemistry and Physics. We were talking, and I found out he's on the baseball team with everyone that was on the bench this morning. "Well, here you are," Scott points to the door. "Thank you," I smile. "If you need any other help, I usually go to my locker after every period, so don't be afraid to come look for me." He suggested. I smiled my little crooked smile at him, "okay, thank you again, Scott." I smiled at the cute blonde. "You're welcome," he said and I turned to walk into the room. I smiled to the pretty brunette teacher that was sitting at her desk, "you must be Y/N," she said. I nodded, "well nice to meet you." She was so friendly and nice. "You can sit right next to Zach," she pointed to an empty seat next to a boy with black hair and brown eyes. He smiled and pointed to the seat next to him. I nodded and walked over to the desk. "Hey, you're YN right?" The boy that I recognized from this morning said. I smile, "yeah." "Well, I'm Zach." He smiles in my direction. "Hey." I simply said as I checked to see if I had any texts from my 'friends' back home. Of course not. "How's your first day going?" He asks. "It's okay, I guess," I said looking back to him with hopeful eyes. "Well I hope it gets better," I half smile and continue to look at my phone. Finally, the bell rang signaling the period over. "Where are you going next?" Zach asked. I glanced down at my schedule, "Government." I answer. "Jeff has that do you need me to show you where it is?" He asked. "That'd be great," I smile to him. "Alright just follow me." He led me down the steps to a long hallway, which is known as the 'senior hallway'. He pointed to the tall guy standing by a classroom door, talking to a couple guys. "That's Jeff." He pointed out. He's one of the guys I saw on the bench this morning. "Yo, Jeff this is YN, she's in your class." Zach introduced. "Hey," Jeff said looking down at my short stature. He has to be at least 6" with brown hair and brown eyes that could melt any girls heart. They sure are melting mine. "Hi," I said shyly. He's really cute. "Well come in here I'll introduce you to Coach." He led me through a doorway to a classroom. The teacher looked like a coach of some sort. He's tall, fit, and middle-aged. "Hey coach this is YN, the new student you were telling us about," Jeff told him. "Oh hey YN," he looked at me and smiled. "Hi," I smiled at his eagerness. "Well, I'm assuming you had government at your old school?" He asked. "Yes," I confirmed. "Okay cool well probably some of this you probably have learned or not. If you're completely lost let me know." "Okay," I said. "You can sit by me," Jeff said with a smile. "Okay," I followed him to a row of desks. "So YN, you're from Omaha right?" Jeff asked. I shake my head yes. "Cool, how hard is it moving your senior year?" He asked. "Not that hard," I admitted. "Well, that's good then." He said trying to make small talk. I smile at his attempt. He's very handsome. Finally, the bell rang, throughout the whole period Jeff was stealing glances at me. We both blushed every time I caught him. "So what do you have 4th period?" Jeff asked as I was walking to my locker to ask Scott where I was going. "Yearbook," I answered. "You have mine and the guys lunch." He said, "that means you have B lunch," he continued. "Oh cool," I smiled up at him. I got to my locker to see Scott. He smiled at Jeff and me. "Hey, Scottie." Jeff greeted. "Hey," he said back to Jeff. "So what class you headed too?" Scott looked at me. "Yearbook," I answered again putting away my book. "Oh, that's in the English hallway. It's right next to Balding," he said. "On the right?" I ask shutting my locker. "Yes," He said. "Okay. Well, I'll see you guys at lunch." I said with a smile walking away in the direction of the English hallway. "Hey YN, here's my number, text me when you're headed to the cafeteria and I'll meet you," I smiled and Scott handed me a piece of paper. "Okay," I took the paper and walked toward the English hallway. I was nervous this time because I wasn't going to know anyone in this class, unlike my last 3 classes. I walked in the room and the teacher smiled up at me. "YN?" She asked. I nodded, "yes." I smiled back at her. She was short and a little on the chubby side but she was pretty nonetheless. "Welcome to Liberty," she said with a friendly smile. "Thank you," I said. "Well YN, this is the senior editor.." She pointed to a blonde short Barbie. She looked popular and was very pretty, "Chloe." I smile at her and she comes up and gives me a friendly hug. "Hi YN I've heard a lot about you," she said very preppily. Oh gosh, what has she heard? Please not be something bad. Please not be the reason why I moved in with my dad halfway across the country. "Nothing but good I promise," she smiled. "You can sit next to me," Chloe announced. I took the seat next to her. I got really nervous and maybe it's because she might've heard what happened at my old school to cause me to move away from my hometown. We sat there talking and getting to know each other. "Sit with me at lunch," she suggested. "Actually Scott Reed and Jeff Atkins asked me to sit with them." "Really? I sit with them too," she smiled. I nodded in approval, "okay." I said not sure what to say to that. It kind of doesn't surprise me. The bell rang signaling lunch, Chloe took me by the arm and dragged me to the cafeteria. "Hey guys," she said as she approached the table full of guys and another brunette girl. "Hey," they all said. I spotted Scott and smiled in his direction. "You can sit between me and Jeff, YN." Scott patted the chair next to him. I gladly took the seat. "We always wait till the line dies down to get lunch," Chloe informed me. I nodded and smiled at her. "So how's your first day going?" Scott asked me. "Pretty good." I smiled at him. He's so cute. Jeff finally shows up to the table and sits on the other side of me. "Hey YN," he said. I smiled and said, "hey." We looked back at the lines. "Okay food," Scott announces to the table. The whole table stands up and heads to the line. I follow Scott to the lunch line. "So YN.." Jeff started, but I quickly interrupted. "Y'all can call me Y/N/N," he smiled and started over, "YNN, well there's a baseball game Friday you should come." He smiled down at me. "I'll see what I can do," I smiled back up at him. "Cool because it's the first game of the year and I would love to see you there rooting for us," he said. "Okay I'll talk to my dad," I said. After lunch, Chloe gave me a smile and we walked back to yearbook. "So what's going on with you and Scotty and Jeff?" She asked out of nowhere. I looked at her like she had 3 heads, "nothing." She smiled, "It seems like they both like you." "Considering I'm new and they don't really know me..." "Yeah you're right they're probably just being nice." I smile as we entered the room. It was kind of rude to say that, but I don't care, like I said I'm not here to please anyone. Finally, the day is over. The rest of the day went by super fast, and I'm quickly learning the maze of the school. It's more complex than my school. Old school. I got to my locker to see Scott and a couple other guys standing there. "Hey YNN," they greeted me as I opened my locker. "Hey," I put my books away and grabbed my bag. "So YN, you busy later tonight?" Scott asked. "Nope." I popped the p. "Well, we're all going over to Bryce's to play video games. You want to tag along?" He looked down at me with hopeful eyes. "Sure," I smiled. What's the worst thing that can happen right? "Cool I'll text you the address later," he said as I closed my locker. "Okay," I smiled, "I'll talk to y'all later than," I said. "Bye guys." I waved as I walked away to the parking lot. I felt eyes on my butt and I rolled my eyes. I found my car and put my bag in the backseat. I got in the driver's seat, my seat is all the way up, because of how short I am. I turn on my car and turn on the radio, and drive off. -- "So how was your first day?" My dad said as I entered the kitchen. "Good," grabbing water from the fridge. "Did you meet new friends?" He asked curious about my first day at a new school. "Yeah, actually they invited me over for game night tonight," I informed him. "Oh okay, well what time." "I don't know yet my new friend has to text me the details," I told him. "Well it's a school night, so curfew is 10:30." He informed me. "Yes I know dad," I smiled and rolled my eyes. "Well, I'm glad you met friends." He doesn't need to know all of them are guys. Especially with my past. "I'm going to go start homework." I walked up to my room and fell on my bed. My mind went to Scott Reed. His smile and gorgeous eyes and his hair. I love his dirty blonde hair. My thoughts got interrupted with my phone vibrating. I looked at the screen and saw a text from an unknown number. I unlocked my phone and saw it was from Scott. I smiled to myself. Scott; hey YNN, meeting at Bryce's at 5. Then he sent the address I smiled and looked at the time, 3:30. I roll my eyes and decide on a cat nap before. - DREAM "YNN, wait up!" I hear a familiar voice call from behind me. I turn to see Sam chasing after me. I smile to the tall guy. "I can't believe you're back." I hugged him. "I wasn’t planning on coming back 'til next week, but I had to see you." He confesses. I smile at the blue-eyed boy in front of me. "Sam, I missed you so much," I tell him. "YN, is it true?" He asks. - My alarm that was set on my phone went off at 4:25. I rolled my eyes and sat up in my bed, I looked in the mirror. My hair was a mess, so I took my hair out of a messy bun and ran a brush through it. I looked at my outfit, I decided to change into a tank top and a loose baseball tee. I looked in the mirror once more. Contacts, I thought. Not that I'm trying to impress anyone. I quickly go to my bathroom and change into my contacts. I smile at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes shine in the lights of my baby blue bathroom. I sat back on my bed and plugged Bryce's address in my phone maps. The screen said 10 minutes, I looked at the time, '4:45'. I roll my eyes and went downstairs to the kitchen. "You headed out?" My dad asked. "Not yet," I answer. My mom and dad divorced when I was 3. He lived in Omaha until I was 14 when he moved out to Crestmont due to work. I didn't mind it, just because my dad and I never really got along. But being gone from him so long it made me miss him, but even now we're not that close, maybe because of the situation that made me decide to move in with my dad. "Are you going to eat over there?" He asked. "Yes," I said keeping it short. I looked down at my phone, finally, it was 4:50. "Alright, I'm leaving," I announce standing up from the chair at the table. "Okay be careful, remember 10:30." My dad says hugging me. "Okay," I hugged him back. I grabbed my keys and went out to my car. Finding Bryce's house was super easy. I see like 3 other cars in the driveway, so I cut the engine and make my way up to the front door. I knock subtly on the door. "Coming!" I hear a guy voice on the other side immediately recognizing it. Jeff Atkins. My stomach goes in knots thinking about Jeff for some reason. The door opens to reveal Jeff's smiling face. He smiles down at me, "you made it!" He said with a lot of enthusiasm. "Yeah," I smiled. "Well come in, everyone's out in the pool house." I followed him back to the pool house. I see Scott, Zach, Monty, and Bryce. I wave at them. Scott is the first to greet me, "hey YNN." He says as he moves over to make room for me on the couch. I smile and take the seat next to him. "You're going down," Zach says to Bryce. "You're on," he says as they start playing the new game. I roll my eyes, such teenage boys. "Hey Scotty follow me," Jeff says. He stands up leaving me alone on the couch with Zach and Bryce playing video games. I look back to see Scott and Jeff talking. I quickly spin around to look at the TV screen. I feel like I just eavesdropped on a personal conversation. "Hey guys look what I have," Scott says as we all turn around, as he holds up a baggy full of what looks like weed. "Dude yes," Monty says. I get really nervous, I've never done that stuff before and I don't plan on ever doing it. "You want to try," Scott asks. I have to go, I have to make up a lie to leave or I could just walk out without an explanation. I'll go with the second one. I stand up from the couch and head to the stairs. "Where you going?" Scott asked. I kept walking towards the main house like I didn't hear him. I don't usually associate myself with those kinds of people. "YNN wait!" Scott gets in front of me. "You don't do that kind of stuff do you?" He asks. I look down at my black vans. "No," I say truthfully. "You're a straight edge aren't you?" He pressed again. "I guess you can say that now," I say truthfully still looking down at my vans. "Well you don't have too, but please stay." He says lifting my head up to look at him. "I don't want to see y'all high," I said as I turn on my feet to walk out the door to my car.

I want to go home, not back to my dad's house, but I want to go back to Omaha where people know I'm not like that but I was liked anyway. Not here where I probably won't be liked because I don't do that stuff. But I know I can't go back home. Not now. -- My phone wouldn't stop vibrating with calls and texts from Scott. It's not that I'm mad at him for doing that stuff, I just don't do that stuff and usually don't associate myself with those people. -- I'm laying in bed trying to figure out my feelings for Scott. He's cute and sweet but I don't want to fall for anybody right now, but I guess I don't have control over that. I felt my phone vibrate indicating a text. Scott; hey it's cool I completely understand. I just hope this doesn't hurt our friendship... I read from the screen. I quickly typed. Me; it won't. I smiled at my phone. I stare at my ceiling smiling thinking about Scott. My heart starts beating fast at the thought of him. Dream I walked into government to see Jeff sitting at his desk. He's so cute and my knees went weak. He looked up at me and smiled his perfectly white smile. I smiled back and made my way to my seat next to him. I forgot my jacket at home, so I'm freezing in this classroom, he's wearing his baseball sweatshirt with his last name on the back. I sat down in my seat and shivered, getting a giant cold chill from the back of the seat touching my arms. "You cold?" Jeff asked me. I shake my head yes, "freezing," I replied. "Well here," he said taking off his sweatshirt and handing it to me. I smiled at him and took the sweatshirt from his big hand. I slid it over my head. It literally swallowed me, but I didn't mind. I didn't mind one bit. "You can give it back at the end of the day." He informed me. I smiled, "thanks, Jeff." He just smiled and the bell rang.

[spnskinnyballs]

The Warrior and the Man in the Sky

A/N - In honour of the blessed day that is Sept 18th we celebrate 10 years of Castiel and Dean in our lives and we’re going to give both of these angels the appreciation that they deserve. This was originally for @ain-t-bovvered tales of the Winchester’s challenge.

Word Count - 1,376

Pairing - No pairing

Warnings - All the fluff, pregnant reader, violence, injury but nothing too scary

Sitting on the decking in the back garden you felt at peace. The air was just turning cold and you tugged your cardigan around your arms seeking comfort, with your eyes closed you could smell the freshness of the summer nights and hear the trees whistling at the border. It was your favourite place in the world, opening your eyes you let out a sigh of content as you looked up at the stars that were just becoming visible. Honestly you could spend every night out here with your mind wandering over peaceful memories and a cup of tea to warm your soul.

Unfortunately having a five year old often meant that you had to share your favourite place in the world and it wasn’t long before you heard the familiar footfalls of a little one that should already be in bed. Even with your eyes closed you could tell exactly what he was doing, how he hid behind the door frame just watching you, trying to figure out if he would get in trouble or not. Smiling to yourself you opened up your arms and called out to him “Lucas James what on Earth are you doing out of bed?”

A second later a little giggle and fast feet came running towards you as he made himself known and leapt into your arms snuggling up close. “I missed you, why you out here?” Peeking a look at him, you couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with those bright blue puppy dog eyes, damn he was cute.

Kissing his forehead and running your hand through his messy brown hair you mumbled “I’m sorry sweetheart, i was just watching the stars. Want to hear a story?”

“About the man in the stars?” The grin that stretched across his face only grew louder as you nodded, how on earth could you ever refuse him anything. You both settled in with Lucas cuddled up into your chest and your arms wrapped protectively around him. Both pairs of eyes were on the stars, watching them twinkle in the distance. They always brought a sense of calmness and safety over the two of you.

“Okay once upon a time many years ago there was a pretty girl who lived in the country. She lived on a farm in a great big house in the middle of nowhere with nothing but fields for miles and miles. Now something you have to know about this girl was that she was very special and so very happy. Dyou know why she was so special and happy?”

Jostling Lucas with your knee he giggled out a response “Because she had a baby in her tummy?”

Smiling down at him you continued the story with a smile on your face. “Yeah sweetheart she had a baby in her tummy, the most beautiful baby boy there ever was! And she loved that baby more than anything in the world even though she’d never even met him.”

Smiling down at your son you carded your hand through his hair as the memories of that night filtered through you. No matter how many times you told this ‘story’ it wasn’t just a story to you nor to your son and it never would be.

Swallowing thickly you let yourself smile once more into the sky and continued where you left off. “But sadly not everyone was as happy as the pretty girl, there were monsters out there who were mean and wanted to hurt her and her baby and take the farm all for themselves. So one day the monsters decided to come and the girl was so scared and she didn’t know what to do. She hid in the house until she couldn’t hide anymore. She was so worried at what was going to happen but all she knews was that she had to keep her baby boy safe so she took a deep breath and put on a brave face and fought the big scary monsters!“

Moving your eyes from the constellations above you chanced a glance to be met with wide eyes hanging on your every word. “So that’s what she did to save her baby and as she was trying to scare the monsters away suddenly the front door slammed open! In walked a strong brave warrior ready to help the pretty girl scare away the monsters and leave her alone.”

Hearing the turn in the story Lucas climbed further into your lap so that his face was only inches from yours as his attention peaked. “The warrior with the bright green eyes?!”

Laughing at his reaction you booped his nose. “Yeah baby that’s right he had the most beautiful green eyes and he was a hero, he saved the pretty girl and her baby boy. They worked together until all the monsters were gone and when they were alone the girl was so happy that she gave the warrior the biggest hug and thanked him for all his help and he hugged her back with a big smile and told her not to worry because his job was to help people just like her.”

“Because he was a hero and hero’s save people, right mumma?”

“Exactly, and he was such a good hero that he noticed straight away when the pretty girl hurt her tummy. You see the girl was so busy trying to keep her baby safe that she didn’t even notice she had a cut. When he told her she was so scared all over again so she started to cry and the green eyed hero held her hands and told her that everything was going to be okay because he had a friend that lived in the stars.”

“In all of the crying she didn’t even notice when a man appeared out of nowhere and put a hand on her belly. She watched and all around his hand a bright yellow light shone through. When he was done he moved his hand away and just like that he fixed her all up! There was no blood and no cut anymore, it was like the best kind of magic trick.”

“When she looked up at the stranger he smiled down at her and he told her that her baby was safe and healthy and everything was going to be okay. She was so happy that she finally let go of the hero’s hands and jumped into the angels arms and thanked him again and again until he slowly hugged her back. When she finally looked up to see the strangers face he had an awkward little smile with big blue eyes, just like yours, and he was wearing a trench coat!”

Chuckling you looked down to see Lucas in a fit of giggles at the image of an angel wearing a trench coat. Seriously though why the hell did an angel need a trench coat?!

“They were both hero’s and they both saved the pretty girl and most importantly they did the best thing in the entire world by giving her, her healthy baby boy back. She would never ever stop thanking them for that. The hero and the angel both left that night to save other pretty girls and baby boys. A few months later this special little boy was born safe and happy just like the Angel said he would and he and the pretty girl lived happily ever after.”

Finishing the story you held Lucas closer to you as you kissed his hair and sought comfort from your perfect little miracle. His little hands wrapped around your neck before one palm settled on your cheek so he could look into your eyes. “I like that story mumma.” He whispered into you as you hummed in agreement.

“Me too baby, come on though it’s past both our bed times by now!” Jostling him in your lap you twisted yourself until you were perched on the edge of your seat with your son clinging on to you you before you began to make your way inside.

As you opened up the back door you smiled to yourself as you felt a chubby little hand leave your neck and reach up to the stars accompanied by a sleepy mumble into the night sky. “Good night Mr Angel, sleep tight.”

@shellydemon @anotherwaywardsister @ravenangel33 @dean-winchesters-bacon @bookoffracturedescapes @pisces-cutie @sp8b8 @tumbler-tidbits @torn-and-frayed @kaz11283 @mannls

@all-will-be-well-love

[jinjojess]

Oh, All-knowing Jess, hear my call and drive away my doubts: how was received in Japan the datamining of the beta of Pokémon Gold? What do you think about it? Are some Pokémon you like or want in actual games? (Personally, my favourite is that creepy Pinsir, for some reasons it reminds me of the Kaonashi from Spirited Away!)

You know, that’s a good question. I’ve seen some fanart and reactions on Twitter, but I didn’t really follow it much, sorry!

To make it up to you, I will now review all of the betas:

Chikorita! 

Yay! I think I’ve made it very clear that I am a big fan of this little plant nugget, so I don’t have much to add really.

10/10

AAAGGGGHHH?! 

What the fuck is this thing? How does this relate to Chikorita or Meganium, who are both largely unchanged from their beta designs? Where are the eyes? Like I’m diggin’ the tiny smug face-looking thing at the top of the bulb, but what’s the deal with the huge single eye down below? Where did the legs go? Why does the body shape change so drastically in the in-between stage when both the first and third stages are quadrupeds?!

0/10 would not trade Bayleef for it

Meganium

Whew, okay. Back on familiar ground here. Meganium is likely my least favorite of the Johto starters’ final forms, but I still like my big, dumb boy.

8/10

Tepkon 

Awww~!

So unpopular opinion, but for a long time I really disliked cyndaquil’s design. I’ve come around to it these days, but back when GS came out, it really put me off. This thing is absolutely adorable, and though the design isn’t super inspired, I still fucking love it.

7/10 wouldn’t trade cyndaquil for it, but would love to see the design reworked for future games

Chubby quilava

This is like quilava’s cousin who grows up to discover that he’s actually more of a bear than a twink. Really like it–seems very cuddly.

7/10 like quilava better but I support this thicc boi

Kirara

Seriously, this is basically just Kirara from Inuyasha. Not as crazy about this design as its pre-evos, especially since it seems like it’s trying to edge in on arcanine’s floof territory. An okay pokemon, but not a fave.

6/10 would not trade typhlosion for it

Baby Nessie

Totodile was one of those pokemon that I had been low-key hoping for, but I gotta admit that this is one adorable little fucker. Look at its stubby limbs! Its cute snoot! Its pudgy tail!

6/10 would not trade totodile but would love to see in another game

Let me clear my thoat (I hope ya don’t mind)

I am…less enthused about the middle evo. The eyes are cute and the little shy smile is to die for, but the…ballast? on its throat kind of looks like a giant boil and I’m not really here for that.

4/10 no thanks I’ll keep croconaw

Dragonair but with legs

The final evo I like a bit more–it looks like a dragonair that struck up a deal with Ursula the sea witch so that it could pursue its land-dwelling love. Now that the gem isn’t jammed right up under the chin it’s less off-putting, and the kind of fang-looking necklace is a Good Look.

6/10 still prefer feraligatr but GameFreak please dust off this design

Hoot-Hoot’s just really into henna right now

I’ve never been a huge fan of hoot-hoot, and I kind of like the extra markings. I assume they were taken off to make the design less busy as well as giving it a fanned tail, but I think I’d actually prefer this one.

5/10 would replace regular hoot-hoot with this one

It is the night

Okay, here we go! Now this is a cool-looking pokemon that would make training up a damn hoot-hoot worth it. Noctowl is a decent pokemon in the game since it means you get access to psychic moves early in the game, but I’ve always thought the design looked too goofy. I like irl owls a lot and this design really speaks to me.

8/10 go back in time and give teenage me this bird instead

Mareep

There’s not a ton to say here other than they lightened up mareep’s fleshy bits in the final release, and I like mareep quite a bit so there we go. Instead, I want to draw attention to this disaster of a backsprite. What am I even looking at? A giant ball of cotton candy that rolled through a bunch of broken candy canes?

9/10 I mean I like mareep, but I gotta take off a point for that awful backsprite

Flaaffy

Flaaffs seems largely unchanged. I’m pretty partial to this boi as well, especially since I had one following me for a bit in my Japanese Soul Silver game.

8/10 I like flaaffy, but fuck that name spelling

Ampharos

One of my fave Gen 2 pokemon! Doesn’t seem to have much different about it, though I did always question where the delightful floof went. I mean we get it back in the mega evolution but still. What was that about, GameFreak?

9/10 docked a point for lack of floof

Mikon

So this is clearly a pre-evo idea for vulpix, and it’s pretty damn cute. I love that with the addition of this member to the family, it’s confirmed that the line increases its number of tails by 3 every time it evolves. I like this, but I’m not entirely sold on it. The face lacks some detail and I feel like the design isn’t different enough from vulpix to really feel necessary.

7/10 it’s cute but I don’t think vulpix needs a pre-evo

Mahou Shoujo Green

This tangela pre-evo is pretty cute, though the body underneath kind of reminds me a bit too much of oddish. I mean maybe it’d be cool to look at the oddish line and the tangela line and see how two related species had off-shoots, but I am not really the biggest fan of baby pokemon as an institution so these will all be a hard sell for me, sorry.

6/10 again, cute but unecessary

Tangrowth as imagined by CalArts

I loved tangela a lot back in the day, and tangrowth is a really interesting pokemon as well…however this one has a little bow and ringlet hair so like, no contest, really.

9/10 this should be an alternate evo option for tangela (perhaps for females?)

i could be your angle or yuor devil

So this one is kinda cool in concept. It’s clearly drawing influence from Japanese kites, and the scary face might be an evolutionary feature designed to scare off predators…that or it’s a flying/ghost or flying/dark type and the angel imagery is the ruse. Either way I fucking love this thing.

10/10 I want this concept revisited

Qwilfish

I like qwilfish a lot! It’s got cool typing, it can perform decently on a rain team, and it’s based on a pufferfish. It’s definitely an underdog in the wider world, but not in my heart.

10/10

The Fish Who Lived

I have…reservations about this evolution though. As cool as it would be to have a qwilfish evolution, this just isn’t doing it for me. It’s kinda cool that it’s shaped like a naval mine, and the Harry Potter scar is pretty cute, but I can get over the dead-eyed stare.

4/10 yeah no I think I’m happy to wait for better evo ideas to come along

Pichu

Pichu’s cute enough I guess but I’ve never liked it as much as pikachu and sure as hell not as much as my boy raichu. However if the baby version was this roly poly cutie, I think I’d be more into it. This style of pre-evo harkens back to the good ol’ days of fat pikachu, and therefore I must doff my cap to it.

8/10 with a bit of polishing I would take this over pichu for sure

Cleffa

Okay, so of the baby pokemon, of which I am generally not fond, cleffa is by far my favorite because of how cute it is. This is also extremely cute. I like picturing the trainer being able to just grab the thing by the little knob on its head if it’s heading toward danger. Plus that tail nub is so cute! I don’t know that I could choose between this version and the actual cleffa.

9/10 would be a 10 but Nate once said “what if cleffa’s hands were its nipples?” and now I can’t unsee it

Igglybuff

Iggly has always reminded me of the Powerpuff Girls, but this beta version is so…delightfully round. God, it’s like hypnotizing how round it is. You wouldn’t have to show this from above to trick someone in a silhouette quiz. The tiny, wide-set eyes are also both piercing and kind of unassuming, which I can’t decide is cute or terrifying.

8/10 think I’d swap this guy in for the existing igglybuff

Quagsire!

I freaking LOVE quagsire. It’s so derpy, I love water/ground types, and just everything about it is cute and makes me want to hug it. The only problem with it in this beta is that there’s no wooper.

10/10 bring wooper with you bro

Natu

I’ve always thought natu was cute and really neat in concept, but I’ve never actually sat down and trained one. This sprite isn’t too different from its final one, but it is missing the color scheme, which is one of the reasons I like it.

6/10 stop being so washed out!

Xatu

Also largely unchanged from its final design, though I do prefer the Silver sprite where its wings are spread. (And I’m sorry about this, but some of the pictures will have bits of other sprites in them, since it was hard cutting these all down in Paint with a trackpad.)

7/10 very unique

Prince(ss) of the sea

Is this a pre-evo of goldeen and seaking, and I can see why it was cut. Who thought either of those would be popular enough to warrant a baby form?

2/10 fuck yeah was a meme guys, it wasn’t sincere

Marill

Marill’s okay. I think it’s fairly cute, and the design they went with using smaller ears and non-clown feet is better imo. Plus this is really minor but it’s bothering me that despite the codename “pikablu” this sprite is pink.

6/10 solid cute pokemon, but the final design is better

Finding Flounder

So I’m a big fan of lanturn because of its digimon-esque eyes and its cool typing. Chinchou I’m…eh on. This cutie though, I could get used to this.

8/10 cute eyes are better than terrifying cross eyes I’m sorry

Clanker’s Cavern

As I just said, I like lanturn a lot. However, this is a shark with an anchor attached. That’s like if you left dhelmise and sharpedo at the day care on the same day an enemy team spilled plutonium all over the yard. It’s so stupid! I love this thing so damn much.

8/10 it’s way too similar to other existing pokemon, but I still kind of want it anyway

Homsar

This thing kind of scares me. The gaping mouth, the wide eyes, and the fact that it clearly would inhabit deep parts of the ocean all make me want to nope out. That said though, I respect it.

6/10 glad they came back to this idea with elektross

Crobat

If you’ve ever battled me in one of our local or online tournaments, you will know that I have a soft spot for crobat. I think golbat’s design is kind of terrible, zubat is simplistic yet kinda cute, and crobat gets to be both cute/cool and also not suck completely in battle (see what I did there?). This design seems mostly unchanged.

8/10 a very good bro

Most likely to drive an airbrushed van

This paras pre-evo looks like it’s inspired by a lovely whimsical creature from Wonderland or Fantasia. I kind of like having a pre-evo to show that at the start the sinister mushrooms allow the baby para to call the shots, biding its time until takes over the entire nervous system as a parasect. Really not feeling the face, though.

5/10 cute, interesting idea, but I don’t know if I want to add more baby pokemon to the mix

Spinarak

I have some mild arachnophobia, but I actually rather like spinarak since it’s so adorable. This version is a little more true to life and not as adorable. Also wtf GameFreak stop giving your arachnids six legs!

5/10 very much prefer the final design but kinda reminds me of the little jumpy bois I catch and release from inside my apartment sometimes

Ariados

Again with the six legs thing. Ugh. Anyway, this beta version of ariados is actually much cuter than the one we ended up getting in the final game. I’m pretty lukewarm on ariados in general (my spider boi of choice is the far superior galvantula), but look at this thing’s face! Look at the face on its body! It’s cute even when it’s trying to be scary!

6/10 why did we not get this adorable boi?!

Skarmory

It’s skarmory. That’s it. A pokemon that I like in theory but have never been super into his design.

5/10 respectably cool but not my cup of tea

Alphonse Elric’s head in chibi form, screaming as his body melts

Here it is. My favorite of all of the beta sprites. This thing is so fucking wonderful in part because I have literally no idea what the hell it’s supposed to be. What is this?! What type is it supposed to be? What is it based on? Is it a pre-evo of an existing mon? Why is its mouth parted in an eternal screech? These questions do not necessarily have answers, and I am a sucker for mystery.

10/10 GameFreak please bring this idea to life just so that I can get closure

Mine! Mine!

So I see what they were going for. It’s a baby form of doduo, with three baby bird heads and a big puff of feathers to make it look like a brood peeking out of a nest. I respect the idea, I do. Too bad it also conjures up images in my head of rat kings and other fused abominations. 

5/10 a good idea that didn’t pan out so well

[Obligatory Undertale Reference]

Sunflora would actually probably be more intimidating if it had an evolution rather than a pre-evo, though. I’m no big fan of sunflora, but I gotta say that this sprite is way better than the one we ended up getting.

6/10 replace existing sunflora with this bullet seed-spewing former skiddo

The Littlest Babaar

I’ve never really been into elephants as a species. Like they’re cool, but they’re pretty middle of the pack for me in terms of my animal preferences. As a result, I always found donphan kind of disappointing. However, I do like phanpy quite a bit, if only for the fact that it’s goddamn adorable. This sprite is a bit plain, but does bring the cuteness.

6/10 prefer the final design but this one ain’t bad at all

Donphan

The Don hasn’t changed much at all as far as I can tell. I’ve never trained one in Gen 2, so is its backsprite really just its trunk? If so, hilarious.

5/10 congrats! you exist!

That’s the statement of the grave mint, Doublemint

I can’t decide if this was intended to be a pre-evo for ghastly or if it’s supposed to be a new ghost type (perhaps later replaced by misdreavus?). Either way it’s an interesting concept, and I can imagine the pokedex entry now: “Born from the souls of fetuses who were eaten in-utero by their siblings. Since they feel they were destined to be twins, they find each other shortly after death and fuse together so that they’ll never be alone again.”

7/10 not the most original design but damn we had a shortage of ghost types back in the day

Girafarig

Girafarig is one of those pokemon that I always wanted to be more competitively viable because I think it has a unique design and could fill a cool niche. I like that the final design has the tail as an evolutionary measure and that there’s a smaller brain in it, just like some real life creatures. That said, we really missed out on getting a face full of evil uniraffe in the backsprite. Man, this is a real tough choice.

7/10 let’s keep girafarig as is and try out this concept on a different mon

Smeargle

This version of him seems a bit more…simian than his final, kinda canine design. Not sure if I dig it. Also, have you noticed that Gen 2 felt obligated to have a ditto/mew type mon that could mimic all the other mons? I feel like this concept gets revisited every so often and GameFreak thinks we’re none the wiser.

5/10 flesh beret just isn’t okay

Coin Kitty

So I know I said I’m against baby pokemon on principle, but the fact that this thing never saw the light of day upsets me so much. It’s so. fucking. CUTE.

10/10 go back in time and replace skitty with this

Betty Boop’s best friend

I get the feeling that this dark type cat got recycled into the purrloin line, but this one is way cooler imo. It references the old adage of “belling the cat” and I think that this pokemon line could have had some really cool sound-based signature moves (sorta similar to the whismur or jangmo-o lines).

9/10 not feeling the bipedal thing, but still a really neat concept I’d like to see

Luna

Again, I love the idea of a pokemon based on a fable. I can see why this particular design didn’t get used, given how simple it is and how closely it resembles umbreon if you just glance at it, but I’d love to see this revisited.

7/10 spruce up the design a bit and get back to me

Politoed’s wild ride

So when I first met politoed I felt he was a bit too…cutesy? Like the rosy cheeks were a bit much. This guy feels a bit more like he belongs in the poliwag line, though he doesn’t look like he’d be as bouncy.

6/10 might replace existing politoed design, might not

Slowking

Though I prefer slowbro as my yadon evo of choice, slowking is pretty awesome in his own right. Not a big fan of the clown ruffle, but honestly it’s kind of a minor setback all things considered. 

7/10 remember how he could randomly talk in the 2nd pokemon movie? That was fucked up.

Unknown

All of these cool, unsued beta designs, and this one gets to stay in?

1/10 don’t talk to me right now, GameFreak

Ledyba

It’s ledyba. One of the bug types I’m actually not really all that into. Pretty sure this is the sprite actually used in Gold.

4/10 fine just not for me

I see you

Ledian’s deal as a superhero is kinda cool, even if I don’t particularly care for the actual design. And I gotta say, it’s preferable to the ever-watching eyes of this thing. Those stars aren’t natural; they’re tattoos for each trainer its killed.

3/10 I feel like I need to go lie down

My Little Shetland Pony

Clearly this is intended to be a ponyta baby form, and while I commend the idea of a foal version (or maybe a Shetland or something?), you may notice that there is very, very little to set this pre-evo apart from ponyta. Like it and and rapidash aren’t exactly the most daring design-wise, so stripping it to the essentials doesn’t really work.

5/10 this is cute as all hell but it has no reason to exist

Espeon

Though I get shit all the time for liking espeon the least out of all the eeveelutions, I do still think the design is neat, and the fact that it draws from the nekomata myth is fascinating. Backsprite is a bit janky in the hips department–yet another unrealistic beauty standard, amirite ladies?

7/10 I personally don’t think there are any bad eeveelutions

Umbreon!

My absolute favorite Gen 2 pokemon! Not many changes between this and the final design, though I will say that this one looks a lot more terrifying–the hole eyes are worse than the red ones somehow. Still, love.

10/10 listen this is my personal rating

Alolan Shellder

This one is so fascinating to me. It’s obviously the chompy boi from slowbro and slowking, which in the pokedex is referred to as a shellder, but perhaps this is a unique evolution that only happens when it disconnects from the slowpoke? I am really upset this wasn’t actually used in the game, because getting to have this thing on the same team as slowpoke, slowbro, and slowking would have been like when Banjo-Tooie introduced the mechanic that let Banjo and Kazooie split up.

10/10 give me, dammit!

Garbage Pail Kid

Again with the baby form for a line that already is known for extremely simple designs. Grimer and muk are literally just piles of slime of differing sizes. (Shut up, Alolan forms weren’t a thing til later.) So basically this baby form is fucking adorable, and I’m loving the thing that could be a nose but I’m choosing to interpret as a mouth with a single tooth. It’s just that…who needs this?

7/10 cute, but not necessary by any stretch of imagination

Are ya feelin’ lucky, punk?

Okay, so this beta is a) way cooler than remoraid ended up being, and b) makes the evolution line make SO MUCH more sense. I can definitely see why it was changed, especially since censor-happy America was a legit market by that point. And I guess the revolver barrel part of the design still persisted in Gen 2, but still.

5/10 booo censorship!

TANK!

Octillary’s name also makes way more sense with the original tank design. I mean I can kinda see why this changed, but like…Digimon was over there with a creature in the anime just literally called Tankmon who shoots shells at elementary schoolers so I don’t fucking know. 

7/10 I like octillary as is, but this is a much more interesting design

WWE fan

Okay so real talk, I am not the biggest fan of tyrogue’s design, but what was even going on here? What’s with the frog hat? Is it a safety helmet? The general hitmonlee body shape combined with the baby boxing gloves for hitmonchan was pretty cool, but this is not something I’d look at and think “Yes, this will grow up to be a humonoid fighting type.”

5/10 it’s…cute? I guess I just don’t see what’s going on here really

shaga;lsdkfhahdgajspd[f

NO. JUST NO. THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS HAPPENING HERE, TOO MANY LIMBS, TOO MANY EYES, JUST NO. HITMONTOP ENDED UP BEING SILLY BUT AT LEAST IT WASN’T THIS MANGLED BODY HORROR NONSENSE.

0/10 for reminding me of claydol and my own mortality

Pupper

This is going to come as a surprise, but I’m glad they didn’t introduce a baby form of growlithe. The growlithe and arcanine line includes 2 of my top 3 pokemon ever and as cute as this is I don’t think it would fit aesthetically. It looks like a spaniel that doesn’t match the shisa vibe of the growlithe line. That said, I would love to see it as a first form for a different line of perhaps…ground type doggos?

9/10 please give us some floppy ear dog designs, GameFreak! new doggos!

Like, nya

I do think the hoppip line (except for the last evo) is pretty cute, and this one reminds me a bit of an in-training digimon so I’m liking it. That said, I think the designs we got were better.

6/10 cute but like existing hoppip

Gardnyar

Again, prefer Skiploom.

5/10 not a fan of the flower for some reason

Nyancat theme plays in the distance

So I like this better than jumpluff personally, even if the other is probably a more unique design.

5/10 jumpluff’s limbs bother me, but lbr I was never going to train one anyway

New this Easter

Mr. Mime, I think we can all agree, is an unsettling design. That’s its whole appeal, really. Mime Jr. is cute enough I guess, but this is a tiny clown egg that looks like it’s learning to ice skate for the first time!

6/10 get your derpy clown nose out of here, Mime Jr.

Agatha’s apprentice

Smoochum is…well, she is. She’s kinda cute, and I think I prefer the finished design to this one since it looks way too similar to grown up jynx. Plus it raises some uncomfortable questions about it being born with ganguro make-up and hair (in a style that looks like E4 Agatha’s for some reason). This smoochum looks like it’d be taken out to sit alone at the bar in the club while wearing booty shorts that read “Mama’s Lil’ Bitch” across the back.

4/10 this makes me uncomfortable, and the hair is too close to Agatha’s

Which way to the Chao Garden?

Elekid is one of few baby pokemon I like, but hot damn this thing is adorable. It looks like a tiny, wingless bee with a halo.

7/10 can this be recycled as something else?

Bart Simpson

Really what keeps me from fully embracing the magmar line is largely the fact that they all have butts on their heads. These spikes are way more appealing to me, and so I would have loved having this one in the game.

8/10 is it still too late to redesign magby?

Bellossom

Not too many changes from the beta. I am digging the shoujo sparkles going on around her, haha.

6/10 not a big bellossom fan but a well-design pokemon nonetheless

Audrey III

Nope, I don’t like this, no sir. Where would this even go in the evo line? Is it supposed to be an alternative to victreebel? Cause this isn’t much better, guys.

1/10 I will give it one point since it looks like it could cut a rug on the dance floor

Miltank

A good, solid pokemon I’m pretty fond of (once I got over my salt from the Whitney battle). I like her as a female counterpart to tauros. Nothing too astounding but still fun and cute.

8/10 

Fire Seal

I feel like there’s folklore here, but my tired brain isn’t coming up with anything at the moment, sadly. Not a really detailed design but those tend to be more my favorites anyway. Trying to figure out what this was replaced by in the final game but I’m having a tough time figuring it out.

7/10 we have a lot of seals, but this is the only FIRE seal

Delibird

I see we chose the path with more subtlety in the end.

4/10 not really a big fan of delibird

Hanshin Hopeful

Okay, I know I said earlier that the screaming pile of goo was my favorite, but this line is also my favorite out of these beta designs. This one upsets me because this would have been such a great cultural addition! Osaka (represented by Goldinrod City in the games) has a baseball team called the Hanshin Tigers, which everyone in the area is a fervent fan of. Not only is this unbearably cute, it could have been hanging out in like a little baseball stadium area or something in or around Goldinrod. 

10/10 how could you leave this out?!

Nandeyanen!!

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Why did I not get this?! The Akihabara of Osaka is even called “DenDen Town” (Electric Town)!

10/10 we’ve missed our chance and now amends cannot be made

Talk to the wing

Is this supposed to be a farfetch’d evolution?! It doesn’t make a ton of sense aside from the waterfowl connection, but like…how pissed would you be if you were farfetch’d? This is kinda cool. I’m not super into swans or anything, but the masquerade/crime fighter mask is a neat detail.

5/10 I could see this being used interestingly, even if I’d probably not use it

Hitori Kakurenbou

I love this concept. Look at this! I know it was basically recycled for shuppet’s line, but this is so much more hardcore. Now this is a pokemon that can use curse appropriately.

10/10 personally like this one better than shuppet, if I’m being honest

Hsien-ko

This is the most Chinese pokemon since arcanine, oh my god. It’s a panda jiangshi. A panda jiangshi! Imagine it hopping after you adorably, ready to leech life you to death.

9/10 it’s not as cute as the pre-evolution, but still–panda jiangshi!!!

Murkrow

Not a lot of changes going on here either, aside from the more obvious witch’s hat design. Unsure if I like this one better or regular murkrow.

7/10 good flappy friend

*uncomfortable cough*

Blissey’s design is a bit too busy and frilly for my tastes, but it’s certainly a lot more acceptable than this. I get what they were going for: a heart on top of its head to represent healing and whatnot, but it just came out so…so yonic in nature that I have to wonder about the person responsible for this design.

1/10 not entirely awful but good lord

Scisor

Here’s the boi, only this time with eyes on his little crab claws! It’s cute but later got used for hydregion instead, and I dunno, I kind of prefer scisor as is. Still think scyther looks cooler, but a good strudy boi.

6/10 for the puppet shows it could give to entertain all the baby forms on this sprite sheet

Pinsir Noh Pinching

Here’s your fave, anon! You’re right that it seems to have a blank Noh-like mask on its face, as if a huge pinching bug wasn’t terrifying enough for you. That said, I kind of like the really creepy vibe, and poor pinsir got left in the dirt by his rival scyther once Gen 2 hit and gave scyther an evolution but nothing for his clampy comrade.

6/10 we could still get a pinsir evolution, guys

Houndour!

As you might expect of me, the houndour line is a close second to umbreon for Jess’s Favorite Gen 2 Pokemon. It combines two types I love, fire and dark, into this edgy but adorable package–what could I not love about it? This design is actually even better than the final one, because look at that sick-ass spine highlighting the ribs that got left in!

10/10 you cannot half ass edge; that misses the point

Houndoom!

Houndoom, meanwhile, looks pretty much as I remember him in Gold. And there’s nothing wrong with that–his design is fucking amazing. Man, kids, back in the metagame in Gen 2, houndoom was firmly in the top tier. Ah, I remember those days…

10/10 like a shark, houndoom has passed through decades without major tinkering to its evolutionary design

Baby yeti

Long before froslass burst onto the scene, this little bundle of deceptively charming horror could have been the first ice/ghost type. Yes, yes, it’s very adorable upon initial inspection, but once you look a bit deeper, you notice that the pokemon itself is actually black as night, with two piercing Jawa eyes, and the happy fur coat is another creature that’s been skinned and put on like a hoodie. Amazing.

10/10 I’ll take four

Wampa

I started on Star Wars references in the last entry and I gotta keep it going. Anyway, the evolution of tiny, arctic Buffalo Bill up there is even more fearsome, with claws and pupils! It’s even somehow found a way to make its fur covering evolve with it, having it sprout huge fangs (yeah I know, adults probably hunt larger creatures for clothing, but let me have this).

10/10 this so should have been a thing

Pon de Lion

I wonder if perhaps this design was meant to be an alternate form or evolution of porygon, or if this was an entirely different species based on toys (presumably to pad out the number of steel types). It’s an interesting idea, certainly, but I 100% get why this design got scrapped–it was a lawsuit from Mr. Donut waiting to happen.

Ugh

Did you know that horses produce 10 gallons of saliva a day? I now do thanks to Nate quizzing us over vacation last weekend to see if we could tell the difference between real animals and pokemon based on factoids. Now, lickilicky was not a new evolution I embraced with open arms, but man, it could have been so much worse.

2/10 I can’t say there’s no appeal (that mustache is great) but it just looks slimy and no thanks

Steelix

It’s steelix, unchanged from this beta to the final game.

7/10 I just think it’s neat

Sunken Master

I would like kingdra so, so much more if this is what it looked like.

9/10 this is goddamn cool and no one can convince me otherwise

Shadow the Edgedog

I’m not gonna lie, I fucking love this stupid design. It’s an electric dog with super sayain hair. 

10/10 fuck you, I do what I want

Oscar Myer

Do I find this design cute? Yes. Do I personally like it more than entei’s? Yes. Do I think it’s a better design than entei? No. It’s a bit too plain to really give off that legendary feel, but for me? I’d totally take this in a game. Also at least the last two have actually looked like dogs. The Legendary “Dogs” we got were a tiger, a lion/bear hybrid, and whatever the hell suicune is supposed to be.

8/10 I am a simple woman with simple needs

Jen Kira

I see people likening this design to Nina Tucker, but I actually don’t see that. It looks more to me like a special edition My Little Pony toy from the 80s released to promote The Dark Crystal. I dig it, even if it’s my least favorite of the three OG doggos.

8/10 if only some of the pizzazz of this design was afforded to fiery boi up there and we’d be onto something

Rook

This weasel/otter type thing is really cute, and perhaps was a concept idea for what later became sentret? I’d say I would want to see it again, but I kind of get the feeling we already did get the concept revived in the mienfoo line.

6/10 glad we got to see this one again

Ho-oh

Doesn’t seem too different from the sprite in the final game, and still a good design. That said though, I’m noticing that there’s no lugia in these beta sprites. What the fuck is that?!

7/10 got bros over this ho(-oh)

Togepi

This little bugger was introduced so early in the anime that I’m not surprised that its design was firmed up by the time the demo came out. Togepi’s okay I guess, but again I don’t really tend to like baby pokemon and I got kind of over-exposed to it in the anime.

6/10 cute but not a fave

Snubble

SNUB PARTY!! Snubs has the dubious honor of being the only dog pokemon I actively dislike. I like granbull so I can put up with it temporarily to get it to evolve, but this does a lot of things on my Dislike Checklist: aggressively pink, check; clown ruffle, check; appears to be wearing a dress, check.

4/10 not a fan

Boscoe

This early version of aipom looks like Marsupilami if it had been created by the Fleischer brothers. Something about this design just isn’t Right, but I can’t put my finger on it. I think it’s the 1930s American animation style face combined with walking on all fours? Either way it creeps me out.

3/10 though aipom is a very middle-of-the-road pokemon for me, it’s a helluva lot better than this abomination

Leafeon Prime

If you had asked us kid pokemon fans back in the days of Gen I what pokemon we’d most like to see in the future, I imagine “grass type eeveelution” was near the top for many of them. It just made sense–you had the leaf stone just sitting around, not reacting to your eevee, and it was so blatantly conspicuous. I had my own grass type eeveelution design I’d made called “Thorneon”, the design of which I might share at some point, and I was far from the only one.

So yeah, I’d have appreciated this a LOT in Gen 2. I was disappointed it wasn’t introduced in Gen 2. However, promises of a grass type eeveelution in Gen 4 got me to finally pull the trigger on getting a DS to play Diamond and Pearl, and that turned out to be an execellent decision. So maybe it was better that they kept this idea incubating for a bit longer.

10/10 I like leafeon and I also like this design–particularly like the vine bits that look like scars

And so there you have it! All 100 beta sprites reveiwed by yours truly. 

Hope it was worth the wait, anon!

[imaginetonyandbucky]

Bucky Barnes goes back in time to save Tony Stark from himself, in whatever for that might take... could be established relationship, could be a Civil War fix it, time loop.... Tony sending Bucky back in time thinking Bucky would choose Steve, anything you like... just Bucky doing everything in his power to make Tony safe and happy (with him)! Please and thank you.

Combined with:

Bucky from the future travels back in time to protect pre-im Tony.

The Things We Relive: Part 1

Sometimes what Tony really needs protection from is himself.

As the room resolved around him with a dizzying blur, Bucky looked down at the baby cooing in the crib, arms and legs waving as he watched the mobile over the crib rotating slowly, little planes and rockets bobbing gently in the breeze left by Bucky’s sudden appearance.

“Shit. Too far.” He held up his walkie talkie and squeezed the button, hoping that it would work like they all guessed it would. “Guys, you sent me too far.  He’s just a baby.”  He reached into the crib with his metal hand, letting little Tony grab his finger.  “Hey, cutie,” he murmured. “How ya doing?  Trying to save the world yet? No, cuz you can’t even talk. Look at you, little Iron Baby.”  Tony was gumming Bucky’s finger when he realized that his mike was still active.  He let go of the button and felt his face get hot during the long silence that followed.

“Roger that, James,” Natasha said, laughter still in her voice.  At least it was a break from the tension of the past few days as they tried to figure out how to work Tony’s time machine.  “Come on back and we’ll reset the settings and try again.”

“10-4.” This time Bucky remembered to let go of the button before he leaned over the crib. He set the walkie talkie down and ran his flesh hand over the downy hair on Tony’s scalp, tracing a finger down his soft cheek.  Tony turned his head towards the sensation and waved his chubby arms and legs until he managed to turn over onto his stomach, looking surprised.  Bucky smiled gently as Tony’s big head bobbled as he tried to look up at Bucky and felt his chest get tight.  “I miss you, Tony.  We’re going to fix this, ok?  It’s going to be alright.”

“Who the hell are you?” A woman demanded shrilly from the door. “Get away from my baby!”

Bucky had just enough time to grab the walkie and hit the getaway button before Maria Stark descended on him like a Valkyrie.

(Watch out for the break!)

“Did anyone see you?” Natasha asked when he reappeared in Tony’s lab.

“Tony’s mom, but she wouldn’t recognize me.”

Natasha raised her eyebrow and said dryly, “But I imagine than seeing someone disappear into thin air might cause some comment.”

“Oh, yeah. Whoops.”  Bucky chewed on his lip for a moment and then had to shrug. “Can’t do anything about it now.  We don’t have time to go back and fix it, right? I’ll do better next time.  Maybe she’ll just think she hallucinated or something.”  He hesitated. “How’s Steve?”

“Still in the hospital, but the doctors say he’s healing well.  Sam’s with him now.”

“Does he know?”

“No.” She shook her head, her red hair swinging gently. She tucked some of it behind her ear and pretended like she was studying the control panel. “Right now it’s just us, but I feel like it’s only a matter of time before Dr. Strange comes around wondering why Tony wanted to study his necklace.”

“Yeah.” Bucky frowned at the Eye of Agamemnon, which was staring out of Tony’s machine impassively, shining green and looking vaguely sinister amidst the shiny steel and glass device Tony built to harness its power. “Alright, let’s go again.”

Natasha looked at Tony’s scrawled notes, somehow managing to read his handwriting, and did something to the control panel. “Ready?”

Bucky tugged his sleeve and his glove to make sure his arm was covered, and smoothed down his hair under his hat.  He took a deep breath and said, “Ok, go.”

This time Bucky flickered into existence in a shady park, near an elaborate playground that only had a couple of kids on it.  Bucky’s brow creased as he swiftly examined his surroundings, trying to find Tony.  There was one woman sitting on a bench with a baby carrier at her feet, trying to divide her attention between the baby and a blonde hair girl throwing sand in the sandbox.  On the far side of the playground a man had a briefcase opened next to him and was deeply absorbed in a file of papers while on the playground the only other kid was a dark-haired boy climbing all the way to the top of the structure, which was at least twenty feet off the ground.

“Dad! Look at me, Dad!” The boy called out as he balanced precariously on the highest railing, one hand holding on while the other waved at the oblivious businessman.

“Goddammit, Howard,” Bucky growled. “Tony, stop!” he shouted as loud as he dared. “Get down!” he went around to the other side of the structure so that Howard wouldn’t see him and gestured for Tony to come down.  Tony glanced at him curiously, clearly wondering why this strange man knew his name, but then he turned back to his father.

“Dad!”

Bucky started to climb the structure to get him when Tony lost his balance with a sharp cry of surprise.  He caught himself for a minute with one hand, but it quickly slipped off.  Bucky managed to catch him as he fell, reaching out through the bars to grab a wrist before Tony could hit the ground. “Come on, grab on,” he urged, and Tony, wide-eyed and breathing shakily from adrenaline, finally grabbed the bars and let Bucky help him climb over until he was standing on one of the playground’s metal walkways.  “You ok?”

Tony nodded, still looking like he wanted to cry but holding it in with a tight jaw and damp eyes. Bucky watched him and got a lump in his throat; Tony was already starting to swallow his pain and he was what, six?  Bucky knelt down so he was eye to eye with Tony. “Hey, it’s ok.  It’s ok to be scared or sad or upset, you know? You don’t have to keep it in all the time. It’s not good for you, like trying to hold in a sneeze.”  Bucky mimed holding a sneeze and then having something explode out his ears, and grinned when Tony giggled.  “The more you hold in those feelings the worse it gets when they finally come out.  Even if you have to go somewhere to be by yourself, cry if you need to, ok?  I know what your dad probably says,” Bucky glanced at where Howard had yet to look up from whatever he was writing, “but it doesn’t actually make you less of a man to cry.” Tony looked dubious but he eventually nodded.  “I’ve gotta go now, but I want to show you something cool.”  When Tony’s eyes lit up, Bucky pulled his glove off and waved his metal fingers at Tony.

“Holy shit!” Tony said and Bucky shushed him with a laugh.  “Are you a robot?”

“A little bit. I came from the future to save your life.  Be a little more careful so I don’t have so much work to do, ok?” Bucky winked and gave Tony a high five with the metal hand.

He jumped down off the structure and clicked the button on his walkie as soon as he was out of sight of the playground and he was sure no one was around. “Tasha, he’s six.  Still too soon, I'm coming back.”

“Bleh,” Bucky said when he appeared back in Tony’s lab, feeling a bit queasy.  He waved off Natasha’s curious look and smothered a burp.  “Whatever changes you made last time, you gotta do them a bit more this time.”

“Ok. Did anyone see you?”

“Nope,” Bucky lied. “He was on a playground with Howard.”  He chugged a bottle of water while Natasha fiddled again with the control panel.  He eyed the clock on the wall; even though he had spent maybe ten minutes on the playground, a couple of hours had passed here. Thinking about how long Tony had been gone before they realized what he’d done made Bucky’s stomach roil again, so he pushed the thought away.

“I’m being cautious because I don’t want to go too far,” she explained as Bucky got ready to go back again.  “You’ll probably be too soon again, but at least I’ll know what kind of increments this thing is calibrated to.”

Bucky nodded, and then there was a brain hurting blackness and then Bucky was standing in the middle of what looked like a college campus.  Someone on a skateboard ran into him and fell down to the pavement when Bucky didn’t give at all.  “Watch it, man,” the kid scowled and grabbed his skateboard while Bucky just stared.  Bucky knew that he was still too early, because this was probably while Tony was in college, but the prospect of seeing a teenage Tony was too good to pass up. With a guilty mental apology to Natasha, Bucky tried to look less like a shifty hobo while he looked around.  

It turned out to be pretty easy to find him, despite the fact that MIT was a pretty large campus.  Bucky recognized DUM-E in the middle of one of the brick courtyards, picking up and sorting items out of the pile in front of it.  Tony was watching proudly while people were chattering excitedly and adding to the pile for DUM-E to sort.  Beside him, Bucky recognized a young Rhodey, elbowing him and making some joke that had Tony laughing.

Bucky let himself watch Tony be happy for a while.  The shadows that would haunt Tony’s eyes later were barely present now, the weight of the world only lightly tugging at his shoulders.  He rubbed a hand over his sternum, swallowing thickly at the sudden ache in his chest.  “Still too soon,” he finally said into his walkie talkie. “I think he’s seventeen.”

“Closer, then.  Ok.”

When he was back in Tony’s lab he smothered the urge to punch Tony’s stupid time machine. The queasy feeling was back, and stronger now. “Why doesn’t this goddamned Eye of Amaretto-“

“Agamoto.”

“Whatever come with some instructions?  This is so aggravating.”  Outside it had grown dark, and Natasha was starting to look tired.  Hopefully this would be the last trip.

“We don’t need instructions for the artifact, we need them for the machine, and unfortunately they mostly exist in Tony’s head right now.  I think we’re doing ok, honestly.  I already have the next jump prepared, are you ready?”  

“Yeah.”  Natasha gazed at him searchingly; this trip was going to be the hard one, hard for Bucky specifically, but he refused to let her take his place.  Not the least because there was no way Bucky would be able to figure out the controls for the machine as fast as Natasha did.

This time Buckly closed his eyes, knowing before he opened them that Natasha had gotten it right this time.  The chill in the air, the sound of wind through evergreen trees, the gravel he could feel under his boots.  Bucky opened his eyes and saw a dirt road stretch before him, empty and quiet.  He took a few shaky breaths and positioned himself by the side of the road to wait.

It took an hour for the sound of a car to reach his ears.  Bucky felt his entire body tense and he kept an eye out for the distinctive light of an Iron Man suit. Too soon, Bucky also heard the growl of a motorcycle and he had to breath shallowly or he thought he was going to throw up. When the sound of a blown tire and the screech of brakes came, he forced himself to get closer to the road so that he would see Tony before anyone else did.

But Tony never came.  Bucky forced himself to stay for “Sergeant Barnes?” and the sickening crunch of a metal fist hitting Howard’s face, for “Howard? Howard!” and the barely audible sounds of someone being strangled.  Even though he knew it was coming the sound of the gunshot made him jump, then came the closing of the trunk and the roar of the motorcycle as the Winter Soldier left.

He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, listening to the tick and hiss of the damaged motor, before he brought the walkie talkie up to his face, realizing only at that moment that his cheeks were wet.  “We were wrong, Natasha. He didn’t come here.”

[misadventures-phan-can]

Chasing Phantoms ~ Prologue

It was not meant to be.

A Mother clutched her month-old daughter close. The ship shook, fire danced in the corner of her eye. Outside, a dark figure loomed. Another ship, the attacker, raining bolts down on its prey.

Oh the life they had planned. The love, happiness… The hard times and anger, sadness. All of it they were prepared to face together, forever. But not this. Never this.

The child she held in her arms cried, either from the jostling of her mother’s running, or the loud, terrifying sounds of battle that engulfed the ship whole. Soon, soon they could escape.

The woman felt terrible. Torn between the men and women of the crew that had helped her so much, the urge to stay and fight for them like they were for her… or her daughter, her Star, and the life she would surely have if she took an escape pod and ran.

The Captain knew what choice she would make, the crew knew. No one held it against her, even as she rushed away, no time spared for goodbyes. He only looked at her, stoic as always, nodding once. She smiled grimly, the first hit rocking their ship on its axis. She ran. The Captain turned and started barking battle orders. That was the last she ever saw of them, the valiant crew and their leader.

It was not meant to be.

It was hot as hell on this planet, the humidity in air stuck to the skin, only adding to the sweat that formed over faces and arms- for the humans anyway. Men and women alike wore sandals as they walked down solar-paneled sidewalks. Bicycles casually rolled past on the sidewalk separate from the pedestrian path. Every few feet the solar-panels displayed the image of a figure walking on the appropriate lane, and little bike signals on the bike path.

Leafy, flowering vines grew up telephone poles and hanging baskets dropped down within reaching distance, most full of small pitcher plants to help control the insect population. Although the wild variety​ smelled like rotting flesh, these small domestic ones smelled like overly ripe fruit. Edible plants and berry bushes hung down as well, such as ripe red strawberries, plump peaches, juicy oranges and many others, both from different planets and native to Linus.

Natural bridges went over highways for both human and fauna safety alike. Every block had a shaded solar charging port surrounded by benches, walkways that led to the beaches, bicycle racks and parking lots. The skyscrapers in the distance grew with greenery, bearing a strong resemblances to the massive forests surrounding most of the coastal capital.

The community, whether native or not, enjoyed this planet’s climate immensely… however the foreign General felt his sweat squelch in his thick military boots and under his formal uniform. The locals merely wore bikinis and shorts, with only the rare few daring to cover up with sundresses and tank tops. He had only been here for barely half a Standard Galactic Day, and already he hated it with determined vehemence.

The man stopped under some shade, both to catch his breath and check in with Head Quarters. Taking his communicator off the clip on his coat, he clicked it to the correct signal.

“General reporting, Sir come in, Sir.” The man states, pressing the receiver of the little device, all the while shaking sand out of the speakers despite it not having been exposed to the beaches at all.

“Oh hun, always so uptight and formal… you couldn’t just lay your head back and relax for the day could you…” An effeminate voice chimed through static from the other end. One could just imagine him in his Cat’s eye sunglasses, filing his nails. The General fought back a cringe of disgust.

“They didn’t know about the mineral… they don’t apparently use much mining resources… pride themselves on being green, having low impacts on the environment and all that… A biologist I found along the shore did not suitably help… he was more concerned with some species of cat beasts and a slug…”

“Ah yes….” The man on the other end of the line hummed. “I heard about those cuties. I think I may have seen one earlier today… maybe two if wolves in sheep’s clothing count. Very adorable little things, really. It makes me want one…” he hummed in a slight airy manner, with noticeable emphasis on the want.

“Sir, I do not think it a wise course of action…”

However within moments he was walking down the sidewalk to visit the flea markets, casting cold, grey eyes along colourful stalls that seemed to sell everything on this planet. From exotic fruit and meat, to equipment for ships, Earth antiques, and every species imaginable living on Linus, which seemed as good a candidate for ‘pet’ you could get, in as loose a sense of the word as possible.

He decided upon a particularly dedicated looking vendor, which was really just a collection of small play gates and cages full of animals. The first creature to greet him was a many-eyed reptilian-looking cat with 6 arms. It started growling- the man assumed- for it made a repeating, aggressive ticking sound combined with a series of rattling snarls. Eventually it turned to lay contentedly under a heat lamp. Then, he saw an odd looking snake whose eyes seemed to jut out like a chameleon’s and whose tail wrapped around a branch like it had a mind of its own. A certain scaly thing even vaguely resembled a dragon. But one species in particular caught his eye. If one had lived on Earth, in its golden age, one would compare it to a cute, chubby baby otter. To the people of Linus, they were Mimics. And, to the people who knew what they were capable of, limitless sources of potential.

The stern General was, however, hoping he wouldn’t have to go through with this tomfoolery.

Approaching the manager, or owner of sorts, he cleared his throat and presented his dilemma.  

“I need a pet for someone… a Service Dog like animal. Something smart. Something vicious.” He said, with a glint in his eye.

“Ah, is it perhaps for that special lady in your life? I mean, it all depends on what you want smart for exactly…” The manager replied, the local Linus lilt colouring his speech as he scrutinized his latest client.

The man grimaced, disgusted by the latest developments. He supposed one could call his Commander a ‘special lady’ alright… special with a helmet maybe.

“You pry too much…” He retorted, in a very smooth, very dangerous tone despite his apparent anger. “I came to ask questions, not to answer them…. I am here for a Mimic.”

The vendor- thought he seemed slightly dumbfounded- laughed heartily. “Pardon my manners, us mainlanders don’t mean to pry as much as we do. Should have just been straight forward- we got a whole litter. I hear even the SDF are starting to use these guys. I do warn ya, they aren’t pets. With ‘em little guys it’s like adopting a kid of your own…”

He motioned to a small group of Mimics, round chubby faces with antenna like whiskers. One seeming to be a small white female, another a large dapple grey, the third a grey with a black back and light underbelly. The fourth, and final one was a small black, and white male, standing just slightly taller than the female.

“That one right there, he’s a smart one I’ll tell ya.” He says pouring some milk into a saucer with a small amount of cat food. By the time the dishes were placed in their pen, the “alpha” Mimics were chittering and hollering loudly. Already they had started to mimic the noises of the animals surrounding them. The small black and white male remained silent as the two others pushed and shoved, snapping at one another for the food.

“Chester, come over here boy.” The puppy, though young, seemed to have a natural aptitude towards this sort of thing. He stood up his hind legs, prancing up and down as if he were a kangaroo jumping in delight before the dish was placed down in front him. Followed by another one for the other two Mimics.

While the two grey males fought over who would drink first, the black puppy stared at them. When the moment was right, he snuck his snout under their chests to stealthily pick dish up carefully in his mouth, all the while pushing the other with his flippers. Once his thievery accomplished, the small male sat by the passive white female, with whom he shared his prize. She pressed up against him, affectionate, but most certainly shy.

Then, suddenly, the black male looked up at the scowling General, their gaze locking. A galaxy of blue ocean waves and worlds of the multi-hued coral beneath seemed to scrutinize the man’s very person- for he had no more soul. They glowed with multitudes of deeper secrets, hidden thoughts he would never see. Perhaps it was intelligence. Or maybe not. Was it, perhaps, something more?

It didn’t take long before the Grey’s realized what had happened and approached. They bristled and snarled, copying all sorts of offended animal calls. The black male, Chester, simply looked at them before growling and making a noise that the man had heard before, upon approaching the stall. The Mimic pup got up on his hind legs and made a noise resembling the roar of one of Linus’ big cats, albeit softer and smaller, babyfied, almost. Now, before the Grey’s, stood an almost perfect replica of the reptilian, six armed cat who slept a few cages over. The male’s siblings retreated in a frenzy, fearfully whining high pitched screeches that made the General want to shoot them. But nevertheless. If his Commander had stated he wanted a pet, he would have his damn pet. And if it was to be, the General would make sure its usefulness would be maximized. He would make damn well sure. And if he was to be stuck with an overgrown, doggish copy-parrot, he would make sure it wasn’t a dumb overgrown, doggish copy-parrot. This would be it. 

The man spent the rest of the day carrying an unstable cardboard box, with holes punched in the top, under his arm. Heavily annoyed, very unamused. Little did he know, this was the beginning of 15 years of annoyance and un-amusement.

Next: Chapter 1 - The Cloak

[codsilk80-blog]

In Memoriam: Yummers Potatoes (2000-2018)

Yummers Potatoes

2000-2018

A couple weeks ago, our sweet boy Yummers died at the age of 18. We adopted him when he was about 1 year old, and so we shared our lives together for 17 years and 1 week. Today I am 44 years old, which means I was only 27 when we brought him home. It's amazing to think of all the changes and events in our lives since then... with little Yummers by our side the whole time.

This picture was taken in the first few days after we first got Yummers. 

We were all three little babies!

Yummers was the first pet we got together, and it was so exciting. We were absolutely obsessed with him - looking for him the second we walked in the house and nearly assaulting him with snuggles. For years, we threw a big party every year to celebrate "Yummers Day" - with activities like making catnip toys, or coloring in drawings of Yummers. We stopped doing this when we realized that Yummers wasn't actually enjoying his own party. Ha ha. Many years later though, Yummers did come to enjoy parties - especially if there were about 8 people or so. If it was a big party, he would wait until lots of people had left, and the party was the right size for him. Then he would come out and socialize like the lord of the manor!

"the long distance snuggle"

When we first got Yummers, he was not interested in snuggles. He had an injured foot and came from the shelter with a kitty cold, and he was just plain meek and very afraid. It took us such a long time to win him over and to help him emerge from his shell. We were patient with him, and played with him, and even fed him little nibbles off our plates to win his good favor (it worked!). His first official "snuggle" was when he would sit within arm's reach near us on the sofa. We named this move "The long distance snuggle."

Yummers was always food motivated! 

When we adopted Yummers, the vet told Musty that "you could just leave food out for him to eat." About a week later, Musty suggested that I buy a new bag of cat food. "Already??" I asked. It turned out Yummers had happily plowed his way through a whole bag of kitty kibble in no time at all. And Mr. VE&T had never had a cat before, so he didn't know any better! ha ha. After that, we took to giving him smaller servings twice a day. 

We kept the container of extra food up on the mantle of our fireplace... until one night when we came home from a dinner date only to find that Yummers had - against all odds! - jumped up to the mantle (we could see the claw marks in the wood!) and knocked the container down, and distributed kibbles far and wide across the land. He was most delighted with his handiwork. 

A year or so later, Yummers  actually became quite athletic! His foot injury slowly healed and soon he was jumping over fences, climbing trees, hunting bugs and gophers in the garden (not vegan! sorry!), eating grass, and jumping up and down to his super tall kitty tower. 

in our magnolia tree... looking like such a youngster! 

My yoga buddy

Yummers was my faithful yoga buddy. He loved being out in the studio with me, especially since he was the only one allowed out there with me. It was a dog-free zone, and a special place for just Yummers and me. Some mornings I wouldn't really feel excited about practicing, but Yummers would be there, meowing and heading for the back door - guiding me like Lassie! 

Yummers' most favorite pose was baddha konasana. I had to do this every single time we did yoga together - he liked to climb into the space between my heels and my legs. Then he would purr and snuggle and soak up all the snugs he wanted. Sometimes I would have to do this several times in one practice session! 

Yummers had his own private entrance to the yoga room... up the little red stairs and through the window. In the summer, I would leave the window open for him to come and go as he pleased. He loved to sit on the stairs, or often half-inside the yoga room and half-outside - soaking up the joys of the great outdoors. 

Chatty Yummers

Yummers was a real talker! And he just loved to be sweet talked. He loved his name so much - one of our favorite games was to say his name to him in a super perky way, and then he would respond immediately with a hearty chirp!

Amey: "Yummers!"

Yummers: "Mrow!"

Amey: "Yummers!"

Yummers: "Mrow!"

It could go on like this for quite a while. He also loved if you just said his name over and over and over real fast "YummersYummersYummersYummersYummersYummers..." It would make him purr so loudly!

Acutally, this is pretty amazing, but Yummers was such a good communicator that he had a distinct meow for many different circumstances. We could tell the difference between when he was meowing just to say hi, asking to be fed, bossing Dottie around, about to throw up, angry, and so on. It was really incredible. But also, it was just fun because he always had something to say.

in his life time, Yummers had over one million nick names...

here are a few favorites off the top of my head:

YumBum // Little Baby Yummers // Yummino Acid // Osama bin Sweetie

Po-tay-to // Foo D. Nose // Potentate // Yummers Bummers

Yummers Yummers Monkey Summers // Snuggy Boy

 Little Lord Yummers // YummersYummersYummersYummers

"the cutie"

We had names for many of Yummers' cute moves. In 17 years of togetherness, Yummers never sat on our laps. He was not into that. But, he did love sleeping between my feet on the bed... and after several years, he decided to drape his little paws over my leg while he slept. I know this sounds crazy, but we were so excited that we freaked out and named this new move "the cutie." ha ha. It remained a favorite of his for the rest of his days - and in fact, he spent most of the last few months of his life in his favorite little kitty bed, with his paws draped over the edge, cutie-style. 

"the cutie" in action,

with added yawn power! 

Yummers wasn't into super physical contact, he didn't sleep on our laps or "make biscuits" on our laps... but what he lacked in physical affection, he more than made up for with emotional presence. The minute you walked in the back door, Yummers would be there, amid all the barking dogs, persistently meowing hello and angling for his own affection. If I was in the front room, within a few minutes, Yummers would be there too. If we were out in the backyard, Yummers would come out the backyard. He loved to be with us. He loved to swoop around between my ankles and snugged and smooshed. He loved to be picked up and snuggled any chance he could get. He was really in the mix, really a part of the gang.

Sunshine Appreciator

Yummers was a true lover of sunshine

He was also very handsome.

Yummers and I had a very special sunshine routine in the backyard. He just loved when I would sit outside out in the back, and especially when I would put down a towel to lie on. He would materialize out of nowhere, and lie next to me in the sun, basking in the warmth and companionship. But I was *not* allowed to pet him while he was sun bathing - or he would turn on me and bite me! 

In the house, Yummers had an astute and keenly programmed routine of sun chasing: on the bed in the early morning, in the dining area in the late morning, in the back yard around noon, and then either the futon or the foot of the bed for the late afternoon sun. I'm tellin' ya, he had a pretty good life. 

sunshine on the Most Desirable green chair

Yummers had such a beautiful belly - and happily, he loved to have his belly petted, smooshed, snuggled, wiggled, and I was even allowed to smoosh my face up against it pretty much whenever I wanted.

Yummers and I had such a special thing. I just felt like I understood him. Any little move he made, any little glance or nudge, any shift in behavior and I felt like I knew what he wanted. I just understood him and I never felt like he was a weirdo or a mystery to me. Also, sweet Yummers enjoyed the snuggles I liked to give him and he happily let me pet him the way I wanted to pet him! I know it sounds a little selfish, but I really loved this about him so much. 

left: the "two-paw salute"

right: the "one paw salute"

This was one of Yummers' most favorite moves: the salute! He loved to be held over one shoulder like this, and it was best if you supported one of my back legs, but let the other one hang down. Ha ha. He was so particular! When he was happy, he would extend one arm out into the air. When he was really, really happy he would extend both arms out! The two-arm salute! 

#crossedpaws

This doodle is a stand in for 3 important snuggles:

1. "Tube Hug"

2. "The Trap"

3. "The Hobby Horse"

1. The Tube Hug: Yummers loved to be slowly petted from his head to his kitty butt, with our hands wrapped all the way around his kitty girth. 2. The Trap: at some point Mr. VE&T realized that if you placed one hand on top of his back and one hand on his belly and start smooshing your fingers, Yummers would immediately surrender and lie down for more snuggles. Hoorah! Obviously, this was immediately named "the trap," for our reluctant little snuggler.

3. The Hobby Horse: Honestly, Mr VE&T deserves full credit for discovering so many of Yummers' favorite little moves. In the last few years, he discovered just how much Yummers loved to be gently wiggled. Especially if you put him on the end of the bed. It was a special little bond they shared!

Yummers was a feisty little fella in his youth - he loved to play with his toys and he would get this little cross-eyed and wild look. Sometimes, totally out of the blue, he would jump up and attack my head for no reason! Except he was so chubby that his fuzzy little chub belly would just hit me on the head. He wanted to be fierce, but he really wasn't. He was just a sweet little bub. Ha ha ha! 

derp! 

You are not my friend

ha ha ha

This picture cracks me up. Yummers was not a fan of the dogs, but he adapted reluctantly. It's safe to say that he was the patriarch / dictator of our furry pack - a position he relished and enforced with an iron paw. Although he was able to tolerate the dogs (and they were all terrified of him), he absolutely was not able to tolerate poor Footie. Bringing Footie into our family was an act of betrayal that poor Yummers just could not abide, and he protested several times a day - mostly by continuously pestering Footie. It was a non-stop array of swats, minor aggressions, antagonism, kicking Footie out of his spot in the sun... only to follow him and kick him out the next spot... and the next spot. I'm convinced that this singular focus actually gave Yummers' life meaning and purpose in his final years.

The most interesting cat on the internet

What a beautiful picture of sweet Yummers Potatoes in his prime. 

Our veggie-loving sweet heart 

Of course one of the things that we all knew and loved about Yummers was his voracious and completely self-driven love of vegetables. What a nut! He loved pretty much all vegetables but his top 4 were definitely corn, asparagus, broccoli and green beans. Beyond that, all green veggies (kale, chard, spinach, peas, etc) were also preferred. Not to mention chips, crackers, rice cakes, popcorn, tortilla chips, and on and on. None of the other pets were ever allowed to have human food, so Yummers also enjoyed his very special privilege while the others looked on longingly. Ha ha. He really was quite imperial! 

A typical lunch experience:

me, attempting to eat my lunch in the sunny back yard, Yummers aggressively angling for his share of my veggies, Stevie looking on with eternal optimism! Yummers almost always managed to get a few nibbles from me. How could I resist?

Yummers'  "FEED ME!" face!

ha ha ha. I just love this picture so much, and I will always be grateful for it.

It really captures something so essential about him! Bossy and spunky and hungry!

Our friend Kendra took this picture when she was housesitting for us. Thanks Kendra.

Last but not least, three videos of Yummers eating his veggies with zeal and vigor! 

Yummers Eats His Broccoli

Yummers Eats His Corn

** Click here to see an old post with an excellent video of Yummers eating his corn! **

(I couldn't get the video to load correctly)

Yummers Eats His Asparagus

A few days after Yummers died, I went to the farmers' market only to find that the asparagus ladies were there for the first time this season. Of course they asked about him, because I was always buying more asparagus for him. I bought asparagus that day, but it took me several days to actually eat it because it kept making me cry. I know I'll never eat asparagus again and not remember my sweet Yummers Potatoes. 

In his last two days, he ate almost nothing... two nibbles of Tofurkey slices, and two tips of steamed asparagus. I love that he got his favorite veggie in his final days... he didn't have much appetite, but he could certainly rally for some delicious asparagus.  Rest in Peace, little veggie-lover.

my sweet little guy

Source: http://veganeatsandtreats.blogspot.com/2018/04/in-memoriam-yummers-potatoes-2000-2018.html

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In Memoriam: Yummers Potatoes (2000-2018)

Yummers Potatoes

2000-2018

A couple weeks ago, our sweet boy Yummers died at the age of 18. We adopted him when he was about 1 year old, and so we shared our lives together for 17 years and 1 week. Today I am 44 years old, which means I was only 27 when we brought him home. It's amazing to think of all the changes and events in our lives since then... with little Yummers by our side the whole time.

This picture was taken in the first few days after we first got Yummers. 

We were all three little babies!

Yummers was the first pet we got together, and it was so exciting. We were absolutely obsessed with him - looking for him the second we walked in the house and nearly assaulting him with snuggles. For years, we threw a big party every year to celebrate "Yummers Day" - with activities like making catnip toys, or coloring in drawings of Yummers. We stopped doing this when we realized that Yummers wasn't actually enjoying his own party. Ha ha. Many years later though, Yummers did come to enjoy parties - especially if there were about 8 people or so. If it was a big party, he would wait until lots of people had left, and the party was the right size for him. Then he would come out and socialize like the lord of the manor!

"the long distance snuggle"

When we first got Yummers, he was not interested in snuggles. He had an injured foot and came from the shelter with a kitty cold, and he was just plain meek and very afraid. It took us such a long time to win him over and to help him emerge from his shell. We were patient with him, and played with him, and even fed him little nibbles off our plates to win his good favor (it worked!). His first official "snuggle" was when he would sit within arm's reach near us on the sofa. We named this move "The long distance snuggle."

Yummers was always food motivated! 

When we adopted Yummers, the vet told Musty that "you could just leave food out for him to eat." About a week later, Musty suggested that I buy a new bag of cat food. "Already??" I asked. It turned out Yummers had happily plowed his way through a whole bag of kitty kibble in no time at all. And Mr. VE&T had never had a cat before, so he didn't know any better! ha ha. After that, we took to giving him smaller servings twice a day. 

We kept the container of extra food up on the mantle of our fireplace... until one night when we came home from a dinner date only to find that Yummers had - against all odds! - jumped up to the mantle (we could see the claw marks in the wood!) and knocked the container down, and distributed kibbles far and wide across the land. He was most delighted with his handiwork. 

A year or so later, Yummers  actually became quite athletic! His foot injury slowly healed and soon he was jumping over fences, climbing trees, hunting bugs and gophers in the garden (not vegan! sorry!), eating grass, and jumping up and down to his super tall kitty tower. 

in our magnolia tree... looking like such a youngster! 

My yoga buddy

Yummers was my faithful yoga buddy. He loved being out in the studio with me, especially since he was the only one allowed out there with me. It was a dog-free zone, and a special place for just Yummers and me. Some mornings I wouldn't really feel excited about practicing, but Yummers would be there, meowing and heading for the back door - guiding me like Lassie! 

Yummers' most favorite pose was baddha konasana. I had to do this every single time we did yoga together - he liked to climb into the space between my heels and my legs. Then he would purr and snuggle and soak up all the snugs he wanted. Sometimes I would have to do this several times in one practice session! 

Yummers had his own private entrance to the yoga room... up the little red stairs and through the window. In the summer, I would leave the window open for him to come and go as he pleased. He loved to sit on the stairs, or often half-inside the yoga room and half-outside - soaking up the joys of the great outdoors. 

Chatty Yummers

Yummers was a real talker! And he just loved to be sweet talked. He loved his name so much - one of our favorite games was to say his name to him in a super perky way, and then he would respond immediately with a hearty chirp!

Amey: "Yummers!"

Yummers: "Mrow!"

Amey: "Yummers!"

Yummers: "Mrow!"

It could go on like this for quite a while. He also loved if you just said his name over and over and over real fast "YummersYummersYummersYummersYummersYummers..." It would make him purr so loudly!

Acutally, this is pretty amazing, but Yummers was such a good communicator that he had a distinct meow for many different circumstances. We could tell the difference between when he was meowing just to say hi, asking to be fed, bossing Dottie around, about to throw up, angry, and so on. It was really incredible. But also, it was just fun because he always had something to say.

in his life time, Yummers had over one million nick names...

here are a few favorites off the top of my head:

YumBum // Little Baby Yummers // Yummino Acid // Osama bin Sweetie

Po-tay-to // Foo D. Nose // Potentate // Yummers Bummers

Yummers Yummers Monkey Summers // Snuggy Boy

 Little Lord Yummers // YummersYummersYummersYummers

"the cutie"

We had names for many of Yummers' cute moves. In 17 years of togetherness, Yummers never sat on our laps. He was not into that. But, he did love sleeping between my feet on the bed... and after several years, he decided to drape his little paws over my leg while he slept. I know this sounds crazy, but we were so excited that we freaked out and named this new move "the cutie." ha ha. It remained a favorite of his for the rest of his days - and in fact, he spent most of the last few months of his life in his favorite little kitty bed, with his paws draped over the edge, cutie-style. 

"the cutie" in action,

with added yawn power! 

Yummers wasn't into super physical contact, he didn't sleep on our laps or "make biscuits" on our laps... but what he lacked in physical affection, he more than made up for with emotional presence. The minute you walked in the back door, Yummers would be there, amid all the barking dogs, persistently meowing hello and angling for his own affection. If I was in the front room, within a few minutes, Yummers would be there too. If we were out in the backyard, Yummers would come out the backyard. He loved to be with us. He loved to swoop around between my ankles and snugged and smooshed. He loved to be picked up and snuggled any chance he could get. He was really in the mix, really a part of the gang.

Sunshine Appreciator

Yummers was a true lover of sunshine

He was also very handsome.

Yummers and I had a very special sunshine routine in the backyard. He just loved when I would sit outside out in the back, and especially when I would put down a towel to lie on. He would materialize out of nowhere, and lie next to me in the sun, basking in the warmth and companionship. But I was *not* allowed to pet him while he was sun bathing - or he would turn on me and bite me! 

In the house, Yummers had an astute and keenly programmed routine of sun chasing: on the bed in the early morning, in the dining area in the late morning, in the back yard around noon, and then either the futon or the foot of the bed for the late afternoon sun. I'm tellin' ya, he had a pretty good life. 

sunshine on the Most Desirable green chair

Yummers had such a beautiful belly - and happily, he loved to have his belly petted, smooshed, snuggled, wiggled, and I was even allowed to smoosh my face up against it pretty much whenever I wanted.

Yummers and I had such a special thing. I just felt like I understood him. Any little move he made, any little glance or nudge, any shift in behavior and I felt like I knew what he wanted. I just understood him and I never felt like he was a weirdo or a mystery to me. Also, sweet Yummers enjoyed the snuggles I liked to give him and he happily let me pet him the way I wanted to pet him! I know it sounds a little selfish, but I really loved this about him so much. 

left: the "two-paw salute"

right: the "one paw salute"

This was one of Yummers' most favorite moves: the salute! He loved to be held over one shoulder like this, and it was best if you supported one of my back legs, but let the other one hang down. Ha ha. He was so particular! When he was happy, he would extend one arm out into the air. When he was really, really happy he would extend both arms out! The two-arm salute! 

#crossedpaws

This doodle is a stand in for 3 important snuggles:

1. "Tube Hug"

2. "The Trap"

3. "The Hobby Horse"

1. The Tube Hug: Yummers loved to be slowly petted from his head to his kitty butt, with our hands wrapped all the way around his kitty girth. 2. The Trap: at some point Mr. VE&T realized that if you placed one hand on top of his back and one hand on his belly and start smooshing your fingers, Yummers would immediately surrender and lie down for more snuggles. Hoorah! Obviously, this was immediately named "the trap," for our reluctant little snuggler.

3. The Hobby Horse: Honestly, Mr VE&T deserves full credit for discovering so many of Yummers' favorite little moves. In the last few years, he discovered just how much Yummers loved to be gently wiggled. Especially if you put him on the end of the bed. It was a special little bond they shared!

Yummers was a feisty little fella in his youth - he loved to play with his toys and he would get this little cross-eyed and wild look. Sometimes, totally out of the blue, he would jump up and attack my head for no reason! Except he was so chubby that his fuzzy little chub belly would just hit me on the head. He wanted to be fierce, but he really wasn't. He was just a sweet little bub. Ha ha ha! 

derp! 

You are not my friend

ha ha ha

This picture cracks me up. Yummers was not a fan of the dogs, but he adapted reluctantly. It's safe to say that he was the patriarch / dictator of our furry pack - a position he relished and enforced with an iron paw. Although he was able to tolerate the dogs (and they were all terrified of him), he absolutely was not able to tolerate poor Footie. Bringing Footie into our family was an act of betrayal that poor Yummers just could not abide, and he protested several times a day - mostly by continuously pestering Footie. It was a non-stop array of swats, minor aggressions, antagonism, kicking Footie out of his spot in the sun... only to follow him and kick him out the next spot... and the next spot. I'm convinced that this singular focus actually gave Yummers' life meaning and purpose in his final years.

The most interesting cat on the internet

What a beautiful picture of sweet Yummers Potatoes in his prime. 

Our veggie-loving sweet heart 

Of course one of the things that we all knew and loved about Yummers was his voracious and completely self-driven love of vegetables. What a nut! He loved pretty much all vegetables but his top 4 were definitely corn, asparagus, broccoli and green beans. Beyond that, all green veggies (kale, chard, spinach, peas, etc) were also preferred. Not to mention chips, crackers, rice cakes, popcorn, tortilla chips, and on and on. None of the other pets were ever allowed to have human food, so Yummers also enjoyed his very special privilege while the others looked on longingly. Ha ha. He really was quite imperial! 

A typical lunch experience:

me, attempting to eat my lunch in the sunny back yard, Yummers aggressively angling for his share of my veggies, Stevie looking on with eternal optimism! Yummers almost always managed to get a few nibbles from me. How could I resist?

Yummers'  "FEED ME!" face!

ha ha ha. I just love this picture so much, and I will always be grateful for it.

It really captures something so essential about him! Bossy and spunky and hungry!

Our friend Kendra took this picture when she was housesitting for us. Thanks Kendra.

Last but not least, three videos of Yummers eating his veggies with zeal and vigor! 

Yummers Eats His Broccoli

Yummers Eats His Corn

** Click here to see an old post with an excellent video of Yummers eating his corn! **

(I couldn't get the video to load correctly)

Yummers Eats His Asparagus

A few days after Yummers died, I went to the farmers' market only to find that the asparagus ladies were there for the first time this season. Of course they asked about him, because I was always buying more asparagus for him. I bought asparagus that day, but it took me several days to actually eat it because it kept making me cry. I know I'll never eat asparagus again and not remember my sweet Yummers Potatoes. 

In his last two days, he ate almost nothing... two nibbles of Tofurkey slices, and two tips of steamed asparagus. I love that he got his favorite veggie in his final days... he didn't have much appetite, but he could certainly rally for some delicious asparagus.  Rest in Peace, little veggie-lover.

my sweet little guy

Source: http://veganeatsandtreats.blogspot.com/2018/04/in-memoriam-yummers-potatoes-2000-2018.html