#i cba typing all the character names :(

[xshrimpcake]

put my two favourite things together

[m1ckeyb3rry]

── PURSUIT // ONE

Series Synopsis: When your cousin goes missing right before he can challenge the Champion of your region, you must embark on a journey of your own in the hopes that one day, you might finally find him — wherever he may be.

Chapter Synopsis: You decide to embark on a journey. However, when you release the Pokémon that Shoei gave you before he left, you realize that you’ve met her once already.

Series Masterlist

Pairing(s): Nagi x Reader, Barou & Reader

Chapter Word Count: 6.3k

Content Warnings: pokémon au except i make the world emo and infest it with blue lockers, angst, character death, familial bonds, found families, male-female FRIENDSHIPS, a slow burn so insane the main love interest isn’t even in a solid amount of chapters, it’s my world i do what i want which means liberties are taken, near death experiences, this story is long bro literally everything happens in it the amount of arcs i have planned is insane, original characters because reader will NOT be the only girl i refuse to write in conditions like that, this is being written as if gen vi is the last generation to come out because i cba to catch up on new pokémon lore

A/N: okay so here’s the ACTUAL first chapter of pursuit (there is a prologue though so please read that if you haven’t yet) LSKDFJSD tbh i was expecting to get further in the story with this one than i actually did but oh well!! anyways the first of reader’s traveling companions will be introduced next chapter so feel free to guess who it is hehe (hint: it is a blue locker)

tag list (send an ask to be added): @sharkissm @koffeekat @noble-17

“You’re a trainer, aren’t you?” the police officer said. She was squinting at your license, which displayed your name and status. You furrowed your brow at her, wondering how that was even relevant, and then slowly, you nodded.

“Yes, I am. One Pokémon,” you said.

“What kind?” she said. The Gogoat by her desk sighed, getting up and spinning in a circle, adjusting its position so that it could lay its head on her lap instead of atop its hooves. You took your Pokéball off of your belt, setting it on the desk in front of you and shrugging.

“No idea. Shoei gave it to me before he left,” you said. “He told me it’s the destructive type, so I shouldn’t release it until I’m ready to go on a journey of my own.”

She wrinkled her nose, muttering something under her breath that you couldn’t quite make out but which probably referred to how you were taking advantage of the league’s goodwill, and then she handed your license back to you.

“You’ve been coming and asking us to look for your cousin, Shoei Barou, for the past couple of years,” she said. “And you get the same answer every time, correct?”

“Yes, but—” you began. She cut you off before you could continue, her expression severe, her fingers resting atop your Pokéball in impatience. They were painted, and the sparkling navy winked in the harshness of the overhead lights.

“Like we previously discussed, you’re a trainer,” she said. “Why don’t you begin your own journey and look for him yourself?”

You had considered the idea before. You had a Pokémon, though you knew not which sort it was, and thanks to Shoei, your registration was already completed, so when it came to legality, there was nothing stopping you.

“I don’t know,” you said. “I don’t know anything about training or battling or — or any of that. And we’re so far from Lumiose that it’s not like I can go to the professor for help.”

“You’re in secondary school, and all they do over there is study. You probably know much more than an average trainer, especially starting out,” she said.

“It’s all theory, though,” you said. “Nothing to do with actual fieldwork.”

She rolled the ball towards you. You caught it before it could fall off the edge of the desk, clipping it back to your belt with a murmured apology.

“Most trainers don’t even have that, but they manage, don’t they? This really is your best option, Miss L/N. Regardless, this station will no longer hear your complaints,” she said. “The so-called case of Shoei Barou isn’t one that we are interested in investigating. There are actualdisappearances and crimes that warrant our attention.”

“I see,” you said. “Well. Thank you for your time.”

The Gogoat huffed as it watched you leave, and you gave it one final backwards glance before the door to the small office shut and you were left standing by yourself in the lobby.

Coumarine City felt smaller nowadays. When you were younger, it had seemed so vast as to be unknowable, but now, you could count the steps between the Pokémon Center, the Gym, the school, and your house without batting an eye. You had changed, Shoei had left, and yet the old footpaths were still exactly the same. It felt incongruous, disingenuous even. You thought that there should’ve been some great marker of the shift, some expansion of the bustling place, but there never was.

“Mother, father,” you said that night when you were all eating dinner together. Your mother’s Espurr was watching you with her wide lavender eyes, though the glare of your father’s Heliolisk was enough to dissuade her from any thievery, and you sat across from your parents, your knife clinking against the edge of your plate when you set it down. “I’m thinking of becoming a trainer.”

“You already are a trainer,” your father said, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin.

“I mean, going on a journey and all. Like a proper trainer,” you said. The napkin fluttered out of your father’s grasp, and your mother’s eyes widened against her will. They, like Shoei’s parents, did not yet believe that his disappearance was out of the ordinary, but there it was a sort of wishful thinking. None of them considered it to be strange because they did not want it to be. Because that meant that he might be in the kind of trouble that they were powerless to rescue him from, and that powerlessness was something that they were not ready to accept.

“A journey?” your mother said, her voice breaking for a moment. You knew what she was saying, though she did not speak it aloud: that going on a journey was what took Shoei from you all, and that she could not survive it if you vanished, too. You understood. It was why you had delayed for so long — your parents, your dear parents, how could you leave them when you were so ill-prepared, when you did not even have a great desire to do so in the first place?

“Yes,” you said. Your Pokéball, which was still on your belt, warmed again, and you wondered if your Pokémon could understand what you were saying. Was she curious at the prospect of going on such an adventure? Did she long to battle? Or were you simply reading into things too much? The warmth could mean a million things, or it could mean nothing at all, and you’d be none the wiser. “The police department recommended it.”

“Why would they do that?” your father said.

“They told me it’s the only route I have left for finding Shoei,” you said.

“Y/N, you know—”

“No, I don’t!” you burst out before your mother could finish. She frowned at you, clearly taken aback, and you ducked your head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t agree. This isn’t just some run-of-the-mill training jaunt he’s on, and we all know that. If nobody else will do anything, then what choice do I have? He gave me a Pokémon. It’s about time I use her, anyways.”

This time, the ball grew hot enough to almost scald your skin through the fabric of your pants, and that was how you knew for a fact that it wasn’t a figment of your imagination. She was trying to say something, and you had an inkling that it was related to this half-baked plan of yours.

Your parents exchanged looks. Sometimes you thought that they must be able to communicate with their eyes alone, because neither of them said a word, yet within seconds, they were turning towards you in unison, both a peculiar mix of exasperated and concerned and, if you really read into it, proud.

“If you think it’s best, then we can’t exactly stop you,” your mother said.

“We haven’t been able to stop you since Shoei made you a trainer,” your father added, smiling ruefully. “That reckless cousin of yours. I’m sure he had good intentions with it, but he could’ve at least asked first!”

At this you could only chuckle, because all of you knew as well as each other that Shoei wasn’t really the type to ever ask for permission. Not once in his life had he ever done such a thing, and even imagining him doing so felt like you were going against his character.

“I’ll leave soon,” you said. “Once I settle my affairs with the school. They’ll probably be happy to see me go. I’ve never really fit in with the rest of my classmates.”

It didn’t matter that you were one of the best students there. All that your teachers and peers and principal saw was the Pokéball on your belt, which glowed like a beacon, alerting them all to how you were different. You weren’t like the others. You relied on your trainer’s stipend to pay for your tuition, and your Pokémon was the battling sort instead of a docile companion occasionally employed to defend you from a wilder Pokémon’s aggression.

People placed bets about what kind of Pokémon you must have. They never told you, but you were aware of it anyways. Some of them were kinder, presuming that it was an Espurr like your mother’s, or perhaps a Helioptile, the pre-evolution of your father’s Heliolisk. Those who liked you very much — or very little, if they meant it in a mocking way — claimed it must be one of those more elegant types. Perhaps the rainbow serpent Milotic, or a pale, iridescent-winged Butterfree. Others, who found great pleasure in looking down on you, assured their friends that it was a small, mousy Rattata, purple and fat and nervous, with quivering ears and overgrown teeth.

Even you did not know. Shoei had not bothered to tell you before he had left, and you had not yet released her, so whenever people slyly asked you which battle-partner rested on your hip, you could only shrug and tell them that you weren’t certain. This was almost always met with disdain, for if they had braved asking you, then they had the kind of curiosity which couldn’t be sated with such a noncommittal and vague answer.

When you got to school the next day, you rubbed your Gogoat companion on its soft cheek. It cocked its head at you, obviously confused — it didn’t know that this was the last time it would see you, though when you smiled at it sadly and murmured goodbye, its ears drooped, and you thought that it must understand in its own way.

Instead of going to class, you went directly to the principal’s office. She was a tall woman with a face like a Geodude’s, permanently set in a severe frown that was only exacerbated by the slicked-back knot she kept her thinning hair in, and she had never once said a kind word to you. You didn’t know if she was incapable or if it was just that you did not pay enough money to draw it out of her.

“Miss L/N,” she said when you walked in without knocking. She was hunched over a stack of papers, and she did not look up when you entered. In the corner, her black-and-violet Grumpig looked at you, its beady eyes the same shade as the dark pearls on its head and chest, its pink snout twitching in the same distaste it always showed you. “You should be in class.”

“I’m leaving,” you said. You knew it was abrupt even as you said it, but there was no point in delicacy at this late stage. Your mind was made up, and there was little chance that the woman before you would try to stop you, so what cause did you have for tiptoeing around the matter?

“Leaving?” she said. That piqued her interest enough that she looked up at you, her glasses sliding down her nose. Pushing them back up, she narrowed her eyes. “On a journey, I presume?”

“That’s correct,” you said. She didn’t ask you why, only pressing her lips into a thin line, white around the wrinkled edges from the force of it.

“It’s about time,” she said.

“Yes,” you said.

“We at the school wish you luck. Communications will be sent out regarding the reimbursement of your tuition for the rest of the semester,” she said, rattling it off in a robotic, trained voice that almost put you to sleep.

“Thank you,” you replied, just as mechanically. “If that is all?”

“I would suggest you visit the Pokémart before leaving,” she said.

“I was already planning on it,” you said. “But I appreciate your counsel.”

You turned to the door, your fingers resting on the polished handle as you prepared to open it. Before you could push it down, however, the principal cleared her throat, motioning with her hand for you to stop. Her Grumpig’s ears swiveled in distress, which was odd coming from such a self-assured species, and her own expression was a similar blend of anxious and intrigued.

“Hold on,” she said. “Release your Pokémon first. I wish to see it.”

“New policy?” you said, raising an eyebrow at her. As far as you knew, school officials had no right to demand you release your Pokémon for them, especially given that you were leaving the institution, but it wasn’t like you read the code of conduct regularly or anything like that.

To your surprise, she shook her head. “Personal curiosity.”

The principal’s office wasn’t exactly the place you had dreamed of releasing your partner for the first time, but then again it was just as good as any other location, so why delay? Plus, at least this way the Grumpig was there to corral any unruliness should it manifest — some kinds of Pokémon enjoyed testing their trainers, and though you didn’t think Shoei would have given you one of those sorts on purpose, it remained that the dispositions which agreed with him weren’t always the sort that the general populace found tolerable.

“Alright,” you said. Unclipping the ball from your belt, you pressed the seal once to enlarge it, rolling it in your palm while you waited for the principal to give you some kind of signal. She nodded, and you tossed the Pokéball in the air, triggering the mechanism which would release its contents from stasis and allow her to reform in the real world.

Even before your Pokémon had fully coalesced, the Grumpig was squealing in fright, crashing backwards into the wall, the whites of its eyes showing, its breaths shallow as its chest heaved. You frowned, because there was no reason that it should be so frightened of a relatively low-level Pokémon such as yours, but then an eerie howl stabbed into your eardrums and you understood at once.

Your Pokémon came up to just below your waist, and she had short black fur, pointed ears, and a red muzzle. Bony ridges criss-crossed her back, her ankles, and her forehead, giving her a menacing appearance that was only furthered by the knife-sharp fangs peeking out of her mouth and the growl rumbling in the back of her throat.

“Houndour?” you said. At the sound of her name, she shifted towards you, and immediately her tail began wagging, her mouth opening as she panted happily. A lump formed in your throat the longer you stared at her, and then you crouched, wrapping your arms around her muscular shoulders. She smelled spicy and hot but also sweet, the way pepper jelly or cinnamon tasted, and her nose was cold when she pressed it to your cheek in a fond greeting.

“Your Pokémon is a Houndour?” the principal said. Houndour cocked her head at the principal, one ear still turned towards the Grumpig in the corner, the other pricked forwards at the woman.

“Not just any Houndour,” you said, straightening but still keeping a hand atop Houndour’s head. “Shoei’s Houndour’s sister.”

The principal was wary now, she had been ever since you had released Houndour, and for good reason — the species had an ominous reputation, and most people thought that they and their evolutionary counterpart, Houndoom, were beasts sent to drag humans to hell for any perceived wrongdoings. To make things worse, any sense of comfort that her Grumpig might’ve afforded her was vanished, because it could do nothing against Houndour, who as a dark type was immune to psychic attacks.

“How do you know?” she said.

“I know,” you said. Houndour sighed, the exasperated exhale releasing a wisp of smoke that curled and dissipated into the air above her. “Well, that’ll quell the bets. I guess nobody managed to guess correctly.”

“Nobody would’ve!” the principal burst out, taking out a Pokéball of her own and returning the Grumpig before putting the ball in her desk drawer. “Who in their right mind would give a dark type to a beginning trainer?”

“Not all of them are like that,” you said. “You’d know that if you ever read the material that all of your students are forced to sit through. Of course, no one in their right mind would give someone without any other Pokémon a Sneasel or a Purrloin, but as a general rule, you won’t find a Pokémon more loyal to their trainer than a Houndour. Anyways, this one is special.”

It wasn’t her place to question you further, so whistling for Houndour to follow you, you slipped out of the office and left the school behind for good.

As you walked to the Pokémart, you noticed that people gave you a wide berth, eyeing the Pokémon trotting along at your side with no small amount of suspicion. Houndour paid them no mind, though, and so neither did you, humming to yourself, entirely relieved that Shoei knew you well enough to give you her.

“You’re a first-time trainer?” the cashier at the Pokémart said, peering over the counter at Houndour, who blinked back at him innocently. “Okay…I suppose you’ll need potions and some basic Pokéballs, then. Twenty of each should last you until you can make it to the next town, I’d say, if not further.”

“That sounds good,” you said.

“Do you want to pay for those on account or in cash?” he said.

“What does on account mean?” you said.

“It’s a way for trainers to get necessary supplies even if they’re lacking the immediate funds. Basically, everybody who buys from a Pokémart gets an account created for them, and they can choose to put their purchases on that account and pay them off at a later date,” he said.

“That sounds easily exploitable by someone who doesn’t mean to ever pay back,” you said.

“Balances are due every month, the day after stipends are released. You’ll accrue interest on them after that, and if it’s been too long, your account will be frozen and authorities will be contacted,” he said with a shrug. “It really is meant to help people out, but the choice is yours.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to come back here in a month’s time regardless, so it doesn’t matter,” you said.

“No, no, they can be paid off at any official Pokémart,” he said. “Of course they took that into consideration.”

“I see,” you said. “Then put it all on my account, if that’s alright.”

“Perfectly fine by me,” he said, typing something into his computer, fingers flying over the keyboard.

Your stipend for the month had gone into your tuition, and until you got your reimbursements figured out, you’d rather not waste any more money unless it was an emergency. Besides, if the option was there, you supposed you might as well familiarize yourself with it.

“Is that everything, do you think?” you said.

“Unless you want an item for your Pokémon to hold in battle,” he said.

“An item?” you said. Although you knew so much about Pokémon biology and various scientific theories regarding them, you hardly had a clue about even these most basic concepts of battle. They weren’t considered important for those of you at the school to learn; after all, besides you, no one was even registered to be a trainer, so why would they waste the time?

The cashier snorted. “I guess you really are a first-time trainer.”

“Obviously,” you said. “Why would I lie about that?”

“Pokémon can hold items — according to league rules, it’s a maximum of one, though it’s also fine if you don’t give them any — that’ll aid them in battle. Some trainers will give them berries that’ll negate side effects from various moves, and others will give them stones to hold that’ll boost their stats. It’s up to you, though. Plenty of people don’t give them any items at all. You’ll have to get rid of the one your Houndour already has if you want to use one while battling, though,” he said.

“What do you mean? She doesn’t have any items,” you said. He clicked his tongue, pointing at Houndour’s neck.

“That counts, even if it doesn’t do anything,” he said. You followed the line of his index finger, furrowing your brow when you realized he was referencing the silky red collar tied in a bow at her scruff. There was a stone embedded in it that sparkled at her throat, and even before the cashier could say something, you were shaking your head.

“No, that stays,” you said. “It’s important. Maybe not for battle, but for me.”

“Alright,” the cashier said, clearly unaffected. “It’s your decision. Here are the potions and Pokéballs you asked for.”

He slid the assortment of things across the counter, and you swept them into your bag, which had already been emptied of your books and the rest of your school supplies. Waving at him, you exited the Pokémart, making your way to your house for what would probably be the last time in a while.

“You’re quite a bit bigger than the last time I saw you,” you said to Houndour as you walked, scratching her under the chin idly when you reached the road and had to wait for a car to pass by. “When’d Shoei get around to capturing you, too, huh?”

Your father had taken off of work to wish you farewell, and your mother was at home as she always was, so you did not even have to call out their names when you entered the house. They were waiting in the foyer, Heliolisk and Espurr by their sides, though when Houndour padded in behind you, Espurr hissed, darting to hide behind your mother’s leg.

“A Houndour?” your father said, raising his eyebrows. Houndour barked at him; you couldn’t quite tell what the bark meant, but it was a harsh enough sound that your father winced at it. “What was Shoei thinking?”

“I know her,” you said. “That’s probably it.”

“What do you mean?” your mother said. “Since when?”

“Uh, it’ll probably make you angry,” you said.

“Huh?” your father said. “It’s not like we can do anything about it now.”

“You’ve got us curious,” your mother added.

“It’s kind of a long story,” you admitted. “But as with most things, it begins and ends with Shoei.”

Your cousin lived on the very edge of Coumarine City, on the outskirts right by the winding road to the cliffs and the coast, and so whenever your family visited his, the two of you would sneak off to the beach to play. It was dangerous, because neither of you had Pokémon, but with your youth came this notion of impunity, and since nothing had happened thus far, both of you believed that it would continue in that way until the end of time.

“I’m going to be a trainer one day,” Shoei told you, helping you down from the narrow ledge that you had to leap from to make it to the sand of the shore. You were still too frightened to jump by yourself, and he was patient enough that he did not tease you for it, only taking your hand and letting you clutch his arm for balance.

“Of course,” you said. “I will, too. It’s not uncommon.”

“Not for the stipend,” he said. “I’m going to be a proper trainer, with a full team and everything. You’ll see. I’ll do the league challenge and join the conference once I have all of my badges, and then after that I’ll beat the Elite Four and Mr. Mikage. Then I’ll be Champion. The best trainer in all of Kalos. That’s what I mean.”

“How, though? Neither of your parents have battling Pokémon, so you can’t use their partners to catch your own, and we’re way too far for you to go to the professor’s lab in Lumiose and get one of the official starters from there,” you said.

“I don’t know,” Shoei said. “But I’ll figure it out.”

“Okay,” you said.

“Do you think I can do it?” he said.

“You can do anything,” you said. His chest puffed out a bit at that, and he grinned at you. He hardly ever smiled, so you took it as a treat, beaming back at him.

“That’s right,” he said. “I can do anything.”

“Ooh, look at these!” you said, stopping in your tracks and bending over to dig around in the sand, pulling out two twin stones with a flourish.

It was your favorite hobby, finding shells and pretty things to admire before you tossed them back into the sea, but there was something different about these two. There were clouds in the air, and yet they shone as brightly as if the sun’s rays were concentrated on them, a soft pink shade like dawn, cut through with a streak of black as dark as a shadow. Weathered by the tides, they were slick in your hand, and you dropped them into Shoei’s pocket for safekeeping.

“You want to take those home? Normally you throw shards of sea glass back into the ocean,” Shoei said.

“They’re nicer than normal,” you said. “You can keep them, if you want. Like a present.”

He scoffed. “I’ll probably just throw them away.”

You pouted. “If that’s what you prefer.”

He could only maintain his gruff expression for a moment before softening and ruffling your hair. “I was only joking. I’ll put them on my bookshelf and think of you every time I see them.”

Immediately, you brightened, because back then your mood’s rise and fell was almost entirely dependent on him. He noticed, but he only wrinkled his nose at you, grabbing you by the back of the shirt before you could fall into a tide pool.

“Watch where you’re going,” he said, holding you in place as you craned your neck in wonder. The water was so clear you could see every little plant and shell growing in its depths; at the bottom, there were even a Krabby scuttling about, though when it noticed you, it dashed back to hide amongst the stones, too shy to provoke you even though you had no Pokémon of your own.

“It’s so pretty, Shoei,” you said. “Can we look for more?”

“Sure,” he said. “Our parents won’t be expecting us for a bit, so as long as we don’t go too far and remember the way back home, it shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Yay!” you said, tugging on his sleeve. “Let’s go that way! Or, wait, no. That way!”

He poked you in the side as you tried to make up your mind. “How about both? Just choose one to start with, and then we can head in the other direction afterwards.”

“Good idea,” you said, picking at random and setting off with Shoei in tow.

The two of you spent the rest of the afternoon wandering up and down along the line of pebbly sand where the waves broke, pointing out bits of shells and smaller Pokémon to one another when you saw them. It was dangerous, no doubt about it, but the danger added a certain thrill to the otherwise innocuous activity, and so neither of you minded too much.

Some hours passed — was it two or three? You didn’t know — before you heard a bone-chilling sound, one which wasn’t supposed to be heard around Coumarine City but which was engraved into both of your brains from various horror films regardless.

“Was that a Houndour?” you said, pressing closer to Shoei. “I thought that they were only found around Geosenge Town, though?”

You were suddenly hyper-aware of the sun setting in the distance, as well as the fact that we had somehow managed to travel far enough from your typical spot that it would take you ages to find your way home. The Houndour howled again, and Shoei scowled deeply, the lines of it etched into his forehead.

“Let’s investigate,” he said.

“What? Shouldn’t we be running away from it?” you said, yelping and following as he charged towards the source of the sound.

“Either it’s a trainer’s Pokémon, in which case I want their advice about going on a journey, or it’s somewhere it’s not supposed to be, in which case…” he trailed off, a determined set to his mouth as the two of you ran. “We just need to be quick so we can get home in time.”

It was a few minutes later that you skidded to a stop in front of a small cave with a Houndour sitting in front of it, howling and howling. Now that you were faced with the Pokémon, you realized it was not as large and intimidating as the movies and its reputation made it sound; for some reason, its cry, too, felt more mournful than anything.

When it noticed you and Shoei, it flattened its ears and tucked its tail, rocking back on its haunches and baring its teeth with a warning growl. Shoei held out a hand, averting his eyes and speaking in a soft whisper so unlike his typical rough tone.

“We only want to help you,” he said. “How’d you end up here, anyways?”

The Houndour stared at him for a heart-stopping instant. You were as still as you could be — even if the Pokémon didn’t seem as demonic as it did in the movies, it remained that it was considerably more powerful than a Krabby could ever hope to be, and furthermore had a famously more aggressive temperament than the skittish denizens of the tide pools.

Flames coated the Houndour’s mouth, and you cringed away from it, but Shoei was still, not gazing at it directly but refusing to back down, either. The Houndour took him in before abruptly extinguishing the fire, tilting its head towards the mouth of the cave and then whining at you entreatingly.

“Sounds like he wants us to follow him,” Shoei said, ducking so he could enter the cave. You crept in behind him, narrowing your eyes against the darkness; although you did not complain, the Houndour must’ve sensed your discomfort, because with a rumbling from deep within its stomach, it formed an ember, holding it in its mouth instead of spitting it out so that it could light the path forward.

When you reached the hollowed out main room of the cave, the Houndour stopped, barking and pawing at the stone. Shoei brushed the sand off of the Houndour’s back and then knelt so that he could inspect what the Pokémon had brought you to see: another Houndour, this one lying limply on the cold, stony floor.

“There’s two of them?” you said.

“If I had to guess, they got separated from their pack during that storm we had a few days ago. The rain would’ve washed away all of the scents they found familiar, so their best option was trying to find some kind of shelter,” Shoei said. “That must be how she got hurt.”

The smaller Houndour’s paw was matted and sticky with blood, hence why she could not get up, though she did lift her head a little, wagging her tail at you when she noticed you were there.

“They’ve come so far,” you said. “Why didn’t they stop at Shalour? That’s in between here and Geosenge.”

“With all of those birds hanging around there? They would’ve been Mandibuzz food in a heartbeat, especially the injured one,” he said.

“I see,” you said. Mandibuzz weren’t native to the Kalos region, but the gym leader of Shalour City specialized in flying types, so he was always introducing new species to the area. “What should we do?”

“The wound’s old. If we can clean it off, it’ll heal on its own. She probably has Flash Fire for an ability, so a burn won’t do her any harm, which means the brother can cauterize it without an issue,” he said, scooping the Houndour up without much ceremony. Normally, it’d be impossible, but she was small for her kind, and Shoei had always been stronger than most his age.

The older Houndour lit the way as you emerged onto the beach, where Shoei found a nearby tide pool, using the briny water to rinse the blood from the wound. The female Houndour was trembling, no doubt because the water was an unpleasant feeling for a fire type such as herself, but there was nothing to be done about it besides working quickly, and admirably, she did not make a sound the entire time Shoei was working.

“This is the kind of thing you have to deal with as a trainer,” he said once the paw was cleaned and the pink gash was exposed to the sun. “Of course, a potion would cure this in a minute, but we don’t have any on hand, so it’ll have to wait. Hey, you. Can you use Ember on her injury?”

The older Houndour seemed uncertain, but to your surprise, he did not protest, only creeping forward and nudging his sister in apology before breathing a fire the size of your palm directly onto the wound. Curiously, she did not react beyond glancing at the light it gave off, and Shoei scratched behind her ears.

“Is that the effect of Flash Fire?” you said.

“Yup,” he said, waiting for the flame to die out and then lifting the Houndour in his arms again. “It’s common amongst Houndour.”

“What does it do, exactly?” you said.

“Gives them immunity to fire-based attacks,” he said. “All in all, it makes sense, given that they hunt in tandem. It wouldn’t do for the pack to injure its own members while chasing after prey, yeah? In fact, fire only boosts their special attacks.”

“Special attacks?” you said.

“Ah, it’s a league term for non-physical attacks,” he said. “They needed a way to differentiate it for bettors, since most Pokémon are only good in one area or the other.”

“I get it now,” you said. “So, like, being hit with an Ember would make her own Ember stronger?”

“Exactly,” he said, setting the Houndour down where you had found her and patting you on the head. “Good job. You’ll make a great trainer yourself someday. Maybe almost as good as me.”

“I don’t want to be a trainer,” you said. “I just want to live at home with everyone and go to school and be happy.”

“Is that so?” he said. “Then that’s what you should do.”

Arranging the Houndour into a more comfortable position, he turned to the older one, a serious expression on his face. The Houndour was still, his tail held straight in the air — alert, wary, but not distressed. You knew that much about Pokémon behavior from your early-level classes.

“Is there an easier way to our house from here?” he said to the Houndour. “Take us to it if there is.”

“How would it even know where we live?” you said.

“There’s very few Pokémon with a better sense of smell than the Houndoom line,” he said. “Go on, then, Houndour. Take us home. She’ll be alright for the few minutes you’re gone.”

The older Houndour gave his sister a worried look, but he must’ve felt as though he owed Shoei a debt, for he slunk out of the cave with his nose against the ground, nostrils flared as he tried to pick out a trail. You and Shoei watched for a few minutes before the Houndour suddenly froze, raising one of his front paws and extending his muzzle forward.

“What’s he doing?” you said.

“Pointing,” Shoei said, a tinge of disbelief in his voice. “I knew the Growlithe in the police force are trained to do it, but I didn’t realize that Houndour do it naturally.”

“I bet Houndour would be a great police Pokémon if people weren’t so scared of it,” you said, your sentiments towards the species far more charitable now, as the two of you followed the Houndour up a winding path that you had never even known existed.

Before the sun had even finished setting — which was miraculous, given how close to the horizon it had been when you had set out — the Houndour had led you to Shoei’s backyard. You could hear your parents talking and laughing with one another, contemplating calling you both back for dinner, and you were about to run inside when you realized Shoei was still lingering back.

Pausing in your tracks, though you doubted he noticed that you were listening to his conversation, you tried to quiet your breathing so that you could hear what he was saying to the Houndour, which was as motionless then as it had been when the two of you had first found it.

“Meet me here in a couple of days,” he said. “I’ll get a potion by then and use it on your sister’s paw so she doesn’t have any lasting side effects from the injury.”

The Houndour sneezed at Shoei, which you supposed was his way of assenting. Shoei laughed, which was a rare sound and also a wonderful one; then, out of the corner of your eye, you saw him move to offer the back of his hand to the small Pokémon, who sniffed it cautiously.

“Hey, Houndour. I’m going to be a trainer one day — a Champion, in fact,” he said. “So don’t go home, okay? Even once your sister is better, don’t go home. Find me again, and come with me.”

The Houndour did not make any moves of agreement nor dissent; instead, he just disappeared into the lengthening shadows of the night, leaving you and Shoei behind in the trimmed grass of the lawn, where no wild Pokémon would ever dare to tread.

A few moments later, though, the night was split with a howl, high and sinister and uncanny, and once more Shoei laughed, because that was all the answer that he needed.

[rgbfall]

Ran outta tags so ima just do it as a normal post >:( /lh

This is what I wrote in the tags before, cba to rewrite them out lmao I'm just gonna keep going from here

The last one I said I'm just gonna call the bard Kiwi, bc that's technically their "official" name. Kiwi also uses any pronouns! I will be using they/them to avoid confusion with Miriam/Audrey though

So you go talk to Mask, who asks about how Kiwi's dreams where, and Kiwi can't remember them! Yay! /j Then Mask asks if you're going to see the ghosts, because turns out the local town, Langtree, is being haunted by ghosts. So you decide to go visit and see what's happening. Yada yada, then we have some puzzles to get to town lmao not very interesting. Just before you go into town you meet Miriam! And she is very grumpy and she asks if you know the Overseer's song. When you say no, she's annoyed and won't talk to you anymore, so you move on. You go into town, go into the first person's house and have a lil memory game to sing the ghost away! Must say I loove the music here, like aghhhhr they did so good with the ghosts. So you defeat the ghost with singing, it says something in,,, shapes,,, then floats away and disappears. So you head around town, and sing away all the ghosts, and the mayor tells you the only one left is in Ruby's house. So you go on over, Ruby is refusing to leave the house, and you sing the ghost away. Then Ruby yells at you a lil and everyone tells her to stop being rude, it's cool. Then the mayor straight up says "I guess bards do have some use" rude smh. Anyway she asks you to go see the overseer, the Dream King, because he might know why the ghosts shows up. But first. You need the overseers song. Which only Ruby knows. So you gotta get Ruby to teach you the song (which is fine the town just tells her to do it) and then you go off to the Tree of Slumber. You sing the song, and go to the Spirit World, where you do some more puzzles yay!! Then you get to the Overseer's Castle, meet the Dream Fairy who is an itty bitty lil kitty who tells you that the dream king is taking a nap so can't meet you. And also the king has been napping for a couple of centuries so. You ask the fairy to wake him up, and they say no, plus the bell at the top of the castle is the only way to wake him up. You end up ringing the bell, meet to Dream King who is a giant cat man, sans undertale type character, and he's upset that you woke him up so won't give you his part to the Earthsong. But! He does give you magical understanding of the shape language! So that's cool! So you leave :/ then you go out to town, and the ghosts have shown up outside Ruby's house again. But now!! You understand their shape language!! And turns out they're the recently deceased relatives of people in the town, who heard the world was ending and came to see their loved ones again. So you sing this to the town, they're like "oh, ok" so the ghosts get to chill here, and the Langtree shenanigans are done! As you're leaving, Miriam stops you and finds out you learned to overseers song, so tells you she's trying to stop the world ending, and asks you to come with her to see her grandma. Also she's a witch lmao. So off u go!!

Won't go into full detail about the plot of chp2 and 3, bc BOY this took longer than expected, but you meets Miriams grandma, go into the town Delphi, where the next overseer, the Queen of Winds, is. On the way you meet a troll, who's bf got frozen by magic, but you don't manage to help. You go into town manage to start a band and perform at the local bar, and you get the overseers song from one of the band members. Then miriams a lil annoyed, cuz she spent the whole time looking for it herself and Kiwi was just messing around making a band and helping ppl and doing sidequests n shit. So she's annoyed, Kiwi goes off to meet to overseer and they do! She is a beeg bird lady!! And her fairy is like a grumpy lil teenager I love him also. He's mad at the queen, so he runs off and the queen is actually super nervous and unsure of herself. So she gives you the song, and on the way out you meet to fairy. You tell him he should go back, and he does. Then you get picked up by some pirates (coffee bean salesmen) to take you to the next overseer. Oh also u manage to save the trolls bf! Cuz you're slightly more magic now!!

Chp2 mainly serves as getting to know Miriam and Kiwi and they are like. The opposite character. Kiwi is optimistic, outgoing and loves people! They want to help people, and are a pacifist. Miriam on the other hand is grumpy, pessimistic, hates people and generally wants to blow stuff up with magic a lot. They are both very autistic-coded and I love them very much.

Chp3 in Tantango, very vibrant island! Uhhh I don't remember much of this chapter ngl, its my least favourite, but you meet some mermaids who give you the overseers song. While finding them, you basically do a quest to get a gem thingy, and along the way all the monsters are killed, the chests are looted etc and you don't know why,,, but you head off to meet the overseer, Queen Chaos. You get to see that the overseer is some kind of whale or fish creature, and then she's hit with a lightning sword and fucking dies. Introducing!!! Audrey Redheart! The hero! Turns out, while you've been getting the earthsong pieces, Eya and Eyala picked a "hero" who's going to "save the world" from the "corrupt and evil" overseers who are going to fill the land with monsters. Which. Ok first off very wrong. Second off EYALA is there. The one who told you about the earthsong, who gave you HOPE about saving the world. And after Audrey gloats a bit about being the hero and leaves, Eyala tells you that sure the earthsong is a thing, but it's never worked. No ones ever done it and saved the world. Because it's not really just a song, you need the force of the whole world behind it. Which is really hard, because there's so much chaos everywhere. And she leaves you. Next to the dead overseers crown. With nothing, not even telling you how to now get this piece of the song. Eventually miriam shows up, and literally has to kick Kiwi's ass to get them to even get up. Turns out there's still something around. Enough for you to get the song piece, barely.

The game starts introducing chp4, then cuts itself off for the interlude. This is where I started getting that feeling of holy shit this game is actually really good btw. So the interlude is from Audrey's pov, normal rpg type stuff. You fight your way through a place to get to the boss, with some occasional lil puzzles. Except you're fighting. Through the Queen of Winds' Castle. And the final boss. Is the Queen of Winds. And she's, like, actually like a monster, just a mass of black feathers that senselessly attacks you. So you kill her. Wow, don't you feel terrible.

Now chp4 starts. It's titled "March of the Happy Kid", ouch. It's my favorite chapter. Now, I mentioned earlier I love the color palettes in this game, and I stand by it. One of the main game mechanics is singing, which included a rainbow wheel thing for each of the notes! And the rainbow changes with each chapter to match the color palettes. Chp1 is fairly game palette, chp2 is just pretty, really, with a blue/purple town but with autumnal vibes, and chp3 is all vibrant and nice! Which is great contrast to chp4, where all the colors are now tones of blue except for red. And now the color wheel is all blue. Except for red. OGUGGHRHHHHHRH I LOVE THIS GAME. Now we're in Chismest, Kiwi's childhood hometown, in Kiwi's mothers house. And Kiwi is. Sad. I don't really have the best word to describe this emotion, but Kiwi is upset. They were going to save the world with the earthsong, and now someone chosen by the goddess Eya herself is actively preventing them from saving the world? Anyway introducing!! Kiwi's self-esteem issues! Because what's a happy optimistic character without crippling self-doubt! Throwback to when the mayor of Langtree said "I guess bards actually do have a use"? Remember that? Yeah. Anyway, there's a lot of stuff that happens here, you meet Miriam, and she's reasonably annoyed? Because Kiwi has done nothing for days and they have to SAVE THE WORLD. But she has the overseers song already, it's an old lullaby that Kiwi already knows but they can't sing. They can't sing. It's croaky and hoarse because they've been inside their childhood room for the past 3 days to a week, and the background music sounds like an out of tune music box and AGH I love this overseers song btw. Anyway, ignoring Kiwi's,,, issues, the song doesn't work anyway because there's too much smog in the town, because there's a massive fucking toy factory in town now. So you need to shut down the factory now to get to the overseer. Great. So you have to basically find people to help you take the place down. You eventually do, except you need one more. So you go to Miriam! And ask her to help! Turns out she also has issues! Yay! We live mental health talk here. Anyway, turns out SHES been feeling useless because Kiwi has so effortlessly been getting the overseers song at each town, while making friends and helping people, and Miriams just been here doing NOTHING but standing around, being grumpy, and taking you from place to place.

Fucckkk I wrote more but it didn't save and I cba to write it out again just go play the game the end is so worth it aghhhhrggRGSHRGGGHRGGGRRRRR

I'd love some input from anyone reading this!!

You're in the middle of playing a game, watching a show, reading something, or maybe just finishing it up. You're hit by the realization that you're currently in the middle of something special. Something that ticks all of the boxes for top-tier content that you have. Something that makes you think. Something that makes you feel. Something that you won't ever be able to experience for the first time again. Something that will become a standard you hold everything else to. Something you won't ever forget.

What is that something for you? What do you call that feeling? Gush about it! Give me that wordsalad. Go feral homie, I wanna know!

[infamouswhores]

💿—𝐣𝐣𝐤 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤

includes — gojo, nanami, geto, yuuji, megumi, inumaki

gn!reader, fluff

jjk characters using nicknames on accident but deciding they stick to it.

gojo—

you first heard the nickname drip from his mouth was when you woke up from being treated.

"honey~ you're awake!"

the way it slip past his mouth smooth as silk, was electrifying. the way your cheeks tinted a beautiful shade of pink and how you'd stumble over your words definitely made him realize how much it affected you.

so he stuck with it, and the usage of the nickname just grew even more when you started dating each other. the way his sweet sultry voice would annunciate each letter so smoothly made shivers run down your spine.

nanami—

the blond isn't the type to use nicknames, but when he does, it truly is a sight to hear and see, so when you heard,

"darling, are you ok?

you almost dropped to your knees. it was so sweet and yet so sensual in a way that you couldn't even comprehend. what made it even better was how he would use to so casually after that one occasion.

even when you're dating, you can't help but start melting when you hear the name. i mean, just waking up beside this man hearing "good morning darling." in his groggy and deep voice would make your stomach churn with a raging blush appearing on your cheeks.

geto—

the nickname started as a tease when you couldn't handle killing a curse stronger than you.

"aww, can't handle it? doll."

it disgusted you and yet you couldn't help but flush at his tone. it was so condescending yet... sweet. he could clearly see that you liked it and he smirked. at first when he saw our reaction to the name he though you were a masochist and maybe you are, but maybe you like him too.

so when you started dating, it definitely became your thing. he loved calling you doll in different tones to see how you reacted and you loved every single bit of it.

yuuji—

yuuiji is a very affectionate person so when he uses a nickname on you, it's very sweet and loving. so when he said such a cute nickname, it truly wasn't that surprising.

"love, your cooking is so delicious!"

hearing it felt so fluffy. the way butterflies would swarm your stomach endlessly from the name made you flush a furious red. it was clear that he enjoyed calling you that so you weren't going to try and stop it.

dating him was amazing. if you were to ask every woman on earth who their ideal type was, yuuji's personality would be at the top. he was the perfect partner and seeing as he'd call you love with such affection made you want to keep him forever.

megumi—

the nickname came as a surprise, i mean, he is so closed off. though what baffled you was how cute the name was.

"alright then sunshine, pack it up."

you almost got whiplash from how fast you turned to look at him. your questioning eyes said it all and his only defense was i had to make a nickname for you since you call me hot topic so much.

now that you're dating, the nickname turned more affectionate than as a retort and it made you giggle how much it flustered him calling you sunshine is such a loving way.

inumaki—

dear sweet inumaki couldn't say anything without his technique affecting it so when you heard him say,

"baby, sujiko."

it made you blush. you asked a shit ton of questions because even if you could understand him when speaking using rice ball ingredients, his technique still intrigued you.

dating was a whole 'nother story. he was so much more vocal and surprisingly clingy. he called you baby so much more and just hearing him use the term was so cute that you couldn't help but squeeze him.

ahhh, i don't rlly like thisss but i lowkey cba to edit it. i swear some time in the future i'll probably edit or revise this or maybe even make a whole new one!!

© infamouswhores

please do not copy, repost on any other platforms, heavily edit or modify my work. please credit when inspired !

share with ur friends and reblog if you enjoyed !

[baeshijima]

𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫!𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫!𝐲/𝐧

A/N : i have nothing to say other than the fact there will be an excessive amount of twitch slang bc why tf not + just,,, heavy streamer!albedo brainrot ;-;

masterlist

AIGHT

streamer albedo

…

pog—

so before we get into him being whipped for u, let’s go over the type of strimmer mr Kreideprinz is

fun fact that’s his twitch name—

albedo would be the type to do lots of variety streams of different games, but also the occasional art one if he wants to have a chill stream with his chat !!

speaking of chat… they’re an odd mix of wholesome supporters, KAPPA + POGGERS + catJAM (bc he always has some bangers on in the bg like yes u bless our ears my guy) + KEKW + EZ Clap + his own emotes spammers, mr albedo’s very own shrimps (me, ahEm—), and ppl who just appreciate his voice + gameplay

if there’s a troll he just bans them OMEGALUL

omg he has lots of emotes (which he made in some of his art streams so his viewers could choose some) for every scenario but we’ll get into the popular ones in a bit 👁👁

he’s most definitely one of the bigger, well-known streamers but with a smaller group of friends

his discord server has,,, a lot of ppl,,, 70k+ ppl big,,, rip notifs if ur in it ;-;

he has it muted tho 🐥 like, sir, that’s ur server pay the goddamn price smh

wait i forgot to mention this but he has his webcam on when streaming

so u can bet ur chickens that when ppl come to visit his stream bc of whatever category he has on, they stay for his visuals and voice <33

his twt 🤡 mans gets 1k+ likes, rts, comments within the first 5-10 mins

omg he gets soft when he receives sm support from his community 🥺🥺

gifts so many subs when hitting milestones, chat is wholesome or just whenever really HJKSDHKL 

also doesn’t swear much unless he gets played by his own game and/or someone is being incredibly annoying <//3

he also just,,, eats on stream

albedo straight up takes his webcam with him to show him cooking if his viewers ask for it

or he just orders food then and there and eats while chatting to everyone or watching youtube with his chat 🥺

nOW ONTO HIM BEING WHIPPED FOR U AS A GENSHIN STREAMER

this AR55 man 👩‍🦯

he can literally produce content from anything

from artifact farming, to spiral abyss, to running around mindlessly, to building characters he would normally never build, to him seeing how high up is considered too high to dive

and everyone eats it up bc it’s albedo <3

also !! he’s the type who includes the story quests in his streams so his reaction and thoughts on everything is just,,, there

now when u were first introduced in the prologue (yes ur one of the ogs + involved in the dvalin fight <33) he blanked and all his viewers could see was u on screen with him staring blankly in the bottom right of the screen

this man straight up saw u in a cutscene for one second and fell in love

his chat went wild omfg

he immediately made an emote for u and that’s his most popular one 😌

but i kid u not, the moment u appeared in that cutscene (one in which he will forever treasure in the crevices of his heart) was the moment he asked this exact question ;

“ so (y/n) banner when? ” 

and mihoyo heard his pleas and answered with ur event banner 

except it was like,, 4 months later 

at least ur finally here tho :’)

now he can have his lil science-y moments with ur voicelines ;-;

yes, ur the chief alchemist but ✨ 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 ✨

. . .

shut up

n e who

when he saw the notification from mihoyo’s official forums that u will be a playable character in the new update — along with new characters, region, events & a domain — i shit u not he did a rt, his own tweet, an announcement on the community feature on youtube, and made constant reminders to his viewers on twitch abt how he will be a (y/n) haver no matter what

he even added future (y/n) haver in his twt display name

what a shrimp—

the 1.2 update stream 🐥 he was there waiting for it to go live with like,,, 19k viewers spamming his chat abt predictions and obv ur official release + showcase

and when i say this man fell even more in love while watching ur trailer and character showcase 🥺 he wouldn’t stop smiling or being in awe bc ur just??? so stunning???

mihoyo clearly has a favourite child and it’s u

chat was spamming ur exclusive emote like crazy oml

u can bet it was also flooded with lots of POGs and POGGERS 

overall it was a very fun, chaotic stream filled with lots of (y/n) appreciation and love <33

also a very memorable stream for all his viewers bc of the side of albedo they rarely see unless ur involved

the day ur banner was to go live tho 🐥

the streams leading up to the fateful day consisted of him farming ur mats 

that’s it

boss runs, local specialties, hero wits, talent books, the mats needed for ur weapon he was inevitably going to pull for (only the best for the best, afterall) and many domain runs

many painful domain runs

all of it was worth it tho bc ur worth everything :’)

an actual quote said by him—

at least he can get u and ur weapon to lvl 90 right off the bat with all the artifacts tailored for u ;-;

and get u to that point he did HJSDKJF

once ur banner dropped? immediately started wishing

2 multis in and he gets u 😣

albedo nearly cried and was the literal embodiment of head in hands

wHEN I SAY HIS CHAT BLEW TF UP AND HIS MODS JOINED IN

modCheck has left the chat

everyone’s rooting for him :’)

pulled for ur weapon and got it in 1 multi

sir give me ur luck pls and ty

but yes he nearly choked on the gASP he let out while chat screamed even more

he blanked for a bit, i won’t lie ;-;

but when he realised this was real, he immediately went to his party set up and put u in

can we all get an f in the chat for his lvl 10 tartaglia 😔💔👊

his chat usually rages at him to build him but if he’s being honest, he cba

ur vl when he put u in the party tho <333

now he’s just spent half an hour running around with u, letting u do ur idle animations (will always be grateful for mihoyo creating u like this), reading ur very limited (for now—) character story and going through ur voicelines 

ur morning & about us (when he unlocks it) voiceline >>>>> his heart be running laps rn i swear

eventually he does begin to build u after much admiration on his end and at lvl 1 with lvl 20 artifacts, u already have 1.6k atk 🐥

now after he levels u and ur weapon to lvl 90, u have 2.8k atk 🐥

rip mobs <//3

he now plays u as his main dps 😌

the kit initially designed for u is meant to be more for support?? kinda like the whole ganyu or zhongli debate abt them being a dps or a support/sub dps ;-;

except ur more utility like venti or bennett

and even though the majority said at the beginning (aka, mihoyo, pretty much any other streamer and the larger part of the fanbase) that ur meant for support, he said fuck that and built u as his main dps

and i won’t lie, u do more damage than any of his characters, and ppl who co op with him

ur his pride and joy :’)

he went to take a look at ur consts to see if they were worth the rng suffering and, lo-and-behold,

they were

so now he’s using all his saved primos for u to try and get ur c6 const, along with making ur weapon r5 :’)

his chat gets a free view of him internally suffering when the gold light doesn’t come, and his external suffering when he loses the 50/50

in the end, he decided to whale for u <33

after nearly an hour, he has u to c6 and ur weapon to r5 ;-;

now all he’s been doing the whole stream is running around with u in open world, doing his daily farming, doing more domain and boss runs, exploring the new region (dragonspine) + ur story quest

he’s saving the event quest for another stream bc ✨content✨ 

in ur quest, he had multiple heart attacks and now has many, many screenshots <3

he now has a zoomed in pic of ur face as his twt pfp <33

okay so i also feel like he’s not all that bothered abt getting characters to friendship level 10 immediately and would rather let it happen through time

but obv ur not any other character *proceeds to debby ryan at u*

even if ur not fit for a particular domain or boss, he still puts u in the party so when collecting the blossom/rewards, u can get the friendship exp ;-;

he just wants ur name card so he can show off okay 🥺

when he lets his viewers pick out the playlist, 98% of the songs are from ur character demo theme 

they just know him so well 😩

they also just wanna see the way he smiles when he hears it play but shhhhhh

now he just has his in-game avatar as u, and ur namecard too <33

also his signature is just ;

“ (y/n)’s favourite streamer ”

[theuntamedproject]

"If the face says nothing, listen to the heartbeat" - Lan WangJi, Mo Dao Zu Shi (Weeks 3+4)

https://zhtheuntamedprojec.wixsite.com/theuntamedproject 

... those who have read the novel know the real context of this line in the scene BUT taken out of context and used in a completely different (*cough* our) scenario..."If the face says nothing," translates to "Even if we seem calm on the outside,""listen to the heartbeat." translates to "we're so stressed to the point of ventricular fibrillation." (dunno if that's even a likely story but the overly exaggerated point still stands: we just handed our uni applications in and we're dreading admission tests and awaiting interviews...)

Quick overview

So aside from school work and university prep, TUP has taken up whatever spare moment either one of us has. However since Zara's Physics coursework began (good luck Zara!!) and both of us prepping for our respective admissions tests, we've decided instead of marching onwards with research on architecture and other food science related stuff, to settle on more relaxed Google seshes on MDZS (and totally not using this as an excuse to read the source text again) and beginning to design the buildings on CAD and paper.

So I'm going to introduce to you the barebones framework of what we plan to include in the design: characters, buildings and effects~ apologies in advance for not including the accents/tones in names (I cba tbh ;-; )

Characters

Because all these little dudes are just going to be cut out gingerbread men, we could include as many characters as possible (we did say we're making a universe are we not?). Those in italics are "maybe" characters depending on the dough remaining (or whether we like them to be part of the universe or not...) or how much gingerbread we're willing to eat ourselves (though huge shout out to everyone thats offered to eat our spare and broken gingerbread during materials testing - which I will get to a bit later :3)

Gusu Lan (the pretty sect)

Lan XiChen / Lan Huan (Sect Leader - simped so hard for his sworn brothers that both of them ended up dead)

Lan WangJi / Lan Zhan (repressed gay but we love him still)

Lan Yuan / Lan Sizhui (he's part of the Lan sect now goddamnit)

Lan JingYi (the most unLan Lan yet has the highest chance of being the next sect leader lmaoo)

Lan QiRen

Lan Yi / Lan An

QingHeng-Jun (Twin Jades' father)

Madam Lan (Twin Jades' mother)

Yunmeng Jiang (arguably the only "normal" sect here...)

Jiang Cheng / Jiang Wanyin (Sect Leader also an "angry grape" as put by Zara)

Jiang YanLi (OUR QUEEN)

Jiang FengMian (loved Wei Ying more than Jiang Cheng lol jk xd)

Yu ZiYuan (BAMF)

Wei Ying not included here since technically he defected from the Sect (; - ;)

Qinghe Nie (fans and sabers my bros)

Nie HuaiSang (Sect Leader - yeah, I can't believe it either)

Nie MingJue (noooooooooo)

Honestly, I swear this clan is either "big muscles or big brain?". If you have neither, you can't be part of their clique. I mean sect.

Lanling Jin (rich rich rich rich rich)

Jin Ling / Jin RuLan (Sect Leader - totally not named after Wei Ying's crush/ husband's family)

Jin GuangYao / Meng Yao (*smiles*)

Jin ZiXuan (peacock but JYL's husband nonetheless)

Jin GuangShan (gross)

Jin ZiXun (double gross)

Mo XuanYu (literally did not sign up to any of this. He just wanted to end his suffering at Mo Manor)

We decided against including everyone from Mo Manor since they literally died within the first few chapters of the novel / first episode of the drama so were kinda irrelevant. Also, we don't care about them like we care for the Lan Sect members either.

Off topic side rant, Zara has been on my case whenever I bring up Jin GuangYao. I have to say, he's way more lovable in the drama than in the novel (didn't really leave much of an impression on me in the novel, NHS did a better job at that). I'm here to briefly explain why this boy is misunderstood and deserved more than what he got (and also why you should love him because he deserves love).JGY is a poor soul who's goal in life was to please others because no one was ever satisfied with him. His mother wasn't satisfied. His father wasn't satisfied. Hell, even his sworn brother NMJ wasn't satisfied with him eventually. BUT GUESS WHAT Xichen the angel is the only person that showed any love or thanks to JGY that's why he didn't kill him in the end - he wouldn't kill people that actually cared about him. IF ONLY EVERYONE ACTUALLY PAID ATTENTION TO HOW CLEVER AND CUNNING THIS MAN WAS, THERE MAY NOT EVEN BE WENS THREATENING THE WORLD. end of brief rant.

Qishan Wen (too hot, hot damn)

Wen RuoHan (Sect Leader - could have taken over the world if his children weren't incompetent)

Wen Qing (half the reason why included this sect)

Wen Ning / Wen QiongLin (the other half of the reason)

Wen Yuan (WE NEED THIS BABIE ALONGSIDE SIZHUI OK)

Wen Chao (questionable)

Wen ZhuLiu (also questionable but less annoying than Wen Chao)

Rogue cultivators (including people we didn't really know where to put)

Wei WuXian / Wei Ying (Can work out how to cultivate resentful energy, fight against the biggest cultivation clans in the world and gain a formidable reputation as the Yiling Patriarch yet can't figure out that Lan Zhan has a crush on him. Makes it look like cultivating resentful energy is easy as pie.)

CangSe SanRen (Wei Ying's mother)

Wei ChangZe (Wei Ying's father)

Xiao XingChen (honestly, the nicest guy ever. Could rival Xichen in terms of kindness. But then again... where did that kindness lead either of them? Moral of story: screw kindness)

Song Lan (Wen Ning's dead buddy~)

Xue Yang (he was cool in the novel, a bit questionable in the drama ngl)

A-Qing (didn't report her situation to the police...)

Baoshan Sanren (without knowledge of her existence, Jiang Cheng may have given up on life after he lost his golden core)

Ouyang ZiZhen (I didn't know who he was at all from the novel (ie he left no impression) but since he's technically part of the juniors, we have to include him)

Wang Ling Jiao / Jiao Jiao (just so Wen Chao has a friend perhaps... I don't know if we're that kind)

Su She (ew. just. He's not our favourite. The whole thing could have gone smoother if he didn't exist)

Luo Qingyang / Mian Mian (that one girl that made Wei Ying think Lan Zhan was straight)

Whew! That's all the character's we've considered! We have yet to come up with individual designs for the clothes and what not but at least we know there are going to be straight up cutting them out using the gingerbread man cutters.

Also! let's not forget:

Li'l Apple (didn't sign up for any of this either)

Fairy (gift from JGY to JL, also good doggo)

All the bunnies in Gusu (yes.)

All the fans and sabers in Qinghe (it's part of their aesthetic)

Locations and Buildings

This section's going to be MUCH shorter than the previous one haha since we've basically come up with 5 main buildings and in 7 locations. We're planning these buildings to be architectural masterpieces (okay, that's a slight exaggeration but that's the point). These buildings will take SIGNIFICANTLY more time than the gingerbread characters and is the reason we've put so much effort into researching what would make the most stable type of building. This is because we've planned to mirror the buildings as close as possible to the drama. We haven't yet drawn 2D sketches as I've left that job mostly to Zara (sorry!) so it's sort of hard to describe in words but by next post, we hope to have these down~ (though please see the mood boards from Zara's post previously)~

Gusu Lan - Cloud Recesses

The Wall of Discipline

The Courtyard

The Orchid Room (the main classroom/hall)

Yunmeng Jiang - Lotus Pier

The Main Pier

Lotus Pod Lake

Qinghe Nie - The Unclean Realm

The Main Courtyard and stairs

Lanling Jin - Koi Tower

Koi Tower

Qishan Wen - Nightless City

Main building and stairs

Yiling - Burial Grounds

The Mountains (and farms/Wen settlements)

Demon-Slaughtering Cave

And of course, Yi City.

We don't know if we want to include any more places but we'll let you know if there are any changes to this list. Plus the effects of LEDs and other arts and craft jazz besides gingerbread, we plan to make sure each Sect get's their own spotlight~

Please enjoy our baby Cloud Recesses, they're going to grow up and be a fine specimen of society worthy of the Lan name :D

The plan going forward

Although unfortunately, things haven't gone totally to plan due to fairly busy circumstances, we still have some major events along the way before starting to build the whole thing (which would probably be around mid-to-end of December) which have indeed started preparing for. Including:

Material testing gingerbread and icing (ie finally, bringing our research to the real world) - a lot of gingerbread will be made, so thank you to the willing volunteers who wanted to eat our failed experiments!

Finding / creating a suitable recipe for the gingerbread people

2D and 3D sketches of the buildings

Designing costumes for the gingerbread people

Another thing that we kinda want to do is to make this project benefit the wider community (we wanted to set up a GoFundMe at some point and raise some money for charity~). But we don't know how to do that as of yet T-T . Any ideas, feel free to contact us and let us know! We want to help others through this project (if at all possible haha)!

[gcnnerpaxton]

THE CHARACTER STATISTICS

FULL NAME — gunner brick paxton

NICKNAME — little paxton/lp by a few ppl tho he hates it KLSHDGLKHSDLGS bt thts pretty much it.............

D.O.B. — july 31st, 1998

LINK TO THEIR PINTEREST BOARD OR TAG ON YOUR BLOG — board | tag

STAR SIGN / MOON & RISING — leo sun, scorpio moon, gemini rising

MBTI — istj - the logistician

MORAL ALIGNMENT — lawful neutral

MARITAL STATUS & SEXUALITY — single & demisexual

LANGUAGES — english

TALENTS / HOBBIES — film making, piano, guitar, producing music (kinda he tries to make his own music fr the films he does bt is never rly satisfied w it bt they’re not actually Bad), unicycling (very proud he taught himself how to during the summer), magic tricks (loser), etc. jst a very long list of rly random hobbies

TOP 5 MUSICIANS — ac/dc, hozier, janis joplin, guns & roses, new order, heart, the cure..... i kno this is more than 5 bt i hv a hard time narrowing down his fav artists >_>

FAVOURITE BOOK — kane and abel

FAVOURITE FILM & TV SHOW — likes a lot of modern psychological horror...... get out, hereditary, the lighthouse, etc. / watches more youtube play throughs than tv shows but it’s always sunny in philadelphia is his fav show hes rewatched it sm when he goes thru a Depressive Slump

FAVOURITE VIDEO GAME — red dead redemption

WHAT DID THEY DO THIS PAST SUMMER? — they went to nyc to do a film internship!!!

WHERE HAVE THEY TRAVELLED? — uh........ new york, connecticut, wyoming....... pretty much those places only in the states n thts it

DO THEY TAKE ANY PRESCRIPTIONS? — lexapro and zoloft for depression/anxiety, halcion to help with sleep, oxy’s for when his brittle broken body/brain starts acting up due to a fkin bajillion accidents as a kid............ jst a walking pharmacy rly he has so many meds at all times SHDGLKSDHGHLSKDG (i am not a doctor i tried to google if these can all b taken at the same time bt its jst wht . i imagine he’d have bt i kno nothing about anything)

DO THEY HAVE ANY DIAGNOSIS’S? — anxiety, major depressive disorder, underlying trauma n ptsd from events growing up....... looks away dramatically

FICTIONAL CHARACTER THEY ARE MOST LIKE? — ben wyatt (parks and rec), creed (the office), connell (normal people), pope (outer banks), charlie (perks of being a wallflower)

ARE THEY EMPLOYED? WHERE DO THEY WORK? — yes they work at the library on campus

WERE THEY POPULAR IN HIGH SCHOOL? — this man had maybe one good friend in high school

DO THEY DO DRUGS? — yes more so now than ever rly

DRINK? — yes

SMOKE CIGARETTES? — he ‘quit’ bt still does a lot when hes drinking at parties n stuff

SMOKE WEED? — yes

WHERE WERE THEY BORN? WHERE DID THEY GROW UP? — born and raised in laramie, wyoming before coming to radcliffe

DO THEY PLAN TO GO TO GRAD SCHOOL? — yes

WHAT ARE THEIR PLANS POST-GRADUATION? — he wants to move to nyc and just make as many films as he possibly can, kinda wants to be a screenwriter and a director but he leans more towards the writing aspect

PARENTS NAMES — john and jessica i think......... just something basic.

DO THEY HAVE SIBLINGS? NAMES & AGES? — elias (26), wyatt (12 when he went missing/presumed dead)

DO THEY HAVE PETS? TYPES & NAMES? — ya he has a tabby cat named bucket that he loves a lot :’) philly gave her to him from off the streets basically fr his bday so when she had a litter he gave philly one of the kittens n she named it pail its all very adorable. 

ARE THEY RELIGIOUS? WHAT IS THEIR RELIGION IF SO? — grew up pretty catholic cuz their parents were heavily involved in the community but doesn’t rly believe in all that/doesn’t practice at the very least

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE THEY SLEPT WITH? — like 11.......... 12 ig

WHAT VEHICLE DO THEY DRIVE? IF THEY DON’T DRIVE, HOW DO THEY TRAVEL AROUND TOWN? — he does not hv a license........... elias n most friends r pretty good abt giving him rides but usually he jst walks/takes the bus if need be

DESCRIBE THEIR FASHION — eugh. just......... the worst. has no taste at all............ 90% of his pants r way too big for him cuz they’re jst hand me downs or thrift store finds, too lazy to check if they were his right size, uses shoelaces as a belt to keep them up, ratty sneakers that he’s shoved tissues into to make them fit, lots of 80′s styled wind breakers, mostly thrift store stuff that is either rly funny or jst a bit sad to look at, has been known to wear two different shoes at the same time if he cba looking fr both, has some nice knit sweaters w fun designs bt thts abt it

DO THEY PREFER TO BE BEHIND THE CAMERA OR IN FRONT OF IT? — behind

DO THEY BELIEVE ANY OF THE STORIES ABOUT RADCLIFFE? WHICH ONES? — ya a bit......... hes pretty into ghost stories like tht

DO THEY THINK THE MOTHMAN IS HOT? — yes absolutely.

A QUOTE THAT DESCRIBES THEM —  “I felt like crying but nothing came out. It was just a sort of sad sickness, sick sad, when you can’t feel any worse. I think you know it. I think everybody knows it now and then. But I think I have known it pretty often, too often.”

A SONG THAT THEY WOULD RELATE TO — one foot in the grave - andie

[chillyravenart]

You obviously love rhaegar and you seem to like elia too. so my question is how do you reconcile the way rhaegar treated elia (eg publicly snubbing her by naming lyanna the queen of love and beauty, abandoning elia and the children) with your positive view of both elia and rhaegar?

I do indeed! They're both such tragic figures for me. Don't get me wrong, Elia will always have a special place in my heart and even though I romanticise Rhaegar and Lyanna an awful lot, I'm certain that Elia and Rhaegar shared a bond of mutual understanding and I'm pretty sure she was privy to a lot of his thoughts regarding the future of his house. So it's fairly straightforward and easy for me, please bear in mind that this is my own personal opinion on the matter and if anyone holds a different opinion they are free to do so.

Firstly, it's fictional and they're not real so it's honestly not that deep for me because I don't really take it too personally. I separate fiction from reality and it's all plain sailing tbh. Secondly, I recognise the importance of the narrative; Rhaegar naming Lyanna QoLaB was integral to the entire storyline. Thirdly, we simply don't know how Elia felt about the whole issue - and a lot of fans seem to project their own outrage and ascribe it to her. We don't get any personal insight into her emotions bar second-hand accounts and I really hope George can clear that up for us in the future books.

I'm going to take a tiny detour here, please bear with me.

Rhaegar's whole life had been a riddle of prophecies and trios, "a dragon must have three heads" & he was determined to ensure the survival of his house as well as that of Westeros. Several members of House Targaryen have been obsessed with prophecy/afflicted with prophetic dreams and all of them seem to point to the salvation of the world. The main figureheads of this mission were of course, Aegon the Conqueror and his sister-wives. And so Rhaegar found the Visenya to his Aegon at Harrenhal.

Another point I want to bring up is that polygamy is not an alien concept in Dorne or for House Targaryen. I know some people have a huge issue with that but I don't. Up until Aegon's conception, Rhaegar believed himself to be TPTWP and maybe he intended to recreate his own Rhaenys and Visenya. Maybe the Tourney at Harrenhal was Rhaegar's plan to a) hold a secret council to declare his intention to depose Aerys and b) to declare to all the high lords and ladies that he planned to take another wife. What better occasion? But thanks to Varys snitching on him, that plan went to shit so I'm guessing he had to improvise lmao.

Also, Dorne continued to support House Targaryen even after Elia's death. It doesn't seem like they had any animosity towards Rhaegar's decision; and Doran's secrets run deep, I wouldn't be surprised if him and Rhaegar had been in correspondence too. There had to have been an arrangement in place because despite what Rhaegar did, Dorne didn't rise up in rebellion. They remained loyal until the end. Lewyn Martell and the Dornish host fought beside Rhaegar at the Trident.

My own take on it is we don't know the whole story, we don't know if Rhaegar told Elia or not of his intentions. I personally think he did, as I don't think it was in his nature to be rude or callous. Call me biased or whatever, I genuinely don't lose any sleep over what happens in a book series. I just really enjoy discussing and debating various aspects of the series and I have plenty of theories of my own. If the romantic in me wants to see it a certain way, then so be it.

Also this whole "abandoning his children" rubs me up wrong too, he had big plans for his children. They were born and raised on Dragonstone, away from the royal court and their mad grandfather. The timeline is hazy as to when they left Dragonstone (probably after Robert's Rebellion began because it would have been safer for them to be in KL as Dragonstone could be attacked by sea) but they were at the Red Keep when Rhaegar rode off to war and they were literally in the best protected castle in Westeros. It only fell because Tywin switched sides. Rhaegar planned to win the war and depose his father, he told Jaime that before he left. Rhaenys hid under his bed because she must have ascribed some degree of love and protection to him. Also, he wasn't going to take his wife and children on all his campaigns, it wouldn't be practical.

And finally, Rhaegar, Elia, the children, Aerys, Rhaella and everyone in between were plot devices to carry our current story forward and to give it the emotional depth and backstory required to build the current storylines of several characters. The tragedy of their deaths was the main driving force behind Dorne's vengeance and Oberyn's arc - it was essential to the story.

Simply put, George wrote it that way and I'm not going to put any character on trial for their actions just because they're not real and it's not that deep. The details are hazy and secondary at best and a lot of this is conjecture lol but I cba to make it a big issue. All I can say is, Rhaegar, despite the chaos that ensued, sought to save Westeros and died in trying to do so.

Again, agree or disagree that's absolutely fine. I am now going to try and force another slice of pizza down my gob, all this typing has made me peckish.

[fmdluna]

[bobby caldwell vc] i bet you’ve wondered where i’ve been!! hi my kings, queens, and in-betweens!! i’m so super excited to be here and present to you my kid, miss moon micha, who is also known as luna of wish!! if you don’t know me, my name is jada, and this is my second go at bringing this mess of a muse to the famed-verse!! i’m back with tons of refreshed inspiration, happiness, and love to give to you all!! so i’m super excited to establish some new connections as well as revive new ones!! i’ve missed this roleplay dearly and am happy to be back, so if you’d like to plot with me please like this and i’d be more than happy to start something up with our characters!! i’ve got discord if youd like it, but ngl i’m the worst at getting back to you. and here’s her plots, profiles, and bio if you’d like!! you know how all that goes, trivia under the cut as well!!

as a preface this whole thing will be v casual because i cba

seoul born & bred, an only child, established in 1998!!

so basically her mother comes from a pretty small town but her father’s from seoul so she started getting that coin!! 

anyways she was raised real uppity, fancy house private schools & all that. but she also lived kind of like a mixed family because her dad was borderline obsessed with western culture so he was always like speak english!! eat american food!! listen to american music!! and she would always be taken on trips to paris france usa and shit but she really didn’t care she just wanted to be at home tbh

her mom is the opposite, always urging her to know her culture & cooking her homemade food and belting all her ballads w/micha. it was a lot less forceful which is part of the reason she prefers her mom and also why she doesn’t have that much of an urge to learn english or travel to other countries & all that

anyways life went on as normal until around middle school where she discovered kpop!! this was made canon last time but i wanted to revisit it!! it sounds stupid but was v influential because it a.) made her a knight stan lol and it b.) showed her the potential of becoming an idol as a career c.) opened her up to the kpop genre!! 

you may think i’m joking but the only music she was ever exposed to was her parent’s taste so it definitely was a change for her

anyways that phase was just spent being a real cringy stan but anyways proceed

 things seem to be okay until money seems to be the only topic of her parent’s conversations - how they’ll get it, how much was lost, all that. her dad’s not making as much as he once was but is still spending like he is, her mom thinks they should downgrade in favor of affordability. the result?? messy messy divorce micha is put in the middle of. 

[tw in brackets: substance abuse & verbal abuse!! i’ll make this quick just in case people are uncomfy with strong mentions of these things!! but basically within the stress her dad found himself caught up in drugs and alcohol and it was just a mess. while he was still his normal charismatic self to others, behind closed doors he got really harsh and used really degrading speech towards them over the span of like....a year.] triggering content ends here!

so - how does this relate to micha?? this is a big reason she’s so “justice for all!! women deserve rights!! we’re powerful!!” because she saw & endured all the shit that her dad put them through and also saw how they got out of it. so now she really feels like being strong and powerful is the only way to compensate for those years that she felt weak.

but!! sad times over. anyways, after dealing with all that her mom and her decided that they’d had enough and moved to their own apartment and her mother filed for divorce. there life was a lot simpler but it was happier, because her father wasn’t in the picture. this is also why micha prefers the simplistic life and hates people who are materialistic now!!

anyways - wrapping this up because it’s 10 and i really need to post my intro lmao.

discovered her love for music!! her and her mom used to sing all the time and she loved it and was like huh maybe i should actually do this music stuff

then!! she joined dimensions for a year as a trainee, hated it, and left. thought she was done with being an idol, then got scouted by bc!! was super super excited, joined & then was a trainee for three years until her debut!!

that whole time she was mad because she felt like she was just being bounced around although she was working hard. a big big reason she’s unsatisfied with being in wish is because she thinks it wasn’t really fitting for her and they just kind of plopped her in there because they didn’t know where else to put her

but now we’re here!! she’s....very Extra. deems herself (and kind of is tbh) one of the least favorite members of wish, more in terms of the company than anything. because she’s very outspoken and speaks against issues when she sees them!!

the reason she’s like this is that she had behaved for all of training & like 2 years into wish’s career but when she realized that wasn’t getting her anywhere and her other member’s started getting opportunities and she didn’t she started acting out (because throwing tantrums makes things better!!)

she just wants a solo and it’s not happening rip

but the thing is she’s such an angel on stage and makes the money she’s supposed to for them so i mean she’s walking on thin ice but she’s not doing enough to get herself fired you know what i mean

as for her around wish, she’s a bit of a grandma?? always telling wish to hush & sit down somewhere, but also can’t be bothered to actually be their mom and take care of them lmao.

as for her public image, she’s known to be a cutesy-badass type?? because she’s real cute visually but like when her little rap parts get on the powerful woman pops out

which is fine,,, but being cute is exhausting and she’s tired and wants girl crush!!

also loves all women everywhere that’s very important

uHhh i don’t know what else to say i’ll add more later but!! she does like doing asmr videos and watching them so if you want muses to share recs!! she’s your girl!!

idk what i’m doing or what else to say but yes i’ll rant all about her in ims if you want she’s a mess ok

[ayzrules]

A tag meme to combat the dreariness of winter! Answer the questions and tag ten people (if you want).

s/o to @elissastillstands for tag!

What artists are you listening to right now?

uhhhhhhhhh WELL i have made a very lit playlist called “Middle School Throwbacks” so catch ya girl jamming out to 2008 kesha, party in the USA, taylor swift, katy perry, bruno mars, demi lovato, selena gomez, and lady gaga. to name a few

real talk though, VERITE, lana del rey, zella day are always some of my top-listened to artists. also sidenote but like I’m not intl kpop at all? but solo by jennie from blackpink is actually fun to listen to? anyway

Favorite comfort book, movie, etc?

book = animorphs, hands-fucking-down. brb while I cry about literally everything in those books for the 12th time this week TBH

movie = idk if this counts but amazing grace is something I tend to re-watch every year around christmas time??? not sure why

show = trashy stuff like phineas and ferb because I’m a kid. Haikyuu, just for the jokes (listen IDGAF about shipping 14 y/o boys with each other k) and recently hunter x hunter (am pretty sure it’s only because I think two of the main-ish antagonists are kind of hot but o well. the show is cool. even if i CBA to remember how the magical karate works. STG the protags are 12 y/o’s and it’s like...........why arent u in school............cant call urself an adult till u can file ur own taxes smh and we all know gon can’t do that shit he literally collapsed b/c knuckle’s economics lesson was too hard for him.............)

Favorite activity in whatever the winter weather is in your climate?

fuckin NOT GOING OUTSIDE because it’s TOO DAMN COLD, thanks for coming to my TED talk

Favorite cheesy self-care activity?

literally just sleeping in until 3 PM. though i do that with a disturbingly high frequency sooooooo

Winter headcanon for your favorite ship(s) or character(s)?

well my favorite ship right now is probably aldrea x dak hamee and do they have winter on the hork-bajir world? probs not

OH OH OH BUT BIFFY AND LYALL. AHHHH UH I DON’T KNOW

Current WIP (any fanwork type) you’re most excited about?

nah son ya girl is busy dying because academic essays are 10x harder in spanish, chinese prof is a literal 6 year old, and religious studies class I HAVE to take is a bunch of dumb philosophical bullshit. but it’s aight :^)

(wrote a story based on a long-standing RP during nanowrimo, if that counts. I’m quite fond of my sarcastic i-dont-give-a-shit gossip columnist gal but there are a lot of plot holes so i need to fix them. tbh it would be a lot easier to fix that entire story if certain seemingly important/relevant plot events weren’t linked to jokes that MUST be made during the epilogue. fight me)

tagging @morningstar1399 @melanin-monster @kzombi3 @vampirkaninchen @interluxetumbra @epiphanycentral etc etc etc. do it if u wanttttt

[aliens-and-plumbobs]

50 QUESTIONS FOR YOUR SIM

I thought it’d be cool to share the list of questions I work from when I’m developing characters for my screenplays irl. I adapted the questions for sims and I hope someone finds them useful. also u can tag ur friends to do this if u want but I cba.

SIM OC QUESTIONS (50) by: cassgoths

sim’s name: Nora Penelope Martons

how old is your sim? Young adult but I’d say she’s around 38.

when is your sim’s birthday? She was born in the fall.

what is your sim’s zodiac sign? I imagine she’d be a Virgo.

what is your sim’s ethnicity? Her grandfather was half black and half white, Her grandmother was a super light-skinned red-headed girl, So she’s about 10% Black and the rest is a mix of whatever her other grandparents were lol.

does your sim have any nicknames? Her mom called her Nory when she was little.

do they have a job? if so what is it? Scientist of course, specifically Pioneer of New Technologies. She dreams of becoming the Extraterrestrial Explorer. She’s getting close lol

where does your sim live? Willow Creek! Her mom used to live in Brindleton Bay when she was younger but she wanted a place completely new. The family has just loved it and never had a desire to move.

who does your sim live with? Her mother, Destiney Martons and Gen 1 Heir. Her husband, Devon Martons Her eldest child, Diana Martons, named after her grandmother. Her twin boys Dekker and Deion And the youngest Dorian. And of course we can’t forget their adorable French Bulldog Bean. ♥

what environment did your sims grow up in? (i.e strict, loving, cold etc.) She grew up in a very loving environment. Her parents were a little more traditional but they tried to let their kids thrive as much as possible.

what are your sim’s favourite foods? Veggies, fruit, and TOFU. She is strictly vegetarian and won’t let you forget it. For moral reasons of course, but she can not forget what she learned about meat from science class.

what is your sim’s favourite drink? She’s not a huge drinker but give her a Juice on the Rocks and she’ll be happy.

if they have one what is your sim’s favourite colour? Lighter blue and yellow, ALWAYS. You can’t escape them.

does your sim believe in any cliches? (i.e love at first sight) No, she’s very much a woman of science. She’d love to believe in those things but she just has too much of a logical brain. She does love her husband and family very much.

what is your sim’s sexuality? She is straight, although she had a small crush on her best friend Scarlet that lasted like 3 minutes when they were teens. Scarlet’s very charming though haha.

what is your sim’s gender identity? She identifies as a cis woman. But she’s supportive of all people. She actually helped her sister Sebrina come out to their mom that she was transgender. She has always been this way. ♥

is your sim type a or type b? Definitely A, shes ALWAYS working (and she loves it)

is your sim introverted or extroverted? Shes more of an Ambivert. She likes being social but she definitely enjoys her alone time too.

is your sim neurotypical or neurodivergent? Neurotypical

is your sim a pet person? if so what is their favourite animal? She definitely is a pet person, just more of a single pet person than multiple like her mom. She also likes fish, bugs, and frogs but those are mostly for science lol

does your sim have a best friend? Yes her name is Scarlet Goth, daughter of Cassandra Goth (who happens to be her mom’s best friend)

what is (/was) your sim’s favourite school subject? Obviously science. Couldn’t keep her away if they wanted to

is/was your sim a high, mid or low achiever in school? High achiever, 1000% She had the best grades throughout all of her school days.

are they planning to go or have they already been to college? if so, what would be or what was their major? They haven’t been to college but if there was any near them she totally would have. Being the heir of a legacy has certain restrictions and responsibilities she couldn’t keep from.

what are your sims political beliefs? (if they have them) She’d definitely be a libral. Equality is very important to her.

what is one thing your sims wants to do before they die? Visit an alien planet. She has been abducted 3 times now and only has very vague memories of each time but one day she wants to go to their planet.

does your sim have a favourite tv show (cable) and/or movie? She’s not much of a TV viewer actually. She’d rather collect things.

is your sim a netflix viewer? if so what are their top 3 shows. IF she was she’d be watching documentaries or shows like Ancient Aliens or something like that. Haha

does your sim like books? if so what’s their favourite one? Sciene Science Science. She also read a lot of her grandmother’s books.

does your sim enjoy video games, if so what is their favourite one and do they play on pc or console? YES she has been obsessed with video games since she could play them. But honestly she plays them all.

what is your sim’s personal style? Mom???

does your sim have a lucky charm? She carries crystals in her pockets because she believes in their mystical properties. (And that they are absolutely backed up by science not magic) lol

is your sim religious? She believe’s there’s a Watcher of some sort. If Aliens can exist, why can’t that? But I wouldnt call her religious.

what kind of music does your sim listen to and who is their favourite artist? She sort of listens to anything, no preferences really. Shes usually too busy working to care.

is your sim a festive person? if so what’s their favourite holiday? Spooky day is her favorite but she feels a bit of responsibility to make sure her home is always open to partying with the whole family on holidays.

what is your sim’s favourite type of weather? RAIN

does your sim prefer to start fights or finish them? She prefers to avoid them completely, or stop them if its her kids fighting lol

does your sim have a dream job? Extraterrestrial Explorer, as stated before. :D

does your sim have any siblings? She’s the oldest Then Sebrina was born Then Harlow And finally the youngest and only brother, Vander.

does your sim get along with their family? She’s had it rough with Diana being rebellious but mostly yes.

what is your sims favourite hobby? Collecting everything Bugs, Rocks, Fossils, Elements, MySims, Crystals, Snow globes. You name it, she has it

what does your sim look for in a romantic partner? Someone who doesnt mind she’s a workaholic, and also someone who was willing to wait for her to get married because she didnt want to right away.

what is a secret about your sim? She wants one more baby, but she doesnt know if she should have one so late in life.

what is a wish your sim has? She wants another daughter

what is a flaw your sim has? I personally think shes too hard on Diana, she has high expectations and focuses on that instead of letting her be a kid while she still can.

how do others generally perceive your sim? They would never think of her as a family person judging by her line of work but she really is.

Does your sim have a greatest achievement? If so what is it? Being abducted by aliens probably.

If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret? Not getting her dad to Selvadorada before he passed away. She really wanted him to see it one last time.

does your sim have a favourite emoji? 👾🤓

does your sim use simstagram? if so what’s their @? @Martons_Legacy Her mom used to run it but she’s taking over. (Soon)

what is the last text your sim sent (and who did they text)?

[eloquentmydear]

85 questions tag game

rules: answer these 85 questions about yourself and then tag 20 people

@ginnywease tagged me, cba

last?

drink: lime squash

phone call: with my therapy group’s secretary

text message: my mum

song you listened to: I literally don’t have a clue mate

time you cried: a few days ago

ever?

dated someone twice: not really

kissed someone and regretted it: it’s a bit more complicated than that

been cheated on: not as far as I know

lost someone special: yes

gotten drunk and thrown up: never, I’ve never had alcohol

fave colors?

purple

blue

red

in the last year have you?

made new friends: yeah, quite a few

fallen out of love: several times

laughed until you cried: yes

found out someone was talking about you: lots of times

met someone who changed you: yes

found out who your friends are: not particularly

kissed someone on your facebook friends list: not anymore

general

how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: all but a couple

do you have any pets: yes, Blu the budgie

do you want to change your name: legally, yes

what did you do for your last birthday: stayed in because my mum was ill (but we went to a local castle for the day that weekend)

what time did you wake up today: 9am but then I went back to sleep until 3pm lol

what were you doing last night at midnight: playing Sims 4

what is something you can’t wait for: to hear how some producers have cast me after an audition

what are you listening to right now: nothing

have you ever talked to a person named tom: yeah, they’ve nearly all been queer lol

something that gets on your nerves: my therapist lol

most visited website: youtube

hair colour: brown

long or short hair: long

what do you like about yourself: my protectiveness

want any piercings: nope

blood type: no idea

nicknames: splodge (by my mum), rainbow (by my mum’s friend), Col (by Anna, and some other stuff >.>), fag (by various people lmao).

relationship status: in a relationship

zodiac sign: cancer

pronouns: they/them

fave tv show: yonderland, you me and the apocalypse, the sarah jane adventures

tattoos: none

right or left handed: right

ever had surgery: no

piercings: none

sports: I enjoy watching Wimbledon but I hate everything else, all I enjoy doing is badminton, swimming and cycling

vacation: I’ve never been abroad on holiday, my favourite UK holiday destination is Scarborough but I went to Pembrokeshire last week

trainers: I don’t wear them

eating: disorder :))))))

drinking: water or lime squash

i’m about to watch: idk maybe yonderland with Anna or one of my gay films

waiting for: my callback audition

want: to recover from my anorexia

get married: yeah maybe many years in the future

career: acting hopefully

hugs or kisses: hugs

lips or eyes: eyes

shorter or taller: I wish I was taller, but I like my partner to be taller than me (which isn’t hard)

older or younger: in a partner, older

nice arms or stomach: stomach, by which I mean a soft stomach

hookup or relationship: relationship

troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant unless I’m mad, in which case shit will go down

have you ever?

kissed a stranger: no

drank hard liquor: no

lost glasses: no, I don’t wear them

turned someone down: yep

sex on the first date: no

broken someone’s heart: I don’t think so

had your heart broken: yes

been arrested: never

cried when someone died: yes, plenty

fallen for a friend: many

do you believe in?

yourself: not very often

miracles: not at all

love at first sight: nope, definitely not outside of fiction

kiss on the first date: maybe on the cheek

angels: also not at all

other?

best friend’s name: Gabe, Andi

eye colour: turquoize

fave movie: Pride

favourite actor: nobody, really ??

favourite food: vegan cheese melted on pasta

extrovert or introvert: very introverted

favourite flower: idk I have almost no opinion on flowers, white lilies, orchids and red roses I guess

favourite hello kitty characters: what is this question, is it the noughties again, all I know is the main one and daniel, idfk do they even have personalities

[shayochism-moved]

// Updated my OOC section about myself. Will put it under a cut in case you want to read it and cba clicking my page. I know I’m too lazy at times. I added my RP experience (not bragging, just to explain I’m not new etc), added a small yet heartbreaking story about my Gold game, which also explains my time in the fandom (BOI IT SUCKS LMAO not serious though), and added that yes, I am nervous as hell.

Nothing much to say. Name’s Shay, just like the muse [my gender? IDK yet. Any pronouns are fine I guess?]. You can also call me Brodie as he is another identity I take (Magma’s Brodie/Bannai, that is). Born June 1990 [28]. From England so GMT time. Compared to Shay muse I’m actually a nice, very open and welcoming person and welcome all interaction IC and OOC. Feel free to message me random things, too. I don’t bite.

Been role playing online since 2006 so yea, I know the basics at least. Not saying I’m perfect, but it gives an indication to my knowledge on how to act in role play itself. Whereas I did pass my English GCSE [just], I still suck sometimes with my own language lmao so I have to read what I type like a hundred times, so replies may be slow. Otherwise, if i’m online, I try to respond instantly. I sometimes struggle with reading [ability to concentrate and then absorb information] so this can affect the time in which I reply to things.

I have to add that I can be anxious and nervous around new people. If you break the ice and message me I will be perfectly fine and happy and more than welcome it! But after years of online hatred from another RP community it has made me very nervous to try and interact with strangers in fear of judgement and being hated. I am working on this at current. [Note: I have done nothing wrong anywhere but was harassed for being new to role play and being bad at it. That being said I am always striving for improvement so if you have any concerns or beneficial ideas, throw them my way]. Stating this, I am not elitist and never will be. I see role play as a fun thing for everybody.

A Pokemon fan since 1998, I got into the fandom via the Anime and soon bought Pokemon Red after that [ty mum], which consumed the upcoming years, along with Pokemon Gold and then Ruby. At age sixteen, my partner at the time saved over my Gold game, which was where I had my original starter at level 100, Mew, Celebi, the legendary dogs and a whole epic team, plus over two-hundred hours clocked, so I went off the fandom up until 2012, where I then got back into it and made Shay soon after. This also meant a couple of years catching up and I still don’t remember some Pokemon’s names due to my bad memory [I had to start from Pearl/Diamond and work from there]. I’m a huge fan of the bad guys and have several favourite characters [Bashou [biggest fave], Buson, Tabitha, Brodie, Giovanni, Cyrus, Ghetsis for the most part]. I adore the Rocket gang and Magma gang especially with Plasma bringing up the rear.

[shouldntcryoverit]

Hey thanks for the tag! 💕 (this is spoonfedchaos i just accidentally used the wrong account to reply and i cba to type it all out SORRY OOPS)

Name: Cassie (or Cassandra ig but i never get called it)

Nickname: Cass or Cassie IDK WHAT COUNTS

Zodiac: Leo (the best sign ofc)

Height: 5ft6 i thinkkk

Language: English

Nationality: British

Fav season: summer or winter idk 🤔

Fav colour: 💚💚

Fav fictional characters : um… Captain Rex, Steve Rogers, Thor, Loki, the whole 501st, Schmidt, Obi-wan Kenobi, Spencer Reid, Hotch, Emily Prentiss, Morgan, Garcia, Anakin Skywalker, Han Solo (i can and would continue)

Tea, Coffee or Hot Cocoa: Coffee any day

Sleep: oo idk like 6-7 hours maybe?

Cat or Dog: CATS NO DOUBT i have two they are my favourite people ever

Blankets??: 3! duvet, weighted and fluffy. I get cold a lot

Places of Origin: Netherlands and France 😎

Dream Trip: all across Europe! especially the south of france and across the coast of Italy. Cant wait to do it one day ugh

Number of followers: 84 i think i should check actually

Random Fact: i write poetry alot! i also do alot of performing i love acting. also i got sunburnt today 😐

Tagging (no pressure!!) -

@mackstrut @jatekaraa @pinkiemme @lovefor-xreaders and anyone else ofc!

20 questions tag !

thanks for tagging me marit @obiwansjedi <3

name: schafer

nicknames: still "schafer" actually haha, like irl my friends call me schafer too, even though we don't communicate in english.

zodiac: libra

height: 151 /4'11

languages: chinese, english, i could pronounce some words in korean even i don't know what that words mean lol, very little spanish.

nationality: taiwanese

favourite season: winter

favourite colour: blue

favourite animal: cats

favourite fictional character: obi-wan kenobi, ahsoka tano, captain rex, commander wolffe, tech, jake peralta, rosa diaz...should i name more hahaha.

tea, coffee or hot chocolate: tea!

average hours of sleep: since it's summer vacation now, so it's 8-10. but when i have school it's like 6-7.

cat or dog person: cat!

blankets slept with: two, one normal one, and the other is a small one for a sense of calm??

places ancestor are from: i don't really know, i think they're originated from china then came to taiwan when the government retreated to taiwan too. i don't know if i make any sense lol, but if you're interested, you can look up taiwan's history??

dream trip: switzerland, usa, england

blog established: in 2018, but i didn't use it until June 2020.

number of followers: 567

random fact about yourself: i can't really play basketball lol, i suck at that sport.

no pressure tags: @vanilla-chip-101 @jmobiwanspadawan @ct-9904@emilykenobi @sana-katarn

[jawnkeets]

tagged by @conan-doyles-carnations, tysm ✨✨✨

1. First things first, what is your MBTI type?

infj

2. When did you learn to read?

no idea what age, but i (think) i actually remember the first time i recognised the words on the page, and wasn’t just reciting a book from memory!!! i was on my own and it was about a gingerbread man

update: asked my dad and he said i started reading at 3

3. What languages can you read in?

english, a bit of spanish

4. What book are you currently reading or most recently read?

i’ve recently finished euripides’ bacchae. currently reading the prince, wollstonecraft’s vindication, and the roots of romanticism (isaiah berlin). starting aristotle’s poetics and nicomachean ethics and wendy cope’s making cocoa for kingsley amis v soon

5. Name 3 books you never finished:

ah this is hard bc i’m not usually one to leave books. i tried joyce’s ulysses but it took me 4 hours to read 9 pages and i kind of admitted to myself that i haven’t read widely enough to truly appreciate it yet. i never finished kafka’s the trial which i deeply regret and hope i will return to

6. What are your favorite books from childhood?

my earliest fav i think was scary fairies. i loved the -ology books when i was v young, u kno the rly exciting big lift-the-flap ones??? a little later i was OBSESSED with darren shan, especially the saga of darren shan (tho the demonata too). i had never read anything like shan’s books before when i first came across them, the complexity of the characters was mind-blowing to me, and steve leonard’s betrayal (+ crepsley’s death) omfg……. i also adored shiver by maggie striefvater - shiver and my name is mina are the books that first got me into poetry (rilke in the former and blake in the latter), and poetry is still my fav part of lit today!!!

7. What are your current favorite books?

the great gatsby and the secret history! and hamlet if that counts as a book

Multiple Choice (bold as many as apply to you & add your own choice if you must)

am on mobile and cba to html so am gonna bracket instead of bold soz

8. Your favorite genres:

Mystery/Sci-fi/Fantasy/Chick Lit/Young Adult/Horror/[Nonfiction - assuming this means like criticism etc]/Memoir/Dystopia/[Poetry]/Self-Help/Historical Fiction/Fanfiction/[Realistic Fiction]/[Biography]/[Gothic]

9. Your opinion on rereading books:

I do it all the time/It has to be a really good book/I can’t stand it/I haven’t done it since I was a child/[I only reread my favorite sections].

i think the only book i've reread (since childhood, anyways) is frankenstein. it was pretty rewarding so am now more open to retreading than i was

10. How long does it take you to read one book on average?

[1 to 3 days]/[a week]/[a few weeks]/about a month/several months.

it’s rare for me to spend more than 2 weeks reading one book, but depends how busy i am

11. How do you typically read?

Every opportunity I get, in transit, while waiting, etc./[Before bed]/On the go by audiobook/[When I can truly relax]/When I remember to.

i also enjoy reading the most when i’m alone.

12. How many books do you typically read in a year?

None or 1/About 1 to 3/Maybe 4 to 10/[At least 10 - but i read more poetry than novels]/ At least 50/ Too much. I can’t keep track.

this year i have read almost 40, not including individual poems or critical essays. not quite 50 +tho, honestly goals for next year

13. For school assigned books, what type of student are/were you?

[I read all the books in detail]/I read all but sometimes skimmed/I nearly read all, I may have skipped a few because they were too boring/I only read the interesting ones/There’s a reason why Sparknotes was made!

i tag (only if you’d like to!!!): @alain-fournier @cassiopeaia @jawnham @d-winifred @englishlitstudentblr @the-metal-kettle @jehanfleur @jjohnkeats @jawnham @literaetures @queersandcommies @wholockedhousekeeper @lanternheart @asteriea @donnattartt @moncrieff @vivalcli @horaetio @therepublicofletters @edmunddcorcoran @gothicwhoreoine and anyone else who would like to!!! ik i’ve missed so many amazing ppl

[junker-town]

Fumble Dimension, episode 1: director’s commentary

Kofie Yeboah and Jon Bois recently debuted the premiere episode of Fumble Dimension, a show in which they simulated the death of the NBA over the course of several decades. They kept a diary. Here is that diary.

SB Nation Labs’ new series “Fumble Dimension” started with a new version of Jon Bois’ 2014 “Death of Basketball” article. During the six weeks it took to make the video, Jon and Kofie kept a diary of what the saw. Feel free to read along with the video, or enjoy it separately. Either way, here are the findings.

DAY 1

July 25th, 2019

-----

After months of discussion with my research partner Kofie Yeboah, we have elected to begin the NBA 2K experiment. In brief, we will attempt to create a portal to a cursed world.

Five years ago, I conducted an experiment. I created a 2K player who was as small, talentless, inept, and stupid as possible. Worse than any random person one would pull in from off the street.

And then I cloned this player until there was an entire NBA draft class full of him. And then I fed this draft class into the game’s franchise mode, year after year, decade after decade, until no real-life NBA players remained. The sport of basketball was destroyed.

I have long regretted my failure to keep proper statistics of this misadventure. Equipped with more time, endless spreadsheets, and the simulation expertise of Mr. Yeboah, the two of us intend to fully chronicle this horror.

I would like to believe I am a good person. But is this what good people do?

Jon, 5:59 p.m.

-----

DAY 2

July 26th, 2019

I am exploring the Create-a-Player mode. A wealth of options is at our disposal. Notably, the mode allows us to select a type of injury a player is most vulnerable to, and how many days it is likely to keep him out of action. For instance, if this is as it seems, a player might miss up to 480 days after sustaining a bloody nose or getting the wind knocked out of him.

Player attributes are all pulled down to 25, the lowest possible value. Tendencies -- as in, the player’s tendency toward a certain shot or behavior -- are another matter. In the experiment five years ago, I set every tendency at 0. I consulted with Kofie, who suggested we set them all at the maximum of 100, just to see what happens. Our reasoning is as follows: fuck it.

Jon, 2:04 p.m.

The Xbox keeps overheating while Kofie is attempting to create the draft class. It doesn’t want us to do this. Will take a shift of my own later.

Jon, 5:31 p.m.

DAY 3

July 29th, 2019

Two consoles and one weekend later, I have finally finished out the roster from hell that Jon started. I had to save early and often like this was a term paper that counted for 25% of my final grade. Whenever I tried to change too much data the Xbox One would shut down 2K and I’d have to start over from my last save point. This might be because this is an older version of the console, or this might be a game problem.

Luckily, now that the big building part is out of the way I don’t expect us to have anymore problems like this because our MyLeague will likely run on autosaving.

The draft class is here.

I wanted to test out the abilities of these players without compromising the NBA rosters so I decided to go to the classic teams.

For the sake of the article I’m not going to spoil how these characters play like so far, but boy oh boy you’re in for a treat.

Kofie 4:45 p.m.

DAY 4

July 30th, 2019

Before we start simulating I want to give some background on what exactly we’re doing here. We will be using the MyLeague mode and tracking as many seasons as it takes to completely jack up the league. Now NBA 2K tells us that we have to control one team, but they *didn’t say* that we had to be good at it. Sorry, Warriors.

We also will be automating everything we can except for the draft class, which we will import ourselves. Now apparently storylines can be added to the players in this draft class. I have no idea how that affects it so I’m going to say no.

Every season the sim will stop to ask us if we want to see the All-Star team captains. This will be obnoxious at first, but has the potential to be absolutely hilarious. A crazy thing that is in NBA 2K19 is “advanced stats,” which is something that seems mad unnecessary for this but I will welcome it with open arms.

We can also scout the shitty draft class that we put in the game. Now a weird thing I’m seeing is that the scouting report ALTERED the heights and weights of some of the players, so some players actually 5’2, which is BELOW the possible heights we made when we were making create a players. Is this because I put prospect scouting on Auto? There are so many settings in this one that I honestly can’t tell which one changes prospect height. One thing that didn’t change, however is that they all still suck.

At this point in time we are rejecting any rule changes that could potentially be made in the league.

So. During the Draft Combine we found out that damn near everybody had an eye injury and that is considered a serious draft concern. We are not making this up. This is real. In the combine the highest vertical leap was 26 inches. That’s it not ideal, but oddly enough it seems that everyone doesn’t completely suck at jump shots.

NBA 2K has also added Summer League, so we will get to see these players way earlier than expected.

After Season one we have one 40 Overall on the Warriors, He is currently reserve status, but don’t worry D.J. Gatling, Your time will come.

DAY 5

August 2nd, 2019

Season 2:

We are on season 2 of NBAY2K2 and our 40 overall for the Warriors, D.J. Gatling, has already played five games for a grand total of five minutes.

I just want to take the time to shout out Kurt Ryan, who made All-Rookie 1st Team without actually playing a game. We had some productive rookies this year, but they were from our draft class. They consisted of players that were already on two-way contracts. I think we’re going to see a decline of rookie production really soon. Congrats to Jacob Evans III for being named rookie of the year. Yes, that’s a real player, so shout out to him.

In addition to Vince Carter and Jamal Crawford, a lot of our 40 overall players are already retiring, which … fair. 29 teams voted to eliminate the shot clock, but we’re going to override this rule change … for now. Now usually after a season or two the players start to regress or progress. Our 40 overalls aren’t doing either. This is progression purgatory. No one improves, no one declines.

Season 3:

Despite the rookie class and summer league rosters running rampant with awful players, it seems like regular season players have been affected yet. When predicting when the first 40 overall would start/make a major impact, Jon said four years while Kofie went high with eight years. We’ll see who is right in the near future.

DAY 6

August 5th, 2019

Season 4: I’m not sure how long the takeover will take because we have a considerable number of 40 overalls retiring. I’m not sure how efficient the draft class infiltrations are. However, like Thanos, destruction is inevitable. After one month of simulating, the highest total number of minutes for a 40 overall is 2.

However, thanks to another Steph Curry injury, we finally have a 40 overall in the 12-man rotation. The little people are moving up in the league!

Season 5: Holy shit, LeBron James is a 95 overall at age 37.

The Rising Stars challenge seems to have disappeared. I didn’t sim through it and it was definitely in season 4. Maybe we have reached a point where there aren’t enough players to fill out a roster for it. Which means that we are getting closer and closer to the takeover.

Also LeBron retired. Damn. End of an era. He was so good that he got his jersey retired on three different teams! Take that, Kobe.

We are also extremely close to a summer league roster of all 40 overalls. Dammit Cody!

Season 6: After disappearing for one season, the Rising Stars challenge is BACK… wait never mind it disappeared again LOL. So what I’m guessing is happening is that there aren’t enough young international players to make a Rising Stars roster. Which is wild because we totally didn’t take the places hometowns into account at all when starting this. Maybe we can vote to bring the Rookie-Sophomore game back?

Season 7: After six seasons, it doesn’t look like we’re making any real progress right now. The main reason why is because all of these two-way players and G leaguers are coming up and getting in the way of everything.

Season 8: Now we’re getting into a nice simulation routine. Steph Curry is 37 years old and looking like the next star to retire. The 40 overalls are making a slow, but steady climb in the rosters. The team with the most 40 overalls on the roster is currently the Orlando Magic with four people.

It took eight seasons, but we finally have a summer league team with all 40 overall people. Let’s see how this goes.

Season 9: Devin Booker JUST turned 30. Damn.

DeAndre Ayton just won MVP for the Detroit Pistons. Ladies and gentlemen, we are officially in the simulation,

We’re also, one year away from a new CBA and a new TV deal and I don’t know what that means but it’s about to go DOWN.

Season 10:

So remember earlier when we had a player make the All-Rookie team without playing a game? Now we have a player on the All-Rookie 1st team that isn’t even technically on the team. Yes this guy has a contract with an overseas team and is ineligible to sign a contract for a year and STILL made 1st team all rookie. Wow.

Season 11:

Ladies and gentlemen, WE HAVE MINUTES!

DAY 7

August 6th, 2019

Season 11 continued:

So over the course of the season the 40s’ minutes would fluctuate due to injuries and stuff. Here’s an example of the Warriors roster when it’s full of injuries. This is crazy.

Side note: The Xbox One crashes are BACK, baby, making this simulation twice as complicated as it needs to be. Great. Help me.

DeAndre Ayton has won his third straight MVP award and I don’t know how to feel about this.

Season 12: It’s all going to shit. The Warriors team we’ve been keeping a close eye on has to start a 58 overall shooting guard because all of the 40 overall players are Centers. Curry, Harden and Cousins are gone and now the NBA is damn near unrecognizable. There are only three free agents in the 70s range. The rest are all 40 overalls, baby.

I’m sure this specific team wouldn’t be ass if we actually let them make awesome free agency moves. We however, have sat back and watched the fireworks.

Also. I’m sorry.

Season 13:

The 40s are starting to show promise as rotation players. No one knows how this happened or why it happened, but the end is near. We’re getting phases of play with multiple 40 overalls on the court at the same time. Their impact and footprint is growing ever so slowly.

Season 14.

The Warriors now have a 40 overall as the 6th. Guys, this shit is about to go nuclear. We are at the point where 2K is making up undrafted players that are better than the 40 overall rookies. Because this:

Is not a real person.

I had to make sure that the draft class wasn’t contaminated or that there wasn’t an error, but no. 2K is making up undrafted players to compensate for the fact that we made them all centers. Which is another thing that we weren’t expecting this time around. Well played, 2K. Well played. Also our Warriors team is 7-75 on the season. You love to see it.

I think all of the contracts except for two players ran out because in the offseason it looks like this now.

Season 15: As confirmed. NBA 2K is making up undrafted players, but no worries because we now have our first 40 overall in the STARTING LINEUP. HELL YEAH.

There is a new season fill roster option which will automatically sign players to fill roster to the NBA minimum. Jon thinks that the players are SO bad that the NBA teams refuse to sign them, so NBA 2K makes up players. Let’s put this to the test.

At the end of the season, there was a prompt for me to fill out the rest of the roster with players. I have 12 spaces to fill. I choose not to do it and the game crashes multiple times because I can’t sign anyone. They wouldn’t take my offers. Help us.

DAY 9

August 8th, 2019

With Kofie out of town, I’m reviewing his video files. In particular, I am recording the PER of every player over the years who has played enough to qualify for the stat. This requires hours of manual data entry. It is almost unbearably tedious. But it is worth it.

Thus far, I have recorded five seasons’ worth of PER data. I have plotted all five seasons, arranged from best to worst player.

There is no meaningful difference to be observed so far. This is my prediction: once it changes, it will change very quickly and dramatically. This will not be gradual.

We’ll continue to see key retirements in the coming years. But if a player can hang on for long enough to stand as one of the only giants left in the league, his PER will skyrocket. Perhaps to the 40s or above.

Jon, 7:42 p.m.

DAY 10

August 12th

I’m back from being out of town and I want to try to solve the undrafted player effect. My hypothesis is that this is because we made the draft class all centers. I’m making a second draft class and spreading out the positions to see if that fixes our 2K problem, but for season 16 we’re going to keep it as is and not change the overalls of anyone 2K added for us.

Our Golden State Warriors went 0-82, which has to be because we don’t have a single real NBA player on our roster. This is incredible. The All-Star rosters are giving us players we’ve never seen before.

It’s also of note that after nothing but centers for 15+ years, not a single center was drafted in this year’s class.

Season 18:

It seems like changing the positions helped stop the 2k created player influx because now the Warriors only have 1 non 40 overall on the roster. The 60 overall was a 2K-made-up player, but we seem to be getting closer to the apocalypse.

The All-Star teams look wonky, as a character named Ivan Radja is the All Star Captain now. I’ve also decided to watch the three-point contest and dunk contest this year. A 37-year-old DeAndre Ayton won MVP again. I predict that him retiring will be the true last domino to fall. He’s only a 75 overall now, but he’s dominating the league.

Season 19: At last, we have a team with all 40 overalls so we tried a game against a team that didn’t start any of them, and holy shit we got waxed.

It looks like we’re going to have to wait out the players 2K made up in our stead for this to be a fair fight. This also marks the first season where the MVP isn’t an actual real player. The MVP of the league was a 66 overall. For context, that’s the same overall rating as Kyle Collinsworth in today’s game.

Season 20: This is where it gets interesting, because there are teams with a lot of 70 overall players and teams with only 40 overall players. Jokic and Giannis are on our coaching staff and they’re easily better than anyone on the roster.

Day 10

August 12th

I just noticed that DeAndre Bembry is rated 92 overall in Season 8, making him one of the best players in the NBA. The prior seven seasons he barely played at all, or at least not enough to register in the PER column.

Reader, I will be honest with you: I could not remember who DeAndre Bembry was, and until I saw that he had an actual photo, I’d assumed the game had made him up.

Jon, 11:50 a.m.

Day 11

August 13th.

Season 21:

We are just waiting for the eventual cascade of phasing out the not good players. As one of the teams with all 40 overall players, we are on a steady diet of not only losing games, but getting destroyed in each game.

Now, I also discovered something. It seems after the free agent period is simmed every year no free agent deals were made. All of the team rosters only had 2-3 players on it. It seems like 2K then takes the first 12 players available *by rating* and gives it all to one team and then the next best overall goes to the next team and this happens in alphabetical order, so by the time the Warriors have a chance there are only 40 overalls.

This also happens every year as the people 2K made up have 1 year contracts while the draft classes that we made get rookie deals. This means that our Warriors team will be terrible until the playing field is level… so like a decade?

Season 23-26: We’re making progress on the simulation. As more and more players are retiring the playing field is evening out and the Warriors look like they are winning more games.

Season 26: the Golden State Warriors made the playoffs, winning only 28 games. This caught me so much by surprise that I didn’t realize it until the playoffs were over. Meanwhile the dominant Philadelphia 76ers went 79-3. In fact, FOUR teams won 70 games in the EASTERN CONFERENCE ALONE

Season 28:

The Golden State Warriors are third in the Western Conference with a grand total of 38 wins. Jesus, the Western Conference is atrocious.

Season 29: Holy shit, the Warriors finished .500. We’re getting closer.

Day 12

August 14th.

Season 30: The Warriors won 45 games this year and LeBron James has retired from the league again, this time as an assistant coach!

Season 31: The Most Valuable Player is a guy named Daniel Mills, who averaged 5 points and 35 rebounds a game. A 6’9 34-year-old who went undrafted. This is a 2K-made-up player who is still dominating the league because he’s just tall. In fact, there’s a huge spike of rebounds per game across the board.

Is this what the 1960s were like?

Season 32:

The Philadelphia 76ers went 82-0. YUP, 82-0. They also went 82-0 the season before. Jesus.

Want to see their roster?

Yeah. That’s all it takes now. They also went 16-0 in the playoffs.

With that being said, the total dominance of one team means that the 2K fill-ins are getting phased out. We’re so close. Hang in there, NBA. 5 of those 76ers players retired after this season. This might be the final straw for the good players of the league. Stay tuned.

Season 33:

Only three non-40-overalls remain in the entire league. Of course, they’re all on the 76ers. Sam Hinkie was a genius. Let’s see how a game between our Warriors and the 76ers plays out.

Meet Johnathan Bucker.

He’s the only 6’10 player left in the league, and he’s getting all the rebounds. He’s only 50 overall. After all of this, he didn’t even make the All-Star team because he suffered a right ankle sprain. Of course.

Well, there’s only one thing left we can do: try out the three point contest. Oh dear God.

The dunk contest isn’t better. It’s just a bunch of players glitching out and only getting 30s. Because they don’t even look like they’re dunking. Adam Silver needs to change that shit.

As expected, Johnathan Buckner wins the MVP as a 48 overall, averaging 43.8 rebounds a game because he’s tall as shit. He’s also 37.

Season 34: We have finished the job. The infiltration is complete.

Season 36: This is the year I’m going to start installing 0-tendency guys into the game to see just how shitty this can get.

Season... I don’t even know anymore. The year is 2055: It seems that the 0-tendency guys infiltrated our roster in no time at all.

All is... won? No that can’t be the saying.

Season I have no idea: This is the All-Star game. The funniest part about this is the NBA 2K broadcasting crew pretending that nothing is different.

All is lost.

Season 40:

The Warriors win the NBA Finals again, but at what cost?

All is lost.

All is lost.